Video 28

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna with Swami Atmajnanananda (10/16/20)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they're 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 swami krishna we are on the chapter the master and keshob they have been on a cruise this says october 27th 1882 keisha surprised surami krishna as he had done on other occasions uh by showing up at dakshinishwar they had a boat ready that had come from from kolkata going north and they picked them up and i think now they're headed back south the interesting thing about the situation on that day was that vijay krishna gosvami who along with others had split from keshev from the brahma-samaj and so that now there are two societies one led by keshav and one led by vijay krishna who were both very good friends before that uh that vijay happened to visit suramar krishna with some of the members of his brahma-samaj and they didn't want to give up the company of srama krishna even though they must have known that would be a little bit embarrassing for them to show up in the same boat with the queso but in any event without thinking too much it seems like uh they went right along with srama krishna and got on the boat the big steamer and they had a little picnic and takur of course was the main event he spoke the whole time it seems with a little break for some snacks and we're in the middle of this conversation at this point this is page 141 for those of you following along in the book in the middle of the page all rejoiced in the master's company and his words matthew decasio you don't look into people's natures before you make them your disciples and so they break away from you all men look alike to be sure but they have different natures some have an excess of sattva others in excess of rajas and still others in excess of thomas you must have noticed that the cakes known as all look alike but their contents are very different some contain condensed milk some coconut kernel and others mere boiled collage posts or laugh this was a a very important theme in the teachings of srama krishna and also very very important in the teachings of sri krishna in the bhagavad-gita we generally think that uh when we talk about that the nature of of an individual that we're talking about his or her divine nature we have a term for bhava so bhava will mean one's own nature one's own real nature we can say we all have the same swab we all have the same nature that is sachidananda or pure consciousness the divine self something like that but it's also used in a different sense if we if we look in the gita this term comes up many times and it becomes synonymous with another term nature refers to external nature sometimes but also to internal nature so we have a very nice verse uh in uh i don't remember chapter seven what chapter it is anyhow uh that says everyone acts according to their own nature uh that means particular nature individual nature then there's another verse this uh this is in chapter 18. very important verse that's where krishna says he says that arjuna is bound by his own nature he's actually bound by his karma born of his own nature swabahalogya by his karma born of his own nature and it says that which you don't want to do that you'll have to do in spite of yourself that your own nature will make you do it this theme comes up over and over again that we're not free to act the way we want to act even we we see much earlier when arjuna asked for krishna why do people do things that they shouldn't do even if they don't want to do and he says because they're rajis all the born of rajas so we we have this you can say a dual nature that we do have that divinity within that of course is the is the essential nature but subhava in gita it often refers to caste that each each chatria will have its own swab and all of the the forecasts that uh their nature is is described in terms of their subhava that some have the nature that means that the mind has a tendency and some scars and everything to some to serve some for a spiritual practice some for protecting people some for doing business there will be all different types of subhavas and sriram krishna used to tell keshav and some of the others that you have to look and see what the real swabhava or paraquradi nature of the person is it's not enough to simply say oh and god dwells within all beings that everyone is divine in in their real nature these things are true but when it comes to giving instruction and when it comes to understanding who has the capacity to experience something or to practice a particular path then the guru has to know the nature of the disciple that means not the divine nature guru knows that but has to know [Music] what the qualifications are and capabilities are and what the likes and dislikes are well we've spoken many times about this uruzhi and this hajjam shakti that the teacher has to know what appeals to the mind of the disciple and has to know what's good for the disciple what what type of food the disciple can digest so srama krishna is telling kesha that he he doesn't pay attention he doesn't look suramakrishna was very particular holy mother didn't look into the nature of the disciples because she was willing to accept them she knew it she knew who was qualified for what this and that but nothing disqualified them in her eyes sriracha krishna he was very particular with regard to those who we knew would be designated as his inner circle to those who had to carry his message it was his his mission was a little different that way so he's telling kesha and this all goes back to the split that took place because many of those who kesha brought in who were attracted to the brahma so much because of keshav were the very ones who left him so taka was trying to explain to him that this is the reason for that the in the background of of so much of the conversation here uh is this split between keshav and vijoy srirama krishna had a very very sophisticated mind he wasn't a country bumpkin we think he was so simple and everything but his mind was highly sophisticated and extremely subtle and it worked on all different levels and the whole time that he's giving these very general basic instructions that will be helpful for everyone he knows that there are few people who will understand it in a certain way and it will be more helpful for them so this is this is behind all of this a lot of what he's saying here will be specifically for keshav some of it specifically for keshav and vijay krishna together and some for all of them with this the the elephant in the room is this breakup is the split of the brahma-samaj that's the elephant in the room that they're not talking about uh saying very much about uh out loud at this point tucker of course makes a couple of little references to it but uh this is the the thing that nobody wants to uh one side to say to the other side uh you were disloyal why did you leave the other side say why did he break his vow doesn't it they're they're dancing around this issue a little bit surrounding christians very subtly bringing up and he's telling keshav so that the others will hear also it's very interesting so he says you don't look into people's nature before you make them your disciples and so they break away from you and here we don't know how many of course the majority will be keshob's followers but there may be a good number maybe i don't know half a dozen who knows how many came with the b joy that day who were members of the brahma-samaj general brahma-samaj was what kaiser's group was called and and or the brahma-samaj of india that was what keshav's group was called vijay's group was the other one yeah the keys of the group was the brahma-samaj of india or the naval bidhan the new dispensation and the shaddharan brahma-samad because they they considered themselves the the real lineage it was almost as if they kicked kesha about and made him start his own but he was the the real force behind it for all of those years many of them still respected keisha it was a kind of a thing of principle and who knows there are a lot of politics involved and we don't really know about then srama christianity continues do you know my attitude as for myself i eat drink and live happily kaidaya moja he liked these little things the rest the divine mother knows indeed there are three words that pricked my flesh guru master and father now he's kind of telling kesha that not only don't you really understand or look into the nature of individuals but uh you wanted to be a guru so now you're you you have to pay the price some will be good disciples some will be bad some will leave you these three words can be used for really someone who who really has tremendous power or can be the head of the family head of the household or it can be just someone who uh who's a business person or something but uh it indicates a high position of respect who is the quarter who is the master and father baba uh his father uh it doesn't really refer to the the fact that one has a child and one is a father baba is the term of respect used in the invasion of a tradition mostly so the babajis so people would come and say babaji with great respect he didn't like people to show there's a type of respect to him and with the guru he used to say i'm nobody's guru many people would would ask in initiation he says no i don't initiate anybody now of course he did but not in the normal way not in the ordinary way we don't find him uh doing a little puja and then repeating the mantra in the year of the disciple and giving some instruction his type of initiation was unique to him sometimes just some transference of power sometimes writing something on the tongue sometimes she would write in the tongue and repeat it we read this about kali swami abhirananda somebody headed on the rights did taco wrote something on my on my tongue and repeated it we assume it seems like they were beej mantras that he would do how they knew he was really writing something and how the guru will put his finger touch the tongue of the disciples also an odd thing this is the disciple will feel very shy and embarrassed that it becomes the anything that touches the tongue is defiled many of this is a tradition he did it for him although he did it for jeff not just the monastic disciples yeah yeah he would do this for some of the householders and we don't hear anything this is a really a mysterious subject because we find that yogin who talked with his disciple never received initiation and as if takur was saving him to be holy mother's first disciple yeah so yogananda and we read also he gave swami baden under some type of mantra or holy mother did and m m is also included there's there are some books that came out a few years ago this uh i forget what it's called four volumes by uh swami pornot uh maya podoprante i think and they give a list of all of her disciples or those who receive mantras from all of the different districts in in west bengal and east bengal at the time and and outside and we find em's name that we find swami badernanda's name and i don't remember trigonate maybe so his giving initiation was a very unusual type of thing possibly when he wrestled with with uh swami vignan when he wrestled with him that was his initiation some transfer of power took place at that time so there are different types somehow i don't know all these technical things some the highest type is you just directly transfer power you don't have to utter anything so taka really he knew that he was the guru he knew it it's not he wasn't foolish but when he was in a certain mood uh he didn't like people showing him that type of respect and it was a sign of little difference in everything he liked this simple intimate relationship and then this is the other point he says there is only one guru and that is sachidananda the guru who used to say guru getty that people take it up as a profession that many did it to earn a living now one thing is that there are things such as that are called family gurus and in the vaisnava tradition they're supposed to be family people the goswamis and he respected that so it wasn't it wasn't that that he was was against because they had no other means of livelihood they would have some disciples these disciples would give gifts every once in a while and make sure they had had enough to eat that was okay but others who did it yes they get a lot of gifts and presents and and feel puffed up and everything that that was what he was against so there's only one guru and that is sachidananda he alone is the teacher my attitude towards god is that of a child towards its mother so if he thought of himself as the guru at least momentarily he had to change his his natural way of thinking his swab his his is to be like a child he says so many times i have the nature of a child i look to worship god his mother one can get human gurus by the million all want to be teachers but who cares to be a disciple now there's a story that they tell that a young man goes to on a guru and says i'd like to become your disciple what do i have to do and he says you want to be my disciple then early morning you have to get up you have to collect firewood you have to make the fire then you have to get the food for cooking and cut all the vegetables and do all of that it goes on and on and on long long list of things and then he said okay what does the guru have to do yeah the guru will sit and do a little meditation in japan every once in a while give some instruction to the disciple so the the potential disciple starts to walk away and the guru says don't you want to be a disciple and he said after thinking about it i'd rather be a guru so this is what tucker is saying people would rather me guru they don't want to have to do all of these other things there's the other story and the other guru disciples story that the guru is calling the disciple it is time to bring water from my bath it's time to do this each time the disciple says please forgive me sir i'm doing my meditation now when i'm finished i'll come and then he says okay now time to do worship pick the flowers and please excuse me i'm doing my meditation when i'm done i'll come finally the guru says to the disciple and now i've done everything i fixed the mail it's time for you to come to eat so the disciple thinks to himself how many times can i go against the word of the guru and he got up and he went for his food so this is the type of disciple that that we find nowadays unfortunately really want to be teached so all want to be teachers but who cares to be a disciple that's the thing to be a disciple means to have a little humility and to care the guru disciple relationship is a little bit like the dossier bhava this relationship between the master and the servant also between father and son it's a very sweet close type of loving relationship also the effect in guru is almost like the mother to the son or mother to a daughter in guru relationship it is extremely difficult to teach others a man can teach only if god reveals himself to him and gives the command now when he says it's difficult to teach others he's talking about giving spiritual advice suited to that individual to give general spiritual advice based on scriptures uh uh people can do that those who are world verse in the scriptures but to have that insight and to know what's good for another human being and what particular instructions will really be helpful in the long run that takes a very deep type of spiritual vision insight and it comes as a result of illumination taco is very clear about that to have that to be that type of teacher that really can do some some spiritual good to a disciple is a rare thing it is extremely difficult to teach others a man can teach only if god reveals himself to him and gives the command so two things has to be a god realized soul and even after that tucker had this belief that some stamp of authority comes the divine mother herself will say okay you've had that realization and now is the time to uh to transmit whatever you've gained to others to give freely to others may not be for everyone there may be god relay souls that don't get that command or don't feel the pull to do that narada sugar deva and sages like them had such a command from god and shankura had it too we made wonder what does takwa think about shankaracharya we don't hear him mention is his name when we're talking about the avatars uh but we can see here that he considered him the same class whenever he spoke about the sukadeva especially sukadeva in his mind represented the highest class of a given mukta of a free of a free soul who lived in the world even then he questioned whether uh sukadeva had really uh plunged into the ocean of satchel or simply got to the shore or maybe drank a few drops we have that interesting conversation in another place also so he did have tremendous respect for shankaracharya and ramanuja also matua i don't recall ever seeing his name mentioned in the gospel of srama krishna no special reason i don't think there was much of a presence of the madhu school in bengal at that time perhaps he hadn't had contact with it at all but he never criticized the dualistic schools dwight and madhu of course was one of the most important teachers do you know how easily the people of kolkata get excited the milk and the kettle puffs up and boils as long as the fire burns underneath one of taquer's favorite things was to make fun of the people of calcutta he meant citified people it wasn't just calcutta it could have been any big city but he lived there and he and he knew these people of calcutta so do you know how easily the people of calcutta get excited the milk in the kettle puffs up and boils as long as the fire burns underneath take away the fuel and all becomes quiet the people of calcutta love sensations you may see them digging well at a certain place they say they want water but if they strike a stone they give up that place they begin at another place and there perhaps perchance they find sand they give up the second place too next they begin at a third and so it goes but it won't do if a man only imagines that he has god's command so takur now is uh is poking both keshav and everybody who all of his the so-called disciples huh he's making fun of them they're all calcutta people huh and he's telling keisha that first of all you don't look into the uh the depth see what what really these people are made of what what's their inner stuff is it just this this doll inside or is it some nice sweet meat or what is it condensed milk what is their inner stuff so he's kind of making fun of them that they'll take it up as a fad and tako very often would say about the brahmos homage that yeah movements like this they come and they go they come and they go so he's poking them a little bit and also keisha for not being able to recognize them that these are the type of people who they follow you one day they can just as easily leave you the next day over a small thing so he's getting it both of them he was a juggler giving these highest teachings and then also saying something for for everybody in the room but this was also something this this is called nishta nishta means that we have the highest type of devotion and dedication to the spiritual ideal and the spiritual path which we have taken up and and he uses this illustration in other places that we may say that each and every spiritual path is good that's fine but we have to have special devotion and dedication to our own spiritual path we may say that if you want to get water you can dig a well in in so many different places but unless we keep digging in the same place we won't get water and first if a little obstacle comes we hit some rock then we have to break up the rock there'll be obstacles in every path we try another place we hit sand if we keep moving around we won't get anywhere we'll never get water so this was this was uh his teaching about nishta it's very important we uh we respect and love every spiritual ideal but we have our own and we stick to that one he says that the daughter-in-law and the family will serve father-in-law mother-in-law aunts and uncles with great respect and devotion and everything but she has a special relationship with her husband she will serve him in a different way and it's only because of the relationship with her husband that she has this relationship with the husband's parents and brothers and sisters and everyone else in the family so because we love our chosen ideal we love our spiritual path we can respect all others but it doesn't mean we jump from one to another so he uses the same illustration in that sense also god does reveal himself to man and speak now this was almost one of the definitions that tucker gives of the vignani those who have realized god and have come back down again he says that the majority of people if they if they get to the top of the of the wall and they see the great joy in the other side they'll jump over they won't be they won't be world teachers those people but there will be a few that will come back why perhaps they've received some special command perhaps they have some special compassion in their hearts perhaps they're born for that purpose there can be different types of explanations but he says those who do come back they live in the world as viganis okay and he breaks this down into two main categories those who got to that highest state of realization through the path of knowledge and for them when they come back when they start climbing down from the roof then in order to live in the world they have to have a certain ego everyone if in order to live in the world and have a body and and to eat and drink and talk to people we have to some have some sense of i this that's what the ego means they have to think of themselves in a certain sense so he says the the gyanis like shankaracharya he uses him as the ideal example that they kept the ego of knowledge this is the ripe ego the ego of knowledge now he talks about caitanya deva and others that they kept the ego of devotion and the way he explains the state of vignana is that everything that was renounced as as unreal or separate from brahman is now seen to be a manifestation of brahman this is one thing and for the devotee everything will be the glory of the divine mother but he also says for the vignani the vigani sees god and god speaks to him or her speaks to him or her so this is this is one of the things that and he experienced these things this we can't explain in any logical way but he would hear the voice of the divine mother he was a mystic this is the best way we can explain it that his mind would just go off into a higher realm he was a true mystic that the mind could enter into regions that we are incapable of accessing they're just not available to us and in these these regions he could commune with the divine mother somehow and even the ordinary state of consciousness not that he would sit down and decide like we do i give it to talk on the sunday i'll have 10 pages of notes and taco didn't do it that way whatever came into his mind he felt was the divine mother telling him what to say next just as when they husk grain has paddy that one person will keep pushing it into the hole the other person will be working the whatever it is that goes up and down and scratching the pestle and each time it'll go a little whole and they'll have to keep putting more so he says that the divine mother keeps pushing it he never allows me to run out of things to say so so he says god does reveal himself to man and speak now i've mentioned before the bengali language it doesn't have uh this is this gender gender distinction with pronouns so in tucker's mind probably for him what he really means is god does reveal herself to man and speak because see this this shakti aspect of god was always the divine mother for him and that will be part of the shakti aspect of god only then may one receive his or her command how forceful are the words of such a teacher because they have that power behind it they can move mountains but mere lectures people will listen to them for a few days and then forget them they will never act upon mere words lecturing also became a fad in calcutta at that time and they could fill big halls even it was a fad in the united states also when swamiji went there not exactly a fad in the united states it was more of a natural thing but in india it was unusual for holy person to to print up an advertisement and put it in the paper that they'll be elected a certain time it was always small groups and any gurus will come and people will sit at their feet so it became a bit of a fad at that time uh of course the brahmos homage they that's the way they did it they would have actual lectures and and they would post things in their in their newspaper magazine and people would come so taku would laugh that why don't so many people come here we don't put up a signboard he knew that word in english signboard and then he said also we don't ask for subscription here there's no charge so people don't mind coming sometimes now who gave the example that he almost always gives about this this badge of authority whatever you want to call it the chaprasi at kamarpukur there is a small lake called the pukur certain people used to be foul with banks every day others there was no uh good system for for uh bathrooms and things in these villages people would try to find some place where there's a little water available to clean themselves and sometimes they would just do their business right there so this is what used to happen and because it was a little bit outside it wasn't right in the midst of all the houses and things certain people used to be foul with the banks every day others who came there in the morning to bathe would abuse the offenders loudly but next morning they would find the same thing the nuisance didn't stop or left the villagers finally informed the authorities about it a constable was sent who put up a notice on the bank which read commit no nuisance this will be of course under british rule so this will put the fear of into anybody who sees that they'll know that they can get a big fine or sent to jail or something like that so the villagers finally informed the authorities about it a constable was sent who put up a notice on the bank betrayed commit no nuisance they stopped the miscreants at once all left so they had a badge of authority the others who were saying uh we'll do this we'll do that they could left because they knew that nothing would happen but if it says that not just commit no nuisance but those who commit this nuisance will be fined and they can be imprisoned they can if they read that then they know that there's some force behind it it's not mere words that it can be done so they'll take it seriously to teach others one must have a badge of authority otherwise teaching becomes a mockery a man who is himself ignorant starts out to teach others like the blind leading the blind instead of doing good such teaching does harm after the realization of god one obtains an inner vision only then can one diagnose a person's spiritual malady and give instruction this is no joke we we know of cases we know of individuals who have gotten involved with the gurus and have gotten in trouble some uh their only relationship with them is through the internet and they're all given certain instructions it can be to do some pranayama it can be all sorts of different things that are not at all suited for them and they can have very strong adverse reactions so this is something very serious i haven't been to rishikesh in many years i went of course i think last time was probably 1996 and even then it was getting a bit crowded and everything but everything we hear and read about nowadays is that flooded with westerners and on every street corner there's a guru and getting as many disciples as they can and probably making a lot of money also and is not a very healthy situation for most of the those who go there they're they're sincere people and they'll get something probably out of it some may have adverse reactions so this is a very serious thing who who can set oneself up as a guru and in the ramakrishna mission tradition we're saved from this we're saved from this because only only in india only a handful of the president vice president and one or two trustees and then the heads of center the senior swamis and other centers can give initiation and generally will not think of themselves as guru the way other gurus do because we feel that taku himself is the real guru of our order and especially all we see with our senior swamis that they really have no feeling in guru that they're a conduit tucker's power that's at work and that they're just an instrument that way so this this pride of being in guru i mean it can come in our order also but not that we're free from that but to a large extent free from that so this is a little bit of kesha also that not only does kesha not only doesn't he look at the real nature of the disciples but he hasn't really realized god and he hasn't really gotten that badge of authority there's a third thing that talker hasn't mentioned here i don't know if he'll get to it this time but he had a very strong conviction that unless one renounces the world one wouldn't be qualified to be a spiritual teacher because much of the teaching has to do with renunciation and the disciple would think he's telling us to renounce but he himself is enjoying and he would tell the story about the doctor who had gore in his room and he told the patient you come back another day and he came back the next day and said now i want to give the second instruction don't take any guru and then his friend said why did you make him come all the way back he said the first day i had it in my room if he had seen that i had it there and i told him not to take it it wouldn't have left any impression so i had to remove all of it let him come back and then tell him so tako used to say that if in guru either if he does or it gives the appearance that he does enjoys worldly things in secret then who will listen to him if he tells them to renounce so he says after the realization of god one obtains an inner vision only then can one diagnose a person's spiritual malady and give instruction so this is exactly what he said keshav didn't do that he wasn't able to really see look inside and see the stuff of a person what they really needed so this is uh he's telling keisha it's your own fault it's your own fault that you wanted to be a guru okay and you either you didn't look into the nature of disciples you took anybody and everybody or you weren't capable you didn't have that spiritual insight to know who was what uh so this is what happened they ended up leaving you without the commission from god a man becomes vain he says to himself i am teaching people now just to give credit to kaiser he was a humble person when we think how many people could have swallowed that adulation from thousands of people even meeting the queen in england queen victoria for an indian in those days to meet the queen i don't know the circumstances behind it but they always point to that fact and to come back and to have so many people praise him for someone like that to end up going to sri ramakrishna practically illiterate a simple priest from a village priest who's in a temple outside of calcutta and to bow down on his feet and to look upon him really almost like a guru almost like in guru and then to give deference to him whenever they were together there were times when taku would go to a brahma meeting keshav would be speaking taco would walk in immediately he would stop he wouldn't finish whatever teaching he was giving and he would invite surami krishna so from that point of view he had tremendous humility there was no jealousy here that uh talk words come he should also sit and listen to me he didn't have that attitude at all and tucker loved him they they had a beautiful very sweet relationship this is actually a sign that kesha did have more of the spiritual insight than the others not to the extent that teshram krishna is to the standard that he's setting here but far more than any of the others we can see we can almost judge the brahmos based on what they thought of suramar krishna and bijay krishna goswami also a tremendous love for swami krishna we were reading the other day i think in the great master that whether he took initiation or considered him as a guru they're not very clear that there was somebody i forget where which some place where it seems he went in and took initiation and uh and then of course uh took sanyasin and he himself became a real spiritual teacher in guru so those two especially those two especially uh appreciated sriram krishna we join more from the point of view because he was more of a devotee and he accepted these things of divine incarnation avatar and everything so he could look upon sri ramakrishna that way kesha was more of an intellectual even then he saw the tremendous spiritual stature of srama krishna whether he said avatar or not is not very important without the commission from god a man becomes vain he says to himself i am teaching people this vanity comes from ignorance for only an ignorant person feels that he is the doer a man verily becomes liberated in life if he feels god is the doer he alone is doing everything i am doing nothing man suffering and where he's spring only from his persistent thought that he is the doer now this brings me to a topic that i mention all of the time this is one of my favorite songs and one of the songs that i think is most misunderstood the chocolate mariachi tara tomorrow this ram prasad song that says mother everything is done according to your will that people think that i do things but i really don't do anything and then it says that i am the mere instrument and you were the one who was using me that i'm just like a chariot you're the driver of the chariot uh i'm like a room and you're the one who dwells within the room i do as you make me do now uh what srama krishna is saying here and he's saying it i pretty strongly is that this is a sign of god realization this is not an attitude that we can take with our present strong bodybound and some scatter-bound ego that we have with this this identification with our personality and all of that we can't say i do as mother makes me do we do what we want to do it really is i am self-world it says mother itself world but he says uh the if we have the highest realizations one of the signs of the highest realization and is also one of the means to get that realization to get rid of this feeling that i am the doer so look at what he says a man verily becomes liberated in life if he feels god is the doer so we find many people will say that yes mother does everything but it doesn't mean anything for the next second i'm doing exactly exactly what i want to do and i want everyone to to think that it's a good thing and to praise me for it and everything else so he this is a sign of liberation and becomes liberated if he feels god is the doer he alone as i say should be she alone probably is doing everything i am doing nothing man sufferings and where he spring only from his persistent thought that he is the doer now this doesn't mean that we can't try to adopt this attitude we can't try to tell ourselves that uh this this i has no substance this this little ego that i think is doing everything that uh this is a misconception we we can try to understand that and and remind ourselves of that but at the same time know that most of the time what is making us do things our swab our lower nature why do i do things not because mother is making me do it because i have that tendency to do it why did i get angry did mother want me to get angry no that's my nature i easily get angry you you look at me the wrong way then i'll let you know about it can i say that ultimately of course mother alone exists ultimately of course that if this ego is unreal then she alone dwells within all beings but that's a long way off that's just talk yes it's just mere words it doesn't mean anything to us so we may like that song but we have to know that it will apply to us when we when we really can efface this ego and or this ego can really be fully identified with the child of the divine mother even then the child of the divine mother often will implore the mother for this or that and one its own way when that child really is not even there a child is just lying on the left the mother and says now you do whatever you want then then we can say it you people speak of doing good to the world now you people means the brahmos they were engaged in all sorts of reform movements with regard to it and good things talk were never criticized and they were good things this they didn't like the caste system they didn't like this fact that the widows couldn't get married again the child marriage or all sorts of things that there was a need for social reform at that time really this this started with rahm mohan roy he was the first one and even to the extent that in in those days i don't know how common but it wasn't uncommon this sati that a young woman husband dies generally they were young at the time that it was considered honorable for them to follow the dead husband on the funeral pyre now it was two things one it was honorable the second was they had no future they had no future their life would be miserable they can't get married again if they were child widows then they have no children to look after them in their old age they have to leave very very restricted lives these young girls can't wear any jewelry can't even wear a sari that has any color to it shave their head huh especially the brahmin widows even stricter so it was a very difficult type of life and they can't move about and have friends it's very very difficult some of them were even put in these in these homes these kind of astronomers for child widows and things there's a one of the movies that was done about this uh water huh you know that uh what is the name nayer i don't remember her name very good filmmaker and about the terrible plight this was i think in the in the 30s during gandhiji's time of the child widows and how they were abused and taken advantage of and everything so many of them would do this committed sati also because they felt they had no life left them but for the family sometimes it was a badge of honor or how pure my daughter is that she's willing to give up her life you marry a husband it's a husband not for this life only but for the next life and all of that type of stuff so the brahmos did some good i mean they had some worthwhile projects in mind but tucker always felt that they became obsessed with these things and that they did it to the exclusion of real sincere spiritual practice so this was his point he says you people speak of doing good to the world is the world such a small thing do we really think that we can change things we know that we can change small things but swamiji used to say it's like this chronic rheumatism that you have it in the elbow one day and then you get rid of the elbow shows up in the finger the next day it'll it'll move around or the curly tail of the dog tucker used to say that yeah you want to straighten out this world you take a dog that has a very curly tail you can pull it out and get rid of the tail you let go it goes right back again so it's the nature of the world that there'll be ups and downs good and bad that there'll be good people and bad people and everything don't think that you can change the whole world that doesn't mean we can do little individual good acts and that we can have some positive effects we have to do that for our own sake also as well as for others we only have to look at swamiji to know how much he he thought about sacrificing ourselves to help others and to raise society as much as possible within this world of maya but talkwar is emphasizing the other side because they've become almost obsessed with this reform work is the world such a small thing and who are you pray to do good to the world first realize god see him by means of spiritual discipline if he imparts power then you can do good to others otherwise not now the very strong statement most of us will say well then we're hopeless you want me to realize god first that's a full lifetime or many lifetimes of work so he taco usually starts out like that very high then he comes down a little so the brahma devotee because they'll be a little confused or upset or hesitant to accept this then sir we must give up our activities until we realize god so then we don't even have karma yoga which is this would at least tell us we can do these things in a spirit of dispassion or something don't tell us just uh go into a cave realize god then come back and do things master no why should you so he says must we give up our activities until we realize god no why should you now activities the brahma activities also mean what they called upasana it's not like they just did social service work that they did their their bhajans they're singing and they're chanting and listening to lectures and those things so he says no why should you you must engage in such activities as contemplation singing as praises and other daily devotions now the devotee is going to think that's not what i meant we have our families we have our jobs that's what i really mean brahma but what about our worldly duties duties associated with our earning money and so on so now i'm a christian as i say he's going to he's going to adjust it so that it's something that is doable for them master yes you can perform them too but only as much as you need for your livelihood don't on don't keep getting more and more entangled in the world and people do that that one thing i've seen so many times which i really don't understand is that people will have a nice living situation they'll have their friends they'll have their family everything and one either husband or wife gets a job offer in a different city maybe there's no way down to center or anything like that but it's a career move it disrupts everything they were happy before they they may have more work to do than they did they'll make a little more money and they'll be a little higher up but what's the gain huh they had plenty before they were perfectly happy but there's something in the psyche that says no we have to keep doing that so tako saying enough know when when you have enough don't get more and more entangled try to do the other try to lessen your entanglements so he says yes you can perform them too but only as much as you need for your livelihood he always said that have enough just to raise the family if there's any more give it in charity not to just keep how he criticized her who was a deputy magistrate made a very good salary and yet was running around trying to to get help from anybody and everybody to get this higher position that was more money and would have been more work and it would have been busier and more responsibilities at the same time so he says you can perform them but only as much as you need for your livelihood at the same time you must pray to god in solitude so this was of course we've seen this one of one of the main teachings go into solitude from time to time with tears in your eyes and other teaching that taqwa made it very easy for us if we can practice truthfulness for 12 years if we can weep for god for 24 hours one of the two we can realize god in the kali yuga he says you should say to him or to the divine mother o god make my worldly duties fewer and fewer otherwise o lord i find that i forget thee when i'm involved in too many activities i may think i am doing unselfish work but it turns out to be selfish people who carry to excess the giving arms or the distributing of food among the poor fall victims to the desire of acquiring name and fame now he'll always mention shambhu malik shambhu malik was a devotee whether he was what we would call a disciple of srama krishna we don't really know but takur designated him as one of the suppliers of his needs he played an important role in this leelah he lived nearby walking distance he lived just on induction for itself once talked about establishing hospitals dispensaries and schools making roads digging public reservoirs and so forth i said to him don't go out of your way to look for such works undertake only those works that present themselves to you and are of pressing necessity and those also in the spirit of detachment it is not good to become involved in many activities that makes one forget god come into the temple some perhaps spend their whole time in giving arms to the poor you go to these temples and you'll see outside of the temple will be long line there can be there can be a hundred i don't have any long line of very poor people sitting there with a little tin plate something and people of course this is years ago when when i went they would sometimes give one pisces two pisces three five by something like that and you could spend the whole time doing that someone would go straight to the temple and their way out would do it and so he's saying those if if they spend all of their time doing that when will they even get time to see anything coming to the temple some perhaps spend their whole time in giving alms to the poor they have no time to see the mother in the inner shrine laughter first of all manage somehow to see the image of the divine mother even by pushing through the crowd kalighat you have to push through the crowd kaligada i i'm convinced that i've actually gone around you have to go around before you see the image of divine mother without my feet touching the ground there's so many people pressing against you that you're going to hardly walk you just kind of get lifted and pushed around yeah not a spiritual thing my feet off the ground but just the tremendous crowd it's not easy to even to get around there first of all manage somehow to see the image of the divine mother even by pushing through the crowd then you may or may not give arms as you wish you may give to the poor to your hearts content if you feel that way work is only a means to the realization of god therefore i said to shambhu suppose god appears before you then will you ask him to build hospitals and dispensaries for you laughter a lover of god never says that he will rather say oh lord give me a place at thy lotus feet keep me always in my company give me sincere and pure love for thee we'll stop here taka will go on with his teachings about karma yoga and this is something that requires a little bit of understanding because swamiji emphasized it so much suramar krishna does not emphasize it so much but it has a slightly different meaning for him karma yoga he associated more with khan makanda and with the ritualism and i will get to that next time so we're stopping here on page 143 and we will close with our chat 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 peace peace peace be unto all thank you everyone and we will see you next friday night