“So there is the Natural Ego, the False Ego and the Real Ego. Only the pure in heart can see God.

"What I wanted to explain is new—not these things. This was what Purdom asked about—what being pure in heart meant.

"All this which I have explained will take you nowhere, because how can one explain One Whom the mind cannot grasp?

"There is a bird of paradise which is said never to come to earth. Hafiz said: 'God is like the bird of paradise. Don't try to snare Him by spreading the net of intellect. In that net you will find nothing but wind.' And so it is said, 'Only love, and God will be yours.' Not intellect, but love. So however much I may explain, God can not be explained; but, if I should wish it, in a split second you would see God and you would know.

"Ramakrishna did not speak any language except Bengali. He could not read; He was what they call illiterate. Yet, in an instant, He gained All Knowledge. Flocks of very literate and learned people gathered around Him without understanding a thing He said. So love. The secret is, in a few words—when you are there, God is not. Now to explain and to understand, you must be there, and when you are there, God is not. So explanations and understandings mean you drive away God, instead of drawing Him in. When you understand, you have not understood God. God is.

"'My one and the same Beloved,' it is said, 'appears in different guises and garbs, and with different names, and appears to be always different, and yet He is one and the same Beloved.'

"You have to become what you already are. You are God, but you must become God. Christ humiliated Himself, God Himself crucified Himself, to teach this: through love, become what you already are.

"Emperor Janak, Sita's father, was also known to be a Perfect Master. During his reign, there was a youth from outside his empire who longed desperately to see God. 'I must see Him,' he said, 'as clearly as I see these external things.' And he decided to see Janak and to ask his help. For two months he walked through sun and rain without food. This was seven thousand years ago. There were no automobiles and airplanes then. Finally he arrived at the courtyard of Janak's palace. The guards accosted him and stopped him. He stood outside the wall, crying aloud for Janak, shouting his name, his glory