Video 106

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (09/2/22)

foreign [Music] Souls they are praised by Poets and remove all sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving Souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama Krishna uh I wasn't here the last two sessions but I think I have a bookmark here on page 353 we're in the chapter Emma at dakshineswar part one and it's Friday December 21st 1883. I was thinking today a little bit about this relationship between SRI ramakrishna and M and I mentioned several times that this particular these two chapters uh are particularly important for that relationship because this is the one time when M spent a long period uh day and night with stroma Krishna induction it's the only period that was like this he's already been there for about a week a little over a week this is during the holiday season Christmas at that time and the relationship between shramakrishna and M is a little bit different from that with with the other he had a unique relationship with all of them but something interesting about that relationship and when we think about the very important people in this Divine Leela this play and how strong Christian recognized them and the part that they played in everything uh everything pieces together in a slightly different way now say with with swamiji and with the Raja Maharaj attackword really instantly knew them he had Visions ahead of time uh with them everything was slightly different we we sometimes think that taq would know everything about everybody when he saw them that he he knew their future what role they had to play and everything he had an uncanny ability and insight into these things but with them he says that throat has not been cooperating today he's a little surprised with him first of all he sees him and uh he recognizes that this is a person with very good qualities but does he know that he's married does he know that he's not married is that a whole show in the beginning when he asks him oh you're married and he says yes and he said he's married huh let him gets a big shot and then you have children oh my goodness he even has children so I am is wondering and then he says the reason is that I noticed some good signs in you that you uh probably he's thinking that he could have been one of the monastics that's coming now we think Taco should know all of these things but he wasn't always a hundred percent sure about things even with swamiji he had to practically put him put him under a hypnotic state that visit when they went to Jordan Malik's house and he asked him questions about uh where he came from how long he would be there what his role would be uh the relation to all of these different things and then he was satisfied with all of the answers that they matched everything that uh he he failed in intuitively or part of that Vision that he had uh with with swamiji now there are other times when he would say I got into that mood where I could look into somebody through his eyes and see everything within as if its objects in a glass case so it wasn't like he was in that mood all of the time and uh and with M especially he was so clear Taco was so clear about some of the other connections so it was uh with rajamas and the connection with SRI Krishna and the many with many of the others uh with them uh I thought I saw you I had a vision of caitanya Deva and the devotees finally and I saw it and and I think I saw you there also so he's very very hazy with them and I don't know why and he's got if at some point he has to he's training up him uh on a few different levels their their conflicts throughout one big conflict in M's mind uh it's a double conflict one in general uh it's better to lead a life of renunciation yeah or to lead a householder life and in particular to live at home or to take his own place he was very unhappy at home his his mother died father had remarried his brothers uh aside from his from his younger brother kishori they weren't at all interested and even with Kishore is another interesting thing so many times we see the name of kishori sometimes it even says Gupta not once does them say with his brother and even with his wife whenever he's talking about his wife or any family things he'll use a second nickname he'll hide himself even more so we have this conflict in M's mind whether he should lead or whether to better to lead a monastic life he was already married in fact at that time when he first met ramakrishna he had resolved to leave his father's house and in the back of his mind with this idea maybe commit suicide now we don't know exactly what he's thinking about maybe he's thinking if I'm going to do that then I want my wife to be in her family's house at that time or maybe he wasn't quite sure but and he knew that he was going to leave he couldn't live with his in his father's home anymore they used to make fun of him he was too spiritual too soft and everything uh so this is this is one thing then Trump Krishna is training him up because he knows at some point that he'll be the one to record everything so M has to be present he has to hear things that are meant for both the Menace the future monastics and the householders he has to be there through all of these things and takura questions him many times we know that and uh Path of Knowledge or the path of devotion god with form without all of these things were big questions uh in M's mind so suramit Krishna uh during this period This is my feeling during this period SRI ramakrishna is is really uh doing a second crushing of him he got his first crushing huh he talks about his ego was crushed in the very beginning was sharp with him that uh you people of Calcutta you know everything you can tell people what to do and then oh you origyani your wife is ignorant but you're a Yani so he's