Video 43

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (02/05/21)

your words are like nectar bringing life to scorched souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we are at the bottom of page 179 middle of the page roughly and this is monday january 1st 1883. it's the chapter the master and vijay goswami and there are several marvari devotees in the room at the time and one of them says sir what is the way this was the very common question the question that is most often asked in the gospel of krishna upaiki it was the most common question what is the way it meant to realize god so what is the way master there are two ways now it's very interesting because tako will give slightly different answers depending on his mood and depending on whom he's talking to and what the attitude of the people are and what their tendencies are so here he says there are two ways one is the path of discrimination the other is that of love so discrimination this will be ghana yoga this is of echara each other viveka they use different terms for this the path of discrimination the other is that of love discrimination means to know the distinction between the real and the unreal god alone is the real and permanent substance all else is illusory and impermanent the magician alone israel his magic is illusory this is discrimination the way that takur used this richard was not exactly the same as the of each other of dwight vedanta he he used it in that sense also that to discriminate between uh the seer and the sin this is one very typical way of doing this vicar that if we want to find out the nature of the real self then uh we begin with this idea that the self is the and everything that is seen has to be different from the self so the body can't be the self because i can observe it and even the mind i can observe the ego i can observe so this is that one type of of each other when takara talks about real and unreal sometimes he'll use vastu avastu that means substantial and insubstantial and important and not important so he slides a little bit to that side uh what is of eternal lasting value to us and what is secondary to us and so we shift a little bit to this idea of charac what is it that there's another type of discrimination between that which will take it to something higher and that which will give us some temporary enjoyment and pleasure and there's nothing wrong with that but it's it's momentary so this is why i mention all the time tucker very rarely likes this idea of mithya that something is is false in the sense of illusory he generally likes this idea of anitya so here we see illusory and impermanent and he likes to stress that idea that everything is is changing nothing will last forever nothing to really hold on to so he uses discrimination in both senses but i think he likes this other one this uh this idea that we have to decide what's important in life and what is of the highest value ultimately what will lead to the highest type of realization what is the end and the aim of life so that is also a type of each other we have in shankaracharya in his introduction to his commentary on gita he gives these as a two different types of aims absolutely to to be prosperous in life but nish that is the very highest goal in life that will be god's realization it won't be dependent upon the other so this is this is one type of richard and seeing the real self as something beyond and transcendent and the only ultimate reality god dwelling within is the only thing worthwhile worth striving for and worth having so this can lead to realization so this is gyana yoga basically he'll go into it a little bit more discrimination and renunciation the the path of discrimination the path of gyani yoga uh always requires a certain degree of dispassion veda generally he uses that term renunciation and dispassion it means it means both it doesn't have to mean formal renunciation but it means non-attachment and we have to have a a good dose of this feeling of non-detachment if we want to practice this path of gyana yoga this is why it's not recommended for everyone why it's considered more difficult because we have to have a feeling that non-attachment even to this physical body that we have not too much interested in enjoyments not very interested in uh in career and family and and things that most people uh will say or the the normal uh aims of life we talk about the four fruits of life those who don't really care for anything but but god realization so that type of renunciation is necessary discrimination means to know the distinction between the real and the unreal renunciation means to have dispassion for the things of the world one cannot acquire them all of a sudden they must be practiced every day one should renounce lust and gold mentally at first then by the will of god one can renounce it both mentally and outwardly it is impossible to ask the people of calcutta to renounce all for the sake of god one has to tell them to renounce mentally uses the people of calcutta he didn't have anything specially against the people of calcutta but he meant those who modern-day people who are a little materialistic and who are well-educated especially in at that time the british type of education where uh and unless one is is prosperous then there's something wrong even those who are religious that leading a religious life doesn't mean that you shouldn't be prosperous in the world so that that type of idea through the discipline of constant practice abhyasi yoga so this is another idea we find in in gita also yoga means that we have to regularly do something over and over and over again until it becomes a habit with us and generally it's it refers to the attempt in meditation to fix the mind on the ishta devata and the mind wanders and we bring it back it wanders and we bring it back and ultimately train the mind so that it can remain fixed on the object of meditation for a longer period of time or if it wanders we catch it and we can bring it back more quickly this is yoga but in every type of yoga even even if we want to develop love of god if if we have a regular spiritual practice of meditation and jump in prayer and keep holy company on a regular basis this is also a type of yasa so he says through the discipline of constant practice yoga one is able to give up attachment to lust and gold that is what the gita says by practice one acquires uncommon power of mind yeah the very famous verse that the gita recommends this yoga and weight argue these two things that it won't do to keep practicing the same thing over and over again if we have tremendous attachment to something else the the mind is not strong enough just by sheer will power if we tell the mind you think of this and you can't do it you keep trying over and over and over again but something is pulling us more in the other direction we'll fail we'll fail because nobody has that type of willpower unless the mind wants to go in a certain direction and and loses its inclination to go in the other direction and reaches the point where uh we're not really interested in uh enjoyments and pleasures then there's a chance that we can fix the mind on that object of meditation so together abhiyasa and varagya and takur adds a third anuraga that we won't be able to get this passion for the things of the world unless we develop passion for god so these things all work together by practice one acquires uncommon power of mind then one doesn't find it difficult to subdue the sense organs and to bring anger lust and the like under control such a man behaves like a tortoise which once it has tucked in its limbs never puts them out another reference to a verse from the gita this is this is the example that's given of that withdrawing the limbs the the tortoise turtle has the four legs four legs and the head so all five go inside so that stands for the five senses that we have and taco says you can even beat it and everything when they're scared they do that they go within it that's their protection so this is how we protect ourselves that yeah he says you cannot make the tortoise but it slims out again though you chop it to pieces with an axe so this is this is how we withdraw the mind within not physically withdrawing the organs within but we keep the mind from going outward and we do that by fixing it on some inner object that and it has to be an object of love not just an object of meditation this is that anuraga part that we have to feel a tremendous sense of attachment if our object of meditation is just some nonsense thing somebody says just practice it doesn't matter you can you can think of a chair just try to fix your mind on a chair it'll have some benefit in the ability to concentrate the mind increasing but if it's something that we have tremendous love for then that feeling of love will grow m asked tucker one time is it okay if i meditate on my mother his mother had passed away and he loved his mother very much and tucker said yes it's fine and this uh i think it was nostalgic huh they didn't have children they raised a uh a nephew maybe it was somebody else i think so and uh she was very much attached to this nephew and she said when she meditated the mind went there taco said very good but feel that not just your nephew this is a baby gopala so bring in that spiritual turn to it and they say that within a short time she had different spiritual experiences and things he attained to some type of bhava samanthi what a devotee revered sir you just mentioned two paths what is the other path so all of this was within that the scope of yoga or this vitar mark master the path of bhakti or zealous love of god anuraga that means not not simply ordinary love but passionate love and with tremendous longing this uh uh it means a feeling of anguish and pain and not really realizing god this tremendous feeling of separation a burning feeling that uh we can't think of anything else we have such a longing for union with the beloved it's a very rare thing we we try to get a little bit of it that's why in in the gospel it's usually translated as uh longing for god because that's as much as we can get this uh if if it increases to the point where uh we have all these these symptoms with takur's longing for god realization when he practiced uh some of the vaisnava pads and other things that the whole body would be burning uh blood would come out of his pores that his his body would be so hot he'd have to immerse himself fully in the in the ganges up to his neck and when the the brahminy was there she couldn't even touch his body she would have to put a cloth there it was it was too hot for her hands even you can imagine we think this is oh wouldn't it be wonderful if we got this that longing for god we don't know what it was in talkworth's case of course we don't have to take said he did what he did so that we won't have to do it if we do one sixteenth of what he did it'll be enough but uh that that real yakulota as we read about in uh the vaisnava literature with uh with radha and with titania deva and of course in the life of srama krishna is a very rare thing yeah we're lucky that first of all there's a kali yuga we don't have to do so much second of all tucker did so many these of these things just to set an example for us so that we won't have to go through all of these things ourselves uh a little bit of weeping for god and we can have god realization a little telling the truth for for 12 years something like that there's enough master the path of bhakti or zealous love of god we've forgotten solitude with a restless soul and asked him to reveal himself to you tako was very fond of this idea of weeping if he ever heard then any of his disciples wept for god he was very very happy he said it was a very good sign now tucker will quote from a song probably singing cry to your mother shamma with a real cry o mind and how can she hold herself from you marwari devotee sir what is the meaning of the worship of the personal god and what is the meaning of god without form or attributes okay now this is a very very big question i thought that i would take a little time today and and go into this idea of personal god we sometimes think that uh god with form and without form or god uh with attributes or without attributes near go to promise to aguna brahman nirakar sakhar we sometimes think that these things and god personal and impersonal all belong to the same level there's a big distinction actually in in vedanta traditional vedanta of the upanishads we have our saguana brahmana our near guru brahman we have this idea that this vidat this is everything is the form of god and swarat that god has transcended and beyond everything but we don't have this idea of personal god in the sense that we normally understand it taco will talk i don't know if it's here a little bit about uh yeah in the next chapter the doctrine of vedanta when dr talks about vedanta he uses it in a very specific sense we we may say o vedante everything we believe in is vedanta path of of devotion this is also vedanta taco will distinguish usually vedanta from the quranic ideas he'll say according to the puranas or according to vedanta and vedanta will mean for him the upanishads specifically and shankaracharya is dwight vedanta in particular so we have to understand because vedanta if we save it on to there are many bhakti schools most of the schools are bhakti schools there's a very nice book the bhakti schools of vedante by swami tapashi so taqwa is very specifically referring to this advaita vedanta when he talks about vedanta i remember one swami lokeshwaraniji gave a lecture in hollywood he came he came to visit california and he started the lecture with a statement that i'll always remember because there was a little bit of a shock effect to it i don't know if he did it on purpose but the first first thing he said was there is no personal god in vedhanta now if if we say well at least vedante has to include gita and brahma sutras we have our three this and upanishads that gita of course has the idea of personal god but he by vedanta he meant specifically the upanishads and we really don't have any personal god in the upanishads we have this seed for it swamiji always like to say that we can see the beginnings of some of these ideas which become developed later in in gita and then in the put on us for devotion but it's really not there so what about this idea of personal god what do we mean by personal god when we say in the upanishad okay well we have ishwara is ishwara not the personal god kumar is personal god in in gita that ishwara dwells within the hearts of all beings and makes us run around in circles and all of that but in the upanishads it simply means that this is the brahmin has a power associated with it which can project the universe it's not that this ishwara is someone that we pray to and hears our prayers and answers our prayers generally personal god this will this will be what is later called bhagavan so we'll have our brahman nergon and saguna brahman and the sagun brahman won't necessarily be this loving god and compassionate and all of those qualities and characteristics in the upanishads it will be more there's this this shaktis this power to project the universe and and sustain the universe and withdraw the universe these will be the three main powers that way now none of this means that well the upanishads are right and and the later things are wrong swamiji had another theory that the spiritual truth get developed in time not that everything will will be discovered all at once the the think of how many years went by when the scientific world didn't know about gravity and then how many years when they didn't know about any of these laws of quantum physics and things like that they still operated they were still true so this idea of the personal god what exactly does it mean we have we have different ways of understanding it some of it involves a little bit of just uh superimposition that oh this is this is my idea someone will say well that's you think god is like that how do you know god is like that and different traditions will say that uh stressed the idea god is a merciful god or god is a jealous god how do you know god is a jealous god you have some idea of what a perfect person is so you think god is like that when swamiji narendra first came to srama krishna and srama krishna was constantly talking about the divine mother and the visions he had and she told him to do this and do that he used to say that these are all tricks of the mind moanabhul he used to say that these are hallucinations and talk with the o is it so and he would go back and ask divine mother and she would say no these are not hallucinations so talk where he would because he was so so simple when narendra would say things like that then he would have the little question in his mind just for a moment but then he used to say but but she talks to me and then the song said how do you know and then later he would say but the things that she says turn out to be true that uh she she said that you'll see that spiritual son will come to you and he'll be like this and like that and all of the visions that tucker had uh they they turned out to be true and he would tell things to swamiji and to em also em was a little skeptical in the beginning uh this is not what they call the west coincidence that one thing happened you have a dream and the next day that dream turns out to be true could we just hear a coincidence but gradually they all saw that it had to be true and the the real proof of all of this is the experience of it of people like me uh this is this is just kind of playing with ideas in the mind because we don't know what it really means to have a relationship with a personal god that is so intimate that one feels that reality of the personal god is greater than the reality of anything else and because that's what takwa said to swamiji swamiji said have you seen god yes but more clearly and more tangibly than i see you and he had that relationship with her so how do we understand that this is another big question now and again this is this is just me fooling around with some ideas but if we think that the individual mind is is like a wave on the ocean and this whole ocean is that sachidananda and not simply pure consciousness but cosmic mind as well that the if we think that that brahman is able to create the world as a projection almost like a dream then there has to be some type of subconscious mind there which is storing all of the things that will be used to project it in in the sankey and other traditions they'll say well this all belongs to nature but in vedanta it'll have to belong to to brahman itself so as cosmic mind now if someone's individual mind can connect with that and if that cosmic mind has some sense of self awareness these are all very tricky ideas if we say god is a personal god that doesn't mean that the personality of god is like our personality it can be just some type of self-awareness i am that i am this we find this in the uh western traditions i am that i am this will be the statement of god not uh our sense of eye has to do with all sorts of false identification we shouldn't expect god to identify falsely with anything but then we get a tremendous statement i was trying to find it i couldn't find it but i i've read it several times that swamiji said himself he said that there is some power some divine presence that's in control of everything that thinks of itself as a woman see this idea of personal god for israeli krishna was always the divine mother and for swamiji also towards the end of his life that uh he had absolute faith and heard the voice of the divine mother also and talked so many times so we can't dismiss this idea of a personal god and i think it's wrong to say that uh well it's just that i have a longing to see god in that form and god will reveal himself to me in that form i think there's some reality to this and that personal god is that indwelling presence there's a very logical tendency to think that concept of god somewhere far off independent transcendent reality will be the personal god god in heaven and god dwelling within will be pure consciousness and when it's really invadanted a little bit the opposite that god dwelling within is the personal god that's our access that's that's the god that hears our prayers that uh so what the yani will say is the is the saks in the witness the bhakta will say is the unto yaman is the inner controller god dwelling within and that god dwelling within if we have this sense of i separating us that will be that will be the personal god dwelling within hearing or prayer and inspiring us whether we hear the words or not but yeah we hear the words of god now is this a hundred percent subjective just the mind is it a hundred percent objective it'll have to be a bit of a mix uh does god know every language can speak to everybody in the language they want to hear or is it just that that divine presence will come to us through our own mind in the words that we understand i think there's a very subtle mixture of objective and subjective and so this idea of the personal god in the life of srama krishna it was there was absolutely no question about it the personal god was was a hundred percent real and not different from this ishwara and not different from what we call the brahman all three are the same or paramatman there's a very nice verse from the bhagavad-gita that i've mentioned several times it's a very important verse that in the caitanya school in jiva goswami he was a nephew of rupa and sanatana they were the two teachers of bhakti and he was the philosopher of the group he took this one verse and extrapolated from that six different volumes the whole of the whole of the uh of the division of the philosophy of the of the guardian of a school uh is traced back to one single verse it's very interesting and this verse says so the knowers of truth call truth this nondual consciousness this is what they call truth then it says brahmati paramatmati this this one non-dual absolute pure consciousness reality which the knowers of truth considered to be the highest reality this goes by three different names brahmin okay no problem with that then paramatman so this brahman is the source of everything that same divine presence within the heart and the personal god bhagavan so this this becomes a a very this this makes the third connection as i said before it's very easy to see that near guna brahman and saguna brahman are one of the same and god without form and god with form now god with form of course we can take that with a lot of subjectivity we want to see god in a particular form that doesn't mean that's the absolute form but we have this other idea there's an old very early vedic idea that this whole universe is the body of god so that's also god with form now for us we have another alternative and that is to look upon the avatar as the personal god this is this is a very tangible form that god is manifest within all beings everyone can accept that about a special manifestation uh in those who have this tremendous purity and and a certain degree of spiritual power that we don't find in others this will be a gigantic wave among all of the other waves and swamiji likes this idea also so uh and this this the avatar knows the oneness so the noah brahman is brahman so we're also we pray to the avatar then this is also a type of personal god for us and we can furthermore have this belief that the avatar does not get merged in brahman after giving up the body but remains available on some some other level this is what swami shattered on this says paraquridlina becomes merged in nature not brahmalinum where that means the drop of water goes in the ocean and disappears remains in some form that can be available to us so this idea of a personal god a very subtle type of thing and very hard to understand this this saguna brahma near go to brahmana very very logical about this idea of the personal god is and and everyone has that big question swamiji used to have the question so is there a god that we pray to who hears our prayers and answers our prayers it's very hard to say a question of faith generally but in term of krishna's case it wasn't simply a question of faith he had that direct experience and it was so intense that uh it was it was the most real type of experience and as he would say she talks to me and what she tells me turns out to be true so we really can't deny it unless we deny of course the takur was who he was which is also very hard to do so he says what is the meaning of the worship of the personal god so again we can see personal how do we worship the personal god and god dwelling in other people this is swamiji like that this is also a type of worship serving others is a worship of the personal god another beautiful statement that was made by ramana maharshi somebody asked him what about this personal god who is the personal god he says whoever says i is a personal god so we ourselves are the personal god when we have that feeling of highness a little sense of personality there but each and every one of us is that divine manifest that way so we see god in others this is also a type of personal god and worship of that god is done through service so we have all different ways of doing i'm saying all of this because tako is not going to he goes through all of these things in various places this he's not going to give such an extensive thing in this one reply it'll be helpful because i know it's a very big question some people especially in dualistic religions it's not a question at all but if you ask them to analyze it and explain how it's possible they they'll be lost there's but they'll have burning faith and no one can question that yes god in heaven hears my prayers and answers my prayers something they say how does it work i said don't ask me how it works but we try to be a little bit logical and try to understand what these things mean and if we if we can develop some understanding then and some conviction then uh it'll have much more meaning for us so it is helpful to try to analyze these things but not over analyze them and sometimes we simply say no let me just stick with this faith this feeling that i have and whether it's absolutely verifiable or not i don't care so this is the other way of looking at it okay so this is the answer that it'll give i'll read the question again what is the meaning of the worship of the personal god and what is the meaning of god without form or attribute without form without attribute the these don't have to go together we know that most of the western religions like this idea of no form but attributes nirakar saguna so in judaism christianity islam uh the concept of of god god the father god the son will be a little bit god reform but god the father will be that there's no form but love and compassion and and even this is justice mercy all of these things will be will be different attributes but it's very interesting even in these western religions among the mystics that form will come in there's there's something in in mystical judaism uh called the throne theology that there'll be some experiences and mystical visions and things of god sitting on the throne now god's sitting on the throne it has to be with form we can't have a formula it's god sitting on the throne so even there through some mystical vision or experience or or to make things more tangible that that image will be there god sometimes pictures it as a wise old man with a long beard something like that there's a very nice image that we get in what's called the high holy days in judaism that it's a period of 10 days and during this period people are supposed to pray for atonement for their sins and pray that they'll have a good year and that they won't do these things again so they say the beginning of the 10 days god is sitting on the on the throne of justice and he'll judge us to see how well we did and everything and at the end he sits on the throne of mercy that he'll forgive us so he'll switch he'll have two different thrones that he can go to and in christianity they have this idea of of christ sitting by the side of god with something like that on the throne so even there where it's supposed to be fully nirakat formless god the mind crazed for some type is imagery in some way of understanding god and relating to god as a person so we have that idea so anyhow so this question is uh what is the meaning of god without form or attribute so both without form and without attribute master as you recall your father by the photograph by his photograph so likewise the worship of the image reveals in a flash the nature of reality now there's another thing that we have to understand that in those days when people talked about worshiping god with form generally this was this was code this was a code for image worship and when the when the brahmos were so much against this this worship of god with form it wasn't this other idea that we tried to picture god uh as as a father or some something like uh it was it was what they called idol worship so very often when people would ask that taku would understand that they had in the back of their mind this the worship through an image so this is why he's saying that and this was exactly what remembers the story of swamiji he was traveling somewhere i take in gujarat and they were talking about worshiping an image and everything and then swamiji said to the day one see that maharaja's photograph is on the wall bring it down so he brought it down he said now spit on it and he said well how can i do that and he said why not it's not that it's not the mirage himself this is just a photograph he said yeah but it's almost the same as doing it and he said yes this is the attitude of those who worship through an image they know that the image is not god but they'll have that feeling of reverence because it reminds them and this is this is the representative tangible representative for that which is transcendent so this is why he's talking about in the beginning this idea of the photograph as you recall your father by his photograph so likewise the worship of the image reveals in a flash the nature of reality swamiji once said he was asked about image worship and he said how can i deny the efficacy of image worship when srama krishna who he held to be of course the perfect avatar i realized god through image worship that was initially because of his worship of mother kali and kali temple that he had his first realization sometimes they'll say this is the lowest form that there are subtler and subtler ways of worshiping god but this is a very efficacious were very helpful for most people if it was good enough for takur it would be okay for us also okay now do you know what god with form is like like bubbles rising on an expanse of water various divine forms are seen to rise out of the great akasha of consciousness okay so this is that other idea that there's not one form of god when we say god with form if we mean this this vidat that's one thing but if we're talking about all of the different visions that people have and different conceptions there's all the different forms of the divine mother or all of the different forms we have and even the avatars the we may say well the avatar is completely different this is taking human birth but in terms of meditation in terms of vision in terms of experience there's no difference it's still consciousness taking a particular form due to our own type of devotion now we say okay so this is just subjective but subjective doesn't mean unreal because the substance is real we're getting the substance we want to get a glass of water out of a tank or a pitcher of water we have to put it in and the water will take a particular form somebody will say well that form has nothing to do with the water we say we don't care we can't get the water without it so there'll be a different name and a different form to it but somebody says well yeah but it's just uh some temporary thing or just like that ice well it'll melt back into the ocean yeah but we can't get the water unless we have the ice to grab hold of unless we we have something to scoop it out we won't be able to access that so the form becomes secondary but primary for us because that's the only way we can access it so the very subtle connection between this the formless reality and form this is why water is such a good example that it never comes without a form even even if we think a lake that's perfectly smooth on top that's a form and and however the the bed of that lake is that that's a form if we could freeze it and take it out we would see it has a form at the same time it has no form of its own it's formless it takes the shape of the container so it's so god will take the shape of the heart whatever whatever is in the mind whatever however we wanted we have a desire to see god that that realization will come that way so it's subjective but it's real and this is how we access that that reality this is why taka's understanding was so subtle yes and so brilliant really okay then he says the incarnation of god is one of these forms so this is also in that divine realm in that divine realm where we can access these forms there's no difference between ramana krishna or shiva durga even though we may say well one took human birth and the other is just some conception of of the different heavens and things like that but from the point of view of direct experience there's no difference so the incarnation of god is one of these forms the primal energy sports as it were through the activities of a divine incarnation okay so this is uh as much as we're going to get here it's a lot to chew on but with this idea of uh what is the meaning of the personal god then taqwa continues what is there in mere scholarship god can be attained by crying to him with a longing heart there is no need to know many things okay so this is again a very subtle balance between analyzing things and over analyzing things that there's a a purpose in this regard there's a purpose in analyzing things and there's a great need to know when to stop tucker says you have a shopping list and you read the things in the shopping list then you put it away in your golf shop and you buy it there was a man who had that list and he lost it searching all over for it and then finally he found it he's so happy to find it but he that didn't mean that he kept it all the time he read it and then he remembered then he threw it away he didn't need it anymore so this is why takur half the time says constantly analyze constantly practice of each other and the other half of the time he says promise me to em that you won't do this vichata anymore that you won't keep arguing and reasoning and trying to figure things out one of the purposes of each other is to understand the extent to which reason can carry us and to understand what what questions don't have answers and if they don't have answers just through this this logical mind then we we stop asking the questions this is intelligence this is intelligence this foolishness is when we keep asking questions that we know don't have answers or that we know that the answers can be refuted that there are no perfect answers or absolute answers and we keep asking these questions over and over again why did god create the world this way huh what existed before creation is it eternal is it non-eternal well there are no answers to these things we we give certain answers of course but takur says at some point we have to we have to practice we have to eat the mangoes we we spend the whole time trying to figure out who planted the seed and how the tree grew and how many branches there are and how many mangoes are there and what varieties and everything would you miss the whole point of going to the mango grove you say simply pick it and and enjoy enjoy the taste of the sweet mangoes so what is there in mere scholarship god can be attained by crying to him with a longing heart there is no need to know many things in fact tucker used to say this was a definition of of ignorance what is agyane he said to know many things what is gyan it's a one thing so knowing many things means that we don't know that underlying reality which is responsible for all of the individual different things and we can never know it we want to know all of the varieties of of jewelry of gold jewelry without knowing gold if once we know gold then it doesn't matter then we know that they're all just different names and forms of that one substance he was in acharya acharya will be a world teacher those not not a simple uh lecturer or anything like that this acharya was the word that was used by the brahmos uh but it's also the word that we use we reserve it for shankara shankaracharya ramanujacharya for those really very special world teachers so he is an acharya someone who is a real teacher it doesn't have to be the level of shankaracharya but someone who can speak and the words will have some effect that it will be based on some experience and it will have some purity of heart and some some real longing for god if not realization he was in acharya has to know different things so they may need to know be knowledgeable in the scriptures be able to quote verses be able to uh give some citations that this person says this and this person says that ordinary people don't need all of those things this is just for the sake of teaching others and for them to have some faith in the words of the acharya so he is in acharya has to know different things one needs a sword and shield to kill others but to kill oneself a needle or a nail knife suffices so we we should never make the mistake of thinking that we have to become scholars scholarship is okay and uh it can help us to a certain extent we we study the scriptures over and over again one to gain conviction and secondly once we have that conviction there's some enjoyment some pleasure and we can spend all of our time in meditation and we don't want to waste our time so it's a good habit to do some regular study of the scriptures but uh it should never replace spiritual practice this is the thing one ultimately ah now we'll get it very nicely one ultimately discovers god by trying to know who this i is this is one of the great teachings of vedanta this concept of god is never god separate from us there are different schools of course that will say that well i'm a part of god or that if god is separate still god dwells within it is never this idea that god dwells somewhere far away in heaven and accessible to us but according to vedanta advaita vedanta that god is the real i within that was the brahmana maharishi who was the personal god that which says i so and takwa's idea was not that if we if we search for this i will find god we search for this i will find that there is no i and god is there in its place if we find that i that ego i that'll be blocking when we when we analyze and say what is this who is this i that i'm talking about this is a very nice type of meditation actually that we look in the countries we think about consciousness and say well where is the i and the consciousness where is any personality within consciousness and we realize that consciousness there's no personality within it every feeling of personality is consciousness of mind is consciousness of of qualities that we have consciousness of of our past and and our history and the memory of things that we've done and qualities that we think we have this is the source of this feeling of i it's not that pure consciousness within there's no i in that so we search for this eye and we find that of this ego sense disappears and this other eye which is really because it's not simply pure consciousness it's self-consciousness they're not simply pure consciousness as we stand in front of the mirror and the mirror reflects either our consciousness is not just reflecting something else it's awareness some self-awareness is there also so awareness of other things but awareness of the self i not only see things i'm aware that i'm seeing things the self-consciousness the reflective nature of consciousness this will be that the real source of i that we have and not this ego sense and that doesn't spring from this body-mind complex that's transcendent that has its own existence that's absolute that's why we can say that that's that's the divine we find god in its place so a very brilliant statement one ultimately discovers god by trying to know who this i is a little bit back to yana yoga is this i the flesh the bones the blood or the marrow is it the mind or the buddhi see we we may not make the mistake of thinking i'm this body i know i'm not this body i know i'm connected to it but i really do feel that i am this this ego sense this this personality that's who most of us we identify with our personality that's the very definition of personality this the feeling that i have qualities and i have attributes and physical attributes of course but more of these these internal things so it's not simply realizing i'm not the flesh the bones the bones the blood or the marrow bite he says is it the mind of the booty so understanding that i'm also not this intellect i'm the witness of all of these and that witness is equally thou and equally i huh so sometimes hitachi says look for the eye you'll find you'll find him you'll find god and this god is equally eyes the gyani will say it's the higher self the devotee will say it's god dwelling within both and neither this is this is the soham i am that which one do we want to say is it really i or is it really he or she is something beyond both so analyzing thus you realize at last that you were none of these this is called the process of nati naiti not this not this one can neither comprehend nor touch the ottoman it is without qualities or attributes and it's the self is the self the the uh feeling that i want to realize the self comes from a feeling of separation and a feeling of ego to realize the self means i am the self it's we talk about this vision of the self or the vision of brahmin that is just our clumsy way of of describing this this realization that i am that it's not the vision of the self it's not knowledge of brahman the knowledge of brahmana means that i am brahman and we won't even say that the brahman alone exists because the eye becomes merged in it now we'll get to another big jump but according to the path of devotion god has attributes to a devotee krishna is spirit his abode is spirit and everything about him is spirit jin mai sham chin mai dham sometimes election my name that there are all the embodiment of pure consciousness and pure awareness that this infinite uh ocean of consciousness can congeal in places and be something tangible and invisible we look in the sky and we see clouds cloud is nothing but sky huh it's just it's it's somehow uh created a form that from a distance will look like something very tangible with outlines but we analyze it very closely we fly through it there's nothing but infinite space there's nothing but sky it's the same thing the marwari devotees saluted the master and took their leave how fortunate they were huh teachings that they got that how many of them could have could have really understood it uh how much could we understand but uh they of course were they were worldly people but takwa praised them they're real hindus because they followed the traditions and customs and and they had a real devotion none of them actually became you know close disciples as far as we know of course none of them they were all married people and business people and everything but taco had had a great deal of respect for them except that he couldn't touch their food that was just because he knew business people that they're selling something to make profit and uh and we won't go into that too much but according to the path of devotion god has attributes to a devotee krishna is spirit his abode is spirit and everything about him is spirit the marwari devotees saluted the master and took their leave at the approach of evening srama krishna went out to look at the sacred river the lamp was lighted in his room the master chanted the hallowed name of the divine mother and meditated on her then the evening worship began in the various temples the sound of gongs floating on the air mingled with the murmuring voice of the river peace and blessedness reigned everywhere yeah talk were meditating on the divine mother and us meditating on the divine mother of different things his meditation was communing with the divine mother he would enter into that realm where it was real the the this is not not just imagination or meditation is imagination which is not there's nothing wrong with it we're trying to picture something but for him this was the ultimate reality this is why i say that we can philosophize and theorize about the meaning of the personal god but if we try to follow the teachings of takur and we can have that experience he says after after the highest type of realization one can talk to god we wonder how is it possible but anyhow he himself did it and says that we can do it so something that we can look forward to one day okay let us close here is [Music] we bow our heads before srama krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship um peace peace peace be unto allah thank you everyone