Chandogya Upanishad 5.8.1-5.10.1 Lecture 169 on 03 January 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :
Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.
ॐ आप्यायन्तु ममाङ्गानि वाक्प्राणश्चक्षुः
श्रोत्रमथो बलमिन्द्रियाणि च सर्वाणि।
सर्वम् ब्रह्मोपनिषदम् माऽहं ब्रह्म
निराकुर्यां मा मा ब्रह्म
निराकरोद निराकरणमस्त्व निराकरणम् मेऽस्तु।
तदात्मनि निरते य उपनिषत्सु धर्मास्ते
मयि सन्तु ते मयि सन्तु।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥
oṃ āpyāyantu mamāṅgāni vākprāṇaścakṣuḥ
śrotramatho balamindriyāṇi ca sarvāṇi.
sarvam brahmopaniṣadam mā’haṃ brahma
nirākuryāṃ mā mā brahma
nirākaroda nirākaraṇamastva nirākaraṇam me’stu.
tadātmani nirate ya upaniṣatsu dharmāste
mayi santu te mayi santu.
oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
Translation
May my limbs, speech, vital force, eyes, ears, as also strength and all the organs become well developed. Everything is the Brahman revealed in the Upanishads. May I not deny Brahman. May not Brahman deny me. Let there be no spurning of me by Brahman. Let there be no rejection of Brahman by me. May all the virtues that are spoken of in the Upanishads repose in me who am engaged in the pursuit of the Self. May they repose in me. Om. Peace. Peace. Peace be unto all.
Introduction to Panchadnividya
We are studying the Pañcāgni Vidyā, which, as we discussed, is one of the most marvelous upāsanas. The purpose of the upāsana is gradually to understand the very nature of creation and life, and to also know what is the cause of our origin, which is Brahman. So the contemplation is meant strictly so that we can get vairāgya (dispassion) through discrimination, understanding that this coming and going will be eternal until we reach Brahman's knowledge—the knowledge which says "I am Brahman," which makes us understand: I am birthless, deathless, changeless, eternal, infinite. I am the only truth.
King Pravāhaṇa Jaivali's Five Questions
So the story, just to remind you: A king asked one of the arrogant students that visited him five questions:
- Do you know where created beings go above, from here? (From here means after the fall of the body.)
- Do you know how they return again?
- Do you know the place of parting of the two paths—the path of the gods and the path of the fathers?
- Do you know why the other world is not filled up?
- Do you know how, at the fifth oblation, the liquid oblations come to be designated as man?
For each question, Śvetaketu replied, "No."
The Journey Through Higher Lokas
This is what we have been discussing: After enjoying the result of one's own meritorious action in whichever higher loka—there are seven or six higher lokas according to our Vedānta—depending upon what type of life a person had led, his mind will be uplifted if he does virtuous actions. And according to the degree of upliftment, that person experiences higher and higher joy. This experience of higher joy is possible only at a higher state of consciousness. That is being understood here.
After experiencing—after all, the result of any action will be only limited—since action is limited, the result of action will also be limited. After experiencing the result of one's own actions, the jīvātmā (the individual soul) again descends. And that is being answered as the answer to the fifth question of King Pravāhaṇa Jaivali.
Understanding Yajña (Sacrifice)
Every stage is described as a sacrifice, yajña. Yajña means we have to keep in mind "becoming one." Just as when clarified butter, kerosene, or petrol is offered into fire, it assumes the form of the fire—that means becomes one with the fire. So the higher world is a sacrifice because he has to come down again.
The Choice Before the Soul
How, after experiencing a higher state of happiness, does a person come down again so that he can earn more puṇyam? Or he has a choice: He can also turn away from all the results of karma and devote oneself solely to spiritual progress until one realizes Brahman. But one has to come down probably quite a number of times because of the understanding that if I go up, I have to come down. Similarly, if I go down, I also have to come up. These are temporary states, but we long for a permanent state.
Therefore, sooner or later, one has to turn towards God who is Satyam, Jñānam, Anantam—who is truth, who is pure knowledge or pure consciousness, and who is infinite. One has to identify oneself. That's what Swami Vivekananda said: Each soul is potentially divine, and life is meant to manifest it, and there are many ways of manifesting it. And once we understand "I am divine," that potentiality becomes actuality, and then we become free.
