Video 136

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Atmajnanananda (6/16/2023)

foreign [Music] 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've been reading the chapter advice to an actor chapter 22 and this was Saturday May 24th 1884. and now we're getting towards the end of that day and we're on page 436. I'm sure I'm a Krishna is talking to several people but Hadi is there our future Swami turia London buddy why is there so much suffering in the world now this this is a very very big question that has so many different answers and really we don't know if there's anyone definitive answer and I'm sure I'm a Christian himself will give different answers at different times and the one thing I was thinking about this today we we have to sometimes consider whether it's ramakrishna is is stating something as a fact we're stating something as a spiritual attitude because uh the spiritual attitude uh is something that is perhaps more important and it doesn't have to be something that's verifiable it doesn't have to be something that everybody accepts we can all have our own understanding of things one very simple uh illustration of this is whether we think everything is divine will or we take everything as karma we may say philosophically these are two uh mutually contradictory positions if we look at it from the point of view of the spiritual attitude then we see that we can take one or the other or both at different times and it'll be helpful to us and it's not that there's there's no truth to either one absolute truth would the the absolute what is the final answer to this question why is there so much suffering in the world I don't think it's possible what could have caused him to ask this question ah there's a honey okay uh yeah this is a good question he was saying oh why do we think that Hadi asked this particular question now before this there was a little bit talk about Narada and Raman and ayodhya and having to kill ravana and everything so maybe that was it I don't think there was any special problem in his life at that time any difficulty that he would ask that question yes yeah so and and he was very thoughtful it could have been just really deeply philosophical type of of question but we all wonder sometimes especially when we say great devotees or very good people suffering and sometimes we see people who do terrible things they're suffering we think okay they deserved it somehow but sometimes we see people very good people who don't seem to have done anything that we know of at least from a karmic point of view that would cause them to suffer so much now as I say there's so many different ways of answering this that this suffering is is God's grace that this will remove the last bit of attachment this is our last lifetime we have to get rid of all of this all the Karma there's so many different ways of looking at this and some are very helpful some don't strike us as being very helpful uh but we know that there will be helpful to somebody else so there are all different ways of of dealing with this question or we can say that this suffering is is inevitable in this human life sometimes Charming Christian will talk like that that we have to you know pay the tax on the house that we live in that there will always be something the body will break down there'll be some type of suffering in this lifetime then the other way of looking at it is that we yourself choose that is up to us especially with physical suffering physical pain that if it's mental pain it's more difficult but depends on our attitude that we if we really know how to practice is forbearance and if we know how to practice Detachment all of these things then we won't necessarily suffer the way other people might suffer to that to that extent and we may even uh feel some type of joy in having that type of forbearance that we can put up with anything nothing will nothing can touch me this type of joy and then also the the one there's tremendous strength tremendous strength swamiji used to tell the story of the bull there's this big strong bull and a little mosquito landed on the torn and was living there and after a while thought maybe I'm disturbing the boom so he said Mr Bull am I disturbing you and he said what are you talking about you invite your whole family to live there it won't bother me at all and he Tucker used to say to Narendra ah now look how much it you're going through it one time you said that you welcome these different obstacles and suffering it's good and spiritual life now look at the conditions you're in the one verse from the to upanishads that I like very very much is from everybody said about the ability to uh not identify with any type of of external suffering this yeah the very very highly uh subtle psychological verse tremendous psychology behind it that if one were to really to realize or if one wanted to realize it can be taken in both ways one was to realize or if one if one realizes that uh I am the self if one wants to know the real nature of the self such as I am that then for what what possible reason in order to achieve what to fulfill what possible desire will one suffer along with the suffering of the body the body of his fever so why should I get a fever because the body has a fever well what's what purpose is served by me getting upset because there's something external is going wrong or even some types of mental suffering is some bereavement takes place some Transit this and that uh to a large extent uh I have the power if I utilize it to not identify with all of this to be the witness of it I want to feel myself that I'm the witness I'm not body-minded senses then then why should I get involved in all of these things so yeah okay when we see the suffering of others this is uh yeah we we can feel it without ourselves we're getting depressed and miserable it can hurt us also but uh most most of the difficulty is when this the suffering is egocentric so suppose suppose uh uh in a relative leaves or or passes away something like that is mostly that our sense of loss not so much for the other person the other person may be better off in a nice place or or it passes away is finished with suffering and everything and still we feel the attentive loss so there's some ego sense to it because mental or psychological suffering of somebody we love yeah of course if if other people are going through a very bad time depression I mean then of course it'll affect us but still if I if I don't identify so much with the mind and identify with with the witness there'll be little buffer zone at least but yeah we it doesn't make us cold or hard hard-hearted people will will definitely feel but if we can eliminate the the personal the egocentric type of suffering and our suffering is only because of uh our sympathy for others then we've we've made great progress in spiritual life that's a very big thing that's a good thing but in general uh We've we've see a title slavery that comes from this uh tendency of the mind to react to external things without uh even understanding that it has a choice not to react so we we have a bad cold we feel miserable so we feel miserable and somebody says oh the why you're such in a bad mood today don't you see I'm sick yeah now why do we have to be in a bad mood because we're sick it's natural that we can say it's natural so what does natural got to do with it we're we're Transformers he says we're trying to fight nature it may be a natural tendency but it doesn't have to be like that and there are many people that uh you won't even know they're in terrible pain they're terribly sick and everything they'll be so a Sweden gentle and nice and kind and everything yeah my mother was like that we would never know she would be in a horrible pain literacy later she would tell us you know I can't even get out of bed in the morning this back pain is so bad but she's smiling into your foot my father he'd get a tiny little stomach ache and it was amazing both were good wonderful people and you know people are different in different that way all right so we we see that it's possible I I always think of these uh these football players uh the Super Bowl huh that sometimes they'll even play with the broken legs and arms and and everything in tremendous pain tremendous pain we're soldiers yeah but more football players because if they win the Super Bowl afterwards they're ecstatic doesn't matter the physical pain my end is is there it's the greatest joy and somehow the physical pain gets put behind them a little bit emotional much more difficult if it's not physical pain if it's not physical pain okay so suppose a depression something like that almost impossible to detach the Mind from itself in those circumstances yes no that's absolutely true but if if we get established in this then at least see what is that that verse from from Gita established in which we're not moved even by heavy sorrow we're not moved by heavy sorrow if we if we if the mind is fixed uh on that identification with the self so uh there are all different ways to approach this but uh we we really don't know we may say if if we want to be very logical the karma may be the best answer but even then uh from our vantage point we see people doing terrible things and in perfect health and getting away with it and uh as takur says even he's seen prostitutes dying on the bank of the Angie is in full Consciousness that means a very High type of death so we don't know it's very hard to give an answer to this now as I say Talk work is many different answers to different times and he's going to give us more or less two different things here and uh I don't take this again as uh his final opinion on this because he gives different answers and I also don't take it uh as necessarily a metaphysical truth but as its spiritual attitude that may be helpful for some people uh some objective truth maybe there and taco will also look at this thing from a very high point of view Way Beyond what we can possibly think of if you can see everything as a Divine Play if you can see everything from that that point of view God Alone dwelling within everything it's that's a whole different type of thing anyhow he knows this hoodie that is a very thoughtful person a very very uh intuitive uh very brilliant young man he knows that he'll be his future disciples and monastic disciple and everything so uh he'll give this answer why is there so much suffering in the world to master the world is the Leela of God it is like a game now does this satisfy us it rubs salt in the wound yes yeah and he'll say that is hurry yeah it rubs salt in the world yeah or if we say it's God's sweet will that for for us to suffer or dear ones to suffer but awkward looking at this from the very high point of view he sees for him this Divine mother is real and as you play it's real it's different so we can't so easily dismiss it but do we like that attitude that's the other question so this world is the Lila of God it is like a game in this game there are joy and sorrow virtue and vice knowledge and ignorance and good and evil so then another answer to this question why is there suffering in the world because without suffering we won't understand the pleasure enjoyment anything like that that there's always the pairs of opposites uh it's so many ways to answer that this is just the nature of the world that most of this mental suffering and everything is because we have endessed enough uh Free Will and just enough of passions and desires that we make a mess of things that is our fault don't blame anybody else so many different ways of looking at this but anyhow here he says this world is the Leela of God it is like a game in this game there are joy and sorrow virtue and vice knowledge and ignorance Good and Evil the game cannot continue if sin and suffering are all together eliminated from the creation okay now we can ask is it true could the game go on without evil and suffering why not yeah okay it's boring we may say that it's boring but I mean we can I mean look there are people who live in in places in climates where it's never too hard and never too cold they eliminate a lot of problems in life they're ways of doing it there are people very clever people who can avoid lots of of difficulties there's some people who live in places where you can't walk out of the house with wearing without worrying about snakes there no but it is this it's a good and evil and this is the difficulties and obstacles and things yeah of course you we can live in a very beautiful place and everything and have mental suffering yeah that of course is true yeah that's the other thing is is it boring or do we lose our appreciation of something good if there's not something bad maybe anyway let's let's continue with it so the game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation now for sin and suffering to be eliminated almost means that everyone has to get Liberation and this and the creation is finished in the game of hide and seek one much test one must touch the granny in order to be free this is uh not our hide and seek this is a game where they're all blindfolded and this is somebody plays the part of the granny and uh she's not anxious for the game to end so when somebody's wandering around they're about to touch her she can move aside so that they they'll miss her then at the end of the day when everyone's uh then she'll even come in right next to them and let them touch her easily so the game can come to an end but in the beginning it's no fun if everybody touches her right away the game's over everyone takes their blindfold off and says now do we do what do we do the kids again but the granny is never pleased if she is touched at the very outset it is God's wish that the play should continue for some time then and now talk or sings a song out of a hundred thousand kites at best but one or two break free and now thus laugh and clap their hands over there watching them so is it another way of asking this question not why is there so much suffering but award is so few few people realize God and get Liberation now we say that this is the Divine will that shouldn't be too many at one time do we like that answer is it true or is it just one way of of looking at things a spiritual attitude may be true who knows we don't we don't know Taco's mind uh he doesn't make a big distinction but we can make that distinction there's some things he'll say that we more or less accept uh as as universally true or objectively true other things we know or moods and attitudes that are good for some people not for everyone very often he'll say for the gyani or further it's good to look upon things this way he'll use that type of language in other words after the practice of hard spiritual discipline one or two have division of God through its Grace and are liberated now maybe he's taking hadees question so much suffering in the world why aren't we released from this suffering and now he's he's connecting it to God realization then the Divine mother claps their hands enjoy and exclaimed to Bravo there they go now this is a good question yeah but this play of God is our death so yeah you're telling us that God is divine mothers enjoying all of this and we're suffering so much huh now what kind of answer will he give to this yes and tear the Wings off no no he'll go to a very high point of view and he knows that he is a vedantist he knows it is what he is studying is I am here and then from it alone is real and all of that so uh he says Master smiling but telling me who you are now all of this suffering based on a conviction that I am so I am an individual uh to suffer there has to be somebody to suffer if they're suffering and there has to be a sense of I if I am suffering then there has to be some ego sense so is the real problem this ego sense or the external suffering or even internal suffering so now he's going to very high point of view they've got alone dwells within so where who are you to even say that I am suffering okay now this disappeared to us this idea very high type of idea for most of us is too high that how many of us can feel that I really don't exist not alone dwells within this body God Alone is the actor God Alone is the enjoyer The Carter and both of these philosophically we can understand it appreciate it may even say that yes this is ultimately true but Tucker himself says but Descent of I doesn't leave us we may reason a thousand times that this is true the center of I doesn't leave us but he he took her nose that if anybody can understand this side there he can this is a very brilliant mind mine was like a what do they say like a trap or something yeah prolonged periods they were not spiritual but something they can't do anything about the suffering they just have to go through they pass through a kind of indifference first regarding their own we're talking about people who have the long periods of suffering yeah some have great transformation yeah now we can but the the question is do we attribute this to the will of God the Divine mother wants everyone knows that we have to go through the suffering yeah because they have no spiritual no no but we call it that or is it just the fact that we learn more from suffering than we do from enjoyment this is what pharmacies says yeah [Music] is there an explanation in terms of that liberation their work is done liberation the people who die young dying or something I see an explanation is something that satisfies us it's not something that that really will will tell us why things happen we don't know why things happen if uh if if it makes us feel better that and taco says that there's some very pure Souls have just a little bit of karma to work out he talks about uh that the young boy who came to him and committed suicide and everything in his case that it was just a drop of karma left and uh if he didn't care for this world at all and now he's free yeah does it does it happen with everybody that way we don't know we so this this we we long for explanations sometimes we have to just say we don't know why we really don't know why but this idea that uh suffering can be good for us and or this idea that if it's the will of the of the Divine mother then it's something that we should accept gratefully that's a beautiful attitude to take and it and it it works that we can turn a negative thing into a positive thing so we can say what can I learn from this how if I can if I can really uh take this as a challenge and I can really practice that uh forbearance and and take this as the gift of God this type of suffering and grow from it and then uh it turns out to be true that whatever the Divine mother gives us this is for our benefit if we fight against it and then everything then it may not be beneficial to us not that every type of suffering is good for everybody some people just end up being very bitter in old age they lose their temper and patience and everything so these are very complex types of issues but now he's bringing up this this very big Point almost as if he's saying to him you're the one who's saying I am he huh so ask yourself now you're saying that why is there so much of the uh who was there to suffer you've got alone dwells within all right so anyhow he continues please tell me who you are God alone has become all this Maya the universe living beings and the 24 Cosmic principles then he quotes some type of saying as the snake I buy it and as the charmer I cure it is God himself who has both Vidya and avidya he remains deluded by the Maya of the Vidya ignorance now how can God be deluded when when this Roman enters into this human body then Samaya comes along with it even as the avatar even as the Avatar there has to be a little bit of Maya there so it happens when we have a dream then uh the dreamer and sleeper and dreamer who were just the pure free Consciousness they identify with that actor and suffer along with that actor but is the actor suffering in the dream there is no actor it is just a dream two separate right no no how can they be separate absolutely one when you wake up from a dream do you say I dreamed that somebody else did something no I dreamed that I did it the same eye 100 100 the same eye in my dream I I went to uh I went to kitchen I cooked a meal I ate it I did all of this I met my friends I did it when you wake up I did it it's not that I dreamed it somebody else did it cars they're not there but the eye is the same eye the consciousness that individual consciousness is the same the same in the sleeper the same in the dreamer the same in the actor all one and the same one in the same perfect identity of the three yeah is also the IUI no no no no only me everybody else nobody else nobody else nobody else has any real existence the only one who has any real existence is me in a dream no no no I the Consciousness that sense of eye that ego sense who else is in the dream no no it's the same you're you're trying to say that Brahman and Jiva are two separate things huh that is I understand that connection but the person who's sleeping well who was a person one person who's sleeping is just pure Consciousness just pure Consciousness pure consciousness when is a dreamer he's projecting it then he's like ishwara and when when that projection includes another a person then he enters into that and and identifies with it and then we wake up and we say that oh I fell asleep I dreamed huh that I did this same eye the same 100 the same money we'll we'll never say that uh with somebody else who did all those things I did it I dreamed that I did this the eye that says I dreamed and the eye that says I did this or one in the same but in one constant contest we're talking about I I as myself as a sleeper and myself as the actor in the dream but it's the same eye isn't that 100 same sense of self-identification okay yeah so this is this is that idea that uh even Brahman will forget that he or it is the dreamer and will identify uh himself with that particular individual only the difference is in this Cosmic dream the the God will enter into each and every individual in each and everything in our own dream we're the only ones we wake up and I say prativa you remember what you that's food you cooked last night what do you mean I said in my dream you cook that food he said that was your dream you don't know anything about that huh so we wake up and we realize that nobody else was real the other things were just a projection that I was thinking that everyone that you're listening to what I'm saying but there was no you there our own individual dreams is really a very poor analogy for for this Cosmic play not a poor analogy but but we shouldn't take it so literally that I'm the only one who really exists and it's really my dream yeah somewhere the dream of consciousness assumes it is already the subject it also it also in a way assumes the forms of the objects it is only uh this uh dreaming Consciousness that becomes both subject and object okay yeah the the the object is also a projection of the dreamer yeah that's a projection of the dreamer but the eye Consciousness is the dreamer that's the difference so even now if we if we say that uh everything is not exactly true each and every individual is really Roman but everything is a projection of women we make that subject object distinction so everything is but I myself am absolute pure Consciousness from that highest point of view Consciousness yeah or we can actually say this Cosmic mind now we're in this kind of irony Yeah in our Dream this everything is a projection of the mind but that I which is pure Consciousness is present as the dreamer and as the actor in the dreams closer and talk louder so nobody can hear you yeah come on no but it's boring for them they don't know what you're saying yeah yeah this is yeah everyone this is pratibha loud so they can hear it okay it's a car there's a car the tree so the mind the mind of the dreamer from the mind of the dreamer see there has for this whole projection this out of Brahman there has to be some type of cosmic mind so from your own mind the mind of the dreamer where else will it come from the physical body is but the real the incentive I is is the same with the same witness the same witness that was watching your dream from within is uh is the same witness that will be there when you wake up from the dream actually when we wake up we realize that I never actually saw anything in the dream because there was no external object the eyes are not realized there's no sense of perception anything everything I experienced in the dream I experience because I had a dream there's there's no there's no object and light reflected and bouncing into the eyes and although there's no perception in the dream there's no sound that's actually going and striking the ears which are not really ears and that's why we hear we hear because we dreamed it remember it will supply uh the the the images in the dream yeah that'll Supply the the context and and uh the particulars of the dream will come from memory yeah it uh and his memory we can get all mixed up in everything distorted in combination yeah Cosmic mine this is where they bring in The Vedas and other things yeah this is also it's the theoretical to a large extent one possible way of understanding all of this that uh but but uh yeah swamiji says in Brahman is Maya dreaming all this dream that little bit of Maya or the Shakti this is that Shakti they talk about that Burman is not simply the sleeper he's also a dreamer that means you can project this whole universe and then enter into it so this is what we're saying here he says uh it is God himself who has become both Vidya and avidya he remains deluded he remains deluded so the the sleeper doesn't realize in the dream we don't realize that we're actually in a different dimension lying in bed sleeping that we're not aware he remains deluded by the Maya of India ignorance again with the help of the guru he is cured by the Maya of Vidya knowledge ignorance knowledge and perfect wisdom the yanny Seas that God Alone exists and is the Doer now one of our problems is that theoretically we can understand this and we may even feel that God is the real doer but when it comes to suffering we think that I am the sufferer if if God is the kanta God has to be the bhakta both if God is the only agent within then the God who is suffering also right I feel that I'm suffering it doesn't help me much to say and and then even if I say I won't feel better if I know that God is suffering who wants to make God suffer but if we say God dwelling in others we want to remove suffering from other people because God dwells within we can look at it that way also so ignorance knowledge and perfect wisdom the Yani sees that God Alone exists and is the doer that he creates preserves and destroys the vigyani sees that it is God who has become all this so the vigyani knows not only that the actor and the dream myself in the dream is one with the Roman but the whole dream is a manifestation the whole dream is is that the glory and the manifestation of that that same uh that same Brahmin as mahamaya as Consciousness together with Shakti so we can be we can look upon this universe as something separate from ourselves we can still be in that and that's on that sadhana level of 1980 that uh there is sudden Assad that these things are in permitted transitory and everything that I'm the witness I'm separate different from that and realize the real nature of the self through that and that that's what Taco calls and Yana but he says his vignan is afterwards when we see this all display of the Divine manifestation projection that way two slightly different things but Taco makes that distinction makes that distinction so I am he that uh that'll be for the gyani but the servant Brahma first ramakrishna uh represents uh a second truth and uh together with the first a higher type of Truth to see everything everything is divine everything is a play of the of the Divine almost by definition almost by Taco's definition yeah there's really not much difference in classical vedanta except that takura had so many interesting things with the vigyani he sees God he talks to God yeah things like that that are a little bit particular to his own understanding and his own experience otherwise the the juven mukta is more the uh the bigyani with the ego of knowledge traditionally with the ego of knowledge but this this sometimes actually the vignani taco identifies the vigyani with the real bhakta almost identifies it with a devotional attitude that sees God talks to God feels that presence of God everywhere [Music] foreign looks at the world but perceives it as a dream he knows yes it is a dream like this is this is the state of the uh vignana foreign it'll be dream like hazy it won't have that sense of reality yeah and others will see it as an exactly what tacos is some have this ego of devotee oh he explains it that way it's the ego of devotion and the ego of knowledge now we may say doesn't have to be ego of Devotion to a personal God but yes that they'll have that vision of this everything indeed is that type of view after attending anyhow so Hari won't get a chance to uh to reply after all of this but again this is another spiritual attitude that we can take that every time I think that oh I'm suffering so much I ask myself well who am I it's uh I am nothing but the witness this is really the divine presence within if that attitude helps us then good the good thing for this Hadi it may have been the best answer after attaining mahabhaba in Prema one realizes that nothing exists but God now we can say that the attainment of mahabhava and Prema on the path of devotion will turn one into a vigyani or given mukta they won't necessarily talk about uh having to attain nearby copper samadhi and coming back down from that actually very few can come back down for a bit this state where we uh mind gets gets so absorbed in nearby samadhi that we can bring it back down again that after 21 days he said this is for the yogi he doesn't make that distinction very often maybe once in the oh gospel I was noticing I read it the other day that for the yogi he says that the body will fall off in 21 days now from the path of devotion we can have that that realization get this this Divine love and everything and live in the world as a beginning but it's uh if we get into that real nearby samadhi state then there's no mechanism by which we can bring the Mind back down either Divine will has to do it or some Supernatural power or harboring some desire some little bit of corn with something but we ourselves we're not there to bring it down it's yeah yeah so she she would have been if she would have been a free Soul God realized so without any of this nervical basanti so this is another question I mean some will say no this final realization takes place only when we reach the roof and that means we have that state of but we can get into this ecstasy and everything that also can confer Liberation on us if we'd like to think in those terms two Banerjee this is this very simple person do you still hear that gong like sound at the time of meditation vanity yes sir every day okay besides I have visions of God's form now we may say oh he's showing off this and that but Tucker found that he was very very simple and not the type to show off or anything regardless type of person so he could say these these things it wouldn't sound bad for him and then he says do such things uh although do you hear that then he said yes sir every day besides I visions of God's form do such things stop after the mind has once experienced them now when I first read this I thought it was a question but after hearing Tucker's answer it sounds like it's a rhetorical question says he's saying do you still hear these things he say do these things stop once we've had that experience of course [Music] this is some type of vision vision of God's form s is not such a technical term it simply means that we lose all outer awareness and the mind is is in some other realm at that time and we're having some experiences and visions and things like that so we have to read this I think as a rhetorical question do such things stop after the mind is once experience them Master true once the wood catches fire it cannot be put out now these are also things that are different for a different different spiritual paths and different spiritual aspirants we we have the case of caitanya Deva who would go back and forth between this the State of Union and this this state of separation there's a Radha this is and everything so every spiritual path is a little bit different with that it's like a roller coaster ride ups and downs and ups and downs this Taco went through all of these things of course but there's a certain type of transformation that takes place that's permanent there's this much we have to understand that we become stamped somehow that we get the ticket but the mind can still have its ups and downs afterwards we say that all the doubts are removed this will be for the gyani these all doubts will be removed but if we think that we can constantly have division of God day and night and that will have ups and downs your mind will come down a little go back up and up and down they are not of this world that is thakura says but it won't go below the Heart level it'll always remain at a higher much higher level yeah they won't have any body Consciousness no but that the end of Separation they try telling you they feel the the topper himself felt it was a horrible thing the body was on fire he had to remain immersed in in the Ganges for hours on end which was so horrible that you had to put this cooling Sandalwood paste on his on his whole body and everything so it's no joke and this is after that the realization of mother Kali that he went through all of these things of course he started over a little bit just to have a clean slate so that he could experience each of these different paths as as the uh ordinary Jiva would do who can attain The Liberation to that path Banerjee oh sorry once the wood catches fire cannot be put out to the devotees he knows many things about faith talking about Benedict I have too much faith Master bring the women of your family with those of balarams and now constantly we're thinking oh taku doesn't like the company of women here we see that these are things that uh we we miss because the m is always there and the men are always there but he uh he's he's inviting them to all come to see him who is balarama is assuming everybody knows his mother um uh he was a great deputy and of course uh he occupied and uh some type of high position in this bad Bazaar area so the many people there would have known him uh his family was more illustrious than him because he didn't do too much but they had property in Puri and and brindavan and everything and uh well to do landlords and then very devoted advice never family orthodox Master don't you know baleram he lives in bospara Christian loved his people Narendra Banerjee was absolutely guileless the master love niranjan this is our future he he came to Sri ramakrishna partly his interest in spiritual life was a little bit to his uncle who used to run these seances now we generally in this country think of it Seance as a pure hoax that these people will tell them oh I can I can contact your your deceased husband or wife and you can give a message to them and they'll they'll talk to you and everything they set up an elaborate thing with noise and everything of complete hoax type of thing but there were people who did this in all sincerity and and somehow felt that they could make contact with the Privacy so not that his uncle which was just a scammer anything like that but uh takur told him don't get involved with these things that if you spends or all your time thinking about ghosts you'll become a ghost you spend your time thinking about God you'll become God so there was nothing but he was also very straightforward that you didn't mince words at all he would get in trouble sometimes he would yes speak his mind and and very strong he was the gatekeeper the kashipur and uh at one time there was uh difference of opinion among the householder disciples and the future monastic disciples did somebody passed a remark that these young boys are here we're spending all our money feeding them also so of course this uh got very upset and everything and then he didn't allow any of them to go even all of these people who are giving the money and everything he wouldn't allow them to get past him even him and later he really apologized to him he fell a little bit in bed then talker said no no don't go so far it's okay but so this is this Master to him why do I ask you to see niranjin it is to find out if he is truly guileless now Tucker knows that he's truly Godless but it's for him to see is this Taco would send people to people he knew how to put people together and and who would benefit from the company of others and okay we start a new day this is Sunday May 25th 1884. surama Krishna was sitting on the cement platform that encircled the trunk of the old Banyan tree in the panchavati so this is uh this is what takur himself planted the five different trees where he did most of his sadhana Tantra he didn't do the bell tree but other than that mostly there is vedanta sadhana was there was a Hut right behind it so a very sacred area now I don't know what's left if everything died except the Banyan Tree then that was half dying and then it got hit by lightning I think and are they growing uh regrowing it there or something the the cement platform was all cracked and everything yeah it was the early days when when he was there and everything yeah uh but takur it's not like you said oh this is a sacred place that you can only sit here for meditation they'd had picnics there and they would sit and dangle their feet and eat food and do us play games uh this uh we'll we'll read about it big creepers they would swing back and forth on them and everything so good for meditation [Laughter] lots of monkeys yeah yeah the monkeys also like to swing on it but I don't know what's left of it I think they planted a new trade does anybody know a big Banyan Tree [Music] it's not the same one yeah because at one time yeah I have died and I think it was hit with lightning one time also so ceramic Krishna was sitting on the cement platform that encircled the trunk of the old Banyan tree in the panchoat Vijay Surendra bhavanat rakal and other devotees were present a few of them sitting with the master on the platform the rest on the ground below the devotees had thought of celebrating the Master's birthday which had to be put off because of his illness I don't think it's the illness this was his broken arm wasn't anything else this is 1884 but we just went through this whole thing yeah we've been reading about his broken arm so I don't know of any other illness it's too early for the throat that was that was April of 1885 was the first time we hear about this The Sword in this throat since ramakrishna had now felt much better the devotees wanted to have the celebration that day yeah it's probably a couple months late a woman musician a famous singer of kirtan was going to entertain them with devotional songs here again we think oh would taqur allow that a woman to sing in front of him he was not there that we think sometimes oh I can't look at a woman he'd say things like that but yeah so the Divine mother it was one o'clock in the afternoon M had been looking for ceramic Krishna in the Master's room when he did not find him there he went to the panchavati and eagerly asked the devotees where is he he was standing right in front of the master but in his excitement did not notice him the devotees laughed loudly a moment later and the sauce ramakrishna and felt very much embarrassed he prostrated himself before the master who sat there facing the South and smiling heavily kedar and Vijay were sitting at his left the two devotees had had a misunderstanding recently when kader had cut off his connection with the brahmo samaj this we know was all about this case of marrying his daughter when she hadn't reached that age and and there was a split and Vijay went with the Brahma Savage now they kind of kept that name they called it and then this is the case of gave a new name to his group but this Gator probably because of that just left everything and they were good friends because uh kedar had to go to Dhaka for his business in that area and Vijay had his house there so that was his company when when he went there otherwise either I think was from Hali show her in the West West Monroe so they didn't have a real argument or anything like that but there's a little uncomfortable it was worse with uh with the video and case shop and even that taqwa got the two of them together and through jokes and everything kind of smooth things out mastered to him with the smile you see how I have United them the master had brought a mod to the Creeper from vrindavan in the year 1868 and it planted it in the puncture the creeper had grown big and strong some children were jumping and swinging from it the master observed them and left he said they are like young monkeys they will not give up swinging even though they sometimes fall to the ground noticing that Surendra was standing before him the master said to him affectionately come up and sit with us on the platform this surrender he was a little had a little bit of this Pride or we can say his feelings were hurt a little bit easily if he felt he was being left out or not appreciated something like that so Anna knew that about him come and sit with us on the platform then you can dangle your feet comfortably surendere went up and took a seat bhavanat had his coat on surrender said to him are you going to England and master Smiley God is our England it sounds funny but England at that time was oh to go to England is to go to heaven this is the greatest possible achievement to go there they said keshav half of his renowned was that he went to England queen Queen Victoria and everything so they think God is our English is God is the only politics I believe in or something like that yeah now and then I used to leave off my clothes and joyfully roam about naked takor is saying that because he had this code on the tokens one shambhu said to me it is very comfortable to walk about naked that is why you do it once I did it myself Surendra on returning from the office as I put away my code in trousers I say to the Divine mother well mother how tightly you have bound me to the world Master they are Aid Fitters with which man is bound shame hatred fear pride of caste hesitation and the desire to conceal and so forth yeah this is also an interesting question that you know we we have all of these coverings we talk about uh this punta kosha but clothes we wear it also another type of bondage false identification at that time to work in an office meant you had to dress like an Englishman that has also a type of bondage that we have to put on the show and present ourselves as in a certain way and everything so even this is one of the reasons why I eat this monks everyone looks the same nobody of course you can get very fancy things and with nice borders and things like that after the days yeah yeah then you feel yeah even even this is a kind of a burden it's it's not putting on a show but it's our uniform you could say even to take that off yeah we feel some type of freedom okay so we'll stop here this is Page 438 um [Music] we bow our heads before shivama Krishna 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 of our worship [Music] peace peace peace