is. And some day historians will be able to find it.

VIII

SRI RAMAKRISHNA

As we dropped down the Hooghly they pointed to a temple on the shore as
lately the home of Sri Ramakrishna. He was only a name to me, and I did
not pay much attention, though I had his "Gospel" [2] actually under my
arm. I was preoccupied with the sunset, burning behind a veil of smoke;
and presently, as we landed, with the great floating haystacks
smouldering at the wharf in the red afterglow. As we waited for the
tram, someone said, "Would you like to see Kali?" and we stepped aside
to the little shrine. Within it was the hideous idol, black and
many-armed, decked with tinsel and fed with the blood of goats; and
there swept over me a wave of the repulsion I had felt from the first
for the Hindu religion, its symbols, its cult, its architecture, even
its philosophy. Seated in the tram, it was with an effort that I opened
the "Gospel" of Sri Ramakrishna. But at once my attention was arrested.
This was an account by a disciple of the life and sayings of his master.
And presently I read the following:

"_Disciple._ Then, sir, one may hold that God is 'with form.'
But surely He is not the earthen image that is worshipped!

"_Master._ But, my dear sir, why should you call it an earthen
image? Surely the Image Divine is made of the Spirit!

"The disciple cannot follow this. He goes on: But is it not
one's duty, sir, to make it clear to those who worship images
that God is not the same as the clay form they worship, and that
in worshipping they should keep God Himself in view and not the
clay images?

* * * * *

"_Master._ You talk of 'images made of clay.' Well, there often
comes a necessity of worshipping even such images as these. God
Himself has provided these various forms of worship. The Lord
has done all this--to suit different men in different stages of
knowledge.

"The mother so arranges the food for her children that every one
gets what agrees with him. Suppose she has five children. Having
a fish to cook, she makes different dishes out of it. She can
give each one of the children what suits him exactly. One gets
rich _polow_ with the fish, while she gives only a little soup
to another who is of weak digestion; she makes a sauce of sour
tamarind for the third, fries the fish for the fourth, and so
o