Video 86

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Atmajnanananda (01/21/22)

[Music] 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 srima krishna we're just finishing the chapter the master and m it's saturday september 22nd 1883 and we're on page 292. this is a an interesting section because we get a preview to a whole chapter that advice to ishan and without reading this we don't fully understand and appreciate uh why ishaan got such a big scolding at that time because it seems like he had this plan to do this vedic chaining this guy tree and other ritual things for a full year and tucker was telling him that these things are not appropriate that he should do something and you know he's had a full year of not listening to so he gets a little bit of a scolding letter but we'll see many of the things that uh he will say to him later will also come in this section but he loved ishaan we have to remember that ishan was a very very good person a very generous person and uh i mentioned last time his his son and the swamiji were close friends and classmates so here we finished srama krishna had heard that ishaan was building a house on the bank of the ganges for the practice of spiritual discipline he asked ishan eagerly has the house been built this was taka's suggestion he told people many times to do this let me tell you that the less people know of your spiritual life the better it will be for you you know this is the same ishan that's going to be doing this practice right on the steps of the kali temple for everyone to see devotees endowed with sattva meditate in a secluded corner or in the forest or withdraw into the mind sometimes they meditate inside the mosquito net so this is that was the last thing we read last time now and then ishaan invited ahazra to his house we know about hazrat also that he was not exactly a troublemaker but sometimes he he would criticize the young boys and takur for not doing enough of japan and everything and he had his own views about non-dualism and everything so he kako was surrounded by these people who had freedom worse when hazra and others that they had their own agenda we can we could say also had a craze for outward purity ramakrishna often discouraged him in this master to ishan let me tell you another thing don't be over fastidious about outward purity taqwa had a little saying that there were three people who won't will have trouble getting god realization anybody remember one is this a shutibai those who are too involved with his ritualistic purity and everything they're banco yeah those those who have a crooked mind and one more those who are very doubting people he didn't want us to to not observe things at all but yes this there were people who made a craze out of it we know especially uh holy mother's niece nalani but there are many many people like that and always bathing and always there's a an expression that uh sometimes other uh other words but these others eat themselves to death and and the voice never made himself to death constantly bathing once a sadhu felt very thirsty a water carrier was carrying water in his skin water bag and offered the water to the holy man now it may be one of these stories about shankaracharya i'm not sure and this this skin water bag this this usually means muslim huh yeah yeah they were the ones that was the practice i've seen it that there will be some type of uh gold there's something and it'll be clean the skin and everything but they'll be able to just kind of open it up and the water will come out and yeah i know what they call it it's the name for it and offered the water to the holy man the sadhu asked if the skin was clean the carrier said revered sir my skin bag is perfectly clean but inside your skin are all sorts of filthy things that is why i can ask you to drink water from my skin it won't injure you by your skin the carrier men the body the belly and so forth have faith in the name of god then you won't need even to go to holy places yeah what did holy mother tell is the nalani that uh first of all see little things i think once some crow droppings fell on her or something and oh my god this is a horrible thing had to go bathe in the ganges and wash your cloth and everything then the holy mother said it'll be enough to sprinkle a little water and then finally he said touch me that'll be enough to purify everything so for taco taking the name of god that'll take care of everything also i remember once i when i lived in the culture that one year there was a little knock on the door one morning and i see this man standing there looking so helpless and everything and uh he pointed to his head some crow head drop that's dropping on his head what could he do with the poor man so i let him in and he could wash himself off and everything it was so distraught over that it happens with crows i had another very funny experience i was i was in dc with some devotees and uh we were watching it was it was just dusk very nice and everything and this big flock of geese goes overhead and you know as if we're thinking ah there's a taco ahead one of the ecstasy is saying something like that and just fantastic honking and going over her head and then one of them plopped right in my head saying intoxicated with divine fervor this was one of his favorite songs why should i go to ganga or gaya to kashi kanchi or prabhas so long as i can breathe my last with kali's name upon my lips ishan remains silent master tuishan tell me if you have any more doubts ishaan you said everything when you spoke of faith master god can be realized by true faith alone i don't i don't know faith is the best word to use to translate i think of it as as conviction faith sometimes we were told to have faith or belief to have faith in something that we don't really understand or that we doesn't uh seem logical to us just have faith just believe it this is the opposite this is something that we think about very deeply that we examine that we look at the logic of it and observe other people and we develop some very deep conviction of the truth of it or swami swanji used to say that this visa this conviction itself is a type of realization that we become so convinced of the of the truth of the scriptures or the existence of god or the divine presence within and we can almost feel it so for takur this was one of the last stages last steps on the on the stairs to get to the roof this in bakulata they're a little bit different a little bit different the one we but they can come from it if we have such a deep conviction that god exists that god is real then that yearning will come forth so takur swamiji also used to give the example that there's a man who's a professional thief and he's in a room and he finds out that there's tremendous amount of gold in the next room and he he believes it he has that belief he knows somehow he knows that it's absolutely true there's no doubt about it so that tremendous longing to get the gold comes in and tremendous effort to burrow through and dig through the wall and everything so faith and conviction and this longing for god can also go together master god can be realized by true faith alone and the realization is hastened if you believe everything about god now what does this mean to believe everything about god i was thinking about this i was wondering i think it means that as taqwa says that don't restrict your understanding to god that he can only be this and not that to believe that god can be with form and without form god can take various forms god can be personally impersonal can reveal himself in different ways we can realize god through different paths or to accept all of these things the truth say the truth in all the schools of vedanta sankey and everything something like that so the realization is hastened if you believe everything about god not every piece of nonsense it doesn't mean that but all the different possible views that all have some some value to them the cow that picks and chooses its food gives milk only in driblets but if she eats all kinds of plants then her milk flows in torrents once i heard a story a man heard the command of god that he should see his ideal deity in a ram it once believed it it is god who exists in all the beings a guru said to his disciple it is rama alone who resides in all bodies the disciple was a man of great faith once a dog snatched a piece of bread from him and started to run away he ran after the dog with a jar of butter in his hand and cried again and again o rama stand still a minute that bread hasn't been buttered now i think this is a story about haribaba no any other similar stories to that the the one very nice do you know about this pravhari baba he he was considered to be a very great the holy man at that time uh swamiji went to see him after takwa passed away many of our monks also went to see him very highly highly regarded as a very genuine holy man and there was one story about him that a thief broke into is he he lived in a place it was a house but the basement was more like a cave so there was a door or something in the structure but inside i haven't been there i think people go there katipur near near varanasi anyhow thief came in and installed some pots and pans and uh as he was going out he started running because he saw alibaba and dropped one or two so pavari baba grabbed the two the ones that he dropped and ran after him and finally caught him and said you you know he said oh lord you dropped two of these please take these as well something like that now this story was told to swamiji and uh he said what happened to that man he said uh that man after that seeing this love above are you and everything he renounced everything and became a sadhu so swamiji said how did you how do you know about all this he said i am that man yeah so he actually met that sadhu the one who was the safe and everything yeah so don't spoil my ending not exciting trying to make it dramatic yeah oh is it dramatic for swamiji can you imagine that you hear the story and find that is it really true just seeing this this man once after being a thief that someone being renounces everything becomes a sadhu he said yes it's true why was that that thief so that's a nice story what tremendous faith krishna kishore had he used to say by chanting om krishna omrama one gets the results of a million sandhyas is a very formal vedic ritual that goes with uh this chanting of the guy three three times a day and everything this is what uh ishaan wanted to do this says this sandhya and reputation of gayatri once he said to me secretly this is krishna i don't like the sandhya and of the oceans anymore but don't tell anyone he was supposed to be you know the orthodox brahman i'm sure and they were supposed