One day, the Master said to Harinath: “What is there in the scriptures? They are like sheets of paper with a shopping list on them. The list is useful only to check off the items once purchased. When you have done that, the list is thrown away. So you should check your knowledge, your devotion, and consult the scriptures to see whether they agree. It is said, ‘When you have knowledge of the Absolute, the scriptures are worth only a straw.’” A few days later, Sri Ramakrishna went to Balaram’s house at Calcutta and sent for Harinath. The Master greeted him cordially and continued his talk to the devotees: “Nothing can be achieved — neither knowledge, nor devotion, nor vision — without God’s grace. Well, is it an easy matter to realize that lust and gold are unreal and to have the firm conviction that the world is eternally nonexistent? Is it possible without His compassion? Can a man have that conviction through his own effort? A man is after all a tiny creature, with very limited powers. What an infinitesimal part of truth can he grasp by himself!”10 While talking about God’s grace, the Master went into ecstasy.
Harinath felt as if these words had been directed to him, for he had been straining every nerve to attain illumination by his own efforts. After a short while, the Master regained his normal consciousness and began to sing a song based on the Uttara Rama Charitam, where Hanuman tells the sons of Rama:
O Kusa and Lava, why are you so proud?
If I had not let myself be captured,
Could you have captured me?
While Ramakrishna sang, tears rolled down his face, literally wetting the ground. Harinath later remarked: “I was deeply moved. That very day the Master deeply imprinted on my mind the fact that one cannot attain God through self-effort, by performing sadhana. Only if God reveals Himself is it possible to attain Him.”