Sri Ramakrishna: The four classes of men

Men may be divided into four classes: those bound by the fetters of the world, the seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.

Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so clever that they are never caught. They are like the ever-free. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it; they are like those who seek liberation. But not all the fish that struggle succeed. A very few do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shout, ‘Look! There goes a big one!’ But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the mud net and all, and lie there quietly, thinking, ‘We need not fear anymore; we are quite safe here.’But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world. “The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of lust and greed. They are bound hand and foot. They think that ‘woman’and ‘gold’will make them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them to annihilation.
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna