Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 051 on 04-January-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MOHURMUHU So we have entered into a new year 2022. In case I forget, I wish all of you a very happy spiritual new year. May God bless all of us so we can be even more enthusiastic in our spiritual practice and may we acquire concentration, awareness and progress. Jai Thakur So we have been discussing the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in our last class. The topic was God's grace alone can bestow God vision. There is a beautiful verse which I quoted in my last class, I think so. This is from the Katha Upanishad, 2-2-1-1 PARANCHIKHANI VYATRANATVAYAM BHOHU TASMAT PARAM PASHYATI NA ANTARATMAN KASHCHIT DHIRAH PRATYAGATMANAM AIKSHAT AVRUTTAJAKSHOH AMRUTATVAM ICHCHAN Why is it that if everything is God and that is the fact, why is it we are unable to perceive Him? Because it is very beautifully but a little bit sarcastically presented in this Katha Upanishad. The Creator had smited as if He gave a big blow to all of us. What did He do? Vyatranatvayam Bhohu Paranchikhani All the sense organs, they can't see themselves. The eye cannot see itself, the ear cannot hear itself, etc. So, all our mind is going only towards the external, what is not us, what is outside of us, so we think. So, that is the reason why even though what we are seeking is within us, but we are unable to understand roaming the whole world and at last we will turn our attention towards ourselves and say, Oh my God, I have been searching for myself. There was no need for me to run either and the other. But that is the Leela of God. It is not we, it is only God playing. In case any one of us get the doubt that why is God smiting all of us? No, no, God cannot smite any one of us because no one exists excepting God as if God is playing a solitaire game within Himself and we also do that. Every single day we do that. How? Through our dreams. We are the creators of good and evil, friends and enemies, everything happiness and unhappiness, light and darkness, fear and courage, confidence and non-confidence, everything we create and we are thinking who the hell is that fellow who created such a horrible, miserable world of suffering, world of evil and when we wake up, we beat our own heads. Oh my God, I myself have created. So is there any way to stop, practical way of stopping bad dreams, evil dreams? Of course, yes, because dream state is the outcome of the waking state. If we can take care of the waking state, the dream state will take care of its own self. So at last, some wise man, determined person. Dheera means the person who has Dhi. Dhi means buddhi. We pray every day, oh mother, grant me that right understanding and one who has got that right understanding is called a Dheeman Purusha, Kshit Dheeraha. Then what did he do? This is all illusion. Let me turn within myself and then very soon he discovers all the Amrutattva, immortality. One is seeking life after life, millions of lives. It is all that is me. That is not even within me but it is me and then he becomes immortal. He becomes free. He becomes a Mukta Purusha, Moksha. This was what Sri Ramakrishna is echoing and Sri Ramakrishna is telling. Nobody can see God excepting unless God bestows His grace. Then the question comes, why does not God bestow His grace right now? And Sri Ramakrishna used to convey the highest truths through simple examples. Granny has got lot of grandchildren and they all want to play and she wants to entertain them. So what does she do? That by turns one child will be blindfolded and then he has to touch the granny but she will be standing at one place. As soon as the blindfold is made, she will move away. When the child who had seen his grandma, when he comes near because he knows, she moves away and he goes on searching here and there. But Sri Ramakrishna is telling that when the granny sees that any child is tired of the game and instantaneously she stands very near and as if he bumps into her, oh I touched granny and then laughingly she undoes the blindfold and then he is out of the game. This is the game eternally going on. That means in future also somebody or other will be there. But the persons who get tired, they take refuge in the divine mother. That is called, tired means what? Oh mother, I have done my best. I can do no more. When a person comes, he completely surrenders. That is the meaning of tiredness. And when such a state comes, God is sure to bestow His grace. First by giving a human birth, then deepening the desire for liberation and then ultimately creating all the favorable circumstances. Bringing into contact with a guide capable of guiding us and bringing encouragement and then holding the hand, removing the obstacles like that slowly the person will be freed. And this is true even if a man thinks I am capable of seeing God by myself through self-effort. He is sure to fail as the case of Totapuri Maharaj amply indicates. This was what Ramakrishna was telling to one devotee called Pranakrishna, master to Pranakrishna. My divine mother is not only formless, she has forms as well. One can see her forms. One can behold her incomparable beauty through feeling and love. A mother reveals herself to her devotees in different forms. Simple statement, simple paragraph, but it is endued with deep meaning. Says, my mother has got not only she is formless, but she is also having infinite forms. In fact, every form that we experience including our own is nothing but the divine mother. Because even from the ordinary standpoint, even a scientist has to say whether it is Einstein or a stupid fellow, both of them are made up of matter only. Only difference is in scientific vision, matter is jada, inert, doesn't have consciousness. But according to Vedanta, consciousness appears as jada and slowly with life, slowly with one-celled organism and its complexity of brain is very simple, but it goes on, grows on, evolving, both developing the complexity of the brain as well as the form until one attains to the human form. So divine mother, no, there is no person should be fanatic and say either God is with form only, not formless like the dualists. Advaitins assert, nor God is nirguna, nirakara, so nishkriya and indescribable. As the Advaitins insist, both of them are fanatics, both of them are right. They do not understand that you cannot dictate to God. You must have only form or you cannot have any form. He likes to play and to each devotee, you believe in form? Okay, I will show you myself with form. What form do you like, Indian, non-Indian? Yes, whatever form you like, whether as male, as female, as Shiva, as Vishnu, as Devi, as God, as formlessness, anything, but ultimately all of them will have to become one. Advaita Jnana, that is the final destination. What is Advaita? Nothing exists excepting God. That is called Advaita. So this is one meaning. My divine mother is not only formless, she has forms as well. Not only that, one can see her forms. First one sees divine forms. Every head, every hand, every leg, every eye, every mouth, everything of everything is nothing but that supreme Purusha. Purusha is not male. He who pervades everything is called Purusha. He who is everywhere. So he is incomparable. One can behold my mother's incomparable beauty only through feeling and love. A great psychological truth. When a young man sees some particular woman and he falls in love, and then many other people say she is not beautiful, but he says look through my eyes. Why? He has got feelings and he has got love. And love transforms everything. We have a beautiful saying in Telugu language. The young baby crow is the most beautiful baby in the whole world. For whom? For the mother crow. Similarly you must have seen just born monkey. Such an ugly thing you will not behold anywhere. But ask its mother, this is my life. The mother is prepared to die in the process of protecting her baby. And that is what divine mother is. But in order to see her incomparable beauty, one must have that feeling. Feeling and love. And both if a person has, then they will see incomparable. And then Sri Ramakrishna once said, once I had the vision of Rajarajeshwari. And as if her beauty is incomparable. As if one glance of her is just moving the whole world. Just one glimpse through her eyes. That is why mother has got beautiful names. Meenakshi, Kamakshi, etc. So this is what Sri Ramakrishna's personal experience is telling. And then not only that. Says the mother reveals herself to her devotees in different forms. Nobody should be fanatic and say that supposing somebody says divine mother in a stone image. We have no right, nobody has any right to say that this fellow is a mudha. Is a unintelligent person. Is worshipping a lifeless either wood or stone or whatever it is. No sir. Such a thing is a stupidity on anybody who says, who thinks, who understands like that. Who knows God can appear to anybody according to their concept. It is not important what, in what form one beholds God. The most important thing is and this is well worth noting down. Many people we come across who say we had visions of God. Examine their lives in the same old worldly life full of crookedness, full of hypocrisy, full of worldliness, full of greediness. And they are subjected to every temptation that all the fires and sargams throw at that person. And yet when that person sits for japa, a little bit of japa becomes highly emotional and thinks I have achieved everything. Stupidity can go no further than this. It is not what one sees. It is not what one feels. But it is the character. Character is the only test stone. Character is the final answer whether a person is spiritual or not. Now it is, it is, Ramakrishna is not simply telling like most of us talk about vision of God. Even if we are sincere, even what we say is from the scriptures, we are only talking intellectually. But where do we get people who are talking from their own personal experience? So Sri Ramakrishna, as we know, those who read his life, how much vyakulata, intense yearning, like there is a beautiful book called Vedanta Sara and there who is an adhikari. An adhikari is a person who longs for liberation, mumukshu and what type of longing he has. A beautiful example is given, Jalarasi means a pool of water. Here is a person, his head is on fire and there is a pool of water and he is running towards it. Just imagine, we have to exercise our powers of imagination. We are so unintelligent, we can't even exercise our power of imagination to a great extent. One fellow came to one of our Swamis and said, Swami, I had a wonderful dream yesterday. Swami asked, what was the dream? What was so wonderful about it? And the devotee said, I dreamt that I have won 1000 rupees in a lottery. And the Swami looked at him scathingly and he said, you stupid fellow, when it is nothing but a dream, could you not have dreamt that I have won 10 trillions of dollars? Why did you stop only with 1000 rupees? But you know, even in dreams, we are the same miserable people. Our imagination doesn't extend any further at all. So when Shri Ramakrishna speaks, he is speaking as a man with authority. When ordinary people heard Jesus Christ speaking, they were wonderstruck. They said, is this not the son of our carpenter, Joseph? How authoritatively he speaks, because it goes straight to the heart. So these are the things we have to recollect. Whenever we are studying the Gospel, we have to do two things. First, we have to remember, everything in the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna that Shri Ramakrishna spoke is really speaking on his own word. He did not speak. It was the Divine Mother through him who spoke. But let us take it, he spoke. But he spoke from his own experience, not by hearsay, not by reading, etc. That is why he did not read many scriptures also. Second thing we have to remember, that whenever we hear his words, we have to remember the appropriate portions from the great master, the life of Shri Ramakrishna, authenticating all these things. So Shri Ramakrishna, as we all know, became employed as a pujari. After his eldest brother's passing away, he became the main pujari. And a sea change had taken place in his life. He became imbued with a tremendous amount of longing. And then he went on rolling on the ground. Every evening, as soon as the sun sets, he rolls on the ground. Not deliberately, but like a child who has missed his mother for a long time. He used to weep, oh mother, another day has gone and I have not yet had your vision. Who knows when death is going to come and snatch me away. And no mother can remain at a distance from that longing. And she appeared one day. And then Shri Ramakrishna is describing. This is one of the most beautiful visions of Shri Ramakrishna. And I will make a little bit of fun also there. This is what he says. This is the description. As Shri Ramakrishna's love for God deepened, he began either to forget or to drop the formalities of worship. Sitting before the image, he would spend hours singing the devotional songs of great devotees of the mother, such as Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. Again, I will insert a little statement now and then. Great devotees of the Divine Mother, earlier that were said to be realized souls, had visions of the Divine Mother. Of them, many were there. But here are two mentioned, Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. And both of them had composed most marvelous songs, which are sung, which are very popular in the Ramakrishna order. Now Shri Ramakrishna, he knew most of their songs by heart. He could sing in his exquisitely sweetest voice, Gandharva Nindita Kantha. And those rhapsodical songs, describing the direct vision of God, only intensified Shri Ramakrishna's longing. He felt the pangs of a child separated from its mother. Sometimes in agony, he would rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people thinking he had lost his earthly mother would sympathize with him in his grief. Sometimes in moments of skepticism, doubts would creep in his mind. He would cry, are you really true mother? Or is it all a fiction, mere poetry without any reality? If you do exist, why do I not see you? Is religion a mere fantasy, or to the only figment of man's imagination? You see, in the life of every one of us, these doubts assail us, not once or twice, but many number of times. We pray so much, and we have faith, and our prayer is sincere, and yet many times, as if our prayers have not been heard at all, at such times, doubts will come, sometimes skepticism will step in, and there is a danger of our losing our faith in God, and in dharma, morality, altogether. The description continues, sometimes he would sit on the prayer carpet for hours together like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal manner, most of the time unconscious of the world. He almost gave up food, and sleep left him altogether, but he did not have to wait very long. He has thus described his first vision of the mother, and it is most marvellous. So, here I read, I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I was overpowered with a great restlessness, and a fear that it might not be my lot to realise her in this life. I could not bear the separation from her any longer. Life seemed to be not at all worth living. Suddenly, my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the mother's temple. I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and seized it, suddenly the blessed mother revealed herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever. And in their stead, I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent ocean of consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise to swallow me up. I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush and collapsed unconscious. What was happening in the outside world, I was not aware of. But within me, there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss. Altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother. On his lips, when he regained consciousness of the world, was the word Mother. This was his first vision. It was not a complete description, but in the Great Master, we get some more. He says, I fell down unconscious. Why? Because consciousness, like huge waves of an ocean coming from every side, overpowered me. So because of consciousness, I became unconscious. Is it not a peculiar statement? What does it mean? It means consciousness of the duality, consciousness that there is a world separate from God, consciousness that I am separate from God. All these, what we call Maya, Mithya, completely vanished like huge rivers emptying themselves into the bottomless ocean, borderless ocean, and merging themselves and becoming one with the ocean. Ramakrishna's multiple experiences of consciousness merged in. That is what he meant by not like a person who faints. But even when we say when a person has fainted, we don't know what we are talking about. He may be unconscious of the world, but the pure consciousness in the form of Chidabasa never vanishes from that person's mind at all. He will be completely conscious. This was the first vision. But are there any forms there? No, not at all. So are there any differentiations, like this is second, this is third object? Absolutely no. By the way, Vedanta says, Brahman is without any distinctions, differences. And all the differences in the world are subdivided according to Vedanta into three categories. These are called Vijatiya, Sajatiya, and Swagata Veda. Vijatiya, for example, there are two trees. One is a coconut tree, another is a mango tree. Completely different species, no identity at all. This is called Vijatiya, different species. Man, animal, bird, tree, mountain, water, like that. Then there is Sajatiya Veda. There are, what we call, one tree is there, mango tree. We look at it. Two mango trees are there, two mango trees. This is different from that. This is small tree, that is big tree. And this has got small number of fruits. That has got huge number of fruits. Like that, we can distinguish between two objects of the same species. This is called Sajatiya, belonging to the same species. Two human beings, two mosquitoes, two mountains, anything of the same objects. Two tables, two chairs, etc. Then the third difference is Swagata, within oneself. Here is a mango tree, here is the trunk, here are the big branches, here are the small branches, here is the root, here are the blossoms, here are the fruits, here are the flowers, etc. Brahman is completely devoid of all these differences. It is pure Advaita. That is what meant pure consciousness alone remained. And that is called Sadeva, Saumya, Idam, Agra, Asit. That we get in the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad. A teaching of the Rishi to a fit aspirant. So, that was one of the visions in Ramakrishna. Then what about the forms? See, look here. Every day, here is something I have to state before we go further. When a person perceives Brahman, is there any time when he doesn't perceive Brahman? And contrast it, let us contrast it with our experience. You see, we can, that means our mind can hold only one object at any given time. Only one object at any given time. If I am aware of a table, I am not aware of the chair. When I am aware of the chair, I am not aware of a person sitting besides that. So, only one object occupies our entire mind. Why? Because the idea of that object in the form of modification of our consciousness alone will be present in front of the mirror of our mind. But when a person attains to God Realization, he will not be like that. Why he will not be like that? Because unlike us who have billions of objects, he doesn't have many objects. Only one object. Of course, we are not talking about people who are merged in Nirvikalpa Samadhi. We are talking about Jeevan Muktas who had experience of Brahman. They know, I am Brahman, but their still body-mind is working. And first thing that we say is, I am not working, Brahman is working. Second thing is, this world in which this Jeevan Mukta is working is not a world anymore. For us, it is a world consisting of myriads of objects. For him, one Brahman, but with myriads of what we call names and forms and qualities. The whole universe can be described as forms, names and qualities. But here is a Jeevan Mukta, he sees only that one thing and nothing else. Brahman. But he sees with what you call a different, same Brahman. In the form of a tree, a man and a river, a mountain, etc. We can perhaps understand it better. At a festival time, there is a tradition in some states, they melt sugar and pour it into wooden moulds. So having the forms of a horse, the head of a horse and head of an elephant, head of a parrot, etc. And it comes out, when it solidifies, it becomes like that, appears like that. And they also add some colours. And children, they have preferences. I like this, I don't like this, I want this. But a grown-up person knows this is nothing but only sugar, but appearing in different forms. And that is why a mystic is one who sees everything as manifestations of one God, single God. God means consciousness here. We have to take care. When we use the word God, as if He is an exalted, separate object living somewhere above our heads. Either in Vaikuntha or Kailasa or Paradise or Kingdom of Heaven. No, no. God cannot have any form. But God can manifest in any number of forms. God as the mountain, God as the river, God as a tree. That is there in our ignorant vision. But if we use the word God, He cannot have any form, any name, etc. That is why it is the nameless name. Curiously, when Moses went up Mount Sinai and confronted God in the form of fire of a burning bush, He asked, Who are you? What is your name? And the curious reply was, I am that I am. What else can He say? I am that I am. I am Rama. Of course Rama. But as God, I am simply. That's all. Curiously, a baby also, who is not yet grown up. You ask His name, He says, My, who are you? I am. He can't say anything further. At that time, at that stage, He has not yet learned many things as we can understand it. So here are some very sweetest, most adorable descriptions Ramakrishna is describing. I saw her yesterday. She was clad in a seamless ochre colored garment and she talked with me. And she came to me another day as a Muslim girl, six or seven years old. She had a tilak on her forehead and was naked. She walked with me, joking and frisking like a child. At Hriday's house, I had a vision of Gauranga. He wore a black bordered cloth. Haladari used to say that God is beyond both being and non-being. Here is something very interesting for us to pay attention. It could be Haladari or it may be another person, Ajra. We don't know. Anyway, Haladari used to say that God is beyond both being and non-being. I told the mother about it and asked her. Then is the divine form an illusion? The divine mother appeared to me in the form of Rati's mother and said, Do thou remain in bhava? I repeated this to Haladari. What does this particular incident mean? There are people and this particular person Haladari used to study along with Totapuri Maharaj, Adhyatma Ramayana, which interprets Ramayana, the story of Rama, in spiritual symbolism. Rama is the Paramatma. Sita is the Mahamaya. Lakshmana is the Jivatma. In that sense, it goes on describing the spiritual symbolism of the divine mother. So this man used to think, I am a great scholar and he read in Yoga Vasistha, Adhyatma Ramayana, books of such nature. God is beyond mind because being or non-being are thoughts in our minds. When God is beyond the mind, why? Because mind is limited. God is unlimited. Therefore, he cannot be even thought about the moment we put a black colored specks in front of our eyes, everything appears black, even though it is not black. Similarly, as soon as we put our mind and through the lens of the mind, wants to understand God, then he appears according to the color. If he is a Christian, God appears as Christ. If he is a Rama's devotee, God appears as Rama. If he is a devotee of Kali, God appears as Kali. If he is a devotee of Nirguna, then God appears as pure consciousness. So it is depending upon the condition of the mind which acts like a filter. So Aladari thought he knows everything just because he heard some of these great books, most marvelous books or he read about it and he discussed these things with Totapuri Maharaj. Then Ramakrishna sometimes used to be like a child because he had visions of God with forms and also without forms and he used to say God is both beyond forms, beyond also formlessness. What is the formlessness? It is also a thought in our minds. So as a child, at that time he was in the mood of a child, then Ramakrishna, he got a little perturbed. So then I am having lot of visions, his mother deceiving me. So he went there and said to mother about it. Then instead of saying that it is an illusion, the mother said you remain in Bhavamukha. This is a beautiful concept. We definitely don't get the description of Bhavamukha in many of the scriptures. This is something new. I don't know whether anybody discussed about it in any other scripture. There I did not come across but in the great master we come across it and Swamish Arudhanandaji elaborately discussed about this idea. But to put it simply what it means is imagine a person who is sitting in the doorway of his house and the door can lead to outside. So what is the special state? The man can see what is outside the door. The man also can see what is inside the room. Like that when a person is in that state, it is an in-between state between the Nirguna Brahma and Saguna Brahma. He can see both and then when he sees both he understands. It is exactly the same thing. Only difference is Nirguna Brahma is beyond description and Saguna Brahma is nothing but the same Nirguna Brahma in different forms. Vedanta tries to give us this marvellous idea in the form of Mandukya Karika and Panchadasi. These are the most marvellous scriptures especially in the Panchadasi. Ghatakasha and Mahakasha. Akasha means space. Space is only one. Space is emptiness. Space is emptiness. Space is not something blue, something red, something ether. That is all nonsensical idea. Space, Akasha means Avakasha, emptiness. Now how can you divide emptiness? You take a sword and go outside your home and pretend that you are cutting space into pieces. Is it ever possible? Excepting that there is a danger of your being cut by yourself, you cannot cut. So there is a pot. As soon as pot is created and enclosed, as if space is divided, there is space inside the pot which is called pot space and there is space outside which is called Mahakasha. Mahakasha is space outside the enclosures and Ghatakasha is an example. Patakasha, Ghatakasha, Patakasha, Grihakasha etc. That is as if you could enclose something and immediately the emptiness becomes divided and separated. This is an example given by Vedantic books for us to understand. Brahman is somewhat like this space and when you cannot understand even what is space and people think that this is small space, that is big space and bigger space is costlier than the smaller space. If you want to buy 40 by 40 land, it can only hold 2-3 rooms but if you want 100 by 100, 100 feet by 100 feet empty space, the more empty, the costly it is. What a funny thing it is. So what Sri Ramakrishna is trying to tell that there is a state beyond the mind, there is a state that is perceived through the mind, through the filter of the mind, that is what is called Saguna Brahma and what is outside, even the name Nirguna Brahma is a misnomer. We should never use it but for the sake of teaching, communication, we use that word. So this is what is... Sometimes Sri Ramakrishna in a childish mood, he forgets all these things and he ran to the mother, mother Halodari, he is a learned man and he says that God is beyond being as well as non-being and then mother said, remain in Bhavamukha, keep your mind in between Saguna and Nirguna. Then you will know that it is what Halodari calls the Nirguna, is what devotees call the Saguna. There is absolutely no difference as there is no difference between Ghatakasha and Mahakasha. This is the most marvelous idea we have to understand. Then Sri Ramakrishna went back and scolded Halodari and repeated it. How much Halodari has really understood, God alone knows but Sri Ramakrishna told what needs to be told and he became free from his doubt and this commandment, remain in Bhavamukha, Sri Ramakrishna had three times and the time comes, we will discuss about it. Sri Ramakrishna continues, God's nature is like that of a child. I used to see God directly with these very eyes, just as I see you. Now I see divine visions. There was a time when I used to see God in myriad forms. Here I just recalled a beautiful incident that happened in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna's nephew's name was Hridayaram Mukhopadhyay and he served Sri Ramakrishna very sincerely for more than 14 years. In the end, he became very arrogant. This is something Holy Mother points out. You know, when an attendant is appointed to serve a senior spiritual aspirant, let us say sadhu and then at the beginning, the man is extremely sincere and devoted. Slowly he develops a terrible ego. Without me, the Swami cannot move a single millimetre. For everything, he has to depend upon me and without me, he is sure to suffer and then he wants to control. Don't eat that. Now, this is very good for your health. Eat this and you will get offended if the Swami refuses all because of that egotism. We are all like that but at least we don't pretend to be spiritual aspirants. So, that is why Holy Mother used to say it is extremely difficult to serve great people because from where this egotism comes, God alone knows and that happened to Hriday. He became puffed up with pride and he wanted to control. He developed terrible liking for money, longing for money and those devotees who are capable of giving, he wants to take money. If you have to give anything to Sri Ramakrishna, you have to give it to me because I use it for him. I control the money. He is a fool. He doesn't know anything. He is not capable of doing anything and anything you bring, if you give directly to Sri Ramakrishna, next time I will not allow you. I will dictate who will see Sri Ramakrishna and who will not see Sri Ramakrishna. One funny thing happened. One day Sri Ramakrishna was sitting with some devotees and fortunately at that very moment Hriday was not present. So, the devotee came directly to Sri Ramakrishna with a big pumpkin or something like that or some vegetable, cauliflower or whatever. I don't remember. And then Sri Ramakrishna got frightened like a child. He said, you have brought so if Hriday comes to know, he will be scolding me and he was shaking like a dry leaf in a terrible wind. And unfortunately Hriday entered into the room, saw the cauliflower, flew into a rage. How dare you give it to him without offering it to me. And then he became an obstacle. The same person who served so much became an obstacle and then slowly Sri Ramakrishna had to pray, Mother, if you want me to do your work, this person is proving to be a great obstacle. Remove him. And then very soon this Hriday did something which he should not have done and he was instantaneously dismissed by what was his name Trilokanath Vishwas, the son of Madhur Babu. So what we are talking is that it is very difficult to serve these great people and that's why these Jeevan Mukthas sometimes behave like Balakavat, Jedavat, Pishachavat, Unmadavat, Panditavat. So many different forms. Do they assume them? No. It is the Divine Mother. It is the Divinity. It is God who for various purposes takes on these things. Then Sri Ramakrishna is telling, I used to see God directly with these very eyes just as I see you. But he says, now I see divine visions only in a trance. Why? Very interesting. According to my little understanding, if Sri Ramakrishna were to see these kind of visions, the very mission for which he had taken the body will not be serving much purpose. He has to be at our level of the mind so that we can approach him and we can take liberties with him, we can be intimate with him and we can get his teachings through lovingly. That is what happened. Sri Ramakrishna continues, God vision through pure love. There was a devotee at this moment, Mr. Choudhury. Sir, how can one see God? Master, not with these eyes. When God bestows His grace and decides to show Himself to you, God gives one divine eyes and only then can one behold Him. God gave Arjuna divine eyes so that he might see His universal form. Sri Ramakrishna continues, The Rishis had the vision of the super sensuous spirit form and talked with it. But devotees acquire a love body and with itself. They see the spirit form of the absolute. This is a most marvelous statement. The Rishis, they did not care for God with form. They only wanted to behold the vision of God as beyond the mind itself in a formless state. But they also could have talked. How could they talk with God? Very interesting. There is no need for such great souls to open their mouth and use a language because just as a baby can talk to mother, mother also can talk to the baby. An invisible language is present. Even animals have got also the same things. Baby understands what mother meant and mother also can understand whether the baby is crying because it is hungry and whether or the baby is crying pretending that he wants to draw the attention of the mother and wants to play with mother. She can distinguish between these two. There is an invisible connection between these two. So devotees also they acquire a love body. This is a most marvelous thing. We all acquire a love body. In today's class, I will just pass a few remarks about this. First let me give an example. Supposing, there is a young man and he meets a young woman and then he falls in love with her and slowly he develops attachment and it becomes stronger and stronger then they decide to get married and to live together as a householder. This seems to be a very ordinary incident but then you ask that young man why did you choose? How do you look upon this woman? Oh, she is the most beautiful woman in this whole world. You ask her. This is the most beautiful man in this whole world. How could they see? You ask hundred other people. So do you see the tremendous beauty? They say, he is just an ordinary man. There is nothing to distinguish him from a million other human beings. There are far superior beautiful, brave, rich, talented, intelligent people in this world. There is nothing very strange in this person. That is how they can tell people. But why this man is able to see? Here is a very important thing. See, a baby looks at his mother only through the eyes of love. A mother also looks at the baby not with an ordinary woman's eyes. She looks at every child, not her child, but every other child with an ordinary vision which has nothing to commend those children. Okay, the children are okay. But when the same woman directs her vision, her eye, towards her own child, some transformation takes place. So, where is the transformation? Is it in the child or is it in her? First transformation is, this is my child. This is my extension. And we all love ourselves. This was the great tremendous statement given by Agnival Khya to Maitreyi. And that's a beautiful subject we have to understand. Why? Because the whole spiritual life is nothing but to acquire a spiritual body, a love body, a love mind, then whatever we perceive through that is a vision of God, is a knowledge of God. We will talk about it in our next class. Again, this is a new year. Today is 4th of 2022 and I wish all of you a great joyous and spiritual progressive year. Not only year, all the time in future also because, you know, I may not be there to repeat the same thing. Who knows? May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Kananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna.