THE BIRD OF PARADISE

 
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 you would 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 understand, you must be there, and when you are there, God is not. So explanations and understanding 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.'