Video 20

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna with Swami Atmajnanananda (08/14/20)

[Music] foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and remove all sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna it is october 16 1882 and they are at the dakshenishwar garden temple where uh suramar krishna stays and it's just at the time of october 16th okay so we're beginning on page 117 for those who want to follow in the book it was monday a few days before the durga puja festival of the divine mother i'm sure practically everyone knows for those who may not know this is probably the most important holy day on the calendar in bengal there may be some vaisnavas who will pick a different day or something but in general it's a very big function something like our christmas here because it's also a time when people uh they they give gifts and they visit friends and they dress up and do all sorts of things and everything so it's a big festival everyone gets off from work and schools are closed and everything it lasts for several days so it was monday a few days before the durga puja the festival festival of the divine mother srama krishna was in a very happy state of mind for narendra was with him our future swami vivekananda narendra had brought two or three young members of the brahma-samaj to the temple garden besides these rakal ramlal hazrah and m were with the master was also a member of the brahmos-samaj rock called came swami brahmananda rock called came to srama krishna uh earlier than then narendra swamy he came first uh they were friends from the brahmos homage they were also school boyfriends uh sorry because no it won't help because they they went to the same gymnasium i don't think they were in the same school necessarily but and their birthdays were just uh a couple of weeks apart they were the same age and everything uh so they they were friends from the brahma-samha also ram lal was sri ramakrishna's nephew he was the son of takur's second brother his eldest brother was ram kumar then the second brother was rameshwar and ram lal and lakshmi didi also who was a very close companion for holy mother later they were the son and daughter i don't know if there were other children but ram so ramlao was related to srama krishna as his nephew but taqwa's brothers were both quite a bit older so it's a very funny situation even fredoy was taco's nephew but they were the same age and romney so i don't know probably uh not much younger also and then will it younger brother ramallah's younger brother was shibu okay so he was much younger he came later he's the one yeah yeah okay and uh i all of the priests and many of the workers in the in the kali temple were either related to srama krishna or came from the nearby village some from shihor so this hazrah he was not related to roman krishna but they they all knew each other there were some connections they were all the scattered brahmin families from the nearby villages and things he plays an interesting role i may have mentioned about him last time but hazura used to criticize ramakrishna he was a little orthodox and and they thought of himself as a great gyani and he would criticize the young boys for not doing enough japan he always did jump in everything he had a little bit of renunciation when he was young i made some let me see if i can say anything about hazura so he came from the village a few miles uh to the west of uh takwo's village of komar pakura and srama krishna met him for the first time in fredoy's house in shihor and he had the wife and a son and a daughter and an elderly mother but uh and he also had a debt this was the other thing he was always talking big high stuff but he was always trying to earn money to and just by showing how holy he was so he would sit outside of taqwa's room and and tell his beads but he was a follower of the formless aspect and then he was a great friend of narendra yeah or narendra swamiji he made friends with all the people that no one else could could could spend time with he he had that that knack somehow he is interesting to see he became very close friends with gidis such a huge age difference between the two of them and his paratha so whenever taco would criticize him that he would defend him a little bit and uh so that which says pharmacy's nature that people who had some difficulty or some problem that other people didn't care for them he became friends so very often when we hear that swamiji left the room he would go sit and and have a smoke or chat with with a hazra they would talk about high things uh he was with the hazard at that time when they were talking about uh ashtavakra samhita and takwa came out and said oh what are you talking about and that's why i'm saying oh these are very high things you won't understand them then they were said we were laughing how can you say god has become the pod and god has become the the table in the chair and all of that and taco said oh and he got into some mood and he touched him his mom and he had all these experiences and it lasted for several days and after that he said ah now i understand what these rishis went through when they had that experience and how they could say that the brahman itself has become all this and and he also that's hazra and so and was there so now we have the renderer with two or three members of the brahmos homage and rakal ram lal hazra so those rama and hazrat were permanently staying there they were they were priests in the temples and m of course am is always there because he's recording it he's always there narendra had his midday mail with suramar krishna afterwards a temporary bed was made on the floor of the master's room so that the disciples might rest a while talkward's room was was kind of like a public area there was no no sense of privacy or anything like that talk ahead didn't have those ideas and i think uh in india in general the houses in in the west uh people aren't so quick to invite anybody and everybody to come and just throw down a mattress on the floor and sleep there and even unknown people but in taqwa's room very often the devotees would spend the night if it was very hot out they would go on the outside veranda or if they liked so they would so they would be all over and they had all sorts of mats and cushions and little things they would just spread on the floor so it's not really a bed it's calling it a bed maybe they'll just put a mat and put a sheet over it and a place for someone to lie down and take some rest so a mat was spread over which was placed a quilt covered with a white sheet a few cushions and pillows completed the simple bed like a child the master sat near narendra naat on the bed he talked with the devotees in great delight with the radiant smile lighting his face and his eyes fixed on narendra he was giving them various spiritual teachings interspersed interspersing these with incidents from his own life now this is uh takara had a balancing act here he's talking to so many different types it's mostly for narendra's sake because he is narendra is the one that tucker knows that he'll be the future sannyasi and will be his great follower and will will spread his teachings and everything so it's mostly for him but in the back of his mind he knows that m is also keeping notes of everything and then he's got his there who are mostly interested ram lao also plays an interesting role in all of this because after takwa's passing somehow swami brahmananda and and ramla had a very good friendship and ramallah was friendly with all of the disciples and he could sing and so they would invite him for things and sometimes he would sing some songs and things and uh but none of them none of them really appreciated trauma christians they were relatives and nearby villagers and everything so they say a prophet is never honored in his own land so it was something like that master after i had experienced samadhi i'm taking this to me and after his nirvikalpu samadhi with totapuri my mind craved intensely to hear only about god the reason i say that is that he had samadhi of all different types bhava samathi and everything before that but after that from kali temple onward one after another he engaged in sadhana so there was no time to go here and there he'll explain that how he would go and listen to the sacred texts and things so i'm taking this as after that period my mind craved intensely to hear only about god i would always search for places where they were reciting or explaining the sacred books such as the bhagavata the mahabharata and the atma ramayana i used to go to chris krishna kishore to hear him read the adhyatma ramayana we'll hear a little about this krishna kishore these were all the half devotees and maybe on some level disciples but all of those who came to srama krishna before his real disciples came and thakur so there was this whole group the vaisnava and others and then after that the brahmos came and then after that starting from mostly from 1881 a year before this with swami brahmananda and some others and then swamiji and everything so he was never fully satisfied he would pray to the divine mother mother please send me those pure souls who can really appreciate my words which meant her words and then he said and mother heard my prayer and gradually one by one they started to come but there's others vaisnava krishna kishore uh captain we'll read about the fat brahman there were several of them that tucker liked and they they enjoyed his company and and he went to all different places he didn't like to stay home he would visit when whenever there was a holy person or a pandit or as he says some recitation so this is why whenever people would say to takur how is it you know so much you don't read he knew how to read and write from his boyhood a little bit in fact he had a nice handwriting when he was young but later half forgot everything because he never kept it up never read any books so he always used to say it's true that i haven't read any books but how much i heard and this goes back to when he was really a young boy in komorpukura was one wealthy family in the village the laha family and they were very generous people they had set up uh a kind of guest house and and feeding place for any wandering sadhus because some somehow from the north uh this was kind of a a main path or some of them took this path on their way to puri so many soldiers would go many went to puri every year for the tariffs festival or other times so as a young boy he was talking taku was attracted very much to these sadhus so he would go and listen very intently because when they would get together they would discuss all these high spiritual things and and have readings and things like that so from that age it started and and then in the dark chinese war wherever he was uh he loved to listen to these recitations in in india at that time because there was no other form of entertainment either you had these dratras where they put in these plays these kind of country plays or you would have these people who were great uh masters of of reading from scripture interspersing it with the some commentary and adding songs to it huh yeah so taco used to love to that that was how he would enjoy himself past his time uh with with this type of spiritual company now he'll talk about this krishna kishore what tremendous faith krishna kishore had one swallowed rindavan he felt thirsty and went to a well near it he saw a man standing on being asked to draw a little water for him the man said i belong to a low caste sir you are a brahmin how can i draw water for you now though those of us who grew up uh uh in this country with uh no idea of how rigid the cast system was in those days i can't really appreciate what this story really means because uh whether one had any special animosity or or deep prejudice or whether they thought oh this is a dirty person this and that it was there was just such a strong taboo cultural so anything like this that would be almost impossible and if if people in their community found out about it they could be excommunicated now what does that mean excommunicated it means that even family members won't be able to dine with you for a while you won't be able to meet with other people have to pay a fine they were the little village groups holy mother used to have this done to her all the time and they'd have to pay some money and this and that so it's a little bit uh what took place in this country really uh especially in the south where uh people of color african americans mostly would not be able to even drink water from the same water fountain huh yeah so there would be or bathrooms they couldn't use the same bathroom so we want colors only it would say like that so something like that only without this this real hatred for these outcasts in some some cases perhaps but anyhow the man said i belong to a low caste sir you were a brahmin how can i draw water for you krishna kishore said take the name of shiva so this is not meant to show any cash prejudice it's meant to show his his faith in the divine name by repeating his holy name you will make yourself pure the low caste man did as he was told and krishna kishore orthodox brahman that he was drank that water what tremendous faith once a holy man came to the bank of the ganges and lived near the bathing guard at adiada not far from dakshineshwar we thought of paying him a visit i said to holladhadi okay khalid hadi who is holiday another relative yeah this is this is related i'll tell you you can explain it to me because i don't know what this term means but he was actually related to the father to talk with his father [Music] what is the meaning of it the one who has the plow yeah okay so this was uh tucker's kullo that brata what does that mean so is his father's younger brother something like that but they call him a cousin cousin but he's really an uncle no no uncle's son uncle son oh okay so uh okay so he's another cousin he's another cousin so we have uh we have holiday and ram there both relatives then we have just from the village and redoi who's also a nephew but of the same age okay so uh let's not lose our train of thought i said to holladay krishna kishore and i are going to see a holy man will you come with us replied what is the use of seeing a mere human body which is no better than a cage of clay so halidhari and hazra were similar that they would both consider themselves great ghani's big vedantist who had a higher understanding of everything was a student of the gita and vedanta philosophy and therefore referred to the holy man as a mere cage of clay i repeated this to krishna kishore with great anger he said how impudent of a dhari to make such a remark how can he ridicule as a cage of clay the body of a man who constantly thinks of god who meditates on rama and has renounced all for the sake of the lord doesn't he know that such a man is the embodiment of spirit he was so upset by holiday's remarks that he would turn his face away from him whenever he met him in the temple garden and stopped speaking to him once krsnakishore asked me see they were all orthodox that meant that they kept to a lot of the brahminical customs and things so once he asked me talk were speaking why have you cast off the sacred thread now i don't know did taka wear it later but during the time of his sadhana not only sacred thread was his wearing cloth he would take off uh and used to get angry and also he used to criticize him this is the sign of our culture and heritage we belong to brahmin family how can you remove it it's not supposed to be removed and takur used to say that pride of birth and cast is one of the fetters when calling on mother how can i have this sign of of my high birth so he had a very beautiful answer for that that's why he took it off maybe after his sannyasi he took it off forever i don't know i never thought about it in his picture of course we don't see any sacred thread there so possibly after sanyasan sanyasi part of the sanyash ceremony is you you consign the sacred thread to the fire and don't wear it anymore because it's a sign of again a role in society sanyasin is outside of society so once krishna kishore asked me why have you cast off the sacred thread in those days of god vision i felt as if i were passing through the great storm of ashwin this was a cyclone of 1864. and everything had blown away from me no trace of my old self was left i lost all consciousness of the world i could hardly keep my cloth on my body not to speak of the sacred thread so did it just fall off we don't know it gets wrapped around and not so easy to fall off it's loose yeah i wore the sacred thread for four years this is when when we take brahmacharya valves we become brahmins i use a four-year brahmin because we get sacred threat and gayatri and have to repeat gayatri for four years that way and then during this sunday ceremony it's taken off yeah it it gets worn out some with the gayatri they'll hold it and use that as part of the keeping count and other things and sometimes there are many many brahmin widows in order to make a little money they'll make these sacred threads and it's complicated and they're different types with so many strands and knots and everything in it yeah so maybe it just got worn out and fell off who knows i said to krishna kishore ah you will understand if you ever happen to be as intoxicated with god as i was and it actually came to pass he too passed through a god intoxicated state when he would repeat only the word om and shut himself up alone in his room his relatives thought he was actually mad and called in a physician the same thing that happened with takur they thought that he was mad not the word came to see him krishna kishore said to the physician cure me sir of my malady if you please but not of my om all left one day i went to see him and found him in a pensive mood when i asked him about it he said the tax collector was here he threatened to just to dispose of my brass pots my cups and my few utensils if i didn't pay the tax so i'm worried i said srama krishna speaking but why should you worry about it let him take away your pots and pans let him arrest your body even he's teasing him now because he also had some high vedantic ideas how will that affect you for your nature is that of car consensus it's akasha akasha it means space that means that he was saying just like space has nothing within it perfectly pure and clean and clear nothing it can get attached to it that this is an example of of brahman that so your nature is that of a pure infinite absolute space reality so for your nature is that caught narendra and the others left he used to say to me that he was the spirit all pervading as the sky akasha sky your space he uh had got that idea from the adiadma ramayana the with a much later text than the ramayana it takes the ramayana story and and puts everything in very high spiritual language and and uh very strictly a dwaytic type of text taco was very fond of it but he didn't recommend it much for for the householders this was one of the few times when the m didn't listen to him because at the end we'll see em is having a conversation with uh narendra and they're talking about different stories and and the portions from this and m seemed to be very aware of it and liked it and liked these things taku didn't forbid it but he didn't encourage it so much therefore i said i said to him that day with the smile you were called taxes cannot move you in that state of god intoxication i used to speak out my mind to all yeah takur was very he was very strange in those days to people he he tells how he would just show up sometimes with these other sadhus and would just start eating and wouldn't look at them and wouldn't wait for brahmarpanam or anything like that and everyone thought who is this person i used to speak out my mind to all i was no respecter of persons even the men of position i was not afraid to speak the truth one day jatindra came to the garden of jadu malik now there's a footnote a titled aristocrat of calcutta but i think this is one of the tagore family so all of them are uh jochendarnath rabindranath so all these they all had shared that same type of surrender not all of them so you can recognize them that way so takur met many of the family members of course he went to uh to te bender not house with mata babu that will come later a very embarrassing situation not no that not so embarrassing but uh anyhow he went other places with mathur so came to the garden of jadu malik now jadu malik is another important figure malik i don't know if the house is there or if anybody visits but it was just outside of the southern gate of the dakshinishwara temple garden i never asked about it i don't know why because a very important place taco went many many times takwa went with narendra on third visit third or fourth visit and no one was there uh taqwa was so well known to the family that the uh the gatekeepers the molly was very wealthy he had a lot of gatekeepers and servants that they would let taqwa come and go whenever he wanted to so he went there it's a very important occasion because uh this is when uh narendra said i am not going to let this old man touch me again and and and give me some funny experience and he said no sonar had he thought that then truman krishna leaned and touched him and he lost all consciousness and this was the time when takwa asked narendra all of the questions about past lives future births what his mission was how long he would live all these different questions and and narendra in that really unconscious state somehow he could answer and takur said afterwards that i saw that all of this answer tallied with all of my with my earlier visions and understanding of who he was this is one of the reasons why taku was so convinced that narendra was the the one who had a special role to play not just ishwara koti but really his most important companion this was also where taka had his vision of christ in jadha malik's house yeah uh jadu malik had a painting of mother mary holding the young christ and baby jesus in her arms and this was a period when taqwa was interested in christianity they used to read to him from the bible and he went there and he had the division light coming out and so it's a very important place for many reasons so this was at one time when taku was visiting malik and jyotindra who all these wealthy people knew each other the high society in calcutta so he had come to visit also so i was there too i asked him what is the duty of man isn't it our duty to think of god taco was always testing people he wanted to see what level of spirituality they had jatindra replied we are worldly people how is it possible for us to achieve liberation even king yudhisthira had to have a vision of hell this made me very angry i said to him see we think divine incarnation sure i'm a christian he can't get angry huh not true some sometimes not angry angry but they would say between angry and annoyed somewhere between angry and annoyed not really he wouldn't lose his temper exactly but he would be disgusted by a certain type of answer so something like that what sort of man are you of all the incidents in judiciary's life you remember only his seeing hell you don't remember his truthfulness his forbearance his patience his discrimination his dispassion his devotion to god i was about to say many more things when hridoy stopped my mouth he was constantly with him taqwa didn't go anywhere without him because in those days he could go into samadhi he could fall anything could happen he needed a constant companion most of his life actually he did after coming to the chinatown i was about to say many more things when hridoy stopped my mouth after a little while jetinder left the place saying he had some other business to attend to we'll find that on different occasions huh there's another time later when this paratop mujum dart brahmos remember is there and takwa starts talking about how people have their attachments to worldly life they're constantly praising their family members this and that and then this prototype says oh excuse me sir it's time for me to go so so they didn't want to be rude and they wouldn't argue with him but they would just leave now remember taqwa is telling all of this to to nurendra and to m and the others so he has a reason he could be talking about anything reason for telling all of these things many days later i went with captain to see raja shorendra tagore so this is another member of the tagore family and raja this is there's a footnote this was a title conferred on him he wasn't really a king conferred on him by the government of india the word raja really means ruler of a kingdom as soon as i met him i said i can't address you with raja or by any such title for i should be telling a lie he talked to me a few minutes but even so our conversation was interrupted by the frequent visits of europeans and others probably british but he says european a man of rajestic temperament yeah they all they were wealthy people it was very hard to be a wealthy person and not want to have a nice house and nice furniture and nice clothes and all of these things so they were all like that little a man of roger sick temperament was naturally busy with many things jotindra so now we're finding is the is his eldest brother so he's the the eldest brother these are all brothers of uh of uh rabindra not yeah and one of course was a great artist yeah they were all the talented people well they're not of course you know talented uh uh no noble laureate uh the poet and uh this uh there was a whole school of of painting that was founded by the other brother yeah to work so tinder his eldest brother had been told of my coming but he sent word that he had a pain in his throat and couldn't go out so he made some excuse takwa knew it one day in that state of divine intoxication i went to the bathing god on the ganges at baranagur there i saw jaya repeating the name of god i don't know who he was another well-known person in calcutta at that time probably but his mind was on something else i went up and slapped him twice on the cheeks this isn't the the real time we'll get to that now with ronnie rashmani at one time anirushman he was staying in the temple garden she came to the shrine of the divine mother as she frequently did when i worshipped kali and asked me to sing a song or two on this occasion while i was singing i noticed she was sorting the flowers for the worship absent-mindedly she was actually thinking of some lawsuit at the time and taco could see what was in a person's mind and once i slapped her on the cheeks she became quite embarrassed and sat there with folded hands this was not that she became embarrassed but everyone knew about it because this uh you're right in the middle of the big temple compound with other priests there and people there and everything and all of the other priests now there are many priests who we have we haven't mentioned their names it won't be taqwa's relatives or those no there were others there i don't know how many because there were so many temples and they had assistant priests and helpers and those who were dressed that can take clothes and all sorts of different things fix the food and arrangement none of them like srama krishna and they were all jealous of him because they thought that he had matur babu in the palm of his hand he could get him to do whatever he wanted and they also wanted to have a wealthy man in the palm of their head so they'll look for any excuse to get him in trouble so they reported these things they reported it it had to go to rani rashmani into mathur babu and everything that oh you did you're a young priest uh this the choto bhattacharjee this young priest he slapped the ronnie she of course was the very wealthy very important uh very highly regarded and respected she was the founder of the whole temple she was the she ran the whole show she did it through mature mature with her son-in-law but they thought nah now we have him that as soon as mata babu hears that his his highly regarded respected mother-in-law was slapped by the young priest then he'll be asked to leave like that mature said and and ronnie also she understood he was right so no matter what happened uh some one time talkworld took the food meant for the offering gave it to a cat so they reported it all it is they would report it and he would always say let it let the young monk do whatever he wants don't say a word we know who he is who is nature and his real devotion and everything so he was always you saved on many occasions otherwise slapping somebody like ronnie if any other priest had done it they would have cut off his head he would have would have had it alarmed at the state of mind myself i said to my cousin just see my nature how can i get rid of it after praying to the divine mother for some time with great yearning i was able to shake off this habit tucker mentions another time this truthfulness that he felt it became kind of a mania an obsession with him and he also prayed me to become a little bit less so he would say it towards the end of his life and now it's not so much it used to be the smallest little thing if he said he had to answer the call of nature and then didn't feel like it anymore he would go there anyhow and then come back so he said now it's lessened a little bit so he himself recognized that it's not going to be too fanatical with these things when one gets into such a state of mind one doesn't enjoy any conversation but that about god i used to weep when i heard people talk about worldly matters when i accompanied matur babu on a pilgrimage this was a very long pilgrimage that there was something like a 100 people who were there they had to get several cars attached to a train to an engine that could be uh uncoupled whenever they wanted and they would all get up because so many servants were there and cooks and everything and members the family tucker of course and they visited many holy places the main thing was was the benares but this was also when takur he saw that there was a famine it was i think with the chantals somewhere in the video not near dejar and takur sat down with them and said these people are starving they have nothing to eat they can barely clothe themselves he said mature you have to at least feed them give them a good meal give them some cloth do something for these poor people and matu said we we have a long way to go we have so many people to look after so many expenses taco said good then go without me so then mother said oh no then then he he made all the arrangements for that so this was a long very important pilgrimage must be the same time when he was in brindavan when he was with gangamayi there were two were there two different pilgrimages or just one any other many stories from from the pilgrimage period talker talks about all these one nice thing we have so many so much information about srama krishna because he liked to reminisce he liked to tell stories of his own life for the benefit of his disciples because he himself was the best example of his teachings and he wanted them to to feel this familiarity with him this intimacy and closeness with him so he himself tells all of these stories this was in vrndaban there was a elderly woman who was a grade i you could say almost the version of a saint and she looked upon triamine krishna as a gopala and they had this relationship and taku said that they would stay together in the same room she would look after him he would look after her they would hold on and everything was arranged he was really willing to do it and then i don't know he does i think friday said but remember your old mother is back there at dakshin and immediately he said yes and gave up that idea anyhow so this was on that this is a pilgrimage he said when i come when i accompanied matar babu in a pilgrimage we spent a few days in banara said raja babu's house i don't know who this is they he had all these business connections they are all wealthy people one day i was seated in the drawing room with mature babu raja babu and others now what will they talk about they'll talk about their properties they were all landlords how hard it is to collect money from this place and how we have to pay taxes all of these worldly things hearing them talk about various worldly things such as their business losses and so forth i wept bitterly and said to the divine mother mother where have you brought me i was much better off in the temple garden at dakshin ishwar here i am in a place where i must hear about lust and gold but at dakchineshwar i could avoid it now this pilgrimage to varanasi was also very important because takur had so many visions here when he first got there you know there's some this kashi there's some idea there's the city of gold and tucker felt that and he felt that every foot of ground square foot of ground was so sacred that he would have to go to the uh outside the city limits or the other side of the river to answer the call of nature so he would he would see things so tangibly that way and then of course he had that tremendous vision at the money carnica uh burning god the belief is that anyone who dies and in varanasi will detain liberation and this money carnica burning god is the most important place this is for centuries centuries there are at least three or four different bodies being burned at the same time so that there's never a time when there's not one body being burnt it's been continuous through centuries so takwa said that he had a vision when he was there about how this liberation took place and he saw that the divine mother herself would unlock the the chains and she himself would whisper is the mantra i don't know if it was but it don't jerry montreux or anything but some the salvation monitored into the air of the dead person and that's how they would get liberation what is that do you know what that month is oh just the name the name of rama oh where is that written is that written okay i don't think it's in the great master is it no and how things that aren't in the great master are not always reliable and he'll do okay yeah let me see that that'll be interesting the master asked the devotees especially narendra to rest a while and he himself laid down on the smaller couch smaller couch it's not a couch this is the cot this is the there were two wooden beds in taquer's room one the larger one in the closer to the western wall and then next to that a little bit lower and that's where taco used to sit when he would converse with the devotees other devices would even sit on the cot with them sometimes late in the afternoon narendra sang lottu okay now we're reading lattu for the first time latu was an orphan boy now orphan in india doesn't always mean that a mother and father had both died it can mean that they were too poor or one died or the child had to live with a relative or something like that so i don't know if both parents died or not but he he lived with his uncle they both died he lived with his uncle and they were poor nobody knows much about the family but they were very poor so the uncle went to calcutta to look for work and took this young lattu with him and ended up working for ram chandra datta taku was a great disciple householder disciple and gradually this latte this young boy he started running errands because uh ram used to send supplies and things to dakshinishwar for srama krishna and the more latu went there the more he fell in love with srama krishna and the more surrounding christians love this young boy so eventually he asked this ram yeah you and give him to me let him stay with me so he was one of the first of the future monastic disciples later of course became swami at bhutan uh to stay permanently at dakshin ishwar and he did a lot of service for a holy mother he would help her make chapatis mix the dough and all of that knead the dough and with one of the very few who had that intimate connection with holy mother so she didn't remain veiled in front of him the elder gopal who became swami advaitananda because he was so much older and we called hilatu was so much younger i've both had that rare privilege even shahrukh maharaj swami sharnanda who served her so much she remained veiled in front of him even in jaidenbati generally and there the tradition was that when the woman went back to her own village she would be free there that's why she loved to be injured but she didn't have to remain veiled but sometimes if these babus came from calcutta again she would veil herself or even in this case some of the the disciples so raka latu it must be the same one who met swamiji years later in elmora and we also have recorded conversations with him in the complete works it's just before the conversations with uh chandra chakraborty no no this is the no what is it i think it's anyhow this is his brahma friend they were present the singing was accompanied by the drum meditate on my mind on the lord hadi the stainless one pure spirit through and through how peerless is the light that in him shines how soul bewitching is his wondrous form how dear is he to all his devotees after this song narendra sang most of the songs that narendra sang when he first came to srama krishna were brahmos songs because he was a member of the of the the choir of course whatever they're the brahma-samaj he sang with them uh they had their own songbook this brahmod uh samhita what is it called anyhow it has all even that's available now yeah i don't know if we don't sell it but with the copies of it the uh so those those were the songs he knew uh he must have known many others but after communist ramakrishna then we'll find that he had such a brilliant memory i don't know how he could memorize these songs so quickly and taqwa also without reading any of them how many songs he knew all of the ram prasad kamalakantha songs so many of this uh these vice number songs vidya pati channeling that all of these these songs he had all of them committed to memory of course he heard kirtan so many times but still a tremendous memory swamiji also oh when will dawn for me that day of blessedness when he who is all good all beauty and all truth will light the inmost shrine of my heart when shall i sink at last ever beholding him into that ocean of delight lord as infinite wisdom thou shalt enter my soul and my unquiet mind made speechless by thy sight will find the haven at thy feet in my heart's firmament oh lord thou wilt arise as blissful immortality and as when the chacora beholds the rising moon it sports about for very joy so too shall i be filled with heavenly happiness when thou appearest unto me thou one without a second all peace the king of kings at thy beloved feet i shall renounce my life and so at last shall gain life's goal i shall enjoy the bliss of heaven while yet on earth where else is the bone so rare bestowed then shall i see thy glory pure and untouched by stain as darkness flees from light so will my darkest sins desert me at thy dawn's approach kindle in me o lord the blazing fire of faith to be the pole star of my life o sucker of the weak fulfill my one desire then shall i bathe both day and night in the boundless bliss of thy love and utterly forget myself o lord attaining thee narendra sang again with the beaming face chant the sweet name of god till in your heart the nectar overflows drink of it ceaselessly and share it with all if ever your heart runs dry parched by the flames of worldly desire chant the sweet name of god and heavenly love will moisten your arid soul be sure o mind you never forget to chant his holy name when danger stares in your face call on him your father's comp your father compassionate with his name's thunder snap the fetters of sin come let us fulfill our hearts desires by drinking deep of everlasting joy made one with him in love's pure ecstasy now narendra and the devotees began to sing kirtan accompanied by the drum and symbols they moved round and round the master as they sang kirtan sometimes we have this feeling kirtan means that you're repeating something over and over and over again or that the the one will the the main singer will will sing it and then after that you'll re repeat it again this is christian hardy christina but they did kirtan also with different songs it was could be either way most of the time they they're they're actually singing songs but the main thing is that uh they're they're playing the drum and with the symbol and they're standing up and they're dancing usually kirtan this became very very popular because of caitanya dale and they would do it on the street they would go out and but in taquer's room it's such a small area so all you can do is go in a circle so if they want to be dancing and moving that means something like this not other types of dancing so very often taco would be in the middle and he would be dancing like that and the others will be dancing around him this is the most common scene that we have with this type of of kirtan and many of the songs will be from this this chaitanya tradition not always but but very very often or stories of radha and krishna and everything and very ecstatic types of the highly devotional type of kirtan so now narendra and the devotees began to sing kirtan accompanied by the drama symbols they moved round and round the master as they sang immerse yourself for ever moral mind in him who was pure knowledge and pure bliss next they sang o when will dawn for me that day of blessedness when he who was all good all beauty and all truth will light the inmost shrine of my hearts yet generally this kirtan will be from the division of a tradition here these are mostly brahmos songs and during this period they said tara loki not sanyal he was the main a songwriter but very quickly to be taken over by that not so we have one or two songs here that tagore as we know him wrote but most of them he was just at that time he was born two years before swamiji so at this time with swamiji is 18 or 19 so he was just barely 20 something like 20 21 at the most and just starting to write two years they were two years apart yeah they were two years apart yeah because we celebrated the 150th two years before swamiji's at last narendra himself was playing on the drums swamiji could do everything he of course could sing he could play tabla tan porto of course if they sang they could generally play don buddha he could do everything he he came from a well-to-do family also they became very poor when his father died but before that he had all sorts of tutors and they had stables he learned horseback riding all sorts of different things so we had a very well-rounded type of education and father also was very well-rounded his father loved this persian poetry and things and hafez and others like horse families he likes hafiz so at last narendra himself was playing on the drums and he sang with the master full of joy with the beaming face chant the sweet name of god when the music was over srama in his arms a long time and said you have made us so happy today the floodgate of the master's heart was opened so wide that night that he could hardly contain himself for joy this was his dream huh the narendra and lotu and those others would start to come how he prayed for that every night he would go and and go up to the roof and call out mother where are they come by my young boys come i'm dying my my lips are parched beginning mouthed burning talking to worldly people day and night so he was so thrilled when they came intoxicated with divine love he paced along veranda north of his room now and then he could be heard talking to the divine mother suddenly he said in an excited voice what can you do to me was the master hinting that maya was helpless before him since he had since he had the divine mother for his support narendra m and priya were going to spend the night at the temple garden this pleased the master highly especially since narendra would be with him the holy mother who was living in the nahbat and just just a few dozen feed or guard something north of takwo's room where tucker's mother used to live also had prepared the supper surendra bore the greater part of the master's expenses the meal was ready and the plates were set out on the southeast veranda of the masters room we'll stop here and i'll say a little bit about surendra next week because he also these are all lila these are all playmates in this divine play they all had special roles to play the surrender plays a very very important role the the barana gurmat they used to say ah blessed surrender because he is the one who gave the money for it and yeah we'll talk about him a little bit more afterwards so we'll stop here we're in the middle of page 121 and we will close [Music] 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 peace peace peace be unto us thank you everyone and please stay well and we will see you next week