Ramakrishna didn't reply to Vivekananda's question. After a few days Ramakrishna called upon Vivekananda and handed him a parcel to be delivered at a nearby village a few hours away by the sea route.
Early morning the boat and sailor would be ready and all he needed to do was to go to the village and deliver the parcel to the designated person.
Vivekananda agreed and decided to start early. He found the boat and the sailor ready to put out to sea. Suddenly, upon sitting in the boat, Vivekananda realized that he didn't know the road to the village. He inquired of the sailor who had no clue, either. Vivekananda decided to go back to his guru to ask him the shortest way to the village.
Upon this Ramakrishna said, ‘Narendra, this is my reply to the question you asked me when we met the first time: Today, you have the medium (the boat), you have the resource (the sailor), you have the road (the sea), you know what to do (deliver the parcel) and you also know where to go but you don't know the way. Likewise you have read all the scriptures, and you can conduct wonderful discourses on them. However, to realize the wisdom of scriptures one needs a guru, someone who has already traversed that path so that he can guide you through the journey and encourage you to not give up.’
Esource: http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/05/how-ramakrishna-taught-swami.html
(Source: Excerpts from an article written by Kamlesh Dixit in Speaking Tree section of Times of India on 20 September 2007)
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