Dear Tom,

To make my previous post worthwhile, this is from the web, and here is the resource:

http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita4/k4SectionXIII.htm

"His earlier story – visit to the fort – women and the ‘sloping path’

“Men don’t understand how far down they have gone.

“When I went to the fort in a carriage, I thought we’d come by an ordinary path. Later I found out we’d come down four storeys. It was a sloping path. A person possessed by a ghost doesn’t know that he is possessed. He thinks he’s quite all right.”

Vijay (smiling): “If you bring an exorcist, he can get rid of the ghost.”

Sri Ramakrishna does not respond to this. He only says, “It is the Lord’s will.”

He continues to talk about women.

Sri Ramakrishna: “Whoever I ask says that his wife is good. No man has a bad wife. (All laugh.)

“Those who live amidst ‘lust and greed’ aren’t able to understand because of their inebriation. Chess players often don’t know if a move is right until the game has continued for some time. But onlookers from a distance can see and understand the game better.

“Woman is the embodiment of maya. In his hymn in praise of Rama, Narada said, ‘O Rama, all men that are, are parts of you; and all women are parts of Sita, the embodiment of maya. I ask for no other boon: only grant that I may have pure love for Your lotus feet and that I may not be enchanted by Your world-bewitching maya.’”

Location: North Carolina

Dear Rosemary,

Your experience in the Croatan woods appears to me to have been an hallucination,
brought on by fatigue, excitement & the strange surroundings.

I remember some years ago, I was alone in a friend's apartment late at
might...and I saw clearly with my own eyes; a small midget, running across
the room and disappearing behind a sofa. He looked very much like this
picture:



I should mention that I had been smoking some very potent weed...which
could have had something to do with the hallucination.

Regarding ghosts, they certainly exist, if we believe that they do...
similarly, if we don't believe that they exist, then they won't exist for us.
Personally, I don't believe in their existence, outside of human imagination.

Smokey photos could be from various causes...however, I don't know anything
about photography.

The author of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Mahendranath Gupta ("M") said
the following about ghosts:

"A certain person was perfected in pishacha (ghoul). He used to get everything
done through a ghost. The ghost would finish all work ordered by him in no time.
Then he had nothing in hand. The agreement with the ghost was that if he did not
give work to him, he would break his neck and eat him up. The man seeing no way
out took refuge in his guru. The guru said, 'well, go home and fix a bamboo in
the courtyard. Then say to the ghost – climb it up and down.' The ghost went on
doing so day and night. The man was thus saved."

The English are great believers in ghosts. But, happily I have not inherited
that trait from my father's people. The practical side of my nature, comes
from my Franco-American, Massachusetts-born and bred mother..who is still in
great shape, mentally and physically at age 95.

When Sri Ramakrishna mentions 'ghosts' in that quote you so kindly provided,
it is probably for want of a more modern term, like for instance:

"Dissociative identity disorder" is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes
a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities
(known as alter egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and
interacting with the environment."

Mental health has come a heck of a long way in a hundred years.

RE: "Maya"

My son & his new wife are expecting a baby.
If it's a girl, they plan to name her "Maya"

Sri Ramakrishna also had this to say about "Maya"

"Remember that dayA, compassion, and mAyA, attachment,
are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of
'my-ness' towards one's relatives.
Compassion is the love one feels
for all beings of the world.
It is an attitude of equality. MAyA also comes from God.
Through mAyA, God makes one serve one's relatives.
But one thing should be remembered:
mAyA keeps us in ignorance and entangles
us in the world, whereas dayA
makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds."

Om Shanthi Om

PS1: Methinks it is time to start a new thread again.
this one is also getting 'long in the tooth'. :)

PS2: My kid brother went to visit your blog and he liked it very much.