On many occasions we see that Sri Ramakrishna gave completely contradictory advice under similar situations.
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of the heroic type. He came to Sri Ramakrishna when he was eighteen years old. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual attributes.
He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of Sri Ramakrishna.
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Finding his protests futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in midstream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to Sri Ramakrishna, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
Jogindranath, on the other hand, was gentle to a fault. One day, under circumstances very like those that had evoked Niranjan’s anger, he curbed his temper and held his peace instead of threatening Sri Ramakrishna’s abusers.
Sri Ramakrishna, learning of his conduct, scolded him roundly. Thus to each the fault of the other was recommended as a virtue. The guru was striving to develop, in the first instance, composure, and in the second, mettle.
The secret of his training was to build up, by a tactful recognition of the requirements of each given case, the character of the devotee.
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A second example of Sri Ramakrishna dispensing seemingly contradictory advice occurs in the life of Harinath. Harinath had led the austere life of a brahmachari (celibate) even from his early boyhood — bathing in the Ganges every day, cooking his own meals, waking before sunrise, and reciting the Gita from memory before leaving bed.
He found in Sri Ramakrishna the embodiment of the Vedanta scriptures. Aspiring to be a follower of the ascetic Sankaracharya, he cherished a great hatred for women. (Harinath felt that by hating women he could conquer lust and sexual thoughts). One day he said to Sri Ramakrishna that he could not allow even small girls to come near him.
Sri Ramakrishna scolded him and said: “You are talking like a fool. Why should you hate women? They are the manifestations of the Divine Mother. Regard them as your own mother and you will never feel their evil influence (i.e. sexual thoughts will not rise up in you).
The more you hate them, the more you will fall into their snares.” Hari said later that these words completely changed his attitude toward women.
Hariprasanna, a college student, visited the Master in the company of his friends Sashi and Sarat. Sri Ramakrishna showed him great favour by initiating him into spiritual life.
As long as he lived, Hariprasanna remembered and observed the following drastic advice of Sri Ramakrishna: “Even if a woman is pure as gold and rolls on the ground for love of God, it is dangerous for a monk even to look at her.”
Hariprasanna must have been more susceptible to the awakening of lust. Hence this advice of Sri Ramakrishna to not cast even the slightest glance at women.
Source: A forward on WhatsApp from the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna.
