Video 34

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

your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone i hope you all had a nice thanksgiving celebration i know many of you probably weren't with all of the family that you hope to be with but and you know we all try to make the best of it we're on the chapter the master with the brahmo devotees part one this is sunday november 19th 1882 and we're on page 157 sriram krishna had been invited to surrender his house in calcutta but he first went to the house of manomohan in the neighborhood and had a very had a short visit there and now is about to go to surrender's house so here we start srama krishnan arrived at surendra's house many devotees had assembled there including surendra's elder brother who was a judge master to surrender his brother you are a judge that is very good but remember everything happens through god's power it is he who has given you your high position that is how you became a judge people think it is they who are great the water from the roof flows through a spout that is shaped like a lion's head it looks as if the lion were bringing the water out through its mouth but look at the source of the water a cloud gathers in the sky and rain falls on the roof then the water flows through the pipe and at last comes out through the spout now we'll get we'll get many different conversations regarding this question of free will it was a big issue in those days it's been a big issue uh in western philosophy and and eastern philosophy uh throughout the ages and takwor will say many many different things about it it's a very big topic i of course won't go into every possible explanation but a few things that we can we can try to understand one is that from a very very practical point of view takur is saying don't have too much pride he's saying don't have too much pride without being philosophical about it we all know that circumstances are very strange and tricky things that if if things had been a little bit different in one way or another somebody who is working for us could be our boss and we could be working for them anything any little thing could have changed anything else we've no idea why and how things happen it's so capricious and and so uh utterly beyond our capacity to really understand uh the whole funny idea of cause and effect how one thing brings about something and not something else and why one person succeeds and another person doesn't uh we can say it's all in the hands of god we can say it's our karma we can give all sorts of different types of explanations suramar krishna when he talks about us having no free will that everything is the will of god the will of the divine mother he's talking from a very high plane and this is kind of the ultimate goal he he seems to equate this idea with uh actual god realization and the complete uh elimination of this this lower type of ego he really seems to be saying that uh once we can transcend this lower ego this is this this old self once that dies then we can truly say everything is thy will because we have no ego we have no special desire uh other times we see that our lack of of perfect free will is is seen from a psychological point of view this is something that that's stressed very much in the gita and srama krishna also but gita especially this idea of swab we all have our own nature we're prakriti we have our own uh makeup of of thomas and rajesh and satwa in the mind we have our old samskatas we have our own understanding of things and misunderstanding of things and the decisions that we make are based on these things so how can we say that they're completely free decisions uh if if we are filled with certain desires that will taint everything and if we're very selfish people that'll color everything and all of our decisions will be based on on that whatever strong tendencies are in the mind so there's no absolute freedom that way on the other hand takwe emphasizes this idea that the divine mother herself has given us this feeling of i and this feeling of responsibility otherwise we'll do anything and everything so if we go about doing things just for our own sake on our own benefit that are contrary to all norms of society and we say that everything is mother's will then takwa says it's perfect hypocrisy so we can't fall back on that either there are a couple of cases where somebody will raise that well everything is mother's will and they'll get a big scolding uh this is one thing then there are other times when they're talking about this idea of uh of free will and everything is it's the will of the of the mother everything is a divine will tucker hill just out of the blue he'll make a statement like well if you eat chilis won't your tongue burn now why does he say that now he's bringing this idea of karma so everything is the will of god there's that clash with this idea that everything is based on our own past actions our own karma this is god's plan if we want to look at it that way this is how it works out so it's a very complex issue i personally like very much something that swami vivekananda said he said when it comes time to to perform action feel as if everything depends upon you everything is in our hands when it comes to the fruits of action and the results of what we do feel that everything is in the hands of god it's a very nice simple way of looking at all of this but talk we're saying don't have this feeling that uh i'm such a great man because i work so hard this and that plenty of people work hard plenty of people are equally qualified there are plenty of people who are smarter than us and just do good fortune we may say god's will we may say good karma whatever that we're in a certain position and they're not or they're in a certain position and we're not so we're saying don't be too proud this is this is enough if we get that idea out of this that this is enough that we should have a little humility with regard to whatever we've achieved in life and know that there are plenty of other people who if they had had the opportunities that we had would have done even more than we've done we see people in the street we may look down upon them and think oh they didn't make any effort to better themselves if we had been born in their circumstances with their uh family situation poverty situation or all of that we may have turned out worse and if they had been born in our situation with many of the advantages they may have turned out better so we shouldn't judge anybody that way we should feel tremendous uh gratitude if we've been able to reach any any high level of anything so he's saying he's a judge a very high position for for the indians under uh british rule this was one of the highest positions that they could have so he says very good but remember everything happens through god's power it is he was given so that means don't have too much pride that's all however we understand it surrender his brother the brahma-samaj preaches the freedom of women and the abolition of the caste system what do you think about these matters now this is another thing that we have to understand in context because tucker knew that this was a kind of a fad among the people of calcutta in those days because of the brahma-samaj and other reform groups it wasn't only the brahma so much there were other groups that were interested in in social reform to a large extent because of the british and because the british were looked down upon many of the traditional practices of society in those days child marriage and no remarriage of widows and different things like that it was a very big issue and taqwa very often we have to understand things were correctives if he thought something was going too far in one direction he'll emphasize the other side it doesn't mean that he had no interest in these things but he came for those who had an opportunity to realize something higher in life and he didn't want them to to put all of their energy in the direction of uh outward going things societal things so that's why sometimes it seems like he doesn't care about these things it's not true otherwise he wouldn't have had swamiji and and the order and everything be so interested in in the welfare of society not that we go in for that type of social reform but swamiji actually he was the greatest social reformer because he had one theory one thing will take care of everything what was that kumar education education he used to say give them education they'll solve their own problems they would what did the problem of women that means that the women were not given the opportunity for education and work and other things they were married at a young age he said hands off am i a woman that i'll solve their problems give them education and they'll solve their own problems and the same thing with the poor and the same thing with the uh outcasts and everything give them education they'll solve their own problems so there's great emphasis on education and on our order run so many schools and we've done so much work in the field of education uh this was was his solution for social reform and to let it occur naturally that's the other thing that takwo wanted to see that these things will uh occur take place on their own if we can take care of the the spiritual side of things swamiji had to face a lot of criticism from the point of view that vedanta was world denying and many people felt that this was harmful to society that vedanta preached not caring about this world only caring about god realization and everything and swamiji's answer was that it's not because of being answered because vedanta hasn't been put into practice that there are problems in society because vedanta preaches the oneness of all beings that means get rid of this privilege get rid of this higher class and lower class and and all of that so for swamiji uh education meant spiritual education as well as people learning means to earn a livelihood so both things together so he's asking him what do you think about these matters matters the freedom of women freedom of women was freedom from this child marriage was a great burden and this idea that they weren't fit for education they were fit only for being mothers and raising families and they weren't given of course from a spiritual point of view they weren't given access from ancient days to the scriptures and sanskrit learning and things like that uh so all of the different things about that and then caste system master men feel that way when they are just beginning to develop spiritual yearning so sometimes we start to think that yes we want to lead a righteous life in dharma and this idea of dharma we look outward instead of inward it's not bad he's not criticizing it that way say with vidyasagar he we may think he was very critical of him he's saying that he doesn't know there's gold within as if he's an ignorant man but so many times he said the work that vidyasegar does is very very good he was a very philanthropic old man he helped so many people he said the work he does is very good but he added that but but the asakura was older than srama krishna he in in those days that meant that he was really getting towards his final years when tucker felt that somebody with such a brilliant intellect and such sensitivity thing to to the feelings of others that if someone like that devoted his mind to god realization that he could really have some higher type of experience so that's why he was so forceful speaking in those terms so as a men feel that way when they are just beginning to develop spiritual yearning a storm raises clouds of dust and one cannot distinguish between the different trees the mango the hog plum and the tamarind but after the storm blows over one sees clearly after the first storm of divine passion is quelled one gradually understands that god alone is the highest good the eternal substance and that all else is transitory one cannot grasp this without the and the company of holy men what is the use of merely reciting the written parts for the drum it is very difficult to put them into practice on the instrument what can be accomplished by a mere lecture it is austerity that is necessary by that alone can one com comprehend the other thing is that without some very deep insight it's very difficult for uh even good people i don't want to say ordinary people even good people to really know what is the best way of solving any particular problem we all may know that yes poverty is bad that privilege of one class over another is a bad thing that education is necessary but how to implement these things and talker always emphasizes the point unless we have some deep grounding and spirituality a little bit of ego will come in a little bit of desire for people to be uh feel gratitude towards us a little desire for some name and fame these things will creep in as a very mature person who can really do selfless work so he wanted that spiritual maturity first you asked about caste distinctions there is only one way to remove them and that is by love of god lovers of god have no caste through this divine love the untouchable becomes pure the pariah no longer remains a pariah caitanya embraced all including the pariahs i've mentioned before that this was one of the features of the titanium movement and of almost all of uh the renaissance there was a devotional renaissance period in in north india and something equivalent in south i'm not as familiar with the saints of the south uh as of the north but almost all of them uh not that they were reform movements against caste but they didn't care about caste in the south huh the uh always or who was it huh yeah and many of them were very low-caste the the poets and singers and and saints were were people who were considered to be very low caste people and in in the north they weren't necessarily low caste but they didn't care about cast i may be wrong but my assumption has always been that this title that's given to us in the among the vaisnavas in bengal is something so the people won't know what the cast was so everyone is at us just almost everyone is a sing among the men of course most of them came from the cast but still just this egalitarian idea that now if you hear somebody's last name generally in most parts of india the people will know what cast they belong to just by hearing the name but this is one way to take all that emphasis off that we're all one as lovers of god so most of the devotional movements were like that not all of them some of them are very cast ridden some are very restrictive to brahmins and things but in general this is why i i always see this uh very distinct distinct difference between the movements that go back to the acharyas and those who go back to the very simple saintly people the acharyas were a little bit orthodox and and then and their followers were a little bit uh tainted with this idea of caste while the others simple uh devotional movements disregarded that cast i last week or before i mentioned the bowels who really take it to a great extreme they disregard religion even so that whether they're muslims or hindus or sikhs or christians or anything doesn't matter and they all live together they eat together they live in these ashrams or akras together and and sing and dance and the many beautiful songs about this there's no difference between hindu and muslim there's a wonderful film that was made a few years ago i mentioned a few times on the life of lalon fakir is very nice there's some beautiful songs he was a great saint very saintly person uh very simple and wrote i think something like 10 000 songs we never hear him mentioning him by name he lived earlier but talk was sing some of the songs and and mention some of the of their teachings so he was familiar with them they exerted a great influence over certain parts of east bengal and west bengal and one song is really nice it's how does it go ali por kali who do we care who is higher allah or kali huh well it makes no difference pani or salmi so whether you call it pani or whether you call it joe tucker's example it's the same water so they had that idea that they didn't care so and all through this tremendous devotion they all worshipping god and so actually what takur the what takara did was uh he took prevailing movements it wasn't so much that that he had a new philosophy in a new vision or anything but he took all of these these prevailing movements and demonstrated in his life others practiced them and maybe one or two had some type of realization he demonstrated the perfect realization of all of them in one lifetime there's something unheard of in the i even would do ancient teachings from the vedas and and do panasonic teachings and these these lettered movements bowel movements and things like that he was it was tremendous what he was able to do in his life and he never claimed anything original he never claimed that he was the proof he was a proof of his thousand years of traditions of all religions although i still think he had a few original teachings of his own that we don't find his ideas about jan and vigna and other things the members of the brahma-samad sing the name of hari that is very good through ernest's prayer he is saying that there are also devotees he always called them bhaktas and the is among them they should have no cast distinction through earnest prayer one receives the grace of god and realizes him god can be realized by means of old paths the same god is invoked by different names what is tucker done he's kind of moved moved the conversation away from caste and social reform to what he's really interested in he didn't come to eliminate chest he came to teach devotion and realization and self-awareness self-knowledge he came for a different reason surrender his brother this is our judge sir what do you think of theosophy this is a good example of someone who's not really a hardcore devotee he's asking very peripheral types of questions theosophy was also a bit of a fad during those days cardinal alcott and madame blavatsky and they had all these ideas about the astral planes and and these mahatmas living in different places but it was it caught hold uh in india a little bit i guess they were british originally and even in this country you'll still see theosophical society libraries and things in different places it became quite a popular movement it was helpful to one extent that it introduced some ideas of vedanta or hinduism in western countries they weren't antagonistic to hinduism the ways some of the christian missionaries were so there were some positive things they weren't helpful to swamiji when he came to the west one thing we can say even though he had nothing against them especially but they weren't very helpful towards him so this is the question sir what do you think of theosophy master i've heard see he doesn't know too much he's heard a few devotees talking maybe i've heard that man can acquire superhuman powers through it and perform miracles i saw a man who had brought a ghost under control the ghost used to procure various things for his master what shall i do with superhuman powers can one realize god through them if god is not realized then it's not realized then everything becomes false so the taco was very consistent that way that he didn't care for these supernatural things he didn't care for psychic powers he was very one-pointed that he would very often say if they have devotion if they worship god then good that will be that will be the bottom line for him now it's curious and i hadn't noticed this before that the next couple of entries only gave the month and not the particular date in the beginning we understand but the one before this was november 19th this simply says november 1882 so it'll be some somewhere towards the end of november second half of november it was about four o'clock in the afternoon when srama christian arrived in calcutta to attend the annual festival festival of the brahmos already we've seen how many times he's come to calcutta because of the brahmos homage and the different festivals that are celebrated either in their hall or uh in a devotee's home or sometimes in this what they call the lily college cottage yeah the kamal kutir this was uh generally where kesha was and it was one of the places and they had their own hall they had different places where they met this one was in manila malik's house so it says it was about four o'clock in the afternoon when srama christian arrived in calcutta to attend the annual festival of the brahmos homage which was to be celebrated in manila mullik's house besides m and other devotees of the master vijay goswami and a number of brahmos were present elaborate sorry elaborate arrangements had been been made to make the occasion a success video was to conduct the worship the katak there were these kataks uh where scholars but also not unnecessarily great pundits or anything but they had a great knowledge of some of the scriptures usually bhagavata or other piranhas and things and they could recite from them and they could tell stories from them and they could sing songs and they'd do a whole production uh i've i've heard of one one or two even some of our swamis can do it they'll give nice talks like that and and they'll introduce a topic they'll tell a story then they'll sing a song it's very beautiful to hear so very often we find these kittenias these or these curtain parties they'll be invited to sing and have kiertin singing and dancing or these kotaks will be invited and they'll do these recitals that are also very nice so this one this qatar recited the life of prahlada from the puranas its substance was as follows prahlada's father was king of the demons he begraved malice toward god and put his own son through endless tortures for leading a religious life afflicted by his father prahlada prayed to god o god please give my father holy inclinations giddy's ghost also wrote a play on the life of prahlada which taku saw at these words the master wept he went into an ecstatic mood afterwards he began to talk to the devotees master bhakti is the only essential thing one obtains love of god by constantly chanting his name and singing his glories ah what a devotee shivanat is he is soaked in the love of god like a cheesecake in syrup yeah cheesecake is not uh don't think of swiss cheese or anything this will mean the uh type of rasa gold or something like that yeah takur for some reason loves shivanath i don't know why if not shastri he was one of the leaders of the brahma brahma-samaj he also i don't know if he was officially called in acharya or not but he used to lecture i heard he was big and fat i remember reading one story about him but anyhow he uh obviously had mixed emotions about taqward he appreciated him on the one hand he saw probably he thought this is a very good person a very simple person a very devoted person uh who by spending too much time in spiritual practice has gone a little bit off his head he used to say that behead that a little bit pogba and he wasn't the only one of course but by the time that the brahmos came wasn't known so much that way but much earlier when he went through his real divine madness then everybody thought that even his mother and his brothers that thought that he had that's why they uh made arrangements for his marriage they thought that this will somehow bring his mind back to the to the world that he won't have this this they thought it was a type of disease they used to call them mad holy man that but anyhow so this is not that later it seems especially after the split of the brahmos homage that uh he felt that taqwa had been a bad influence on maybe on vijay who later left and became a sannyasian himself maybe even on kesha their attitude of many of the brahmas was very funny that some of them like to say that kesha was a great influence on taku that after ceramic christian made keisha how his views changed and everything and then others would agree some people would say that taku was keshav's guru of course there wasn't exactly no real initiation but keshav actually looked upon takur as as far greater than him kaiser had that type of humility the others weren't so quick to do that so this is the shivnat we the only thing we read about him negative is that takwa says a good person but he doesn't keep his word he said he would come and he didn't come it turns out we've read other things in the great master that it wasn't simply that he forgot to come or anything like that that he really didn't didn't want to and didn't encourage the other brahmos to go he was afraid that the whole samaj would would fall apart they would all become taqwa's devotees or disciples something like that tucker of course had no interest in that and this creating a movement or anything even kesha they would joke that keisha would say if if i understand all of this the highest teachings will i be able to keep my movement the adult and taco said no he said okay then that's enough for today let's stop here so he's talking about ah what a devotee shivnath is he is soaked in the love of god like a cheesecake and syrup one should not think my religion alone is the right path and other religions are false now this was a common thing we find taquer saying this specifically to some very orthodox one-sided vaisnavas and to the brahmos there may be others also we shouldn't think that these were the only ones like that some of the shaktis were also unless you worship the divine mother that she is the only one worthy of worship but it was more pronounced in some of these the vaisnava especially the followers of caitanya deva the brahmos were they they had their sophistication they were a little different it wasn't that though christian alone is to be worshipped it's a little bit like uh these poor fellows that they're still worshiping images and things like that that we have some higher deeper understanding we're more educated uh we know the upanishads we're not simply following these put on us some idea like that seem to be in their minds that so a little of a little feeling of being elite that they were the cream of the crop they were the well-educated bengalis of calcutta mostly so he says one should not think my religion alone is the right path and other religions are false god can be realized by means of all paths takwa didn't put as much emphasis on the path we shouldn't think that every path is so perfect and so wonderful he would he would always say that there are errors in every religion and every spiritual path it wasn't the path it was so great it was the devotee and the the the the faith and devotion and uh dedication to spiritual practice that was the main thing it didn't matter even even in guru even if the guru was not a good person even if the guru had some bad habits one has taken initiation and one looks upon the guru as god himself or herself that the individual will benefit from that not that we shouldn't examine and guru ahead of time when he says that you know there's an expression that he uses this uh he repeated several times that even if my guru goes to the to the grog shop goes to the tavern even he gets drunk i should look upon him as nityananda it's the embodiment of perfect bliss so something like that i think that this will be more with regard to those who have a cool guru family guru that is a tradition that you're born in a certain family especially by the families that there'll be another brahmin family that will be the gurus for your family and out of respect for that tradition you receive initiation don't pay too much attention or they really saintly people are not this is this is that tradition and it's in something that's a little bit different we're we're free to look for a guru simply for spiritual purposes then he emphasizes you have to look at the character that's something a little bit different but if we've taken an initiation at a young age as part of the family traditions before receiving gaitheri mantra something like that at that time and later discover that in guru may have some bad habits then we shouldn't pay attention to that and it'll be our spiritual attitude that would be the most important thing so the same thing with a spiritual path now if it's too extreme if it involves all sorts of uh spiritual practices that uh tucker will criticize later some of these tantric practices then we should avoid them of course but if it's simply that there are certain superstitious ideas or certain one-sided ideas he said then push them aside don't worry about that follow the things that that appeal to you with great sincerity and you can have the highest realization so god can be realized by means of all paths it is enough to have sincere yearning for god this is the key regardless of the path this is the key sincere yearning for god infinite are the paths and infinity opinions so this is pod and mart these are our two things part and what the the infinite or the paths and this is how moth uh this is this this means whatever faith tradition we have is not any final truth it's as simple as simply a path it's a path to god we shouldn't get stuck on that which uh or the are the conclusions the siddhantas the the uh the final teachings of this path are they are they true or they ultimate are they something that can't be questioned he said don't think of it that way think of it that you're treading a path you're leaving something behind you're going forward climb me the steps don't worry about is each step perfect you're going to leave it behind anyhow you want to get to the roof that's the real thing so don't pay too much attention to to the path of course we don't want to get involved with something that is contrary or not helpful and we we want something this is why a radontic tradition is so wonderful we want something that allows us to question and allows us to examine uh is something logical or not does it make sense to us do we see living examples of it so then we can have real faith in it and conviction in it so the path may be secondary but that doesn't mean that it's not important and we should really choose a path that's suited to us this was this was another great teaching of takur that any path may be good but it has to be one that we're qualified to follow and that will be beneficial and helpful for us let me tell you one thing god can be seen so now he's getting to the essential thing that the realization that the the the goal the end of the path is key the path is just a means and the path and the and the what he calls moth the path and and the teaching the spiritual tradition the faith tradition the religion these are both secondary to this ultimate goal of realization let me tell you one thing god can be seen the vedas say that god is beyond mind and speech the meaning of this is that god is unknown to the mind attached to worldly objects vaisnavcharan used to say god is known by the mind and intellect that are pure now this is another very good example of how takur never claimed credit for some of the teachings that were the most important teachings that he had and some of these may have been uttered by other people who didn't even realize the significance the way taqwa did this vaisnavcharen his name comes up all of the time he was one of the early pundits he wasn't just a pundit he was one of the real spiritual leaders of this one particular division of a school at that time and uh one of the schools that was a little bit looked down upon by many people that we had this act and this ghost part of sex so the jeez there were many of them like that some of the things were a little questionable they like to take wine there's cottons they would do go off in pairs with who was your krishna who was your radha things like that so he was part of that community at the same time he was very sincere and takwe loved him very much and he was very devoted to takur and he was one of the early ones who called taqwa an avatar so they had this relationship and here talk was giving him credit for this one teaching because we read constantly that uh this manonasha we have to destroy this mind in order to have some higher realization that god is beyond mind and speech that we leave mind and speech behind uh in order to have the we read it all of the time and talk constantly is saying no it's not true that it's this ordinary mind that is incapable of realizing god but there's something called the pure mind and it makes sense because otherwise somebody loses his mind we we go into some state where the mind is not functioning the brain is not functioning it doesn't mean we have god realization we go into deep sleep we don't need god realization so it'll be the mind that transcends this ordinary state maybe it's perfectly quiet mind uh maybe it's the mind that just ascends to a higher level so we think of the kundalini the different levels of the heart center and the in the neck and the between the eyes and the head something like that but he emphasizes this idea that god has to be realized through the mind we have no other uh option than other means there's no other instrument but not this ordinary mind this pure mind and he's giving credit division of channel for that salvation of jordan used to say god is known by the mind and intellect that are pure now it that was the end of that quote therefore it is necessary to seek the company of a holy man practice prayer and listen to the instructions of the guru these purify the mind then one sees god dirt can be removed from water by a purifying agent they had these little things near mali or something little types of seeds and things that you could drop in in water and all the sediment would go to the bottom or something anyhow he's using that type of example dirt can be removed from water by a purifying agent then one sees one's reflection in it one cannot see one's face in a mirror if the mirror is covered with dirt then he says after the purification of the heart one obtains divine love then one sees god through his grace one can teach others if one receives the commit the command from god after seeing him there's a new idea before that one should not lecture there's a song okay now before we go on to all of this is there any difference talker starts out talking about purification of mind and then he talks about purification of heart this is a question that we get very often is there a difference between pure mind and pure heart first thing that we have to ask is there a difference between mind and heart is there a difference between mind and heart it's very interesting that the sanskrit word manus which means mind very often means heart that there's not any real distinction between the two the uh modern modern day people will think that that mind will be connected with the head and the brain and that the heart will be connected with the heart center and with the emotions and devotion and all of that this will be the gyani and this will be the devotee in the upanishads uh the locus of mind and locus of self or both the heart center both the heart center this is the city of brahman is within the heart meditation takes place within the heart this is this this is deposited hidden within the heart center everything is in the heart and if we think about it especially this idea verity that virti will be these different modifications or waves that take place in chitta some of them will be emotional some will be cognitive some will involve thinking some will involve a feeling but it's the same it's that same if we think of it as some subtle substance this is thought of as some mind stuff kind of thing there's no real distinction on the other hand there is a distinction to me to be made between the capacity uh to think and the capacity to feel so there is some distinction there when we talk about this pure heart then my understanding is generally we're talking about the heart that's free from the passions lust anger greed pride and all of those things and when we talk about the pure mind we talk about that mind that is quiet and free from any of the disturbances that we normally have and the connection will be that the pure heart is is the dominant element here unless the heart is pure the mind will never become quiet we can never make the mind quiet to practice yoga this is why sri krishna says that you want to make the mind quiet then you tried this obiasa yoga together with vairagya together with a dispassion together with freedom from anger and lust and pride and greed freedom from desires that you have to first you have to make the the heart pure if you want to make the mind quiet so there's a slight difference but really one thing and because of the slight difference they work together and this is why all of the spiritual practices in all of the schools for the gyani also start with these moral and ethical codes that we have or shamadam and things like that that unless we practice a little purity of heart and we practice cleanliness and good habits and moral have a moral code ethical code and that then there's no point in even trying spiritual life so he says after the purification of the heart one can obtain divine love one of the things about the impure heart is that it's a selfish heart the ego is there only thinking about one's good not caring about other people longing for sense pleasure and enjoyment which means not caring about others we want it for ourselves so this this has to be done first now one of the means of purifying the heart of course is spiritual practice so it's not like we can't do anything until the heart is pure then we shouldn't start a spiritual practice we do them side by side but there's a logical precedence to this that if we want we can't disregard this pure heart if we want to have higher realization of course in the teachings of christ this was the most important teaching blessed are the pure and hard for they shall see god most important teaching this this was the name given to mother teresa's organization the sisters of the pure heart so that was the most important teaching in christianity also then one sees god through his grace now why grace part of the purification of the heart is that this ego will die if there's no eye there then there's no striving there's just surrender if there's just surrender then we then there's salvation so there has to be grace there so this grace will come then then he goes off to a slightly different subject about teaching others in a command from god now it's not so off the mark because again these brahmas love to lecture people in the case of keshav he was a highly advanced spiritual soul sram christian knew that at the same time he also knew that it wasn't the same as an all-renouncing monk that taco was pretty insistent about that that the highest realization there should be some deep spirit of renunciation and they're the ones who should be the ones who were preaching but uh other than that he had a tremendous regard for keisha and but he heard so many of the lectures of the brahmos and he was never very impressed two problems always talking about what a glorious creation you have made number one and number two this idea of sin which they i don't know if they picked it up from from the christian missionaries or not the vaisnavas also talked about were lowly were sinners and things like that so not necessarily from them but they had that to a certain extent also so one can teach others if one receives that command from god after seeing him before that one should not lecture it's in quotes tucker knew a few english words so probably it means he used the word lecture there's a song that says you have set up no image here within the shrine or fool blowing the conch you simply make confusion worse confounded this is a song that we come across many times there's a story that there was a very simple young man named podo padmalocin was his name they called him polo and there was a a very old dilapidated uh small temple you'll see these these things just a tiny little thing that hadn't been used in years that you know sometimes these trees grow up inside you can hardly get in in the middle of it and the bats and pigeons and things will live in there so this was like that it was all dirty inside and and had dilapidated hadn't been used in years and yet they heard one morning the blowing of a conch and they thought oh what is this and they say they pulled over blowing the conch to call that means calling people to worship so they all thought how wonderful that he must have cleaned that the whole thing and installed the image and now we can start worshiping there again but it says you have set up no image there within the shrine of fool addressing poldo it says you haven't cleaned out anything and the 11 bats are living there that means that all of the the sent organs and the organs of action and the mind that they haven't been purified or anything they're covered with bad droppings and things blowing the conch you simply make confusion where it's confounded so he's saying that you fools you yourself don't know anything and you're lecturing other people that you'll simply confuse them even more that unless one has some some really uh higher type of experience then not good to lecture we're lucky we have talk where to hold on to that we don't have to figure these things out on our own otherwise we'd be in worse shape but we we have our our road map here that we don't have to guess what types of things to uh to tell people because taka said everything for us so he says you should first cleanse the shrine of your heart then you should install the deity and arrange worship now god dwells within the heart we know that this is just a different way of looking at it it's saying we want to bring god into the heart that means if we want to if we want to do our meditation and try to feel god dwelling within the heart try to picture god sitting within the heart center then we have to cleanse the heart first install the deity and arrange worship as yet nothing has been done what can you achieve by blowing the conch cell and simply making a loud noise so this is again talking about the lecturing of the brahmos homage but also about us if we want to sit for meditation picture god dwelling within the heart then we have to rid the heart of these lower tendencies and selfishness vijay sat on a raised stool and conducted the worship according to the rules of the brahmos homage afterwards he said by the master this happened several times and rejoined very often is is quite hesitant that uh oh you have come taco you've come uh we're all enjoying your company so much why why not we can dispense with it today and taco say no no you should continue as is the custom then follow that tucker liked to see things very orderly that way so so that's how he heard manito and he was curious he wanted to know what were the things that they were telling people would it be helpful for them uh could he have any influence even on these acharyas and everything so he he was curious about that so vijay sat on a ray stool and conducted the worship according to the rules of the brahma-samaj so that will be conducting the worship there will be some group chanting and some things from the upanishads i don't know what other types of worship there's no image or anything like that but there will be some lecture some some more like a sermon something like that so afterwards he sat by the master master tabijoy will you tell me one thing and remember talk would love to be joy and rejoice loved taqwa they had a very nice relationship there was no hint of jealousy or anything like that or an ill feeling or it was a very very beautiful sweet relationship and because of taqwa's influence he he renounced everything gave up family and and the brahma-samaj and and became a sanyasi will you tell me one thing why did you harp so much on sin the video also came from a very orthodox division of a family it was a little bit uncharacteristic for someone with his background to become a brahmo and tako knew that and he even he said that that this is your mistake vijay you were born with a bhakti in your blood he was a goswami that means he could trace his lineage directly back to one of the companions of of caitanya so he said why do you harp so much on sin by repeating 100 times i am a sinner one verily becomes a sinner one should have such faith as to be able to say what i have taken the name of god how can i be a sinner god is our father and mother tell him oh lord i have committed sins but i won't repeat them this was another thing that tucker said okay we've all done things in the past don't dwell on it don't harp on it just makes make some commitment to try not to repeat it that's all otherwise you keep dwelling on it then you'll convince yourself yes i am a sinner he said there's nothing helpful about that beneficial repeat the other side i'm a child of of of the divine mother the swamiji loved this idea this uh that were the children of immortal bliss uh so he didn't it's a very progressive idea actually that uh talk ahead and swamiji emphasized it so much the only sin there is really is calling somebody a sinner and and thought of sin is a great weakness so he got there from taku so he said one should have such faith as to be able to say what i've taken the name of god how can i be a sinner god is our father and mother tell him o lord i have committed sins but i won't repeat them chant his name and purify your body and mind purify your tongue by singing god's holy name okay we can stop here this is the end of that day we don't know what day it was and then curiously enough we have december 1882 without a date the next two at least i never noticed that before so we'll begin there next time this is page 159 and we will close with our chant [Music] foreign 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 om shanti shanti shanti peace peace peace be unto all thank you all for joining and we will see you next time