Video 66

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (07/23/21)

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 page 243 this is the chapter with the devotees at the sinister part 1 and the date is sunday june 10th 1883. and yeah oh there's a long conversation that starts with a single question the deputy asks sir is it necessary to have a guru and then it goes into all sorts of different topics here so we're in the middle of strava krishna's reply hence the bhakti scriptures describe this very world as a mansion of mirth now we saw last time that uh right yeah that there was a song that ram prasad wrote and he said that this world is a framework of illusion and then there was a another uh vaishnava songwriter who was a thorn in the side of ram prasad and uh in in those days uh there were uh people who would write songs that would be kind of a rebuttal or a refutation of the ideas in a different song something like in the sanskrit discussions that they would uh have refutations and everything but this is with poetry and with a little bit of a sense of humor to it so this is uh saying ram prasad sang in one of his songs this world is a framework of illusion another devotee gave the reply so it says it sounds like another devotee but this is actually somebody used to follow ron prasad around and sing songs in his presence and and had a different different way of looking at things but in and and tucker loves ram prasad in all of his songs but in this particular occasion he likes the other song better so another deputy gave the reply this very world is a mansion of mirth as the saying goes the devotee of kali free while living is full of eternal bliss now what taku is saying is that this idea that everything is suffering this is kind of a buddhist idea but also we see it in a lot of eduardo danto also and so that we don't get attached to the world this is the main idea that not that we're supposed to go around saying how horrible this world is and everything but we shouldn't be attached to it we shouldn't cling to it we should feel that there's something greater than that now what tuck we're saying is that this is at the time of sadhana just as he says with 1880 that we deny uh this is this is not brahman is it not brahmin this is something separate and different then uh afterwards we see that everything is a manifestation of that one so this is preliminary that it's it's true of course this world is full of suffering but everything is a question of the mind if the mind is is in a state of joy then we're joyful then we see the world as the joyful world so this the whole world is a mansion of murder doesn't mean that there's no suffering in this world it doesn't mean that there aren't people dying of uh of course nowadays from the pandemic and then there are wars and uh there on hurricanes and earthquakes and everything these are all there but the individual suffering is a question of our state of mind and if the mind is is emerged in the thought of god then then the world will seem to be a world of joy for us yes okay yeah just to explain to everybody that now we're starting to get a few people here so i'm looking i have to kind of go back and forth between the camera and everybody else here and uh we i like questions uh but for the people who are watching out there it gets a little bit uh uh it loses the the flow so if we have questions i like questions uh just make sure that people can hear or i'll repeat them or they're short questions or something well one thing i wanted to do we have someone coming for the first time today so i wanted to just give a little bit of background on on what we're reading here this gospel of swami krishna srama krishna this will be this will be something that most of you know of course that after his long period of spiritual practice and all of his different types of spiritual experiences and going into ecstatic moods and and different experiences all different levels of meditation and everything that slowly his devotees started to come and he spent most of his time either sitting in his room at the temple garden at dakshinishwar or visiting them the deputies in their in their homes in in calcutta and uh m who was one of the devotees uh recorded the conversations and told us exactly uh when they took place and who was there all the details and everything and that starts from february 1882 and it goes until uh almost to the end of ceramic christian's life in 1886 most of it uh is during the period up until 1885 then shurama krishnan got his cancer of the throat and was moved to a shambhakura in kashipur so we also have periods there that are recorded and in a small amount that was after the passing of of srama krishna so what we're getting here is m he doesn't use his full name mahendra gupta who was of course the whole life was devoted to srama krishna he he soaked up you know all of the words of srama krishna and uh he had a tremendous memory he would go home that night or whenever sometimes he spent the night there and would write everything down in cryptic notes and then later he would sit and meditate he would read those notes and he would sit in meditation and everything would flash back before his eyes and he would write everything out he had that type of fantastic memory and so a number of years after ceramic krishna passed away he started he was really encouraged by everyone to start publishing these things and then little by little they all became published and we know that now is the gospel of srama krishna originally it was in bengali and then translated by by swami nikhilananda and there are other translations into english so this is what we're reading now okay the bhakta the devotee sees that he who is a god has also become maya again he also has become the universe and all its living beings in in the vedanta see we have a