[SPEAKER_01]: So, in this class, we are studying the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, which is the English translation of the Bengali Sri Ramakrishna Katham Rita.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were on a particularly important and long account.
[SPEAKER_02]: of Sri Ramakrishna with Keshapjandra Sain and the Brahma devotees.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is 27th October 1882 and we were on page 139.
[SPEAKER_02]: So basically, Sri Ramakrishna is responding to the question, that is it possible to realize God without total renunciation?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you remain in the word, you know, have a job, you know, have a husband, wife, children, and all the stuff that's going on in some sort of, and still not only be spiritual, but also realize God, go to the final attainment of God realization.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Sri Ramakrishna says, yes, certainly, 139,
[SPEAKER_02]: 139 in between.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why shouldn't one be able to realize God in this world?
[SPEAKER_02]: King Janaka had such a realization.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ram Prasad described the world as a mere framework of illusion.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if one loves God's hallowed feet, then there is this little poem.
[SPEAKER_02]: This very world is a mention of
[SPEAKER_02]: Janaka's might was unsurpassed.
[SPEAKER_02]: What did he lack of the world or the spirit?
[SPEAKER_02]: Holding to one as well as the other, he drank his milk from a brimming cup.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then he cautions.
[SPEAKER_02]: But one cannot be a king Janaka all of a sudden.
[SPEAKER_02]: Janaka at first practiced such austerity in much austerity in solitude.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if one lives in the world, one must go into solitude now and then, it will be of great help to a man.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he goes away from his family, lives alone, and weeps for God even for three days.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if he thinks of God for one day in solitude, when he has the leisure, that too will do him good.
[SPEAKER_02]: People shed a whole jug of tears for our vife and children, but who cries for the Lord?
[SPEAKER_02]: Now and then, one must go into solitude and practice spiritual discipline to realize God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Living in the world and entangled in many of its duties, the aspirant during the first stage of spiritual life finds many obstacles in the path of concentration.
[SPEAKER_02]: When the trees on the footpath are young, they must be fenced around, otherwise they will be destroyed by cattle.
[SPEAKER_02]: The fence is necessary when the tree is young, but it can be taken away when the trunk is thick and strong.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then the tree won't be hurt even if an elephant is tied to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had read some portion of this, the story of Janaka who was a great emperor and
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a Brahma-Ghani, enlightened person, so in the midst of running an empire it could be enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's exactly like that in the midst of Samsara, one can be one can be spiritual and be enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: But not automatically.
[SPEAKER_02]: One has to put in that effort.
[SPEAKER_02]: One has to take it up with all ones might and give it one's best.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Saddam Krishna says,
[SPEAKER_02]: one thing is to even in the midst of samsara you can step away from samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: don't be, mostly what people do is I can't take any mirror of the problems of samsara, there's so much sorrow, suffering, irritation, exhaustion, but they won't take the opportunity to step away from it also, not let go of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let go of it once in a while, go away to, he says the forest, it might be difficult to find the forest, but to like a meditation retreat
[SPEAKER_02]: and then use that time to practice do some service there whatever is needed and then use the extra time and effort.
[SPEAKER_02]: to meditate, to study, don't read too many books there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Take one book if you will, to just sit in silence, to pray whatever your devotional or your spiritual practice is, intensify that.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says for three days, or even for one day, if you step away from the family and the job that
[SPEAKER_02]: Why this step of it?
[SPEAKER_02]: You are just saying that it is possible to be spiritual in the midst of some sorrow, Krishna taught or Juna to be spiritual in the midst of the battlefield.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, but ultimately that is possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he says in the beginning, some amount of peace and quiet is necessary.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he gives the example of a plant.
[SPEAKER_02]: If we imagine on the footpath, it has to be encircled.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has to be fenced in, otherwise, in the goats.
[SPEAKER_02]: If we imagine in India, there are on the footpath.
[SPEAKER_02]: In Manhattan, you can't find goats and cows on the footpath.
[SPEAKER_02]: But in India, you will find goats, cows, and the little cows, and the little cows, and eat up the plant.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it has to be fenced in.
[SPEAKER_02]: but once the plant grows and it's big and strong you remove the fence and you can tie an elephant to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a trunk is so strong which means once one is centered in spiritual life, in meditation, in devotion, in your clarity that you are the Atman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Once that is clear and as far
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's how the monks run big ashrams, for example.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have seen swamis who take up so much huge responsibilities and they can do them, you know, discharge the duties with so much peace and centeredness.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can see it in their eyes that they are centered in God.
[SPEAKER_02]: In some way, the devotionally or from a Ghana knowledge perspective.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this is possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then one can be in the midst of some sort and be entirely detached also and be centered in God.
[SPEAKER_02]: The disease of coldiness is like typhoid.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there are a huge jug of water and a jar of savory pickles in the typhoid patient's room.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you want to cure him of his illness, you must remove him from that room.
[SPEAKER_02]: The worldly man is like the typhoid patient.
[SPEAKER_02]: The various objects of enjoyment are the huge jug of water.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the craving for their enjoyment is his thirst.
[SPEAKER_02]: The very thought of pickles makes the mouth water.
[SPEAKER_02]: you don't have to bring them near.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's surrounded by them.
[SPEAKER_02]: The companionship of women is the pickles.
[SPEAKER_02]: The other way around for women, the companionship of men you can read.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is the pickles hence treatment in solitude is necessary.
[SPEAKER_02]: one may enter the world after retaining discrimination and dispassion.
[SPEAKER_02]: These are the translations of the Sanskrit Vivek and Wairaga.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the ocean of the world, there are six aggregators.
[SPEAKER_02]: Last anger and so forth.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kamakrovalova Mohah, Madhav Makhsaria.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, last anger, greed, and then delusion.
[SPEAKER_02]: pride and envy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So these are the six alligator.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are powerful, negative emotions.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you need not fear the alligators if you smear your body with turmeric before you go into the water.
[SPEAKER_02]: Discrimination and dispassion are the turmeric.
[SPEAKER_02]: Discrimination is the knowledge of what is real and what is unreal.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the realization that God alone is the real and eternal substance and that all else is unreal, transitory, impermanent.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you must cultivate intense zeal for God.
[SPEAKER_02]: You must feel love for Him and be attracted to Him.
[SPEAKER_02]: The gopis of Rindavan felt that attraction of Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me sing you a song.
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, the flute has sounded in yonder wood, there I must fly, for Krishna awaits on the path, tell me, friends, will you come along or know, to you, my Krishna is merely an empty name, to me, he is the anguish of my heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: You hear his flute notes only with your ears, but oh, I hear them in my deepest soul.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hear his flute calling, Radha come out without you, the grove is shorn of its loveliness.
[SPEAKER_02]: The master sang the song with tears in his eyes and said to Keshav and other Bramma devotees.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whether you accept Rada and Ankrishna or not, please do accept their attraction for each other, try to create the same yearning in your heart for God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yearning is all you need in order to realize him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Before I go on, let me just comment here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Vivek and Vivera get discrimination and dispassion.
