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but immediately told him that he would keep the key with him and he would give the key back to Vivekananda only three days before his death.
Vivekananda started crying and begged Ramakrishna not to take away what he had given him. Ramakrishna told him, "You have other work to do. If you go into samadhi you will be lost forever and my work will suffer. It is good that you do not experience samadhi before my work is over, as you would be able to do that work only before attaining to samadhi." Ramakrishna did not know that people have worked after attaining samadhi also. He could not have known it, because he himself was unable to do anything after samadhi.
Normally we are guided by our own experiences. After his experience of samadhi Ramakrishna could not do a thing. He could not speak for long -- talking was very difficult for him. Even if someone said the word Ram, he would enter into a trance. Someone would come along and say in salute to him, "Jai Ramji," and he would be lost to the world. For him it was difficult to retain consciousness even at the mention of any name of God, such as Ram. It at once reminded him of the other world. Someone would say "Allah!" and he would be gone. If he saw a mosque he would be lost in samadhi; he could not move from there. He would hear a devotional song while walking along the road and he would collapse in a trance, then and there.
So according to his own experience he was right in thinking that the same could happen to Vivekananda. Therefore, he told Vivek-ananda, "You have a great task to perform, and after that you can enter into samadhi." Vivekananda's whole life passed without attaining samadhi, and this caused him great pain.
But remember, the pain belonged to the dream world. It was like a man dreaming a bad dream. Three days before his death he was given the key, but until then there was great pain. The letters he wrote until five to seven days before his death are full of pain and anguish, and the agony increased more and more with his restless longing for that of which he had had only a glimpse.
Your longing is not yet that intense because you have no idea of what it is. One moment's
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