[Work necessary for God-vision.] Ramakrishna: Everything depends upon the will of the Lord. What can man do? One may repeat His Holy Name, but sometimes tears flow and sometimes not. At the time of meditation, one day you may have perfect concentration and another day you will not be able to fix your mind at all. Work is necessary for God-vision. Once I was passing by a pool, the surface of which was covered by a thick scum; I saw a poor man pushing the scum to one side to look at the water. This showed me that if you wish to see the water, you must push aside the scum. That act of pushing is like the work which removes all the impurities of the heart, Then

[paragraph continues] God is visible. Concentration, meditation, repetition of the Name of the Lord, charitable works, self-sacrifice, these works will remove the scum of ignorance which covers the water of Divinity in the pool of the heart.

Mahima, [**] who had joined the group of devotees, exclaimed: Oh yes, Bhagavan, such works are absolutely necessary. Tireless labor is needed to attain great results. How much we must study! Innumerable are the sciences, Scriptures and philosophies.

Ramakrishna: How much can you study? What results can you get by mere discrimination? First try to realize God. Have faith in the words of your Guru, and perform some good work. If you have not found a Guru, a true spiritual master, earnestly pray to God. He will show you what He is like. What can you know by reading books? Before you enter a market-place, you can hear only a loud confused uproar; but when you go near, all confusion will vanish and you will distinguish what each

one is calling. Before you reach the shore, you hear the roar of the waves; but when you come near, you see vessels, sea-gulls, birds, and you can count the waves. [Book knowledge and realization.] One cannot realize Divinity by reading books. There is a vast difference between book knowledge and realization. After realization, all books, sciences and Scriptures seem to he like worthless straw. It is necessary first to make acquaintance with the landlord. Why are you so anxious to know beforehand how many houses, how many gardens, how many stocks and bonds he possesses? If you ask the servants, they will not tell you; nor will they notice you. But if you can once become acquainted with the landlord, by whatever means, you will learn about his possessions in a moment, and the servants then will bow down to you and honor you.

A devotee: Bhagavan, how can one make acquaintance with the Landlord?

Ramakrishna: For that, I say, work is necessary. What is the use of sitting quietly and saying, "God exists"? If you merely sit on the shore of a lake and say: "There are fish in this lake," will you catch any? Go and get the things necessary for fishing, get a rod and line