Ramakrishna: Of course you have your duties. You will have to bring up your children, sustain your wife, save enough to maintain your family after your death. If you did not do this you would be heartless and cruel. Even great sages like Sukadeva practised loving-kindness. He is not a man who has neither heart nor kindness.

Sub-Judge: How long shall we maintain our children?

Ramakrishna: Until they have passed the age of minority. When the young bird is able to take care of itself, it pecks at the parent bird, if she tries to come near it.

Sub-Judge: What is the duty towards the wife?

Ramakrishna: As long as you live you should

[God provides for those who have realized Him.] give her spiritual advice and sustain and care for her. If she is faithful, save enough to make her comfortable after your death. But when God-consciousness comes, no worldly duties can bind you. Then if you do not think of the morrow, God will think for you. If you attain to God-consciousness. He will provide for the support of your family. When a Zemindar dies, leaving a son under age, a guardian manages the estate for the child. These are legal affairs; you understand them all.

Sub-Judge: Yes, Revered Sir.

Bijoy: Oh, how great, how wonderful are these words! He who thinks of the Lord with unwavering mind and a heart overflowing with devotion and love for God, is undoubtedly taken care of by the Lord. The Lord carries everything for him like the guardian of the Zemindar's son. Oh, when shall I reach such a state! How blessed are those who have attained it!

A Brahmo devotee: Revered Sir, can true wisdom be acquired in the world? Can God be realized in the world?

Ramakrishna: You are on the fence; you wish to enjoy both God and the world. Of

course God can be realized by one who lives in the world.

[Signs of true wisdom.] Brahmo devotee: What is the sign of one who has attained true wisdom living in the world?

Ramakrishna: When the repetition of the Name of the Lord will bring tears to the eyes, send a thrill through the whole body and make the hair stand on end. The spiritual eye must be opened. It is open when the mind is purified. Then the presence of Divinity will be realized everywhere and every woman will appear as Divine Mother. Everything is in the mind. The impure mind brings attachment to the world, and the purified mind brings the realization of God. The impure mind of a man becomes attached to a woman. Woman naturally loves man and man naturally loves woman, and from this spring attachment and worldliness.