distinction here between the path of devotion and the path of knowledge uh in the vedanta maya is considered some type of power by the power of of the ignorance somehow that is responsible for the one becoming the many the devotee likes to look upon this maya as really the the glory of the divine mother looking upon god his mother and his mayas is the glory and power of mother to create this universe and dwell within this universe so this is just a different point of view the path of devotion and the path of knowledge has traditionally clashed in india because of the philosophers but those who are really spiritual seekers they see that there's no real distinction and of course we try to blend them this is the path that we try to follow so the bhakta the devotee sees that he was god has also become maya again he sees again he himself has become the universe and all its living beings now this is this is a very difficult concept to understand how not that god creates or god projects but god himself somehow has manifested as this universe and this is something that the mystics experience directly a lot of these things uh we we understand them from one point of view that philosophically it's a very nice idea that uh this consciousness itself as in the dream the dream itself has become the dream world the consciousness itself we understand it that way but for srama krishna and and these other great mystics they saw these things they experienced them they saw the divinity and everything and they saw everything the manifestation of the divine so he used to say yes this idea that we we look upon this world and we dismiss it that this is this some physical manifestation physical thing and and material and uh uh god is something transcendent and pure consciousness and everything so we dismiss it ramakrishna says yeah this is this is a preliminary step getting up to the roof then afterwards he puts it in a very nice way when you climb the stairs to get to the roof you have to leave each step behind and he says when you we get to the roof we find out that lo and behold the roof is made of the same concrete and lime and brick and everything that that the roof is made of that they're all made of the same thing so he says after god realization we see the world in a different way in the beginning we have to because uh the this pure conscious the spirit has become mixed up we we have trouble distinguishing when we try to to think who we are it all gets mixed up with the physical elements and mental and personality elements and everything so we have to to separate everything else this is the path of discrimination but afterwards we see everything is divine everything is a manifestation of the divinity so tucker is saying that the devotee sees things that way because the ghani can see them that way also after after realization that's why the upanishads say sorry everything indeed is nothing but there's an absolute reality this pure consciousness brahman but this is the attitude that the devotee has a lot of these things either the mystic has that direct realization or the deputy takes that attitude tries to see things we we have this idea god dwells within within all beings so what do we do we try to tell ourselves we may not see it directly we may have some intimation of it we may have some feeling that yes when i look in somebody's eyes i know that that consciousness is there that awareness is there that divinity is there that light of of uh pure consciousness is shining through the eyes but uh i still i see a person and i identify with the body and this and but i tell myself no i should feel and god himself is dwelling within all the beings so for for us it's a spiritual practice we try to feel very deeply that we're face to face with god and that by serving somebody else that's the highest worship of god until one day we have that realization and we know for a fact and god himself has two things has become everything and at the same time is peeping through everything so even if we don't say that well god has become this this blood in flesh and all of these things but at least we can feel that that consciousness within it has that divine source that same sun being reflected in all the different containers reach yogic power i i don't think that uh this this mystical view of things uh i think it's more a question of grace i don't think yog when we talk about yogic power usually we think the power of the mind the deep power of concentration but i think some of these great mystics through through this tremendous devotion and there's a love of god in ecstatic singing and dancing and everything they have that type of vision also yeah so i think it happens in many different ways some devotees see everything as rama it is rama alone who has become everything some see everything is krishna so that every male they'll see is krishna every female is rotted these are all half symbolic things not that they're seeing them exactly that way but that means they're seeing that the divinity in in all beings to them it is krishna alone who has become the 24 cosmic principles it is like seeing everything green through a green through green glasses so taco used to say that uh there there was a kind of folk belief that if you had jaundice that you see everything as yellow it's not really true i've had jaundice i had hepatitis yeah i had a bad case of hepatitis c in india yeah uh but i didn't see everything as yellow i of course looked all everything was brown and yeah but the idea is that uh we see through everything through the lens of devotion and the lens of love and the lens of knowledge and the vision changes the vision changes for us so there's a very it's and we try to do it either through some grace of god some mystical uh vision or something it automatically we see it otherwise we we tell ourselves that this is the truth we're not trying to fool ourselves it's not like we're putting on sunglasses and everything is is looking uh to be a color that it this that doesn't belong to it we're actually seeing things as they are we we ourselves are now wearing dark glasses and not seeing things clearly but the bhakti scriptures admit that the manifestation of power are different in different beings okay now this is another idea for some reason during krsna's lifetime he came across many people who said that the this if god dwells within all beings if god is the source of all power then it must be equal in all beings otherwise god is partial that why should god give more power to one person and less to another person and srama krishna used to make this distinction that yes god dwells equally within all beings but there's a distinction in in the power shakti he used to say that uh in some there's a greater manifestation it's a lesser manifestation it seems to be very obvious thing it seems that and some of the most intelligent people vidyasagar and keisha uh made the brahmos many of them uh they thought that uh oh god is unfair god is impartial but the question of of uh uh our spiritual practices or our old spiritual impressions what we've done in previous lifetimes all sorts of the different things are at play with this idea of uh how much spiritual power we say that we're all one with the ocean we're always in the ocean true even a big wave even a little wave they're all one with the ocean but one has more power than the other and uh with regard to spiritual realization it doesn't make any difference if we're a big wave very little ways that once we know that we're one with the ocean or we merge with that ocean then we're one we've achieved the goal when it comes to uh these great souls who become the spiritual teachers they have a certain type of power that others don't have now it may be the result also of all their spiritual disciplines that they did uh it may be just that they were destined to be teachers that they have some mission we see that with what we call the avatars and and the prophets and founders of religions and everything they have tremendous power and their words have a certain power to transform people and a touch can transform people so we we see this so taker saying about these scriptures he he really means and it's not just about these scriptures he's he's just talking about uh what we would have to say is the vigyani point of view that after full realization when everything is accepted uh not just this this the the view of the gyanis the philosophers that there's one brahman alone without distinction to us within all beings this is true but this shakti is something something different we all have the different degrees of power even with regard to physical power mental power everything we see that this is one of the just laws of nature it is rama who has become everything no doubt but he manifests himself more in some than in others there's one kind of manifestation of rama in the incarnation of god and another in men even the incarnations are conscious of the body now this is another theory that tucker had when we talk about these incarnations again there's the orthodox point of view that god himself in a special way takes human form then there's the other view that now we're just talking about these huge waves that keep coming from time whenever there's a great need and that they don't come because of past karma they're already perfect so how however we understand it but uh tucker says that even these perfect souls who come even even christ and buddhas and even these perfect souls who have this such tremendous power and everything they have to have a little bit of maya now that means a little bit of humanness they have to have even a little bit of it of attachment and anger and identification with the body all of these things to live in the world otherwise they won't be able to live in the world mine will just go straight up they'll get merged so something they even cling to something they have some little attachments little likes and dislikes but they don't mean anything it's not real attachment it's not real anger it's not real uh lust and greed and pride and anger all of the things that ordinary people have but it's part of the play otherwise they won't be able to live in the world so tucker always says that rama wept for sita even though it's perfect divine incarnation of of of pure consciousness still taking human form uh and and of course all of us have these attachments and everything but they have to have it just just enough so that they can enact their play in the world so even the incarnations are conscious of the body embodiment is due to maya brahma wept for sita but the incarnation of god puts a bandage over his eyes by his own will like children playing blind man's buff the children stop playing when their mother calls them it is quite different however with the ordinary person the cloth his eyes are bandaged with is fastened to his back with screws as it were so our attachment is a real thing or anger is a reality or pride is a real thing uh lust and greed and all of the different passions these are these are things that bind us how do they bind us identification with the body feeling of separation from others fear attachment clinging to things all of the things that that make us or don't allow us to enjoy that bliss of the self within everything uh it we don't have to do anything to to experience the higher higher reality we have to just let go of all of these other things this is our real our real nature uh the the real way of living in the world everything uh has been covered over we we've lost that ability to be who we really are because of all of these attachments we're not trying to become perfect we're trying to get rid of all of these little things that are preventing us from realizing that we're always perfect we always were perfect and then the source of joy is always there but we we can't appreciate it because uh the mind is is constantly running all around and engaged with all sorts of things and attachments and attachments and and fear of losing things and attachment of the body fear of death all of these different things come so these these great souls who come it's more of a game for them it's not a real type of attachment they know they're perfect they know their real nature there are aid fitters shame hatred fear cast lineage good conduct grief and secretiveness these are the eight fitters and they cannot be unfastened without the help of a guru now this goes back you remember i said that all of this long discussion and it's like three pages long it goes back to that question of the devotee sir is it necessary to have a guru and he starts out by saying uh many needed guru this and that he's not very strong for the whole thing and now he's going to come back to that and uh that can't be done without the theoretically it can this is a practical issue but the uh the difficulty in doing this on our own without getting some uh help from those who are far greater than us uh is so high that difficulty that it's not a very feasible thing not a very good chance even without the guru how many people will attain to the heights of god realization but we we had that last week that tucker always gives this example that uh you know rama was exiled into the forest and uh his uh sita his wife he didn't want her to come but she said no you're my husband i'll go with you and the younger brother lakshman he said no i'll also go so very often they had to be walking along a narrow forest path right so taco gives this a this example that rama would be walking first and sita would be following him and lakshmana would be the last one and the sita uh represents maya yeah only only because maya's mayas are always the feminine power shakti okay yeah but by the shakti it's it's both it's that divine power which manifests everything but it's also that that veil of ignorance and attachment which doesn't allow us to see the reality because of both meanings so he says unless sita steps to the side lakshmana can't see rama it's because she's standing in between so he gives that that illustration unless this the veil of the ignorance uh regarding our true nature nature of god nature of the universe nature of ourselves uh unless that disappears uh we won't be able to have that vision of god so this is this is the meaning of that illustration he gives hey devotee sir please bless us master god is in all beings but you must apply to the gas company it will connect the storage tank with the pipe in your house yeah this is this is the strange thing that this divine presence is so close to us that we can't see it it is too close somehow that it's it's that that divine light that presence that is always behind everything that's uh it's as the witness is always watching and uh and we're identified with his mind and everything we want to see that witness what is the witness that is watching us the closest possible thing to us they say and and quran that closer than your jugular vein the interesting way of putting it that uh yeah so what we're doing uh because we're identified with something else we want to see i want to see god i want to see the south but i am that so it's it's like saying i want to see the back of my head what do i do i keep spinning around faster and faster and it can't be done we have to simply let go of this false idea and be i am that witness i am that self i am one one with that divine presence so uh what we have to do he says is uh somehow make that connection that we're not separate as long as we think we're separate from god and we're we're trying to find god uh we're not understanding that it's god trying to find us that we already have that connection that oneness is already there so we have to we have to learn how to find that connection so he says you must apply to the gas company it will connect the storage tank with the pipe in your house one must pray earnestly now who is praying to whom this is again everything is a paradox in spiritual life as long as we feel separation then we pray as the individual prays to god as the as the wave prays to the ocean whatever and through this prayer we draw ourselves closer and closer and we come into that state of union and then that state of oneness so prayer uh is for most people probably more effective than meditation we we spend long hours in meditation because the mind is wandering so much and it's so hard to get even a few minutes of real meditation but prayer has an intensity to it we pray with the heart that if we really with with tremendous longing that we pray and when takur says your prayers will be heard a sincere prayer is always heard and always answered he's not talking about his prayer for uh for any material things or health or anything like that and that we don't know how that works whether they're answered or not answered we don't really know but this is prayer for love of god the self-fulfilling prayer that's always it's always answered because the prayer itself brings about transformation so this and whenever tucker says pray he's always praying that god please reveal yourself to me and grant me love for the this is the type of prayer he's talking about so one must pray earnestly it is said that one can realize god by directing to him the combined intensity of three attractions namely the child's attraction for the mother how the the child screams and yells when is it when they can't find the mother you you sometimes see in in the mall or something that somehow they've been separated and the child is screaming yelling where's my mother where's my mother so that type that type