Chandogya Upanishad Lecture 39 on 05 October 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Chandogya Upanishad of Sama Veda. The entire Sikh chapter is called Sat Vidya. That is, everything is nothing but pure existence. And pure existence herein called Sat is none other than Brahman. And therefore, everything is Brahman. Not only the Nirguna Brahman but the Saguna Brahma means the entire creation is nothing but Brahman only. That is expounded in 16 sections. So far, we have completed 7 sections. Once someone asked Shankaracharya, you have written so many commentaries, so many Prakarana Granthas, so many things. What is the essence of all your teachings? And then Shankaracharya very beautifully replied, I am going to tell you the essence of not only Hindu scriptures but every scripture in the world that was in the past that is in the present and that will be going to come in future. The essence is this. Brahman alone is the truth, a reality. The world is Mithya, means it is a manifestation of Brahman but covered up with names and forms and qualities. And you, the individual soul, the Jivatma is none other than Brahman. So this Sat Vidya means Brahma Vidya. In the first 7 sections of this 6th chapter, what did we study? The entire process of creation. So how did the creation come? The entire creation according to every Upanishad but very precisely and very elaborately also is classified here in the 6th chapter as the combined manifestation of 3 elements. What are they? Agni, Apaha and Annam. That is the fire, waters and the earth. Through the introduction of these 3 elements, the entire process of creation is explained. And these 3 elements are nothing but manifestations of Atman or Brahman. What does it mean? So creation means we can have about creation 2 ideas. First idea is as we see every day, an engineer has created a machine. The engineer is separate, the instruments through which he created is separate and the material out of which he created this machine is also separate. Not only separate but it can be different also. But that is not the meaning. The second meaning is like an actor. There is a person and sometimes he puts on the dress of one particular dress and is known as by one name, second dress, second name. So this is called Vesham. Vesham means dress. So Brahman has put on the Vesham of Agni and Agni in its turn put on the Vesham as Apaha or water and Apaha put on the Vesham of Annam or Prithvi Tattvam. And these 3 together and especially the gross universe which we experience as an object that is Prithvi put on the Vesham of the entire creation. So how do we know this is the Vesham? Through the analysis of a peculiar philosophical reasoning called Karana Karya Vada, the methodology of cause and effect, the law of cause and effect. What is the speciality about the cause and effect? Any effect is nothing but the grossification of the cause and it takes birth. That is the grossification is its birth and it is sustained by the cause and merges back in the cause. So when we chant Sarvamangalam Mangalye, so the Divine Mother is putting on the Vesham of this entire creation, that is the birth of the creation and it is continuously uninterruptedly and by no other is sustained by the Divine Mother in the form of these Pancha Bhutas or here in the Chandogya, 3 Bhutas, 3 elements and ultimately when these 3 elements go back, that is called destruction into their respective causes, then they go back again into the Divine Mother. So all creation enters into its cause which is earth, earth resolves back into waters, waters resolves back into Agni or Tejas, Tejas resolves back into Atma or Brahman and this is what Swami Vivekananda reminds us, each soul is potentially Divine. So this is the summary of first to seven sections of the sixth chapter of Chandogya Upanishad about creation, about creation being the manifestation of Brahman and any manifestation is called an effect and every effect is what is called the same reality but with the dress of forms, names and qualities. Now what would be the problem and the problem will be when we are only focused upon the effect, identifying ourselves with the effect, every effect is different so it seems to be infinite varieties, infinity is one but the creation is also infinity, each separate from everything else and that creates anxiety, worry, fear, unhappiness but in Vedantic language it is called Dvandva, Dvandva means duality that is happiness goes with unhappiness, good goes with evil, life goes with birth so that is not a very pleasant thing and from these one to seven sections of the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad, Shankaracharya's famous summary that is to say, Tvam padartha vichar is done, that is the creation. Tvam means what? You the Jeevatma, the associated with body-mind complex and identified completely with body-mind complex and saying all the time, I am the body, I am the mind and therefore the Jeevatma has to go through duality of good and evil, birth and death, repeated birth and death and most importantly happiness and unhappiness and that is not very pleasant so everybody wants to be free from death which is possible only free when a person is free from birth, it is possible to have right knowledge when we are completely free from its opposite ignorance, it is possible to be, to have unbroken happiness when we go beyond Sukha, Dukha, happiness and unhappiness but that is the analysis that is called Tvam padartha vichara. Now Tatt Tvam Asi, that is what is going to be taught in the next eight to sixteen chapters, there are nine mantras and every mantra ends Tatt Satyam, Tatt Atma and Tatt Tvam Asi Shweta Ketu, that is to say the Tatt Padartha Vichara and what is the connection between Tvam and Tatt, so by extension Jeevatma is none other than Paramatma and also the world is none other