to like these things to do these things sometimes i too feel that way the mother reveals to me that she herself has become everything one day i was coming from the pine grove toward the panchavati a dog followed me i stood still for a while near the panchavati the thought came to my mind that the mother might say something to me through the dog we we know how to fed the cat and the food that was meant to be offered in the kali temple cats wander around in those areas happen to wander there and and taco saw and thought oh mothers come in the form of the cat let me offer the food that way this may be the same cat you know the cat story that there was a cat who used to practically live in tucker's room and would come and lie it down at his feet very devoted to taku and taku was very nervous what will happen to this cat after he dies or if he ever leaves there or something so this uh [Music] what is her name who was a very wonderful soul she was very high greatly devoted to taco taco loved her so much and she had some very high spiritual experiences he asked her to take the cat and you take this cat and make sure it is fed nicely and that no harm comes to it so it may be that same cat that he said we of course we don't know you were absolutely right when you said that through faith alone one achieves all ishaan but we are householders master what if you are this was always the uh the plea this is always the remark that was made by the householder devotees as if that meant that they have no hope that they can't realize god we're householders as as if we're bound hand in foot the same things that bind the householder bind the sannyasins because it's the mind everything is the mind so taco is always encouraging them so what what if you're a householder that they can also realize god all of you can so he says what if you are through his grace even the impossible becomes possible ram prasad sang this world is a mere framework of illusion another man composed the song by way of reply there's another man uh he he was quran prasad was a worshiper of divine mother the other man was said where super of krishna i never remember his name some gosvami anybody know no and he was a thorn in the side of ram prasad he was wrong prasad would compose songs and he would almost on the spot compose a song that would contradict everything that he said what is it yeah okay so he's the one who wrote this it wasn't just another man it was the they they would do that they would have sometimes these little kind of song fest song off something they would post something and one would contradict the other it was a a wave what is it so there's a battle of the poets we could say the battle of the poet something like that so so anyhow this wasn't in a formal setting but there's a there's a other ghostwoman he would go around doing that but for some reason even though tucker loved ron prasad songs he liked the answer song better the ghost zombie song better the other thing that is interesting is that one ron prasad song talk with hated this this mother put on your clothes he said stop what nonsense is that another man composed a song by way of reply this very world is a mansion of mirth it is a beautiful song they're both art actually here i can eat hear drink and make merry johnny because my was unsurpassed what did he lack of the world or the spirit janik of course is is the highest example and the one that's almost always pointed to of the householder someone who's responsible for an entire kingdom being a god rely sold perfect soul what did he lack of the world or the spirit holding to one as well as the other he drank his milk from a brimming cup one should first realize god through spiritual discipline and solitude and then live in the world okay now what do we do with the statement like this huh if we if we take this seriously no one will live in the world maybe you one out of uh hundreds of thousands will realize god and then will they actually go back and live in the world i i take this a little bit in a broader sense because sometimes he'll use the exact exact same language except he'll say one should first attain devotion bhakti and then live in the world so i think that we can take it that way otherwise it's too too high a standard that uh to wait until we all have some anti or god realization before we start with a career and family and all of that is too it's a little unrealistic it's a good advice for some of the people that come to him maybe these footages and others and but for most people so i like this other one better that the first develop some devotion get established in spiritual life get some detachment and dispassion and real divorce and everything and then no harm in living in the world carefully living in the world that the body won't get stained constantly with the dirt of the world otherwise it's very tough this one should first realize god through spiritual discipline and solitude and then live in the world only then can one be a king janaka when when people would point to jannika and say that he realized god to karma alone would say but he must have done so much of austerities before that how much he stood with his with his head on the ground his feet in the air make statements like that what can you achieve otherwise further take the case of shiva this would be of course from the puranas he has everything ganesha lakshmi and saraswati still sometimes he dances in a state of divine fervor chanting the name of rama and sometimes he is absorbed in samadhi so shiva was also a householder of course we think of him as the ideal sannyasi completely detached from everything but he had his family okay that's the end of that chapter now we start instruction to vaishnavas and brahmos this is sunday september 23rd 1883. srama krishna was sitting in his room at dakshinishwar with raqual m and other devotees hazard sat on the porch outside that was his spot that he was almost always found sitting there with his japa mala in his hand making a little display of everything and and talking about uh high philosophy sometimes or that ender would go and sit with them they were also friends they would chat about things and everything and then sometimes he would try to get money out of people because he had some debt so he was an interesting character but he he had some great argue also some spirit of renunciation he had left his family he had his family back in the village his poor mother his mother was always begging please send him back just for a couple of days so we could see him and but he's stubborn also master to a devotee that doesn't like even you nowadays to him why didn't he come to see me at adhere's house now this does not like i think this probably means that he was going through that phase and which we some go through in spiritual life when they seek solitude they they don't want anything to disturb the mood of the mind they like to just go inward and deep and and not even have to hold conversations with people we we find it with some of the others also this uh swami shivananda this uh tarak he went through periods like that we read about uh how he stopped coming to suramar krishna because he was spending all of his time in meditation and everything so it's a stage or a phase that deputies go through sometimes when they really don't care for anybody's company they just want to have solitude and and dive deep within and take appreciated that also why didn't he come to see me at his house how versatile narendra is that we love to praise him he is gifted in singing and playing on instruments and playing on instruments and in studies he is independent and doesn't care about anybody the other day he was returning to calcutta with captain in this carriage this is captain this is our upadhyay he was something to do with the nepali government the official or something captain to being beside him but he took a seat opposite he didn't even look at captain what can a man achieve through mere scholarship what is needed is prayer and spiritual discipline gowdy of indish both a scholar and a devotee he was a worshiper of the divine mother now and then he would be overpowered with spiritual fervor when he chanted to him to the mother the pundits would seem like earthworms beside him i too would be overcome with ecstasy at first he was a bigoted worshiper of shakti divine mother he used to pick up tulsi leaves with a couple of sticks so as not to touch them with his fingers these are sacred for the vaisnavas worshipers of krishna especially all laugh then he went home when he came back he didn't behave that way anymore he gave remarkable interpretations of hindu mythology he would say that the ten heads of ravana represented the ten organs kumbhakarna was the symbol of thomas ravana of rajas and bibhishana of sattwa that was why bibhishna obtained favor with rama now i wanted to just give us a little more background about this goldie goldie because he played an important role in this this divine play of swami krishna this place in this it's actually a village of the indus and it's in bangkura so that means that it's not far from asrama krsna's from kumar pakor from his area and yeah he he was a follower of this heroic mood of of the shakti tradition and he had some special powers some cities in 1865 he was invited to dakshineshwar by the brahmani that was when they were trying to uh determine what the real stature of swami krishna was the the romani was convinced that this state of madness he was going through was a divine madness and she was equipped with evidence from the scriptures and other things he wanted to invite all these pundits and let them give the final word for it so he was one of the ones he was invited to that uh and and uh he proclaimed very strongly that thakur was an avatar then he spent a good deal of time with srama krishna and he lost all of his interest in scholarship and the people praising him and everything and these powers that he had and uh and he started devoting himself to real spiritual practice so he became very much devoted to srama krishna and charmed by these different moods and then gradually this tremendous feeling of renunciation came upon him and this tremendous longing for god realization so one day it says with tears in his eyes he went and took leave from srama krishna and he renounced his home he was a householder he renounced everything and and went off and it says that after long even after a long search that no one was able to to find out anything about godi pandit so we have different examples these are some of these great pundits after coming in in contact with ramakrishna how they left the world and they they really gave up all this interest in their scholarship to be upon it in the in india at that time was no joke generally any one field they would they would study for 12 years to be considered having expertise in the one field some of them would do it for four different fields or something like that and so it was no joke so naturally they had tremendous pride and of course fantastic sanskrit scholars they would have to know all of that all right so he gave up everything he just guessed through the through the touch of swami krishna after the master's midday meal while he was resting ram tarak now was this is our swami and some other devotees arrived from calcutta nitigo paltarek and several others were staying with iran a householder disciple of the master in those days even today i i imagine in in certain households thing with big sprawling households they didn't mind relatives would come and show up one day and stay for six months or two years or something or some friends and relatives just devotees would come his house was a little bit like that because it's nitigopal and tariq they both stayed there it says they were staying with ram they were living with him really uh and then they would take off and go someplace else they didn't have much of a fixed place or anything that's why the uh tariq was one of the first to to move into the barangar mutt he didn't have any real place of his own he didn't care for his family home he agreed to marry for the sake of his sister the long story but anyhow's wife died before they really lived together as men and wife so he was a free soul so and israel was was very of course very devoted to srama krishna so anyone who was a devotee he was happy if they stayed there a lot too of course but he stayed there as his servant servant boy and uh as soon as tapper said that uh oh that boy a lot too i like him it'll be nice if he comes and serves me a little bit rob said good fine so that's how he ended up staying with srama krishna and of course became a great saint himself so nitigopal tara and several others were staying with rama a householder disciple of the master nitygopal was always in an exalted spiritual mood taqwa sometimes said in the mood of a paramahamsa but it never became a part of this real inner circle after takur passed away he had his own kind of following tariq's mind too was always in drawn he seldom exchanged words with others ram looked and he was always grave and one very nice thing that we see in in our order that many of many of these great sadhus great sanyasins are very very grave and strong and hard types when they become vice president or president overnight they become very soft they start giving initiation getting disciples and we say he was like that he'd be a very sweet and loving afterwards before that he was a little grave people a little afraid to approach him and everything ram looked after their physical needs rock call now and then spent a few days at other's house so because he just recently showed up within the past year we became so close and of course raccal also stayed very often in balrambos's house that was part of his in-laws family ram to the master we have been taking lessons on the drum master duram nitigopatu no sir he plays a little master and tarak he knows a good deal yeah he was a good tabla player we hear master then he won't keep his eyes on the ground so much if the mind is directed to something else it doesn't dwell deeply on god what does that mean he won't keep his eyes on the ground so much yeah but it's not it's not a bad thing this is this is a trade and a practice of some sadhus they won't look all around because it's just curiosity and to say oh this is beautiful that's beautiful and they may get attached to something or so some sometimes the the guests keep their feet their eyes on the ground while walking so that nothing will attract them some some uh beautiful view or some nice food is being served somewhere or some pretty girl is walking by whatever it is so they'll keep their head down so what he's saying is that this interest in the drums or something the tabla this uh may slightly pull his mind away from just diving deep into into god of course it didn't but then he won't keep his eyes on the ground so much if the mind is much directed to something else it doesn't dwell deeply on god from i have been studying the drama only to accompany the kirtan so he got a little embarrassed he said no i i don't really have any interest in learning how to play just for spiritual reasons when we have gear done that i can play master duh i hear that you two are taking singing lessons is that so now he didn't mind that he encouraged them to sing and he wanted him to buy a book and ron prasad songs which he brought which he bought and he brought one day there and everything so he was happy when he heard that but then was very shy and he would get scoldings for not singing in public he didn't like to sing before other people i hear that you two are taking singing lessons is that so m no sir i just opened my mouth now and then master have you practiced that song oh mother make me mad with i love if you have please sing it this is the brahmos song but it captures the spirit of takur this is he composes after being influenced by takur coming in close contact with him and tucker loved that song the beautiful song uh if you have please sing it the song expresses my ideal perfectly now this is the end of this conversation what does that mean that means