even when one is conversing with another. Suppose you have a toothache. You may perform all works, but your mind will remain concentrated on the spot where the pain is. Similarly, if you have true concentration on God, your mind will remain fixed even when your body is moving or your mouth is speaking. I used to close my eyes at the time of meditation. Then I thought: "If God exists after closing the eyes. why should He not exist while the eyes are open?" I opened my eyes and saw the Divine Being everywhere. Man, animals, insects, trees, creepers, moon, sun, water, earth, in and through all these the Infinite Being is manifesting Himself. He who thinks upon God for a long time possesses Divine Substance within him. Through him flow Divine powers. A great singer, or one who is perfect in instrumental music or in any other art or science, also possesses a portion of Divine power. This is the doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita,--"Wherever there are signs of greatness, there is the manifestation of Divine power."

A devotee: Revered Sir, what happens after death?

Ramakrishna: Keshab Sen asked me the same question. So long as a man remains in

[What happens after death.] ignorance, in other words, so long as he has not realized God, he will be subject to rebirth; but after Divine realization one does not come back to this earth, nor is he born in any other world. Potters after making earthen pots dry them in the sun. Have you not seen that there are pots which are baked in fire and others that are unbaked? When a pot of unbaked clay is broken, the potter uses the same clay to make a new pot; but if a baked pot is broken, the pieces are of no further use and he throws them away. Similarly, when the ego is not baked in the fire of wisdom, after death it will appear in another form and be born again and again. If a fried grain is planted .it will not germinate; in the same manner, he whose inner nature is fried in the fire of wisdom is no longer subject to evolution, but attains to absolute freedom from rebirth.

[Dualistic and monistic Vedanta.] In the Puranas the doctrine of dualistic Vedanta prevails, which teaches that the Jiva (the individual soul) is one thing and God is another: "I am distinct and separate from you." This body is like a bowl; mind, intellect and egoism are like water within it, while the Personal God is the sun which is reflected in the water; and this