Cowshed For Horses

Anecdotes

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 10:28

Spiritual instructions given by a person who has not experienced God could mislead one. Confusion clouds clarity that springs up from enlightenment says Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in one of His parables.

A leader of a Brahma Samaj once while delivering a lecture said "God is beyond words and mind; He is dry. Worship Him through the bliss of your love and devotion"

Sri Ramakrishna, the great master who had experienced God in the attributed form of the Divine Mother Kali as well as the formless reality, commented on the description of God as delivered by the speaker. He said that God's very nature is joy and bliss. He further pointed put that such lectures were incapable of accomplishing the desired result in a listener.

The master said that the lecturer is like the man who said that his uncle's cowshed is full of horses! 'Horses in cowshed!'. The master further clarified that one would understand that there were no horses at all, for that matter no cows either!

Intellectual understanding falls short of certainty and clarity of direct experience.