Video 17

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna with Swami Atmajnanananda (07/24/20)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we completed the chapter 3 last time and for those of you who like to follow along in the book we're on page 111 this is chapter 4 entitled advice to householders and the date is august 13th 1882. so m has been coming for several months now and his relationship with srama krishna has become very intimate close and sweet type of relationship the master was conversing with kedar and some other devotees in his room in the temple garden kedar was a government official and it spent several years at dhaka in east bengal where he had become a friend of vijay goswami vijay goswami of course was a member of the brahmo samaj he and kesha were very good friends but then there was a split and uh k-sub's organization and the vijay's organization became two separate branches you could save the brahmos homage but the video was uh very i i said several times that kesha was the one who really appreciated srama krishna i should have meant that because the video krishna goes for me he also he he also appreciated srama krishnan and had tremendous reverence for him and srama krishna recognized and bejoyed that uh he was not in the right place that the brahmos image was really uh not the proper place for him in terms of the blossoming of his inner spiritual life and he used to say that bijoy was born in a family of devotees that he had uh that some scattered within him and he was right vijoy eventually left and took sanyasa and became known as really a great division of a saint he had a big following later he was from east bengal the narayanganj area not too far from dhaka and not too far from where nag mahashay was from and my first visit to that place uh we went in and tried to find where his house was you know so many years later but bj krishna goes for me it turns out it's not a very uncommon name so it was kind of a wild goose chase we ended up in one or two places there were some other video krishna gosvami but in any event he was a great deputy kedar kate or not was also very devoted to srama krishna he had some unusual habits and was a member of some of these kind of uh little bit tantrico oriented groups and we find some funny things happening later with israeli christian but in general takara liked him and he and he would uh was a great devotee and uh the two of them became good friends there's caternaut was actually from the uh the the birthplace of ram prasad that was that was the town that he was from but he went to dhaka for work there so they became friends there so the two would spend a great part of their time together talking about shiramakrishna and his spiritual experiences kedar had once been a member of the brahma-samaj so both of them were previously members of course at this time video gosvami is still a member but the other group he followed the path of bhakti spiritual talk always brought tears to his eyes it was five o'clock in the afternoon kedar was very happy that day having arranged a religious festival for suramar krishna a singer had been hired by rama this will be swamiji's relative i'm not sure how close a relative but they were related and the whole day passed in joy the master explained to the devotees the secret of communion with god master with the realization of sachidanda one goes into samadhi what is this this of course comes up over and over and over again that srirama krishna talks about it like you know going to the corner grocery store or something that's a very simple thing well once you go into somati it's not it's actually a very very rare thing i remember uh many many years ago uh swami swan energy was visiting the new york center and i went to see him there well before i joined this would be probably 1975 something like that and somebody asked him had he had samati or did he know people and he said you think you've people are just walking around the streets of new york going into samati and then he you know his eyes would bug out sometimes he would look and he'd say your heartbeat stops your pulse is gone as if you're a dead person hey just to emphasize what what a rare thing uh this if we're talking about this nirvikalpa samadhi what a rare thing this is now srirama krishna sometimes will be a little specific with different types of samati sometimes he'll mention five six different types that we've never heard of this is caitanha and stita samadhi and unmanaged he's talking to a pundit one time and he mentions all of these things and the pundit just shakes his head he doesn't know what all of these things are uh we have to assume when he's talking about people going into samati that he's not talking about this nirvikalpa samathi because this is really something that is an unusual thing and if if the mind gets deeply merged in that very difficult for the mind to come back down again so when he just makes statements like with the realization of sachin that one goes into samadhi then duties drop away so it's very clear he's talking about having that experience in coming back and maybe living in the world be even being a householder that once you have samati you come back and your duties drop off so that means this is not the same as when he says if you experience nearby cult with samadhi every chance the mind will get merged the salt dog will melt in the ocean and there's no coming back so there are all these different levels there's a book i've referred to many times this uh parateen shadhudir that i'm reading this wonderful book and swami sharon on this talking about this even even nirvikalpa samanthi that there'll be all different levels of it and different degrees of it and uh even the ishwara koti's that there will be some who are more qualified to experience it and can stay in it longer before getting merged in it and and some they can just get a glimpse of it or or maybe just have so be called the samati so we're not going to take this samadhi in a very technical sense is nearly called samadhi or anything like that but with the realization of sachit ananda one goes into a higher state of consciousness he's using the term samati of course but it means that we don't experience it with this ordinary mind this purified mind or the mind that rises to a high level where kundalini rises something like that so he's basically he's telling us that this idea of jivan mukti is something very real and possible for everyone he's not saying now only the ishwara koti he's saying anyone he says with the realization of satyadananda one goes into samathi then duties drop away so all of us can have this highest realization it means that at least for that moment we're not in this ordinary state of mind at least for that moment the mind has ascended to some very high plane it may not stay there long but we've climbed the ladder we've got to the roof we looked over at least that much in order to come back but then he says the duties drop away so does that mean we don't do anything we may but we don't do it out of a center obligation this is this is one of the ideas of duty swamiji says in one place that it's like the burning new day sun noonday sun of duty that those who attain the state of freedom they can't be bound by anything but they may do all of these things freely and joyfully but not out of the sense of duty that they're being forced to do it or anything like that but generally uh entanglements in the world things that that will bind us or obligations that uh are important in one stage of life we have our careers our jobs and everything we turn over to the kids we become free from those types of things so these things will drop off so with the realization of satchidananda existence knowledge bliss that means brahman realization of brahman one goes into swamati then duties drop away suppose i have been talking about the ost the ost is the musician there's an expert musician that that will come and we'll see uh surami krishna we'll we'll talk to him a little bit uh he likes this whole stud suppose i've been talking about the start and he arrives what need is there of talking about him then so srama christian will often often mention this that speech will stop that when we have this this experience we go into this have this direct realization who will bother to to describe the blessed brahmin when one is having the blessed brahman so this is this is beyond description so there's no need to talk about them how long does the be buzz around so long as it isn't sitting on a flower but it will not do for the sadhaka to renounce duties so now he's making a distinction sadiq is one who hasn't realized yet the other will be the siddha siddha will be the one who's realized the sadhaka is one who's striving so even if sanyasin has duties we of course are modern sannyasis we have lots of duties we have to open the temple and we have to answer the phone and we have to pay the bills and do all of those things just like householders do but even a typical or orthodox traditional sanyasin will have certain duties at least very simple things one from place to place with regard to to begging food and whether they keep the staff carry the commandolu the simple things but still some things that they observe some observances so the saudis can't renounce duty the performance of duty it's part of sadhana it's part of the spiritual life it has to be done as worship it has to be done as a spiritual practice and done as an offering then it becomes a helpful and spiritual part of our spiritual practice this is a whole secret of karma yoga the secret of work that swamiji talks about that enables us to do spiritual practice 24 hours a day and then we'll find out that each and every action breathing and breathing out gita talks about this taku will also talk about that everything we do is an action so the gita is very beautiful that even breathing in and breathing out is compared to an offering we offer breath to the fire within uh to the divine presence within we take food and and it also gets offered to the waist fauna of the fire within the divine presence within so everything becomes an offering and helpful and spiritual life so the sadhaka should not renounce duties he should perform his duties now he'll mention specific ones such as worship japan meditation prayer and pilgrimage but also worldly duties he's unless this sadhaka is someone who has reached that stage of the vanu presti stage or something like that then also observing things like feeding the poor and looking after the family and doing some good works all of these things as well if you see someone engaged in reasoning after he has realized god you may liken him to a bee which also buzzes a little even while sipping honey from a flower i will when we get to the end we'll find that dr sharkar he liked to argue with swami krishna and he used to ask him why do you talk so much you say that god realized all that he's immersed in the joy of self within no need to say anything why do you talk so much so then taka would have to explain that sometimes out of sheer joy even to be able buzz will make that sound and of course takwa he knew that he was born with a certain mission in life the master was highly pleased with the ost music he said to the musician there is a special manifestation of god's power and a man who hasn't any outstanding gift such as a proficiency in music this is a very well known verse from from gita that takur subscribed to that no matter what field not just in spirituality and music and literature and art or anything that any special skill proficiency is some special divine power within taquer he he must have been far more familiar with many of the scriptures important scriptures than we'd imagine because he had such a wonderful memory and he heard so many discussions being held by the different sadhus and everything gita we know just through several of several statements that he makes that he was quite familiar with it [Music] he knew very well it was one of his favorite texts he would very often he would ask people to read things out to him or he would attend these discussions with the pandits and the sadhus and everything so it was very well versed so it is very very likely that he knew that verse from gita whether it was memorized or not he knew the meaning of it the substance of it musician now we'll see this musician has a little substance he's not going to ask about any worldly things he says sir what is the way to realize god this is the one question that comes up over and over again upaiki what is the way master and he'll give taco will give different answers it'll depend uh whom he's talking to and and what his mood is at the time and what he thinks is helpful for the person and who else is in the room who else is listening here it seems like it'll be mostly householder devotees this caternaut who is the great bhakta great and the vijay krishna goswami both of them were followers of the path of devotion even though media was a with a brahmo at the time so the master srama krishna says bhakti is the one essential thing so this path of devotion to be sure god exists in all beings who then is a devotee so it's not that the summit is a great devotee because a special manifestation of god within is not that god is dwelling within everybody is the one who who knows it and thinks of god and has a relationship with god so he says who then is a devotee he whose mind dwells on god there's another verse i like from chapter 12 of of the gita that he says you fix your mind on me keep your intellect on me then what happens if we do that then you'll dwell within me you'll live within me we will some will say well how do i live in god by remembering god it's a very simple thing let the mind be fixed let the mind constantly dwell within the thought of god that means living in god it's not that we have to go someplace is where the mind is that's where that's where we are so he says he whose mind dwells on god this is the one who is considered a devotee and yes as we read in gita but this is not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity the water of god's grace cannot collect on the high amount of egotism it runs down i am a mere machine now sryama krishna talks about the ego very often and he'll speak about it from two different points of view in western terminology they make a little distinction between egoism and egotism egoism is just the philosophical doctrine of this this sense of i that everyone has egotism will be pride and vanity it will and this is the main problem if we have the type of ego that is free from pride and vanity then it's not a harmful it can be a helpful ego so srama krishna talks about this ego uh from this point of view of just the prideful and uh and harmful ego which is a great obstacle he talks about it from the philosophical point of view what is the real nature of the center of eye and then from a very practical and psychological point of view what type of ego can we develop and cultivate so that it helps us in our spiritual life this is this whole concept of ripening the ego we hear very often about effacing the ego and getting rid of the ego that means getting rid of this this unripe ego but first ramakrishna we want to utilize this ego one it becomes a help and two it's impossible to get rid of he says you you may reason a thousand times let's say he uses that literally a thousand times you may reason and convince yourself that this this eye this center of eye this ego has no substance to it he says but it comes back the next minute he comes right back so he says then let the rascal remain as the servant of god anyhow this is a way of utilizing him but when he's talking about this this is the ego uh there's a pride and vanity this is is the obstacle in spiritual life but one one thing that is very clear if we think about it that everything that it's an obstacle in spiritual life it's an obstacle in worldly life also this is very important if somebody has no interest whatsoever in god realization but they're full of vanity and pride they won't be happy and if they're free from vanity and pride but they're not necessarily spiritual people uh their life will be much simpler so these are very practical things for everybody this is pride and vanity uh are the things that keep us from being happy in life they're great obstacles just in ordinary happiness forget about god realization of course for god realization we have to be free from these things completely so he says this is letting the mind dwell on god this is not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity the water of god's grace cannot collect on the high mound of ego with egotism it runs down then he says i'm a mere machine so he's he's repeating this line uh from that song of ram prasad shockley tomaricha that he likes so much this this feeling that i am the machine and mother is the operator of the machine now i've spoken about this many times so i'll just say very briefly that tucker warns us that this is not the attitude to take uh unless we're free from this from this uh attachment to the to the lower self this is this is the attitude that someone who has transcended this worldiness someone who is free from others or or has developed this perfectly ripe ego that person can say it those who have this this sense of of agency then they can say let everything let everything be mother's will whatever she wants to happen let it happen but we have to take responsibility for our actions we can't say mother made me do it okay to cather and the other devotees god can be realized through all paths all religions are true the automotive this uh of course is one of the most important teachings almost from a social point of view you know holy mother was asked about this one time that she said yes people always say that that was his most important teaching but i don't find it to be so i find his most important teaching was renunciation but uh this will be the most important teaching with regard to communal uh unrest and sectarianism and things like that so it's very important for the problems in the world today and even during tacos time so god can be realized through all paths all religions are true now does that mean that each and every statement we find in each and every religious scripture is true no it doesn't mean that it means that if we sincerely follow the essential teachings and get rid of all the the excess of baggage and things that are more cultural and social and probably represent the fanaticism of the later followers we get rid of all of that other stuff and get to the heart of things that we can realize the ultimate truth through each and every one of these traditions so all religions are true the important thing is to reach the roof we fight over the religion thinking that that's the end it's not it's the means this is this is the ladder or the rope it doesn't matter what we use the thing is to reach that goal you can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope you can also climb up by a bamboo pole so all of these taco will even say that we want to get into a house there are many doors and entrances that we can in order to get into a house you can even enter through you know in the old style houses in india i lived in one of these houses that the the bathroom will be in the very back of the house and there may not be all plumbing and everything somebody scavenger may have to have to come through the back door so that he'll never enter into the house and clean out the latrine and then leave that same way that's also an entrance into the house one can enter into that so tucker says even one can even enter that way but it's not a clean way better not to go that way but when he's talking about because people would criticize some of these other groups there were so many during taku's time this uh the many groups that uh had these tantric practices and things and taking of wine and mixing of men and women and all the taqwa didn't subscribe to other people would criticize and he would say yes but this may also be a path if someone is sincere and follows it and realizes and tries to not follow all of these these impure things that this but it's like entering the house to this back door that goes into the to the uh baikana to the the tree into the bathroom okay you may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion yeah and everyone will say it but they don't like to say it about their own religion i remember hearing a definition of mythology that mythology is is the uh the philosophy of everybody else's religion it's or not philosophy but say creation stories and everything that means that we think that our creation story is is true so the christians will say yes adam and eve first men and women and then the hinduism is so many different creation stories and churning the ocean and all of that yeah well i say that's mythology that's the way it happened yours is mythology but actually they're all mythology and mythology i gave a talk once and somebody got very angry he said you're calling this mythology and i tried to explain mythology is a good thing it's not it's not that we're saying that that it's nonsense that it's just a mere myth there's a very sim it's a symbolic way of trying to explain something we shouldn't take it literally that's all so you may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion i should reply suppose there are okay assume that it's true because it is true that there'll be many things that are unscientific there'll be many things that will contradict not in themselves they may be okay but they'll contradict us different stories from other religious traditions and everything then we run into trouble if we take everything literally then how do we how do we harmonize these things so he says suppose there are every religion has errors this is what taqwa says the scriptures are like a mixture of sugar and sand we should be like the ant if the ant goes to a big hill and there's a mixture of sugar and sand the ant will know which is a grain of sand and which is a granule of sugar and we'll take the sugar and leave and and not bother we'll make a big fuss about the sand it's not of any use to it so we should be like that he said every religion has errors everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time it is enough to have yearning for god so this is this is the the whole point that uh it's it's not the value of the of the uh scripture or the the tradition or the culture is the yearning of the heart of the devotee that is the important thing so we look at the life of srama krishna and he could have realized god through you know any any even the most childish type of tradition or primitive tradition we can think of because it had nothing to do with the how sophisticated these teachings were it had to do with him with the yearning of his heart so it is enough to have yearning for god via this of course with the main teaching it is enough to love him and feel attracted to him don't you know that god is the inner guide so we we have to always keep this in mind whenever we start to think of god as some place outside of ourselves that god is within and without within and without because god is manifesting within the son will be transcended but the reflected sun will be within the heart so both within and without don't you know the god is the inner god the unter yaman so this this is another another one of those concepts that it's a phenomenon that we all understand and it will be explained in two very very different ways there's the phenomenon is that whenever we uh we think something within or we say something to ourselves or we do something we have this feeling that there's awareness of that now the yani will say that this is the higher eye this is the witness the suction the devotee will say this is the witness the sachin who is the witness god is the witness god dwelling within the heart god is listening to the prayer which one is right actually this this divine presence within uh manifests as the higher self so both are right and it's a there's no i within it it's impersonal so either i say that my higher self is impersonal or i say that this is that that impersonal absolute reality dwelling within the difference is on our side how we understand it and explain it if we feel that this divine presence within can guide us that feeling of conscience tell us right from wrong and can inspire us then we're more likely to look at that as the presence of god within uh if we're gyanis we'll say then the mind itself has become the guru taka also says that so there's a difference in interpretation there's not a real big difference that's why this sakshin is very interesting this action we have saksi with a capital s and with the lowercase s lowercase s that means that that awareness within myself that is just watching and i can say it belongs to the higher mind or it's the odd men the capital s will be that that divine presence which will witness everything that takes place in the universe this is why again in gita that sri krishna says i am the sakshi this is one of the terms he uses to explain who he is and when he talks about the caitanya he says mamawiti know the me know that i am the one i am the one who's the witness within observing everything taking place in the mind but how does he do it as the higher self so really uh the the bhaktas and the gandhis can argue about it is it i or is it he it's beyond both thakura says in one place that brahman is beyond asti and nasty beyond the i and thou we're in between sometimes either either one is false i am brahmana so if i say it's i then that's also confusing it's not this ego i if i say it's thou that's also confusing it's not something other or separate so the beyond minded speech so he says don't you know that god is the inner guide he sees the longing of our heart and the yearning of our soul so now he's emphasizing this idea that that divine presence within is really this transcendent son he's using that type of illustration that the divine presence is the way that brahman is manifesting within or or even the personal god ishwara in the gita is used in that sense that he dwells within the hearts of all beings and directs us as if we're mounted on a machine so don't you know that god is the inner guide he sees the longing of our heart and the yearning of our soul suppose a man has several sons the older boys address him distinctly as a baba or papa but the babies can at best call him ba or now will the father be angry with those who address him in this indistinct way the father knows that they too are calling him only they cannot pronounce his name well all children are the same to the father likewise the devotee calls on god alone though by different names they call on one person only god is one but his names are many so we may have different conceptions we may use different names but that reality will be one and the same is it takwa's favorite example of course is the water from from one pond it'll be called different things it'll be taken in different containers it'll be utilized in different ways but if the water is water there's no distinction between any of them and this is also very nice sometimes we think that oh we we can't recite these these hymns in in sanskrit we don't know what it means and everything how can we be good in devotees god doesn't care for these things if we if we can recite all of these things and we do it by road and it doesn't we're not thinking about it and we're doing it with great love and devotion then it's what use is it so we have this nice line bhava grahid that god looks into our hearts he accepts our love he doesn't care uh how how much we know of all the rights and rituals and and and stubbornness and all these things okay so that was a short day now we get to thursday august 24th 1882. so august 13th so this is the uh okay 11 days later srama krishna was talking to hazrat on the long northeast veranda of his room when em arrived he saluted the master reverendly so now we're back in dakshineshwar hi come come we're in dakshineshwar and there are all these characters that are part of this this play in dakshinaswar many of them were relatives of srama krishna not so much from him but as brother ram kumar's elder brother who had passed away already he is the one who became the favorite of ronnie rashmani because he is the one who settled that whole big problem the problem was none of the brahmin priest would come and serve in any of the temples because she was from a lower caste so he solved the problem that you sign it over to your guru who's a brahman and then they won't hesitate to do it she said i like that answer and i want you to be the one so he came and then after a while he convinced ramakrishna to also he became a priest there and then little by little many of their relatives or people from from their village nearby villages so redoi came from shihor not too far from komar pakur he was related ramallah the son of taqwa's brother so many of them were either either relatives or or friends known people in in those days in those villages uh they were all mixed villages in the sense that they would be people from different castes uh komar pakur was named after the blacksmith cast yeah so originally it was a black but every village would have to have at least one brahmin family because they would have to serve in the temples and and do a puja for others and everything so many of these villages will just have a few families like that that's why when they were searching for a bride for srama krishna uh there weren't that many uh options that there weren't too many brahmin families in the nearby villages uh jardimbati maybe there were one or two something like that and they kind of knew each other so tucker could say you're looking here and there that don't you know that she's waiting for me and joining bhatti she's been marked with a straw she's been kept in reserve so many of them who worked in the temple were liked it and many of them because they knew srama krishna were from that area and everything they thought was a big fuss about him so sometimes they had great respect for him sometimes they would bow down with great reverence before him and recognize his greatness other times they would wonder why do people come and spend so much time with him sometimes they would criticize the hazra he used to criticize the young boys because tucker didn't engage them in long hours of japan meditation and everything so the hazra was a bit of a character but takur liked all of them he saw their faults and their flaws and everything but he just kind of accepted it he knew who they were sometimes they would have great devotion other times not sometimes they would put him on a big show of doing their japa and he just took it all in stride but he would chat with them and they had a nice type of relationship so here hazard saluted the master reverently yeah this is good sometimes he did master i should like to visit ishwar chandra vidyasagar that was our last chapter with taco's visit with him a few times more the painter first draws the general outlines and then puts in the details and colors at his leisure so that means he wants to set a trap for him that little by little he'll he'll get him to understand that he needs to practice a little renunciation he needs to practice a little spiritual discipline that he needs to go inward a little bit to get his mind away from all these external things that he's doing the moulder first makes the image out of clay then plasters it then gives it a coat of white wash and last of all paints it with a brush all these steps must be taken successively so if taquer had gone the very first day and said no you have to give up all of this and turn your mind towards god it wouldn't have worked he said little by little he has to he has to convince him this step this step this step this step there's something called the arundhati you know that that at the time of marriage the the uh future husband is supposed to show the future bride this little star called very small and very hard to find so what what the uh future husband will do is he'll say you see the tree you see there's a branch there's some twigs there if you look directly above it you'll see a very bright star go a little bit over you'll see one a little bit lighter and go a little bit up that's it so this is how they'll point out something by showing something that can easily be understood a little bit obvious and then something a little more subtle a little more subtle until you've led them to a very subtle truth so this is a method that's used sometimes gita is used also so this is what he's talking about all these steps must be taken successively but the asagar is fully ready so that's why taku was took an interest in him he saw that he had tremendous potential the potential within for him to have some high realization because he was a very satwik person a good hearted kind person he's fully ready but his inner stuff is covered with a thin layer he is now engaged in doing good works but he doesn't know what is within himself god is hidden within him god dwells within us if one knows that one feels like giving up all activities and praying to god with the yearning soul so the master talked with them and now standing now pacing up and down the long veranda master a little spiritual discipline is necessary in order to know what lies within okay this is what we call an understatement a little spiritual discipline of course for most people there's many lifetimes of very hard spiritual work so the taqwa is being a little bit uh lenient here a little spiritual discipline is necessary in order to know what lies within of course m belong to the inner circle the antaranga circle sometimes we think the antaranga inner circle is just the direct disciples monastic disciples they of course belong to it but we have to say that am and balarambos and girish and iran probably and some others they also belong to that inner circle that means they're not ordinary devotees for them this awakening can come with a little spiritual practice but they've come into contact with srama krishna that'll in itself will be enough to awaken something so that's not the ordinary case so he says a little spiritual discipline is necessary in order to know what lies within m is it necessary to practice discipline all through life now obviously if one gets god realization then we don't have to but are there stages can we reach the point where we don't have to be so particular about time and place and all of that tucker talks about this very often these different stages master no so that means not just necessarily it's not necessary for everyone to practice discipline all through life it may be for most people it may be but not for everyone but one must be up and doing in the beginning so we shouldn't think that taqwa didn't emphasize self-effort he said so many times that you have to work very hard he talks about how hard the farmers work to bring water to the field and he gives so many different examples so he and and we see how he encouraged his monastic disciples how much spiritual discipline and practice they did even after having some realization at the touch of srama krishna even after that how much they how many long hours they would spend in solitude going to brindavan and benares and norwich all different places uh wandering on on foot baking their food and spending long hours in meditation uh even after having this this the highest realization so one must be up and doing in the beginning after that one need not work hard so that's like saying after we've climbed 99 rungs of the ladder to get to the roof then it's not too hard to climb the last one so we have we have to work pretty hard in the beginning now to give the the example of of the breeze of grace the helmsman stands up and clutches the rudder firmly as lo oh no this is no okay the helmsman stands up and clutches the rudder firmly as long as the boat is passing through waves storms high wind or around the curves of a river but he relaxes after steering through them as soon as the boat passes the curves and the helmsman feels a favorable wind he sits comfortably and just touches the rudder next he prepares to unfurl this the sail so this is that that minty and gets ready for a smoke so that means he doesn't have to do anything the wind with the wind itself will take it now this is what srama christian school calls us this is my favorite expression in the entire gospel anukul hawa just we can just picture this gentle breeze i remember so many times being in india before the monsoon season comes when it's burning hot and it's unbearable and everyone is praying when will the rains come when will the rains come and then i remember one time temperature probably dropped 30 degrees in an afternoon fahrenheit of course 30 degrees and you feel that breeze come and it's so cool and refreshing so this is anukul hawa so he says in spiritual life sometimes at some point this will come that we work as hard as we can and then something happens and everything becomes uh smooth and spontaneous and effortless this is that onuraga stage and the anukul hawa this this uh what is what is the he says this favorable breeze it's such a nice concept it's so something to just to dream about huh what do you think just to repeat those words it gives great hope that one day that'll happen and we'll just be carried along we won't have to do anything we just sit back picture when when the when the the sale is up and the breeze is directly behind us huh other times you have to tackle you have to go back and forth if you ever been on a sailboat and the breeze is the wind is coming from an angle you you can go this way and that way but if you if you have the sail straight up the wind won't catch it even if the wind is coming from the side directly from the side you can keep going forward by tacking back and forth if it's directly behind then it's full sail when you just put the sail up you don't have to steer even you can just tie it tie it up so you're going straight ahead and lean back nothing to do no effort so this is that that state of of shama after we've gone through karma the the karma karu gita says in the beginning that when we're trying to reach this plane then we have to work very hard after that we just sit back and relax that stage comes likewise the aspirin enjoys peace and calm after passing the waves and storms of now we get to our comedy conscience now i i spent a lot of time on this the very first session that we had and i'm sure that not everyone was was present for that so i'll just explain that literally and when you read the english version of the gospel it was translated as woman in gold which is a literal translation but it's confusing to people and of course nowadays it sounds uh a little misogynistic huh and and we certainly don't want any women to feel heard by this so let me just take a few minutes and try to explain again what tucker meant first of all this word comedy comedy actually there's there's no negative meaning to it there's no pejorative meaning to it those who are not familiar with it and know a little bit of sanskrit they'll think that this will mean lustful possessing comma lustful but for some reason in the feminine kami will be lustful in the masculine in the feminine somehow uh it means an attractive woman the lust is on the side of the man not on the side of the woman and this word comedy it's a name that's given that the the parents will give it to a daughter and very often if you read all of this go through the songs in the gospel very often it's applied to the divine mother herself comedy the second wife of gides ghosh after his first wife passed away her name was kailash comedy so comedy very often the the consort of shiva and and it just it just means that uh the the obstacle in spiritual life is that lustful attitude and a greedy attitude that's what the gold part is so uh this lust and greed and anger taco doesn't talk about anger so much but this uh these are the three in the gita that says these are the three gates to hell kamakura these these three things now why always woman why not man because he's talking to men when he talked to women he would say the same thing that beware that you don't get attached to some man that uh this this can be a great distraction in spiritual life and and we want to have an attachment to god not to any other type of human being so we shouldn't we shouldn't take this in the wrong way and this is why i always will say lust in gold when it says woman in gold because i was instructed by swami swahihi one time he said when in any public reading if you're doing doing these readings then say woman in gold there's no harm because this is just a translation anyhow it's not that we're changing the original wording or anything so he's talking about the storm that means in youth that lust is a very strong passion and greed for many people also and and pride and envy all of these so we can take this to mean all of the passions this this tremendous desire uh for wealth tremendous desire for for power and for name and fame all of these everyone will will have something that is more of a problem and more of an obstacle than others but talker emphasized these two some are born with the characteristics of the yogi but they should they too should be careful it is lust and gold alone that is the obstacle it makes them deviate from the path of yoga and drags them into worldliness perhaps they have some desire for enjoyment after fulfilling their desire they again direct their minds to god and thus recover their former state of mind fit for the practice of yoga now if we ever think that oh why do we feel lust if we ever think like that and we think though we must be terrible people we can remind ourselves that talker even told rachael his beloved disciple who was his own spiritual son he said go home have some fun with your wife sometime no harm for him and he had a child of course and am so many of them you think after am came to srama krishna he stopped having children i think he had three children afterwards so we we shouldn't take this as something uh that is particular to us we shouldn't feel guilty about it or anything but what taqwa is saying that if we want to uh realize these higher states then the mind has to be free from anything that pulls it away whether it's the desire for for power and money and name and fame or lust and gold any of these things that we have to be we have to have some control over the mind but he says after fulfilling their desire they can direct their minds to god this this is another very interesting thing uh we we had one of our great great swamis of our order and uh yeah we're getting towards the end uh gopesh miraj he was not just a disciple of holy mother but an attendant of holy mother he lived with her for a long time and he was considered to be one of the great saints of our order i met him twice and it was it was a wonderful experience yes you just felt a glow coming out from him and he was a very very thoughtful person uh i recommend to everyone uh if you if you do a search you youtube for swami swahinanda reminiscences and listen to his reminiscences of the swami uh sardasanandiji because he was very very close with him very much inspired by him he was the one swami that swami swansea turned to for advice and swami swanji says that he was unusual in that he looked at things from a different angle and he used to say even that those who have a fall sawtooths can also have a fall it'll happen sometimes that some lust will overcome in them and and they'll give into it and very often they're they're just kicked out and he was always even though he was a very very austere sadhu very austere and very strict with himself he would say that we have to understand that sometimes something like this may happen it may be just it will happen once they'll get rid of get it out of their system they'll come back they'll be a better sadhu afterwards very unusual very few of our of even our senior saudis will will uh have such a liberal attitude so this is what talk we're saying after fulfilling their desire so it says this rakhal perhaps he just had that one desire and the taqwa knew that they again direct their minds to god and thus recover their former state of mind fit for the practice of yoga then he says have you ever seen the spring trap for fish called the shotka call em no sir i haven't seen it this will be a village thing of course master they use it in our part of the country one end of a bamboo pole is fastened in the ground and the others bend over with a catch so that means it's on tension it can spring back from this end a line with the hook hangs over the water with bait tied to the hook when the fish swallows the bait suddenly the bamboo jumps up and regains its upright position so a type of trap he can even impale someone or something like that so he's saying that sometimes we'll we'll get some uh urge for something and and it'll bend us out of shape and that uh somehow we will we'll experience it we'll see it was a mistake this and that and we'll regain our earlier stature again take a pair of scales for example if a weight is placed on one side the lower needle moves away from the upper one the lower needle is the mind and the upper one god the meaning of the two is yoga so something is weighing us down this this attachment to the world is weighing us down to lust and gold and pride in all of the passions and everything that it's keeping us from attaining that state of yoga unless the mind becomes steady there cannot be yoga it is the wind of worldliness that always disturbs the mind which may be likened to a candle flame if that flame doesn't move at all then one is said to have attained yoga again a direct reference to the bhagavad-gita okay let it stop there and i will close with the chant [Music] [Music] we bow our heads before srirama krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship om shanti shanti shanti peace peace peace be unto all thank you everyone