Video 117

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (12/30/22)

foreign [Music] Souls they're 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 we're on the chapter Emma dakshineshwar part two it's page 378 and it's Saturday January 5th 1884. it was the 23rd day of M's day with srama Krishna M had finished his midday meal about one o'clock and was resting in the nahabad when suddenly he heard someone called his name three or four times coming out he saw us ramakrishna calling to him from The Veranda north of his room this will be the 23rd and last day of this long stay that M had with srirama Krishna at dakshineswar and he's putting the very final finishing touches on this this very special period of training he's not telling him that this is a special period that he's doing the final molding and everything but we we get that feeling now uh when we read and see the things that you remember Christmas is and he's he kind of says okay now you're ready to go home and uh he's uh so this is I I've mentioned many many times but this is a very very important period in the life of him and uh ramakrishna training him both for M's sake of course and also to make am this perfect instrument to be able to spread his his message and understand his message and and his teachings to the world and saluted the master and they conversed on the south of Veranda master I want to know how you meditate when I meditated under the bell tree I used to see various Visions clearly one day I saw in front of me money a shawl a tray of Sundays and two women I asked my mind mine do you want any of these these are all signs of different types of enjoyment and desire and pleasure and everything so he's he's testing his own mind it's ramakrishna of course everything he did was was for our benefit not that he needed to test himself at this point but he would he would do these things and these Visions would come to him uh mind you want any of any of these I saw this on Dish to be mere filth now what this means is that uh what does it turn into all of this wonderful food yeah it'll it'll go in the tongue it'll taste good for a few seconds it'll go it'll get nourish the body a little bit Sunday's not very much and it'll it'll turn into fecal matter it'll come out and and that'll be it so he's analyzing in this way this is what they call where you you take something that seems very appealing and you look at it from a different side a different angle so this is this is actually uh a kind of time-honored way of of analyzing things for each other to to take something that looks very appealing and analyze it from the other side and see what it what it really looks like one of the women had a big ring in her nose I could see both their inside and outside entrails fill the bone flesh and blood so again this is another type of each other yeah yeah that's true so we we have one of the verses in the body of indom right that if you don't get deluded of course to to the men it's the same things apply to women but anytime and don't get it deluded by looking at the beautiful body of a woman it is nothing but but blood and flesh and filth and all of these different things if you think about that let it dwell on this in your mind over and over again keep telling your mind I personally don't think this is a very good idea that the short astronomy Chris his main thing was for these young men who were going to be monks don't keep the company of women but not that you want to have their company and be analyzing all of the time but if if one is in the company and if one has that desire this is one type of analysis that we're so attached to and not not just the the elements of the body but so attached to the body sometimes we have to remind ourselves this will all end up in the funeral prior one day and there is ashes and that's all what we're so attracted to now sometimes I I do this I don't know why sometimes they do it I see a small child and I try to imagine that child is a 80 year old boy or girl a woman man or woman how they'll change how they can be so beautiful and cute and everything and one day they'll have wrinkled skin and if they're fortunate to live that long and they won't stand up straight anymore and so this is this is a natural thing uh so the one way to break this type of attachment to this to the body that we have one one way of doing it the Mind did not want any of these money shawl sweets or women it remained fixed at the Lotus feet of God now this is for M's sake he sees relating he's relating this he said that when I meditated on the beltry so this is something that probably took place 20 years earlier when the brahmani was there and he did his tantric and everything he's remembering it now because he wants to tell them about this m was given a very uh unusual you could say unique role to play that sometimes he's referred to asanyasi that SRI ramakrishna wanted to leave him somehow as as the kind of combined ideal of the householder and the Monk he and wanted to be mountained to renounce he would have loved to have just given up everything become the sanyasi and surrounded Christian didn't want that but he also wanted him to live a type of monastic life it seems within the marriage setting and so that was different from from others and and we know that M already had children and uh Krishna thought for these very special uh householder devotees of his very spiritual people that at a certain point they should live like brother and sister and after one or two children that should be enough so these these teachings to him uh sometimes seem more applicable to the Future monastics uh and not so much for the householders uh because I am as I say was special yet this is represented a really special kind of ideal we see it of course in nag mahasha but that's that's that