BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

fire.Narendra always came to the Master in the hours of his spiritual difficulties.One time he complained that he could not meditate in the morning on account ofthe shrill note of a whistle from a neighbouring mill, and was advised by theMaster to concentrate on the very sound of the whistle. In a short time heovercame the distraction. Another time he found it difficult to forget the body atthe time of meditation. Sri Ramakrishna sharply pressed the space betweenNaren's eyebrows and asked him to concentrate on that sensation. The disciplefound this method effective.Witnessing the religious ecstasy of several devotees, Narendra one day said tothe Master that he too wanted to experience it. 'My child,' he was told, 'when ahuge elephant enters a small pond, a great commotion is set up, but when itplunges into the Ganga, the river shows very little agitation. These devotees arelike small ponds; a little experience makes their feelings flow over the brim. Butyou are a huge river.'Another day the thought of excessive spiritual fervour frightened Naren. TheMaster reassured him by saying: 'God is like an ocean of sweetness; wouldn't youdive into it? Suppose there is a bowl filled with syrup, and you are a fly, hungryfor the sweet liquid. How would you like to drink it?' Narendra said that hewould sit on the edge of the bowl, otherwise he might be drowned in the syrupand lose his life. 'But,' the Master said, 'you must not forget that I am talking ofthe Ocean of Satchidananda, the Ocean of Immortality. Here one need not beafraid of death. Only fools say that one should not have too much of divineecstasy. Can anybody carry to excess the love of God? You must dive deep in theOcean of God.'On one occasion Narendra and some of his brother disciples were vehementlyarguing about God's nature — whether He was personal or impersonal, whetherDivine Incarnation was fact or myth, and so forth and so on. Narendra silencedhis opponents by his sharp power of reasoning and felt jubilant at his triumph.Sri Ramakrishna enjoyed the discussion and after it was over sang in an ecstaticmood:How are you trying, O my mind,to know the nature of God?You are groping like a madmanlocked in a dark room.He is grasped through ecstatic love;