Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/190

172 much time and labour before anything can be done to purify and give the proper consistency to it.

318. The vanities of all others may gradually die out, but the vanity of a saint as regards his sainthood is hard indeed to wear away.

819. Of the grains of paddy which are fried in a frying- pan, the few which leap out of the pan and burst outside are the best fried, being without the slightest mark of any tinge ; while every one of the properly-filed grains in the pan itself is sure to have at least a very small charred mark of a burn. So of all good devotees, the few who altogether give up the world and go out of it are perfect without any spot, while even the best of those devotees who are in the world must have at least some small spot of imperfection in their character.

320. We cannot say that God is gracious because He feeds us, for every father is bound to supply his children with food j but when He keeps us from going astray, and holds us back from temptations, then He is truly gracious.

32L If you can detect and find out the universal illusion or Miy, it will fly away from you, just as a thief runs away when found out

322. Fire itself has no definite shape, but in glowing embers it assumes certain forms, and the formless fire is then endowed with forms. Similarly, the formless God sometimes invests Himself with definite forms.

323* Should we pray aloud unto God ? Pray unto Him