was natural to him and uh he he really we can hardly call them a householder at all he had such intense and we were not renunciation small balance has two needles the upper and the lower the mind is the lower needle I was always afraid lest the Mind should move away from the upper needle God further I would see a man always sitting by me with a trident in his hand he threatened to strike me with it if the lower needle moved away from the upper one that means if his mind wandered towards worldly thoughts but no spiritual progress is possible without the renunciation of lust and gold I renounce these three land wife and wealth once I went to the registry office to register some land the title of which was in the name of raghavir the officer asked me to sign my name but I didn't do it because I couldn't feel that it was my land I was showing much respect as the guru of keshav sin they presented me with mangoes but I couldn't carry them home sannyasi could not lay things up no this this emphasis on renunciation we know that ramakrishna had two different standards of renunciation that for the for the householder mental pronunciation for the monk both Inward and outward so the the householder uh this this pronunciation of lust and golden he didn't want the householder to abandon of course it's all men to abandon the wife and children he would with this one exception of Hadith for some reason he let him stay with him for a long time generally uh when these householders would come and say that they wanted to renounce they'd get a big scolding and he said do you want the people in the neighborhood to raise your children and everything you married you have a responsibility you should you should lead your spiritual life within the household setting to stay with him but was he already married yeah yeah his Harish yeah and uh why he and I we don't know really how long I don't know how long he stayed with them but eventually if he sent him home so it wasn't like a full-time thing who knows what Taco saw within him of course he went a little crazy later he's the one who who uh practically attacked holy mother and everything so this renunciation really is renunciation of of the Passions this uh purity of heart that we we talk about so much that this renunciation of all these Thomas sick and Roger's Tendencies of the Mind and uh the householder has the opportunity to fulfill desires and then transcend them the monk doesn't have that opportunity the monk has to just give them up completely so the householder stage of life see the the difference I I think between Krishna and the Very standard tradition is that uh especially with with his own householder disciples that he kind of wanted them to divide this this stage that generally we think that first the prematurity stage then the householder stage householder stage you have your uh r10 comma you can have your positions and you can have your enjoyments and everything until you're ready to retire now first ramakrishna the kind of lowered this retirement stage after one or two children then you've practiced some type of pronunciation but his householder disciples were not ordinary people either we have to remember that just as his monastic disciples were in the ordinary that is uh many of many of them were really great Souls who also come along with him he considered many of the householders to be as antarongas so I am in balaram Bose many of them so they're also not the ordinary people in general there's a householder stage of life is meant to enjoy the world it's all Guided by the Dharma of course and self-control meant to enjoy the world and accumulate enough wealth to be secure in life and help society and learn the lessons that come from attachment and From Desire so that the mind is ready to enter into the at least the kind of brush the stage of life where the retired stage how many actually formally go into the sannya stage that we we don't know but it's not that's also not so necessary but uh for uh so I would say that we we have the teachings for householders in general teaching first and yasins in general and then teachings for these these householders who really uh are quite Advanced spiritual Seekers I uh ordinary people who came this Rama Krishna he were telling me go look what go to the temples and go see the garden and everything uh so uh what he says to him we have to be a little cautious that those who uh are in the householder stage of life that the m is also another ordinary person that he has special role to play in and he was supposed to represent a special type of Ideal social he speaks to him almost the way he speaks to the monastic members very strong these are very strong statements but for the many times he'll be talking about that and and the householders will say what about us and I'll say you be quiet I'm not talking to you now so I'm saying he's talking to him not in huh and he would say this is not for you this is for him yeah so don't get too excited now but all of this goes back to this false identification with the body and this this lack of fulfillment and misplaced desires and trying to satisfy ourselves with the external things when we really can only satisfy that emptiness and that longing through turning within realizing our true nature God dwelling within so these are things that can be done in any stage of life in any setting srirama Krishna praises the householder stage of life he'll recommend it for many they'll say it's like fighting within a fort that you're fine where you are don't yeah don't get too upset when you hear me talk about this intention when spoke to these young future monastics in private we don't know exactly what he said but he would sometimes even lock the door so that no one else would come and it must have been even more I don't think any difference in the teachings but I think just burning words of pronunciation at that time this is my my guess but that would be the main distinction so one of them saw me premananda I think that he said these are Sunday talks you don't know what he really told us in private so sometimes we think oh we don't get the real stuff I don't think it's that I think it was just this emphasis on renunciation would have been a really strong with uh with his future monastics this is a very strange thing yeah how see Swami brahmananda was not only in Eastwood but he was from a Christian spiritual son huh and uh yet he felt that he still had some desires and he sent him back home he didn't mind that he got married and at one time he even said go home have a little fun with your wife as a result he had a child so it's very strange yeah be born with it it has to be to represent another type of ideal the you're right it's it's uh very surprising and we don't know exactly why that he should have this little desire which he fulfilled and that was gone whereas others the other there's also we read that they went to takur and said can you free me from lust he would say okay and he would touch them or you repeat this or something that would be it but with his rakaldi sent him home I don't know why uh any any theories yeah so the part of that Leela yeah the streak of jealousy and anger yeah so here he's a perfect Soul we know that but he had these little angularities that at one point this in the gospel they don't even mention his name Bengali it says the usage for for an initial maybe there's something for Raquel and just about how if he hadn't gone away at that time this is when he went to vrindavan that everything could have been spoiled because he didn't want anybody else to come he was so jealous now this is partly because when he was in the presence of swarama Krishna he failed himself to be a small child so like a like a young young boy or girl could have that type of jealousy not like a grown-up person at jealousy maybe we can explain it like that somehow uh but otherwise uh they had to set some type of ideal of how one transcends these things maybe this is one explanation but it is something very curious uh with with rakao at one time he says to him also go and have a little fun with your wife huh so we we don't know exactly uh he was this master sculptor uh how we had to cut little things off and add things in in old things and everything that he alone knew what uh what was best and and what his motive was for all of these things can one expect to attain god without renunciation so again this means renunciation of desires worldly desires renunciation of indrum see when we talk about mental renunciation it's it's not a hundred percent mental it's not it's not that the householder can uh enjoy the world to the fullest extent and say I'm not attached if if the householder release is spending all of his time uh earning money to buy a huge house and many cars and and and vacation places this and that and everything and says I can do it without any attachment then we know that it's hypocritical so the taco was always in favor of of leading a simple type of life so there's there's a big gap between enjoying the world fully and renouncing everything and and going into the forest and so uh for the the householder mental renunciation also means leading a life of simplicity and not getting entangled in the world because the more we possess things and and the more uh we even even the higher the position we have the more headaches we have so it doesn't mean that one shouldn't strive to to be successful in the world but uh look at his advice to uh to adhar he kept telling him you're already a deputy magistrate you already have a big salary why are you running around trying to get this this higher position that be satisfied with what you had so the the householder has to practice this type of contentment also but it shouldn't be you know we could be hiding behind contentment means that we're not making an effort to be successful in everything we we have to be very clear what our motives are on things that if we live in the world we have to be successful we have to have goals and and we have to try to have a very high standard that we want to provide for the family for society and we want to do everything as an offering so we have to do things with with great attention and care and try to be successful in whatever we do but without this attachment without this this uh the driving force that some people have to to to succeed and be better than everyone else and have more and more money and power and lust for power lust isn't always a sexual thing there's lust for power there's also a horrible thing that how it drives people mad and then they say terrible jealousy comes from all of it and envy anybody has more than you know this constant battle to to stay ahead of everybody else so this is also when he says renunciation it doesn't mean that one has to give up the family life and anything like that so how can one expect to attain god without renunciation suppose one thing is placed upon another how can you get the second without removing the first there's one thing Taco very often says is ego yeah there's ego this is the stump of the tree that grows up in front of the door that you can't even open the door because that stump is there to get inside the house so everything goes back to this idea of ego and and false identification so that has to be given up this this small ego this is this prideful ego it doesn't mean that we have to say oh I'm not the doer and this and that this has two meanings the one is a highly philosophical meaning what is this real sense of I and the other is pride is this bride of ownership bride of of uh Power pride of wealth all of that this is also a Hong Kong that has to be given up one must pray to God without any selfish desire now he's going to say a very interesting thing I don't really remember uh this coming up in other places of the Gospel it may be but now he's going to give us a a little tone things down a little bit this is very interesting he said but selfish worship if practice with perseverance is gradually turned into selfless worship this is this is one Theory even shankaracharya uh has this this uh kind of teaching that when one is is in the householder stage of life and doing some of these uh these young years and things that that can also be done without any selfish motive and that will lead to something to something higher with the stage before we can renounce it at all so selfish worship now this selfish worship doesn't have to be really selfish it can be just anything other than praying for for devotion or God realization they can be praying for the welfare of one's family they can be praying for for good health all sorts of different things so again it's a very high bar but suppose uh see even in Gita we have the four different types of devotees huh those uh are taiti those who who want wealth and those who are refrain out of suffering and those who want to have a better understanding of things and Nikita said they're all good they're all good and why because it means we have some faith in God it means we practice some Reliance that we have this and everything so uh they're all good but there's a hierarchy those those who have this pure love who pray only for for devotion and for God realization and everything that this is this is the highest but uh through this other type of worship this is what we're saying graduate the Mayan will get purified and it'll go higher and and we'll we'll really look at swamiji how taku wanted him to go to the Kali Temple and pray to mother for the welfare of his family and he couldn't do it but there'll be others who can do it and gradually the mind will go higher and and they'll they'll say that there are greater things to beat prayed for so he says to obtain his kingdom but at last he realized God he said why should a man give up gold if he gets it while searching for glass beads so we're praying to God for for some worldly things maybe and we find that we get a little devotion and we get some faith and everything this will be the real thing that we're getting so if we say oh but I didn't get what I prayed for we're getting something better so why worry about the other thing God God can be realized when a person acquires this is that purity Purity and goodness and kindness and compassion and love all of these qualities that we we have to really try to cultivate these things these are key elements because the the mind that doesn't have this type of satwa uh will will always be a devious kind of line and will be a Restless mind or a lethargic mind and this is really this this purity of heart is the entertainment of this this goodness and kindness and uh selflessness all of these these qualities are necessary in spiritual life this is this teaching that we want to go beyond the three gunas the the final step we we have to retain software before we if we look at this this climbing the stairs these first few steps will be Thomas and then rajasana satwa we can we and then the getting to the roof that will be this Beyond we we can't get there unless we go through this and we can't get to that unless we transcend Thomas and then Rajesh and so we we can't skip this step we can't say no I want to go beyond the three guns well we have to become some quick people first and and even then after realization uh one lives with the sator when when the Mind comes back down again then then one has only thought with qualities but they don't bind what is the problem with Gita says because there's some attachment a little bit of attachment I'm a good person I'm a nice person kind compassionate person a little bit of it of the attachment can come from that where I'm a spiritual spiritual person which can be a terrible type of attachment ego is the ego of the spiritual how much I've attained people should worship me bow down to me and I mean that can come also but that's really not true satwa if one has that that type of feeling so these these God realized Souls they're perfectly softwick people but since they have no sense of I the that is kind of gone then nothing to really attribute this to we won't say it starts with people they're transcended it somehow but their actions will all be satwick actions God can be realized when a person acquires householders engage in philanthropic works such as Charity mostly with a motive now this there'll be some who don't have a very selfish motive but a little thing may be there I don't know uh takura had the experience of so many people who uh had this concept of punya that you you do these things to gain some Merit and it was very common even we see with his his uh his maidservant huh that your name will be on everything you you go to any of these temples in in India or bathing play anything there somebody's name will be there are people they they won't give a donation unless their name is on it and then it became a great craze you give a big donation and you're writing big letters anonymous and you let everybody know that you're the one who did it and you're doubly great because you don't have your name on it and you gave a lot of money but but they have to know that you're the one who did it yeah so uh there are of course good people who don't care for this who just don't care if other people know or don't know but the majority of the people uh there'll be a little bit of ego with everything they do so even the charitable work so mostly with the motive that motive may be together that motive may be and get a little respect for other people to to praise them and everything that that may be there a little bit that is not good this having a motive but actions without motives are good yet it is very difficult to leave motives out of one's actions every action has a motive well is saying is is very hard to to do it without some type of ulterior motive or selfish motive that no one will do anything without a motive by definition by definition of motive is that which which leads one to do something we can't do anything if we don't have a motive it may be perfectly pure motive it may be that uh Divine mother is working through us even the Divine mother Works through us she has to give us that incentive huh so he has to provide the words that even for taku or the words so there has to be some some motive the question is is there any selfishness to it we generally have a motive and an ulterior motive for things that we do so as somebody is trying to discover a cure uh for some terrible disease they have a good motive they want to be able to cure people to help people the other side is that they can get their name on it they can get a huge raise they can become very famous people there's the vaccine will be named after them soft vaccine that's uh so that'll be there it's a question of which is the driving force for most people uh we do something great yeah of course people people recognize it and and they thank us for us and everything um we don't mind huh there's very few people who who will say no make sure that nobody knows that I discovered this very few people who will be like that and even that a little bit of the ego of humility Maybe is it those people who don't care either way but uh the question is to what extent to what extent right what is the real motive behind all of this so this this is involves analyzing our own minds observing and trying to think well why am I really doing this what is the purpose of all of this especially certain things that we know if we don't do what somebody else will do it it's not that the world is going to suffer if we don't do it but I want to be the one to do it and I want people to know it so this is what talk was talking about so he says when you realize God will you pray to him oh God please grant that I may dig reservoirs build roads and found the hospitals and dispensaries after the realization of God all such desires are left behind now does that mean that a god realized all can't do all of these things look at swamiji look at our order do we say swamiji that he had some desire for name and fame when he started all of the social service work and everything he didn't do it out of any selfish desire he did it really is our heart was breaking to see people suffering that's a different thing you know he's he's talking about again having some desire to do something that the god of unless someone have have that but they'll automatically do good to the world whether it comes in the form of some activity as swamiji wanted or a guest uh being being a a wonderful spiritual ideal for other people it depends on the personality and individual the game even for the harder swamiji hated Fame he hated Fame yeah you know there's a very nice story incident uh after he came back from the West he was in his room one day pacing back and forth and he was reciting this this verse a very nice verse if I can remember it go to them but he wrote of them this is our other young monk he heard swamiji reciting this over and over again walking back and forth back and forth and it it means that this uh this this Pride the Aryans is is like drinking liquor it just makes you drunk drunk with with pride and let's go to this praise it's like this the sounds that one hears of suffering in hell to hear people praise him and this High position is like the droppings of a peak he says give up all of these and be happy that's why he wishes amazed here someone who was praised by the whole country and how he hated that type of Fame and everything he really did he when he came back he didn't even want to be president he was never president of villarmont he wanted Rock call to be president he gave all the money over to him and said now I'm free and everything so yeah swamiji with swamiji then mustn't one perform acts of compassion such as Charity to the poor I do not forbid it if a man has money he should give it to remove the sorrows and sufferings that come to his notice what he didn't want was what the brahmos were doing was that all of their energy went into social reform work at the expense of their own spiritual life so he wanted a balance and especially for those who were reaching this this later stage of life and we we see that with this advice to ishan he said you've done enough in your life you've had enough of this uh the arbitration and and all these other things let the young people do it now it's time to call on God so it depends on the stage of life depends what our karma is what types of desires we have left and everything but uh this one pointed longing desire for God realization is something that takur really taught and that didn't allow at least a certain stage of life for the mind to get too involved with these other types of things Social Service things but he was very critical of those who had money and were cheap and didn't give money in charity we we know this the great statement he made to surrender that you you work in an office generally people work in an office that they can't be truthful and they deal with profit and also other things I can't touch the food that they I can eat your food because you give more money away and charity than you bring in he was a charitable person and it hurt him to give money he wasn't easily charitable but very charitable and then he gave that beautiful illustration that when farmers bring water into the field sometimes the water rushes down so fast that it will break the sides of the of the channel so they they make little holes in different places so that the water can escape through the hole so the majority of it will reach the field some of the water will go out on the side and this is the money given to charity and the land around that is very fertile of the the water that gets out because it brings some sealed in and everything so uh he said giving money in charity is like that that otherwise you try to keep everything and and it'll destroy you it'll break the banks and it won't it won't reach the field where it's supposed to reach so it's a great mistake to think they talk we didn't care about other people look at that experience he had in Dear God that when he when he went there this uh Chantal people in the very poor people were there and he said to mature I'm not going to budge from this place unless you you feed them all and give them some some cloth or some money or something like that and mature said we won't have enough money for the rest of this pilgrimage a huge number of people and train cars and everything so Taco said I don't care then go without me I'm not going to leave so the mature had to do it so it's not that he didn't have this he he used to say Jordan those who have no compassion for other people they may be born as a human being they're not human beings you can't even consider them a human being so we read sometimes it sounds like we doesn't like this compassion diet to low thing but compared to no compassion huh that he thought it was really yes you're living a life of a brood if you don't care about other people foreign so if a person has money he should give it to remove the sorrows and sufferings that come to his notice in such an event the wise man says give the poor something but inwardly he feels what can I do God Alone is the doer I am nothing yeah he wandered us and swamiji also not to have this idea that we can change the world but we can do something to help people we shouldn't have that arrogance and pride that we're really going to do much to change things but still and we consider it a privilege to be able to help other people the great Souls deeply affected by the suffering of men show them the way to God shankaracharya kept it you see this was the greatest compassion to see people suffering in the world because of attachment and desires and everything and this is a gift of spirituality it's considered the highest we have these others all these different types these different levels of types of gifts and the spiritual one includes the highest the gift of knowledge and devotion is far superior to the gift of food therefore caitanya Deva distributed bhakti to all including the outcast happiness and suffering or the inevitable characteristics of the body now this is also interesting that we we always feel and we hear that we suffer from something because of our Karma that something we deserve in everything of course he accepts this idea but he also seems to accept this idea that the mere fact that we take on the human body means that there will inevitably be some suffering the body will break down eventually because there'll be something we live in the house we have to pay the rent for it so the tax that we pay the rent in order to live in this house of abadi so that we don't always have to feel that oh somebody's suffering they must have done something terrible in the past that we don't know why and how things happen but the mere fact that we have this physical body something will break down there are very few people who were very fortunate good health the whole life and then they dropped it one day it can happen and it can happen to anyone see ramification says that uh I don't know if it was something that he knew or just an example but talking about a prostitute who died on the banks of the Ganges in full consciousness now this full consciousness sometimes we think though that'll be a horrible thing the best type of life you die in your sleep but the idea is if one is a great soul then they can they can be remembering God thinking about repeating the name at the very last moment and go so it's considered a very high type of birth of death so and the banks of the ganga you're supposed to get Liberation so who knows who's qualified for what and why things happen and this this path of karma is very uh he's very hard for us to understand how these things work you have come to eat mangoes fulfill that desire that remember he's talking to Evanston the one thing needful is Guyana and bhakti actually two things but yeah so he's talking about the one thing needful it's not money and wealth in position and all these things are not really two separate things if we have that that uh that understanding of God automatically devotion we have the devotion it comes with some understanding God Alone is substance all else is illusory so this this idea of of substance this is not a philosophical Doctrine this is a very practical thing what is of substance it doesn't mean that uh what is what is the uh thing in itself this unknown reality is Brahman underlying everything it doesn't mean that it means what is really a value in this world and what can fulfill us that that way what is it in the Bengali yeah yeah I don't like this illusory word here it doesn't really mean that it means that it's of no substance you know there's something Hollow about the world it may be 100 real it's not a lose an illusion 100 real from our point of view of course the relative point of view but there's something Hollow about it in terms of the ability that it has to satisfy us we can say and so this is one type of uh analyzing what is real and what is unreal not really but what is a value and what is of of secondary or lesser value or no