[SPEAKER_00]: I am reading in this edition it is page 152 and the date is 28 October 1882, the master with the Brahmo devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a long conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: The long conversation there was about knowledge and devotion, God with form, God without form.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, we are on page 152.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's towards the end of this conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mr. Ramakrishna has made some very wonderful observations, given us insights into spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, one more thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: to Shiva Nath and other Brahma devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell me why you dwell so much on the powers and glories of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: I asked the same thing of Keshav Sain, one day Keshav and his party came to the temple garden at Daksineshwar.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told them, I want to hear how they lectured, a meeting was arranged in the paved courtyard about the bathing hut on the ganges.
[SPEAKER_01]: He spoke very well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I went into a trance.
[SPEAKER_01]: After the lecture, I said to Keshab, why do you so often say such things as, oh God, what beautiful flowers thou hast made, oh God, thou hast created the heavens, the stars and ocean, and so on?
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who love splendor themselves are fond of dwelling on God's splendor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once a thief stole the jewels from the images,
[SPEAKER_01]: in the temple of Radha Kanta.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mathur Babu entered the temple and said to the deity, what a shame, O God, you couldn't save your own ornaments.
[SPEAKER_01]: The idea I said to Mathur, does he, who has latched me for his hand made and attended ever lack any splendor?
[SPEAKER_01]: The those jewels may be precious to you, but to God they are no better than lumps of clay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shame on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: what riches can you give to God to magnify His glory?
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore I say, a man seeks the person in whom he finds joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: What need has he to ask where the person lives, the number of his houses, gardens, relatives, and servants, or the amount of his wealth?
[SPEAKER_01]: I forget everything when I see Narayendra,
[SPEAKER_01]: Have I asked him where he lived, what his father's profession was, or the number of his brothers, dive deep into sweetness of God's bliss, what need have we of his infinite creation and unlimited glory?
[SPEAKER_01]: The Master sang, dive deep, oh mind, dive deep in the ocean of God's beauty,
[SPEAKER_01]: If you descend to the uttermost depths, there you will find the gem of love, go seek, oh mind, go seek, wind oven in your heart, where with his loving devotees, Sri Krishna, sports eternally, light up, oh mind, light up true wisdoms,
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is it that steers your boat across the solid earth?
[SPEAKER_01]: It is your guru says Kabir, meditate on his holy feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sri Ramakrishna continued, it is also true that after the vision of God, the devotee desires to witness his lila.
[SPEAKER_01]: After the destruction of Ravana, at Rama's hands, Nika Shah, Ravana's mother, began to run
[SPEAKER_01]: Lakshmana said to Rama, revered brother, please explain this strange thing to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Nikasha is an old woman who has suffered a great deal from the loss of her many sons, and yet she is so afraid of losing her own life that she is taking to her heels.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rama made her come near, gave her assurance of safety, and asked her why she was running away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nika Shah and Sird, O Rama, I am able to witness all this little off yours because I am still alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to live longer so that I may see the many more things you will do on this Earth, all life, to Shiva not.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like to see you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I live unless I see pure soul devotees?
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel as if they had been my friends in a former incarnation.
[SPEAKER_01]: a Brahmo devotee.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sir, do you believe in the reincarnation of the soul?
[SPEAKER_01]: Master.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they say there is something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can we understand the ways of God through our small intellects?
[SPEAKER_01]: Many people have spoken about reincarnation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, I cannot disbelieve it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as Bhishma lay dying on his bed of arrows, the pond over brothers and Krishna stood around him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They saw tears flowing from the eyes of the great hero, Arjuna said to Krishna, friend, how surprising it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even such a man, as our grand-sire Bhishma truthful, self-restrain, supremely wise, and one of the eight Vassus weeps through Maya at the hour of death.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sri Krishna asked, Bhishma about it, Bhishma replied, Oh Krishna, you know very well that this is not the cause of my grief.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am thinking that there is no end to the Pandavas sufferings, though God himself is their chariot here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Food note, Krishna, and incarnation of God, was Arjuna's chariot here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought like this makes me feel that I have understood nothing of the ways of God,
[SPEAKER_01]: It was about half past eight when the evening worship began in the prayer hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Soon the moon rose in the autumn sky and flooded the trees and creepers of the garden with its light.
[SPEAKER_01]: After prayer, the devotees began to sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sri Rama Krishna was dancing, intoxicated with love of God, the Brahman who devotees danced around him to the accompaniment of drums and symbols, all appeared to be in a very joyous move.
[SPEAKER_01]: The place echoed and re-accored with God's holy name.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the music had stopped, Sri Ramakrishna prostrated himself from the ground and making salutations to the divine mother again and again, said,
[SPEAKER_01]: Bhagavatabhaktabhagavan, my salutations at the feet of the Gyanis, my salutations at the feet of the Bhaktas.
[SPEAKER_01]: I salute the Bhaktas who believe in God with form and I salute the Bhaktas who believe in God without form.
[SPEAKER_01]: I salute the Norse of Brahman of all times of old times and my salutations at the feet of the modern Norse of Brahman of the Brahman of Samaj.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the master and the devotees enjoyed a supper of delicious dishes, which many mother of their host had provided.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very beautiful chapter.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we'll go back and reflect on what we just read now.
[SPEAKER_01]: to Shiva and not another Brahmin devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he asks, can you tell me why you dwell so much on the powers and glories of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says to Shikeshav, give a lecture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me hear how you give lectures.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, Shikeshav was a very noted orator in those days.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a powerful figure in the religious reform movement in 19th century Bengal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And why do you say things like, oh, God, you have created the universe, you have created the heaven and earth and so on?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what's wrong with saying that?
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ramakrishna points it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a, that's the way a lot of religious features preach, you know about the glories of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ramakrishna points out the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who love splendor themselves are fond of dwelling on God's splendor.
[SPEAKER_01]: So little analysis here from a, from a Vedantic perspective,
[SPEAKER_01]: But what's wrong with loving the splendor of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love God and you love God's splendor?
[SPEAKER_01]: The glory of God, power and glory of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, there is a problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, I'll take it from an Advaiti perspective and then come back to Sri Ram Krishna who's talking from a bhakti perspective.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love that which gives us joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So whatever gives me happy, I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let's have a natural tendency.
[SPEAKER_01]: All living beings do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever gives a special joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we try to get that.
[SPEAKER_01]: What gives me?
[SPEAKER_01]: So what gives me happy?
[SPEAKER_01]: I try that I love and that I try to get.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I've got it, I try to keep it.
[SPEAKER_01]: that which I do not, that does not make me happy, that makes me unhappy, that I do not love, I dislike, and what I dislike, I try to get rid of.
[SPEAKER_01]: A Vedantans use this in this way, they apply that to the self, the Athman.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they say notice, nobody ever wants to get rid of himself or herself.
[SPEAKER_01]: everybody wants, I should exist, may I not die, may I not disappear, I should exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: At this point, somebody may say, what about suicides?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, suicides are always, it's conditional on some problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody has got a terrible financial debt and second paid, I'm going to die.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll kill myself, I can't pay off the debt.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't want to live.
[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously the person doesn't like himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't like the problem he is in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if somebody would wear to pay off the debt and say, there, your debt is gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been repaid, or the loans have been forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what about your suicide?
[SPEAKER_01]: So no, no, no, I don't want to commit suicide.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means he wasn't trying to get of himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's trying to get rid of the debt, the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: So nobody really wants to get rid of oneself.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nobody who does not want to exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now connect the logic which I just, the reasoning which I just applied.
[SPEAKER_01]: If something makes me happy, I love that and I want to keep that.
[SPEAKER_01]: If something makes me unhappy, I dislike it and I want to get rid of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it could so happen that something made me happy, I liked it, I kept it, then slowly I lost interest in it, I did make me unhappy, I got rid of it, you're a gadget, maybe iPhone, you love it, you went out all the way to buy it and you treasured it, but now it's become old and it's a new model, let's come out, you want to get rid of that one now, you want to get the new one.
[SPEAKER_01]: They desire to keep something, shows that you love it, and the desire that you love it, shows that it gives you happiness, joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The desire to get rid of something, shows that you dislike it, and you dislike it, shows that it gives you unhappiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, right, if there is something which you always want to keep, and you never want to get rid of.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means you always love it, and it always gives you happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: You never dislike it, and it never gives you unhappiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then if that is the self, we never think in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So peculiar we are arguing, but you know, this is I'm taking this from punch of the she chapter one.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with the Aranya and punch of the she argues, then apply this to the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: You never want to die, which means you always want to preserve yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which means you always love yourself, which means you are always a source of joy to yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to get rid of yourself, don't want to destroy yourself, don't want to die, which means you never dislike yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you never dislike yourself means you are never a source of misery to yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: the self itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want, I don't mean problems which come from life.
[SPEAKER_01]: There may be a physical problem, an illness, or some kind of problem in the world, or even a mental illness.
[SPEAKER_01]: These things can create, a person might want to die and kill oneself, but it's not the self itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's some, some, the self itself itself is never a source of misery and it's always a source of happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: now add to this one more chain of reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: If something is loved for the sake of something else that something else is loved more.
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, I always give is if you love you kid loves it as a toy, favorite toy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the mother loves the toy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But why does the mother love the tie?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because she loves the kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: She loves the kids tie for the sake of the kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who does she love more?
[SPEAKER_01]: You see that's a silly question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, she loves the kid more.
[SPEAKER_01]: She doesn't love no mother loves the toy more than the kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the tie is loved for the sake of the child.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, who is loved more?
[SPEAKER_01]: The child is loved more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way Vedanta uses this is, notice everything is allowed for the sake of the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: The self is not allowed for anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, example, I'd given a number of times, this young man who said, where a wonderful job in a multinational corporation.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, no, no, no, no, I love the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really enjoy the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love my work.
[SPEAKER_01]: So somebody asked him, really, you'd love the work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, do the work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will not get paid for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, I have to get paid for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the huge compensation is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, suppose you're given a choice.
[SPEAKER_01]: You work without the money or without the work, you get the money, which one would you choose?
[SPEAKER_01]: So will I choose the money?
[SPEAKER_01]: Which means you love the job for the sake of the money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the money is, there's no doubt you love the job.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you love the job for the sake of the money.
[SPEAKER_01]: If A is left for B, then B is left more than A.
[SPEAKER_01]: Money is left more than, you would be willing to give up the job for the sake of the money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now suppose you're asked, all right, you have the money, but you're not allowed to spend it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't give it away, you can't spend it in nothing, you can't use it at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: You just get the money.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want the money, but I want to spend it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to buy things for my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I would always, if you're given a choice, would you give the money or the things which you buy, the things which I buy.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's more important.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have to spend it for something.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, you can spend it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can spend that money.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can buy the things, but they would go to generally people, not your family.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can't go to people.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has to go to my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: then I want that, not just buying the things and giving it to people.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, that's also all right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll go to your family, all the things, all the money you earn, things you buy will go to your family, but they won't be your family anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be just some random family.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will not be associated with you anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, it has to be my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, ultimately, you see how it comes back all to the
[SPEAKER_01]: A is love for B, P is love more than A, B is love for C, C is love more than B.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, it all relates back to the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, all of this becomes distorted when we identify the self with body mind, but the self as it's nature as ananda by itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can understand why a self is a source of continuous joy, it's never a source of unhappiness, and it's the source of maximum joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Self is a source of continuous maximum joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: My maximum joy, as I said, if A is love for B, then A B is love more than A B is love for C, C is love more than B.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, A B C, everything is love for the sake of the self.
[SPEAKER_01]: The self is love more than everything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, but we love that, which gives us joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: We will love that more, which gives us maximum joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the self is the source of maximum, anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is the Advaita understanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will take you back to the Atman, the real Atman.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the Atman has to stay with body, mind, and the troubles of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Sri Ramakrishna, apply something like this here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is it wrong to keep saying, oh, God, you're so powerful.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can do anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've created the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've created the stars and the heavens and the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where Gram Krishna is a suksma dashi, he sees subtly into the hearts of people.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it that's pulling you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love God or do you love the things, the powers of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I love the powers of God, if my attention is there, then I love power more than God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the glory more than God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seramakrishna's own example.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he got cancer, he noted one thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we will see who is in the inner circle and who is in outer circle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who loves Seramakrishna first Seramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they are those who said, how can you have a holy man get cancer of the throat?
[SPEAKER_01]: Also they stop visiting.
[SPEAKER_01]: sir who will stop visiting who loves him further even the glory of being a holy man of a great teacher and now they don't feel that he can do anything for me but Sramrishna once those who love him unconditionally they don't want anything else from him they just love him
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who just love him, they will not make condition that he has, he doesn't have to have cancer, he has, how can he get cancer?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: The moment he is suffering, they will come forward to serve him.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the inner circle.
[SPEAKER_01]: God loves most, those who love God, not the things which God can do for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: God can do everything for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you want things from God, what do we God do?
[SPEAKER_01]: You give you those things which you want, but you won't get God.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want God, then you have to love God for the sake of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what Sri Ram Krishna is pointing out.
[SPEAKER_01]: This subtle correction.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you all love God.
[SPEAKER_01]: But just like the mother loving the toy for the child, and you are loving God for the toy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the toy is the powers and glories of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then the thing is your attention is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: That much trace of worldliness is still there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It grows deeper.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does the love of God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is it important?
[SPEAKER_01]: The goal is ultimately Moxia, freedom from samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, people say, if you love God, one God, you still want something, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So you still have a desire.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Amkrishna would say, no, the desire for God is not to be counted among worldly desires.
[SPEAKER_01]: A worldly desires, trap you in samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: Desire for God removes all worldly desires and frees you from samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bhakti.
[SPEAKER_01]: It frees you from samsar, all of these bhakti ghan and bhakti is love, ghan is knowledge of God, ghan and meditation and karma, worship of God through service, all of these will free you from samsar.
[SPEAKER_01]: But these little little things one has to be careful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I am Krishna points out.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you love the glory of God, more than God, then what will happen is you love the glory that glory is part of samsar.
[SPEAKER_01]: that Bhakti will not work as well as it should.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he is warning us to create that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want God and nothing else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the things that God can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got will give you everything, but not for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That becomes Sakam, with desire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nishkarmavakti, God loves that.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God loves most, the people who love him just for the sake of love, just for the sake of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing but nothing, not what God can give you.
[SPEAKER_01]: all of the direct disciples says, I was remembering, so I'm in sugo daananda.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was child like Koka Maharaj.
[SPEAKER_01]: One day Swami Vivekananda was pleased with him and said, Koka, Koka means little boy in Bengali.
[SPEAKER_01]: Koka asked for something, asked for a boon.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Koka, I don't want anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do I want?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is saying?
[SPEAKER_01]: Swami Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_01]: we would, I would jump forward to ask for all sorts of things, you know, which I wanted like go come and I said no, I don't want anything, finally it's hot and hot and then he said, I like tea, so bless me that I get my cup of tea every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we became the last burst out laughing, but he said, all right, I have since promised, yes, you will get later in life towards the end of his life, people used to ask, did you, is was it true?
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, yes, every day I've got a cup of tea and sometimes in the most changes in the in the deep Himalayas, where there's no chance somebody comes up to me and offers makeup for tea and disappears.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yes, every day I've got my cup of tea.
[SPEAKER_01]: The young monks in Belurma would see this old Swami Superdhananda, with all little boy, Koka Maharaj.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would, in those days, the British had introduced a steamboat service on the Ganga river.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could get on and get a ticket and get on the boat and then as you can stay as long as you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Khoga Maharaj loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would early money, he would jump on the boat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he would sail up and down the Ganga all day long.
[SPEAKER_01]: Except a tea time, he would get down at the monastery and go and have a cup of tea and then again get back on the boat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting off topic, but I must tell this story also.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Amish Shadhanandjji, who was in Sacramento, he told this story.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he was a young monk in Belaud, and at that time, he had seen Koka Maharaswami Shadhanandjji.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was his practice, Swami Shadhanandjji's practice to go to the second floor of the monastery building, near Swami Vivekananda's room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, by that time, Swami Vivekananda was long gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll go near that, and that is a veranda.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still there exactly like that, the same veranda.
[SPEAKER_01]: He would sit there and study.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm he shut down in the notice that Koga Maharaj would study a book, he was looking at a book, looking up and we would burst out laughing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, look at the book, and he would look up and he would again burst out laughing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was curious, and he went and asked Koga Maharaj, what can I ask you, what is it that you're reading?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it that you are seeing and why are you laughing?
[SPEAKER_01]: In Kokamara said, look, it's a Vedantic text.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it was about the Hathmaramayan, the Vedanta text.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this book is telling me, Brahman is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world is false, world is an appearance.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Brahman is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I read that and I look up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, when you look up from that baranta, you can now even go and see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, I don't know if you will see what he saw, but anyway, what you see from there is the river and on the other side, Calcutta and the sky, of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the very distance you can see there is a bridge and beyond that little bit of the colleague temple you can see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, he says, I look at the river and sky and calcutta.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, when I did this, Brahman is real, and I look up, and I see everything is Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I burst out laughing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I read more.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he says, the world is an appearance, Jagat Mithya.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I look up and see, I see mountains of ashes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a child dipping Bengali, he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which means it's worthless.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's nothing there in some sorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the reality of samsara, as he says, God, astridama Krishna, is astridama Krishna.
[SPEAKER_01]: And samsara and itself, the names and forms, they are all appearance.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are as meaningless or substanceless as piles of ashes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I burst out laughing again.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was so go down on the G.
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyway, that's the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Serum Krishna is making.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful of loving the world more than God, or even loving the things that God can give you more than God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he gives an example of what happens if you do that, even for an unwavery devotee, even someone like Mathur Babu.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once a thief stole the jewels from the images in the temple of Rala Kanta, the Krishna temple, which is, you can go and see that image even now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mathurba went into the temple and said to the deity, what a shame, oh God, you couldn't save your own ornaments.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Sri Ram Krishna's sharply scolded him.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, this is what happens when glory, power, ornament, God even can't protect himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And not only that, that one little image is God, and those ornaments are the ornaments of God, and God can't protect that, what good is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: But you forgetting, it's the power behind the entire universe, which you are worshiping in that little image and you have decorated it for the purpose of your worship.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all very good.
[SPEAKER_01]: But why do you think God will be at all moved from, so by the jewels or the thief coming and taking the jewels, nothing to go at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Sri Ramakrishna scored him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't speak so meanly.
[SPEAKER_01]: What reaches can you give to God to magnify his glory?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, Lakshmi is the hand made of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lakshmi and Narayana, the iconography, if you see Lakshmi sitting always pressing the feet of Narayana.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's the goddess of Elvotic means is everything in the universe belongs to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the glory of God, it's the God shining forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I write a very beautiful verse today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say, it says, what is this universe?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's God's smile.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a nice way to put it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll read out the verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just read it this afternoon.
[SPEAKER_01]: whose breath are the Vedas, whose glance are the five elements in a sky and air and fire and water and earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whose smile are all the beings of this world, this vast universe, and whose sleep is the cosmic
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Saguna Brahman Brahman with attributes, Ishwar Bhagawan.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Ishwasitamasya Veda, this is from the Vedas itself, all spiritual knowledge, which is contained in the Vedas.
[SPEAKER_01]: was, so God is supposed to be the source of the Vedas.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God did God sit down and write, you know, book project took long to write all the Vedas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing for God, it is as simple as breathing out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's as that, but it breathing out means as natural as it is for us to breathe in and out.
[SPEAKER_01]: We may consciously do it, even if unconscious, we don't be aware of it, it's going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So breathing as effortless as breathing is for you and me, for God it was as effortless as that to breathe out the Vedas, the entire range of and Vedas here means not only the four collections of texts, the Rigbeda, the Samaveda, Yajudveda and Atharva Vedas, the four collections of texts which are the fundamental scriptures of Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as Swami Vivekananda said, the entire mass of spiritual knowledge, which is found here and there, scattered throughout all the scriptures of the world, and that comes from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is basically the idea of revelation.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you say, it's not some spiritual person invented it or a professor wrote a book.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is actually a revelation from God.
[SPEAKER_01]: whether the Vedas or whether it is to Moses in the burning bush or to Muhammad in the cave, there is certain knowledge which is revealed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that for God is nothing, it is the source of all our knowledge, but it's just breathed out by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is one.
[SPEAKER_01]: then glance, little more effort, tiny bit more effort, then breathing is looking at something, just look at something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So God looks and creation begins.
[SPEAKER_01]: The five elements out of which the universe is created, the basic stuff of creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: fundamental particles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So whatever it will be, Akash, a sky and a value of air, agony, fire, up water with the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Taityri Upanishad says, the smaad bha aetas smaad atmanaha aakashasam bhuta aakashad bha yu wa yu ragni agni, agni, aapah, agbiapritivihi.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, out of that, atman, which is none other than drama, space emerged, or space appeared.
[SPEAKER_01]: And from space appeared, air, and from air, appeared fire, fire appeared, water appeared,
[SPEAKER_01]: What that space air-file means?
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that was the ancient cosmology.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that is the second one.
[SPEAKER_01]: A glance, it takes a glance from God, big shithom, big shithom means glance.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's again a reference to the Upanishads.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, Ikshata.
[SPEAKER_01]: that reality glanced.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plants means this, of course, doesn't have an eye or anything like that, but it's just little more effort than breathing out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a little more effort is to smile.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, smitham, it's not laughing even.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a gentle smile.
[SPEAKER_01]: The gentle smile of God is all the beings living and non-living the entire galaxies and stars from quasars to quarks.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of it is the smile of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the sleep of God is the end of the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Subtum, maha, pralaya.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is, this is truly the glory of God, the awesomeness of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ramakrishna would probably scold us, I think that you're now being moved by the awesomeness of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love God, not because He created the Vedas and all the beings of the universe and the universe disappears when He sleeps.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is actually a verse from the book Bhamati.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've told you about this book earlier, Watches Peti Mishra, who was one of the greatest scholars of ancient India who lived about a thousand years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wrote this book.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is known as Sarvatantra Satantra Acarya, master who is independent of who has unimpeded mastery of all the systems of philosophy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Baham is called Bahamati, and then he wrote a commentary on the nearby philosophy, about commentary on the yoga philosophy, a beautiful commentary which I really love.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the sanghya philosophy called sanghya taktu akhavmudi, the moon light which reveals the principles of sanghya, sanghya taktu akhavmudi.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wrote a book on the philosophy of language,
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so many books, and so he had a mastery of all these systems of philosophy, and he was when he was writing about Vedanta, he would advocate Vedanta in writing about Niyaya philosophy, he would make it as if Niyaya alone is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, that kind of mastery.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason I'm saying all this is again with the beautiful story of Bhamati, this book.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it seems when he got married, was his pretty mixture.
[SPEAKER_01]: it was a custom in those days in marriage that one of the rituals of endless rituals in Hindu marriages, one of the rituals was the bride and the groom would have to listen to a debate on Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess that no longer exists, but anyway, so one of the rituals was the scholars would live like a short ceremonial debate on Vedanta and was just with the mixture the great
[SPEAKER_01]: He, when he listened to the debate, he was aghast.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, that can't be right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are completely off-marked.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, wait, let the ritual the marriage be over.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could do open his mouth because he was a group.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're the marriage we over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to write a book which will set it right for ages to come, what Vedanta really means.
[SPEAKER_01]: So after the marriage was over, he decided to write this book.
[SPEAKER_01]: What he did was,
[SPEAKER_01]: you know Vedanta has these three texts, the Upanishads, which is called Shruti Prasthanah, the Bhagavad Gita, which is called Smythi Prasthanah, and the Brahma Sutras.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Gita and Upanishad we all study, but Brahma Sutras seems to be limited to, you know, scholars, but we should all study a little bit and I plan to do that sometime later when I finish some of the Upanishads.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we should study a little bit of the Brahma Sutras, little bit of Brahma Sutras study, it's like a mandatory for becoming a monk for example.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are 555 sutras, at least four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tatus sutri, four sutras should be studied.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first, first, four, at least those four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Shankara Charya wrote his, in fact, his master piece, Shankara Charya's masterpiece, is his commentary on the Brahma Sutras.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you wrote a commentary on all the sutras, 555 sutras.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's known as the Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Shankara Charya.
[SPEAKER_01]: So anybody who wants to learn the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, at one point or the other, you would have to study the Brahma Sutras.
[SPEAKER_01]: Zibramasutras and the commentary of Shankara, Shankara Charya.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, what Vachis Pati-Mishra did was he took the Ramasutras and the commentary of Shankara Charya and wrote a commentary on Shankara Charya's commentary explaining it further.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it's called a Tika as a sub commentary, commentary on a commentary on an original text.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the Ramasutras are explanations of the discussions based on Upanishads.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the Brahma Sutras, there's the commentary of Shankaracharya.
[SPEAKER_01]: And on the commentary of Shankaracharya, on the Brahma Sutras, there is the commentary of Vajras Patimishra.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, he started writing this commentary and he wrote and wrote, then one day he was writing it as an evening dark, and this lady suddenly noticed this woman came into his room in the dark and which lamp and put it quietly on his table and left.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are you my lady?
[SPEAKER_01]: And why have you come here to my room in this dark hour?
[SPEAKER_01]: And she said sadly that this is the first time you're spoken to me in our life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the last 40 years you have been writing this book and we got married.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't remember me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're never spoken to me in this last 40 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been doing my wifely due to his taking care of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have been immersed in the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it's a huge exaggeration.
[SPEAKER_01]: But still it's a beautiful story.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was taken aback, and he said, oh, so he got married and I'm so sorry, I haven't been able to do anything for you, give you anything and now we are both old.
[SPEAKER_01]: What can I give you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this one thing I can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your name?
[SPEAKER_01]: He's asking, remember Hindu, Hindu marriages, you know, arranged by as quite possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: The husband might not know the name of the wife or the wife might not know the name of the husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your name?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then she said, Bahamati,
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he said, I will name this book, which I've written some masterpiece.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will name it Bhamati, as long as people study Vedanta through the ages and across the across, you know, civilizations in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: People will know your name.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and it's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, in 21st century,
[SPEAKER_01]: 1,100 years after Vachas Patimishra and Bahamati here, we are in the United States, Manhattan, over Zoom across the world, at least the name is being repeated Bahamati.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, why did I say all that?
[SPEAKER_01]: The glories of God, the beautiful verse, which says, I like that part.
[SPEAKER_01]: This universe is the smile of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The book is the extraordinary book.
[SPEAKER_01]: We will have occasion to refer to it later sometime.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sriram Krishna gives another example, see, this should be our attitude in spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is when Narendra Nath comes, Narendra Nath, whom Sriram Krishna loves so much, but that's true, true love for spirituality, because he has never asked anything else about Narendra Nath.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't ask, he says, who is your father, where you live, all the particulars about, I'm not interested in anything, I'm interested in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only thing that I'm interested in is, because you will realize God, that's my only interest in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ram Krishna says, why do I, why am I interested in you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I see God in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, I see Narayan in you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I do not see Narayan, I would, I would not be able to look at your face also.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sri Ram Krishna says that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's super focused.
[SPEAKER_01]: God and nothing else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sri Ram Krishna says in one place, in Bengali, in my book, I mean, it's sure by your kishujan in a Bhagavan, by your kishujan in a, I'm on the name of the mother, I swear on the name of the mother, that I do not know anything except God.
[SPEAKER_01]: then what should we do?
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, die deep in the sweetness of God's bliss.
[SPEAKER_01]: What need have we of his infinite creation and unlimited glory?
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is all true, infinite creation, unlimited glory is all true.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what need do we have that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What do we need?
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy, fulfillment, meaning in life, transcendence of suffering.
[SPEAKER_01]: That comes from the love of God itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: That comes from bhakti itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that bhakti that love of God is reduced if a part of our attention is towards the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: that I want something from this word.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look away from the world, look only towards God, your heart will be full, you will not need anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will have much more than you will ever get by running after the world or running after persons.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he sings a beautiful song.
[SPEAKER_01]: So dive deep, oh mind, dive deep in the ocean of God's beauty.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you descend to the uttermost depths, you will find the gem of love,
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he gives three paths.
[SPEAKER_01]: One is bhakti through devotion, love of God, one is through ghana and love of guru, and devotion to the guru.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, oh, mind, go to Vindavan in your heart, where Krishna sports eternally with his loving devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: Riddhi Vindavan, where is Vindavan?
[SPEAKER_01]: In your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, you should visit the real Vendavan, which is very, it's important, but then you might be disappointed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a little typical little North Indian town, small temple town, and you will, all the holy places are there, but there are small places, and if they're not particularly magnificent, especially in India, you know, we are not good at keeping and preserving
[SPEAKER_01]: our heritage.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here is one thing to learn here in West I see even things which are like 50 years old or 100 years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: So beautifully preserved there'll be a clean and there are access roads to it and there there's a shopping complex always around it and always the exit is through the souvenir shop but everything is kept nicely and people have made to feel welcome and safe.
[SPEAKER_01]: every other village will have something to show which is old and so wind up and also unfortunately it's like that and it's getting little better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Over crowding is a problem but there is a deep very, very tangible atmosphere.
[SPEAKER_01]: You feel it very, very tangible atmosphere but more important
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if you go to Vindavan, you come back and carry it back in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: The most important thing is to have Vindavan in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: The most important thing is to have Belurumat and Dukshination in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, Chetanranji Maharaj says, one of the practices which he does is that the Lila Sthan, the places where the Lord played the Lila, you have to meditate on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, I mean, he's, acquaintance is much more extensive than mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I myself know, I spend more than 10 years in Pilut, much every day in the morning, you know, go to the Temple of Sri Ramakrishna and walk down.
[SPEAKER_01]: The room where Swami Vivekanda lived, the old temple where Swami Vivekanda and Brahman and the worshiped Sri Rama Krishna, the Ganges, where Swami Vivekanda is near Swami Vivekanda's room.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you walk down to the temple of Swami Brahman and the temple of Swami of the Holy Mother, Mashaad, that we did not have the temple of Swami Vivekanda.
[SPEAKER_01]: And finally, the Samadhika had where the direct disciples bodies were cremated after their passing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the other place near it, where when senior monks, presidents, vice presidents, after they're passing, their body is a cremated there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is a walk which we, I, as among all the monks, and Rameshari's in Belumati do at least once, if not twice a day.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do it 10, 12 years, like I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like every step of the way is clearly in your mind's eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only that, I mean, sometimes I can feel the cool marble beneath my feet, and I sit and meditate on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So or you bow down in the marble touches your head, you can almost feel it physically.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's so clear, and that's a deep meditation.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a very deep metric, like plunging into a movie almost.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just Baluma just a few years for me, but that's not even my primary practice.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Caitanyaanjee might as cultivated it very deeply.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he can do that for Baluma.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can do that for all the places in Dr. Neshuar.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can direct that virtual reality within you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can do that for Kashipur, Mesiram Krishna past, Kamar Pukur and Jairam Bhati.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Holy Mother's house.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all those places he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes a round of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: sitting there in St. Louis in the United States.
[SPEAKER_01]: So go and seek Vindavan in your heart, where with his loving devotees, Krishna sports eternally.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll always find Krishna there in Vindavan in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second one is the path of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: So light true wisdom shining lamp and let it burn with steady flame unceasingly within your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you see yourself as that light, that shining, everything else shines, my it's light, everything here is lit up, cut open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's open, it's
[SPEAKER_01]: Who is it that steals your boat across the solid earth?
[SPEAKER_01]: So the idea of samsara is an ocean.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have to cross samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the old light, a kind of metaphor in Indian spirituality.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he says, where is the ocean?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a solid earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, this is samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the guru, this is the peculiar ocean of samsara.
[SPEAKER_01]: On this solid earth, you are setting sail in a boat.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only one who can help you steer the boat is guru.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is from translated from Kabir.
[SPEAKER_01]: meditate on the holy seed of the Guru.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lila, the devotee wants to witness the Lila.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is true that after the vision of God, the devotee wants to witness his Lila, it tells the funny story of Nika Shah, Ramana's mother, who was a devotee of Ramah, and she's running away after the battle and everything is lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kingdom is lost, her sons were killed and so on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Laksman says, how strange this old woman, she's lost everything, she still doesn't, she wants to live, how she's clinging to life such a miserable creature in the drama calls her, let's ask her.
[SPEAKER_01]: She says, no, it's not a none of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love my Lord, and I'm seeing the delight, what he is doing on this word.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see more.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, this Lord of hers has devastated her life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she's entirely immersed in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a beautiful idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to see more.
[SPEAKER_01]: She says later on, he gives the beautiful example of Pishma, the greatest characters.
[SPEAKER_01]: of Mahabharata, when he's dying, he's leaping, and Arjuna is puzzled.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says that how is it that such a great person among the wisest amongst us?
[SPEAKER_01]: clearly a man of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point of death is weeping, so such is so powerful is this power of Maya, Krishna says, let's ask him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they ask him and he says, you know that's not true.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not for myself that I'm weeping.
[SPEAKER_01]: I weep for the, you know, play the Lila of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: How is it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no doubt that you are God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are on the side of these pandavas.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are the chariot here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no end to their suffering.
[SPEAKER_01]: How strange is your read?
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't fathom it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I have not understood anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Swami Saradhan and the G used to say about the holy mother.
[SPEAKER_01]: Swami Saradhan, if you wrote the biography of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna, the great master, he was the one who was closest to the holy mother, Sharda Devi, till the end, I mean, he took care of all, that was needed for the Ashra,
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, when people asked him, he would sing this song.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not know whether to laugh or cry at seeing the Lila of the Divine Mother.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of my life, I still don't understand this mystery of the incarnation of the Divine Mother.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not doubting.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows fully well, he's a mother of the universe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why Sri Ram Krishna is saying this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because now somebody asks her the question about incarnation, reincarnation.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is an old question.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a philosophical or theological question.
[SPEAKER_01]: So have we had many lives or is this the only one?
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously many lives, but not so obvious.
[SPEAKER_01]: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
[SPEAKER_01]: They talk about one life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're created by God and we're born, then we die.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have an immortal soul that exists.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately you'll go to heaven or hell there's a difference exactly how that happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: You do continue to exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now in India, you can see it as an extension of this view.
[SPEAKER_01]: that we have had any number of pastlies, we do not know when it began and we will continue to have these until we realize God and then it comes to end.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this cycle of birth and that in fact spirituality and India is defined as an freedom from freedom, freedom from what freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: being born again and again, repeating all the sorrows of life is not a good idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being set free from a limited existence, that is called freedom or motion, Nirvana, Kaivalya, many names are there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is something accepted by all Hindus, by all Buddhists, by all giants, and all Sikhs,
[SPEAKER_01]: So the idea of moxia.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are variations.
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, someone might say, I don't want moxia, but I want to be born again if I have devotion to the feet of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: But these my goals.
[SPEAKER_01]: But nobody denies that moxia is there and it's possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is generally the spiritual goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, which is true, is there one life or many lives?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_01]: He throws in his weight behind the many lives as you would expect a Hindu to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But notice how carefully he couches it, he says, it is said.
[SPEAKER_01]: So many great people have said it, how can I disbelieve it?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say, yes, of course it's there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said it is said, how can I disbelieve it?
[SPEAKER_01]: People say that there's such a thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then immediately he goes to,
[SPEAKER_01]: the uttered mystery, the inescapable mystery of God, that what exactly is going on here, grammar is there, God is there, that's clear, that's not difficult, but what's going on here in some sort of our daily lives or one's life, what is this mystery of this creation?
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not easily answerable, that one cannot understand, that one must accept, it may be beyond our comprehension.
[SPEAKER_01]: From Advaita perspective, it is no problem, whether there is many life or one life, Advaita of Swatya, there is not even one life, what to speak of many lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of our monks, I told this story here, one of our monks who was in Uttarkashi.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, he was very exercised by this issue, is there one life or many lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: all the other monks in that particular cottage when a tired of his arguments.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he took his arguments out to the Ashram nearby, was a great Vedanta teacher was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our monk went and asked this great Vedanta teacher.
[SPEAKER_01]: Swami, in Hindi, ek januma yapunar janum.
[SPEAKER_01]: one life or repeated life, birth and death, you know, cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the answer from that Swami was devastating.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, Mahatma ji, whenever a job in Jannmahi Nahi to Punar Jannkahi, a mandu kapa diye.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Swami, when there is no birth, there is the question of rebirth, go and read mandu kai.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that Swami came back and they told me, he was a very annoyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, you can't argue with this non-dualists.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will immediately go to Brahman and Maya and all that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm asking a serious question, one life for many lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that is reality.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Sri Ram Krishna, that's why he is couching his answer carefully.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gita is very clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are many lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: Upanishads are clear, many lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: But notice, Buddha does the Buddha exist after death,
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, did I say that the Buddha will exist, so he don't exist after did I say he will not exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: The question cannot be directly answered.
[SPEAKER_01]: In one sense it is true and in other sense no.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other sense there is no birth and death.
[SPEAKER_01]: God of Father was right.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is only Brahman.
[SPEAKER_01]: Brahman alone exists.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's one way of answering it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Sri Ramakrishna says,
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever it is, it's an extraordinary mystery and entirely beyond our understanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's more true than all your theories of one life or many life.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there is a ketan.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ram Krishna himself says, a thought like this makes me feel I have understood nothing of the ways of God and so I be.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is quoting Bhishma, and I said, Saradhanji said exactly the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have understood nothing of the ways of the Holy Mother.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he sings the song which says, I do not know whether to laugh or cry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a beautiful description, evening,
[SPEAKER_01]: is the temple, not the temple.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the house where they had gone for the with the Brahmo devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there is a ketam with the Brahmo devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then they begin to sing and dance.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know the description.
[SPEAKER_01]: Place, echoed, and re-echoed with God's holy name.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that those people who saw who had participated even once in one of those things, with Sri Ramakrishna at the center, which my personal belief that they are all liberated, that they've received at once, it's enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may not feel any effect at that time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just something very, very rapturous and they'll never forget it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think at the time of that, that they will see that they are liberated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Sri Ram Krishna bows down and says Bhagavad-tabhaktabhagavan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bhagavad-tab means the scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the means devotee, Bhagavan means God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I bow down to the scripture, the holy books.
[SPEAKER_01]: I bow down to the devotees, I bow down to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are one reality, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: The teaching, the devotee and the God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That which you want to attain, and you, the one who wants to attain it, and the teaching which will take you to that all three are manifestations, are appearances of one divinity, and I bow down to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: All so long as it is to do these things, traditions of so we don't do that anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, Salute, this is like Sri Ram Krishna saying, Bhaktabhagavan Bhagavad Kijay.
[SPEAKER_01]: The only one I noticed would still does this is Bill.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bill Kondrad, who is now 97, sometimes I've noticed.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of the Rathi, he whispers, Bhagavadabhagavan Kijay.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's clearly something that Swami Pavitranji must have taught him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the old Swami is used to do these things, there's some little things which I've slowly disappeared over time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then Sri Ram Krishna says, I salute the Gyanis, the one from the path of knowledge.
[SPEAKER_01]: I salute the Bhaktas, the one from the path of devotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the devotees who are worshiped God with form, like the Hindus, who worshiped God without form, like Christians and Muslims and Jews, he says, I salute them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I salute the ancient Norse of Brahman, you know, the Vedantans and the new Norse of Brahman.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that means the Brahmud devotees.
[SPEAKER_01]: And today all those who follow Vedanta, he says, I salute, he sees God in all of them, Brahman in all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then important, a supper of delicious dishes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that is good way to end all of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me quickly look at the comments and end.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Shilpa says, exact name of the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is this book, the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna published by the New York.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ramakrishna, we're back on the center.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we can order it online.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the best English version.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you have this edition,
[SPEAKER_01]: You can follow the exact page numbers and all.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a translation by Swami Nikhil Anandha.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the power of God also Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, depressed persons may hate them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They want to obliterate that object of hatred true.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's as I said, it comes from the mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Nila ji says that Arya Samaj was started when Swami Dhanan Saraswati saw rat running around D.T.
[SPEAKER_01]: thought why should God allow this?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that that's the story and somehow these things have never really moved me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone has great as Dhanan Saraswati, but I don't see the logic behind it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the point?
[SPEAKER_01]: You have an image, you have a D.T.
[SPEAKER_01]: an image which you have made.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, so this is the story, you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I saw a rat jumping on an image, I would drive away the rat, and make sure the rat don't come there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what does it have to with God being powerful or powerless?
[SPEAKER_01]: You are using it to worship God.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it to God?
[SPEAKER_00]: God is there in the rat also.
[SPEAKER_01]: Priya Kulkarni says, in the world of world is suffering, is the world of world is up to activity, especially in help to see the evolution of my other.
[SPEAKER_01]: It comes up always in same slides.
[SPEAKER_01]: We learn more through suffering than through pleasure.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it is the dissatisfactoryness of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And ultimately not just dissatisfactoryness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Terrible suffering is there in this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very, very lucky that we are not exposed to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, a few are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot escape it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the thing is people think it will be better if I next time I try, whether it is a job or a vacation or a marriage or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing it will be better, no, it will be the combination of the same thing, some other kind of problem will always crop up.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no open issue, nasty criterion or critical.
[SPEAKER_01]: by any cause, the uncaused cannot be obtained, by any limited means the infinite cannot be obtained.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it is a very philosophical way of saying that whatever you do in this world, it will be subject to causes and conditions, and it will ultimately be a dissatisfactory, it will ultimately decay, die, change and go away.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a very nature of appearance, you know you are blaming the world for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, shanti, shanti, shanti, hari, hiumtatsat, shri Ramakrishna, Rupanamastu.