Video 45

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (02/19/21)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we're just finishing up a very short chapter no it's not so short a very short day in this in the chapter this is the master's birthday celebration at dakshin ishwar and it is sunday february 18 1883. we're on page 182. yeah i stopped here because ceramic christian had just finished giving some instructions and then it said srama krishna began this midday meal with the devotees it was about one o'clock a deputy sang in the courtyard below awake mother awake how long thou hast been asleep in the lotus of the muladhara fulfill thy secret function mother rise to the thousand-pedaled lotus within the head where madishiva has his dwelling swiftly pierce the six lotuses and take away my grief o essence of consciousness hearing the song srama krishna went into samati his whole body became still and his hand remained touching the plate of food he could eat no more after a long time his mind came down partially to the plain of the sense world and he said i want to go downstairs where was he oh he's in govinda mukherjee's house the chapter says his celebration at dakshin ishwar but he had been to devotee's house he was there at that time i want to go downstairs a devotee led him down very carefully still in an abstracted mood he sat near the singer the song had ended the master said to him very humbly sir i want to hear the chanting of the mother's name again the musician sang awake mother awake how long thou hast been asleep and the lotus of the muladhara the master again went into ecstasy now we get to february 25th that was the 18th so it's uh the next week after his noon meal the master conversed with the devotees and others had arrived from calcutta so now we'll be in induction this world we know all of these people by now ramchandra was a great householder devotee it's interesting the web of of family relationships that he was related to to swami vivekananda i don't know how distant it was but they were related this nithy gopal was also related to m some type of nephew and also related to balaram bose i'll read a little bit about him uh and then harish we met earlier he was married but wanted to be lived like a sannyasi taco let him stay there for some time a lot too of course was our future and he wasn't related to rama of course he was an orphan boy he came with his uncle to calcutta and they both ended up working for ram so it was through ram chandra datta that lattu also came to srama krishna and hazrat of course was from taquer's area and many of the priests from the kali temple were either the all of the temples in the uh dakshineshwar temple compound were either relatives or people from the the village nearby villages of komarpukur so this uh nitigopal he was he was in his early twenties and uh he he was a very free soul some he wasn't married sometimes he lived on his own sometimes he stayed with rama this ramchandra was was very generous that way that later swami shivananda also stayed in his house sometimes so it was a little bit of an open house arrangement and this nitigopal i'll read a little bit i went through this once before i think long back but because it's interesting he became he became well known later he had a little bit of funny ideas he became known as so it says he was a beloved devotee of swami krishna taqwar had a very high opinion of him and he was related to ram chandra not balaram sorry manu mohan mitra manu mohan mitra whose son-in-law was rakhal so all of these interesting connections also related to tulsi tulsi toronto who later became swami nirmalananda so a lot of family relationships here sometimes he stayed with haram chandra he would come with him very often to see taqwa sometimes he came by himself he always remained in some type of intoxicated state he was very simple simple in nature and very prone to spiritual moods and things so takur it says seeing his spiritual stature uh was very much affectionate towards him and he used to say that he was in the state of the paramahamsa and the other disciples used to wonder says he's in the state of paramahamsa and yet he's warning him from time to time and then later we'll see that he said that his attitude is a little bit different and he doesn't belong to this place this is the language takara used to use that means he's not really part of the inner circle that he'll never really be have the same devotion to taqwa that the other direct disciples did after takwa passed away and the relics part of them at least were kept in congregation yoga dan on this nitty gopal for five or six months it said he did delhi puja of the relics at that time and most of the time during the day he remained immersed in meditation then he took the name janananda abudhut and some temple was established and there was another mutt in panichati named kaival yamat and he wrote nearly 25 books some of them have been translated into english and he has a following and i remember seeing the temple in his name with a big image of him and i think there's some people who look upon him as a as an avatar also so this is this is our nithya gopal rakal haris latu and hazra were living with a master mr chodhari who had three or four university degrees was a government officer and was a government officer was also present he had recently lost his wife and had visited the master several times for peace of mind master to ram and the other devotees devotees like rakal narendra and brahmanath may be called nithya siddha now he's not including nitigopal here even though he has such a high regard for him nithya siddha means eternally perfect now what is the distinction between the ishvarakoti and the nithya siddha not very clear now he's saying sometimes he would include him with all of the others taqwa probably felt that he was destined to be one of the monastic disciples and it seems early earlier on he used to be considered one of the sexes for the courtesy then we find when porna comes that will not lost his plot his slot there and and he started calling porna the the sixth and final that the circle was complete when porna came uh so bhavanat also he kind of uh he marriage was arranged for him probably around the time that thakur was was going to kashipur and in the beginning takwo was very impressed with his high spiritual state he and his wife only talk about god all night long and he addresses her as mother and thakura says even i can't do that but gradually it seems that bhavanat he came more like a stranger asked how were you doing sir and leave and then they they felt and others wondered what has happened to bhavanath so that was above and out but like nitigopal both of them takur had a very good impression of them and loved them both very much so nitya siddha there uh there are two different ways of understanding this and uh some of the direct disciples talk about this one that they're ever perfect so how that works i don't know exactly but we have to assume that they were never born as ordinary people and had to attain perfection that somehow they just had to shake off the little veil of maya and remember their ever perfect state the other idea is that they attained to the state of perfection they they had god realization in this lifetime but either they're destined for a certain mission or they had some desire to to help others so somehow they withheld uh that merging in in brahmin that that conditioned and came to be born again those who are ishwara koti's would be the same for them except perhaps the distinction would be they would only come when the avatar comes otherwise there's a big overlap all the ishwarikotis were nithya siddhas well they're all nithya siddhis or ishwarakotis i don't know taqwar is not it's not one to give a whole lot of detail about all of these things in fact we don't really know too much ishwara koti jivakoti uh whether it's sankia terminology i don't know myself exactly where it comes from i've looked it up in dictionaries and things and i haven't found it there so nithya siddha their spiritual consciousness has been awake since their very birth now this is another curious thing it's awake but it's not fully awake even in the case of srama krishna he had as i say shake off the dust of maya that it was very easy for him of course but uh we were reading where were we reading one of the one of the books was uh swami possession energy saying even in the case was from a krishna gradually he came to realize uh his spiritual stature and his role in his mission in life and everything it wasn't exactly clear to him it came into sharper focus when the when the brahmani came and they held that convention with all of the great pundits and everything so their spiritual consciousness has been awake since their very birth a certain level but they also had to practice uh intense spiritual disciplines and and sadhana and everything they assume human bodies only to impart spiritual illumination to others this will be the distinctive feature they're not born out of karma that they had desires and they still have to complete their journey and reach the goal of life they've already done that but they had a different mission and different purpose for taking birth again there is another class of devotees known as kripa siddha that is to say those whom on whom the grace of god descends all of a sudden now taqwa uses different terminology in other places is siddha what time you know all at once now we can say everyone is kripa siddha that without the grace of god without the grace of the mind without the grace of the guru that we won't get this type of illumination but here he's saying that it really means kind of like all it wants and we sometimes hear taqwa says things like they're all jackals hal alike that that there's somehow some uniformity with regard to samadhi and god realization there may be but the the paths to get there are different and the ways and everything taker even talks about swap in one place that one attains realization and dream and so here he's saying kripa this will be like this all at once it descends this is this is part of the japanese zen tradition with satori for for them maybe because of their zen practice uh maybe for cultural reasons but this seemed to be the way it happened with them that all of a sudden without warning almost they would have some breakthrough like that very often it could be a simple thing chopping wood and it splits in two parts and they can have some satori not exactly samadhi some enlightenment experience so it could happen at any time takwa talks about sadhana siddhi those who through long practice these long years of meditation and everything gradually they'll attain to that state of perfection so this is they're the nithya siddhas they're they're already perfect uh so they only have to realize that have have some awakening of their ever perfect self and then the other class that they're not born perfect of course we're we're all perfect it doesn't mean that that uh we the the ottoman doesn't have to undergo any transformation we have to remove that veil which is preventing us from seeing or ever perfect nature but this is a little bit different so they're born with karma and through some type of spiritual practice or just some type of grace it'll get burned up immediately they'll have some realization tucker talks about this this idea that a room that's been dark for a thousand years and you flip the light switch he says does it become light little by little or all at once or a big heap of cotton you put a match to it and just like that or a dry straw just like that it'll go up so that will be kripas those on whom the grace of god descends all of a sudden and who at once attains his vision and knowledge such people oh here it is maybe like into a room that has been dark a thousand years which when a lamp is brought into it becomes light immediately not little by little yeah i guess they didn't have light switches back then didn't have electric lights those who lead a householder's life should practice spiritual discipline they should pray eagerly to god in solitude okay householder's life that means also those who lead a householder's life everyone needs to practice some spiritual discipline pray to god eagerly in solitude takwa recommended going into solitude he recommended prayer and he recommended that we do it with some urgency with some intensity some real longing this is bakulata to mr chodari god cannot be realized through scholarship now he's saying this to him because this is a man we can imagine what he thinks of scholarship if he had three or four university degrees that no one will go through all of that it's not not to get a better job he was a government officer but he must have had some some real attachment to scholarly study and everything so tucker is telling him god cannot be realized through scholarship who indeed can understand the things of the spirit through reason no all should strive for devotion to the lotus feet of god we see among his disciples those who didn't develop that quality to analyze everything had a little bit of an easier time developing devotion of course he's the prime example how much how much faith he had and whatever taco said to him how that was just unquestionably the best thing for him is just remarkable swami permanente we spoke about him last week a little bit how he wasn't much interested in the studies or anything and yet how much love and devotion he had he didn't care too much to analyze everything this is a kind of a disease with a lot of us myself included that we overanalyze things a little bit of course it's important in the beginning to develop conviction and to make sure we don't swallow something whole without knowing what we're swallowing who indeed can understand the things of the spirit through reason no all should strive for devotion to the lotus feet of god infinite or the glories of god how little can you fathom then can you ever find out the meaning of god's ways this is very important for us because this tendency is there to want to get answers for every question that we have especially why is the world the way it is why does god allow this to happen why do good people suffer we have so many questions like that and we assume that there must be a good answer but there's no good answer there are plenty of answers there is a book that was written by rabbi rabby kushner i think was his name that why do good people suffer something like that and he gives i didn't read it i just know about it he gives something like six or seven alternative answers to the question that means that we decide ourselves which one we like there's no one final conclusive answer that god is testing us that he wants us to get rid of some of our burn off some of our karma or god has nothing to do with it that these things happen in the world so many different ways we can understand it that finally we have to just say that who can understand these things fully that some things we just accept and we and we don't bother too much about it and it becomes not just irrelevant but it becomes it side tracks us a little bit from the spiritual goal so taco was always warning as his disciples that this this mind is like a small container and you're trying to pour a large amount of milk into it it won't be able to hold it it'll just overflow so stop doing that bhishma was none other than one of the eight vasuz but even he shed tears on his bed of arrows he said how astonishing god himself is the companion of the pandava brothers that means in the form of krishna and still there is no end to their troubles and sorrows who can ever understand the ways of god a man thinks i've practiced a little prayer and austerity so i've gained a victory over others but victory and defeat lie with god i have seen a prostitute dying in the ganges and retaining consciousness to the end this is supposed to be a very high type of birth to pass away in full consciousness we all think that oh how nice to to die in our sleep we won't suffer we won't know anything but uh in in the video tradition to pass away in full consciousness means that it's just just like being aware of that transition from dreaming to waking when we're fully awake and we can immediately see ah that was all a dream and if we're in full consciousness then the belief is that full consciousness remains even during that transition period so it's considered a very high temperature so talk we're saying that from our ordinary way of calculating things if someone has led a loose life like that they shouldn't be qualified for that it should be for someone who's led a very pure type of life and and done a lot of spiritual practice but how do we how do we account for it we can come up with our own theories past lifetime a lot of karma all these things but ultimately what tuck we're saying is it's a big question mark we can't say for certain so we shouldn't try to get hard and fast answers for all of these types of questions mr today how can one see god now remember he's he's in this state of bereavement he recently lost his wife and he he is very receptive to this idea that no i know through all of my university degrees and everything that won't be of much help to me but please give me some practical advice how can one see god master not with these eyes god gives one divine eyes divya chakra we read in chapter 11 of the gita that when arjuna asked shri krishna for a vision of his universal form and he says you won't be able to see me with those eyes i'll give you some special eyes now it's not really specialized it means that mind has to go up to to a different level in order to have this type of experience only then can one behold him god gave arjuna again it means krishna divine eyes so that he might see his universal form your philosophy is mere speculation now i don't know why he says your philosophy maybe uh he was a member of the brahma-samaj or maybe he studied philosophy one of his university degrees but it means philosophy in general it only reasons god cannot be realized that way god cannot remain unmoved if you have raga bhakti that is love of god with passionate attachment to him we know this is one of taquero's pet theories that devotion can be divided into two types one will be good thank you and the other will be raga bhakti so the first one is where we have to do very regular spiritual practice we get the teachings the instructions from the guru we have to repeat the mantra a certain number of times we should get up at a certain time we should do a certain amount of puja some spiritual reading all of that a little bit routine but necessary and the raga bhakti is something that just spontaneously comes it comes as the result of regular steady practice but also some grace has to come and when that comes then realization of god is assured to us it's it's only a question of of time a short amount of time otherwise before that we have no idea it can be lifetime after lifetime when we really attain the state of raga bhakti takwar says if you see uh waiting all night long we have no one no way of knowing knowing how long it'll be if say we do vigil at night we don't know uh how long we have to wait there's no clock there's nothing till the sun rises we think my god it's taking forever but we see a little pink in the in the horizon and we say ah now we know for sure that within 15-20 minutes half-hour the sun will rise so this is the raga bhakti do you know how fond god is of his devotee's love it is like the cow's fondness for father mixed with oil cake the cow gobbles it down greedily yeah they do that sometimes they add some gur and other things to it and swami he used to like to take this to the cows and feed them with it they're very very fond of it is pure love of god a love that seeks god alone and not any worldly end this this taco talks about this pure devotion sometimes it seems to be in the sense that we don't care for the path of knowledge or anything that is just devotion other times it stresses this other idea because he doesn't mind he likes this idea that we should combine knowledge and devotion but this shuuta bhakti sometimes he equates that with what he calls bhakti that means the devotion that has no motive to it we don't pray to god to get anything we pray only for love and devotion this is that motiveless devotion that we can say it's pure devotion so a love that seeks god alone and not any worldly end prahlada had it suppose you go to a wealthy man every day but you seek no favor of him you simply love to see him if he wants to show you favor you say no sir i don't need anything i came just to see you such is love of god for its own sake you simply love god and don't want anything from him in return you remember there was a period when narendra came to srama krishna and srama krishna absolutely ignored him now other times seeing him he would go into ecstasy and if he didn't see him for a few days he would weep and he would say oh go and find out why narendra is not coming sometimes he would go to see him even but this time for a period of i don't know how long a few weeks narendra would come and he would look the other way he wouldn't say anything to him he wouldn't even recognize him his presence in the room then after after that whole period he said to him why do you keep coming i don't even look at you i don't even talk to you and he says i come because i love to see you i don't require you to say anything to me or anything like that this is that type of bhakti he says no sir i don't need anything i just came to see you such is love of god for its own sake you simply love god and don't want anything from him in return saying this the master sang this is a this is a song that he repeats many many times though i am never loathed the grand salvation this is supposed to be through krsna's speaking i hesitate indeed to grant pure love whoever wins pure love surpasses all he is adored by men he triumphs over the three worlds this is this is an idea that's very prevalent in uh the division of the scriptures especially from the chaitanya school but others also that mukti is not considered by them to be the highest goal of life we have four purusharthas dharma atacama moksha and they had a fifth there's a panchama prema this this love of god and they say this is much higher and even with the different types of of mukti or moksha that they believe in that the one where one merges in god is the lowest the one where uh one has the same qualities of god a little bit better but the one where one is just in the presence of god that they like that the best to have some sense of feeling of separation that will be higher than what is normally considered mukti where one is simply not born again and one merges in the absolute there's no sense of distinction they like a little sense of distinction because they want to be able to experience the joy the taste of devotion so sri krishna says yeah that i don't mind somebody wants mukti you don't want to be born again okay but somebody says i only want to love you i want to he'll say okay that's a rare thing you have to work for that that will require really some grace it'll require complete lack of any selfishness don't ask me for anything if you really want that you only want pure love then i can give you that he continued the gist of the whole thing is that one must develop passionate yearning for god this is our famous vacuolata and practice discrimination and renunciation so he's adding two things in addition to that is enough but we won't be able to have that that passionate journey for god without discrimination discrimination tells us that yes these things of the world won't satisfy me we have to have that understanding and renunciation so we have to understand that uh this world is not anything that uh i should i should look upon as the beginning and end of life for me that i there has to be something higher this can't satisfy me there's so that will lead to this feeling of dispassion great argument then okay then i i won't seek these things in fact i'll look upon them as uh obstacles vishavat they they've used this term even it'll be like poison to me because i know it entangles me in the world so these go together this is very interesting uh how these three that look so different or so intimately connected passionate yearning for god practicing discrimination what is real what is unreal what is a value what's not what is substantial what is insubstantial and renunciation okay it's not real it's not substantial it can't do anything to lead me to the highest goal then i give it up so these things are very closely related mr chaudhary sir is it not possible to have the vision of god without the help of a guru now taqwa often skirts this question why does he do it partly because he didn't like to think of himself as in guru nazar and you know he'll say i'll just read the first line he says sachithan unto himself is the guru now is he really saying to him that you don't need a human guru that god god alone is the real guru i don't think so because he will emphasize the role of the guru he himself took so many different gurus he himself had disciples even though he said i have no disciples because he didn't have that that obama he didn't have that that feeling of pride and and that he didn't look upon himself that way he used to say guru baba these three terms the guru baba's a term of respect that's used in some traditional division of a tradition and the corta is a master that they'll use for for some these zamandars and other things or even the corta can also be a term for guru like that he didn't like he said i feel like i'm being stung by these these uh poisonous fish they can sting you with the terrible pain that whenever anybody addresses me guru babur of course mata rob we always called him baba and he didn't seem to mind so much because of that relationship so sachin that under himself is the guru what i think he's really saying is don't look upon the guru as a human being try to feel the divine presence within and understand that it's not the human aspect it's that divine aspect within the guru that is is the essential aspect at the end of the shava sadhana talks about it in other places part of a tantric ritual where one actually sits on the on a corpse and propitiates the divine mother this idea behind a lot of these tantalic rituals is to go beyond this idea of pure and impure the things that people consider wretched and horrible to touch there's also just a combination of of the elements or the three gunas so to get rid of that they do that type of sadhana so at the end of the shavasana just when the vision of the ishta the chosen deity chosen ideal is about to take place the guru appears before the aspiring so guru appears so this will be in human form or at least the vision of of the human form of the guru and says to him behold there's your ishta saying this the guru merges in the ishta he who is the guru is also the ishta so we should look upon the the guru as a type of manifestation of that same form of god that we worship uh in the case of particularly in in in our order we look upon the guru as not exactly a manifestation of srama krishna but that it's his power that's working through these all of the gurus of our order the guru is the thread that leads to god women perform a ritualistic worship known as the anantavarata the object of worship being the infinite but actually the deity worship the visnu in him are the infinite forms of god to ram and other devotees if you asked me which form of god you should meditate upon i should say fix your attention on that form which appeals to you most but know for certain that all forms are all forms of one god alone this is the whole concept of ishta devata the even at the term is a very curious term if if we look at it from the point of other spiritual traditions that all right this the david the god that appeals to you that you've chosen that you like to worship now somebody will say well it's got to be one of the other but the ideas that the same infinite reality which is beyond name and form can be worsted with any name and form any of the traditional ways that it's done and that each one will represent a particular spiritual attitude and each of these different attitudes will appeal to a different class of devotee you find the one that works for you that appeals to you and maybe through your family tradition it may just be because of uh your understanding whether you're more dualistic or non-dualistic or do you have some special devotion to your own mother that makes it very appropriate to worship god as mother do you have a strong maternal instinct that you're drawn to to infants to small children that you love to hold them and play with them then it'll be very appropriate to worship god as a child so this is that idea that each one is equally appropriate it depends on the individual each one is equally capable of taking one to the highest type of realization never harbor malice toward anyone shiva kali and hadi are but different forms of that one he is blessed indeed who was known all as one this is this is something that is is commonly understood uh in uh in india and many other traditions but is not always followed and we find that there's certain devotees of certain sects certain followers of shiva who would not be caught dead in the temple to vishnu and and vice versa that takwa talks about the devitu who's lighting incense in the place and he wanted to only go to shiva and not to fish it he was blowing it with his hands or wouldn't go so we find religious fanaticism everywhere even though deep down that understanding is there that god can be manifest in any way so this is why taco was so liberal partly because of this understanding partly because he actually practiced all of these he worshiped god in all of these different forms we the shiva we don't find that any shaiva teacher came to srama krishna or did he practice any specific shiva sadhana but when he was a young boy the night of shivratri and dressed up yeshiva he so merged in shivan he felt oneness with shiva that we can say he already had that realization and in another sense shiva represents the soham shivoham attitude so his vedanta sadhana also uh on one level can be understood as part of this taking the the attitude of worshiping shiva then he sings a song outwardly he appears as shiva's devotee but in his heart he worships kali the blissful mother and with his tongue he chants aloud lord hadi's name now there's a another subtle distinction between this understanding that god can be worshiped in all forms and all names are all names of god all forms are all forms of god and the second idea of nishta ishta nishta that we may understand that but there's one that appeals to us and we've we've decided to follow that past so we stick to that and we don't jump from one to the other we can go and visit in india we can go to any temple and bow down we can walk into any church and feel the divine presence we can go into a mosque and feel the infinite absolute there we can do all of these things but we'll have some special devotion and we'll follow the special uh methods of worship of the tradition that we that we follow and of the particular form of god that we worship so there has to be there has to be the steadfast devotion to our own spiritual path and taqwa says because of that we can feel some connectedness with those who worship all other pests he gives a nice illustration that the daughter-in-law when she moves into her husband's house after marriage that automatically she's connected to all of them they become her family extended family and she serves them with with the love and and affection and devotion and everything but she has a special relationship with her husband and it's only because of her husband that she feels this connectedness with everyone else so the husband represents this her own spiritual path the body does not endure without a trace of lust anger and the like you should try to reduce them to a minimum this is another great belief that taqwa had even the incarnation even the avatar he used to say that pure gold is a useless thing it has to have a little bit of an alloy to it otherwise it's too soft it's too pure it can't serve any purpose in the world a little bit of an alloy that will allow it to be useful in the world so even the avatar has to be born with a little bit of rajas in order to accomplish things thomas i'm not so sure about but at least a little a little uh trace of maya there a little bit of uh of attraction to things and even a little bit of attachment taco how he was attached to his own disciples and how his heart would yearn for them holy mother how she would weep when any of the direct disciples passed away so a little bit of maya will be there but it doesn't bind them that that's the the difference so he says that you know that's natural you look at yourself you'll see that you have a little bit of lust and anger and greed and pride it's natural don't feel too bad about it but try to reduce it to a minimum looking at kedar and the master said he is very nice he accepts both both the absolute and the relative he believes in brahman but he also accepts the gods and divine incarnations in human form the kedranath he was from a place called the holy shore he went there once a very nice place this is the birthplace of ram prasad and his house is there and the little shrine is still there it's a very nice place to to visit he and then vijay krishna goswami were good friends because vijay lived in the dhaka narayanganj area and kedar worked there he had to go there for his work so and they were both devotees of srama krishna uh kedar also belonged a little it was a little bit attached to the some of these kind of odd sects this uh and others with some funny practices so takur praised him very much at one time he said get away from me okay what is the master saying so we don't know what was in his mind all of the time this is cather but still talk we praised him looking at kedar the master said he is very nice he accepts both the absolute and the relative he believes in brahman but he also accepts the gods and divine incarnations in human form then it says in kedar's opinion srama krishna was such an incarnation so he and vidya krishna goswami and ram chandra datta and gedi's ghost these were some of the ones who had the firmest belief that takwo was a divine incarnation vidor krishna goswami partly because of some visions he had and dhaka he it comes later that he says isrami christian and now i know who you are and he said i saw you you came to me something like that and then he said to the others uh in some places you'll find one ana's too and it's here is the only place where you find a full full 100 percent this divine manifestation of god's okay uh so kedar and vedroid both of them uh looked upon taqwa that way ram of course and and gides they've not only fanatically believed it but they wanted everybody else to believe it look looking at nithy gopal the master said to the devotees he is in a lofty mood he was a little simple with nitigopal and didn't speak very much and would answer questions like a small child i think some of the others thought maybe he was feigning it sometimes even i don't know the none of the other direct disciples were was seemed to be as impressed with nithi opal as srama krishna was to nitti gopal don't go there too often you may go once in a while she may be a devotee but she is a woman too therefore i warn you we'll get this later it comes up in a couple of pages but in case we don't get there what he's referring to is he was about 23 24 years old at the time and he probably also went to one of these other groups some of these vaisnava groups there were two things one is sometimes they would practice this madhurbhava where one looks upon oneself as the lover and god is the beloved and in order to practice that one man and one woman uh would the man would have his female companion and they would look upon themselves as christian radha and a very dangerous type of thing so tako warned against that because unless they were very very pure in heart sometimes it led to other things the other thing is is what saliyabhava now this woman devotee because nitigopal was so simple and childlike she looked upon him as a child and and liked to worship him at thinking this is the baby gopala even to have him sit on her lap and things like that so tucker warned him very much that she may be very pure and hard and everything but one thing might lead to another be very very careful so shadow shabdom he used to say oh oh holy man beware she may be a devotee but she is a woman too therefore i warn you this then taco continues the sannyasi must observe very strict discipline he must not look even at the picture of a woman this seems to indicate that tucker knew either he wanted him to become a sanyasi or he knew that he would and apparently he did remain unmarried he called himself an ovitude throughout his life so asanasi must observe very strict discipline he must not look even at the picture of a woman but this rule doesn't apply to householders remember this is partly for this mr chaudhary also and who else was there kedar was there he was also married an aspirin should not associate with woman even though she is very much devoted to god a sannyasi even though he may have subdued his passions should follow this discipline to set an example to householders worldly people learn renunciation by seeing the complete renunciation of a monk otherwise they sink more and more a sannyasi is a world teacher i remember a statement that swami swan angie made one time it was in the context of one of one of the monks in in trebuco he used to like to meditate in his room and he used to say yeah tako said once when one meditates one should not let anybody else know about it he should be inside of the mosquito curtain and everything and then swami swansea said no that is a sannyasi's life is a public life that is not just for your own good that you do your spiritual practices but you have to set an example for others unless other people can see it then they won't benefit from it they won't learn from it they may even have doubts yes he says he's meditating in his room he may be sleeping so he emphasized this idea also sannyasi is a world teacher that doesn't mean having the pride that we're here to teach everybody but we know that people will judge takur and the order and everything by looking at us so we have to try to maintain some standard that way okay that's the end of that day the next is friday march 9th 1883. about nine o'clock in the morning the master was seated in his room with roccal m and a few other devotees m was probably staying there at that time in harish yeah we saw before it was the day of the new moon as usual with him on such days srama krishna entered again and again into communion with the divine mother so this happened on the day of the new moon it would happen because something with this uh intense darkness at night would would bring this idea of the divine mother into his mind it would happen when the sun went down every day so almost anything would put him into that mood but especially in these these days he said to the devotees god alone exists and all else is unreal the divine mother has kept all deluded by her maya look at men most of them are entangled in worldliness they suffer so much but still they have the same attachment to lust and gold the camel eats thorny shrubs and blood gushes from its mouth still it will eat thorns while suffering pain at the time of delivery a woman says ah i shall never go to my husband again but afterwards she forgets the truth is that no one seeks god there are people who eat the prickly leaves of the pineapple and not the fruit now he doesn't mean literally no one seeks god he's saying that there are very few people in this world and it's it's it's through god's grace this even shankaracharya says that that through the grace of god we take this human birth through the grace of god we'll meet someone who can be our spiritual guide and to the grace of god we have this longing for liberation otherwise uh we we try to find all the joy and pleasure and and satisfaction in the world and it's not that there isn't any we we can have a good career we can have a good family all these things and we get contentment from that but the ultimate joy and the ultimate contentment and goal of life will be found in in god realization and this is something that very few uh realize it's either through the grace of god or very good karma or through intense suffering in the world this also can bring that about devotee sir why has god put us in the world now we don't know who this devotee is it's possible that it's m himself sometimes if it just says devotee either m doesn't know who it is or it means himself sir why has god put us in the world master this the world is the field of action karma bhumi the field of action karma bhumi has a slightly different meaning also this is where we come to burn off our old karma and create good karma and uh where we're able to attain the god realization which we can't do in any other sphere or through any other vehicle it has to be human body in this human lifetime so the world is the field of action through action one acquires knowledge the guru instructs the disciple to perform certain works and refrain from others again he advises the pupil to perform action without desiring the result the impurity of the mind is destroyed through the performance of duty one of the few times that takur really emphasizes what we call karma yoga usually he'll emphasize prayer and meditation and holy company and everything now he's talking about this performance of action doing our duty without desiring the results the great theme of of the gita of course and swamiji's karma yoga the impurity of the mind is destroyed through the performance of duty this is this is how we get rid of our karma rather than create more karma if any any action that we do that's not done in a motiveless way that anything that's done in a selfish way or with some desire for the fruits or with the feeling of pride that i've done it it creates more karma anything that's done is an offering or with this feeling of that i'm just doing this out of a sense of of of duty that this should be done kartavya then our karma gets it gets cleansed it gets washed away it gets uh exhausted they talk about the exhaustion of karma the impurity of the mind is destroyed through the performance of duty it is like getting rid of a disease by means of medicine under the instruction of a competent physician so again there are many many ways this can be answered why has god put us in the world so tacos give me this one answer he might simply say that who knows the ways of god why does it happen but here he's saying look at it this way this is an opportunity if uh if we were in a different realm where there's only enjoyment no one would seek god and no one would would get out of that bondage this is our chance that we're born in this world because here we can burn off our karma we can change some scars we can do spiritual discipline we can have god realization we should look at it as a as a great thing this human birth as a as a wonderful and blessed opportunity to have some higher realization so we shouldn't waste it why doesn't god freeze from the world ah he will free us when the disease is cured so we have to get rid of all this old karma we have to get rid of this false conception of ourselves we have to get rid of selfishness all of these other things that's the disease that we suffer from he will liberate us from the world when we were through with the enjoyment of lust and gold once a man registers his name in the hospital he cannot run away the doctor will not let him go away unless his illness is completely cured okay this is a good place to stop then now he'll start talking about uh rakal later swami ramananda and this feeling of motherly affection when srama krishna was in the presence of of raqqa he himself felt like mother yashoda and that was that that beautiful relationship that they had so we'll stop here and have our closing prayer oh man 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 all thank you everyone everyone stay well and have a good week