Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/74

56 wonderful love of God, and the deep trances of SA Rma- Wshjza, that he began to come often and often to him. He would sit for hours at the feet of Rmakr/sh;za and listen with rapture to the wonderful sayings on religion of that wonderful man. From time to time Elmakr/shrta would be lost in a deep Sam&dhi, and Keshub would gently touch his feet that he might thereby be purified. Sometimes he would invite the Paramahaazsa to his house, or would take him in a boat and proceed a few miles up and down the river. He then used to question him on some points of religion to clear away his own doubts. A strong and deep love grew up between the two, and Keshub's whole life became changed, till, a few years later, he proclaimed his views of religion as the New Dispensation, which was nothing but a partial representa- tion of the truths which Kimak/7*sha had taught for a long time.

A brief sketch of the teachings of Rmakr*sh*a, and a few of his sayings, which Keshub published, were suffi- cient to rouse a wide interest in the Paramaha^sa, and numbers of highly-educated men of Calcutta and women of noble family began to pour in to receive instruction from this wonderful Yogin. Rmak*7sha began to teach them and talk to them from morn till evening. At night, too, he had no rest, for some of the more earnest would remain and spend the night with him. He then forgot his sleep, and talked to them incessantly about Ehakti (devotion) or Gf&ra. (knowledge) and his own experiences, and how he arrived at them. Though this incessant labour