Video 139

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Atmajnanananda (7/21/2023)

foreign [Music] Souls they are praised by Poets and remove all sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving those welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama Krishna we're on chapter 23 festival at surendra's house and the date is Sunday June 15th 1884 and it's page 451. and shurama Krishna there are many people there of course but now he's in the middle of a conversation with uh who was one of the main figures in the Brahma samaj and this is just shortly after Decatur passed away so uh there was really it's kind of a shame that there was a big difficulty with the case of giving his daughter in in marriage and then there was a big split and then he died shortly after that so uh this Pratap then became one of the main leaders after that and uh so srama Krishna he had come to surrender his house and they're engaged in conversation this Pratap had talked about he said some women of our country have been to England this murata lady who was very scholarly also visited England later she embraced Christianity have you heard her name sir master no but from what you say it seems to me that she has a desire for name and fame that kind of egotism is not good the feeling I am the doer is the outcome of ignorance but the feeling that God does everything is due to knowledge God Alone is the doer all others are mere instruments in his hands okay we'll get to all of this this this to me is is uh one of if not the most difficult questions thorniest questions this question of who is the doer and Free Will and and who's responsible and uh is a very very tricky question with lots of different positions but I'll read a little more first The Misfortune that befalls a man on account of his egotism can be realized if you only think of the condition of the calf the calf says that is I I and just look at its Misfortune at times it is yoke to the plow and made to work in the field from sun up to sundown rain or shine again it may be slaughtered by the butcher in that case the flesh is eaten and the skin tanned into hide from the hide shoes are made people put on these shoes and walk on the rough ground still that is not the end of its misfortunes drums are made from its skin and mercilessly beaten with sticks at last its end trails are made into Strings for the bow used in carting cotton when used by The Carter the string gives the sound thou thou that is it is thou O Lord it is thou it no longer says only then does the cast trouble come to an end and it is liberated it doesn't return to the world of action likewise when the embodied Soul says oh God I am not the doer Thou Art the doer I am the machine and thou art its operator only then does its suffering of worldly life come to an end only then does it obtain Liberation it no longer has to be reborn in this world of action now what do we do with all of this this is a very tricky stuff if we take this literally when the embodied Soul says oh God I am not the doer Thou Art the doer I am the machine and thou art its operator then all worldly suffering comes to an end it's liberated so we should do that huh who if I suppose I say that I'm not responsible for any of my action I'm not the doer but God is the real doer whatever I do it's the will of God or I'm just an instrument in the hands of God and then I go and rob a bank so then what good does any of that do yeah yeah so uh there this this question of of who is the doer and is there free will there are so many different positions and all went out to positions or different philosophical positions and they all make sense and they all have their own context and uh sometimes if we go through all of the statements that ramakrishna makes about this uh we'll see even either later later on here we'll see that uh this is the sign of a liberated soul who can say it so it's it's not it's not like there's one position that uh everything that everybody does is God's will and that nobody is the doer and that no one is responsible for anything God is responsible that this is a state that comes when one is completely rid of the ego and that only comes ramification will say one one has God realization so uh this song that uh Krishna used to sing this uh uh song to The Divine mother everything is is your will oh mother always this is is something that uh this Ram Prasad could say that's Rama Krishna can say we can say it ourselves but it'll be hypocrisy because we act out of out of desire and sometimes even meanness and sometimes yes for worldly enjoyment and to to gain power over other people we have all sorts of of motives that are not very uh spiritual motives or pure emotives even so can we say that now if we're very highly philosophical and we analyze and everything we might be able to come to that type of conclusion we we have one position that we find according to the sankya philosophy and which is stressed very much by SRI Krishna in the bhagavad-gita that if we analyze all action is this interplay between the gunas internal and external that it's the mind is taking in things and it sends all that information makes some decision it sends it back to the mind to the to the uh ganandres to the the organs of action and then the the hands and mouth and everything they do everything and I had nothing to do with it I am just the witness of everything so this is one position I don't particularly like this position to be perfectly honest because it eliminates uh the me it's very mechanistic we can say it's a mechanistic or behavioristic uh there's a whole school of Western psychology behaviorism that will reduce everything all of our Behavior to other factors external factors so it eliminates all free will now is there any free will at all this is another well all of