Video 74

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna read by Swami Atmajnanananda (10/08/21)

[Music] your words are like nectar bringing life discord souls they're 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 we're reading from the gospel of srama krishna the chapter the festival at panihati and the date is saturday july 21st 1883 and the page is 264. srama krishna has been speaking with jodhu malik we met judo malik last week he is he has a close relationship with sramakrishna but a little bit as a friend not so much as as a spiritual seeker he he had his moments of course but he was a very wealthy man a rather worldly man and we know he had his home in calcutta and like many other wealthy people he had a country home and in his case it was it was just by the south gate of the dakshinishwar temple garden so in the early days he was one of the ones that takwo would go to to visit before many of the direct disciples came home who also lived nearby so when taka went to visit him in his house in calcutta he found that a lot of his friends had come and some of them were what they call flatterers that they knew he was a wealthy man and could be helpful to them so they they came and told him what he wanted to hear and and you know that's so taco recognized that right away so last time uh takarada asked what about the recital of the chandi because he had promised that he would arrange for recital of the chandi this means some chanting and the whole recitation of the stories about mother kali and everything and but he hadn't done it i've been busy with many things i haven't been able to arrange it master how is that a man gives his word and doesn't take it back the words of a man are like the tusks of an elephant they come out but do not go back a man must be true to his word what do you say with a smile you were right so this is what we finished last time that uh yeah some [Music] old hindi expression somehow we don't know where it comes from master you are a shrewd man you do a thing after much calculation you are like the brahmin who selects a cow that eats very little supplies plenty of dung and gives much milk all that after a time he said to jadoo i now understand your nature it is have warm and have cold you are devoted to god and also to the world i think in the beginning perhaps he was more interested in spiritual things and then his real nature came out that he really he liked to uh possess nice things and have rich friends and everything the master and the devotees were served by judo with sweets and fruits and then the party left for the home of kela ghosh so this is this is a typical visit that takwor made to kolkata at different times when he would go to a few different houses that i mentioned before this is the festival in panihati but it actually covers events of the of the next week also so i think he first went to ishan's house and then to judo malik's house and now he's going to caleb we don't know much about him his name i think just comes up here do you know anything about him he was he was a landlord that means wealthy and powerful he had a mansion we know that much oh an advocate in the high court oh so he's very generous man also okay yeah takura there were many very important people who used to come to him as well as those who had nothing just these poor students and everything but uh so he attracted a big range of different types of people caleb house was a big mansion but it looked deserted as the master entered the house he fell into an ecstatic mood m ramallah and the few other devotees were with him their host was called ghosh's brother-in-law we don't know where caleb ghosh was himself he was an old man his body was stamped with the name of god according to the division of a custom and he carried in his hand a small bag containing his rosary you see this sometimes they're like tattoos that with the name of god or sometimes even with sandal paste they'll do it or write it and all sorts of things yeah the orthodox version of us uh especially in bengal at that time looked very distinctive they had their uh on the way of the on marks that they use and and on dress and uh uh very often with their bag and doing doing their mala all of the time he had visited the master now and then at dakshineshwar but most of the vaisnavas held narrow religious views now when the m is saying most of the rationales these will be mostly those who were following this caitanya that's that school because thakur himself came from the vaisnava family but it was a completely different lineage in fact he didn't know much about caitanya at that time so most of these will be there's already vegetables by the way tucker's family they were there of rama which also makes them voice nervous but this would be and and they were more liberal they those who who worship rama automatically will worship nisita and automatically will worship durga and automatically will so there's there'll be a big range shiva and durga and rama and sita that they'll accept all of them whereas what m is referring to is those who really restrict their worship to mostly to krishna in the form of govinda or gopala mostly yeah there are the vaisnavas from the west of course who it will be christian it'll be a little bit so all different traditions are there but there's one tradition uh they they were a little bit one-sided so we find tucker mentioning that many times he admired them for their tremendous devotion and other things but he was always trying to get them to become a little more liberal in their views but most of the vaisnavas held narrow religious views they criticized the vedantist they didn't like this non-dualism now we've seen when m or even taco uses this word vedanta without this they mean non-dualistic vedanta but it was also