Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/183

 water-jar and savory pickles in the same room in which a patient with typhoid fever was lying? If you wish to cure such a patient, you must nave him removed from that room, in case it is impossible to send away the jar and the pickles. A man of the world is like unto such a thirsty patient; worldly attractions are like the jar of water; sense objects are like the savory pickles; desire to enjoy those things is the patient's thirst. The mouth waters at the mere thought of the pickles. We should not therefore remain near them all the time. Hence solitude is the best remedy for worldliness. First acquire right discrimination and true dispassion and then live in the world. In the sea of the world there are crocodiles of passions and desires. Rub the body with turmeric-paste if you wish to bathe in the sea, for then crocodiles will do no harm to you. The turmeric is discrimination (of the Real from the unreal) and true dispassion. God is the only Reality, the phenomenal universe is unreal. Along with this another thing is needed, that is intense devotion to God. The Gopis of