Video 33

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (11/20/20)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and remove all sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we are starting a new day we're in the same chapter as before the master with the brahmo devotees part one and it is now wednesday november 15 1882. srirama krishna accompanied by rakhal and several other devotees came to calcutta in a carriage and called for m at the school where he was teaching okay rakal rock all we know came this ramakrishna just a few months before narendra and norendra a few months before m so the three of the main players main actors in in this divine play of srama krishna they all came within probably within six months or so a year at the most uh rock called first then narendra both in 1881 and then the beginning of 1882 m and of course was older and he was already married with children and teaching and the school and rakal and narendra were still [Music] students and finishing their trying to finish their education so they called for m at the school they must have known that it was it was time for the school to end they were going to pick him up they had a big plan and then they all set out for the muay dan the mauidan is a big open area in right in the middle of calcutta that borders on one side the ganges and on the other side a very busy crowded uh popular area of the of the city with lots of shops and and hotels and restaurants and things like that and there's a big open area all sorts of things take place there that they'll set up different fairs and uh we have our books stall there's a big book uh fair that's set up there once a year we also participate in that and i know this area very well it's not too far from where i stayed my first trip to to india and so i spent a lot of time in the moydons a very nice nice open area with trees and and grass and everything like that so on this particular day i think there was going we'll see a circus okay then they all set out for the modern srama krishna wanted to see the wilson circus see he wanted to see it we this was very unusual for assad who in those days uh to have any interest uh or to be seen at places like this to go to the theater and uh to see the circus and everything taqwa of course was beyond all of the ordinary restrictions he was a part of mahamsa and everything was spiritual to him that everything awakened his spiritual consciousness so there was nothing that wasn't spiritual for him and he had the nature of a child and he liked to keep his mind a little bit connected to the world and have a few little enjoyments and uh and even simple desires otherwise the mind would be lost in samadhi all the time so srama krishna wanted to see the wilson circus as the carriage rolled along the crowded chit boy road his joy was very great like a little child he leaned first out of one side of the carriage and then out of the other talking to himself as if addressing the passer's body to him he said i find the attention of the people fixed on earthly things they are all rushing about for the sake of their stomachs no one is thinking of god taqwa very often criticized the people of of calcutta he would have criticized the people of any big city it wasn't anything special about calcutta but he was a village boy we have to remember that and this was a brand new thing to see all of these western educated people with all of the modern enjoyments and things very much uh influenced by the british and uh it was something that he had never run across at all and he was used to simple village people who the whole daily life was was revolving around all the religious and traditions and traditions of the day so i find the attention of the people fixed on earthly things they are all rushing about for the sake of their stomachs no one is thinking of god they arrived at the circus tickets for the cheapest seats were purchased so the cheapest seats would have been furthest away but you get a big view of everything so he liked it the devotees took the master to a high gallery and they all sat on a bench he said joyfully ha this is a good place i can see the show well from here there were exhibitions of various feats a horse raced around a circular track over which large iron iron rings were hung at intervals the circus rider an english woman stood on one foot on the horse's back and as the horse passed under the rings she jumped through them always alighting on one foot on the horse's back the horse raced around the entire circle and the woman never missed the horse or lost her balance when the circus was over the master and the devotee stood outside in the field near the carriage since it was a cold night he covered his body with his green shawl srama krishna said to em did you see how the english woman stood on one foot on her horse while it ran like lightning one of the devotees said to srama krishna at once if we take you on your place you'll you'll get dozens of examples spiritual examples by seeing things this is the nature of taqwa's mind did you see how the english woman stood on one foot on her horse while it ran like lightning how difficult a feat that must be she must have practiced a long time now we'll get an illustration of what's called a bihasa yoga in in gita the yoga of constant practice the slightest carelessness and she would break her arms or legs she might even be killed one faces the same difficulty leading the life of a householder a few succeed in it through the grace of god and as a result of their spiritual practice but most people fail entering the world they become more and more involved in it they drown in worldliness and suffer the angers agonies of death a few only like janaka have succeeded through the power of their austerity in leading the spiritual life as a as householders therefore spiritual practice is extremely necessary otherwise one cannot rightly live in the world now we we often see srama krishna saying first realize god then live in the world it is too high we we have to understand it more in this sense that first get established in spiritual life first get this spirit of this passion and get some yearning for god realization let the mind get fixed in some spiritual practice in solitude he recommended all of these things otherwise he says the mind is is likely to get mixed up with the world like water that's poured into into milk milk and water together they'll get mixed up he says if the mind is like milk then you have to let it sit in a quiet place first you have to turn it into curd so that was solitude and then you have to do some spiritual practice you have to turn it in the butter then if that butter is put into water or milk it won't mix with it it'll remain separate from it so this this is really uh what he's saying otherwise the the mind will get mixed up too much with the world so in the be in the beginning and really this is the whole point of of the stages of life there's a brahmacharya stage before marriage is when one should establish oneself in dharma this is why the stages of life have the different aims of life connected with them then being established in dharma having some spiritual practice having some real priorities in life then one can enter the householder stage of life and one can pursue comma and arta this fulfillment of desires and accumulation of wealth according to dharmic means and without any excess done in moderation and it won't be harmful it'll be helpful in spiritual life but the other point is that through spiritual practice then we can train the mind just as she trained herself this the bb they called her this english woman as they as she trained herself to be able to to do the very difficult task so it must have been the hours and hours and hours of practice so we have to do the same thing of yoga is generally it refers to the meditation when the mind wanders away and we pull it back and this is this is what what the practice of meditation is we we uh we really practice meditation we don't perform meditation practice meditation and performance of meditation to actually meditate a very rare thing to to see it and have the mind in a meditative state the whole time generally what we mean by meditation is abihasi yoga that means the attempt to concentrate the mind on one thing so we're not even accomplishing and harana we're accomplishing an attempt at haruna to fix the mind on a single single objective meditation and whenever it wanders away we bring it back and the goal is to not let it wander away too much to observe it to catch it and to bring it back and to let the period of wandering become less and less and deeper that power of the mind to concentrate this is called yoga the master got into the carriage with the devotees and went to balaram boss's house now we're getting all of the important people here balarambos was the srama krishna's most important devotee in calcutta from the point of view of visiting his home and meeting devotees there it's a big house they call it barramundir it's not a temple mandir but it's a quite a large house and now of course is one of our centers if you if you go there and you go up to the second floor uh it's an interesting house because there's the rooms on the outside then there's an interior veranda and then you look down over the ground floor the whole thing is open that way and the there's one big hall when you go up on the left side and this is where takwa would generally meet with the devotees and where he would sleep at night they say that he spent over 100 nights there in balarambos's house and now that's where the main shrine is so if you've never been there it's a wonderful place you can go and you can sit and meditate in the very room where takware used to sleep and stay overnight and the devotees would be there also with him and where he gave so many beautiful teachings generally when we have recorded conversation that balarama boasts house it will be in that room upstairs and of course we have the when i they were great devotees of of the vaisnava devotees from the caitanya school and they had they were wealthy nan balarambos didn't care too much for that but his brothers and rest of the family they were wealthy they had a place in puri and other places in brindaban and very very pious invasion of a family so they went to balrambos's house he was taken with his companions to the second floor so this would be that room that i'm talking about it was the evening and the lamps were lighted the master described the feats he had seen at the circus gradually other devotees gathered and soon he was engaged in spiritual talk with them whenever he went to a place then they all knew rambos he would he would send word out it would it would go from house to house he would let one person know or a few people know and they would tell others and then somebody would always say call narendra called rachael so that of course rachael is already with him but they would try to get as many as possible to come which rama christian would ask where is porna where is this one where is that one and as soon as he would say that they would say let me see if i can bring him here this is a bog bazaar section a little bit difficult most of the devotees i would say lived in the northern section of the kolkata that'll be where swamiji was and and others and raqqa but then many of the others were in this area also bhagavat within walking distance of woodward and where holding mother stayed not not terribly far the conversation turned to the caste system very often the conversation will turn to the caste system because this was a hot subject at that time the uh from from the time of probably raja ram mohan roy and then of course with the brahma samaj and with keshav and we joined all of the others this was a very big question that how to what to do with the cast system abolish the caste system or get rid of the restrictions it wasn't so much the caste system that was a problem but the fact that there were exclusions and privileges for some and that there was a restriction of course against mixing and then we have the holy shudras and outcasts and everything who were greatly disadvantaged so there's a big issue so they outlaw the caste system completely the brahmos of course they they were very much interested in social reform so this was one of the issues for them and so it very often came up the conversation turned to the caste system srama krishna said the caste system can be removed by one means only and that is the love of god lovers of god do not belong to any caste the mind body and soul of a man become purified through divine love now this this is an idea that was not original with sriami krishna that was very specific to the caitanya school that they also believed that but almost all of the the great devotional movements in india were against this caste distinction they were very egalitarian and this will go back to guru nanak and and the the sikh movement and to of course caitanya deva and kabir and many of the great uh the great poets this devotional renaissance that took place in india the 13th 14th 15th centuries 16th century that uh they've didn't care for caste system and then of course you have the uh the bowels and you have the uh the sufis and and others the the bowels they didn't care for even religious distinction that in in one of the same akras these ashrams these communities they'll have those some who are muslim some who were hindu some were vaishnavas some who were shocked this didn't make any difference so they completely purposely uh didn't care for any distinction not just cast but even distinction between his hindu and muslim distinction so uh this is something that uh was a sriram krishna was well within that that tradition of mystic saints we can say as opposed to the acharyas the acharyas or at least their followers were very often quite orthodox and we see big distinctions and in their communities between who was abraham and who was non-brahmin and everything but the the great saints and mystics they generally didn't care for caste and this was the one reason that all lovers of god belong to the same cast said that caitanya devastated the mind body and soul of a man become purified through divine love caitanya and nithyananda scattered the name of ahri to everyone including the pariah and embraced them all abraham and without this love is no longer a brahman and a pariah with the love of god is no longer a pariah we can take it even further back this will go back to the to the what's called ittihasa even mahabharatan and others we have we have this expression we find there this is someone who's a brahmana name only they belong to that cast but they don't have any of the qualities so they don't belong they shouldn't be considered to be brahmins those who are uh brahman means those who live in brahmin so we get this idea who is the real brahman has nothing to do with a hereditary caste swamiji of course was intrigued with this question and actually bothered by this question that was cast always hereditary we find a whole series of letters that swamiji wrote correspondence between him and one pranamadas mitra who was a great scholar he lived in the in benares and swamiji was asking him so many questions was it always hereditary was it based on qualifications the caste system uh he was he was always looking for evidence that this hereditary cast an exclusive cast was something that came in later that wasn't the original meaning of cast and swamiji defended cast when he was a little bit younger as simply a way of organizing society and he pointed to the guild system in in europe where these were generally family systems that the father was a bricklayer son it was a bricklayer and it went on like that later in his life he said no that almost all social ills can be traced back to this idea of caste he became very much against it towards the end but was never a reformer that way he didn't make that an issue the way the brahmos did speaking of householders entangled in worldliness and the master said they are like the silkworm they can come out of the cocoon of their worldly life if they wish but they can't bear to for they themselves have built the cocoon with great love and care now the one thing we've seen over and over in the gospel is that very often takur will give these illustrations which are actually parts of a song and then later he'll sing the song this is the way he likes to introduce a topic and then impress on the minds of the devotees the teaching of it by actually singing the song they're like the fish in a trap they can come out of it by the way they entered but they sport inside the trap with other fish and hear the sweet sound of the murmuring water and forget everything else yeah one of the descriptions that takwa gives of the bound souls is that uh they enjoy it they they barrow inside the mud and they think that they're safe there and they have a nice time there they don't know that they're caught in the net that when the fisherman pulls up the net they'll be caught in it also they think they're fine and having a nice time they don't even make an effort to free themselves from the trap the lisping of children is the murmur of the water that means there's small children who can't even pronounce words yet it is just this baby talk is the murmur of the water and the other fish are relatives and friends so this attachment to uh to family to to the children and friends and all of that is what keeps the worldly people bound to the world only one or two may good their escape by running away they are the liberated souls the master then sang now we get the song when such delusion veils the world through muhammad's spell then brahma is bereft of sense and vishnu loses consciousness what hope is left for men the narrow channel first is made and there the trap is set but open though the passage lies the fish once safely through the gate do not come out again the silkworm patiently prepares its closely spun cocoon yet even though away leads forth encased within its own cocoon the worm remains to die the master continued man may be likened to grain he has fallen between the middle stones and is about to be crushed only the few grains that stay near the peg escape therefore meant to take refuge at the pig that is to say in god calling call on him sing his name then you will be free otherwise you will be crushed by the king of death yeah we the numbers aren't in our favor and gita we read among thousands perhaps one tries to be free and among them perhaps one really realizes me in truth and then uh out of a hundred thousand kites at best one or two break free and the mother laughs and sings and claps their hands and enjoy that so the numbers aren't in our favor but we have to understand that if one out of a hundred thousand can get free and uh we've come this way i'm a christian now we're the spiritual life in this very lifetime then our odds go way down then then there's every chance that we can have this god realization and every promise will get it at the end so we shouldn't think that fortunately we're not the ones who have gone into the trap and refused to come out we're trying to come out and we have every help possible help to come out so we we shouldn't get too depressed over this whole thing that uh the odds are in our favor or in our favor through god's grace that's all we're very fortunate we may say good some scotus we may say good fortune whatever it is but we shouldn't take this as referring to those who are already on a spiritual path master sang again mother mother my boat is sinking here in the ocean of this world fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side clumsy as my helmsman the mind stubborn my six oarsmen the passions into a pitiless wind i sailed my boat and now it is sinking split is the rudder of devotion tattered is the sale of faith into my boat the the waters are pouring it doesn't sound very good tell me what shall i do for with my failing eyes alas nothing but darkness do i see here in the waves i will swim o mother and cling to the raft of thy name so this again it's not to make us feel pessimistic that that this is our con really look at the state that the boat is sinking okay then what is this hurricane that's raging delusion so we all have a bit of delusion then clumsy is the helsmann that means the mind so the mind is not uh is not our best friend all of the time and who are the six oarsmen the six passions lost greed pride anger and the like and uh they're very stubborn then we're going into a a very difficult wind would what we're waiting for is what taqwa calls this anukul hawa the favorable breeze favorable wind when we get that that means the wind's at our back and we don't have to fight too much we simply have put up the sails and that'll carry us the whole the whole way but it says that i sell my boat and is now sinking so we seem to be helpless then we can cling to devotion but that's the rudder the rudder is devotion and that rudder is split so if the if the rudder is split it's not going to be able to keep the the ship straight then then what about the sale it's tattered what is the sale the sale of faith so what's happening the water is rushing into the boat that means it's about to sink and there's nothing that anybody can do that will be swimming around without even a raft but it says o mother your name is the raft that we can cling to that raft of your name and will be saved mr bishwas we don't know who this is i don't think he was introduced earlier i don't remember was he introduced mr bishop this is the first time we hear about him i don't think we hear about him again and he's not introduced uh there's not too much that we know and mr vishwas perhaps m didn't even know his full name very rarely did we find this mister and with just one name mr bishash had been sitting in the room a long time he now left he had once been wealthy we know at least this much he'd once been wealthy but it squandered everything in an immoral life finally so very often we find that tucker is saying things that strike too deeply that someone realizes that yeah that this is true what he's saying perhaps he knows that that i'm the one who needs this message that i'm the one who's sinking in the boat and a little embarrassment and a little unwillingness to hear the truth and they get up and leave we've we find this one other time i think pratap majumdar from the brahmos homage when takara is talking something about how uh everyone is a slave to their wives something like that he says yes sir now let me take my leave and he gets up and leaves so not everyone is willing to hear a difficult truth so this is mr vishas he had once been wealthy but it squandered everything in an immoral life finally he had become indifferent to his wife and children referring to mr vishas the master said he is an unfortunate wretch a householder has his duties to discharge his debts to pay now very often we see takur giving more emphasis to spiritual practice and less to household duties and worldly duties it's a big mistake for us to think that he thought it was okay to not perform our worldly obligations that oh now i'm such a spiritual person let other people do it he said you want the pillage the other people from your neighborhood to raise your children what kind of person are you so aside from those those rare souls who are swept up that this they're in this this windstorm of of spiritual life where they can't see anything that aside from them everyone has to perform their duties a householder has his duties to discharge his debts to pay his debts to the gods his debt to the answers this is known as the panchayat these pancho arenas these five obligations uh that's to the gods dave arena that's the ancestors petri arena rishirina debts to the riches and then he adds to the wife and children we have others bhutarina and others uh but he mentioned specifically uh for this is for the men of course debt to the wife and the children if a wife is chased then her husband should support her and tucker used to say even even to make arrangements for after his passing or in the rare case that he'll renounce the world to make sure that the money is left for her provisions are made for her but uh even if it is an ordinary person that the wife and family won't suffer even after his passing away i read a very interesting thing not too long ago we know how takur saved up money to buy bangles for holy mother he also made sure see he was he was very very uh sharp in one way i don't want to say calculating because there is nothing calculating about him but we shouldn't think that he was just simple in the bad sense it's simple in the sense that he really didn't pay attention he paid tremendous attention to everything and what what i was reading is that he knew exactly how much money he got every month and he wanted a certain amount of money to be kept aside for holy mother for after his passing away it wasn't just that i mean he had money saved to buy her bangles we know that but in addition to that and i don't know what happened to that money if it was ever given to her we know that after his the passing that the stipend for her uh which he wanted to go to her the stipend that he had received that was stopped and that she of course didn't live there anymore at the dakshinishwar kali temple but he he really for a man who couldn't save up anything for himself he made sure that some money was kept aside and in a safe place and would accumulate for a holy mother after his passing away i doubt if she ever got it because when she had to go when she went to kamarpacore after that she was in a state of really terrible poverty at that time so even takur made provisions for his wife who uh wasn't the wife in an ordinary sense of course for the holy mother after his passing away only a monk must not save so he made that exception for himself because he knew who holy mother was and he knew that she would have to go through difficult times only a monk must not save the bird and the monk do not provide for the morrow now swami vaikananda he was another exception that he also he did the very same thing of course he had no wife but for his mother to make sure that there were provisions there for his mother and of course he died before his mother and that she would have some place to stay and and some income because swamiji's other two brothers i don't think they were ever successful in terms of earning money one became a revolutionary i'm not quite sure what happened to the other one swamiji had taken him to england to try to get him to learn something about electrical engineering or to be electrician something like that and interesting enough of the three sons none of them married or had children so there was no one to continue the direct family line of swamiji's family of his father vishwanathan so he said only a monk must not save the bird and the monk do not provide for the moral but even a bird provides when it has young it brings food in it to build for its chicks now at other times he'll say but once they get old enough it'll even the motherboard will even peck them to go out so that they learn how to provide for themselves balarama mr bishosh now wants to cultivate the company of a holy people so taco knew that if someone's whole life isn't going in one direction you can't simply one day change everything these old some scottish will be there and very difficult to to break old habits so he gives an interesting uh explanation for this master with a smile amongst kamandalu goes to the four principal holy places with him but it still tastes bitter this commandolu is generally made from a gourd some type of a bitter uh bitter gourd if it's if it's not cooked or anything it'll have that bitter taste what he's saying is look this comandaloo is having holy company and it's going to holy places but it can't change its nature it is what it is so this is what he's saying about people who uh have let a very worldly life for a long time and and have a very strong thomas sick and rajestic nature likewise it is said that the malaya breeze turns all trees into sandalwood but there are a few exceptions such as the cotton tree the ashwata and the hog plum so there has to be some inner stuff already there for the transformation to take place some frequent the company of holy men in order to smoke hemp some do it to get nice prasad also many monks smoke it and these households holders stay with them prepare the him and partake of the prasad okay so that is the end of uh that was november 15th wednesday so now it's the 16th thursday my guess of course they picked up m i don't know if this is there's usually a a long vacation period at dorgo puja time this is a little bit late for that and you know i don't know why that m is able to stay with them on two uh two weekdays anyhow it's thursday november 6 1882. the master had come to calcutta oh it's evening so so then it's okay he's finished with his work in the evening he went to the house of raj mohan a member of the brahma samaj where narendra and some of his young friends used to meet in worship according to the brahmos ceremonies i don't know who this raj mohan is we don't hear much about him but aside from balaram both and ram chandra datta and a few others it seems that most of the places that talk were visited were the homes of the brahmos and they had different festivals in their homes many of them were wealthy people and they would either have a garden home or their regular house would be big enough for that so very often he would be invited there and that's where they would meet and he was always curious he wanted to see how all different types of people worshiped what their what their traditions were like especially their lectures what are the things they spoke about what were their teachings uh it was an education for him they were all new for him he was a village boy to see how these western educated people worshipped he was curious about these things and otherwise how could he how could he know how to help them and and to to help him in their spiritual life if he didn't know how they uh what their mode of worship was and everything so he'd like to see these things srama krishna wanted to see their worship he was accompanied by m and a few other devotees the master was very happy to see narendra and expressed the desire to watch the young men at their worship so perhaps this was all kind of the younger members none of the acharyas or the big shots were there we don't know but narendra sang and then the worship began one of the men young men conducted it he prayed oh lord may we give up everything and be absorbed in thee now they didn't have any practice or custom of of sannyasa there were no brahmal sanyasis they were acharyas the acharyas were simply like like priests they were married people generally and they didn't follow all of these uh traditional customs of sanyasa they didn't believe too much in guru avatar many of the different things of course image worship was out of the question so this is a kind of an odd thing and but takur there's a good reason for it he said possibly this is m possibly the youth was inspired by the master's presence and so talked of utter renunciation yep i think more than possibly probably they wouldn't have done it without him there srama krishna remarked and a whisper much likelihood there is of that so he knew aside from narendra and who maybe rock collar one or two others but the general general run of the people who went to the brahmos so much that there was very little chance that they would renounce everything for god realization the master with refreshments there's a very short section that we have here for november 16th then the next we get to sunday this is november 19 18 1882 it was the auspicious occasion of the jagadhatri puja the festival of the divine mother jagadhatri puja is right this is the time for it do you know what day it is it's one of these days i think this sometime last week or this week or this coming week this is jagadhatri puja time and this was was and is the main puja that's performed in the holy mother's birthplace because during her lifetime i don't remember was it her mother who had some dream or something that it should be performed there the good hatred and how it was performed there uh holy mother and god shouted swami shahran and others to help arrange the whole thing and for some reason they were to do it that one year and then after that no one was willing to to stop it so it became a yearly festival there even now it's a very big festival in january and our sacramento center was founded on puja day they have a big celebration there every year and yeah it's one one of the forms of the divine mother and you know holy mother it's interesting that asrama krishna himself and others connected her with all of the different forms of the divine mother at different times and in under different circumstances so srama krishna referred to her sita when she was in the nested sita was exiled and had to live in a small hut holy mother had to do that he used to say that she loved to wear jewelry why because she was lakshmi herself he used to say that uh sharada meant the giver of assata to give her wisdom that she was saraswati then he worshiped her in shorashi a form of kali so all of these different ways but he used to say that yogin ma and golab ma were heard joy and bijoya who were the companions of jagadhatri so well he also connected her with jagadhatri they're all different different aspects of the divine mother not that they're they're completely separate or different but it's interesting how many different ways in different times takwa identified the holy mother with one or the other and then of course in ramashuram we know how a holy mother felt that the absolute identity was sita when she saw the sheba lingam so it was the auspicious occasion of the jagadhatri puja the festival of the divine mother srama krishna was invited to surrender his house in calcutta okay now surendra suresh mitra he was one of one of the rasad this the bearers of the expenses of sriami krishna grey devotee a little bit like gedi's ghost he also was a bit of a drinker in his early days many of them and swamiji was very highly critical of this he said what did the british leave behind he said the moguls when they came they left behind beautiful buildings in the court system and so many other things british left behind a bunch of broken brandy bottles he was very critical of the fact that uh they introduced so many taverns and and what they used to call grog shops liquor stores and uh the first time that many of these people in calcutta uh had access to these things and many became addicted uh became alcoholic so swamiji was very critical of that but he was one of them and of course through talk was touch he became a very saintly person very very devotion devotional very devoted to srama krishna and he and and they were friends and both of them uh purchased properties uh on the outskirts of calcutta for these garden homes huh so we have kankargachi where uh ramchandra data was there now our yoga dan one of the centers of the order and the surrender had a place that was within walking distance of that but this seems to be his place right in in calcutta but first he went to the house of manomohan in the neighborhood now the mohan was a big city with a lot of people but they were all intertwined all the devotees he was somehow related to to ram ramchandra and he was the father-in-law of raqqa so it was it was through the father-in-law that that the the daughter really lost her husband to santiago because he brought raqqa there and then raqqa of course became our swami brahmananda and uh that was the end of family life for for him but this mohan was also a great devotee he didn't seem to object too much rachael's own father objected more so this is mohan these are all great devotees of srama krishna they weren't ordinary people we we praised the monastic disciples so much but these were the great householders so the master was seated in mano mohan's parlor he said god very much relishes the bhakti of the poor and the lowly just as the cow relishes fodder mixed with oil cake king duryodhana showed krishna the splendor of his wealth and riches but christian accepted the hospitality of the poor vidura god is fond of his devotees he runs after the devotee as the cow after the calf there's a uh vedic hymn that has the same thing this comes up in another place one of the pundits quotes it vedic him so then there's another case where he's introducing a song then the master sang and for that love the mighty yogis practice yoga from age to age when love awakes the lord like a magnet draws to him the soul then he said caitanya used to shed tears of joy at the very mention of krsna's name now takur he talks about caitanya david so many times we we have to remember that he grew up in a division of a family uh that was not part of the taitanya tradition they were devotees of rama this uh tradition is a little bit different those who were devotees of chaitanya deva they really formed a separate group they didn't mix so much they were a little exclusive they were a little critical of others and tako used to say growing up we wondered who was this chaitanya deva did they just set him up as some big guy or was he really such a great saint as everybody said but he had his own experiences when he went to navadweep that he had that vision of of caitanya david nityananda and everything and they entered into his heart and he felt yes they were they were authentic and genuine and then probably because of the the brahmany bhairavi brahmani and that whole uh incident where she brought in all of the pundits and and showed that the spiritual emotions and and and manifestations in bahava and everything that tucker had were the same as is that which was seen in the life of caitanya deva and radha of course earlier so he developed it wasn't something that he grew up with he developed a tremendous love and devotion for caitanya dewa and sometimes would say that caitanya nithyananda and eduaita all three of them are here together in this one body so this will be caitanya deva his chief companion and dwight acharya was he was kind of like saint john the baptist he was the precursor he was the one who started this old group at the vaishnavas and caitanya deva used to insult them and he he used to torture them so much so that if ever they saw him coming they would run in the other direction he would laugh at them and make fun of them and everything and then somehow his father died there's always a turning point we see this the life of of so many father died he went to gaia he went to gaia to perform the shraddha right and there he met ishwara puri and took initiation with him we don't know why why or how this transformation took place but when he came back he was burning with his love of god and quickly joined this group the same ones who were so afraid of him quickly became their leader and then their object of worship so this edueta and nityananda in caitanya and he used to make a play on the names also that if this advaita this non-dualism and this caitanya this awakening of consciousness and then nityananda then we get eternal bliss so he would talk about that in that sense also so this is why he'll always refer to caitanya deva actually all of bengal was was practically transformed not that everyone became followers of chaitanya deva but really the the culture and and the music and the kirtan and everything was tremendously influential then he said caitanya devi used to shed tears of joy the very mention of krsna's name god alone is the real substance all else is illusory now those of you who have been attending these classes know that i i have a little curiosity whenever i read that god alone is real the world is unreal things things like that i like to go back and check and see what the original language is because very rarely did taku used this word mithya illusory and very often it was anitya that this world is transitory so i went back and checked here he's saying vastu and avastu in bengali but substantial so the first one is good that the god alone is the real substance and all else is illusory is really of us everything else is insubstantial now what does that mean i don't take it to mean that to unreal like a dream because ataku didn't usually unless he was talking to ajani he very rarely used that type of language so to me that he's saying is that something hollow or boston means hollow in that sense there's no substance to it the the world can't satisfy it can't fulfill it that the other loan is the real substance so that that's good god alone is the real substance but all else i would say is hollow is empty that it can't fulfill us not that it's an illusion we shouldn't think that it's just a dream other people aren't real this world isn't real but some something insubstantial about it man can realize god if he wants to but he madly craves the enjoyment of lust and gold the snake has a precious stone in its head this is some it says a folk belief in bengal but it is perfectly satisfied to eat a mere frog now what does that mean god dwells within we carry that treasure within us but we're content to have ordinary enjoyments not realizing what's there taco gives another ice nice illustration at other times that people who cultivate rice and some of it is very good quality rice they'll have kind of a silo and they'll keep it there but the rats can burrow in and find their way in so they take this this very cheap rice or puffed rice koi something like that and they sprinkle it outside and the the rats come and they're perfectly content to eat that not realizing that the real good stuff is inside so this is this is a way of explaining uh example explaining that uh so here says the snake has a precious stone in its head we're carrying god within but we're perfectly satisfied to eat a mere frog worldly enjoyment bhakti is the one essential thing who can never know god through reasoning i want love of god what do i care about knowing his infinite glories now this reasoning remember bichar that takwa again makes a big distinction here that sometimes he'll say don't do this of each other don't constantly try to figure out with your brain that how much of god has become the world how much is god is transcended well don't bother about these things the same time he says constantly discriminate what is real and what is unreal what is transitory what is lasting what is important what is not important what is the real substance constantly do that that type of hr but this other type where we want to know all of the possible manifestations of god that's too much he said try to develop devotion so bhakti is the one essential thing who can ever know god through reasoning i want love of god what do i care about knowing his infinite glories one bottle of wine makes me drunk what do i care about knowing how many gallons there are in the grog shop one jar of water is enough to quench my thirst i don't need to know the amount of water there is on earth another nice example taku used to give we want to bathe in the ganga does that mean we have to start up in in gomuk in gangotri and go all the way down to ganga sagar the regionaries no wherever we go and we've done it we've completed the task we don't have to know each and every bend in the river and everything like that we just have to immerse ourselves in the waters good okay so we'll stop here we're on page uh 157 we'll continue uh from there yeah he's he's going to leave manomohan's house so we finished that section and he'll go to surrender's house close with our chat [Music] we bow our is before surama 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 so i thank all of you for coming next time we meet in this class will be the day after thanksgiving is that right i think so so we wish everyone a very happy thanksgiving everyone be careful they're not recommending that people have big family gatherings this time it's very difficult but people can get together by zoom and everything will also do something very quiet here but still is a very very wonderful concept for a holiday they set aside just for us to express our gratitude for all of the blessings we've received so thank you everyone and we'll see you next time