Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/112

94 devotion or Bhakti, and he himself was a Bhakta, a worshipper 1 or lover of the deity, much more than a Gñânin or a knower. It was in order to show the background from which Râmakrishna emerges, and the lights and shades of the atmosphere in• which he moved, that I thought it useful to add a short sketch of Vedântic thought. Râmakrishna was in no sense of the word an original thinker, the discoverer of a new idea or the propounder of any new view of the world. But he saw many things which others had not seen, he recognised the Divine Presence where it was least suspected, he was a poet, an enthusiast, or, if you like, a dreamer of dreams. But such dreams also have a right to exist, and have a claim on our attention and sympathy. Râmakrishna - never composed a philosophical treatise; he simply poured out short sayings. and the people came to listen to them, whether the speaker was at the time in full possession of his faculties, or in a dream, or in a trance. From all we can learn, it is quite clear that he had, by a powerful control of his breath, and by long continued ascetic exercises, arrived at such a pitch of nervous excitability that he could at any moment faint away or fall into state of unconsciousness, the so-called Sarnadhi. Tiis Samâdhi may be looked at, however, from I This difference between Bhakti, devotion, and (iäna, know - ledge. is fully treated by Kishori Lal Sarkar in his interc’ting littl book, The Hindu System of Religious Science and Art, or the Revelations of Rationalism and Emotionalism, Calcutta, i8g8. ‘Gñ&na,’ the author says. ‘sees with a telescopic Bhakti with a microscopic eye Gñàna perceives the essence, Bhakti feels the sweetness. Gñâna discovers the Supreme Intelligence, Bhakti reciprocates the Supreme Loving Will.’