Sri Ramakrishna (with a smile): "Do you know my attitude? Books, scriptures, and things like that only point out the way to reach God. After finding the way, what more need is there of books and scriptures? Then comes the time for action.

"A man received a letter from home informing him that certain presents were to be sent to his relatives. The names of the articles were given in the letter. Ashe was about to go shopping for them, he found that the letter was missing. He began anxiously to search for it, several others joining in the search. For a long time they continued to search. When at last the letter was discovered, his joy knew no bounds.

With great eagerness he opened the letter and read it. It said that he was to buy five seers of sweets, a piece of cloth, and a few other things. Then he did not need the letter any more, for it had served its purpose. Putting it aside, he went out to buy the things. How long is such a letter necessary? As long as its contents are not known. When the contents are known one proceeds to carry out the directions.

"In the scriptures you will find the way to realize God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work. Only then can you attain your goal.

"What will it avail a man to have mere scholarship? A pundit may have studied many scriptures, he may recite many sacred texts, but if he is still attached to the world and if inwardly he loves 'woman and gold', then he has not assimilated the contents of the scriptures. For such a man the study of scriptures is futile.

"The almanac forecasts the rainfall tor the year. You may squeeze the book, but you won't get a drop of water — not even a single drop." (Laughter.)

[ "Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna" ]

When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again.
A grain of boiled paddy does not sprout again when sown. Only unboiled paddy sends forth the shoot. Similarly when one dies after becoming a Siddha, a perfect man, he has not to be born again, but an Asiddha, an imperfect man, has to be born again until he becomes a Siddha.
........SRI RAMAKRISHNA 

Nothing Like Pride 
Narada, of whom you have heard before. He really did love God, but he was also quite proud of it, and of course that's not a very good thing. It went so far that one day he began to imagine that there was probably no one in the whole wide world who loved the Lord so much as he did. 
Now God has a way of "reading" one's heart, knowing our secret thoughts. After all, our heart isjust where he is seated. So one day he told Narada, "Go to such and such a place. Someone greatly devoted to me lives there. Go and get acquainted with that devotee." Narada, surprised to hear this, went to the village, inquired, and found that the man was a farmer. The villagers described him as a great lover of God.
Narada saw that the man got up early in the morning, spoke the name of the Lord just once, went to his fields and plowed and tilled the soil all day long and did all his other tasks. Then at bedtime he again repeated the name of the Lord --once-- and went to bed.
Narada said to himself, "How can this crude farmer be a lover of God? He just works all day at his commonplace duties and what attention does he pay to the Lord?" Narada went home, called on the Lord, and told him what he thought of this fellow: not much.

The Lord listened and said, "Narada, I want you to take this cup of oil, full to the brim, and go all the way around the city wall with it and come back to me. But one thing: you must not spill one drop. See that you don't." Now one of the things Narada was most proud of was that he was always able to carry out any command of God. So he set off with the cup of oil and made his way slowly around the whole city, not spilling even a drop. Returning to the Lord, exhausted, he reported his success.
"How many times," asked God, "did you remember me while out on your walk?"
"Lord, not once. How could I, when I had to watch this brimming cup of oil?"
"You forgot me completely? Just in preserving this cup of oil? But that farmer, though carrying the burden of a family and a farm, still remembers to think of me twice a day!"

In village India laundry is often done by the side of the river. People pay washer men to take the sheets and clothes down to the river bank, to a shallow place where they can wade -- and wash. The clothes are soused and whacked against big flat stones, then spread out on the grass to dry. One day a holy man, a lover of God, coming that way was praying hard and walking with his eyes almost closed.Accidentally he stepped on some of the clean laundry spread there, and the washer men saw it. Angry, they came to give him a beating.
Now this holy man became very frightened. He earnestly and loudly called on God to come to his aid and save him from the washer men’s anger. God, who was sitting in conference up in his heaven, heard the saint's cries and went to intervene. But just then the man himself picked up some bricks to throw at his tormentors; so the Lord singly returned to his heavenly seat. God helps those who do not help themselves!

There are some temples where God is worshipped as Mother. In one of these, in the state of Bengal, She is represented by a large stone image. The sculptor has carved in stone his idea of the Mother of the Universe, and many pious people, finding it attractive and inspiring, go there to pay their respects or make offerings.
One day an old monk who used a cane came into the temple. Approaching the altar he said, speaking aloud to God, "Mother, you are said to be God; tell me the truth: are you solid like stone -- this image? Or are you formless, indescribable and impossible to touch?"
"Take your cane," the monk heard a soft voice saying, "and strike my body on the left side." He did, and the cane hit the stone with a clack. "Now strike me from the other side," She said. When the cane reached the sculpture it passed right through it as if it were air. Then the monk understood that God can be both -- tangible and intangible -- at the same time.
(Short story by Sri Ramakrishna)

One of the common trades in village India is cloth- dye. You buy your white cloth and then take it to this person who has many vats of dye, each a different color. Do you want your cloth yellow? He soaks it in the vat of yellow dye; purple, in the purple dye, etc. One day there came to a village a traveling dyer, who had only one vat! (How could he make a living?) But you see it was a magic tub: whatever color you asked for, that was the color the cloth came out. People marveled to see such a thing. The same vat gave blue, red, etc. A clever villager was watching all this at a little distance. Finally he brought his cloth to the dyer and said, "Please make my cloth the color of the dye in your tub." Why is God like the magic dye? Because, though he is One, he gives everyone different things, according to their preference; if you want to know what he is in himself, be like the clever villager.

In ancient India there lived a certain wise king. One day a pandit (scholar and teacher) who had studied many scriptures and holy books came to the palace and asked to see the king. 
"Your Majesty," said he, "I should like it very much if you would permit me to teach you the Bhagavatam, the holy scripture on the life of Sri Krishna. I will not require an unreasonable fee." Now the king, a good judge of human nature, knew enough of that great book to realize that the pandit, scholar that he was, still had not understood what it says. Otherwise, why would he be coming to a king's palace in search of wealth instead of seeking for the Lord in the depths of his own heart.

He said to the pandit: "I perceive that you have not fully mastered the Bhagavatam as yet. I will make you my tutor only when you have learned it well." As he went on his way the scholar thought to himself, "Why, I've been studying the book over and over all these years. How foolish the king is to say that I have not mastered it!" Yet a seed of doubt had been sown in his mind. He carefully read the book again and again he applied to the king. This time the king repeated the same thing.
Mightily puzzled, the pandit reached home and shut himself in his room. He pored over the holy book day and night, and gradually the truth began to dawn on him. Then he began to see his own vanity and greed for the riches and courts of kings, and also for his own fame. Now he applied himself entirely to the worship of God and never thought once of returning to the king.

After a few years the king became curious and paid a visit to the pandit's house. There he found a changed man, radiant with divine light and love. The king fell on his knees. "I see," he said, "that you have now realized the true meaning of the Bhagavatam. I am ready to be your disciple if you will teach me."
from Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna