Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 062 on 07-June-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANEM SHARADAM DEVYAM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MOHORUM OHO HO In our last class, we have been talking about Shraddha, faith. Swamiji said that I have preached nothing but Upanishads. And from the Upanishads, I spoke only about two things – fearlessness and faith. Very, very apt words. Why? Because a person becomes fearless when a child is absolutely fearless. So long as the mother is with him, holding him, there is no fear of his falling. He can even play because he was not holding the mother, but the mother is holding him. God is ever holding us. This is the truth. But we struggle to fall down again and again and if we get hurt, and that is our own fault. I promised what Swamiji had spoken about faith, such precious, priceless words. This is what just a few quotations from Swami Vivekananda. Faith, faith, faith in ourselves. Faith, faith in God. This is the secret of greatness. If you have faith in all the 330 millions of your mythological Gods, and in all the Gods which foreigners have now and again introduced into your midst, and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religion said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself. Faith, what is faith? Faith is not belief, it is a grasp on the ultimate. It is an illumination. Have faith in man, whether he appears to you to be a very learned one or a most ignorant one. Have faith in your destiny. Have faith in yourselves and stand up on that faith and be strong. That is what we need. I remember that grand word of the Katha Upanishad, Shraddha or marvellous faith. An instance of Shraddha can be found in the life of Nachiketa. Losing faith in oneself, losing faith in oneself means losing faith in God. So long as you have faith in your Guru, nothing will be able to obstruct your way. The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. That faith alone calls out the divinity within. Why is it that we, 330 millions of people have been ruled for the last 1000 years by any and every handful of foreigners who chose to walk over our prostrate bodies because they had faith in themselves and we had not. Now we need a little explanation. People think faith means generally, oh, who is going to have faith? Some scriptures tell something. Some priests invented. Swami Vivekananda used to ridicule such kind of people and say, okay, if a Huxley, an Einstein or a Max Planck comes and says something, oh, that is absolute scientific truth. Now how ridiculous that statement is. Most of the scientists, what they thought was the truth has been completely changed and what people believe right now will be changed. Science is ever discovering new things and everything is changing according to the new discovery. So will there ever come a time when science can say that this is the ultimate truth? Unfortunately, no. What is the reason? The reason is the ultimate truth is called God, called Brahman and science cannot take us to God. Why? Science can only give us a changing glimpse into what is changing because science is all about what the five sense organs present to us and this is a fact which every spiritual aspirant, every so-called religious person who professes belief in God should understand that there is only every millisecond, everything in this world is changing. My body has changed. My mind has changed. From the time we started the Gospel class, your bodies have changed. Your bodies, your minds, your cells, the whole world has changed and the next second it is going to change. That is why it is called Jagat, that which changes all the time. When the data gathered from a changing world is unstable, how can anybody say this is the ultimate truth? That is the first reason why science cannot give us any proof of either God, afterlife, life after world, anything beyond the sense organs. Science cannot give us any glimpse, not only that. To realize God, to know this truth, we need this body-mind, no doubt about it, but we have to go beyond the body-mind. Whatever we glimpse through the body-mind, that is okay in this world, transactional value, phenomenal value, but eternal value can never be had. In fact, I make fun, science cannot explain why the same thing is viewed by a billion people in a billion ways. A simple, funny example would be, suppose you are walking in a forest and a hungry tiger looks at you. What is the world view of you? What is the world view of the tiger? It must be thanking its ancestors, God, today I must have seen some good face. That is why such good fortune to meet this lovely young lady early in the morning. She should be sufficient for my breakfast. What a changing world! Now, science cannot prove to us what is beautiful. Science cannot prove to us what is tasty. Science cannot prove why the same thing is liked and disliked by millions of people. Science can only present the facts, explain how, not why. And that's why Swami Vivekananda says, it is only the scripture. And here also, I think I have spoken about what is pramana. Every philosophy must present some pramanas. A pramana is a valid means of arriving at right knowledge. Now, there are, Hinduism as a philosophy accepts six pramanas. Direct perception, inference, presumption, resemblance, arthapathy and absence of a thing. But it can never tell anything beyond this experienced world. For that, there is only one pramana, shastra pramana. Either God, no science can tell. Who can tell? A scripture can tell. A Bible can tell. A Koran can tell. A Veda can tell. A Gita can tell. A Tripitaka can tell. And a sage who has experienced God can tell. That is the power of faith. What is a scripture? The recorded experiences of realized souls. Now, I will tackle this point from a totally different view. Look here, every millisecond in the future, nobody knows. How many people are going to die in the next second? Nobody knows. And yet, everybody is thinking, I will live a long time. Everybody is making plans. Some people are trying to kill others. Some people are trying to help other people. Somebody wants to do good. Somebody wants to do evil. We go about. You step out. Whether you are driving or whether you are being driven. Whether you are traveling in a taxi. Whether you are traveling in a train. Whether you are traveling in a plane. Nobody can tell what is going to happen next second. For what reason certain events take place, nobody can tell. No, nothing can be foretold. But we have faith. Life is good. World is good. And more or less, I will go on like this with this faith. Whenever you step into the street, whenever you step into a bus, you have that faith. Everything is going to be alright. And this is called faith in a positive way. Without faith, it is impossible to live. A baby, if it does not have faith, parents do not have faith in the baby. This baby is going to grow up and become somebody. Worthy to be remembered. A child cannot go to school without faith. I am going to study. I am going to pass. I am going to grow up. I am going to find my love. I am going to find meaning in life. Every living creature, consciously or unconsciously, is depending upon faith. But as I said, we are born with faith. But certain events, they prove to be detrimental to us. And that is where the scripture tells. And especially those of us who profess belief in God, negative events, suffering events full of suffering, should never become detrimental to our faith. I have seen many devotees. So long as everything is going on, they are okay. But the moment some unfortunate event takes place, their so-called faith, which they say is faith, I do not say it is faith. I say it is superstition. And superstition is there only to be broken. But a person with faith, he will never be shaken. Even a billion unhappy, unfortunate, undesirable events happen to take place. In the Bible, we get the story of Job in the Old Testament. Please Google it and read it. And that is called real faith. And this is what Swamiji was talking about. We don't even believe in our powers, in our divinity. Even though every scripture is telling we come from God, we live in God, God is our support, God is looking after us, and ultimately we are destined to go to God. Every religion will tell us, but we seem to be lacking. What is spiritual life? Develop this faith to the ninth degree, and then transform that faith through direct experience into fact. So, two steps are there in our spiritual progress. First step is to strengthen our faith, which is unshakable, as Swami Vivekananda used to say, like Mount Sumeru. And the second step is to transform that faith. Faith is indirect knowledge. God is there. Everything is okay. Whatever is happening in this world is fine, even if it seems to be absolutely fine. We have to be practical Vedantins. It will not do to float in the imaginary world. Just open your eyes and look around you. A horrific war is going on in Ukraine. Who is the perpetrator? Who is the victim? I am not going to go into it. But the point is, what should be a believer's opinion about it? And that proves whether we have faith or not. If anybody says, I believe in God, and says that God is useless, God is helpless, God is evil, because God is not doing anything to stop this war. I say, either you have a very poor opinion about poor God, or you don't have any faith in God. Either you say you have faith in God, which is very poor, and your poor faith makes God very, very poor God. But every devotee believes, yes, whatever is happening in this world. And this world means what? It is a mixture of good and evil. It always will remain like that. The world is not going to change. It never changed. It is not going, it is not changing. It's not going to change. In the past, there were good and evil. At the present, there is good and evil. In future also, it will be exactly the same, as Ramakrishna used to say, like the curly tail of a dog. It's not going to be straightened out. If the world changes its nature, it will not be the world. It will be paradise. And then everybody is destined. This world is only a temporary residence, Dharmashala. But a time will come when we will have to get out of this world. In fact, every breath that we are taking, we are trying to get out, consciously or unconsciously. And if you examine the lives of any great saint, you will find it is nothing but a story of tremendous faith. You will not find a saint who is not an embodiment of faith. In Sri Ramakrishna's life, as an example, in Holy Mother's life, in Swami Vivekananda's life, were there problems? Were there negative events? Did they experience unbearable suffering, unbearable happiness? In fact, saints experience more than even ordinary persons. They are also born, they had bodies, they suffered from pangs of hunger, thirst, separation. As they say, Rama suffered so much from Sita. Look at any avatar's life. How Krishna had to go, every minute people were pouncing upon him to finish him off. What was Rama's life? It was nothing but pure tragedy. But still we worship them as incarnations of God. They had more share of unhappiness than any of us put together. Now, they are the people who preached about God, who lived in God and who taught about God. Their lives become scriptures to us. Whether it is Krishna's life, Rama's life, or Buddha's life, or Christ's life, Christ was crucified. Rama drowned in Saryu river. Buddha died of colic pain. Sri Krishna was shot by a hunter and was dead. Sri Ram Krishna died because of unbearable agony, because of throat cancer. Look, open your eyes and be alert. Study the lives and you will see this world will be like that. The next question, a serious question for testing our faith. For example, this war, first world war, second world war, maybe partial wars are going on. Are they good events? And anybody who says they are evil events, they don't have faith in God. Because in a creation created by God, looked after by God, and God with a billion billion eyes is watching, and if you think He is not doing anything, I only have to say how poor is your understanding and how poor is your faith. So what is the philosophy? Lord, everything is done according to your will. Even a leaf will not move without your will. And whatever happens by your will is absolutely divine. It's very good. We may not be able to say this tremendous truth, but that is the truth. And if we do not have, cultivate that faith. And look at your own life. Let me look at my life, and you look at your life. Whatever happened was good. People made you suffer, very good. People are making you suffer, even better. People whom you trusted betrayed you, excellent. Your family, your husbands, your wives, creating problem, marvelous. Because ultimately no happy person has ever turned towards God. It is these experiences which shake what we call our terrible attachment to the world, loosen all the bonds, and most often it is these tragedies which turn us away from the world and make us turn towards God, make us surrender to God, make us totally depend upon God. Believe me, there is no second way. Happily munching rasagullas and pantwas and jalebis in an air-conditioned room has never made anybody a saint. Every saint is forged in the fiery furnace of what is called tragic life. Do I sound very negative? No, the truth is that misery is the gift of God. I will only give one example. Shri Ram Krishna was an embodiment of faith. He never disbelieved anybody until what a person says proved to be untrue. Shri Ram Krishna never started his life. This man, should I believe him or not? Why is he talking like that? He says, no, everybody is good, everybody is trustworthy, everybody speaks good, and I have complete faith. Until somebody's action or words have proved to be otherwise, Shri Ram Krishna never doubted the words of such a person. What a marvellous story! This is one angle from which we can study the lives of any saint. This is the background, and we have to develop. Swami Vivekananda has specially emphasised Nachiketa's faith. Nachiketa is that story itself. I want to recollect now, because it is a growth in faith. Kathopanishad, forget about the other teachings, but there is a story. It is a marvellous story. It is a story of growth from a little bit of faith into 100% absolute faith. There was a Brahmana, he was an Astika. Astika means one who had faith in the Vedas, our foundational scriptures. And in the Vedas, there are two portions. One for an advanced spiritual aspirant called Gnanakanda. But the first one is called Karmakanda, the ritualistic portion, which confers worldly happiness by living a righteous life. And this Karmakanda dictates these are the actions you should do, these are the actions you should not even think of doing, Vidhi and Nishedha. And when you do the prescribed actions with complete faith, Tad etat satyam, Mundaka Upanishad categorically declares that whatever is written in the Vedas is absolute truth. We will yield the results. You want money, money will come. You want Swarga Loka, Swarga Loka will come. You want to be a musician, you can be a musician. You want to be a scientist, you can be a scientist. You just pray to Mother Saraswati in the form of Medha Suktam or Sri Suktam, Bhuv Suktam or Purusha Suktam, Narayana Suktam. Dharma, Artha, Kama can be achieved by practicing with full faith in the first part of the Vedas. And it is not negative. Even the Vedas go on telling, My child, whatever you have achieved so far, it's very good. But do you know that whatever you achieved, it is like what is called monthly payment. If you want your phone to function properly, you have to renew your subscription. And Karmakanda is like that. It will give you the result. We know there is a one-off payment. Once only you have to pay. And forever and ever, for eternity, you will reap infinite results. And that part is called Gnanakanda. Vedas do not condemn the first part, but they say the first part is a preparatory stage. It gives us the right body, right mind, right circumstances, right Guru. Everything is right, provided we have faith in it, and then we follow it. So this old Brahmana, he had this kind of faith, and then there was a particular ritual, and if he performed that ritual, then he would go to Svargaloka, the higher world. Svargaloka means very, very incomparably higher happiness, but not permanent happiness, not God happiness, not Brahmananda, but Devananda. For a long time, like rich people, he can be very, very happy, and he wanted that. But Karmakanda also prescribed certain rules, that if you want to go to heaven, you have to give up your dirty, torn hovel. If you want to dwell in that air-conditioned palace, then you will have to give up. You can't carry your dirty, torn clothes. You will have to give up everything. There you will be provided. When you reach there, you will be provided with everything that is necessary. For that, you just give it up, without a backward glance, and proceed forward. But then what was this man? His faith. He wanted that, and he had some faith. He was performing the ritual, but he was not fulfilling the condition of the Dakshina. I think most of us know this story. He had wonderful cows, some young, what is called great cows, which are yielding plenty of milk, etc., and they can continue to give milk for a long time. And there are old cows, which are not very good, and the prescription was, you have to give up everything. But he was unable to give up. He was only giving things, which were not that good. Of course, the Upanishad teaches us, useless cows he is giving, but then we have to understand it in the proper spirit. No Brahmana will give a cow, which is about to die, which cannot give any milk, which cannot eat, which cannot drink, which cannot yield any milk. Nobody is going to give, and nobody is going to take away also. Useless. If somebody wants to give you a dilapidated car, I don't think anybody will accept. So, this was going on, all because of what? Because his attachment to the world, that means what? He wants to be here, he wants to be in heaven also. That is the symbolism. And that is not going to happen. Either you get earthly happiness, or you get heavenly happiness. You can't have both at the same time. So this man, he continued. Then he had a son. The story goes, he had a son called Nachiketa, and then he saw, he was a very wise person, and then the description came, Shraddha Avivesha. Shraddha means unquestioned, 150% faith in the scriptural teachings, and possessed him. He did not possess Shraddha. Shraddha possessed him. Like mad people are possessed by madness. So, this boy, he understood. He went to his father. Father, you are supposed to give everything. It's a marvelous story. If somebody wants to go to heaven, will he say, let my wife go with me, let my children go with me, let my house, let my old car, let my old house, everything I will take. That's not going to happen. Because he has to give up this very body, and what remains, that spirit, that subtle body, alone can go. When we die, everything that we called me and mine is left behind completely, and this is an inevitable, inescapable fact of life. If that is our understanding, this person's, this man's understanding should be much better. But, unfortunately, he did not grow. So the son went, questioned him, and then he said, I belong to you. So whom are you going to give me? And the father kept quiet. Second time the boy asked, he kept quiet. Third time the son questioned, and the father got very angry, and then he said, I will give you to death. And then, this Nachiketa, he consoled his father. The story goes, he went to death, and then obtained Brahma Vidya. That means, he went to Mrityu, and found out, that death is not real death. Death is only a small curtain, and you remove it, and then you find. So long you have been thinking, this is all what I am, what is mine. The moment you remove that curtain, you see, there is nobody else, everything belongs to me, I am everything. What is that curtain? Maya, Avidya, limited understanding, wrong knowledge. Now what is this symbolism we are talking about? It is not that there was a householder, it is not that he had a son, that this mind, which had some belief, it slowly tried to practice, but the old attachments obstructed, and then after some time, he himself understood, examined himself objectively, understood, am I really observing all the injunctions of the scriptures? No, I am not doing it. What am I giving up? I am giving up what is not very good. Even if it is good, I am not using it, so let somebody use it, but I am clinging terribly to things, I am not able to give up. And then he says, you fool, you profess faith in God, you profess that you are going to go to heaven. How can you go to heaven? With all this old body, old house, old family members, old possessions, and then his own antaratma had a struggle, and then ultimately he said, I am going to give up. Going to death means, I am going to completely obey the injunctions of these scriptures. And that very moment, transformation had taken place. How did this transformation take place? Because of that Shraddha had come. This Veda tells me what is truth, even if I do not see it in front of me. Because if you see in front of you, that is called fact. Shraddha comes only when somebody who knows, a mother tells a child, that don't go into that room, there is a dangerous man, and the child believes it, and never goes into that room. Shri Ramakrishna gives this example. So many other examples. That is called faith. Absolute faith, that what mother says, father says, teacher says, scripture says, is absolute truth. There is a heaven, there is a God. One can choose, either to go to heaven, or to go to God. Choosing heaven means, only temporary attainment, but choosing God means, permanent attainment, and at some point, a Shraddha will possess each one of us. And so we have to pray. That is why Shri Ramakrishna says, O mother, grant me faith. And once mother, out of her grace, manifests herself in the form of faith. Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu, Shraddha roopena samsthita. Namastasyai, Namastasyai, Namastasyai. These are mantras. Go on praying. This is the secret I am telling you. This is the most powerful mantra. O Devi, You are Shraddha. Your name is Shraddha. You, please bestow your grace. Enter into me, in the form of Shraddha. Let me have faith, in the words of my Guru, in the words of the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, in the words of the Vedas, in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita. Let me have faith, in God, in Guru, in Ganga, in Gayathri, and in Gita. This is called 5G. Nowadays 5G has become very popular. Let us have faith. Our Rishis have already taught us this 5G. Let us have the Shraddha, that I have these five, and my life is only maja hi maja, bliss and bliss and bliss. But we have to pray further. Then you will see, that whatever happens, whatever the person, we never think that person is bad. This person is doing what God makes him do. And if his behaviour towards me, is God's behaviour towards me, through the instrument, because God knows, this is the best thing for me to happen. Everything that happened, everything that is happening, everything that is going to happen, and that is good for me, because God loves me. He is making me go through all those things. This is called Shraddha. This is what we call in the English language, faith. A very unfortunate translation. Better we use that word Shraddha. Okay. Now, I am going to tell you a beautiful story. And this is all about Shraddha, in the glory of Ramanaama, in the glory of God. India has produced millions of people, who had faith in the name of God. When I say Ramanaama, don't take it only in a fanatical view. Ramanaama, Krishna Rama, Naama, Kali Naama, Tara Naama, Om Naama, whatever we believe in, God's name. This is an actual event, that had taken place, six centuries before, in South India. And I am just going to narrate. And it is a marvellous story. When I first read it, I was stunned. So this is the story. In the year 1610, a pious couple, Keshava Panduranga and Suguna, they were childless. Being childless for a long time, they approached their Guru, soliciting His blessings. And who was their Guru? His Holiness Sri Vishwadikendra Saraswati, another name Atmapodhindra Saraswati, the 58th Peethadhipathi, in charge of Kanchi Shankaracharya Matha. You know Kanchipuram? There is a Shankaracharya Matha. And previously, just a few years before, there was a great soul, a living, walking encyclopaedia. More than 100 years he lived, that Mahaswamigallu, people used to call him, Periyaswamigallu, that means a great Swami. So that Kanchi Shankaracharya Matha, he was in charge of it. He was the Guru of this childless couple. And he blessed them that they would soon have a child and so they returned home happily because they had that tremendous Shraddha, our Guru's word will never fail. And very soon, a son was born to them. And they named him Purushottama. Purushottaman, at the suggestion of their Guru only. And there upon, a few years passed and then the couple remembered we got this child because of the grace, the blessings of our Guru. Let us get his blessings. Let our child also get the blessings. So they made a pilgrimage to Kanchipuram. I think they were living somewhere, some villages, nearby villages. So both the couple, along with this small child, and they went and then presented. And then the Guru, of course, he blessed them. After that, what happened, he did not know. And then he enquired, who is this child? And then they knew that this child was got only because of the blessings of their Guru. And then the natural said, this child belongs to you. And then the Guru accepted it. And there is a parallel story in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. There was a devotee couple and then they had a child. And then one day, the mother wanted to get the blessings of Sri Ramakrishna and the child was about 6 years old. And she went to Dakshineswar to get the blessings of Sri Ramakrishna. And that day, as if Sri Ramakrishna was waiting for somebody to come, he was waiting outside his room. As soon as these people got down from the boat and went near to his room, he came eagerly forward and then he enquired, what have you brought for me? And the mother, she showed this child and said, this is what I brought for you. I don't think she meant to offer it to Sri Ramakrishna. She just said it and this is what I brought for you. But Sri Ramakrishna immediately took the child and passed his hand all over the child and said, I have accepted this gift you gave me. Now take the child back, bring him up. When the right time comes, I will take him, I will take this gift back to myself because you offered and then it belongs to me. The mother, look at the mother's reaction. She was extremely happy and then she went back and brought the child in that faith. This is not my child, this is Sri Ramakrishna's child. And in a way, we all have to think, nobody belongs to us. Everybody belongs only, every husband belongs, wife belongs, children belong, house, property, parents, everything belongs to God. They have been given to us temporarily for our own growth. That's all. So when he came of age, of course, they were frequenting Belur Math and the boy came into contact with Swami Brahmanandaji. He was attracted, he was initiated and soon he expressed, Mom, I want to become a monk. And the mother was so happy, she prepared a lot of sweetmeats for the monks and accompanied the child and then she offered, by that time, of course, Sri Ramakrishna passed away, offered the child to Swami Brahmanandaji who was the president of the Ramakrishna Order, said Maharaj, here is your child, you take. And of course, he was accepted and he was extraordinarily a beautiful singer and he was initiated by Swami Brahmanandaji and Brahmanandaji always used to take Swami Ambikananda with him wherever he went and then sometimes he used to listen to these devotional songs and enter into Samadhi, enjoy them very much. Now, this couple Purushottam and Suguna, they went there, they did not think like that, but they just said formally, because of your blessings, we got this son, so practically speaking, he belonged to you because it is your gift and the Guru immediately said, in that case, I am accepting this child, you leave him at this place and then the wife, of course, the mother was very unhappy but the father said, we did not have children and we begged and he blessed, actually, the child belongs to the Guru, nothing, we are blessed that he had deigned to accept this gift and then the baby was taken, the child was taken and then the Guru arranged for his teaching, etc., education and the boy was precocious, whatever the Master taught, he had learned very nicely and then it so happened, after some years, the Guru went on a pilgrimage to Kashi but the boy was still studying, he grew up and then he wanted to meet his Guru and then he travelled to Kashi and there he met his Guru and he was initiated, the Guru told him, initiated means, not Mantra Deeksha but Sanyasa Deeksha and he said, my next Peetha Adhipati will be you. So, this child, he was educated, he was made a Sanyasin and then the Guru pointed out and then said that now you go there, what should you do? Even though it is Kanchi Matha, really speaking, this Guru was a devotee of Rama. He had tremendous faith in Ramanama and then he told him that this boy was given Bodhendra Saraswati, that was the name, Sanyasa name the boy was given, young boy but full of devotion to God, full of Vairagya, the Guru told him, commanded him that you preach Ramanama, the glory of Ramanama and then he told him that before you return to Kanchi and assume the Peetha Adhipati, that is the in-charge of the Matha, I would like to go near Puri, there is one person and you go there and meet him. This person's name was Lakshmi Dhara at Puri and then he wrote many books all on glorifying the name of God. Bhagavan Nama Kaumudi was one of the books. This great householder, he was a saint called Lakshmi Dhara. You know, saints can be householders, saints also can be sannyasins. In fact, there are more householder saints than sannyasin saints. So this newly ordained sannyasin, Pudendra Saraswati, then set out for Puri and after having darshan of Sri Jagannatha and he went in search of this Lakshmi Dhara's house. By that time, it was night. Now this Lakshmi Dhara, his house was shut because it was practically midnight and then this Pudendra Saraswati, he took shelter under a tree outside the house and then said, let this night pass. Tomorrow morning, I will meet and then something happened. As he was contemplating upon God, suddenly he found in that dark night an old Brahmin couple had entered and they started knocking at the door. Pudendra Saraswati did not knock. He was waiting until next morning to meet this gentleman and have a talk with him because his Guru commanded him. But at midnight, this marvelous drama was taking place and these people knocked a few times and then the door was opened. Actually, this Lakshmi Dhara, he had passed away some time back and he had a son who was also a grown-up person and then this couple heard about this person's name and they came to seek this Lakshmi Dhara. Some problem was there. What was this problem? This Brahmin couple, they were also from South India and they were a young couple and the wife was a very beautiful lady. They were proceeding to Kashi on the way somewhere near about Puri. In some place, they stopped and they wanted to have Darshan of the Lord and other day it is at Puri and one day, they were staying probably as a guest or in a Dharmashala. We don't know the details. One night, she had to go for answering calls of nature. So, she opened the door. She went outside a little bit to a solitary place and then she did not return. So, this man got up and then he started searching. First, he thought his wife had gone out. She will come back, but she did not come back. Even after half an hour, he started searching. He did not find his wife at all. Then, he was terribly disappointed. For a few days, he was searching with no news. He was puzzled. He did not know what to make of it, but then he decided let me complete my pilgrimage because I have taken a vow. Let me go to Kashi. I have Darshan. I have Ganga Sanana. Again, I will come back to the same place and I will continue my search for my last wife. In those days, you know, people had to walk. He went and then he had to spend quite a number of days and after that maybe one month or two months we do not know, he returned and came again back on his way to the same place where he last saw his wife and he was there. One day, he had also gone to uncircles of nature one night and suddenly he saw an old woman came rushing towards him, fell at his feet and weeping. He started telling, don't you recognize me and he was astonished. He recognized that was his wife. Within a few months time, she lost her beauty. She lost her youth. She was looking like a haggard old woman. Then she narrated her story. She went out to uncircles of nature. Some Muslim vandals in those days, that was a common thing. Any Hindu woman they could get, they would immediately abduct her, rape her, keep her as their concubine and then misuse her. So, they have taken away this lady and they did their utmost to damage her and they were still keeping her but this lady, every night she would come, hoping against hope, with prayer to the Lord that maybe she will meet her husband and she happened to meet by the will of God and she said, please take me away. This is what had happened. I am your wife. You may not accept me as a wife but at least accept me as your slave. Let me be in your presence. Let me serve you so long as you live. The husband was a very good person. He understood. He said, yes I will accept you but let us see whether it is a sin and there is any way out. By that time he heard about this Lakshmi Dharam. So, he came after that, after meeting his wife. Straight away he took his wife. Both of them came. It was almost midnight. They started knocking and this Bodendra Saraswati, let us not forget, was sitting under a tree just to pass that night and suddenly this scene confronted him. This couple started knocking and then the door was opened. A young man came out and he asked how he could help them and then they narrated their story. The husband narrated. Is there any remedy? And he said, yes, of course. My father was a great believer in the glory of Ramanama. He had written several books. He brought out this particular book, Bhagavan Nama Kaumudi. And then he read out. If anybody repeats sincerely with faith three times the name of Rama, that person's sins will be completely washed away. So tomorrow morning you go to this nearby lake, take Ram Nama and then take a dip. All your sins will be washed away. Then you can be like that. Bodendra Saraswati was witnessing the same one. And then this couple, the son of this Lakshmi Dhara, he asked do you have faith in Ram Nama? As my father said and both the husband and wife with one voice said, yes. Complete faith we have. We will do what you asked us to do tomorrow morning. By that time, the news had spread everywhere and people, you know, they profess faith but they did not. They don't have that faith really. But this couple had tremendous faith. So Bodendra Saraswati was also trying, was curious to know whether it will really work out. So he also accompanied. Large crowd was there. By that time people came to know the story of this South Indian Brahmin couple. They all went and this wife who was ravaged, she had complete faith. So they went. She closed her eyes, prayed to Rama and said O Lord, I have intentionally I did not commit but this is what has happened to me. Out of your infinite mercy, please help me. And then, I forgot to mention one fact. When this Lakshmi Dhara's son had prescribed this Ram Nama three times, his old mother, she shouted don't you have faith in Ram Nama? Your father never will prescribe this. He will say only once, not three times. And the son said, pardon my pardon, only once you need to do that. Anyway, that was in addition. So this lady and her husband both took Ram Nama with complete faith. They dipped. And then all the people were watching the fun. And then they came out. People were shocked, astounded. This lady who aged within a few months into an unrecognizable ugly old woman. They saw that there was kumkuma on her forehead. Her hair became black. Her face was shining. She was garlanded. She was as if Lakshmi herself had come out out of that lake. And then what can people say? This was the result of having faith. As she came out of the water, she had flowers on her head, kumkuma on her forehead, and turmeric all over the body, like South Indian ladies, completely transformed, became her old self as it were. When people look at this in front of their eyes, there is nothing that they can say. Seeing this, everyone was amazed and began to chant Ram Nama. So then, Udendra Saraswati understood. This was the reason why his Guru, Svadhikendra Saraswati, advised him to meet this Lakshmi Dhara. Unfortunately, by that time, he passed away. But he begged the son of Lakshmi Dhara, can I borrow your book for a few days? And this is why I came to your house. Of course, the son gladly gave it to him. Then he had copied that book. That was the treasure of his heart. He then returned to Kanchi. Then he assumed the Peetha Deepathiya. He himself wrote several books. After he aged, he made another young man the Peetha Deepathiya of that place. He started living in a particular village. Then he gave up his body there. But he said, I will devote my life only to the propaganda preaching the Ramanaama Mahatmyam. Even these books are available now. He himself has written Bhagavan Naama Prasarnavam, Bhagavan Naama Prasayanam. These works are available even today. So this is the marvellous story of Bodhendra Saraswati who witnessed the glory of God's name. That lady had that unflinching faith in the name of God. That is called Shraddha. That is called faith. Sri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of that faith. Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, every direct disciple, every sage is nothing but an embodiment of faith. Faith that God is, only God is, nothing else is. Sarvam Brahmamayam. And whenever Ramakrishna encountered any people who are impure, whom he used to call a committed lot of sins, he uttered the name of God. Or he had faith in the power of Ganges. He used to sprinkle that place with Ganges water. But the most important thing is to utter the name of God. That is what Sri Ramakrishna was talking about. And so many stories he had told about the power of faith and some of them we had seen Vibhishana writing the name of God and asking a man to return to India, walking over the sea, etc. We will also have the opportunity to talk about in the future. But what I wanted to tell through today's this one, that spiritual progress is progress in faith until we develop unflinching 100% faith and then that faith by God's grace will be transformed into Vidya, true knowledge that I am God. I belong to God. God is protecting me. We start with that and end with I am God. I am never separate from God. Nothing existed excepting God. Only God is. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.