artist dualistic he did his commentaries on the upanishads and everything so generally it has that meaning that they like this dualistic relationship if there's if there's a oneness there's no scope for a relationship unless we purposely keep that stick of ego there see his attitude was completely different he believed in this oneness but from a practical point of view that ego created a little separation but those who were really strict duelists for the strict duelist this dualistic relationship doesn't end even in liberation so they don't have that view that they'll emerge in brahmin and be one with the brahman at the very end they'll have some idea of some type of eternal heaven they'll go to and live in and company of god and krishna and that whole leela that vindaban lila will be some nity rendavan that will be going all the time and this is this is their worldview you could say so it uh it doesn't allow very much for the subjective view that topper has that god reveals himself in the form that we want to see and uh all the same taco will talk about all of those things so this is why he's saying that some of them he says actually most the vaisnavas have narrow religious views they criticize the vedantists and the followers of the shiva cult but also the mother worships the worshipers of divine mother also suramar krishna soon began to speak now m is saying all of this not because he has anything special against them that's an introduction why topwa will start talking about uh we should respect all religious traditions and everything this is the reason master it is not good to feel that one's own religion alone is true so this was kind of an introduction to that one's own religion here it doesn't mean hinduism as opposed to christianity or islam he's talking in very particular terms the invasion of a tradition here and the shaktis also could be very one-sided and also cybers maybe not so much but uh we find that every every religion in the world there'll be some who uh are a little fanatical and take things uh in a literal way fundamentalists the part of human nature now one thing we know with takur he has two tricks that he does that when he meets people that have a particular spiritual attitude he'll do give them advice that will be suitable to them that will give them greater faith that will increase their devotion but if he sees some uh some gap something needs to be filled some some point of view that may be too uh orthodox or not liberal enough he'll correct it so he'll he'll do both things sometimes very positive and will say then tucker told or he'll say let me tell you a story something that will appeal to you if someone's in yani he'll give these different stories about the ghani's and everything is like a dream but with the advice of him sometimes they'll push them in the other direction it'll point out what he says as a defect it is not good to feel that one's own religion alone is true and all others are false god is one only and not two different people call on him by different names some as allah some as god and others as krishna shiva and brahman it is like the water in a lake the very common example that taqwa gives some drink it at one place and call it jal others at another place and call it pani and still others in the third place and call it water the hindus call it jal the christian water and the muslim man's bonnie but it is one of the same thing one in the same substance it's all water or whatever we call it we don't have to give it a name and it's the same lake it's the same pond it's the same same water exactly opinions are but paths now this is his famous doto this is this is an expression that taku uses very often some people take this to be uh one of his his most important teachings they made a film many years ago in in india it came out when i was there i saw it it means as many faiths so many paths now this is very important because most people take their faith as the goal and as a siddhanta as a conclusion that this is this is the ultimate truth some of the objective type of truth talk we're saying this is a vehicle this is a means to to get to the to the end to realize that and there are all different ways of getting there so it says opinion or about path mod pod mod pod and then sometimes he'll say but it's not god but make sure you don't get confused and think that the path is everything that is just a path and if it gets us to the goal and other people get there through a different path then why is yours better and there's something wrong with theirs a very liberal point of view for a a simple village brahmin priest how he was so uh open his mind was was so vast and uh how he encouraged people to and he practiced all these different religions that was the difference other people have said that this old vedic or earliest rig vedic hymns we have things like that the truth is one the sages called by different names the same thing but nobody practice all of these things not just all of the different the vaisnava and shock the sects and everything but even islam and christianity he had his experience there direct experience that these are paths that will also take us to the highest truth and he would even say that those which people call dirty paths that do practices that are outside of the limits of good society he said even these may take us these are like the the back door of the house that goes through the the train in the old houses in calcutta i lived in one of those houses there's one year they'll have the bathroom in in the back of the house and there'll be a door back there so that the scavenger can come in and clean out the bathroom without having to walk through the house they were considered unclean they were dealing with with this light soil they called it very politely because