Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/205

 They placed a heavy stone upon his breast. Yet Kalu was the favorite child of the Mother of the universe. Pleasure and pain, happiness and misery, come with the body. How great a devotee was Srimanta! How fondly the god- dess loved his mother Khullana! But what an amount of trouble he had to go through! They took him to the scaffold to be executed. A cer- tain woodman, a great devotee, was fortunate enough to see the goddess, and the goddess loved him very much and showed her kindness towards him; but he had to go on with the trade of wood- cutter all the same. He had to sell firewood to get his livelihood. It does not follow that a devoted lover of God must be very well off in the world. But he is rich in spirit, though he may be poor in worldly things. Devaki in prison saw God in the form of a human being holding the conch-shell, discus, mace and lotus in His four hands ; but she could not get out of the prison for all her God-vision. Disciple: But she should have got rid, not only of imprisonment, but of her body, that be- ing the source of all her troubles.