Video 53

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (04/23/21)

your foreign are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we're on the chapter advice to brahmos that's page 210 in swami nicholin on this translation sunday april 15th 1883. surrender a beloved lady disciple of the master had invited him to his house on the auspicious occasion of the annapurna puja okay now surendra we've met him many times and i've talked about him a little bit but i thought i'll give maybe just a few more little details the bengali version of the gospel the original has very nice indexes in it with all descriptions of all of the uh devotees that we find uh in the gospel in all of the places and songs everything like that so there's a little more information about uh surendra surrender not mitra takur uh used to call him suresh yeah and um the other way around no no he used to call him suresh yeah and he was around 30 i believe at this time [Music] and he was a friend of ram chandra datta in fact i think they lived near each other and when when yeah and it was at surrender's house the first time that takur heard swamiji singh narendra that was the first time that he saw him uh it wasn't the big first meeting that we all know about that took place in dakshinishwar but he sang for him taku was impressed and he said come see me sometime in dakshineshwar so the first meeting was in surendra's house yeah his uh taco went one time from chandra's house to surrender's house it was just a short distance from there and he was uh not the least bit interested in spiritual life in the beginning he was obsashi he had no faith at all in any spiritual things so ram chandra because they were friends wanted to take him to the ram chandra he was a relative of swamiji's he was the real missionary he was always trying to get people to come and see srama krishnan and to get everyone to accept him as an avatar and what else do we know about him he was quite well to do he had a big position in uh some british firm so he made a good deal of money but he wasn't very happy in his life until he met swami krishna and he used to drink so he and gadish they were the two two big drinkers uh among there were several others also and takwo called him one of his that there were several who talk were designated as those who were born with a special mission to support him financially so who do we have we have matur babu then we have shambu malik then we have then we have surendra and i think balarama bobos and one of them he said it was a half and he wasn't very clear on that so uh and yeah he was one of them and one of the when takwo was taken to kashipur hebor the the majority of the expense so others also contributed but he he wore the the greatest uh amount of the expense and the afterwards also for the barana gurmat moto babu was the first yeah so they they all they all loved him very much but he was also very sensitive and he got his feelings very easily we read one time at the end where he he bought a very nice beautiful double garland for takur and thakur didn't wear it at first and then he thought oh well there's a poor village brahmin what does he know about an expensive garland and then later he wore it and he gave it to him so anyhow this is uh surendra he he invited talkward to his house many times especially on these special occasions one time when taku was ill he had this type of vacation for durga puja and takwa of course couldn't go he wanted the devotees to go there but takur traveled there through some ray of light or something and could see everything he saw surrender there sitting and weeping in front of madurga and later on he told him i had this vision and surrender said yes exactly at that time i was sitting there weeping and weeping for the divine mother and everything anyhow tako loved him very much he was a very very good about his drinking chocolate said oh you keep drinking but offer it to mother kali first and make sure you don't drink so much that you get drunk so gradually he gave up his drinking so he was one of these souls that had the special role to play in this isrami krishna lila and a very important role with regard to the founding of the ramakrishna mission also so this is annapurna puja annapurna she is really the the goddess of varanasi uh the main temple is vidyana uh yeah yeah and uh the unopported temple is right before that vishwanath the vishwanath temple an appointed temple is right before that so you can go and make pranam there and then go to vishwanath temple for sheba so she's the presiding deity along with shiva and of course give her food so uh we feel that our center is blessed by ma on the point because we always get nice food here there's never never any lack of food it was about six o'clock when ceramic christian arrived there with some of his devotees the image of the divine mother had been installed in the worship hall at her feet lay hibiscus flowers and willow leaves from her neck hung a garland of flowers he made beautiful arrangements and spent a lot of money for all of these pujas surrender suramar krishna entered the hall and bowed down before the image then he went to the open courtyard where he sat on a carpet surrounded by his devotees and disciples a few bolsters lay on the carpet which was covered with a white linen sheet he was asked to lean against one of these but he pushed it aside this was uh the style of of the of the gentleman and the royalty uh in those days to have a a lot of cushions and pillows and things to to rest comfortably to lean back and uh so in tucker's mind this represented uh a a very worldly minded type of arrangement a worldly arrangement to have bolsters there master to the devotees to lean against the bolster you see it is very difficult to give up vanity the footnote says rich and aristocratic