The nature of a Brahman

The devotees would often complain to Sri Ramakrishna about their own helplessness with regard to spiritual matters. They would say that the Shastras speak of the nature of human soul as infinite, birthless, deathless, eternal, full of joy and so on. But, we see so many imperfections in us. How to reconcile all these? Sri Ramakrishna would explain patiently to them that human beings not realizing their true nature is due to their own ignorance or Maya and this is also a part of the design of the Divine Mother. She has made us deliberately lie is a state of forgetfulness. But, since every human soul is nothing but consciousness or infinite in nature, one day or other this reality will dawn upon every soul and lead it to ultimate destination of life or Mukti. The process is what is called Sadhana or spiritual striving. There are various paths or methods in which this can be done. But, one has to begin somewhere. It is not an easy task and one has to strive relentlessly for a long period. Slowly, as one practices Viveka, Vichara and Vairagya, the encrustations would start falling off and the real nature of our soul would start asserting itself. Ultimately one would realize that in Sadhana nothing new is added but only that which is not reality is removed through discrimination. In reality nothing needs to be added to the Ultimate. Sri Ramakrishna would say that it is as ridiculous as adding the letter “a” to the letters “ka”. The addition of another letter “a” is not going to change the word or its pronunciation. In the same way, nothing can be added in reality to Atman or Brahman. Although during the various stages of Sadhana one might feel that one has to struggle hard and practise intently meaning that one is adding something to one’s spiritual nature. But, actually real spiritual awakening means awakening to our own intrinsic nature and recognizing that we are the Supreme.