value there's that type of discrimination this is when Taco says don't reason he doesn't mean this this we have to constantly ask ourselves what is of ultimate value in life would we really striving to realize and what will be if some temporary value this is that should I use prayers distinction that we have in the country upanishad there are many things that are pleasurable and enjoyable but they they won't have any any lasting effect on us now there's nothing wrong with them unless they create more and more attachment if they agree more and more attention then it is really we have to be cautious but if it's just a little enjoyment there's nothing wrong with it but it's not anything that will ultimately satisfy us that we have to find that which is really a substance so that that will be the one thing that will be Eternal and permanent and remove all of our doubts and all of our fears and anxieties and everything it is God alone who does everything now this is again that very difficult Doctrine for us to understand in fact we can understand it until until we have this highest type of realization we really I may be a very theoretical understanding but the sense of I is so strong this is practically impossible to get rid of this this incentive eye and most people who will say that God alone do everything or or Fanatics or or lunatics that uh and they may do horrible things now you may say that in the K you may say that in that case man May commit sin but that is not true here here's the the main thing if if a person is firmly convinced that God Alone is the doer and that he himself is nothing then he will never make a false step now what this what this is saying is if we analyze again go back to this what's the idea is there any substance to this ego the scent of I and if we if we have that realization that there's no substance to it it's false identification that there's uh there's real eye is God's running Within if we look within and we don't find any I then we don't find any Doer and God Alone is there and God Alone is to do it very high state there's another ordinary type of experience so and even those who have it won't feel that way all the time they may feel that God is inspiring me to do something but this this complete absence of of this feeling of doership and generally this is for the samati state we come down this eye comes again Tucker says all the time his ego sense comes again then we can feel that I'm the servant of God a child of God the instrument in the hand of God even that's different I'm an instrument in the hands of God even that's a little different from God Alone is dwelling within here and doing everything that means there's no I at all it's very hard to understand that but this is the experience that this God realized Souls have when they know that this eye is really false and they'll see God everywhere but this is there's a final stage so this chocolate is the final stage it's not for beginners that I am just in it when God is doing everything that nothing is in my hands uh we can't start out with that premise we won't make any spiritual progress we have to start out with this feeling that yes I have to take some responsibility so Taco will say the mother gives us that feeling it is God alone it was planted in man's mind what the Englishman calls free will takura knew this term Free Will huh yeah because they used to talk about it I guess the Bravos and everything this idea of free will we we make a mistake I think sometimes by trying to decide is there such a thing as free will either there is Free Will or there's no free will and I think it's a big range that the even in Gita we get this idea those those who were caught in this trap of of desire and the false identification and all of that they're they don't have much freedom of will they're Bound by theirselves goddess and by their desires the more we become free from these things the more we can make decisions based on something other than what we want will means want the acting according to our our desires when we reach the point where we don't have any desires then we can act According to some principles something higher so we really gradually attain this for you and then perfect freedom in the south that's a different thing the freedom is not in the mind it's in transcending the Mind mind is always Bound by these subscribers but the satwik mind is not bound the same way that this promising and Roger sic mind is you know I've always mentioned that verse I like so much in the Arjuna ask Krishna why do we do things with that we we shouldn't do bad things and even we know that we shouldn't do it and we don't want to do it as if we're being forced to do it is common crude because these passions that we don't have a control over the mind they're they're driving us we're it's free will at that point but if we reach the point where we have uh we're not forced to act in a particular way based on these passions and desires and everything and then we can have a little bit of a freedom to at least we feel that we have freedom to choose what's best uh what's what's the proper thing to do what's the best interest of others and ourselves so it is God alone it was planted in man's mind what the Englishman calls free will people have not realized God would become engaged in more and more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of Free Will so even if this idea is not a hundred percent true it's based on some false idea of the nature of the self and everything is necessary and helpful and we need it not just that that will keep us from doing bad things but it'll give us this desire to try to improve and change we all of this idea of sadhana and this idea of self-effort is based on free will so at some stage in our spiritual life we have to utilize it we have to embrace it whatever little Freedom free will we have we have to really uh utilize that and try to go higher and higher and higher and and at some point this this ego will start to melt away we hope and then we can reach a very some high level of spirituality when that ego disappears sin would have increased if God had not made The Sinner feel that he alone was responsible for his deeds those who have realized God are aware that Free Will is a mere appearance so it has some apparent reality but not Ultimate Reality no but this is the funny thing that even this apparent reality is helpful it sounds like a contradiction if something is not ultimately real how can it be a value to us because these are psychological things so even this feeling that I'm responsible even if later I'll say that ah I see God Alone was playing with me like a puppeteer but I won't realize that unless I I do this my spiritual practice and and put forth effort and all of that so even though it has some uh we have a heart attack value and not paramatica value it has some uh relative value but not ultimately true still we have to work through that we have to we have to take advantage of that in reality man is the machine and God it's operator manage the carriage and God it's a driver so this is a final truth now we we may accept it and adopted and tried to live up to it and everything but we can't fool ourselves into thinking that uh We've we've really understood this and and that and we can't say that somebody said why did you do that God is the operator don't blame me it becomes hypocrisy the the god realized Soul no one will question it because they don't do it they don't take a false step hypocrisy yeah how much do some Scottish drive this Free Will is a question of of uh how how much uh strength of Mind do we have how much uh Power of of uh discrimination do we have so that uh when when uh I have a great desire to do something based on my son Scott is that I can say no that I know it's it's not it's going to get me in trouble it's not the right thing to do it's not ethical it's not moral so I won't do it so uh when the sun Scholars are very strong that the clouds are sense of discrimination and we can't make that type of yeah there's also the result of my own misuse so so we create these bad songs goddess when we have no sense of discrimination and think we can do anything and we do everything according to desire and will so yeah so we've we've created the problem yeah but uh we shouldn't feel that we're 100 bound and there may be some people have children children are almost 100 bound very small children that they have a desire for something that uh how do you teach them that no you can't have it now you'll have to have it later but I want it now they'll scream and cry and everything yeah but when become adults we should be able to say that uh yeah I I'd like it but it's not good for me I'm not going to do it so everyone has a different level of intelligent people uh It's a combination they'll they'll be able to withstand this this Force the this is another verse from Gita that I like very much this is those who were able to withstand this force of Karma crota and everything uh these are happy people these are yogis so uh everyone will have a little bit of of uh work they have to do with the Passions with all the feel some type of desire and longing for things and enjoyments and everything those who can withstand that Force and use their self-control and willpower whether it's real or not we utilize it that willpower these are happy people this is a very not just yogis this is very interesting that somebody says why should I practice all of this self-discipline and everything because people who don't have it are not happy people there's a certain type of I I heard a statement once I'll give credit to our Swami ATV because he said it I liked it so much he said without self-control there's no self-respect it's a very nice statement I don't know where he heard it from when one of our senior monks probably said it but this the self-control and self-respect and without self-respect where is our happiness and contentment and everything so these these things go hand in hand so if we say that what can I do this desire was so strong that I couldn't do anything and uh but that means that that we're just giving up this this will be the uh the plea that's made by someone who's trying to get an insanity plea in the in the court of law that they'll say I can't be held responsible for it that the voices were so strong inside that is somehow that I I had no power to keep myself from doing it that'll be their plea that we consider these people and saying and uh so as a question of insanity means intelligence the question of uh so this is what we're doing swamiji says in one place spiritual life means fighting nature nature here means or some Scottish and these these lower Tendencies and everything and they're not all based on bad things we've done in the past some come along with having a human body that everyone is born with the certain types of desires and things so the intelligent person analyzes and and tries to see what's helpful what's not helpful with us too in August and what sort of substance and what's not and make decisions based on that oh good so this is uh this is a good place to stop after this uh we'll have a little bit of a different uh topic so we'll stop here this is on page 380. laughs foreign [Music] who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the Divine and the Supreme Lord and ever worthy of our worship [Music] peace peace peace okay thank you everyone and uh we we have our New Year's Eve program tomorrow night and then on January 1st everyone is welcome to come the Puja will be live streamed also and we all wish you a very happy and blessed New Year