M writes my ego was crushed interview but now we get this very curious uh period where srirama Krishna is talking to M almost as if he's talking to the Future monastics it'll be very strong under renunciation there's another and these things are not so easy for us to understand that sometimes he'll tell the M that aren't you ashamed of yourself leading an animal type life with your wife and everything and then with rakal he say why not go home have a little fun with your wife so it is very hard to understand uh during this period it seems to me that uh he she's really shaking Em's all of his beliefs and everything to their Foundation trying to get him established in the monastic world view the monastic way of of thinking and living but at the end telling him now go back and live with your family treat everyone as your own know that they're not your own so this this is a period where uh we can't we can't uh look at any of the things that ramakrishna says to M at this time as anything final this is my feeling that everything is step by step building up to this and and then he'll give the other point of view and just like in Gita with with SRI Krishna Arjuna that we have to wait till we get to this now give up all dharma's the end he get the full picture he's he's working him this way in that way this way in that way so we find a lot of that in in this chapter and it seems that M had two very special roles to play one of course to be the recorder of the gospel and the second was how to live in the world not just uh as a good householder with mental renunciation but as a sannyasi living in the world somehow grihi sannyasi sometimes we hear this term that he he wanted them to to live in a world like that and uh if I'm a Christian had given any encouragement to m about renouncing I have no doubt that he would have done it that he had a great longing for that and I think a great Envy of the of the young men who were joining and we would go to about you can just feel that he doesn't want to leave he'd be so happy staying there and everything but he he was destined to kind of be pulled in two directions and and to be a special unique type of of example so anyhow I think that especially during this session and I mentioned before it's not even one chapter and I think that M uh is afraid or doesn't want to push himself forward too much it could have been one long chapter M stay with with sriyama Krishna but I think that would be pushing himself too much so it expands a couple of chapters but it's really uh we can if we look at it that way from this the beginning of this which is December I don't know something like that uh anyhow I remember it's 10 days 11 days something like that there's long long period to stay the only time maybe in kashipur we don't get anything recorded about that if he how often he stayed overnight but at least deduction is what okay so that's just some background stuff so it's Friday December 21st 1883. in the morning the master and M were conversing alone under the bell tree the master told him any secrets of spiritual discipline exhorting him to renounce comedy content now most of you know that I always say less than gold because I was instructed by our Swami swananji to say that but sometimes we have to just again just to emphasize how uh this is not something that that Tucker told the the householder disciples he would tell them renounce mentally this really comedy concern this is this is internal external both uh and uh so he's telling this to M and we were just wondering what is going through M's mind at this time so exhorting him to renounce lust and gold of course is good but really uh this is this is more the type of language and instructions that he gives to the Future monastics further he said that the mind at times becomes one's Guru now another unusual thing is that and rarely will write that taqwa said something about this normally he tells us normally he'll tell us what taqwa said he'll record it here he's just mentioning two topics that he spoke about uh without telling any details whatsoever so we have no idea uh how how strong he was with these things uh is it because these topics have come up several times before Maybe maybe M was just not in the mood he goes through with you know during this this period uh it's such an intense period that ramakrishna feared that he would uh renounce everything and and go off without telling anybody to the Himalayas he talks about uh who was it Narayan shastri the the I had this fear I looked at your eyes and it looked like you were about to run away the runaway means that he would renounce everything that inspired so much Sherman Christian was pushing this renunciation so strongly and then he said well then I thought no you're a thoughtful man you don't do anything without thinking about it for a long time so because and he and had come back he hadn't seen them he was alone meditating something like that but these are of course this comedy concert this this lust in Gold this is one of the main teachings of srama Krishna uh but this idea that the mind at times becomes one's in Guru there's another uh main teaching of srama Krishna so what does it mean that the mind at times becomes at times we could say in the course of time because it's a question of of the ripening of the mind we talk about the ripening of the ego but also uh the mind which develops a certain maturity and the certain self-control and real sense of discrimination with regard to what's important in life that mind can be trusted this is one of the great teachings from Gita that that mind is our friend but the same mind can be our worst enemy like it like a real external enemy and we say but I am that mind I I am that mind but sometimes this this mind it's almost as if it's it's the working against me that can really be my enemy so uh when does the Mind become our our guide we have this concept of the unto Yaman the anterior is the inner guide who is this inner guide and what does it mean exactly is it anything other than the mind uh the indwelling presence of of the Lord ishwara with within within the heart is of course within the heart but working through the Mind somehow because this uh this anteryamin if we're if we're very devotional people we'll say anterior is a personal God and that personal God will guide us now if we're just saying that uh there's there's some inner voice that the mind will tell us what to do and what not to do then when do we trust that mind and it says at times now if we take the example of the take the alcoholic okay that the mind of the alcoholic uh at night will say you can have one drink it won't hurt huh and then one leads to another another and they end up drunk the next morning the same mind will say you can't touch anything that you know that the same thing is going to happen over and over again each day you say I'll start tomorrow I'll start tomorrow you're going to do it today that same mind and then night time comes and it becomes the other mind until one day it actually it actually remains but uh we sometimes I think have a false notion that this idea of each other or viveka discrimination discernment whatever it is that there's something absolute about it that the the Mind should be able to clearly observe facts and be able to to say oh no this is the right way to do it this is the wrong way to do it I'll do it this way but it's it's so much colored by by this lower mind is covered by desires and our old some Scott is and and our passions and everything that there's real there's really no such thing as objective reasoning until the mind is free from all of those things otherwise reason becomes rationalization we we tell ourselves uh that we're that we're reasoning but we're just coming up with uh some false arguments to make us feel that we're doing the right thing deep down we may know that we're not sometimes the mind is is so tricky that even deep down we don't know we think we're making the right choice so uh we we have to know when we can trust the mind and when we can't trust the mind and which ramakrishna is saying that a point comes in spiritual life when that inner Compass will always Point North when will when we'll always get the right advice from the mind then the Mind itself becomes the guru then we can trust that mind that becomes our best friend otherwise we have to be wary and this is the role of of the real Guru this is the role of scripture this is the role of uh these great Souls that we see that leave examples for us ideals for us otherwise how do we know what to do and what not to do another Gita question huh how do we know what to do and what not to do what is the pramana so we need we need something uh some example to follow this is why we have ceramic Krishna and all of these teachings and everything but at some point at some point when the certain Clarity comes a certain purity of heart and Clarity thinking comes then the Mind itself can tell us what to do and what not to do other than that it may just be we end up being highly opinionated people who who are sure that we know what's right and what's wrong and we were telling everybody else and no I know this is right if that's your own and it's all nonsense so uh we we have to watch this mind this mind will take every opportunity to do something tricky and sneaky and tell us that no this is for your good I'm telling you for your good so uh when we reach that that stage when we get to that level where the Mind knows what's good for us and the mind is trustworthy then we can say the Mind itself becomes a guru and that's then it's kind of a safe haven in spiritual life before that the mind sometimes will be good and sometimes will be bad sometimes it'll it'll be devious sometimes it'll behave and be helpful so this is why Taco says the mind of times becomes one Guru and also in time at a certain point the Mind becomes trustworthy and you know Taco says even we can have the grace of the guru and everything else if we don't have the grace of the Mind and that that means this prasada I spoke about this last time this parasado means this is pure Clarity transparency of the mind that's not uh overlaying everything with our personal ego and and biases and everything else that has some objectivity to it the it's a very clear type of mind that's the mind that then we have that uh the the mind that there's this Luminosity to it and that's the grace of the mind parasada has both meetings that that's the mind that can become the guru so takur talks about these things in other places so that may be why I am he doesn't give us any any details only it says he meaning sure I'm Krishna further said that the mind at times becomes one's Guru after his midday meal the master went to the panchavati wearing a beautiful yellow robe uh two or three vaishnava monks were there clad and the dress of their sect in the afternoon a monk belonging to the sect of nanak arrived now this is another curious thing we don't hear too much about the monastic tradition within the the Sikh Dharma that during takwa's time it was it must have been more common because there's several different times when he meets these he calls them nanakpanthisadhus where he meets them where he talks about having met them before and even quotes them and everything there was one sect udasi anybody know anything about that I think it was uh Guru nanaks one of his sons started it and yeah there is some monastic tradition that I think is pretty much gone I don't know but anyhow takura takur's relationship with with the Sikh Community is another very beautiful chapter I gave a talk on that once it's a very nice thing that because of this magazine this