Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 026 on 05-January-2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMITAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU For the devotees of Shri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother, today is one of the most sacred days all over the world. Wherever there are devotees of Shri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother, we will be celebrating the birthday Tithi Puja of Holy Mother at our Alsur Ashram also. Right now the Homa must have started. So it is a very auspicious occasion to all of us as we consider Holy Mother as the Mother Divine of the entire Universe. In that context, not only Holy Mother, but if we believe our Hindu Vedas and Upanishads, each one of us are none other than that pure Brahman. So we are also Jaganmatas, Jagatpitas, everything. May Mother bless us all to realize soon our own inner nature. And before I start the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, I will be answering the one question which has been sent by one of our group to me. The question is this, Does God have a will or not? Okay, it is not at all a difficult question. The answer is this entire Universe is nothing but the will of God. It is the will of God that has created the Universe, that is maintaining the Universe and again He only takes us back into Himself. So to say that God does not have a will is an irrational question. If He doesn't have a will, then we will not be here. And what is the conclusion? We will not be or there will be nobody to put such a question at all. So if God is there, then there is a will and we will be there and we can also question whether He has a will or not. But what type of God are we talking about? Vedanta talks about two aspects of God, the impersonal and the personal. This is a very beautiful question in philosophical terms. If it is impersonal God, there is no world, there is no creation, there is no me or you, therefore there is no place for any question or no one to question, no one to answer, that is the answer. But if we are talking about a God who is the creator, maintainer and who takes us back, I prefer to call Him the recycler, then there is a will of God, there is more grace, there is less grace and He gives some people more happiness or less happiness, not according to His whims but according to our power of perception. It is very funny also that does God give unhappiness? No. Does God give happiness? No. Then what does He give? He gives something but our minds, according to our efforts, Purva Janma Karma, Prasthuta Janma Karma also, we convert it into something quite different. To give a small example, God has given air. The same trees, they would die if we give the trees, the plants oxygen and we will die if we are given carbon dioxide. Air consists of both oxygen as well as carbon dioxide but the plants have the ability to breathe in carbon dioxide and thrive, grow and return back as poison oxygen which we breathe in and thrive and give back to the plants what we received in the form of what they need to receive. So there is no happiness or unhappiness. God gives something. If we have done wicked deeds, evil deeds, that same something, we ourselves convert. God is the giver, we are the converters. According to our Karma, we convert what God has given either into happiness or unhappiness. If we do meritorious deeds, then we are able to convert it into what we call happiness. If it is the reverse, then we convert them into what we call suffering, unhappiness, etc. So what was the question? Does God have will? The personal aspect of God has a will and what does that God's will do? Srishti, Sthithi, Vinasha and then we are the products. Rather God manifests as ourselves and He is questioning Himself through us. Does God have a will? That means do I have a will in my higher aspect? Yes. As a questioner, as a receiver, yes. God has a will and it is working in the form of this creation, preservation and dissolution. That is the answer. Now we will go back to the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In our last class, I always like to summarize what we have done. Not only it reinforces what we have discussed, even our memory being what it is, many people have forgotten what we have discussed. So here is what we discussed. First, is marriage bad? And that question is a bad question. Is marriage bad or is it good? It is not a good way of questioning. Then what is the good way of questioning? For those who need, who are in that state of progress where marriage is a necessity, marriage is good and for those who are not fit for marriage or those who have crossed the human limitations, they do not require the results that come out of marriage, either good or bad. They have risen much higher than in their state of consciousness. For them, if they are married, of course voluntarily they do not express, but even if we consider as a human being that they marry impulsively or by mistake, whatever it is, it is not necessary and it turns out to be an unnecessary burden. That's why the parents have responsibility to study the children and have some kind of common knowledge, my child is not fit for marriage or my child doesn't require marriage. If they are unable to understand that question, let it be left to the children. Even if the children are not able to understand, then leave it to the ultimate source who is God because if it has to happen, it will happen. Otherwise, it is not going to happen in spite of whatever we do. So that is the answer. Specifically, Ramakrishna was not happy at M's marriage. That is not a universal question. It is purely with regard to M. Why? M was one of the assistants who came along with Ramakrishna and Sri Ramakrishna didn't want anyone to get involved so that he can remain completely devoted to Sri Ramakrishna's mission. That is the answer. Then we discussed about why Sri Ramakrishna kept holy mother even after sannyasa and we have to remember according to Hindu tradition, a sannyasi should live as far away as possible from his wife if he is married because there are two types of sannyasa, without marrying as a celibate and or after marrying after some time, usually at the age of 50 or 60, then one can take sannyasa. So this is the answer. Not that M's marriage made Sri Ramakrishna particularly unhappy but that would have hampered the carrying out responsibilities for which M was born. Sri Ramakrishna wanted M exclusively to devote himself to the work of what he used to call his divine mother's mission. Then why did Sri Ramakrishna keep? I have discussed elaborately which I am also going to discuss. God incarnates in this world to establish dharma and how does he do it? By upholding the Chaturveda Purushartha, Dharmartha Kama Moksha, the four stages of life, student's life, marriage life, then semi-retired life and a life of total dedication to God and to achieve what? Dharma, Artha Kama, Upasana and ultimately Moksha. These three divisions correspond with each other perfectly, fit with each other perfectly. So householder's life, student's life, panaprastha's life and a monk's life, each stage is called an ashrama and Sri Ramakrishna wants to emphasize each one of us fall into one of these categories. You may be surprised to hear it from me. Here is a married person, maybe he is married 50 years back. Why do you say that we fall into a particular state? Is he not a householder? I would say if this married 50-year married householder is not a man of wisdom, that means he has not understood what life is and what he should do and he doesn't fulfill the duties and responsibilities of a householder, accepting, squeezing a little bit of pleasures from his life, then he is not at all fit to be a householder. He will fall not even under the category of a brahmachari, just a moustached baby. Then who is a brahmachari? A person intelligent and he goes here, he is sent to a guru and there diligently, consciously learns about three things in life, tattva, purushartha and hita, what is the truth, what is the goal of life and how to achieve it. So this Sri Ramakrishna as a diligent student, you may question, when we study the life of Sri Ramakrishna, actually he was bunking the school and going and playing dramas. Is it an ideal student's life? Not only that, when his elder brother questioned him, why do you escape the school and spending what we call in ordinary language, a vagabond's life, then a categorical answer came, I am a student, I want to be called as a brahmachari in the sense, I want to study those scriptures in order to know what is the truth and such thing is not given in our normal day-to-day schools. So he refused, but what was he doing? He was learning all the time, as he was learning from the scriptures, not that he was reading, but he was listening and he was trying to understand the meaning, he was meditating upon gods and goddesses and this playing with dramas etc. and training others was not for entertainment. Even we can see a cinema or YouTube programs in two ways. We can do it to kill our time, this is what usually goes by the euphemistic name entertainment. It is not even spending time, but killing time or there are wonderful programs. YouTube contains both vidya maya and avidya maya. If we are wise enough, discerning enough to choose what will be educating us, then we will be wise people. Of course, I do not preclude that one should not be entertained. Something should be both entertaining but mostly educative, but being human beings, we will also allow, that means Ramakrishna would allow, have a little bit of fun, something which will not degrade our character, but which will give innocent, harmless entertainment to the mind, relaxation, but it should be severely restricted to a very short time, just enough to make us relax. Rest of the time, we have to be pursuing seriously whatever we want to know and if we do not do it today, we will be forced to do it tomorrow. Then as an ideal householder, Ramakrishna established that adarsha, how a husband should behave and how a wife also should behave. I also spoke about this. Then as a vanaprasthi, one of the main teachings of Sri Ramakrishna is and I am emphasizing it, that as soon as a person, a married person, he had his bit of fun, perhaps he has some children, most householders have children and we presuppose that that house parents have brought up the children and the bringing up the children in a scripture-oriented way is what Sri Ramakrishna wanted to do. For that, the secret is you cannot teach others unless you yourself live that life. Fortunately, both Sri Ramakrishna's mother and father were the greatest spiritual people on earth. So Sri Ramakrishna got lot of inspiration as well as guidance from observing the life of his parents. So we may not come up to the standard of Sri Ramakrishna's parents, but at least we should strive sincerely to attain whatever state we can attain through conscious efforts, spiritual efforts. And then Sri Ramakrishna used to say when the children are grown up, this is a very important point, no householder, that means no parents are really obliged to accumulate money and pass it on to their children. In this respect, we have a lot to learn from the Westerners. Usually, the Westerners bring up their children. There are defects, but there are very good points. What is the good point? They bring up the child so that he learns how to be independent and not to be a sponge upon their parents. So they will be bringing a child up, keeping him in a separate room and making him eat his own food. They train him in such a way and clean up his own bed and then look after himself, take responsibility for himself and narrate a small real incident in a particular place, probably in America, but any part of the West will do. There were two neighbouring families and both parents in the evening were sitting and relaxing and the children gathered together and they were playing. The neighbouring, one of the neighbouring children was a very strong boy and he gave quite a number of blows to his neighbour's child and these parents of that child who was being beaten were also observing that fact. The mother of the child got agitated and shouted at her husband, why don't you go and help our son? The man simply looked at her and said, look here, how long do you want me to go on protecting him? He has grown up. It is time for him to fend for himself. Maybe he gets a few blows. They are of course harmless blows, nothing too big about it, but if I go every time he will start depending upon me and every time some problem comes he will cry, mommy, daddy, I do not wish our children to grow up like that. This is the dominant attitude of the people in the West and we have to bring up our children also to some extent that way, but we over protect them and make them completely helpless, useless, weak and weak-willed. That is not a good thing. This is a point we have to learn from the West. What Shri Ramakrishna also wanted to tell, we see in the West, many people in the West, they do not take responsibility for their children. Once they are well grown up and established, the children will establish their own homes separately. This is a trend that is creeping into our Indian society nowadays, but at the same time our children, they become sponging upon their parents so much. Anyway, so Shri Ramakrishna used to say, once the children are grown up, your responsibility is over and if you have sufficient to live a simple life, then you will have to follow the injunctions of the scriptures, which is what, that you should slowly withdraw from worldly activities and turn your attention to spiritual activities. In other words, Shri Ramakrishna was talking about the third stage of life, which is called vanaprastha, which is called upasana system. How many times he emphasized it. Even for householders, Ramakrishna used to say that as when at dawn and dusk, a householder's duty, he should never forget God, he should go on taking God's name. To set an example, Ramakrishna used to, at dawn and dusk, go on clapping his hands and taking the name of God, Govinda, Rama, Krishna, Gaya, Ganga and Bhagavata, Bhakta, Bhagawan, etc. Was it necessary for him? He was a realized soul. He has reached the goal. These are all meant for people like us. Then why was he doing? To set an example and in the gospel, he made it explicit many number of times. Do you know why I go to the temple? To set an example. So he says, even after a man realizes God, he should go on doing japa, meditation, taking up God's name, visiting holy places, studying holy scriptures. Who? A realized soul. Why should a realized soul do that? Because the purpose is over already, says Loka Sangraha. For the sake of being an example and when a great man does something that is what the lower type of people also do. But that is a far away goal. What I am trying to tell you is that a vanaprastha or a grihasta, a householder, should allot some time, specific time, to devote himself to spiritual practices so that that would be a good preparation and when the time comes, if a man still goes on working as a clerk or as an accountant or whatever, that is according to Sri Ramakrishna, transgressing the commandments of the scripture. Why? Because this life is given for us so that we progress towards self-realization. That is the answer. These other activities, unless they are absolutely necessary, we should not indulge in. Do you have sufficient money to live a simple life? Then you will have to obey scriptural injunctions. Let us remember, whatever Sri Ramakrishna says is, he is uttering as an audio book of the scriptures which give us that explicit commandments. Through Sri Ramakrishna, he culled the very essence of the scriptures which is the gospel and presenting it to us in an audio format. Of course, now it is a reading format. Okay, this is the vanaprastha ashrama and he set an example by devoting himself for some time in the morning, at dawn, at dusk, at other times, going to the temple, etc., which were completely not needed to him at all. He used to say, when a palm tree grows up, as it grows up, the lower branches fall off themselves. Like