Video 15

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna with Swami Atmajnanananda (07/10/20)

mMmmm look at our rhythm dr. J random copy very read them cover myself shavon among elements we might add a time until your words are like nectar bringing life to scorched souls they appraised by poets and remove all sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of sri ramakrishna we are on page 105 for those who were following along in the book and this is the chapter called the visit to Vidya Sagar it is August 5th 1882 M had been coming to sri ramakrishna for several months and he was a teacher and Vidya Sagar School and ceramics had an interest in visiting video cigars om arranged for the visit with the Ostergard we know was a very very important figure at that time a very influential person a very philanthropic old person a great scholar and to Ramakrishna always like to meet any of these these very gifted people he had a tremendous belief that there's special manifestation of God and those who have some special scale or talent or brilliance in in any field there's a verse that we read in in Gita that Tucker was aware of also but we find that he he tried to meet all of the well-known people died Ananda Saraswathi in Devender not tell or ketchups and of course and many many of the great pundits of the day that he himself would go and and meet them and then he would invite them to come to see him sometimes a very close friendship would come out of it and great mutual respect other times it was a one or two times is it that was all so it depended on who was able to appreciate your Krishna it's interesting with the Brahmo Samaj that Kato was the only one only one there were so many very brilliant people there and people who dedicated people but case it was the only one who fully appreciated Sharma Krishna there were a few others that the trial okay not Sonia who was the the songwriter he also loved him very much but none of them had the same reference that case job did case it was the greatest of all of them and had received the most praise and acclaim from from everyone was revered and yet had that humility and had that deep insight will see with Vidya Sagar that he wasn't impressed to the same degree of course and he was quite a bit older than Sharma Christian de queijo was a little bit older probably but Vidya Sagar was 62 at the time that they meet and this as far as we know I think is the only meeting we'll see later the talk were invites him to the visit and he agrees met Tucker used to say that but he didn't keep his word and he didn't come so so we're in the middle of this long conversation and I always like to to turn these things from for me turn these things into a scene a type of meditative scenes so we picture what's taking place this was part of ym was so careful to describe everything so very interesting to picture the scene because all of the neighborhood people have come they they all heard about Shri Krishna they were curious not everyone had a high opinion of him they all knew that he was something special about him whether good or bad and as always there were many people petitioners who had come to see Vidyasagar to request help for something for a scholarship or elderly widow who needed money something like that so there will be all these people there and she Ramakrishna he'll be oblivious of everyone most of the time it seems just conversation with him and Vidyasagar and meeting him for the first time and yet he'll start singing songs and he'll start going to Samadhi and ecstasy or all different things as if they've known each other for a long time and almost as if there's no one else in the room so it's very very interesting to try to keep that picture in our minds as we're reading all of this now the last thing that we read last week was that story of Rama asking Hanuman how he looked upon him and we saw that Hanuman spoke about the three different attitudes that he had that sometimes he he preferred this is servant master attitude when he had that body consciousness he liked to think that Rama was his master and he was the servant and when he felt he was the Jiva then he was a part this part to hold relationship this is the qualified non-dualism and when he thought of himself as the the self the admin then only oneness the Wojtek point of view so Shri Ramakrishna will start the relationship of Master and servant is the proper one now why the proper on what's wrong with the others there's nothing wrong with the others proper for those who have this body consciousness this is this is what Ramakrishna very often said that especially so hum this attitude is not proper for those who are identified with the body who have it worldly attachments who feel themselves to be the the doer of all action who have their pride and so many different passions and desires and everything for them to say I am he said it was not proper it doesn't mean that there's something false about it he is talking for a very practical point of view so it says the relationship of master and servant it's the proper one since now he's giving this reason since its I must remain let the rascal be God's servant now there's a big distinction between a metaphysical truth and a practical truth the metaphysical truth is not only doesn't this I remain this I doesn't exist this individual ego is a figment of our imagination we created we created as long as we think of ourselves in a certain way that's the ego that we're creating so from that point of view from very a high point of view there is nothing real about this ego there's nothing substantial about it from a practical point of view because we always think of ourselves in a certain sense we always have some sense of self-identity this sense of eyes always there there are three times when that sense of eye disappears one when we're sleeping then two if we get very much involved in something then we lose track of the fact that I'm reading a book as soon as I start thinking myself as I'm reading it then I realized that oh I didn't read that last paragraph I looked at it and I read it I have to go back and reread it my mind was thinking of something else we get deeply involved in something momentarily the ego is not functioning it hasn't really disappeared it's just not functioning at that time and in that state of nirvikalpa samadhi in that state there's no individual consciousness but as soon as we come back down from that state the sense of I comes back and for the god-realized soul it's a ripe eyes so Shri Ramakrishna talks about these different gradations of ego and different there's a maturation process of this ego getting it to ripen to think that it will disappear completely means this this very opaque the very unripe green ego that will disappear it doesn't disappear it ripens it turns into something else so we have that relationship with God so the relationship is used in two different ways and at two different times it gets us to the roof and it helps bring us down from the roof we use that relationship in order to go higher and higher in spiritual life then we get to the roof and that eye disappears when we come back down the state of the Vicki Ani the Vicki Ani also has a sense of I in order to live in the world and in order to relate to people and and living in the body and and being able to to live and talk with people and do everything else that the sense of I but the sense of I now is not one that leads to any bondage and it comes out of freedom so what he's saying here is that since this I must remain since we always have some feeling you ask anybody who are you they'll give an answer huh there's no one's if we say well I don't know that really means that well I'm still searching for what my dream of ultimate dream of life is something like that but we all know this is me yeah we all have some sense of I so since it's all I must remain then how do we look upon ourselves that's the question if I say that I'm so-and-so I was born in a certain year on a certain way to certain hi-8 all of these different things that means that I've identified with the body with my biological relationship with my parents with the country that I was born in with the ethnicity that I have with my all of these different things if I say I'm a trial of God I am a servant of God that means this I that I'm identified with is no longer this this body conscious I this will be some subtle I this will be the department we can say this will be the spiritual eye if I say that I am the child of and I mention the name of my parents then this is the biological I if I say I'm a child of the Divine Mother then this I is no longer thinking of this physical body in the same way if maybe we can say that the body was also created by the Divine Mother but that that mother-child relationship here will be more of this qualified non-dualistic relationship I belong to mother I'm a part of mother or I am a servant of God Sri Ramakrishna I would emphasize the servant attitude sometimes other times he would emphasize the what he called chante on top there's attitude of being a child of the Divine Mother other times he would say they were all good that it's a question of what your particular spiritual attitude is and and what your path spiritual path is that is these are all individual things that it'll be different for everybody but in general he liked these two attitudes the servant attitude the attitude of a child toward his mother and with him the attitude of the child towards the mother was the one that he fell back on when he did his spiritual practices he went through all of these he practiced the servant attitude but as soon as it was finished either he took up a new one or in the in-between time he would go back this would be the the spring back the default mood that for him this was the one that resonated most with him is feeling that I am a child of the Divine Mother he liked to look upon God his mother he's talking to with the ostagar now and it is that Vidya cigar had a bit of this attitude of the servant because he was always serving people so perhaps he was emphasizing that but very often he would use this he'd say since this I must remain that the rascal remained his God servant who was written common phrase with him I in mind these constitute ignorant my house my wealth my learning my possessions the attitude that prompts wanted to say such things comes out of ignorance on the contrary the attitude born of knowledge is Oh God thou art the master and all these things belong to thee house family children attendants friends or thine now ami amar this eye and mine home Cara and Mamata these two are mentioned over and over again in the in the scriptures and Gita especially as a type of bondage because this feeling of our eye leads to pride and this feeling armor it leads to this this feeling of of - it leads to selfishness that this belongs to me it leads to separation there's so many negatives to all of these things because we're doing it in a worldly sense the other way of looking at it similar to the ego we transform the sense of iron mine and ceramic krishna says and many of the devotional teachers say that we increase the sense of iron mine that the devotee especially in the servant attitude has a very strong sense of I yes I look at Hanuman I'm Rama's servant I can do anything a very strong sense of I and he belongs to me and I belong to him we have that that relationship strong sense of mine that's a very positive thing if we can have that in spiritual life but at the same time that my pride in being the servant is I is that I don't claim anything for myself I'm proud to be the servant I'm proud to only care for the happiness of the master whatever Rama will be pleased by that's whether I'll do I'll give up my whole life for him there's a very strong eye but the servant eye is not an eye of bondage there's one that releases us from the terrible attachment of that lower type of ego which is always trying to seek gratification so always trying to to seek some type of fulfillment and and always looking for other people to to give some stamp of approval to us yes you're a good person very good we the I that craves that is a very weak type of I and and it's really at the mercy of external circumstances so what we really want is a very strong high we want a strong sense of ego but right we want to have this relationship yes I am a servant I I always point to the beautiful few verses that Swamiji wrote that he says we can crush the stars to atoms we can unhinge the universe don't you know who we are we are the servants of Shri Ramakrishna that's the perfect dasya bhava and you see that the pride and this strong sense of I in a spiritual sense this is what Ramakrishna means give it turn give it twists to these things if you want to have pride don't do it because of worldly possessions or because of individual talents or anything be proud that you were a servant of God be proud that you're a child of God so when he says I in mind constitute ignorant it's this ordinary sense that it's my house my wealth all of these things and to say that thou art the master all things belong to thee house family children attendants the friends or thine this he says is knowledge one should constantly remember death okay now it sounds very morbid what does it mean every minute we shall think Oh will I die and now with this coronavirus this is on people's mind all the time and we find people dying around us does it mean we should have constant fear what if we catch it what if we have to suffer we see that is some terrible suffering he doesn't mean that when he says one should constantly remember death it means constantly remember the transitory nature of life that nothing will remain where for a very short period of time I remember when I was growing up I used to hear very often a very nice little phrase people would say life is too short huh did you ever hear that that somebody would get angry over something they'd have a little quarrel with somebody say why do you bother with those things life is too short there's a very nice way of looking at things that there's life will fly by will look back when when we're in our the 80s or 90s or something and we'll say yeah why did I get so upset over that and made a big fuss over that and created an enemy over that it took years we didn't talk to each other and everything why didn't I realize life is too short it's going to fly by and I'll be so sorry I wasted time with such a trivial insignificant thing this puts things into perspective puts things into perspective for us that the life is flying by these things that I'm clinging to every single thing that I say oh you can't have it this is mine I won't have more and more of this I'll give up at the end we won't take anything with us nothing in the world will go with this you can you can bury it in that casket with us if you want it's not going to help us so this is what it means one should constantly remember death nothing will survive death this this body that we think is such a wonderful thing how we pamper it and how we very often think of people who have a weight problem whole life they're trying to lose weight I've seen many people like this then they get some illness at the end and by the time they pass away their skin and bones and you think not not that it's good I mean we should try to be healthy it's good not to be overweight and everything but how we get obsessed with these things and and we fail to realize even we died with a good physical body what does Holy Mother say about this body their share chai is just a few pounds of ashes once we're gone that's all that it is it's very helpful to really contemplate death there's a long tradition shiva's is the one that we always point to meditating the cremation ground the shop does like to do that it reminds us that this body will not last that his life is a very fleeting thing when I took my first trip to India hmm and I was in Banaras and I decided one night let me spend the whole night is this money karna kahut watching them burn the bodies so I I did it I spent a whole night because they do it continuously day and night I don't know for how many centuries they claim at least there's not a moment when there's not a buy it body died there'll be several different places and if one goes out there's another one burning so yes I watched one after another they weren't happy with me they're they try to yell at me and get me to leave but and yeah from a distance a little bit I spent the whole night there watching one after another and if there's something uplifting about it something uplifting about it that I'm not this body after all I know that and I if we if we lead a spiritual life at one point some point we start to to feel that death will be a kind of homecoming not an end of things a kind of a homecoming there was a German poet by the name of Ricky I took a course when I was in college when a real gay but it was early morning course and I probably overslept most of the time but I remember one of the poems was called homecoming and it was about death and a very nice nice way that think of it remember the first song that Swamiji sang to Shri Krishna at the Chinese war there's this whole idea that we're strangers here this is a strange land we want to go back home we want to go back home this is not a real abode that we feel somehow out of place here that there's some type of longing to return to go back to that source from which we came so these are all parts of what it means to constantly think of death it doesn't mean think of that moment of death and that the pangs of death and and whatever pain there'll be and the more bitter aspect of it it means let's remember we're here for a very short time we've been sent out to play we play with our games and we get tired of it and we want to go back to mother like the child talk what gives that illustration very often so yes it's a good it's good to go to a cremation ground sometime and go hang out in the cemetery think of all the people all the the hard work they did to to make a big name for themselves and to have lots of possessions and what do they get they're very wealthy want to get a very big tomb though they'll get something they gotta be big mausoleum they can even have a pyramid huh if they're a Pharaoh what good does it do them there they're not there to enjoy it so one should constantly remember death nothing will survive death we are born into this world to perform certain duties like the people who come from the countryside to Calcutta on business if a visitor goes to a rich man the garden the superintendent says to him this is our garden usually taqwa talks about the maidservant but this is the same example really this is our lake and so forth but if the superintendent is dismissed for some misdeed he can't carry away even his mango wood chest he sends it secretly by the bait by the gatekeeper Lefter so these things that we think of our possessions even if if we didn't die they really don't belong to us but the fact that will go and then somebody else will live in the house that we're in someone will sit on the chairs that we sit on maybe even wear the clothes that we wear and get sent to Goodwill and you know nothing will survive death no taqwa changes the conversation a little bit God laughs on two occasions he laughs when the physician says to the patient's mother don't be afraid mother I shall certainly your your boy got last saying to himself I'm going to take his life and this man says he will save it the physician thinks he is the master forgetting that God is the master God laughs again when two brothers divide their land with the string saying to each other this side his mind and that side is yours he laughs and says to himself the whole universe belongs to me but they say they own this portion or that portion so taqwa is telling the video cigar all of these things just so I'll he'll develop a little humility and dispassion not that he was a proud person he was a good person he was a very good person he didn't have any selfish motive for all of these things and yet he was he was so involved that this became his whole life he was really not spiritual in the sense that he was introspective and had some higher goal of realization anything like that he was so wrapped up in doing this good deeds which was not a bad thing that taqwa is trying to send his mind inward trying to show him that all of these things were impermanent whenever we see taqwa talking against people doing a lot of social service work we have to understand that generally there are older people and the time has come for them say with it we'll get to this chapter advice to Ishaan that is the Ishaan was so involved in the doing arbitration and meeting with other people and setting himself is himself up is it overseer of all different arguments and things like that that taqwa and taqwa knew that he was a very deep within a very spiritual person so he talked or may not say this to everybody in anybody he knew that with the a cigar just needed a little push to to really get the fruits of all of the good deeds that he had done because these good works are meant to purify us and to help us spiritually as well as help other people so this is why he's emphasizing these things that you may think that you're helping other people you that just as the doctor thinks that he's going to save someone we don't know we may try to do our best and the opposite may happen we simply don't know how these things work then he says can one know God through reasoning be his servant so he sees emphasizing this because this seems to be the the essential nature of Vidyasagar this one who does serve his pious servants surrender yourself to him and then pray to Him to Vidyasagar with a smile well what is your attitude with the austere God smiling someday I shall confide it to you or laugh he wasn't very anxious to talk about his own spiritual mood or spiritual attitude or anything he was a bit of an agnostic actually he he followed a lot of Orthodox Hindu the customs but in his life he was a little little bit of a naughty atheist a little bit of an agnostic master laughing God cannot be realized through mere scholarly reasoning now a cigar was a great scholar but he wasn't a proud pundit he's in in fact if he had any attachment it was to these good works that he did intoxicated with divine love the master sang this is one of the songs that talk we're saying most often if we I've never done it but if we if we did a study of the songs that talk were saying we would find that the greatest number will be Ron Prasad songs and songs to the divine num to the divine mother after that he sang many of course vaishnavism songs also and talked about gauranga chaithanya they've and everything but this is one of the songs that he was most fond of who is there they can understand what mother Kali is even the sixth dar sinners are powerless to reveal her this is a very nice line shunderson darson a nap I adore a song this is this means that the sixth are sinners and all of the the philosophical schools you won't get the dirty Shion there's a play on words there are sin remains philosophy philosophical schools but it means the vision you won't get the vision of God by studying philosophy so who was there that can understand what mother Kali is even the six and our sinners are powerless to reveal her it is she the scriptures say that is the inner self of the yogi who and self discovers all his joy she that of her own sweet will inhabits every living thing so this idea of the Divine Mother will see I corresponds to the Ishwara the idea we have of Ishwara or the personal God only we've added two things this this emphasis on this idea of Shakti and the second is this motherliness so that when we have this relationship we can think of ourselves as a child child who seeks shelter constantly with with his our own mother the idea of Ishwara that we find in Gita especially is not simply issue as as the creator of this universe but he's worth dwelling in the heart the welding in the heart and directing us to action either either in telling us to action maybe because of our past Karma maybe not but as these unter Yaman the inner controller and even we have that one very powerful verse making us run around in circles huh going around in circles think that we're we think that we're making progress we're simply going and going around in circles not not knowing that each word well even in the hearts of all is making us do them out of because of Maya because of our own ignorance then we get a very interesting line the macrocosm and microcosm rest in the mother's womb ramakrishna liked to talk about this swamiji also he has some nice lectures the microcosm and the macrocosm the HT and some st and in vedanta philosophy this means that we we have an aggregate were to be the combination of all individual things and each individual thing will be a mirror of the whole thing so that if we analyze the the the whole and we analyze the individual will find the same relationship is mirrored in one that's in the other so if we take the entire universe as the body of the divine and God dwells within the heart of this universe we'll find that each individual in the universe mirrors that that I also have my own body and God also dwells within so God is doing within me and within this entire universe so the microcosmic ro Kazem and the microcosm rest in the mother's womb so she's the source of all that we're dwelling within her now do you see how vast it is in the mooladhara now we'll get reference to the Kundalini idea the yogi meditates on her and in the sahasrara who but Shiva has beheld her as she really is within the Lotus wilderness she sports beside her mate the Swan now this is all that idea that we can understand this spiritual attainment as the rising of this Kundalini power so the divine mother is manifesting herself as power within the universe macrocosm and also within the individual the microcosm in terms of the Kundalini so as this as this Kundalini Rises going through the different chakras with different lotuses and then the lotuses bloom we have different types of experiences with Kundalini rises to the head the thousand petaled Lotus there Sarada then of this highest illumination is supposed to take place symbolically it's thought of as the Divine Mother Kundalini the Shakti who dwells in the mooladhara the lowest plane in the unenlightened human being the ordinary person that means not just moolah darted the three lower planes this is what taco used to say which means that we're interested in eating and sleeping and ordinary for worldly things that that Divine Mother that Shakti is trying to unite with Shiva who dwells in the in the talk this is all symbolic language it means that we're trying to achieve union with the the higher self or with the the part about men the supreme self or brahman dwelling within so who but Shiva has beheld her as she really is within the Lotus wilderness she sports beside her made the Swan that means the absolute butter on to the the the soul home so when man aspires to understand her Rahm Prasad must smile this is the way they indicate that they're the author they'll stick their knavery there's a male Ramprasad must smile to think of knowing her he says is quite as laughable as to imagine one can swim across the boundless sea now does this mean we can't unite with the mother we can have the highest realization no it means that through through reasoning we can never understand her and that when we have that that written that stayed enter that state of union with mother then this ordinary mind won't be there to try to analyze or figure out anything so there's no knowing that way the way we know other things as to imagine one can swim across the boundless sea but while my mind is understood alas my heart has not though but a dwarf it still would strive to make a captive of the moon now imagine he's sitting there with Vidyasagar a room full of strangers some some of these people are there without the least interest in anything spiritual they're trying to get money from vidya cigar and he's singing these songs and going into ecstasy and everything continuing the master said did you notice the macrocosm and the microcosm rest in the mother's womb now do you see how vast it is again the poet says even the six of our sinners are powerless to reveal her then Shri Ramakrishna continues she cannot be realized by means of mere scholarship so we know that the the role of analysis we know what the role of scriptural study is it's to get us on the path it's to get us to develop some conviction regarding the truth of the Scriptures we have to understand these things if we simply say I don't understand it but it's in the scriptures so I'll believe it then it doesn't do us any good without this conviction we won't be able to to stick on the path when these big obstacles come then we'll say oh maybe these things aren't true that why did I believe all of these things if we analyze first and and it appeals to our sense of reasoning we'd say yes this makes sense and then we see someone who has had that experience yes I know which road we developed that conviction then we don't have to keep going back and analyzing again and again but we'll realize that that has has given us this this great inner strength the conviction brings great inner strength and spiritual life taqwa says of this ferocity says the very final this is this is the final stage of course that yearning is necessary but we won't get any of it unless we have this conviction one must have faith and love so we need this conviction we need some emotional tie and it doesn't even have to be in a very dualistic a devotional type of way it can be this tremendous longing for truth when we look at the life of Buddha how he was ready to give up everything he gave up the life of the palace and a wife and a child and all of that in search of truth that was that tremendous love of truth and that tremendous longing to shake off this this ignorance to this this feeling that his life is not worth living in this way when we don't know why we're here what we're doing what the goal is what the point of it all is and if we become convinced that there are answers to these questions and there are people who can give these answers and they can tell us what to do and how to get there and then we'll do it we'll feel that tremendous longing to do it that's also love so one must have faith in love let me tell you how powerful faith is a man was about to cross the sea from Ceylon to India the betien uh said to him tie this thing in a corner of your wearing cloth he didn't tell her what it was tie this thing in the corner of you're wearing cloth and you will cross the sea safely you will be able to walk on the water but be sure not to examine it or you will sink the man was walking easily on the water of the sea such as the strength of faith when having gone part of the way he thought what is this wonderful thing petitioner has given me that I can walk even on the water he untied the knot he saved policeman said don't untie it he untied the knot and found only a leaf with the name of Rama written on it oh just this he thought and instantly he sank so was it the power of the of the name on the leaf or was it the power of the faith that he had the name of course is something special but without the faith in it so Tucker is emphasizing this idea of faith without the faith he was unable to take advantage of it there's a popular saying that the Hanuman jumped over the sea through his faith in Rama's name but Rama himself had to build a bridge so this is the case where the devotee is greater than the object of devotion we find that if we if we really analyzed very carefully in most cases I have this this conviction that Radha was greater than Krishna as Sita was greater than Rama huh that who was the greater ideal for us that is Sita how long suffering she was rod how the whole mind was given to Krishna if we look at it from that point of view we see Hanuman how he's the ideal Rama's not so much the ideal the object of worship of course he's standing for the higher self and everything but the ideal means how we want to see ourselves of what we want to mold ourselves in order to make us the ideal devotee in order to have that realization so this is pointing to that idea that in terms of the tremendous power of faith Hanuman was greater than Rama if a man is faith in God and that don't be offended anyone who's a great Robin worshiper he also represented a very great idea if a man is faith in God then he need not be afraid though we may have committed sin they the vilest sin now ceramic Krishna had a little teaching technique that he used to use that if he knew if he had a song in mind that he wanted to sing and he had a point that he wanted to make he would first reference a line from that song we're wondering why did he say this that if you've committed a vile sin I will find that because it's in the song that he's about to sing it's very very common thing that the taku used to do so he said if a man is faith in God then he need not be afraid though we may have committed sin may the vilest sin then she Ramakrishna sang a song glorifying the power of faith if only I can pass away remembering Durga's name how canst thou then o blessed one withhold from a deliverance wretched though I may be and then the song goes on to say though I may have killed a cow or a Brahman or all different things i one of the things that the M did when he wrote this gospel of ramakrishna of course in bengali is that he wouldn't always give the entire song now sri ramakrishna probably sang the entire song because we see dot dot dot dot afterwards he would give the entire song usually the first time and then after that he would just give the first few lines on just to keep the book from getting too big probably now the one exception that I noticed every once in a while there may have been a song there the M was hearing for the first time and maybe then he'll write the first few lines and then afterwards do the whole thing that a very famous song I've given my heart to thee all that exists sort though that one we don't get the full thing till the end but generally so I don't remember probably we've already had this song once but the rest of the song it has that line though I may have committed that violence in the master continued faith and devotion and devotion he's talking about I don't know what the word is underdog probably he's talking about the really tremendous love this this otherworldly type of love one realizes God easily through devotion he is grasped through ecstasy of love with these words the master sang again we'll get another round for satsang how are you trying on my mind to know the nature of God you were groping like a madman locked in a dark room his grasp through ecstatic love how can you fathom him without it only through affirmation never negation can you know him neither to vada north to Tantra nor the sixth darkness same thing that we had before it is in loves elixir only that he delights or mind he and the bodies in most depths in everlasting joy and for that now we're getting he it could have easily been she then in Bengali they used the same word huh Shea or teenie they used the same word for he and she there's no there oh don't have two different words for it so it's up to the translator to guess I would prefer she here because Ram Prasad he's really talking about the Divine Mother so it is in loves elixir only that she delights her mind she dwells in the bodies in most adepts in everlasting joy and for that love the mighty Yogi's practice yoga from age to age when love awakes the Lord like a magnet draws to him the soul to her it is he it sorry here it is she this as Ron Prasad that I approach as mother okay but must I give away the secret here in the marketplace from the hints I've given Oh mind guess what that being is now what is this affirmation and negation why did he say only through after the path of negation eighteen eighty is a well-known path that's used for the for the Gianni's the avoidance where we try to separate the self from the non self so when when we say that no I am NOT this body I'm not this mind this is that path of negation that we can't say anything positive about the real nature of the self so what we do is we eliminate everything that it's not and that what remains what is is what remains there's a very good path but what Ron Prasad is saying and what your every Christian is saying is that this can can take us to that impersonal aspect if we want the personal and impersonal both Rama Krishna he put more emphasis on the path of devotion he says that devotion can take us to the inner court to the inner sanctuary of the palace we can get inside through the path of knowledge that will take it to this impersonal absolute for sure Ramakrishna the highest realization is both that God is both impersonal and personal the typical devotee doesn't like this impersonal aspect and the yani typically doesn't like this personal aspect taqwa like them both and they said they both belong to the same reality don't shortchange yourself and don't simply follow this this path that gets to the impersonal absolute that through this path of devotion you will see both Saguna near gonna an aspect you will see the God with form without form impersonal and with is the personality and the personality of the Divine Mother and fielded the joy and bliss because when the mind comes down it can experience the Bliss of that relationship while singing the master went into Samadhi this always happened and this this is what would impress the visitors most because most of them had never seen anything like this it was a very rare thing even these great pundits I forget which one one of them came and after seeing taqwa Samadhi he said now we understand that we simply been carrying the weight of these books on our backs all of the time we've never realized the truth of it it's only Ramakrishna he's been able to really taste the joy that's there were only carrying the books on our heads something like that so I this was a very significant at he's planning to do it ahead of time but if we're talking about a teaching technique this is this is a great teaching technique and let them see that what I'm talking about what Ron Prasad is singing about is not mere words that this state is something that is real and of course when he comes down from that state of Samadhi he'll be in this ecstatic mood and they'll get to see what it means to to have this bliss and bliss of the Divine Mother he was seated on the bench facing west the palms of his hands joined together his body erect and motionless everyone watched him expectantly but yeah cigar too was speechless and could not take his eyes from the master see very often these people would be tremendously impressed with SH Ramakrishna we've never seen anyone like him so in such a love of God such a ecstasy and I then he would go and they would go back to being their own selves it wouldn't have that that transforming power for them somebody like em the second he saw Strama krishna he knew so there were those who were part of this leela also that they were born to be part of this divine play of ramakrishna and there are others who simply simply had that inner stuff that they could catch that divine fire that Ramakrishna had because they were ready for it Vidya cigar we don't know to what extent he was transformed or change or influence at all but certainly not to the extent that he might have been after a time ceramic Krishna showed signs of regaining the normal state he drew a deep breath and said with a smile the means of realizing God or ecstasy of love and devotion that is one must love God he with Brahman is addressed as the mother now this is a very important philosophical position that's Ramakrishna had he never thought of the Divine Mother as anything separate from Brahman when the gianni talks about brahman is near guna brahman impersonal absolute and devoid of any gunas near guna impersonal and without any form without any qualities he he used to say yes this is one aspect and when we say that there are no gunas when they say there's no power there's no shakti there it means that there's an aspect of that transcends that and also there's a time when these the shuk Dias is not active when it's simply potential but it's always there it's always there if if some power can be activated at some time that means that it's there when it's not active it means it's in a potential form so he it is says Ron Prasad now with Kourtney for another song and we assume singing that I approach as mother he it is that I approach his mother so taqwa says he was Brahman is addressed as the mother so they're not two different things only Brahman means near gonna and Saguna both together not brahman here each water here here under guard over here would all of these different distinctions there's only one Ron Prasad asked the mind only to guess the nature of God he wishes it to understand that what is called Brahman in the Vedas is addressed by him as the mother he is he who is attribute lists also has attributes it's just like any individual that we talk about a person that person has attributes this person a good person a confers a very thoughtful person rajasic person whatever it is and at the same time if we're talking about the person as the real self the oddmund then there are no attributes both are true looking at it from two different points of view he who is Brahman is also Shakti when thought of as inactive he is called Brahman and when thought of as the creator preserver and destroyer he is called the primordial energy Kali Brahman and Shakti are identical like fire and its power to burn now I want to just take a minute and talk about this phrase because we hear it all of the time this is a Brahman in Chuck D taqwa says evade evade now I questioned sometimes if identical is the best translation for this because here we're saying fire in its power to burn is the power to burn identical with fire itself obey the means inseparable that you can't have one without the other that they come together they come together one without the other and though so you can't like substance and attribute you can't have a table without a color and you can't have a color that doesn't belong to something so it's not that they're identical if we think of Shakti as power and Brahman as the seed other the seed of power but sometimes when taqwa talks about Shakti he's talking about the divine mother which means he's not talking about the power that because for him you can't have power that doesn't belong to Brahman he's talking about Brahman together with its power from that point of view then they are identical then there are not just indistinguishable or inseparable they are one in the same so when he talks about Kali then it's not that Brahman and Kali are inseparable they're one did the one in the same when he says Shakti if he means power then they're inseparable when he says Shakti and he means Kali then they're one in the same I don't know if that makes any sense anybody that makes sense okay so because he's it like fire and it's power to burn they have to be together so this power to create the universe can't be something separate from from Brahman and if that's true then Brahman we can't think of Brahman if we think of Roman without the power to create then we can't explain this universe where does it come from does it just come into being on its own Brahman alone exists from this pure consciousness if that chit Shakti if that power to project this universe is not there we can't explain this universe somebody says well it's just an imaginary universe okay and then we can't explain this imaginary universe there's something something other than pure consciousness nobody can deny that whether we say is it's real or imaginary or projection or a dream or anything so we say it's a dream then where did the dream come from there has to be some power which the moment to dream even so the Shakti has to be there unless I mean if it weren't there then there would just be conscious that there wouldn't be anything just pure consciousness whatever there is at the time of pralaya pralaya the this in-between period when there's no creation but even then this creation are there or is it just unmanifest so talk words position in a very strong position the Dwight ends this is a very weak point for them they have a very difficult time explaining how starting with near guna Brahman is the only reality how we can explain the existence of this universe they bring in this idea of Maya which is a little bit philosophically tenuous position anyhow Brahman and chef D are identical like fire and it's power to burn when we talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn again the fires power to burn implies the fire itself if you accept one you must accept the other Brahman alone is addressed as the mother this is because a mother is an object of great love one is able to realize God just through love ecstasy a feeling devotion love and faith these are the means then he'll sing another song but this so there are two very important ideas here one is a beautiful philosophical idea that this this Brahman has to have some power within it even if it's a power to delude and this power but it has to have something otherwise we can't explain anything where we have to have this as all second reality second thing which may be even more important is that looking upon God his mother allows the heart to open up and to to expand and this is what spiritual life and practice is all about this expansion of the heart there's ability to raise the mind to a higher level allow this Brahman to have this power of attraction that the mother has for the child a child for the mother so they said we can be pulled up so it's this psychological element and love element there's a equally important time to stop okay so we'll stop here excuse me and continue next time and I'll do the closing Jan and you know dominant roopam Macdonald come to the vikram way he shava Taronga Ramesh a medium term Ramakrishna medicine oh mama we bow our head before she Ramakrishna 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 ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti peace peace peace be unto all thank you everyone and we will see you next time