Video 125

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (3/3/23)

foreign 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 Krishna we're on the chapter the master and his injured arm it is Sunday March 2nd 1884. oh today is March 3rd I don't know what's the sense and it's ramakrishna is in his room and listening to devotional music by Tara Lucas and all of the Brahma samaj and of course m is there and some others so we'll start on page 398. Surendra yeah the conversation had been a little bit about uh what we do in previous previous lifetimes and how that affects us enemy so Surendra smiling if by giving away money in a previous birth one gets wealth in this life then we should all give away money now it sounds like a funny statement and it's not exactly the point that shurama Krishna was trying to make but he's smiling he's telling us it's kind of humorously Surendra was one of those who had money and and was very very generous but at the same time very careful with his money I won't say miserly or anything but he didn't give it away easily and he used to say that some people it's painful to give money away anyhow but he was very very generous we know that he paid most of the expenses for sarama Christian and kashipur and then when the first word came he was responsible for talk where came to him in some type of vision and so he went to the boys and said the money that I gave lost Rama Krishna was alive I can give now also so he was very very generous that way there's one nice conversation in the gospel where astronomy Krishna says to him generally I can't accept anything given by people who earn their money through business means through profit that means you buy something cheap you settled expensive it's a little bit in his mind a little bit I won't say unethical but uh he said but he said but you know why I accept the things that you give me surrender because you're so generous you give away more than you you take in so this surrender was a complicated person he uh he could get a little bit of this obiman if uh at one time Taco didn't wear the garland that that he gave and he was so upset and they won't come again and like that but but a great devotee he was very much devoted to takura and all the direct disciples master those who have money should give it to the poor and needy we don't hear shramakrishna talking uh in this vein very much some people get the impression he didn't care it's at first first realize God didn't worry about dispensaries and and helping other people and everything but uh this was a very strong thing with him that he didn't like it when when there were wealthy people who ordered their money and didn't do things to help others those who have money should give it to the poor needy to terelokia Diego Paul said as well to do he should be charitable that he is not so is to his discredit there are those who are miserly even though they have money there's no knowing who will enjoy their money afterwards Jay gopal came here the other day he drove over here in the carriage the Lambs were broken the horse seemed to have been returned from the Charnel house and The Coachman looked as if he had just been destroyed from the Medical College Hospital and he brought me two rotten pomegranates or left Surendra foreign I understand that now there's not one worthwhile man in case of the organization Vijay goswami shivnat and other notables have organized the sadharan brahmo samaj that was of course well ketchup was still living because of the marriage of his daughter to the uh when she was a little bit under underage according to the brahmos age restriction then I think kejab already passed away so after after that yeah so it really they separated and then the they called theirs the sadharan Brahma General brahmosovo as you can say and then keship renamed his the new dispensation that'll be the one that split split so I don't think there was any uh maybe after this uh fell apart they started just using brahmos of Hodgkin was what they called this I think they render nuts Master smiling Govinda adhikari it is said would not keep good actors in this theater unless they should claim a share of the Prophet all that the other day I saw a disciple of keship a theatrical performance was being given in kashab's house and I saw the disciple dancing on the stage with a child in his arms I understand that this man delivers lectures probably Taco said that in English he had better lecture to himself upon the Sea of blissful awareness waves of ecstatic love arise Rapture Divine Play of God's Bliss oh how enthralling wondrous waves of the sweetness of God every new and ever enchanting rise on the surface ever assuming forms ever fresh then once more in the great communion all emerged as the barrier walls of time and space dissolve and vanish dance then o mind dance in Delight with hands upraised chanting Lord hadith's holy name SRI ramakrishna requested taralokia to sing the song beginning oh mother make me mad with thy love this was probably both of them but this one is definitely Tere Loki's own composition uh certainly inspired by israma Krishna himself oh mother make me mad with thy love what need have I of knowledge or Reason make me drunk with thy loves wine o thou who stealest thy hooked his Hearts drawn me deep in the sea of thy love here in this world this mad house of thine some laughs some weep some dance for joy Jesus Buddha Moses gauranga All or drunk with the wine of thy love o mother when shall I be blessed by joining their Blissful company thank you you know we start a new chapter chapter 20 rules for householders and monks Sunday March 9 1884. SRI ramakrishna was sitting in his room at dakshineswar with many devotees among them were Mani Malik Mahindra kaviraj balaram M bhavanat rakal lattu and Harish the Masters injured arm was in a splint in spite of the injury he was constantly absorbed in swahati or instructing the devotees refer to the ex exhibition which was then being held near the Asiatic Museum they said many maharajas have sent precious articles to the exhibition gold couches and the like it is worth seeing Master to the devotees with a smile yes you gain much by visiting those things you realize that those articles of gold and the other thing sent by maharajas or mere trash there's great gain in it that is a great gain in itself when I used to go to Calcutta with Rita he would show me the viceroy's palace and say look Uncle there's a viceroy's palace with the big columns the mother revealed to me that they were merely clay bricks laid one on top of another this is a type of pichata or remake this discrimination that what is there that's a value and a different different objects that is all subjective a subject now is something something like gold can retain its Purity through ages you can bury it it has qualities of course diamonds they can be beautiful in a video but you analyze what they're made up of how different is it from from other things we'll go back to atoms and molecules and everything and the difference is is we can sell one for a lot of money or we can enjoy it but otherwise the thing in itself is nothing nothing so special talk we're used to you know take this clay and and uh and a rupee it'll be a metal it would be like that and it's a great what's the difference between the two then get rid of them if we're not going to use it to buy something then what is the difference they were both the material objects and nothing very special one will have a little stamp and it'll look nice and everything but otherwise Tucker's point is if our goal in life is God realization then how is one superior to the other it only increases one's rudges and one's grid and everything so there's not much point in it yeah it's interesting the mother revealed to me that they were merely clay bricks the big columns laid one on top of another in India almost every building no matter what anything is everything starts to peel away and you see bricks and there's some type of covering on the outside mostly just the brick spiral on top of each other God and His splendor God Alone is real the Splendor has but two days existence this is this is that distinction that Tucker likes to use normally he says here two days existence the same thing it means that these things will come and go there's nothing permanent about them the magician and his magic all become speechless with Wonder at the magic but it is all unreal the magician alone is real the rich man and his garden people see only the garden they should look for its Rich owner Mani Malik to the master what a big electric light they have at the exhibition it makes us think how great he must be who has made such an electric light Mastery to money but according to one view it is he himself who has become everything even those who say who say that or he it is itself that has become all the creator of my the universe and living beings now he's making a distinction here even between Brahman and ishwara will be this pure Consciousness even even the ishwara uh Brahman has become that in a sense that a little edition of Maya in Roman Empire that means not under the control of fire but controlling Maya will become ishwara so even that uh is is kind of step down secondary to the Ultimate Reality this will be brahmana's pure consciousness the conversation turned to the museum Master to the devotees I visited the museum once this is the Asiatic Museum I was shown fossils the whole animal had been had become stone just see what an effect has been produced by company likewise by constantly living in the company of a holy man when verily becomes holy I don't I don't know how Taco understood fossils to come about her yeah probably he thought being so close to Stone they turned to stones money smiling as you visited the exhibition only once we could receive instruction for 10 or 15 years Master with a smile how so you mean illustrations but around no you shouldn't go your arm won't heal if you go here and there master I should like to have two pictures one of a yogi seated before a lighted log and another of a yogi smoking hem and the charcoal blazing up as he pulls such pictures Kindle my spiritual consciousness as an imitation fruit awakens the idea of a real one yeah this uh smoking of him by the by the yogi by the sadhus is a very common thing I don't know if throughout India especially North India in Bernard so you'll see in Santa but they won't do it up and sing a dance there's no sit in meditation should at least the obstacle to yoga is lust in Gold yoga is possible when the Mind becomes pure the seed of the mind is between the eyebrows but its look is fixed on the navel and the organs of generation and evacuation that is to say we're in lust in Gold but through spiritual discipline the same mind looks upward now this is a very curious statement huh this curious statement that he says the seed of the mind is between the eyebrows Jesus now generally uh we have we have different ways of trying to understand where what is the seed of the mind huh and what is the location of the Mind um first thing is that it belongs to a subtle realm and not exactly this Physical Realm so it may be a mistake to even try to place it somewhere physically one one idea [Music] yes yeah yeah so this is the other idea that this the mind will will dwell in different places that if we're really talking about uh the level of mind then the mind can dwell in any of the different chakras then the other idea is that uh because uh this sense of self is connected with the heart center the mind will be connected among us as hard will be connected with the heart center then other idea is that the mind pervades the whole body now they say that because that sense of touch is everywhere whatever we thought so that mind will pervade the whole body uh there are 101 naughty bodies bodies in the heart and when the piranha goes to rest it is there yes so generally we think yeah from the upanishad at least consciousness but man is also to some extent uh is generally thought of in the heart right now which ramakrishna is saying is that two things that the seed of the Mind why he says that and boss is the word this Dwelling Place the mind and heart are used interchangeably or sometimes no this is a very important mind and heart I I I've uh I've spoken about this many many times because I I find it very interesting that in Sanskrit there's only one word for both is equally translatable as mind and and his heart there's no there's no distinction that and it's and it's considered to be within the heart center the mind is is identified with the heart Heart Center and if we understand mind to be the seed of of experience and feeling and emotion then we say the heart now it's more of a modern thing to think about the mind in the head and I have my theory about this those who yeah [Music] and every day when he used to just before falling asleep see a bright light yeah between his eyebrows yeah between his eyes and it would get bigger and bigger and burst then he'd fall asleep yeah yeah now huh okay that was totapori told him yeah when he pressed the glass there baby yeah they're different different types of meditation we'll we'll get to that taku generally said the heart but then we'll we'll see we'll get to it this uh the Giannis can meditate or between these eyebrows that would be different different ways of doing it uh it could be but why do we identify the intellect with with the head yeah but why yeah no but she's she's right she's right yeah yeah no no but she's right that when we we feel that we think in the head okay why is this no no suppose we don't know that there's a brain suppose we have no idea if if we have no idea that the brain is there maybe the brain is uh in in my in my office at home yeah but no why it's a very it's an interesting thing no no we're not told it's a natural thing yeah okay my theory because our senses are all here and because we speak the the hearing is here and are seeing is here and uh and mouth is here and we hear ourselves we hear ourselves think because the mouth and everything is here except everything is here if this is my theory if all of these say the brain is here and all the senses are down in our knees we'll think that we think in our knees if we see from our knees and we hear from our knees and we speak from our knees we'll think that that it's just a psychological thing that makes us a place the the mind in the head and the and the inner and the feelings emotions in the heart why do we feel connected with the heart because of the lungs and the the beating of the heart and the rapidity of the lungs when we have any emotional feeling the two organs that are affected or the lungs and the Heart that's also the main reason otherwise mind is it is a subtle thing it has no real location in the sense you can cut open the body and find it we know there's a connection with the brain but before people know about the brain even people would you feel we feel that we think we hear ourselves think in the head because that's we talk that's where our tongue is in everything and he has my theory but generally they'll say mind pervades the body this is one way of looking at it and the seed of Consciousness at least the upanishad brahmapuram is is the Cave of the heart you'll use that type of thing and it's true Manus means equally hard and equally mind because it's an artificial distinction that we make is all of these are experiences that come through the instrument of mind even feeling it has to come through the mind it may not come through words and be articulated the way other things are but still everything we experience we experience through the Mind within Consciousness itself so why he says here that the seed of the mind is between the eyebrows I don't know why and I don't remember him saying it any other time exactly like that but then he says but its look is fixed on the navel that means the mind so somehow uh this goes back to the Kundalini idea if the mind is is on a lower level then uh the Gaze of the individual that means our attention will be on the physical body and only when it gets a little bit higher see when it gets all the way to the again chakra then we don't even see this this external world Taco says and if we say everything is light at that point and then it goes higher and we emerge in brahmana like that so it is curious for this he's not saying that the Mind dwells there but the seed is there is a boss it means it's it's it's home it's The Running Place sorry but then he says but his look is fixed on the navel and the organs of generation that means Taco says the ordinary person that this Kundalini or uh this is it energy or where the mind it really means that our mind is on the three lower chakras and only when we attain some higher spiritual level mind gets raised to the heart center and then it doesn't go lower he said for those who have some realization it'll remain there because the state of course was was like but through spiritual discipline the same mind looks upward so this mind if it even if its seed is here it has that that it can it can travel you can say that and we don't have to think in terms of spatial location at all we can just think of of where's the mind focused where do we where do we live what do we think about how do we identify ourselves we identify more with with the body and uh with the not just the body with the passions if we're talking about the lower chakras that this is all has to do with rajas and Thomas and everything The Prana as an instrument of the Mind of course where this will have to be Prana working on a subtle level yeah it's abusive even the mind will have to have some to promise it means just some energy some ability to to redirect itself in everything what are the spiritual disciplines that give the Mind its upward Direction now if we're saying that the mind is this is the seed of the mind we don't have to worry about upward Direction because it's already as high as it's going to go other than nearby copper samati so we now he's talking about the ordinary mind that's generally with the lower three calculus how do we get that to go higher and again I don't I don't think it's necessarily helpful to worry about the spatial idea you know higher means here higher means to settle a realm and pure realm and everything yeah what are the distant spiritual disciplines that give the mind it's over Direction one learns all this by constantly living in holy company so a lot of this is not necessarily things that we we read in books or just a list do this one two three four five what we we feel inspired we feel inspired the mind gets lifted up well we don't have so much control over the mind that we can lift it up ourselves it has to somehow be lifted up we're very limited that way that some some external Force has to be there uh we may say grace we may say divine presence within or this power of a holy company but something if we fall on the ground we can lift ourselves off of the ground but we can't we can't we lift ourselves up to the ground we can't lift ourselves off of the ground no matter how strong we are somebody else has to do that for us when learned all this by constantly living in holy company the rishis of olden times lived either in solitude or in the company of holy persons therefore they could easily renounce lust in gold and fix their minds on God they had no fear nor did they mine the criticism of others in order to be able to renounce one must pray to God for the will the power to do so now we may say that one can renounce only through the grace of God we have to pray for that but what do we get as a result of the prayer The Willpower to do it there's a very nice nice way of of showing the necessity of of God's grace and also our own effort The Willpower a nice way to put it one must pray to God for the will the power to do so one must immediately renounce what one feels to be unreal the rishis had this willpower through it they controlled the sense organs if the tortoise once tucks in its limbs you cannot make it bring them out even by cutting it into four pieces this is the definition of pratyahara that we find in the stito pregnant section that the yogi can withdraw its limbs just like the tortoise so that it's a mind is is not going outward through the senses at all everything is is directed Within thank you the worldly man is a hypocrite he cannot be guileless he professes to love God but he is attracted by worldly objects he doesn't give God even a very small part of the love he feels for and quotes again woman in gold but he says that he loves God too many Malik give up hypocrisy money regarding whom God or man Master regarding everything yeah this is a funny why he asked that type of question this hypocrisy with regard to God how can we think that God doesn't know what's in our hearts we can fool other people maybe we can even fool ourselves a little bit yeah yeah with regard to to spiritual life maybe but he says regarding whom God or man regarding everything man as well as God one must not be a hypocrite how guyless is is there unless he stepped out he should be we read in the very beginning that he was in the room with all of the others is such a hard to understand and everything and how he just drifted away towards the end talk of all right seems that he placed him on the same level as even swamiji and Rock Island of course nobody in the same levels those two exactly but within that realm of this nity Sid heads sometimes he should a koti we assume that he thought that he would probably be one of the monks and everything but marriage was arranged for him he got married in the beginning you'll see how they praised him he and his wife only talk about God this and that and the next thing you know there's a child and he's busy he doesn't have time to go to kashipur why and how it happened we very mysterious after his marriage he came to me and asked why do I feel so much love for my wife alas he is so guileless isn't it natural for a man to love his wife this is due to the World bewitching Maya of the Divine mother of the universe a man feels about his wife that he is no one else in the world so near and dear that she is his very own in life and death here and Hereafter all of these things apply equally to to the wife and the husband husband and the wife he's talking the man of course again how much a man suffers for his wife still he believes that there is no other relative so near look at the sad plight of a husband perhaps he earns 20 rupees a month and is the father of three children he has in the means to feed them well his roof leaks but he hasn't the wherewithal to repair it he cannot afford to buy new books for his son he cannot invest his son with the sacred thread he begs a few Pennies from his different friends talk were observed all of these things these were not uncommon things especially since it was very hard to earn money for the Indians they're working for the British and civil service jobs and everything not easy for them to make much money now it sounds like he's talking about women in general he's not because he says Bud a wife endowed with spiritual wisdom is a real partner in life she greatly helps her husband to follow the religious path after the birth of one or two children they live like brother and sister both of them are devotees of God his servant and his handmaid their family is a spiritual family they are always happy with God and His devotees they know that God Alone is their own from Everlasting to Everlasting they are like the pandava brothers they do not forget God in happiness or in sorrow this of course was the ideal for the Vana Preston stage of life but taqwa felt that there was a very special class of devotees that didn't have to wait that long after one or two children that they could really lead that type of life at that time the longing of the worldly minded for God is momentary like a drop of water on a red hot frying pan the water hisses and dries up in an instant the attention of the worldly minded is directed to the enjoyment of worldly pleasure therefore they do not feel yearning and restlessness for God yeah this this question of of who was a worldly person and who was a spiritual person right that everybody is a mixture we we all have uh some worldiness and some uh desires and we all have some positive very uh deep spiritual aspirations everything is a mixture and it's not very good for us to try to to judge and to feel that we're spiritual people and these are worldly people and everything that we don't know in the second who who has some fall and who else by some Grace can can become a very spiritual person and uh but taka makes these distinctions so that uh we can observe and we can see not otherworldly people but those worthy tendencies in ourselves and try to root them out what what can we do to get rid of these things this uh some Saudi law sometimes it means worldly people other times it just means that householders those who are living in the world it doesn't always have a very negative connotation all right and those who take the monastic life they can have all of the same uh hidden desires and and they'll have some good samscars of course but uh it doesn't mean that they will automatically reach some very high state of Purity and spirituality and yes that they have some good fortune and what some Scholars maybe and we don't know our Karma we see we see some householder deputies that are really represent a very high spiritual ideal and we'll see many monastics who are in good people but they won't necessarily uh be spending all their time deep meditation and spiritual practice and everything so every everyone is in is a mixture so what he says the longer of the worldly minded for God he's not talking uh about householders in general he's really talking about those who have no interest in spirituality the only purpose of life is enjoyment if there's no interest in in something higher then of course there's nothing else but enjoyment otherwise your life is just boredom and most people uh what they they look for some diversion to overcome the boredom or uh to somehow divert their mind from the painful side of life so Taco doesn't look down on these people or anything but he's he's he he wants the devotees to understand that we have to do this type of uh self-analysis to see what the Tendencies of our own minds are the longing of the worldly minded for God is momentary like a drop of water on a red hot frying pan the water hisses and dries up in an instant the attention of the worldly minded is directed to the enjoyment of worldly pleasure therefore they do not feel yearning and restlessness for God people may observe the ekadashi in three ways is generally a fasting Day in India traditionally Ramadan is sung the 11th day of the uh of the phase of the moon first the waterless ekadashi they are not permitted to drink even a drop of water likewise in all renouncing religious mendicant completely gives up all forms of enjoyment second while observing the ekadashi they take milk and sandesh likewise a householder Deputy keeps and is how simple objects of enjoyment third while observing the ikadashidi Luchi and chakka they eat their fill they keep a couple of loaves soaking in milk which they will eat later on the footnote this observance is an ecology a name only since the Observer Fields is stomach with delicious food by avoiding rice and a few cooked articles he keeps to the letter of the law yeah I I was always confused in India when I would hear people saying that they were fasting I'm watching them eat basically oh we're not taking any rice today or we're not taking this today and it's something it's it's is it um some type of discipline and recognition that it's a holy day something is there the world has this Sanskrit word that means more than just dwelling dwelling in the presence of the divine presence yeah but it's come to me yeah not taking food you have to what all the senses yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah this this uh are harder this this this is taken by shankaracharya that's this word not just taking food it means anything we take into the senses everything we think about has to be purified yeah not just taking pure food or fasting or anything yeah so that type of fast yeah I I was I was so surprised when I heard the very common practice on shivratri night in order to stay awake all night long people will go and watch movies the theater is supposed to open watch movies all night long yeah that's supposed to be stories of Quran I guess so but but it turns out to be anything just to keep from falling asleep yeah [Laughter] that's true yeah at least it's observing something and staying awake it's not the same no it's it's meditating and attending uh ideas exactly this name for projectors and movies yeah exactly yes just so you don't fall asleep yeah yeah yeah right yeah and then I found that many women stay awake that night they get good husbands is that true poor man putting many chemicals yeah there are very good yeah yeah of course yeah they'll they'll be look good when when Tucker went into a Somali as a young boy they'll have a nice job to play on the life of Shiva and everything yeah of course that's with the tradition not one there the the Chinese were they'll have some that goes on through the night and everything yeah yeah but then everybody most of the people will basically go sleep yeah yeah I could never stay up the whole night I would I would take a little nap and say from one o'clock to two o'clock then come back and then go back and it's easier to fast for me than stay awake I remember when she brought to be my first and when I went to tobuko and I took a long nap after lunch so I could stay awake all night so what Young monk he said what is what is this idea of this you're supposed to stay awake the whole time then I watched him I saw he was asleep by 10 o'clock at night and I stayed up for the night so when we have to be sensible huh yeah who who who made the better decision huh a man practices spiritual discipline but his mind is on woman in Gold normally I don't use this term women and gold but this means the same thing that uh the mind gets directed towards sense enjoyment sexual enjoyment also whether man or woman or whether heterosexual or homosexual doesn't matter that this is a natural tendency of the of the mind to go down and if if that type of mind is practicing spiritual discipline then uh mind will go in that direction but this is it this is everybody's mind uh is is is not at the beginning on a very high level we have to start with this uh we have to understand that and do our spiritual practice and uh and and just what Taqua says pray for that willpower pray for that strength all right therefore in their case the spiritual discipline does not produce the right result positive used to practice much in Japan austerity here but in the country he has his wife children and land therefore along with his spiritual discipline he carried on the business of a broker such people cannot be true to their word one moment they say they will give a fish but the next moment they break their vow so what about people who has this tendency of mind to enjoy the world at the same time have Longley forgot realization they struggle that's all and then gradually they've tried to go forward that's all is that no one should feel that spiritual life is not possible for them that we just started different different levels in different stages and and gradually we we try to purify the mind as far as possible is there anything that a man will not do for money now he's talking about his worthy very worldly people he will even compel the Brahman or holy man to carry a load in my room sweets would turn bad still I could not give them away to the worldly minded I could accept dirty water from others but not even touch a jar of a worldly person yeah Taco was very sensitive to these things and of course a lot of this uh the sweets in his room either it's Prasad were things that devotees brought in order for him to give to other devotees but notice the the no question of who is is wealthy or who is from a high cast or anything like that only distinction is who has that purity of heart at the sight of rich people hazra would call them to him he would give them long lectures he would say to them you see Racquel and the other youngsters they do not practice any spiritual discipline they simply wander about merrily a man may live in a mountain cave smear his body with ashes observe fasts and practice or steer discipline but if his mind dwells on worldly objects objects on lust and gold I say shame on him but I say that a man is blessed indeed who eats drinks and roams about but who keeps his mind free from lust and gold foreign there's no picture of a holy man at his house Divine feeling is awakened through such pictures yes there is where do you hear the pictures it's funny pictures in one room there's a picture of a Pious Christian woman engaged in prayer there's another picture in which a man holds to the hill of faith below is an ocean of immeasurable depth if he gives up his hold on faith it will drop into the bottomless water there is still a third picture several virgins are keeping vigil feeding their lambs with oil and expectation of the bridegroom this is a parable from the New Testament a sleeping virgin is by their side she will not behold the bridegroom when he arrives God is described here as the bridegroom Master Smiley that's very nice I have other pictures too one of the tree of faith and another of sin and virtue these are all I don't know kind of cartoonish things some some have you ever painting of sin and virtue of some type of symbolic things foreign has been there the whole time that he was praising him so much those are good pictures and go to his house and see them the master remained silent a few minutes master now and then I reflect on these ideas now this he's referring back to this uh sin and virtue and find that I do not like them in the beginning of spiritual life a man should think about Sin and how to get rid of it but when through the grace of God devotion and ecstatic love are awakened in his heart then he altogether forget virtue and sin then he lives the scriptures and their injunctions far behind thoughts of repentance and Penance do not bother him at all this is really the final message of the Gita they said give give up or all of this idea this should be done this shouldn't be done because the mind is pure at that point then then one feels one is an instrument and the tendency to do anything contrary to harm it won't be there this is the means that one has reached a higher stage then he gives one of the examples that one of his favorite examples it is like going to your destination along the winding River so this is that stage where uh the river we have to follow in every other curve in it we have to follow all of the teeth this is that we have to do a certain amount of spiritual practice every day at a certain time maybe do a certain Puja every day take vowels fast and all sorts of things it's the way the bhakti calls it it is like going to your destination along a winding River this requires great effort and a long time but when there is a flood all around then you can go straight to your destination in a short time then you find the land lying underwater deep as a bamboo pole this is at anuraga it's when the Divine love comes then we don't have to worry about all of these things we can go straight in the beginning of spiritual life one goes by a roundabout way one has to suffer a great deal but the path becomes very now why suffer a great deal because we're fighting this mind is mine with all the tendencies All the Things it's used to that it likes to do and everything uh we're not letting it do it and it's trying to to make us do it and we fail sometimes we're successful sometimes so there can be a tremendous struggle in the beginning and the beginning is a long time beginning maybe a whole lifetime so in the beginning of spiritual life one goes by a roundabout way one has to suffer a great deal but the path becomes very easy when ecstatic love is awakened in the heart anuraga it is like going over the Paddy field after the Harvest is over you may then walk in any direction before the Harvest you had to go along the winding block but now you can walk in any direction the area of the country yeah if you if you don't go along the ball you'll you'll be Knee Deep in water some places but afterwards they cut everything down they walk anywhere there may be stubble in the field but you will not be heard by it if you walk with your shoes on just so an aspirant does not suffer if he has discrimination dispassion and faith in the guru's words sometimes he says that the bhakti or the shoes that you wear if one has devotion Manila to the master well what is the rule for concentration where should one concentrate now this question comes up many times usually it's where should one meditate or concentrate meditate and it means again this idea that we can fix the mind and in a certain area of the body through imagination and through feeling the two ways one we can really try to feel any center of the body we close our we close our eyes and we can feel the Heart Center mostly through this kind of beating of the heart I have some feeling we can feel the bottom of our feet touch the ground if we direct our mind there if we want we can feel uh even the the eyes turning inward and that's basically we can feel it and the other is through imagination that we were picturing uh the uh residing in a certain area of the body so these two things mainly then he gives the answer that it almost always gives the heart is a splendid place one can meditate there or in the sahasrara now he'll give other times generally three either up here or between the eyebrows and uh within the Heart Center and generally we hear this is the he'll talk about Vishnu yoga the devotee and the Heart sometimes the gyani here sahasrara sometimes we're told meditating the guru this is the city sitting in the Thousand petal Lotus and then these are all uh partly I guess to try to raise Kundalini partly yes uh to to use this power of imagination to to picture these things taking place in different different centers of the body There are rules for meditation given in the scriptures but you may meditate wherever you like every place is filled with Brahman Consciousness is there any place where it does not exist now this may be true but Tucker as I say always talks about the Arts and we have the one well the one instance that we always cite are Swami virus that at one time he did long intense meditation and japa for of 16 18 hours a day and he developed these terrible headaches and everything and nobody knew why and he consulted uh Raja Maharaj and others that nobody knew and his finally holy mother she said my child where do you meditate and he said between the eyebrows and he said no Myra keep keep your focus within the heart center and then the headaches disappeared after that so there's one one instance that we know where holy mother specially gave that in that type of instruction every place is filled with Roman Consciousness is there any place where it does not exist narayana and all these presence covered with two steps the heavens the earth and the Inner Space inner spaces this is there's a footnote the reference to a story in the bhagavadam king while he was proud of his charity God appeared before him in the form of a dwarf and asked him for the space that he could cover with three steps well he granted the Boon with two steps the Lord covered the Earth the heavens and the inner spaces while he was forced to place his own head before the Lord for the third step this curved his pride is there any place left uncovered by God a dirty place is as holy as the bank of the Ganges now this takur uh he had different moods and a different spiritual practices when he practiced this some of these tantric practices he did all of these things to to see no distinction between even even a a a sweet meat even some sandesh and droppings of a jackal we both made of these three goddess both can be put in the tongue and no reaction would be there if the mind is it goes to a higher level but it wasn't his normal mood normally he was very his body was so attuned to pure and impure but this is one type of practice and one type of God realized soul will talk about these these different types and you remember the uh that was the house right after him he wanted some instruction from him yeah and he didn't want to he just wanted to go through a brick Academy anyhow he really kept going and he said when you make no distinction between this holy water of the ganga and this dirty ditch water that means sewer was sewage across sewage and this water then you'll entertain the highest knowledge so this isn't for everyone there's one type of contradict path a dirty place is as holy is the Bank of the Ganges it is said that the whole creation is a Virat the universal form of God there are two kinds of meditation one of the formless Gods and the other in God with form but meditation on the formless God is extremely difficult in that meditation you must wipe out all that you see or hear you contemplate only the nature of your inner self meditating on his inner self Shiva dances about he exclaims what am I what am I this is called Shiva yoga while practicing this form of meditation one directs one's look to the forehead so that'll be between the eyebrows it is meditation on the nature of one's inner self after negating the world following the virata method of 1980 not this not this there's another form of meditation known as the Vishnu yoga the Eyes Are Fixed On the tip of the nose have to look as gazed Inward and the other half outward we read this in Gita on the tip of the nose that is how one meditates on God with form sometimes she even meditates on God with Foreman dances at that time he exclaims and dance is about Krishna then explain the sacred word om and the true knowledge of Brahman and the state of mind after the attainment of ramagyana we'll stop here begin with this next time and you know nobody should feel a little bit uh pessimistic today in fact we're talked a lot about worldly people and lower thoughts and everything everybody has to deal with these things this is part of the human nature and we all do our best to talk 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 [Music] peace peace peace foreign foreign