that, when a man is progressing, rituals fall away themselves. So Sri Ramakrishna answered a very crucial question. When is the time for me to give up rituals? Sri Ramakrishna said, do not be a fool. You can never give up rituals. Then you are talking with one mouth, you should give up and on the other side, you cannot give up. What is the truth? Sri Ramakrishna said, go on sincerely practicing. When the right time comes, rituals and activities fall off by themselves. Like a scab falls off by itself, once when the injured part of the body becomes healed up, that is the answer. Then as a sannyasi, he kept Holy Mother with him. What purpose? We already discussed that point. What was the, just to recollect, what was the purpose? Holy Mother was not to be an ordinary woman. She has to be trained so that she would be a mother, a guru, a divine mother, all rolled into one for her future children. Second, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to give the highest ideal how a jiva born in a female body should behave as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother, as a guru in every single way. Here it is very interesting to note, usually in Hindu families, father doesn't serve the children. Even when they are grown up, even when they have children, even when the grandchildren have come, usually when these children visit or there, it is the mother who prefers to cook and serve. Only after that, eat the food. That was what Holy Mother used to do even for her own children, that means those who have been initiated by her. She never allowed anybody to cook and make her eat. There was one beautiful occasion. It was mother's birthday and all the devotees and disciples decided mother works very hard, maybe 14 to 16 hours a day. So let us give her a holiday. We will cook the food and every day she is serving us. Today we will serve her. So they presented a new saree and after bath she put it on and the children came to offer their what is called Pushpanjali flower offering. But some children as volunteers, they cooked the food and they made her sit in a very decorated place and placed all the cooked food in front of her and then said, mother you please eat and then she said, my children how can I eat before you have eaten? They said every day we are eating fast now but for today we wish you to eat. They found out that she was taking the food and putting it in her mouth but the food was not going inside. With great difficulty as we swallow Kasaya or medicines, bitter medicines, she was trying to force the food and they asked, mother is not the food well cooked? Is it not tasty? Is that why you are finding it difficult? She said, my children how can a mother eat before the children eat? Then they came to their senses. They said, okay mother you eat later on then only otherwise you will not enjoy. We wanted you to enjoy but we cannot enjoy because you do not enjoy. So they followed her advice and then they ate first whatever they cooked after offering of course to Sri Ramakrishna. Now what are we talking about? Sri Ramakrishna wanted to train her and make her a fit person as what? To establish what is called the ideal of a wife and the ideal of a mother and not ordinary mother. She is called Sanghamata, the mother of all the organization that means spiritual mother and above all she is not an ordinary guru. As we remember Ramakrishna worshipped her, invoked the divine mother Tripurasundari in her body and prayed, oh mother Tripurasundari from today onwards you will live in the body of this lady and you will be working through that instrument for the good of the world and the most astonishing fact was Sri Ramakrishna offered all the spiritual wealth that he had gained through superhuman spiritual practices and then handed it over as it were into mother's hands so that she knows best how to distribute. That was not the role of Sri Ramakrishna and he would not have been able to do it as Ishwari as the Sarvamangalam Angalye. She is the one who is ready to come to the rescue. So Sri Ramakrishna was training her to act like a divine mother but at the same time establishing as a householder as a wife, ideal wife, ideal guru and ideal relative above all to manifest the divine motherhood which has been so beautifully depicted in the Devi Mahatmyam which we had discussed in somewhat details. This is the reason why Sri Ramakrishna had kept holy mother but here is a caution. Nowadays probably imitating Sri Ramakrishna and holy mother many sannyasins also started mother they call them mother and they go by their own name. They will not give names. This is a very dangerous trend. Ultimately the selfishness creeps in and it is very difficult. We have already seen how Mahamaya can influence people. In the case of Sri Ramakrishna both Sri Ramakrishna and holy mother were immaculately pure but the subject matter is that why Sri Ramakrishna being a sannyasi antagonist the old Hindu tradition of not keeping their former wives even after taking sannyasa he did not want to violate the tradition but there are special reasons. God establishes the dharma only by practicing these four ashramas highlighting the four purusharthas and fulfilling the inner meaning of four parts of the Veda which is as we know mantra, brahmana, aranyaka and upanishad. So that was what we discussed and in regard to that I wanted to bring to your notice something very interesting. Before the advent of Sri Ramakrishna we get the biographies of God incarnating as Buddha earlier to that as Krishna still earlier as Rama and then later on Jesus Christ Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of course Sri Ramakrishna in the 19th century. In the other incarnations the role of the divine mother as the female as the helper of the incarnation was not only not highlighted positively it became neglected. I'll give some examples as Sri Rama he had to bring Sita whenever an incarnation came either the lady came the divine mother came as the wife usually there are only exceptions like Jesus Christ who did not marry at all most of the incarnations are married people. So what was the role of Sita in Ramayana people miss this most important clue but for Sita Ravanasura would not have been killed and in the allegory Ravanasura represents ignorance only because of the divine mother Sita Rama could accomplish this destruction of ignorance with the help of Sita so it is the function of God Ishwara he requires the help of yoga maya this fact very curiously was brought up by Shankaracharya in his most beautiful composition called Soundarya Lahari consisting of about 100 shlokas in the very first shloka in the very first line shiva shaktya yukto yadi bhavati na prabhavaha so if Shakti or Shiva is not associated with Shakti Shiva would not have been able to do his job he would be a failure similarly Brahma could not have created without Saraswati Vishnu could not have maintained the world without Lakshmi that's why he make fun maintenance requires both money and weapons Lakshmi Devi represents money and chakra gada etc represents the weapons Brahma's role is only to create and therefore he did not require any weapons but to do creative activity one needs a very keen intelligence and that is represented by mother Saraswati and Shiva of course shaktya yukto nabhavati prabhavitum nashatthaha would not have been able to do his job that is recycling the old bodies and giving them new instruments so that the humanity can progress creation can progress towards its destination only destination which is the realization of their own true nature so what are we talking here we are talking here about the help that this pavuti counterpart of every incarnation and in the life of Shri Krishna who are the helpers Swami Vivekananda pointed out with unerring finger that the best episode in the life of Bhagavan Krishna even greater than the Gita why Gita is only a teaching but the true demonstration of what really helps us is to develop love for God and that is represented by the Rasha Leela as perhaps I mentioned one day Shri Ram Krishna called all his devotees and disciples asked them to sit around him and said meditate on me this is Rasha Leela so this is the true symbolism of Rasha Leela that Gopikas were not simply dancing disco dance they who are the Gopikas they were greatest spiritual aspirants who from many lives have been doing great austerity in order to come nearer to God this comes to us through Shri Ram Krishna's hint when Shri Rama entered Dandakaranya 64,000 Rishis who were completely merged in the meditation on the impersonal aspect of God called Brahman when they met when Rama came nearer to them they experienced incomparable joy even meditation on Parabrahma could not produce such great joy then they all had a desire we would like to be with you all the time Shri Rama assured them you will have it but not in this incarnation I am going to be reborn once more as Krishna there is something again very nice for us to recollect Shri Ram Krishna at one point said I was the same Rama and Krishna in this incarnation the same Rama and Krishna are reborn as Ramakrishna here Rama was telling I am going to reincarnate as Krishna perhaps he said perhaps he did he left it unsaid but he could have very well said in future I am going to be reborn as Ramakrishna because it is the same Akhanda Rajya from where the incarnations as well as their helpers eternal companions are born and again they go back to that particular state in this context I have to tell you something which perhaps you must have read according to Shri Ramakrishna there is a realm where the would-be incarnate the source of the would-be incarnations as well as their companions is that special plane this is what he used to call Akhanda Rajya when incarnation is not there then the what is the source of incarnation as well as his future companions they will be there sitting and meditating. Shri Ramakrishna had a vision about this he saw his mind ascended through the path of Samadhi to that highest spiritual state which is called Akhanda Rajya the indivisible realm there he saw seven Rishis sitting and this accords with our Puranic belief that every yoga means a particular span of time of human history is ruled by one one particular Manu he will be the in charge for this particular age that means there is somebody who is looking after this creation all the time in the form of a particular Manu so this whether it is Rama or Krishna or Buddha or Jesus or Chaitanya or Shri Ramakrishna remember these are not the only incarnations millions of incarnations have come in time so we do not know history has no record of this other incarnations so these great people they come they are the same beings like a well-known actor he puts on different dresses in different cinemas and incarnation is like that with different name different form and different slightly different teaching eternal truths but for a suitable for a changing society so in the incarnation of Rama it was Sita who was the instrumental in the incarnation of Krishna according to Swami Vivekananda the most important event in this Rasha Leela it has nothing to do with the gross sensual understanding we have it's a spiritual play between the devotee and God there is there is a very interesting incident once Mirabai after flooding flying away from Rajasthan she went on her way to Dwaraka to Brindavan there was a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu she wanted to see that great soul but the disciples of that Goswami said proudly our Guruji doesn't see the face of a woman spontaneously the teaching came out she said I'm surprised in Brindavan I thought there is only one Purusha one male where from this second man has come I'm surprised of course these foolish disciples could not understand it they went inside and reported they were good they reported exactly what they heard immediately he came running fell at the feet of Mirabai please pardon me I did not know that you have come what did he mean Krishna is the only Purusha everyone is a gopi that is the essence of this Rasha Leela so it is through the gopis and in the gospel we get this mention of gopis and the songs sung by Sairam Krishna and others also again and again most wonderful songs we get this is called Vaishnava Padavali specially created composed and sung by Vaishnava devotees called Kirtana that is what we get and this is the essence gopis played a very important role in the life of that incarnation called Bhagavan Krishna of course Gita is the greatest philosophical poem but the even the 11th chapter of the Bhagavatam called Uddhava Gita that is also nothing but the teachings of again Bhagavan Krishna but this time tinged with great devotion while the in the Bhagavad Gita more emphasis is given on the philosophical and psychological side in the Uddhava Gita the devotional side completely dominates the teachings of Bhagavan Krishna but the practical demonstration of what Krishna wanted to teach we get only in the Bhagavatam in the form of the Rasha Leela a divine sport of Krishna Bhagavan with his devotees now in the incarnation of Buddha his wife Yashodhara performed superhuman austerities and that is how she played the greatest role in the incarnation of Buddha in the life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we get the greatest role was played in the form of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's wife her name was Vishnupriya she was the second wife first wife died and second time Chaitanya Mahaprabhu married if you knew the life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu even Chaitanya's elder brother Vishwambhara also became a monk and his mother's name was Shechi Devi so Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when the time came took the permission of his mother and bid goodbye to this Vishnupriya what did this Vishnupriya do she played the greatest role how an ideal wife if her husband becomes a monk she will also become a nun perhaps you know the story I have narrated quite a number of times but worth remembering every time as soon as her husband left this Vishnupriya's spiritual austerity had started until she left her body she will get up early in the morning after taking her bath she used to take two bowls one bowl full of rice another empty she used to repeat the Maha Mantra do you know what is the Maha Mantra Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare this is called Maha Mantra she used to repeat this Maha Mantra every repetition with every repetition she will take one grain of the rice from the rice bowl and then put it in the empty vessel till noon this Maha Mantra repetition goes on then whatever number of rice grains fill up the second cup with that she used to cook and there were people who were eager to have prasada after distributing she became like a divine mother naturally she will not give why you fellows have eaten I am starving from morning I deserve more and more portion of the food it was like a like holy mother she used to distribute equally whatever little was left she used to eat and that was her only sustenance throughout the day this she continued until she passed away if this were not the greatest role played by Vishnupriya as an ideal householder why because her husband played the role of a high ideal sannyasin he never used to look at the face of any woman that's why when she was when Chaitanya was living with his people in Puri his mother Shichi Devi every year she used to go with some devotees from Nadia to Puri spend a few days with her son and she was the only woman who was allowed to serve him food bhiksha and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to live only on the Mahaprasada of Lord Jagannatha he will not eat any other food any food that has to be offered to him must be first offered to Lord Jagannatha and he was extraordinarily strict about sannyasins not even looking at women excepting looking at the face of Shichi Devi and that he allowed her only to serve him to touch him and no other woman not even Vishnupriya never left Nadia whole life she spent and passed away there itself there was a beautiful story whenever this Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he preached the glory name and glory of the name of God and he used to hold kirtanas thousands of people used to be swayed in an ecstatic state now what happened was on one occasion when he was returning from Puri to his own kutiya called Gabhira at a place called Gabhira suddenly he heard a melodious chanting of Sankirtana and immediately went into a semi-ecstatic state and he was rushing towards the source of that sound and many times Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to embrace the person who used to sing such a kirtana and thereby he that was done as an act of love in an ecstatic state but it is also an act of grace as if God is embracing his devotee anyway one day at night he heard this melodious sound heart capturing sound he was rushing and one of always one of the disciples made sure that he will be accompanying Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the reason was he used to be mostly a semi-conscious state many times when he went to the sea Puri is on the on the bank of the the sea when he used to go there he used to mistake the sea for Yamuna and just jump and drown thinking this is Yamuna several times that had happened so the disciples made sure that somebody will be with him to prevent such an occurrence now this time Chaitanya was rushing towards that melodious voice he never could discern whether this is a female voice or male voice but the disciple understood and then he went forcibly caught up Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and not allowed him to proceed forward after some time when the bhava and the spiritual ecstasy subsided Chaitanya Mahaprabhu still was hearing that sweet melody he realized oh this is a female had I done that I would have gone and embraced her if you had not prevented and what what would have happened of course we do not know what would have happened but my guess rational guess is he would have committed suicide you may wonder why am I talking like that because I will narrate now one story anyway Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he had blessed this disciple and said you saved me from one of the greatest mistakes that I could have committed in life now I am sending you back to Nadia you are the only person who is so pure you will be able to protect Vishnupriya from all elements and this disciple obeyed even though it was a heart-wrenching situation he never wanted to leave the divine presence of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu but without another sound he simply went to Nadia whole life until Vishnupriya passed away he was the guardian angel of Vishnupriya protecting her from many sorts of things because even in the saint's life also many things would happen now coming back to Puri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had a disciple he was called Yengar Haridas and he was one of the most beloved disciples full of bhakti etc now in Puri there was one lady who was a widow but she was one of the greatest devotees highly spiritually advanced and one day that lady was there there was another householder devotees both husband and wife who were very close to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu very rarely they used to invite Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and then give him bhiksha this is the custom some devotees invite the swamis and feed them there is sometimes it is called pada puja also anyway so these householder devotees they were poor people and they invited Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and they were very pure people Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately accepted he would not accept from impure even devotees devotees may not know whether they are pure or impure but this Shri Ramakrishna knew and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu knew Shri Krishna knew like that anyway coming back Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted I will come on such and such a date now I was talking about the younger Haridas younger Haridas he loved Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he used to sing kirtan and he used to guard Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was living in a small kutiya and sometimes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu while listening to the kirtana of this younger Haridas used to go into ecstatic state lie down sometimes this Haridas required to go outside or come from outside to inside it was a small doorway and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sometimes used to live across but the disciple was instructed you cross over this is called violating a guru if a person is lying down we should not put our legs cross over him we should either go around that person and in the kutiya of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu there was no such place so the younger disciple was instructed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu you are not committing something wrong for my good only for my service only you are doing these things you do it freely so this younger Haridas was very much beloved and he was a sannyasin of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he was protecting Chaitanya Mahaprabhu serving him personally and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very happy with him now this younger Haridas heard that this householder devotee has invited Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Haridas knew that these devotees were very poor and then he went there voluntarily purely out of love for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and asked what are you going to feed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with he said we have got some rice what type of rice it is very coarse rice and Haridas didn't want Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to eat this coarse rice so he said this coarse rice is not at all fit for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the devotee asked what are you suggesting what am i supposed to do and this Haridas said don't worry i will supply you rice all right if you bring rice whatever you bring i'll cook we will cook and serve so this Haridas went to that widow devotee who was highly developed spiritually but she was very well-to-do woman and she was surprised why you came then he narrated the incident and said if you can lend a little bit of rice that will be cooked and served Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the lady was in herself great joy she gave quite a good quantity of rice and joyfully Haridas brought it gave it to the devotee and then he went away now the devotee joyfully cooked and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came he sat down and then he ate nicely he enjoyed it seemed he enjoyed it but he was keen observer so after eating he said oh such wonderful tasty food i really liked it and enjoy it i bless you but then Mosha Mosha Mahasaya where from did you get this rice you are not i know that you don't have this kind of money to purchase this kind of rice then innocently that householder narrated why swami your own disciple brought the rice oh i see i see where from he brought oh he has brought from that woman devotee and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu smiled but something very hard had taken place he returned home and Haridas was there he called Haridas and said get away from me from today onwards i will not see your face it was a terrible shock for Haridas to be told all of a sudden but Mahaprabhu will not see his face again and then he went morosely and started living separately gave up eating food other devotees came to know about the incident and started pleading with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard as a thunderbolt he said look here it looks as though you don't like my staying here if you repeat the same thing that i should allow Haridas to come and save me i will leave this place and go away to a place where nobody none of you will know about me that shut the mouths of all the devotees and this Haridas waited for several months absolutely no change of heart on the part of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then he became despondent he went to Allahabad and i believe he committed suicide long after this incident Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had come to know that Haridas committed suicide then his only response was a fitting punishment for a sanyasi who dares to go and speak to a woman of course for us i'm only i only told this story even i don't understand this view Ramakrishna never advocated such things but what was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu trying to do to keep the strict ideal of a sanyasi for the sake of food for the sake of ordinary worldly things no sanyasin would ever approach any householder and that is of course even in Chaitanya's time which was the 16th century that was a terrible thing to happen to his disciple still it remains a mystery to me but why am i narrating all these stories incidentally there are two reasons first reason is i myself forget and get lost when these topics come i enjoy it and i fervently hope you also will enjoy it second reason is this is to show how strictly they were establishing the ideals of a sanyasi of a householder etc etc anyway coming back so in the incarnation of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Vishnupriya played a very very important role and in the life of the incarnation of Sri Ramakrishna holy mother not only played a wonderful role of a loving wife who dedicated her whole life in the service of her husband who required very special care in the form of preparing special diet suited only for his delicate stomach but at the same time Sri Ramakrishna was training for the greatest role she had yet to play after his passing away that of becoming the divine mother divine motherhood for every one of the devotees she would be a divine mother but for the whole world she will be displaying divine motherhood and holy mother's life as a woman is the only ideal life for every woman married unmarried young old etc this is how god establishes dharma and this was what we have discussed of course i promised as usual i will go into some of the details of the householders duties as outlined by swami vekananda himself in his karma yoga book and he said he had taken these things from maha nirvana tantra this of course we will do in our next class once again today is a very holy day we are the homa must have been over by this time but i pray to Sri Ramakrishna holy mother and Swami Vekananda that may they bless us with bhakti and with spirituality so that this year turns out to be better than the previous years may Sri Ramakrishna holy mother and Swami Vekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna