Gospel | Chapter 6: Dec 1882 (Part 2) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:04]We're reading the Gospel of Sri Ramak Krishna and in my book we were on page 160.

[00:00:13]The date is not known. It is just December 1882.

[00:00:19]December 1882 page 160.

[00:00:24]I'm going to start reading from the middle of the page. After the songs, a devotey from Nandon Bhagan entered the room with his friends.

[00:00:36]The master looked at him and said, "Everything inside him can be seen through his eyes as one sees the objects in a room through a glass door."

[00:00:48]This devotey and his brothers always celebrated the anniversary of the Brahma Samaj at their house in Nandan Bhagan.

[00:00:55]Sri Ramak Krishna had taken part in these festivals.

[00:01:00]The evening worship began in the temples.

[00:01:04]The master was seated on the small couch in his room absorbed in meditation.

[00:01:10]He went into an ecstatic mood and said a little later, "Mother, please draw him to thee. He is so modest and humble. He has been visiting thee."

[00:01:24]Was the master referring to Babu Ram who later became one of his foremost disciples?

[00:01:33]The master explained the different kinds of samadhi to the devotees.

[00:01:38]The conversation then turned to the joy and suffering of life.

[00:01:43]Why did God create so much suffering m once Vidya Saga said in a mood of peak? What is the use of calling on God?

[00:01:55]Just think of this incident. At one time Changis Khan plundered a country and imprisoned many people. The number of prisoners rose to about a 100,000.

[00:02:07]The commander of his army said to him, "Your majesty, who will feed them? It's risky to keep them with us. It will be equally dangerous to release them. What shall I do?" Changis Khan said, "That's true. What can be done?" "Well, have them killed." The order was accordingly given to cut them to pieces. Now, God saw this slaughter, didn't he? But he didn't stop it in any way. Therefore, I don't need God, whether he exists or not. I don't derive any good from him.

[00:02:38]Master, is it possible to understand God's actions and his motive? He creates, he preserves, and he destroys.

[00:02:47]Can we ever understand why he destroys?

[00:02:50]I I say to the divine mother, "Oh mother, I do not need to understand.

[00:02:57]Please give me love for thy lotus feet."

[00:03:00]The aim of human life is to attain bacti. As for other things, the mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number of trees and branches and leaves? I only eat the mangoes. I don't need to know the number of trees and leaves.

[00:03:22]Babuam M and Ramdal slept that night on the floor of the master's room.

[00:03:29]It was an early hour of the morning about 2 or 3:00 the room was dark. Sri Ramak Krishna was seated on his bed and now and then conversed with the devotees.

[00:03:44]Master remember that da compassion and maya attachment are two different things. Attachment means the feeling of mininess towards one's relatives. It is the love one feels for one's parents, one's brother, one's sister, one's wife and children. Compassion is the love one feels for all beings of the world. It is an attitude of equality.

[00:04:12]If you see anywhere an instance of compassion as in Vidya Shagar, know that it is due to the grace of God. Through compassion, one serves all beings. Maya also comes from God. Through Maya, God makes one serve one's relatives. But one thing should be remembered. Maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the world. Whereas da makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds.

[00:04:44]God cannot be realized without purity of heart. One receives the grace of God by subduing the passions, lust, anger, and greed. Then one sees God. I tried many things in order to con conquer lust.

[00:05:03]When I was 10 or 11 years old and lived at Kamar Pukur, I first experienced samadhi. As I was passing through a patty field, I saw something and was overwhelmed.

[00:05:15]There are certain characteristics of God vision. One sees light, feels joy and experiences the upsurge of a great current in one's chest like the bursting of a rocket.

[00:05:29]The next day Babu Ram and Ramdal returned to Kolkata. M spend the day and the night with the master.

[00:05:38]So that's this portion.

[00:05:41]All right.

[00:05:44]Here Sri Ramak Krishna says so devotey came from Nandan Bhagan a brahma devotey everything inside him can be seen through his eyes as one sees the objects in a room through a glass door.

[00:05:57]So this is what used to be said about Sri Raak Krishna that u he could see through people you know into the hearts of people just like something is kept in a glass case and you can see it from outside.

[00:06:13]Similarly, Mr. Ramak Krishna could look into the minds and the hearts of people and he would know and I have felt this and even known this with um a number of senior Swami G's a few senior Swami G's whom I have met. You get the feeling that they understand you very deeply and and they know you very deeply and actually know things about you which nobody else in the world would know otherwise.

[00:06:35]Is that scary? It might be. But um you know when you meet such people you realize that they are so much on your side they're so much your well-wisher they doesn't really matter if they know what's in your heart and they are there for you the I had mentioned the pundit you know who went to see Sri Ramak Krishna and then he did not go finally he stopped halfway because he thought that Sriramakrishna is supposed to know everything in a person's heart and he got scared he'll know what's there in in my mind and so he didn't go but later he regretted it deeply and I think if he had gone he would have seen there's no need to be scared Krishna is always there to help us he's not going to you know reveal our secrets to one and all and then embarrass us in front of everybody that's not the point it's not that it's always telepathy or some kind of supernatural power sometimes if you're very mature very wise you know a a lot easily a lot about people who might not be so mature or wise. Just like um a mother or a grandmother might know what a little child is thinking or what a little child intends to do and you know and easily it's very easy easy to see through a child.

[00:07:58]Similarly, often such highly spiritual people, they can see through us. They seem to be childlike and innocent. It's quite the contrary. They are wiser than all of us.

[00:08:12]Often worldly people think spiritual people are foolish or innocent. Rather, it's the other way around. It's the spiritual people that advanced spiritually advanced people who to whom even clever worldly people seem just like children and they can see through often they will not say anything they'll play they'll just be childlike but being childlike doesn't mean that they are children they actually there's a difference between being childish and childlike childlike is good childish is not good then he says See there's a beautiful description. Sri Ramak Krishna is praying to the divine mother um for his devotey and look at his prayer.

[00:08:58]Mother please draw him to you to thee.

[00:09:02]He is so modest and humble. He has been visiting thee. So was the master referring to Baburam. So Baburam was present. Young boy who later became Swami Pmanand a very pure young soul who became a great monk. one of Sri Ramak Krishna's most prominent disciples later on in life. So he was present at that on that occasion and Sri Ramak Krishna is praying to the divine mother for him but look at his prayer he's saying that let him have bi let him be drawn to you that's the greatest thing if a spiritual master prays for us that we may have bi in our lives that we may be drawn to god nothing more is necessary just having bacti just being drawn to god that's all that is necessary and look at the two condition two qualifications he has mentioned he is so modest and humble and then he says he has been visiting thee so two things are required uh you work on yourself a self-reformation that if I am proud and angry and um uh you know or greedy these will be like you know a needle is covered with mud and so magnet cannot pull the needle. If you polish the needle, if you remove the mud, the magnet automatically pulls the need. Needle doesn't have to do anything. The magnet will pull the needle. Similarly, this person Baburam is modest and humble. That means he is he is not arrogant. He is not proud. He he is willing to learn and he's willing to lower himself before God and a spiritual teacher.

[00:10:50]And therefore God will pull him. Second Sam Krishna says he has been visiting thee.

[00:10:58]Why is this so big? See there must be some effort from our side.

[00:11:04]The effort is this young boy is regularly coming to the Dakshineshwar temple to meet Sri Ramak Krishna to visit the temple of Kali. This effort is important that it signals our desire for God. Yes, I'm very spiritual. What are you doing about it? No, nothing much. I don't have time now. When I retire, I will do something about it. No, when you retire also, you'll not do anything about it. It's it's the desire must be there and it must be expressed in some kind of action right now. So these two things inner reformation of character and being up and doing trying to realize God.

[00:11:40]Then he explains the different kinds of samadhi to the devotees and turn to the joy and suffering of life. So this is one of the big questions. Why did God create so much suffering? Earlier, if you remember last week, another big question had been taken up. The question of free will if you remember, I'd mentioned the question of free will. Do we have free will or not? And we had a lot of discussion about that. Now, another question in spiritual life is the question of um evil.

[00:12:09]In theology, this is called the problem of evil. So any religion which talks about God has to explain why is there so much suffering if God exists. The problem is this that um um God if God is all powerful and God is good all loving then there should not be suffering. What do I mean by this is suppose God is all powerful but not all loving just powerful like a dictator then there can be suffering. Why is there so much why has God created so much suffering? Because God can do it.

[00:12:51]But if God is good, God wants us, loves us and wants to protect us, then why should God give us suffering? That is the big question. There's a beautiful example of this in the Bible. You find the story of the great deluge in the Old Testament. The flood and Noah's ark. He saved all the animals two by two and all of that. The same story is found in in a pre-Judaic time in Babylon among in the ancient Iraq. What is Iraq now? In ancient Iraq, the same story was there in the Babylonian civilization but with one crucial difference.

[00:13:33]The original that story in that earlier form was that God is all powerful.

[00:13:41]That's all. Nothing more. All powerful just supremely powerful. And God was resting and the human beings were talking too much. So God became very annoyed and said this talkative noisy race I will destroy them and he sent a flood and he drowned all of them and then similar just like Noah there is a person who takes a builds an ark and saves all the animals all that story rest of the story is pretty similar but this is the first form of the story same story is found among the Jewish people in the old testament but with one difference with one difference what's the difference the difference is god is All powerful and just is not unfair.

[00:14:26]It's just justice. So now God finds that the human beings have become sinful and so they need to be punished for their for their sin and therefore God sends the delude to to drown this um sinful humanity and Noah is sent to save all animals and all that you know everybody 2 by two in the ark and so on. Now notice one difference is there. The original uh the earlier story was God sent a deluge.

[00:15:00]Why? God is powerful. God can do anything.

[00:15:04]The second story needed to justify why God did it. Because if God is a just God, there must be some reason. There must be some good reason why God can't behave just like a dictator. So God is just and the human beings deserve to be punished because of their sinful nature.

[00:15:19]And so God punished out of justice.

[00:15:23]Um so in this way the idea of God evolves. Not that God evolves but the idea of God evolves. And then further when God evolves when you come to the New Testament God is not only God all powerful not only God is just but God is a loving God.

[00:15:40]Now just like a parent. So which parent would want the children to suffer unnecessarily? No parent would. But you as human parents you don't have the power to prevent the suffering for the kids. You would want them not to suffer.

[00:15:54]But even if you want it, it can't be helped because you don't. You're not all powerful. But God is all powerful and God is just and God is all loving like a human parent.

[00:16:05]In that case, why is there suffering?

[00:16:08]You must first appreciate the problem.

[00:16:11]If God is all powerful, not loving, then it's very easy to say why there is suffering. Because God created suffering. Why? Because God can create suffering. I never said God is good. God can be good. God can be evil. In that case, what will be your worship of God?

[00:16:25]Your worship of God will be to plate this God. You know, give offerings and sacrifice and make sure God doesn't get angry at you. God protects you. God can get angry at your enemies.

[00:16:37]Um but if God is all powerful and just and loving and yet there is suffering, big question comes, why is there suffering? And often this question, why is there so much suffering? If God is there omnisient, omnipotent, um, omnipresent and beneficient and loving God, then why is there suffering? And then this suffering um is often used as an argument to show that God doesn't exist.

[00:17:11]If God existed, this suffering would not be there. We can clearly see so much suffering is there in personal life in community life in national international life in the human world in the animal world in everybody's life there is old age disease death and in the community life imagine the hurricane it comes to Florida and so much devastation and loss of life and then there is war in Ukraine now and so much different kinds of human suffering uffing and in the animal world, natural world, there's suffering. If a lion catches hold of a deer or or cat catches hold of a mouse, the mouse suffers.

[00:17:53]There's no doubt about. And how can you prevent that suffering? But God, it seems God has designed the world in such a way, there will be suffering.

[00:18:00]Imagine you might say it's our doing.

[00:18:02]But if we all became good and we tried our best not to give suffering to others, there still would be suffering there due to disease. And natural world there still would be suffering. The cat will catch a mouse. How will you prevent that? That's the food of the cat and there is suffering for the mouse. So the world seems to have been designed to generate suffering. This is called the problem of evil. Couldn't God have designed a better world? You're saying it's omnipotent, all powerful. So God could have designed a better world.

[00:18:32]Now um so what is the answer?

[00:18:36]And this question is common. It's come two three times in the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. number of times it has come up at least twice or thrice and Sri Ramak Krishna gives different answers.

[00:18:50]First answer which is given here is that we cannot know this mystery and maybe it is the last answer. Other answers we want an answer but it's quite possible that we cannot understand.

[00:19:05]There is really no answer to this. It's a fact that God exists. It's a fact that God is all loving and good. It's also a fact that there is lot of suffering in the world. And we want an explanation.

[00:19:16]Answer could simply be that there is no explanation of this. It is just this way. God wants it to be this way could be and that's Sriram Krishna's first answer in another place in this gospel of Sri Ram Krishna another person asks this question um the Mukhar gi brothers in Kolkata so this was the first answer Sriam Krishna gives can we understand uh what you know it's beyond our understanding then they they are not satisfied they push for an answer and Sriram Krishna gives his next answer he says is well it is the leela of God. It is the play of God. In the play there is no rhyme or reason. God is playing in this way. Now this annoys the the gentleman who is asking the question and he sharply asks that it is play for God but it is death for us. In Bengali he said tartel rami it's death for us. What kind of god is this? Then um Sri Lama Krishna he says the last answer the third level answer leela of God but death for us. Sam Krishna says and who are you? Do you know who you are? He just puts this question and stops there. That's the adic inquiry which will take you to the fact that you are Brahman. So from that perspective actually you do not suffer nor does anybody suffer. Not only that you and the god which designs this universe you are one reality.

[00:20:44]So I find that the adic answer quite satisfactory.

[00:20:50]Now I will not go into it but this problem of evil theologians philosophers and different religions in the world they have tried to answer it. There are many answers. I have mentioned it earlier also.

[00:21:02]Professor Arthur Harmon in his book the problem of evil in Indian thought he was a professor of philosophy in Hawaii University. So he has given 23 24 answers to this question not one answer or two answers 24 answers. Sriram Krishna gave three answers. First we cannot understand second it is the leela of God. Third it is who are you? You and God are one reality. But professor Herman has collected 24 answers. Some of them um are from Indian philosophy but there are many from across the world from Christianity from other religions from the philosophers and literature. So 24 answers if you are interested you can look it up. What are the different answers? In fact in Canada in in Calgary this time I gave a talk on the problem of evil in uh and what is the answer. So I spoke about these 24 different kinds of answers to it. Anyway I will not go into that now. So what did Saddam Krishna say here?

[00:22:07]M raises this question says that Vidya Saga the great Vidya Saga was the great Bengali 19th century reformer and educationist and philanthropist.

[00:22:20]So in one once in a mood of annoyance he said what's the use of calling on God?

[00:22:25]Chengeis Khan plundered a country and imprisoned many people. Number of prisoners rose to 100,000. The commander of his army said to him, "Your majesty, who will feed them? It's risky to keep them with us. And if you release them, that's also dangerous. What do we do?"

[00:22:39]And Changis Khan said, "That's true.

[00:22:41]What can be done? Let's kill them." So I had them killed. And then then the 100,000 people were cut to pieces. I don't know what episode he's referring to here but definitely uh in Delhi Timur Changghistan actually never really attacked India but Timur uh he did that about large number of prisoners and outside the outskirts of Delhi more than 100,000 were slaughtered the point is many of them may have been praying to God that to save us but God didn't save them and so what can be done have them killed and they were killed God saw this slaughter didn't he? But he didn't stop it in any way.

[00:23:20]I've often faced this from say Jewish people. Bill Conrad, he asked this question number of times. In the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were um gassed to death in the concentration camps in the gas chambers of Oshwitz and other places in Germany.

[00:23:40]Now, how do you explain this?

[00:23:44]So this is the question and Sri Ram Krishna's answer is first answer and here he gives this centrally he gives this answer only it's not possible to understand this it's not is it possible to understand God's action and his motive he creates he preserves and he destroys this is an answer also the very definition of God is the creator preserver and destroyer of this universe in Brahma sutras what is Brahman so there's a sutra janma that from which the birth creation etc of this universe take place etc. What does etc mean? Creation preservation and destruction of the universe that is Brahman. Now you have defined God in such a way that it includes destruction and when God destroys now you are complaining. So God is just fulfilling his function his her its function and that's how the world is sustained by new creation. uh destruction of the old and so on and that can create suffering.

[00:24:51]um Sri Ramak Krishna so but what about our question why should we suffer and Sri Ramach Krishna says I don't need to know I don't need to know he says I have come to the mango orchard to eat mangoes and eat mangoes that's enough for me I have come here god exists I have devotion to the feet of god the devotion the feet of the divine mother that's enough for me why the mother does something this way that way in my personal life also causes is suffering. Sriram Krishna fell down his hand was broken. So he suffered and then later he got cancer and he suffered. So in my personal life there can be suffering in the lives of those I love and nearby some of them died in during Sriram Krishna's own lifetime.

[00:25:35]There can be death and suffering and in the wider scale there can be death and suffering for hundreds of thousands and millions. But my point is that um uh I did not know the answer to this.

[00:25:50]This my only desire is God exists and I love God. This does not mean that he is against helping people. Not at all. In fact, he says it is a spiritual thing to help people. You'll notice how closely this is connected this dialogue. Just one paragraph later he says there is compassion which makes people help others and this is a divine thing. He says it is da da not maya. He says da is that which makes you help all beings and know that it comes from god. And then he carefully points out vidya saga had da.

[00:26:26]See the question is interesting. M raises the gives the example of vidya saga who doubts the existence of god or who doesn't care about god because god is not helping people in suffering. But vidya saga is helping people in suffering. He's got da and Sriram Krishna says that comes from God and that helps and that makes people help everybody and he gives Sriram Krishna also gives the example of India saga here and notice how it it ties together and the point Sam Krishna is making is that it doesn't matter if um he doubts the existence of God or he doesn't doubt the existence of God but it's important important that he has he has da he has great compassion for all beings that's important why is that important then even if he really doubts the existence of god very soon he will not that da will purify his mind and then he says later on a little later you will see he says that um it ma maya keeps us in ignorance da makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds and then he says god cannot be realized is without purity of heart. If there is purity of heart, then one sees God. These are literally the words which are there in the last but one paragraph. In the New Testament Bible, it is straight away, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Look at the exact language. They shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And it's meant there literally. So the God experience or the experience of the divinity in all beings that comes in through purity of heart.

[00:28:09]It does not come by solving the problem of evil. I mean one of the 24 different answers which answer is good which answer is wrong which one is acceptable which is more logical which is less logical. You can go through that exercise. Sri Ramak Krishna says here um what is the use of my calculating the number of trees branches and leaves? I only eat the mangoes. I don't need to know the number of trees and leaves. So what you are asking is telling M what is the answer to this problem of evil that is counting the branches and leaves and that will not solve anything. Suppose out of the 24 list of 24 solutions provided by professor Herman you select one this is the solution. So what difference does will it removes the suffering of people? No. Will it lead you towards spirituality? No. Will it give you god realization? No. Will it remove your suffering also? No.

[00:29:09]Um then he goes on that Babu Ram and Ramdal slept that night on and then the early hours of the morning 2 or 3:00 room was dark. Sriram Krishna was seated on his bed and now and then conversed with the devotees.

[00:29:25]You might think that's strange 2:00 uh in the 2:00 a.m. in the morning and Sriram Krishna is talking with the devotees just we are reading today early in the morning in our shrine here Mahapurush Swami Shivanand so towards the end of his life almost throughout the night he would not get any sleep he would spend in a high spiritual mood sometimes in samadhi sometimes in bhava and because he was so ill um the devotees and the monks kept urging him that that this sleepless Sleeplessness is not good for your health. So please sleep a little. Then Swami Shivanand said we have seen Sri Ramak Krishna. He had hardly any sleep.

[00:30:13]Sometimes you would see him catching a you know little sleep for half an hour or 1 hour and for the rest of the time he would um in be in some spiritual moods or he would sing and dance or talk to the devotees give them instruction talk about God and then Swami Shivanandhi says we used to observe that especially at night these spiritual moods bhav Krishna would become more intense. So he would walk back and forth or remain in samadhi. Um or if devotees were present like this sometimes he would talk to them. And Swami Shivanand said sometimes he would wake us up and said my dear boys have you come here to sleep? The days are passing when will you realize God? And so he said we would quickly sit up and start start meditating. So then that would be in the dead of the night.

[00:31:10]So he's conversing with the devotees and he picks up the conversation which he left earlier in the evening. He says da is compassion and maya is attachment are two different things the same power of love affection but one is maya one is daa the maya is the one which is involved with the person this body mind these are mine my people those are not mine and this is very natural it's nothing I mean this is how samsara functions and he says attachment means the feeling of mininess towards one's relatives You might say what's wrong with this wrong in the sense from vidantic perspective it's wrong because it's body centered he says look at the example it is the love one feels for one's parents one's brother one's sister one's wife and children nothing at all wrong with it but it'll keep us in samsar this one compassion is the love that one feels for all beings in the world it is an attitude of equality one sign of truth one sign of spirituality ity is equality to see the same divinity everywhere in the Gita again and again sama bhava the seeing the same same Brahman everywhere whatever the nature of the ornament whether it's a bracelet or a ring or a necklace it is same gold literally the same reality it is the statue of Da and Ganesha and and Laxshmi and Saraswati or it's the image of the demon mahishas sura and the the lion there it's the same gold or the same silver or the same clay which is used to make all this same reality it is an attitude of equality and then he gives the example of idya remember it's separated by several hours the earlier part of the conversation was in the evening this is in the depth of the night Sam Krishna says if you see anywhere an instance of compassion as in vidya saga the one who m had said earlier one who was doubting the existence of god who said I don't need god because god is no good to me know that it is due to the grace of god that vidy saga is vidya saga due to the grace of god how is it connected to spirituality he says through maya one serves one's relatives so that's the good of maya that you know it it makes us do things for others who are related to us. But through da um one serves everybody. One thing should be remembered maya keeps us in ignorance and entangles us in the world.

[00:33:56]Whereas da makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds. Gradually unties our bonds.

[00:34:05]In this connection let me mention the word upanish.

[00:34:09]Upanishad the basis of vanta. The word upanishad has three three parts. Up, ni and shhat.

[00:34:17]The shhat is the last part. Upa and ni is up means to approach the teacher or to approach this knowledge the spiritual knowledge given by the by the upanishad the texts to approach this knowledge. Ni means to get clarity to remove all doubts about it to know it in reality.

[00:34:35]But the word the the the verb s has three meanings. Shankarachara says so it means it destroys it takes you and it loosens. Then Shankrara explains uh the upanishad is that knowledge which destroys our ignorance about our real nature. It destroys ignorance about God. That's one meaning of upanishad.

[00:35:08]That knowledge if you approach closely and get clarity about it s is visharan it destroys ignorance.

[00:35:18]Second guty guti means it takes you but gi can mean two things. Aagati means to realize and guti also means take you.

[00:35:27]Where does it take you to Brahman to God to that ultimate reality. Take you doesn't mean actually physically take you anywhere or take you in space or take you in time. Just you realize you come to realize that you are Brahman. So um guty and then the point why I raised this the third meaning ofishad is loosen. It loosens and shankarachara says it loosens the bonds of samsara well before becoming enlightened destroying ignorance realizing I'm Brahman. Well before that it loosens the bonds of samsara. He says here Sri Ram Krishna says da makes our hearts pure and gradually unties our bonds. That is the bonds of samsara.

[00:36:19]What is its connection with this purity of mind? What's its connection with God?

[00:36:22]God cannot be realized without purity of heart.

[00:36:27]Because impurity of heart is that which ties us to the world. This impurities is of three kinds, three levels. At its surface level it is greed and anger and and um and passion lust. Lust, anger and greed.

[00:36:45]Kamakroa.

[00:36:46]So lust, anger and greed. This is the impurity at the surface level. It is there immediately. We can see it is in our hearts.

[00:36:55]But at a deeper level this impurity is expressed in the restlessness of the mind.

[00:37:02]The mind flickers a lot. It's because of this impurity present in the heart. We are unable to study it in anything divine.

[00:37:12]Such a mind may actually concentrate.

[00:37:14]Maybe a good you know like a scientist or a good painter might be or might not be. But spiritual life is not possible.

[00:37:23]It will not settle down on God atman. It will not. It will flicker. The mind will flicker. So the impurity at a deeper level is this restlessness of the mind and at the deepest level this impurity is ignorance that I do not know that very I do not know what I am who I am that's impurity it's like a dis which obscures the face of truth says of course there's a deeper meaning there but a general meaning might There's a shining disc which covers the face of truth. What is the shining disc? This world and our attachment to this world.

[00:38:08]Here is my my own people, father, mother, husband, wife, children, grandchildren. My whole of my mind is absorbed there. That's reality for me.

[00:38:19]Or my property or my my career, money.

[00:38:25]So this is the shining disc.

[00:38:28]But deeper than this is the this husband, wife, children, money, property, career, these are also not at fault.

[00:38:39]These can be there and the person can still be spiritual.

[00:38:43]What is at fault is my attachment to them.

[00:38:48]That's why Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, in the midst of Kuruketra, in the midst of his job as a warrior, you can still be spiritual. The problem is not with the job. The problem is not with the people.

[00:39:00]The problem is not with the environment.

[00:39:02]The problem is in our hearts as the attachment I and mine. This minus.

[00:39:10]So impurity of the heart as a as a three levels. Anger, lust, greed at the first level, restlessness of the mind at a deeper level. And just this not knowingness, this blindness to our spiritual reality. Such a person will not um you know believe in the existence of God and even if you convince him vantically you are pure awareness that will not create much of an impact. It will seem very theoretical and abstract to such a person.

[00:39:48]And um I was also noticing look at um that the approach is the same though the Ghana and BI it may seem a little different the language may be different Sri Ramak Krishna from a bi perspective when he's asked why is there so much suffering in the world Krishna says that does not interest me an answer to that question what interests me is that I must have devotion at the feet of God I have come to eat the mangoes and not count the trees and branches and roots. Same thing if you ask someone like Ramadan Marshi why is there so much suffering in the world will he give you an answer one of the 24 answers no you'll say who is asking this question his question his point is that the mango is finding out the self-realization find out the one who's asking the question first actually Krishna also gives the same answer the third answer which he gave to the mukji brothers that and who are you there that's the same answer who is asking this question we don't know that and then he goes on and when I was 10 or 11 years old his first experience of samadhi so this is his encouraging the young devotees to meditate and telling them about his experiences of samadhi and he says there are certain characteristics of god vision one sees light feels joy experiences a great upsurge and current in one's chest that is the arising of rising of the kundalini and so on let me See if there are any comments before we go on. So this is the end of this particular section. Priya says last time you said that both are necessary. Heart should want God and mind should be alert or tuned to God. Yes, compassion will develop the heart.

[00:41:38]How can the mind get fully convinced?

[00:41:42]Yes, convinced is by uh reasoning by by logic. The vanta is for conviction. But remember two things that heart is tuned to God. Heart wants God and the mind is alert. Whether you're convinced or not, your the thought of God should be uppermost in the mind.

[00:42:03]What is the mind? The mind is a series of bris one after another. It thinks about things.

[00:42:10]Now what it thinks about is it the world or is it God? And the yogi tries to make it more and more about God. Uh Sama says does God choose to be loving even though he is the power behind both love and hatred. It's not that God just chooses to be loving. The very nature of God is love. When you say sat ananda the expression of anund is love. So it's not that God um has love and hatred and uses hatred to love towards us. No, from a bi perspective or from a personal God perspective, Saguna Brahman, God is love. God cannot but love because we are all one with God. You know, it's like God has a deep oneness with all of us. One day I was walking in front of the Masha Sharada's temple in Meurmat. I was thinking of this question.

[00:43:06]We are thinking about God and trying to realize God. But what does God think about us? What is it? What is the go?

[00:43:14]What is God's perspective about us? What is God's point of view? What will God feel about us? Just this question came and of course I was walking in front of Mashard's temple. Immediately the answer came to my mind was God will think of us as his her children.

[00:43:30]We are the children of God. And how can you have nothing anything but love for your children? Have you are the greatest well-wisher for your children. You want nothing but the best for your children.

[00:43:39]Similarly, God even more than you know some of the direct disciple disciples of Sriram Krishna would say Sri Ram Krishna the best way to describe him was love.

[00:43:47]Lovified.

[00:43:52]Viveand defined Sriram Krishna as love personified.

[00:43:56]We when we read about Sri Ramach Krishna he seems to be a great bhakta he seems to be a great mystic having so many visions and experiences a tremendously wise teacher and everybody says he's an avatar so we accept he's an avatar but that Eloh personified love personified those who were the closest disciples they all said at once I mean all have had the same opinion they had the same experience of Krishna One of them says we did not know all these things at first when we went to him. We were young boys. What pulled us to him was his love. Another one says that Sri Ramak Krishna I was so amazed to see Sriramak Krishna loved us more than our own parents.

[00:44:42]This was so amazing once when Narin was in suffering that he had father had died he didn't have a job and Sriram Krishna asked somebody to help him and he was a proud young man and so he said why are you asking other people for me and Sriram Krishna said for you I am ready to go from house to house and beg so that was the kind of love that he had for and and everybody felt like that it's not just like Narin the all the disciples the some felt that I felt it was just like he was just like my mother now how a middle-aged bearded man your guru can be your mother but they felt that it's just like my mother it's just my mother so the god's very nature is love then babu did you want to ask something >> Maharaj Pam um you know you you know tell a story sometimes about this blanket was floating in the water >> yes >> and this man so he said no he got he he got rid of the blanket but the blanket is holding him >> that's what is happening to most of us as hsaris >> yes >> and what is the best way I mean uh I sometimes if I if I know I have to do things that I don't want to But the I sometimes say okay I'm offering it to God but what is the best way to handle this >> the best way is the the name of God the the mantra which we do for japa and thinking about god so thinking about someone like Sri Ramakrishna you when we what we doing right now it is having an effect not only on our minds on our subconscious mind also it's having an effect on our heart it is impressing upon our heart the power of detachment the power of vaya that is sort of in a smooth and automatic way is coming into our hearts >> even if I don't want to do something let's say I'm doing something that I >> I'd rather go and read something or >> that's the very fact that I don't want to do it that itself is a blessing from God the worst situation is that when I want to do something worldly and I know this is worldly this will be of no good to me this will just involve me more in samsara but there's a desire in my heart a better situation is that desire is not there but still because of the force of circumstances situation it it is like a duty or something expected of me so I'm doing it there it will not bind you it will not bind you it's not a problem it's the best way to create this detachment is to to drive away worldliness is the company of god one sadhu nuttarakhan said um Somebody asked him similar question.

[00:47:40]So he said that in Hindi I'll tell you and then translate.

[00:47:50]So he says how will you get freedom from the the company of crooks thugs? Well, strike up a friendship with the sheriff, you know, hang out with the sheriff, with the police chief, and then the crooks will run away by themselves. They won't come near you. Similarly, hang out with God. So, worldliness will run away from you.

[00:48:16]>> Then, this is actually an answer to this question. How does one get a sense of detachment? This one the company of god the company of sadhu sana the company of those who are detached paru says can you repeat the three meanings of shhat in upishad yes in fact I'll read it out from the katoishad bhasha in katoishad bhasha shankarachara explains the meaning of nishhat so in the katoishad bhasha at the very beginning in the introduction to the commentary on Adishankar explains what is an upanishad.

[00:48:59]So uh he says this is I'm just jumping ahead. I'm not reading out the whole thing. Byad knowledge is meant the word means knowledge.

[00:49:15]So how how does it mean knowledge? He says that means when you approach this knowledge how do you approach the knowledge? You obviously approach the text and the teacher. So you come to you sign up for the upanishad classes. So you're approaching the knowledge. Then so then by um you you cultivate this knowledge. How do you cultivate it?

[00:49:51]And what do you get out of it? You get nishaya clarity.

[00:49:56]knowledge not with doubt maybe it means this or I thought it meant that now I don't I'm not very sure what it means not that kind of knowledge it's very clear that I am awareness this is what is telling me that's so clear to me that the sun is shining as clear as that says samsara um it so it destroys the Dja samsara this is ignorance or maya that is one meaning another meaning is so at the very beginning he has said he has given a derivation of the termish the verb the the root s has three meanings um visharana to destroy.

[00:50:57]Then uh guti to take you somewhere or to make you get something that you know to attain something and then aasadana to to loosen.

[00:51:08]Three meanings of the term of of the root s and it is he says it is it is preceded by up and ni and upa means to uh approach to come close and ni means clarity. Nishaya unshakable conviction.

[00:51:28]So the first meaning of upanishad is that knowledge which destroys the bonds of samsara. The second meaning he says um That which helps you to attain that which takes you to Brahman or makes you attain or realize Brahman that is upanishad. What will make you realize Brahman? Because Brahman is your own nature. Only thing that can make you realize Brahman is knowledge. So that knowledge which makes you realize Brahman that is called upanishad.

[00:52:06]Brahmaish.

[00:52:09]Then uh then he gives another meaning.

[00:52:17]He says um it reduces the bonds of samsara or it loosens the bonds of samsara. Of course here he has given it remember he's given a technical meaning.

[00:52:26]So in kato panishad apart from direct realization I am brahman secondary meaning is given that you go to brahaloka the sequential liberation then you get liberation from there. The opanishad will teach you how to do that also in case you do not do not realize that you are brahman in this very life itself. We did exactly the same thing. You see the connection between this. We did exactly the same thing in the eth chapter of the Bhagavat Gita which showed you that the sequential liberation kamti also that is what is the technical meaning of loosening the bonds of samsara. But quite apart from that in general spirituality helps us to loosen the bonds of samsara. If you do karma yoga, if you meditate and if you practice devotion to God and you do self inquiry, who am I inquiry, all of this well before it gives you moka, well before it frees you from samsara, it will loosen the bonds of samsara, you will not suffer so much. You will not be bound so much in samsara. Though you're not yet free, but still it has a progressive cumulative effect. So these are the three meanings of shat in upanish.

[00:53:37]Destruction of ignorance, attainment of Brahman and loosening the bonds of samsara.

[00:53:45]Kiran says in one of his books renoche says praying for the welfare of all beings during meditation accelerates one's progress on the path of enlightenment. Which rein poche all of the uh great Tibetan masters are called rein porch.

[00:54:04]I think the original one who was called just reinforce was Padma Samhav I think.

[00:54:09]All right. Praying for the welfare of all beings during meditation accelerates one's progress on the path of enlightenment. Correct. It creates great good karma and it creates a sense. Look at the compassion. Compassion is for all beings. It's a view of equality that you see everybody as equal not as mine and not mine.

[00:54:31]Michael says how can we reconcile the need to have the same love for everyone with being a devoted householder to one's partner and children. It seems to be a householder one would have to be more devoted to a small number handful of people more so than others. And wouldn't being more devoted to particular few mean that you're more attached to and care more about those few than others? Absolutely.

[00:54:55]And being such a householder is actually a little better than is a little higher than being absolutely selfish and living just for yourself. So it expands you. It stretches you a little more. But higher than that is the cultivation of this idea of uh oneness in all beings through devotion maybe or through vanta.

[00:55:18]And such a person how would that person be different from the um the first one the householder the attached householder who takes care of much more care of those people who are nearby the related people who are related to oneself.

[00:55:33]Um and this person this person would also be a householder but you will find has uh a more detached attitude towards those who are closest to him and sort of maybe not exactly equal but pretty much has the same attitude towards everybody.

[00:55:52]I'll give you one example.

[00:55:54]Swami Shivanandh himself again when he was a young boy Tarak. So he grew up in a city just near Kolkata called Barashhat in in Barashat and um his and in those days women used to have many children but his mother had only this one son but there were number of boys who were studying in a school who would stay in their house and Tarak's father would you know support them and Tarak's mother would feed them all equally can treat them all equally. And the women of the neighborhood would say uh that you silly woman, you have got only one son, you should take special care of because this child mort mortality was high. You a very good chance that there's some chance that you might even lose the lose a child. So take the good care of this one boy. You have got only one boy. Take good care of him.

[00:56:52]And she would reply for me they are all the same. The Lord has given him to me.

[00:56:56]The Lord will take care of him. But for me all these children are the same. Now Tarak Maharaj Swami Shivanandh G repeats this with um with great appreciation.

[00:57:07]Later on he told the disciples see this is the sign of a of a satic woman. This a satic mindset this strong biological animal instinct of taking care of your own. That's good because that at least it's better than being selfish. But that's still biological. That's still it's mine.

[00:57:28]I used to see, you know, I was uh in a school for little children when I I became a monk first and there were 600 boys in that school. But when parents would visit, I would see children are playing in the playground, hundreds of kids. But when the father and mother have come, how immediately, how in a blink of an eye, they zoom in among those say 50 or 100 kids in the playground into one particular child.

[00:58:00]Now is that particular child very different from everybody else? No. But it's mine.

[00:58:06]So that is the bond of samsara.

[00:58:10]In this very circumstance itself, someone like Tarak Maharaj's mother, it might seem strange to others, but she steps back and sees this child is also the same as that child. That child is also the same as this. They are children and I can take care of all of them. And devotion to God or a vantic perspective helps in this. If you're devoted to God, your love flows to Krishna, to Rama or to the, you know, the baby Jesus or whichever way you're worshiping God and you see that God in everybody and that everybody includes your own children as well as the children of others and and all other people. So everybody becomes your own and it's not theoretical. I have seen it happen again and again I've seen it happen.

[00:58:59]Now it helps In monasticism for example you'll notice that since you do we do do not have husband wife children so one automatically has a sense of equal distance from everybody so that affection is it's much easier to spread out that affection among every you can treat everybody equally or internally at least you feel everybody you can see everybody as the manifestation of divine or god is coming to me through all It's easier to be um sort of have equip towards everybody. That's one advantage of the monastic life. But just exactly there's the opposite. There's a disadvantage. One can go to the other extreme and become an extremely selfish person.

[00:59:47]See at least in householder life you whether you like it or not after some time you're forced to take care of by the very fact of a family unit of the fact that you are admitted that you are a father or a mother or a grandfather or a grandmother you're for or a brother or sister you are forced whether you like it or not to take care of some do something for others to sacrifice something for others whereas if a monk is not a good monk and the monk is not being forced to do anything for anybody else and so one can quite easily become a selfish p person. So, so the any kind of special lifestyle like a monastic lifestyle has these both sides there's a great advantage but there can equally be a danger and this just by the way Muoch he's is very uh famous Kiran says Minor is one of the younger llamas all right let's wrap it up today Om shanty shanty shanty hom Krishna.