Video 52

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (04/16/21)

foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we are on the chapter advice to the brahmos this is sunday april 8th 1883. and we are in suramar krsna's room if you'll remember of course i wasn't here last week swami brahma but he filled in for me but before that we stopped adhorsen had come with one of his friends actually with several friends but one of them i had just recently suffered the death of his eldest son and we just got to the point where srama krishna was going to address that now i don't know if this is a happy coincidence or an unhappy coincidence some of you may know that the reason i wasn't here last friday was that my mother became very ill and she actually passed away so i've also been thinking about death and and the transitory nature of life and different things like that so on some level this is a very appropriate section for us to read we we know that people react to to death and also people react to those who are mourning in different ways and so many people have contacted me and have wished me wish me well and shared given condolences and everything i'm very appreciative to everyone but we see with these great souls how they have different ways of of dealing with these things i remember there was an incident regarding holy mother a woman had come i think i think his young child had died and everyone was watching holy mother what would she do what would she say to this woman and they were thinking maybe she'll say that this is the nature of life what can we do that everything is transitory we shouldn't be attached but holy mother was silent she didn't say anything and then they saw that some tears started coming from her eyes and she just somehow this removed the grief of this woman this holy mother sharing in her grief so people have different ways of helping others get over that that period of grief we'll see suramar christian does something that's even more surprising he takes a very strong militant attitude towards death this was actually the last thing that we read last time but i'll start with this it's the top of page 209 by this time isrami krishna had become better acquainted with adhar who related the cause of his friends grief now the very interesting thing is that adarsen will also die shortly after this it says there's a footnote uh 18 months after this conversation so everything that taku was saying about death here has relevance to although arthur of course didn't know takur must have known he must have and the other thing is that there's others and we're so anxious at this time to get help from his friends he had applied for a very high position he was a deputy magistrate which was also a high position but talkwork kept telling him don't get too involved with this be content with what you have it's a good job and everything devote your time to god taker must have had some pre-sentiment that adore would not live long also so all of this is for the benefit mainly of the other's friend but also for him as well and this was i think only the second visit first or second visit the author by this time srama krishna had become better acquainted with who related the cause of his friend's grief the master saying as if to himself to arms to arms o man death storms your house in battle array bearing the quiver of knowledge mount the chariot of devotion bend the bow of your tongue with the bowstring of love and aim at him the shaft of mother kali's holy name here is a ruse for the fray you need no chariot or charioteer fight your foe from the ganges bank and he is easily slain then he said what can you do be ready for death death has entered the house you must fight him with the weapon of god's holy name death we we have to face this prospect of death in two different ways one is our own death and the other is the death of loved ones for many people the first one is the tough one many people don't bother too much about their their own life sometimes worrying more about how it affects other people and some people are ready my mother was 96 she was ready she was ready to go and as sadhus we're supposed to be ready at any moment the taqwa says in in some places that we should all think about death but it's all too especially at all times he says remember death at all times that means remember the transitory nature of the world there's so many traditions of saturn's going to cremation grounds to meditate shiva he's supposed to spend all of his time there and uh to to dwell on this idea that this world is uh of two days only dude taco uses this expression that it's a very a transitory thing one of my favorite hymns is we we hear the title and we think it will be a devotional hymn that worship god bhaji govindam but it's all about death you know all of the the story is that shankaracharya saw a very old man sitting in benares near the ganga on one of the one of the steps in the bathing god reciting the rules of panani like a young student would memorize the the grammatical rules so he composed this hymn this is the story out of compassion for him that when the moment of death comes then what good will this do the these these the panini rules they won't save us so he says that worship the lord but if you read the poem it's really saying remember death remember the transitory nature of the world the dina yamino day comes night comes the seasons come everything morning and evening sunrise sunset this is the nature of life that and and they go so quickly the time is a very strange thing when we get to the final day then it won't make any difference if we've lived 100 years or 50 years or 10 years yeah how do you then function if you always think about the death i mean your death self death how not about or how it reacts to the other people how do you function in life every minute we appreciate every minute yeah what what does this do does it does it leave us morbid does it leave us kind of paralyzed and helpless it should be the opposite if we if we realize that this life is very short we should cherish every moment and we should not waste any moment we should we should constantly think that uh how precious the time is that we should spend their time calling on god doing our spiritual practice this should uh this should really be that the wake-up call for us that we we may find that oh the last day has come and what did i do i wasted my life so this this should give us some perspective some seriousness with regard to spiritual life swamiji quotes a verse i don't know where it's from it says when when you do spiritual practice you should feel as if yama is holding you the tuft of hair in your head that means at any time ready to take you to death if we think this is the last day of our life then will we waste it what will we do of course some people say okay let me enjoy everything do whatever i can last minute others will say no let me prepare prepare for death there's a very nice expression ponte bende i bundled my things i packed my bags and i'm sitting here waiting i'm ready so we should be ready that means that there shouldn't be any regrets that i've taken care of everything i don't have any more desires oh if i only had another day i could do this i could do that if i had another day i could get my things in order we should get everything in order and and so that if the if the time comes because we don't know when that call will come nobody knows we should be ready ready for it not it's not a morbid thing i really for a sadhu especially death is the reward what is our concept of death either it's the end of this suffering and it's a buddhist idea this nirvana that just the flame goes out so nothing to feel bad about if that's the case otherwise if we lead a good life then there won't be anything to worry about we don't know exactly it's a mystery we don't know exactly what happens we're reborn we go to heaven we merge in god we don't know exactly what happens there are so many different theories but the one nice thing that we've read in gita that there's no durgati we nothing bad will happen if we lead a good life for the kaliana krit if someone is a good person then there's nothing to worry about some some positive thing will will be there whatever it is we go to ramakrishna loka good we're reborn in the pious family we get to serve takurma again good nothing to worry about nothing to to feel bad about is is this world such a wonderful place that we want to cling to it how much suffering there is and uh even bodily suffering mental suffering everything so it's good if we if we take a a good hard look at at life and it it really i i'm going to repeat it again it's not a morbid idea it's not that oh it's horrible i have to get out i have to get out but it's something to look forward to i i feel that honestly that it's something to look forward to and this idea of length of life the final day comes it won't make any difference that final day is going to come for everybody and when it comes it's going to be like oh how did it come so fast this idea of time is so strange that uh it takes a long time to get through a day but but the last 50 years went by like nothing 70 years whatever it is so this is the nature of the nature of time see in in sanskrit this this word it means time it means death it means god there's a name for shiva oh look at that all three things huh who is who is it that when arjuna wants to know in chapter 11 this vision of the universal forum that uh who are you who's is uh this this universal form that i'm saying uh who can withdraw everything everything and he says i'm time so this is saying in that form of the the destroy shiva call it the name of shiva so the name of god and it's a name of time of course and a name of death so everything is born in time everything is destroyed in time everything gets withdrawn and and it goes just like that and the older we get the faster it goes so there should be solace in this idea if we if we can really feel not that we're rushing towards it or anxious but it's kind of we expect there to be some reward at the end if we lead a good life and if we haven't achieved the goal there'll be another opportunity that there's there's some some type of justice in the universe it seems to be so random and it seems to be uh the cruel and heartless the world and we don't know why some people suffer and other people don't suffer but ultimately there's there's some some justice there should be there should be something that makes sense out of all of this but takur is saying now that uh we have to really be strong about it now when it's when it's the death of of a loved one it's more difficult because there's the feeling of loss and grief and all of that [Music] especially if it's a child then the whole lifetime you mourn for a child if it's a parent who's led a good life and a good long life and uh and it's time to go and everything then there's some feeling of comfort now they're free from the body free from suffering and everything it's it's it's not a bad thing that way but for someone who loses a small child there's a terrible thing so this life is very cruel we don't know why we we can have big theories of karma big theories of old this is how god's grace works turns our mind toward god with all these different theories but we really don't know except that really this is living this life has to be done with great care it's really like navigating through a snake pit we just don't know we we take a false step and we have a little pride and and the mind goes in a different direction or we lead a perfectly good life and yet something happens it's out of our control it's a very strange thing really the more the more i contemplate these things the more convinced i am that i don't understand anything this uh mystery of this of this life huh it just seems more and more mysterious this is why i like these these these poems of kamala kanta and iran prasad and things that what is that one though i've thought about these things for my whole life to still i become mad trying to understand these things it's calling my mother really black that beautiful song the last song that swamiji sang and the last day of his life when he left the shrine that the early morning and they heard him singing that song of a kamala kanta is because so what do we know of god what do we know of this world what do we know of life and death we don't know much at all swamiji said that if somebody leaves the body in bellew they also get moksha we don't know why see we we read all of these things if we die in a certain place if we die in belmont and because of the holy atmosphere in the holy place that the mind is thinking of that then we can get liberation if we if we die anywhere and there are no desires in the mind we can get liberation if uh if we die in a holy place and the mind is filled with desires and we obey karma then we'll be born there's again blanket like in varanasi there is a blanket right that anybody this is what they say anybody who dies in varanasi but at the same time if anyone has any desire they'll be reborn so uh we have this idea that if you die there that the holy because of the holy atmosphere or the presence of shiva and and uh annapurna because of the presence of the divine presence that uh at the final moment uh no desire will come into the mind tucker had that vision of course that divine mother is untying the chains and the shiv himself is whispering the mantra in the air of the dying person but we really hard to say so we we don't we don't need to know all of these things we need to have some conviction that leading a spiritual life will will be the best possible life we can live and that there will be something that will get something out of it both even if we don't get something out of it the best possible life but we should have that conviction that we'll get something out of it it won't be in vain nothing will be wasted if we lead a good life if we lead an unselfish life if we lead a life dedicated to to god and deserving god in humankind that there will be a there will be a reward that we get through that work we'll feel will feel talk swamiji know that his famous statement they alone live who live for others the rest are more dead than alive so it's not that if if you lead a selfless life you'll get god realization he's not saying that he's saying if you lead a selfless life that you'll feel alive that that's its own reward that we don't have to look for anything if we look for something else after that then it's not uh motiveless work we're looking for some some reward out of it if we if we do it just out of goodness then we'll feel the tremendous uh joy will come from that i i've had the great blessing of watching my mother for all of these years she lived to be 96. she was the most selfless person i've ever met and you could see that she never thought of herself and it was always if others are happy she was happy a remarkable thing yeah really in that way she was really quite a saintly person but very simple and nothing with philosophy or anything like that no no idea at all that oh i'll get god realization i'll go to nothing nothing at all this is just our nature if others are happy she was happy it was really a great blessing to to have a mother like that so ah she was the rocks he was the rock of the family yeah so we we should be prepared for death we should be ready for death and not that this life is so horrible we want to get out of it but it's also not so wonderful and we should realize that it's nothing to cling to it's nothing to cling to and death will come no matter how much we we don't want it to come or we can postpone it as long as we want there are people is really shocking there are people you know in their in their 90s even 100 or something they'd say uh yes do whatever you can to keep me alive the the feeding tube okay i don't mind the oxygen i don't mind what did they gain an extra day an extra two days more suffering and everything so my mother was very clear no hospital no resuscitation no feeding tube nothing she she was ready and we were all ready and everyone was was by her side and uh it was it was this is a wonderful type of death if if we can all have that type of death but uh in in spiritual life it's very good for us to just remember that that day will come for all of us it will come as certain as anything is certain in this world and either we're ready for it or we're not ready for it if we're not ready for it now will we be ready for it in 50 years and ready for it means that we're ready at that final moment to let the mind dwell in god and to long for union with god because that will determine that final moment will determine what happens to to us in whether there's another lifetime or whatever it is that and if we don't and if we don't prepare the mind and that doesn't mean that i'm i'm preparing the mind so that i'll think of god at the final moment it means i'm thinking about it now unless we do it now it won't come at the final moment the the idea is not that uh we can trick god the final moment i'll think uh it's not like you know i'll call my son narayana huh if we hear that story all of the time then then i'll get liberation no if we have to train the mind to to think of god at all times or to uh at least uh be aware of that divinity within divinity well with and the transitory nature of the world is very helpful this this is such a wonderful wonderful hymn and takur we'll see so many times he'll talk about this idea that we have to we have to be prepared or i really if if the call comes there there are people that work certain types of jobs that at any time they can be called to go someplace else they do disaster relief or something like that they'll always keep a bag packed so if they get that phone call that get on the plane you have to go here you have to go there their bag is packed they're ready to go so we should be like that huh punty bente my bag is packed and i'm ready to go i've bundled up my things i'm waiting for the call so it's a very beautiful idea so then he goes on talker first he says what can you do be ready for death death has entered the house you must fight him with the weapon of god's holy name and then he goes back to this idea god alone is the doer now we can take this all in two different ways one that oh i'm just an instrument that god is doing it but the other way that's a very high ideal taco will talk about that of course he loves that ideal but this is for somebody who really the ego is completely effaced for us we can say that no matter what i do i know that the results are not in my hands no matter what i do i can try my best and and cover all of the bases and make sure that i've looked at every possible detail and once i've done it i expect a certain result opposite thing happens i don't know why it happened this is this is not i have no adikata for this in the language of gita that we can't have any attachment to the to the fruits of our action so from that point of view we can say i've done what i've done now it's in it's in the hands of god that's all or karma or however we understand it but it's out of my hands so but taco uses this type of language that god alone is the doer i say oh lord i do as thou do is through me i speak as thou speakest through me i am the machine and thou art the operator i am the house and thou art the indweller i am the engine and thou art the engineer now tucker tells this to everybody but as an ideal he doesn't he doesn't expect anybody to follow this teaching and at the same time be full of ego and pride and full of desires he this is really meant for somebody who is trying to practice this egoless idea that uh i'm not doing anything for myself uh if i do if i do things just for the sake of of righteousness i follow dharma i i do what the heart tells me is the right thing to do then i can say i'm being inspired by god led by god god is the real doer then otherwise i'm the doer i can do all sorts of nonsense and say well god was the real doer otherwise i am the doer so we if we face the ego then we can do it so he says give your power of eternity to god so this is the in-between thing yes i i have this feeling that i'm the one responsible for everything but let me try let me try to feel that okay i'm really not the one who's allowed to make this decision let god make that decision for me the power of attorney that suppose you give your power of attorney to somebody and you change your mind say oh i want to do it this way they say no i have your power of attorney and you're going to make a big mistake here i'm going to i'm going to do it this way and you'll thank me one day for this so taco says if you give your power of attorney to a good person you will never regret it so in order to practice this we have to get rid of the every last ounce of personal desire and of ego and pride and all of the things that generally are the impulse for action the verse i like so much from gita when arjuna asked for krishna why do we do things we shouldn't do why do we why do we do sinful things when we know we shouldn't do it and we don't even want to do it as if we're forced to do it now if he's asking that uh will krishna say to him oh you're not the actor that the divine mother is actually doing these sinful things no he says it's the force of common crowd this all of the he says it from rajas thomas and rajis that it's there's all of the desires and passions or making us do things that even we don't want to do it that means i know that the right thing is to be unselfish i know the right thing is to apologize to somebody but i can't do it why can't i do it yes there's also another verse from mahabharata yeah but that he says i do as you make me do this is different this this is we're doing as as the the passions are making us do this is this is that lack of freedom that we have when we're uh not able to withstand the force of of the of the lower passions shri krishna specifically says common quota there's a desire and anger but it could be any of them so if we can transcend those things and become very satwik and pure nature then we can have some concept some idea that god alone is the real doer now from a very high point of view god alone dwells within all beings there is no i there is no individual eye if we analyze and tucker will talk about that uh so how can i say that i'm the doer but as long as we have this feeling of i we have to be responsible for what we do we'll get all of that let me let me go on here so give your power of attorney to god one doesn't come to grief through letting a good man assume one's responsibilities let his will be done so we do it with our best we try our best to do what we think is right and then accept