persons seeking comfort generally sit in that fashion you may discriminate saying that the ego is nothing at all but still it comes nobody knows from where a goat's legs jerk for a few moments even after its head has been cut off or perhaps you were frightened in a dream you shake off sleep and are wide awake but still you feel your heart palpitating egotism is exactly like that you may drive it away but still it appears from somewhere then you look sullen and say what i have not been shown proper respect now this getting rid of the ego this is a very complex issue one thing we we are always under the assumption that uh if we get rid of this ego uh which represents ignorance through realization then we're done there's no more doubts there's no more ignorance there's nothing we can't be touched by anything taqwa said that uh the ego that comes back after that is just an apparent ego it's not a real ego it's just in in form only other people it'll look like an ego but it has no power to bind he said the ego of a god-realized person is like a mark drawn on water at the same time he says if if anyone comes back from samadhi and lives in the world he has to live with an ego so he also has a kind of the ego now what taku is talking about here is that a little bit of this old samskata may come back even after god realization or let's let's say not god realization but at least we have some some realization that i'm not this ego still that a little bit of this pride can come back if somebody says something uh so we we can see even with the great souls maybe they'll get angry for a second look at dota puri that sitting by the the dhuni by the fire and talking about how the whole world is unreal and redoi comes and wants to get some uh fire for it for to light his smoke his tobacco there until the body gets furious what is sacred tuning and taco lasted him he said just now you're saying that everything is unreal like a dream brahman alone is real and now you're getting so angry saying that it's asking you for fire from the nooni so this uh a little bit of this of this ego comes back uh just as when we wake up from a dream it's a beautiful illustration we know that what we saw was a dream we know that we're not that person who was acting in the dream that we're this person who's sitting wide awake but still the heart palpitates a little from that from that dream a little residue is left from that yes he he wanted to invite or takur and treat him properly so what's wrong in that just making the pillow and working nice things why is that his ego yeah this is not taco's ego so this is an interesting question yeah should taco simply have leaned against the bolster or uh or not said anything surrendered with it with great love and respect it arranged this whole thing for him didn't think uh it didn't calculate the way we calculate sometimes it just he'll be in that mood or he'll do it he'll want to make an impression that there's some teaching that he's given there or it's just spontaneous it naturally happened he this is surendra couldn't get his feelings hurt very easily perhaps taku was trying to toughen him up a little bit also we don't know we don't know but we can't assume that his way of thinking in our way of thinking are the same this is the one thing we know for sure that if he thought about it ahead of time he had a very good reason that he's trying to explain because the others who were there maybe this will be a good teaching for them who knows that uh you want to show respect to a sadhu it's not the same as showing respect to a wealthy person or aristocratic person there are different ways of doing it it's very hard to say we remember when takwa went to was it vidya sagar one place where he was offered pond no nonduboses after he went from vidya and he was offered some pond and he wouldn't take it so this nundellar bose he said uh let me ask you a question sir everything you did was proper only this one thing seems improper you've been offered something with respect you you've refused it we know you like the chopin so he said please excuse me i have a funny thing about me that i won't take something unless i can offer it to the divine mother first and other people have partaken from it so this this tray of pond so i can't do it now we can say that oh why tuck were so fastidious about all this why not one time mentally say forgive me mother and just chew it that wasn't his nature he did things literally if he had some belief he he would follow it that way so maybe holy mother would have reacted differently her nature was a little different that's all kedar so kernath we've met him before he was present that day he said one should be lowlier than a straw and patient as a tree this is quoting a very famous line from caitanya davis the hymn that he wrote the chaitanya deva was a great sanskrit pandit he was the greatest pundit of his day uh but after he gave up his worldly life and and he had a real conversion at some point and then he gave he had many students the sanskrit students and in those days they they used to have these competitions that you would have to compose a sanskrit poem on the spot the meter had to be perfect the grammar had to be perfect they were all scared the death of this caitanya do because he would pick holes he would find flaws in everything he he was so brilliant but afterwards he completely gave it up he never wrote anything no philosophical text nothing except this won him and this line is in there uh tiranadapi sunni chaina piso beautiful beautiful line that one should be lowlier than a straw patient than the tree one should give honor to everyone else but not care for for being honored by anyone such a person is fit to take the name of god the very very nice line in all of our hollywood southern california centers we used to recite