magazine means this uh this uh just north of the dakshineswar was where all the gunpowder and ammunition everything was stored and and uh barakpur I think was where they they stayed the soldiers and most of them were Sikhs that they had recruited and they brought the Calcutta and everything the tremendous regard and respect for srama Krishna that so much so that there was one time they were marching down the street and they saw him on the other side and they all stopped to make Bruno and this uh one of one of the commanders British commanders he was about to tell them you know no everybody get up right now and the other one said to him no no no and let them do what they want to do they kill you if you stop it's a tremendous regard they used to come there was one what was his name kawar Singh who used to bring lots of things they would bring gifts and everything so a very sweet relationship between shramakrishna and uh and the Sikh non-verse Sikh religion although he never practiced it he never had any Sikh Guru I never really thought of that before but anyhow he great regard for them uh he didn't consider Guru nanak to be an avatar but yeah it's it's something like that yeah anyhow he had great regard for them so there were the monks at that time at least that were not it was not unusual so in the afternoon among belonging to this act of nanak arrived he was a worshiper of the formless god this is standard is the Sikh Dharma the a lot of their chants and hymns they'll have the name of Rama but other than that they don't really think more of this impersonal nirakar this formless aspect of God they were highly influenced by the Islam almost almost uh emerging the Islamic teachings and and Hindu they were mostly from the chaturia classes because of this Rama connection I think mostly yeah but yeah but despite that they really didn't they weren't worshipers of God with form the way typical vaishnavas are uh and the Punjab was known for that Arya samaj also although they believed in these Davis and the gods and the goddesses and things but anyhow this uh impersonal so he was a worshiper of the formless god SRI ramakrishna asked him to meditate as well on God with form now we we see two uh two Tendencies within shivama Krishna one is that uh he he never Disturbed anybody's spiritual mood and and always uh inspired them to follow their spiritual path and one thing second thing was he he always filled things out if there was a lack or an absence or something that would be helpful then he would add that so uh whenever he's talking to some of the Orthodox evolution of us that he'll start talking about uh the the need to be more liberal and accepting and everything but at the same time he'll he won't try to tell them you know give up worship of God with form he he won't disturb their spiritual mood he had a very strong feeling that uh people should should follow the path that they're on unless it's not suitable for them some that's possible that he could find people like that but there are many times when he would give a little bit of the opposite advice so that they wouldn't be too one-sided and and he'll would uh somehow filled out any any Gap they had and and it would be helpful so here he's saying that all right he asked him to meditate as well on God with form now this is still am just describing things he's not quoting him I don't know why maybe during this period he was so intense that he didn't write things in his journal as well or I don't know why the master said to him dive deep well now we're getting some quotes of us dive deep one does not get the precious gems by merely floating on the surface God is without form no doubt but he also has form this was the one of the first statements that Tucker made to him in the very first meeting and and was it was just baffled that how can both things be true at the same time with form without form can can something like milk be both white and black at the same time but taqwa's understanding is so much more subtle later we get this idea that the water it can take a form but it's formless the whole time the form is not essential to it it can go back to the formula state so uh these were all things that M learned by meditating on God with form one speedily acquires devotion then one can meditate on the formless god now this is not a teaching that we get very often from shivami Krishna that meditate on God with form in order to be able to meditate on the formless so why why he's doing it here is hard to say but if we if we understand surama krishna's conception of God with form god with form means that God can take any form so if we if we think of the illustration of say that of liquid that you die if if somebody understands that every color that comes out indicates that the vat has to be colorless and every time we take water in the in the container and it takes that form we know that water has to be formless in order to take all of the different forms so if we think very deeply about this idea the ishtel idea that God can be thought of in in many different forms because I it has to be only that which has no form essential form of its own can take multiple forms even a substance like clay if if clay can be turned into all different shapes and forms we can make a clay horse a clay dog and then that clay itself has to be able to to get into a a form or can be found in a form where it doesn't have any shape to it just a round ball something like that so if we can if we can learn uh the significance of God with form maybe he's trying to say something like that we understand that the formlessness is the ground of form that the impersonal is the ground of the personal if it's not then it's only true that God is is uh is a woman that God has to be worshiped his mother is only true if that's the essential thing but if if God is that which can be worshiped his mother his father is anything then God has to be impersonal with the and if we just say God is only impersonal that we're missing the point that that liquid can turn cloth into so many different colors both are true both are true that uh the the water it doesn't have to be in a container it can just be in the ocean if it's going to form into a wave it'll have a particular form but it won't last it'll go into something else uh so this is that very very subtle and sophisticated concept of of God with form and without form at the same time yeah then he says it is like throwing a letter away after learning its contents and then setting out to follow its instructions okay this Friday I don't know what kind of mood and was in he doesn't tell us too much of anything he just records this one little thing and then we go to the next day Saturday December 22nd 1883. Harish M and latu had been staying with Krishna at dakshineswar I think we might almost want to say they had been living with SRI ramakrishna because it was for a longer period but I'll call would go for long periods sometimes he would go back home uh M now it's it's been over a week for him lotu uh just at the very beginning when he was uh working for Ram Chandra at the very beginning he would go spend some time and come back but by the time uh that uh [Music] we've reached here Lot 2 will be permanently staying there so he was he was there to be the main attendant to to nishrama Krishna uh the Harish is another interesting character now he's also married he's a family man but uh Krishna for some reason uh allowed him to stay for uh rather I don't know how long rather good period of time there without telling him no you're neglecting your family you go back home and everything we don't know why that some he'll scold and say no you married and now you want other people to raise your children you go back home and why would this Harish who really became a little demented he really became crazy leader what happened we don't know for sure uh is some idea that he was given some medicine for something that made his mind go a little crazy we know that story when he went to jarambati he was holy mother his idea that his wife was giving and you know he must not have had a happy marriage but I don't know what the real story was but he became a little crazy later then afterwards it was okay I I think I don't know the rest of his life or anything I don't know yeah so uh so he's there at that time so m is probably also wondering well what about him what what about me he said not only do I have to go back home at the end but you want me to live with my father we're a miserable so and look at the honey she's he was he was sincere before he he went got off imbalance he was sincere and talked was very fond of him there's no question about that but uh generally taku would say no you're you're married you can you can realize God living in the world that practice mental renunciation for some reason he let him stay there for some time I don't think yeah I don't think takur thought that this would be a lifelong thing with him so maybe he did feel that this period of time was necessary for him yeah perhaps perhaps same thing with the harjura also had his family and everything and how tuckworth begged him go back and see your mother as he's writing please we just want to see him we won't force him to stay with us and everything still he didn't want to do it and uh Narendra was his big friend would always stick up for him and my mother's also yeah he likes this life here that life of renunciation of course it wasn't much of a life of renunciation for him he was always trying to take to get people to give them money to pay off his debt and everything but he liked living induction as far with the devotees and he would give Liberty's instructions also and sometimes contradicts ramakrishna at other times fall at his feet and with the great devotion talk with him what is this yesterday you're saying I don't know anything you know so he was another curious character really nobody could have written a play like this what was the characters that were there so rakal this is Saturday December 22nd 1883 Raquel Harish M and latu had been staying with ramakrishna at the Chinese word about nine o'clock in the morning the master was sitting with them on the Southeast Veranda of his room when balarama's father and Devendra Ghosh of champakur arrive now we have the issue of fathers we have valderrama's father and we have Rocco's father we have a few a few cases where takur we we see this this other side of him I won't say that he's a flatterer but he's the but he's doing whatever he can so that uh in this case that Rocco's that uh balaram's father won't have any objection to brother I'm coming see they came from a very orthod activation of a family there's a type of relation of a family that really uh they stayed within their own community a very close-knit Community these were all this is followers of caitanya and uh they had a place in in Orissa and it plays in Randolph and they were wealthy people and there's one all the other Sons were the children I don't know how many teeth but they were looking after property and doing thing and living the life of a good relationship here he's hanging out with his colleague worshiper and who has a bad reputation and and all sorts of uh they hear all sorts of rumors and everything so srama Krishna not so much here but in other places uh he meets with the father and also another brother because they were always threatening to to cut off the stipend for baluran when takur says that brother Rama is a little cheap he wasn't really cheap but uh he's they didn't trust him with money he'll give all of it away he was actually very generous uh so any other arms father and we see with rock Hall's father it's