[Prayer for Bhakti.] For my part, I pray for love (Bhakti) alone to my Divine Mother. Putting flowers upon Her Lotus Feet, with folded hands I prayed: "Mother, here is ignorance, here is knowledge. Oh! Take them; I want them not. Grant that I may have pure love alone. Here is cleanliness (of the mind and body), here is uncleanliness; what shall I do with them? Let me have pure love alone.

[paragraph continues] Oh! Here is sin, here is merit; I want neither the one nor the other. Let me have pure love alone. Here is good, here is evil. Oh! Take them; I want them not. Let me have pure love alone. Here are good works, here are bad works. Oh! Place me above them; I want them not. Grant that I may have pure love alone."

[Dual existence.] If you take the fruit of good works, like charity, you must take the fruit of bad works also. If you take the fruit of merit, you must take the fruit of sin also. Knowledge of the One (Jnana) implies knowledge of the many (Ajnana). Taking cleanliness, you cannot get rid of its opposite, uncleanliness. Thus a knowledge of light implies a knowledge of darkness, its opposite. A knowledge of unity implies a knowledge of diversity.

[Animal food and vegetarianism.] Blessed is the man who loves God! What matters it if he eats the flesh of swine? On the other hand, if a man lives upon vegetables but is attached to the world and does not love God, what good shall he gain?

(To Syam Babu) To live the life of a householder is by no means wrong. But take care

[Work with the mind fixed on God.] that you work without attachment, with your mind always pointing to the Feet of the Lord. Suppose a person has a carbuncle on the back. Now this man talks as usual. Perhaps he attends to his daily work. But pain constantly puts him in mind of the carbuncle. In the same way, although you are in the world, you should turn your mind constantly to God. A woman carrying on an intrigue with a lover thinks of this lover all the time that she is attending to her household duties. Live in the world like such a woman, doing your many duties with your soul secretly yearning for the Lord.

[Theosophy.] Syam Babu: Sir, what do you think of Theosophy?

Sri Ramakrishna: The long and the short of the matter is that people who make disciples belong to an inferior order of men. Again, those who seek for powers also belong to an inferior class, such powers, for example, as the power of getting across the Ganges or the power of reporting here what a person is talking about in a far country, and other psychic powers. It is by no means easy for such people to get pure Bhakti (love) for the Lord.

Syam Babu: But, Sir, the Theosophists seek to put Hinduism once more on a firm basis.

Sri Ramakrishna: That may be. I am not well posted as to their views or doings.