Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 036 on 08-June-2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANEM SHARADAM DEVEM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MOHOR MOHOHO We are studying the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In our last class we were talking about what is true knowledge and what is ignorance. The essence of what we talked was true knowledge is that knowledge which can never be sublated, changed and the essence of that knowledge is that we are all divine. Each soul is potentially divine but our experience is that we are anything but divine. We are the body, we are the mind, subject to all the changes and sorrows and sufferings. That is our Lord but still by the grace of God some awakening has come and Sri Ramakrishna through M had made a wonderful distinction. First of all if a person is sincere, believes in God, believes in the scriptures and there is no need to be academically advanced. One of the reasons why Sri Ramakrishna refused the knowledge. Let us remember he was born endowed with extraordinary greatness in the form of memory, understanding, retaining what he had received, everything. Had he wished he would have become one of the greatest learned people on earth but deliberately he refused to join a school to sending a message to all of us that there is no need if someone cannot go attend a school or have academic education but has the right earnestness, sincerity and the desire to be more happy. I am not using the word spirituality. What is life? What are we seeking? To be more happy, to lessen the unhappiness or suffering. So Sukha Prapti, Dukha Nuru, you apply this to the entire humanity that was, that is and that will be in future and that which promotes physical happiness, intellectual happiness, moral happiness, aesthetic happiness, moral happiness, finally spiritual happiness that is knowledge. Only true knowledge can really make us better in every way and here I want to get rid of a misconception. There are highly educated people. They have the knowledge that drinking or drug addiction is extremely ruinous but according to definition what doesn't bring an effect is not knowledge. It is called information. First of all right knowledge and wrong knowledge. Second is knowledge and information. So people if they are not affected by their understanding, they only have information but not real knowledge. Third point is all of us are progressing from partial knowledge to complete knowledge. Nobody is destroying ignorance. The word whether it is destruction of ajnana, avidya, maya, all these words we have to understand in their proper context. Nobody can destroy knowledge even if it is wrong knowledge but what is wrong knowledge? It is partial knowledge. If it is 10% right knowledge, 90% wrong knowledge, that person is 90% ignorant but if he is 50% right, 50% wrong and that person's right knowledge is 50% but the other 50% can affect the person. So it is very important we are all having knowledge but that knowledge is not real knowledge. It is information. Spiritual life is slowly gradually to convert information into formation of character. That is what Sri Ramakrishna meant. Your wife is not ignorant but you are also not knowledgeable person. Only that knowledge which leads to betterment in any field of life, that is true knowledge. Why am I explaining this way? Because so many people, oh the whole world is mithya. Sri Ramakrishna never said. Even though he used the words, he meant something else. What is it? Mithya like seeing a snake in a row. That is not untrue. There is truth but it is partial truth. A row partially understood appears, resembles, so appears to us and we are convinced that it is a snake. When we bring light what happens? That 100% right knowledge will come. Then fear will go. Partial knowledge is also extremely helpful for us and you may be surprised to know and Swami Vivekananda puts it though in slightly different phrases. Blessed misery. Misery means suffering. Suffering comes from partial understanding but mistaking it as 100% right knowledge. But this gives us suffering and suffering is our greatest friend. It is the greatest blessing. How? I'll give a small illustration. Supposing by mistake or for whatever way you put your hand in fire and it burns and it gives you terrible pain and that has blessed you in future you should never again put your hand at least consciously if by accident unknowingly it's a different issue. Every misery is a great blessing. That's what Holy Mother had said. There is a deep meaning in every word that these people utter. They are nothing but the utterance of great Rishis. What did Holy Mother say? Misery is the gift of God. So whenever we suffer any type of suffering remember I make a little bit of fun. We all, you all know about me. If you have got toothache what does it prove? That you have teeth. If you have headache what does it prove? That at least you have got a head. So if there is a head and headache is certain you cannot separate head and headache. Both will come at the same time. It's very important for us to understand every type of suffering is ready to teach us a great lesson but we have to be prepared after going through the suffering we have to say what is it? What is it actually that the lesson this particular experience is trying to teach me? If we can be open we will be the most blessed people on earth and Holy Mother what did she say? Misery is a gift of God and only when God loves gives great misery. There is a funny incident in the life of Swami Vivekananda. He was in America. There was a lady who was tremendously devoted to Swamiji. She used to live at a far away distance. Early morning about three o'clock or four o'clock she will start. She had to travel more than one and a half hours. She reaches, whole day works like a donkey and at about 11 o'clock she goes back again. That means very little sleep. So what happened? Swamiji always used to scold her and it was intolerable. Swamiji's scolding will be, blessing will be great. Swamiji's scolding also will be terribly painful. You have to remember when an elephant tries to stroke you, when a baby tries to stroke you, it will be most pleasant. When a baby hits you, very pleasant. But when same thing if an elephant does it, it will be terrible. So this lady complained, Swami, you seem not to be satisfied with me. You are always scolding. And Swamiji put up a very innocent face and asked, Whom else shall I scold? Shall I go and scold the people walking in the street? I love you and that's why for your good, I scold. And from that day, his scoldings became the greatest source of joy to everybody. Anyway, since it is a nice class, I am recollecting another incident. Swami Premanandaji was the manager of the Villalmattu. And whenever young men used to visit, he used to feed them, suffocate them with nice sweets whenever they are available. When sweets come from devotees naturally, then he would not give it to anybody inmates. Only he will give it to devotees. So some of the young men thought, If we join the mutt, we will be the most happy people. So some of them, of course not because of the sweets, but they joined because of his holy influence. As soon as they joined, all sweets are stopped. Then they felt bad. But Swami Premanandaji was a great taskmaster. And he used to give with different jobs. And if they do not do it perfectly, he will give them terrible scolding. Naturally, people will be upset. However, a person loves, scolding is not welcome at all. But these people soon discovered something. When Bapura Maharaj, that was the normal name of Swami Premanandaji, Bapura Maharaj used to scold them terribly in the morning. At lunchtime, he will call the person who has been scolded, lovingly keeps him by his side. And the best things that were offered to Sriram Krishna, which includes sweets etc., He will be served. Now very soon the secret was out. Now the newly joined boys were vying with each other. How many mistakes they could commit and get scoldings from Swami Premananda. In order to get nice sweets etc. afterwards. Such funny stories are there. Coming back actually, every misery is going to teach us a lesson. Old age must teach us a lesson. Disease must teach us a lesson. Death must teach us a lesson. What is it? If you are born, if you have a body, then all these six changes, Asthi, Jayate, Vartate, Viparnamate, Apakshiyate, Vinasyate are inevitable. But if there is a mind also, worries, sometimes happiness of course, and worries will be there. Anxiety will be there. All this restlessness will be there. And then sleeplessness will also be there. These are not wanted by us. These are miseries. As we say, we all suffer from threefold causes. Trita, Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. So we have to learn a lesson. And sometimes we learn. It may take a long time. And the funny thing, why am I talking all these things? Because Sri Ramakrishna was trying to tell what is right knowledge. What is right knowledge? Learn. Let us learn our lessons from the mistakes we have committed. For that we require an alert and inquiring and eager mind to look at ourselves objectively. If we can do that, it's very economical too. Why? It is very sad to find out that more than 30% of the people in the world are mentally sick. And especially in the West, more than 40% are sick. Mentally sick, mental illness, mild or very severe. Why do people go through this mental sickness? Only because they have no capacity to objectify themselves. They suppress so many, what is called unwelcome thoughts, conflicts, complexes, etc. But they are not going to disappear. They go down and then start fighting with each other. Two incompatible complexes fighting with each other will create a mental havoc. And that is how if people are forced to go to the psychologist, find out the remedy. And a person who has committed terrible deeds in the past life, that person will be born actually as a result of that as either autistic or many things which are most undesirable in human life. Now what are we talking about? There are Krishna's golden M. And we require for certain types of knowledge, Gurus. In fact Swami Pramanandji used to say that but all of us require Guru. Even to become a good pickpocket, one requires a good pickpocket Guru. For everything in this world, Guru is very helpful. Who is a Guru? A Guru is one who is an expert, who is a specialist in a particular field of knowledge and he must have learned it with hard work and humans have this capacity to pass on what they have learned to others very easily. If anybody who wants to master that particular subject approaches the Guru with reverence, reverence means not merely paying lip-dip service even if it is very sincere. Reverence means the capacity to receive. Oh Guruji, I am ready. Even if you scold me, I don't mind but I want to receive this knowledge. I want to be filled and that capacity is called real reverence. Otherwise it is just you revere somebody and salute him and go away. Nothing happens in the meanwhile. M had understood very early in his contact with Sri Ramakrishna and there is also a funny way M was an extraordinarily good observer. After twice he met Sri Ramakrishna and recently I sent one photograph which somebody had sent me. I am very thankful to him. There was the nephew of M. He was called Sidhu. Till now I haven't seen the photograph of Sidhu but recently somebody did some research and found out one photograph when he was quite advanced in age, sitting with bare body and somebody sent me. I have put it in the WhatsApp application and sent it. So Sidhu introduced M to Sri Ramakrishna. So we have to be thankful. Now M after I think the third visit then he visited. Sri Ramakrishna told a story seeing M eagerly running towards Sri Ramakrishna a story of a peacock. Once somebody had a peacock at three o'clock in the afternoon with opium and the peacock was very happy. It became intoxicated. It enjoyed it and it became addicted and next day exactly at three o'clock a peacock came back for another dose and M heard it and he said very happy in my case. Since I left Sri Ramakrishna I was always thinking of him. When shall I see him? When shall I see? And when we feel like that to see somebody usually it will be worldly ties. I want to see my son, want to see my wife, my husband, my parents etc. This is purely worldly relation but when a disciple feels that kind of longing to see the Guru it indicates only one thing that the disciple is receiving something solid from the Guru and what is that? Right knowledge. This applies in every field of life but specially it applies to spiritual knowledge. What are we talking about? The greatness of a Guru. A Guru is an embodiment of what is called Chid Gana Kaya an embodiment of pure consciousness, pure knowledge. Here we are talking about spiritual knowledge. Even if the Guru scolds it is only to remove the obstacles on the path of the disciple. With regard to that in my last class I've been talking about how Avadhuta and 24 Gurus the moral lesson we have to learn from this story from Bhagavatam is that if a person's mind is open the whole nature is teaching that lesson. Sri Ramakrishna's relationship with his Gurus. How many Gurus he had? So far as we know at least he had got five Gurus. First Guru was the Divine Mother herself. He prayed wholeheartedly Oh Mother, I know nothing. Please teach me whatever you want your child to learn. But important point for us the child was extremely eager to learn what the mother wants us to tell. Then of course first sadhana of Sri Ramakrishna was done only with the Divine Mother as his inner guide. Second sadhana was done so many. First person to come formally was Bhairavi Brahmani. Second person to come was Totapuri. Then he also learnt about Islam from one Govinda, a Sufi, a Hindu turned Sufi. Then he was introduced by Shambhu Malli to Christianity when Sri Ramakrishna visited his parlor which is just behind the Dakshineswar temple garden. Now a big image of Sri Ramakrishna was installed there. It is just two minutes walk from the Dakshineswar temple. Are these the only ones? No. Sri Ramakrishna was like the Avadhuta. He used to learn eagerly and he used to acknowledge also I learned such and such a thing from such and such a person. I'll give you an instance. Once one of his devotees was criticizing somebody. Sri Ramakrishna said do not criticize even a worm. I was also formally criticizing like you. Then I learned this lesson from one of the sadhus. The sadhu taught me that God resides in everybody and especially Sri Ramakrishna was criticizing some lower type of sadhus and that sadhu taught him no they have become sadhus even though they are not evolved. You have to salute them because they will also improve in future. Do not scold anybody. Do not find fault with anybody. Now this was a great lesson I have learned from that. In this way from how many gurus Sri Ramakrishna had learned we don't know but one thing I can tell you stop criticizing, fault finding with others. You will get plenty of time for many things you want to do. Your mind becomes very serene and to do to stop finding faults with others is to see their good quality. Anyway Ramakrishna looked upon each one of his guru whether it is Bhairavi Brahmani or Dottapuri Maharaj with the greatest reverence but here is something we have to learn. Ramakrishna used to take from his gurus what they have to teach with great earnestness but it doesn't mean he was a fool. He also recognized that each one of them might be good in some respects but may be completely totally ignorant about some other aspects. I'll give you an example. First guru of Sri Ramakrishna was a woman called Bhairavi Brahmani. From her she guided him made him perfect in both what is called Bhakti Marga devotional path especially Vaishnava path consisting of especially four modes Dasya, Sakhya, Vatsalya and Madhura Bhavas and then she made him go through all the important practices of 64 Tantric scriptures made him perfect in that. Now the point was soon after that the divine mother had wanted him to practice Vedanta. So Totapuri Maharaj did not come there accidentally. It was all planned and it is my faith many times I expressed in our life also everything happens according to the plan according to our past karma. No accident is there. Our birth our family our social status our family life and our children everything is the Prarabdha Karma. We come across them to exhaust our Prarabdha Karma and they come across to exhaust their Prarabdha Karma and once we finish we go away once they finish they go away who will go first who will go next we do not know it is all decided but nothing is accidental. Totapuri Maharaj he thought he came by himself but divine mother informed Shri Ramakrishna I brought him for the purpose of teaching you about Vedanta by Vedanta it means Advaita Vedanta Why? Because his earlier sadhanas that were included in the Dvaita and Visishta Dvaita I would say that both these Dvaita and Visishta Dvaita are stages in spiritual progress first we seem to be separate I am different God is different I am small God is big but there is a relationship I belong to him and he also belongs but when an aspirant progresses progresses and says there is unity in diversity I am part of God God is the whole and I am a part this is what is called Visishta Dvaita but when the Advaita system comes actually there cannot be part and whole because the infinithood of God will get affected if we count the parts now we have to understand infinity is not consisting of infinite number of parts infinity is an indescribable one harmonious whole if we don't understand we have to understand that there is a whole in our brain w h o l e and that is indescribable infinite is indescribable infinite and eternal we go together why? because what is beyond time is eternal and what is beyond space is infinite and so the Advaita Vedanta teaches that you are that infinite actually there is no difference and Hinduism makes these three gradual progress finally ending in Advaita sadhana and Advaita Siddhi Aham Brahmasmi Sarvam Kharvidam Brahma for that the divine mother had brought why? because Ramakrishna had to become a Jagat Guru that means somebody is a devotee he will be guided by Ramakrishna's experiences if he is following the path of Shakta Tantra he will be also guided by Ramakrishna somebody is following Paurani path he will be also guided by Ramakrishna if somebody is practicing Advaita sadhana he will be also guided in that path so only a person who accepts every path every yoga and personally knows what every yoga really consists of and trod the path of that and attained perfection only such a person can be an authentic teacher of the world and that was what Ramakrishna was now the point was that Bhairavi Brahmani she saw Sudapura and Ramakrishna was attracted and going there Bhairavi Brahmani tried to brainwash Ramakrishna my child do not go to this dry Vedanta so from a devotee's point of view Advaita Vedantin is the driest fellow anybody can find out but Ramakrishna had the highest regard for Bhairavi Brahmani but she did not take the advice you had something to teach and you have taught me I am eternally grateful for it but there are certain things which even you do not know is a wonderful story I will perhaps narrate it in our future classes but the point is without losing any respect he did not listen not because he was disobedient straight he went to the divine mother mother what shall I do shall I listen this was not how Ramakrishna prayed but I'm putting it in my own words mother my guru Brahmani she says that I should not practice Vedanta Dottapuri says I am fit person I should undertake the sadhana of Advaita Vedanta what shall I do Ramakrishna never took a step without taking the permission and the commandment of divine mother and immediately the mother said no you have to practice this also this is not antagonistic to Bhakti but it is the culmination of Parabhakti which Swami Vivekananda used to say Parabhakti and Parajnana absolutely there is no difference at all these are two words synonymous words and misunderstanding the capacity to not understand rightly is leading so much of wars and conflicts between the Bhakti Marga and the Gnana Marga so he did not listen and he became perfect now Dottapuri was also not perfect he was ridiculing devotion Ramakrishna was in the habit of morning and evening clapping his hands and taking the name of various gods goddesses in the form of rivers etc Ganga etc and what are you making chapati? that was how Dottapuri started sometimes ridiculing and Ramakrishna scolded him rascal I am taking mother's name and you are telling that I am fashioning chapatis that word rascal is not uttered with contempt it is uttered with the greatest reverence that you do not understand what I am of course after staying for 11 months Dottapuri understood he became perfect just to mention to you is Bhairavi Brahmani so she had also jealousy and that Kamarpako that manifested by the grace of Sairam Krishna she found out that this is a trait which no sadhaka should have and then she as soon as she understood she confessed it to Sairam Krishna he is her disciple and he one day she made wonderful garland and decorated him and then Sairam Krishna in the state of ecstasy bhava told now go and live in Varanasi I will come there and I will tell you soon what to do and she saluted Sairam Krishna as her guru and then she went away and when Sairam Krishna went to Banaras and he found out where she was staying and then he brought her to him and along with him he took her to Brindavan and said this is the place you are a Vaishnavi you are having tremendous devotion to Bhagavan Krishna here you will die and that is what has happened in history so what was I narrating all this time Sairam Krishna's relationships with his own guru he had the Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu again gratitude but it doesn't mean that in every respect guru has to be obeyed I will give you a funny example supposing one day you are cooking for your guru something and then he is very fond of certain type of preparation and supposing you are not having those ingredients and he will scold you this is one scenario another scenario is very fond of chillies but he was always getting without chillies for whatever reason because some disciples think when we cook for swamis there should be no salt and no onion no garlic nothing should be there it should be absolutely like boiled vegetable that may be okay for Sadashiva Brahmendra Ramana Maharshi that is not okay for every swami even suppose some guru he thinks he knows how to cook and he instructs the disciple you cook this way and the disciple knows better how to make it more tasty and which the guru will appreciate then he should completely disregard because the guru has a knowledge which the disciple doesn't have but the guru doesn't have that knowledge which the disciple has in the form of nice cooking etc can differ from our gurus but we should never ever lose that greatest reverence to the guru Ramakrishna had a marvelous relationship and because he was an incarnation of God he gave more than what he received and everyone who helped him were helped so much much more and he helped them to become perfect what was the subject which brought all these type of talks what is the difference between knowledge and ignorance true knowledge is to know who I am true ignorance is not to know who I am and whoever can take us to realize our own true nature he is a guru and nobody else with this that particular topic is over and in future we are going to have this kind of discussions also but many times in the future it will be only a repetition of what we are talking already but these are very wonderful thoughts you have to keep in mind the next topic that comes the most marvelous topic it is a topic which is so topical and so relevant in today's life practically what is the topic is God with form and with name with qualities without form without names and without qualities of course anything that has a form will have a name name always comes later supposing there is clay and it is only clay it doesn't have any form of course the name clay is only an example I am giving it is a nameless lump of something which is called clay now you make four pots square pot round pot small pot big pot cover of a pot etc and then you put different colors also now that very clay has now manifested what is the point point is first name will not come first form will come having made a form then you will be thinking that yes we need to give a name because this particular form is something distinct from other forms and it has a utility it may be for drinking if out of clay you make a tumbler and you know out of some kind of clay they can make most marvelous tumblers very heavy but very few Sriram Krishna was incapable of touching metals that's why a clay plate clay small cups and then clay tumbler etc used to be specially given to him and many Swamis are like it now the point is first comes form and every form has got a particular utility then we give it a name Rupa Nama Prayojana these things are there now when we are thinking about God you can imagine him he is nameless because he is formless and if he is formless and nameless there would be no precision as qualities also about him so there are some people who think that it is sacrilege to give a name to God and to make a form of God God is nameless God is formless and of course you know we can observe God is useless completely that's why devotees make fun of Advaithins your God doesn't have ears doesn't have eyes he cannot listen to your prayers he much less he cannot do anything because he doesn't have hands he doesn't have legs he doesn't have anything to do of course he doesn't even know that you exist so it is completely useless but my God my God how many names how many forms I can go to Vaikuntha I can go to Kailasa I can go to Goloka I can go to Kingdom of Heaven I can go to Paradise I can go anywhere not one Anantha, Koti, Brahmanda Lokas are there and everywhere God is ruling with a particular name and particular form I can enjoy from place to place we go like Narada Parivrajika Sri Loka Sanchari this is the devotee's rebuttal but some people after having English education they get the idea God is formless Swami Vivekananda also he unfortunately was influenced by Brahmo Samaj and he put a signature as he when he joined as a member of the Brahmo Samaj I will not worship God with form and with qualities and with names it took him a long time to understand Sri Ramakrishna's catholicity or universality anyway coming back here is the conversation with this is the topic is God with form or is God without form and what is his real nature and if he has got forms etc why are there forms is it that people only idiotic less intelligent people only require forms etc or is it that God can be worshipped even by the most highly realized sages and saints can God be worshipped with divine forms and divine of course we have to remember God is divine so his names his forms his qualities are also divine let us read from the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Master well do you believe in God with form or without form M was rather surprised he said to himself he thought to himself how can one believe in God without form when one believes in God with form and if one believes in God without form how can one believe that God has a form can these two contradictory ideas be true at the same time can a white liquid like milk be black a very profound topic of course every topic in the gospel because it is nothing but Veda and just as Veda has got two types of teachings are suitable for every state of the mind first part of the Veda is called Karma Kanda which I prefer to call Dharma Kanda and the second part of the Veda is called Jnana Kanda by tradition but I prefer to call it Brahma Kanda I will make it clear when the time comes why I prefer to do that what is the Karma Kanda consisting of it worships with various mantras various manifestations of God like Indra like Varuna like Ashwini Kumaras the Sun the Moon the Vayu Devata the Agni Devata the Akasha Devata the Prithvi Devata the Jala Devata etc that was what our ancient Rishis, Sages and Saints used to worship as or the Sun and the Moon etc as Pratyaksha Devatas the God manifest and experienceable in front of us all the Pancha Bhutas Pancha Devatas are experienceable we come out of them we are sustained by them and we that means our bodies and minds they go back ultimately to those constituent elements but I will not go into those details now Sri Ramakrishna pointedly asked this question do you believe in God with form and without form why did he ask? we have to ask ourselves this question why did Sri Ramakrishna ask this? is it a silly question? no it's not a silly question we have to remember that most people in those days who are highly educated in the western mode of learning that means the Anglo-Indians the British people they used to be the teachers of course they only teach what they believe and there was a Brahmo Samaj which was very very powerful and exerting its influence upon so many types of people and it was also trying to remove what they used to call many superstitions many wrong things that were being propagated in the name of religion and religion was at fault India's downfall was because of religion later on of course Swamiji the vehicle of Sri Ramakrishna removed all those misconceptions now what is most important for us is that we have to understand God what do you mean by God? there are two concepts of God Nirkuna Brahma and Sakuna Brahma according to Hinduism Hindu concept of God falls into three categories I will discuss it after I read out Sri Ramakrishna asked this question and embossed soliloquizing within himself these are two contradictory ideas white cannot be black yellow cannot be white sweet cannot be bitter left cannot be right happiness cannot be unhappiness gain cannot be loss these are absolute categories how can it be? God can be both with form and without that was his thinking but he had to reply now Sri Ramakrishna was waiting for the answer M Sir I like to think of God as formless my preference is to think of God as formless now I have a terrible problem with this kind of statement all right sir can you tell me what do you think about? you said I would like to think of God as formless now give me an example how will you think about? now like the sky okay you are thinking of the form of the sky like light I am thinking of the light I have it is a light is a form I clearly perceive in a way of speaking or it is like a vast ocean okay ocean also has got a form stupid fellow so long as there is a mind it's impossible to think of something which is absolutely formless some form will come to our mind this is a profound psychological fact I'll just give you one example suppose a young man says that I love everybody I want to sacrifice myself I want to do good he uses used that word I love now these are called concepts there are our experiences and our conclusions in the mind they form into two categories one is called percepts percepts means perception I see a horse I see a tree I see a beautiful blue lily I see a fragrant rose these are called percepts through our five sense organs we perceive in the five sense organs also there is a very what is called invisible division is there so there are three things which we can clearly perceive we can see the earth we can see the water we can see the fire but we also through the sense organ called sparsha twak touch we feel the air cold heat soft hard these are the four categories but you cannot say soft is it round is it square is it yellow is it black no similarly we can also hear something sound through akasha what is the form of a sound you cannot have any kind of form but you can experience we experience it day and night 24 hours a day from birth to death until we get liberation of course in deep sleep we do not experience now what is my point these are called percepts even though I cannot see I feel cold and heat it is a percept even though I do not see the vacuum in the space I hear the sound that is a percept clear percept but these perceptions obtained through the five sense organs they enter into the mind and they become these things have a form a kind of form some of them but there are certain things we form this is called concept I'll give some example love is a concept friendship is a concept enmity is a concept dislike is a concept they don't have a form they have a name of course we give for that particular feeling but they don't have a form they are not black, white, yellow, bitter, sweet etc but they do like concrete objects produce concrete results suppose somebody says I love the whole world I want to do good this is the point I want you to listen carefully and keep it in your mind because these are very deep points as we study the gospel our mind has to become clear about some of these ideas, concepts I love somebody a young man says Oh, I want to love somebody I love somebody Sir, how did you get your love? Whom is it? You cannot abstractedly say I love that woman you must have an object suppose somebody says I love a sweet though he says I love a sweet he has a particular sweet in mind I experienced a laddu experienced a cake experienced something and I have an experience it's a very pleasant experience so even though he doesn't say categorically but he has an object in view that is the point that we want you to keep whenever we utter certain concepts there is an object albeit invisibly at the end of it How did this person love? Oh, I learnt it from my mother I inherited it from my mother how my mother used to love me and I know what is love I can only express it but I cannot define it I cannot demonstrate it I can only make you understand anybody understand through my actions the way I look the way I touch the way I talk the way I serve anything if you go to a hotel they will be serving you with so much of attention but there is no love behind it's all commercial, financial but when a mother loves a baby there is love when a child also clings to the mother there is a reciprocal love is what is my point if I utter the word love there is a person there is an object at the end of it maybe it is invisible when a young man declares I love sweet then there is some kind of experience however invisible that object is there only a little digging will bring out that object when a young woman says I want to love I want to get married she has a particular idea of a personality in her mind whom she would like to marry so these are a few examples why? because when anybody says that I want to love God and M wants to love he says I believe in God to believe in God is to believe in love M says say Ramakrishna's question was we believe in God with form without form even if somebody says I love God without form it is a concept conceptual love there is some idea I want to think of God as my mother M was very much missing his own mother later on his mother died but his father married a second time and the M could not get along with stepmother so whole life that conflict remained practically until he came to see Ramakrishna and slowly transformed it now my point is it's impossible to think of God without any form there must be some kind of those who declare that God has no form even though in their minds they'll be thinking God will be sitting somewhere like a dictator with a long beard and a big stick and whomsoever he doesn't like he'll be beating this was the old what is called biblical idea of God still that crude idea we have in mind what is the point I'm laboring at it's impossible to think of formlessness some type of form is behind but if somebody believes in form yes infinite number of forms are there this is a very special teaching of Sri Ramakrishna and I will come to that point also what is important is later on Sri Ramakrishna says is God with form or is God without form to this question Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful answer he says God is with form he says God is without form God is both with form God is also without form not he doesn't stop there he says God is beyond both form and formless these profound words of Sri Ramakrishna should help us the first point we derive is it doesn't matter in what form a person chooses to worship God it's very important because even we who study the gospel who accept this teaching of Sri Ramakrishna we have a very narrow mind suppose somebody says I'm worshipping Sri Rama and we are very happy yes somebody says I worship Sri Krishna that is fine you will reach our goal somebody says I worship Mother Durga that is wonderful somebody says I worship Mother Kali fine I worship God Allah fine I worship Father in heaven fine somebody says I worship a snake I worship a tree I worship a mouse there are people many Hindus who do this Ganesha's mouse or a snake so many Naga Naga puja is there names are also there Nagaraj like that so some people do that we the followers of Sri Ramakrishna do we look down upon these people can we have that common sense saying Sri Ramakrishna said anybody can approach God through any form every form is a doorway to God so even if this person thinks a snake is goddess a mouse is God a bird is God a tree is God then why not if a person can worship a stone as an image of God and we never think that we are doing exactly the same thing worse than the other fellow at least he is worshipping a living form here is a piece of stone a piece of wood and some painting some scribbling and a piece of paper or an icon like a cross etc and this is a wonderful subject I will come to it in my next class if a person can worship can he reach God yes but the idea is nobody is worshipping a piece of stone nobody is worshipping a small animal or a small bird as a small thing this is called Alambanam Alambanam means a symbol and something to lean upon something to catch hold of it so that we can think of God through that particular help Omkara for example the greatest symbol so we have got so many such symbols Sri Ramakrishna's words have these deep meanings which we will see in our next class how profound is his teaching May Sri Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all be blessed be He, Jai Ramakrishna