Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/156

138 is no reason why we should flee ; the Almighty God will certainly protect us/ At this the lover said, * No, brother, come let us run away. Why should we trouble the Lord for what can be accomplished by our own exertions ? '

172. The Knowledge of God may be likened to a man, while the Love of God is like a woman. Knowledge has entry only up to the outer rooms of God, but no one can enter into the inner mysteries of God save a lover, for a woman has access even into the harem of the Almighty.

173. Knowledge and love of God are ultimately one and the same. There is no difference between pure knowledge and pure love.

174. A group of fisherwomen on their way home from a distant market held on an afternoon, were overtaken by a heavy hailstorm at nightfall in the middle of their way, and so were compelled to take shelter in a florist's house near at hand Through the kindness of the florist they were allowed to sleep that night in one of his rooms, where some baskets of sweet-smelling flowers had been kept for supplying his customers. The atmosphere of the room was too good for the fisherwomen, and they could not, owing to it, get even a wink of sleep, till one of them suggested a remedy by saying, ' Let each of us keep her empty basket of fish dose to her nose, and thus prevent this troublesome smell of flowers from attacking our nostrils and killing our sleep/ Every one gladly agreed to the proposal, and did accordingly ; and soon all began to snore. Such, indeed, is