[SPEAKER_02]: That means the way to deal with lust, anger, greed, and so on is Viveka.
[SPEAKER_02]: That there is an ultimate reality, call it God, Brahman or something, whatever it is, the ultimate reality, ultimate spiritual reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the word is, as he says, not substantial, is the word is, everything else is unreal, transitory, impermanent.
[SPEAKER_02]: all this in samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's talking to people who are in samsara who have asked him the question, can I realize God in samsara?
[SPEAKER_02]: But this must be the attitude that the wall that I have in samsara is transitory, impermanent and unreal.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is what is meant by not substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: Misara.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whereas God alone, the Ottoman Brahman, that is substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I'm staying with shadows all the time, whatever the shadows, money, husband, why children, house, health, my own, these are the things which I value.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is my samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I'm staying with those staying in a haunted house, it's not substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: and the problem with not being substantial is it will want to go away.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything of that will go away and then we will be in sorrow.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there is something substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: Viveka's telling us there is an ittyam, there is an eternal, there is a sattyam, there is a real, not transitory, Nirvikara.
[SPEAKER_02]: that reality is a spiritual reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our real self, self with the capitalists, or God, the God of religion, God whom we love.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is real and that's substantial.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that will solve all our problems.
[SPEAKER_02]: If we catch hold of that, you will find peace.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will find courage.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will find a noble and it will be manifested in a noble life.
[SPEAKER_02]: All of that will happen if we catch hold of
[SPEAKER_02]: the, that which is transitory, and that which is temporary.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, this means then you have to become a monk, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is what he is saying.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, he is saying, if you stay in the midstuff, some sorrow, notice the nature of what you have all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you know the nature of it, then it will not be able to hurt you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if you become a monk and stay in an ashram or in the Himalayas, the same thing, what is the surrounding is not substantial, neither the ashram nor the people, none of that is ultimately real.
[SPEAKER_02]: God alone is real.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that understanding must be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he says
[SPEAKER_02]: that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this dispassion must be there for the not real, the temporary.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, when this dispassion is there, this is an internal attitude, whether you are a monk or a householder.
[SPEAKER_02]: The dispassion is there internally, this clarity is there, that these things are for a few days only, these people are here with me for a few days only.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even this body is with me only for a few days, none of them are my eternal companions.
[SPEAKER_02]: This clarity must be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: If it is there, then the turning to God becomes possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Otherwise, it feels like you're giving up something real, nice, valuable, you're making a huge sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_02]: People tell us, and there's some monks, you know, Maharaja, you've sacrificed everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: But from our perspective, ask any monk, we don't feel we have sacrificed anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: What have we sacrificed?
[SPEAKER_02]: that which is impermanent, that which is ultimately of no consequence or value.
[SPEAKER_02]: We stepped away from that and we have taken up something, we have got something much more valuable.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, is that a sacrifice or a game?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a game, actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have gained, we have not given up, we have given up the lower for the higher.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that the person in some sort who wants to be spiritual, that also that person must do internally.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the way to do that is to remain there with those people and in that job and to spiritualize it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was the message of Krishna to Arjuna.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can become spiritual, you can become a Vedant in, you can become enlightened, and you can do it in the midst of your kingdom, your battlefield, your family life, all of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: By how to spiritualize work,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not possible for everybody and not is it desirable.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody to become a monk is impossible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of your civilization, your nation, your economy will not move if that happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will not happen also.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then what about the mass of people?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can't they become spiritual?
[SPEAKER_02]: is only like conventional ritualistic religion or just the worldly kind of religion is that salt?
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: The highest religion is open.
[SPEAKER_02]: The highest spirituality is open to everybody, including all householders also, but that internal shift must be the same shift which a monk makes internally and externally, internally the householder has to make.
[SPEAKER_02]: But not just realising it is all temporary, impermanent, without value.
[SPEAKER_02]: The samsara is like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But also there must be a positive pull towards God.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says attraction.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he uses the most powerful form of attraction.
[SPEAKER_02]: You find in any religion of the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the love of the gopis for Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the most intense kind of devotion to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And especially for Radha, Radha and Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, what beautiful lines, that to you, my Krishna, so this is Radha, is singing, to you, my Krishna, to you, into the others, to the people who are not intensely devoted to Krishna, to you, Krishna is just an empty name, but to me, she says, he is the anguish of my heart, he is a pain in my heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: You hear is flute, only with your ears, the music of the flute, but I hear it with my deepest soul in my heart itself, I hear the music of Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is Krishna's God and the Radha is the individual soul, the one who is devoted to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he knows this kind of vision of a devotionalism may not be acceptable to the reform mind that, you know, the Brahmas who consider themselves who at that time at least to be above mainstream Hinduism, there are reforms sect, you know, 19th century Bengal.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's a very much aware of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Notice how he says, whether you accept Rada and Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, is aware of the theology of the Brahma Samaj and their sensitivities, image, worship and not to be accepted, the Hindu rituals, not to be accepted.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Upanishads and Gita are to be accepted, like that, so that's what they used to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this is whether you accept that or not, at least have that intense love of Raja and Krishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: Try to create that same yearning in your heart for God, which means it can be done.
[SPEAKER_02]: One might say, I don't feel that, I don't feel any part of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it can be done.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you consistently, pray, meditate, repeat the name of God, do a little bit of a holistic pleasure.
[SPEAKER_02]: All of that slowly over time, they will be, I've never seen it fail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anybody who has done it consistently, if you do more of it, faster, if you do less of it over the years, it will come, but the builds up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then Sri Ram Krishna says, the direct one line answer to the original question can one realize God without renouncing everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sri Ram Krishna's that last line, yearning is all you need in order to realize him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yearning means Dracula, intensity.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't have that yearning before that what did he say?
[SPEAKER_02]: Try to create that means it can be generated over time.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's no way of escaping.
[SPEAKER_02]: gradually the abtide set in the steam boat was this abtide in Ganga that is you know the Ganga which is called the Hugli there near the temple of Dakshianeshwar.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's pretty broad and slow moving there but it's close to the Bay of Bengal close to the Delta where the river flows into the sea.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because of that, the tides of the sea affect the river.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there you will see the river sometimes flowing upstream, sometimes flowing downstream, appetite and high tide and so that keeps happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: Water comes, goes out and comes back in like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: One funny thing I remember, so the bell is on the bank of the kanga.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes when you have free time as Bhramacharya is in training, you would sit on the bank of the kanga.
[SPEAKER_02]: I saw a visiting monk from some distant ashram.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, every all of us, we have been in Beludmat for training at least for two years.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that monk, he was reminiscing about his days in Beludmat many decades ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, he had basically forgotten what was happening to the river.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was sitting in the river and he was telling us, oh, I see, it's flowing that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: In our days, you know, it is to flow the opposite way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, every day it flows the opposite way and that way, because of the high tide and the
[SPEAKER_02]: Gradually the abtide set in, the steamboat was speeding towards Calcutta, it passed under the Haurabridge and came within sight of the botanical garden.
[SPEAKER_02]: The captain was asked to go a little farther down the river.
[SPEAKER_02]: The passengers were enchanted with the master's words and most of them had no idea of time or of how far they had come.
[SPEAKER_02]: Keshav began to serve some puffed rice and grated coconut.
[SPEAKER_02]: The guests held these in the folds of their varying clocks and presently started to eat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone was joyful.
[SPEAKER_02]: The master noticed, however, that Keshav and Vijay rather shrank from each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was anxious to reconcile them.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Vijay and Keshav, they were heads of rival groups within the Brahma Samaj.
[SPEAKER_02]: They had, Vijay had started a breakaway group in the Brahma Samaj.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they were really conscious of each other's presence.
[SPEAKER_02]: Vijay had come to see Sri Ram Krishna and Keshav, of course, had organized the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they knew they had broken with each other, so it's like two groups had started.
[SPEAKER_02]: Master to, to Keshav, look here.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is Vijay, your quarrel seems like the fight between Shiva and Rama, Shiva was Rama's guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: Though they fought with each other, yet they soon came to terms, but the grimaces of the ghosts, the followers of Shiva and the gibberish of the monkeys, the followers of Rama, would not come to an end, loud laughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's saying that you are all right, but your followers are still they hate each other and they're fighting with each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's often
[SPEAKER_02]: Such quarrels take place even among one's own kids and kin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Didn't Rama fight with his own sons, lover and kusha.
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, you must have noticed how a mother and daughter living together in having the same spiritual end in view, observed their religious fast separately on Tuesdays, each on her own account, as if the welfare of the mother were different from the welfare of the daughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what benefits the one benefits the other?
[SPEAKER_02]: In like manner, you have a religious society, and Vijay thinks he must have one, too, laughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think all these are necessary.
[SPEAKER_02]: While Sri Krishna himself, God incarnate, played with the gopis at Vindavan, trouble makers like Jatila and Kutila appeared on the scene.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may ask why.
[SPEAKER_02]: The answer is that the play does not develop without trouble makers all laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is no fun without Jatila and Kutila.
[SPEAKER_02]: Loud laughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: many sects, many groups, different views, different philosophies.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is your armorytionist view?
[SPEAKER_02]: He says it's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_02]: If you really feel you have something to offer and a new philosophy, new teaching, you think you can do a better job, try it with anything done with positive intent with constructive way.
[SPEAKER_02]: All variety is good.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's
[SPEAKER_02]: Rama Anujah upheld the doctrine of qualified non-dualism, but his guru was a pure non-dualist.
[SPEAKER_02]: They disagreed with each other and refuted each other's arguments.
[SPEAKER_02]: That always happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: Still to the teacher, the disciple is his own.
[SPEAKER_02]: All rejoiced in the master's company and his words.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the Rama Anujah's story, I mentioned last, or somebody else mentioned.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's relevant now because recently a huge statue of Sri Ramanujacharya was inaugurated in India.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think in Hyderabad.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ramanujacharya is the Acharya for the Vishisthat Dwaita, tradition of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Vedanta, you know, is splitting to, or not split.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has, as Sri Ram Krishna would say, very good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not no harm in it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has many, many schools.
[SPEAKER_02]: Adwaita Vedanta is the one which we follow.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Acharya is Shankaracharya.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now how is this Acharya decided?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that Shankaracharya started Adwaita Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Advaita Vedanta is an ancient tradition with its own teaching lineage, and so is Vishistadvaita.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you ask them, none of them will say that Ramana is a founder of Vishistadvaita, not at all, not in that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what is in Nacharya, and Nacharya is the one specifically who has commented, who has written a commentary, an interpretation of the Brahma Sutras of Vyasa, of Badarayan of Vyasa.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are the Brahma Sutras?
[SPEAKER_02]: The Brahma Sutras are the, and the philosophical basis is a text.
[SPEAKER_02]: philosophical basis of the philosophy of Vedanta, all the different philosophies in Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: They had their own sutra text, which is basically the philosophical text of that system.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nyaaya has Nyaaya Sutras of Gautama.
[SPEAKER_02]: Baisheshika has the Baisheshika Sutras of Kanada.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sangya had at one time the Sangya Sutras of Kapilab.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is even now it's there, but sort of reconstructed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Original ones are lost probably.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yoga, very famous.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I am very kind in fact translated the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali here in New York in the Vedanta society of New York.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was his first published work, the Patanjali Yoga Sutras called Rajayoga.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then, and it's very famous because yoga itself is so famous, that's why yoga sutras are very well known.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then the purvam imamsa, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas, the whole system based on that, their sutra text is the gymini sutras of Rishi gymini.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then, then you have the Vedanta sutras.
[SPEAKER_02]: of viasa, which is the philosophical basis of the Vedanta system.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do we mean philosophical basis of the Vedanta system in the Vedanta system is based on Upanishads?
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you study the Upanishads, a lot of questions will come.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do these terms mean?
[SPEAKER_02]: There is this particular term in Brahman or does it mean the individual self?
[SPEAKER_02]: What are the practices?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the goal of Vedanta?
[SPEAKER_02]: and those issues are discussed thread bear in these sutras.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the sutras are compact, so they need to be interpreted.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so interpretations are called bashes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Interpretative commentaries written by great spiritual masters.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Shankaracharya Bhashya on the Brahma Sutras,
[SPEAKER_02]: called the Brahma Sutra Bhashya, or Shari Raka Mimamsabhashya, that one is the basis for a Dwaita Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Shankaracharya is the Achaarya for a Dwaita Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, Ramanujacharya, he wrote a commentary on the Brahma Sutras, called the Shri Bhashya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that is the philosophy, the interpretation of the Brahma Sutras, according to the doctrines of Vishestad Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, Madhva Charya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ramana Charya is the Achaarya for Vishitha, Dwaita, School, Qualified Manistic School of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Madhva Charya wrote a commentary on the Bremma Sutras called the Purnaprakya Bhashyan.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so he is the Achaarya for the Dwaita Vedanta School of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, the story goes, Ramanujah who lived about 2,300 years after Shankara, he lived about 1,100 years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Ramanujah, at that time when he started studying Vedanta, he had a guru who was a follower of Adwaita Vedanta, the guru's name was Yadava Prakarsha.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so he has started teaching Rama Anujya.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, Rama Anujya did not like some of the interpretations.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are interpretations where being given on the basis of Shankarra's interpretations.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there is one rather cute story in Khandavya Upanishad.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a
[SPEAKER_02]: There is an expression describing Saguna Brahman, Ishwara, the eyes of the Divine Farm of God and the eyes, color of the eyes, Kapya some Pundari Kaaksham, so the eyes of Lord Vishnu or Saguna Brahman read like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Shankar as commentary, which Yaleva Prakash had taught Ramana, which was Shankar as comments
[SPEAKER_02]: And the red color is the back side of a monkey, the bottom of a monkey, this reddish color, you have to imagine the big monkeys in the Hanuman, in India.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ramanaja was very hurt by this ridiculous, this demeaning comparison of God with the back side of a monkey.
[SPEAKER_02]: So tears came to his eyes and he disagreed strongly with the Guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the other Procache was for furious, of course,
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ramana is actually gave up at interpretation.
[SPEAKER_02]: He better meaning of that phrase, ka-pi-asam.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the way he interpreted it was, ka-pi-asam is that which drinks water and pundri-kaksham.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what drinks water?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the sun shining upon which makes water into water vapor and causes the lotus to bloom.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that is what is meant, the glory of the sun that is the description of on the Lord.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, much, much better, much more sublime interpretation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, the other percussion did not like that, even more serious.
[SPEAKER_02]: Satyam Yana Manantam Ramha, Definition of Brahman, Taitri Upanishad, I have given talks on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you listen to my talks, they are all actually based on Shankaracharya's commentary on the Taitri Upanishad, Brahman and the Vali 2.1.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the surrup election of Brahman, the essential definition of Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ramana is a different.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, no, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, Brahman is not existence consciousness, please.
[SPEAKER_02]: Existence consciousness, please are the qualities of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: So God has those qualities, just like I have a body.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not a body, but it is my body.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, infinite existence, infinite knowledge, and infinite joy, these are the qualities of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: God is not existence consciousness, please.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Brahman is not existence consciousness, please.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you, as you went along, you can see these are huge changes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, his guru did not like it one bit, and there is a whole story of how the guru who was Adwaitan, he felt that his student is so brilliant, he will upset whole Adwaitan interpretation.
[SPEAKER_02]: He will start his own school of interpretation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it seems that he and the other disciples plotted to murder Rama Nujacharya, luckily by the grace of God, Rama Nujacharya was saved and so on.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this is a long story.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that is the story of the dispute between Rama Nujacharya and the, and the, and the
[SPEAKER_02]: and the Advaiti teacher, though, some scholars say that he was not actually an Advaita teacher, he was a variant of a range of schools which were called Veda Veda, difference and non-difference.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the other Prakasya was one of those teachers.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the view of Swami Tapasya Anandiri in his book, Bhakti Schools of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, that's some background.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, you know that Ramana Javanjavan turned to write a commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the Sri Bhasham, and that became the foundation for the Vishistadwaita interpretation of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, he says Ramana Javanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanjavanj
[SPEAKER_02]: all rejoiced in the master's company and his words.
[SPEAKER_02]: Master, to Keshav.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't look into people's natures before you make them your disciples and so they break away from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure that would have been pretty embarrassing for Keshav and Vijay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ram Krishna would be very disconcertingly frank like a child.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't look into your people's natures before you make them a disciples and so they break away from you.
[SPEAKER_02]: All men look alike to be sure, but they have different natures, some have an excess of sattva and others an excess of rajas, still others an excess of tamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: You must have noticed that the cakes known as puli all look alike.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're called puli pita in Bengali.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the contents are very different.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some contain condensed milk, some coconut kernel, and others mere boiled kaleye pulse, which is a little lower quality of thing, all laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they all look, basic ideas, they all look alike, but their constitutions are different.
[SPEAKER_02]: don't get confused, I'm going to say, but doesn't we want to say all of the earthmen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, ultimately you are, everybody is the earthmen, but the layer which through which the earthman shines through is the layer of this subtle body, Sukh Mesha Vira, Sukh Mesha Vira is heavily conditioned by our past experiences, our varsanas, and they're all distinct from one to the other.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like one light shining through different colored glass windows, and then you will see different
[SPEAKER_02]: multicolored glass windows behind them.
[SPEAKER_02]: The light is one and the same, but it becomes different when it comes through those windows colored windows.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, one consciousness through a satvic mind will be a very spiritual kind of person, one consciousness through a rajasic mind will be a very active dynamic, restless kind of person, same consciousness exactly the same thing,
[SPEAKER_02]: unwilling to change will be, you know, obstinate, same.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says this, he gently poaked Keshab, Keshab is to say that Paramam Sadeva, Sri Ram Krishna, does not have the faculty of organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is, he's singing and dancing and tracking jokes and going into Samadhi, but he cannot organize how his work is not organized.
[SPEAKER_02]: And today, we must think back and smile about the Paramam Sadeva's faculty of organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: He trained up Vivekananda and a few directors of his disciples.
[SPEAKER_02]: And look, today, we are still reading about Keshav and his organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahmur Devote is because of the Paramam Sadeva's organization, so Ramakrishna's organization.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are all here today because of that Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: What, notice what they were all fighting about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Keshav had his own organization, Vijay had his own organization, they had their own followers, different doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna says none of that is important.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you really want to do work like that, best is select the person and they will do the work.
[SPEAKER_02]: Select the person, train them up, they will do the work.
[SPEAKER_02]: and then he himself says, Sri Ramakrishna, do you know my attitude as for myself, I eat, drink and live happily, the rest the divine mother knows, indeed there are three words that prick my flesh, guru, master and father, there is only one guru and that is such a down under.
[SPEAKER_02]: he alone is the teacher.
[SPEAKER_02]: My attitude towards God is that of a child towards this mother.
[SPEAKER_02]: One can get human gurus by the million, all want to be teachers, but who cares to be a disciple?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is extremely difficult to teach others.
[SPEAKER_02]: A man can only teach if God reveals himself to him and gives the command.
[SPEAKER_02]: Narada, Shukadeva and Sages like them had such a command from God and Shankara had it too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Unless you have a command from God, who will listen to your words?
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't you know how easily the people of Calcutta get excited?
[SPEAKER_02]: The milk in the kettle puffs up and boils as long as the fire burns underneath.
[SPEAKER_02]: Take away the fuel and all becomes quiet.
[SPEAKER_02]: The people of Calcutta loves and sessions.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may see them digging a well at a certain place.
[SPEAKER_02]: They say that they want water, but if they strike a stone,
[SPEAKER_02]: If they strike a stone, they give up that place and they begin it another place.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are per chance, they find sand.
[SPEAKER_02]: They give up their second place too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Next, they begin it a third and so it goes.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it won't do if a man only imagines that he has God's command.
[SPEAKER_02]: this by the way, the people of Calcutta, that was his code word for modern people, people with modern education and attitudes, that's so true, why people of Calcutta are exactly true of 21st century, in the United States and the West and especially Manhattan.
[SPEAKER_02]: going from one sensation to another.
[SPEAKER_02]: What he saw at that time more than 100 years, well over 100 years ago, now imagine in our social media driven age, it's one sensation, sensation after another, every few minutes, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Trending or trending, something is trending now, then something is trending in the afternoon, another thing is trending at night and it goes on faster and faster, more and more change.
[SPEAKER_02]: everything is available.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a super market of spirituality, YouTube's spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it's super market.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything is available now, but and many of them are good things, but one has to pick up one and then start work, hold on to it and then dig deep there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then he says another thing that you can't imagine that God has given me a command to speak.
[SPEAKER_02]: God does reveal Himself to man and speak, only then may one receive His command.
[SPEAKER_02]: How forceful are the words of such a teacher?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, all the time it's translated as His, His, He is, but it's just the English translation, because Sri Ram Krishna would have meant the Divine Mother.
[SPEAKER_02]: She would have been more appropriate.
