Video 47

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (03/05/21)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt 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 are continuing the chapter the master's birthday celebration at the geneswar and it is march 11 1883. we stopped on page middle of page 189. i'll start a little bit beef where we finished last time suramar krishna is speaking to so the devotees kedar is there and some others he says the rishis followed the path of ghyana therefore they sought to realize brahman the indivisible existence knowledge bliss absolute but those who follow the path of devotion seek an incarnation of god to enjoy the sweetness of the darkness of the mind disappears when god is realized in the purana it is said that it was as if a hundred suns were shining when rama entered the court why then weren't the court courtiers burned up it was because the brilliance of rama was not like that of a material object as the lotus blooms when the sun rises so the lotus of the heart of the people assembled and the court burst into blossom as the master uttered these words standing before the devotees he suddenly fell into an ecstatic mood his mind was withdrawn from external objects no sooner did he say the lotus of the heart burst into blossom then he went into deep samathi he stood motionless his countenance beaming and his lips parted in a smile when tucker goes in the samadhi we have no idea what's taking place within his mind it's it's not our raja yoga nirvikalpa somati because very often he'll say that do you know what i just saw or he'll be in a certain mood and we can we can get a glimpse from that that he's actually having some experience it's not that the mind is is completely immersed in brahmin and uh he's become one with the absolute at that time he's in what he generally would call bhava samadhi at that time after a long time he returned to the normal consciousness of the world he drew a deep a long breath and repeatedly chanted the name of rama so this is this is that phenomenon which taku called uddipena if he's thinking or talking about or singing a song about a certain aspect of of the divine or see something that will trigger that thought then his mind will go into some ecstatic mood based on that so it's very likely that somehow he's thinking of rama or or something about the personality or just the idea of the divine incarnation the avatar is in his mind so he drew a long breath and repeatedly chanted the name of rama every word showering nectar into the hearts of the devotees the master sat down the others seating themselves around him in fact he used to tell the devotees if you see me go into a state of samadhi and the mind is not coming down try to figure out what got me into that state if if there were songs sung to the divine mother then you can assume that it's because the mind is thinking of mother that i'm in that state so repeat the name of the divine mother or the name of rama something like that and he said that'll bring my mind down a little bit master to the devotees ordinary people do not recognize the advent of an incarnation of god of a god he comes in secret now srama krishna told us many things about how to recognize the avatar one of the ways of recognizing the avatar is that people don't recognize the avatar this is one of the characteristics he gives a very nice illustration in some place that if if a boat is going along the ganges then they can stay near the shore because it doesn't the water doesn't have to be that deep and they'll be awake you'll see a little bit of that wake that'll come and maybe these small waves will come up on on the shore nearby but if a big steamer goes by it has to be in the middle and by the time the the wake comes the big waves come they'll be huge waves by the time they come steamber will be out of sight so he used to say this is one of the signs of the avatar they may not make a big splash during their lifetime but gradually it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and after years maybe hundreds of years people realize who it was who would come so and we see this we see this it was a very interesting conversation that tucker has with latu one day later swami at bhutan that he said let's let's calculate count up the number of devotees that means the inner close devotees they came up with a 30-some very small number nowadays we see uh these modern day gurus they'll have hundreds and thousands of millions of followers overnight and maybe go on the next day also i remember a very interesting thing my uh one of my early trips to india this will be 1972 or 73. there was a big craze about this guru maharaj the 14 year old guru i don't know how many of you will remember that he was considered to be an avatar his parents really set up the whole thing chubby little boy he didn't say anything really and jet loads of devotees from the west flew over i went out of curiosity just to see they had him on on a big platform and and people with with these big palm leaves waving he's sitting on the throne and thousands and thousands of people were there in a good number of western liberties it lasted a short time he kind of fell in love with the secretary and they got married then the parents set up his brother as the avatar they changed but the interesting thing was that the same time uh this jay krishnamurti who was very genuine he was he was but didn't care for publicity that same way he was also speaking this was in in delhi and i went to see him also and he was speaking outside i don't remember where it was but i don't think there were more than 40 or 50 people there so the big splash people are not the ones that have that staying power sometimes after many years we start to appreciate who it was who would come so look yeah i see they come in secret in hiding they don't reveal themselves or people can't appreciate them or they don't know the lasting impact the tremendous impact there are many other things that taqwa said about the avatar they resemble human beings in many ways that they'll have the same emotions they'll look like other people they're one of the reasons why they're hard to to recognize and they won't care to be recognized they won't have any of that pride of course and yeah so this is the first thing he says that uh this is one of the reasons why few people can recognize them you know there is the theory at the time that tucker's illness was so so that he would look even more human and that fewer people would recognize him and only those who were really genuine would understand that who he really was and wouldn't be put off by this idea that a holy person shouldn't get sick like that this is one theory that people had only a few of its intimate disciples can recognize him he's thinking of rama in particular now that rama was both a brahman absolute and a perfect incarnation of god in human form was known only to twelve rishis the other sages said to him rama we know you only as the son then another place that big tucker mentions this many times in other places he says rama simply left he was pleased he didn't mind the other theory is that these all of these great rishis had to be born again as a gopis at the incarnation of krishna can everyone comprehend brahman the indivisible existence knowledge bliss absolute now what takara means is that if this is the only option in spiritual life very few people can do it this is one of the reasons why there's a need for the avatar the explanation given in in gita always has to do with dharma and with these big wars they come and things like that but the talk was understanding which goes back to the devotional schools the chaitanya school and everything is that the avatar comes to teach people devotion that this is the real and to give them some tangible form of worship this is the the point of the avatar because not everyone this is a rhetorical question not everyone can comprehend this infinite absolute impersonal reality or feel some devotion or feel some attraction for it even this is a rare type of spiritual aspirin so can everyone comprehend brahmin the indivisible existence knowledge bliss absolute he alone has attained perfect love of god who having reached the absolute keeps himself in the realm of the relative in order to enjoy the divine leela okay now this will be this is what taqwa means by this he uses these these terms when he talks about having reached the absolute what he's talking about is is attaining the ultimate goal of life having some type of of realization it means getting to the roof he's not talking about that they've they simply uh are following the path of knowledge that uh through the path of devotion to every path if we get to the to the roof the roof is the there's the place of oneness and unity and absorption in god so his point is that after that experience uh to come down this is the vigna state to come back to this lila lila is the term he uses for the relative the the more standard understanding that it simply means the the play the divine play of the lord as the divine incarnation or the divine play of of mother as this this universe that we see but uh for takur it had kind of a philosophical meaning also coming back to the relative plane so to say relative plane it's it's a not a literal translation of lila but a good translation this is what taqwa means and he says that this is this is the first class type that uh to to attain perfect love of god after this realization of god before that uh we use love as a means the bhakti yoga after we get there then bhakti becomes bhakti is the goal of bhakthi yoga and it's that's the attainment and then after that to live in the world with that same feeling of devotion that same attachment to god living in the world this will uh be the highest type so the vignani the vigyani is of two types taquer says the the bhakta and there we can say the the many different types of devotion can be there but those who live in the world after real realizing god uh as nameless and formless nameless and formless but coming back then back into the relative universe then they go back to the name and form that got them there so for takur i he worshipped god in every possible form that that he was aware of at the time but specifically as the divine mother so it was very natural for him when he came back down from that state to look upon god again as the divine mother and to go back into that mood being a child of the divine mother in his case after his experience of of vision of mother kali we can say uh when he was acting as priest in the in the kali temple uh coming down from that naturally is his he had that feeling of devotion but we don't normally consider that to be nirvikalpa samadhi i'm not sure why possibly because we don't know taku's description of it is uh it sounds like nirvikalpu samadhi wave after wave of consciousness and bliss and he lost all the other consciousness of the world but coming back immediately after that he was repeating mom mother mother mother there's some thought that he was still in some he was in some state experiencing the divine mother not going beyond that we have this feeling because uh when totopuri wanted him to transcend even the experience of god his mother he had difficulty doing that and that we take that to be his real near because of the samadhi experience but even after that he didn't come back as a gyani after that of course he wasn't not that he wasn't a gyani but he didn't come back after that and just uh i am he so hum so home so home again it was with that same devotion so it's a question of temperament and the question of of one's swab one's nature he had the nature of devotee even though he had the highest knowledge in the highest wisdom so he's talking about himself really he had been merged in the nameless formless absolute impersonal brahmin for six months six months when we say inaudible samadhi for six months uh it's hard for us to imagine the the that state of mind of course it would come down a little bit to what extent to the extent that uh at least some milk or something could be put into his mouth and he would be able to swallow it somehow just that much awareness of the world and then immediately go back up so if we want to be real sticklers we may say well it wasn't exactly nirvikalpa samadhi for six months but more or less until the mind really came down again he was in that state but again the devotional mood came to him now he said that in the case of others shankaracharya it was it was the self knowledge that took him to the roof the path of knowledge so when he came down he had to live in the world with an attitude and a relationship also but it was so hum i am that i am one with that infinite absolute brahmin and not the type of devotional mood that takur or caitanya deva or any of the great devotional saints had so he alone has attained perfect love of god we don't get perfect anything perfect purity perfect love anything unless we've had realization before that everything is relative when we say we have to be free from desires we'll be relatively free from desires but to be absolutely free and have no longing for anything that only comes after god realization we read this in in gita that we can pull ourselves away from something but the taste and longing will still remain up until the time that we've had that ultimate realization or even doubts that we may we have tremendous conviction about the reality but that doubt won't completely leave us with the knots of the heart won't be completely untied until we've had the ultimate realization so there's very slight distinction there so perfect love of god who having reached the absolute keeps himself in the realm of the relative in order to enjoy the divine leela and in taqwa's case not only to enjoy but to fulfill the mission for which he was born and this is the other thing that uh this this class of devotee which means the the avatars and and the companions and these very special souls this bodhisattvas and the buddhist tradition they maintain a slight desire for to work for the welfare of others this unselfishness will will bring the mind back down for others it will be this desire to enjoy this this leela this divine play a man can describe the ways and activities of the queen this means queen victoria if he has previously visited her in england only then will this description of the queen be correct this this is why takwa was never he could never say anything that could contradict anything i always think of this this illustration if someone is writing a novel they have to be very careful that they they don't do anything that uh will contradict anything in the plot you know we can uh when when writing a novel you never know if uh somebody that you're calling somebody's aunt turns out to be a nephew of some a niece of somebody who that it doesn't work out because you can do that it's a fiction huh and uh trying trying to to keep a logical connection writing a mystery novel and and their flaws we call these plot flaws but if somebody is a historian and they're writing about something that took place and they were there it can never be wrong it can never be wrong because just recording what happened not trying to to create a scenario that perhaps this happened and that was the cause for this then it turns out oh but we forgot to write that this person was there he wasn't even there at that time so this is why talkwork would never be wrong philosophers can can be wrong they can they can come up with something that's illogical but taco could never come up with anything illogical because it was his own experience he had actually lived these things he knew them directly firsthand so this is why it's this is why it's a genuine this is why it's called shruti this when we talk about shruti that we're talking about a class of of scripture that is infallible why is it infallible because these are people who had direct realization we're in i'm not talking about did these ancient rishis actually hear these hymns that are recorded i'm talking about these those who had that highest realization and wrote about it in the upanishads and the mahavakias those who had that type of experience so this is why at kakur he he had actually been there if if anybody else starts describing something and it's all secondhand or or they're trying to imagine what took place they can be can be wrong but if somebody's actually done it so this is why he's saying a man can describe the ways and activities of the queen if he has previously visited her in england only then will his description of the queen be correct so if we hear people writing about that brahman is this and that or the personal god is like this and like that we may say okay it's all very good very good and well this is their understanding but have they experienced it or is this just what they they think is probably the way it is it may be good it may be very helpful but when tucker tells us then we know that this isn't something that's coming out of his mind it's something coming out of his direct experience sages like bharadwaja adored rama and said o rama you are nothing but the indivisible satyadananda you have appeared before us as a human being but you look like a man because you have shrouded yourself with your own maya so he was one of the dozen or so who recognized him these rishis were great devotees of rama and had supreme love for god presently some devotees from konnagar arrived singing kirtan to the accompaniment of drums and symbols as they reached the northeast veranda of swarami krishna's room people were always arranging for kirtan groups to come i don't think it was the the temple people necessarily devotees they they would be these the lokitan parties huh some paradise they would call them or those anyhow they would they could be hired and they would come and they would see kirtan sometimes attack would like them sometimes he said ah not so good there's one case where some are seeing kirtan and taku didn't feel too inspired then somebody else comes and starts singing gets up immediately and dances interviews but he was so fond of kirtan and these are the scenes that we like to imagine that taco would get up and kirtan generally there's a group a procession that people will go and and maybe dance in a circle singing and everything but tako would be in the middle uh who's he who is he going to follow he's not aware of anything but in some ecstatic mood after dancing like that and the others are in a circle around him it happened so often and try to imagine what that was like his room was small there's not a large room the two cats are there and everything so there can't be more than maybe a dozen people at a time doing that but what is sayed it must have been presently some devotees from kolnagar arrived singing kirtan to the accompaniment of drums and symbols konnagar is not far from dakshin anybody know a little bit north or something and yeah we read very often of devotees coming from there as they reach the northeast veranda of srama christian's room the master join in the music dancing with them intoxicated with divine joy so yeah sometimes it would take place from the veranda there will be a little more room now and then he went into samadhi standing still as a statue while he was in one of the states of divine unconsciousness the devotees both put thick garlands of jasmine around his neck remember it's his birthday so they especially came to to show their love and respect to him that day the enchanting form of the master reminded the devotees of caitanya another incarnation of god when m came the very first day you'll remember he writes that two scenes came into his mind he said it's as if i've come to the spot where sukadeva is reciting the bhagavata to king pariksit or where caitanya devi is there surrounded by all of the devotees so these these were very apt uh illustrations the enchanting form of the master reminded the devotees of caitanya another incarnation of god the master passed alternately through three modes of divine consciousness and this is something that aqua used to attribute to caitanya deva the similarities between sram krishna and caitanya deva are really remarkable that the devotional moods that caitanya deva had the different states of consciousness that he had the different physical manifestations of the of prima mahabhava and all of that that he underwent the burning sensation all of that tucker had all of those things so they really and and takur failed i mean we hear him say very often he who was rama he was krishna uh he included caitanya devon that also that uh you know one one time they were they were discussing with keisha that uh that somebody was saying that okay you should declare yourselves as chaitanya deva and that i forget shivnat will be nithyananda some something like that and then they pointed to srama krishna said well then who is he huh and his humility and and they have teasing he said who am i the dust of the dust of your feet something like that but then narendra swami vivekananda he says in one place but we heard the master say that in him caitanya nithyananda and advaita were all manifest so he had some feeling that uh this chaitanya deva was that same that same divine incarnation even though initially he didn't we know that that story that he went to nawadub and he was so convinced of his his intuitive powers that he felt if this chaitanya deva really had been an avatar that he would feel it perhaps have some vision something would happen and he went to the holy place and didn't feel anything then as he was in a different area and apparently they say that the ganga had moved a little bit there when he was there he had on the boat he had this vision of these two boys with golden complexion that he knew were caitanya deva and nithyananda and from that time onward he was convinced and these visions they all would merge within his body it's a very a wonderful type of experience that happened almost all the time that he had a vision the vision would approach him and and merge within him and he would lose the outer consciousness so he he had that feeling and the same thing with christ after his experience where at this time it wasn't so much a vision but seeing that this painting of the mother and child that these light rays of light came out and entered into him and he felt that christ was also a divine incarnation so these three moods of divine consciousness the inmost when he completely lost all knowledge of the outer world the semi-conscious when he danced with the devotees in an ecstasy of love and the conscious when he joined them in loud singing it was indeed a sight for the gods to see the master standing motionless in samadhi with fragrant garlands hanging from his neck his countenance beaming with love and the devotee singing and dancing around him when it was time for his noon meal srirami krishna put on a new yellow cloth and sat on the small couch so he became pitambur that we have all these these images of of sri krishna with a dark blue complexion and wearing a yellow cloth and radha with the golden complexion wearing a blue cloth the two of them were kind of reverse images of each other and kind of complementing each other after his meals ramakrishna rested a little on the small couch inside and outside his room crowded with devotees they had come for his birthday among them a crowd of the devotees among them kedar suresh father was also present so we've already been introduced to all of these this girindra the only thing special about him anybody know you know when takur almost all of his most important teachings he cites other people he'll say this i heard from this sadhu and rishikesh this i heard from tara or goswami he will almost always quote somebody and this idea of of giving a twist turning your passions towards god he says i heard this from this gedindra otherwise we don't know too much about him he is not somebody who plays a very uh major role as far as we can tell in talk with life [Music] rockwell's father was present rachel's father why was he present that day we don't know exactly he was a worldly man and well to do and he had married a second time and was not very happy and had arranged the marriage for his son rachael of course he was not very happy that rachael who just got married was spending so much time there and wanted to live there and of course they thought it will become a monk sometime and takur wanted him to come and he liked to flatter him a little bit and he said if he comes and he sees that other well-to-do people are here business people and and deputy magistrates and everything that he won't mind so much that raqqa is coming so his father gradually i think must have developed some devotion to takur but he's here mostly just i think uh to see what the the real situation is and who is this madman that rock all wants to stay with he was seated in the room the voice of a go swami this means uh a family person who belongs to the caitanya group who is a direct descendant of one of the goswami's mostly a dwight goswami probably i don't know how many others it could be from vishnu priya's line there's several different lines that it could be but taqwa had great respect for the gold swamis they were the real keepers of the division of faith in in bengal and they were the gurus the the vaisnava tradition that came from caitanya deva it's interesting because he was such a staunch sanyasin and and and put so much emphasis on renunciation where the gurus of the order became were the the householders and talk word great regarding respect for them and if any of the ghost swamis said now we feel like giving up everything he said no that this is your role your role is different that it's through the family traditions that this of faith is has remained strong on the other hand he felt that they were often a little too one-sided so we find them very often trying to expand their their view and be a little more liberal the master said to the goswami well what do you say what is the way he's half testing him and half giving him an opportunity to give give a good answer that would be helpful for the others and also showing respect to him goswami sir the chaney of god's name is enough this of course is the main teaching of caitanya deva this is repeating the name of god the scriptures emphasize the sanctity of god's name for the kali yuga tucker also said this but was was so much wider investor in his in his understanding and thinking and he's always trying to expand people's understanding of things master yes there's no doubt about the sanctity of god's name but he's always going to add a butt to things that means that but don't don't make it so narrow don't make it so limited and understand that just mere repetition won't be enough so he says but can a mere name achieve anything without the yearning love of the devotee behind it in another time another place he says without knowing the meaning of the name who we're referring to who is the so he's saying that there has to be a little bit of guyana connected with bhakti that if we want to get the full fruits of it but here he's talking about this the yearning of the devotee but can your name achieve anything without the yearning love of the devotee behind it one should feel great restlessness of soul for the vision of god this was emphasized by takwa so much that uh we can almost say that this was his main teaching if we if we want to boil everything down to one thing that he's asked so many times what do we need to do to realize god what is the way and he'll give so many different answers but ultimately his real answer even though he doesn't say it in many of these these lists that we have he'll say holy company and all of this but this is this bakulota this is the one thing this uh restless agony of heart and and tremendous longing for god realization now why doesn't he always mention that number one because all of the other things are means to realize god through this yearning so if uh if he's telling people to to pray why do we pray so that that yearning will increase why do we do japan so that yearning will increase why do we keep holy company so that yearning will increase so for him in one one sense everything is secondary to this yearning all of our spiritual practices are meant to give us a feeling of restlessness almost hopelessness that unless unless god's grace comes and we don't realize god this life is wasted that it's all meant for that so it's really a kind of put twisting everything on turning everything upside down why do we meditate almost to fail almost to fail almost to reach that point to say no i can't do it i can't control the mind and unless uh unless you reveal yourself to me i'm hopeless what can i do and that yearning increases increases and then something happens so yeah the very important statement that thakur makes one time he says sadhana what is the purpose of satan that means every aspect of spiritual practice he says the purpose of sadhana is to increase this vyakulita this longing intense longing for god realization and it's that intense longing which will yield god realization so that's the causal link really everything else is is a link prior to that so this via this is the last stage and everything leads up to it so he's saying good repeat the name of god but let there be some intensity and some longing behind it not just to do it as a type of enjoyment or anything yes there is no doubt about the sanctity of god's name but can a mere name achieve anything without the yearning love of the devotee behind it one should feel great restlessness of soul for the vision of god suppose a man repeats the name of god mechanically while his mind is absorbed in lust and gold can he achieve anything mere muttering of magic words doesn't cure one of the pain of a spider or scorpion sting one must also apply the smoke of burning cow dung now this is just some uh some village uh type of cure but what he's saying is that if you only do the half of it then you won't get the real result of it so repeating the name is is okay it'll have an effect holy mother says whether you get pushed in the water or dive in the water you'll get wet either way we do it mechanically it'll have some effect but if we really want god realization then that longing has to be there added to it go swami but what about ajamila jamila this is a story from probably bhagavata i don't know i wanted to put on us he says what do what what about ajamila he was a great sinner there was no sin he had not indulged in but he other than the name of narayan on his deathbed calling his son who also had that name and thus he was liberated this is a story that he had done all sorts of things he wasn't a good person really but this it's very common of course in india to name a child to give you the name of god partly for the sake of the child partly for the sake of the parents at least they'll repeat the name of god when they call the child but also the child will also have some feeling of sacredness hearing his own name so the thing was on his deathbed he happened to call his son whose name was narayana which is the name of god and because he had mentioned the name of god before he passed away then he got liberation now this can we play a trick on god like that or can it happen accidentally like that the story is told so that we get faith in the in the name of god this is the real purpose behind it it's not to say that this is a trick we can do anything that we want lead any type of life have no devotion whatsoever and the last minute just say narayana and we'll get liberation that it it doesn't work that way so how will takwa explain this he says perhaps jamilah had done many spiritual things in his past birth so he's trying to say okay but don't misunderstand the point of this story it's meant to show how the power behind the name of god but don't think that you can do whatever you want lead any type of life and then just mention it at the end perhaps he had led a very pure life before and was it yoga prashta for some reason had to be born again and at the end these some scholars came back and that real longing for god came back and it wasn't just by coincidence it is also said that he once practiced austerity besides those were the last moments of his life if we lead a very impure type of life but get it what they call deathbed conversion if it's genuine then then then it'll work if at the very end uh we really do uh for some reason look back on our lives and say ah that was all trash and rubbish and i wasted it and everything now i see that i have no desire but god and we repeat the name of god yeah why not will it come to everybody no of course not but so this is what talk was saying there must be some other explanation for it if he really had been a very wicked person with lots of bad karma very rajistic and tamasic just calling out the name of his son won't be enough what is the use of giving an elephant a bath it will cover itself with dirt and dust again and become its former self this is a great warning to us we may lead a very pure and holy life at the very end if it hasn't developed into the type of character and some scholars and everything that'll be permanent with us so at the very end if we say that now really i understand that i regret i didn't have enough enjoyment in life and this is what i really want then what good was it what good was it so the the elephant you give the elephant bath you take it right to the stable so it can't get dirty again you give it a chance to roll around in the mud then the death was a waste of time now of course we don't want to say our spiritual practice will be a waste of time but it has to be seen to the very end but if someone removes the dust from its body and gives it a bet just before it enters the stable then the elephant remains clean there's tremendous importance given to the state of mind at the time of death and they made onto tradition and this is what determines what the future life will be but the real idea is that that final thought will not be something in our control it'll be the sum total of our whole lifetime all of the all of the different things that we've done there's there's something called a vector theory in mathematics that all all different forces come with different angles and everything but they can meet together and and be sum total of that force in one particular angle so the vector theory that some total of our lifetime will determine that very final thought or that very final emotional attitude that we have that will determine what type of realization we have or liberation or rebirth or anything suppose a man becomes pure by chanting the holy name of god but immediately afterward commits many sins he has no strength of mind he doesn't take a vow not to repeat his sins a bath in the ganges undoubtedly absolves one of all sins but what does that avail they say that the sins perch on the trees along the bank of the ganges no sooner does the man come back from the holy waters than the old sins jump on his shoulders from the trees all left the same old sins take possession of him again he is hardly out of the water before they fall upon him there are no tricks that we can use not that we can do whatever we want and keep repeating the name of god and go back and do the same old nonsense these these things don't work because the old sins that means the old sam's goddess will come back our old way of thinking and everything some type of real transformation has to take place and it can take place of course through the chany of god's name if it's done with sincerity and if it's done with some real longing and with some love of god behind it one way of looking at spiritual life it's all preparing for the moment of death the this is the summation of the whole lifetime whatever that real longing of the heart is that this is what will come at the end we sometimes think that how is it possible for holy mother or takor to say that you'll get if you don't do a spiritual practice now you can still get liberation at the moment of death we think how is it possible but when faced with death think how our perspective and priorities will change when faced with that prospect that uh and now we we can't think about when will i have my next enjoyment of that so real transformation can take place and those who have real devotion they can at that very final moment really feel that no i have no other desire there's nothing that i care for in this world it can happen that way we wonder how people dying in varanasi and kashi how is it possible that whoever dies there will will have liberation when they say that unless you're free from all desire you'll be born again well the answer is obvious that those who died there at the very end somehow the mind will be lifted above if we accept that of course and both will be true that they'll be free from all desires and they'll get their liberation i forget i mentioned in in one of the the classes that one of our monks was in and in kashi there in his old age ready to die and one of the young monks came and asked him do you really believe that that whoever dies in kashi will get liberation when they say that you don't get liberation unless all of your desires are fulfilled and then he scolded him and said you you fellow here i've come at the very end of my life to get liberation you're putting this question to me and then he laughed and he said both things are true that yes liberation will come but uh only because uh dying here at the very end with the holy atmosphere and everything that all these desires will be gone also so both can be true at the same time and of course we see no tucker's vision that shiva on one side mother on the other side and one untying all the bonds cutting the chains and shiva giving this this liberation mantra that liberation comes that way therefore i say chant the name of god and with it pray to him that you may have love for him now he's telling all of this to the goswami gosvami made a simple statement this isn't to to chastise the goswami that you should have said something else this is for the benefit of the devotees this goswami for all we know is a highly pious person most likely with great love of god also but this is just this so everyone else will understand therefore i say chant the name of god and with it pray to him that you may have loved for him pray to god that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth name and creature comforts may become less and less every day to the goswami with sincerity and earnestness one can realize god through all religions there's always this question that uh what what are the uh prerequisites prerequisites for god realization or even for following a spiritual path this question of adikata that for uh the for the gyani that the gyani has to have tremendous dispassion and non-attachment to the world not much body consciousness uh not seeing things is very real thing in a dream all of these these different things are put there or they have to study the scriptures go through this and this and this now what taku are saying is that there are two prerequisites in spiritual life especially for the path of devotion path of knowledge of course if we want to say this world is unreal i am he there may be other things but these are the two things and if if we can appreciate these two things then it'll be tremendously helpful for us sincerity so this antoreko he used to use this word very often sincerity and earnestness they sound the same probably the other is via koluta so this tremendous longing for god and to be sincere i i often think that what does it mean to be sincere it's it's a a very subtle thing that we say things and and is it really from the depth of our heart the the bengali word that's used is the same anta that they use for for the heart does it come really from the depths of our heart do we really feel it is it something that uh it may be true but how true we think true is it true there shouldn't be any degrees of truth but if we say to someone i love you to what extent is it true and and how deep is that feeling of love and when we say i want god and god alone and we say okay i won god and god alone but i'd also like to have this and this and that and everything how sincere are we when we say these things so it's very good to pray for sincerity because the mind is natural naturally a little bit self-deceitful we we fool ourselves sometimes sincerely a question of also how how much do we really know that we can tell ourselves things we can be insincere with other people also with ourselves we can we can convince ourselves that we're very honest people we're very good people and we're we're very modest people and humble people and deep down we're hiding the fact that we're happy when people praise us and when people love us and all of that so the sincerity a very important thing if we can really and this is one of the reasons i think that aqua talks about uh going into solitude when we're in when we're all by ourselves and no one is observing what we're doing and we're not doing it for the sake of anybody else we can feel that we're doing something sincerely and with some type of intensity so sincerity and earnestness with these one can realize god and then he says through all religions it doesn't matter what path it doesn't matter if we're devotees if we're yanis anything the vaisnavas aviation of his will realize god and so were the shaktis the vedantists and the brahmos then this was the the incredible thing about takur for there's some village priests from out of the way the village to be so liberal and open-minded the muslim ones that mean muslims and christians will realize him too all will certainly realize god if they are earnest and sincere some people indulge in quarrel saying one cannot attain anything unless one worships our krishna or nothing can be gained without the worship of kali our divine mother or one cannot be saved without accepting the christian religion now remember that thakur is talking to the goswami no this was the one thing that takur didn't like about this this tradition that sometimes they were a little one-sided and they they felt that uh you you have to worship krishna if you want to get liberation of course the shaktis also could be one-sided sometimes and and they quarreled quite a bit the vaisnavas and the shaktis whether the worship god is his mother or the worship god is krishna so he's saying this for everybody's sake also he says this is pure dogmatism the dogmatist says my religion alone is true and the religions of others are false this is a bad attitude god can be reached by different paths then sometimes tucker will say there are mistakes in every religion and by mistakes it doesn't mean really mistakes but there'll be some things that are a little bit superstitious there'll be some statements that are too one-sided that are too fanatical that we shouldn't think that everything that we find in our tradition is perfect and everyone should should believe in it and agree to it he's very very liberal this way he even says the scriptures we generally think ah scriptures that this is sacred how can we say anything against them he says no that there may be a little sand mixed in with the sugar and you have to know you don't have to criticize the sand but leave it there take the sugar be like the ant if if some sugar falls and and gets mixed in with uh with some grains of sand the ant has the ability to go and they're so tiny and just take the granule of sugar put it in his mouth and leave leave him behind the the granules the sand so uh he said there'll be mistakes in all religions although be things that that we can just leave alone and we have to know that we have to use our the powers of discernment to know which things we should take and which things we should leave behind everybody thinks their watch keeps the right time he says that and then he adds sometimes nobody's watch can be we can we can be certain keeps the right time you have to check it against the sun it's a very interesting statement that means that everything that we say will be our description of what is ultimate reality which will be more or less okay but we have to keep checking like an artist who's making a pain he has to keep looking at what he's painting to make sure that he's not getting his imagination or getting it wrong keep checking there so yeah i think about this with time this is a very curious thing that how do we determine what time it is we have some clocks huh that are supposed to be the the ultimate authority this atomic clock or something like that but if we think about the whole concept of time that it's all based on the position of the sun right so if we're standing two feet away our time is different do you ever think about that your watch says 1201 my watch says 1201 no it may be a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second difference but the sun of course is not the sun moving but appears that the sun is moving it may be directly ahead for me 12 o'clock and for you it'll be a tiny bit off so really it's the sundial that is correct but the sundial once we go and and try to put a number on it then it's then again we're in trouble if we look at just the shadow and say that's exactly the time because it's determined by the sun itself so everything we say about what is the real nature of brahmin that's trying to determine exactly how do we measure the the length of that shadow but the shadow itself is the is the actual truth of it some some of you may remember slide rules when we were kids we had slide rules now there are some numbers that uh this is really off the subject i don't know why i get into it but there are some numbers that uh uh what do they call them imperfect or that they they can't like pi the the they're or non finite numbers integers something like that i remember what they called them huh no not part numbers but uh or t take for example if you want to know the the length of the hypotenuse of a of a triangle that you square the two sides and add them together and take the square root of that and very often it's a square root that doesn't have a finite number to it it'll go on and on and on and on but the the length of that is exactly the length of it even though you can't put a number on it you say what is what is the length of it you simply have to take it and show that this is exactly the length but we can put a number on it so this bruh it is what it is the reality is what it is how we can describe it and everything will be limited by our whatever tools we have to do it further some say that god is form and is not formless thus they start quarreling a division of a quarrels with avedantists now i mentioned many many times that in tucu's mind when he says vedantis he means a non-dualist and when he says the vaisnava he means a duelist here so this will be the dualists or qualified nanduls the the delquar with the non-dualist one can rightly speak of god only after one has seen him he was seen god knows really and truly that god has form and that he is formless as well he has many other aspects that cannot be described once some blind men chanced to come near an animal that someone told them was an elephant they were asked what the elephant was like the blind men began to feel its body one of them said the elephant was like a pillar he had touched only its leg another said it was like a winnowing fan he had touched only its ear in this way the others having touched its tail or belly gave their different versions of the elephant just so a man who has seen only one aspect of god limits god to that alone it is his conviction that god cannot be anything else now we may say but god is formless infinite absolute how can there be aspects to it we've uh we've seen before tucker very often uses this illustration of water yes water is formless but it can take infinite number of forms depending on the container that it's in so in the same way we can say that this infinite absolute reality which is homogeneous this is one there's no internal distinction and yet it can manifest in so many different ways and according to the heart of the devotee can even reveal itself in in so many different forms okay let us stop here [Music] um who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship om shanti peace peace peace biantua