Video 118

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (01/11/2023)

come on [Music] um your words are like nectar bring life Discord Souls they're 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 Sri ramakrishna we're on chapter 20 rules for householders and monks Sunday March 9th 1884. and Stage 404. surama Krishna is speaking to manilal and others or the senior and deputies who comes quite often and of course m is always there foreign then explained the sacred word om and the true knowledge of Brahman and the state of mind after the attainment of brahmagyana Master the sound om is Brahman the riches and sages practiced austerity to realize that sound Brahman after attaining Perfection one hears the sound of this Eternal Word Rising spontaneously from the navel now this of course is a huge topic to spend several sessions on on the meaning of the word OMG it uh we we know at least that almost not considered to be a word like an ordinary word that has some object that it refers to or some idea or some emotion or some thought something like that the sound itself represents Roman and we have this idea of this is somehow almost a kind of ethereal vibration that's responsible for the creation of the universe something like that so it's uh the curious word we have other types of beach mantras that also are more sounds than words and they they go along with something but nothing is universal as this home and of course we have the different theories who will stand for the three states of Consciousness and whoever hold manduki upanishad and other things so there are those who their worship Brahman as om we we had it earlier I think it was earlier conversation between SRI ramakrishnan and mansatu and he was asking him about his meditation he meditates on a home and he said but it's not enough just to meditate at home there has to be something represented in my own and he says om itself is represented by itself something like that so surrounded Christianity he kind of liked that answer yeah so it's not it's not a typical kind of word it's called an ahata because every other sound or every other word is caused by a vibration by something striking something if you hit something it makes a sound when we speak the vocal chords I have to vibrate something is striking them to make a sound this is an unstruck sound because it's before everything else there's nothing to strike against in order to cause this sound it's the ultimate cause of everything this is one Theory one type of explanation for uh for so-called you know creation type of theory and uh Krishna had that experience some others that somehow they sometimes call The Music of the Spheres somehow they can reach a stage in their spiritual practice where they hear this going on this this eternal home we can't give a very good scientific explanation but uh something that the mystics experience then he goes on what will you gain some sages ask by merely hearing this sound so these the different schools of thought of course that we have to know what's represented we have to know some of the uh depths of understanding that goes into this concept of home if we want to really appreciate it what will you gain some sages ask by merely hearing this sound you hear the Roar of the ocean from a distance by following the roar you can reach the ocean as long as there is the roar there must also be the ocean by following the trail of om you attain Brahmin of which the word is the symbol so it's a sound symbol it's not like any other symbol of course we have omkara we we have it written out as a syllable that's also a symbol we have it right here so that's but the sound itself stands for it it represents it is a sound representative for Brahman hmm so it's a different type of concept so you attain Roman of which the word is the symbol that Roman has been described by The Vedas as the ultimate goal now one thing about this home is that it's impersonal this will be for the Giannis and this will be the old Vedic vedant upanishadic period when there wasn't much of a bhakti yoga or anything that brahmana was thought of as pure Consciousness and somehow this Consciousness pure Consciousness can create some type of vibration or something that can create the world there's a whole like school that is based on this idea of the spanda and this is a little vibration that will start everything going so any of this om cannot be objectified of course when we say om we're objectifying it because then that um is a sound that's actually made by my vocal cords and everything but if we're talking about what what it stands for that Vermin itself can never be objectified but as a symbol a symbol is an object so in that sense yeah it's it's uh some tangible symbol not that we see it right but we hear it that uh it's a sound but then uh as I say we we have the written symbol of it also so that environment has been described by The Vedas as the ultimate goal but such vision is not possible as long as you are conscious of your ego a man realizes Roman only when he feels neither I nor you neither one nor many so this is the the highest path of Ghana yoga where this this if we have a sense of I it means that we have erroneously identified ourselves with the non-self which is the definition of again of India the definition of this this uh ignorance or lack of of of of realization is that we falsely identify with that which is external to us the all of the covering the body-minded all of that and ego sense ego sense if our ego sins is united with this Roman that's a different story then we won't go around saying I did this I did that and everything a different type of an eye but uh as long as one is conscious of one's ego that means that we're in a state of of false identification this is the main problem that we identify with the superficial coverings and spiritual practice means this identifying peeling off these these coverings to get to our real nature and that real nature is beyond this ego or this empirical ego let's see ego is is not an effixed thing it goes simply means what is our image of ourselves how do we view ourselves how do we identify ourselves so this is why Tucker likes to talk in terms of of this scale either it's very green or it's very ripe that it's constantly changing we're we're forging a new type of identity by having a relationship with God so it's how we look upon ourselves for the for the gyani trying to realize that I am that I'm one with that Ultimate Reality but this empirical ego this this unripe ego this heavy ego is the ego that uh gets bruised easily that's filled with pride or has a poor self-image that type of ego which is fully invested in personality and into our past and in our culture and all of that that can't be there if we want to have the highest type of realization because the highest type of realization is not simply Brahman but the Oneness of the self-improvement so if we say that I understand the real nature of Brahman but I feel identified with with this individuality it's a contradiction we can only understand Roman as our very own self if we want to have the highest knowledge think of the Sun and 10 jars filled with water one of drama Chris's favorite illustrations we get this over and over again in the gospel the sun is reflected in each jar at first you see one real son and ten reflected ones if you break nine of the jars there will remain only the real sun and one reflection each jar represents a Jiva now other times ramakrishna will be a little more explicit that the the jar itself is his physical body and the water inside of the jar will be the subtle body or mind so this is that composite and the reflected Sun resting on the surface of the water all of that is a package together will be the Jiva so the Divas is the Consciousness reflected in this body mind complex something like that each star represents angiva each one is an individual soul we can we can put it that way following the reflection one can find the real Sun now this is another one of Tucker's teachings that if we want to know the real nature of Brahman brahmanas we can say is the source of everything the ground of the universe that we should look outside of ourselves but he says no that we understand Brahman as reflected Within the heart or mind so we find that the divine presence as our very own self by turning Within following the reflection one can find the real son through the individual soul one can reach the Supreme soul through spiritual discipline the individual soul can get the vision of the Supreme soul what remains when the last jar is broken cannot be described this this is uh an interesting illustration because it's uh we can we can take it in in a couple of different ways one is that uh it's kind of a sankya or yoga uh model in that the body and mind are considered to be something real and something separate from the Sun and the mind is kind of an instrument it's in sentient so it can catch the reflection of the of the Sun and surama Krishna says that this is an illustration that is found he says according to the puranas now we we know that this is a code word for him that either according to vedanta or according to put on is according to vedanta means this is according to the non-dualistic philosophy according to piranhas it means according to a dualistic or devotional attitude or point of view now the edwardians constantly use this illustration because they don't take it that as it being the uh the main point being made here that you have to have a separate mind and body and everything in order to catch the reflection of the sun that's the secondary thing in that for them the real point is how can one thing manifest as many things without changing itself if somebody says how is it possible they can say well look at the Sun if it's reflected in in 10 of these containers of water it's not broken into 10 different pieces it's the same Sun if it's in a thousand the sun is not decreased by the number of Reflections that it's in it remains unchanged completely so they take this as being an illustration of Helen Brahman is unaffected by any of these changes now we can say that why not combine these theories if the sun passes through a prism then it manifests this whole various universe and then it can reflect in all of that and we see that by the Light of the sun we can do that the Edwardian is not particularly concerned with explaining where the where the jar and the water comes from with this illustration the main point is how can this Brahman appear as many without undergoing any change itself if if uh if we take it a different way that this Brahman is entered in into each and every being then is it less by each each time it enters is it a little bit less is there a portion of it in each and every one of us now the full sun is reflected this is the point each one will be a perfectly round Sun but Taco always makes the point that once this jar is is broken the water is not there that's the same as the salt dog being at the bottom of the ocean that there's no one there to say what is the real nature of the Brahman then the sun alone exists