Video 4

Friday Night Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Atmajnanananda

that will Gotama rhythm when I'm copy their date myself at home your words are like nectar bringing life to scorch Souls they appraised 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 gospel - Ramakrishna I want to start out with a little quick review and just go back to one small actually big point that I want elaborate on a little bit more for those following in the book we're on page 81 this is the translation by Swami Nikhil analogy and this is February 1882 and this is M second visit this is where he asked several questions and I mentioned earlier that he really covers the entirety of his teachings in a nutshell I in the answers he gives to all of these questions so well we can almost say that the entire remaining portion of the gospel of Shri Krishna is just an extrapolation and expansion commentary on some of the answers that he gives here and it's very interesting that he will go through without mentioning it one by one all of the different spiritual paths which we know as the the fourth yoga's actually made famous by Swamiji they can endure because of his the separate publications on each of the four yoga's so we finished last time with question that Emma asked and humbly because he he was an arrogant at all but he did make a few little suggestions dis Rama Krishna and got a little bit of a scolding and talk would like to say oh you Calcutta people are all the same Oh giving advice to everybody so anyhow he he was a little bit humbled we can say and he said how sir yes sir how sir may we fix our minds on God and then we got several answers repeat God's name and sang his glories so he starts out with the Bakke oh but the yoga and keep holy company now and then visit God's devotees and holy men which we take to be holy people men and women 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 so we get chanting the name of the Lord then we get holy company then we get solitude when the tree is young it should be fenced all around otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle then 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 God alone Israel the in eternal substance all else is unreal that is impermanent by discriminating thus want to take off in permanent objects from the mind now I spend a little time I want to just add a few little points about what Ramakrishna refers to us vichara because this is something that has a very important role in spiritual practice and the same term vichara that's ramakrishna tells em he tells him not to do it so I will find throughout the gospel that he's telling him don't reason anymore so what is the role of reasoning vichara or V Vega discrimination discernment be able to separate like the Swan they say can separate the milk from the water it secretes in some acid and separates them so what is the role of of reasoning in spiritual life there's a certain type of reasoning which we discussed last time we can say self inquiry this self inquiry is where we ask ourselves what is the real nature of the self Who am I and this this term self inquiry became very well known because of Ramana Maharshi this was his main spiritual path first Ramakrishna it's one of many different tools that we have to try to analyze what is the real nature of the self this is extremely important the other type of discrimination between what will lead me towards God in what will keep me bound to the world extremely important these things are essential the in spiritual life otherwise we won't have any real standards to decide what to do and what not to do so this this question of what is what is the essential goal that I have in life what is the most important to me what is most helpful this is all part of that V Charter there's another side to it with the reasoning where we we feel that we can use our understanding and our intellect to read certain types of philosophical conclusions and we find that the the advantage of this type of each other is that we run into dead ends we come up against the wall of time space and causation we reached the point where we see that we can't really answer all of these these all the mid types of questions we can do the in-between we can explain how the egg turns into the chicken and the chicken turns into the egg but if somebody says well what was the first one then we realized that we reach a point where our logic doesn't help us now even even the best type of recharter will not take us directly to God this this is the negative role of each other which is also very important when we say negative it is not to downplay the its its role but what we do with the reasoning is we can eliminate everything that is not the self and then what remains is the self so it's also a way of just as with the path of devotion what are we doing we're trying to eliminate this is this self awareness so that the whole mind is fixed with God trying to eliminate the ego and then God alone remains so it's the same type of thing here but these are other types of questions that we're always asking and really if we think about it how absurd it is to think we can come up with answers to why and how the world was created and what is the ultimate purpose of these things is really absurd to think that from our very limited perspective with limited intelligence that we have they will come up with some answer that will satisfy everyone and this is why the acharya is who came up with the different schools of philosophy could never come up with one system that was so obviously true that it defeated the others it becomes a different type of point of view now there's a very interesting obvious reminder of this very interesting him one of the most beautiful hymns from the Rig Veda it's called the nasa dias hook them and this is him basically about the beginning of creation now what's interesting is about this is how keenly aware whoever the the author of this was some inspired receive keenly aware of the limitations of the mind and not just the human mind but the the fact that these questions don't really have the answers I want to just read the the last two verses from this well