the english translation of this every morning after after meditation be humbler than a blade of grasp be patient and forbearing like a tree give honor to none take honor from all take no waterfall chant unceasingly the name of the lord very nice english translation of it master as for me i consider myself a speck of the dust of the devotee's feet vedinat arrived he was a well-educated man a lawyer of the high court of calcutta with folded hands he saluted the master and took his seat at one side so a big position a lawyer of the high court of calcutta surendra to the master he is one of my relatives master yes i see he has a nice nature now how does he see he has a nice nature one he came with folded hands or he's not bowing down but at least that much sewing that much respect and the other is a taco could see these things he he used to give that illustration you know you have a cabinet with a glass glass case and you can keep nice china and things inside and from the outside you can see everything he said i can see inside a person everything that's there all the some scars the desires the good things the bad things the way people can see objects inside of a glass case surrender he has come here because he wants to ask you a question or two now taco is not going to give him a chance he's going to start giving answers before he gets the questions either he knows what the question will be or he knows what the question should be he knows what he what he needs to hear this way you're not partly because anybody who has a very high position then there's a little pride will come and so taqwa will address that master the way they not all that you see is the manifestation of god's power so don't feel so proud it's not your power all the manifestation of god's power no one can do anything without this power but you must remember that there is not an equal manifestation of god's power in all things taqwa says this many times and then you always quote vidyasagar because he was one of the ones who questioned many people questioned this was this especially the brahmos but others also this was kind of a modern idea at that time that god dwells equally within all that everyone has the same spiritual potential that we should make distinctions between one person and another uh we read some of these ideas uh in gita and other things that uh god dwells that this the same is the same within all beings ishwara dwells within all now takur's point is that this is not the same god dwells equally within all beings no distinction can be made with regard to the divine presence but with regard to shakti then this is a question of of aadhaar taco used this this term very often the size of the receptacle i was thinking this morning very nice way to understand this when we think of the uh each and every individual we're all different size and shape receptacles some are small some are big some are huge taco used to talk about swamiji he was like there's a big uh cistern where you keep a lot of water for for bathing and other things others can be a little pitcher a little glass all different sized containers now if we if we talk about the space inside of the glass each and every one the space inside is infinite in one there's no distinction but if we talk about the water inside then there's a distinction in in the quantity of water when when it's pure air pure space there's no distinction that'll be the that'll that'll be the example of uh the upadhi the shape of the of the container seeming to delimit the space inside but the space is infinite but water is not infinite so if we're talking about this a subtle body and this the power of mind that's there even physical power that this is different the space inside is infinite but the amount of water that's poured inside will be different and some will be will be able to contain a huge amount now in taqwa's illustration it's also the amount of spiritual practice they can do and spiritual experience they can handle that they can swallow some people a little bit of ecstasy and they're overwhelmed others they can have very deep spiritual experiences and you hardly see anything so taco would say is the difference between an elephant bathing in this in a small pond where the water just splashes all over and going to a huge lake where you hardly see any difference so the shakthivishes this is the taco used to talk about that there is not an equal manifestation of god's power god may dwell equally within all beings but it is not the same manifestation of power in all things vidyasagar once asked me whether god endowed some with greater power than others and then he used to say if this is true then god is partial they used to accuse that if if if god shows his grace on one and not on another gives one more power than another then it's god's fault this is partiality now talk with us that was a very silly thing he thought this really brilliant man he's honored so much not just for philanthropy but for a scholarship and everything else such a silly question to ask so he said i said to him if there are no greater and lesser manifestations of his power then why have we taken the trouble to visit you have you grown two horns so it stands to reason that god exists in all beings as the all-pervasive power but the manifestation of his power manifestations of his power are different in different beings okay now this way did not that was an important teaching for him but it wasn't exactly the question that he came with so then he says sir i have a doubt now he asks this question people speak of free will they say that a man can do either good or evil according to his will is it true are we really free to do whatever we like this is the question that has bedeviled philosophers from the beginning of time it's very interesting to read go through all of the different answers that we get to this question about free will and determinism and predictability i have this this theory that very often we can confuse predestination with predictability because we can predict what someone will do and say doesn't mean they didn't have freedom to do something different but it just means that we know their nature and they're following their nature and they'll do it that way but the big problem is that there's no way to go back and check sometimes i think i'll do funny things i'll i'll be walking and i'll think i always do it this way let me do it that way let me put my pants on with my left leg first instead of my right leg first just to prove that i can do something different this the the existentialists they went mad with this question really really it was such an interesting thing there's a very a wonderful small book called notes from underground by dostoyevsky i used to read a lot of dostoyevsky a great existentialist author a russian author and this man lived underground he's a whole just consumed with this idea are we nothing but like a piano you press one note and it has to one key and it has to give that one node or do we have any freedom at all and then the great french writer kamu he wrote this book i don't remember what the name of it was but this man commits a murder a murder that has no uh no motive to it that you can't trace it back and say well he had no choice but to do it because this person insulted him and and it created some anger and it linked one to another completely irrational unmotivated act could it be done so just to prove that to himself so we we really don't know uh to what extent we have any freedom to do anything uh except that we have this deep feeling within that yes very often we'll do something and we'll say to ourselves i didn't have to do that you know i could have i could have been nicer to somebody i could have done this instead of that other people may say that your nature made you do it a bit of a cop-out it's a bit of a cop-out it is true that our nature is pushing us in one direction but my philosophy is that we have a little wiggle room otherwise we couldn't make any progress in spiritual life that our nature is pushing us in one way we have our some scottish this is called a psychological determinism that we're being pushed in one way to do something but uh all the spiritual life is fighting that tendency fighting our nature so on the one hand in gita it's interesting the one hand it says that what can you do what what could what would restraint do your nature will make you do it he's telling the arjuna your nature will make you fight on the other hand he's saying that yes you can control things you can change things who is it a happy man who is the the real yogi the one who can withstand that force uh that force of this uh anger and jealousy and all of the passions and lust and greed all of that that force which is trying to make us do something uh to go in one direction to withstand the temptation to do it and do something else this is this is the happy person this is yucca this is the the real yogi now pacquiao always will go to the highest point of view the highest point of view is that in order for me to think that i have free will i have to think that i'm an individual i have to have some ego and if this ego was false and if god alone dwells within and it's really the divine mother within then this idea of free will is is a little bit uh from from a very lower point of view it's not from the highest point of view high's point of view is that uh everything that takes place is because of the dreamer saying in a dream does the actor in the dream have any free will to make any decisions it's the dreamer that's causing everything to take place very high point of view and he'll and then sometimes he's so he starts out everything depends on the will of god now there are two different things here does that mean that there's no free will or does it mean that we do things to the best of our ability and the result is out of our hands so it was not the will of god that i would succeed in this but i exercised my choice and i did what i thought was right somebody else will say well it was your choice it was it was your desire to do something that made you do it that way big argument between dr sarkar and others one time about this we can't really answer these questions very well if if i say that this feeling that i have that i'm free allowed me to do it this way somebody can say that feeling that you had you were free made you do it that way then we find ourselves in the too much philosophy and on the other hand tucker is always saying that you have to have tremendous grit you have to say no i can do it. and swamiji also emphasized that how can we do it and say that if we don't have some measure of free will so then we have the circumscribed free will the cow within the yeah the circle uh based on the tethered rope we we have this idea also anyhow we'll see how taku explains it to him one of the reasons he's explaining it this way is that he wants to curb his pride so it's not always just some very high metaphysical idea sometimes it's this idea don't be too proud that could you have done this if it hadn't been the will of god or that power which allowed you to do this that power doesn't come from you there's a divine source for that then he'll give the example that people see this big pot there are vegetables that they're jumping up and down when the water is boiling he said but you remove the fire from underneath that's the real source it's not the the vegetables don't have any power of their own so it's through that divine power that we're doing so it's a very complex issue but it seems to me that taqwer's the answer he's giving here will be partly because this is a man a very high position and it's natural it'll have some feeling of pride that i've done this that i i if we can have this idea through the grace of god i've achieved this then a little bit of that eye is there and a little bit of this humility is there together so everything depends on the will of god the world is his play now i i always admire the bengali language which it doesn't distinguish between his and her yeah i i think that's nice uh so when we translate we have to either say his or her whenever we're talking about this divine leela i prefer her because i feel that in taqwa's mind when he's saying tini or shay when he's saying that that he's thinking of the divine mother but it would sound a little strange especially in the 30s when this was translated to do it that way so the world is his play the world is her play she has created all these different things generally he will think of brahman she will think of divine mother or shakti all these different things great and small strong and weak good in bad virtuous and vicious this is all hermia her sport i'm changing it just for fun though you must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind now what does this mean again he's trying to say that we're all born with different natures that some are born through through some type of grace with all the possible advantages and a good family and and they get opportunity for education and everything else and other were born with all disadvantages some are born in perfect environment but their mind is not good that they they suffer from from anger or depression or whatever and others uh the every circumstance is bad but they're brilliant and they're well adjusted and they succeed in life so we can attribute this to karma or we can attribute this to to god's grace or we can say both because karma is also this is that divine plan so all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind so don't be so proud you were born in a good family you had good opportunity if somebody else had been born in that family that other person may become this lawyer the high court lawyer so don't be too proud as long as a man has not realized god he thinks he is free okay now uh when talker talks about this idea that god alone is the doer and all of that that's all he's talking about from our point of view because we have not yet realized god according to talkward's understanding at least so we think that we're free now most most of us know that we're bound in many ways we don't think that we're 100 free we generally we think that yes i decide to do this or that but we know that we're bound that we're limited at least we're limited uh in terms physically what we can do we're limited by uh our education our intelligence uh our control over our emotions we know we know that we're not a hundred percent free that we have all of these these limitations but at the same time that feeling deep within is that yes uh i'm the one deciding and it's good otherwise we won't feel we won't take responsibility and taku says that so i this in in in a court of law this is a very significant thing if you can prove that someone is really bound and forced to do something due to some mental disability or something like that they they won't be given the same sentence as this temporary insanity or or some type of uh restricted uh understanding what it whatever it is some disability uh then the they were uh miners they're not of a certain age they won't be treated the same way but we have this understanding that no matter how angry somebody got no matter how deserving it was they pulled the trigger they paid the price there will be some extenuating circumstances that may lessen and everything but still nobody will say that we're going to let you off because you had no free will that you were bound to shoot this person because of all the events that took place in the past everything led up to it psychologically you're determined to do it we can say that all of these things led to to that possibility but then the decision comes so takwa says as long as a man does not realize god he thinks he is free so it's just a good thing or a bad thing it is god himself who keeps this error in man why otherwise sin would have multiplied because we'll say i'm not responsible do anything that i can do anything that i want i can cheat people steal from them and everything and say i was bound to do it there are people who live in the world like that they they always say that they're victims i was deprived of this that's why i behaved that way and you should be understanding and uh there's some truth to it but ultimately we become defeatist it's not good for us we should we should feel that we have some degree of freedom as long as we feel the sense of i is there if we transcend that and say oh and now i see god alone israel got alone dwells within then all of this was a misconception that's a different story if we start out with that idea in the beginning no sense of responsibility no sense of that we can choose to do things then god knows what we'll do so he says this is the divine plan that until we realize god that we do have some sense that at least on a limited basis that we have freedom to act and to choose and do what we think is right and if we don't we should be willing to take responsibility for it man would not have been afraid of sin and there would have been no punishment for it but do you know the attitude of one who has realized god okay now this can be our understanding and our hope and it can be our long-term goal but we have to be careful that it's not our attitude when we're not ready for it because he says this is for one who has realized god he feels i am the machine and thou o lord are the operator these are all from these songs of ram prasad and kamala kanta and and others a very common theme they wrote these