Video 48

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (03/12/21)

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 on page 191 this is the chapter the master's birthday celebration at dakshinishwar and it's friday march 9th we're in the middle of a conversation uh one goswami vaishnava goswami was seated in ramakrishna's room in dakshini we don't know exactly who he is but we're in the middle of a conversation srama krishna has been talking to the goswami a little bit about spiritual practice uh it started out with srama krishna asking him usually people ask takur what is the way he asks the goswami what is the way and he started by talking about chanting the name of god and then takur said yes but there has to be yearning and love behind that the name of god and the conversation goes on then sure coming suramar christian says to the ghostwoman how can you say that the only truth about god is that he has form now the the goswami didn't exactly say that but this is the understanding that the invasion of tradition is basically a devotional tradition basically dualistic and that means worshiping god with form now the dualists who worship god with form since they take god to be separate from them and not subjective in any way they'll pretty much have to take the form that they worship as being objectively real and that means that others should also worship that form the devotion that srama krishna talks about which is actually quite a standard idea is that the name and the form uh are i won't say arbitrary but uh they're based on our own devotion so we call god mother we call god father each is equally true if we're if we're really dualistic in our philosophical understanding then there should be no subjective element to it either god is a man or woman no one or the other and either god is with form or without form one or the other the understanding that srama krishna has of course is that it's all the question of of our temperament that it's our love and devotion which will cause that same ocean of consciousness to form into blocks that will be will represent the image or aspect of god that we want to worship so there'll be a subjective element to it so takuru is is not talking exactly to the ghost family but to this tradition to a more dualistic and devotional and and perhaps one-sided type of tradition so how can you say that the only truth about god is that he has form it is undoubtedly true that god comes down to earth in a human form as in the case of krishna okay now talking about god with form we we have different ways of understanding this one in the traditional way that god is worshiped with form in the indian hindu tradition we can say one is the quranic ideal the quranic ideal i don't want to say mythological because people think that means that it's all made up of course the pronoun stories are someone composed these stories but those who are devotees of different deities they'll take these to have some type of objective reality so we may not know exactly what the conversation was between shiva and parvati but there'll be some belief that yes there is a sphere in which even parvati dwell or narayan and lakshmi something like that so this quranic idea so these will be those who are not of this earth deities gods and goddesses then there will be are the avatars and the of the avatars some of them are definitely historical we know flesh and blood that they actually lived when it comes so this will be say buddha christ caitanya surah krishna holy mother this we know that they took human birth the others will say are a little bit legendary good chance good chance that there was actually someone named krishnan someone named rama and there was some kind of story about somebody getting kidnapped and being stuck in in ilanka and that the husband had to go down and save her and that his father was a king and something like that legendary this is the meaning of ittihasa that probably something happened but then stories got built up around it so semi-historical we can say now we have the the actual historical surrounding krishna holy mother there's no question we have their photographs we have their exact words rama and krishna we no one will say that sri krishna actually was on the battlefield with arjuna and he gave those teachings and and beautifully composed to compose symmetrical poetical sanskrit but there could have been a battle and he could have done some so it's semi-historical that way and then we have the others that are somebody's conception whether these gods and goddesses actually dwell in their own sphere whether we don't know what any much about these devas whether it's actually individuals that will have a whole cycle playing the role of these gods and goddesses they change there was one whole set of them in the vedic period indira varuna all of that somehow they got kicked out and we have a new set with the brahmana vishnu shiva durga khali so we don't know too much about about that but when it comes to worship when it comes to meditation then that distinction vanishes even if even if the god form of god in the name of god that we worship we know are completely kalpana completely our own imagination even if i say yes this is how i like to think of god i know that god is not an old man sitting on the throne with a long white beard but that's how i like to think of god and it's helpful for me it doesn't make any difference whether we're our objective meditation is an avatar who came in flesh and blood or whether it's one of the different quranic ideals or from itihasa ideals of the avatar or the gods and goddesses or just our own conception i worship god as mother i have no real philosophical idea that god is female with female organs and appearance or anything like that but i like to think of god as mother all of these are aids in in having a devotional attitude allowing the heart to enter into our spiritual practice and giving us something concrete to think about at the time of meditation and when we're meditating if we really think about it what is this image that we're picturing it's nothing but consciousness itself so it's it is the self we're meditating on the self also so sram krishna here is he's going to start out talking about the avatar because in the vaisnava tradition god is worshipped as krishna and other types of vaisnava traditions that he can be worshiped as rama also equally but in this goswami tradition the these are the descendants of advaita goswami the companions of caitanya deva the all of their devotion will go in the direction of shri krishna himself secondarily to caitanya devo he'll they'll look upon him as a as an avatar but more likely that their deity that they worship will be shri krishna himself now in our tradition uh we've in some people ask the taqwa worship the divine mother why isn't the mother kali on our shrine instead of takur of course we have great devotion to mother kali and we do her puja with the great love and everything uh these these are different spiritual attitudes there's no real difference we're we're we're choosing that uh objective love that will evoke and awaken our feeling of devotion within that's all so this uh from that point of view whether sri krishna actually lived or did not live his secondary and swamiji himself says that whether he lived or he didn't live it doesn't matter whether he composed gita or didn't whoever composed it was obviously a god realized soul so it has the same authority this is his very liberal type of understanding now there will be many many great devotees who will say i've experienced these i've had this vision everything i know it to be true this uh this we don't know uh and taco will he'll make us one small reference to this uh is it is it's uh purely subjective partially subjective or is there actually some objective reality i always remember a statement that dayananda saraswati made to keshav chandrasen this was related to srama krishna or srama krishna mentioned it i don't remember but keshob didn't like any of these deities and then under saraswati they this arya samaj they liked these vedic deities so he said to kesha if god has created so many things why could he have not have created the davis and uh as well so it's true so why do we think that this fear is the only sphere uh can these other locusts that we hear about can they not be equally real as these if we if we go and and spend the cycle and the uh one of these other locus then it's not it that every bit as real as as this one when this one ends it it'll seem like a dream when that one ends it'll seem like a dream so subjective objective we can't say very much don't really know we assume we assume that a lot of our worship is subjective a lot of our a lot of our worship of other people a lot of our relationship our love of other people is subjective do we love the person or do we love who we think the person is we fall in love with our image of that person one day we wake up and we find out that the person is not who we thought that person was how are you capable of saying such a thing to me i don't even recognize you anymore what kind of person are you i thought i knew you so with all of our relationships because we can't get inside another person and know what they feel we go by what they say which is sometimes sincere sometimes not we assume that that represents their full way of thinking it may not may be temporary they may have a change so there's always a subjective element to relationships so it is undoubtedly true that god comes down to earth in a human form as in the case of krishna so what taku are saying is that this concept of avatar is something that has some objective reality to it as opposed to the gods and goddesses which may or may not but the avatar whether we whether we like this concept of avatar or not we have to accept the reality of these people that buddha actually lived we have to accept that we don't have to say that vishnu incarnated as a buddha we can say that this was a perfect soul we can say someone who is fully enlightened someone who lived only for the welfare of others someone who represents the highest ideal whatever our understanding of avatar is we know that these are flesh and blood individuals that were born and walked on this earth this is what tucker is saying and it is true as well that god reveals himself to his devotees in various forms this is the subjective side that that same one deity will reveal himself or herself in whatever form we worship him or her as so this is why uh srama krishna had the vision of mother kali when he was worshiping kali he didn't have the vision of rama at that time or krishna because that wasn't his sadhana and that wasn't the yearning of his heart at that time so either god reveals himself according to the yearning of the heart of the devotee or that yearning itself is what causes god to come in that form this is the more subjective side that the my power to make the ocean form blocks of ice uh will determine what those box of ice look like it'll be it'll be my devotion that causes that block to take the form of rama of krishna sita lakshmana rama any any vision that we have anything like that but it is also true that god is formless now it's not only true that god is formless but god has to be formless in order to take any possible form if he has one form he can't have all those different forms this is this is taquer's story of the man with the vat of dye in order if you dip your cloth in that dye and it comes out all different colors then that liquid in that vat can't have any color itself if it has any one color then every cloth will come out that color it has to be colorless that's why this indiv light that we talk about is invisible light light has no color and yet it's composed of all the colors of the rainbow and this is how it can manifest as all the colors that we see that one indivisible invisible light so it can only manifest or god can only manifest in all different forms with all different names if god is formless and nameless that highest conception at least of brahman as the ground as the ocean the ocean itself uh has to be uh formless in the sense that it's not frozen it's not like you take a picture of the ocean and you see the waves and they're unmoving one is christian one is rama they're constantly changing so the the water has to have the ability to to fill different spaces it has to be in itself formless and yet be able to fill any form take the shape of any any container then he goes on these forms are meant for the bhaktas the lovers of god so that means that uh this this ocean will only manifest uh different blocks of ice if we have that tremendous devotion we want to see god in that form otherwise it can remain that formless infinite absolute reality for the gyanis they don't care to see the forms of god they want to dive in and experience the oneness with the ocean now what happens when these blocks of ice form taqwa says but when the sun of knowledge rises the ice melts it becomes the same water as it was before now even when it's in a block of ice it's the same order even when it's in a block of ice it's formless form and formless even when the water is in it is in a picture it has a form but it doesn't lose its form the formlessness is is the essence of water that's the nature of it it won't lose that so the transcendent nature of the brahmin was always there this is again that illustration of the mother and the woman that the essential feature of a woman is that she's a woman she has a child she's a mother the woman aspect is always there that has to be there the mother aspect is only there when the child is there so the same thing here that that formless aspect form is resting on the ocean of formlessness and the waves will take different shapes freezing into ice is one way of understanding it because the waves are too transitory but it's the same concept but when the sun of knowledge rises the ice melts it becomes the same water as it was before water above and water below everywhere nothing but water so he's telling the goswami that through worship of god with form and even realizing god with form can take us to that formless aspect because i shouldn't even say aspect to reality because the object of our love we come closer and closer and ultimately merge in that object of our love then there's only oneness and we don't even see anything we become too close we become merged in it then there's no seer or sin then we're in that formless so through the worship of god with form we also attain the formless reality that's the roof we climb to the roof that way water above and water below everywhere nothing but water therefore prayer in the bhagavad-gita says o lord thou hast form and thou art formless thou walkest before us o lord in the shape of a man again thou hast been described in the vedas as beyond words and thought both are true and emphasize this this is why his bhakti yoga differs from traditional bhakti yoga which is based on dwetavedanta which is based on dualistic understanding that god and men are eternally separate related of course the man comes from god we belong to god we want to go back to god but separate taqwa's idea was that there's oneness but this stick of ego was on the surface giving the appearance of separation and because of that sense of i then we feel that i am one and god is another and we we seek to have that realization and that vision and experience and then we when that ego stick of ego disappears or or sinks below the surface then there's nothing left with that ocean nothing left but oneness but and now srama krishna talking again you may say that for certain devotees god assumes eternal forms there are places in the ocean where the ice doesn't melt at all it assumes the form of quartz okay now this is throwing a what they call throwing a monkey wrench into the into the works we don't know exactly tako says this i think on two different occasions generally he doesn't add this he sticks with the idea that there's something subjective because of this heem shakti this this cooling power that the ocean forms certain blocks of ice then the sun comes up and it melts i think what he's saying of course we don't know exactly is that for some devotees that their final realization will be one of god with form and they won't transcend that they won't go to that formless that that will be uh the their final experience who knows if that's uh their state of liberation most of the dualistic schools believe in mukti what you know when swamiji says that any concept of heaven which involves anything particular any anything transitory transitory and changing can't be permanent but many of these devotional schools this they do have this concept of heaven as something permanent that forever will live i remember once going to listening to a talk given at iscon and very clearly he was saying that yes that the devotee of krishna will go to the abode of krishna this eternal vrindavan and and spurred with krishna and be with him when he's grazing the cattle and the gopis come and this is with the concept of eternal heaven not very much different from some of the christian and jewish islamic ideas of heaven is something eternal so tako is saying that i think perhaps for some devotees that this will be their state of mukti anyhow it's very hard to say i don't know if it's here or later but uh uh one of them asked and yeah we'll get to it this get indirect and then have a little side conversation did you get what he said no did you get what he said no but they don't ask them to clarify it it's very unfortunate for us kedar this is kid or not he's also there in the room that day it is said in the bhagavata that vyasa asked god's forgiveness for his three transgressions these are not really three transgressions we had this discussion the other night was asking about this this is what we call tongue-in-cheek he's not really saying that oh i committed a terrible sin please forgive me because we'll see what these sins are he said oh lord thou art formless but i have thought of thee in my meditation as endowed with form of course god will be pleased with all of this not to say i forgive you my child you did a terrible thing thou art beyond speech but i've sung the hymns thou art all pervading spirit but i've made pilgrimages to sacred places be gracious o lord and forgive these three transgressions of mine master yes god has form and he is formless too further he is both he is beyond both form and formlessness no one can limit him so there's uh if we think of this pure consciousness it's non-spatial as our concept of formless will be something like water that can take any shape or we think of the vast ocean or the sky or something but the real concept of brahmin reality brahmin is that it's this consciousness itself there's no question of form or formless we won't even say consciousness is formless it has no existence in space it's beyond everything so this is what taku is saying here rachael's father was sitting in the room at that time roccali was staying with the master we know that he had been married a little bit earlier to this and that there was always this issue here he just got married he has a young wife should is it proper that he's living with suramar krishna to serve him and staying in dakshineshwar or should he be back home or should he visit his wife from time to time they were both young with the time yet for them to actually be living together or just spend some time so this was a big question and raquel's father from what we hear of him was not a terribly religious or spiritual person and he had married a second time and rock college wasn't particularly happy with all of that and uh so raquel's father was not out of the tremendous devotion for suramar krishna he he could see a son he could also see other people and he will find out after his mother's death his father had married a second time now and then he came to dakshineshwar because of rakhal's being there yeah at one at one point rakhal simply decided no i want to stay with sriami krishna at that time latu was also staying with him after some time baburam started to stay there so little by little we can almost say that this is the beginning of the future monastery he meaning rocco's father did not raise much objection to his son living with the master this is only after he came a couple of times why being a wealthy man of the world he was always involved in litigation there were lawyers and deputy magistrates among suramar krsna's visitors rakhal's father found it profitable to cultivate their acquaintance since he expected to be benefited by their councils and worldly affairs this is this is uh pretty pretty straightforward from em huh he's not mincing words we know that m the recorder of the gospel doesn't stick his head into things very much stick his nose in he doesn't give his own opinion very much he's very much objective so this must have been very obviously clear to everyone otherwise he wouldn't say something like this it's not a very flattering picture of raquel's father the other reason that rockhold's father didn't mind coming sometimes is that takur was was very affectionate towards him takur had a slightly hidden motive of course he didn't want him to object to rachel's staying with him at that time so he half flatters him a little bit a little bit of flattery towards his father and saying oh such a wonderful son can such a wonderful son be born without a wonderful father something like that so uh anyhow whatever takwa did whatever tricks he played seemed to work because his his father didn't mind that rockhall was staying there and he himself came from time to time in order to see rock hall and to meet with some of the other people that could be helpful to him master to raquel's father and the devotees ah what a nice character raquel has developed so now again so that the father will be placated and the father will also be a little bit pleased and a little flattered look at his face and every now and then you will notice his lips moving inwardly he repeats the name of god and so his lips move tucker every once in a while watching rachael sitting there with the lips moving would go into it wouldn't go into an ecstatic state and just as the joy of seeing his beloved spiritual son we have to remember he had that vision that raqqa was his mana putra his spiritual son seeing him lost in the name of god he would become overwhelmed with joy youngsters like him raquel belong to the class of the ever perfect they are born with god-consciousness no sooner did they grow a little older than they realized the danger of coming in contact with the world now they're they're born perfect but a little bit of of the dust of maya has to be shaken off a little bit taco could do it with a touch or they could do it with a little bit of meditation a little bit of prayer and and everything so we may ask that why do we see them complaining this ramakrishna that i'm not achieving anything what is the way all of that little little bit just as part of the play unless there's a little bit of maya they can't be born in this world tucker says pure gold see we say they're pure gold pure gold won't be useful in this world we need a little bit of alloy mixed with it so the even even the avatar even the avatar look what taku had to do to awaken the perfection and spirituality within him so much sadhana he had to practice of course that was also for our benefit it wasn't just for his sake but still so young youngsters like him takur referred to really all of his inner circle as nithya siddha sometimes there was the ishwara koti he would give specific names other times he would say you see these boys here these that meant the future monastic members and maybe even one or two others who didn't become future men but he said they're all nithya siddhas so he didn't that was a less restrictive category than ishwarakoti that ishwarakoti means they came with the avatar each time they could come who knows when and how and why but it doesn't have to be just as the partisan as as the companion of the divine incarnation there's the parable of the homa bird in the vedas the bird lives high in the sky and never descends to earth it lays its egg in the sky and the egg begins to fall i don't know where this houma bird comes from that tucker gives reference to that i remember once uh hearing swami lokeshwar anandiji when when i was in india one year i used to go once a week once a week he gave lectures going through kotamradu just like we're going through it here and that was in bengali i used to go and of course i missed a lot of it i couldn't understand all of it but as much as i could and i remember we got to this idea of the homer bird and he also said that nobody knows anything about this but there's some some parable or some story in uh the persian tradition of something like this homer bird that maybe it got into tucker's mind that he had heard about it somehow from that but uh but we don't really know about this is some vedic idea and yeah the bird lives high up in the sky and never never descends to earth it lays its egg in the sky and the egg begins to fall but the bird lives in such a hive that the egg hatches while falling the fledgling comes out and continues to fall but it is still so high that while falling it grows wings and its eyes open then the young bird perceives that it is dashing down toward the earth and will be instantly killed now notice it's not that as soon as the as the egg cracks the bird comes out and it flies and stays with god it starts to fall that means a little bit of awakening there's a little even though born perfect a little bit of this shaking off of this dust a little bit of the opening of the eyes at least that much has to take place then the young bird perceives that it is dashing down toward the earth and will be instantly killed the moment it sees the ground it turns and shoots up towards its mother in the sky then its one goal is to reach its mother so even even these nithya siddhas they'll have some initial awakening where they long to to realize their divine nature or the divine mother however we understand it and will very quickly shoot up and have that realization it won't take them long youngsters like raquel are like that bird from their very childhood they are afraid of the world and their one thought is how to reach the mother how to realize god you may ask how is it possible for these boys born of worldly parents and living among the worldly minded worldly parents it sounds very pejorative but uh takur referring to raquel's father it means he's a man of the world it means he's not a spiritual seeker it doesn't mean that he's a bad person uh not worldly in the sense of the evil person but that his golden life is not god's realization the goal in life is to have a good career and money and enjoyment and everything but still be a dharmic person so how is it possible for these boys born of worldly parents and living among the worldly minded to develop such knowledge and devotion if we look at the direct disciples how many of them actually had very spiritual parents we can say swami shivananda and swami ramakrishnan anybody else swami permanent his mother certainly yeah definitely his mother the others we don't know too much about we don't hear of the parents of the direct disciples coming to sriami krishna most of them didn't like the fact that he was attracting their sons and uh making them turn away from the world there was a little resentment there on the part of many of them some exceptions uh it was from shivananda when he told his father that he wanted to renounce the world then his father said ah my son when i was your age i also had that desire but i wasn't able to fulfill it i bless you with all of my heart that you'll be able to fulfill that and be a good sannyasi and have god realization so this was the exception uh why didn't any of the others rachael's father only came for that practical reason why didn't any of the other parents come yeah one great exception of course is this matangani devi that's rami praminaj's mother she was greatly devoted to srama krishna yeah that's a very i hadn't thought about that before it's a very interesting point that and not too many of the parents one or two every once in a while came uh to to really uh scold sriami krishna uh i think pornhu's father comes one time does he or one of one of them and tucker says why do you object to your son coming from time to time and one of the school boys that was from the ems school but otherwise we don't find the others becoming part of this inner circle or devotee so it's a good question that tucker is asking we we have this idea that they'll be born in a very righteous spiritual family we look at the family of holy mother of course her parents were were very righteous but look at these four rascals and brothers that she had of course one died young and that's ramakrishna the father was very righteous his mother also swamiji his father was a good person a very charitable person but not really what we call as the spiritual the religious type of person his mother of course was his mother probably saw sriami krishna on on various occasions how happy she was with him we can't say she probably had her devotion but at the same time they depended on narendra so much after the father passed away and so that was a great sacrifice on the part of his mother swamiji never got over the fact how much his mother had to sacrifice on account of him and he made a beautiful statement in one of his letters how much my mother has suffered because of me i've only brought pain and suffering to her let me do this one nice thing for her at the end of of my life or her life and so he that's when he took her on pilgrimage and he did the best that he could to make sure she had her own place to live and everything so let's go back to this question you may ask how is it possible for these boys born of worldly parents and living among the worldly minded to develop such knowledge and devotion it can be explained if the pea falls into a hung of deep a hung of dung it germinates into a pea plant nonetheless the peas that grow on that plant serve many useful purposes because it was sewn in dung will it produce another kind of plant this is not so flattering huh very comparing the parents to a heap of tongue but in any event and he goes on ah what a sweet nature rock call has nowadays and why shouldn't it be so now we get to the flattering part if the yam is a good one its shoots also become good so now he's saying that the the father if the son is good it means the father was good or laugh like father like son of course we all know that in most cases it's the mother who plays the greater role in the spirituality of the child in in india especially and i think in general the mother is the one who we can say the child learns religion on the lap of the mother and when swamiji's case is which of course is true he heard all the stories of ramayana mahabharata and everything sitting on the lap of his mother and this is why he praised his loved his mother so much okay now we'll get to this the thing about the crystal m a side to getindra how well he has explained god with and without form do the vaisnavas believe only in god with form perhaps so they are one-sided m did you understand what he meant by the eternal form of god that quartz i couldn't grasp it well now if m can't understand it how do we expect to understand it to him well what are you talking about now they could have easily said they could have easily said taco what did you mean by this chords of business but aim and get into the smile then remain silent so then we're the losers what exactly he meant because he never really explains it anywhere that that i've seen at least not in the gospel or great master later in the afternoon the devotees were singing in the panchavati where the master joined them they sang together in praise of the divine mother tucker always encouraged them to to sing so he wanted him to learn when i am bought a book of the songs of ram prasad and told takur and said i'm learning some of these so taku was very happy and and was always shy he wanted him to lose that shyness and sing in front of other people so he was always happy he was happy when the devotees were happy he like it like a small child he would and just enjoy the fun that we can hardly imagine that this panchavati where takur uh did so much of uh austere tapasya for for long years and and lost himself in god vision so many things took place there the same panchavati that takur encouraged them to use as a picnic place to to eat their snacks there to swing on the vines like little kids they just played there like a playground to use it like a playground huh they had a little park area tucker was so happy he would he would go there and sit there and dangle his legs off the side sit on the platform and they would all play and sing and dance and do everything and he would be so happy can we imagine the place of such sanctity that so so much of bhava samadhi visioned and everything took place there and for srama krishna he was happiest when they were playing there so he would often send him there go to the panchavati have your picnic there yeah sing dance there be happy i'll come i'll join you i'll watch i'll participate so they sang together in praise of the divine mother high in the heaven of the mother's feet my mind was soaring like a kite when came a blast of sins rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth maya disturbed its even flight by bearing down upon one side and i could make it rise no more entangled in the twisting string of love for children and for wife alas my kite was rent in twain it lost its crest of wisdom soon and downward plunged as i let it go how could it hope to fly again when all its top was torn away though fastened with devotion scored it came to grief in playing here its six opponents worsted it these are the suppressions now narish chandra he is the author of the song rules this game of smiles and tears and thinks it better never to have played at all there are so many songs about kites ron prasad has this song about kites this was one of the ways that kids played in those days or even grown-ups they would have these these kite contests where they would they would try to cut the string of the other kite and the one who had the last one standing was was the winner the very nice movie about this kite playing uh in afghanistan there was a novel that was written they made a film about it yeah this this is a tradition that probably goes all through asia this uh we have our flying of kites here but not a contest and we have the other song of ram prasad where they would they would put some type of paste or something and some rough surface on the string so that it it could it could go back and forth to kind of saw through the the other string and that kite would go flying off now with that song the the one that flies off is not the loser but the winner divine mother she claps and smiles and when she sees that that this kite has has gotten free this means that what what the spiritual person thinks of is is winning the worldly person thinks of is losing and vice versa what is it the day to the to the worldly person is night to the to the the the moon in what is night to the muni's day to the worldly person the singing continued srirami krishna danced with the devotees they sang the black v of my mind another beautiful song this is the kamala kante kamala kante and ram prasad where uh prompt number one then probably kamala khan to the two most famous uh authors and really poet saints we can say of songs about the divine mother mother kali or durga this is a beautiful song in bengali i remember the first time i heard it being sung one swami in delhi he was actually south indians for me he passed away some years ago i liked him very much vijay murad he was he was sent to be in charge i think first for me of the the kashmir center in jambu and he have he learned these bengali songs very well did a beautiful voice i always remember his singing of that the black v of my mind is drawn in sheer delight to the blue lotus flower of mother shama's feet the blue flower of the feet of kali shiva's consort tasteless to the beer the blossoms of desire my mother's feet are black and black too is the bee black is made one with black the devotee and the divine mother becoming one this much of the mystery my mortal eyes behold then hastily retreat but kamalakantha's hopes are answered in the end he swims in the sea of bliss unmoved by joy or pain the kirtan went on all songs about the divine mother on this particular day taco's birthday oh mother what a machine is that this is a ram prasad song what a machine is this the tao has made what prankster placed with this toy three and a half cubits high that's supposed to be the height of a person so playing the pranks just uh using us as as uh puppets huh and and for her enjoyment in this big puppet show of the world what prankst with this toy three and a half cubits high hiding thyself within divine mother hiding within our hearts as the mover as the operator of the instrument the charioteer of the chariot hiding itself within the holdest the guiding string but the machine not knowing it still believes it moves by itself whoever finds the mother remains a machine no more yet some machines have even bound the mother herself with the string of love we're the machine we bind the my mother with the string of love see this beautiful blending of this dualistic devotional idea and this idea of love and this idea that mother alone is the indweller that this is all the mai this play of maya that she dwells within the heart either she alone exists or she is the mover and we're the instrument that she's playing with us that way she's making us go around in circles as if we're just we think that we're doing everything but we're just in the hands of the puppeteer it's a very nice idea these are all spiritual attitudes and somebody may say oh have we no free will that we shouldn't take these things too literally if we have free will and that free will allow us to take that attitude we can take it that way also it was a very happy day for all the master accompanied by m was coming back to his room when he met tara lokia a brahmana devotee on the way sarah loki bowed before the master tarayuki is an interesting case he was devoted to suramar krishna enough that he came by himself that day many of the other brahmas they would only come in the group or when keshav came that they would come along with him so he was devoted to him he was the the author of many of the beautiful songs that we find in the brahmos homage and it was very much influenced by swami krishna all of these songs about divine madness calling on god his mother many people say that this was a gift that tucker gave to the brahma-samaj teaching them to call god his mother that beautiful song amai dema pago kore o mother make me mad with i love was tara loki's song at the same time he also wrote something some book or booklet that it comes at the end of the gospel where he says how taqwa was really influenced by kesha and that because