what comes as the will of god this is slightly different i'm not saying that god alone was the actor who did it i did it but it wasn't the will of god that it turned out the way i thought it would turn out a little bit different attitude we can practice that attitude this attitude that uh i'm just a machine and god is the operator we have to get rid of every landless drop of ego to have that that attitude tucker could do it why he said just as you scrape out the inside of a pumpkin huh you know it has has all of the seeds that you get rid of and then it has little threads that come you scoop all of that out it's perfectly smooth inside he said that that's the way he was that's the way we have to be if we want to be really free from this ego then what can dwell inside except god that's the practical side of all of this otherwise we can say yes god alone dwells within all beings but this is this sense of ego covers it all gives this feeling of individuality we want to get rid of even this false notion of the eye because this false notion of the eye is very strong it's very powerful this i sense then he goes on but isn't your grief for your son only natural the son is one's own self reborn this is a very nice term and we find that parents very often live to their children things that they couldn't succeed in or they couldn't get they wanted children to be able to get and this is how they live it's not bad it's also a type of selflessness that they're happy at the happiness of their children so it's a natural thing this is what taco calls maya which is it has a good side and a bad side the good side is that there is a great and affection but a little bit of attachment that goes for the parents to the children but at the same time if that same feeling can be expanded so that we feel that to everyone that it becomes a diet becomes a very good thing so these are these are two concepts maya and daya that are diametrically opposed to each other only at the extremes if we see the point in which they they merge into each other we see that they're very similar so when that love for our very close near and dear ones our family our friends and everything expands a little bit then expands a little bit more so to our people of our own country it spans a little bit more and then finally we get to all beings then we say that oh it's changed now it's no longer maya because maya can bind us to the detachment and daya can free us so it uh it's not something that isn't really different in nature but it's limited and restricted and individual and not universal when it becomes universalized then then it can free us the son is one's own self reborn lakshmana ran to ravana when the latter fell dead on the battlefield looking at ravana's body he found that every one of his bones was full of holes thereupon he said to rama o rama glory be to your arrows there is no spot in ravana's body that they have not pierced brother replied rama the holes you see in his bones are not from my arrows grief for his sons has pierced them through and through these holes are the marks of his grief it has penetrated his very bones now takur he's consoling this devotee one way of consoling people is by by showing that you're not alone this has happened to other people that many people have had to go through this and this is this is just one of the one of the possible facts of life that these things happen but housewife and children are all transitory they have only a momentary existence the palm tree alone is real one or two fruits have dropped off why lament in the gita we we have this expression chapter two that occurs i don't know how many times four five six different times that uh true krishna he's talking about the death of of arjuna's loved ones that hasn't taken place yet that he's saying that yeah you're going to battle and the good chance that they'll die in that battle but he's saying he gives all these reasons and he says therefore you should not grieve or there's there's no reason to grieve because of that now [Music] grief is something that plays a very important role we we shouldn't think if we grieve over a loved one that we're doing it uselessly what sri krishna is trying to tell arjuna is that don't be too attached to this this what you're seeing just this physical body and grief is really at our feeling of loss so it's okay to grieve or feeling lost but don't think that anybody's died or you've killed anybody that only the body is no longer there it was very interesting i'll share a little bit of a personal thing with my mother we had a nurse there at the time and they have to give the actual time of death now i'm there and uh right by my mother's side holding her hand and i see she took her last breath and the nurse comes and and feels the pulse there's still some pulse so one death of the body there's still some prana is still there prana is still there that's how they measure death when the when when even there's no pulse and the piranha is completely functionless we say has left the body but it's there's no longer functioning of the body even then there'll be some cellular change in things that will take place and some warmth so it happens after what we call death there's a slow process when when the functions yeah and the bodily heat leaves and all of that but from my point of view and the others that less breath will be uh and even before that when when the uh the loved one is in a state where uh there's no evident awareness of anything eyes are open but glazed over now maybe they can hear something we don't know soul could have left the body we don't know what what the condition is at that time but it's not something that you you can measure by by this idea of you know pulse in the body or you know any functioning of prana anything like that they're two different things so uh uh these these are great mysteries of course closely related we can't say they're not related but how we look upon death and what happens and who is the real person who is the real self it's not the body it's not the body leaves gradually not at once it depends how if we think of prana's breath there's a final breath but for the nurse that wasn't enough we still feel a little bit of pulse so so the lungs are not working but maybe the heart this or blood is still going through the veins somehow i don't know it seemed to be so irrelevant huh the the time before passing we will take to be more when the with the last breath but it was within you know a couple of minutes after that no we don't feel any pulse anymore but it was it was curious to me uh how they need this scientific definition because of this materialistic view of things not that the nurse was materialistic she was a wonderful person very highly spiritual person very loving and everything but this is just the way they have to define it i guess god is engaged in three kinds of activity creation preservation and destruction we talk about this vishnu shiva the each one is responsible this is just our way of of saying that there are three different cosmic functions not that there are three different deities that are doing all of this that this is this is what we call ishwara or god a personal god or creator god will have all of these functions death is inevitable it's that which is born will die this is this is chapter two of gita this is why it's chanted at the at the time of death when someone is passing we generally will order funeral service memorial service chant from chapter 2 about this that which is born will die this is inevitable and a very nice sentiment we find in gita also if something is inevitable we shouldn't grieve over it because of grief a little bit is a little bit of regret oh if only i could have done something different then maybe this wouldn't have happened but if it's inevitable then we we shouldn't think like that it would have happened so many people uh feel guilt at the time of death oh if i only had done this if i only if i hadn't done that if if if we hadn't tried to do this surgery or if we had done this instead of that and this guilt comes but that is inevitable and we don't know why and how it happens is prada of the karma this is a concept that we may accept literally we may not but the the concept is that uh our our days are numbered that we're born and we have a certain number of breaths that we'll take and it's not accidental when we die now holy mother and takur they weren't very strict about this idea they said through if you have great devotion and this part of the karma can be can be changed it's not such a strict thing but they accepted the concept of it instead of a sword going through you'll get a pinprick but length of life we we don't know we see people who seem perfectly healthy they die a heart attack instantly other people who have have such poor health and they go on and on and on and on we don't know why so we have this idea this part of the karma that because of what was done in previous lifetimes that were born destined to lead a certain number of days in this lifetime i i don't have much conviction regarding these things i don't i don't question them i i don't feel it's necessary for us to to say either yes i completely believe in this or i think it's nonsense this is one of those things that to me is a very secondary thing we don't know why and how things happen that's enough for me and tucker emphasizes that so many times he said who can understand the ways of god and why do you try to figure it out these things can't be understood by this ordinary human mind and even after god's realization we still might not understand these things that this is a mysterious world this is why we we we say that everything is in the hands of mahamaya that means that where everyone is deluded by this maya and we don't know exactly we don't have good answers for everything or or even for anything good answers so we muddle along with with this at least this conviction that if i can understand all of these things then i'll i'll leave them aside and i'll do what i think is important in this lifetime that means i'll try to lead a good life unselfish life uh a life of uh sincerity and seriousness and if there's something to be realized in this life that we see these great souls who have realized something and tell us this is how you do it and then i'll do devote my life to that taco says that don't worry too much this is a very wealthy man tucker always used him as an example that don't ask too many questions how much money does he have how much land does he own all of this try to meet him then if you like you can ask him if he likes he may tell you he may not you may not care at that point taco never said that after we realized god will know the answer to all of these questions he never said that he always said who can understand if he says who can understand then what chance do we have of understanding these things all will be destroyed at the time of dissolution so he's talking about now this this uh whole cycle of creation but of course it means individually that's in the the universal cosmic aspect the whole universe is projected and then the whole universe is is withdrawn and of course the the idea in vedanta is that it goes on and on and on cycle after cycle but for the individual were born will also die this is also part of that divine plan death is inevitable all will be destroyed at the time of dissolution nothing will remain at that time the divine mother will gather up the seeds for the future creation even as the elderly mistress of the house keeps in her hodgepodge pot little bags of cucumber seed seafoam blue pills and other miscellaneous things the divine mother will take her seeds out again at the time of the new creation this is also true as an individual that all of our karma that's also kept there that all of our sums got us all of these things and this will determine what type of the future life we have now this is all with regard to other sen's friend now tucker will start start talking to adher and he'll start giving him advice which also now that we understand that he only has a year and a half left to live it has a different meaning for us so master to adhere oh sorry srama krishna began to talk with her on the veranda north of his room master to adhere you are a deputy magistrate he was a young man i don't know how old 30 years in his 30s i think at that time and a good position you were a deputy magistrate remember that you have obtained your position through the grace of god do not forget him but remember that all men must one day walk down the same path that means death there's a footnote other sin passed away 18 months after this conversation at the news of his death the master wept before the mother a long time we say yeah you shouldn't grieve how talk were grieved and holy mother that i forget who it was who passed away but holy mother said she couldn't leave her bed for three days one of the direct disciples or something they all grieved terribly because their hearts were so pure and they had so much love and this attachment to to pure souls and the attachment that pure souls have is much greater than our attachment because we have our selfishness they they only feel the goodness of the other person and only it's only this pure love that they have so their attachment is far greater than ours but it's a perfectly satwik type of attachment we shouldn't even call it attachment this is pure love but they'll grieve they'll grieve when tucker passed away holy mother really she had no desire to live even and grief was so great all the direct disciples how they wandered this then tucker knew he said the only reason i'm not giving up this body is i know when i pass away you'll you'll wander around the streets weeping for me so don't think that spiritual people don't grieve and mourn but it's different they they don't don't do it because of any selfish idea and they don't do it because of any materialistic idea that this person is actually dead they may see when taqwa's nephew akshay died first he said i laughed because i knew this body is just a sheath it's nothing a pillow case and and the soul i could see leaving the body laughing it was a joyful thing but he said but the next day how my heart was was just being torn apart in grief for he said then i understood how much worldly people will suffer of grief as if divine mother was trying to give me this experience to understand that so he's saying that oh i'm sorry at the news of his death the master wept before the mother a long time there was a great devotee of srama krishna who referred to him as his own relative so he said do not forget him to but remember that all men must one day walk down the same path we stay in this world only a couple of days really i've i i marvel sometimes when i think of the past at how strange it seems is it pos many of us feel this way is it possible that i've lived over 70 years is it possible does it make sense or does it have any meaning the time and age and everything and when that final day comes does it make any difference how many days pass before that it is all this really the time is maya taqwa says that time is maya so we stay in this world only a couple of days this world is our field of activity they they call it the karma bhumi the karma bhumi this is where we get to work at our karma we're not here for enjoyment this uh if there's a place we're born for enjoyment it'll be some other loka or something then we come back here this is where we're supposed to get rid of our desires we're supposed to purify the the heart we're supposed to develop this unselfishness and this love of god this is this is the field of action we fulfill our worldly duties and we do our spiritual practice and we try to do it all without any attachment do everything as an offering this world is our field of activity we are born here to perform certain duties people have their homes in the country but come to calcutta to work we should feel this is not our home this is another idea this this brings great white again that we're just here for a short visit we've been exiled we've been exiled here and we have to fulfill our duty here then we can go back home our home is god we can go back if we've done all that we're that we need to do here it is necessary to do a certain amount of work this is a kind of discipline but one must finish it speedily so whatever karmic responsibilities we have we should do that in in the indian tradition it's a very nice idea that uh after reaching a certain age the the sun takes responsibility for the family and for earning money and everything this and the parents can can retire they can go into the forest and they can devote all of their time to spiritual life so they fulfill their duties and then they can turn their mind completely to god melting gold the goldsmith uses everything the bellows the fan and the pipe so that he may have the hot fire he needs to melt the metal after the melting is over he relaxes and asks his attendant to prepare a smoke for him all this time his face has been hot and perspiring but now he can smoke so this has to do with worldly duties and also spiritual practice this is very much like the idea of the of the boatmen who has to work very hard to get his boat out and then raise the sail and then he sits back both times they can get a smoke docker uses that that example so it means that finish our worldly duties then turn our mind to god number one and also it means do hard spiritual practice until we reach that point where we can practice perfect surrender surrender to god then we don't have to do anything when we've reached that point where uh we've just turned ourselves over to god now do whatever you want with me i'm in your hands i have no personal desire for anything for enjoyment or anything else that i just want to take refuge with you take shelter with you you place me wherever you want just like the small kitten wherever the mother cat puts it it's content and it's happy this is that anuraga state after the vaidhi bhakti in this onuraga state that tak recalls this the very final step of the latter and that rosy color of of dawn just before the sun rises if we can reach that state but we don't do it by just talking about it this is something that we we in gita is a very nice verse that says no one attends to nice carmia to worklessness by giving up work we don't get to that state where we transcend work by giving up work we get to it by doing work by fulfilling it we don't get to this state unless we do our sadhana we do our spiritual practice first if anyone is born with this then they must have done something in the previous life that they don't have to do much taco says kripa siddha otherwise we we won't get to that nice karmia unless we we do hard work do our spiritual practice with with great fervor and great longing see one must have stern determination then alone is spiritual practice possible one must make a firm resolve so forget about all this stuff that i do what god makes me do for now that we have to say no i'm going to do whatever it takes i'm going to do it this purushakara this has to come first and this this feeling of strength and boldness swamiji emphasized that so much tucker also he said you have to work hard and you have to have great determination kubrok he says it's grit that whatever it takes i'm not going to give up we have to have that in spiritual life otherwise obstacles of obstacles will come and we'll say okay it wasn't worth it it's too difficult then we then we don't gain anything there is a great there is great power in the seed of god's name it destroys ignorance a seed is tender and the sprouts soft still it pierces the hard ground the ground breaks and makes way for the sprout we see sometimes even in the pavement concrete that there will be a little weed or something it'll crack right through it we have them all over our parking lot huh how it does it it's not getting any sun even it is underground and still it's at the tremendous strength so if that's true for this little weed think of the name of god it seems like oh of repeating the name of god what can it do we're repeating something over and over and over again we have no idea the power to break through that swamiji in one place says it's like corrosive acid you can take the hardest steel and you put a little of this corrosive acid it'll eat its way through all the way slowly slowly slowly and until it gets all the way through breaks through so this is the name of god it's like that the mind becomes very much distracted if one lives long in the midst of woman in gold so we can say the objects object of lust and greed he's talking to adhere now why a young man he's telling him all this because this is the end of his life he won't tell it to everybody at that age but this is the equivalent to somebody who's ready to renounce the world he knows that he has doesn't have much time to live therefore one must be very careful but monks do not have much to fear the real sannyasi lives away from woman in gold the objects of lust and greed therefore through the practice of spiritual discipline he can always fix his mind on god true sannyasis those who are able to devote their minds constantly to god are like bees which light only on flowers and sip their honey those who live in the world in the midst of objects of lust and greed may direct their attention to god but sometimes their minds dwell also on objects of lust and greed they are like common flies which light on a piece of candy then on a sore or filth always keep your mind fixed on god this is the final thing he's telling to utter on this day always keep your mind fixed on god in the beginning you must struggle a little later on you will enjoy your pension so these these are really very inspiring words we may wonder all of this struggle what will we get out of it but we have to have that faith that the fruit will come we may not know when or why or how or what form they'll take but we have to have that conviction talker is telling us have the conviction and that we will not regret it we lead a spiritual life with great sincerity and with great longing and there's no possible way that we can regret it this is i have a deep conviction regarding this taco tells us holy mother tells us we see the lives of all these these great saints relieve that life becomes blessed that way so let us stop here that's the end of that day and i'll close with our chant [Music] [Music] [Music] we bow our heads before srama krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and every word ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace be unto allah thank you everyone and again for everyone who is send good wishes to me very i'm very very grateful i thank all of you