The enclosed excerpt regarding the experience of Oneness of Consciousness, has been taken from the book: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna.
Sri Ramakrishna: When a man is on the plains, he sees the lowly grass and the mighty pine tree and says: “How big is the tree and how small is the grass!” But when he ascends the mountain and looks down from its high peak the grass and the tree blend into one indistinguishable mass of verdure.
So, in the sight of worldly men, there are differences of rank and one is a king and another is a cobbler; one is a father and another is a son; and so on.
But when the divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.
Once a holy man, while passing through a crowded street, accidentally trod upon the toe of a wicked person. The latter, furious with rage, mercilessly beat the Sadhu until he fell down unconscious.
With much concern and care, his disciples tried various measures to revive him. When they saw, that he was regaining consciousness a little, one of them asked: “Sir, do you recognize, who is now serving you?”
The Sadhu replied: “Assuredly he, who beat me!”
A true Sadhu finds no distinction between a friend and a foe.
MORAL: So we can see that one of the ways of making out a real saint from an imposter, is to evaluate their attitude towards others. Today there are many fake sadhus who wear the orange robe, but within their hearts burn the flame of hatred of Muslims, Christians and other minorities. A real saint on the other hand views everyone with the attitude of Oneness and equality. They possess Samata (equanimity) of mind and can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of people without succumbing to fear or flying into a wild rage.
Credit: The Instagram Page swamivivekananda_inspires has graciously provided us with the above excerpt. They have a Facebook page as well, which devotees can follow.
