Page:The Gospel of Râmakrishna.djvu/270

 day by day. The Bhagavan said: I place before them the ideal of a wet-nurse as teaching

them how to live in this world. The maid-servant referring to her master's house says, "This is our house." All the while she knows that her home is far away in a distant village, to which her thoughts are all sent forth. Again, referring to the master's child in her arms, she will say: "My Hari has grown very wicked," or "My Hari likes to eat this or that," and so on. But all the while she knows that Hari is not her own. I tell those who come to me to live a life unattached like this maid-servant. I tell them to live unattached to this world, to be in the world but not of the world, and at the same time to have their mind directed to God, the heavenly home from whence all come. I tell them to pray for love of God (Bhakti), which will help them so to live. After a short time the conversation turned on the agnosticism of Europe and America, and Mozoomdar said: Whatever people in the West may profess to be, none of them, as it seems to me, is an atheist at heart. The European thinkers all admit an unknown Power behind the uni- verse.