than Paramatma, this is what some way Kanada meant, each soul is potentially divine, therefore you are none other than that reality which you are seeking, are we seeking? Yes, 24 hours from birth to death, what are we seeking? I don't want to die, I don't want to be ignorant, I don't want to be unhappy, our life is nothing but seeking and as we progress in life which is called evolution by the western psychologists, this Srishti is nothing but evolution only, how? So first Vedanta doesn't deny the western idea of evolution, first there were the non-living elements and they became living elements from inorganic to the organic, that is why we call it Churasi lakh janam, 84 lakh janmas, so how does one lead, a teacher leads a student to this final reality what you are seeking and that what we are seeking is beautifully expressed in the form of three prayers known as Abhyaroha mantras in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Asatoma, Sadgamaya, Tamasoma, Yotirgamaya, Mrityorma, Amrutangamaya, that is I want to be Sat, Chit, Ananda, in other words I want to be Brahman, so how does Uddalaka lead his disciple or any Vedantic teacher leads his earnest disciples or earnest spiritual seekers through the process of you catch hold of the effect, detach yourself from the effect, identify with the cause because the cause is the reality, cause alone is the reality not the effect, so pursuing this path merge all creation into Annam, that is earth and the earth into waters and the waters into fire and the fire into air and the air into space and the finally the space into Atma, how? By removing the Vesham, remove the Nama Rupa from every object in this for example in this physical world you take off the name, form and quality, what remains? Everything is Annam, but Annam also is an effect in its turn that means it has its cause, it is not the final cause and therefore you remove the Vesham of Annam and surprisingly we see when we remove the dress of the earth it happens, we happen to see it is nothing but water, but that is also a dress, remove that dress also then we find it is Agni, Tejas or fire, Agni Tattva, so that is the process, then you take you can take it further, remove the Vesham of Agni, if you only take Chandogya what remains is Brahman, but if you take Taittiriya Upanishad, Agni is an effect and it is an effect of Vayu and Vayu is an effect, it is a dress, take off the dress of Vayu and it will be only Akasha and take off the dress of Akasha, it is nothing but Brahman, Brahman puts on the dress of Akasha, Akasha puts on the dress of Vayu, Vayu puts on the dress of Agni, Agni puts on the dress of waters, waters put on the dress of earth and this earth alone is manifesting as the entire creation that we are there, so hereafter this process of slowly merging the effect into its respective cause and merging that final cause which becomes effect into its cause and like climbing a staircase and then finally reaching Brahman in which there is that is the final cause, causeless cause that is the process, so now to make the person understand this process of merging that is to say when everything is merged then that Chidavasa that is reflected consciousness because reflected consciousness is nothing but consciousness dressed in the form of the mind, in the form of the body and in the form of every object that one experiences, experience means identifying oneself with whatever one is experiencing it, this is me and unless we identify for example if you are seeing a tree we have to identify ourselves with that tree then only the knowledge of the tree arises in our mind in the form of a thought and that thought is I am the tree though we don't say it but we do say it when it comes to the body level, mind level, body level I am male, I am female, I am so many years old, mind level I am happy, I am unhappy, I am full of energy, I am devoid of energy, I am enthusiastic, I am not enthusiastic, I am intelligent, I am dull etc. etc. even we may not say I am dull nobody wants to accept I am dull but that non-acceptance is the greatest expression of dullness in the whole world, so now we enter into the eighth chapter, first eighth section of the sixth chapter, there are seven mantras are there and as I said just now all the seven mantras are the essence of the seven mantras is only how to merge oneself slowly from the gross to the subtle, subtle to the causal, causal to the reality, how does it go? The first mantra we have already discussed just to chant it and this is an analysis of the deep sleep. Uddalako ha arunihi swetaketam putram vacha swapnantame somya vijanihiti yatra ye tat purushaha swapiti nama satha somya tada sampanno bhavati swam apito bhavati tasmat enam swapiti iti achakshate So Uddalaka the son of Aruna said to his son that is here he is addressing his son but the relationship is not that of a son that he sent him to the Gurukula that was the relationship of father and son that he questioned his wisdom that was father questioning the son but here he is teaching the knowledge of Brahman he has become the Brahma Vidwan Purushaha teaching that Brahma Vidya to the earnest seeker and who was that seeker his swetaketu what is he telling in this eighth section first mantra learn from me my dear the true nature of sleep when a person has entered into deep sleep as it is called then my dear he becomes united with sat pure being he has gone to his own self that is why they say he is in deep sleep it's because he has gone to his own abode briefly i will summarize it here why this sudden interest in the analysis of deep sleep and as we know the moment we hear deep sleep we have to remind ourselves every jiva until liberation he goes through three states the waking the dream and then the deep sleep so waking state we are all familiar where we act body becomes very conscious body is employed mind is employed of course with the help of the chidabhasa chidabhasa plus body plus mind is equivalent to waking state and then we go through both duality good and bad life and death and happiness and unhappiness gain and loss honor and dishonor etc but what we are seeking as just now we mentioned is that is due to go beyond the duality that means to be fearless that means to overcome death to overcome ignorance and to overcome suffering it's called sat chit and ananda but we search and then sometimes temporarily we are happy and this waking state gives us these experiences but so many desires they remain unfulfilled and so many plans also we have to make and we don't have time in the waking state so what do we do we enter into the state we lie down our dreams do not mean we only dream when we are lying down dreams can be had while walking while sitting while eating how does that happen you happen to eat bitter gold and you dream when does that time come then i can eat only sweetest of the sweets rasagullas so and if you are married say if only i had waited for a short time i would have got a better partner spouse so always we are dreaming and in the dream state our unfulfilled desires will be will be more or less fulfilled or also our present experiences in the waking state are repeated but dream always indicates an ideal state that's why dream girl dream house dream yacht dream aeroplane dream country dream food you have to understand that is that which gives us more happiness but even this dream is as ephemeral as changing as unsatisfactory that we will discuss in the eighth chapter when we come to that in the chapter called prajapati's teaching to indra so there also dream has problem but there is god has blessed us with another state called deep sleep and this deep sleep is incomparable why it is the nearest state to samadhi what happens in deep sleep it is described here that a person is completely free from all dualities and dualities are created by the mind and the mind is gets resolved in this deep sleep it is not dead it is not destroyed but temporarily it is disabled like giving rest even to a biggest factory like that it happens and then what happens the person goes beyond time space and causation how because the mind is nothing but time space and causation you cannot think without time cannot think without space who is this person where is he and where what time and then what is the effect cause why this happened but in deep sleep is called sushupti we enter that particular state where we are free of the mind free of time space causation and then that is the nearest state to brahma jnana if you recall as i was just now summarizing the first seven chapters so the waking resolves in dream the dream resolves in the deep sleep but through spiritual practice the deep sleep also has to be resolved in the brahman atman because these are the only three states now this process of resolution is going on all the time what is the problem the problem is in way both waking and dream we are not peaceful we are not happy we are searching for rest and satisfaction and we don't get it it is what is called like a pendulum of a clock swinging from one side to the other side and of course depending upon the quality of life we lived some people are more happy more peaceful more at rest and many others then just look at the stupidity humanity is going through today not understanding that hatred is not going to solve the problem so some people want to eliminate another small country and the small country wants to defend itself or wants to smash the other ones whatever be the reason we are wasting 99 percent of our resources instead of using them for our own good does it bring peace buddha had stated long ago wars do not cease by wars hatred is not coming to an end through hatred love alone is the one which can destroy hatred and who can love only a spiritual person so the only solution is to be spiritual unable to understand we are struggling all the time so uddalaka aruni is addressing the apt disciple in the form of saumya says when this person tired of both waking and dream enters into the state called deep sleep that is called swapithi it is called deep state then he is called a dream what is called sleeper swapithi nama then where is he he is at that time that is in the state of pure existence in the waking state dream state existence puts on the visham dress of a tree of an insect of an animal of a human being of planets galaxies but in dream state also it doesn't change same thing happens only the dimensions of time space and causation become time becomes very short you just think because their only thought works mind works not the physical body and therefore you think of usa you are in usa think of mars you are in mars think of gandharva loka you are in gandharva loka think of naraka you will be in naraka so there is no rest but as soon as this person enters into this deep sleep state as if all these things lose their nama rupa names and forms and qualities then what happens it becomes pure existence for example you take the example of clay thousand pots are made small big different shapes different sizes they all go by different names because they serve different purposes we give the names because we want to they put our finger exactly and the precise object we want bring a glass doesn't mean bring a plate bring a plate doesn't mean bring a pot big pot cooking pot no we have to name it serves a purpose called guna now here what happens this reality causes tremendous amount of unhappiness so supposing hundred pots are there and you break all of them then what happens they lose their forms therefore they lose their names therefore they lose their qualities and then what do we call a lump of clay that is called pure existence this example don't go on saying i understood your talk so this person becomes clay in deep sleep that's not what is meant that the whole universe has come from brahman and a person almost as if had become brahman because waking state is much further from brahman and dream state is much nearer to brahman and deep sleep state is very next to the brahman and what is the higher state we studied in the mandukya turiya avastha so waking is merged in dream dream is merged in deep sleep deep sleep is merged in turiya so near to it therefore just as a crystal reflects the colored flower even though it has no color up by itself so this deep sleep reflects the qualities of pure pure existence that is called turiya pure consciousness so even though the person doesn't have real self-knowledge but he is free from dualities that is the difference between deep sleep and samadhi deep sleep there is no duality so tremendous fees but samadhi self-knowledge i am that so in this deep sleep a person becomes very peaceful because there is no reality no enemy no friend no happiness no unhappiness no birth no death no sukha no dukkha but he doesn't know what he is but he goes beyond time space and causation so he doesn't know he gets complete rest and vedanta studies this deep sleep because it is the nearest spiritual quality we have to develop that is while practicing sadhana while just we are in deep sleep we don't have enemies or friends happiness or unhappiness no reaction so with full knowledge if we can attain that state of the mind while in the waking state or in dream state that is called progress in spiritual state spiritual life so in this person means jivatma self individual soul he enters it swapithi enters into that he is called as he attains a particular name just like after completing medicine person attained the name doctor or after studying law lawyer etc so satasoumya he becomes one with pure existence pure existence means pure brahman only brahman only you can't even talk about brahman as pure or impure brahman means pure existence so what happens sata hey dear pleasing disciple this jivatma becomes resolves in that brahman in the form of pure existence there is no manifestation waking and dream manifestations of existence deep sleep no manifestation of therefore he gets a special title some apito bhavati he has become as it were himself some means oneself apitaha means it's resolved becomes one and thus math because of this reason what reason because the individual soul remains as himself without any manifestation enum this individual soul is called by other people who are witnessing his deep sleep they call him he is resolved into himself he is himself this is the teaching and so as we discussed right now so deep sleep first of all when a person gets complete rest complete peace and because he is free from all dualities and dualities come as a result of mind functioning mind functions in the form of thoughts i am different you are different this is different that is different happiness is different unhappiness is different etc every experience that we have it furthers expands our idea of reality multiplicity and that is completely absent in the deep sleep state and as if this deep sleep state for each one of us that is called the our goal our ideal so as a wise person had said we work throughout the waking and also in dream so that we can attain a beautiful deep sleep what does that sentence that statement mean it means if we have got a good teacher if we are directed how to live a good life both in the waking state and as a consequence the dream also becomes a good dream a good person cannot dream of evil dreams an evil person cannot have good dreams because dreams are nothing but summarized reflections of the waking state experiences only so therefore in this deep everybody desires deep sleep and then that gives tremendous rest and the person understands that i am seeking in vain i have to seek only in deep sleep but then he also understands in deep sleep uncontrolled deep sleep the person cannot say that i will have control over deep sleep it comes by itself it also disappears by itself now there must be some other state because this is also a changing state how awakens changes into dream dream changes into deep sleep deep sleep again changes into waking so this brahma chakra samsara chakra goes on and any changing state is non-dependable and anything that is non-dependable cannot be the truth cannot be the reality cannot be the brahma somehow during the course of evolutionary expedition the person understands at last that i have to seek something else but he also understands when i am in the deep sleep i am getting that idea of temporary advaita state non-duality and what is my experience anandi bhavati that means i am nearest to my nature what is deep sleep ananda maya kosha so i am very happy person so if i am not very happy in waking waking cannot be my nature if i am not happy in dream one can have horrible dreams then that is also not my nature but when i enter into it i am so happy and therefore that must be my nature that is pure existence another name for pure existence is brahman and therefore i must be brahman another name for pure existence is ananda sat means pure existence ananda means pure happiness and ananda means pure knowledge i am brahman therefore i am pure existence pure bliss and pure brahman and therefore my real nature is brahman because through the effects of deep sleep i learned this lesson now how to attain to that state so the study of waking the study of dream revealed were the defects terrible defects of birth and death and varied experiences in this states but by the study of the deep sleep we understand that i became myself because there is nobody else i was very happy therefore my nature is happiness i was pure existence therefore i am pure existence and in vedanta another name for pure existence is brahman so i must be brahman so this i have put on is visha jiva visha but jiva one visha grossest visha of jiva is waking a little subtler state is called dream and still fine finer visha or dress is called deep sleep but every dress is separate from us we all know whatever dress we put that is not weak however nice it looks comfortable it is we are separate dress is separate because it can be separated and whatever can be separated cannot be me and therefore even deep sleep cannot be me this is the understanding that comes as a result of very deep analysis of these three states so that is what we have to understand and then this for to understand make us understand the teacher uddalaka gives a beautiful example in the second mantra and we have discussed it also just as a bird tied by a string to the to a pole first flies in every direction and then finding no rest anywhere settles down at the place where it is bound and sriram krishna expands it beautifully so also the mind individual soul jivatma reflected in the mind my dear student after flying in every direction and finding no rest anywhere settles down in prana pure being for the mind that is the individual soul is fastened to the prana we will explore these things in a very brief way so shakuni means a bird flying what happened somebody had tied it to a mask a pole whatever it is just as that bird what type of bird sutrena prabaddhaha complete means bound by what sutrena by a thread that is strong thread and he cannot break it away what does it do i am limited by this thread therefore disham disham patitva patitva means flying disham disham means in various directions what happens anyatra ayatanam alavdva alavdva not getting ayatanam a resting place a happy place where it can get complete peace etc anyatra other places what is this anyatra in the waking state and in the dream state these are called disha disha and he searches in this country that country this job that job this marriage that marriage this eating that eating everything anyatra ayatanam alavdva bandhanam eva upashreta oh where i was tied i have to go there because it gets tired similarly when it gets tired of roaming in the waking and dream states it comes back why does it come back he gets tired so what is the nature of the waking and dream getting tired tired means what not obtaining rest peace happiness but he will get all these things completely how do we know because we ourselves issue this statement upon waking up oh i slept very well so come i slept very happily and how where from does that happiness did that happiness come i did not know anything what does i did not do anything many people misunderstand this statement i did not know anything what does this statement mean it means i did not know any duality it means i did not know the waking state nor the dream state that means i have gone beyond all dualities i did not know any duality if i did not know any duality where am i i am in the non-duality pure existence then it comes back it again gets rest etc but it is still bound remember it is bound that what does it mean even the deep sleep state is also bound and to what is it bound that is going to be told evam eva khalu so thus oh somya pleasing one exactly in the same manner illustrated through this example of the bird tan manaha our mind dishan dishan patitva so it goes to into waking state and flies here and there moves restlessly and then also it goes into the dream state what happens ayatana alabdha ayatana means what peace rest happiness a resting place alabdha unable to obtain where where anyatra anyatra means in both these states pranam eva upashrayate it enters into deep sleep and deep sleep is completely tied up with prana now what does it mean it means even though we are not aware of the body they are not aware of the mind but the prana is there person is alive but here the word prana is used in a separate sense here prana means what is called atmanar brahman so pranam eva that is pure existence only it takes a resort to prana bandhanam he somya manayati oh somya this mind purposefully it obtains this bandhana called bondage with the mind because that is the highest state any of us any living creature not only human beings even a mosquito even a amoeba gets only what it is seeking without experiencing anything that is a speciality everywhere if i want to be happy or unhappy i have to have the help of a object so sweet perhaps gives me happiness bitterness perhaps gives me unhappiness a an object is an instrument is necessary but here just be yourself and you get rest peace and then happiness is a beautiful song where is peace i see kalas in vain to obtain peace where from have i come where am i going who is leading me beautiful song sung by swami vekananda in the presence of sri ramakrishna and it was written by girish chandra goswami marvelous is the so also our minds they all seeking what it wants both in the waking and dream but unable to obtain it goes back that is why deep sleep is the most desirable state because it is the being resolving into one's own self but as i said that only one power of ignorance works there it is not the projecting power called shakti but it is only the covering aspect our own function therefore an individual doesn't even know that i am an individual but it is there nobody dies and that is why i slept that statement proves i am myself i slept well and if i can know it with pure consciousness that is called samadhi so this is the difference between samadhi and lips lips now the ramakrishna gives a very familiar illustration very similar to this bird but this mantra has great relevance to our day-to-day life i will try to discuss it but i want to quote some of the sayings of swami vekananda swamiji says i quote but all of us are struggling to be free that means what when do we struggle when we are not free freedom is our birthright birthright means that is me i am freedom i am mukta so he is quoting on the struggle everyone is struggling for freedom from the atom to the star every word in the statement is deeply meaningful so even not only living creatures what does an atom want to become wants to become a living creature an amoeba what does an amoeba want to become wants to become an insect or it becomes a plant kingdom or it wants to become later on an animal greater and greater complexity greater and greater instruments better instruments and greater and greater freedom of the mind to think deeply and greater and greater happiness peace etc that's why many times i say everything in this world is standing on an evolutionary escalator so everything in this universe is struggling to complete a cycle to return to its source to return to its only real source atman everything that we perceive around us is struggling towards freedom from the atom to the man from the insentient lifeless particle of matter to the highest existence on earth the human soul tell this to the western scientists or psychologists or philosophers that even a particle of dust is trying to become brahman they will laugh at you naturally they will not understand it in all combinations every particle is trying to go on its own way to fly from the other particles that means what i don't want reality but the others are holding it in check that means we are holding others in check and others are holding me in check so like two crabs pulling down each other so we are not allowing is called attachment deep meaning is there our earth is trying to fly away from the sun and the moon from the earth everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion every finite thing has a inherent tendency to become infinite and to claim i am the infinite all that we see in the universe has for its bias this one struggle towards freedom it is under the impulse of the this tendency that the saint praise and also the robber robs when the line of action taken is not a proper one we call it evil and when the manifestation of it is proper and high we call it good but the impulse is the same a struggle towards freedom and swamiji illustrates the saint is oppressed with the knowledge of his condition of bondage and he wants to get rid of it so he worships god the thief is oppressed with the idea that he doesn't possess certain things and he tries to get rid of that want to obtain freedom from it so he steals freedom is the one goal of all nature sentient or insentient unconsciously or unconsciously everything is struggling towards that goal so here important point in this we derive that we are bound to be our own true self which is brahman and until that time there is no peace there is no cessation that the first point second point is according to vedanta every sarvam kalvidam brahma there is no such division or living and non-living the sentient and the insentient there is no such division then swamiji continues the freedom which the saint seeks is very different from that which the robber seeks the freedom loved by the saint leads him to the enjoyment of infinite unspeakable bliss while that on which the robber has said is hard only forges another bond for his soul so the upanishad is saying that when we are awake we are like the bird playing in different directions for what purpose to obtain peace rest and happiness but we do not get it we fail so we come back because that which is really tiding us that is our nature so here the prana means the atman self and there is a beautiful quotation maestro echoed one says that the mind has two eyes two eyes remember is my comment two eyes so ram krishna used to say so the participating and the witnessing i spiritual life is to disassociate ourselves from the participating and experiencing i to the non-participating witnessing i my record continues one eye is always looking outside looking at the things around but the other eye is looking inside looking and searching as it were into its own being and finally one discovers the casual of security and what is this casual of security it is the self when we enter into this casual we are at peace this is the quotation from master record and that is what the upanishad also says here when a person is able to retreat into his own self even though temporarily he attains a state of peace and joy in deep sleep we temporarily enter the casual and sriram krishna is a beautiful meaning to this parable of the bird and we know once a bird sat on the mast of a ship and the ship sailed through the mouth of the ganges into the black waters of the ocean the word failed to notice that fact then it finally becomes aware of the ocean it left the mast and flew north in search of land but it found no limit and after resting it flew south there too it found no limit to the water and then it went to all the directions it did not find then the bird returned to the mast then finding no limit in any direction to the water at last it settled down on the mast of the ship and then the master is interpreting it what is it telling to the elder gopal and the other devotees as long as a man feels that god is there he is ignorant but he attains knowledge when he feels that god is here what a man seeks is very near him still he wanders about from place to place hearing this ram chandra dutta says from sir i now realize why a guru asks some of his disciples to visit the four principal holy places of the country once having wondered about the disciple discovers that it is the same here as there a most beautiful remark then he returns to the guru all this wandering is only to create faith in the guru's words so as a beautiful remark we will talk about it in our next class may ram krishna holy mother and swami vekananda bless us all with bhakti jay ramakrishna