This is a curated selection of Ramakrishna quotes on lila, God’s divine play (personally curated by me on my own lifelong learning journey). This page is intended as a learning resource for educational purposes and meant to offer an overview/introduction. Short quotes aren’t a substitute for source material, so if this page sparks your interest, explore more deeply by checking out Ramakrishna’s books (Amazon).
Page Contents:
25 Ramakrishna Quotes on Lila (God’s Divine Play)
Ramakrishna Quotes on the Game of Hide-and-Seek
“In the game of hide-and-seek one must touch the ‘granny’ in order to be free. But the ‘granny’ is never pleased if she is touched at the very outset. It is God’s wish that the play should continue for some time.” — Ramakrishna
“The Mother is always in Her sportive mood. This world is Her sport. She has Her own way and She is full of joy. She liberates only one among millions … It is Her pleasure! It is Her desire to sport with all this. If a player touches the ‘granny’ (in the game of hide and seek), he no longer has to run about. If all the players touch her, how will the game continue? If everyone should touch the ‘granny,’ she would be unhappy. The ‘granny’ is happy for the game to continue.” — Ramakrishna
“In the game of blind man’s buff you have to touch the granddame. If you touch her in the beginning of the game, she is not pleased. God (the granddame) wills that the play continue for some time.” — Ramakrishna
“One mustn’t forget that when you have once touched the Grand-dame (in the game of hide and seek), you are free to do what you like.” — Ramakrishna
“When you have touched the Grand-dame, there is no danger in being out of the game. Once you have been turned into gold, you can stay anywhere.” — Ramakrishna
“After realizing God you can live well in the world. First touch the Granddame, and then play the game.” — Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Quotes on the Play of Opposites
“This world is the līlā of God. It is like a game. In this game there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. The game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation.” — Ramakrishna
“Everything is under the Lord’s control – it is all His lila (divine sport). He has created a variety of things: small, big, powerful, weak, good and bad. Whether a man is good or bad is all His maya, His sport.” — Ramakrishna
“That’s His divine play. If there were no darkness, you would not realize the importance of light. If there were no sorrow, you wouldn’t appreciate happiness. The knowledge of good depends on the knowledge of bad.” — Ramakrishna
“Can we ever understand God’s ways? I too think of God sometimes as good and sometimes as bad. She has kept us deluded by Her Mahāmāyā. Sometimes She wakes us up and sometimes She keeps us unconscious. . . .” — Ramakrishna
“Can everybody understand Him? He has created good people as well as bad, devotees as well as non-devotees. He has created believers in God and non-believers. There is such variety in His sport!” — Ramakrishna
“It is His will, His sport. Both knowledge and ignorance are in His maya. Darkness is necessary to show the glory of light. If lust, anger and greed are bad, why has he made them? Because he wants to create saintly people. A person becomes high-minded when his senses are subdued. What is impossible for a person who has overcome his senses? By His grace, he can even realize God. And look at it from this point of view. It’s through desire that His creation continues. Wicked people are needed too … God has created everything.” — Ramakrishna
“Just tell me who you are; it is God Himself who dwells in everything – maya, living beings, the world and the twenty-four cosmic principles. ‘I bite becoming a snake and cure becoming a doctor.’ He has become both knowledge and ignorance and dwells in the world. He dwells as ignorance in the maya of delusion, and He cures in the form of the maya of knowledge, in the guru. There are ignorance, knowledge and supreme knowledge. A man of knowledge sees that He alone exists, that He is the doer, creating, preserving and dissolving. The man of supreme knowledge sees that He exists and dwells in the world as all.” — Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Quotes on God as Human
“God Himself is playing as a human being.” — Ramakrishna
“God-incarnate is His sport as a human being.” — Ramakrishna
“The divine play, or the phenomenal, is play as God, play as deities, play as human beings, and play as the universe.” — Ramakrishna
“God has numerous forms, many games: He plays as the Lord, as deities, as man, and as the world. He takes the form of a human being in every age as an incarnation of God, to teach mankind love and devotion … You can taste and appreciate God’s love only through an incarnation of God.” — Ramakrishna
“God Herself has become everything—the universe and its living beings … Is there anyone but Herself to whom She can show partiality?” — Ramakrishna
“It is certainly God who has kept this ‘I’ in us – it is His play, His lila … As long as ‘I and you’ endures, names and form also exist. It is all God’s play. As long as ‘I and you’ persist, God is manifest in different forms.” — Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Quotes on Realizing God
“After attaining the knowledge of Brahman, one should move about enjoying the divine sport.” — Ramakrishna
“It is good to remain in the lila (divine play) after having attained the Nitya (Absolute).” — Ramakrishna
“After the vision of God, the devotee wants to witness His lila.” — Ramakrishna
“The superior devotee says, ‘God Himself has become everything. All that I see are the different forms of God. He Himself has become maya, the universe and living beings – nothing exists apart from Him.’” — Ramakrishna
“The vijnani always sees the presence of God. That is why he is in such a relaxed state of mind. He sees God even with his eyes open. At times he comes down from the Absolute (Nitya) to the phenomenal world (lila), and at other times he goes up from the phenomenal world to the Absolute.” — Ramakrishna
“She (the Mother of the Universe) is happy and claps Her hands when She cuts the string of one or two kites (bound souls) out of a hundred thousand. With a wink of Her eye, She has directed the mind to go and enjoy the world. How can it be the fault of the mind? Again, by Her grace, when She turns that mind from the clutches of worldliness, one is liberated. Then the mind goes to Her lotus feet.” — Ramakrishna
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