these are very difficult questions uh we have to take a position at some point uh when if we're really interested in spiritual life that we have to take some position that uh we have a little bit of control over what we do otherwise there's no hope otherwise then then we're just uh it's just strict cause and effect just just like uh [Music] a pinball that bounces off of all sorts of different things that everything is is automatic that there's no scope for any change or Improvement everything is cause and effect with with samskaughters and tendencies that whatever the Tendencies say that I I should do that I do it and I have no choice and no power to do anything other than that it's a very highly mechanistic way of doing it but if we if we if we feel that I am the I am the witness of everything and we observe then we feel some separation from that this is also a spiritual path this is a type of Guyana yoga we can say and it can be very effective if if we can establish ourselves in that witnessing consciousness but if we're if we're like most people where we have some feeling that I am the Doer we have some feeling that I did it you say who did it I did it we have some sense of I then we have to ask ourselves how much Freedom did we have to make the decision that we made and there's actually no way to know a hundred percent because we can't go back in time and and say well let me try to do it a different way we don't know we may feel that we've it was a free decision uh and it may be that it's it's not predetermined but it's predictable this is also a very interesting distinction it's not that I couldn't have done it differently but I'll do it the same way every time because that's the kind of person I am like the saint in the Scorpion the the saying it's not that he that he has no power to uh to get angry at the Scorpion it's not that he doesn't have the any freedom to do that but it's not in his nature to do it now Gita is a little bit it goes back and forth that we have uh that one verse a couple of verses that blame everything on our nature because of our prakritis then we're bound to act in a particular way and uh when when Arjuna asked me Krishna why do we do things that we don't we think we shouldn't do we bad things we don't even want to do it but somehow we do it uh as if we're forced to do it as if some other powers make us do it so what's the answer he doesn't say this is his Divine mother's will he says he says because uh we we have these Tendencies these negative Tendencies within and they take control over us now swamiji makes a big point that yes that we are being pushed in a certain direction by these samskadas but spiritual life means fighting against this and we have again some of the nicest verses in Gita I have to do with having that power to withstand the force of of the passion to withstand the force of this Rajasthan Thomas and everything and and take control somehow and start to change and create new samskirts so what position do we take uh for most of us uh it's not very realistic and not very uh genuine or authentic to say no I'm not the doer I'm not responsible for any of this I'm an instrument and hands of God to be an instrument in the hands of God means that we have to eliminate every the tiniest bit of of self-interest tiniest bit of this lowered ego that we can't have any personal motive for anything and we realize how difficult it is I think this is one of the lessons we get from the incident with with Girish gosh right when he told srirama Krishna told giddis that you don't have to worry about anything that I'll take your responsibility for everything you're a power of attorney that you give your power of attorney to a good man then you don't have to worry about anything and then on goodies happened to say to srama Krishna that I have to go to the theater tonight there's something for me to do and he said no you can't say that you have to say if it's if it's the will of God and then I'll go there otherwise you can't depend on on what you want to do if you really give this power of attorney so then he said ah then I understood that I thought I got off the hook but I created more trouble for myself that every second I had to ask myself if I want to be an instrument in the hands of God then every second I have to ask myself he said is is it this wretched little ego that's making me do it or am I doing it because free from all the ego I'm putting my helps on on behaving like an instrument in the hands of God that's letting God work for me and direct me and everything so these are all very tricky questions then we have this other idea that God is the under Yamin that God is within it's not that I'm not the doer but God has impellimated to act in a particular way I do as you make me do we have the doyodhana with that famous statement and everything but it can be hypocrisy that that whatever I do I say no I I did it because God made me do it but I know that it's not true and then somebody else can come along and say uh actually it was true that everything is is this Leeland display of God and who are you there's no real eye there Brahman alone dwelling within in this big play and actually there is no individual there's another another attitude that there was a conversation with uh with the Hari later Swami turiananda when he's complaining that all of this display of God but it's death to us the interaction says but who are you you have to ask yourself that you analyze you'll find we analyze and we don't find this ego so swarama Krishna says you you can you can do that you analyze a thousand times and you'll find that the ego there's nothing there that it's just an idea there's no substance to that he said but the next moment it comes back so we we have to behave uh with uh with his understanding that uh we're not ready for this that whatever happens is the will of God we can do it with regard to the the results of action this is another position these are all positions there's no I don't think there's there's anyone who can say no this is exactly the way it is but there's another position I do whatever I can do I try my very best whatever happens is God's will it's out of my hands so uh this was swamiji's prescription he said when you're acting feel like everything depends upon you and when it comes to the results feel like everything depends upon God something like that now when Krishna says that everything is the will of of the Divine mother there's another very interesting conversation where srama Krishna uses very graphic language very graphic language that someone is saying that well isn't whatever I do the will of God the will of mother and then he says something like these people live in this world like like dogs and jackals running after each other and he says you wanted you mean to tell me that that's God's will huh so then we get this other position yeah do we have to act in accordance with some Divine scheme or something to be able to say to God do it then another time shirami Krishna when he's asked about this that everything is is the will of the Divine mother and then he gets another interesting answer he says if you eat chilies won't your lips burn now what does that mean that this law of karma is there you can say everything is the will of divine mother but then somebody else can say well there's cause and effect whatever we do we'll have its retold and then we can say this is the plan of the Divine mother the law of karma everything so what do we do we're stuck we if we have to come up with a certain position I think it's best at least for me I think it's best to to feel that yes all these forces are at work that I'm not 100 free I had these some Scottish I don't know everything behind it I don't know if my decisions are good or bad but I try my best I try to eliminate selfishness and and try to do something that will be beneficial to myself and to everybody else and hope that I'm doing the right thing and then accept the results and pray that this ego can become less and less now the other thing about this it has two meanings one is this philosophical meaning and the other is pride if we can eliminate pride and arrogance and this feeling that yeah I did it I should I should be praised for everything that I did if we can eliminate that that's enough for most of us in in spiritual life this is the type of question that uh philosophers for uh ages and ages have been arguing and there's no one final answer for all of these things what appealed this ramakrishna most was that uh when this ego is completely eliminated and there's there's absolute purity of heart then whatever is done is the will of the Divine mother or we can take it that way we can take it that way then we become real uh instruments now uh if if I say I do what mother makes me do then there's still some sense of I there's a little bit of instrumentality so Swami Krishna gives also this in between answer then be like Hanuman that if this feeling of I is there then let it be the servant I and that means that I don't do anything selfishly that I try to do everything I according to my understanding of the will of the master what will please the message will please Rama so Hanuman everything he did was based on that so srama Krishna says yeah that this may ultimately be true one day you'll look back and say uh this was all the Divine Play but for now you have a little sense of I and divine mother keeps that sense of ego in all of it so we'll take responsibility for our action he makes that statement also that it's not just our false understanding this feeling of our divine mother keeps that within us otherwise we'll do whatever we want and we will say don't blame me it wasn't my fault so uh when we can say that that this is a sign when we can say that Mother I do is is thou maketh me do this is a sign that we've achieved either God realization or very high State something like that and uh this is a goal we want to reach that point but if we take that position at the very beginning and with the little hypocrisy and self-deception then we only get ourselves into trouble and he'll he'll clarified a little bit but I I think it's important for us to understand that there's a question of a ducata here but everyone is qualified to sing the chocolate everything is thy will mother yeah I'm only an instrument I'm just like the car and you're the driver that I have no say in anything right and it may ultimately be true but as long as as I'm driving all recklessly all over and speeding and doing everything else I have to take responsibility Okay so let's go back to this with a long digression so I'll repeat this again likewise when the embodied Soul says oh God I am not the doer so let's say when the embodied soul is is qualified to say that qualified to say that oh God I'm not the doer Thou Art the doer I am the machine and now art its operator only then does it suffering of worldly life come to an end only then does it obtain Liberation now ceramic Christian is going to confuse us he'll say we have to do that to get Liberation then he'll say only after God realization can we say that he does that a lot because they work together it's not really a contradiction if we want to achieve God's realization we have to adopt this attitude a little bit when we get there then when we have that realization it'll become real to us like the ripe ego we pretend a little bit that we have that then after realization it becomes the real ego so uh it no longer has to be reborn in this world of action so that means that this is the statement that the uh given mukta will make the God be like so a devotee how can a man get rid of his ego now listen Master you cannot get rid of it until you have realized God if you find a person free from ego then know for certain that he has seen God now which is free from ego I mean even the god realized Soul has a type of ego is ripe ego because the ego means of how I think of myself how I can live in the world so it has to be free from from any type of this grows heavy uh this is the ego there's only connected with the divine devity what sir the signs of God Vision Master yes there are such signs it is said in the bhagavata that a man who has seen God behaves sometimes like a child sometimes like a ghoul sometimes like an inner thing and sometimes like a madman Krishna refers to this old many many times and we see in his lifetime that he he at one time or another that he actually behaved like all of them most of the time like a child and then like a ghoul that he went through a period when he did his tantric satana that that was the main thing you can't make any distinction uh between pure and impure he did things like feces of a jackal and put it on his tongue all sorts of things like that it's like a Google because what is it it's the combination of three going it's a combination of three gooners why should I be affected by that is interesting type of spiritual practice and uh and an inert thing for for months on end yes the emerged in savadi it could have gotten hardly moving and like a madman he went to that period of divine Madness where they tried everything this is why they arranged the marriage for him why brahmani had to come and convinced everybody that it wasn't a regular man that they thought he was mad his behavior was so odd that he would roll on the ground crying mother mother nobody knew what was going on they thought he really had become mad even those who respected him even though our deceived not just three even he used to say that the Parma hamsa has has gone off his head by thinking of God too much so very few people could understand him at that time the man now these are four things that are mentioned uh we also have the stito pregnant in the bhagavad-gita completely different from all of them so there's no end to the different possibilities of how God realized Soul can live in the world so all different uh paradigms and and all different uh traditions and and customs and practices different religious practices that will yield a different type of of God realized Soul some will be like living the world like fools you know the Sufi tradition the the the the saint who lives in the world yes like a simpleton something so all different possibilities the man who has seen God becomes like a child he's beyond the three gunas he is unattached to any of them he behaves like a ghoul for he maintains the same attitude towards things holy and Unholy you remember the story of the punagiani that this this one sadhu came to dakshineswar and uh I think there are two versions one with with sahasra and one through three DOI anyhow that he behaved really like a madman but they recognized that there was something special about him and one of them do you remember I think they're two versions huh either yeah I think I think Taco said Cerrito he ran after him and said uh uh and as he's running this this holy man he throws a brick at him he doesn't want him to follow any hell he catches him and then he says are you pointingani perfect nowhere Brahman and he says yes and he says how do I become one and he says you see this pure water of the ganga and this filthy ditch water that means from the latrines and everything when you make no distinction between these two types of water then you'll obtain perfect knowledge and then he took off and left again that's this this attitude of like the ghoul but it's also uh uh a sign it doesn't have to be a sign it can be a sign of a Madman also but there are certain god-realized Souls who will be like that he behaves like a ghoul for he maintains the same attitude towards thing holy and Unholy again like a madman he sometimes laughs and sometimes Weeps now he dresses himself like a Dandy and the next moment he goes entirely naked and roams about with his cloth under his arm he's describing himself how many times they would see Taco especially in the middle of the night when he's sleeping he really can't keep his clothes on so he'll wake up in the middle of the night and they'll say with his cloth under his arm and wake them all up and I'll say no sit for meditation now sit for meditation yeah so he had a lot of trouble keeping his cloth on yeah and because he was absolutely free from from any type of uh this launcher this modesty and shame and all that stuff he had nothing in there therefore he seems to be a lunatic again at times he sits motionless like an inner thing does the ego disappear all together after the realization of God Master yes sometimes God totally effaces the ego of his devotee as in the state of samadhi so uh this is really the the one time when we lose all sense of individuality for our Center of eye consciousness we lose it when we're sleeping yeah we may Ordinary People may lose it we get the very engrossed in reading a book something like that temporarily but it doesn't have any effect afterwards uh but the the god realized Soul uh the his that that ordinary ego was totally effaced that unripe ego that's completely gone but the it's the scent of I uh it's there srirama Krishna had an ego he had this he said that the the vignani will have either the ego of knowledge or the ego of devotion and in his case it was the ego of devotion that identifying himself as the child of the Divine mother then he would say sometimes I would look inside and I would see that Divine mother is there and I am their child is there both of us sometimes I would see the Divine mother alone is there at that time this ego was completely wiped out so another interesting conversation M said this ramakrishna at one time that uh asked him do I have an ego or not and he said no but sometimes you keep a trace of ego to enjoy this really Divine relationship and he says no the Divine mother keeps it in me because if if it's gone then we're not even there to to keep that Trace there so that state of samadhi yeah we're not there to bring the Mind back down it has to be either some pool of karma or something or in krishna's case the will of the Divine mother remain in he heard that voice so does the ego disappear altogether after the realization of God Master yes sometimes God totally effaces the ego of his devotee as in the state of samadhi but in many cases he keeps a trace of ego now other times SRI ramakrishna says that when the Mind comes down automatically some sense of ego comes so what he means here by ego again this this says a broad range of meanings does it simply just mean some type of eye Consciousness or does it mean some type of identification with the body and body Consciousness it is again a big range of meanings but that doesn't injure anybody it is like the ego of a child a five-year-old child no doubt says I but that ego doesn't harm anybody then he gives he he has two examples that he usually gives here is the is the sword at the touch of the Philosopher's Stone steel is turned into gold the steel sword becomes a sword of gold the gold sword has the form of a sword no doubt but it cannot injure anybody one cannot cut anything with the gold sword now what is the form of the sword or personality or old samskot is we remain more or less the same personality type that we were before but all of the bondage and all of the uh what are the Venom is pulled out of it sucked out of it is perfectly clean and pure this is why SRI ramakrishna says if the if the clerk it goes and goes to jail and he's LED out of jail what will he do after that really jump about and sing and dance in the street he'll go back to being a clerk that's what he knows that's what he does to some sense of identity so it's ramakrishna before and after samadhi he still had the same sweet childlike nature uh of course we can't really talk about him he's not a good example he but if we talk about uh I mean we don't we don't see a huge personality change the transformation uh is that The Binding power is gone and uh any negativity all of that is one that is why the other example is the string that if you burn a string it'll take the same shape and everything but you can't use it to tie anything up anymore and it's just it looks like a string but if you puff on it then it disappears so that's the ego of the godrey like so you've been to England so this keshav he made the Big Splash he was the first one with Queen Victoria but then others the Brahma samaj and we know later he'll go to the parliament of religions and it causes a lot of trouble there but so these brahmos they had a good standing among the British because they were very pro-christianity and very Pro uh social reform a lot of the things that the British didn't like the child's marriage and things like that they were also against so they were kind of hand in hand with the British a little bit you have been to England tell us what you saw there put a top the English people worship what you called gold so this conscient is the word that taq were used gold to mean greed comedy and conscience lust and greed these are the two main things we can add crota and these other anger and envy all of the people talk about the six passions but for some reasons ramakrishna emphasized these two this lust and greed so the English people worship what you call Gold of course there are also some good people in England those who live in unattached life but generally one finds there a great display of rajas in everything I saw the same thing in America so Raj is here will mean a display display of wealth and and the power and learning all sorts of things to make a big show of everything now SRI ramakrishna he was so Universal in its thinking what's the first thing he'll say oh we don't have that here he said everybody else would like to think that uh India is so great and these other countries are nothing and but it's interesting what he says Master to put it up it is not in England alone that one sees attachment to worldly things you see it everywhere of course to different degrees in different countries but still remember that work is only the first step in spiritual life now we'll get a whole long session uh section about karma yoga and the role of Karma Yoga and the role of of work work is only the first step in spiritual life now there's there's uh there are really two theories about Karma Yoga one this Karma Yoga can take us directly to God realization and we find both of these in in the Gita that King Jonathan just to Karma alone he attained the highest Perfection then we have the other idea that Karma gets us to the first stage and then we have to practice renunciation and give up work and everything get to the higher stage so the karma can either be looked upon as a preliminary type of discipline that is used to purify the soul and it's used to eliminate this this feeling of I and to eliminate attachment and once we've done all of that then we're ready to lead a life of renunciation and a life of meditation and knowledge this is this is a kind of tradition of you shankaracharya likes this view also but ramakrishna will talk about this that at some point for most people we have to start listening the work that we do in the world and dive deep in spiritual practice part of this is is also because he's talking to Pratap we always have to pay attention to who he's talking to at the time so the brahmos homage they had such strong emphasis on social reform that true Robert Christian was always trying to tell them okay this is good what you do but don't don't forget that within is this mind of gold and this is the real goal of life to have that realization don't get too distracted with all of this because some ego comes some attachment comes some feeling that uh we're the saviors of the world we'll eliminate all this uh terrible things going on that this comes so God cannot be realized without satwa means a little bit of of uh absence of absence of of activity a little bit of renunciation love discrimination kindness and so on it is the very nature of rajas to involve a man in many worldly activities that is why Rogers degenerates into Thomas now we have two theories here that swamiji emphasizes the idea if we're sunk in Thomas we need Rogers to get out of it now surrounded Krishna is saying if we get too involved with Rogers they can pull this back down again to the Thomas so we have to understand that the real goal of rudges is to overcome Thomas but it has to lead us to satwa otherwise we'll get the old attachments back again into anger and all of these things Thomas so that is why register generates into Thomas if a man is entangled in too many activities he surely forgets God he becomes more and more attached to lust and gold but it is not possible for you to give up work all together now he's going to another one of the strong points of emphasis in in Gita that whatever we do is a type of karma if we think that we can transcend Karma at all even sitting for meditation to the type of karma these are all falls within this idea of work action activity it is not possible for you to give up work all together your very nature will lead you to it whether you like it or not exactly what SRI Krishna said to Arjuna yeah you don't want to fight in this war your very nature will make you do it therefore the scripture is ask you to work in a detached spirit that is to say not to Crave The Works results so we can be we can feel that we're the Doer at the time of action but we have no adhikara that we have no right we it's out of our hands what the results are and we shouldn't claim uh and feel any Pride if what we do is successful and we say by God's grace it was successful if not then we say that it wasn't God's will that's all we tried our best but that's not in our hands this word issues it's a very strong word that we're forbidden it's not we're not allowed to uh that's that's not within uh our range to to feel that we have control over the results of anything now of course we won't take this 100 literally we know that if we do something with great care and attention and everything a much better chance the result will be good we shouldn't think that nothing depends upon us but we don't claim credit for anything yeah this is with swamiji's emphasis when we whatever we do especially if our Karma Yoga is a devotional Karma Yoga is this Karma Yoga means that everything is an offering to God and we have to do everything with tremendous care and if we're simply Karma yogis that understand that uh the same mind that is performing action will also be performing meditation that we want that mind to to pay perfect attention to every little detail of everything this is the training of the Mind and that even to perform action uh with this this love and attention to detail and putting our heart heart and soul into it that is a type of worship again another great idea that this is how great that one way to worship God through performance of action of our duty not selfish action whatever duties allotted to us if we do that with great love and devotion and striving for Perfection but not being upset and not obsessing over it then it becomes a type of worship and that can also take us to the high school so these are all different positions they don't conflict with each other but they represent different attitudes that people take at different times also swamiji like this idea when we're doing action then we can be 100 Karma yogis when we sit for meditation we'll be 100 yogis when we're doing Puja we'll be bhaktas all the way isn't it it's not uh that we're dividing ourselves up it's not that there's some conflict with them where many sided people and if we have one ideal then we can incorporate and integrate all of these into that one ideal there's no should be no conflict at all and swamiji wanted that for the monks he said I want my monks to be able to get up for meditation go to the market and and buy vegetables go to another field go milk the cows go back to the shrine do all of that without feeling any conflict to be able to do all of these things uh all wrapped around this idea of Love of the ideal and then striving for the for realization therefore the scriptures ask you to work in a detached spirit that is to say not to Crave The Works results for example you may perform devotions and worship and practice austerities but your aim is not to earn people's recognition or to increase your Merit so this this karma yoga this ideal of Karma Yoga has to apply to our spiritual practice also if if every time we sit for meditation we do it uh in in order not only just to impress other people but even if we do it uh so that we'll increase our sat with this and that it's not bad but even this meditation and everything can be done as an offering that I don't feel I'm not doing it to gain anything from it I'm doing it so I can lay the dip your feet as an offering this is also a type of devotional attitude that people can take to work in such a spirit of Detachment is known as karma yoga but it is very difficult now sarama Krishna will say that the path of of knowledge yoga is very difficult and it's called yoga there's a Karma Yoga is difficult and it's called The Yoga the path of Raja yoga difficult English is also not so easy but best suited to people who have their attachments who have their short attention spans with all of us in this in this particular age that's the one that's most people are best suited for okay bhakti yoga can't include all of them and this is the way we try to practice it that we don't say oh I I'm I'm in a devotee I won't practice meditation that becomes part of it or I I won't do this uh do everything it's an offering to God that's part of it all of these things have to be included with the only concludes all of them we are living in the Kali yoga when one easily becomes attached to one's actions you may think that you were working in a detached Spirit but attachment creeps into the Mind from nobody knows where and unless we do some spiritual practice then even then it can come but if we don't do any spiritual practice at all it's very difficult not to have this feeling of Pride and everything come in even people do a lot of spiritual practice they can be the most brightful people because of other spiritual practice this is the ego of spirituality yeah I think swamiji says in one place this is the last hurdle and and this is really that software ego that becomes the last Turtle we have to go beyond that also you may Worship in the temple or arrange a grand religious festival or feed many poor and starving people you may think you have done all this without hankering after the results but unknown to yourself the desire for name and fame has somehow crept into your mind complete Detachment from the results of action is Possible only for one who has seen God I think the best example of this is swamiji himself who accomplished more than him what he what he did is his uh the parliament of religions his work in the west coming back how people just were mad for him no one ever received a reception like swamiji did no political figure nobody ever in India and yet in absolutely no attachment first thing he wanted to do turn over all the money to uh to give up everything now Raj everything is in your hands I just want to retire and find some small corner to live and everything he had no attachment no feeling of greatness that how much he had done even when he would say things like if there were another vehicle on the he alone would understand with this Vivekananda has done sounds like a very egotistical statement but right after that he said but how many vacant hunters will come in the future and how's ramakrishna from the dust of the earth God who created thousands to be taken on this so he had no attachment to such a compliment accomplishments that he made so complete Detachment from the result of action is Possible only for one who has seen God then what do we do we try to lessen our attachment if it's not complete then at least let it be as far as possible we try to lessen that a devotee then what is the way for those who have not seen God must they give up all the duties of the world master the best path for this age is bhakti yoga the path of bhakti prescribed by Narada to sing the name and glories of God and pray to him with the longing heart o God give me knowledge give me devotion and reveal thyself to me somebody who asked was asking recently can we pray for ourselves and uh I said how many times Krishna says we have to pray for ourselves not for material things but to pray for his love and devotion and dispassion and all the spiritual uh qualities so pray to him with a longing heart oh God give me knowledge give me devotion and reveal thyself to me the path of karma is extremely difficult therefore one should pray oh God make my duties fewer and fewer and may I through the great through thy Grace do the few duties that thou givest me without any attachment to their results May I have no desire to be involved in many activities so this is part of of the progression that people make in in life in spiritual life that we reach the stage of retirement at some point we feel that uh I've I've contributed to society to the family I've done with what I was supposed to do I fulfilled my to do my duties I did as best as possible now it's time for me to slowly give up and and I'll give the whole mind to the spiritual practice and spiritual life it is not possible to give up work altogether so now going back to that other theme even to think or to meditate is a kind of work as you develop love for God your worldly activities become fewer and fewer of themselves now this is another theme that we find with ramakrishna that if we're very very sincere in spiritual life these duties will drop off that we don't have to make a decision ourselves this the illustration he gives that the daughter-in-law becomes pregnant living in the house of her in-laws and her mother-in-law month by month reduces the duties as she becomes closer to the to the due date and when the final month is there she has nothing to do no duties whatsoever after the child is born her duties to play with the child he raised the child and so uh he doesn't say that the daughter-in-law lessens her duties the Mother-in-law does it so my taco always said that these things automatically start to fall off as we progress in spiritual life that uh will find that things will become smooth for us you know my favorite phrase in the gospel is that this favorable Breeze will come and the things will fall into place he says yeah perhaps the older brother will take over the work look after the family and everything and you're free for all of that that the things will fall into line if we're sincere and the duties that we have in the world at some point will will be able to let go and they'll fall off we won't cling to them this with that whole point with this advice to ishan house ramakrishna said look you're an old man now still you're running after this arbitration and doing all of these things and everything now is the time to dive deep in spiritual life so the question of what stage in life we're at also this Pratap I don't know how old he is now he's probably is 50s or something like that probably like keshop's age or something I don't know anybody know anyhow he's talking to a whole group of people not just him as you develop love for God your worldly activities become fewer and fewer of themselves and you lose all interest in them can one who was tasted a drink made of sugar candy enjoy a drink made of ordinary molasses so we get a little bit of taste of the enjoyment of spiritual life of holy company all of these things we don't care for any other types of enjoyment a devotee the English people always exhort us to be active is in action the aim of life then Master the aim of life is the attainment of God work is only a preliminary step it can never be the end even unselfish work is only a means it is not the end now what about swamiji and all of his emphasis I remember reading once one of our monks he said that swamiji didn't preach Karma Yoga the karma yoga is a path to something else he taught worship that worships through service and that there was there was no motor for it it wasn't to purify the soul nothing like that but seeing God and others and and worshiping god let's do that so it is a little different from this traditional view of Karma Yoga that shramakrishna is talking about so even unselfish work is only a means it is not the end shambhu Malik once said to me please bless me sir that I may spend all my money for good purposes such as building hospitals and dispensaries making roads and digging Wells now it's a nice sentiment huh there's nothing wrong with it yeah but Taco knows these people he knows the the little uh recognition behind it and all the different things are you know these are complicated people I said to him it will be good if you can do these things in the spirit of Detachment but that is very difficult whatever you may do you must always remember that the aim of this life of yours is the attainment of God and not the building of hospitals and dispensaries suppose God appeared before you and said to you except a boon from me would you then ask him oh god build me some hospitals and dispensaries or would you not rather pray to him oh God may I have pure love at your Lotus feet may you have your uninterrupted vision hospitals dispensaries and all such things are unreal now remember most of the time that I I don't like this you know that most the time Taco says these things are transitory you know he's not saying that unreal like like a dream like that these things are passing shows all such things are unreal God Alone is real and all else unreal all thus is transitory passing this is a passing show that goes by like that two days only he says furthermore after realizing God one feels that he alone is the doer and we are but his instruments now we go back to the very beginning after realizing God that one feels that God after realizing God one feels that he alone is the doer and we are but his instruments then why should we forget him and destroy ourselves by being involved in too many activities after realizing him on May through his grace become his instrument in building many hospitals and dispensaries so then we really we make no decisions this is the dried Leaf in the storm if we're blown in that direction to do some some good work for the world we do it if we're blown in the other direction to lead a solitary life in a cave we do it makes no difference we don't make any decisions then therefore I say again that work is only the first step it can never be the goal of Life devote yourself to spiritual practice and go forward through practice you will advance more and more in the path of God at last you will come to know that God Alone is real and all else is illusory transitory and that the goal of life is the attainment of God okay we can stop here really when SRI Rama Krishna says things especially things about this who is the doer and all of that we really have to look at all of the things that he says in the context and everything and not misunderstand and take these things out of context and and think we're qualified to take a certain attitude when we're not qualified yeah we we appreciate it and we and we strive for it uh even holy mother that holy mother prayed she said I used to pray to the Divine mother and mother like my will one with your will she doesn't say whatever I do I do because you make me do it she could have easily done it but this is a safer attitude for for us that pray that whatever we do will be free from all selfish motives and we will have some purity of motive behind it uh two announcements for those of you who are within range of the center and come Sunday uh Day After Tomorrow is uh half day meditation day so it starts at 10 o'clock not at 11 o'clock so please come for that there'll be two sessions uh there will be just a small short introductory reading or something and then silent meditation and a little break the second one and then we'll have lunch for everyone and next Wednesday I send out a message with the with the wrong day on it yeah I think I put Tuesday the 26th is Wednesday the 26th it's for me visiting from India he is the senior most assistant general secretary now and the Very one wonderful very simple and sweet natured sorry so we'll have satsang with him Wednesday night at 7 30 you can come for meditation at 6 30 and stay on for that so that will also be a very nice thing then the next Sunday she'll be speaking here so that will be the last Sunday of the month yeah so now we'll close oh and it'll be a PowerPoint presentation yeah so it should be something very special um [Music] foreign 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