Bhagavad Gita Ch16 part 07 on 05 September 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananem Sharadam Devem Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayo Shritva Pranamami Muhurmaho Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Arthanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadokavo Dugdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdham Geetam Ritam Mahat Mukham Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yath Kripathamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We are discussing the most wonderful characteristics that every spiritual aspirant should develop In our last class we had been speaking of the one very special characteristic Akrodhaha That is a person must develop absolute control over his anger Krodhaha means anger Akrodhaha means not being angry So a spiritual aspirant should have absolute control over anger Does that mean that an aspirant should never get angry? One should in fact must get angry when the occasion demands One should be a master of all his emotions An idiot, a jada, a moda, a foolish fellow when they need to get angry they will not be angry When they should not get angry then they become very angry This is the outcome of pure Ajnana, ignorance or delusion So when we look at any sage, any saint even any advanced spiritual aspirant Do we see expression of anger in them? Of course certainly we see expression of anger But a controlled anger is not an anger at all A controlled anger is the greatest blessing When we study the Puranas we get this beautiful idea So many times the rishis, the munis, the sages, the saints they get so angry that they curse people and it appears how sad that these sad gurus How did they become such sad gurus instead of becoming sad gurus Why should they get angry? They must be realized souls Two points to be noted here First point is do they have any self-control upon themselves? No Once a drop of water merges into the ocean it becomes completely identified with the ocean So a sage is one who has identified himself But I also mentioned an advanced spiritual aspirant So he has not merged but as if he is already merged there So who functions? Only the divine functions, manifests through that body and mind So a Durvasa for example In Indian mythology we see Durvasa getting very often very quickly, very seemingly unjustifiably But then you have to know every one of these expressions of anger they turn into the greatest blessings for the people concerned Take a few examples Now there were two watchmen in so-called popular, ordinary people's imagination Vaikuntha is a big palace There would be watchmen There were two watchmen called Jaya and Vijaya Once they did not allow the greatest mind-born children, sons of Brahma himself and they understood these persons are so near to God and yet so full of egotism more devotion, less ahankara, egotism But they were not able to understand it So they cursed them May you be born as human beings and then they came to their senses then they apologized and begged for retrieval and they said just out of compassion they said immediately the same people who became so angry and purposefully and with a mission in life concentrated Okay, you have two choices Be a regular devotee You will take six births Be an enemy of God You will come back in three births only because an enemy has more intensity than even an ordinary devotee So is this curse an expression of anger or has it made them more perfect? Similarly in Sri Ramakrishna's life once he started laughing at Totapuri who became unreasonably angry because a servant came to take a little bit of fire from his so-called sacred fire Dhuni and the Totapuri forgot for a moment that he was lecturing Everything is God and he did not see God in the servant and he was about to beat him Sri Ramakrishna's laughter brought the inquiry Why are you laughing? and Sri Ramakrishna said I am seeing the intensity the extent of your knowledge of Brahman Just now you are saying everything is God Now you forgot One second everything is God Another second you have forgotten totally Then only Totapuri realized Oh my God I was angry That may be okay but the greatest sin is not to be aware that I am angry and he took a vow I will never again become angry If you analyze further this statement you will get this most marvelous explanation In order not to get angry in future he must keep a constant watch of awareness in his mind because there may be occasions when he may be provoked We will all be provoked Circumstances will not change Evil people will be evil people towards good and saints So there are hundreds of examples are there but I will not go into it This is enough A controlled anger An anger is only a seeming anger that is not only not a negative quality not a demonic quality but it is the most beneficial quality especially if it comes from the mouth of a great soul because inevitably God will not allow such a curse to be made into a positive benefit Just now I remembered Once Sri Ramakrishna accused Haladari his elder cousin of immorality and this man instead of accepting he got so angry and said How dare you being younger than me in age point out my mistake see the fun of it that he should have been grateful that yes I have this fault I pretend to be a religious person but I am doing many unreligious irreligious activities Who killed Jesus Christ? Only the very people who are supposed to be the priests the high priests of Jewish people they only contrived they only schemed to get rid so that they can become more worldly but what was Christ's reaction? Father forgive them for they know not what they do but funnily even Christ's life also there is one irrational activity is there showing that even God in a human being cannot escape human limitations once he was returning in the evening to his sleeping place and he was extremely hungry by the way I can tell you authentically that talking will make a person very hungry the longer a person talks the more energy goes out and the more he is likely to feel hunger Christ and his disciples were naturally hungry they had very little food whole day so on the way he thought I might get some fig fruits and figs are very good also so he looked at the fig tree and then there was not one tree with some fruits even one fruit and he got so angry he cursed may you wither and die away and by next morning the whole tree has withered away anyway what is the point? is this a fault? not at all we do not consider he had billions of good qualities and anybody is focusing on this one which just shows humanness and such a person is worse than an idiot ok coming back every sage and saint they will get angry but not unconsciously first thing is they will be very conscious second point I mentioned I said I will tell you but I did not tell you is that the anger of these great people inevitably becomes the greatest blessing in the world the whole point is you have a right to be angry when the occasion needs but beware that this is an occasion where I have to express my anger and I will express it if necessary I will punish but with complete awareness that is the point so if one does not get angry then he is a fool so one should be a master not only anger of all his emotions a controlled anger is really not an anger at all controlling and expressing anger in a right way is a divine quality though extremely difficult it is possible to control anger like any other quality we have to practice this particular aspect controlled anger then we were also I have also brought up the idea the positive points in anger in everything there is a positive point lust for example which is considered as the greatest enemy karma it is called the normal meaning of karma is any desire but of all desires lust attraction of one body to the other is one of the toughest desires to overcome so is it good or bad? so according to Indian philosophy it is classified as an one of the six greatest inner enemies but our mythologies amply prove that if it is increased undirected towards a worthy goal then those very lustful activities will turn out to be the greatest blessings and help a person progress further in spiritual life. The best example these Puranas mythologies quote is Gopiyah through lust Gopis Krodha Kamsaha through anger Kamsa Dvesha Shishupaladayaha through hatred Shishupaladantavakra etc. many etc. means many they have all attained God only because of that. Now I have to correct a point because several times I have been quoting this Kamat Gopiyah they are all lustful towards Krishna this is one of the greatest mistakes anybody can commit and one of the greatest sins one should never commit. According to Sri Ramakrishna all these Gopis who were there they were either divine beings or 64,000 great Rishis sages who wanted to enjoy the presence of God in the form of Rama so such people cannot have because the body may be the woman's body but they were not identified with the body like ordinary people like us we should always keep every ordinary woman she can become a Gopi that's a myth and that is not going to work out in life but provided they practice it as a sincere spiritual aspirant should, yes it will lead. Interestingly I have to mention in this connection Sri Ramakrishna used to say there is a special type of philosophy called and practiced called Tantra philosophy. Remember no Indian philosophy ever preaches a dry philosophy theory but always couples it with direct practice so that a person can attain the highest good. So this Tantric philosophy is to see the Divine Mother Shiva in every creature. So there is a way that even the lowest person the Tantra Tantras divide these Sadhakas spiritual aspirants into three parts. Those who are almost like animals that means they have more animal propensities, they are called Pashus, animals those who are much more refined of strong will Drithi, Sattvika Drithi and they want to overcome they are called Veeras heroes and those who have gone far beyond the body, mind, identification they are called Divine Now for the lowest class of people, animal Sadhakas they are never allowed to come into contact even remotely with an object of temptation but those who follow in the, of course the first category they cannot be tempted, they do not want anything only when a person has a desire he can be, he or she can be tempted. So the second type of person who are called heroes, they are deliberately, temptations are brought to them in the form of a husband is brought to the wife, a wife is brought to the husband this is deliberately done but under the guidance of a realized soul not independently but as usual what happens is many degenerate people, they without having any guru or that sort of sad gurus they degenerated the whole lot and that's why Sri Ramakrishna confronted his elder cousin that I believe you are having immoral relationship and yet proclaim you are a spiritual aspirant, that was what made Sri Ramakrishna being cursed by his, how dare and then what did he do he said may blood come out of your mouth, at some point Sri Ramakrishna was practicing hatha yoga, pure physical yoga and importantly pranayama breath control and there was a time when blood started to flow up and instead of going to the brain it started coming out of the mouth, neither pure liquid nor pure solid but semi-liquid hanging from his mouth we all know this from the Sri Ramakrishna's biography Great Master, now what is most important for us this curse of Haladari, this event happened because of the curse and Haladari was there and he was he came running when he heard this news and Sri Ramakrishna wept Dada, brother elder brother, see what your curse has done to me and Haladari also started weeping because he doesn't have control how to remove this curse but a great sadhu came and said it is good, it is a great blessing, instead of going the blood to the brain it is coming out of your mouth, that means you will not die, had the blood gone to your brain you would never have regained consciousness again, the Divine Mother has a special purpose so great people's curses become the greatest blessings in this world, now coming back positive side of anger anger is a normal emotion it helps us to defend ourselves in dangerous situations and has its uses in life when controlled properly but when it goes out of control it can lead to problems both to oneself and others if it is not dealt with properly, it can lead to depression, high blood pressure strokes or to heart attacks extreme anger can even occasionally cause death, we hear so many stories and these are the negative things that can happen, so then we have to understand, remember we are talking about positive side of anger, not the negative side is there anything called righteous anger, because some people profess the philosophy that they are dealing with this righteous anger most of us think there is and use it to justify some of our actions but from the spiritual point of view, there is no such thing called righteous anger, regarding this here is what Swami Vivekananda has to say, our religion teaches that anger is a great sin, even if it is righteous, I could not for my soul distinguish ever the difference between religious anger and commonplace anger, religious killing and commonplace killing religious slandering and irreligious and so forth, so what are we talking about, a controlled anger is a good anger, but many people they twist to this philosophy and say, there is a definite reason why we should be angry, two things we have to remember, such people's righteous anger is often to hide their own selfish motives, second accepting destruction no good will ever come out of that so called righteous anger, it's a negative emotion, what is anger this we have to discuss its nature, it's a negative emotion, a concentrated outburst of energy in the form of annoyance, rage dislike, coldness indifference etc, according to some psychologists anger is a temporary state of insanity an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury, rage etc, so what is anger, the concentrated desire this is what Bhagavad Gita unveils, wraps out, unwraps the psychology of the anger, says if there is no desire before, there would be no anger at all so for example if I am averse to possess a thing, even if billion people possess it in a most intense degree, I will not feel jealous about it, but if I intensely desire something and others have it but not me, then it can cause jealousy, anger etc, so what is recently we discussed about it, eight stepped way to go down as well as at the same time to go up also, so in the religious terminology that getting angry towards the obstacles or people that keep us stop us from progressing in spiritual life that anger is a most wonderful anger, we will talk about it Ramakrishna gives a beautiful expression to it so this krodha is a concentrated desire when this desire is thwarted then that desire becomes anger Swami Turiyanandaji regarded anger as concentrated desire and anger is called a demon by Sri Ramakrishna for like a demon, it keeps us bound to this world without doubt, anger is one of the deadliest enemies in spiritual life if we do not understand what it is how it comes out and how to control it according to Vedanta, it is one of the six inner passions that block progress in every field of life, if it is not controlled, one quotes ruin even in this world and can never progress in spiritual life anger can manifest in myriad forms, often it is difficult to recognize it or it can hide its nature under different guises such as cynicism, pessimism looking down with coldness and being indifferent to everybody, constant grumbling, dissatisfaction with one's life, etc whatever the expression the underlying cause is the same anger, remember anger is the thwarted desire causes of anger causes of anger anger of course is a symptom and not the disease itself just like most of our suffering is a symptom when we go to the doctor he doesn't take in what the symptoms are he tries to find out what are the causes what is it that is causing these symptoms in fact the symptom is our body's way of crying helplessly, I am having this problem and this is the language the body expresses itself, please look into it and try to remove it, otherwise I may not be there, so the root cause of anger of course is egotism ego when ignorant of its true nature identifies itself with body and mind this ignorance leads to passions like lust, anger greed, etc Bhagavad Gita gives a graphic description of the cause of desire when a man dwells constantly on sense objects he feels an attachment for them attachment gives rise to intensity of desire and desire when thwarted breeds anger, from anger comes delusion, from delusion failure of memory from the failure of memory discrimination is lost and from the loss of discrimination man perishes now we can see that anger in a way is thwarted desire and thwarted expectation now these are the causes what are the expressions of anger anger can be expressed mainly in three ways, suppression irrational outburst or sublimation in some, anger bursts forth in the form of instantaneous and aggressive behavior often leading to tragic consequences we can see children are very easily thwarted that's why they get very quickly angry but they are also very quick to forget I have seen with my own eyes in a festival two children quarreled and then they went on even beating each other a little bit and then ran to their mothers and then the mothers were, the parents were very angry with each other but after a few seconds these children they ran again they could not control their impulse to play and they became as though they are most intimate friends while the parents are still engaged in quarreling etc. so other people, specially those who are timid, try to suppress and internalize this emotion bringing harm to themselves however it cannot be suppressed for long but will be out sometime or other and with greater violence Swami Vivekananda used to make a very strange remark we know it is right but for many people it may appear to be un-understandable irrational what he said lean and thin people often cannot control their lust and anger lean and thin people they suffer from too much of lust or too much of anger anyway these two ways of expressing anger are counterproductive and lead to great damage, what are the two ways let us not forget one is bursting out on every occasion another is one suppressing and it cannot be suppressed for long, one day it will burst out with great violence and that's what happens but there is a third way spiritual aspirants a better productive way of expressing their anger, they control they sublimate and direct it towards a higher goal sometimes it may even be their duty to express religious anger Sri Ramakrishna used to say it is sometimes very necessary to hiss but never never bite here is a quotation from Aristotle beautiful quotation he says anybody can become angry, that's easy but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and in the right way that's not within everybody's power and is not easy this was what I could not express properly that a controlled anger it becomes angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right purpose and in the right way what a beautiful saying perhaps only saint can express anger in this way so now we go to ways to control anger those who wish to control anger must have a firm determination and a higher spiritual goal, even a noble but worldly goal may not be enough so one of the things is we are talking about spiritual progress, that is what all the scriptures are about of course included in it is Bhagavad Gita so those who wish to control and become Akrodhis that is masters of anger, must have a firm determination and a higher spiritual goal, but even a noble and worldly goal may not be enough there are people who are noble but their goal is not spiritual but it is very noble worldly goal, do good to other people, but since egotism is the root of all passions we must realize that the only way to control anger is to uproot egotism, naturally this involves controlling other passions too it is a hard task but not an impossible one here are some ways of controlling anger because talking about anger is fine, talking about the causes of anger, expressions of anger are fine but we must have a way how we can bring it under control, so here are some ways, one way is to look upon all persons and objects as divine second, another way is to consider that whatever happens in life is the result of our own past karma this is easy for those who believe in the law of karma and its corollary rebirth, Hindus Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists they all believe in past and future lives three, regular meditation japa, prayer, study of scriptures, keeping company of holy people and places all these spiritual disciplines are of great help now there is another great soul a Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has written beautiful book called Meditations he writes in this book when you are angry above measure think within yourself how momentary is man's life let us think how much more grievous are the consequences of our anger than the acts which arouse it that means person might have done something very evil but our reaction in the form of anger is much more evil than that particular person's actions let this truth be presented to you in the excitement of anger that to be moved by passion is not manly but kindness and gentleness as they are more human so also are they more manly a beautiful quotation please keep it in mind look up on the internet and if possible read that marvelous book, even though he was a Roman Emperor, he was one of the wisest persons his meditations is a most beautiful work next, four passions by themselves are neutral they become good or evil according to the way we use them in any case they cannot be eradicated so easily so what are we talking about you cannot suppress passions but are they enemies no, they are all neutral even goodness is neutral if it is used, suppose you want to be good to an evil person that is the worst crime anybody can commit suppose you want to punish an evil person not because of anger but because to help that person understand, to control him that is what law, that is what prisons, that is what people are supposed to, governments are supposed to do so they cannot be eradicated but they are neutral, all emotions are neutral, there is no good or evil emotion even the so called six enemies of inner enemies of human being, they are all neutral, if you become angry with God, that is the best if you are lusting after God, that is the most wonderful thing and that is what Bhagavata Purana specifically wants us to learn the lesson but the ultimate and sovereign remedy, Sri Ram Krishna advises, since you cannot get rid of your passions, your lust, your anger and so on give them a best direction higher direction instead of desiring worldly pleasures, desire God have intercourse with Brahman if you cannot get rid of anger, then change its direction assume the tamasic attitude of devotion and say what? I have repeated the sacred name of Durga shall I not be liberated? how can I be a sinner anymore? how can I be bound anymore? if you cannot get rid of temptation, direct it towards God, be infatuated with God's beauty if you cannot get rid of pride then be proud to say that you are the servant of God you are the child of God thus turn the six passions towards God marvelous advice, having a definite goal and a daily routine, this is the fifth remedy, having a definite goal and a daily routine helps immensely otherwise we are likely to waste our time brooding our unhappy experiences and thereby increase our anger, frustration unhappiness, all these will follow, I have to repeat this fifth one that there are people who are immersed in work and I have to narrate something very interesting many years back an American intelligent person I think he was a psychologist psychiatrist, he asked the government give me the hardened criminals and I will try my methodology and some of them can become normal citizens, so the government out of desperation they have given some people those who volunteered, what did this man do? Simply he made a routine from five o'clock in the morning until evening ten o'clock, they have to be doing some activity or the other, there is no rest at all and then he had provided ample opportunities for these hardened criminals whom no other person could help reform he helped them, you can learn anything you want so you want to get a job and once people come to know you are a criminal, nobody is willingly going to give it to you but you learn have some higher education and worthy goal master something and then I will help you get a job and a few of them, not everybody some of them, they have taken to the means, so a marvellous result had come how did, why did it come? because first of all these people did not have time if they were in the jail they would have all the time to brood and make friendships with others what is called evil company and make plots think day and night, thereby increasing their evilness but here the person kept to them hard manual labour most marvellous remedy for anybody who is depressed go and run 10 miles tend to a great garden grow so many things with modern technology distribute it to all the neighbours or deserving poor people etc. there are so many ways we can use, utilise our time and energy and then these people have learnt when they came out naturally the society was unwilling but this doctor went about and said this man is, give him a chance if society doesn't give these people a chance, they will ever remain like that and then some of them, out of consideration have given the job and never again they committed any crimes I am not saying everybody was had been free but quite a number of people had become free so what am I talking about? have a definite goal and use your time properly the very idea of devoting our time to a particular goal spending time in a very positive and useful way goes a long way to help us become less frustrated then Patanjali gives us a beautiful remedy, this is called Pratipaksha Bhavana what is Pratipaksha Bhavana? think of the opposite quality the quality which you want to remove, get rid of, be free from think of its opposite quality for example, if you are short tempered, then equanimity, if you are a miser person, think about generosity if you are a person who is fickle then consider great sages who used to concentrate great scientists, great writers etc Patanjali advocates eradication of negative emotions by meditating on their opposite positive qualities the positive quality for example, opposite to anger is love constantly thinking of love gradually erodes anger and develops love 7. Ignorance makes us unrealistic, we expect everything to go according to plan our plan, this world unfortunately doesn't come up to our expectations many times, most times so we must be prepared to expect the unexpected and graciously accept life as it comes 8. Ours also is an age of impatience we become annoyed if things do not go according to plan and quickly, everything is instant instantaneous internet instantaneous coffee instantaneous food instantaneous drinks everything must be instantaneous why? I don't have any time such a horrible age we are living but still we have plenty of good chance to become better persons so deep breathing and technique of relaxation can help us curb undue impatience to some extent 9. A bit of humour is very helpful as a wax said, if one can learn to laugh at oneself one will never again lack entertainment humour is one of the qualities that helps us become mature persons, this is what Adler the great psychologist had said it was, humour helps us by making light of things which we take too seriously and makes us see the funny side of life 10. Above all, prayer for the welfare of all, especially those who injure or annoy us is of immense help anger is a passion that every spiritual aspirant needs to address we come across many interesting incidents in the lives of holy men and women they show us definite ways and means of controlling it giving us courage and inspiration so the next wonderful quality 13. Divine quality is called Thyaga, Thyaga means renunciation, the moment people hear about the word renunciation they all think of monks and nuns we are not talking that external lifestyle there are some people who like to be in monasteries either alone or belonging to some order and they are called monks or nuns they take certain vows but their percentage is very very very few what is real Thyaga? Thyaga means renunciation or sacrifice renunciation is one of the most important spiritual qualities, it is the very foundation of spirituality without it, no one can progress in any field of life man becomes great in proportion to all that he can give up Bhagavad Gita is an exposition on renunciation there are hundreds of commentaries but Ramakrishna's pithy short commentary is the shortest and the most succinct what does he say? the essence of the Gita is what you get by repeating the word 10 times the word Gita, Gita Gita the word becomes Thagi, repeated fast, Gita becomes Thagi, which refers to renunciation the essence of the Gita is, oh man renounce everything and practice spiritual discipline for the realization of God I will tell you a small story there was a village and once a monk happened to be, he reached the village and he made his home under a tree outside the village early morning he got up and he sat down for meditation and a villager, he was going to his fields, he saw this monk and as the custom, as he was taught he just folded his hands and made what we call Namaskaram, immediately the saint got up made Sashtanga Prana, that is completely falling at the feet of that villager the whole body together that is called Sa Ashta Anga Prana and the villager was dismayed and he asked, sir why did you do that? then the monk asked him why did you make salutations to me? and that man explained see, you are a great renouncer, I am a householder I was not able to renounce, but you renounced everything for God therefore we are taught to salute great people like you and then the monk replied, do you know that you are the greatest renouncer than me how come? the villager asked then the monk explained you see, supposing there is one dollar and a billion dollars, God is like a billion dollar and worldly happiness, the highest worldly happiness is equivalent to the value of one dollar now you have given up a billion dollar worth of happiness which comes from God for the sake of gaining one dollar's happiness I have given up one dollar's happiness for the sake of gaining a billion dollars now tell me, whose renunciation is greater? yours or mine? this beautiful story illustrates that to renounce any worldly happiness, really should not be a big deal because when we understand when you have faith in the scriptures in the Guru, in the teachings of the scriptures, then we should understand, we become the highest bliss, Brahmananda and forever, and it will never separate itself from us, whereas every sort of worldly happiness and we enjoy worldly happiness only exclusively through this instrument called body and mind, the moment death comes, all that disappears and it rises, but we have to awaken ourselves to that fact, the word renunciation does appear to be negative, life denying and almost abnormal especially these days the progress made by science and technology has brought many changes in the ideals and attitudes of people everywhere one of the results of progress in science is that we have lost faith in God and religion and our preoccupation with this world has increased proportionately all the great teachers of the world proclaimed with one voice again and again that man is divine and without manifesting this innate divinity for which God has afforded this opportunity of giving us a body-mind complex which is unique in this world man cannot attain to true peace and happiness there is a teleological urge, you have to perhaps sometimes you may not understand this word teleological in philosophy it means that there is a divine urge each soul is potentially divine, therefore there is an irrepressible unavoidable most natural urge to manifest our divinity just as it is the teleological urge of an apple seed to become the best apple tree that it has come from, we have come from God, we are all seeds but we have that urge, we are seeking the proper soil proper season, proper atmosphere, climate etc this human birth is the most wonderful thing that we have got this is called teleological simply means irrepressible unavoidable urge, natural most natural urge in every one of us which will not allow us to rest until we reach perfection and infinity, it is in this context of spiritual life alone that the idea of renunciation makes any sense renunciation or sacrifice the most natural thing in this world, parents make great sacrifices of their time, energy, wealth and happiness for the welfare of their children, great men forego their happiness for the sake of art, freedom of the country or to discover something new, patriots cheerfully give up their life for the good of their country people are doing it all the time albeit without being aware of it most of the time, without renunciation, life becomes impossible, it means one can live but one is more dead than alive only when it comes to spiritual life, people bark at the idea of renunciation saints and sages have urged all of us to renounce the joys of life willingly, cheerfully and undergo lots of suffering for realizing God realizing God but we have to make this point clear we are not saying today you become monks or nuns, start renouncing, giving up something slowly, slowly slowly, do not a child cannot be made a young man just by pulling his hair up so it will take time, time is an important factor, perseverance patience are very necessary so if we start today, you will see enormous difference, what do we get naturally, that is the question the more we renounce that means the more we control our mind the more happiness and peace of mind naturally come to us there is no religion which doesn't advocate renunciation there is no scripture which doesn't extol renunciation without renunciation there can be no spiritual life not only spiritual life, there can be also no secular life, Ramakrishna says knowledge never comes without renunciation of lust and possessions, with the dawn of renunciation is destroyed all ignorance all ignorance this is nothing but sacrifice of the lower for the higher, this is a very important point what are we talking about we are not trying to give up the higher for the lower what is tyaga, renunciation renouncing the lower happiness for higher happiness the lower happiness is that which belongs to the changeful world, the highest bliss is that which belongs to the unchanging God, so renunciation is nothing but sacrifice of the lower for the higher, so what is renunciation, it is the giving up of the finite, un-mortal in order to attain the infinite and immortal, it is the giving up of the lower for the attainment of the higher what is true renunciation renunciation is not giving up of the external, it is not in putting on the okka dress and wandering about aimlessly true renunciation is in the giving up of egotism, of lust and gold, what Sri Ramakrishna summarized, giving up maya maya is of twofold kama and karjana lust and gold here below is a relevant passage from the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Narendra once said to the master with a smile, referring to Bhavanath he has given up fish and bitter leaf, master why so, what is the matter with fish and bitter leaf they are not harmful, the renunciation of lust and gold is the truest renunciation here is a beautiful story once a famous scholar, respected and wealthy, longed for the realization of God, he approached a holy man and asked him for instruction, the holy man smiled and said, you must renounce that is the only way to self-realization accordingly the scholar gave away all he possessed his treasured books, his gold even his house, he was left with only a simple iron cloth to cover his body a blanket and a bowl with which to beg his food, time passed, but he still was unable to find peace, he went again to the holy man and asked him for instruction, again he was given the same answer, renounce that is the way to the self the scholar owned only a bowl simple cloth and blanket he gave these away also a long time passed, but he did not find peace, so he approached the holy man and was given the same advice, he said to himself, I renounced everything except this body, perhaps it is this body which stands in my way of realization I shall give it up also remember Totapuri's story the greatest mistake committed by him by the will of mother of course that if I give up this body I will know that I am Brahman he did not know giving up body is impossible because if the body belongs to you you can give it up but if it belongs to somebody it is a crime to give it up that's why Atma Hathya, suicide is the greatest sin so this man thought, I shall give up this body also, he built a large fire and was on the point of throwing himself into the flames when his teacher arrived and held him back, what are you doing, he said, do you think you will realize God by destroying your body, then the scholar realized by the grace of his guru that what the guru meant by renunciation it was his ego that I am the body, I am the mind etc, he must renounce and at last understood the true meaning of renunciation in time he realized the imperishable self which is beyond all change and attained peace, the moral of this story is one should try to reduce the egotism, that is the crux essence of renunciation we see this in bible a rich young man asked Jesus, good master what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life Jesus said unto him, one thing thou lackest, go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasures in heaven and come and then take up my cross and follow me renunciation is a turning point in all the various yogas, we know this story and then the young man heard it that he never returned because he was a rich man he did not like to give up all the riches, but another young man who was moderately wealthy, immediately he heard this story by a local priest in a village and immediately he sold all that he had, distributed it to the poor and he had a sister sister joined a convent and he went into the Egyptian desert and became one of the greatest saints, Christian saints in the world his name was Saint Anthony the Great so, renunciation is the turning point in the various yogas Swami Brahmanji said, Ramakrishna's message in this age is renunciation of lust and gold and renunciation of lust and gold is the ornament of a holy man, a spiritual aspirant and it is the only means of attaining God this also is the message of the Gita and every other scripture, without renunciation, one cannot attain to self-realization as the Kaivalya Upanishad says, immortality is not attained through action, progeny or wealth, it is attained only by renunciation May Sri Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna