Trailokya : “What is the way to dry up the craving for worldly pleasure?”

Sri Ramakrishna : “Pray to the Divine Mother with a longing heart. Her vision dries up all craving for the world and completely destroys all attachment to ‘woman and gold’.

It happens instantly if you think of Her as your own mother. She is by no means a godmother. She is your own mother. With a yearning heart persist in your demands on Her. The child holds to the skirt of its mother and begs a penny of her to buy a kite.

Perhaps the mother is gossiping with her friends. At first she refuses to give the penny and says to the child: ‘No, you can’t have it. Your daddy has asked me not to give you money. When he comes home I’ll ask him about it. You will get into trouble it you play with a kite now.’

The child begins to cry and will not give up his demand. Then the mother says to her friends: ‘Excuse me a moment. Let me pacify this child.’ Immediately she unlocks the cash-box with a click and throws the child a penny.

“You too must force your demand on the Divine Mother. She will come to you without fail.

I once said the same thing to some Sikhs when they visited the temple at Dakshineswar. We were conversing in front of the Kali temple.

They said, ‘God is compassionate.’ ‘Why compassionate?’ I asked.

They said, ‘Why, revered sir, He constantly looks after us, gives us righteousness and wealth, and provides us with our food.’ ‘Suppose’, I said, ‘a man has children. Who will look after them and provide them with food — their own father, or a man from another village?'”