that him didn't do it he was still too shy it says the conversation turned to hajj and didn't bother to say that that uh he he wouldn't sing it or he didn't sing it or he did sing it he just stops it right there the conversation turned to hazardous hatred for certain people which ramakrishna did not like master to the devotees i used frequently to visit a certain house at kamarpukur the boys of the family were of my age the other day they came here and spent two or three days with me their mother like hazra used to hate people then something happened to her foot and gangrene set in on the count of the foul smell no one could enter her room i told the incident to hazra and asked him not to hate anyone so he's he's drawing some karmic connection yeah you hate people who knows what type of karma you'll get through that toward evening astronomy krishna was standing in the northwest corner of the courtyard he went into samati in those days the master remained almost always in an ecstatic state in those days this is 1883 what we read and what tucker says is that after his vedantic experience his nearly called vasanti that he remained in that state and that with that mood of oneness and the mind constantly going in and out of samadhi there weren't many weren't many devotees at that time so not that he had some incentive to keep the mind down to talk to them and everything uh and uh later through praying to the divine mother and everything he went into this other type of mood even though there's he was in the bahama state but mostly pulled upward means you go back and forth between that nirvikalpa state and coming down to the heart center where you see everything filled with god but in those days mostly pulled up and then gradually a little bit down so now he's in this state uh where uh he'll go into the bhava this ecstasy then he'll break his arm and he'll go into this other state a little bit more where seeing got everything in everyone and within all beings and every everything is a manifestation of consciousness so he had different different moods at different times that he went through and at the very end he fell in kashipur now i find my mind more and more merging in the infinite formless absolute reality which to him meant that he was nearing the end so emirates in those days the master remained almost always in an ecstatic state he would lose consciousness of the world at the slightest suggestion from outside this he had that type of mind that was very open to spiritual suggestion that anything that uh he associated with the divine would would trigger trigger that mood in his mind with many many instances of that at the slightest suggestion from outside but for scan but for scan conversation with visiting devotees he remained in an in-drawn mood and was unable to perform his daily worship and devotions he had actually stopped working as a priest in the temples much much earlier coming down to the relative world he began to talk to the divine mother still standing where he was o mother he said worship has left me and japa also please see mother that i do not become an inert thing let my attitude toward god be that of the servant toward the master o mother let me talk about the enchant thy holy name i want to sing thy glories give me a little strength of body that i may move about that i may go to places where thy deputies live and sing thy name in the morning srama krishna had been to the kali temple to offer flowers at the mother's feet so not exactly formal worship but at least something at least something continuing the master said oh mother i offered flowers at thy feet this morning i thought that is good my mind is again going back to formal worship then why do i feel like this now why art thou turning me into a sort of inner thing this this uh used to talk about these the god realized souls falling into four different personality types so this will be one those whose minds are constantly merging in god so that they appear to be just like a a log lying on the ground with no signs of life or movement or anything darwin this it's interesting we find the bhagavat has this as a verse about these four and we make true domini also has a verse about these four types like a child like a ghoul like uh a madman like a uh yeah and um and bollywood the child and like an inner thing the moon had not yet risen it was a dark night the master still in an abstracted mood sat on the small couch in his room and continued his talk with the divine mother he said why this special discipline of the gaia tree now look at this ishan is still in his mind in the conversation from yesterday uh who else could he be referring to he had that long talk with the ishan about this dietary and node better to do nowadays to worship god in the form of divine mother and coming down from that ecstatic state somehow the isan was still in his mind why this special discipline that means buddhist channel that's what he wanted to do you start out with a certain number increase it from new moon to full moon and then decreasing back to the moon again why this jumping from this roof to that who told him to do it in fact tucker told him not to do it perhaps he is doing it of his own accord well he will practice a little of that discipline so talk we would resign to it a little the previous day oh here it is surrounding christian had discouraged ishaan about vedic worship saying that it was not suitable for the kaliyuga he had asked ishan to worship god as the divine mother the master said to him are these all my fancies or are they real m remain silent with wonder at the master's intimate relationship with the divine mother he thought she must be within us as well as without indeed she must be very near near to us or why should the master speak to her in a whisper yeah takur used to say there was a story one man was worse was doing i think very loudly and someone came up to him and said why are you doing it so loudly don't you know that the lord can hear even the anklets on the feet of an ant that means that he's the nearest and closest to us okay this is uh wednesday so this last one was a sunday so wednesday september 26 1883 one of the rare occurrences was rare the instances where m is there in a weekday aside from when he had a long break either christmas time or durga puja there were very few deputies with the master for most of them came on sundays raqqa and lattu were living with him the greater part of the time yeah they were all different times different people stayed with him [Music] of course [Music] ended up staying with him also and some others at different times m arrived in the afternoon and found the master seated on the small couch the conversation turned to narendra master to him have you seen narendra lately with a smile he said of me he still goes to the kali temple he didn't like he was still uh connected somewhat with the brahmos homage and they looked down very much on image worship in general and his worship of mother kali in particular his bloodthirsty goddess who had to be uh offered uh goat sacrifices and things and very ghoulish looking and everything so he thinks that oh he's had this god realization and still he does this primitive type of worship huh idolatry type of thing so tucker is making fun of him he said to me he still goes to the kali temple but he will not when he truly understands 19 years old at the time his people are very much dissatisfied with him because he comes here now and then they weren't the only ones there were very few of the disciples whose parents were happy that they went to see him he had this reputation of turning the minds of these young boys away from the world so they won't want to get married they won't want to have a job they want to become sadhus and everything so there was always a little fear of sadhus in india huh by the way they'll take these young boys with them and kidnap them and take them and turn them into monks the other day he came here in a hired carriage and surrendered paid for it very generous man surrendered narendra's aunt almost had a row with surrender about it the master left the couch and went to the northeast veranda where hazra kisori rakal and the few other devotees were sitting okay now i thought we haven't said too much about him i thought i would give a little background it's nice to know about these characters then okay okay so kishiri mohan gupto he was the younger brother of them and he was born in 1859 so uh say four years four years older than swamiji and uh also m about five years younger than them he was the only one in the family other than them who really became a close deputy of srimad krishna so one of talked with householder devotees and he met him first in 1882 and 1883 because as soon as m started coming he knew this was one younger brother that he really liked and felt close to otherwise he didn't get along with his brothers at all at all that was one of the reasons why he was always wanting to leave the joint family and have his own place and everything father to a certain extent mother and his stepmother and uh but mostly the older brothers but one kishore they they were on the same page the two of them so probably that m took him there for the first time 1882 or 1883. yeah he was extremely devoted to the srama krishna and one would go there on a very regular basis and would serve srama krishna also he was a good singer he had a very nice singing voice and he would sing before surami krishna on various occasions tucker liked the song very much he was a very intimate member of the brahmos homage also there were many who were kind of half and have brahmos samaj members but also devoted to sramakris actually not so many who were so devoted to srama krishna from the brahmos homage the ones that we know of left of course rakhal and narendra and everything uh so he remained he remained devoted to swami krishna throughout his whole life at the very end he lived alone in the house by himself and practiced austerities and then passed away there and how old was he in 1931 so that's kishori we read about him very often and uh i am never once mentions that he's his brother he just refers to him because m doesn't like to say anything about his own personal life and personal relations or anything half the time when he talks about his wife coming and his son dying and everything he'll use a different pseudonym he won't even say m they'll say the money or use of some other or or just a devotee so this this kishori was the younger m's younger brother so the master left the couch and went to the northeast veranda where hazura kishori rakal and a few other devotees were sitting master to him how was it that you were here today have you no school em our school closed today at half past one master why so early um vidyasagar visited the school he owns the school so the boys got a half holiday whenever he comes they're very clever huh so they'll be happy to see him they know that they'll get they they'll get time out from school master why doesn't vidyasagar keep his word if one who holds the truth and looks on woman as his mother does not realize god then tulsi is a liar this uh this is a little hindi thing you know it anybody know it i'll find it yeah these are very common these little couplets from tootsie dots huh [Music] people memorize these things huh people know lots of them you also know somehow yeah yeah you learned them in school yeah knew so many things these little hindi things also these he had heard so why doesn't vidyasagar keep his word yeah he said he would come to visit him he didn't if one holds the truth and looks on a woman as his mother if one who holds the truth and looks one woman as his mother does not realize god then tulsi is a liar if a man holds the truth he will certainly certainly realize god the other day vidyasagar said he would come here and visit me that was after taku went to see him but he hasn't kept his word there's a big difference between a scholar and a holy man vidyasagar was not just a scholar of course he was a very philanthropic and uh very much devoted to social reform to the plight of of widows and child widows and poor people and everything he was a good taco liked him very much and praised him he said the work he's doing he's very sought to work but he doesn't know the goal that's hidden within if he did he would withdraw a little bit from so much of that work but he didn't like that he didn't keep his word there's one thing there's a big difference between a scholar and a holy man the mind of a mere scholar it's fixed or in lust and gold but the sadhu's mind is on the lotus feet of hari a scholar says one thing and does another but it is quite a different matter with the satu the words and actions of a man who was given his mind to the lotus feet of god are all together different in benares i saw young sanyasi who belonged to the sect of nanak now we don't associate sannyasa with the seeking dharma very much but uh taco makes several references to this uh not a panti satus he calls them uh one of his if i remember correctly i think one of his one of his sons started a kind of a branch that's the udas udaci of monks so there was a [Music] some monastic tradition within the sikh tradition not not exactly a little kind of offshoot so it could have been something like that otherwise we don't hear much about that seek sannyasis or anything there was one day actually yeah [Music] uh [Music] in benares i saw a young sannyasi who belonged to the sect of nanak he was the same age as you he's talking to him he used to to refer to me as a loving monk a sect had a monastery in benares i was invited there one day i found that the mohan was like a housewife i asked him what is the way for the kali yuga he said the path of devotion as enjoined by narada now this became one of the most important teachings that takwar gave over and over and over again the kali yuga naruti so taqwa was not averse to picking up ideas from other people and would very very often credit them with it you see i heard this from this person i heard it from that person but a very important thing there's no time now but the next next friday i want to talk a little bit about this not of the avacti because this very nice commentary on the gospel by swami pradesh this uh uh the introduction has a long section on there's not a devotee what it very very means it means it's pure devotion when he talks about this pure devotion not seeking for anything other than love of god he was reading a book this is that when the reading was over he recited vishnu was in water vishnu was on land vishnu was on the mountaintop the whole world is pervaded by vishnu at the end he said peace peace abiding peace one day he was reading the gita so taker must have spent some time with him he was so strict about his monastic rules that he would not read a holy book looking at a worldly man so he turned his face toward me and his back one mathur who was also present so this is when um took them all in pilgrimage that's the only time he went to see these places it was this holy man who told me of narada's path of devotion as suited to the people of the kali yuga em are not sadhus of his class followers of the vedanta now we know that means non-dualism this is this is the way this term was used by ceramic christian and by others at that time so it means that i am thinks that oh he's talking about so much about devotion or the gyanis master yes they are but they also accept the path of devotion the fact is that in the kali yuga one cannot wholly follow the path laid down in the vedas once a man said to me that he would perform the buddhist of the gayatri again just once a man said to me it's interesting that he would perform the purist of the gayatri i said why don't you do that according to the tantra in the kali yuga the discipline of tantra is very efficacious okay it goes on but we can we can stop here page 297 um [Music] [Music] our heads before srama krishna who was stainless of infinite nature whose heart melts in sympathy for his devotees who is an embodiment of the divine and the supreme lord and ever worthy of our worship peace