Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 034 on 11-May-2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadaam Deivim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pahada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamaam Imuhur Muhuhu I am so happy we have been able to restart. Only yesterday the broadband has been connected. Lot of prayers were needed to get this connection but anyway by God's grace everything is okay. Now there were two questions. First we will deal with that and after that we will continue our gospel class. First of all, how should one live in the present situation? I will give you very brief answer because I have dealt with this question many times, any number of times and will do so in future also. First of all, the questioner has done such a beautiful job. Every event that happens in our lives, individual or universal, the question that we need to ask ourselves is what lesson can I learn from this? This COVID situation, people have some wrong ideas about it according to me because there are people who believe in God, those who do not, those who are skeptics and those, even those who believe in God, they have different opinions. I am only dealing with this from one particular angle. I am a believer in Prarabdha Karma, in the law of cause and effect. So this is brought about purely by ourselves. God is only what we call Vidhata, a supervisor, a person who allots to everyone happiness or unhappiness according to the deeds that each one of us will do. People are becoming more and more quarrelsome, violent, scheming, intolerant, grabbing and extremely what we call hoarding, lobbyists and they are ready to do anything. They will not stop at anything. However much damage it does, not only to themselves but to everybody else. So I believe the Divine Mother, instead of using the word God, I am using the word Divine Mother has sent this warning to us. If you do not turn towards the right, what is called Dharma, then you will have to pay the price and very heavy price. Second, even more important, from our scriptures we come to know that most people are thinking that this is a one-off situation and somehow if we can find out a way to get out of it, to escape from it, then future will be bright paradise. Nothing could be more mistaken than this view. Who knows that more virulent virus may come or any other disaster may come and even without any so-called obvious disasters, people are suffering from varieties of mental illnesses which is thoroughly undesirable. The question is what should be our response? I will give you three answers. First answer is what am I learning from this situation? What is the lesson I have to learn? Second, am I turning more towards truth? That was the subject of the gospel. We are talking about knowledge and ignorance. Knowledge means truth. Am I turning towards truth or am I following the path of the ignorance or falsehood or samsara? All these are synonymous words. Third lesson, what is the relationship between the events that happen and our personal responsibility? So first of all, this is the nature of the world. We are in this situation and it has come purely by God's will and God's will is not individual, independent, free will but dependent upon, as I said, upon what we do individually or collectively. Second, what is the lesson that I learn? Is there any way to escape? Yes, if I am dharmic, if I am righteous, if I am turning my mind towards God, if I am orienting my life into a spiritual mould, I may not be able to remove the external situation but I can be extremely happy. I can be affected much less if I can train my mind to respond in a most positive way. And lastly, self-effort as well as the will of God. Events, they always go together. That is the most important thing for all of us to understand. That is why at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, where there is God and where there is self-effort. God's grace and self-effort and the obverse and reverse of the same coin. So we have to do our best individually and we must be cognizant, aware. We can only do so much if so much is beyond our control. But let us do our very best and let us not worry too much about what we call, what is happening in the external world. Let us get out of it doing our best to serve both ourselves as well as other people. This is the answer to the first question. Second question, very interesting question about food. Are there certain types of foods which are completely prohibited? The short answer is, first of all, every religion, every region, every individual has his or her own references depending upon health situation, depending upon the family situation, social situation, upon our beliefs etc. Is it wrong to eat beef? Our ancestors were eating beef. Our Rishis were eating beef. Most Hindus do not know this. Secondly, is it also wrong to eat pork? No, there is nothing wrong. Then why Hinduism seem to have prohibited? The word Hinduism is a very broad subject. According to Hinduism, there are people endowed with Sattva, endowed with Rajas and endowed with Tamas. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. What we need to understand that certain types of foods are prohibited only to certain types of people because that is not suitable for that kind of people who have reached a certain state of consciousness. But meat eating, non-vegetarian eating is not prohibited to everybody. Second, these preferences are not in our control. That's why our scriptures, they neither prohibit nor inject, encourage. What they tell is that you observe three rules with regard to food. First of all, food is meant for giving us health and optimal strength, physically and mentally. It is said in our Chandogya Upanishad that the subtlest part of the food goes to our spiritual development and the middle type of food goes to our mental development. Physical type of food goes for physical health and there is certain types of food which is not useful for all the three things. So that goes out undigested. Undigested means not suitable either way. If you ask for a spiritual aspirant, his greatest aim is to reach God. That means he is a person endowed with Sattva. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. Even to hurt a vegetable is a painful thing for such a person. So three rules are there. Without food, we cannot survive. So eat that food which is suitable. Food must be suitable in both quantity and quality. Second, it should not create any adverse reaction. Thirdly, it should be nutritious and digestible. So three rules. Food should be nutritious. It should be digestible as well as it should not create any adverse reaction. These are the things which if we can observe, forget about beef, forget about pork and other things. Even though it's not directly related to this subject, many types of medicines we take, many types of so-called foods we take and if we go into the aeroplane or foreign countries, western countries, many of us have that karma to go to other countries. So indirectly, so many times we have to eat. In fact, I was informed that I had eaten pork. Just briefly relate. I was in Italy and I was lodged, accommodated in a hotel. I was very hungry. I went and sat in the seat telling them to serve me vegetables and rice. Meanwhile, there were some biscuits, pencil-like biscuits. I started taking them and munching them. One of my persons who was assigned to look after me, he saw me a little bit late and said, Swami, please do not eat them. They contain pork. So I replied, first of all, I have already eaten. Nothing I can do about it. Secondly, I did brahmarpanam. So I don't feel guilty about it. It is nothing but prasada. The answer is, the rules and regulations apply to people who are sadhakas. But once a person reaches God-realization and then the question comes there. Shri Ramakrishna tells clearly, a person who has realized God, he goes beyond all rules and regulations. There is a beautiful Sanskrit quotation, When a person goes beyond all the three gunas and only a realized soul goes beyond all three gunas, there is no vidhi injunction. There is no nisheda, prohibition. He can do whatever he likes. But we have to understand, if he is a South Indian saint, for example, Ramana Maharshi, after realization, he is never forced to eat beef or pork or anything. Because our bodies are accustomed to only certain types of foods. Especially if we are born in a vegetarian eating family, then our bodies cannot tolerate non-vegetarian food. But suppose there are western saints, they are eating pork. An interesting example came to me. Saint Francis of Assisi, who was considered one of the greatest saints of the 12th century. In his old age, he became sick and he had a terrible longing to eat pork. So somebody had procured for him and then he was satisfied. So it all depends upon body situation. But forget about pork, forget about beef. There is nothing without life. Even a vegetable has life. Curds has millions of bacteria. There is nothing called really pure vegetarian. Everything is non-vegetarian. But these three rules. Food should be nutritious and easily digestible. Food should not bring any adverse reaction. And food should be easily digestible and no more beyond that. And these are universal rules. And with this, I think we dealt with those two questions. Now we will take up the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In our last class, the occasion was Sri Ramakrishna and M were conversing. Sri Ramakrishna casually asked M, what type of wife is yours? And if it was a woman, he would have asked, I am sure he had asked, but no woman had recorded gospel. What type of husband you have? Why is this question? Because if one of them alone is spiritual aspirant and her spiritual struggle or how much resistance, difficulties he or she has to go through depends upon not only upon her, upon her family, upon her partner and many other situations there. So we have to be extremely careful about these things. Reply given was M. He did not know what was the distinction between knowledge and ignorance. Replied, she is a very good woman, but unfortunately she is ignorant. What does he mean? That means in character, she was a very good person. Never obstructed her husband's spiritual practice. In fact, she herself was extremely fortunate to come and serve. Sri Ramakrishna allowed her to serve because you know M had some children. One of the sons of M had just died and this mother had practically gone mad. It is only the grace of Holy Mother and Sri Ramakrishna that had saved her from completely going berserk. So Sri Ramakrishna was extremely kind. He went to a great lengths to keep her mind so that she will not be agitated too much. And even we are surprised to see Sri Ramakrishna instructing M, don't allow her to go too near to fire. Because when the body gets heated, brain gets heated, mind also gets heated. Physical things have tremendous influence. Not only psychosomatic, but soma-psychic also. This is well known in every way. That's why the earlier question, food is very important because that affects us physically and body can affect mind, mind affect the body. Vice versa. Now she was very good person and extraordinarily fortunate person to have met an incarnation of God to be considered by him kindly. He looked upon her with the greatest love and bestowed his grace upon. But more important, Holy Mother lived in the house of M on quite a number of occasions. And M even though he was earning was not much, he was serving Holy Mother sending every month some amount of money and for some time his money was one of the important sources of Holy Mother's living when she was particularly in Jairambatti. And he also arranged Holy Mother's pilgrimage etc. etc. Now the second part of the answer was, I'm afraid she is ignorant and that was the topic we are dealing knowledge and ignorance. And in the introduction I said there are opinions. Most of what we call knowledge is only opinions. I'm trying to go deep into it. Most of our knowledge about COVID is only opinion. Even the so-called scientists do not know anything about it. What it was? Where from it has come? What it is going to be like Mahishasura? It is going to be mutant as an elephant, as a buffalo, as a lion, as a man? In how many varieties of forms it is going to come? We do not know. But instead of as I said earlier thinking why it has come? Am I responsible? That should be the line of thinking. We are thinking how to deal with it? How to get rid of it? You can't get rid of it because it is the resultant of our karma. We have to get rid of our karma phala. That is the only way to get rid of this COVID or any other situation, happy or unhappy, both. We are talking about knowledge. And we have ended, we have discussed very nice points. You have to go through them. You have to not only do shravana, you have to do manana also. Then only you will be ready for the next class that we are going through. Here is my humble suggestion. At least before attending this gospel class, please go through a second time or any number of times. But at least once and then sit and ask yourself. What does Swami to explain about the gospel of Shri Ramakrishna? What are the important points? What we call in the school, you put them in your own words. Summarize them in your own words without being what is called dubious or without being clear. Crystal clear thinking is what is needed. According to Shri Ramakrishna, knowledge is truth. What is truth? That which never changes. And we have talked about two types of truths. Truth about the world in which we are living. Truth about our body. Truth about our mind. Truth about our ahankara. Truth about this world. And the other knowledge is about God. And that knowledge which never changes, trikala abadhitam, that is called truth, that is called satyam. And that is only God. God doesn't change, cannot change because infinite cannot change. It is only the finite which is affected by time, space and causation. This world, everything other than what we call God is called anatma or jagat prapancha. Really speaking, there are no two things. One is God, atma. Another is anatma. No, our mistaking by some mysterious power and perceiving God as finite, as subjected to time, space and causation is called the world. But even about the world, we do not know the truth. What is the truth? Everything is temporary, in a flux, changing. So if we can understand that, immediately our minds will become restless because we do not know when is death going to come to us. So this is what Shri Ramakrishna wants to tell. And you are a man of knowledge. That was Shri Ramakrishna's rejoinder to the answer given by M. And M himself was commenting. Until that time, he did not know the difference. What is knowledge? M thought, academic knowledge, obtaining degrees is knowledge. That's not knowledge. That is what is called information and information is always changing. Opinions are always temporary and changing. Even our opinions about ourselves, our opinions about our family members, all depends upon the situation. If your husbands or wives start shouting at you and then your opinion about them will change so many times. There is a funny story. Just to give you a break. There was a man who became temporarily deaf and he went to the ENT doctor and he prescribed hearing aids. And he said, I'll give medication. You'll be alright for three months. After three months, so only you need to wear them for three months. Now, a doctor met this man after six months and he was surprised that the man was still wearing hearing aids. Then he asked him, are you not able to hear properly? He said, yes. Then why are you wearing hearing aids? A man said, doctor, you don't know how much good they are doing to me. I already changed my will three times. What does it mean for those who did not catch it? When he was at home without hearing aids, his family members freely expressed their opinions about him. And he was perfectly capable of hearing and understanding. So he thought that somebody is good, is not passing, criticizing about him. And so he changed his will. Three times he changed his will means the opinions of the people, the family members are changing all the time. So everything is changing, our bodies are changing, our minds are changing, our opinions are changing, our knowledge is changing. You will see after 20 years, our knowledge about this COVID also will be changing. We ended our last class, the beautiful parable by Sri Ramakrishna. And just to remind so that we can resume our thread. One day a pundit was crossing a Ganges by a boat and he was a poor sort of pundit. Pundit means really a scholarly man. He wanted to exhibit his scholarship in front of the poor illiterate boatsman. So he asked three questions. Do you know what is Yakarana grammar? The man replied, what is that particular bird? I never heard about it. So do you know anything about Kavya? So what is that animal? I don't know. Have you heard about Vedanta? By this time he said, I don't know what is that object you are talking about. But every time the man answered in the negative. The pundit was in the habit of saying, oh one-fourth of your life is gone, two-fourth of your life is gone, three-fourths of your life is gone. Meanwhile a huge storm arose and the boatsman knew this time there is no way of rowing the boat safely to the shore. So he asked only one question. Sir, do you know how to swim? And the pundit never learned how to swim. And then he said, no. The boatsman's reply was, your entire life is wasted. Shri Ramakrishna's parable contains deep truth. We may know all the grammar. We can speak endlessly. We may know all the poesy aesthetics. We may thoroughly enjoy everything or we may study Vedanta. But if we do not know how to swim across the ocean of this samsara, maya and get out of then we will be, our whole life will be wasted. The only good news is that according to Hinduism life doesn't end with this particular life. God gives us or our own innate potentiality gives us endless opportunities so that we can reach or know, realize our own true nature and become completely free from everything. We ended with this parable of Shri Ramakrishna of the pundit and the boatman. Then Shri Ramakrishna is continuing. Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge. Those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not overcrowded with thoughts borrowed from others and those who after studying all the scriptures and sciences have come to realize that they know nothing. Every paragraph of Shri Ramakrishna's teaching is Veda for us, Upanishad for us and I can also give appropriate quotations which corroborate that these utterances are really Upanishads. Whatever comes out of the mouth of a great saint, any saint anywhere in the world, they are all nothing but pure Vedas. Shri Ramakrishna says only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge. That means they know who they are and there are people vastly learned. That means what is this learning? Encumbered with learning. That means borrowing from everybody, every book, every book is the outcome of somebody's learning whether it is Isavasya, Bhagavad Gita or Puranas, all the Puranas, Bhagavata, Mahabharata, Vedavyasa, Ramayana, Valmiki's or Tulasidas, all the Upanishads, different Rishis, Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, Shri Ramakrishna's, the works of Swami Vivekananda, Swamiji's works. So what is it that belongs to us? Own answer. Yes, that is what Shri Ramakrishna is giving. When we study all these things, these different thoughts crowd our minds and quotations also will come but none of it is our realization and if we have not realized even one single ideal or thought then it cannot transform our life. Only that which transforms our life, that alone is what we call ours. It is not that we have to invent or we have to create newly. What it means is this knowledge is eternal and even the great Rishis, they have not created it. That is why our Vedas are called Apaurushaya. Paurushaya means human creation. Apaurushaya, no Purusha, that which belongs to a Purusha is called Paurushaya has created these things. But they simply understood, heard about them, thought about them, meditated upon them, Shravana, Manana, Nididhyasana and realized and then they became the sources of knowledge, authentic knowledge because they know like Vamadeva, Aham Manurabhavam. I have become a Manu. I have become Brahma. I will talk about this called Upasana. I will talk about this beautiful subject in our future classes but for now a realized soul is one who has become one with knowledge and he become one with truth and he became one with God. He is called a God realized soul. But until that time Ramakrishna was not discouraging. He says that there is a limit how much a person can take in. Take what is necessary and go and then try to realize it. And for that he has given another beautiful analogy. According to Hindus the stars are in ascendancy at particular times different stars. So there is one particular star which is called Swati. When it is in ascendancy and at that time if the clouds rain there is a kind of creature in the seas that is called Pearl Oyster and this will be waiting for that particular drop of water which falls only when the star Swati is in ascendancy and once one drop it gets it clamps itself shut, dives deep into the bottom of the ocean and then it will not come out until the pearl is formed. Invaluable priceless pearl. What does this parable mean? A Pearl Oyster is an earnest spiritual seeker and Swati nakshatra means the divine Guru. God's grace descending to us in the form of the Guru. What is that raindrop? The mantra that he gives us. What is the clamming the shell? That once we receive it I do not need anything else. Dive into the ocean. Dive deep into the ocean of God. Spiritual sadhana. Doop doop doop. Roop shagore amar mon. Thala thal patal khunjile. Pave re prem ratna dhan. Beautiful song, Bengali song we get in the gospel of Sri Ram Krishna and Thakur was very fond of this song and he used to sing this song very much. Dive deep. Dive deep. Oh mind into the very bottom of the beauty of God's splendor and if you seek there you will get the greatest pearl. You will turn into the greatest pearl. What is that pearl? Prem ratna dhan. Prema. Mad love like Chaitanya had, like Sri Ram Krishna had, like every great spiritual aspirant before realization has, like Radha has, like the Gopis have, like Mirabai had, like Tulasidas had. That is called prema ratna dhan. But the condition is these pearls, these diamonds they are not floating on the surface of the ocean. Here the ocean is Sachidananda and go deep and there you will get that pearl of incomparable priceless pearl of called loving God. What is called loving? Loving means becoming one with God or whatever be the object. Very interesting. Swami Vivekananda used to tell if a woman loves a man and or a man loves a woman to this greatest degree like Romeo and Juliet in India also like Anarkali. Like that we have got some examples are there. Then what happens is manness will disappear, womanness will disappear, form will disappear, name will disappear. Only one idea. Love, love, love. Swami Vivekananda was very fond of quoting a Sufi story. There were lovers and one day the lover went to the house of his beloved, knocked at the door because the door was closed and then from inside came the question, who are you? He said I am so and so and the door did not open. Second time he knocked, same question came, he gave the same answer, the door remained closed. Third time he knocked, third time the same question came, this time he answered I am the my beloved and then he found there was no door at all. There is no door between me and God, between you and God, between I and God because God is within, God is outside, inside, everywhere. There is no place where God is not. In fact God alone is and nothing else is there. But we think that God is somewhere in Vaikuntha or Kailasa or kingdom of heaven or paradise here and there. Yes, he is there also but that is a third class concept. God is somewhere. As Bhagavatam says the third class devotee thinks God is far away. The second class devotee thinks God is within me and the first class devotee thinks accepting God I do not exist. He is inside, he is outside, he is in the middle, he is Atha below, he is Obdhva, he is Purva, he is Paschima, he is Uttara, he is Dakshina. As we have seen so beautifully in the Mundaka Upanishad, Brahman is Ananta, he is everywhere. That is the nature of Prema and that's what we are talking about knowledge means that I do not exist but only God exists. So let us look at this, the second type of people whose minds are not overcrowded with thoughts borrowed from others and they come to realize after studying all the scriptures and sciences that they know nothing and then he says how to obtain that one? Okay, definition is beautiful but how to obtain this? That's where Sri Ramakrishna gives the third type of one ray of light from my Divine Mother who is verily the Goddess of Wisdom, has power to cow down even the most learned of pandits and make him appear like an insignificant worm crawling upon the earth. This is a beautiful answer. What is the essence of this answer? That Divine Mother is knowledge, Divine Mother's grace is knowledge and one ray of light is a beautiful expression. Sri Ramakrishna's gospel is full of these analogies. He says supposing there is a room, it is in complete darkness for a thousand years and somebody goes there. These are not exact words of Sri Ramakrishna but I am paraphrasing it. Somebody enters into the room with a matchbox and strikes one match and then Sri Ramakrishna continues that one light of one matchstick drives away all the darkness that was filling the room for one thousand years. You can extend it, one million, one billion or anadi kala, maya is anadi. That's it because you don't need all the light. Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of these similes. Like Kalidasa, most of his verses, he is called the grand master of similes. Upamah Kalidasa Sya, Bharavehe Artha Gauravam, Dandinaha Padalalithyam, Mahesanti Trevuna. Kalidasa is well known. Sri Ramakrishna even surpasses Kalidasa in this and since the topic of Kalidasa came, I have to tell you that Kalidasa as we know him, he was born a complete idiot. We only presume that he was for some reason, he was cursed with this. So it is a big story. I won't go into it. I don't know. I have on other occasion narrated his story. So he was married to a very learned princess by Goyal of the Prime Minister of that particular kingdom and then the wife came to know that she thought he was the greatest learned man, scholar. After marriage, first night itself she came to know he is the worst of the idiots. She went to commit suicide inside the temple of Mother Kali and the husband dutifully followed. He said if my wife dies, I also will die myself and then he was about to strike his head to the hard stone and commit suicide. At that moment the curse was lifted. He found himself the greatest poet in the whole world and that's why he got the name Kalidasa. He is the beloved child of Mother Kali. Dasa means a servant. Every child. In fact, you know is served by the mother. So we are all children of the Divine Mother Kali. That is what Sri Ramakrishna is referring. When he says Mother Kali, I have to add here something. Do not take it as Kali. That is his word. You can call him my Krishna, my Rama, my Jesus, my Buddha, my Allah, anything you like. My Saraswati, my Lakshmi, whatever it is. Without God's grace it cannot come. Why? Because knowledge is God. God's grace is the grace of knowledge. That's why Mother Saraswati, she is also called Mother Kali, Mother Lakshmi etc. Only don't believe the Puranas. You have to swallow the Puranas with a huge lump of salt because always Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati are depicted in the most horrible manner. They were what you call jealous of every woman on earth. They want to reign supreme and they are proud that they are the greatest, chastest wives in the world. These are all stories told for the edification of idiots. But we have to study the Puranas in a spiritual light. As I mentioned earlier, I have given you certain instances, certain hints. For example, who was Pralada? Who was Hiranyakashyapu? Hiranyakashyapu, the greatest devotee of God and he is seeking none other than Lord Narayana. He was the greatest votary of Shiva. Shiva means knowledge. So with the help of knowledge he wants to love Narayana. He wants to be with Narayana. So he was seeking only Narayana. That knowledge gave him that understanding that the only thing worthy in life is to love God and nothing else. And he wants to love Him in the shortest manner. He wants to never forget God and the shortest, quickest, strongest way of remembering God is to hate Him. That's why he deliberately had taken that birth. As a result of seeking Narayana, even in that form of Kshatrutva, he had a son called Pralada. What Pralada? The greatest joy in life. Halada means the greatest joy is called Halada. Pralada means Prakrishta Roopin Halada. The moment a person loves God, his heart will be filled with unimaginable, indescribable bliss. And that was what happened to him. And then he is trying. I want to hate. It was a fight between his attitude towards Narayana and his joy. I don't want this joy because I want to think about God. Joy makes me forget about God. I only want to think about God. I want to become merged in God. Of course, he tried. Spirituality cannot be killed. Pralada represents spiritual progress. And once a person progresses, he cannot be killed. And finally, he wants to see God everywhere. And Pralada teaches him. His own spiritual consciousness teaches him a lesson. Oh fool, you want to see God everywhere. But you are like a fellow who is putting his own hand across his own eyes and then tightly closing the eyes. Oh, I want to see but I cannot see. Open your eyes. Remove your hands. Then you will be able to see. And what is that obstruction? Ahankara. That pillar represents the Ahankara. So he broke that Ahankara by the advice of Pralada, his own spiritual conscience. And then he started seeing God everywhere. Whatever little ignorance was left out, shell was completely removed by Mugra Narasimha. This is the inner symbolism of that Pauranic story. Every Pauranic story has an allegorical spiritual meaning. Only we have to meditate, then Samudra Manthana. Then we get that inner essence. So here also Ramakrishna is telling us God is knowledge and you have to pray. Oh Lord, I want you. One ray of your light. How much do I want? Only one ray of your light. Can I get it? Yes. I have to surrender myself to you. And that is what Ramakrishna's greatest teaching. Surrender yourself. One ray of light from my Divine Mother, who is verily the Goddess of Wisdom, has power to cow down even the most learned of pandits and make him appear like an insignificant worm crawling upon the earth. And then in my last class also I quoted, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had gone on a pilgrimage in South India in one of the places, perhaps Srirangam. There the Lord is the greatest manifestation of Narayana. It is one of the biggest temples. Not Srirangapatna, but Srirangam. And there a pandit was expounding Bhagavad Gita and Chaitanya's sight immediately lighted upon another man who seemed to be an ignorant person but shedding profuse tears. And then he ran to him, embraced him and said, Sir, do you understand anything of what the pandit is telling? He said, I am not even hearing one single word of what is the pandit talking about. Then why are you shedding tears? Because I see my Bhagavan Krishna, the most lovable form, sitting in the chariot and teaching Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. Interesting. Who was the Arjuna at this time? This man was having a vision. He himself was the Arjuna. And how much, if God himself is trying to teach, how much time does it take for the man to understand? Absolutely the smallest amount of time. The very will of God destroys all the barriers, destroys the millions of years of Ajnana and bestows the highest knowledge. What is the highest knowledge? First, I belong to you. Second, I am part of you. Third, I am you. Dvaita, Visishta Dvaita and Advaita. This devotee knew not even the alphabet. He could not follow a single verse but he replies, It is indeed true that I do not know a word of the Gita but all the while it was being read. I could not help seeing with my inner eye the beautiful form of my Lord Sri Krishna seated before Arjuna in a chariot in the field of Kurukshetra and giving out all those sublime thoughts embodied in the Gita. Thus it was that filled my eyes with tears of joy and love. This man who knew not letters had the highest knowledge for he had pure love for God and could realize Him. So Sri Ramakrishna has given this beautiful answer. What is it? Pray to God, surrender to God, who is the embodiment of Chit Ghanakaya. Satyam Gnanam Anantam Brahma Gnanam One ray is more than sufficient. As I said, Sri Ramakrishna was a master of similes. He gives sometimes funny examples and Sri Ramakrishna observed all these in his life and uses it to convey these highest truths. He says, there is a drunkard. He goes to a toddy shop, liquor shop and then the liquor shop is huge. There are innumerable bottles are huge in quantity of liquor is there in different forms and then Ramakrishna is continuing. I want to drink liquor. I want to be intoxicated by just one small quantity of the liquor. I am intoxicated. What need do I have to count how many bottles are there? How much liquor is there? And how much is there? This is called counting the leaves while forgetting to eat the real mangoes. God is knowledge. Real knowledge is to surrender ourselves to God and real sadhana is to develop that self-surrender to God and only by God's grace if knowledge should come to us and that was encapsulated in the greatest prayer in all the three worlds from our ancient Vedas. What am I talking about? Gayatri Mantra Right understanding. Real knowledge. Naha, to us. Prachodayat, let that embodiment of knowledge grant me that right knowledge, right understanding because we are meditating upon him. Dhimahi, that means what? We are surrendering ourselves to him. There is no other way. That is the advice of Sri Ramakrishna and especially people like us. We don't understand Brahma, Satya, Jagan, Mithya. We only know we want to reach him. We want to love him and we want to be with him. Let us surrender ourselves to him. Then how to have it? Sri Ramakrishna continues. Have intense faith in the words of the Guru and follow his precepts faithfully. Thus will the impurities of the mind be washed away and the light of knowledge dawn. Enlightenment comes quickly to one who has faith in the Guru. The Guru must never be regarded as man. This beautiful every paragraph can be commented with cartloads of comments but I don't want to go. You will also don't want to hear so much of things. The important thing is we are all fortunate to have our own Gurus and even if somebody doesn't have even a book can be a Guru. A stray saying can also be a Guru. Sri Ramakrishna, have intense faith because if we cannot have faith in one single being and that too not for a short time whatever may be my Guru he is my Satchitananda Paramatma. Even if he drinks liquor even if he visits brothels he is my Satchitananda. He is Paramananda. He is the greatest cause of bliss to me. This kind of intense faith in the Guru how do we know we have faith or not because we always go on praising the Guru worshipping him putting garlands around him accepting following his precepts we do everything. So follow his precepts faithfully transform your life. How do we know? Thus will the impurities of the mind be washed away and the light of knowledge dawn. If our impurities, our defects our mistakes, doshas are slowly coming down and we feel more and more drawn towards the Lord we know that we are moving in the right direction. Guru is none other than God. So we have to consider our Gurus even if there are a million defects in that person once I accept my Guru I will have to consider him as God. This Guru is none other than is called Desi Kendra one who shows us the directions. It's a beautiful concept we will talk about it in our next class. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.