even funnier yeah because he was another one that had a little bit of money had a little bit of uh it was a landowner and everything and and some objection uh so Sharma Christian was always very careful to tell Rocco's father oh you see this person he's a deputy magistrate he's a lawyer at this and that so gradually he can say oh I see they're influential people there that it's not so bad to come here so takoris he didn't miss a trick with anything huh how he could smooth things out for Rock Island for brother goes I don't know who this person is anybody a devotee sir how does one obtain love for God now we get a long section really on bhakti yoga here and part of it may may be because of baluram's father who was actually a very good man every developed man and Tucker liked him and he also came to respect although still they've had some Community feeling they'd better to remain within the community so maybe some of this is in either for his benefit or inspired by him mastered go forward now it says a devotee we've already been told the people who were staying there we don't know how many other people are in the room whether the devotee is M himself very often he'll just say a devotee it means him uh whether it's one of those whether it's brother and father or the Devendra goes he just says the devotee every chance it's heaven how does one obtain love for God Master go forward the king dwells beyond the seven Gates you can see him only after passing through all the gates now the seven Gates these can be Kundalini there are some seven is an interesting number we have these Seven Hills and the seventh uh seven heavens and everything even in Christianity the seventh heaven it's uh Dante's Inferno Seven Hills and seven Heavens huh something like that yeah I don't know why exactly but yeah anyhow so remember Krishna often talked about the death of Guyana yoga being able to go so far whether bhakti-oh it can go in the inner apartments and get to the to the top of all these things at the time of the installation of Annapurna at chanak I said to dwarika Babu large fish live in the deep water of a big lake throw some spiced bait into the water then the fish will come attracted by its smell now and then they will make the water splash devotion and ecstatic love are like the spiced bait now Taco is going to talk about a very interest interesting uh concept that uh God doesn't attract us we attract God we become the magnet at some point that with our devotion is so great God can't stay away so he's saying that if we have that love and devotion uh if if everyone fishing I've seen this we have it's called chump they take this old cut up fish and everything that no one's going to use and you throw it in the water and all the other fish get to smell and come close then you can go fishing for the other fish so they had that same idea spiced bait they call it and so all of the other fish the immediately get the smell of it the stinky fish but they like it and they'll all come so this is the example he's giving that if we have that love and devotion then God himself will come running and I said he says in the beginning God is the magnet and we're like the iron then at the end uh God is there we become like the magnet and God has no choice but to come to us it's a beautiful conception foreign throw some spice bait into the water then the fish will come attracted by its smell now and then they will make the water splash devotion and ecstatic love are like the spiced bait got sports in the world as man now we get a long section about this Divine Incarnation the avatar he incarnates himself as man as in the case of Krishna Rama and caitanya his opinion of caitanya Deva was it underwent a a very radical change we know that he came from the writing of the family but not from this chaitanya school they were worshipers Rama and he himself he gives the impression growing up that he didn't have too much connection with these Godiva with that community and he would say things like well we heard things about this chaitanya Deva and we thought oh they're just building them up he didn't have I didn't have that conviction when he was young and he had curiosity and we know when he went to you know the Earth and everything how we had that experience and and the more he knew the more he became convinced that caitanya Deva was an avatar and the more he became convinced that the two of them on the one hand we can say that if he if he felt that he he who was Ramadan he was Krishna he used caitanya Deva also has to be added he had that conviction but aside from that were resembled caitanya Deva far more than he resembled either Krishna or Rama that with all this and all this bhava and everything and teachings in the name of God so many things that they were very very similar only uh the the concept or the the picture that's painted of caitanya Deva uh is is of him being uh a dualist who will only follow the path of devotion which I think is also not realistic but this is this is the picture that we get of him uh as as the movement has has grown through the years okay one place education the greatest manifestation of God is in man now this this means uh in every human being and in the Avatar it means both one every human being more than in any other uh we can say God dwells within all things we can say God dwells within all living beings by the greater manifestation in this human form and among humans and greater manifestation in what's known as the avatar now how we understand the avatars is a very personal thing there are some people very happy with this idea that God decides to be born as a human being that means that there's some very strong belief in personal God there are some who will say that according to Gita it's this this uh some historical event some historical event that this Dharma is in danger of uh being reduced to nothing and the Avatar has to be born is almost a Marxist idea that the forces of History will cause them so many different ways but we can simply sometime with Taco will just say I like looking through the hole and seeing the vast infinite Meadow or like a huge wave and everyone else is a small wave so all different ways of understanding uh talk word now is talking uh more in this idea that the personal God will come in human form but we have to understand it's not that God isn't in heaven anymore we have that story of course the Vishnu incarnates is uh as this out and everything and they all want him to come back in heaven because he's not there but that's not really the concept concept is is not that the personal God is no longer uh in dwelling within his own realm wherever that is or whatever that is during the time of the of the avatar that it can be both just says God dwelling within within his uh says they're the under Yaman is is the inner self whatever doesn't mean that that same Brahman isn't there and upholding the universe and everything else that that doesn't get changed so once I said the keshav the greatest manifestation of God is in man there are small holes in the bulk of the field where crabs and fish accumulate in the rainy season if you want to find them you must seek them in the holes if you seek God you must see him in the incarnations so he would say similar things about humans that the human heart is is the drawing room boy talk kind of things like that but he will say it more uh we'll talk about the the cow that you touch the cow anywhere you've touched the cow but if you touch the utter there's the essential part because this is where the milk comes so we'll make distinctions yes because this was a big argument that narender is always having that rendered and others a big argument that how do you talk about God manifesting in human form as a singular event or a historical event God is dwelling within all beings manifests within all beings so Taco would say ah yes yes he's right that endures right and everything but is different in the power that spiritual power that comes and during these special periods why and how we don't know the Divine mother of the universe manifests herself through this three and a half Cubit man there's a song that says now is it Vishnu who comes as the Avatar is it the Divine mother thou we say in Divine mother is it Shakti sometimes he'll say this Avatar there's a manifestation of Shakti these are not conflicting ideas these are just couching it in different slightly different language yeah for him Shakti is the personal God but this is he's using this language because he's going to be singing a song that's going to talk about the Divine mother yeah he does that he knows how to introduce songs in other one of the special features of takur he really knew he really knew how to lay out his case he'll give a teaching and then he'll tell a little story and that story will turn out to be part of the lyrics of a song he has this technique teaching technique of course not thought out ahead of time and just it was something natural to him so the Divine mother of the universe manifests herself through this three and a half Cubit man three and a half cubits just means the size of a person that doesn't mean anything special yeah it means that he's not coming as this uh vishwarud archana that he says is with with a thousand heads and arms and everything I mean like an ordinary looking person there's a song that says oh mother what a machine is this that thou Hast made what pranks thou placed with this toy three and a half cubits High one needs spiritual practice in order to know God and recognize divine incarnations even even to recognize someone with any spiritual stature even to recognize who's who's achieved and who's a phony and who's who's something legitimate we we have to have a little bit of of spiritual maturity and we sometimes forget that's ramakrishna talks about Grace so much there's breeds of Grace we forget how much emphasis he puts on effort you have the tremendous grid how how much emphasis he puts on on doing spiritual practice I will wake up everybody in the room at 12 o'clock or two in the morning or something and then I'll get up for meditation and it'll make them sit straight and every he was a tremendous believer in in uh intense spiritual practice but an equally great believer in Grace but we have to have this in order to be able to to understand Grace and experience and catch catch it so a need spiritual practice in order to know God and recognize divine incarnations so even even that we we have to first have some understanding of divinity dwelling within us some understanding of consciousness of what it means for the self some understanding it is the ego is is just floating on the surface that's not the real source of Consciousness or anything some understanding of divinity before we can understand how we can manifest in a special way within the human being big fish live in the large lake but to see them one must throw spiced bait in the water so again we get that example there's butter and milk but one must churn the milk to get it so first we turn then we sit we will usually add that and then the main thing is to not disturb it let it sit quietly and everything until it can turn into curd there's butter and milk but one must turn the milk to get it there's oil and mustard seed but one must press the seed to extract the oil devity has God form or is he formless didn't we just get this question or did I did I uh did I skip something oh no okay so uh Master wait wait first of all you must go to Calcutta then only will you know where the moydan the Asiatic society and the Bengal Bank are located how we know where the Bengal Bank was if you want to go to the Brahmin quarter of quarter you must first of all go to korda Tucker went there many times Temple is there and that uh now our rahora is near near that area also huh we'll call that north of Calcutta you know on the other side but near the same area because I remember I went to the championship temple one time and a coin caitanya used to live there in that that area many are not important any of the just giving an example why should it not be possible to practice the discipline of the formless god but it is very difficult to follow that path one cannot follow it without renouncing Mustang gold okay now here I we can we can really say external renunciation as well as internal renunciation in fact you'll say there must be complete renunciation both inner and outer you cannot succeed in this path if we have the slightest traits of worldiness this uh is a very traditional traditional View also talks about the householder gyani but it's it's a kind of a rare thing now the reason for this it's not any a Dakota idea that only uh those who can take sannyasa are qualified for this the point is that uh if if we're trying to realize Oneness of the of the of the self with with Brahman the G watman and Paramount then uh the second we have any understanding of ourself as being connected in any way with the body mind sense of ego and everything like that and then we can't we can't uh conceive of that identity when we say Jiva the Jiva does not foreign this is very important as the Jiva is is a Brahman and nothing else that means that it's it's not uh the Jiva connected with his body mind and everything somehow it means this this the pure self so unless we have a concept of what it means this is pure self which is consciousness which doesn't require and the conception of of being embodied even we can't conceive of this uh Oneness with this infinite absolute Brahman and uh we we may have a very clear intellectual understanding of the nature of the self if we try to meditate on that nature that of that self that pure self is one with the Brahman and we're not free from attachment and desire then the mind will instantly Forge that false identification with the body and the mind and the senses all enjoyment has to come through the mind in the body in the senses and if if the mind is attached to that then the mind will be will be attached to this physical presence which is not one with the Brahman it may be a manifestation of Brahmin but we can say that uhmi when that eye means this ego sense so that has to be taken care of at the very beginning this is why it's always said is this glacier this is the world more difficult though to follow this path of of knowledge now so why would he taught this in the West huh so uh I take this domain the exclusive Path of Knowledge but talk we wanted have that understanding but accept this this identification that we have with the ego as long as we have a sense of I form a relationship with another he had the whole formula formula former relationship with God worshiped God that way and then you'll give have something to hold on to and then gradually grow higher and higher and higher so uh I I think we have to understand this as those who want to exclusively follow he said Yana yoga without any compromise and without taking the help even of belief in the person of God or the avatar because taku will stay here that for the gyani doesn't even have that conception let me see uh it is easy to worship god with form but it is not as easy as all that one should not discuss the discipline of the impersonal God or The Path of Knowledge with the bhakta yeah a taco used to tell narender that don't say these things to rakal and now he's in this mood of the personal God through great effort perhaps he is just cultivating a little devotion you will injure it if you explain away everything as a mere dream and yeah this is a long section that will go on uh it sounds a little bit one-sided and a little bit anti-gana yoga but we have to look at the context and who he's talking to and everything and understand that having a grounding in this ultimate knowledge and Oneness and following The Path of Knowledge are two different things we can understand that yes I'm a wave in this infinite ocean of Consciousness and one with it uh in in that sense but to to recognize and accept the fact that this feeling of I does not leave and like a stick on water it allows us to have a relationship one side to the other and let that be helpful in our spiritual life this is why uh we have this this idea that we take the help of Yana and we follow this used to take the help of devotional practices uh I always like that that statement it's probably permission as you made that we are already put it huh do I advise the Guardians and Dwight accordions yeah that we accept the truth of non non-duality but we we uh base our spiritual practice on this idea of separation because this is this is the feeling that we that we have that we start anyhow so uh yeah we'll stop here we're in page 354 still on that that same day um [Music] foreign who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts and sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the Divine and the Supreme Lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace be unto him but just a reminder to everyone that uh Sunday and Monday we have our Labor Day weekend retreat we're very happy that uh or mataji Krishna Prana for Raju Krishna Prana from Santa Barbara is here and our our own dears for me chid Brahman on this for me see is here and it should be a very nice program if you can come everyone's welcome to come if you're vaccinated and in good health and everything will be on YouTube also so if you can't come or you're from out of town you can follow everything there you can see all the links and the and the schedule and everything on the website foreign