[SPEAKER_02]: How forceful are the words of such a teacher?
[SPEAKER_02]: They can move mountains, but mere lectures, people will listen to them for a few days and then forget them.
[SPEAKER_02]: They will never act upon mere words.
[SPEAKER_02]: And how true this is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just a few simple words spoken by a person of deep spirituality, of realization.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will remember it, we will remember it the rest of our lives.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will come back to us whether I actually practice it or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's unforgettable.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the most exciting, logical, you know, entertaining, uplifting lecture.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's good for a while, like the people of Calcutta in a new sensation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the command of God, notice someone like Vivekananda, he was not willing to go out and teach, Sri Ramakrishna told him so many times, you are your bones, very bones will do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will be forced to do that, so the command is when it comes, it is irresistible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Somebody may ask, then, why are you teaching Swami?
[SPEAKER_02]: For us, it's not teaching, it's a sadhana, it's part of our spiritual practice.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am the first beneficiary.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I'm teaching at all, then I'm benefiting most from it.
[SPEAKER_02]: At Kamar Pukur, there is a small lake called Haldar Pukur, certain people used to be found its banks every day, others who came there in the morning to bathe, would abuse the offenders loudly.
[SPEAKER_02]: The next morning they would find the same thing, the nuisance didn't stop all laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: The villages finally inform the authorities about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: A constable was sent, who put up a notice on the bank which read, commit no nuisance.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there must be authority.
[SPEAKER_02]: The government sends a police man with a notice, commit no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
[SPEAKER_02]: This reminds me of a funny story.
[SPEAKER_02]: It just happened in Marafaur, Ashram's, like a rural kind of area, a long many years ago, and one monk who is well known for his intelligence.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in this Ashram, it didn't have a fence, and it had a big, nice lake in Bengal, they call it Pukur.
[SPEAKER_02]: And everybody, although it was not allowed, everybody from the lake, from the neighborhood would come
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, fish are bathed there or wash their clothes and generally they are spiling the lake if they were polluting it and so what to do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Numerous, you know, don't do this, not allowed strictly private, nobody care and then you can't settle local people and that's not good, you know, you will spoil your relations with the local community, what to do?
[SPEAKER_02]: So the head of the Tashram asked this monk who was known for his ready-weight and intelligence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the monk said, I'll take care of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the next day, nobody was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: And till today, nobody comes there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a big notice put up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And none of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all prohibited.
[SPEAKER_02]: None of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a notice put up.
[SPEAKER_02]: The sacred waters are well known to cure leprosy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is a place where people with leprosy will take bath, and everybody else in the village got so scared that they didn't want to come anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they stopped coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a signboard put up, and this stopped the miscreants at once.
[SPEAKER_02]: To teach others, one must have a badge of authority, otherwise teaching becomes a mockery.
[SPEAKER_02]: A man whose himself ignorant starts out to teach others, like the blind leading the blind.
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead of doing good, such teaching does harm.
[SPEAKER_02]: After the realization of God, one obtains an inner vision.
[SPEAKER_02]: Only then can one diagnose a person's spiritual melody and give instruction.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is so true.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not a new phenomenon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's more.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always been there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Upanishads speak about Andhain and Yamana Yatanda, as the blind led by the blind.
[SPEAKER_02]: I need somebody's help.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if I catch hold of another person, I don't know that person is also blind, both are holding on to each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: Other person actually claims I can see, can't see, he falls into a pit and will drag you down also.
[SPEAKER_02]: Without the commission from God, a man becomes vain.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says to himself, I am teaching people, this vanity comes from ignorance.
[SPEAKER_02]: For only an ignorant person feels that he is the doer.
[SPEAKER_02]: A man veryly becomes liberated in life, if he feels, God is the doer.
[SPEAKER_02]: He alone is doing everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am doing nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Man's sufferings and worries spring only from his persistent thought that he is the doer.
[SPEAKER_02]: You people speak of doing good to the world, is the world such a small thing, and who are you pray to do good to the world?
[SPEAKER_02]: First, realize God.
[SPEAKER_02]: See Him by means of spiritual discipline.
[SPEAKER_02]: If He imparts power, then you can do good to others, otherwise not.
[SPEAKER_02]: A Brahmin devotee.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then, sir, we must give up our activities, until we realize God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Master, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why should you see this is an important question?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, why should you?
[SPEAKER_02]: You must engage in such activities as contemplation, singing his praises and other daily devotions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahma.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what about our daily, our worldly duties, duties associated with our earning money and so on?
[SPEAKER_02]: Master, yes, you can perform them too.
[SPEAKER_02]: But only as much as you need for your livelihood.
[SPEAKER_02]: At the same time, you must pray to God in solitude with tears in your eyes that you may be able to perform those duties in an unselfish manner.
[SPEAKER_02]: You should say to him, oh God, make my worldly duties fewer and fewer, otherwise, oh Lord, I find that I forget, I forget the, when I'm involved in too many activities.
[SPEAKER_02]: I may think I'm doing unselfish work, but it turns out to be selfish.
[SPEAKER_02]: People who carry to access the giving of arms, or the distributing of food among the poor, fall victims to the desire of acquiring name and fame.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shambhu Malik once talked about establishing hospitals, dispensaries in schools, making roads, digging public reservoirs, and so forth.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said to him, don't go out of your way to look for such works.
[SPEAKER_02]: Undertake only those works that present themselves to you and are of pressing necessity and those also in a spirit of detachment.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is not good to become involved in many activities that makes one forget God.
[SPEAKER_02]: coming to the Kalighar temple, some perhaps spend their whole time in giving arms to the poor.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have no time to see the mother in the inner shrine, laughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: First of all, manage somehow to see the image of the divine mother, even by pushing through the crowd.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you may or may not give arms as you wish.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may give to the poor to your heart's content if you feel that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: work is only a means of realization of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, I said to Shambhu, suppose God appears before you, then will you ask him to build hospitals and dispensaries for you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Laughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: A lover of God never says that.
[SPEAKER_02]: He will rather say, O Lord, give me a place at the lotus feet, keep me always in the company, give me sincere
[SPEAKER_02]: work is necessary, how much work is necessary, what kind of work is necessary, and what is the central idea and spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Especially in a necessary, I have seen here and now in the West.
[SPEAKER_02]: always it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I have become also noticed it when he came to the West.
[SPEAKER_02]: He saw how everything in the West was related with making a better society.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, religion, politics, everything is pulled into service.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now even more so, I saw the Divinity School at Harvard.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, discussions of religion often were mostly about social issues, nowadays it is gender and race and you know
[SPEAKER_02]: or the ecology, you know, the greenhouse effect and global warming, how to prevent that, what can religion do for that versus sustainable life and so on.
[SPEAKER_02]: All good, what can religion do, what can we do for the refugees coming in from the southern border?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, all good, what can we do for the homeless?
[SPEAKER_02]: Again, good, but somehow in all the
[SPEAKER_02]: And there, if you say that immediately people will protest, you know, this is spirituality, taking care of people and being good to people and kind to people, isn't this spirituality?