of attachment the husband's attraction for the chaste wife and the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man sometimes he says the miser there are certain signs by which you can know a true devotee of god this is very nice this is very nice that it's not singing and dancing and weeping and whaling maybe it may be but he gives some other things here his mind becomes quiet as he listens to his teacher's instruction just as the poisonous steak snake is quieted by the music of the charmer then he says i don't mean the cobra i don't know why he says that anybody have any idea oprah yeah maybe the cobra doesn't but don't they usually use the cobra the first snake drummers anyhow it's not important it's just one of those little curious things so you know you know his mind becomes quiet as he listens to his teacher's instruction just as the poisonous snake is quieted by the music of the charmer there is another sign a real devotee develops the power of assimilating instruction yeah this is this is a very interesting thing that we see that uh when when people listen either they don't accept it or find find some way to argue against it or or look for some fault in what they're listening to or they listen and it doesn't make any any impression now the if we if we hear something and uh it appeals to us and it has the ring of truth and it should leave an impression on us and it should gradually lead to transformation and we and we should gradually put it into practice and and it'll transform us so this is what the real devotee does when they if they ask a question it won't be a frivolous question and they'll listen very carefully and whatever answer they're given they'll take it very seriously and and they'll try to assimilate it make it part of their being and this is how transformation takes place a real debate develops the power of assimilating instruction an image cannot be impressed on bare glass but only on glass stain with a black solution as in photography yeah suramar krishna photography was relatively new in his day uh there were british photographers and everything and his picture was taken and he was taken into a studio even and he was very curious so he asked how it was made and they showed him and that they have to put something on the but it said nitrate black something what is it silver nitrate yeah uh on the back of it so that when the the flash comes and the image is there that it will leave the impression if they don't do that it won't leave any impression so this is like our minds huh they generally people say nice things and it doesn't leave any impression we don't concentrate we don't we don't take it seriously whatever it is this is so this he says is the description uh the sign of a true devotee that they'll take it very seriously the black solution is devotion to god so if we have that real devotion and that means devotion means that we want to transform ourselves we want to change we want to be able to uh have that that vision and that direct experience there's a third sign of a true devotee the true devotee has controlled his senses yeah yeah otherwise the mind is always running after the senses that we see things objects and we want to possess them we want to enjoy them and we don't have that power to tell the mind stop thinking about it we sit for meditation the mind goes there so this this control of the senses really means control of the mind and because of the mindly the senses are connected that way the true devotee has controlled his senses he has subdued his lust the gopis were free from lust you were talking about you're leading a householder's life so this was a householder deputy who would ask this question suppose you are a householder it rather helps in the practice of spiritual discipline it is like fighting from inside a fort yeah tucker used to say that that the monk that it's like fighting in the middle of an open field he has no place to hide that devotee uh has has the family and and uh if if there's some hidden desire they can fulfill these desires it's not that they're constantly fighting with without any any other means of controlling it except for the self-discipline the householder is allowed to have a little bit of this commentary these are the two aims of life they can have some enjoyment they can have some possessions but they have to do everything uh watching carefully how the mind reacts and not forming any attachment and learning that these are not the ultimate aim of life that these are the things that rather get us attached to life so there's a very beautiful scheme of life and that we find in the pedantic tradition that the householder is told yes enjoy the world but make sure your enjoyment is is guided by dharma and don't do anything unethical or immortal immortal immortal do everything guided by righteousness and observe you have some desires to fill those desires was it worth it uh did the desire increase after you fulfilled it were you able to get rid of it were you able to look through it uh there's a there's a nice expression that that we find tucker uses also the reaching the end of enjoyment and how do we get to the reaching the end of enjoyment means that we've had enough i've had enough we sit down with a big pizza in front of us eventually we get to the point where we say that enough we keep eating and eating and eating some people have to eat so they get sick some people can can just stop it after a certain point other people they'll their desire to eat pizza will increase others will say and no i've had enough i've enjoyed this world i've seen through it i know how much pleasure i can give i know how much pain is behind things also i've had enough hunter they've reached the end of enjoyment the householder is allowed to to do that sannyasi no you can't enjoy these things so that's out in the open field he doesn't have any protection that way so the householder this is the advantage it is like fighting from inside a fort the tantrix these are the worshipers of the divine mother he's talking about now sometimes use a corpse in their religious rights they shove a sadhana the taco gives another example that they'll even sit right on the chest of the corpse facing the head now and then the dead body frightens them by opening its mouth i don't know if this really happens that is why they keep fried rice and grams near them and from time to time they throw some of the grains into the corpses mouth thus pacifying the corpse they repeat the name of the deity without any worry likewise the householder should pacify pacify his wife or husband and the other members of his family he should provide them with food and other necessities thus he removes the obstacles to his practice of spiritual discipline this means that see in in family life if if it's something if it's smooth if there aren't a lot of problems husband and wife and children and everything then the mind is free to do spiritual practice so it's not good in spiritual life for those in the household life they get too involved with all of these things a little bit yes this is my husband is like this my wife is like that kids i know they won't get straight a's it doesn't matter let them do the best that they can leave everything up to god enough and then mind is free if it means that we have to compromise on some things then we compromise they're not the big things compromise on the little things my uh my brother-in-law he used to say about my sister that my sister was wonderful she passed away already but he used to say we never had a fight before whatever she said i said you're right they had a beautiful relationship yeah so it doesn't make sense it's not worth it fighting over little things and everything so we try to keep everybody happy huh thus he removes the obstacles to his practice of spiritual discipline those who still have a few worldly experiences to enjoy should lead a householder's life and pray to god if if people try to take the monastic life and there's some strong desire for enjoyment then it's a struggle it's not it's not it's not a good decision to make taco talks about uh these these ordinary guard garden snakes sometimes they'll catch a big frog and the frog will be croaking and this the snake will also be suffering is not big enough for strong enough to swallow it and yet it can't spit it out either the suffering on both sides so if if those take to monastic life if they don't have that strong feeling of this passion for the world and strong lonely for god and they still have some these desires are lingering there is a constant battle and if householders have this tremendous longing to renounce everything then there's also a bit of a struggle for them in the household life this was the part this was em's situation the author of the gospel that uh he really had the mindset of of the monk of sanyasin and really wanted to give up everything but he had his duties in the world he had his wife and children and srama krishna wanted him to be an example to the world of somebody who has the the heart of the monk of the sannyasin and yet fulfills his duties in the world that he was a perfect example of that is why nithyananda nithyananda of course caitanya davis companion we can say second headband something like that allowed the worldly to eat catfish soup and the warm embrace of a young woman while repeating god's name now this is a curious thing because taka gives a completely different explanation in another place called yeah yeah he says in in at least one other place maybe several times that this was a case of enticing people to come in these young men who they wanted to get a good meal and they thought the embrace of a young woman and for that they if they repeat the name of god and that will be us okay it's a good idea and but repeating the name of god they found out that what is this fish do fish soup huh the tears coming out of their eyes and what is the embrace of the young woman rolling on the ground in ecstasy so it was kind of false advertising telling them you repeat the name of god and you'll get these two other things but now he's saying that this was actually they were allowed to do that but it is quite different with the genuine sannyasis the real monks they be lights on flowers and on nothing else to the chatak the chatak is the this yeah mythical bird i don't think a real bird mythical bird that will only uh drink the rainwater that falls i think when swati is in the ascended something about swati there yeah so the to the chatuk all water except rain is tasteless uh it will drink no other water but looks up a gate for the rain that falls yeah when the star swathi is in the ascendant it drinks only that order a real sannyasi will not enjoy any kind of bliss except the bliss of god now the real sannyasi there is no such thing this this is talk this is the ideal there are very few uh who will have such purity if and and such freedom from from the passions and everything but it's uh very rare that it's not a struggle for the sannyasi also but they they shouldn't have feel such a pull for the world that it becomes the you know really it's a miserable state for them so a real sannyasi will not enjoy any kind of bliss except the bliss of god the bee lights only on flowers the real monk is like a bee whereas the householder devotee is like a common fly which lights on a festering sore as well as on a sweet meat now there are many sannyasis who dwell on this festering sword mentally and many householders who really are more like to be that the mind is constantly drawn to the feet of god you've taken so much trouble to come here now he's talking to the devotees you must be seeking god but almost everyone is satisfied simply by seeing the garden it was a beautiful temple lord actually em went there for the first time because of the garden his nephew said i know a beautiful temple compound with the beautiful garden let's go look at it and that's how he he ended up going there but almost everyone is satisfied simply by seeing the garden only one or two look for its owner now this is another way of talking saying that people are so enchanted with this world sometimes even say oh what beautiful trees and flowers god has created and talked with them but who has to see the one who planted who who looks for the gardener we only want to see the garden only one or two look for its owner people enjoy the beauty of the world they do not seek its owner pointing to the singer that there was some kirtan there was some devotional song being sung before a little while ago he sang a song describing the six centers these are dealt with in yoga now he's talking about kundalini these different centers we can take this in a physiological way we can take this in a symbolic way we can take this as different states of consciousness parkour took this uh these different centers not as something uh physiological in the sense that there are different lotuses with different petals and everything but he said within the subtle body within love body that we have all these different things swami vaikananda he he really saw some connection with it different nerve uh centers of the body the plexus that we have in different areas that that will be uh a place where all of the nerves come together and form some little you know meeting area and then there'll be another one and then there's the spinal cord and it goes up so he saw a real physiological connection between this idea of kundalini and and the nervous system these are dealt with in yoga there are two kinds of yoga hata yoga and raja yoga the hata yogi practices physical exercises his goal is to acquire supernatural powers now the way people practice yoga today is a little different that nobody really thinks that they'll get these supernatural powers they do it for for physical health it's not a bad thing but taco was talking about those who wanted these psychic powers and everything his goal is to acquire supernatural natural powers longevity and the eight psychic powers these are his aims but the aim of radha yoga is the attainment of devotion ecstatic love knowledge and renunciation so he's not taking raja yoga in a very strict sense patanjali's raja yoga he's he's talking about just really all of the other yogas about the yoga and karma yoga of these two raja yogas the better there is much similarity between the seven planes described in the vedanta and the six centers of yoga the first three planes of the vedas may be compared to the first three yogic centers namely with ordinary people the mind dwells in these three planes at the organs of evacuation and generation and at the naval now we don't have to think unnecessarily in terms of where this shakti power is within the body we know the mind this is we can understand that when the mind is on a certain level then we're body bound we think of ourselves in terms of our bodily needs hunger and thirst and all the other things that's the equivalent to the mind dwelling on these these three lower chakras and and so with ordinary people this is where the mind is when the mind ascends to the fourth plane the center designated in yoga as an ahada it sees the individual soul as a flame so now what what taku was saying is that we see the world differently depending upon the level that the minus ends to now we have our ordinary plane of awareness and we see everything as separate from us as physical we see objects we see other people when mind goes a little bit higher then even even this physical universe we start seeing it as light we can see it as ideas it can completely disappear now which one is is true which one is the reality we can't say that these others are hallucinations or false because they're the same mind but it's rising to a higher level so it's not a question they're all true but it just depends on the level of the mind when the mind is on the lower side we see this this is why takra says and lila are both true they're relative in the absolute but these aren't uh simply hallucinations the mind reaches at higher and higher states and uh the question of purity of the mind and the the insightfulness of the mind so the mind is not kind of earthbound and bodybound as as it goes higher and higher and it's explained in terms of the shakti rising within the kundalini we don't have to have this this idea of kundalini we can simply think in terms of of the mind having different levels to it and uh utilizing the power of the mind to go higher and higher or even even scientists will say that we use a very small percentage of the powers of the mind with regard to even the simple things like memorization and ability to do higher types of mathematics and things like that so when the mind ascends to the fourth plane the center designated in yoga as an ahada it sees the individual soul as a flame interesting see the indian is a light that we can say besides oh sorry besides it sees light at this the aspiring cries ah what is this what is this when the mind rises to the fifth plane the aspirin wants to hear only about god this is the center of yoga the sixth plane and the center known by the yogi as agnya are one and the same so now everything now we get to from the heart center to between the eyebrows when the mind rises there the aspirant sees god but still there is a barrier between god and the devotee what is that barrier scent of i this i i i it's a pure sense of i it's not the eye the ego center guy i connected with the personality but still some feeling that uh i am having this vision and the object of my vision is something separate from me something different than this that very pure type of eye is still there when the mind rises there the aspirin sees god but still there is a barrier between god and the devotee it is like the barrier of glass in a lantern which keeps one from touching the light king janaka used to give instruction about brahmagiana from the fifth plane sometimes he dwelled on the fifth plane and sometimes on the sixth after passing the six centers the aspirant arrives at the seventh plane reaching it the mind merges in brahman the no distinction so it's a curious language mind doesn't merge in brahmin the mind becomes uh so one pointed tunmaya that uh i it it really disappears into bruhman just like the wave will disappear into the ocean it becomes one with it at that point so the mind the ordinary mind disappears so takur says that this ordinary mind won't be there when we have this god realization this ordinary mind dies but pure mind pure mind is there the pure mind and the pure self and brahmin itself they're all one there's no distinction but the devotee why the devotee wants to keep separating yeah now tucker says that very often the devotee likes to enjoy this divine communion communion with god he likes to feel i'm a child of god child loves its mother child doesn't want the mother to disappear even if you say you're one with that mother you'll no i want my mother they want some tight little bit of separation to enjoy that relationship so in the devotional scriptures they don't have really have this idea of merging in brahman or if it's there they don't like it this is a type of mukti that they say is the lowest type of mukti they have all different types you live in the presence of god you have the same form as god sami they're all different in terms of that you merge in god for the devotee they say no we don't want that one we want to have we want to be able to gaze on the face of god i have a little bit of separation that way the gyani it says no i want to i want to dive deep into that ocean and disappear and merge into that ocean and just be one with that ocean a different attitude that's all so taco wasn't unique he liked both and he liked his merging and he also liked that relationship that separation so the individual soul and the supreme soul become one the aspirin goes into samadhi his consciousness of the body disappears yeah we see when swamiji went to that first thing he said where where is my arms where am i i can't feel my body even even with the eyes open and seeing everything somehow says numbness comes something like that his consciousness of the body disappears he loses the knowledge of the outer world he does not see the manifold anymore his reasoning comes to a stop swami the great swami who was in benares once said that because a man reasons he is conscious of multiplicity of variety attaining samadhi one gives up the body in 21 days now this is not ordinary samathi if if the mind gets so merged it's like the soul doll becomes one with the ocean then there's no coming back otherwise taku will talk about how these god realized people live in the world so it's not that everyone will give up the body spiritual consciousness is not possible without the awakening of the kundalini that means with this ordinary mind we can do it mind has to ascend to higher planes a man who has realized god shows certain characteristics see now if we say that realizing god means you give up the body in 21 days then none of this makes sense so a man who has realized god that means after he comes down shows certain characteristics he becomes like a child or a madman or an inert thing or a ghoul taco is like with simple like a child that we we see that and it can be very eccentric many of our swamis we we find how eccentric they are we wonder that they going mad or something but it's a divine divine madness or an inert thing that means they can get lost in meditation and it's ghoul it means they don't make these distinctions this is pure this is impure this is buddhism they accept everything further he is firmly convinced that he is the machine and god is his operator now another thing that happens with this god realization i realized that this scent of i that i had was completely misplaced that there's nothing that really corresponds to this sense of i in reality it's just a feeling a misconception that is identifying with with his body-mind complex and everything and i see that now god alone is dwelling within his body and god alone is the doer now if in my present under the state of understanding i say god makes me do everything then it's a cop-out because i know that i'm doing everything but uh this is a characteristic remember characteristics of a god-realized soul they're the only ones who really can can say that that i'm simply an instrument in the hands of god because they can't do anything wrong at that point so this is uh the characteristic is firmly convinced that he is the machine and god is its operator that god alone is the doer and all others are his instruments as some sikh devotees once said to me even the leaf moves because of god's will one should be aware that everything happens by the will of rama the weaver said this is a long story that tucker tells the price of the cloth by the will of rama is one rupee six on honors by the will of rama the robbery was committed by the will of rama the robbers were arrested by the will of rama i too was arrested by the police and at last by the will of rama i was released it was thus srama krishna had had no rest since his midday meal he had talked unceasingly to the devotees about god at last the visitors took their leave and went home okay that's the end of that day and what a blessing for those who were there [Applause] [Music] um who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship peace peace peace be on tour