Kathamrita Volume II - Swami Vivekananda

Nirvana [1] sometime?His earlier story – Totapuri wept – is Nirvana the endof life?Sri Ramakrishna — It is not essential to attainNirvana. There is, in fact, the EternalKrishna [2] and there are His eternal devotees.Krishna [3] is the embodiment ofConsciousness, and His realm is Consciousnesstoo.“There is the moon and there are stars. Just so,where there is the Eternal Krishna, there arealso His eternal devotees. Don’t you yourselfsay, ‘If the Lord is seen both within andwithout, what is the need for austerity [4] ?’ Itold you that if a devotee is born of Vishnu, hisseed of love and devotion for God does notvanish. I fell into the hands of a jnani. Hetaught me Vedanta for eleven months. But theseed of bhakti did not die in me. Wherever mymind would go, it came back to repeat,‘Mother, Mother.’ The Naked One [5] wouldweep when he heard me sing devotional songs.He would say, ‘Oh, how wonderful!’ See, hewas such a big jnani and even he was moved totears! (To the Younger Naren and others) Oncethe seed of bhakti has fallen into your heart, itcannot but sprout. Gradually you will see itstree, its fruit and its flowers.