[SPEAKER_02]: The idea is no, no, one must be clear about this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bhakti is not just a way of, you know, you'll be devoted to God so that you can do good to other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's not an excuse for doing good to making people to good to other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: And meditation is not, we'll calm your mind so that you can go out and serve other people more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gianna is not that I will feel one with everybody so I can again go out and do good to others.
[SPEAKER_02]: Karma Yoga is of course doing good to others.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not actually the central purpose of religion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Central purpose of religion is that God actually exists and God is the goal of religion, of spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Service is not the goal of religion or spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is difficult to say these things because it is difficult to argue again something good.
[SPEAKER_02]: After all, service is good, social issues, social justice issues, environment issues are all good and one should be done.
[SPEAKER_02]: So to argue against him seems wrong, but one must say it clearly, that the world, a better society, a better world is not the final goal, because there is nothing final about society under world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything you do here with building sandcastles, it will be wiped out within some time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And here is it wrong to do that?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, not at all one must.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dogs, curly tail.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we wake up on this.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's curly tail.
[SPEAKER_02]: However much you would try to straighten it out, we'll curl up again.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the world is like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that you will achieve something final here by your social action.
[SPEAKER_02]: There will be a problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: You drive it from this end and you go to another end.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it will always be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And its purpose is, you must do good to others because that is the good thing to do, moral thing to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it helps us in our spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: But spiritual life is first and foremost.
[SPEAKER_02]: This world is not the end.
[SPEAKER_02]: Renunciation of world is the end, whether it is like a monk externally or any other spiritual person internally, his world is only for two days, society is only for two days, for each of us.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you can do the best you can, but for eternally God is your own, not society, not even environment.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this thing has to be realized, this is what Sram Krishna is pushing towards and it is especially an important message I hear in the West.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the East, so I think we can talk about the importance of service, about taking care of people improving society, that was necessary, that was neglected.
[SPEAKER_02]: religion or spirituality is about an eternal reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: People in the East knew that very much, at least at that time.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that is what is Ram Krishna saying here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Bhakti, as I said, not about convincing people to do good to society, so that God will be pleased.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, rather, to good in order to please God because God exists and Bhakti to God is the
[SPEAKER_02]: The goal of yoga is to seize the modifications of the mind so that you perceive the reality beyond the mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: The goal of Gany yoga of Advaita is to realize that I am Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you, from that, if you base practical Vedanta on that, like Swamvi Vikananda and make it Shiva Gany Jiva Sabha, serve all beings in the idea that she was in all of them, that's great.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_02]: But.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahman actually exists, and that is our inner reality, and that is what Vedanta wants to show us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Karma Yoga, which seems to be entirely about doing good to others, as a path of spiritual practice.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember this anecdote, I think it's about Swami Madhavanandaji.
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems a young monk went to him and said that I have very inspired by Karma Yoga, of Swami Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm studying Karma Yoga.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then Madhavanji said, so what do you feel like after studying Karmayoga of Swami Vivekanda?
[SPEAKER_02]: And the monk said, I'm very inspired.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm charged up with the feeling of doing so much work.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Madhavanji said, you have not understood Karmayoga.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you really understand Karmayoga, all the desire for doing work would go over.
[SPEAKER_02]: You, you would still do work, see, that's the thing, you would still do work, but this, I want to do this thing in this, but that's like some movement like so that's the preliminary understanding of karma yoga will take you to nishkar beyond karma all of this karma yoga bhakti yoga raji yoga gany yoga takes you to that state which is beyond karma yes let me quickly look at the comments
[SPEAKER_02]: Sean Lee says, How can I focus my mind, Goddess Kali, Durga, Saraswati, Lord Shiva?
[SPEAKER_02]: When I pray, I focus my mind on the Holy Triune, Spiritual Leader, and my Spiritual Leader.
[SPEAKER_02]: How can I grow in devotion on the Goddess?
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sri Ramakrishna says, dig the well in one place.
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you been initiated?
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you taken a mantra diksha?
[SPEAKER_02]: Has your teacher given you Ishta Devata?
[SPEAKER_02]: Then focus on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you have the same respect that God alone is Kali, Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Lord Shiva.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I go to Durga, Puzha, I bow down before the
[SPEAKER_02]: in the image of the divine mother Durga, and sitting meditation, sitting meditation, I visualized my extra devotee in my heart and repeat the mantra of my extra devotee.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that when I go to a Shiva temple, I repeat the mantra of Shiva.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a chant of human truss, which is a salutation of Shiva.
[SPEAKER_02]: But your meditation devotion must be focused, and must be focused on your extra devotee.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is why I say, one key step, one key part of spiritual practice, Shazana, is mantra addiction.
[SPEAKER_02]: is having a ishtadevata that means the form of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: It could be any one of these, Caliya, Durgarh, Saraswatiya, Guru will give you and a mantra.
[SPEAKER_02]: So our energies are so limited.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't scatter it in a thousand different deities.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like digging a well in different places, like Sri Ram Krishna said, people of Calcutta do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you must focus on one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: My question was that I had a friend in India who was a drummer and he used to make fun at me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because of us, you have this cup of redong Krishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there is some truth in it that Keshavshanth first brought in a road that article and it has newspaper.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then all his master Marsha came from Brahmshawan, Rakaam, or everybody came.
[SPEAKER_00]: influence there, certainly why not?
[SPEAKER_02]: We are happy about it, but then you can say everything can, you know, everybody can say the same thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, organizers of the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1992, because of us you have to be recognized.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, no, all of these, whether the Brahma, Samaj or the World Parliament of Religions or the Teos of Ecclesiocity, whatever,
[SPEAKER_02]: Today, when you look back, you see they all fell in place in this whole grand story of Ramakrishna Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it is a divine mother's plan, whatever influence the Brahma Samaj wants to sing, very good.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what is the influence of Brahma Samaj today, where are they now?
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is a diminishing movement and it will sort of fade out over time.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, the beauty of Hinduism is this, there will be
[SPEAKER_02]: people who will make changes like circumstances, it is most welcome that you have a new movement to reform, you don't like certain things in conventional Hinduism, it's full of ritual, casteism, image, worship, superstitions, you don't like all of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good, then you take whatever you like and you make your own reform movement and that's also welcome.
[SPEAKER_02]: And notice, others are equally free to disagree with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Vijay can disagree with you and start his own reform movement, which is a reform
[SPEAKER_02]: and Hinduism being an organic growth, you know, over time what is new will slowly be reabsorbed into the old or rather the old will be reabsorbed into the new and you have a new form of Hinduism which is nowadays Hindus see themselves as Vivekananda Sahu Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: the way we wake up on the understood Hinduism is the way we modern Hindus understand Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't understand it quite in the way that the Brahmas understood it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Certainly not in the way the very, you know, casteist and patriarchal society understood itself in those days.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is sort of faded away.
