Video 40

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (01/15/21)

your words are like nectar bringing life to scorched 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're on chapter 7 and the master and vijay goswami this date that is given is thursday december 14 1882 and so it's still within the first year that the m has been coming he came in the beginning of 1882. and uh vijay goswami video krishna goswami is there he was at that time still in acharya with the group of the brahma-samaj rupt that separated from keshav chandrasen and he came with the balarama and a few other devotees there are many of them there but the conversation is is almost at least at this point almost all between srama krishna and bijay krishna goswami and this seems to be a very critical point in the life of vijay that at some time uh after this and i don't know exactly when me joy will leave uh the brahma-samaj he'll give up his job as a charity there and he will give up his family and renounce the world and become a sannyasin so the the first section that we read a few weeks ago of this chapter we see taqwa talking about intense renunciation almost too much to bear because he knows that this is the the direction that video gosvami's mind is going in and he's trying to encourage him then we get a long section about uh the path of of knowledge and the path of of meditation and getting rid of the ego unless one can get rid of the ego one cannot attain to the highest state of somatic so a lot of the conversation will turn on this one question that bjoy asked we went to this last week but i'll just reread the question he says if without destroying the eye a man cannot get rid of attachment to the world and consequently cannot experience samadhi then it would would be wise for him to follow the path of brahmagyanam to attain samadhi that means yoga if the eye persists in the path of devotion then one should rather choose the path of knowledge then we had a long section of talk we're talking about the impossibility of getting rid of this scent of i and in this kali yuga the efficacy of the path of devotion so this is where we're at now we're at the bottom of page 171 and i'll just read talk with this statement just before this one can attain can attain the knowledge of brahman too by following the path of bhakti god is all-powerful he may give his devotee brahmagyano also if he so wills but the devotee doesn't doesn't generally doesn't seek the knowledge of the absolute he would rather have the consciousness that god is the master and he the servant whether god is the divine mother and he the child then we get vijo but those who discriminate according to the vedanta philosophy and realize they realize him in the end don't they so vijay is still his mind is very unsettled he's he doesn't know which path is really best for him taqwa has an understanding about bijoy that he's really fit for the path of of devotion not that he's unqualified for the path of knowledge but he has a devotional nature but somehow a video he's he's not quite sure what to do we have to remember that for years he was fellow acharya and perhaps almost disciple of keisha chandrasen or at least a great admirer of him so all of the emphasis for all of those years was on what they called the path of knowledge taker always thought the brahmos were devotees of god but they didn't care for this personal god and they weren't allowed to do a lot of devotional practices so his his mind has been trained in this other school even though his heart seems to be on the side of of devotion so he's still questioning about the efficacy of of what he learned and what they practiced in the brahma-samaj so he says but those who discriminate according to the vedanta philosophy also realize him in the end don't they master yes one may reach him by following the path of discrimination of description two this is called gyani yoga but it is an extremely difficult path this is the same thing that taku said earlier the same thing we read in chapter 12 of gita i've told you already of the seven planes of consciousness on reaching the seventh plane the mind goes into samadhi if a man acquires the firm knowledge of brahman that brahman alone is real and the world illusory then his mind merges in samadhi okay so what takwort is saying that yes everything i said before is true but then he adds in the kaliyuga and we don't have to take this too literally we can just say with our present understanding and all of our shortcomings and our inability to concentrate the mind and this restlessness that we have all of the things that afflict modern day men and women in the kali yoga the life of a man depends entirely on food how can he have the consciousness that brahman alone is real and the world illusory so theoretically the path of knowledge is true practically it's it's difficult not that it's wrong but it's difficult for most people who have some attachment to the body there's and really who doesn't have some attachment to the body there's me everybody so it's a question of degree there'll be some who have very little attachment to the body very little attachment to the world very little ambition to have a career and a family and all of those things it meant for them more particularly the problem with the brahmos homage was they really were pushing this path not exclusive path of knowledge but really this path of the impersonal and absolute uh to everyone uh i forget who says it so somebody in the gospel we say what an amazing thing even even young children are taught to worship the impersonal absolute brahmin so that means that this is very very mature and an advanced spiritual seeker of that bend of mind there can be mature and advanced spiritual seekers who are devotees also in the kali yuga it is difficult to have the feeling i am not the body i am not the mind see even the mind we may say of course i'm not this body i i dwell within this body i have some connection with this body but i know i'm not the body you can cut off my hand you hadn't cut off me i know that so we may say oh then i'm fit further in the pits and i'll buy it the real false identification and the real attachment is to not just the mind but to the ego sense to the personality this is who i am and whether you like this body or not i don't care but i'm a person i'm a person with certain qualities and characteristics and with certain good attributes and with certain poor ones and this is who i am and we all have this sense of identification and it doesn't doesn't require strongly identifying with this physical body we might may not care about our appearance but we've uh we don't want somebody to criticize our our intelligence or our opinions uh we identify nowadays people identify more with their uh political leaning are they or they liberals are conservatives there's this it seems in this country that's the strongest sense of identification that people have now so it's not always just the body it's it's with this mind so he says in the kali yuga it is difficult to have the feeling i am not the body i'm not the mind i am not the 24 cosmic principles i am beyond pleasure and pain i am beyond above disease and grief old age and death now how can we say that we have to feel that i am i'm the witness of all of this i am the pure consciousness i'm one with that infinite absolute reality i'm not even a reflected son i'm that real son it's very difficult however you may reason and argue the feeling that the body is identical with the soul will somehow crop up from an unexpected quarter now the feeling that the body is identical we can take this as the subtle body also not just this this gross physical body we have three bodies according to the vedanta we have our gross outer physical body stool then we have the subtle body which will be the mind and the personality and the ego and the senses all of that then the corona that will be the subconscious or unconscious the what they call the causal body so we can take this really that the feeling that the body is identical with the soul that will me know all of these three which in vedanta are all considered superimpositions upadhis we're we're not even even the mind we're not even the ego when i say i'm not the ego because i'm witnessing this ego i am observing it i'm watching it make decisions that's the real eye according to the to the yanis so however you may reason and argue the feeling that the body is identical with the soul will somehow crop up from an unexpected quarter you may cut a people tree to the ground and think it is dead to its very root but the next morning you will find a new sprout shooting up from the dead stump that's the ego one cannot get rid of this identification with the body therefore the path of bhakti is the best for the people of the kali yuga it is an easy path now i i always like to emphasize that this word in bengali it doesn't have a very perfect english equivalent it's somewhere between natural and easy it's not easy in the sense that it's it's simple that anybody can do it easy in the sense that there's a flow to it that it's natural that we can use utilize all of our emotions uh the love that we feel within the different relationship relationships we have all of these things are helpful so it's it's a natural path and relatively easy path then tucker quotes a song from ram prasad and i don't want to become sugar i want to eat it now this this is the a distinctive feature of taquer's path of of devotion the the devotion according to the dualistic paths will never say this that i don't want to become sugar i want to eat it because that gives the uh gives us the understanding that it's possible to become sugar but i don't want to do that the devotees who follow a dualistic philosophical path will say no it's not possible there's no there's no question that i can become sugar uh at best i can become like sugar i can become a separate sugar cube i can never become one with that mass of of sugar uh i can be a ray of the sun i can't be the sun so they won't accept this the the devotion according to the shaktas and ram prasad was a worshiper of the divine mother and srama krishna admits and accepts and likes the idea that ultimately there's oneness but it's a temperamental question i don't have that temperament i'm happier keeping this the semblance of ego this stick of ego causing this parent separation so that i can enjoy i can enjoy the taste of of devotion i can enjoy the bliss that comes through this relationship don't obliter obliterate that my that line because then mother is not there then the child and mother are one i want to feel that i'm the child i want to worship god as the mother this there's a very nice conversation between a swamiji and holy mother where uh i don't remember who said what but swamiji says mother uh if if getting knowledge means that that line disappears between uh the guru and the disciple between myself and you then i don't want that i want to have that that relationship so it's a question of of temperament here that the devotee can have this uh knowledge of brahman and ultimately will at the very end but generally they prefer to keep the semblance of i to have to establish this relationship and to enjoy that relationship for sure i'm a christian it was necessary because the mind was constantly going up and uh merging in that state of samanthi so he says uh and that means that he's giving another reason for this not just not just that people in the kali yuga generally aren't fit for the path of devotion but there's something enjoyable about it that we can enjoy the taste of bliss only if there's a distinction between the taster and and the object then he says i never feel like saying i am brahmana of course when he went into that state it was the highest type of bliss and it remained in that state for so long taqwa was different of course he he had to keep his mind from from entering to that state because he had a mission to fulfill and he he wanted to enjoy the company of devotees and he wanted to inspire them and he wanted to share his life with him and he wanted him to see his life as an ideal for them this is this is why the avatar comes so i never feel like saying i am brahmana i say thou art my lord and i am thy servant it is better to make the mind go up and down between the fifth and sixth planes like a boat racing between two points i don't want to go beyond the sixth plane and keep my mind a long time in the seventh this was uh the command that srama krishna received he he heard the voice of the divine mother on three different occasions in three different forms the last time was a formless form he simply heard the voice and this was when he was in that state of nirvikalpa samadhi for six months and he heard that voice say i remain in baha'u'llah and at that time he had some terrible dysentery and terrible pain in the body and all of that combined brought the mind back down then he understood that means this exactly what he says to remain between these these two lower planes and not merge now remaining within fifth and sixth sixth plane means that from there he looks up and he sees the infinite absolute reality if he goes and stays in that seventh plane too long then he won't want to leave he'll remain he'll remain there the body will go after a while so uh he had to prevent his mind from going up being in the fifth and sixth planes this is also enjoying the bliss of communion with god higher than that the the distinction disappears and there's only oneness my desire is to sing the name and glories of god it is very good to look on god as the master and oneself as his servant srama krishna practiced all of the moods there were two that he liked in particular the basic one was the mother and child he felt he was the child of the divine mother but he often spoke about the servant attitude the servant god is the master and i am the servant the mother bhava which he practiced he also felt that not everyone is is qualified for that there are certain dangers to that because uh it's a bit of a kind of erotic mysticism looking upon god as as the lover and oneself as the beloved in oneself as the lover so he didn't emphasize that as much but he practiced all of them and he found that they all led to this god realization further you see people speak of the waves as belonging to the angels but no one says that the ganges belongs to the waves so we can think of ourselves according to this idea a little bit of a qualified non-dualistic idea part to the whole if i'm a part of the whole i'm a wave in that ocean that means i belong to the ocean but if i say that i am he i am one with a ramen that means equally i can say that that ocean belongs to me now taqwa of course had these different moods and different attitudes at different times but when the mind came down to a lower plane then we won't think that uh i am the lord and god is my servant i am the servant god is god this is the master it's very interesting because i don't remember where but one of these stores one of the hymns of shankaracharya uses the same illustration so he also knew from the relative point of view relative point of view we belong to god god belongs to us uh emotionally but from a medical metaphysical point of view like the wave is part of the ocean we're part of god individual mind part of that cosmic mind even this physical body part of this cosmic body this virat the feeling i'm he is not wholesome now how can we say this this is a very valid and well established spiritual path now talker adds a man who will entertain such an idea why looking on his body is the self causes himself great harm so what tak we're saying feeling i am he is not wholesome for someone who has this strong body consciousness is only wholesome for someone who knows what the i means and what the he means if by eye we think of this this individual this unit that i am he then it's then it's not wholesome it's not true it's uh and it can be hypocritical uh so this he's not denouncing this uh this is the path that he he was pushing swami vivekananda nerendra towards and that many of the others swami turian on this one and under that they were all very well established in this you you won't find uh very many followers of srama krishna direct disciples or or later months of our order who will dispute this this idea i am he we no one will dispute this this absolute and ultimate final on oneness but this feeling that i am here as a spiritual practice if if we don't know what is who this i is then there's no way to establish the sense of identity also the he if we think of a personal god personal god then is also false but the the worshipers of the divine mother they accept both of these ideas it's very interesting they also can say saham sam i am she very rarely will they do it because the temperament is not like that but this is also a path for one class of worshipers of the divine mother so a person who entertains such an idea while looking on his body as the self causes himself great harm he cannot go forward in spiritual life he drags himself down he deceives himself as well as others he cannot understand his own state of mind the difficulty with the path of knowledge is that we may be at the very bottom of the ladder we're taking the same attitude that we'll take at the very top of the letter the advantage to the path of devotion is at the very bottom we can take our natural understanding yes i'm an individual and i want to worship god as an individual then each rung we get a little higher and higher we that distance disappears it gets less and less and when we finally get to the top we realize that this this object of our love and devotion is not far away dwells within the heart and we get a little higher and we realize that uh that's the sole reality and we experience or oneness with that so there's there's opportunity for transformation and every every stance that we take in the path of devotion is provisional it's provisional it works at that point it's it's appropriate for that rung of the ladder and uh in the beginning if i say that i'm a servant of god that means i'm identifying with a certain personality type it's appropriate and helpful does it belong to maya yes is it vidyamaya yes it's that type of maya because it's a relationship it falls within maya but it's helping us to get to the next rung and swamiji says i and i quoted many times that love is that rope that draws us closer to the object of our love until we attain that state of union and that state of oneness so the path of devotion has this advantage that we don't have to start with the very final conclusion we start with our present understanding and the path of knowledge we start with the final conclusion and have to pretend that we have that understanding or convince ourselves that it's true even when everything tells us that this i is real this sense of i this ego sense is something real so this is the difficulty with that it's not a wholesome in the sense that it's not even true when i say i am he and i'm identified with his lower self the lower bird on the tree has to take itself as separate from the higher bird until it gets a little higher and higher and higher then it starts to see how similar they are finally gets to the top and realizes that they were one the if the if at the very bottom the lower bird says i am that higher bird and just says it over and over again without understanding what it means i won't be able to hop up higher and higher and have that final realization there may be some birds that really uh understand i really am that higher bird and they can do it but this is something rare now he's been saying how easy this path of devotion is now he'll tell us it's not so easy but it isn't any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to realize god one cannot realize god without prema bhakti prama means this really sincere intense overwhelming love for god bhakti is devotion bhakti of course is a very high state if we can attain the devotion every high thing but to get this anuraga this passionate love for god intense longing for god this is this this feeling that life isn't worth living without the realization of god that's what's necessary but the good thing about bhakti yoga is that the lower states ordinary bhakti if we practice it will lead to this this is why it's a gradual transformation that takes place another name for prema bhakti is raga bhakti this means with passion that we we talk about passion uh as as the great enemy and spiritual life we have to get rid of the passions lust anger greed envy jealousy all of these things we have to get rid of them this is why this path of devotion is a shahood it's a natural path because we utilize the passions and we have to be passionate we actually have to be passionate about everything and if we want to lead a good family life a good have a good career we have to be passionate about it but not the type of passion that overwhelms us and leaves us in a state of bondage so this is a passionate love for god god cannot be realized with that love and longing unless one has learned to love god one cannot realize him there's another kind of bhakti known as vedhi bhakti vedhi comes from the the word is a prescription when we when we read the different scriptures say the brahmana portion of the upanishads or any of these bhadhatis any of these books that will tell us what are the rules and for all of the rituals and riots that we perform anything that has to do with uh how many times to repeat the name of god uh what types of offerings to make in puja how much pranayama all of these things this belongs to so according to which one must repeat the name of god a fixed number of times fast make pilgrimages worship god with prescribed offerings make so many sacrifices and so forth and so on now we can't realize god through any of these things but we can't attain to the state of raga bhakti unless we do these things or unless we're born with wonderful psalms goddess there'll be some who don't have to go through the preliminaries but for most of us if we if we haven't reached that state it's exactly the same as the problem with the ana yoga if i say that one cannot realize god by doing all of these ritualistic things and being bound by a daily routine so i won't do those things i'll simply sing and dance in ecstasy it won't work we can't we can't skip that that step it's just like saying so home i'm here when we're not ready for it so this is actually a positive thing for us that we can have our daily routine it can be very mechanical even it should be done of course with feeling but even if not that we keep to that routine and we follow it strictly and uh gradually devotion grows within us and at some point we we switch over to the to this higher level it's it's a case of uh a gradual change in in quantity leaving quantity leading to a qualitative change just as you heat water it gets hotter and hotter and hotter then for some reason at 100 degrees centigrade 212 degrees fahrenheit right 2 12. it turns into vapor why why the difference between 98 and 99 doesn't change anything with the water a little bit hotter but 99 to 100 something happens so the same thing here something happens and how do we know when we've reached it we don't have to decide we'll know it takes place on its own we we don't make that decision yes today i'm finished with vaidhi bhakti i'll go to raga this is anurag bhakti so by continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires so we have no choice we may say but uh isn't it isn't it very routine and very mechanical doing the same thing day in and day out yeah it is but we develop a taste for it and after a while we look forward to it and it becomes our whole life we care more for that than anything else this this routine which it's not a good word routine it gives the sense of boredom somehow but it's really if we can't love god we can love our spiritual practice to love our sadhana and i always think we should we should nourish it and cherish it like a small child just as the mother will look after the child keep it from harm protect it give it good food that we have to do that with our spiritual practice and that gradually we'll get closer and closer to this state of passionate love for god so by continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires god cannot be realized until one has raga bhakti so we need the other one but we need the first also one must love god in order to realize god one must be completely free from worldliness and direct all of one's mind to him now this is the other good thing about bhakti is that we don't have to try to be free from worldliness we don't have to try to direct our minds to god we have to try to love god and if we do then that pulls us away from everything else the renunciation of the of the bhakta of the devotee is also more natural than the renunciation of the of the gyani the gyani has to forcefully say i won't be attached to that because i'm not this body and mind the the devotee simply has to say or feel that my love for god is so great that i don't care for other things it replaces it it pulls us in in the other direction this is why tucker always adds that anuraga has to be an essential part of vedaga this passion for the world is not enough and it's dry and it doesn't work unless the we have passion for something else even for the gyani passion for truth passion for for a higher self realization for the devotee this is a longing for god realization so that means that it's also every natural type of renunciation but some acquire bhakti directly in them this is a question of some scholars if we if we see people like that we have to assume that uh in previous lifetimes they went through this a whole other process or else they're just special souls they can be divine souls companions of of the avatar or something like that they have it from their very childhood even at an early age they weep for god and we see many of those who came to sriami krishna were like that the direct disciples even some who didn't renounce the world and become monks poorna and some of the other young boys who came to srama christian at that time they would say from an early age we only care for god that we forgot even 12 13 14 year olds an instance of such bhakti is to be found in prahlada vayati bhakti is like moving a fan to make a breeze one needs the fan to make the breeze similarly one practices japa austerity and fasting in order to acquire love of god but the fan is set aside when the southern breeze blows of itself so it doesn't mean those who reach the state of uh raghav bhakti it doesn't mean that they stop doing their meditation in japa they do it out of love they don't do it because they've taken a vow to do it or they've made a promise or this is part of their practice they don't have to count the number of times they repeat the name of god because they fall in love with the name of god and all they want to do is repeat the name of god so it's not that they're giving it up but it's become spontaneous and natural so such actions as japa that means that with having to count the number and to make sure we sit for a certain length of time and austerity these drop away when one spontaneously feels love and attachment for god who indeed will perform the ceremonies enjoined in the scriptures when mad with love of god devotion to god may be said to be green it is unripe tucker uses this this language that ripe and unripe with regard to the ego with regard to devotion the nice thing about this unripe is that it can ripen that something that's green can become ripe we have a green banana wait a few days it'll become ripe it'll be nice so devotion to god may be said to be green that means it hasn't reached its full potential so long as it doesn't grow into love of god but it becomes ripe when it is grown into such love so if ever we think that vaidhi bhakti is something lower or something to be shunned it's not it develops it grows it ripens into this higher type of of bhakti a man with green bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction but one with right bhakti can now we may say okay so i that's my situation that i have this green bhakti and i'm trying to assimilate all of these things what does it mean it means that we can't fully appreciate them but we can accept them as our ideal and we can strive for it we can say yes i really i really don't know what you're talking about that uh repeating the name of rama once the hair will stand on end can i say that i really can assimilate that teaching no but i can appreciate it and i can say oh how wonderful and if only that could happen to me and somebody says okay repeat the name a thousand times uh ten thousand times hundred thousand times and it'll happen i say ah wonderful so that means i'm accepting it i haven't assimilated it because it's something foreign to me i can't really imagine repeat the name of rama once and tears will flow and the hair will stand on end can i can i say that i've really assimilated that teaching no can i say that i accepted that as a wonderful ideal to be held before me yes of course we can all do that so we shouldn't feel bad about this when he says one with green bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction and it's a question of degree none of us who are following this path are green in the sense that uh inedible we're not fully ripened so there's there's a big gray area if this is day by day riper and riper that means that we can assimilate things better and better each day also the image that falls on a photographic plate covered with black film is retained on the other hand thousands of images may be reflected on a bare piece of glass but not one of them is retained they took taquer one day to a studio a photograph studio and he was always curious about things so he was asking how does it work and they said well image gets reflected on the glass and there's something that uh silver nitrate or something i don't know that they put on the back of it so that when the image comes there it will be retained on that glass and then it can be printed later as a photograph so takwa remembered that he thought oh what a nice illustration that unless that backing is there then it won't take so unless the mind has this this this devotion behind it it this spiritual instruction it'll be reflected in it then you remove it and it's gone just like we stand in front of a mirror if we leave that mirror that the image is no longer there it doesn't stay there but if it's a photographic glass and it and it's shot and we leave it'll remain there so he says on the other hand thousands of images may be reflected on a bare piece of glass but not one of them is retained as the object moves away the glass becomes the same as it was before so this is the case with many of us we hear some nice teaching and then as soon as the teacher leaves we go back and we're the same as we were before it doesn't leave an impression one of takwo's favorite expressions was this is what's what's translated as assimilation but you have to assimilate it what does assimilation mean it means we have to make it one with our very being we have to incorporate it into into the way we live in this world the way we think it has to be part and parcel of who we are so this idea because people would say that uh yes but in in in the end i know that i am one with with the divine lord and i'm talking with you yeah that's true would you say that means that uh well i know that you're saying it but it really doesn't mean much to just it's just talk you haven't assimilated that truth if you really believed it you wouldn't live in the world the way you live in the world that's the test so he always used to say this that we don't simply hear spiritual instruction we have to assimilate it it has to become part and parcel of who we are so one cannot assimilate spiritual instruction unless one has already already developed love of god we can hear it we can appreciate it we can strive for it and assimilate it to a certain degree and as we practice more and more and we develop that love of god then we experience it is bhakti alone sufficient for the attainment of god for his vision so again he has a little doubt because of so many years with the brahma so much master yes one can see god through bhakti alone but there's always a but because we we don't realize this bhakti we think oh yes we're all devotees we love taqwa we love mother then we go back and do whatever we want that means we haven't assimilated their teachings but it must be ripe bhakti not this green type it must be ripe so this is that final rung we we don't get to the roof on the path of devotion without reaching that final stage and that may be 99 percent maybe and the remaining one percent is raga bhakti so we've uh but again has it has a big range within it in the beginning it may be just by road we do everything it doesn't mean too much then gradually taste develops because riper and riper and riper bud there'll be a switch we'll get to that fully ripened state and then we can have that vision of god yes one can see god through bhakti alone but it must be ray bhakti prama bhakti and when one has that bhakti one loves god even as the mother loves the child the child the mother or the wife the husband sometimes he'll give other examples say the the combined attraction of all three the miser for his wealth and uh the mother for the child and and the husband for the chaste wife that the combined attraction of that is what's necessary for the realization of god when one has such love and attachment for god one doesn't feel the attraction of maya for wife children relatives and friends this is that natural dispassion this is the natural dispassion because the whole mind is given to god and if we have the love for anyone else it's through that that becomes the linchpin that connects everything together one retains only compassion for them and not compassion in this negative sense we're deep feeling feeling in love without that attachment to it without the the bondage that comes from the attachment that banji's part is gone to such a person the world appears a strange land a place where he has merely to perform his duties it is like a man having his real home in the country but coming to calcutta for work he has to rent a house in calcutta for the sake of his duties when one develops love of god one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly wisdom now tucker gives this illustration usually not with a man usually a woman the maidservant in a rich man's house this is another instance of sadhana and sadhya sadhana and sadhiya that satya is the is the attainment sadhana is the means of attainment and the means of attainment and attainment are often the same this is what swami's swami vivekananda means when he says learn to make the means and the ends won so if we want to realize that state where we're free from attachment to to the world then we practice that this is why taku gives the illustration of the maidservant in the rich man's house as an attitude which we should practice here he's saying that we won't fully realize it until the highest realization but how do we realize it by practicing it otherwise we can't do it if we simply wait until i i have no attachment to to the family or friends or anything like that it won't happen and how do we get rid of that attachment by forging this other attachment by telling ourselves we have to tell ourselves no this this this isn't where i belong this isn't my real home i have my real home in the country uh i'm i'm living in in this house as if it were my house it's not really my house this is a practice we have to impress this idea on our minds i always remember a statement that swami ashokananji made he of course was the head of our san francisco center for many many years somebody asked him how does one learn to see god in others and he said by seeing god in others now someone is saying how do we reach the result he's saying by taking that result and making that the means for that result the means and the ends make it one that means we every time we see someone we tell ourselves that god is dwelling within we remind ourselves we tell ourselves we force ourselves to think that way we impress that idea in our minds this is what nowadays it goes under the name of affirmation we practice this idea of affirmations we affirm something that we haven't yet realized is true but intellectually we understand is true so it's the same thing here that we shouldn't feel when tucker says that we can't get rid of attachment to the world unless we develop this this intense love for god we can at least try to get rid of it and that will help us get that intense love for god and that will completely get rid of it this is the way it works otherwise we're stuck we can't make progress uh so little by little uh we we may feel that we're trapped but there's always a little wiggle room when we were kids there was something called uh i forgot what they call it chinese handcuffs or something like that it's just a little woven thing if you put your two fingers in it like this you try to pull it out it tightens and you can't get out because it has a little give to it and when you pull it out it'll tighten so it's if you're stuck but if you do it very slowly little by little then of course you can get out so this is a wiggle room otherwise there's no way to make spiritual progress so yes we have our attachment and we can't get rid of it until we realize god we lessen that attachment a little bit through our practice to our through our thinking we get a little closer the love of god grows a little more that little bit of love of god will help get rid of the attachment that little bit of detachment will help love of god grow they work together hand in hand we can no longer distinguish which is the cause and which is the effect they're they're both helping each other make the means and the ends one the great teaching of swamiji one cannot see god if one has even the slightest traits of worldliness so we're stuck or we stuck no we're not stuck because we have our spiritual practice and gradually each day we're getting a little bit less green we're ripening a little bit through this spiritual practice and that means we're getting rid of worldliness little by little until we reach that point where it starts becoming smooth and easy and natural i sometimes think of you know a see-saw that you you have there's a something in the middle which uh mechanics they're called the fulcrum huh that'll be fulcrum there'll be a board across and there'll be kids on both sides and they can go up and down and up and down now sometimes little kids they'll walk on it and if you start at one end and the weight at that one far end will will make it almost impossible for the other side to go down but you get closer and closer to the center and you come closer to almost an even balance you get to the very center and it wobbles it could go either way you take one step forward you can slide the rest of the way you don't have to walk even huh that's this prema bhakti we saw we start out it seems very far and and it's steep it also that it starts coming up as we go closer it becomes less and less steep the beginning a very steep path we take one step forward it comes up a little another step forward it comes up we get to the middle and and it balances if we go a little further and the whole thing goes and we slide all the way down then no effort is necessary so this is our raga bhakti so one cannot see god if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness match sticks if damp won't strike fire though you rub a thousand of them against the matchbox you only waste a heap of sticks the mind soaked in worldliness is such a damp match stick once sriracha said to her friends that she saw krishna everywhere both within and without that means that her mind was so absorbed in krsna's so lost soaked in krishna that she saw wherever she looked so you see a stump of the tree oh christian is there waiting for me she would see a peacock oh there's the feather of krishna everything the dark rain cloud everything reminded her of krishna one of the great monks of our order was named ram i always like that name what does it mean it means to to be filled with rama to see rama everywhere the whole world is nothing but the embodiment of rama this is this tucker gave so many examples that those who have jaundice huh they say everything yellow so the mind is filled with god we see god everywhere the friends answered why we don't see him at all are you delirious so some type of uh you know hallucination or something rather said friends paint your eyes with the collarium of divine love and then you will see him there's calerium you know the little black lines that they put on on the inside of the eyes for kids and sometimes others that it's supposed to uh it's supposed to cleanse the vision that will make the eyes tear and you'll be able to see clearly to vijay it is said in a song of your brahma-samaj oh lord is it ever possible to know thee without love however much one may perform worship and sacrifice now many of these songs were written by this taraya sanya i don't know if he wrote this one but this idea of this passionate love for god most of these came after keisha started kami disrami krishna this was a gift that taqwa made to them he gave them this gift of kind of passionate love for god and and this idea of calling calling on god is mother how can one see god now you remember that many of these are similar to the the questions that em asked at his early meeting with srama krishna master one cannot see god without purity of heart so this is more or less saying that this is the the absolute requirement if we have purity of heart then it's possible does that mean automatically we see god maybe maybe not maybe that means that now it's open to us that we have to maybe just travel a small maybe that means that the sun is just starting to come up but it will automatically come up to attachment to lust and gold the mine has become stained covered with dirt as it were a magnet cannot attract a needle if the needle is covered with mud wash away the mud and the magnet will draw it likewise the dirt of the mind can be washed away with the tears of our eyes this stain is removed its one sheds tears of repentance and says oh god i shall never again do such a thing usually taqwa says tears of love this is a little unusual this tears of repentance usually this is the tears out of love of god or longing to realize god or the feeling of sadness and agony not having realized god that this will purify the heart now what do we do if we're not anywhere close to shedding tears huh we have to practice these moral and ethical teachings that's all that uh we may say there's no hope for us we have our shamadama and all of our other things it is yamas and niyamas and we know what it means to lead a pure life and to try to avoid temptation and excess and all things like that we have to practice those things and gradually this love of god will grow there upon god it was like the magnet draws to himself the mind which is like the needle then the devotee goes and the samadhi and attains obtains the vision of god so this samadhi is not just for the path of gyani yoga or raja yoga for the devotees for the for the yogis and for the gyanis the path of samad the the goal of samanthi means getting to the roof it means feeling this oneness now for the devotee more often than not it will be the bhava samanthi there will be some some experience that ah i'm having a vision of god and maybe even some actual visions got into seeing god in different forms you may try thousands of times but nothing can be achieved without god's grace okay now a new idea now god's grace and reaching the state stage of spontaneity are really one of the same because when we reach this what he calls that means that everything is spontaneous we're we're not making any effort and we can't make any effort we may not even find the sense of i then we're just pulled we're we're getting close enough to the magnet that we don't do any we get pulled in so this is grace this is another way of explaining grace that through effort we get close enough so that the rest of it gets pulled we climb all the way up to the center of the of the seesaw and grace means that just our weight on the other side will make it go down and we'll go through talk we give so many examples that someone's cutting a tree and what do they do they'll cut through just over halfway so that the weight of the tree itself will make it fall that's also grace grace doesn't mean that god will come down and and light will shine down and strike someone in the heart and they'll fall down we have this idea of grace also but this is this is a kind of vedantic idea of grace nothing can be achieved without god's grace one cannot see god without his grace is it an easy thing to receive the grace of god now ordinarily grace means that we don't deserve it we don't murder it there's nothing that we can do for it tucker's idea of grace is different we have to prepare ourselves and then everyone can get it this is a breeze that's always flowing huh so we have to work hard and raise the sail so is it an easy thing to receive the grace of god no we have to work hard we have to do all of our vedi bhakti one must all together renounce egotism one cannot see god as long as one feels i am the doer but in the beginning we have to feel that i am the doer huh i'm a child of god i don't even serve anybody the servant has to feel that yes i'm the one who has to do it i have to do it for the master huh so this feeling of i was very strong but it's this ripe eye or at least we're trying to feel it's not the right buy that one gets after realization it's the right buy that leads to realization again means and ends suppose in a family a man is taking charge of the storeroom then if someone asks the master sir will you yourself kindly give me something from the storeroom the master says to him there is already someone in the storeroom what can i do there so this ego is still within the heart there's no room for god to enter now we say well god is is already there well that's true god is already there but covered over we have to remove this ego in order for god to manifest fully there god doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his own master so this is the pride it's really the prideful ego but god can be seen the moment his grace descends he is the son of knowledge one single ray of his has illumined the world with the light of knowledge that is how we are able to see one another and acquire varied varied knowledge one can see god only if he turns his light towards his own face this is leading up to an illustration the police sergeant goes his rounds in the dark of night with a lantern in his hand this is the type of lantern there's a footnote carried by nightwatch which has dark glass on three sides so that the light will only go forward no one sees his face because that's not illumined only directly ahead is illumine caesar's face with the help of that light but with the help of that light the sergeant sees everybody's face and others too can see one another if you want to see the sergeant however you must pray to him sir please turn the light on your own face let me see you in the same way one must pray to god o lord be gracious and turn the light of knowledge on thyself that i may see thy face we we don't have this realization until this ego disappears if the ego disappears then the only thing that can uh bring about realization is grace this is spontaneous uh the very nature of of god is grace that's why i talk about so many illustrations of bringing water to the field it's the very nature of water to want to infill roman is trying to enter into the heart we have to remove that ego then automatically it comes in this is grace a house without light indicates poverty so one must light a lamp of knowledge in one's heart as it is said in a song lighting the lamp of knowledge in the chamber of your heart behold the face of the mother brahman's embodiment as vijay had brought medicine with him the master asked the devotee to give him some water he was indeed a fountain of infinite compassion he had arranged for vijay's boat fare since the latter was too poor to pay it balarama m and the other devotees left for calcutta in a country boat and this is the end of that day the chapter continues the master and vijay i don't know if he spends the night there or not but danielle will continue but it will be january 1st so ok so he comes back after a couple of weeks then we'll continue with that that's page 174 next time who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace be unto us