of keshav he came to appreciate the household around different things like that and he really gets called to task that gidis is there and others are there and is it true that you said this and then the the statement that uh shiva chastry used to make that by thinking of god too much tucker has lost his mind he's become beheaded he's lost his mind he's become a little mad thinking of god too much so this trilochia never became really any part of this inner circle fully appreciating who and what suramar krishna was at the same time they did have this nice relationship takur also loved him and was very happy when he came i would always ask him to sing he must have had a very good singing voice also not just that he could compose songs so and here he's coming by himself to see tako on his birthday whether he knew it was a birthday good chance that he knew that word got out so taku was happy to see him master oh oh sorry uh you bowed before the master master they are singing the pantivati won't you go there so you're half testing him that they're having fun there why not go there or did you really come to see me huh so he says i have been there already i said what shall i do there and maybe he was a little older than the others also or of course there was a mixture of the ages and things but what shall i do there master why you will enjoy the music i've been there already master well well that's good so tara loki is saying that whatever joy may be there i've come to see you and there'll be greater joy in having your company so taco say ah okay he doesn't say i was just testing you but we get that impression a little bit so master well well that's good it was about six o'clock in the evening the master was sitting with the devotees on the southeast veranda of his room master a holy man who has renounced the world will of course chant the name of god that is only natural he has no other duties to perform if he meditates on god it shouldn't surprise anybody on the other hand if he fails to think of god or chant his holy name then people will think of ill of him they'll have a very low opinion if sadhu doesn't do at least that much why sadhu doesn't do any work doesn't do anything to earn his living other people are supporting sadhu at the very least they have to do their spiritual practice to benefit society as well as themselves this is to set an example the the sadhu has an obligation to society because society uh supports sadhu so takwa is going to say that it's nothing praise worthy nothing praise worthy people say oh i know this monkey spent so much time in meditation what else will he do he's supposed to spend time in meditation but now he'll be praising the household tarailoki was a householder the brahmal tradition was a householder tradition there are no sadhus and jason to the of the brahma-samaj they were basically a householder tradition so taco goes on but it is a great deal to his credit if a householder utters the name of the lord think of king janaka what courage he had indeed he fenced with two swords the one of knowledge and the other of work he possessed the perfect knowledge of brahman and also was devoted to the duties of the world an unchaste woman attends to the minutest duties of the world but her mind always dwells on her paramour tucker like this this illustration this idea of course we don't we won't say that rata and others were unchaste women but this idea that uh the love that the wife has for the husband ah it becomes ordinary after some time but the love that you'll have for somebody else all of the gopis for the krishna himself there'll be something more passionate about that type of love so we have this uh what is it called parakiya and swakia this madhur bhava these two different types the love that the wife has for the husband and the love the wife has for uh for the beloved who was not the husband in the case of radha and krishna so radha's mind was constantly thinking of krishna once he wasn't with him this is the idea the constant company of a holy man is necessary the holy man introduces one to god kedar so that means that kedar had also come back they weren't all still in the pontifiti yes sir the great soul is born in the world for the redemption of humanity he leads others to god just as a locomotive engine takes along with it a long train of carriages where again he is like a river or lake that quenches the thirst of many people the devotees were ready to return home one by one they saluted the master at the site of bhavanath srama krsna said don't go away today the very side of you inspires me tako considered to be one of the nithya siddhas apparently at one time the ishwara kothi bhavanat drifted away a little at the end but at least at this time taku was very fond of him and he and narendra were best friends and taka encouraged it because they complemented each other's spiritual mood and attitude the the not that they had the identical mood but somehow they worked together they helped each other that way bhavanat had not yet entered into worldly life will find that that his parents arranged his marriage shortly after this a youth of 20 he had a fair complexion and handsome features he shed tears of joy on hearing the name of god he was a highly spiritual person the master looked on him as the embodiment of narayana and this comes to the end of that day so we we had that blessed opportunity of helping taqwa celebrate his birthday that year so we'll stop here this is page 194 and we'll begin next time with thursday march 29 1883 [Music] who is stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace be unto