songs they were also highly realized souls they weren't simply poets they were great souls these these early poet saints especially iran prasad so they could say that because the ego had been completely annihilated within them so they could feel once the ego was gone then nothing remains but god only mother dwells within so this is the attitude of one who has realized god he feels i am the machine and thou o lord art the operator i am the house and thou art the indweller i am the chariot and thou art the driver i move as thou movest me i speak as thou makest me speak to vedyanat it is not good to argue isn't that so he's a lawyer [Laughter] he's paid to argue but what taku is saying is that think deeply about these things and try to to realize them because he says i've doubt people speak of free will and so probably he has owned his own opinion he says are we really free to do whatever we like so tucker is probably telling him don't just take one side and argue a very complex issue think very deeply about it one of the most important portions of the gospel when this question comes up is uh when i don't remember it's if it's swami twitty and under somebody else who then was just a hoodie when the taqwar says that uh the divine mother that's making you all do all of these things and he says but it's death to us and then tucker says but who is this you that you're talking about so as long as i feel that this i is there i have to take some responsibility if i examine and look and try to find that eye and find god alone dwells within then where's the room for uh individual freedom free will then it's god's will not alone is there to adjourn not it is not good to argue isn't that so very not yes sir the desire to argue disappears when a man attains wisdom the master out of his talk of a dozen english words said thank you in the most charming way and all left so he knows that this will be a highly english educated man master to vedio not you will make spiritual progress this this is that uh spiritual insight that tucker had just seeing him one time and hardly hardly talking to him i mean taco's been doing all of the talking he simply had this this one question but somehow taco can sense that this is a person with some great spiritual potential you will make spiritual progress people don't trust a man when he speaks about god even if a great soul affirms that he's seen god still the average person will not accept his words now perhaps tucker sees that his way then took very seriously what taku said that he's listening quietly and everything he says to himself if this man has really seen god then let him show him to me we remember that one dev devotee from konnagar who was so rude and said you must do you have samadhi you must show it to me you but you've seen god you must it's very rude that way but can a man learn to feel a person's pulse in one day he must go about with the physician for many days only then can he distinguish the different pulses he must be in the company of those with whom the examination of the pulse has become a regular profession this is taka's way of saying that we have to keep a holy company otherwise it's really even though we read about uh god realize souls and everything uh it's it's our imagination what we we judge everything by what we imagine that god realized soul to be like or a highly spiritual soul to be like and that imagination is limited by our own degree of spirituality when we see these great souls and see how they live in the world and how they behave and how much love and compassion they have then we get some inkling of what it what it's really like then we learn so this talk was talking about the you know these uh kavirajis the ayurvedic doctors and everything they'll do everything by the pulse by by feeling the pulse we feel the pulse and we can only count the number of times he goes huh but somehow they can tell about these uh the doshas huh whether it's uh too much of air or too much of phlegm or too much of bile they have these different doses these ways of doing it that you can't learn on your own somehow i don't know how they do it or what they where they take the polls or what they do or how it's different but this is how they can diagnose that everybody falls into one of these three categories we have this in in western medicine also very early western medicine that people are phlegmatic or they're bilious or something else gaseous maybe i don't know this really is too much bile huh and phlegmatic too much phlegm cough so yeah so the same things that were in this ancient ayurvedic tradition were also a common idea in western medicine at one time can anyone and everyone pick out a yarn of a particular count if you are in that trade you can distinguish in a moment a 40 count thread from a 41. so he's saying that their people are experts that we see things and and we really don't have the ability to uh to distinguish one thing from another unless that's our particular field when we hear say classical music the way i hear classical music and the way a highly qualified fight musician hears it or two completely different things huh they'll hear every little nuance they'll i'll say oh wasn't that wonderful they say yeah but this was a little out of tune this was a little too fast that the sound quality wasn't quite right in this they'll be able to pick out every little thing an artist looking at a painting all of these will have some general idea of things yes it looks nice and everything but those who are experts they'll be able to see every little nuance and if we want to learn we have to learn from them otherwise we just got a vague big picture of things and we we don't find out all of the uh very subtle aspects of things the kirtan was about to begin some vaisnavas were sitting on one side with their muridangas and symbols now one of the things about takur is that he had the equal love and devotion for the vaisnava traditions and the shakta traditions here on the point of puja will have all these vaisnava songs and rather christian everything didn't make any difference to him later he'll say or surrender will remind him we haven't had any songs about the divine mother so it talks ah yes so but in the beginning he was just for him everything was part of that that buffet that all of this divine buffet that we can take from any dish that we feel like at any time a drummer began to play on his instrument preparatory to the singing the sweet and melodious sound of the mridunga filled the courtyard calling to mind the ecstatic kirtan of sri gauranga yeah if if there's kirtan going on it's generally that generally means vaisnava it generally songs about uh sri krishna word about caitanya deva godanga the master passed into a deep spiritual state now and then he looked at the drummer and said ah ah my hair is all standing on end the singers asked what kind of song they should sing and the master said humbly something about godanga if you please godanga is a name for caitanya deva because he was supposed to have had a very fair golden complexion is also a name for shiva yeah yeah [Music] no no christian was black in complexion you know a name was shiva we had swami godangananda who came one time remember he was the head of the nepal center and i asked him about his name he says iblis of shiva she was very proud she go down we have some shiva songs when they go around his complexion may have been fair but but it looked fair because it was covered with ash so it was always thought of as is white that way so godanga uh the idea why was caitanya born with the golden complexion if he was supposed to have been an avatar of krishna do you know that story that they say that radha's love and devotion were so wonderful that sri krishna wanted to experience what it was like to be radha so he was born with the appearance of radha on the outside but he was still krishna on the inside different songs like that so that's why he was supposed to have had this golden complexion that he was uh he was a combination that uh this is kind of a dual incarnation of radha and krishna there's a gauranga but he had this so the goda gauranga is generally referred to that way the kirtan began they sang about the celestial beauty of sri guranga the beauty of gauranga's face glows brighter than the brightest gold his smile illumines all the world who cares for even a million moons shining in the blue autumn sky the chief musician added improvised lines as they sang oh friend his face shines like the full moon but it does not wane nor has it any stain it illumines the devotee's heart again he improvised his face is bathed with the essence of a million moons very often taku would sing along with them and he would also improvise lines awkward he would he would do that at these words the master went into deep samati this very often happened when this kirtan would be there and usually he'll be standing and sometimes we see him of course with hands get into automatically into some type of mudra something like that and sometimes they have to hold him up he may fall down sometimes they'll start dancing around him all different things after a short while he regained consciousness of the sense world then he suddenly stood up so he was sitting at this time then he suddenly stood up overpowered by his spiritual mood and sang improvised lines with the professionals thinking himself to be a milkmaid of vrindavan a gopi gone mad with the beauty of sri krishna's form whose fault is it my minds or his beauties in the three worlds i see nothing but my beloved krishna the master danced and sang all remained spellbound as they watched the chief musician sang the words of a gopi o flute pray stop can you not go to sleep one of the musicians added a new line how can it sleep it rests on krsna's lips the master sat down the music went on they sang assuming the mood of radha my eyes are blinded my ears are deaf i've lost the power of smell all my senses are paralyzed but alas why am i left alone finally the musicians saying of the union of radha and krishna now this is a very interesting song it may be that and this is also reference to godhanga because we have this union uh not so much of two people coming together and meeting each other but merging together so it's almost this uh this type of not a narishwara idea we see some images uh usually shiva and parvati where uh half of it it's one image but but half of it will have the features of of shiva and half the features of parvati but it'll just be one one image like that this is this is what we get here with ron 10 krishna in our in dc um museum in the museum we had yeah it's a very very beautiful concept that it's not that shiva and shakti are two separate things that that can be joined together that they're they're one this is taqwa is ideal and we find the same thing with the christian radha here that through their love to her love of him mostly that she became one with him rata and krishna are joined at last in the nintu grove of virndavan so all day long she's waiting to see him he's also anxious to see her and somehow she could sneak out of the house and they come together and this is their meeting abhava incomparable their beauty and limitless their love the one half shines like yellow gold so now we see that it's one image so perhaps like chaitanya deva also the one half shines like yellow gold the other like bluest sapphire now we always have this play of yellow and blue yellow and blue that sri krishna's complexion was dark blue and his clothes were yellow her complexion was was golden and her clothes were blue that she would wear sapphire he would wear gold or he would wear sapphires she would wear gold so all of this yellow blue yellow blue so they complemented each other that way with the two colors the one half shines like yellow gold the other like blue as sapphire round the neck on one side a wild flower garland hangs this is krishna and on the other there swings a necklace of precious gems radha a ring of gold adorned one ear radha a ring of shell the other krishna half of the brow is bright as the blazing midday sun again the other softy gleams with the glow of the rising moon upon one half of the head a graceful peacock feather stands so this will also be blue now because when radha saw the peacock feathers he thought of sri krishna and from the other half there hangs a braid of hair so this will be radha as the music came to a close the master said bhagwata bhakta bhagavan and bout load to the devotee cedar on all sides he touched with his forehead the ground made holy by the singing of the sacred music it was now about half past nine in the evening surendra entertained the master and the devotees with a sumptuous feast when it was time to take leave of their host the master the devotees and surendra entered the worship hall and stood before the image surendra to the master no one has sung anything about the divine mother today all songs about radha and krishna master pointing to the image ah look at the beauty of the hall the light of the divine mother seems to have lighted the whole place such a sight fills the heart with joy grief and desire for pleasure disappear but can one not see god as formless reality now the division of it tradition rather than krishna they won't go in this direction too much they they're so absorbed in the in the beauty of this rotten christian everything but the worshipers of the divine mother she has her formless aspect and the fact that she's black in color that is black indicates that the infinite absolute almost shunyata the the reality that uh like being in a deep cave the the whole idea of oneness is there and formlessness is there also as part of the worship of divine mother but can one not see god is formless reality of course one can but not if one has the slightest trace of worldliness so this this uh highest really type of yana yoga involves this great feeling of renunciation the rishis of olden times renounced everything and then contemplated satyadananda the individual the brahman the brahmagyanis are modern times sing of god this is the brahmosamaj as immutable homogeneous it sounds very dry to me it seems as if the singers themselves don't enjoy the sweetness of god's bliss one doesn't want a refreshing drink made with sugar candy if one is satisfied with mere coarse treacle just see how happy you are looking at the image of the deity but those who always cry after the formless reality do not get anything they realize nothing either inside or outside finally we'll get the song to the divine mother the master sang a song to the divine mother o mother ever blissful as thou art do not deprive thy worthless child of bliss yes the mind knows nothing but thy lotus feet the king of death scowls at me terribly tell me mother what shall i say to him it was my heart's desire to sail my boat across the ocean of this mortal life o durga with thy name upon my lips i never dreamt that thou would stround me here in the dark waters of the shoreless sea both day and night i swim among among its waves chanting thy saving name yet even so there is no end or mother to my grief if i am drowned this time in such a plight no one will ever chant thy name again this is that obama that you will have to do something mother otherwise who will listen to you and yeah again he sang repeat oh my my mother durga's hallowed name whoever treads the path repeating dud she himself protects with his almighty trident thou art today o mother thou art the dusk and the night sometimes thou art man and sometimes woman art thou thou mayest even say to me step aside go away yet i shall cling to thee o durga unto thy feet as thine anklets i shall cling making their tinkling sound mother when as the kite this uh when the divine mother took the form of a bird similar to the kite uh this is uh at the birth of of krishna at that time this is why sometimes when people see this this kite they hold their hands when the child was was uh eighth child was born and was slain and took the form of the divine mother and and flew away no yeah mother when is the kite thou sourest in the sky there in the water beneath as a minnow i shall be swimming upon me thou wilt pounce and pierce me through with thy claws thus when the breath of life forsakes me and i grip do not deny me the shelter of thy lotus feet these beautiful songs the master saluted it so he fulfilled surrender's wish he wanted to hear some song to the divine mother the master saluted the divine image as he came down the steps he called softly to rakhal where are my shoes are they missing as the master got into the carriage surendra and the other devotees bowed down before him then the carriage started for dakshineshwar the moon still lighted the streets and that is the end of of this chapter yeah what is the name of that yeah but anyhow there's that tradition there's some reference to it in the gospel one place or some other place that uh some people if they see this particular bird they'll salute it that uh yeah comes uh that the eighth child was the one who would kill him something like that so he had all of them killed but then one took the form the divine mother took the form of the baby and then killed it and and turned out to be turned into a bird and flew away and then the krishna was born then you know he's in trouble something like that um we bow our heads before srama krishna 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 peace be unto all thank you