Video 116

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (12/23/22)

foreign [Music] Souls they are praised by Poets and removal 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 we're on the chapter I'm at daksin dishwar part two and the date is Wednesday January 2nd 1884 and it's page 375. at eight o'clock that evening when the master was sitting in his room with a rock called an M it was the 21st day of the M stay with SRI ramakrishna the master had forbidden him to indulge in reasoning now this is a very big theme it runs through the gospel of Sharma Krishna this question of which are which are it's one of these uh doctrines or one of these ideas that plays a very very important role in vedanta in fact almost all of the way to vedanta in in Ghana yoga is based on this idea of this idea of each other of each other and viveka it means to to reason things out to use our understanding or intellect and and it has a role to play but there are certain questions that are beyond our ability to understand through the mind and we have to be able to distinguish between which questions or dead-end questions and which ones are not helpful to us and which ones are important for us so shivrama Krishna he gives two opposite pieces of advice very very often especially to M that he'll say don't reason anymore promise me you won't do this of each other you won't reason anymore and then other times he'll say I want you to constantly reason using the same term we got it constantly reason so this this question comes up naturally that what is the good one and what is the bad one when when do we when do we know when we should use our our intelligence and our logic and our common sense and when do we know that it's not going to help us and it's just a dead end for us so there's a very big issue a very practical question and we have to really understand what questions are not helpful to reason but there's there's a a line that I've mentioned several times this [Music] don't try to uh use logic on those things which are inscrutable don't try to apply reasoning to those things which are beyond the realm of reason achintia there's a whole school of vedanta called based on this this idea so there are so many questions that we're constantly asking about why this universe is the way it is how it came into being these big questions that don't have any good answers or they have lots of different answers and all of them are appealing in one way and not appearing in another way and we choose what we want to believe in or we or we leave it alone this is the other the other option one of the advantages to studying philosophy is that we see that I everybody has their own different way of looking at things and there's nothing absolute about any philosophical system or any philosophical position they are all just a different point of view a different take this this idea of darshana we use a short darcia that I some people take it to me and that this was their vision of Truth but this is probably to better understand it as this is just their point of view they're looking at it from this position and this is the conclusion that they come to but we see so many times when ramakrishna he'll still say that I don't understand this he'll talk to the Divine mother and mother I don't care to understand this and this is a very big theme among the the shaktas that mother that uh all my life I've tried to understand but you're inscrutable how can I understand you and your ways and everything every very big thing and and drama Krishna likes that idea and the M uh was very learned very brilliant he had studied a lot of Western thought philosophy and logic and literature and everything and uh was prone to this type of of reasoning and there's certain issues say there's avatar for example how can we logically understand how this infinite absolute Brahman can somehow manifest uh in human form Tucker he himself uses that language that is impossible for us to conceive of this uh in an illogical way that there are just certain things that we can't explain there are many things that we can explain and we have to get used to that that we we have this tremendous desire to come up with explanations for everything and what we do is we postpone trying to have that direct realization which which means doing our spiritual practice uh because we get too involved with these different questions the uh one of the great teachers of the Buddha was that don't ask all of these questions that the whole life will go and trying to find these answers and you'll have missed this opportunity to achieve the goal of life when we know about the man who was shot with the arrow and before he would allow the doctor to remove the arrow he wanted to know who shot it and what the village was and what his cast was all these different questions so what they said but before he can get all the answers his life will be gone so this this uh something that's specifically applicable to m because he had that tendency to reason but for all of us that we just have to accept the fact that there aren't answers to all of these metaphysical questions and the philosophy is speculative it's speculative so uh what we have we have two one two sides two different things and ceramic Christianity which speaks in this this language also we have the reality and we have uh our description or understanding or or dissecting of it or or take on what that reality is and this can never match this that every description is a limitation and it's looking at it from one point of view it's missing another point of view and the the reality defies these analogies so it'll say things like what do the key taste like it tastes like ghee why try to come up with some other thing you want to know what it tastes what ghee tastes like taste it then you'll know what it's like well you'll be able to explain that we have different types of fruits huh that we say what is it tasting a little bit like a pear a little bit like an apple but you don't really know until you taste it and then it doesn't matter if you can describe it to somebody else or not you've tasted it you know what it tastes like so for ceramic Krishna this is that the whole idea of Brahman is that no matter what we say about it it's going to be incomplete with form without form both Transcendent imminent with gunas without gunas that it's all going to be limited by our understanding and the reality itself is unaffected by whether we give a good interpretation or bad interpretation all of these schools of philosophy are just vain attempts to try to give some definitive explanation of this this universe and this reality we call it Brahman and completely limited by uh the the point of view that that is taken by the uh ground it's laid see we start out with certain preconditions in in philosophy we'll accept something as our starting point so whether we take this universe as the starting point we'll get a different conclusion we take the Atman we'll get the different conclusion so they're they're all uh incomplete and we spend our whole life trying to do this type of philosophy and we're not doing our spiritual practice because these things can be experienced when we go beyond this surface logical mind we have to transcend it so M has been with him now for it's going to be 21 22 23 days it's it's a long period and it's with ramakrishna in dakshineswar the only time that he spent this is a long solid period with an outbreak with ramakrishna and he's really trying to mold him and get rid of all of his rough edges and everything and lead him he's going to emphasize the path of devotion now devotion doesn't mean dualism devotion means that we use the heart and the feeling not just the brain and the mind so this is all a culmination Taco is going to be very strong and pushing this one thing it's all culmination of this whole uh testing period and and training period that you give me to m while he's staying there we remember the last time and had the desire to go home and surely said no you're fine here that he ever he hadn't put the finishing touches on yet and he didn't want anything to get Disturbed he's really we can see how he's just making him the perfect instrument to be able to present his words to the world and for M's benefit spiritual benefit also so Master to Rocco now the very common technique that taco would use sometimes he would give instructions to one person by talking to somebody else so is it meant for all of them of course but to rakov it is not good to reason too much first come to God and then the world realize God first then you will know all about his world to women if one if first one is introduced to Jadu Malik was a very wealthy man a lot of properties and uh Banks know all sorts of different things then one could know everything about him the number of his houses Gardens government securities and so on for this reason the receipt NADA advised while Mickey to repeat the word Mara ma means god and ra the world there's a whole thing I think most of you know this story that says the author of The ramayana it is said that the sage had lived the life of a Highwayman come in contact with Narada he became eager to lead a spiritual life yeah what happened was not just the eager the Narada said to him you're doing all of this meeting people and stealing and taking their money maybe killing them and everything you're getting a lot of Bad Karma he said yeah but I'm doing it for my family to serve it he said well you think your family is willing to take this bad karma along with you because they're getting the benefit from it he said yeah I think so so in order took him and they asked and I said no why shall I get that bad karma the kids that I'm not the one doing it so that was a big blow to him and it got him thinking about things in everything that was kind of a catalyst for him so Narada asked him to chant the holy name of Rama as a spiritual discipline but on account of the sinful tendency of his mind while Miki could not utter the holy word he was then advised to repeat the word the reverse of Rama through yearning and urdishness the Heart of the robber became purified and it was then possible for him to chant from his name as a result he obtained perfection first come to God and then the world so how much can we know of this world really when we think about it how much can we understand of creation and well the beginnings and is this going over and over again cycle after cycle from time without beginning and time without end and all of these Divas is there a finite number infinite number are they coming and going no one's being create if we ask all of these questions we'll find everything ends up with a contradiction this is really really frustrating if we think that we can understand these things yes with the help of our intellect and uh Mr Robert Krishna he says that we're trying to pour a huge quantity of of milk into a small container but the point is not that uh our intellect is too small if we get a bigger container will we be able to hold it no it's not that it's just something a priori something just by the very nature of this question and the Very nature of the mind which functions within the realm of time space and causation Maya that it can't understand those things Beyond Maya it's just effective life there's nothing we can do about it but we can have the realization by allowing this mind to go beyond its normal limits by making it quiet and let it merge and become one with that reality this is a different thing this this of course is is the ultimate goal Krishna Krishna Kishore says that the word is a holy Mantra because it was given to valmiki by the Rishi love means god and wrath the world therefore like valmiki we want you to First renounce everything and cry to God in solitude with a longing heart the first thing necessary is the vision of God then comes reasoning about the scriptures and the world now reasoning about the scriptures in the world one thing that taco emphasizes is that there are certain things in the scriptures that we can dispense with he says there's a mixture of sugar and sand that we have to learn that we we take the the little tidbits the little pieces of gold the the Diamond the gems there and don't worry about anything else there'll be plenty of things in the scriptures that will always ask questions about everybody's always asking about how Ram is treated Sita so talkers ideas then leave that aside these are not not that everything it's a very unusual point of view because uh our idea of sharuti especially is that everything is is is sugar there's no sand in it there can't be anything that contradicts anything else but true I'm a Christian he's much more practical they'll know that some things are not to be taken literally and this and that we take what's what's a value to us now there's another type of each other that is essential in spiritual life and that is what is a value and what is not generally we think of each other as as an Assad what is real and what is unreal these are helpful types of things what is changing what is permanent what will lead to something higher what will drag us down to the world this type of each other we have to do but this this reasoning to try to figure out all these other philosophical things is not very helpful talk with idea we have that realization first then if we're interested maybe we'll know but this is also a bit of a trick once we have that realization we won't be very much concerned with those things we'll know that that's the sole reality and everything else is part of this Layla display is Maya something like that is is in tricky because it's so contrary to the nature of the human mind huh we want answers to everything to to reach the conclusion that uh not just that it's not important to get the answers but there aren't conclusive answers that will satisfy everyone there just aren't everyone will have a different take a different point of view and a belief system is something that appeals to us it's not always that it's 100 logical this is something that I I really I think it's good for us to uh to admit to ourselves that most of the things we believe in are things that we like to believe in and not necessarily things that we think are provable and that uh everybody should believe in them and that this is this is the say one very easy example everything is God's will these are more positions spiritual attitudes and spiritual positions another person says everything is karma another person will say well it's a mixture we have a little bit of Freedom we're a little bit everything a little bit of psychologically determined they were all different positions and each one has some Merit to it not there's not one that's final and absolute and we have to say that yes everything is God's will what do we even mean by that we don't know what these things mean we say things like that it's good for us to admit to ourselves sometimes how little we understand of this world proper himself says it and if he's if he says that a mother I don't understand I don't care to understand I just want to take shelter with you and it's a very nice name if I say if these these chocolates those who look upon God his mother to him that is why I have been telling you not to reason anymore I came from the Pine Grove to say that to you through too much reasoning your spiritual life will be injured you will at last become legazura azra would just sit in until his beat and and think that he was very brilliant and that he had all the answers that these young boys doing this pujian worship and jump in everything they're wasting their time everything is just I am he he a tremendous Pride that came from thinking he had a little bit of unjust knowledge I used to roam at night in the streets all alone and cry to the Divine mother oh mother blight with thy Thunderbolt my desire to reason tell me this is to M tell me that you won't reason anymore now it doesn't mean that also that we just swallow things the talk were didn't want us to accept anything without testing it and uh swamiji makes a very he explains a very nice way he says this reality is beyond reason but it will never contradict reason it won't be something illogical physiologically then it can't be can exist can can be true but it'll it'll be beyond that so so he says to uh to m telling me that you won't reason anymore and yes sir I won't reason anymore master everything can be achieved through bhakti alone now again talk with idea bhakti was not it's not something that we can identify with with dualism this is Gen generally uh at that time even today and I think in the minds of many many people that a devotional position is a dualistic position and the position of the gyani is a non-dualistic position actually the father was of mature and ramanuja they also do tremendous amount of reasoning and logic and everything some of these Duelists do they have very intricate philosophies and they'll argue I'll use all sorts of logic and everything to prove the truth of dualism so from that point of view they're also using this Gandhi yoga which we can see so it's it's not exactly uh legitimate to identify path of devotion with the dualistic position and the path of Guyana yoga although there's more common with with strict non-dualism so uh ceramic Christians devotion uh is a practical question and psychological and emotional devotion it all depends on this feeling of the heart because spiritual life and even meditation is more a question of feeling than of thinking and if we can utilize our emotions uh without being overly emotional and I see it's such a fine balance we don't want to be irrational about anything but we don't want to rely too much on reasoning so there's a path of devotion allows us to use the heart center it allows us to establish a relationship with God and it allows us to uh transform ourselves through this relationship and this loving relationship brings us closer and closer and then we we start to feel this Oneness so for srama Krishna the path of devotion leads to Oneness also everything can be achieved through bhakti alone now he's not saying that it's only through bhakti that one can achieve everything but everything can be achievedila those who want the knowledge of Brahman will certainly achieve that also by following the trail of bhakti so the ads are all different but somehow ceramic Krishna always says that everything ends in Oneness this is the the final stage the end of each different path of the each set of stairs to the roof is somehow this this Oneness now it may be explained in terms of Union the devotees will explain in terms of Union the Johnny absolute Oneness others will be merging one merges into the other these again this is our human mind trying to explain this experience which is beyond everything so the the devotee after that realization very rarely will want to say that now I am he but they'll want to say that yes in that state uh one uh gets merged gets emerged through love and that a higher reality and the personal God but they won't want to say I am he when when that he means the personal God they won't want to do that the the shock does generally don't but they also have this this is a saw him I am she this will be one one school that will have that idea that one ultimately realizes one's Oneness with mother but generally it's the Oneness that the child has with the mother that the child feels uh in the lap of the mother is achieved achieves that that ultimate Union not not that there's perfect identity this is more of really the Giannis who have that so those who want the knowledge of Brahman will certainly achieve that also by following the trail of bhakti can a man blessed with the grace of God ever lack knowledge so this knowledge now is not that same each other knowledge there's knowledge now is the experience of that reality at kamarpukur I have seen grain dealers measuring Patty as one Heap is measured away another Heap is pushed forward to be measured the mother supplies the devotees with the Heap of knowledge now there these are all these different spiritual nuggets we can say these little teachings that we get from time to time actually throughout the whole Gospel of ceramic that we can say uh our little tidbits of of wisdom something like that uh some of the the favorite Expressions that ramakrishna has things like think of this egos as taking the surface of water that try to form a relationship with God uh this learn to take refuge take shelter uh nothing happens without spiritual practice all of these these are all truisms we can say they're not final positions about philosophical standpoints or anything but they're little truisms that and Sharma krishna's case he felt mother kept providing him with these things at kamarpukur I've seen grain dealers measuring Patty is when Heap is measured away another Heap is pushed forward to be measured the mother supplies the devotees with the Heap of knowledge after attaining God one looks unapundit as mere straw and dust but milochan said to me what does it matter if I accompany you to a meeting at the house of a fisherman this refers to the Kali Temple ashwani belonged to the Skyward cast this fisherman cast for the brahmins this is a very low caste they won't want to take food there anything well does it matter if I accompany you to a meeting at the house of a fisherman with you I can dine even at the house of a pariah there's a footnote a reference to mathur Babu who belonged to the fisherman cast the Orthodox Brahman refuses to set foot in the house of a fisherman Who belongs to a low cast everything can be realized simply through love of God if one is able to love God one does not lack anything karthika and Ganesha were seated near bhagavati who had a necklace of gems around her neck the Divine mother said to them I will present this necklace to him who was the first to go around the universe therefore kartiga without losing a moment set out on the peacock his carrier Vanessa on the other hand in a leisurely fashion went around the Divine mother and prostrated himself before her he knew that she contained within herself the entire universe the Divine mother was pleased with him and put the neckness the necklace around his neck after a long while karthika returned and found his brother seated there with the necklace on of course we can explain this also the Indiana she was a guyani he had that understanding and we sometimes explained it that way that the Divine mother is everything but a very nice nice illustration of of the wisdom of Ganesha and also the Devotion to the mother that he had weeping I prayed to the mother well mother revealed to me what is contained in The Vedas and the vedanta revealed to me what is in the purana and the Tantra one by one she has revealed all these to me yes she taught me everything oh how many things she has shown me one day she showed me Shiva and Shakti everywhere everywhere I saw the communion of Shiva and Shakti Shiva and Chuck the existing and all living things men animals trees plants I saw them in the communion of all male and female elements this this is a common theme that runs through almost all of the philosophical systems that there are two sides to this one reality that one will be this Buddhist side and the other paragraph Shivan Shakti even for the gyanese we have Brahman and we have Maya and one is always symbolized as male and the other symbolizes female because the role of the husband and the wife are different the father and the mother are different that the mother is the one who gives a birth to the child out of her own body so the Divine mother will always symbolize the nature of the side of it and the Shiva side is always the conscious sorry so one is active one is inactive one is imminent one is transcendent everything is this combination uh and this is how we explain uh Kali Temple the mother Kali is standing on the chest of Shiva that they can't be separate they have to go together and he's unconscious and in not really unconscious but unmoving we could say and she's the one she's the power the Shakti but you can have the Shakti without the Shiva you can't have Shiva without the Shakti they have to go together this is one of the main teachings your whole sanki system is based on this this idea everything is a combination with only one we can explain anything so they give this example of this that the blind person and the lame person that if they want to travel somewhere blind person can walk but doesn't know the direction and the lame person can walk but can see so the blind person takes the lame person on the shoulders and the lame person directs the blind person and the blind person carries them and they both get there together so they use this this illustration another day I was I was shown heaps of human heads Mountain High nothing else existed and I was seated alone in their midst now some of these things are a little bit hard for us to to understand uh I I take this domain that he's being shown the transitory nature of everything huh that there's life everything will end in death and nothing will exist we'll continue that we have to give up everything and one day we'll also be um just a skeleton everything will end in in death for for us and for the whole universe and everyone that we know maybe maybe this is what it means no he's not giving an explanation so we don't really know here still another day she showed me an ocean taking the form of assault doll I was going to measure its depth while doing this to the grace of the guru I was turned to stone now we get the salt doll illustration many many many times this is the only time that I can remember when he talks about this turning into stone so this means that uh if an ordinary giva gets immersed in that nearby kobus it's like this all dog go into the to the bottom of the ocean and will merge in the ocean and then there's no way to come back so Swami Krishna here is saying that there are certain Souls these the ishwara kotis and these that they can as as if that salt uh is is unmeltable even if the depths of the ocean without having the highest experience so it can come back so taking the form of a soul doll I was going to measure its depth the ocean depth of the ocean while doing this through the grace of the guru I was turned to stone then I saw a ship and it once got into it the Helmsman was the guru and then to him I hope you pray every day to sachidananda who is the guru do you m yes sir Master the guru was the Helms men in that boat I saw that I and you were two different things again I jumped into the ocean and was changed into a fish I found myself swimming joyfully in the ocean of sachidananda there's another example that talker uses very often to explain what it feels like when the soul is in ecstasy it's it's like a fish that's been released from a fishbowl and goes swims and joyfully you remember this uh maticials garden house the takura he told him many times that I want to take you to this place because there you can you can see all of the fish swimming and nobody catches them and they throw little balls of red and things to them and everything now to see how joyfully they swim in that ocean he said that when you have that realization that it's like the fish joyfully swimming free and he would or a bird released from a cage for that type of feeling so I found myself swimming joyfully in the ocean of sachidananda these are all deep Mysteries what can you understand through reasoning see we're trying to analyze I'm trying to analyze these things who knows what the what they really mean you will realize everything what God himself teaches you then you will not lack any knowledge so this is the end of that day and then we get Friday January 4th 1884. ceramic Christian was sitting in his room and was still staying with the master devoting his time to the practice of spiritual discipline he had been spending a great part of each day in prayer and meditation under the bell tree where the master had performed great austerities and had seen many wonderful visions of God this was where he practiced his brahmani the some of the most of his other spiritual practices were the panchavati or uh other other places but this is where that bell tree is that was especially for this tantric Southern Master to m don't reason anymore he's he's going to pound this into his head in the end reasoning only injures the aspirant one should assume a particular attitude toward God while praying to him now this is another one of the teachings that we we read over and over again that's very very practical and very helpful and again assume so that that means forget about this idea is it true is it not true we're we're assuming this is usually the language that he uses that we should uh adopt a particular attitude assume a particular attitude that will be helpful for us now does that mean say we take the attitude servant to the master does it mean that God is separate and I'm separate this is the attitude that we start with the path of devotion or understanding of ourselves and our understanding of God it's allowed to change it's supposed to change the gyani starts out with the highest truth starts out with soham and ends up with soham the deputy can start out for as a duelist swamiji says path of devotion we all start out as a Duelists but then this court of love comes between us and God pulls us closer and closer and we start to realize our Oneness with God so the path of devotion we have to hold on to something first so Taco says hold on to this uh attitude we have these these different Frontier Bahamas in the invitation of a tradition and then in the soccer tradition we also have different attitudes three different attitudes so tacos are not a very particular but which one because it all depends on us on our personality and and uh uh on our understanding of things and what what suited to us and and what we can what's helpful for us so I want you to assume a particular attitude toward God while praying to him the attitude of a friend or servant so now he's mentioning this Satya Bahama and dasiv harbor two of these advice teaching and the other uh or a son or a hero so this these are are more or less from the chocolate tradition looking upon God's mother and this this viruba this heroic attitude Taco will talk about a little bit uh he he doesn't recommend this and uh there are other things he won't recommend very much because they're a little bit dangerous we'll get to it a little bit I assume the attitude of a child to me every woman is my mother the Divine Maya seeing this attitude in an aspirant moves away from his path out of sheer shame this is a verse from the bhagavata very vice versa I don't remember it but something about it out of out of embarrassment or fear when she's recognized then she'll she'll move out of the way so this is that same thing we say about this this false ego that we have once once we recognize it it disappears we're that nice story of uh or illustration of The Uninvited Guest at the wedding Ramona maharshi tells okay that uh he's a he's a party crasher and uh he's he's having fun stuffing his mouth and stuffing his pockets and everything and acting rudely and drinking too much and as soon as it's one side recognizes that you didn't invite him we also didn't invite him and he knows that he's been recognized as a party crasher he disappears out of shame or out of fear of getting caught so once we know that this this Maya is is nothing substantial and nothing real that there's some false understanding things it will disappear on its own the Divine wire seeing this attitude so it's it's personalizing it for us seeing this attitude and inspiring moves away from its path out of sheer shame the attitude of a hero is extremely difficult doesn't recommend this at all there are definitely there's a pashu Bahama I don't know darker likes this sometimes chantan about this attitude of a child and this is similar to the way this madhurabhav is practiced among some of the vaishnavasects men and women together and doing a type of satana the attitude of a hero is extremely difficult the shockness and the vowels among the vice the shaktas and the vowels among the vaisnavis follow it but it is very hard to keep one spiritual life pure in that attitude yeah this we we see many references especially with the relation of Jordan talk where would go sometimes to this act with him and everything and women would ask each other have you found your Krishna yet uh that means that a woman will look upon herself as Radha men will look upon himself as Krishna and they'll do spiritual practice together something like that and for the shakt is the same idea Shiva and chakti and so Taco Taco used to say very hard for the mind not to uh get pulled down trying to do the type of practice and of course there were many who were just hypocrites and also drinking wine and other things foreign no the abhiman among the shaktas abhiman is is just this attitude uh of of the peak I'm your child mother you didn't do anything for me then I won't look at you anymore this is a very sweet type of relationship there's a other thing is uh half half the time is just leading into moral life under the guise of of spirituality yeah this mama Charter the swamiji hated it some of his letters and things he said how I hate is he says to those of you people of Calcutta aren't you ashamed of yourself teaching this Doctrine to your children and it'll be very very strong against it yeah so and taco says there's also a path there's also can can lead to the house but it's it's not a clean path it's like going through the the train going through the the you know the scavenger there's there's a back door and of these old old style houses that the scavenger can go in before there was plumbing and can clean out the toilets and then leave so he says this is also a way to get into the house but to the very dirty way and don't do it don't try to do it but he said it's also a path it was very liberal Dr was more liberal than than any of his own disciples they're very nice section and the Great Master the la persona that the Swami he's saying we all look down upon these people so low and vulgar and how surprised we were when we heard charama Krishna say this is also a path this will also lead another entrance into the house but don't go there it's it's a bit dangerous and not a clean path but how much more liberal he was even than the others one can assume other attitudes toward God as well the attitude in which the devotee serenely contemplates God as the Creator this is Shanta bhava the attitude of service to him the attitude of friendship the attitude of motherly affection and they all have their own paradigms you want to practice about and we have to think of ourselves as mother yashoda somehow or can be done of course with the talk we did it with his Ramallah also looked upon him his child but we have these illustrations from especially the device never scriptures they'd give us we want to practice then we try to feel the way Hanuman fell to a drama this is this is the whole psychology behind it so the attitude of friendship so give up the attitude of motherly affection or the attitude of conjugal love the conjugal relationship the attitude of a woman to her husband or sweetheart contains all the rest Serenity service friendship and motherly affection yeah there are actually two different types this swakia and parakia that looking upon God is is one's husband a wife to the husband uh is considered a little bit lower looking upon God as one to love her is a little bit higher because one is willing to give up all sense of of uh good standing in the community and don't care what anybody says right this is the example of of course the gopis and the gopis the interesting thing is that all of this practice where the man is Krishna and the woman is rather the way it's it's really supposed to be practiced is that uh even when men practice it they think of themselves as Radha and worship Krishna as the man it gets reversed of course this is human nature Christian mysticism there's there's something called of course I don't know that much but uh the the nuns especially look upon themselves as the bride the bride of Christ yeah he sees the groom anybody know anything about this all Souls that that yeah that may be one yeah one school one of the Saints had that idea we'll get to that idea here also but this is this is this a kind of hierarchy today so we have this Shanta bhava and then uh above that is Dasia Baba and that's above it contained both of them and above that will be this Satya bhaba that will contain all three and then what's Alibaba that'll contain all four and mother of contains all five although someplace I think Taco said also contains all of them ways of looking at it 2m which one of these appeals to your mind M I like them all now we're supposed to pick one we may like two of them we may like all of them but this idea of nishita means that uh should be one that's kind of predominant in us but if if we understand that some of these contain the others within them then we can we can have that attitude that we have this that I feel the servant of God does that mean that I won't have the tremendous love the love of the that Rama had that that uh Hanuman had for drama that this can be also the same type of love that one has for one's own parent or child or husband or wife or anything so I am says I like them all Taco doesn't say no just choose one he doesn't say that and other places em says I like this and I like also this uh I am he I like both of them then I we saw before the takura or we were saying the talker says yeah but your real attitude is is looking upon God his mother that you're a shakta so I like them both Master when one attains Perfection one takes to light in all these relationships now suramic Krishna practiced all of them not at the same time uh one after the other we don't know very much uh uh the ones that we know of we know a lot about we know a lot about that this Dacia Baba we know how we practice see we've been jumping around is we know about that nobody stated matar babu's house he did that looking upon God uh as looking around himself as a handmaid of God so you can do it with this from the tradition of mother worship well handmaid of but takur did it looking upon himself as the woman and God is as the man he did it that that way and not this this other groups called the body and others they they keep the the roles ordinary roles anyhow uh so when one attains Perfection one takes Delight in all these relationships in that state a devotee is not the slightest trace of lust see this is this is how things get distorted a little bit that is rather Krishna episode their young teenagers as far as we know we look upon it that way in those days is the child marriage was there these girls could be very young when they're given a marriage and uh uh the attraction that they had for Krishna was a Divine attraction with this question you know has come up many times now did the did the gopis recognize this Krishna as a Divine incarnation and we have this uh one school of thought that says no that they only wanted their their beloved Krishna they didn't care for this that to know he's the infinite Birdman and all of that he dwells within your heart they didn't care about that uh then the the other idea is that no they had to know that he was the third idea is that it was a Divine attraction that attracted them it didn't matter whether they knew it or not anyhow everything that we have has different schools of thought to it yeah entire marriage was a much later phenomenon we have to accept that they were young though yeah yet when the child marriage comes to be we don't married and had families yeah they were already married these gopis yeah it's true that I think in Manu and everything that we don't find that they're this child of marriage is mentioned or anything like that at some point it became because of these historical historical things and everything and and really it was just the betrothal we see like in in Taco's case well their mother didn't come to surama Krishna until she was 16. 18 actually she thought she was 16. 18. oh yeah of course of course and this is too common in the Islam also yeah yeah yeah no no there will be in many many cases of course where these young teenage girls are already mothers so in that stated everything is not the slightest trace of lust the holy books of the vaishnavis speak of chandidas was a great poet they wrote many many beautiful songs in Bengali about this relate loving relationship with uh washer woman I don't know in the Holy books of the vaisnavas uh the holy books a device never speak of chandidas and the washer woman their love was entirely free from lust in that state a devotee looks on himself as a woman now he's when he says the devotee here he means male devotee generally the Rose of course this this may be stereotyping but generally more common for the women to take the gods of your problem and for the men to look upon themselves either as a child of God or if they do this then they would look upon themselves as the women in Krishna as the husband not restricted to that and as I say probably a lot of this is stereotypes also so on that stage a deputy looks on himself as a woman he does not regard himself as a man sanatana goswami refuse to see mirabai because she was a woman you of course wanted the six and goswamis caitanya they sent them to vrindavan to write all of the the philosophical and devotional books scriptures of the school and to uh revive Temple life Vietnam when when caitanya Deva went there I it was it was an overgrown jungle and there was hardly anything left nobody knew what happened where and and with his mystical division he could go and know this is where this Grove was and this is where this took place and and all the most of the temples that we see there are from his time and these goswamis that was one of the main tasks that he gave them to build up this Temple life in brindavan so sanatana goswami and Rupa they were the brothers they they were living there at the time so not that it goes from he refused to see mirabai because she was a woman Mira informed him that it brindavan the only man was Krishna and that all others were his handmaids yeah there's some stories he said oh I didn't know there was a second purus we thought Krishna himself is the only Buddhism the only man was it right of sanatana to think of himself as a man Mira inquired at dusk and was sitting at the Master's feet shravakrishna had been told that Keisha's illness had taken a turn for the worse he was talking about keshav and incidentally about the Brahma samaj Master to him do they only give lectures in the Brahma samaj or do they also meditate that's ramakrishna he'd been to several of their meetings but they will use these Special Occasions in these utsavs and everything and of course was a a regular member before communist ramakrishna so he knew all of these things I understand that they call their service in the temple upasana and this is the Lord from this upanishadic terminology of it one time thought a great deal of Christianity and the Christian views at that time and even before he belonged to Devendra Gore's organization so this this is uh after Keisha left or had to leave because of this what they called the Scandal giving his daughter in marriage before she was the the brahmos marriageable age so before that of course he was the leader of the the Brahma samaj started by to work M education Babu come here from the very beginning he would not have been so preoccupied with social reform he would not have been so busy with the abolition of the caste system Widow remarriage in her cast marriage women's education and such social activities now these were all important things and they served a great purpose and and there were many others who also were engaged with these things with yasagar and many of the kind of enlightened Western uh thinking people so these were not small things and not unimportant things but they got that became almost the the dominant feature of the Brahma samaj ramakrishna will always telling them that yeah these are all good things and everything but you have to learn to go deep within and this is not the ultimate purpose of life although these are these are important things mastered keshav now believes in Kali as the embodiment of spirit and Consciousness the Primal energy besides he repeats the holy name of the mother and chants her glories when when we see that talk with final visit uh and he's talking to his nephew and everything we say oh where do you see the change in Kishore only now only mother mother all he talks about him so he relieved was transformed by this touch of srama Krishna foreign will develop in the future into a sort of social reform organization M the soil of this country is different a very nice statement hey this is not like that the soil of this country is different only what is true survives here Master yes that is so the sanatana Dharma the Eternal religion declared by the rashids will alone endure but there will also remain some sects like the Brahma samaj everything appears and disappears through the will of God earlier in the afternoon several devotees from Calcutta had visited the master and had sung many songs one of the songs contained the following idea oh mother you have cajoled us with red toys this is that Lal chushi this is Lal chushi lollipop no these are pacifiers that they give to babies the mother doesn't want to nurse gives it to the baby so the very this red toy doesn't convey at all the meaning yeah it really doesn't convey the meaning of that this is the most intimate relationship of the the infant with the mother nursing and how the child belongs for them you have controlled this controlled us with red toys you will certainly come running to us when we throw them away and cry ourselves horse for you Master to him how well they sang about the red toys yes sir you once told keshav about the red toys master yes I also told him about the chitakasha the inner Consciousness and many other things oh how happy we were we used to sing and dance together so remember Christian knows that m is probably not going to survive much longer this is final illness they had a very sweet loving relationship yeah Taco used to say with whom will I talk when I go to Calcutta if k-shop isn't there he enjoyed his company so much okay this is the end of that day next time we'll start with Saturday January 5th 1884. um [Music] we've our heads before srama Krishna 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 today is 23rd tomorrow is 24th Christmas Eve anybody within easy access to us is welcome to come for Christmas Eve program and then Sunday we after the Sunday morning lecture we have a special music performance by a troop of visually impaired uh people from for mostly children from India they've come here twice before so that'll that'll be right after the lecture uh on Sunday from India yeah yeah they they come they travel through the states yeah they go back uh at different times I don't think it's yeah okay yeah so everyone is is uh heartily welcomed they come this weekend okay I think some play instruments also sing