but we are that the tricky part we don't disappear then and we we are that sun anyhow it's a very helpful illustration now I want to make one other point that helpful to a certain point that all of these illustrations we may have a very clear understanding of how this works with pots and with water and with the sun and the reflected Sun but if we start to say that well now we're really talking about Consciousness not sunlight we can all of them know what it's like for the sun to be reflected and even in a puddle we see this on reflected there that is easy what does it mean for consciousness which is completely immaterial there's nothing to see to be reflected in mind which we know nothing about and how is this mine in this container of of the body if we analyze these uh analogies then we come to the conclusion that uh they're helpful to a certain extent and that we can fold ourselves into thinking we understand the nature of Roman in the universe only because we understand these analogies right take the snake in the Rope I understand very well that we can't ask this question that where did the snake come from how did it come into being when did it come into being that we can't answer these questions because there's no real snake there's only a rope but how does that help me with the Brahman so Sarah Krishna says that uh these ultimate truths go beyond these illustrations we can't put it into words they're helpful to a certain extent there's no question that they're helpful because we have nothing else to rely on uh these these analogies are the best type of Health but uh really when we analyze them very carefully we understand that we can have a perfect understanding of of the of the analogy without being able to transpose it to these questions of of individual self-supreme cellular Brahman and everything yeah so what does it mean for Consciousness it's not a thing immaterial the attacker even says in one place but remember the light of the sun is a material light it's got something it actually has uh waves and things that can bounce off of something and everything how does Consciousness do that mind and body and everything so uh we we have to understand how helpful these analogies are but avoid the uh conclusion that because we understand the analogy we understand the nature of Roman that's that's a completely different level of understanding it comes from realization and from spiritual practice the achieve at first remains in the state of ignorance he is not conscious of God but of the multiplicity so this is all of us all of us we we don't see this impermanent uh we we know that we're conscious beings that's about as much as we can say but we live in this world of Multiplicity if we take it for granted everyone is an individual we this is very hard for anybody to say that they don't believe in individuals they don't believe that what their eyes are telling them this is all an illusion generally they're mad people the div at first remains in a state of ignorance he is not conscious of God but of the multiplicity he sees many things around him on attaining knowledge he becomes conscious that God dwells in all beings now look at the language that tarkwa uses sometimes he'll say he becomes conscious that God dwells in all beings other times that God has become all this now they're not contradictory we can accept both and we can accept the fact that we may have a different type of of realization sometimes the talk where we talked about different levels that those who think of God is up there and that those who see God dwelling within everything and the highest those who see that God has become everything now God having God has become everything God can still dwell within everything if if uh if we take the the container in the water to all be manifestation of Brahman we can still say that that sun is reflected in that water no contradiction there but one thing I like about this uh this can this analogy of of the reflected Sun is that we can accept the relative reality of this world and still have been androitin and still say that this individual Jiva has no Ultimate Reality it's a reflection of this of the Sun and there's only one Sun but we don't have to say that everything is a dream we're dreamlike according to that that type of analogy so this really uh is from a Christian's position mostly and this is the position of of the of the shaktas the mother worshipers they see everything the manifestation of the Divine but also the one self-dwelling within all beings so the Jeep at first remains in a state of ignorance he is not conscious of God but of the multiplicity he sees many things around him when attaining knowledge he becomes conscious that God dwells in all the beings now does God dwell in in in all things as well yeah okay how has become everything okay that's one thing but if we're saying God dwells within all beings then uh there will be a question of manifestation so we can say that the light of this one falls on everything but it's not reflected in everything it has to have some something shiny it's reflected differently in a mirror differently in in water differently in an oil slick all different ways and and uh blacktop parking lot not at all not reflector at all now if we say that Ramen is all pervading and we say that just as gold pervades all golden ornaments then of course there's nothing that doesn't have a drop in it that's not Divine from that point of view but when we're talking about the manifestation of God within all beings it'll be greater in some than in others yeah or at least it'll be more uh available to us we may say it's the same at all but the covering is different nodding allowing allowing that light to shine through so Swami Krishna will talk about this as when he gets to this and he always says God dwells within every home but the master of the home is generally found in the in the drawing room you want to find him there search there that's the devity the heart of the devotee so he'll make those types of Distinction yeah definitely dwelling within all beings but manifest more or more easily seen than others foreign in the sole of his foot he gets another Thorn and takes out the first one in other words he removes the thorn of agyana ignorance by the thorn of Guyana knowledge so this is this is uh a teaching that really is utilized along the path of devotion and the the path of of knowledge it is it's difficult because at the very beginning we have to uh rely only on the highest truth we we have to the very beginning uh say that this ego has no reality to it the devity has the luxury of utilizing the ego I have this feeling of I let me form a relationship with God it becomes helpful that's also this Vidya Maya it becomes helpful and gradually that ego will change and change become thinner and finer and everything and never remote merge the gyani has to do it from the very beginning that either I won with Roman or this this ego has no real substance to it start out with that so this is from the path of devotion or uh almost any path other than this restricted Dwight davidanta we make use of this relative universe this is that using this this Leela to reach the nitya we we utilize all of these these relative terms and uh even this this ego sense in order to remove we use this there's a good ego to remove the bad ego higher mind to remove the mistakes in the lower mind something like that so this uh removing the the thorn of vagina Ignorance by mean to the thorn of knowledge of Ghana knowledge this is this is the way we we get to the roof now we know that taco always talks about a state Beyond Guyana Guyana is the the highest type of of realization of Oneness that leaves us merged in ones attending to to the roof uh and not going beyond that stage of uh in 1880 or making a distinction between the real self and the non-real self and and the the uh that which is vastu and of us do all of those types of Distinction uh coming back down the vigyani he says it transcends even those types of distinctions since he's only God everywhere she's the Divine everywhere and it says he discards both Thorns knowledge and ignorance so it just stayed Beyond even knowledge knowledge implies some distinction between the real and the unreal this vigyanis state everything is real everything is divine now the other curious thing about this vignana state for the bhakta is that one has a relationship with his personal God this is this is something that uh we we understand as true only because of sharabi Krishna and other Mystics like that or if we're very lucky we have it ourselves but when he says then he talks intimately with God day and night it is no mere vision of God so this means that in the very highest state the uh realization of God is both personal and impersonal and the personal God is also real that means nitya and Leela are both real this is a very special teaching of ceramic Krishna as the state of Indiana and that personal relationship is there will it be that way for everyone no not necessarily because those the ghanis can also become vignanies then they'll be merged in Brahman or they'll see everything dreamlike they'll have their own type of way of living in the world as a god-realized soul talks about all the different ways as a Madman as a child and different ways for the god-released soul to live in the world but for the bhakta they'll have that type of relationship and is it is it absolute or is it conditioned now for sure uh everything was was communing with the Divine mother seeing God as the Divine mother is this is this 100 objective or it's a little bit subjective somebody else it'll be a whole different type of thing it may be day and night this community with Krishna or something huh so probably depends on the nature of the mind to some extent it doesn't make it unreal or anything but uh coming back into this world everything is conditioned again with the mind it's a transformed mind but still it has its own some Scottish and and ways of looking at things he was merely heard of milk is ignorant he who has seen milk has knowledge but he was drunk milk and become strengthened by it has attained vigyana yeah the book can be written about this that stayed Beyond realization the because we only know uh we we have lots of things books about the uh different things about what is the state of the god realized soul but Robert Krishna uh speaking from his own experience he goes beyond what we ordinarily know and read and understand about that state and explains it uh so many different ways he talks about this state of of the of the vigyani someone who's Gone Going beyond all of that social experience he says that his own state of mind he was indeed now of of course or vigyani can be any ordinary person doesn't mean Avatar or anything like that anybody can be a vigyani in theory in theory anybody who can have that highest type of realization and and come back down from that uh short of getting emerged in the every couple uh is it vignani the uh those who came to Earth with some special Mission and everything all right are practically born in that state of Indiana they still have some Maya some cobwebs to clear off but that that's they won't be born as as a perfect Soul unless they were vigyanis before unless they had the highest realization and came back down from it then otherwise they'll they'll be gone the Virgin Brahman and never they come back again that soul is done work is done everyone very clearly or God has become everything okay this is the question what will talk with vision after coming back down from samadhi and as as a big gyani did he say everything as a manifestation of the Divine or did he see God dwelling with them both and in in different different stages and phases he went through all different periods with different spiritual attitudes all right this this whole section really is about this shift to see we're having a little bit of a paradigm shift and srama Krishna now was coming to this point where he wants to see God dwelling within all living beings not a Leela this is this is that broken arm uh transitional point where now I want to see God dwelling within all beings but that doesn't change the fact that uh he sees everything as chinmaya as a manifestation of the Divine of consciousness so both both the outer covering is a manifestation of the Divine and the the reflected light of God within the heart of each and every living being is also the divine presence so he would see both at least he would at different times he would just express it differently sometimes I see the the not alone dwelling within all beings then other times sometimes I see everything is is nothing but consciousness like saying wax fruit looks like it's apple pear and Graves and different but I see all this is one substance so both I would say both did he not see variety he also saw variety he saw all individuals he could talk to them and do everything some somehow his mind could see all of these things and experience it as some type of unity without having to jump from one to the other and yeah Master to the devotees there's a difference between Assad who endowed with the Guyana and one endowed with vigyana has a certain way of sitting no now is he talking about a god realized Soul or just someone who Fashions himself as a gyani this will be more sadhu says yeah I don't care for these gods and goddesses and I am he that's my attitude the gyani salad was a certain way of sinning he Twirls his mustache and asked the visitor well sir have you any question to ask but the man who always sees God and talks to him intimately as an altogether different nature he is sometimes like an inert thing sometimes like a guru sometimes like a child and sometimes like a madman this this uh there's a verse in the Vivek two domini and another verse in the bhagavada purana with with these same four things I can I don't know which one came first or who took one from the other or anything but uh takur is very fond of this idea that yadavat that like inner thing and proper went through all of these and all of these experiences he used to talk about uh he would have such deep meditation that animals would crawl over his body Birds would land on his head they would start picking little food bits from his long hair and everything like that as if he were just an inner thing so Jordan and then this like a ghoul that not making any distinction between pure and impure anything like that now this is the one attitude that wasn't uh part of of the personality of Sri ramakrishna now he went through that phase and he had to do that that type of spiritual practice that and he did so many different things to convince him that no distinctions between pure and impure that sometimes he would eat off of the leaf plates of the Beggars who used to take food dakshineswar and when he didn't he had to do all sorts of things it put different objects feces and things of jackals on the tongue and yes to convince the mind that this likes and dislikes are all within the mind that this is nothing but one physical object composed of the gun is resting on another physical object composed of the gunas and it's only in the mind that we have this idea that something is is despicable and awful and everything to get beyond that idea so there's some Who Remain like that taco didn't remain like that for most of his life after it was very sensitive to anything impure we know that that was just his nature it didn't have to be that way uh he also had his own personality his own human mind that uh had its own distinctive features so sometimes like a Google some like a child now this is also this one we could say was very typical of Sri Krishna and why so typical partly because his spiritual attitude was to worship God his mother and to think of himself as a child so that was very very natural to him and sometimes like a madman and this was the state that ramakrishna went through at a certain period that stayed of divine Madness that lasted for a long time by the time the devotees came that type of Madness had passed they didn't see him that way a little bit although swamiji thought he was a little bit mad when he first met him but not like before when when really uh he would just go about crying weeping and crying mother mother they couldn't couldn't hold a decent conversation couldn't sleep at night couldn't eat and really just like said some type of Madness now he'll explain a little bit these these different states when he is in samadhi he began unconscious of the outer world and appears in their God he sees everything to be full of Brahman Consciousness therefore he behaves like a ghoul so this is so how do we distinguish between something pure and impure when everything is equally a manifestation of the Divine only because of our son Scott is and and our ideas within our mind of course we can say there's some objectivity to it that some things are actually dirty that if you take the if you eat it you'll get sick and everything but still if we analyze everything as a play of the gunas or everything is chinmaya however we look upon it that it's mostly our own mind so seeing if we see everything is Remnant Consciousness then we won't make these same types of distinctions the same play of divinity everywhere he's not conscious of the Holy and the Unholy he does not observe any formal Purity this is all about this ghoul-like nature to him everything is Brahman he is not aware filled as such even rice and other cooked food after a few days becomes like filth this is a type of filthier it means feces it means it gets converted yeah in the fecal matter it looks so nice as sun dash all these very wonderful things they all come out the same the other side huh so we make all these big distinctions so this is one type of uh of it's spiritual practice and spiritual attitude we had the born again that we did we read about and uh Taco talks about another one who came wearing one uh one tattered Jew and having a mango plant and everything and uh and then this idea when do we have perfect knowledge when there's no difference between we see no difference between the water of the ganga and the water in this sewer line sewer ditch the filter water that we attain High the highest type of knowledge this will say what type of knowledge is that we should be sensible people and be able to distinguish this and I this is according to that type of Personality we can say four personality types of God really so this is again he is like a madman with motherhood people notice his ways and actions and think of him as insane this was the general impression that people had of srama Krishna he's a good man but he's lost his head a little bit this is our wonderful shivanath they talk with love so much for the Brahma so much yeah that was his theory that by thinking so much to all the spiritual practice and everything he's going a little bit crazy he's a good man nice man holy man but a little bit crazy well sometimes he is like a child no bondage no shame no hatred no hesitation or Delight yeah he had no body Consciousness he had no no sin normally if our cloth falls off and we're exposed ourselves will be very embarrassed cover ourselves up in every he didn't have anything just like a child it's it's nice in India you see these little kids running around what are they wearing something you'll see one red string tied around the waist I never quite understood that but that's the only thing they're wearing they're not aware of anything huh yeah perfect innocence yeah what's the deal with that one red string huh you've seen it like that yeah yeah the word of the evil eye something like that okay okay but otherwise nothing not a statue clothing it's a certain age in a hot season of course one reaches the state of mind after having the vision of God when a boat passes by a Magnetic Hill it screws and nails become loose and drop out lust anger and the other passions cannot exist after the vision of God now what this is saying is that there'll be some gradual Continuum will become pure and pure sense of I will change everything kind of gradual but something will happen that will be very radical it is God realization a very radical thing that when we read all of our convers burned up with me and some real fire it takes place so talk words is comparing that to to lightning striking a building so uh all of those things which which represent bondage the same anger fear thus greed all of these things they get completely changed converted or eliminated or removed this really is what it means to live in the world the free soul so it's a very radical type of thing that takes place once a thunderbolt struck the Kali Temple I noticed that it flattened the points of the screws it is no longer possible for the man who has seen God to beget children and perpetuate the creation when the grand of Patty is sown it grows into a plant but a grain of boiled Patty does not germinate yeah the god realized Soul has no real connection with the body anymore and all desires are completely eliminated only that that Longing To commune with God he was seen God retains his eye only in name so there's there's no binding power to the ego but there is an ego everybody has an ego the only time we don't is when we're sleeping or when we're very much engrossed in reading a book or something like that we forget to become a little forgetful we're watching a movie and and uh we forget that we're sitting in the theater and every little bit uh but it's a temporary thing uh God realized so loses that that ego completely in that state of absorption coming back down the ego comes back but it's completely transformed there's no binding power whatsoever to that type of ego but ramakrishna did he not recognize himself as an individual a child of the Divine mother yeah because you can't live in a world without an ego this uh this is the ego of the vigani has led the ego of devotion or the ego of knowledge but it's an ego only has no binding power so he who has seen God retains his eye only in name that means that there's no real substance to it of course with us there's no real substance but we think it it's something real no evil can be done by that eye so we we read that God