Video 29

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna with Swami Atmajnanananda (10/23/20)

[Music] 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 we are on page 143 if you'd like to follow along this is chapter five the master in keisha and the date is october 27 1882 so about half a year after the first visit of m to sramakrishna you'll remember that kesha and some members of the brahmos homage at least the the group that we're still following him that samaj had recently split uh had surprised suramar krishna they showed up there with the big steamship and invited him to come for an outing which they had done uh earlier and at the same time vijay krishna goswami who was a member of the other group of the brahma-samaj that had split over some misunderstanding chance to come to see srama krishna the same day and was in the room with him with some of the other members of the brahma-samaj so they all ended up on the ship together and asrama christian did his best to smooth things over because it was a little bit uncomfortable and embarrassing for both sides and keshav and vijay hadn't apparently hadn't really spoken to each other very much there were some hard feelings they of course worked hand in hand before that so this was this was the situation here and srirami krishna has been speaking to all of the brahmo devotees on both sides i'm sure the vast majority were a keshav's group but vijay also had some of his followers with him srama christian is talking about karma yoga now when we read the gospel of srama krishna we find that srama krishna doesn't seem to have a very high opinion of karma yoga and a little surprising especially since uh swami vivekananda emphasizes karma yoga so much one of his his the way they've at least divided the books from the from the great works one of his little books on karma yoga uh which is several lectures on the topic of karma yoga that have been assembled together uh very beautiful and very powerful the reason is that when trauma krishna talked about karma yoga he has a very different conception when he's speaking of karma yoga as a selfless work then they're on the same page but in his mind and probably this was something that was commonly understood at his time during his time karma yoga generally meant trying to follow the ritualistic portion of the vedas what's called the karma khanda and this will be the first samhita portion in the brahmana portion and it'll involve following a lot of rights and rituals and things which rami krishna thought were not easily followed during the present age so he starts with that he says karma yoga is very hard indeed he's been speaking mostly about bhakti yoga it's very hard indeed in the kali yuga it is extremely difficult to perform the rights enjoined in the scriptures so the rights enjoined in the scriptures as i say this will be mostly from the earlier portion the brahmana portion karma kanda it's called the earlier portion and not so much the in the upanishads we don't find these rights and rituals this is called kanda and this will be the path of knowledge the path of of devotion uh is something that uh really is more associated with what takwa calls the quranic ideal tucker had his own language for these things he would say according to vedanta and according to the puranas that generally meant according to the path of knowledge with anta and according to the path of devotion they the puranas he would use that terminology so he says in the kali yuga and why in the kali yuga that meant for swami krishna in the current age and he would often say life is short that people don't have the stamina that they're too materialistic he would say onogotopran this was an expression from some old sanskrit verse which i can never find that everyone's life is is based on on food that means generally materialistic in in nature that people uh didn't have the time or effort or stamina or capability of following all their rights and rituals that the ancient rishis could follow something like that so nowadays man's life is centered on food alone onogato prawn this was the expression he cannot perform many scriptural rites suppose a man is laid up with fever if you attempt to slow cure with the old-fashioned indigenous remedies kaviraji this says kind of naturopath you can say before long his life may be snuffed out now it's not that sram christian didn't like that and it's not that that he was so in favor of allopathic medicine this is the example that he used that nowadays when we need something a little a little more fast working he can't stand much delay nowadays the drastic degupta mixture is appropriate this was something that was obviously prevalent at that time it says a fever mixture containing a strong dose of quinine so de-gupped this fever mixture sometimes he used to say in the kali yuga the best way is bhakti-yoga the path of devotion singing the praises of the lord and prayer now remember he's talking to the brahmos now the brahmos i have a feeling that if you had asked them at that time were they followers of the path of knowledge of the path of devotion probably they would have said the path of knowledge but srama krishna never looked upon them as gyanis he always thought of them as a bhaktas partly because they did the devotional practices they like to sing these are devotional songs and they did address the lord in prayer in a personal way even though it was more the uh the brahman of the upanishads brahma samaj was really based on the teachings of the upanishads they wanted to popularize the teachings of the upanishads they didn't care too much for the deities either the old vedic deities or the modern hindu and deities they didn't care much for incarnations and these things they liked the ideas of the upanishads and this goes back to ram mohan roy rambo and roy was really the first one to introduce the study of the upanishads to the common run of people in bengal and no i just have this little cough it won't help and he was the first if if i remember correctly to translate uh the upanishads it was either kenupana or kathopanagen i don't remember in the bengali before that the upanishads were studied by pundits or at least those who knew sanskrit but for the general run of the people who only knew bengali they had no access so he was the one who really began to introduce that or rabindranath tagore's father they bender not he followed up with that and really was starting the adi brahma-samaj so that was very important to them but they combined this what they called upasana upasana in the upanishads was more a type of of contemplation or meditation they use the same term upasana they use the term acharya for their teachers they gave it more of a devotional meaning so it was a combination of the brahman of the upanishads with a little personal twist so that they could address and pray to brahman even though brahma was was formless they didn't like this idea of god with form and certainly didn't like any what they called image worship but saguna that is a god that could be prayed to and a god that could answer prayers and god with the qualities of love and kindness and compassion so taker always referred to them that way that's why his emphasis will be in bhakti yoga so much here he always taught according to what he felt were the needs of the of the listener uh very often he will say let me tell you something that will appeal to your spiritual attitude now sometimes he would do the opposite if he felt that there was a lack in their understanding if they needed a little a bit of guyana a little bit of karma then he would add that also so it's not that he was always telling people what they wanted to hear especially we see with those who were too one-sided or weren't liberal enough in their thinking he would always tell them yeah don't think that your path alone is right so a taker was an ideal teacher that way so the path of devotion alone is the religion of this age to the brahma devotees yours is also the path of devotion blessed you are indeed that you chant the name of ahadi and sing the divine mother's glories and i was very often said that takur is the one who gave the gift of the divine mother to the brahma-samaj before they came in contact with him the songs of the brahma-samaj were a little bit i just generalized the name of hari and at least in in bengal is not so much a name of vishnu or anything like that it's more of a generic name for god and they would use ibu initially they would just the oh god of the universe oh lord but taught them the sweetness of the name of of mother divine mother and especially in many of his songs he's the one who wrote that beautiful song oh mother make me mad with i love so talk were like that he's praising them for something that he himself gave to them blessed you are indeed that you chant in everybody and seeing the divine mother's glories i like your attitude now he's saying he likes their attitude but he also felt that there were many things that were missing in their attitude they didn't dive deep into things they were too concerned with the social reform and lots of other things but on this point he liked the fact that they weren't dry gyani's that they didn't have a beautiful song book and they had a choir and norendranat or he sang in the choir and so there are many things he did like he didn't like all their lecturing but many things he liked so he said i like your attitude you don't call the world a dream like the non-dualists okay now we know that takur seemed to divide the advaita vedanta into two separate ideas one is this idea that the individual soul is one with the supreme soul that he accepted he accepted that but with a little footnote that for the devotee likes to keep a little sense of separation a little feeling of i so we'll keep a little sense of ego to enjoy the relationship but the underlying that is just this ocean of oneness and everything ends in oneness he accepted that the second element of advaita vedanta according to shankaracharya at least not so much according to the upanishads doesn't necessarily follow from the first i i look upon them more as as two separate doctrines and that has to do with the the status of the external universe is it is it something false something illusory something like a dream and on this point takur had a very strong preference he never said that that idea is wrong but he had a strong preference for looking upon this world as the manifestation of the glory of the divine mother that fits in very well with this whole shock to philosophy that he liked so much so he says i like your attitude now remember for talk where everything was attitude this is this is how he differed he wasn't a philosopher he wasn't in acharya like shankaracharya and everything he wasn't trying to establish any philosophical system he liked all of the systems some he preferred because they gave more scope to a spiritual practice and devotion and fit in better with his world view so he said i like your attitude you don't call the world a dream like the non-dualists so that means the followers of shankar italian and others you were not brahmagyanis like them you were bhaktas lovers of god that you speak of him as a person is also good so as a person not uh with form not in the typical way of worshiping god as a shiva or durga or anything like that uh but actually more in the western style more as it's as it's done in uh islam in christianity and judaism that god has thought of as a kind of father figure usually so that you speak of him as a person is also good you are devotees you will certainly realize him if you call on him with sincerity and earnestness of course this is true for everyone according to taqwar that these were the key ingredients if we're sincere if we're earnest if we have longing for god now as far as i understand when they picked up suramar krishna and got on the boat that they had come from from south and had gone up as far as dakshinishwar and probably turned around and started going back southward towards uh towards calcutta at that time so the boat cast anchor at kayalaghat i don't know whether it is and the passengers prepare to disenpark so they all lived in in calcutta of course they all lived there and it was easy for them to get home that probably they they had the steamship anchored there so they were just taking it back where they got it and then everyone would go by carriage or however else they got back so the boat cast anchor had kaela got and the passengers prepared to disembark on coming outside they noticed that the full moon was up the trees the buildings and the boats and the ganges were made see they noticed this means i'm noticed of course well god bless em that he's there to record all of these things the trees the buildings and the boats and the ganges were bathed in its mellow light a carriage was hailed for the master and m and the few devotees got in with him so we're we're thinking i've been saying that the boat was full of brahmo members from keshob's group and from vijay's group but probably and was there so probably maybe one or two others who weren't associated with the brahmos who were just going to see suramar krishna they also could have been in the room and the talker always said that if i'm there you don't need any special invitation he told them the very first day i'm going to balaram bose's house you you go there they said but sir i'm a stranger they don't know he said just mention my name they'll be happy to have you come so it's quite possible that uh there were a good number of others it must have been a big steamship apparently it was it was one that was owned by the maharaja of kuch bihar whose son had recently married keisha's daughter and which was the reason for uh this split in the summary because she was a few months too young according to their age limit a carriage was hailed for the master and am and a few devotees got in with him the master asked for keshob presently the latter arrived and inquired about the arrangements made for the master's return to dakshinishwar then he bought low and took leave of srama krishna yeah and it was it was considered very impolite in those days still not to take leave of someone to formally uh go and in this case of course it'll be making pranam somehow but even a visitor at least you go and thank them for coming make sure that they have arrangements made to go back and all of those things the carriage drove through the european quarter of the city and the master enjoyed the site of the beautiful mansions on both sides of the well-lighted streets yeah i always wonder about this uh what percentage of the people of a kolkata at that time were british and they would have had their own quarters they they wouldn't have integrated into the city or any they would have had their own places to live i remember i don't know where it is somewhere i think in southern part of the city seeing a cemetery of course you won't find cemeteries for for the the local people for the hindus only for a christian cemetery and going in and seeing all the english names and most of them were very young most were very young those who would go on a civil servant or their children who had died there probably two reasons one is that they would have succumbed to many of the local diseases they didn't have any good immunity to those things and number two uh those who i lived who survived their years there probably went back to england they retired and went back and died in england so i remember seeing so many of them and young children died there so there must have been a nice large section i don't know where exactly somewhere probably around cholingy that park plays that air area a little bit that was uh the foreign quarters for the british quarters it's called the european quarter of the city but it'll be almost all british probably so the carriage drove through the european quarter of the city the master enjoyed the sight of the beautiful mansions on both sides of the well-lighted streets suddenly he said i am thirsty what's to be done nanda lal keshav's nephew so keisha had sent apparently had sent his nephew to draw to go into the carriage with srama krishna the very kind of him to make sure that he got back and there was no problem and then he would have returned in the carriage nundalal keshap's nephew stopped the carriage before the india club so the india club it would have been for the british it's called the india club but probably the indians weren't allowed and went upstairs to get some water the master inquired whether the glass had been well washed on being assured that it had been he drank the water i shouldn't say no indians probably those who were high up in the silver service and everything went there also as the carriage went along the master put his head out of the window and looked with childlike enjoyment at the people see this was this he's a village boy you have to remember growing up in a small village uh house so far from kolkata not distance wise but light years away from the kolkata to see all of these things the the dress that they had the music that they played [Music] their style of living their homes everything would have been just fascinating for him he looked with childlike enjoyment at the people the vehicles the horses and the streets all flooded with moonlight now and then he heard european ladies singing at the piano he was in a very happy mood the carriage arrived at the house of suresh mitra who was a great devotee of the master and whom he affectionately addressed affectionately as surendra he was not at home now the surest mitra plays a very important role it was actually at his house that srirama krishna made narendra swami vivekananda for the first time and what had happened if i remember correctly is that his house was in the same area the shimla district uh in those days outside of calcutta now really part of calcutta and arrangements had been made for someone to sing some and apparently that person got sick or couldn't come so somebody said well this this young boy narendra sings very well he would have been 18 or something at that time so called for him so he must have been known to the family and everything so they called and he sang some songs and srama krishna was impressed but it's not like he said oh this is my narendra this is my great the great sage nothing like that he was impressed enough to remember him and say come visit me sometime at dakshinishwar so this is one important thing the other thing is that he became a great devotee of srama krishna and was very generous and gave a lot of money for the kashipur when srama krishna was being treated for his illness and had some vision of taqwa or something that after he passed away that look these young boys have no place to go so he went to narendra and the others and said i used to give a certain amount for taqwa's care when he stayed in the kashipur you find a place all of you can live together and i'll also give money for that so that's without him would have been very hard for them to have been able to afford impossible the barana gurmat the first mod of the order another interesting thing was that uh for some reason in those days there was a fairly good number i i won't even guess the percentages or anything of of those who became addicted to alcohol and probably because the the british found it profitable to have what they would call grog shops and taverns and things to to sell alcohol and all throughout the city and this will be people who weren't accustomed to it and so we have gedich of course who became a big drinker and uh who else kali podegos he was a big drug and this is surrender or suresh mitra he also and through taco's grace they all became very saintly people tucker didn't mind these those who got drunk because uh they exhibited that that freedom and joy when they were drunk that uh somehow approximated this uh divine intoxication even those who who would take hemp in those days the taco would use these as illustrations of of course they're not comparable and we shouldn't try to to get that same type of joy that tucker had by drinking or anything like that but somehow he he could relate to them especially sometimes he would see drunkards on the street he would get out of the carriage and then sing and dance with him so he he had a little fondness for them but this suresh mitre and gadesh also both became great great devotees of srama krishna so the carriage arrived at the house of suresh mithra whenever takur went to kolkata he always tried to stop and visit some of the great devotees there and they all knew each other there was a whole circle so if he went to one place word would get out very quickly one would go to somebody's house and tell them they would go to somebody else's house and a group of nearby deputies would come and enjoy taco's company but surrender was not at home the members of the household opened a room on the ground floor for the master and his party so this is probably just all those uh that were in the carriage the cab fare was to be paid sirendra would have taken care of it had he been there now why kashup didn't pay for it in advance is a little surprising i i don't know what the standard procedure was in those days but generally could have been paid for in advance any help but it was common if they went to visit someone they would say has anyone paid for the the the carriage and if they said no then they they would do it so it wasn't so unusual the master said to a devotee why don't you ask the ladies to pay the fare they certainly know that their master visits us at thaksineshwar i am not a stranger to them all laugh narendra who lived in that quarter of the city was sent for in the meantime sri ramakrishna and the devotees were invited to the drawing room upstairs the floor of the room was covered with a carpet and a white sheet a few cushions were lying about on the wall hung an oiled painting especially painted for surendra in which srama krishna was pointing out to keshav the harmony of christianity islam buddhism hinduism and other religions on seeing the picture kesha had once said blessed is the man who conceived the idea i don't know where the original is but many copies have been made and i saw it first uh at the institute of culture they have a very large one it's a very nice idea taco was very fond of it very nicely done with i think bhutan christ and others are in the painting so this surrender had had gotten an artist and explained the whole concept exactly what he wanted that keshav is is prominent there srammy krishna is there and and obviously speaking to keshav about the harmony of religions sri ramakrishna was talking joyously with the devotees when narendra arrived this made the master doubly happy nurender had come about a year before or at least in the previous year during 1881 a year earlier than m this made the master doubly happy he said to his young disciple we had a boat trip with keshav today vijay and many other brahmo devotees were there now narendra knew about all of this this split and everything because he was a member of the brahma-samaj i don't think at this time that he was very much interested in in choosing sides he was very fond they were all very fond of keisha very much influenced by him but by this point he was uh pretty much enchanted with srama krishna still had his questions about him we know from the very beginning that he always questioned uh is is this a great saying or is this a madman or we have we were talking the other night they used this term monomaniac yeah what exactly it means i don't know but uh as much as narendra loved him still it took a long time before he could get over this idea that taku's visions were hallucinations he used to say and that taqwa still went to the kali temple even after so much realization well this is so but despite all of that he belonged to taku at this point so keshav and vijay they all would have been secondary and it seems like he remained on good terms probably most of them remained on good terms with with the both of them the very hardcore [Music] really there was a real serious split at that time when i say many of them these so so many of taqwa's direct disciples uh came through the brahma-samaj that's uh shashi and shattered swami shattering undead ramakrishnan and others so by the time the split came they were they were more disciples at that time or devotees of srama krishna pointing to m ask him what i said to keshav and vijay about the mother and daughter observing their religious fast on tuesdays each on their own account though the welfare of the one meant the welfare of the others trying to say that look they're both trying to do the same thing they're trying to uh inspire the followers of the brahmos homage to uh go deep in spiritual life have some some realization and also to not be indifferent to the ills of society to work for reforming society to stop uh child marriage and uh widowed reform education women so women's education so many good things also i also said dedication of the troublemakers like gertilla and kutila where necessary to lend zest to the play to him isn't that so m yes sir quite so it was laid surendra had not yet returned the master had to leave for the temple garden and the cab was brought for him so the uh the carriage that they had hired probably went that far and then everybody went back from there but he had to go much further north so they had a second one that probably took just him or maybe m also went uh and he will see it said the master oh sorry the master had to leave for the temple garden and the cab was brought for him em and narendra saluted him and took their leave so probably just tucker one on his own surrounding christian's carriage started for the chinese war through the moonlit streets okay this is the end of chapter five now the next chapter 6 this is october 28 1882 so we just finished so this is the very next day so we can start to see how frequently and would visit uh it was a friday when the when he went the day before and it was the day of lakshmi puja so friday would have been a holiday because of lakshmi puja and that's why they arranged for this trip probably and that means that the next day saturday and sunday so ann was free he would have been free probably although all three days and whenever he could he generally tried to go on weekends or if there was any break from school he would go sometimes if they had a half day he would go sometimes even a long lunch break he would go whenever he got a chance so this is the the master with the brahmo devotees part one now the last one was also with the brahma devotees but it's called the master and kisha see in the very early days uh m k and m came at the at the very end of this particular period this is a period when uh srama krishna spent a lot of time with the with the brahmo devotees uh unfortunately kesha passed away uh within a year or two of this and their role is not so prominent and then his own devotees started coming more so in the beginning we'll find the so many times that he's with the brahma devotees either they're coming to visit him at dakshinishwar or he was very often invited either to the to the hall brahma-samad hal for special celebrations or something or they would have these these semi-annual or occasional celebrations at home to different brahmo devotees and he would generally be invited to these also okay it was saturday remember october 28 1882 the semi-annual brahmo festival celebrated each autumn and spring was being held in many mata paul's beautiful garden house at sinti about three miles north of calcutta yeah so this is the area where many of the devotees that lived narendra swamiji's house is also in that area three miles north of calcutta so at that time it was really just the central part what's now central kolkata or even part of north calcutta was the main city these were all kind of suburbs they got incorporated now this will be part of calcutta and for wealthy people they would have a garden house so they would have their place in the city and then just outside the outskirts of the city at that time i guess this was considered the outskirts of the city they would have a garden house so it would be a nice house with a little property around it so they could go and the air would be fresh and they could enjoy that this uh we see this with ram chandra datta that during takur's lifetime towards the end that he purchased the property in kangachi and had his garden house there tucker stayed there many times it's called yoga dan and we have a big center there and surrender also had one very close to to that property so this was a common thing in those days for people who had enough money to afford it the house stood in a secluded place suited for contemplation trees laden with flowers artificial lakes with grassy banks and green arbors enhanced the beauty of the grounds just as the fleecy clouds were turning gold in the light of the setting sun the master arrived and while we said that he had a poetic nature that was a very good writer beautiful writer many devotees had attended the morning devotions and in the afternoon people from calcutta and the neighboring villages joined them shivanath the shivna shastri was one of the acharyas he wasn't uh quite at the level of of keshav and vijay but but maybe next after that and taka was very fond of him he he was and he wasn't he he appreciated srama krishna as far as he was able to but i certainly wasn't able to fully appreciate him the way taku's own people could that means he's his real disciples the direct disciples and always felt that yeah he's a wonderful person but a little bit simple and has some funny ideas and maybe he's a little bit uh he really does have a little bit of madness to him they used to use this term bay head there's somebody who's lost his head as a bay head the tucker by by spending too much time in meditation that he'd gone off his head a little bit so tucker used to tease him about that but takur loved him more than he should have i think i don't think that she explains because he didn't always say the nicest things about him didn't always come when he promised to come to visit him also that was the other fault that takwa noticed with him so shivanath the great brahma devotee whom the master loved dearly was one of the large gathering of members of the brahma-samaj who had been eagerly awaiting suramar krsna's arrival now am says eagerly awaiting i have a feeling that there were some members there who've probably wish that he didn't come that they were so devoted to keshav and keshav was was so respectful to sriami krishna that uh sometimes they probably thought things were better before and just my suspicion that because we know afterwards there was a lot of jealousy and uh they really wanted swamiji to come and uh perhaps even be the leader to take over for kesha and a lot of hard feelings when swamiji said he wasn't the least bit interested in anything like that so as much as things seemed to be so smooth and loving between them the members of the brahmos there was a little bit of jealousy there also and when we get to pratap majumdar tremendous jealousy and he was very cause caused great problems for swamiji in the west that's a different story okay when the carriage bringing the master and a few devotees reached the garden house the assembly stood up respectfully to receive him there was a sudden silence like that which comes when the curtain in a theater is about to be rung up people who had been conversing with one another now fixed their attention on the master serene face eager not to lose one word that might fall from his lips at the site of shivanath the master cried out joyously ah here is shivanath you see you are a deputy of god the very side of you gladdens my heart one hemp smoker feels very happy to meet another very often they embrace each other in an exuberance of joy the devotees burst out laughing master many people visit the temple garden at dakshineshwar if i see some among the visitors indifferent to god i say to them you would better sit over there or sometimes i say go and see the beautiful buildings laughter. now why is he saying this huh i have a slight feeling this is what i was saying before that there are some who probably are not so interested in hearing talk or speak and very often we get the feeling that they say we're supposed to start our worship now we've been doing it this way with our channing from the upanishads and everything let's get on with it a little bit so i just have a little slight feeling that this is why he's saying it let me read this again many people visit the temple garden at dakshineshwar if i see some among the visitors indifferent to god i say to them not that they're indifferent to god indifferent to him and of course that means that uh caring more for the reformed side of things and the formalities of things than than the real spiritual side i say to them you would better sit over there but sometimes i say go and see the beautiful buildings laughter sometimes i find that the devotees of god are accompanied by worthless people and now he's going to hit them a little but see how subtle he is he's not giving the slightest indication that he's talking about anybody in front of him that any of you are worthless people that you're not interested in hearing me talk about god anything like that he's being very very subtle but he doesn't say things for no reason sometimes i find that the devotees of god are accompanied by worthless people their companions are immersed in gross worldliness and don't enjoy spiritual talk at all since the devotees keep on for a long time talking with me about god the others become restless finding it impossible to sit there any longer they whisper to their devotee friends when shall we be going how long will you stay here the deputies say wait a bit we shall go after a little while then the worldly people say in a disgusted tone well then you can talk we shall wait for you in the boat all laugh worldly people will never listen to you if you ask them to renounce everything and devote themselves wholeheartedly to god now this was just a theme we saw on the boat trip when he was talking to to keshav and vijay so uh this the what he's saying here will be for uh some of the people in general but also for shivanath and and some of the acharyas some of the leaders of the brahma-samaj therefore caitanya and after some deliberation made an arrangement to attract the worldly they would say to such persons come repeat the name of hari and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish that's uh catfish and the embrace of a young woman called americo bolo haribo this is tucker loved these little expressions so many people attracted by the fish and the woman would chant the name of god there's a catch to all of this after tasting a little of the nectar of god's hallowed name they would soon realize that the fish soup bhagavat really meant the tears they shed for love of god and the young woman dubati signified the earth the embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture of divine love this was a very common feature of the caitanya school that they would actually roll in the ground huh you could see it's just just rolling like log rolling huh taking the dust of a holy place something like that that uh out of the excess of of emotion devotion any means to make people repeat hadi's name we read the two brothers they weren't brothers they were spiritual brothers they weren't related to each other but the nithyananda was so devoted to caitanya deva that he would do whatever he said and nithyananda of course he was a sannyasin now this is one of the things is very very difficult to understand why and how it happened this way by it caitanya david you know sometimes we we think that the path of devotion is more for the householder and the path of knowledge for the sanyasin but he was very very strict he had sanyasin disciples or those who were following the path of renunciation very very strict far more than srama krishna was about following the very strict monastic rules there was one there were two haridasas one younger adidas and chaitanya devo was was having him observe all these strict rules and one day he took food baked food you could say or took food from an elderly widow but he wasn't supposed to keep the company of women at all and chaitanya deva actually expelled him from the community he was so strict maybe wanted to set an example who knows and the other reason i'm getting to all this is that despite he himself being such a strict sannyasi he he really was an ideal sannyasi despite that he asked nithyananda to renounce his monastic vows in mary and partly because of that the whole caitanya movement has as his guru's married people the householders so nithyananda married he had a son veerabhadra who became leader of the community after they they had passed away he was the next in line so somehow caitanya davis saw that if he married and that his children and their children would would be the ones to carry the movement along uh and others there are different schools different lineages of go swamis they would be the different goswami vishnu priya's family also that they became the gurus of the order they did have their boyagies the monastic members but they weren't considered to represent the the kind of cream of the crop of the of the movement as the as the householder go swamis were we find that inventment that taku had so much respect for these ghouls and anyone who came was a goswami that he would he would make pranam to him and whenever they would say they they feel this pull of renunciation he would say no you're go swamis this you have to remain as the householders this is your duty and your obligation you're the ones who are carrying the tradition forward so he had great respect for them so he says nitai would employ any means to make people repeat hadi's name so we see he had such regard for caitanya deva that any means even if it meant getting married and living a householder life caitanya said the name of god has very great sanctity now it's interesting the last thing that many of these people want to hear about is tate chaitanya and and radha and krishna and all of these things some of them couldn't bear these ideas that's why they had left that that was for these simple uneducated hindus they were a little snobbish these people they were all very well educated and and well-to-do people but taku didn't care so the name of god is very great sanctity it may not produce an immediate result but one day it must bear fruit it is like a seed that has been left on the cornice of a building after many days the house crumbles and the seed falls on the earth germinates and at last bears fruit as worldly people are endowed with sattva rajas and thomas so also is bhakti characterized by the three gunas okay this is another common theme that srama krishna uses i'll just spend a few minutes to talk about this idea of the gurnas this is something that uh we associated with the sankey school of philosophy but there's also a whether we say it's some sanki ideas in the upanishads or the same ideas in the upanishads but we read about the the gooness in the apartheid so it's a very ancient idea very ancient idea guna it really means a type of thread or strand of a thread we can look upon these these three strands one yellow sorry one white one red and one black and picture them all connected together intertwined together to make to make one piece of rope so the laguna it's something that binds us but it's also the the material from which this universe is is created or made everything is is a combination of the three gunas the the white strand will be satura and this will be everything that's the light and subtle the red will be rajist this is anything that is strong and powerful and then the black is thomas this is the inertia so we'll have our mass we'll have our energy and we'll have whatever subtle things and maybe we can say the mental things the physical things and energy things all combined together now there's a corresponding idea that these are the the building blocks of parakory nature nature has two two different meanings one is external nature and the other is mind internal nature so and everything is a combination of these three gunas with different proportions so generally they talk about someone has a preponderance of rajis no one will be a hundred percent a satwik 100 thomas there'll be certain areas where they have a little one a little the other so every everyone's nature is also like that so the satwik people are generally are very calm and quiet and peaceful and good and kind people rajasik people are a little bit ambitious and energetic egotistical and thomasic people a little bit dull and a little bit lazy so we're all a combination of of all of these now taka for some reason uh likes this thomasic idea of bhakti we'll get to that for some reason generally thomas is the lowest of the three gunas so there's a little hierarchy it's a hierarchy but at the same time thomas and rajas go together there there's very hard to say some things like uh hatred and anger and everything it's a little bit of rajist a little bit of time it's hard to distinguish them satwa is very easy to distinguish satwik takes us higher the other two get us stuck either they drag us down or they get us stuck so anyhow i'll read this he so he's talking about people who are endowed with these qualities so with regard to the mind it's it's different tendencies or qualities of the mind even though they don't like to think of language equality it's more of a substantive element of something okay so as worldly people are endowed with sattva rajas and thomas so also is bhakti characterized by the three goonas do you know what a worldly person endowed with satu is like perhaps his house is in a dilapidated condition here and there he doesn't care to repair it the worship hall may be strewn with pigeon droppings and the courtyard covered with moss but he pays no attention to these things the furniture of the house may be old he doesn't think of polishing it and making it look clean making him look neat he doesn't care for dress at all anything is good enough for him but the man himself is very gentle quiet kind and humble he doesn't injure anyone he's going to go through the three of them with regard to worldly people and then spiritually or or from a devotional point of view again among the worldly there are people with the traits of rajs such a man has a watch and chain and two or three rings on his finger the furniture of his house is all and span on the walls hang portraits of the queen the prince of wales and other prominent people the building is whitewashed and spotlessly clean his wardrobe is filled with a large assortment of clothes even the servants have delivery and all that the traits of a worldly man endowed with thomas or sleep lust anger egotism and the like similarly now he'll connect them all to uh how do these traits manifest in a devotee bhakti devotion has its satwa a devotee who possesses it meditates on god in absolute secret perhaps inside his mosquito net others think he is asleep since he is laid in getting up they think perhaps he has not slept well during the night his love for the body goes only as far as appeasing his hunger and that only by means of rice and simple greens there is no elaborate arrangement about his meals no luxury and clothes and no display of furniture besides such a devotee never flatters anybody for money so we get a nice picture somebody very simple not trying to impress anybody unostentatious very sincere and humble and aspiring possessed of rajasik bhakti puts a tilik on his forehead all different marks taco used to joke about people who were stamped and they were branded like animals many of the different schools would do that we see in south so very elaborate types of uh arrangements huh red and white and things they're followers of ramanujan and people's whole body smeared with ashes different things so an aspiring progesterone rajasik bhakti puts a tilak on his forehead and a necklace of holy rudraksha beads interspersed with gold ones around around his neck all left at worship he wears a silk cloth a man endowed with thomas bhakti has burning faith now this is the one we would expect the thomas bhakta to to have something very negative that he is the one who is too tired and too lazy to do anything but tucker likes it he used to say exert the thomas of bhakti that like the dakoids he would send a man endowed with thomas bhakti has burning faith such a devotee literally exhorts boons from god even as a robber falls upon a man and plunders his money bind beat kill that is the way the way of the dachoids saying this the master began to sing in a sweet voice with rapturous love his eyes turned upward and he sings a very beautiful song why should i go to ganga or gaya to kashi kanchi or prabhas so long as i can breathe my last with kali's name upon my lips what need of rituals has a man what need of devotions any more if he repeats the mother's name at the three holy hours rituals may pursue him close but never can they overtake him charity vows and giving gifts do not appeal to madan's mind mother is the name of the the author of the song the blissful mother's lotus feet or his whole prayer and sacrifice who could ever have conceived the power her name possesses shiva himself the god of gods sings her praise with his five mouths the master was beside himself with love for the divine mother then he'll go on singing and talking we'll stop here this is page 147 and we'll continue next week uh a reminder to everyone we have our kali pujo on sunday it will be it will be virtual uh you should have if you're if you're on our mailing list you should have received a special uh invitation yesterday otherwise go to the website and you'll see on the homepage the link to click on it it'll be youtube uh it'll start at 11 and we have a very beautiful country we're very very grateful to our subhadra desai that just for us she she did a full one-hour concert and just just for our uh she i asked her if she could do it for durga puja so we'll show that shortly after we finish the pooja upstairs we'll take a few minutes to come down and arrange everything so we invite everyone to join us for that uh we're sorry we can't invite people to come and see it in person but uh hopefully next year things will be better so let me close now um we bow our heads before srama krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace be untoward thank you