Page:Ramakrishna - His Life and Sayings.djvu/68

deep religious zeal took another turn. He began to prac- tise and realise the Vaish^ava ideal of love for God. This love, according to the Vaish#avas, becomes manifested practically in any one of the following relations the re- lation of a servant to his master, of a friend to his friend, of a child to his parents, or vice versa, and a wife to her husband. The highest point of love is reached when the human soul can love his God as a wife loves her husband. The shepherdess of Braja had this sort of love towards the divine K>7sha, and there was no thought of any carnal relationship. No man, they say, can understand this love of *Srl Kidh and *Sr! Krishna, until he is perfectly free from all carnal desires. They even prohibit ordinary men to read the books which treat of this love of Radha and Krishna, because they are still under the sway of passion. Rdmakrzshtfa, in order to realise this love, dressed himself in women's attire for several days, thought of himself as a woman, and at last succeeded in gaining his ideal. He saw the beautiful form of *Srl Krishna in a trance, and was satisfied. After having thus devoted himself to Vaish- avism, he practised in turn many other religions prevalent in India, even Mohammedanism, always arriving at an understanding of their highest purposes in an incredibly short time. Whenever he wished to learn and practise the doctrines of any faith, he always found a good and learned man of that faith coming to him and advising him how to do it. This is one out of many wonderful things that happened in his life. They may be explained as happy coincidences, which is much the same as to say they were