in those days there was no real plumbing they would uh they would have to just remove everything and put a big thing nobody wanted to see them or touch them he said but even that gets them inside the house even going but don't do it he would say that you find a good clean door to enter into but even they can realize god so he's very liberal that way and there's a nice section in the great master they liver sangha by swami sharon he said we used to turn our nose up at these different sects and the sahajas and others uh but thakur said no don't turn your nose up with them this is also a path it still gets into the house but through the back door but make sure you don't follow it he said but don't look down other people this vaisnavchatha and he followed that path and talked with great respect for him great respect for him he'll be the leader of that uh yeah so each religion is only a path leading to god as rivers come from different directions and ultimately become one in the one ocean the truth established in the vedas the puranas and the tantras is but one sachet tradition the puranas this can be the version of the tradition and others tantras this can be the shakti tradition so all of them one sachidan on the that means that infinite ocean of brahman the absolute pure consciousness in the vedas it is called brahman in the puranas it is called krsna-rama and so on and the tantra is that it was shiva or we could say mother also the one sachidan it's called brahman krishna and shiva the devotees were silent adversion of a devotee sir why should one think of god at all now it seems like an odd question why should one think of god at all and normally we would take that to mean that why not just enjoy life is there anything special why go to all the trouble why not just enjoy life but taco takes it in a completely different sense maybe he knew that this was a real liberty he says if a man really has that knowledge then he is indeed liberated though living in a body now that means if our relationship with god is so intimate and our feeling of surrender is so strong that we don't even need to pray to god we have that conviction god is looking after us he knows to us within our heart he knows every desire of the heart and we'll do whatever is right for us then what's what need do we have for even calling on god so talk we're saying yes there's a very high state people who realize that they're already free that for them it's true so he takes it in a very nice way but then he goes on in a more uh ordinary way and you know there's a footnote here the knowledge that god exists within and without and everywhere in that case thinking of god is superfluous or it may mean make an effort those who reach a very high state mind is always dwelling in god so no need to to make any effort or call on god then tucker goes on not all by any means believe in god they simply talk so this is the other side of it that why should we even call on god when we don't know if god exists we don't know who god is or what god is and what results come from it or anything so it's not all by by any means believe in god they simply talk the worldly minded have heard from someone that god exists and that everything happened by his will but it is not their inner belief do you know what a worldly meant idea of god is like it is like the children swearing by god when they quarreled they've heard the word while listening to their elderly aunts squarely is it possible for all to comprehend god god has created the good and the bad the dev the devoted and the empires the faithful and the skeptical the taqwa very often says that there's something inscrutable about the nature of god especially when we think in terms of muhammad the the concept of god is as a mother that we simply take refuge and take shelter and we can't hope to know everything about god how can we imagine that we know why this universe was created the way it is why it runs the way it does why people act the way they do so very often taco says no it's impossible with our little human mind to comprehend the vastness of all of this the wonders that we see all exists in his creation in one place there's more manifestation of his power and another less now we can say everything is the manifestation of god tucker will say that but in some places we see that divinity more clearly so he'll talk about uh the devotee he'll say that god can be found in any of the rooms in the house but mostly he's in his drawing room they say the heart of the devotee is the drawing room of god or the avatar the incarnation then we see the fullest manifestation of the divine in the avatar and other people i that light is is a little bit dimmed the lampshade is keeping maybe a dark lampshade keeping the light from fully coming out but it's there the light is there within all the wattage may be different and the covering may be stronger but in the same light hooked up to the same electricity same source the sun sunless light is better reflected by water than by earth and still better by a mirror again there are different levels among the devotees of god superior mediocre and inferior all this has been described in gita a lot of it in terms of of the gunas also those who are satwik those who have more registered thomas the voice of a true sir master the inferior devotee says god exists but he is very far off up there in heaven this is uh not necessarily what the duelist will all believe the dualist it doesn't mean that they have different things and god is just in heaven the duelist also has this concept of the under yarmouth the difference between the dualistic way of looking at it and the edwardic way is that they didn't dwell on the presence of god for the adultin won't necessarily be that inner controller and inner guide but the witness