Video 67

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (07/30/21)

[Music] foreign your words are like nectar bringing life to squirt souls they are praised by poets and removal sin they are auspicious to hear wonderful and exalted those who spread these words throughout the world are truly giving souls welcome everyone to our class on the gospel of srama krishna we are on the chapter with the devotees at the tinnitus for part 1 and page 245 the date is june 15th friday 1883. it was a holiday on account of the hindu religious festival da sahara among the devotees who visited shiramakrishna at dakshinashwar that day where adha em father raquel's father's father-in-law was also present all were seated on the floor of the master's room rocco's father's father-in-law was a devotee of god rock calls father not so much rachel's father was a rather worldly person well to do and didn't mind that uh his son raquel went to srama krishna when he saw that there were also other highly placed people devotees who went there and everything otherwise he he didn't have too much interest but father-in-law was it was a devotee so he asked the master sir can one realize god while leading the life of a householder this is one of the big themes that we have throughout the gospel of sramakrishna does one have to renounce everything in order to have god realization is it reserved for sanyasis alone and not householders the reason for this question is uh well there are many reasons for it one is this little fear that the householder will have to give up everything at some point so they're hoping to say no of course you can just renounce mentally but the other thing is that there is a tradition among the very orthodox teachers of india that uh god realization is possible only for those who renounce everything and the only ones who can renounce the only ones who can renounce everything to take the form of sanyasa will be those who uh belong to the brahmin caste and who are male so this was called the the catalana it was a type of privilege that there were privileged people that could have god realization the privilege wasn't so much uh it sounds worse than it is privilege was it was based on the idea that if one uh had been a devotee and and that delivered that a pure life was calling on god life after life that they would be born in the type of family that would allow them to pursue spiritual practice and traditionally the the brahmin cast uh were the ones who were devoted to study into uh dharma they were the keepers of dharma the whole caste system was based on on this idea that there will be some who will be the protectors exactly and there will be some who will uh do the uh business work durationers some who do service and be farmers and things like that so uh it wasn't meant to be something that was exclusive there's a decada was meant to be something that uh we have an easy way of knowing if someone is qualified to lead a spiritualized by the family that they're born into but in practical uh practical point of view it became exclusive and uh and according to the privilege of birth and male birth also so uh there was this idea that you couldn't get liberation unless you heard the truth from the upanishads another thing another restriction that only the brahmins could could hear the shruti it was restricted that way you had to hear this tattwamasi and that many felt that this was also reserved for the final stage of life sanyasa so there was this idea especially those who who had some respect for this concept of four stages of life that even a householder at some point they should lead a retired life and then at some point they should renounce everything now shukla didi i am not sure uh if at any time in the history of india this was followed very much by the majority of people first of all the the majority of the the number of of the brahmins who we would find in in india would be a small percentage so it would only apply to them really we're talking about the four stages of life how many people actually followed that throughout the history of india i i had a professor in in college once he was a master in this the legal text the dharma sastras and things like that and he said one time that we have all of these laws and there's a wonderful system of the legal system in india but throughout the history of india it was probably just a few kind of chieftains this panchayat system who sat around and made decisions on things that a lot of it was just theoretical but in any event people knew that so they they might ask this question that is it necessary to renounce everything this is this is the question that was asked so can one realize god while leading the life of a householder so hidden behind that question is do we have to renounce can can we can we not do it the way we are now now this is somebody who is uh obviously not young anymore so rocco's but he didn't have to be that old rock hall's wife was 15 or something at page 246. so i mean he could have been young he could have been in his 30s or something like that so and yeah we don't really know uh so a master with a smile why not so he he encouraged sanyasa for those who were qualified for it and for them he used to say it's necessary for those who were more qualified for the householder life he would say it's not necessary now are they two different teachings is he being hypocritical i don't think so he was encouraging each one and the path that was best suited for them and in fact i'm i'm going to start a two-part series the old talk of course on each is great in its own place this was swamiji's lecture about the householder and the sannyasi that the ideal householder is a very high ideal and of course that they can realize god do that the ideal sannyasi is also very high ideal so it's not a question of which one is better but this is the real meaning of adikara it's not a question of privilege it's a question of what suits us [Music] used to say when deciding what food to eat it has to be something that suits our stomach so uh and you know he says why not live in the world like a mud fish so there are many teachings that we find uh with regard many examples that tockwood gives the mudfish lives in the mud but itself remains unstained or live in the world like a loose woman she attends to her household duties but her mind is always on her sweetheart this is uh of course we'll never say that radha is a loose woman but it's a little bit of that idea this mother that radha's love for krishna was attended by this uh absence of uh of shame that uh he or she's a married woman actually a girl she's married young and she's married and and for her to be going out and longing for this this other person uh it's it's something outside of the bounds of the ordinary understanding of the way society works so we have this swaki and parakiya these two different types of motherboard one is the the love that the wife has for her husband and is considered very high ideal the very pure type of love the wife has for the husband and the other is the love that the the woman has for her boyfriend huh her paramour which is considered much higher huh the true it's considered much higher because uh it's going in the face of public opinion and and we don't care what anybody thinks so there's there's something uh something special about that so talk we're giving this example live in the world like a loose woman she attends to her household duties but her mind is always on her sweetheart so this has that idea that uh whatever we do the mind should be fixed on god throughout the day and the attraction that we have for thinking of god should be the same attraction that the woman has for her boyfriend thinking about him all the time and having to sneak away and when could you do it this and that it's nicer to think of rotten krishna that when will she be able to get out and go and see him and so that that's considered this parakiya motherboard it's considered a very high thing but the main point is that in the midst of doing all of the household duties that one keeps the mind fixed on god somehow by some means to keep the mind fixed on god and these are just different examples so the first one that is live in the world like a mudfish so this this is that idea that we're not attached to anything so we live without any attachment to the world nothing nothing clings to us nothing nothing will stain us this type of fish that no matter how dirty the water is how mud as soon as it comes up there's a very slippery kind of surface huh so nothing can stick to it they talk about the lotus leaf if you if you take water and you throw it on the lotus leaf it balls up a little bit and runs off it it won't stick to it other type of leaf it'll the leaf will get wet lotus leaf it doesn't do that so we have all of these types of examples so this one is that detachment but the second one is this and keeping the mind fixed on god so detachment from the world and attachment to god these are the two things for everyone this distinction between the sannyasin and the householder is very often a false distinction because the difference between the householder and the sannyasin uh boils down to just a few little things marriage and family and and job otherwise we have our duties in the world we have to we have to cook and clean and eat and do everything that everybody else has to do 99 of the things are in common just a few little things are different which is kind of big things of course but but still we have to put all of these things into practice the same way that everybody else does we have to keep our minds fixed on god and we have to not be attached to the world we have to not uh have any longing for the fruits of action we have to not care if people praise us or blame us or criticize anything we have to do exactly those same things that everybody else has to do from that point of view there's no difference whatsoever the main thing is that we have one advantage that to practice detachment when one has a family is much more difficult if if one has no children but has lots of kids that they love huh i have that we have so many wonderful kids here that uh i love them but it won't be the same type of attachment that a parent has with uh and it's not all bad but some of it is is just this uh clinging and and uh and worrying and all sorts of things that uh that are natural they're not good or bad things they're very natural things we're free from that we're lucky that way it's a sins uh we we don't have to pretend that we don't own anything this house doesn't belong to me because it doesn't belong to me the householder has to develop that attitude that is this belongs to god it's not mine that uh live in the world like the maidservant in the rich man's house all of that we have no choice because we don't own any of these things so we have a few advantages that way but taco will say the householder also has some advantages but the main point is that everything is a question of the mind and the sannyasin and the householder both have to practice these two very important things live in the world like a mudfish don't let anything cling to us don't let anything stain us just to be able to shake everything off like the waterfowl it gets wet and it shakes around and the water off flies off or and the second thing is that doesn't matter what we're doing the mind should be fixed on god the whole time if we can do that take is another example of the person with a toothache that no matter what they're doing a little bit of the mind will always be on that ache they can't get their mind off of it if it's constantly aching something like that there's a little the mind should be on god mostly the whole time how much in the mind if we give 25 percent of the mind to the world we hear different things of course but we'll be able to do things more efficiently than most people 75 percent of mine can be thinking of god otherwise our mind is scattered in very little is on what we're doing anyhow do your duties in the world fixing your mind on god but this is extremely difficult now this is a very practical thing that another advantage that sanyasin has of course not as much in this country but in a traditional indian setting is that they're protected that they're not coming in constant contact with objects of enjoyment and enticements and things like that uh in in this culture especially with television and movies and everything with constantly and advertising constantly everything is by me watch me enjoy me everything is in front of us like that tempting us so the sanyasan doesn't have that quite as much although as i say we don't have the same protections here as we would living in one of the ashrams in india so it's extremely difficult i said to the members of the brahma-samaj the brahma-samhai there will be all householders they didn't have this system for sanyasu suppose a typhoid patient is kept in a room where there are jars of pickles and pitchers of water how can you expect the patient to recover the very thought of spiced pickles brings spice pickles brings water to one's mouth so this is a very important idea that sometimes we think that uh it's all a question of strength of mind that uh if my mind is strong then why should it be attracted to something if uh if i'm trying to quit drinking suppose i have a drinking problem and i say to myself no i'm determined not to drink let me test myself and i'll go to the bar and watch everybody else drink why do this just making it harder that the thing to do is to remove ourselves from the situation so that we're not constantly fighting all of the time so tucker always talks about that when he talks about on this the small sapling that's planted that you have to put a hedge around it put a little fence around it otherwise the cows and the goats will come and they'll eat it up so this this fence that we put this self-protection is all being very cautious about what we do and who we mix with and the places where we go things all of those things the our environment theoretically it shouldn't matter i'm i'm detached i'm the witness nothing affects me but it does affect us so talker says especially in the beginning when the tree gets a little stronger you can take the fence down the fencing down when it gets big you can tie an elephant to it then it'll be perfectly strong but in the beginning and most of us this beginning stage is a long stage we we shouldn't be ashamed to say that we're beginners in spiritual life i remember one lecture by swami ashok a very nice lecturer where he talks about that that in the beginning stages and he said and don't think that uh that we've gone beyond these beginning stages this is the beginning stage is a long time but uh it doesn't mean that we haven't done anything in spiritual life it simply means that the beginning stage is where we're doing our spiritual practice and struggling and everything that once we go past that beginning stage we're practically at the end so the beginning stated all the way this we talk about this that will be all the way up to almost the last rung of the ladder the last step to the roof so we shouldn't feel bad if we're still in that stage so it is important for us to protect ourselves with regard to the company that we keep with the things that we do uh the exposure we have to the different things to what we read what we watch all of these things make a big difference otherwise it's like the typhoon patient he says the very thought of spiced pickles brings water to one's mouth to a man woman is like that pickle and to a woman man is like that pickle these things tacos talking to men all of the time that's why everything sounds like oh why is he always talking about is women or temptation he's talking to women he'll say the same thing about men and holy mother did that of course she used to warn them about that but this is mostly for these he's talking to that householder there but don't forget that there are others in the room also and this was the teaching that he always gave to the to the young boys that be very cautious about keeping the company of women not that there's anything wrong with them but this desire may come into your heart that's all this is lust is something natural that can can come up at any time so keep yourself away from situations that will uh that will bring that to the surface now uh this doesn't mean that women should be hidden away and they should wear veils and do all of that that's that's putting the burden on them as if it's their fault and everything but uh anyhow this is that idea so he says to a man woman is like that pickle the craving for worldly things which is chronic in men chronic in man what does chronic mean we have a doctor here we're two doctors what is a chronic disease yeah it goes on forever it's hard goes on forever hard to eradicate yeah so tucker used to say that this uh the disease of the world that it's it's it's become chronic so yeah i know about these chronic things i used to have i used to get this little chest infection and would take a few weeks to get over it i got it from india got it mostly yeah every time i would go there i would get this chest infection and i would come back and it would take a little time and then uh [Music] again it would happen it would take a little bit longer then the last time i got it hasn't left it's become chronic so you'll hear me doing this all the time so that's chronic so that means that there's a disease of worldliness uh it's not something that comes and goes it's there all of the time but it doesn't raise its head if we don't give it a chance this is what tucker's point here so the typhoon there is no end to his craving the craving for oh sorry to a man the craving for worldly things which is chronic in man is like the patient's craving for water there's no end to this craving now why is he craving water because the pickles are there in the room if they're not there a little still he may be thirsty but it won't be the same it won't be the same that craving won't be the same if he's not in contact with that the patient says typhoid patient i shall drink a whole picture of water this situation is very difficult there is so much confusion in the world if you go this way you were you were threatened with a shovel if you go that way you were threatened with the broomstick again in another direction you were threatened with the shoe beating now what does all of this mean he's just saying that their temptations their their every direction we go there'll be people that represent obstacles to our spiritual life even well-meaning friends even well-meaning friends they said ah come out come to what we're gonna have a party tonight you do your meditation every night skip one night this is this is the broom then then there'll be other people who may get angry at us and yell at us and do all sorts of things and so all different obstacles uh in spiritual life it's not easy and even people who love us they say yeah we want to be with you and spend some time with us and everything we say okay we'll compromise a little of course we have to compromise a little but not too much besides one cannot think of god unless one lives in solitude okay now this is a little too strong we can think of god not living in solitude but this there's some advantage if we can go into and tucker doesn't say go into solitude all of the time he says as long as you can even if it's a few days even one day even if it's the corner of your house that means that we have to withdraw a little bit and seriously think and do something out of the public eye so we know that we're sincere and we're serious about it then we can really have some understand we have some depth of this the goldsmith melts goal to make ornaments but how can he do its work well if he is disturbed again and again so the solitude uh there are no disturbances but that's not the whole of it there's a there's a psychological element to it that where when we're alone we find out what's important to us where the mind is going we can easily analyze ourselves uh when there's nobody else around we can see what things are lurking behind in the mind and everything so some people can't do it there's solitude that they're not accustomed to it or they get bored or the mind gets too restless some people don't like to face they're kind of not always inner demons but just things lurking beneath the surface it's good to do this every once in a while i'm not much in favor of this constant self-analysis but swami brahmananda he says at the end of the day look back on the day and observe what you did that day did you do things the way you wanted to did you lose your temper did you remember god did you do things as an offering how attached were you analyze a little bit and then make corrections and everything and and see if we can do better the next day it's a very good practice so the goldsmith melts a goal to make ornaments but how can he do his work well if he is disturbed again and again suppose you are separating rice from bits of a husk you must do it all by yourself every now and then you have to take the rice in your hand to see how clean it is but how can you do your work well if you were called away again and again yeah i was doing a little work in this shop the other day and nice people who kind of wanted to help and finally i just had had to say i have to really concentrate and think i have to i have to be alone doing all this don't feel bad i'm not trying to you know be mean or anything but sometimes we have to really nobody else is around we can stop we can think now i have to do this and this and this and and spiritual life there are times when we have to do that also we have to just withdraw and and take stock every once in a while and what have we done what do we need to do all of these things hey devotee what then is the way sir so now ashrami krishna he's saying you don't you don't have to renounce the world but you have to go into solitude sometimes which is not easy for everybody you have to think of god all the time not easy you can't be attached nothing can cling to you not easy so he says what then is the way sir master there is a way so he's saying even though it's not easy there is a way one succeeds if one develops a strong spirit of renunciation now takwa gives different answers at different times and it has nothing to do with him being inconsistent they're all brilliant answers and they none of them are contradictory if he says the whole thing is love of god we say well how is love in god in relation with how are they not different things they're not different things for taco renunciation means that giving up the little and accepting the greater renaissance means that we love the ideal we we have longing for realization if we're devotees love of god and our interest in the world becomes less and less and less so renunciation this this word is used here i prefer dispassion i think i think it's a closer definition although of course we use vedagya those who have varagya will renounce the world this is it's kind of a standard idea but it really means that uh this video is some type of passion and uh rakta means what blood huh so there's blood is is this with passion huh when our face turns red and everything so it'll be when we're free from that so but to to have a little bit of this dispassion that not always running after things in the world and enjoying everything that way uh but veda does have this other meaning and this other one is a very strong thing and this is this is strictly for the sanyasi where they just want to throw everything off they just want to get rid of it they want to escape they say well escaping isn't good this to practice to do escapism we always say no it's not yeah this is just pure escapism and people will say that i've heard it myself the pure escapism and uh what the answer would talk would give if you're in a in a forest and it's on fire won't you try to escape so he said for those who to whom this world is like a blazing forest fire and he says to whom who's whose relatives seem like black cobras they're the ones who renounce not that we don't love our relatives but just the the idea of attachment and everything so here he won't be talking about that he's talking to the householders so this means that really losing our taste for worldly enjoyment and increasing this longing for god that'll be the strong spirit of renunciation give up at once with determination what you know to be unreal now again this unreal word what is the word okay yeah you you all know i have a problem with this word unreal that generally tucker will say transitory anitya or obostu that insubstantial he doesn't like this material word this false or unreality way but so really it i think it's much better give up with determination what you know to be transitory insubstantial hollow like smoke that we just can't it won't it that which won't ultimately uh remove whatever whatever longing we have whatever feeling of emptiness we have that where we keep trying to fill something some empty longing for something whatever we understand to be incapable of doing that then give it up and give it up now does that mean that we can't enjoy little things every once in a while of course we can there's no harm in that because now it's just a little side thing a little divergent thing we know that that's not the real thing in fact sometimes the little diversion is good otherwise the mind that we force it too much in one direction they can rebel a little bit it's good to have a little i i i mentioned many times that one of our swamis i think shankarandiji one of the presidents of the order when he was asked by some of the brahmacaris to give some advice he said it's good to have a hobby a little diversion and something that the mind brings a little happiness to the mind but we can do that also with an offering so we take a painting and we paint taco our mother and everything the mind is fixed on them is a wonderful thing we take up gardening we plan things to to to serve to the devotees to offer in the shrine so we connect it that way so it's not that we were there's nothing puritanical in vedanta you know the puritans the early years of this country uh anything that could be enjoyable was sinful even nice clothes you had to wear black clothes and that you couldn't do anything that uh would be fun they said well we're not like that look at takur how he enjoyed so many different things even mother mother also went to the theater many times holy mother and uh look at look at some of the great swamis of our order how they would enjoy sports and other things and yeah and then even good food we've had some of our swamis are real gourmets they knew everything about cooking and everything but not but understanding that this is not the goal of life and this is not what ultimately uh will satisfy the the longing of the heart that craving of the heart it won't do it so give up at once with determination what you know to be unreal transitory hollow empty and substantial once when i was seriously ill i was taken to the physician prasad sin he said to me i shall give you a medicine but you mustn't drink any water you may take pomegranate juice everyone wondered how i could live without water but i was determined not to drink it i said to myself i am a paramahamsa not a goose i shall drink only milk now there's a footnote a paramahamsa is one belonging to the highest order of monks the word also means a swan there's a popular tradition in india that a swan can separate the milk from a mixture of milk and water it is said that a secretion of acid turns the milk into curd which the swan eats leaving the water so they they always give this an example be able to separate the real from the unreal and taking only the real this is what the the hamsa does with the swan does but the other point here is that there is a role to be played by what we call sheer will power willpower that we we just take a valve in in india it's very common for people to fast one day a week or to not take a certain food to do different things like that uh not eat until they've performed uh certain rituals and things it's very good because it gives us some sense of discipline and we developed this power this will power which is extremely important in spiritual life to be able to just tell the mind no you're not going to do this you're not even going to think about it no food today for you that's all no questions asked and to develop that that strength of mind to do it all of these things are especially helpful in the beginning of spiritual life we get older it's not so important but in the beginning to develop this so talk we're saying that jazz to to the mind that because we want to be masters of the mind this is the whole difference between one person and another person the one who is a master of the mind is a happy person the one who is a slave to the mind is the unhappy person the one is the yogi the other now he goes back to this idea of solitude you have to spend a few days in solitude if you but touch the granny you are safe this is an illusion to the game of hide and seek there was another footnote yeah this uh everyone gets blindfolded and somebody plays the role of the granny and and they run around and and they try to touch if they can touch the granny they can take the the van the blindfold off so uh talkwar says very often that the granny is the divine mother and she wants the game to continue so she won't make it so easy for everyone to touch her but she's happy if they do she's also happy if the game continues so this is our situation so touching the granny that means we're out of the game we you know this uh what do they call it uh musical chairs you know the game of musical chairs they'll start out if they're ten eleven people they'll have ten chairs and they'll play music and you walk around in a circle and as soon as the music stops you sit in the closest chair now each time you do it one person won't get a chair they're out of the game and you keep doing it until there's only one person left and that person's the winner now talker says out of the game they're the winners they can sit back there's no anxiety they can sit back and just watch the play and everything he talks about that other card game that if you if you get a certain number of points you get your your cards are too high and it adds up to a certain number and then you're out of the game so he used to joke with kashuv and others i've already gotten too many points i'm out of the game but i can sit back and watch and enjoy and everything so that was his his idea that those those who are involved in the world and very often involved in the world means that our view is cloudy another nice thing he said if somebody's playing chess and has to make a move there'll be tension and everything they'll be thinking this and then everything somebody is just watching from the side he can see both sides and everything he'll know which move is the best move to make not the person playing the game so this is that uh out of the game it can mean formally becoming a sanyasi uh of course the sannyasi can also get attached to the game or it can just mean someone with that type of detachment that uh i'm not interested in winning this this game of the world anymore getting the best job and making the most money and having the nicest cars and houses and clothes and everything like that i'm out of that game still living in the world not becoming a monk or anything turn yourself into gold and then live wherever you please after realizing god and divine love and solitude one may live in the world as well okay now takur is good to observe these things because tucker is language sometimes he'll say realize god then live in the world sometimes he'll say develop devotion to god then live in the world living the world means do your your worldly duties everyone lives in the world where are we going to go if we don't live everyone lives in the world but it means that you can have your job and you can have your family and this and that but first have some type of realization now if we if we look at the times when talkware says first realize god then live in the world we'll say well who's going to do that how many lifetimes will it take to realize god he's saying as as if it means first go to the store and then come back and do your your homework it's not like that so then other times they'll say first develop love of god that we can understand get a little bit of get a little bit of this detachment a little bit of love about all of that then no harm if mixing with other people and doing things in the world we we won't get stained by it as much here he's giving us two options this is maybe the only time he does it when he says after realizing god and divine love in solitude so it's not really in either or it's both this time but uh we can say okay realizing god is is too much for me divine love okay i can at least get established in spiritual life and then have that is the goal of life and have some conviction and all of it that'll be enough we the other is too high we can't who will live in the world then if it's restricted to those people who realize god first to rocco's father that is why i asked the youngsters now now there's a little psychology behind this also don't forget that rocco's father is here so a lot of this could be for his benefit i never thought of this before his benefit because he's trying to convince him to not openly do it but uh convince him not to object to rock hall staying with him rockhall was very recently married and even had a child i don't know if he had the child yet at this point probably already uh but if srirami krishna can get raquel's father to understand that this is not the goal of life that there are some who are fit for renunciation and everything then he won't raise that kind of objection maybe that's a little part of this whole thing also tucker was clever he was he was brilliant and he was of course a perfect god-realized soul but he was a brilliant psychologist you know how people think and how they react and everything i'm not clever in a bad sense of course so here it is to raquel's father that is why i ask the youngsters youngsters to stay with me for they will develop love of god by staying here a few days after that they can very well lead the life of a householder now in raqqa's case of course tucker knew that he was destined to lead the life of a monk he had his visions and everything but this is kind of a general teaching and this this is really the whole scheme of life i was talking about this the four stages of life this is what the brahmacaria stage was for you live in solitude you develop the spirituality you live with the teacher then after that it's safe to go back and get married and have this ideal of dharma and this idea of moksha and lead a householder's life we'll get to it someplace that the k shop never bought this he said ah this is what you say one day you'll you'll sting us that means uh plant that seed of renunciation that's so deep that people will want to give up everything but talk there were many times when he had householder disciples who wanted to give up everything and they'd get a big scolding they said who's going to feed your children somebody from the neighborhood's going to come and do you got married you this is your obligation and responsibility but in rare cases if somebody really had the type of renunciation then he would say make all arrangements for the family make sure that they won't suffer anything uh because there are were cases video krishna goswami even married children of course he didn't ask for talkers uh permission but taco no of course and probably encouraged it devotee okay now we got a big topic here if god is responsible for everything then why should people speak of good and evil virtue and vice one commits sin also by the will of god isn't that so now i don't know if this is a sincere question or if it's saying you you give us all this nonsense that everything is god's will what about this it's very hard to tell exactly how sincere this question is but it's loaded with all sorts of inferences and all sorts of things if god is responsible for everything oh that's the assumption is god responsible for everything when we say put if in front of a word that means that it may be or may not be but so let's so he's saying let's let's work under the assumption god is responsible for everything so suppose somebody says it are we supposed to believe that if that's true so we don't know how is if it's challenging or not how he's asking this question then why should people speak of good and evil virtue and vice if god is responsible then god did it one commits sin also by the will of god isn't that so now what do we think is it true i wanted to i brought this little because i never remember things very well a few weeks ago uh we had that one sanskrit verse that takur recited as some of you may remember that uh i read it because tak would never recite sant good verses he didn't care for that he must have known he must have had so many things committed to memory but there's one particular thing this is from something called prapannagita very common commenting so i know what i should do i know what dharm is i know what i should do but i don't do it then i know what's udharma i know what i shouldn't do but i can't help myself okay now it sounds good so far humility i always wonder about this verse then he says so by you o rishikesh is speaking to krishna so by you know who dwells within my heart yes i do as you make me do now he wasn't a good guy huh the now is this a good verse what does it mean how do we how do we take this [Music] and there is verse will and he's always executing the free will which is all his ego and all is you know but is his ver is this something sincere or is he saying or is he just he's he's being completely hypocritical yeah on the other hand if this verse has changed a little bit let me do is as you make me do then it's a beautiful idea so the beginning is fine this uh i because we're all in that situation that uh we know what we should do but this kamakura there's all these these passions and everything they lead us to do things that we shouldn't exactly do so we know that and the things that we should do sometimes we're a little bit lazy we just let somebody else do it we may feel a little bit bad we know that we should do this we shouldn't do that we don't always do these things but will we say that oh god made me do it that god dwells within my heart i'm not responsible for anything so this is a very interesting verse i don't know the context of it but we know that duryodhana he is not going to be spouting the highest wisdom and does he really believe it or he's just saying it he's just trying to get out of it and it's your fault justifying justif rationalizing what he does so this is that question that if god is responsible for everything so it's as if toyota is answering asking this question same thing then am i responsible if god made me do it god dwells within the heart it inspires me to do it then how can you blame me then before taco gets a chance to answer another devotee says how can we understand the will of god okay another good question now takur he's going to give an answer that doesn't seem like he's directly answering the question so that means that we have to we have to think very deeply why is he giving this particular answer he's not going to say anything about his god responsible he's not going to say anything about the will of god but he says there is no doubt that virtue and vice exist in the world but god himself is unattached to them doesn't seem like a very straightforward answer right why is he saying all of this there may be good and bad smells in the air but the air is not attached to them the very nature of god's creation is that good and evil righteousness and unrighteousness will always exist in the world now we say everything is the will of god what if the will of god is that there should be good and evil what if the will of god is that we should uh be responsible for what we do yeah we don't know how to take this will of god does it mean that everything i do is the will of god or or everything that happens is the will of god i do my best it didn't happen it wasn't god's will wasn't talk with what we say we say it like that to me that's a little bit better i'm i'm never going to say that whatever i do is god's will and who can say that god really so when there's no ego there god realized all can say that nobody else can say that so the very high ideal then what about all these things not not a leaf falls that's not by the will of god what does it mean is god is is god does he have the computer screens with all of the leaves in the world and saying now this will fall now this will fall now this will fall where it suggests this is the plan this is the divine plan we don't know how these things happen huh there's a very interesting term in gita huh when we talk about why things happen what is the cause and effective things there's there's all we have are all different factors and then it says there's a fifth a deva what does that mean god's will fade chance luck we don't know [Music] what what is the meaning of god's will we don't know god is god does not really care there's god directing all of this and everything on the other hand suppose uh this this is the dream of the dreamer who else is responsible for what happens if not the dreamer but at the same time suppose i wake up and i say oh i dreamt a horrible dream that people were killing each other and somebody says why did you make that happen he said oh i didn't do it it just i didn't plan to have that dream it just it did it happened it was so uh this very very complex issue i i think the safest thing is to say that i don't know if how free i am to make the decisions that i make but i'm responsible for everything and and i know that there are factors pushing me to make a decision in one direction and these are the passions these are these are the uh anger and greed and lust and pride and all of these these different things and desires was the way he was he probably had no control control and no control that's if we want to get him off the hook we can say no but we can we can say what could he do that's that's who he was that was the nature of his everyone is acts according to his own nature another verse in gita we all act in accordance with it what good will will restraint do but we can't accept that for ourselves that's what he says here they're good and bad and god's creation yeah that it has to be that way now this is this is what i call the spiritual double standard somebody else we can say yes that's their nature that's the way they are they're probably not happy being that way but i understand that they make that decision because of all factors this this and that but with ourselves then we have to say no i know that i should be doing this i'm not going to make excuses for myself i was just the case of that i was lazy or that i was selfish this and that i wasn't right i'm going to try to change it i'm not going to say it was god's will i'm not going to say that what can i do this is who i am this is my nature we have to be a little bit tough with ourselves but not too tough we also have to be a little bit kind to ourselves so i always look at this question of free will as a scale that the more we're in the grip of of the radius and thomas the grip of rogers and thomas uh the more we have desires the the more or the less uh we have a faculty of discrimination and reasoning and everything the less free we are or this is psychological determinism and the more uh we have clarity and the more we have freedom from ego and desires and all of that the better our decisions and if we want to say then we can do god's will because we don't know god's will right but we can say at least if we act according to dharma then we can feel that we're doing something at least consistent with the higher plan of nature something like that if like takur mother speaks to us and she guides us and holds us by the hand then we can say it then we can say i speak as you make me speak mother i do what you make me do but how many people can can do that so this original question if god is responsible for everything it should be is god responsible for everything and the answer should be uh you rascal you're doing all sorts of nonsense and you want to make god responsible for it take responsibility to yourself that was swamiji take responsibility for yourself and then we say well what about god's will you do whatever you can whatever happens after will you say it with god's will that's all and what does it mean we say oh it wasn't god's will it means that it didn't happen what does it mean really huh weird when bengali wasn't it wasn't in it wasn't in my fate it wasn't in my future i grew up with this expression my mother used to say it wasn't meant to be it's reassuring we then we don't have to say oh if i'd only did it differently it could have happened this way and everything he said no don't worry it wasn't meant to be it doesn't bring god into it it doesn't bring chance into it a little bit uh what's in part of the divine plan something that makes us feel a little bit better so we can accept it a little better it wasn't meant to be you tried your best uh but somebody else won yeah that's all just accept it that way so does that mean that god wanted the other person to win and me to lose we don't have to take it that way so all of this is our is our mental attitude towards things these are questions that we don't know the real answers but whenever tucker says that mother alone does everything we're instruments and everything that's a very high ideal and if we want to follow that ideal then we have to rid ourselves of the last ounce of of the ego and and pride and and desire and the selfishness and everything then uh we can say that prompting of the heart we can say is that divine presence within otherwise we're being hypocritical the very nature of god's creation is that good and evil so we can tell you the the will of god is the plan of god if we want to put it that way that's palatable we can accept that plan of god is there'll be good and bad that'll be the pairs of opposites and there'll be enough free will that people can get in trouble and do bad things and people can do good things so the very nature of god's creation is that good and evil righteousness and unrighteousness will always exist in the world among the trees in the garden one finds mango and jackfruit and hog plum ii haven't you noticed that even wicked men are needed suppose they're rough tenants on an estate then the landlord must send a ruffian to control them the conversation again turned to the life of the householder so we'll stop here yeah when this question do we have free will it's always asked us yes or no i think it has to be as to what extent are we free and what does freeman what extent are we free from desires and from from the passions and from the ego sense and all of that that's the degree to which we can say that it was a free decision free decision maybe based on logic and understanding and reasoning and the advice of people who know more than we do and all of that that that's that's as much as we can do okay any final questions so how he's giving himself uh uh and out he's that uh everything is is your will so this must be your will also the you you're the one who prompted me to do that now yeah okay yeah so i don't know all these stories but yeah but i can't remember where it was when we talk about the free will anytime we create any disharmony whether in ourselves environment with others or you know any time environment it is because of our people these these are all ways of understanding things there's these are not you know metaphysical truths like we have uh mathematical equations and things like that these are all attitudes and uh we've been going through this over and over again that the attitude is not something insignificant if that's why this idea it wasn't meant to be it's just an attitude i don't have to say that with god's plan anything like that but if it if it makes me accept and surrender then it's a positive thing then it's good so if we say that anything that brings some disharmony i'm responsible and anything good i can say that this is at least i'm acting in harmony with with some divine plan something like that we could say i i think a little dangerous to say that i'm doing god's will because there's so much so many horrible things have been done in this world with people who say this is god's will crusades and things like that so okay let us stop here um [Music] foreign we bow our heads before suramar krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship [Music] peace peace peace