Video 3

Reading from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (04/17/20)

your words are like nectar bringing life to skort 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 good evening everyone welcome to our class on the gospel of ramakrishna I want to start by just reviewing a little bit and retelling a little bit and and clarifying one or two little things I we saw last week that M had gone to the house of each and Kobe Raj each and Kobe Raj is his brother-in-law I was under the mistaken impression that it was on his wife's side but this ish on Kobe Raj was married to a mess eldest sister and he was himself related somehow to ketchup ketchup sin so that means that Em's wife and whole family they were related also as well as being members and M of course would also remember this ish and coverage actually was a Majumder coverage because he was a doctor he was a doctor who practiced this is a de or kaviraja medicine he actually treated to Ramakrishna on different occasions and was greatly devoted to sri ramakrishna and talk war had even go to his house on at least one occasion so there was this very close connection so this is why when we when we raid as soon as as soon as Ramakrishna hears from em that he's staying but on Agora because at awkward asked him where are you staying he said that bar on Agora at my older sister's ish on Kobe Rajas house so Strama crew said Oh at Ishaan's well how was cash op now he was very ill so immediately it's not just some divine insight talking to the family and he knew the connection the family connection you know the spiritual connection with the case of and and all of that M is very careful not to say very much about his relatives who they are anything like that because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself this is one example we have two other interesting examples ki shaadi was Am's younger brother and that no matter how many times he shed his name comes up or he visits Shri Krishna and will never mention that it's his brother he'll simply say a devotee came and the same with it do IDO dijo was also my brother so he was from that same family and also his name comes up many times he was very devoted to Ramakrishna the other very interesting thing is that M perhaps didn't remember at the time but this wasn't his first visit to the duction is for temple garden and the Kali temple when he was 4 years old and this is also interesting because the temple itself was 4 years old when he was 4 years old his mother took him to the Kali temple and I they mentioned that the temple had been inaugurated four years earlier and then was 4 years old 4 or 5 so Sri Ramakrishna was certainly there at that time and the incident that took place which M remembered maybe had to be reminded but this is a small boy they not Mandira this big opened portico in front of the the colleague temple they used to have as songs and concerts and things there somehow he got separated from his mother and a small boy separated from his mother weeping bitterly crying for his mother and the very kind gentle looking Brabant priest came and consoled him and put his hand on his head and make sure that he made sure that he found his mother and everything and later when I'm thought back on this he thought that this had to be sure Amma Krishna so this connection between em and Ramakrishna if indeed that so goes way back to when he was just a very very small boy now we saw last time that as Ramakrishna he is a little bit harsh with him which is which is our way of understanding that he considered him to be his very own that Ramakrishna if people came and just casual visitors he could be very polite and give them nice instructions but we won't find him scolding them or chastising them or anything like that in the m's case it's as if they had known each other for years so we find in the beginning that first of all he gets a big scolding for being married shocked what's wrong with that and then for having children so little by little one thing after another he starts to tell Ramakrishna that why you should at least tell people that image worship is wrong don't worship clay images then he gets a good scolding for that who are you to say this what do you know so on and on until and finally says this is the last time I said anything less he said this the last argument I ever had with with the master so now we find that really the beginning of the teachings of course there are many teachings before that but very specific things based on the questions that MLS this is what we're starting with today if you're following along in the book this is page 81 and Swami Nikhil an artist English translation so the first question M humbly so he says that my ego was completely crushed so now very humbly because he realizes he's in the presence of very great soul how sir may we fix our minds on God this is the first of four questions that will yes these are very brilliant questions we can judge the spiritual caliber of somebody by the type of question that they ask this question not exactly the way M is asking it but this is the most common question generally will find that devotees will come and very simple to word sentence let's say well what is the way it it comes over and over again in the gospel oh by q what is the way they don't even say to God realization it's understood there's no other question what is the way to realize God so when the saying house or maybe fix our minds on God now generally there will be a list Ramakrishna will generally not say one thing he'll he'll give a list of things sometimes the order is important sometimes it's not important sometimes it's almost as if try this if you can't do this to the next if you can't do that to the next this we find in Chapter 12 of the Gita the same question that Shri Krishna says to Arjuna fix your mind on me fix your intellect on me and then he gives different ways of doing it if you can't do it this way then do it that way do it that way do it that way then finally I surrender everything to me which turns out to be the highest but and you know the answer that we get here starts out with repeat God's name and seeing his glories and keep holy company and now and then visit God's devotees and the holy men holy men holy women the Bengali language and of course the English translations in those days were not very gender neutral we can say we understand that these things apply equally to everyone now the first thing repeat God's name and sing his glories I would say and and I haven't done any type of scientific survey with any of this but most of the time the first thing will be holy company very often holy company will be number 1 and number 2 will be solitude here he's saying repeat God's name and sang his glories why is this first this of course is guesswork on our part but my feeling is that he immediately saw the M if he had any obstacle in spiritual life is that he was too intellectual and to cognitive and what had to be broadened down what had to be manifested more was the emotional side this is a devotional element had to be stressed a little bit in the case of him this is just my guess so he says repeat God's name and sing his glories sarama krishna had tremendous faith in the name of god it's throughout the gospels sure it's aroma krishna it's something that we find in almost every religious tradition this idea that the name of God and God himself or one in the same and this is our handle we we say we don't know how do we think of God we don't know what to picture we don't know what God looks like we don't know anything about God we know his name even if we don't know a person we know the name we call that the name the person become so this is always emphasized repeat God's name and sing his glories so sometimes it nam guna kirtan 'dada he'll say that all of these things the name the attributes the the stories that we find all of this can go back remember that there's always this this behind-the-scene connection with the Haggadah put honor and the events and the life of shri krishna this is this is an underlying it goes through here Shukra dev his name comes up so many times so this repeat God's name in sing his glories this will be singers glories will go back to any of the incidents in the life of any of the divine incarnations or any different aspects of God and the Indian tradition Hindu tradition of course is so rich in these types of songs Ramakrishna was especially fond of those songs to the Divine Mother so this is number one then he says keep holy company and now and then visit God's devotees and holy men holy people now these are not two different things the English for some reason I decided to look at the original Bengali and the way it's written there is that this now and then visit God's devotees and holy men is what he means by holy company now holy company doesn't simply mean saw - sadhu Sanga he's a sadhu sanga but deputies are also holy company we shouldn't think that it's just restricted to those who wear the gear of a cloth or anything like that anyone who is a sincere spiritual aspiring is good holy company for us even good people will lead a good pure life we can learn so much we can learn from everybody but if we get the opportunity to have the company of these great souls of not just simple or seduced but these highly evolved spiritual Souls then this spiritual transmission takes place without our even knowing it there's some type of transference that takes place when candle being lit from another candle we absorb it somehow so there's something very very special about being in the company of of course the God realised soul is a very rare thing but in company if someone who is highly spiritually advanced we feel something directly in their presence the many people say sitting before these these great families of our order that the mind becomes very quiet I've also found this to be true the mind becomes very quiet now is it enough just to be in the company of a holy people the Gita gives some advice it gives us three things that we should do one is we should ask some questions for the personnel not everyone does some people say I came with so many questions and I said and without asking a single question all my doubts were removed this can happen also and some people are not of that type that they simply want to sit and listen and everything but those who do come with questions a very helpful type of thing then save up to do some service to these these great souls there's also a second great thing and piranha partha this doesn't mean that we have to simply go and bow down before them it means we approach them with Shraddha that we have to approach with humility and reverence and all of that then there's tremendous benefit from from holy company now some people ask many people ask is it something or automatic if we simply go to a great soul will you automatically get the fruits of that we have different answers I I find it very interesting that two of Ramakrishna's disciples to give opposite answers one is pharmacy one of them Appaloosa Manoj and the other is for me shorter than under both are brilliant and I like both of them even though they they seem to be exactly opposite somebody said to Swami Sivananda that so many people saw sri ramakrishna they came without feeling anything they would come maybe they would they would listen for a few minutes they would get bored they would leave then what what possible possible results did they get from that just coming and seeing him and not arresting anything not listening to him with no reference nothing like that yes in Swami she went under there's just there's is not coming at all so we see parent got very angry and he said what this is the type of faith you have in Sharma Krishna then he said don't you know even the dogs and cats in Kumar cocora who saw sri ramakrishna even once had liberation now this of course is is just evidence of the tremendous love and reverence and faith that he had in Shoreham Krishna it doesn't mean that these other things aren't important because somebody asked so I mean shadows on under that same question that talk was always talking about holy company what does the holy company mean and Swami Chidananda said it doesn't mean simply going there and sitting before someone it means all of these things you go with the reverence you have some question to ask you listen very carefully you follow the advice that you get all of these things are necessary to get the benefit of holy company both are true in the case was Ramakrishna we haven't we have no idea even these people that seem to not be affected at all can have some tremendous change take place in their lives I reminded of a story he wasn't going to tell this but it's a very interesting story there was a devotee I won't mention her name but she was a disciple of swami Nikhil Anandi lived in Boston for many years and used to drive Swami sorry captain ng back and forth from Providence to Boston because he spoke in both places every Sunday he would speak one in the place in the morning in the next place in the in the afternoon and I heard from her directly this story when she was just starting to get interested in Vedanta she had a very elderly aunt and this and saw that she was reading and she said oh what is that you're reading this Swami Vivekananda and she said we've a colander they used to break it into two different words those those days nobody know it sometimes in the newspapers that came out that way Viva Conda so is it him and she said yes antes oh okay and she wasn't very impressed she didn't remember to his he said you know he stayed in our house it really yeah that her father was a preacher they were living in somewhere in New England at that time and so I would used to stay in different devotees homes when he would speak in different places and he spent a night there in their home and this deputies and was a little girl at that time so she remembered meeting him then after that he left didn't follow him had no interest interest in Vedanta or anything like that now on her deathbed they saw her on her deathbed and the final words she said were Viva Viva calendar which also me to life Viva my life so God knows how these things happen was seeing him one time and somehow an impression was there which he didn't even realize they came to her mind at the very end of her life and somehow that one meeting with him was a dominant thought that came to her at the very end so there's a holy company of these great Souls of course finding a Swami Vivekananda's not easy but any of these great Souls is tremendously important and when we hear the words of these types of instructions from somebody who lives them it's completely different and when we see the fruits it's completely different when we see somebody who was attained this this type of peace of mind who was attained control over himself who has this tremendous love and compassion then we have faith that these things are true that if we if we practice the things we're told we can get the results otherwise we don't know we assume that oh they're written in these books we hear people talking about it probably at one time a few people could could have that type of experience but when we see that living example then we get this tremendous faith this redha in the teachings and without shraddha we have nothing in spiritual life this is the one pre-record it you can throw out everything else you can really this is the only one we don't as a very learned people we don't have to lead perfect lives we could could have committed so many mistakes if we develop this shred ha this this reverence and this sincerity and this humility then we have every prerequisite we really need of course the path of knowledge they'll say that we need some tremendous renunciation and everything but spiritual life in general this I think is the most important thing so this is the the second thing first repeat gods and a missing his glories then keep holy company that means now and then visit god to deputies and holy men holy women of course charter the Devi we know her company was it equally as Holy as Ramakrishna's company now what if we don't have that opportunity what do we do we're very fortunate nowadays we can yes with a single click we can see these YouTube videos of all the different Swami's and and derivatives and others give you beautiful lectures if we can't do that there's a gospel of Ramakrishna gospel of Holy Mother and so many books on the direct disciples direct conversations with them this is also holy company this this reading that this is why I stress so much less time there's a daily reading of this gospel is so important this book there's there's a know the end of this book the reason we can read it over and over again it reminds me of another story and I'm very bad at remembering details I don't remember where I read it who the people involved were but I remember the point of it a very beautiful story one of our sorrows was doing some prison relief work working with prisoners and I don't know maybe Malda one of our Swami's did a lot of work that I don't remember there was one woman prisoner who was very unruly no one could get her to speak nicely to anybody she was a big problem for everyone so there's a Swami thought let me see if if I can get her to read this gospel of ramakrishna bengali so cotton burrito so he gave her a copy and suggest if you feel like it read a few pages of it so the next day he came back and she said yes I've been reading it then he came back a little bit later are you finished with it yet he said because they wanted to give it to somebody else and she looked at him and she said is this the kind of book that one can never be finished with very beautiful statement the Swami was very much impressed and I think he found a copy for her to keep permanently this is book one is never finished with this book this can be read over and over and over again okay so he says repeat God's name and sing his glories and keep holy company now and then visit God's devotees and holy men the mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness in worldly duties and responsibilities it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God near John box this is usually the second here's the third now why this Ramakrishna stress this so much I I have my own theory one of course is exactly what he says we need to change our environment that especially those in the family situation with husband and wife and children and and responsibilities and duties right unless very hard to find time and very hard to free the mind if we can leave that environment go to some place and sometimes you would say go for for a few months go for a few weeks go for a few days even one day however much time we can give it'll be helpful that we don't have to bother about anything else that we can very sincerely do our spiritual practice do some spiritual reading some legends do or Java or meditation and everything very very helpful now the second thing which Ramakrishna doesn't mention specifically but which I think is very important is that when we analyze this false sense of identification with the body this is my own theory I think our false sense of identification with the body is magnified and perhaps the the main reason is magnified by the fact that this is how other people see us they don't they don't see this anything within they don't see my mind they see this physical body and they hear these words these are the two ways if we want to tell somebody who I am look at me and listen to me these are the two things that will say we this is half the reason why we speak and speak all sorts of nonsense we want people to look this is who I am so this sense of false identification with the body to a large extent is due to the fact that other people identify us with the body this means that if we if we live for a long time or at least long periods of time without having anybody to identify us with the body then we start to forget we start to feel that this I am simply this space this consciousness under the point of consciousness in which this whole world has become present to me we start to lose this this feeling of the body Ness not just body consciousness but we start to lose it I spent a lot of time just living by myself for different reasons before I joined the order and I've told this to many people but it's interesting I decided to experiment this for one full year that I believe I was living in there as small a couple of rooms in a small house in Calcutta that I would not have a mirror so I wouldn't look at myself see even look at the language look at myself it means see the image of the body reflected in a mirror and I didn't mix with people very much so most of the time I almost would forget I would go out sometimes and am I wearing fresh clothes do I need a shave Erica any of that would almost forget that we live in solitude we start to understand ourselves as ourselves as pure consciousness so some radical change takes place the minute we go into the presence of somebody else body consciousness comes there's these existentialist philosophers talking about the gaze of the other how it turns us into a material that when we're not in the gaze of the other that not objectified by anyone else and we can feel ourselves as pure consciousness so this is just another added benefit aside from the time and the sincerity and everything involved that we really get to analyze who am i what is what is the real nature of the self I'm that in which this world appears in the physical body is almost the window through which I'm looking at the world and not much more that can be our experience that way so it says it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God to fix the mind on God is very difficult in the beginning unless one practices meditation in solitude now group meditation is fine but there's always this kind of feeling that someone else may be watching am I sitting up straight am i impressing anybody look how long I said well these funny ideas can come into the mind so in solitude that we were only doing it for ourselves and for God is there's no chance that these other things will creep in unless we're anxious to run back and say oh I spent a week in solitude of course that defeats the whole purpose of it so to fix the mind on God it's very difficult in the beginning unless one practices meditation in solitude now how many of us have a second home or another place to go to solitude can be even our own room we can find a little corner someplace Oh talk about that also when a tree is young it should be fenced all around otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle now this is another teaching that Ramakrishna uses in many different contexts he uses it with regard to the company that we keep the the things that we do the even the books that we read everything like that that the mind of a devotee and the beginning of spiritual life is very easily influenced by outside circumstances an environment so it's very important to protect ourselves because when we're in the company of people who they may not be bad people but they're on a different wavelength is every chance that our mind will get on their wavelength better chance that we'll be affected by them then they'll be affected by us we may think that oh these people are very worldly people they're but they're friends if I spend more time with them maybe they'll get interested in spiritual life better chance will get interested in worldly life this is the unripe mind he's talking about now he makes this this distinction that as it grows bigger and bigger this little sapling that's planted it becomes stronger and stronger and reaches the point where you can even tie an elephant to it it becomes so strong that means that the time will come when we can mix with anybody we can do any type of thing go any place and the mind this is the mind that have been churned into butter they can float on the water and it won't be affected yeah on right mine it's like pouring the milk in the water gets mixed up with it Swami Vivekananda once made a tremendous statement he said when I was very young and of course leading a spiritual life he said I wouldn't walk on the same side of the street where the theatre was the theatre was considered to be for for very worldly people and the actresses were considered to be mistresses of wealth wealthy people all sorts of ideas were there so he said I wouldn't even work in the same side of the street he said now I could live in a house of prostitutes in my mind wouldn't be the least bit affected you would see the Divine Mother so this is that difference between the early stage and the later stage so Strama krishna used to stress that and we should never think that we've reached the very high stage we should always feel that we're beginners in spiritual life i remember reading a statement by swami Ashok Ananda and he said don't think when we say beginners in spiritual life that that's a small thing we can reach a very high state of spirituality and still be virtual beginners in spiritual life until we have some type of direct experience until we've reached that stage of anuraga then we're really still in that the beginning stage of life so better to continue to protect yourselves and not start tying elephants to to ourselves as if we're big trees already now to meditate where do we go to meditate he says you should with the draw within yourself or retire to a secluded corner or to the forest this is Monique on a bow nice Ramakrishna he loved this little play on words Bonnie corny Bonnie so either in your mind actually it works better if we do it the opposite way we go into the forest that means we find a secluded place we find something with a beautiful scenery it's also elevating to the mind or if we can't do that we go in the corner of the house we find some quiet place there the last one is the tricky one because all meditation takes place in the mind what he's saying is that even if we're in the midst of it of a thousand people if we if we go deep within within the mind then we're alone then we but very few people can do that but everything is within the mind whether we're in the forest we're in the corner of a room we're in the shrine or in up where do we meditate we meditate in the mine that means we fix the mind within within the heart center we try to forget that there's anyone else around us we try to forget our own body even so to meditate you should withdraw within yourself or retire to a secluded corner or to the forest and you should always discriminate between the real and the unreal now look what top was doing one by one is going through the different yoga's he's starting up repeat God God's names to repeating gods names and singing his lawyers in bhakti-yoga and then there's keeping a holy company in all of that this is all part of the fixing the mind on God we're getting into some Raja yoga and now Gianni yoga this this is called these me charter Marga the path of reasoning sometimes we say discrimination it has a very negative connotation some people avoid it but this Vevey go or vichara this this type of reasoning where we discriminate or distinguish between real and unreal so Shri Krishna uses that language set aside vajura this he says always discriminate between the real and the unreal God alone is real the eternal substance all else is unreal that is impermanent by discriminating thus want to shake off impermanent objects from the mind now we have different ways of doing this this of course is is the most important aspect of jnana yoga where we try to separate the seer from the scene this is one way of looking at this such a sudden each other where we discriminate between the seer and the seen so anything that can be an object for our consciousness is not consciousness if I can be the witness of something I am NOT that so this is this is a very obvious thing I see the table I'm not the table this is very obvious thing I see this body I'm not this body it becomes very subtle when we start to think well am i this ego sense Who am I who is the subject this is a very big question in Western philosophy and Western psychology generally Western psychology the subject is the ego why go to a psychiatrist and I try to get go through self analysis what is self analysis it means oh what trauma took place in my childhood to make me think too the way do it all the lower self with all the mind the Descartes in this famous statement I think therefore I am who was this I to the doubting self now the Vedanta will say that this doubting self can be observed I am therefore I am NOT that the ego can be observed I can I can analyze I can watch I can see when this sense of I comes up that says that I'm a good person I'm a bad person I'm very intelligent I'm an old person male and female and from this country I speak this language all of that I can be the observer of that I'm watching that this is just an idea there's not no substance to it there's no reality to it it's constantly changing sometimes this sense of I identified with the body sometimes identified with the mind yes somebody hits me they said you hit me no you didn't hit me you hit my body I'm identified with the body or somebody says something oh you hurt me you hurt my feelings I'm identified with my feelings but through this type of discrimination I realized that no I'm the witness of all of this this is one type of discrimination the other is anything that is impermanent it's considered unreal now this question always comes up unreal does this mean illusion illusory mitya the great statement of the Advaita Vedanta Shankaracharya that this world is false Javed mithya and we always wonder how literally should we take this now Ramakrishna he paid respect to every spiritual tradition and every philosophical position also so he would very often talk in those terms but he would generally say to the gianni the yani will think this world is unreal like a dream at the same time he'll say I don't like to look upon this world is unreal like a dream he doesn't say that that's a false doctrine he says it doesn't appeal to me I'd prefer to look at this world as manifestation of the divine and we were just reading this morning that if we understand this idea of Shakti that the Shakti belongs to the Brahman then we cannot look upon this world is unreal this Shakti Kapoor says it's like the bamboo structure that's used when we make the image of Durga unless you have that you can't put the clay around it and then add the color and the heron or all of that that foundation has to be there that makes the whole thing real so he doesn't like this idea that this world is just an illusion that there's nothing there but he very much likes this idea that this world is insubstantial and transitory so generally you'll say an idea and it is the term that he prefers when we say brahma satyam jagat an idea unless he's quoting the advance so we can easily understand that everything is fleeting and we don't have to say well okay look at this table under this chair look at these mountains they'll last longer than we will virtually permanent it doesn't mean that it can be virtually permanent and yet our life is fleeting this this is the impermanence of everything that we hold onto something and then it leaves us that nothing there's nothing to graph to hold on to if we put all of our stock in there then I will be disappointed if if someone's looking for a very beautiful husband or wife then they should know one day you will turn around and see its face is full of wrinkles there is turned grave maybe falling out it's not going to last so Ramakrishna uses another term we have these terms of us to thus do and of us do all those two linear mentally that can mean that something is is has no substance to it now even in English this word in substantial has two meanings McNally dose a offered art but all it is is some real thing oh but Otto can mean something that it's just an appearance there's nothing real to it or it can mean something worthless I didn't realize that somebody told me this good way to insult somebody worthless fellow it's substantial what does it mean for a person to be in substantial it means that they have no they have no backbone that they have no ethics that they have no determination to do anything that they're wishy-washy or all of these different things so this world is of us to in that sense that there's no substance to it there's nothing that can fully satisfy us there's nothing that can fill that hole that we're searching for something and we won't find it in the world if we're searching for some something to hold on to something real something permanent something joyful something that has no ups and downs to it this is not the nature of the world so this is another way of understanding was to a novice to that it only that divine presence within the real self within that is verse 2 is something real everything else is insubstantial and that other sense in substantial or also I mean it is something fleeting but in the sense that you can't really satisfy us now there's another sense that Sri Ramakrishna uses this and this will be something we find in the car to punish odd this idea of Prius and shares that we have to discriminate between what will give us some temporary enjoyment and pleasure something that is a nice diversion for us that we can get some temporary enjoyment out of as opposed to something which maybe it involves some sacrifice some self-denial maybe the involve self-control but in the long run will lead to a very higher type of realization Shreyas when we read the car to punish odd is a very beautiful beautiful story that we find you're mentally naughty kata look your whole life you'll be faced with these two options whenever you have any choice to do something one will be easy one will give some quick gratification one will be the one that you're gravitating towards the other will be the one that will be for the greater good for yourself or others this will be the higher one we're constantly faced with that we have to discriminate so that we can see which one we're doing just out of some sense of the enjoyment or even selfishness and which are we doing out of selflessness which are we doing which will lead to the greater good this is also a type of each other which is probably more important than any of the others so ceramic Krishna now he's gone to this Jani over we're seeing he's going one after another we have a bhakti-yoga we have our Raja yoga we have Ruggiano yoga and what is the point by discriminating thus want to take off impermanent objects from the mind if we find that something can satisfy us why would we run after it this is the point now M will ask his second question how are we to live in the world so now Karma Yoga comes how should we live in the world he wants to know how to live in the world in such a way that we can realize God in such a way that we won't get more and more bound in the world and such a way that will be of benefit to others is a very very open question but again very very important these are so important these four questions we get in this first chapter and it's in em second visit master now we'll get some of his favorite illustrations Ramakrishna was very brilliant in the way that he could use these different analogies and illustrations do all your duties but keep your mind on God okay now we know that but the problem is how to do it live with all with wife and children father and mother and serve them now remember and it just left his father and the family and everything and and she Ramakrishna wants him to go back treat them as if they were very dear to you now of course there dear to us family members are always dear to us but this is a relative thing he wants us to realize that God alone is the nearest and dearest treat them as if they were very dear to you but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you in what sense don't they belong to us it'll give this illustration a maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village she brings up her master's children as if they were her own she even speaks of them as ma drama or my hoodie but in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all this is a very nice illustration because and nowadays also we can see that sometimes in the in the morning if you go to a park or something you will see all these women they're with their strollers and and babies there or little children in the playground and you may notice that most of the kids are white skinned children from wealthy families and most of the sold what looks like mothers or or Asian they they may even be idea they may be Latino and everything but generally there are people who have to do this for a living and immediately will notice no this isn't really the biological mother now they know it also but when they sit in chat they become identified and they really feel that did you see what my my little my honey did with my rom did like they'll talk like that and they'll talk about of the beautiful new furniture we got in the house as if it's their own now how do we how do we not feel that with our with ourselves well with children we have to recognize that okay the husband and the wife they're responsible for the physical body actually the mother has the greatest attachment to the child because the child grows within the mother and as part of the mother and it has really grown out of the sale of the mother so that attachment is very very natural but at the same time she's giving birth to a person there's not just that physical body and we have to recognize that there's a independent individual who will grow up have his or her own life and that not a possession now what about our other possession a house do we own a house half the time the bank owns the house even if we own it what does that mean we have a deed to it we've signed a piece of paper how long will we have it did we always have it didn't belong to somebody else before us I always remember a story that Swami Sartre got the energy from our Boston Providence Center used to tell about a man who was sitting on the train in India it was a local train he had a long journey but most people they go in one stop they got off the next and the conductor had to keep coming back because they were all short stops so he noticed that across the way someone who was sitting there the conductor came up to him and wanted to know is this your seat you say this is your seat he said yes this is my seat and he showed his ticket and it correspond it that was the seat number and he was sitting there then he left that man got off to another man came and he came and he said to him is this your seat this is my seat it happened over and over again now how can it be this day the one seat they said this is my seat how long did he have it maybe half an hour as long as it took to go from one station to the next station how long do we own anything a very short period of time Margaret Dacascos we don't we we find this this line from the first verse of the issue punish art that is interpreted in two different ways one is don't covet anybody's wealth the other is don't covet anything because what belongs to anybody who can claim this none of this wealth is mine nothing belongs to us we utilize things for a short period of time we don't come in the world with them we don't take them when we leave this world so what really belongs to us if we discriminate like that then we can cut this attachment to things that either these things won't last or that someone else will take them over or we ourselves won't list so this is if we can take this attitude that what is the maidservant she has this is her job that she's looking after her children as if they're her own children she's cleaning the house as if it's her own house the second part of this is that she has her own house and her own children and there in the village that said she knows really belong to her what is this village this god that means that our real abode is within the divine or real abode this is in our higher nature the God dwelling within this is really where we live because whenever whenever we we say that we own something or possess something it goes back to the self identification with the body I can't own a house if I don't feel that I own this body the I even own this body do I own this body I live within this body it was a completely different looking when I first got into it the tiny little thing and when I leave it it's not gonna look very good either it's gonna get all shriveled up within a few minutes it's gonna start getting cold it's gonna start smelling bad it's gonna start decaying so this is just a temporary abode for me do I really own it I get to use it a little bit but is it really mine I'll tell another story those who have been coming to the Gospel class year after year the heard these stories so many times I apologize to them but this is another beautiful story incident in the life of Swami petition on de Mirage he was one of the presidents of her order very very wonderful soul and he lived to a ripe old age but a bad health at the end he had there's so many heart problems and so many surgeries at the end and when he was probably 95 or 96 something like that in the hospital the doctors approached some of the trustees who were there looking after him and everything and they said look we can perform another surgery on him at his age the recovery won't be very easy it'd be putting him through a lot of difficulty and a lot of pain it may prolong his life another six months or a year but it is a child on will he live these are already close to ninety seven something like that so the trustees they thought among themselves and they also knew that so many of his disciples would be so destroyed that is passing away that they really didn't know what to do so they decided to ask him so they went to Swamiji petition and he said this is this is the situation the doctor says if you're if you're agreeable they can do this surgery able if successful it will prolong your life but they don't want to do it without your permission because it your age to make you go through this the recovery period nobody wants to see you have to go through all of that so he said to them look when I joined this order I offered everything that I have to ceramic Krishna to the order I was a sannyasi i renounced everything so I don't consider that this body belongs to me I considered that this body belongs to the Sangha to the to the organization this ramakrishna therefore you will decide whatever you decide to do is fine because I don't consider this mind I don't consider that I have the right to even make that type of decision now we can feel that same way of course he did it with tremendous conviction but we can try to have that same type of attitude even with this other body of ours that let it be an instrument that we have the opportunity to use for God realization for the service of others and that is not I cling to it I have too much attachment to that we cut attachment to the body and then we've cut attachment to the clothes that are on the body to the house that the body is within to the country that we live in to everything else and if we can cut attachment to the ego then we'll get rid of all of them now he'll give some other illustrations I'll read one more and then then we'll stop it's almost time to end the tortoise moves about in the water but can you guess where her thoughts are there on the bank where the eggs are lying do all your duties in the world but keep your mind on God so this is what I was saying this is the second half that we try not to be attached to those transitory things of the world but we also try to remember that our real home our real home is in the divine and how do we live in the divine the mind the dwells in God this is living in God never see shoddy my Ava on the sunshine has a chapter 12 of the Gita that if you can keep your mind fixed on me if you can remember me at all times then you'll live in me you won't live in a country you won't live in a house you won't live anywhere wherever the mind is that for we are come on and God we're living in God so this is from a krishna's instruction here there'll be much more to talk about and this very same visit as he continues to answer these four questions but we will stop here with our heads before Rama Krishna who is stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts and sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the Supreme Lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace built