[SPEAKER_00]: Oum, tabak atam, ritam, taptaji, vanam, kawi, ritam, kalmasa, paham, shawaranamangalam, shwimagatatam, bovigrinanti, burydha, janaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's, it shows November 1882, no specific date, but just says November 1882.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Sri Ramakrishna arrived in Calcutta to attend the annual festival of the Brahmo Somaj, which was to be celebrated at Monilal Monliks House, besides M and other devotees of the Master, Vijay Goswami and a number of Brahmo's were present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Elaborator arrangements had been made to make the occasion a success.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vijay was to conduct the worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Kathak recited the life of Pralada from the Purana.
[SPEAKER_00]: Its substance was as follows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hiran Nakashipu, the Pralada's father, was king of the demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: He bowed great malice towards God and put his own son through endless
[SPEAKER_00]: afflicted by his father, Pralada prayed to God, O God, please give my father holy and prenaissance.
[SPEAKER_00]: At these words, the Master wept, he went into an ecstatic mood afterwards he began to talk to the devotees.
[SPEAKER_00]: Master, Bhakti is the only essential thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: One obtains love of God by constantly chanting his name and singing his glories.
[SPEAKER_00]: what a devotee Shibonat is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is soaked in the love of God, like a cheesecake in syrup.
[SPEAKER_00]: One should not think, my religion alone is the right path, and other religions are false.
[SPEAKER_00]: God can be realized by means of all paths.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is enough to have sincere yearning for God, infinite other paths and infinite deopinions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me tell you one thing, God can be seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way the say that God is beyond mind and speech, the meaning of this is that God is unknown to the mind, attached to worldly objects.
[SPEAKER_00]: Weshna of Chiron is a footnote, a noted devotee of the Weshna of a sect and an admirer of Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Weshna of Chiron is to say, God is known by the mind and intellect that are pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, it is necessary to seek the company of holy men, practice prayer, and listen to the instructions of the Guru, these purify the mind, then one sees God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dirt can be removed from water by purifying agent, then one sees one's reflection in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: One cannot see one's face in a mirror if the mirror is covered with dirt.
[SPEAKER_00]: After the purification of the heart, one obtains divine love, then one sees God through his grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: One can teach others if one receives that command from God after seeing him, seeing him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before that, one should not lecture.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a song that says, you have set up no image here within the shrine of who,
[SPEAKER_00]: You should first cleanse the shrine of your heart when you should install the deity and arrange worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: As yet nothing has been done.
[SPEAKER_00]: What can you achieve by blowing the conch shell and making simply making a loud noise?
[SPEAKER_00]: Footnote.
[SPEAKER_00]: The conch shell is blown during the temple service.
[SPEAKER_00]: Vijay's, I had on a race to and conducted the worship according to the rules of the Bramha Samaj.
[SPEAKER_00]: Master, to Vijay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you tell me one thing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you harp so much on sin by repeating 100 times I am a sinner?
[SPEAKER_00]: One veryly becomes a sinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: One should have such faith as to be able to say, what I have taken the name of God, how can I be a sinner?
[SPEAKER_00]: God is our father and mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell him, O Lord, I have committed sins, but I won't repeat them.
[SPEAKER_00]: John says name and purify your body and mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Purify your tongue by singing God's holy name.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's enough to be going on with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we see Sri Ramakrishna has come to the annual festival of the Brahma Samaj.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Brahma Samaj, it was a 19th century reform movement of Hinduism in Calcutta, in West Bengal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Bengal in those days.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were actually two sects.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of which were pretty close to Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: One was led by Keshav Chandra Singh.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other one, there was Shibnath Shastri who was mentioned here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were reform movements and they said back to the Upanishads, no image worship, things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Keshabh saying had great devotion for Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shibna Thrasri also had great devotion for Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they would often come to Sri Ramakrishna, which is pretty interesting because for a reform movement, which was again, for example, image worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet to come to Sri Ramakrishna, who was,
[SPEAKER_00]: very orthodox priest of Kali in induction ishwar, which images are worshiped.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kali is in a Krishna image, and then there is the Shivalinga in the 12 Shiva temples and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It shows their tremendous attraction for Sri Ramakrishna.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Kathak recited the life of Prallad, the Kathak is the person who reads out from devotional texts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a very popular form of spiritual practice in Hinduism.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Bhagavata or Tulsi Ramayandis are read out in different parts and not the south of India also.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are, it goes on for three days, six days, 14 days,
[SPEAKER_00]: and there is reading, there are budgets, there's short poojas, there is music and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's it's it's it's religion, entertainment, stories, devotion all together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, the story of Pralada from the Puranas was read out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, an ancient tale of the King of the Demon's Heronia Kashipu.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a well-known story.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we grew up, we read it in this, I don't know if you remember, Amar Chitra Kathawin, with those little comics right there, with all these stories and nice pictures.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the story is the king of the demons who hates God, but it turns out, wonder of wonders his son, Prallada, is a great devotee of Narayan, of Pishnu.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is intolerable for the father who hates God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't a Kashyapu told his assistants, make sure that Prallada does not hear the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember there was a very funny talk given by a Pandit once, long ago in India, in a seminar, a Spandit said that how education collapsed in India.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, first, he was here in Nakashupu trying to dictate what the syllabus should be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Told the teachers, interfering in the syllabus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So changing the syllabus, you can't talk about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the second was, he said, in the time of the Ramayana, the demons, you know, the demons would come and disturb the rishis in their sacrifices in the Ashram, so a campus violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was the second time with the education was damaged in India.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third, he said was in the time of the Mahabharata, where
[SPEAKER_00]: and the teacher, Draunacharya, the system was everybody should go to the house of the Guru, the Ashram and study there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what did Draunacharya do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was employed as a tutor for the princes, because the princes they stayed at home and they studied and he was employed as a home tutor.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody knows this in India.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are the bane of tuition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, Hirnaka Shippu made sure that Pralada would never hear the name of God, but Pralada was very devoted to God, kept on chanting the God's name and he was tortured and then we know the story how God incarnates as the Nishinga Avatara, the half-man, half-line Avatara of Pishnu and then kills the demon and this incredible story is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know the demon had got
[SPEAKER_00]: the power, the blessings that he would not be killed in the marning on the evening or at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he, he was killed actually at twilight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he will not be killed either inside the house or outside the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he was killed, you know, on the, what do you call it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right on the doorstep, near the inside, not outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he will not be killed in the air or the land or the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, missing Gavatar takes the demon on his lap and slays the demon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, it's a very interesting story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's the humor side to it also.
[SPEAKER_00]: One part of the story, of course, was the, you know, where Hirann Akashipu is debating with Pralada.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you keep on singing the name of God, where is this God of yours?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Pralada says, everywhere, God is all all pervasive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Hirann Akashipu laughs sarcastically.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, all pervasive, I don't see God anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a stone pillar in the palace, and the Pralada says, yes, in this pillar too, God is there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here in the Kashyapu, in anger and in rage, he kicks that pillar.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a demon, very strong, so the pillar breaks, and to his stun to see that from the pillar emerges, God emerges in the form of the Avatar, the giant half-man, half-line, terrible form of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So usually that image is not worshiped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not kept separately in a household.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what are called the terrible forms.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Rudra or the terrible forms of God are not to be kept in a household.
[SPEAKER_00]: That picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can find it in some places, those depictions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this terrifying manifestation, incarnation of God comes and protects his devotee Pralada and slays the demon here in Nagashapur.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every, I think, kid in India knows the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: The funny part of it is, and I am assured that this actually happened, a play.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a popular play, Pralada and Hirannika Shipu, and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the play, it happened in one of our Ashyams.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't see it myself, but I'm told that it actually happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: So little kids, they were staging this play.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so somebody was acting as the demon, somebody was acting as Pralad, the somebody was acting as the half line, half man, form of God, and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all of this very colorful play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now what went wrong was, and these all little kids, 80 years, 90 years, what went wrong was
[SPEAKER_00]: in the when it comes to the climax and the demon king rose out the challenge where is this daughter of yours and Pralada is supposed to say everywhere oh everywhere is he behind is in this in this pillar and he is supposed to say yes it is in this pillar.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the idea was the one who's acting as Kirin Nakashibu will come and kick down the pillar, which is of course made of cardboard or something, and behind which the actor who's acting as machine governor is hiding and he'll emerge, jump out with a row and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was all well planned except.
[SPEAKER_00]: what went wrong was that there were these two big pillars in the on the stage and instead of this pillar where the actor said, is he in this pillar and the little kid who was acting as Pralad, he knew that he could see that the actor acting as Nesingavatar was hiding in the other pillar.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he knew if this actor kicks down this pillar, it will be a disaster because they were in then God won't emerge from this pillar because he's not here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, here in Nekashipu, but there are little kids in a very smart, here in Nekashipu, yells out, where is your God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he in this pillar?
[SPEAKER_00]: The little boy Pralada said, no, in that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, just to save this situation, however, what is being pointed out here is, it's a Sri Ramakrishna who was deeply affected by this, will be because Pralada prays to God to make his father spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: to anybody, to your own parents, to your children, to people in your community, is spirituality, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even more so, when the person who's actually harmed you, and yet you want to give him the greatest gift, which is spirituality, which is not only forgiveness, but it's a deepest form of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Little warning here, I know there are
[SPEAKER_00]: people who are spiritual people are always eager to trust this spirituality upon especially upon the children.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have caveat here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you want to give them that gift, if you do give it to them but it has to be done in an intelligent way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Often when I find a experience trying to thrust this down the throats of their children with all the best intentions and the children obviously rebel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it becomes just the rivers of the story of
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if you do it, it has to be done in an intelligent way and to see that it is having the desired effect, not the opposite effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Pralada gives this, he prays to God, let my father become spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't work, but anyway, and Sri Ramakrishna is, he's so moved, he's actually weeping tears.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is one thing to be nonviolent, but it is more than that to be forgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the 13 chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, Srikrishna tells Arjuna, what are the practices he needs to become enlightened to realize that you are Brahman, that it's God and God, all through what would actually experience that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the practices needed?
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the preliminary preparation of the cleansing of the mind?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there he says, he says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Amani, tuam, adhambhi, tuam, ahingsak, shanti, radjava.
[SPEAKER_00]: So ahingsak, shanti, he juxtaposes them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ahingsak, nonviolence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And shanti forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the difference?
[SPEAKER_00]: Nonviolence, not just in the physical sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Physical sense, verbal sense, and mental sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not too physically hurt anybody, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also not too verbally hurt people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've repeated this earlier, but you know, Mark Twain, inimitable.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love his saying that he says, people who claim to be fond of the brutal truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I tell the truth straight away, I don't care for anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I stick to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm fond of the brutal truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: People who claim to be fond of the brutal truth, Mark Twain says, I find that they are often more fond of brutality than the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And another thing you'll notice is such people often have very little tolerance for any kind of truth being pointed out about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: People who say that I am straightforward and I am frankly tell everybody everything to their faces.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about you in some cases, but are you willing to accept that for in your case also?
[SPEAKER_00]: So verbal level, non-violence of the verbal level, you should tell the truth, but of course it has to be done sweetly and it has to be done with keeping the welfare of that person in mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're really doing it as a well-vision, nothing more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing less than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then mental non-violence that I really don't want to hurt anybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: So mentally I don't want to, I am non-violent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not wish to hurt anybody verbally, non-violent,
[SPEAKER_00]: There also, one must also keep in mind that there is Rajasik, Satwik, Rajasik and Tamasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: Often non-violence, even a tamasik way becomes cowardice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will not stand up for anything that is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will not stand up for myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will not stand up for others in the face of the oppressor.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the kind of cowardice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want any trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that comes from Tamas, that's not nonviolence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rajas is a violent reaction, so there is trouble and one reacts violently, whether it physically violent or verbally, so, at least mentally angry, one becomes angry and so I will never come to say it is, it is only the foolish who cannot get angry, the wise do not get angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: So getting angry is a power, indignation, anger is a power, but it is a power that should be channelized.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should be the master of that and the power of indignation, for example, but not let it be your master.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, it's the fool who cannot get angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wise do not get angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm very kind to say, that's the distinction between Thomas's and Rajasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thomasic is scared, cowardice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it may be better for such a person.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I realized it was himself as that what should this week do when a crest by the strong?
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, why give a blow to the strong, of course, because that takes the week from Thomasic to Rajasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't mean that people should be violent, but Rajas is better than action is better than cowardice.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then higher than Rajas is between Rajasik and Satwik.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a sadhri Krasasik state where a person is capable of violence, but does not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or uses the power when a very limited way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you say, say, a trained person, like a police man, a military person, the capable of violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is the training is to keep it completely under control and use the minimum amount of force necessary.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: that would be, that's still rajasi, but it's under the control of sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what is higher, what is talked about by Krishna is of course the sattvik.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you are a spiritual seeker, especially for a monk, there is no kind of violence that is allowable.
[SPEAKER_00]: So complete a hymnsa, non-violence, that is sattvik.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is whole spectrum.
[SPEAKER_00]: One more point I want to make, I was actually listening to a top by Ramchandra Gandhi.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a...
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's passed away, he was a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and he was an eminent philosopher.
[SPEAKER_00]: He taught in England in Delhi, in the United States also, I think, a very eminent philosopher trained both in the East and the West.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a talk, if you're interested, you can look it up online on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: The talk is, martyrdom and moxha, martyrdom and moxha, Ramchandra Gandhi.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, very interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was an undualyst, he was an Advaitan.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a dedicated follower of Ramana Maharshi.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, interesting thing, and Abhutai Adbad was, you know, often an academic philosopher, they will hedge, and they will never openly admit that they are spiritual or they follow this or follow that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's against their prestige.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, he was open about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He starts with Ramana Yamaha and so.
[SPEAKER_00]: that does not mean he's not logically, does not mean that he's not rigorous.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this lecture worth listening to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, the point he made there was he said, Mathma Gandhi's non-violence was Advaiti.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an interesting perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never heard of that earlier.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he made a very interesting point in that lecture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ram Sanra Gandhi.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, 1942 and 1943.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, this is the context of violence and non-violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget what we are talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have not forgotten the context here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a heronica ship, where Pralad.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Ram Sanra Gandhi, in that talk, martedum and moxia.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he there he says, 1942 and 1943.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1942 is Mahatma Gandhi's call for Quitt India to the famous Quitt India movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is sort of the climax of the freedom movement, the non-violent struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said there it was
[SPEAKER_00]: It was necessary, unless Indians got together and resisted the final burst resistance against British imperialism.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1947 India became independent.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that 1942 struggle had not been there, then
[SPEAKER_00]: that independence, that non-violent approach would have been a very cheap approach, but you didn't do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't actually push back against the British imperialism.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, he says that, where he says, 1943 comes and Subastandrabos goes and establishes the Indian National Army.
[SPEAKER_00]: for a revolt, a military revolt against the British, and joins forces with the Japanese in their war up from Burma, down to the Northeast and Frontier of India, Kohema and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the point that Ramshandra Gandhi makes here is, he says, unless India showed that India was capable of violence,
[SPEAKER_00]: India's non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi's non-violence would not have been so valuable and so so, you know, it's such a great idealistic choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was a military revolt, but in the mainstream in India chose to follow the non-violent path to freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Miramsandra Gandhi goes on to show why non-violence is spiritual and Advaitiq, because
[SPEAKER_00]: In a complex world, where you are colonized, where you are of, you know, you're bearing the brunt of racism and colonialism, which is obviously wrong, and yet at the same time, if you subscribe to Advaita, when that oppressor, that colonizer, that British person, is none other than you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are in this form, the victim, but you are also in that form, the victimizer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a very hard thing to say, but it is the truth that it is one reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that case, if you really want to follow Advaita, not only in your own inert spiritual practice, but externally in your life also, then how will you deal with such a difficult situation?
[SPEAKER_00]: You will deal, you will have to fight, you will have to protest, you will have to push back against oppression and yet you will have to do it nonviolently.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the, so it's a very interesting point, and why I'm raising it here is he is interesting juxtaposition of Gandhi and Bose and 1942 and 1943, so, and he himself says, he says, I was a young boy at that time, he's Mahapaghani's grandson, he says, of course, I was rooting for Gandhi to succeed, but he says, equally, we, I and we were all rooting for
[SPEAKER_00]: As young Indians at that time, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's just the point about it's not as simple as that.
[SPEAKER_00]: A hymns and hymns, a violence, and non-violence, and the deep spiritual roots of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But do look at a monotidum and moxia.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, one more point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Non-violence and forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Non-violence is one thing, but when you are actively faced with people with somebody who has harmed you and there will be people and situations in this life which will harm you actually harm you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have not done anything, you have not been violent, but you have been harmed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a one step beyond non-violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Krishna says, Kshanti, forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And forgiveness is a wise thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeking revenge is not an intelligent thing to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: the anger which seeks to hurt somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: First hurts you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one anger is like it's a sadhu in the Himalayas we said that he said anger is like a fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to use that fire to burn down somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the where you like the fire is your own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you anger is a fire which burns first burns the place where it is lit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I become upset, I become burned, scorched by my rage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I focus it outward in some kind of physical or verbal violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like shanti, active forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Christianity, it's one of the greatest virtues.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus says in the New Testament,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you come to the altar of God, you want to offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You leave it there.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've got all the gains to your brother, you have got something, you've got to judge against your brother, your sister.
[SPEAKER_00]: You leave your offerings there, go out and make it up with that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then come back and offer because God will not accept it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you hold anything against anybody in your life, whatever, difficult condition, at the same time,
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I do want to want God, I have to let go of all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: At some level, I have to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, deep meditation is not possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deep prayer is also not possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mechanical prayer is possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: But deep prayer is heartfelt prayer is not possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I have grudge, if I have anger, resentment, I have the bile of resentment in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let go.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that person has to be punished, very bad person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry, God will punish.
[SPEAKER_00]: The person is being punished internally by suffering anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, beyond forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, ahimsa non-violence, beyond that is forgiveness, active forgiveness, shanti.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond forgiveness is this active prayer for the spirituality of the person who's oppressing you.
[SPEAKER_00]: person is oppressing me, harming me, stopping me from the greatest thing in life, which is spiritual realization from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want anything from this person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want the kingdom Pralada.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not one, the kingdom, it is in one power.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just wants to worship his Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is not being allowed.
[SPEAKER_00]: There also, he says, let this person, my father,
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think it was, it was a story of courage in drama.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me if you know the story and I'm getting it wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story from the life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a real thing which happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Ramanu just read Ramanu ja Charya about a thousand years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of his greatest devotees was courage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, um, once they were being persecuted,
[SPEAKER_00]: and so Sri Rama Nujarjarya fled with his close group of devotees from the place where they were in Sri Rangamethi to another place.
[SPEAKER_00]: But his close devotee Kuresha distracted the enemy and he was captured by the persecutor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The persecutor took Kuresha and
[SPEAKER_00]: the captain of the guard, who they found out that he has enabled Ramana to escape.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they took out his anger on Croatia, and this very mild mannered elderly man, they blinded him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was not, he maintained his equanimity.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wondered as a beggar in the streets, until finally somebody took him back to Ramana J. Ramana J. had heard the whole story, with tears in his eyes in front of all his devotees, he went and embraced Croatia.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then this is the climax of the story.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asks this blinded devotee, ask for something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you ask for, I will grant you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what he asks for?
[SPEAKER_00]: The man who blinded me, let him realize God before me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The greatest thing in life is devotion, the realization of God for Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What He has searched for all His life, all His spiritual practices.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when offered that ask for anything, the one who hurt in the most in all His life, He says, let that person get the greatest thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever is the highest thing in the world, let him become spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let him attain God before me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Ramana was so moved by that, and the version of the story I've read, he embraces Kuraisha and he goes into Samadhi himself, and then Kuraisha's eyesight is miraculously restored and all that sort of stories there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But see, when Pralada, after all the harassment and torture says, praise to God, let my father get devotion towards you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sri Ramakrishna is in tears.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Bhakti is the, so at this, these words, the master wept, and then he went into an ecstatic mood, and then he said, Bhakti is the only essential thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love of God is the only essential thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love how C. S. Lewis in his book, Near Christianity, you know, he defines Christianity as falling in love.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just as human beings fall in love with each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: You fall in love with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is very challenging.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just so, in that case, you don't look for logic and reason and philosophy, you know, even the words like spiritual practice, see how cold it is, how mechanical it is, when you say practice, I often wonder, maybe I do practice of japa, we do practice of the rituals, we do practice of study, and we do practice, you know, how to set, how to breathe, how to focus, how to visualize, yet there is something mechanical about all of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have seen something among senior monks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not quite accurate to say that they're practicing.
[SPEAKER_00]: they just love what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just love it and that's why they do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love Sri Ramakrishna, that's why they sing and they serve him and their repeat is now.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love being in the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love feeling the presence of the Lord in their hearts and all these living in the divine presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: To say that they're practicing something, they are, but its practice is not quite accurate.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says, love is the one essential thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: One obtains love of God by constantly chanting his name and singing his glories, or what a devotee, Shivnath is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's one of the leaders of the, one of these factions of the Brahma Samaj, he gives an example.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a cheese cake in syrup, then curiously,
[SPEAKER_00]: See, even these functional divisions among the Brahmos, little differences in opinion and differences in principle and they split into different groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says, one should not think that my religion is the right path and other religions are false.
[SPEAKER_00]: God can be realized by all my means of all paths.
[SPEAKER_00]: is enough to have sincere re-earning for God, infinite of the paths and infinite to the opinions.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is very, very important.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, this is very, very important in this day and age.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was just reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, shocking to read that and society shows the Pope attended an important program, you know, of world religious leaders.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was a conservative, I think, a cardinal who, I think part of the Vatican high-notky probably, that was in the news.
[SPEAKER_00]: he gave his opinion that the Pope shouldn't attend these meetings because it gets the impression that Catholic Christianity is one of the many religions which is it is not.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the only true religion we know and everything else is false.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Pope keeps on attending these meeting people get the wrong wrong idea that there is a supermarket of religions and well there is.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is infinite
[SPEAKER_00]: It is your path is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no doubt about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will take you to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so is mine and so is the other person's path.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this thing got infinite of the paths and infinite opinions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he makes another point.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a valuable point.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next team makes another point.
[SPEAKER_00]: God can actually be experienced.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, I think, a central message of spirituality in our time, when the main source of that, I have no doubt, is Sri Ramakrishna Swami Vivekananda, who spread it, he came here to the West and then he spread it all across the world, that spiritual experience is possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is known to the all the religious traditions throughout the world, throughout history.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in most cases, it was seen as restricted to a few mystics, not for everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: like Olympic athletics, you can be athletic, but you can't go to the Olympics, that's a different category altogether, restricted only to a few.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it is for everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only is it possible for everybody to experience God, it is a must, that is the whole point of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what he says, God can be seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then what about Vedanta?
[SPEAKER_00]: Vedanta says, God is, you cannot actually see God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you cannot even think of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot even speak about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if we have talked about this in a way, the Vedanta, in what sense it is meant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sri Ramakrishna here gives a very practical point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you ask me, as an Advait in, what do you mean that God is beyond words and beyond mind?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my answer, those were attended with them, the classes, that if you say, why is God beyond language?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I, you know, the answer I would give, what can language do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are the factors necessary for language to operate?
[SPEAKER_00]: And those factors are not there in the absolute reality, and therefore language cannot refer to the absolute reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a whole talk on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the paradox of language or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why cannot God be start about?
[SPEAKER_00]: But the real reason why God cannot be start about is because God is not an object of thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is always the subject, the reality about God is that the pure subject, the one which illumines all our thoughts, pure consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: and which appears as the object also.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Sri Ramakrishna does not say all this, you know, it sounds very philosophical, very subtle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says something very practical.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the meaning of this is that God is unknown to the mind attached to worldly objects.
[SPEAKER_00]: The more outward turned we are, the more engrossed we are in the world, the less likely that God
[SPEAKER_00]: So then what should one do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives the example.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is necessary to seek the company of holy men, or women, practice prayer and listen to the instructions of the guru, these purified a mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Japa, meditation, devotion, selfless service and spiritual study.
[SPEAKER_00]: of all kinds.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be the open shards and the gita.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be the lives of a saintly people, all of that study, meditation, devotion, selfless action, all of these purify the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then one sees God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he gives two examples, dirty water and which is
[SPEAKER_00]: The inspired talks one way, what I can't say is the only thing that we can do is polish the mirror.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't explain.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing before that, nothing after that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just the standalone statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means basically the idea of sadhana, spiritual practice in Vedanta is polishing the mirror.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not, you are unable, one cannot actually catch hold of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot see that by these spiritual practices now I shall have God vision.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: vision of God in a devotional language, it is the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the grace of God, you have this God experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a philosophical, non-dual language, the vision of God is realization, the knowledge that whatever we are experiencing whenever at all times is nothing but God shining forth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a direct intuitive realization.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here he says, after
[SPEAKER_00]: a purification of heart, one obtains divine love, then one sees God through grace, right, one sees God through grace, then he makes a comment about teaching others, because the Brahma is so much, it's a comment about what's going on in that whole ceremony, which he is attending.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, they would give lecture, you would perform some worship, all those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So one should not lecture before you get a command from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, you must experience God by God's grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you get a command from God and then you should lecture.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can sort of almost hear what's going on in your minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Swami, what about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going around giving lectures.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Sri Ram Krishna is telling you not to give lectures.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but not with the attitude that we are teaching people.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, it's very clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Sri Ram Krishna is teaching, like he is talking here,
[SPEAKER_00]: When Swami Vivekananda comes to the West, he is actually teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when, say, I am giving a talk, or we as monks, we are teaching, it's not that we are trying to teach something to others.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a spiritual practice for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It enables us to dwell on this spiritual teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: we are reading it together, or I am sharing what I have learned with you, but not in the sense that I am giving you spirituality or making you spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are those who can, there are those who can.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Sri Ramakrishna could, so on me Vivekananda could, and Sri Ramakrishna says it's clear, chapras, chapras means an authorization from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will be received that.
[SPEAKER_00]: then he gives very funny image.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to imagine a village, a Hindu temple, a village temple, sort of broken down.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are many such temples, or broken down temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now there is a very simple temple, the village temple then goes, he has seen how the priests perform worship in the temples.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he goes into this old ruin temple,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's dirty, it's full of baths, fly flapping around, so I'm essentially described that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're dropping some baths all over the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this simple turn, he goes there with a big conch, which signals the beginning of the worship in a temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: He starts blowing the conch.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no preparation for any kind, there's no image to be worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: The place is dirty, it's not been sanctified.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there is nobody use worshiping, there is nobody use attending the worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's blowing a punch, and that's like giving lectures.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's such a dramatic and stunning take-down of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at that time, it was very popular in Calcutta to go around getting lectures on religion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of the people who are present there in that occasion, be used to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he gives that very, very funny example.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one more point, it makes to Vijay who is one of the Vijay Krishna Goswami, a great religious leader who gave a talk in his presence in Ram Krishna's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And since he's been talking so much about sin, that we are sinners, God will rescue us from sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you keep saying a hundred times that I'm a sinner, you veryly become, so that means we start feeling that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: We feed energy into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Sri Ramakrishna is making a very important point.
[SPEAKER_00]: A long time before, you know, Gobils said, if you still rely a thousand times, it becomes the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: A long time before positives, psychology said, one should entertain only positive thoughts in the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Long time before that Sri Ramakrishna is making the point that don't dwell on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not saying it's false.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may be true, but that is not helpful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather, what is helpful is I am a devotee of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love God.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is all powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: God loves me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I repeat the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I be your messenger?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I am not a sinner, and that attitude will change us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, sincerely, if you have anything that you are guilty about, anything that you are sad about,
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of moping about it, recognize it, confess it to the Lord and say, I will not do it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: A simple child like simplicity, confession that I will not do it again, help me and I will hold on to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a repeat the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The words he used for first, chant his name and purify your body and mind, purify your tongue by singing God's holy name.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are such simple prescriptions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do the mind abhorst of vacuum, nature abhorst of vacuum, the mind abhorst of vacuum.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I push worldly thoughts, simple thoughts, out of my mind, it will not stay a vacuum.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if I made a habit of anger and greed and lust and anxiety and all these problems, it's a typical worldly problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I made a habit of it, if I tried to push it out, it'll come back again.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says, always, you have to replace it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the best thing that can replace it is the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you, especially if you have got initiated, a mantra, and that is wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me see.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some comments here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Priya says, is it then okay to let go of duties if they will resentments and anger as long as we pray on a steeple spiritual progress of people involved?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure what the context is, you have to be careful there.
[SPEAKER_00]: duties two sides to duties.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is doing our duties helps us to build ourselves up from for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, it's absolutely essential for a worldly life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a job, you've got duties.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you are involved,
[SPEAKER_00]: people are employing you or you are employing people or whatever it is, then you have duties because you have made a commitment there.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have a family, then you have duties because you again you made a commitment there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't say I'm a mom or a dad or I'm a CEO or an executive and not do the things which are related to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's on one side.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the, and those are not bad for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are actually helpful for spiritual life, a structure.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why in Ashram, when we become monks, the first thing they do is they put lots of duties.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we as Brahmachari would make fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody is doing pooja in the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pooja duty.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Pooja, Duties, now Pooja, Pooja means worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adoration, love, the love, adoration, worship also becomes a duty now.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a psychology behind why newcomers are given so much responsibility and so much work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly, the reason is, it gives you structure.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives you discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think,
[SPEAKER_00]: and unfortunately not true, but we think you give me a chance and I will do so much meditation I will go straight into samadhi, I will get saviqal panil viqal pa samadhi well no, won't work, try it out
[SPEAKER_00]: don't harm your health, but try to try it out and you'll see very soon that it's not that easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So external structure is imposed by duty and that's good for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, the other side of duty is, as you say, resentments build up, I am doing so much, nobody acknowledges it, so that kind of resentment is not good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am doing, if I'm doing something, it's good for my, it's something that I think I should do, it's good for my moral life, it's good for my spiritual life, it's even good for my physical well-being to be active up and doing that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing it because I expect gratitude from people and recognition and, you know, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will be grateful, they will, to the extent people are, but don't do it for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always be sure, even when you are doing things for others, ultimately, I am the beneficiary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am the one who is evolving with this, and it's good for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: To that extent, you too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, I would always tell devotees and dramataries, don't overextend yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the level where you are exhausted, where you become sick or your health breaks down.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a cold world, nobody cares, nobody will remember you with gratitude that you did so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And people will move on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't damage your physical and mental well-being.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Priya says did Arjuna suffer causal consequences, karma, because I thought that this was her mind war or he did not, because he did it by renouncing the fruits of his action.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not because he renounced the fruits of his action, but the idea is he attains enlightenment, realizes he's brown-hung, so he's beyond the consequences of the action.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the ultimate goal of Karma Yoga is enlightenment, and once you get enlightenment, you are beyond all this good and bad in the action.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to attain that, what must go on doing good consistently and avoiding the bad?
[SPEAKER_00]: Alpona says does the intuitive realization of Brahman come by faking it for a pile?
[SPEAKER_00]: The American phrase, fake it till you make it, is only partially true, but it's not entirely false also, because in Ashtavakra Gita Ashtavakra tells the student that if all of this does not make sense, if you are not enlightened, then do one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This belief that you are Brahman, Shadda Susha, Tata, Shadda Susha, my child, have shadda on this, just believe that you are Brahman, Mahatra, Moham, Krushwar, and do not be deluded on this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: You believe so many things, just believe it, take it as the truth and see what it feels like.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will lead to enormous and fast spiritual progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the path of Advaita,
[SPEAKER_00]: So come, come, we're faking it for a while, yes, but be careful not faking it in the sense that I have now become enlightened.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to fool oneself and fool others and it can be damaging to one's own spiritual practice and to others also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sangita says, speaking of non-violence and non-reaction, interestingly, 2011 book, Better Angels of Our Nature, by Violence Decline, Harvard University, Psychology, Spamely Intellectual, Stephen Pink, or Art Reviews, human beings are now living in the most peaceful area in the history of our species here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an interesting point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's one of the things he is arguing for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for what it's worth, I think he is, right, actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: it is somebody said the history is nasty brutish life in ancient times was nasty brutish and short.
[SPEAKER_00]: We look back in history with rose tinted spectacles.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in many ways definitely there is a kind of linear improvement at least for the time being.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I think we are good.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will take leave now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, shanti shanti, shanti, hari hiyong tatsat, shri Ramakrishna, rupanam atstu.