I'll start at the beginning at first there was neither existence nor non-existence then there was neither sky nor heaven beyond it what covered it and where what sheltered was there any abyss of water then he goes on darkness covered by darkness and everything but the last two verses who knows and who can tell and hear tell whence it all came whence is this creation the gods came later to this world so who knows whence it came then we get this beautiful line whence this creation came whether he made it or not the overseer he who dwells in the highest heaven only he knows and then it says or perhaps he knows not so if God himself doesn't know then we can't really expect to know so this this path of knowledge also doesn't directly take us to the highest realization because we have to transcend the mind one of the songs that Ramakrishna liked the most was a song by Ram Prasad K Johnny Kali come on shorter daughters only not by daughters on the derson darshana there's a play on words here darsana means here shut darson has the six systems of philosophy but the arsenal also means the vision of God so he's Ron Prasad he's saying who can possibly understand who this mother Kali is and then he says that you won't get the vision of mother Kali through any of the six systems of philosophy so it has to be some direct experience which will transcend the mind there was a German philosopher that one of the most famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant who wrote a great big book not a very exciting book a little bit boring called the critique of Pure Reason and in this he does a very interesting thing he'll take some of these so those questions was the world created were not created as it eternal did it come into existence in time and he'll take the opposite point of view and show a fallacy and then he'll do the same thing with the other point of view and each point of view has a certain fallacy to it now how can that be so either A or B but he says no that it can't be a and it can't be B then he concludes that this is the limit limit of the human mind now Shankar Acharya is gurus guru go to father he did a similar thing he concluded that then this universe doesn't exist another another difficult type of conclusion Ramakrishna's conclusion is a little bit different he says don't bother about it he said that you've come to the mango to enjoy the mangoes and you're wasting your time counting the leaves and twigs and everything his point of view in many ways is similar to the Buddhist point of view the Buddha said that whole life will be spent trying to figure out these things if you're just doing through your capacity of the mind so this this role of each other it can be very positive so taqwa says it has to be done always he'll emphasize that always this other type just trying to figure out things through reason when we really should be doing spiritual practice this is what he tells them over and over again don't do this ought to be chart cut or not then they'll say promise me will you promise me and that's it yes I promise you so this is that role of what he says always discriminate between the real and the unreal now this also I mentioned last time substance substantial and insubstantial was doing averse to that what is it that really has something within it that can satisfy that lonely of the heart this is something the substance if things don't have substance that means that we're attracted to them we think that they'll satisfy that that emptiness within and they don't so this is that other type of discrimination these things are very Fortin okay so we finished last time with the second question how are we to live in the world master do all your duties but keep your mind on God live with all with wife and children father and mother and serve them treat them as if they were very dear to you but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you then he gives one of several illustrations a maidservant in the house of a rich man performed to all the household duties but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in their native village she brings up her master's children as if they were her own she even speaks of them as my drama or my hoodie but in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all this is an attitude that type of guardianship that were given were given responsibility we were given the privilege of raising a family and looking after them not that we own them in order to own something we we have to have a certain type of ego which is identified with this physical body this isn't one thing and especially with people we can't own something that has its own independent separate life the great great mistake or actually a very natural tendency for parents to think of children as their as their own not a possession like a table or a chair or a house or anything but to to not understand that child comes into the world growing up and realizing itself as an independent entity the there's a big difference between relationships between the parents and the child and the child and the parents because it's a child has been the child the whole lifetime to the parents for that for the child the parents they gradually come to realize as they get older that who are these people I'm living with my mother and father okay but they still have some sense that why do they think they can tell me what to do very common for kids to say that I can figure it out on my own so the parents have to learn to let go and the children have to learn to be a little more understanding but the real point is that if we if we have this attitude that yes I've been given the privilege to raise these children who do they belong to they belong to God they're not really mine but this is my responsibility and my duty and I'll do it to the best of my ability the point that's not mentioned here of which chakra mentions many times with this example is that the maidservant has her own home in the village with their own family that means our real home is in God and this is something we shouldn't forget and if we have that type of identification if I feel that on the child of the Divine Mother and not the child of my biological parents that means I'm not identifying with the body because is the body that has the connection aside from of course the psychological and loving connection but the biological connection ties us to the the the parents if my sense of identification is I'm a child of the Divine Mother then I'm thinking of myself in terms of spirit so it also changes that with us then we'll get some other examples the tortoise moves about in the water but can you guess where her thoughts are there on the bank where her eggs are lying do all your duties in the world but keep your mind on God if you enter the world without first cultivating love for God you will be entangled more and more you will be overwhelmed with its danger its grief its sorrows and the more you think of worldly things the more you will be attached to them then he gives a nice example first rub your hands with oil and then break open the jackfruit there's a jackfruit great big thing if you go to China mati I remember the first time I saw it at night I saw this this tree it looked like all these possums were on the branches of them great big things were little spiny stuff big fruit if you cut it open the it has a milky sticky milky type of SAP or juice on it that will stick to your fingers and it's very hard to get off so he says if you if you put a little oil first then you can cut it open you can take out because the little fruits inside they can use for cooking or if it's right for eating then it won't stick to the hands so this first secure the oil of divine love and then set your hands to the duties of the world now we'll go back to solitude but you must go into solitude to attain this divine love to get butter from milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot if it is too much disturbed milk won't turn into curd next you must put aside all of the duties sit in a quiet spot and churn the curd only then do you get butter Ramakrishna was very much aware that we go through different stages in life in different stages in spiritual life one of the problems that we have is kind of an existential problem that it comes to everyone it's it's explained very well in the cut to punish odd that I from our very birth as soon as we're all old enough to think the mind goes outward through the senses and we have no conception of any inner self at that time this small child really can't distinguish its own body from its mother's body there's all different stages that take place there's a very interesting try out psychologist when Piaget that I read just as little bits and pieces of he goes to all the different stages of development of the child and one thing that I always found intriguing is he says when the child learns to tell a lie this is a sign that the child knows that it has an interior life that he can think of thought and no one else will know it with him or her so all different stages but by the time we develop this ego because we're not born with the ego this the way we think of it ego was something that grows and develops this is wife's ramakrishna says that there's a ego is not anything real it's part of maya it's it's really just a misconception for most of us it can be ripe it can be green it can be all sorts of things but the the ego that the child first develops is is without any conception of an inner life so there's no chance that a small child will have any sense that I am the south I am the opment anything like that now there advantages to the child the ego because they don't have the same attachments that's why at top were often talks about that not attached to any of the three gunas but there's other disadvantages there then we become teenagers and oh my god the the hormones take over and all the reasoning goes out and we come very body conscious and self conscious and image conscious and all of these things so that by the time we hear about spiritual life and want to lead a spiritual life we've already established this false sense of identification with the body the mind the senses and personality in the ego and our physical appearance and all sorts of things so Sri Ramakrishna says that in order to counteract this the first stage is we have to go into solitude that doesn't mean so much physically going to solitude but we have to take some time to quietly analyze things without other people around disturbing us I mentioned last time this this idea that the sense of body consciousness comes from the fact that other people see us as bodies but I think what's even more important is our sense of self image is based so much on what other people think of us and especially I would say in the teenage years that this peer pressure is such a strong thing that we really our sense of value and self-worth is based so much on what other people think of us or what we think other people think of us so there's a real back and forth and back and forth that my sense of who I am is based on what I think other people think of me so we have to really clear the head go into solitude and think very clearly and very deeply who who is this I that has such strange ideas about Who I am and what my self self worth is and self value and what my goals in life are and what can make me happy all of these things we go into solitude first and get a very good understanding so the first understanding is that we've got everything wrong am one of my favorite sections of the of the gospel M is asked by Ramakrishna if he's understood something and the M says that the one thing that I understand very clearly now is that I don't really understand anything is that I've and now I see that I've had a false understanding of things so this is extremely important we get this through self analysis we have to really examine our priorities we have to examine our preconceived notions of what's real and what's unreal what's important and what's not important then we can start with some type of spiritual practice so this first thing to get butter for milk let it set into curd and a secluded spot so this this we have to make the mind very still and quiet if it's disturbed too much the milk will turn into curd so that means we don't let outside influences disturb us too much then only then did you get butter so he says further by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge this passion and devotion okay so we get some sense knowledge doesn't mean any type of scholarly academic knowledge of course it means we get some sense of who we are and what exactly we want out of life very often we ask these questions when when it's I don't don't want to say too late but when we should have asked them earlier that if we know at a young age and remember M is still and is what is he 26 or something 28 something like that when he first goes he's still a young man and most of the times Ramakrishna is speaking he's speaking to young men now I have a feeling that most the time he's speaking to young men that he thinks will become monks even though very often there are people of all ages some to the older people also in the room sometimes he'll speak to them directly well what he speaks in general this seems to be his targeted audience and we have to remember it I'll get into it in the and a little bit also maybe not this time yeah I think so that during Sri Ramakrishna's lifetime and for whatever reason some people will say it because of the Mogul influence all of those years for whatever reason they the Society was was pretty much separated where men and women had their separate areas that what is called as an Anna and it was tradition that the women had to be kept inside the inner apartments will hear references to that inner apartment it wasn't very strong in South India but in Calcutta was especially strong and even throughout Bengal so whenever ceramic Christmas is talking he's talking to all the men now that doesn't mean that he didn't talk to women that I think it was yogin bah either your grandma or call up ma one of them said we laugh when we hear the talk we didn't talk to women how many times he came and spent so much time with us and whenever he would go to a devotees house a ball around BOCES house or somebody else's house generally he would go into what they call the inner apartments and very often he would eat there and he would spend time with the women of the household so at that time we have no recording of what he said because M wasn't be present at that time so everything we have in the gospel is recorded by M who was there only one true Christians talking to men this is important otherwise and it'll get worse when we get to comedy conscient otherwise we get this picture of sri ramakrishna as only caring about men devotees but that's only because he's only talking to them at that time so further by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge dispassion and devotion but the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world okay now we're gonna get into trouble in the world there is only one thought and I'm gonna read it as it's written here woman in gold now I was I was told by Swami Swan analogy that whenever you see woman in gold say lust in gold so I do that generally this is generally my practice I follow that but since it's written that way here and there's a long footnote and it really it deserves consideration because it's a very very unfortunate phrase to be published now in a book that's equally valuable for men and women and this comedy content was the phrase that he used even all of the direct disciples Swamiji himself they used the term comma consignee so they did they themselves changed it but let me read the the long footnote here because it really bothers me terribly when I think if women devotees read this for the first time I wonder how many of them get turned off instantly and don't read any further so it's important that we understand a little cultural history behind all of this so this is for me Nikhil Anand is that footnote he says the term woman in gold Khamenei and konchem which has been used throughout in a collective sense occurs again and again in the teachings of sri ramakrishna to desiccate designate the chief impediments to spiritual progress lust and greed this favorite expression of the master comedy Contin has often been misconstrued by it he meant only lust and greed the baneful influence of which retards the aspiring spiritual growth he used the word Kaminey or woman as a concrete term for the sex instinct when addressing his men devotees he advised women on the other hand to shun man conch and/or Gold symbolizes greed which is the other obstacle to spiritual life sure Ramakrishna never taught his disciples to hate any woman or womankind in general this can be seen clearly by going through all his teachings under the head and judging them collectively the master looked on all women as so many images of the Divine Mother of the universe he paid the highest homage to womankind by accepting a woman as his guide while practicing the very profound spiritual disciplines of Tantra this was the height of a Brahmin II that he had so much tremendous love and respect for her and she was very important in his spiritual life his wife Halima known a revered as the Holy Mother was his constant companion and first disciple at the end of his spiritual practice he literally worshipped his wife as the embodiment of the goddess Kali the Divine Mother after his passing away the holy mother became the spiritual guide not only of a large number of householders but also of many monastic members of the ramakrishna order now this turn comedy III know a little bit about this because I had to write something on it once rebuttal to something that somebody wrote so I did a little research and I even wrote to one professor at the University of Chicago University of Chicago was famous for been studies when the Edmund Dimmick whom I admit many many years earlier and he said it was his understanding he couldn't trace it back but this was probably not original with Ramakrishna this was probably a phrase that was used at the time comedy Kunshan so this is number one number two this the word comm Comi is the masculine forum it means a lustful person the word comedy should mean a lustful woman but it doesn't it is not this is not derogatory towards women this term comedy in fact many of the songs that we read in the gospel of Sharma Krishna used this term comedy to designate the divine mother who is that that beautiful woman standing in the battlefield will see it many times and it's it's not an uncommon name Yiddish kosis second wife was was named Kyle ash Khamenei so generally it's the consort of Shiva the Divine Mother that way and if anything I think it shows a little bit that ceramic Krishna was a bit of a feminist what is one of the feminist teachings and I know I'm gonna get in trouble with all of this because I really I'm only doing this because I really want to get rid of these misconceptions one of the feminist ideas is that men have a tendency to objectify women and that there's a natural tendency in the mind of men to get distracted now of this of course has been used as an excuse very often to make women hide themselves in everything which is not the point of all this the point is that it's Ramakrishna's saying that at this beginning stage of spiritual life when the mind is not turned into butter when the mind is easily distracted that is the nature of men to feel some attraction to women is not a horrible thing but we're talking about people that Ramakrishna sees as very qualified aspiring for God realization and he sees equally that the this tremendous temptation for money and for property and wealth and name and fame and all sorts of other things very often he won't limit it to these two he'll talk about this six six enemies said repo so lust and greed and and pride and envy and angered all of these things together these are all obstacles in spiritual life but his his remedy for these things when when he knows that the mind is not strong the best thing would be to say okay you you mix with anybody you like but know that you're the self or you keep the company of women day and night but tell yourself they're images of the Divine Mother it doesn't work for those who don't haven't developed any interior spiritual life some some desire may come in the mind or at least desire to impress even if it's not a lustful desire these things come into the mind so his point is that heads around the small sapling this is a point if some if somebody has an addiction to alcohol any same be a sensible person don't mix with people who drink don't go into bars don't go into taverns and all of that keep yourself a little bit free from these things because the mind has a tendency to get off track once you've you've reached this higher stage then the danger isn't there so much so this this was his teaching to men and to women Holy Mother was equally strong when we see when she's talking to the women devotees she will warn them also especially there were a few cases where a child Widow would come now a child Widow will have to spend in those days a whole life is a widow number one number two there were many men who would take advantage of them and this was their only way out for some of them out of a life of extreme austerity and and loneliness and sadness so holy mother with very very strong with them if God comes to the form of the man don't look at him so strong that way so it's a teaching that goes into both ways so this is my plea because it hurts me very much when I think that women devotees read this and field men please don't take it too personally and try to understand what he's trying to say with all of this okay I and I hope I haven't got myself in trouble okay so from now on every time it says a woman in gold I will say luster gold together with this you must practice discrimination lust in gold is impermanent God is the only eternal substance what does a man get with money and of course every time we say man it means person that we have to remember this was translated in 1942 I think and at that time but people didn't have this idea of these troublesome pronouns and things what does a man get with money food clothes and a dwelling place nothing more you cannot realize God with its help so he said in a very very high standard therefore money can never be the goal of life that is the process of discrimination Vivica discrimination in other words is take on a very negative connotation of course we don't mean it that way do you understand em yes sir I recently read a Sanskrit play called put abode Chandra daya this will be the rising of the moon of wisdom it deals with discrimination your discrimination either be Tata or be vacant these two words are used master yes discrimination about objects consider what is there in money or in a beautiful body now this is another type of discrimination that goes back to the Buddhist period he goes back to Shankar Acharya if your reasons why do Govinda there's one one verse also it says exactly the same thing that if you if you see the body and of course it was all I don't want to say sexist but it was all male oriented and those days male female oriented you see the body of a beautiful woman analyzed is made up of flesh and bones and and all sorts of other other things that if you saw separate you wouldn't want to touch I don't think it works this discrimination good but anyhow this was one of the paths this is one of the things that this is why Ramakrishna will talk about distancing now we do the safe distancing so that spiritual safe distance saying rather than this type of discrimination but he says this is also important discriminate and you will find that even the body of a beautiful woman consists of bones flesh fat and other disagreeable things why should a man give up God and direct his attention to such things and vice versa why should a man forget God for their sake okay now we'll get the next question that M will ask is it possible to see God now we don't have to take this the seeing literally of course this I mean is there anything to this idea of God realization or enlightenment or Nirvana any of the things that we read about there was an idea among many people that these things happen in the past or to certain great Souls - these are with others or the Buddha's in Christ and Chaitanya's and everything do they really happen to people today and is it is it even reasonable to think that we ourselves might have a chance of having that type of experience many people who are very very good devotees the highest quality Nativity if you asked them sincerely you strive me to realize God they'll they'll say I was it possible for someone like me to realize and many of them will say we're householders we've read that over and over again sure arbitration did not make that distinction very often very often he was asked can householders also realize God you good yes of course it is not a question of what position we are in society or anything like that it's a question of the heart a question of the mind now for a householder to realize God means also emulating this highest ideal of the sannyasi to a certain extent doesn't mean necessarily that you leave home and wander and become a monk but as that internal renunciation has to be there of course so the master says yes certainly living in solitude now and then how many times we've had it half a dozen times already living in solitude and remember he gave us three options you can go out into the forest you can find a little corner of the room or you can just turn within Moni poni Connie we have these three different ways of doing it for most people if you say okay that's very nice but I have my obligations how can I just take off and live alone someplace he gives these other options that even in the own home our own home we can practice solitude living in solitude now and then repeating God's name and singing his glories and discriminating between the real and the unreal these are the mains to him to employ to see him so these are the very same answers that he gave to the earlier question so how may we fix our minds on God and how can we see God it's the same thing because we can't see God unless the mind can be fixed on God now that doesn't simply mean that some intellectual training of the mind we we have to remember one important thing that this concept of mind in a whole Indian tradition philosophical tradition there's the even the term Manas and this term chitta we have these two terms which we have the tendency to translate his mind they mean hard as well the the distinction between mind and heart is more of a modern type of distinction and maybe more of a Western distinction because we we think of the mind we connect it to the brain we think of the heart we put it in the heart center by really when we talk about this purification of mind a perfusion of heart they're not two separate things so what we're doing is we're fixing the heart center keeping God ever-present within the heart we're feeling that divine presence so fixing the mind on God and realizing God that step one and step two the this we can't realize God in this we can fix the mind on God now of course in Gita I referred to chapter twelve last time Shri Krishna recognizes the fact that most of us cannot keep the mind fixed on God all the time so he gives us our other options but at least we try to keep the mind on God on some level taqwa uses this term sure dominance Madonna Madonna and especially for older people because we reach a stage in life where we maybe can't sit for a long time in meditation body is aching this and that the mind wanders a little bit he said okay you don't have to worry at that stage of life about sitting and doing jumper how many thousands of times or anything it's enough if you let the mind dwell on God on God dwelling on God if we think that we very have a very high conception of God what do we mean by God oh the infinite supreme absolute Brahman how does the mind dwell on that this is virtually impossible what Ramakrishna says over and over again is if you think of the Avatara it's the same as thinking of God whether we want to identify them or not he's saying the end result is the same so he's always when he's talking about bring God fixing the mind on God it's with this idea that we can we can make that circle bigger think of the divine play of the divine incarnation or even and if the Parana conceptions we have of God Shiva and or there anything like that so living in solitude now and then repeating God's name and singing his glories and discriminating between the real and the unreal these are the means to employ to see him so this is something that we may say that is it possible for everyone to realize God what will you say Kumar is it possible for everyone to realize God it takes a while okay I would say it's possible for anybody to realize God but it is not possible for everybody to realize God now what does that mean if we have a thousand and we're one of a thousand you can say why not me it could be me what is it a song out of a hundred thousand kites at best but one or two break free and the mother laughs and claps her hands are watching it huh so I it's like becoming president of the United States we always say in this country anybody can become president of the United can everybody become president no we have one every four years or eight years but anybody can so it's possible for anyone to realize God in this lifetime but it's a rare thing the other thing is that what do we lose we spend a whole lifetime trying what if we lost we've gained first of all it's a very beautiful type of life and second of all we don't lose anything we'll find that life has been perfectly fulfilling type of life and if we don't realize God will get another chance and we'll start off from where we left off last time so we should start out with this idea that yes God realization is possible now God realization or how does he put it is it possible see God this is a bit of a question of faith that maybe maybe we have to get rid of our logic a little bit but we have this faith that those who come within the circle of these great souls that come from time-to-time the very rare Souls Ramakrishnan Holy Mother earlier we always point to chaitanya Deva and to Christ and Buddha and then in world-leading legendary circumstances around like Krishna and everything that those who come within that circle ramakrishna says those who come to me that those who have that devotion that at the end of life the end of the lifetime the mind will get fixed on them and that vision will come at the very end or God realization will come at the very end and that will be that ultimate experience now what they all say holy mother said it's Ramakrishna said it did yes from the holy mother would say yes my child that taqwa will come you'll have God realization at the end of life they have that faith but if you want to realize here and now you have to work very hard you have to do all of your spiritual practices and spiritual disciplines I read an interesting thing recently one of our monks was talking to one is a very senior Swami's one of the kind of second-generation Swami's who was living in our ashram in Kashi in Banaras and he was asking him do you believe that whoever dies in Banaras will get liberation so there's a monk said who you young fellow I come here with that ID with with that that faith and you question that you want me to answered after that type of questions so I can take voltage Swami Chidananda G he was very good he was young at the time of course and he said no no I didn't mean it that way I didn't mean it to question your face but I I want to know because we hear Tok horses and others that if one has the slightest desire and if one hasn't purified the heart one has to come back again so this monkey smiled and he said yes both are true he says what happens is at the very end that she himself will come whisper the mantra in your here and remove all your desires so both are true that anyone who dies here will get liberation but it only happens if one becomes free from desires both they're true he said it that way so anyhow the point is that we can have that faith that illumination will come at the very final moment if the whole life is geared to that that's also not a simple thing if if we're harboring worldly desires the whole time then that's what will come to the mind at the end but if we if we really have that faith and devotion and love that will that will come to the top that'll be the cream that rises to the top of the very end and that final thought is what determines what happens after death but we should also have that faith that we can realize God here and now I remember I had a conversation once with Swami button on the G he was is still I shouldn't say he sees kind of retired from he was a trustee and retired from that and acharya and everything leading a very quiet life but he was a very very in his youth and it's still very austere and very in drawn and very deep thinker and i remember he asked me once do you have do you have firm faith that you'll realize god in this very lifetime and I didn't know what to say I mean III think that if I were a betting man the odds would be a long shot but still his point was that we should have a little bit of optimism that it's possible that it can happen at any moment that this is why we don't give up our spiritual practice because we don't know we don't know what what morning that we overslept would have been the morning that we would have had some experience in meditation we don't know we have to we have to assume every time we sit for meditation every time we sit for a spiritual practice that might be the time when something will open up maybe not there's a ultimate experience but something will open up some glimpse will come something will happen that we have to have that much faith that grace is always there and at any time it may sweep down that breeze may catch us we may just be raising our sail at the right time when the wind is there and some experience may happen so this is what otherwise why would trauma Krishna say that God realization is the is the ultimate goal of life would this show he would say that this is this is the goal of life for everyone the end of life the goal of life now of course it doesn't mean that everyone has that is there active goal in life most people will say no my goal in life is I want to have a raise a good family I want to have a good career I want to have enjoyments I have different goals with regard to my my work that I do charitable work could be all good things it can be bad things well you want to be the wealthiest person in the world I want to have the most positions but is my goal in life a God realization though so Strama Christian doesn't mean that he means that the this is the ultimate end that will go on and on and on until we have that the life is geared for that whether we realize it or not that we come into this world with a lot of ignorance and with a lot of dust that we have to shake off and that for whatever reason I'm not going to say it was planned this way or anything but for whatever reason that this seems to be the scheme of things so that everyone will end this particular journey with God realization that's how it means this would - sure is God realization so M now his next question will assume that he is unquestionably accepting Sri Ramakrishna's answer that when he says yes certainly so and so that's enough for him so now M is thinking well I know that it's absolutely possible to have God realization how can I do it so the next question under what conditions does one see God master cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will certainly see him people she had a whole jug of Tears for wife and children they swim in tears for money but who weeps for God cried to him with a real cry we'll stop here because this is a very very bond I I don't know what to simply say I'm important answer this is the most important answer if if we want to really pinpoint one teaching us Ramakrishna that is the most important so much so that some people say that this was the the yoga that he taught the oculata Yoga that this this longing and yearning for God is the ultimate final conclusive primary cause of God realization the the yani will say that all karma yoga everything is secondary knowledge is primary the devotee will say everything except the secondary love is the one thing so Ramakrishna said everything is not secondary but dependent upon this tremendous longing of the heart for God realization so we'll we'll stop here and continue with that spot next time now we'll close with our closing [Music] we bow our heads before sri ramakrishna 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 Oh Shanti Shanti Shanti peace peace peace be on to