Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 060 on 10-May-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadaam Deivim Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Aadha Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamaami Moho Arunmohom In our last gospel class there was a question and I completely forgot about it but before we start today's class we will deal with it. One of the devotees had posed this question, if all of us are divine then how come it is so difficult to feel that we are divine? We feel anything but divine, I am mortal, I am the body, I am the mind, body is subject to disease, mind is subject to worries, so many expectations, fulfilled desires, unfulfilled desires etc. What is the cause? The cause is first of all because of Maya. Why is it so difficult? Because of Maya and what is Maya? Forgetting that we are divine and thinking that we are someone else. In psychological terms this is exactly what is called madness, insanity. If someone comes and reports to you, I am Napoleon, I am Alexander the Great and inside us we will be laughing. Why? Because we know he is not, we know who that person is but the person himself doesn't know that he is just the same person that we all know. So losing one's identity, forgetting one's identity. Here there is a psychological fact, we may forget who we are but we have to assume something else. If I do not remember I am so and so, I have to remember I am somebody. So our real nature is forgotten and a strange nature is superimposed. This is the ordinary explanation but extraordinary is there is no resemblance between this answer because when we say we are divine, first of all we are one, secondly we are pure consciousness, thirdly we are infinite, fourthly that we are nothing but Brahman whereas our experience is I am a child, I am a young person, we are changing this identity because it is the same experience for everybody. We do not consider anybody as a madcap. I hope you are getting the point. If somebody is asked, a grown-up person, let us say 50 years old person, who are you? That person if he says I am Napoleon, I am the Alexander, we definitely know he is suffering from insanity but we also know that this insanity started at some point in time, perhaps there is a cure, perhaps there is not but we definitely know that this person is x, y, z, so and so but when a person knows he is divine, the above characteristics, if I am divine, if you are divine, there is no small divine, big divine, x divine, y divine, so there is no difference at all because it is one, it is infinite. So what is it due to? The mysterious power of God which is called Maya and that is what makes us, first it makes us forget what we are, second it makes us think what we think we are, third it makes us, what makes us? Maya, the power of God makes us think that I am absolutely right, this world is real but there is inner longing that if this world is real, I must be real, if I am real, I can never change, if I do not change, my Swarupa is Amrita or Ananda Swarupa, so this is how slowly, slowly, slowly our reality is defined. We are saying this world is real but we are rebelling against it with all our power, what is it? If it is real, what is the real? That which never changes but this world is ever changing, if it is not changing, a child should remain a child and he should never grow up and an unborn person must be unborn, he should never be born. Just imagine if you can extend your thinking power, if there is no birth, there would be no world, there would be no Jagat, there would be no Samsara and there would be no Maya, so what is the final fact? There is nothing unreal excepting God, everything is Brahman, the whole world is Brahman but we think it is not Brahman, Brahman is unchanging, we are continuously changing, so how can we get out of this Maya? That is the question and this is what Sri Ram Krishna was talking in our last class, there are bound souls. Sri Ram Krishna has given example of fishing, a fisherman casts a fishing net and there are some fish which are never caught, there are some fish which are caught but immediately they realise they are in grave danger and jump out with a big splash and the fisherman says, there goes, escapes a big fish. There is a third type of fish, it realises sometime later and it struggles but some of them may succeed, a few of them succeed, rest will succeed later on but not in this life and there are some, they never realise that we are free fish, we are caught in the net and we are going to encounter death, we are the fish. The whole world is a fish of this type, bound souls. What is it? We think this world is real, if it is real, birth is real, death is real, if death is real, it is certainly not wanted, if it is real, it cannot be gotten rid of, only remember, only what is unreal can be removed, what is real, there is no way we can get rid of it. So is there any way? Yes. So here is the real answer, the scriptures are telling, the scriptures who know our real nature that we are all Brahman, we are all divine but at this stage potentially divine. So what is the way out for us? Is there any way? Yes, there is, not only there is a way out, there is no way that we can stay in this world forever, no one wants to stay in this world forever. We, though we say we are body-mind and body-mind means that which is continuously changing from birth to death, six-fold changes but we do not wish to change, somehow that peculiar unconscious desire, I don't want to die means I don't want to change, I don't want to be ignorant that means I want to be aware I am divine, I don't want to be unhappy or suffering that means I always want to be happy, somehow this struggle is there, everybody good person, bad person, ignorant person, learned person, small baby, small baby cries, I'm hungry, it lets the mother know through crying and mother understands, why is the baby crying? Because I don't want to die, how are you going to die? Because if I do not have food, I am going to die. So this is how all of us are struggling, the scriptures come and tell us these few things, the first thing it tells us that what you are unconsciously struggling for is absolutely true that means am I God? Yes, you are God, only instead of saying the English word God says you are immortal, you are the child of immortality, you are Brahman, that is the first thing the scripture assures us. Second thing that there is a way out, yes, have I now become non-Brahman? Scripture tells no, you have never become non-Brahman, you can never become non-Brahman, reality can never become unreality but we can forget it sometimes just as a beautiful example of a dream, a person at his own home after nice dinner, he goes to bed and he dreams that some wicked people came and at the point of gun, they drag him into a dungeon and beat him black and blue and leave him in that filthy dungeon and so long as the dream lasts, the person is weeping and wailing, what sin have I committed? Oh Lord, very interesting, I will dwell upon this. So suppose somebody is dreaming and we are all dreaming, we may not think we are in a dungeon but definitely we think we are in a family. Family is a dungeon, house is a dungeon, body is a dungeon, mind is a dungeon, to think I am the body is to be in that dungeon and to bear the limits of the body-mind, the limitations of the body-mind that is called being in the dungeon. So long as the person is in the dream, he thinks it is real but as soon as for whatever reason, he wakes up and immediately he understands, he discovers that this is all dream. So what is the dream? Temporarily forgetting where he was, what he was and remembering something totally opposite to it but dreams will not last, this samsara doesn't last, maya doesn't last, nothing lasts in this world because that is the nature of the world. This is the greatest hope that however wicked a person is that nobody is going to be left behind at all. So this is what Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna is trying to tell us. A devotee is asking, Sir, is there no help then for such a worldly person? Master, certainly there is. From time to time you should live in the company of holy men and from time to time go into solitude to meditate on God. Furthermore, you should practice discrimination and pray to God, give me faith and devotion. We will come to the power of faith etc. First let us come back to the first condition. This person who feels intensely the limitations, the suffering of this mortal life, samsaric life, he should live in the company of holy men. So this is the first requirement. That is, who is a holy man? We have to understand. So the company of a holy man but who is a holy man? The person who has not fallen into the trap of worldliness. So remember, this is a marvellous marvellous definition. How do we know who is a holy man? It is not that he grows two horns, not that he is totally different from all of us. No, he will be a human being, he will be having a body, he or she and having a mind but they never suffer like that. Does not the body of a holy person suffer? Yes, it suffers. Does this holy person, does he not become hungry, thirsty? Yes. If it is too much heat, does not the body suffer? Yes. Cold? Yes. Many other things are there. But this holy person, he has acquired wisdom. What is the wisdom? First wisdom is, so long as the boat is there, it can take us across. But the place of the boat is above the water. Water should not be in the boat. What is this example for? Boat is this body-mind. The body-mind is the only boat, only temple which can help us to cross this ocean of samsara. But the waters, what is the water? Samsara, deep, almost immeasurable depth and a person can simply die if the water enters into the boat. So worldliness is the ocean, bondage. Worldliness should not be there. Having a body-mind is to be in the world but not having waters in the body-mind, that means worldliness. What is this attitude of this holy person? This holy person definitely thinks that I am Brahman but now for some reason because of maya caught in the net of karma, my previous janmas karma brought this particular body-mind complex but this very body-mind at the lower stages makes me bind. At the higher stage this alone will act. A very beautiful example Sri Ram Krishna is giving, this very boat, body and mind, that means the instrument called body and mind. In the beginning stages when the person is worldly, worldliness is the water. The water has entered into the boat and then the man sinks into the ocean of maya. What does it mean? He will be reborn, he will again die, he will again be reborn, life after life. So many births, 84 lakh janam but what is the way out? Let me commit suicide, let me get out, let me get rid of this body-mind. Is it going to happen? Never, never it is going to happen because body-mind, that boat called body-mind is the very boat which previously because of my mismanagement is taking me in deep into the depths of the samsara. Now that very boat will take me across but there is a condition, there must be a boatman. A boatman must be a wise person and who is this wise person who can really pilot me across, take me across, control this ship, navigator and wisely with the least difficulty in the shortest possible time can take me to Bhagawan. He is called Guru. There is a beautiful name for this Guru in Sanskrit. He is called Karnadhara. Now a boatsman is called a Karnadhara or an oarsman. He is an expert, he knows how to tide over the huge waves. When the boat sinks, the boat will not sink. When it falls in tsunami and other times, there are people who they call it surfing devotion, huge waves but they will not sink. They are experts. These Gurus, they themselves crossed this ocean how many times? Not once, billions of times and they know every nook and corner, where is danger, where is safety, where is shortcut. So if we can find out some, how to find out? There is no way. You can take a magnifying glass or take some blood sample and then put it in the labyrinth. This is a holy blood. This is a holy man. There is no way. The only way out is to pray earnestly to the Divine Lord. Oh Lord, I take refuge, I surrender myself. Oh mother, I am a helpless child. Please take me across. That is why there is a beautiful name for the Divine Mother. She is called Tara. There is a beautiful song, Tara Tarani Nama. So Tarani, she is the boat. Tara, she who saves the severe of the people, who? Everybody. If only we take refuge in her. Now interesting question comes. Will there be anybody who will never take refuge in her? Not one single one because the Divine Mother, we are all her children. She will never neglect even the least bit. If a child, as Ramakrishna says, is completely immersed in playing in this world, then the mother is calling and calling and calling. The child doesn't pay any heed. Then the mother comes to the child and forcibly breaks all the playthings, catches hold of the child by the hand and wrenches him away. He may be feeling pain but that is for the good of the good of the child because she has to feed at the proper time. Ramakrishna says nobody goes hungry in Varanasi. Some fortunate people, devotees, they get at the right time. But a rich, a lazy fellow, but mother will seek him out even at midnight, feed him otherwise she can never sleep. There is a beautiful incident. Holy Mother has become old. She was suffering from a lot of ailments. So a Sevak was there, a Sanyasi was there always at the back of the mother and one day he thought mother was asleep. He was not sure. In the softest way, even those who are sleeping next to that person will hardly be able to hear it. Called Ma and immediately she said, yes my son. He was shocked, surprised. Don't you ever sleep? Holy Mother said, how can I sleep my child? So many people come, call me Ma and they forcefully forcefully take mantra because calling Ma even though they do not deserve it and mother knows she has to suffer. But once a person calls Ma, she accepts it and says you are my child, you called me mother like Rama says to Vibheshana in Ramayana. Once anybody calls me and says, Oh Rama, I surrender myself to you only once. Even if that person forgets me thereafter, I will never forget him. I will never neglect him. I will rescue him. This is my promise, Oh Vibheshana. So Holy Mother is telling so many people take mantra and they do not do anything afterwards. So I am doing japa for them. Of course if Holy Mother repeats once that is good enough for millions of us. So she is constantly awake. That's why I have mentioned so many times that what is one of the Divine Mother's name in Madurai in South India is called Meena Akshi. Akshi means eye. Meena means fish. Fish eyed. What is fish eye? There is no eyelid. Fish do not have they say an eyelid but I think there may be some glass like thing may be there but the point is the mother. Why is she called fish eyed? Because like the fish she can never close her eyes even for a wink because if she does it, it will be pradaya. So with the most awareness she will be watching over all her creation, all her brood like a mother hen protecting her babies from the marauding vultures and kites etc. So this Divine Mother at some point she is called both avidya maya and vidya maya and in the form of avidya maya she is making us forget. No my children you have to understand the truth here. Avidya and vidya maya it is called maya. Two aspects of maya. One maya both belong to whom? Only to the Divine Lord. If God is good how can his maya be different? Then what does it really mean? It means avidya maya is a preparation to enter into vidya maya. But then this samsara what kind of preparation is that? Well a person gets married before that he was selfish because I am unattached. His selfishness personification. He gets married then he becomes little unselfish because he has to share. Same thing with the wife and then children come. Now as the children come the selfishness becomes broken into small pieces. Only verility is left out. Then along with comes in-loss and out-loss and then the selfishness practically is broken. The man has no way but to be identified. This is how after many births we grow into less and less selfish, more and more unselfish and then all the dukkhas. All the dukkhas means all the sufferings we go undergo in this world. They all become what I call awakening points. Uttishtata, Jagrata. If we are not awake with soft words then immediately the rot will come. A big blow will come in the form of a tragedy or unbearable suffering, something or other that is continuously happening in this world. We need not look far away. Anytime, any day, any hour you will see how many people are meeting accidents, how many people are visiting the hospitals, how many people are going through terrible suffering as it were. So you just imagine what is happening. My God, this is unbearable, unbearable but all this is for good. For good. Like a person who thinks I am going through terrible suffering in a dream, in a dungeon as I mentioned earlier. This suffering one day it becomes too much, very unbearable. Then he wakes up and then he turns. Is there no way out? Is there somebody out there? Can not somebody hear my cry? I am lost. Is somebody who can rescue SOS and spirituality of spirituality? There is no other way and then the response comes. That response is called Vidya Maya and that Vidya Maya is going to awaken us. So a holy man is one who has not fallen into the trap of worldliness. The beautiful point just now we discussed is from the Jnana Marga that is from the viewpoint of an unthinking person, a stupid, idiotic, foolish person. Maya is inimical to humanity. Maya is a destructive power but from the Vedic point of view, Vedantic point of view, the purpose of lower Maya is to make us prepare by slowly making us develop discrimination, dispassion, control of the body, mind etc. and finally longing for spirituality. This is called Adhikaritva from the Jnana Marga. Viveka, Viragya, Shamadhisat Sampate and Mumukshutva. Here we can recollect Buddha's great renunciation. What is the nature of this world? First of all, it is old age. Then it is death. Then it is old age, disease, death. Buddha on his first visit because his father never wanted him to face the fact of life. But Buddha was not an ordinary person. Do you think even if somebody confines you, can't you find yourself? Even if you are confined from your childhood that you have grown, what you were, you are not now and have you not seen suffering. You have become aged. Anybody can understand it even if that person cannot use the language. So Buddha was a most intelligent person. He was seeing his own father and his his mother of course died. Maya Devi is a most marvellous thing. Maya died and Buddha was born, Siddhartha was born and Prajapati had brought her up, his mother's younger sister and then when he grew, when he was young, astrologers predicted that either he become the emperor of the whole world or emperor of a monastic order, a great sanyasi. His father did not want him to become a sanyasi but he was destined to be a sanyasi. Who can stop? One day he requested his father, I am grown up, let me go out. He saw these three ugliest sides. We also see. We don't think they are ugly but in his eyes he had a wonderful vision that this is the fact of life. Old age, disease, death and it shattered his mind. Then is there no solution and the chariot proceeded further. Suddenly he saw by the roadside a most marvellous sight, a radiant young sanyasi sitting serenely, bubbling with joy and he asked his charioteer, who is this person? And charioteer explained, this is a world renouncing monk, he was a wise man, he wanted to find the solution to the problem of the samsara and he realised and he is now floating, swimming in the ocean of Satchitananda and Buddha's ideal is fixed. What is it? This world is existential suffering, full of suffering but there is a way out. How did this monk conquer? Because the root cause of samsara is tanha, trishna, thirst. This word tanha, thirst, English word thirst. Thirst came from the word tanha and the desire, what is the desire? Cater to the body, cater to the mind, try to live as long as possible. It is impossible to go through without having any suffering for anybody in this world. What is the way out? To develop that tremendous non-attachment, I am not the body, I am not the mind. If I am not the body-mind then I must be somebody. Yes, I am that nameless Nirvana. Buddha did not call it Brahman for obvious reasons which I will not go into today but is what we call in Vedantic life. I am Brahman, first I am the body, I am the mind. Second, I am the mind, I have a body. Third, I am neither the body nor the mind. I am Shiva, I am Nirvana and with that inspiration that very night Buddha had left. This is what we have to understand, that we have to see. Buddha's dispassion was aroused in this way. We will also one day become Buddha's. Buddha means one who is awakened. Seeing the different aspects of life like disease, old age and death, Siddhartha wondered where is happiness in life. It was then that he saw a monk, a blissful person. He himself set out in search of the source of this bliss and finally discovered the path to the cessation of suffering. He discovered the four noble truths. Hence the company of holy man is necessary. Who is a holy man? He is the source of an incessant flow of bliss, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Anyone coming into contact with a happy person also gets a touch of it in his life. Take the example of Sudhiram, take the example of Holy Mother, take the example of of course Ramakrishna, take the example of Ramana Maharshi, Ramana Bhagwan. I have the highest reverence for Ramana Maharshi. If you look at him from the external point of view, he never had, you never see him with a shirt, with a pant, with a dhoti, with a chaddha, always with a staff, a kamandalu and a loin cloth. Who can be more blissful than him? Nothing had made him really suffer. Even when a thief gave him a big blow, he did not suffer. I have mentioned this, probably I have mentioned, I forgot whether in this class or other class, one night some thieves, robbers had entered and at the point of big stick, they ordered every inmate, when Maharshi was I think at Skanda Ashrama, they ordered them out and everybody obeyed and these robbers tried everything, all the, they did not have much money, only some cooking utensils etc. They bundled them and while going out, Ramana Maharshi was standing a little bit nearer to the pathway and one of them had given him a blow and then went back. There was no need because nobody was an obstruction for their robbing. Everybody came down, sat down, devotees were fuming, not only because the vessels were lost but the most revered person by them has been given a blow. Ramana Maharshi with ever playing beautific smile, Ramana Maharshi's face is an ocean of bliss. There is a peculiar charm in his face. He never looks at anybody. He looks through you, above you, beyond you. So he smiled and said, what is there? Don't you bring for me with love so many sweets, flowers, fruits? In the same way, this person has offered me, brought me a blow. If I am gladly accepting what you bring, I ought to accept the blow also exactly in the same way and when Sairam Krishna was in the terrible suffering stage of throat cancer, one day devotees felt very bad, very sad. Sairam Krishna said, did I come only to eat rasagullas? So there was a time, mother gave me the greatest bliss. Now this is her instrument. She will play as she wants. This is the simple truth. Every holy man, every saint is a source of infinite bliss. Why? Brahma with Brahma eva bhavati. And what is Brahman? Brahman is nothing but Satyam, Jnanam, Anandam, Brahma. What type of Anandam? Ananta Anandam, infinite bliss. So, turn back to the Buddha. Buddha was not so foolish that he never heard about disease, old age and death. But when he saw them, at that particular moment, a transformation had taken place. This is what happens. In the same way, when we cultivate the company of holy people, we all know that life is fleeting and is full of suffering. Sometimes this is called Smashana Vairagya. When we go to crematoriums, then we understand momentarily, we find life is such. But then unfortunately, like Markata Vairagya, it doesn't stay long. Back to the pavilion. However, the company of holy men reminds us that there is another world which is full of bliss beyond the humdrum routine of life, where there is no birth, there is no old age, there is no disease and of course, there is no death. And it is Ananda Sagara and every holy man's life. Even a person who is a sannyasi outwardly, but really speaking, he is not leading an ideal sannyasin's life. Of such people, Ramakrishna used to say that they are like, sometimes in the fields, farmers put a scarecrow to scare away the birds, a figure of a man with an old torn shirt, with a hat, etc. So even if a person is a fake monk, but the life of that person really reminds us that what life is meant for, the ideal. Why did this person renounce? There must be something. So that is a great benefit. So it is imperative. In fact, I said it is a commandment to cultivate the company of holy men. And then Shri Ramakrishna is telling occasionally, it doesn't mean that meet once or twice. How long will you go to the doctor? So long as the disease is not completely cured. Similarly, until we get rid of this disease called worldliness, we will have to cultivate the company of the holy people. And in the company of the holy people, something creeps in, all unknowingly, unconsciously. What is that? First of all, faith. Then, of course, a truly holy person. How do you recognize that in spite of normal day-to-day situations, a holy person will be joyful always, cheerful, very positive? I mentioned earlier four characteristics. First is he is bubbling with joy. Second, he is an incarnation, embodiment of unselfish love. Thirdly, he treats everybody absolutely equally. And lastly, he is prepared to give up this particular body-mind if he thinks it can help the other person. This was what Swami Vivekananda categorically declared. What did he declare? If I can help even one dog in the street, I am ready to be reborn a thousand times. It is not hyperbole because such people, they are not helping really. They know this dog is no other than me. Therefore, I have to help myself in the form of this particular dog, in the form of this particular human body I have attained. But this poor dog, still it is under bondage. Such are the four characteristics. Then, we will go back to Sri Ramakrishna and he is telling the power of faith and faith. Sri Ramakrishna says, once a person has faith, he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith. There is nothing greater than faith. What a marvellous thing. There is nothing greater than faith. And we have to understand there are two types of what we call faith. We misuse the word faith and belief at the same time. In Sanskrit also, we say Vishvasa and Shraddha. Vishvasa is different. Shraddha is different. So, though we use them synonymously. What is Vishvasa? What is the distinction? How do we know? Well, here is a beautiful definition. What we call belief in English language. Vishvasa is completely under our control. That means what? When I feel like I have belief. When I don't feel like, even a toothache can make me lose my belief. A cloudy weather can also make me lose that belief in a tragic incident, an unfortunate accident and if we are devotees, we lose faith even more quickly. What is this God doing? Ever since my birth, I believed in Him. I prayed to Him. I paid regular, what you call, premiums, insurance premiums and this person has betrayed me in the crucial hour instead of coming to my rescue. What is that crucial hour? My husband died and my son is not getting a job. My daughter is not getting married and my parents are 99 years old and they are suffering from incurable disease. Can he not cure? Can he, can they not live so that I can see them more and more? This is stupidity at the very height. Well, this is called what we call belief is under our control. Even the slightest whimper can completely eradicate this belief. Whereas Shraddha is like a ghost. It is from God. It is the grace of God. It is a manifestation of grace of God. Once it falls upon us, it will be like a ghost controlling us. Every mad man, mad person is actually, we should not say, but he is having Shraddha, wrong Shraddha though, wrong idea, but he is no more under his own control. He is completely under the control of that idea. That is what we need to understand and understand the difference. So one, once a person has faith, Shraddha, he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith. And then here is some wonderful psychological truths. Speaking of holy company, so one neighbor is asking, can one get this longing for God through frequenting the company of holy men? Master said, yes, it is possible. That means it may not be also possible. But what does it mean? The Ramakrishna clarifies, but not for a confirmed scoundrel. That means a person who does not put forth any effort to change according to his faith, obey the dictates of the faith and then change his character. He is a confirmed scoundrel. Confirmed means deeply rooted in his worldliness. Of course, Vedanta doesn't say he will be gone forever, but it will take some time for him. So Shri Ramakrishna, he gave the example of a sannyasis, Kamandalu, made of bitter gold, travels with him to the four great places of pilgrimage and takes a dip in the holy waters everywhere, but not a hit of its bitterness. He is ever lost. Master to him. Some people think, oh, I am a bound soul. I shall never acquire knowledge and devotion. But if one receives a Guru's grace, one has nothing to fear. This is where Shri Ramakrishna gives a superb story and this kind of wisdom, spiritual stories, parables are spread everywhere in Sufism, in Buddhism, in Hinduism, in Christianity. Every great soul speaks only in the language of the parable. What is a parable? A parable is a simple story outwardly, externally, but contains depth layers and layers of deep meaning and they cannot be understood intellectually. As our power of thinking becomes greater and greater, our experience becomes greater and greater, we discover more and more layers. An example in point is Shri Ramakrishna's parable of a woodcutter. I hope you remember it. There was a poor woodcutter and he used to work very hard, but hardly was able to make out. One day, to his great good fortune, he met a holy man. The holy man, he diagnosed his condition and he said, go forward. That's all he said. That was the initiation. And this man never heard it, remembered it, but didn't do anything for some time. After some time, he went, why not I try today. When did he try? When he did not find anything usual. In fact, he was suffering more and so he ventured a little bit further and to his great shock, discovered plenty of sandalwood trees and naturally, joyfully, he bundled them. It is a rahasya. He never diverted to other woodcutters, brought them home and then sold and became rich. And one day he must have been suffering in spite of riches. He thought that the holy man did not ask me to stop at this place. He simply said, go forward, no stopping. So third time he went forward, found silver mines. Fourth time he went forward, found golden mines. Fifth time he went out, found diamond mines. This is how a person discovers the layers of the deep meaning of any parable. Jesus Christ, Buddha, Ramakrishna, Krishna, everybody speaks only in the language of the parables. Where did Sri Krishna speak? Go to Uddhava Gita and you get it in the Bhagavatam, not in the Mahabharata. So Sri Ramakrishna here tells us a story of sheep-tiger and Swami Vekananda heard it many times and then he put it in his own inimitable language at the Parliament of Religions. Simply the story is like this. I read, once a tigress attacked a flock of goats. As she sprang on her prey, she gave birth to a cub and died. The cub grew up in the company of the goats. The goats ate grass and the cub followed their example. They bleated, the cub bleated too. Gradually it grew to be a big tiger. One day another tiger attacked the same flock. It was imagined to see the grass-eating tiger. Running after it, the wild tiger at last seized it. Thereupon the grass-eating tiger began to bleat. The wild tiger dragged it to the water and said, look at your face in the water. It is just like mine. Here is a little meat. Eat it. Saying this, it thrust some meat into its mouth. But the grass-eating tiger would not swallow it and began to bleat again. Gradually, however, it gassed the taste for blood and came to relish the meat. Then the wild tiger said, now you see, there is no difference between you and me. Come along and follow me into the forest. This is the parable. So Sri Ramakrishna concludes, there can be no fear. If the Guru's grace descends on one, He will let you know who you are and what your real nature is. So we are all like that tiger cubs or lion cubs. You can change it a little bit. There is no harm in it and you can add a lot of masala as I often do. So one day it fell into the flock of sheep or goats. What is this flock? It is worldly people and it started bleating. What is this bleating? We talk like the other people. We think like the other people. We act like the other people. We behave like the other people. We think, just grow up, get some education, pass some exams, get a certificate, get a job, get married, get children, become old, become retired, enjoy a little bit of this and that and then die like a goat or be killed in the hands of the, fall into the hands of the butcher and so many goats, so many sheep, so many cows, so many pigs, so many chickens, so many birds, so much, especially some religions have the talent. God created all these things for your blessed pleasure. You don't know how much they suffer and so this is the falling into the flock and one day, why one day? What is that one day? One day means this goat, this tiger which grew up thinking I am like the other goat, slightly different, bleating goat, sheep, it must have been suffering a lot. Then a hearty cry, Oh Lord, can you not help? Is there no one who can help you? Help me and then the cry, pity, pity, pitiable cry was heard by the Almighty who is always besides us, inside us, outside us and He sent His grace in the form of a Guru and the Guru said, took him aside and said, Why are you? You are tiger, you are potentially divine, you are Amrutasya Putra, why are you bleating like these other goats? Don't you know you are immortal? No, no, no, no, no, no, I am a miserable goat and started bleating again. Then a thirst, a little bit of meat, what is that meat? That meat is called the Upadesha, again and again and again, which is completely unaccustomed. I am a Samsari, everybody told me, I am a man, I am a woman, I am a body and birth and death are the only realities in life. Everybody has to go through this, there is no other way. This is my normal grass that I eat. But the Guru came and told, No, you are Brahman, Tattvamasi, you are no other than Brahman. But will this come there? It is diametrically opposite to our actual experience. No, no, no, no, I don't release this meat. Meat is a very energy-giving, this life-saving, real, real food, protein, full of protein, nutritious food, but this fellow wants only to eat. But then slowly, slowly, slowly, in course of time, over any number of lives, Pavunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate vasudevah sarvamiti sa mahatma su-durlabhah So slowly, slowly, this Shishya, a disciple, started to release it. Maybe what Guru says is true. And one day he finds out it is absolutely true. How did he find out? Because the Guru belongs to that holy person, which we just now discussed, always joyous, whatever be the conditions. The Guru's body is like my body. Guru's food is like my food. Everything is like that. But I am a miserable creature. My Guru is ever in ecstatic state, indescribably joyous state. That was what every person who met Sri Ramakrishna, he was instantaneously transmuted into an embodiment of bliss. So nobody can detect these persons. Where, what is the source? They don't know. Then, as I mentioned, other characteristics, that unselfish love, treatment, he treats, he doesn't care who is poor, who is rich, who is learned, who is illiterate, and who is low caste, who is high caste, and he is ready to help anybody at any time. So if these are the effects, there must be a cause for it. And then the disciple understands the cause is that meat. What is that meat? The realization that I am that. Remember, in the mass that is celebrated of Jesus Christ, I am the blood, I am the wine, I am the flesh, you are one with me. Tantrics also use the same, it's called Panchamakaras. How deeply connected these teachings are, as we go on thinking, we see that every religion teaches absolutely the same thing because it is the same cow. So his bleating simply said, I don't understand, but it must be true. So slowly he started doubting his own previous convictions, beliefs, and understandings. And according to the instruction, started practicing Karma Yoga. As he practiced Karma Yoga, his mind became slowly, slowly bereft of what is called impurities. What is impurity? Simply impurity means avidya maya, that is selfishness, kama, krodha, lobha, moha, madha, matsarya, they become less. Then they become more and more pronounced, strong. This is called the process of Chitta Shuddhi. And slowly the person has a glimpse, intuitive glimpse into the truths of the scriptures. And the more his understanding grows, the more faith is endowed, there will come a time he is completely immersed in that faith. Yes, what the scriptures teach, what the Guru is expounding in accordance with the teachings of the scriptures. Shastra, Guru Akhyeshu, Satya Buddhi, Avadharana, Shraddha Kadita, Vastu Upalabhyate. And God can be attained. Vastu is only one and that is Brahman. Only Brahman can be attained only through Shraddha. And Shraddha possesses us. We cannot possess Shraddha. Shraddha possesses, it makes us completely helpless. We have to behave according to our Shraddha. So this is how a disciple, one day he gets the taste of the meat and one day he roars. What does he roar? Aham Brahma Asmi. Aham Amruta Uthro Asmi. I am Brahman. Not only I am Brahman, the whole Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. Everything is Brahman. I just pass one small comment upon the Shraddha. Even I said what we possess is belief. But no, what we possess belief about the scriptures is what we possess. But we are controlled by this Mahamaya, Avidya in the form I am the body, I am the mind, this world is real. This is the Shraddha. It should not be called Shraddha. This is the Shraddha which has taken possession of us like a ghost controlling us. But if we can fall into the hands of an expert coder, slowly he will inculcate Viveka Vairagya etc. and we will become blessed. These beautiful words of Sri Ramakrishna we will discuss in further classes. May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. E Ramakrishna