realized Soul can do anything and there'll be no karma attached to it can kill somebody and but they say I'm not the doer well what's the motive what will cause him there'll be no no unless it's of this very odd case of of Dharma and everything it's uh that it has to be done for the sake of the welfare of humanity there'll be no uh Motive Power to do anything that would be harmful to anybody so it's just in theory uh if one did something the evil though uh Karma would come to him but that would be proof that he's not a god-billy soul so it's really kind of a moot point whether God realized Soul can can perform any type of evil and get away with it without getting any karmic result theoretically yes anything done without the feeling of I but why there would be no motive no reason to do anything and so that'll be a test whether God do that so they won't do anything that's not uh beneficial to others they say like the like the rain that comes down in the spring time that'll water everything and all the plants will come this is how the god realize all this in the world no evil can be done by that eye it is a mere appearance like the mark left on the coconut tree by its branch sometimes he says this isn't just it looks like in the ego sometimes he says with us it's it's like uh a rope on the surface of the wood where other people like for this God realized so it's like a line drawn on the surface of the water what does that mean you can can't leave any mark on it it is a mere appearance like the mark left on the coconut tree by the branch the branch has fallen off only the mark remains I said to keshav Sen give up the EGO that makes you feel I am the doer I am teaching people this will be that unripe ego keship said to me sir then I cannot keep the organization notification uh he was very intelligent and uh very honest also other people wouldn't want to admit that it sounds the egotistical but he was also a little bit guileless I get that impression with ketchup that he didn't hesitate to tell srama Krishna that how will I keep this organization together he'll know that that will sound Oddish ramakrishna because of Life Is God realization what do you care about all this other stuff but he doesn't mind he had that type of relationship with with takur so keship said to me sir then I cannot keep the organization there upon I said to him give up the wicked ego yeah yeah so he's because Taco's idea was it's impossible to give up the EGO completely he said let that Rascal remain as a servant if you can't get rid of it but give up this other Rascal type of ego one doesn't have to renounce the ego that makes one feel I am the servant of God I am his devotee in fact one needs that type of ego that's what counteracts the other type of ego that's the good Thorn that takes out the bad torn one doesn't develop the Divine ego as long as one retains the wicked ego so we have to break this identification with with all of our uh likes and dislikes all of our opinions all of the uh false identifications desires we have to break all of that if we want to have any chance of having this Divine type of ego if a man is in charge of the storeroom the master of the house doesn't feel responsible for it so we we won't reach that point where we can feel God Alone is the doer as long as if you know I'm the doer that has to go first to the devotees ah now we'll get this hold change in Tucker's attitude you see my nature is changing on account of this injury to my arm he makes this statement that I don't know how many times a dozen times he really felt that a Divine mother had a plan for him that don't think breaking your arm has no deep significance that this was really a turning point in his in his spiritual attitude towards things you see my nature is changing on account of this injury to my arm it is being revealed to me that there is a greater manifestation of God in man than in other created beings God is telling me as it were I dwell in men I mean I dwell in people be merry with men among men God manifests himself in a still greater degree than pure soul devotees so this is what I was saying that that sun is shining everywhere but it'll be reflected better in some in a pure heart it would be restricted better that is why I feel great longing for Narendra rakal and other such youngsters so we we have kind of three levels one seeing God dwelling within all beings then two seeing special manifestation of God in the pure souls and in the devotees and three of a Time that will be the other NADA Leela to say that the very special manifestation of God and these rare Souls that come as every few hundred years and and have some special Divine Mission and founders of new religious traditions and everything foreign he uses that term for all of them this is a worshiper and now swamiji took this idea and for swamiji this was the highest worship to to worship God dwelling within all beings higher than any other type of worship does it break all other Idols this is the Living God that beautiful poem fits the Living God one often see small holes along the edge of a lake fish and crabs accumulate there just so there's a greater accumulation of divinity in man it is said that man is greater than the shalagram and is just a stone image it's something that's naturally found and it'll have certain marks on it a little flat and have a little sort of indentation or something like that we we know about uh taku's father when he was going on some trip and and he felt drowsy and he had this little kind of dream that there's a Charlotte and he found