[SPEAKER_02]: the new improvement becomes the mainstream and there are many elements to this improvement, certainly the why only the Brahma Samaj, the Pratana Samaj, the Arya Samaj, all these major reform movements.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is the way Hinduism changes over time and it just happened for thousands of years it happened again and again go back even further the rise of the Bhakti movement which are the mainstream of Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: Professor Jack Holly who is here in Colombia.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says Krishna Bhakti in Rindavan.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says that is actually Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Vedanta that you teach here Radwaita Vedanta is very elite.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a group for only a few people and it's identified with Hinduism
[SPEAKER_02]: people in general are doctors of Krishna, of Rama, so that how did it happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: It happened because of the kind of ferment that India was going through in the first half of the last millennium, from 1,000 AD to 1,000 CE to 1500 CE, and especially under the influence of Islamic invasions, that's where the Bhakti movement came from, that's where Sikhism
[SPEAKER_02]: You go further back.
[SPEAKER_02]: At one time Buddhism came up and it became so massive, I mean, I don't know if a majority of Indians were ever Buddhist, but certainly a huge number had become Buddhist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then what happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: We say we shankara came and before shankara actually our Purvam Mimamsaka, Kumari La Bhatta, so philosophically they fought against the Buddhist and defeated, but defeated is it true or is the improvements made about, made by Buddhism that absorbed back into the new, new version of Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_02]: That people accuse us, advaita vedanthins of being preaching about the crypto Buddhist, is not without merit.
[SPEAKER_02]: is a lot of ancient Buddhism, which is, you know, and yoga, and of course Vedanta, which goes to make a monastic organization like Shankaras, Dashnami, Sampralaya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that was it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's how Hinduism has invented and reinvented itself over the ages.
[SPEAKER_02]: I look at it as a body, living body will always produce antibodies.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whenever a virus attacks it, you will have immune system which will produce and you will be equipped to deal with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it changes you and that's good Hinduism changes.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why Hinduism is
[SPEAKER_02]: No, not one personality.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I mean, we can just say it's an impersonal truth of Vedanta of Upanishads.
[SPEAKER_02]: But with sufficient scope for any number of personalities, as many personalities, avataras, great teachers, come, Siddha Purushas, they come, they are most welcome, and more will come in the future.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we are open to all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was it that these people had where I got rid of the superstitions of Hinduism, so they were free to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are who minds are more acceptable to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: True true, but notice who came to Sri Ramakrishna, even before the Brahma Samaj, even before the Narayan and Rakal and all, Sri Ramakrishna himself pointed out, there had been a long procession of traditional Hindu practitioners who came to Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the Prapareva is good, but there are many other Vedantans who came and Sri Ram Krishna would discuss with them, would help them and give them a boost in their own spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, in fact, I will say this, that those who came, I am not talking about the direct disciples to Naren Rana Sannas, in general, the other disciples who popularized Sri Ram Krishna, most of them, the members of Ramma Samaaj and some others also.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were less spiritual than the preceding ones.
[SPEAKER_02]: The ones who came before them, they were almost perfect.
[SPEAKER_02]: A Bhairavi Brahmani, Baishnavas, Panthri, Vedant things.
[SPEAKER_02]: They just needed a little bit of help and blessings from Sri Ramakrishna to attain their goal of life.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Ramayat Sadhu who came with Ram Lala, imagine what level they were in.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, traditionally Hindu definitely came to Sri Ramakrishna, but Sri Ramakrishna needed a new kind of person.
[SPEAKER_02]: to spread his new teaching, the new form of Hinduism across Hinduism itself and across the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was this people who had Western education, who had grounded in the modern world.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it need not be just the Brahmas.
[SPEAKER_02]: It could be also someone like Mahendra Natha, Mahendra Sharkar, the doctor.
[SPEAKER_02]: who founded in the Institute of Cultivation of Science, the first sciences search of India, and he comes to Sri Ram Krishna, is attracted by him, and scientifically examines him, and it takes a completely skeptical approach, which any modern skeptic would be familiar with.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Sri Ram Krishna encouraged that.
[SPEAKER_02]: He knew this is what the world is going to be, and the teaching which I'm going to transmit across the ages has to go through this channel.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a Vivekananda with his background in reform Hinduism and western education who can take the message of Vedanta across the world parliament.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't send Tosa Puri to the World Parliamentary Billions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is because all the Upanishads, they are the basis of Advaita Vedanta, but when you try to reconcile the issues arising out of different Upanishads.
[SPEAKER_02]: So go to Padas, Mandu Kupanishad, along with go to Padas Karika.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, this Mandu Kupanishad is studied with go to Padas Karika, so it is taken as one work.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is foundational for Advaita Vedanta, and so is
[SPEAKER_02]: Cut-of-open issue, and K-Ropination, and Bregan, and Chandow, and Paitary, and I-Tary, and all of those.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Shankaracharya wrote, coming to resolve them, but still notwithstanding, what about a comparative study?
[SPEAKER_02]: You're saying Vedanta is one teaching, but all these Upanishads are using different terminal or the different descriptions.
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you know that it's one teaching?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you could make different religions out of them, each, each Upanishad is so powerful.
[SPEAKER_02]: So to tie them together and to investigate what each term means, when you have the Brahma Sutras, the various issues which rise out of comparative study of the different Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and Nessusani.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't say, could you please elaborate on Sathchi Dhal and the alone is the teacher?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Sathchi Dhal and the here in the sense of Brahma and the Saguna Brahma, ishwar actually.
[SPEAKER_02]: So ishwar, a God alone is the teacher.
[SPEAKER_02]: Spiritual teaching is taken as one of the powers of God's called Anugraha Shakti, Anugraha Shakti means grace.
[SPEAKER_02]: The grace of God comes in the form of spiritual teaching, all the scriptures of the world and the teachings of the great spiritual masters.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And therefore, God is the source.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sri Ram Krishna is to say in Calcutta, you know, this roofs, the British period houses, you can see it's very similar to the brownstone where I'm sitting in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: The rooftops, water may collect there, but there are gargoyles, you know, like spouts, water spouts.
[SPEAKER_02]: They look like demons and animals and lions, and out of them, the water comes, but they're all coming from the same roof.
[SPEAKER_02]: They all look different, the faces look different, here's a cat, here's a lion, here's a a dragon, but water is coming out of them, but the water is all coming from the same source.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, same source is gone, God alone appears in all these farms, God alone is the Guru, which Guru all gurus.
[SPEAKER_02]: The gurus are all different, but their source, the spiritual teaching, the power which flows to those gurus, is coming from God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the meaning of the stotra, when Guru stotra, Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devam Maheshwar, Guru Devaparam, Brahma, Tasma, Ishri, Guru Avayana, Mahah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Brahma, Vishnu, Vaeshwar, deity,
[SPEAKER_02]: And, or they are all, what are they?
[SPEAKER_02]: They are the second of Raman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ishwara Bhagawan.
[SPEAKER_02]: And to that, I bow down to that Guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: Guru is also a good Raman.
[SPEAKER_02]: From Advaita Vedanta perspective, the Guru teaches you Tattva Masi.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that, that, that, that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, what the Guru is that you are, this is what the Guru is going to teach you.
[SPEAKER_02]: For the Guru has realized, I am Raman.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to show you that you are also Raman.
[SPEAKER_02]: You and I are the same.
[SPEAKER_02]: was Swami Vivekan the influence by the Christian ideals of missionary work when he started mission work in India, not really people think so, but not really, in fact he has voiced his opposition to this Christian idea of missionaries, missionary work of trading service for conversion.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, rather it was his traveling throughout India.
[SPEAKER_02]: when he got acquainted with the sorrows and sufferings of his countrymen, which has referred to many times.
[SPEAKER_02]: The biggest trouble is saw the problem, most vividly with his eyes, and he got the solution also.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has to come through spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: From spirituality will come a national awakening, which led to ultimately the freedom struggle for India, for India's independence.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will lead to confidence in oneself, service for others, love for everybody in the society.
[SPEAKER_02]: All those things will come.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, reinvigorating spirituality will lead to reinvigorating the nation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, to what extent when Vivekan was influenced by the West, so there is a futile fight which says that no he got everything from India, he did not get anything from the West.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know the best answer to this, Sister Nivirita herself has given.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is Swami Vivekan?
[SPEAKER_02]: She says three components.
[SPEAKER_02]: One is his own studies and learning, which included in the Shastras, you know, Upanishads, Gita, all Indian systems, Hinduism, Buddhism, but also Christianity.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then his studies in history, in modern science, what was modern science at that time?
[SPEAKER_02]: Western philosophy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was one source, which created Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is not just when he was a student, it is not in the north of the north of the south.
[SPEAKER_02]: He kept on studying.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he interacted with some of the greatest minds of the East and the West, great scholars and pundits here, not just Sri Ram Krishna, but many others.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sadhu's pundits studied with them in India when he traveled.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have records of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the West, whether it is Max Miller or whether it is Tesla, whether it is a William James, some of the most luminous minds of the West at that time, he interacted.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that was one source of the Recon, he learned, and he said, I would I learned all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then second, is that is Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it is the second source of the Recon, the Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: There have been attempts to show that Vivekananda deviated from Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually a deeper study of Vivekananda will be quite amazing.
[SPEAKER_02]: The more you understand Vivekananda, the more you begin to see, it is actually Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: What will happen is when you study Vivekananda more deeply, you begin to understand the vastness of Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_02]: You begin to see that they are saying the same thing and you realize.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is what Sri Ramakrishna meant.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not just he was a simple God intoxicated devotee in 19th century late 19th century Bengal and that's it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Many people think like that, that's not true.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may understand where we are in the more we appreciate Sadama Krishna, and more you will find therein, congruity, therein sink.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the new book, which we are expecting soon, Swami Medhan and the Gis, Swami Vivekananda's Vedantic cosmopolitanism will demonstrate this, the continuity between Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the second component was Sri Ramakrishna for Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: Third component was India.
[SPEAKER_02]: She says, his intimate acquaintance with India.
[SPEAKER_02]: He traveled the length and breadth of India, meeting with people, meeting with the poor and the suffering throughout India.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, absorbed what the problem of India was, what India was, that it was still, it was not not a dead civilization, nearly sleeping with the right impetus, it would awaken again.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is what constitutes in the Rekaranda.
[SPEAKER_02]: In this, would you say there is a Western influence, certainly he would be the first person to be very happy with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Western infants not be the way V Indians are influenced in a colonized minds, rather he was powerful enough to understand what it is, what are the influences are, what is the importance of democracy, of equality, of education, and then adapt it and apply it to the Indian situation, not copy it whole same.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was very aware of the weaknesses of Western civilization also
[SPEAKER_02]: Peter Fels says, how to reconcile Sri Ram Krishna's instruction trying to save the world with the importance placed by Mahayana Buddhism with both under bodhisattva and bhav.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, it's the same thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll tell you one interesting thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Tibetan Buddhists, who are Mahayana Buddhists, who are basically, they are all, they have taken the bodhisattva of bhav, which is the liberation of all beings, the happiness of all sentient beings.
[SPEAKER_02]: white woman who went, and I think American or English who went to learn Buddhism from Tibetan llamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this was a place not in Tibet, but in Nepal or in Sikkim somewhere, whether it is a Tibetan monastery.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, she noticed, among the local people, I do not know whether
[SPEAKER_02]: they were very poor.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was no facility for school for the children or even primary health care and sanitation was not there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, she got down to organizing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, that is the story, but what struck me was, here you have a monastery full of hundreds of llamas and they have existed for at least a thousand, several hundred years, if not more than a thousand years,
[SPEAKER_02]: for centuries they have been there and hundreds and hundreds of lamals at any point of time, all talking about compassion, all talking about removal of suffering, while all around them, there was a sea of suffering.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now if you ask them, why don't you, why did it take a British or an American woman to travel across there and actually see it that can see that we can do something quite apart from, you know, Buddhist teachings.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, it's because, you know, their answer would have been, oh, no, no, we understand that it is suffering, but the real solution to all suffering is spiritual knowledge and Nirvana.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we teach, we practice and we teach other souls.
[SPEAKER_02]: which is ultimately right, but this is where they are in this insight that you must combine if you have the spirit of service, then it will flow from giving food to the hungry and medicine to the sick and education to the illiterate and helping hand to the poor and unemployed up to giving and education and then up to giving spiritual knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: you can't just suddenly start a sense of service at that level.
[SPEAKER_02]: Will sense of service will pervade the whole thing?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so this is the synthesis we encounter in the wanted.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even now,
[SPEAKER_02]: If I look at all the magnificent Tibetan monasteries there in India and they have done all praise and all credit to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have done an extraordinary good job of protecting the Tibetan heritage as refugees in India and spreading it beautifully all over the world and that's great and I think I wouldn't have it any other way.
[SPEAKER_02]: But notice they are there.
[SPEAKER_02]: how many schools, colleges, hospitals, to the land is thousands of farmers, none.
[SPEAKER_02]: They can, if it is introduced, but their whole focus is on the cultivation of philosophy and meditation and logic and debating and all of that and tantra, so that is it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Notice what they would say is basically what Sri Ram Krishna is saying here.
[SPEAKER_02]: That you first must catch hold of He is saying it in a really devotional language.
[SPEAKER_02]: He must first catch hold of God, and then Shrubha says receiving God's name is it due to one's rather thought grace.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it is grace, it is proud of whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Moment of God it must take it like a pattern in a like a relay race.
[SPEAKER_02]: Your pattern is in your hand, now you must race.
[SPEAKER_02]: The mantra has come to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: how did I get it or not get it?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's secondary important.
[SPEAKER_02]: The moment you feel, I must get it, and get initiated.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Strinivas Raju says, why did Shankaracharya give such a demeaning definition or an interpretation about the attribute of Lord Vishnu, the little disturbance?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm sure it is perfectly all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's sensibility, if you read some of the Sanskrit language and the descriptions,
[SPEAKER_02]: ah, it's not demeaning actually, it's all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know that Shankara was not going to demean Lord Vishnu, he was a great devotee himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a poetic license, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad Ramana is a corrected it.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, shanti shanti, hariyom tatsat shri Ramakrishna Rupana-masthu.