BANGALORE: 462. At first whenever I fell back into sin, I used to weep and rage against myself and against God for having suffered it. Afterwards it was as much as I could dare to ask, “Why hast thou rolled me again in the mud, O my playfellow?” Then even that came to my mind to seem too bold and presumptuous; I could only get up in silence, look at him out of the corner of my eyes and clean myself.
463. God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.
479. God took a child to fondle him in His bosom of delight; but the mother wept and would not consoled because her child no longer existed.
480. When I suffer from pain or grief or mischance, I say “So, my old playfellow, thou hast taken again to bullying me,” and I sit down to possess the pleasure of the pain, the joy of the grief, the good fortune of the mischance; then He sees He is found out and takes His ghosts and bugbears away form me.
481. The seeker after divine knowledge finds in the description of Krishna stealing the robes of the Gopis one of the deepest parables of God’s ways with the soul, the devotee a perfect rendering in divine act of his heart’s mystic experiences, the prurient and the Puritan (two faces of one temperament) only a lustful story. Men bring what they have in themselves and see it reflected in the Scripture.
482. My lover took away my robe of sin and let it fall, rejoicing ; then he plucked at my robe of virtue, but I was ashamed and alarmed and prevebted him. It was not till he wrested if from me by force that I saw how my soul had been hidden from me.
483. Sin is a trick and a disguise of Krishna to conceal Himself from the gaze of the virtuous. Be hold, O Pharisee, God in the sinner, sin in thy self purifying thy heart; clasp thy brother.
484. Lover of God, charity towards men is the first step towards perfect wisdom.
485. He who condemns failure and imperfection, is condemning God; he limits his own soul and cheats his own vision. Condemn not, but observe Nature, help and heal thy brothers and strengthen by sympathy their capacities and their courage.
486. Love of man, love of woman, love of things, love of humanity are all the love of God reflected in these living images. So love and grow mighty to enjoy all, to help all and to love for ever.
487. If there are things that absolutely refuse to be transformed or remedied into God’s more perfect image, they may be destroyed with tenderness in the heart, but ruthlessness in the smiting. But make sure first that God has given thee thy word and thy mission.
488. I should love my neighbour not because he is neighbourhood, for what is there in neighbouood and distance? Nor because the religions tell me he is my brother, for where is the root of that brotherhood? But because he is myself. Neighbourhood and distance affect the body, the heart goes beyond them. Brotherhood is of blood or country or religion or humanity, but when self-interest clamours what becomes of this brotherhood? It is only by living in God and turning mind and heart and body into the image of his universal unity that that deep, disinterested and unassailable love becomes possible.
489. When I live in Krishna, then ego and self-interest vanish and only God himself can qualify my love
boottomless and illimitable.
490. Living in Krishna, even enmity becomes a play of love and wrestling of brothers.