w they all look grave. Their eyes are steadfastly fixed
on the master's face. They marvel at the wonderful change that
has come over him. It takes him long to come back to the sense
world. His limbs now begin to lose their stiffness. His face
beams with smiles, the organs of sense begin to come back each
to its own work. Tears of joy stand at the corners of his eyes.
He chants the sacred name of Rama."[6]

The object, then, of this saint, and one he claims to have attained, is
to come into union with the Infinite by a process which removes him
altogether from contact with this world and from all possibility of
action in it. This world, in fact, is to him, as to all Indian saints
and most Indian philosophers, phenomenal and unreal. Of the speculative
problems raised by this conception I need not speak here. But it belongs
to my purpose to bring out its bearing upon conduct. All conduct depends
upon the conception of Good and Evil. Anti-moralists, like Nietzsche,
assume and require these ideas, just as much as moralists; they merely
attempt to give them a new content. If conduct is to have any meaning,
Good and Evil must be real in a real world. If they are held to be
appearances conduct becomes absurd. What now is Sri Ramakrishna's view
of this matter? The whole life that we Western men call real is to him a
mere game played by and for the sake of God, or, to use his phrase, of
the Divine Mother. For her pleasure she keeps men bound to Time, instead
of free in Eternity. For her pleasure, therefore, she creates and
maintains Evil. I quote the passage:

"My Divine Mother is always in Her sportive mood. The world,
indeed, is Her toy. She will have Her own way. It is Her
pleasure to take out of the prisonhouse and set free only one or
two among a hundred thousand of her children!

"_A Brahmo_: Sir, She can if She pleases set everybody free.
Why is it then, that She has bound us hand and foot with the
chains of the world?

"_Sri Ramakrishna_: Well, I suppose it is her pleasure. It is
her pleasure to go on with Her sport with all these beings that
She has brought into existence. The player amongst the children
that touches the person of the Grand-dame, the same need no
longer run about. He cannot take any further part in the
exciting play of Hide and Seek that goes on.

"The others who have not touched the goal must run about and
play to