it and there was I think a snake covering it or something anybody remember the whole story and then so we took it and took it back and and they worshiped it thank you Shibu [Music] yeah that's the rug over here the Charlie Brown is a symbol of Vishnu so that's that's uh the in in taku's family they didn't have any uh image of anything everything was was uh a symbolic thing there's all the worship but Robert there was no picture or anything and uh she said worship of Shiva so they had a Shiva lingam for Shiva the shalogram for Vishnu Rama and then was just a drawer with water we can say Divine mother that way so this was one uh non-anthropomorphic way that worship was done in in India and many many of ancient Traditions yeah if I worship of Shiva is generally done is it uh not too many places where you'll see a picture or image of Shiva generally the shiverling so the shalogram for the vaishnavitz is something very important okay so it said the man is greater than the shalogram so the shalagram is something that really is put right on the shrine and worshiped yeah so that means there's a higher form of worship to see God dwelling in human beings than another other type of uh symbolic type of worship man is narayana himself if God can manifest himself through an image then why not through man also God is born as a man for the purpose of sporting as men now we'll get to this other Avatar Rama Krishna and caitanya are examples by meditating on an incarnation of God one meditates on God himself now this is a wonderful thing this is a really a great blessing for us if we if we have faith in this statement because if we say we're told to meditate on God we say how do I do it what does it mean what what a picture is there in my mind you want me to do uh to think of one of the the deities I can worship and think of of Shiva and Durga and all of that I can do that to a certain extent but you want me to just meditate on God huh as Consciousness or it says the divine power formulas something like that how do I do it and we're told here that there's a special manifestation of God in human form and these great Souls these Ramana Krishna is the avatars meditating on them is the same equal that will the same result will be there that the object of our meditation is that same Divinity only it'll be something that we can have a relationship with that we can picture and without just using our imagination uh so uh is a great Advantage for those who like this idea of of this human form of God used to say the avatars as good as God it's a very interesting statement as good as God so for meditation purposes for worship purposes uh to meditate on the Avatar to worship the Avatar uh can be our way of worshiping and meditating on God when we have no real uh clear conception because everything is our conception we talk with talks about this not a Lila he talks about David who we can meditate on this Divine Play of Shiva going into the cremation ground and meditating and uh burning up this going to the dakshas you know all the different things that's also a type of Leela now the other is something that took place on Earth let's assume caitanya Deva and everything there's another type of not a Lila uh but from the point of view of meditation they're both conceptions of the Mind there's no real difference huh if somebody says I I Mediterranean arama someone says I meditate on Shiva and somebody says well they're two completely different things one is a human manifestation the other is someone from that point of view you can make a distinction one is David Leela and the other is not a Leela but otherwise what am I doing I'm projecting an image I'm trying to imagine uh this Divinity in in this image and I'm doing it because I want to commune with the real Divinity within the heart within this so there's no real distinction that way and same thing with this Avatar and what is our conception of God swamiji says you take your conception of God you'll find that it's far below the reality of the avatar you try to think of God as loving or loving it's limited by your ability to love compassion limited by your ability to be compassionate you look at holy mother can you conceive of of even of a God who has that type of of love and compassion and fellow feeling for all beings we can't that's so he says it's even higher why even try to imagine these Divine qualities when they're present there in a form that's greater than our imagination can imagine it's a very interesting Concept in swamiji says this is the the advantage of the of authority and of course with ishrama Krishna holy mother they're so close to us and we we know so much about them and everything so by meditating on an incarnation of God one meditates on God himself bhagavadas a Brahma devotee arrived Master to bhagavandas the Eternal religion the religion of the rishis has been in existence from time out of mind and will exist eternally there exists in this sanatana Dharma all forms of worship worship of God with form and the worship of the impersonal deity as well it contains all paths The Path of Knowledge the path of devotion and so on Wards giving a test a summary of this whole spiritual Outlook and teachings of vedanta it contains all paths The Path of Knowledge the path of devotion and so on other forms of religion the modern Cults will remain for a few days and then disappear so that is the end of of that day will continue next time with March 23rd 1884. yes [Music] we bow our heads before shramakrishna 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 foreign