neutral not not adding anything just just watching but the the real self the higher self the devotee that same dwelling of god within the heart will be thought of in terms of of of the guide either somebody like the like the uh the mover of the chariot or at least someone that uh we can get guidance from we pray to we pray to that indwelling presence of god and when the prayer is answered we feel it comes from within but there are some who will think that god is is somewhere up there in heaven the meteor mediocre devotee says god exists in all beings as life and consciousness okay this we is a very high view he's saying mediocre but still this this represents if we have that that realization this represents you know a very high type of realization god exists in all beings as life and consciousness so that prana which makes us move and that consciousness which allows us to be aware this is all the divine presence of god so for most people we would say that this is the highest type of ideal this is ghana but then the third one will be this vigna state the superior devotee says it is god himself who has become everything whatever i see is only a form of god now this doesn't exclude the the second one seeing everything in the form of god but also seeing god dwelling within everything both things one one will be kind of a projection that predicts this universe and then dwells within it so both are true it's like in a dream we can say that the the whole dream universe is nothing but consciousness nothing but the projection of the dreamer but at the same time the indwelling consciousness and selfness of the of the actor in the dream that's also that same rumor so one has to do with with seeing this whole universe that's the embodiment of consciousness and the other has to do with consciousness itself and dwelling within that so protecting the spider making the the web out of its own self and then dwelling within it living in that way but never getting caught yeah so the superior devotee says it is god himself who has become everything whatever i see is only a form of god it is he alone who has become maya the universe and all living beings nothing exists but god this is also a shakta idea worshipers of the divine mother the there's a very beautiful ram prasad song there's also a similar what's that good poem i think where he he talked about seeing mother kali everywhere when when he lies down that he goes to lie down he's making pranam to mother kali when he walks around the town he's doing this of mother kali when he goes to sleep he's meditating on mother kali she's all of the words of the alphabet whatever he speaks is her name a very beautiful type of song yeah to say we see god dwelling within all beings doesn't tell us anything about we may also say that this is a physical created universe that it doesn't say anything about the nature of this world also being divine we're seeing see see tako so everything is chinmay everything is the embodiment of consciousness yeah i think the middle one is it's where where we simply accept that we provisionally we accept the reality of this external universe that's when we do our viveka discrimination between uh the that which is eternal and that which is transitory we accept all of that and uh still we see god dwelling within the hearts of all beings as the innermost self but from the highest point of view then they don't neces they'll say then we also see everything it's it's kind of a dream we see it it doesn't have that full reality or that it's just name and form superimposed on brahman itself so for takur they started brahma all this indeed is a brahmana is a higher truth for shankaracharya he likes this tautomacy he emphasizes that more is realize the true nature of the self and don't worry too much about this external universe doctor says that after we have that highest realization what chunk of acharya says we know that then when we come down a little bit within we see everything as a manifestation of god so sakuratari is giving us this the the highest gyana and srama krishna is giving us that big honest state coming back down they don't contradict each other when we say this this universe is unreal that means that we're the present universe as we understand it made up of objects that are constantly changing the name in the form aspect that's unreal but if we understand that uh the essence of it is real then we then we can say it's real so it's like gold jewelry the form is constantly changing it can break we can melt it down we can say there's nothing eternal or essential about the name of the form but once we know that it's all gold then we say well it's real that part is real so then the device that i asks because a very high ideal and it's not so much emphasized by the dualistic traditions they don't care too much they can say this universe it's a creation of god it doesn't they don't have to say this is this manifestation or really pure consciousness uh it is so this is kind of a new idea for him so the vaisnava he says does anyone ever attain that state of mind now for suramar krishna this is a rare thing we may understand this and everything but to attain that means going to the roof and coming back down so this is that big yana state so it's a good question it's rare we we can we can take that as a spiritual attitude this is that deity instead of 1880. we can start out by feeling that everything is a manifestation of the divine and trying to see everything that way or we can say everything exists uh just floating on this ocean of consciousness within my own consciousness i can say i only know everything as it exists in my mind so from that point of view i'm not seeing physical objects so we can take it as a spiritual truth we can say but to have that full realization to see everything to see everything as a vermin itself this is a very rare thing so we'll say one cannot attain it unless one has seen god so this is coming back down from the roof after having that highest realization in the beginning we we separate everything into the eternal and the transitory talks about the afterwards we have this higher realization so one cannot attain it unless one has seen god but there are signs that a man has had a vision of god a man who has seen god sometimes behaves like a madman with this is a verse that uh is found in the bag of the purana and also we make true nominee different different verses but the same idea there's four different types so um he laughs weeps dances and sings sometimes he behaves like a child a molecular the child the child five years old guileless generous without vanity unattached to anything not under the control of any of the gunas always blissful these are different ways that one can be a jivan mukta that can live in the world after god realization we find all different types depending upon their personality depending upon their spiritual path depending upon culture all different traditions all different things sometimes he behaves like a ghoul a he doesn't differentiate between things pure and impure he sees no difference between things clean and things unclean this was that pornagani that came to dakshinishwar one day that he behaved like a complete madman and uh i think there are two different versions of it one is with ridoi one is with hazra holiday where somehow they recognize that he's not just an ordinary madman tucker said when he went into the kali temple enchanted the whole place shook and so uh either haladhari or rita one of two different versions of it ran after him and he he he walked faster and uh he didn't want to be bothered with that well finally they caught him and he said uh are you a knower of god pornagyani that means full full highest type of knowledge and he said yes and then he said when you make no distinction between this holy ganges water and this filthy dirty ditch water that means sewer sewage water then you'll have tamed because what is it it's all it's the same mixture of the three goodness it's just the elements nothing our own mind sense pure and impure there's a particular type of staid and a particular type of spiritual practice that tantric news a lot of the tantric practices are men to get rid of this this sense of uh luisa we have a rag in the waisa or attachment in the sense of aversion to things they do some terrible things even take feces and put it on the tongue things like that well what is it tongue is made up of the three corners that's made of the three corners one physical object touching another visual art why should i feel there's all the manifestation of brahman why should i feel that there's something disgusting about it and you know this is not for everybody that's faith very few people could do it takwa did those things under the guidance of the brahmany he had to practice those things and sometimes he is like an inert thing god of it this is the fourth one staring vacantly he cannot do any work he cannot strive for anything so takur because we know he practiced all different spiritual paths he also manifested all of these different attitudes most of the time he was like a child then he could be daughterhood when he would go into samanthi he would be unmoving he would look this like a log unmoving he also practiced those things to to get rid of this sense of aversion he there was one uh scavenger devotee yeah and uh he was very he was very fond of of him and he was a great devotee he very devoted to srama krishna so srama krishna would go and clean out the latrine in their home in the night when nobody would know it because they would have been of course horrified and even clean up he had long hair in those days to get rid of this feeling aversion and also cast pride that way and this rosique had a wonderful vision of takur at the end and there was a tool seagrove that they had planted a little garden there and that now belongs to the shattered light and it's a little computer center for girls teaching there it's very nice it's on the calcutta side of the ganges and you can go and visit i i went one time yeah it was a very nice place so taka did all of these they said sometimes like a child sometimes they're glowing like a madman we know that that people would think that he was a drunkard he would be staggering back and forth that uh under this inebriation of the divine mood he would be like that so he exhibited all of these at different times and then m says was the master making a veiled reference to his own state of mind whether he was doing it consciously or unconsciously but yes of course he's the proof of all of these things otherwise it's just the nice things we read in the scriptures or stories of old sages and things he was the proof the pramana for all of these things master to the vaisnava devotee the feeling of thee and thine is the outcome of knowledge iron mind comes from ignorant now he just went a long dialogue here trying to get rid of that feeling of of ours is the only true religion that is feeling one side in this feeling of uh other other religions or kind of correcting what he saw as a defect now he's reinforcing he's reinforcing because the one of their main spiritual practices and attitudes was humility the practice of humility sometimes it was too much for taku he didn't like people talking about oh i'm nobody i'm nothing there's a little pride to that also that uh oh no you're much greater than i am i can't do this and everything but at the same time if there was real humility and then he admired that of course so the feeling of d and nine is the outcome of knowledge i in mind comes from ignorance knowledge makes once makes one feel o god thou art the doer and i am thy instrument o god to thee belong all body mind house family living beings and the universe all these are thine nothing belongs to me an ignorant person says oh god oh god is there very far off so this was what he said earlier the man of knowledge knows that god is right here very near in the heart so what he said before was the mediocre one now he's saying that yeah there may be a higher one but this is a person of knowledge of ghani will know that that he has assumed all forms and dwells in all hearts as their inner controller that's the end of that day then we get to sunday july 22nd 1883. taking advantage of the holiday many householder devotees visited sriami krishna in his room at the dakshineshwar temple garden most of the entries are on saturdays and sundays people at the weekend the young devotees mostly students generally came on weekdays tucker would encourage that he would say come come one week they come on a tuesday and then he could talk to them in private there wouldn't be so many people around and when it was the future monastic disciples he could really follow them with this god alone israel and everything else is to be rejected and and you need strong renunciation and he would would give them that the fire fiery talk of renunciation so sometimes the master asked his intimate disciples to come on a tuesday or saturday these are then it says days that are considered very auspicious for special religious instruction mostly for divine mother worshippers of divine mother these two days important had come from calcutta in a hired carriage so these are all the same ones that we saw before they went to visit her and he came to see him see how intimate adar is with him this is just the first year that he's that he's met him srirama krishna had enjoyed a little rest after his midday meal the room had an atmosphere of purity and holiness on the walls hung pictures of gods and goddesses among them one of christ rescuing the drowning peter outside the room were plants laden with fragrant flowers and the ganges could be seen flowing toward the south the master was seated on the small couch and mentions all of these things so that we can picture them in our minds this is not not just uh uh to fill up space he has he has his motive behind all of this that when we sit we sit for meditation we can even we're sitting there we're picturing takur the whole thing one tiny little part of the mind can be visualizing the ganga flowing southward that tiny little part of the mind they could have snuck off slinked off and started thinking about some worldly thing that little thing can be occupied with that there's a reason for all of these little details the master was seated on the small couch facing the north and the devotee sat on mats and carpet spread on the floor generally he sat there there was a larger uh bed or cod wooden wooden bed uh next to that uh towards the towards the west but when he met with the deputies he would sit in the it's a little smaller a little bit lower and you can sit right in front of it what is it like a david yeah they're both uh you know these wooden planks a very typical type of bed all eyes were directed toward him mani malik and all the brahmo diviti about 65 years of age came to pay his respects to the master he had returned a few months earlier from a pilgrimage to benares and was recounting his experiences to sramakrishnan so the the brahmos used to come to srama krishna the vaisnavas would come the shock they all came to him and they taco used to say whoever comes to me they think that i belong to their group because he practiced these things and he had so much love and respect for these different traditions the advice of a tradition was his family tradition and he and he had so many experiences uh visions of rama and sita and krishna and uh hanuman so many different things that he felt very very comfortable in all of these traditions and people also felt that sometimes they would be shocked to say that oh these worshipers of kali also come and he takes food prasad from there and everything there was one that's mother huh that one day she saw he was taking prasad from the kali temple and she stopped coming see we invited and we in generally very particular about vegetarian food so the inductions were tempura because people came from all over they had two different feeding areas one from the from the temple prasad and one from the rather precise one so that'll be strictly vegetarian and the other could have the fish maybe gold meat sometimes so the money molech he had returned a few months earlier from a pilgrimage to benares and was recounting his experiences to suramar krishna mani malik a monk whom i met in benares said that no religious experience is possible without the control of the sense organs nothing could be achieved by merely crying god god master do you understand the views of teachers like kim now talk word is going to talk about him is representing one particular type of point of view because others they'll say that no justice call on god repeat the name of god don't worry about these other things so much that that will automatically come if we get this love of god of course we know that we have to practice a little self-control in the beginning in order to even have any chance of of getting this love of god anyhow do you understand the views of teachers like him according to them one must first practice spiritual disciplines self-restraint self-control forbearance and the like now this will be our raja yoga and our vedanta but when they talk about preliminary things it doesn't mean that we're not at the same time doing our jump in our meditation it means that we do our spiritual practice but at the same time we have to practice these other disciplines and raja yoga yamanyama and all of these things these these are lifelong practices but unless we have a little bit of self-discipline we won't be able to do the other things but tuckwar is taking this as as referring to those who are real roger yoga the real yanis who don't have too much of a devotional attitude and uh are seeking their own liberation this is those who seek their own liberation and don't care for too much else so he's taking it in that way do you understand the views of teachers like him according to them one must first practice spiritual discipline self-restraint self-control forbearance and the like their aim is to attain nirvana they are followers of vedanta okay so this means this means the ancient tradition of sanyasa this means a little bit of that raja yoga also because these raja yogis and the ghani's that usually gets combined there's through the practice of meditation and it's self-control and everything parkour just as as he would say the device numbers were a little bit too one-sided he would say the dancers were a little too timid but they were afraid of mixing with the world of attachment coming and things like that so their aim is to attain nirvana this means final liberation i don't want to be born again that's that idea does it say nirvana in the text yeah he wouldn't have associated this with buddhist tradition we generally now we think well the buddhists they're the ones after nirvana and everything uh but uh we have it in gita the term yeah one time this is nirvana also so and from the vedantic point of view this would be something equivalent to uh no more rebirth ultimate liberation final liberation they are followers of vedanta they constantly discriminate so what do i do not to say roman alone israel and the word illusory but this is an extremely difficult path exactly what the gita says that they're glacia they have a little more is more difficult for them because they do have to have this self-control they do have to have this tremendous weight again fire pronunciation i don't care for this world i don't even look at this world that type of feeling if the world is illusory then you too are illusory the teacher who gives the instruction is equally illusory his words too are as illusory as a dream this of course is taking it to the to the extreme if we have that that attitude everything else is unreal then who do we even have a guru what do we do there's a little bit of what i found in reading this j krishnamurti that uh i liked it i read a lot of that very very early when i first started reading you know spiritual literature but he would say have no guru have no one do don't do meditation all of that means that you don't realize that you're already free and perfect then what do you do there's nothing to do huh doesn't give you anything to hold on to they're very good for very rare souls who are like that otherwise the mind goes all over so this is what tucker is saying but this experience is beyond the reach of ordinary men so part of the problem with eduardo vedanta is that uh it's is very very high and it's it's like climbing to the top of the mountain going straight up not taking use of the path that goes around path is longer a winding path it's longer but it's easier and it's better to take that longer easier path than to get halfway up and and say i can't breathe i can't do it and fall down so this is that difference between the pet of gyan he practiced extreme self-denial that was the first thing that uh when buddha left the palace then he he moved with a few different groups of other sannyasis and everything and uh before he had his his experience his awakening he was with a group that was so fanatical about this self-control that they used to say he would he eat the equivalent of one mustard seed of food each day and he got so thin that you could see the backbone from the front side a little exaggerating maybe yeah and uh we know the story he became so so sick and weak that he fainted and then sujati came and gave him some some bias and when they saw first of all a woman came you can't look at a woman second of all this buy is some sweet nice thing he's taking that they gave him up and they all left him there he was alone that night he took that vow that i won't leave my seat until i have nirvana so yeah he practiced that extreme path we don't hear too much about this idea in brahmin it was it was just self yeah they didn't believe in god right there was no day at that time there were no buddhists at that time later his followers he wouldn't talk about it he when they would ask him is there a god he would remain silent and he said then is there no god he would remain silent so we have different schools the southern schools mostly they took that as a refutation of that idea so many but the northern schools the mahayana and everything they have a full metaphysics very similar to it to brahmin after death either no no they they believe in life after this all the buddhist traditions they all believe in it yeah there's no there may be no soul trans migrating soul yeah but but it'll go on they they have this idea it's uh it's the bucket brigade theory you know a bucket brigade when there's a fire that they'll have a long line of people there'll be a bucket of water one will hand it to the next the next to the next the next there's no one person carrying it the whole way there's no individual soul but that bucket of karma keeps going and that will also take the next birth and everything until there's there's final body nirvana finally some idea like that so but they definitely believe in reincarnation [Music] in um vertical position and control your mind and then you know focus on the people and that's what we do yeah it'll be closest to raja yoga because the yan yoga is all metaphysics there's all these different you know uh what is the real nature that and and the buddha didn't care about these things he said this world is on fire that they're suffering and just learn how to get out of that out of that suffering and uh we can do it through this through meditation but through you know the eightfold path right understanding right action all the different things like that so then tucker says but this experience is beyond the reach of the ordinary man do you know what it is like if you burn camphor nothing remains see if we burn incense you'll seize the ash there but then you burn the camphor and then nothing remains so what does that mean when we analyze that what is the nature of the self we when we take off one layer after the other the five coaches the pantoche doctrine and everything nothing remains after that yes that infinite absolute reality nothing particular remains so there's there's no jiva that will remain there's no devotee that will remain everything disappears everything merges and that and that absolute improvement just like the camphor what happens to it it becomes one with everything it doesn't leave anything behind when wood is burned at least a little ash is left finally after the last analysis the devotee goes into samati then he knows nothing whatsoever of i you or the universe so the universe disappears the scent of i disappears so for there's there's no nothing left there's no individuality there's nothing left yes just not even i am we at that state no one can say what it is but it's not a nothing it's not a zero because it's a ultimate transforming experience and after that one becomes perfectly free was a man of deep wisdom he was one of the early pundits who came to chinese war with when some of the golden so there were there were several of them he had great respect for me though at that time i constantly repeated the name of the divine mother he was probably in it more than a doyton he was the court pundit of the maharaja of burdwan once he came to calcutta and went to live in a garden house near kamarhati i felt a desire to see him and send reno there to learn if the pandit had any vanity this was standard standard operating procedure for srami krishna is there somebody they wanted to see he would send redux or he would ask if it was a pundit and he was very proud that he didn't care to see him if he had a little humility then he would always go himself very humbly before him then i met him though a man of great knowledge and scholarship he began to weep on hearing me sing prasad's devotional songs we talked together a long while conversation with nobody else gave me such satisfaction he used to love to talk with keshav also he said occasionally if you go then with whom shall i talk when i go to calcutta he said to me give up the desire for the company of devotees otherwise people of all sorts will come to you and make you deviate from your spiritual ideal he he loved ramakrishna and respected him but didn't know who he was he couldn't have said that he didn't know that he was born only for that reason to to mix with other people and all sorts of people and to help everyone he was there at the first meeting when they when they all had to give their opinion with the environment with the brahmany is that too high i think so i think what malochen godipan did uh he would not even know one of them he came later yeah i think i it died at that time [Music] okay so tucker met even before then very early very early so for those of you who can't hear this but molochen he was invited when the brahmany said to matar babu everyone thought tako was mad and he said no there's divine madness you you invite all the great pundits of the of the time and uh and come and we'll convene a meeting and i'll convince everyone and he was one of the ones who was invited but before that he passed away okay once he entered into a contra controversy by corresponding with uttavananda vaishnava's guru okay so this will be this is guru this would be a strong vaishnava and this quarterback and everything he told me an interesting incident what the meeting was called to decide which of the two deities shiva or brahma was the greater these are such silly things unable to come to any decision the pundits at last referred the matter to padmalojan with characteristic guidelines as he said how do i know neither i nor any of my ancestors back to the 14th generation have seen shiva or brahma about the renunciation of comedy concept what we call woman in gold lust of gold he said to me one day why have you given up these things such distinctions as this is money and that is clay or the outcome of ignorance what could i say to that i replied i do not know all these things my dear sir but for my part i cannot rally such things as money and the like he tucker had to set an example really why why couldn't he touch money huh first of all it was so ingrained in his mind that it became part of this physio physiognomy he couldn't really physically couldn't touch it and everything but i really he would would would he have become a greedy person if he had money would he start buying fancy things for himself rolls royces and things like that no but but this was just to set an example there was a pundit who was tremendously vain he did not believe in the forms of god but who can understand the inscrutable ways of the divine god revealed himself to him as the primal power this vision made the pundit unconscious for a long time after regaining partial consciousness he uttered only the sound he could not fully pronounce kali okay we can stop here page 267 yeah this this chapter will continue for another several pages surama 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 r peace peace