The Four Fires
So the fifth question is being answered. We have seen already what is called four fires. What are the four fires?
- First fire: That highest state of consciousness.
- Second fire: He comes down and becomes rain.
- Third fire: Rain comes down, becomes one with the earth and becomes food.
- Fourth fire: That food is consumed by the male (and, as I said, both by the male and female), and they become the finest living organisms in both.
And they have to be united in order to become a whole. So in the man, it is called the seed. In the woman, it is called the egg or ovum. And both have to meet. So the rain becomes, when it falls upon the earth, it transforms itself. The combination of rain and earth becomes food. And when that food is consumed, it becomes the source of that reproductive seed.
The Fifth Fire: Section Eight
The fifth is being described now in quite frank terms, really speaking. And very briefly, we will discuss it. So this is the eighth section we are now entering.
The Sacred Text
Yoṣā bhava gautama agniḥ tasyāḥ upasthaḥ eva samit Yat upamantrayate sa dhūmaḥ yoniḥ archiḥ yad antaḥ karoti te aṅgārāḥ Abhinandāḥ ulliṅgāḥ Tasmin tasmin agnau devāḥ retaḥ juhvati Tasyāḥ āhuteḥ garbhaḥ saṃbhavati
Translation and Explanation
Now the king was instructing Gautama, the father of Śvetaketu: "Woman, O Gautama, is the fifth fire. Her reproductive organ is the fuel. What invites one, what attracts one towards that union, is the smoke. And once man and woman join, where do they join? The reproductive organs join. And here it is the woman's reproductive organ is the flame, as it were. And when man and woman join together and they have to work hard in order to offer the seed into the fire, which is the woman's reproductive organ, then it becomes embers, as it were, and sparks will come—the pleasures."
The Ṛṣis' Perspective
The very simple way of telling is: We also sometimes feel very constricted when we are discussing these intimate, so-called intimate details. But the ṛṣis had no such illusion. Even Śrī Ramakrishna has no such illusion. So he also describes about a woman in his gospel, but it also equally applies to man, the male—no different.
So just imagine like this: A young man—young man means what? The chemistry becomes completely what is called overworking, producing the seed. And the seed will not allow the young man to rest quietly until it becomes productive. That means this is what we usually call sexual desire. And man is intensely attracted towards woman. Which part of the woman? It is that particular part where alone the reproduction is possible. No other place is reproduction possible. That is why the reproductive organ, as it were—woman is the fire.
Nature's Imperative
The reproductive organ of the female—forget about woman, in every animal, every creature, it is the same phenomenon. So the reproductive organ in the female becomes, as it were, fuel. So the woman attracts the man. When the mating time comes, every male runs mad. That is the force of nature. It has nothing to do with any man, with any animal, with any insect, etc. This is going on throughout the sṛṣṭi for all the time, from the very beginning, and it will not stop also.
Graphically, it is being described. That is why I said we feel a bit constricted. So what happens? Just as if something is attracting, that is called invitation, attracting—and especially at certain periods of time when there is very good chance of producing a new life. That is what they call in women the monthly period. And many researchers have done studies and they found out young men become attracted to young women in their periods. It is not that they are especially lustful, but helplessly they are drawn, as Bhagavān says, like a puppeteer playing with the puppets. We are all slaves of nature. That is why conquering this nature is so extremely hard.
The Role of Pleasure
Out of this desire for reproduction, if it is frustrated, it becomes anger, or the act itself will give so much pleasure that the pleasure becomes the goal for many people—not understanding there are five levels of happiness, higher levels. Every person comes to that higher and higher, but it may take many, many lives for a person to come there.
So, woman is the fire. As it were, man is on fire because this fire attracts, like a moth is attracted to the flame. And then, what is the goal? Both of them—you call it love, excepting platonic love. All these loves, so-called loves, have a secret function of rousing the person for the fulfillment of nature's commandments. And the reproductive organ itself is like a flame. And then, when man and woman join together, then what they have to do—actually something very surprising: Though it gives pleasure, it also makes two beings work very hard.
The Union and Its Result
That which is done when the union takes place is compared to the embers. And if you go on fanning the embers, slowly they turn into sparks. So nature attracts in the form of the sparks. What are the sparks? Pleasure.
In other words, how a jīva, after passing from this life, according to his virtuous life, the result has to be experienced. He goes to higher loka, and then he comes down. And these are the five steps to come down from the highest state. The last step is the union between man and woman, and that is how birth takes place.
The Three Types of Births
But here, what we have to understand—further explanation is going to come. We are not only talking about human birth; we are talking about the birth of everything in this world, but particularly about human beings, according to the type of life the human beings have led before.
- First type: Some have led very great spiritual life—praying, etc., and doing unselfish actions.
- Second type: Some people have also done some great works, but not particularly spiritual.
- Third type: There is a third type of people—the lowest class of people who are evil, who have done their whole life harming others, completely selfish, sacrificing everybody for their own sake, not doing anything great.
These three types we are going to describe. This is only the fourth stage. What is going to come?
The Conception
So the next part of this eighth section tells:
Tasmin netasmin agnau devāḥ retaḥ juhvati
When man and woman come together, what happens? As if—te here means some invisible force. So from the male, the seed is made to fall, whether it is a dog or bull or whatever it is, human being—the process is exactly the same. So the seed, the male seed, falls into the fire of the woman, the female organ. Tasyāḥ āhuteḥ—and as a result of this coming together, coming together of the man's seed and the woman's seed—garbhaḥ saṃbhavati—that is when the pregnancy takes place.
With this, eighth section is over.
Cultural Observations
As I said, the ṛṣis have no such hesitation because there are people who don't mind, there are people who say no, they should not be referred. This is what is called sometimes Victorian morality. They do everything like anybody else at any other place in any culture, but they have developed a kind of etiquette. These are very delicate things.
Of course, nowadays such things do not—they are not working. We are not living in a Victorian period. We are living in an artificial intelligence period where people have not only no shame in expressing these things; in fact, the very words that they use are indicative of the utmost what is called bad culture. And words, as I said many times, have tremendous influence upon our character. Go on using bad words, our character also degenerates into bad character.
The Power of Words and Ideas
How does it happen? Because you go on listening to a particular political leader, you slowly develop attachment for those political views. You go on reading a particular newspaper, that writer or editor, whoever gives his opinions day after day, month after month, year after year—we are more likely to become fans. And we think that we are very thoughtful people and we have deliberately chosen to cherish certain types of ideas about who should rule, how they should rule, etc., who should be removed, who should be elected. Most of us have only empty brains. It is only because of habit.
But having empty brains is one of the greatest aids for spiritual progress. All that we need to do is to use it for the reception of the proper type of words. That means: study the scriptures, listen to the scriptures, listen to religious discourses, etc., etc. That's what we need to do.
Section Nine: Birth and Death
With these five steps to come down from the highest loka: They become rain, rain becomes food, food becomes seeds (both in the male and female), and when man and woman, male and female, meet together and these two seeds become mingled up, then the birth takes place, or what we call pregnancy takes place. So this is what is being told now.
We now move to the ninth section:
Iti tu pañcamyām āhutāv āpaḥ puruṣa-vācasaḥ bhavanti Sa garbho bhūtvā daśa vā nava vā māsān antaḥ śayitvā yāvad vā atha jāyate
Growth in the Womb
What happens? Already the baby is growing up, the fetus is growing up. Being born, he lives whatever the length of his life may be. When he is dead, to attain the world as ordained, they carry him from here for cremation to fire itself, from which alone he came and from which he arose. Beautiful description.
Again, as we have been discussing, these are the five fires. So where from has he come? From the five fires. The fifth fire is only the fifth fire. The fifth fire has come from where? From the fourth. The fourth fire has come from the third, etc.
The Process Explained
So in the same way, what does this fetus do? Pañcamyām āhutau—in this fifth oblation is offered. What is the fifth oblation? The male and the female become united, and then both seeds mingle, and both seeds are in the form of āpaḥ (liquid). And then puruṣa-vācasaḥ bhavanti—what does that fetus become now? It is called a puruṣa, is called as a human being.
And then what happens? Ulba-āvṛtaḥ—in the mother's womb, this fetus surrounded by mother's body in the particular utensil or bag. So there the baby grows. Divine Mother has ordained so that mother's food will sustain; whatever undigested things there are again are reabsorbed into the mother's body. So this baby grows up.
How long will he be there? Daśa vā nava vā māsān antaḥ śayitvā yāvad vā—or it may be nine months, sometimes ten months. Of course, it can be also eight months. At the end of it, or it may take—there is no saying, exactly eight months or nine months; it can be ten months, or it can be even earlier also—having lain down in the mother's womb until the time comes. And that is also, which means the time when the baby has to come outside the mother's womb, that means he will be born, he or she. That is also decided by karma-phala. And what type of baby will be there—whether he is normal, healthy, autistic, blind, deaf, disabled, whatever it is—then he will come out. Yāvad vā atha jāyate—so the fetus, the baby now comes out.
The Purpose of This Description
So this is what is telling: This baby came through the process of the successive oblations of five—faith, moon, year, food, and seed—into the fire of the successive forms of heaven, that is to say, the form of the rain, earth, man, and woman.
Why is this being described? The commentators tell us the purpose of describing this birth, death, etc., is to create dispassion by showing the accompanying sufferings and transitoriness of all these. Whoever is born has to die. Whoever is born—in what species he is born, how long that person is going to keep up this body, and how much of happiness and unhappiness are his lot—all in accordance with the karma-phala which he earned through his past actions. Everything is beautifully taken for granted. This is called the karma-siddhānta, the third pillar of Hinduism.
The Lifespan
Then what happens? Sa jātaḥ yāvad āyuṣaṃ jīvati—this baby which is born, yāvad āyuṣaṃ jīvati. This truth doesn't apply only to human beings. Even among birds, some chicks are born so weak, the mother refuses to feed, or it will not be able to compete with its brothers or sisters. So as a result, whatever it is, I have seen in the documentaries the birth of a defective baby elephant. So the elephants have to move for the sake of food, water, etc. And they cannot—the poor mother lingers again and again for quite some time. But in the end, she understands: I cannot linger here because my very life will be in danger. Only in a group will I be protected. And they are abandoning the baby.
So whether it is a puppy, whether it is a kitten, whether it is a monkey—this also I have seen in the David Attenborough documentaries—how this man is describing: A baby is dead after a few days, and the mother refuses to believe its baby is dead. For days together, it is carrying the dead baby, hoping against hope—maybe it is sleeping, it will wake up.
Human Responsibility
Every living creature—I don't know for whatever purpose, whatever reason—they have their own fate. But here, we are concerned only with intelligent human beings. This is Upaniṣad. So we have to understand it in a different way.
Sa jātaḥ, yāvad āyuṣaṃ jīvati—that which is born lives only as much lifetime is allotted to it. Not one second before, not one second after—at the exact time he has to die. Taṃ pretam, itaḥ agnaye eva haranti—so this taṃ, this person who lives his allotted lifespan, and then pretam—he gives up that body, or the body gives this person up.
Return to Fire
So in accordance to ordinance, this taṃ, itaḥ agnaye eva haranti—then, what happens to this jīvātmā after he dies? After he dies means after he gets out of this dead body. What happens to that person? Yataḥ eva itaḥ, from where he has come, all that pañcāgni, and yataḥ saṃbhūtaḥ bhavati—again, he goes up either through the path of light, through the path of darkness, or as I said, some will be reborn without going anywhere up. Only they are born as one of the worst types of species, maybe insects, the lowest, because of the karmas that person has committed.
Conscious Action and Karma
We are talking about not natural evolution, but where only a conscious human being reaps the results of karma. Everybody else—a baby, a madcap, a drunkard, or one who is possessed—they are not responsible for what they do. What a person does consciously, schemingly, planningly carries out, and above all, he cherishes the idea "I am the doer" (ahaṃ kartā asmi)—for such people, the karma-phala is inevitable.
So the fires carry him from here, or the relatives carry him from here for cremation to fire. This is a reference to what is called Hindus cremating, not burying. And nowadays everywhere there are electric crematoriums. That is also another form of fire only. Fire itself, and from which alone he came. We have described in answer to the fifth question how that higher loka becomes the fire, and slowly it becomes rain, rain becomes food, food becomes seed, and seed becomes the fetus. These are the five fires.
The Cycle Continues
So those fires—the relatives carry him and cremate—though they put firewood and light up the firewood, and then that fire again carries that jīvātmā. So where does he carry? So ordained, in accordance with his past actions, he came through the process of the successive oblations of faith, moon, year, food, and seed into the fire of the successive forms of heaven, parjanya, earth, man, and woman.
No True Death
So this description is for the sake of telling a few things which I have already outlined before. What is it? What we call death equated with non-existence—such a thing is completely untrue. There is no death. In fact, birth is not coming out of non-existence into existence. Death is not going from existence to non-existence. This idea has been beautifully explored in the second chapter, sixteenth verse (Bhagavad Gītā).
What a beautiful description is being given here: We are not coming out of śūnya, emptiness. We are not going back to emptiness, non-existence. No, we are eternal souls. But because of ignorance, we think we are individuals, and the whole purpose of life is—the goal is to manifest this divinity within and do this either by work (karma-yoga), bhakti-yoga, rāja-yoga, jñāna-yoga, by one or more or all of them together—and be free. This is the whole of religion. Religion means the real teaching of the Upaniṣads.
Section Ten: The Path of the Gods (Devayāna)
Now we are entering into the tenth section: Tad ya itthaṃ viduḥ
What does this tenth section really want to tell? First of all, it tells one has to—each one of us, especially as I said, this applies to conscious human beings who do things consciously with a particular purpose, with a particular plan, and cherish that idea "I am the doer." For them only, results of karma apply. For a baby, even though he says "I did it," but really speaking, he doesn't know what he is doing, and he doesn't think "I have done it." He even forgets about it.
The Three Paths
So what happens in this ninth section here? We have done leading a spiritual life, how one goes up after death. So there are three types described:
- A person leading a higher spiritual life—he attains something higher.
- Another person, not an evil person, but leads a good life, but not a particularly higher type of spiritual life. He is a little bit unselfish. He does some good, and he also goes up, and then he also reaps the result of what he had done.
- And then there is a third type of person—evil person, dedicated to evil, married to evil, thinking of evil, talking of evil, and doing evil. They never go up; they only go down.
Just as the process of going up, one has to come down. Exactly in the same way, the person who goes down has to come up after paying the price, the fair price for that. That is what we call in Hinduism hells, or if a person is going up, heavens.
Śukla-Mārga and Kṛṣṇa-Mārga
And this is particularly described in a very peculiar term: The śukla-mārga, śukla-pakṣa, śukla-mārga—the path of the light, the path of the gods, devayāna—or it is also said dakṣiṇāyana, the opposite, uttarāyaṇa, where a dark fortnight, that is the path of the pitṛs or ancestors. So that is the path of the ancestors.
And there is a brief description, and we don't need to concern too much about it. But the essence is that we have to reap our karma-phala, and at the end of exhausting our karma-phala, we will be given another chance. How many times? Infinite number of times, until we turn our back to this going and coming, and amṛtatvaṃ ichan—that is what is going to happen. That is being beautifully described now in this tenth section.
The Sacred Text
Tad ya itthaṃ viduḥ ye cāme araṇye śraddhāṃ tapas ity upāsate Te 'rciṣam abhisaṃbhavanti arciṣo 'haḥ ahna āpūryamāṇa-pakṣam Āpūryamāṇa-pakṣāt yān ṣaḍ udaṅṅ eti māsāṃs tān Māsebhyaḥ saṃvatsaram saṃvatsarād ādityam Ādityāc candramasaṃ candramasaḥ vidyutam Tat puruṣo 'mānavas sa enān brahma gamayati Eṣa devayānaḥ panthā iti
The Path Explained
Now the pathway of the gods—not god, but gods, upper lokas, including the highest Satya-loka or Brahma-loka. So a description: If somebody had done extraordinarily good rituals in accordance with our Vedas—they are called karmas, rituals, but not mere rituals, but along with meditations. So a combination of rituals along with higher meditations such as the Pañcāgni Vidyā, Dahara Vidyā, so many vidyās we have seen earlier—such people reach the highest.
And as I said, the higher is the purity of the mind, the higher is the cakra in which he resides, and the higher equivalent to that higher state will be light. Just as a person, as much as he climbs a mountain, his view also becomes broader and broader and still broader until he reaches the very top. Then he can see a long distance. Beautiful analogy.
Similarly, even if a person goes to Brahma-loka, he attains the highest of this dualistic happiness. That is part of Brahman's bliss only, ānanda only, but still limited by time, space and causation.
The Journey Described
So what happens? Among the English translation: Those who know thus—this knowledge of the five fires—those who hear from the teacher about the knowledge of the five fires and transform their lives and live according to the injunctions of the scriptures and perform daily rituals like Agnihotra, occasional rituals for a particular purpose, along with combined with higher meditations like Pañcāgni Vidyā. That means the practitioners of both rituals combined with meditations, and those who are devoted, they have complete faith and they perform a lot of tapasya in the forest. They go where—what happens after they are burnt by their relatives in the fire. Now those fires, they lead.
How do they lead? In Muṇḍakopaniṣad also, the first seven mantras describe it in the first chapter. Beautiful.
The Stages of Ascent
So how do they go after the fall of this body? As soon as they are put and cremated, then they turn into divine beings or bodies of light. So from light, they go to:
- The day
- From the day to the bright fortnight
- From the bright fortnight to those six months during which the sun travels northward
- To the months
- To the year
- From the year to the sun
- From the sun to the moon
- And from the moon to the lightning
The Divine Receptionist
Then what happens? After the jīvātmā reaches the state of lightning, what happens? From the region of Brahman, Brahmā, Brahma-loka, a representative, an agent, a receptionist, a person who is other than human—they are not human beings, they are divine. So he comes and then causes them existing there to attain Brahman. That means that representative of God is just like when we go to another place by airport, somebody comes to receive us. Depending upon our status—a minister, a prime minister, a president—so higher and higher type of people will come.
Just like that, here also, a person from the region of Brahmā thinks: "I am going to get a guest because of the merits this person had performed in his life. He is fit to live with me for some time. So therefore, you go and conduct him here."
So as soon as this person reaches this state of lightning, it is just like descending after the aeroplane comes down to the airport. Then this person who is not a human being—that means a divine being, not a spirit—causes them existing there to attain Brahma. That is, they conduct him to the Brahma-loka. This is the called description of the path of gods.
Understanding Time in This Journey
Please do not worry: What is this time? From the fire to the day, day becomes fortnight, fortnight becomes one month, month becomes six months, six months become a year. That means, in course of time, he is led from a lower state to a higher state. Until the lightning is a state very near to Brahma-loka, we have to presume. It is not important, but we have to presume.
And from the lightning-loka, then a representative from Brahmā, sent by Brahmājī himself, Caturmukha Brahmā, he comes and conducts this person to his loka. He invites him. And again, as I said, it is not a loka where you are living in a city like Delhi or Mumbai. No, it is identity with Brahmā is called Brahma-loka. Identity with Indra is Indra-loka. Identity with Sūrya is Sūrya-loka. Very important for us to understand.
So from among those householders who aspire after the higher regions and those who are entitled to the knowledge of the five fires—that is how these people are conducted and they stay for some time.
The Return Journey
Then what happens? They exhaust their puṇya-phala. Kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṃ viśanti, evaṃ trayī-dharmam anuprapannāḥ, gatāgatam kāmakāmā labhante.
Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa describes the same state so beautifully in the Bhagavad Gītā, including śukla-kṛṣṇe gatī hy ete jagataḥ śāśvate mate, ekayā yāty anāvṛttim anyayā āvartate punaḥ, etc.
So the unseen results generated from the Agnihotra, oblations offered into the Agnihotra, etc., turn into that particular universe. So then that is the description. What happens? Then we have seen what happens: There devas, they set up a fire, and into that fire they offer śraddhā (faith), and faith becomes rain. Rain transforms into food. Food transforms into seed, and seeds coming together, the male and female, become the cause of the birth of any creature, any living creature.
The Purpose and Goal
So what is the idea? That is, if somebody leads a meritorious life, he goes. If a person leads a little better life, not highly meritorious, he will go through the other way, wherefrom he quickly comes back. And then if a person leads an evil life, then he has to go down even unto the birth of a stone. But everybody will be given a new chance.
So this is first of all to tell that: If you are aspiring for happiness, and always there is a quest—whatever happiness I attain, I want higher and higher and still higher happiness—until I become one with happiness, I become infinite happiness. Until that time, the journey takes place.
The Call to Turn Inward
So there is a person we presume—he had gone so many times, and then he is enlightened now. The purpose is: Now you have gone up, came down. Now you turn your attention inward. Inward means God, where God resides in the cave of your heart, and there is what is called the spiritual ākāśa. And there you contemplate Him, and in course of time you will attain Him.
Beautiful subject. We will continue in our next class.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :
Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.
May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!