Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 063 on 21-June-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananem Sharadam Devem Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Mohor Moho In our last class, the discussion was about faith. Sri Ramakrishna's ultimate teaching is one can progress not only in spiritual life, but in any field of life only when one has faith. I also mentioned progress in spiritual life really means progress in faith. We all start with a belief, but this belief at some point of time is transformed into faith. Let us not forget the difference between belief and faith. What we find in the Katha Upanishad, the father of Nachiketa, what he had was belief not faith because he could decide what to do with that faith, with that kind of belief. But when the faith possessed Nachiketa and Nachiketa was helpless completely because faith is like a demon which sits on our head and wants to make us what it likes us to do, how it likes us to think, what it likes us to speak. A madman has absolutely no control over his madness and that is why godmen often appear as madmen. There is a close similarity there. So this subject faith, what is faith? That which controls us. That is why it is called a gift of god. Then what should we do? We have belief, but are we doing something right that can transform this belief into faith. First of all, what is faith? Shastra, Guru Vakyeshu, Satya Buddhi, Avadharana. Complete faith in the words of the Guru which are nothing but the words of the Shastra, Upanishads, scriptures, Vedas. That they contain absolute truth. Now we will have to discuss something more without faith. Without faith we can never live. It is impossible. We cannot live a single minute without it. The moment we step outside our house and want to cross a street corner with the faith that the green light has come and all cars will stop and I can safely cross and those cars will not run over us. If we do not have that faith, nobody is going to cross the street. When we submit ourselves for an operation by a surgeon in a hospital and then we have complete faith. A surgeon is good and he does his best, but of course those who have faith in God they go on repeating Durga Durga or Sri Hari, Sri Hari, Hari Om, Hari Om, etc. But we entrust our lives. When we step into a bus, into a taxi, we entrust our lives into the hands of the driver or aeroplane or a train or a boat. Anything can happen. And we trust our friends that they are friends, they wish us well and they will never betray us and when we need they come to our help. Life is impossible without faith. Somehow this faith comes to a child towards its mother and the mother also has that faith that I am the mother. I have to protect this child even at the cost of offering my life. And it has something to do with chemistry also. Scientists have proved a special chemical is generated when a female gives birth to the offspring, even tigers they become extraordinarily tender, protective and sometimes funny things happen. A dog which is a natural enemy of a bird, a duck, etc., it adopts small helpless ducklings and gathers them, tries to nurse it even though these fellows do not know how to nurse and this phenomena is there but it is not that the Divine Mother who is manifesting in the form of every mother. As what? So these are some of the examples that life is impossible without faith. That is why all great people have spoken about this faith. Now Tolstoy had made a wonderful statement, faith is the force of life. You remove faith from life, we become lifeless. But what happens ironically when it comes to have faith in God, so many doubts naturally arise in our mind and of course it is natural. So we question the validity of having faith in that which we do not see and about which we do not know. That is where the scripture comes in. And with this scripture there are some people who say having faith in the scripture is called blind faith. So when the same faith that we put in our day-to-day affairs, every next second we have faith we are not going to die, everything is going to be okay, sometimes we might even become enriched much better than we are now. Somehow that faith sustains us. But when it is directed towards God, some people choose to call it blind faith. Why blind faith? There are two kinds of faiths, a seeing faith and a blind faith. This conversation has taken place, a funny conversation has taken place. Vivekananda Swami, who represents the type of people we are talking about, when he started visiting Shri Ramakrishna, and Shri Ramakrishna was just the opposite of Narendra, had complete faith in everybody. In the life of Shri Ramakrishna we see something extraordinary. He used to say, I will never doubt any person in this world until that person proves to be unreliable. Whereas we start, we will not have a belief in somebody until he proves that he is faithful. But that is a very irrational foolish faith. Why? Because the whole life, even a person whom we trust and who may be doing the best for us may turn out to be a traitor. And how many people, they are called drohis, mitra drohi, desha drohi, raja drohi, guru drohi. So many we see all the time in this world. So there is no way we can trust anybody. We should never doubt anybody, but we should trust and say God is there. We have to apply the same rule to God also. There is nothing called blind faith because there is no seeing faith. Faith means complete belief in something that is unknown and unforeseen. And every next millisecond is unseen and unforeseen. So once Swami Vivekananda after hearing Narendra Nath, after hearing Sri Ramakrishna, he blurted out, Oh, this is what people have. It is blind faith. Immediately Sri Ramakrishna turned very sharply and said, Narendra, are there two types of faiths? One is seeing faith and another is blind faith. And of course Narendra Nath was very intelligent. He was very rational. He understood it is true. Faith means that about which we do not know to believe because somebody whom we trust tells us so. That is a very important condition. If a Guru tells, we have to have faith, we have to believe. Why? Because Guru is one whom we trust. Father and mother are one whom we trust. Sri Ramakrishna very often used to give this example of parents. The mother doesn't want a child to go into a particular room because there are dangerous things which can endanger, injure the child. So for that purpose he says there is a bhogi man inside that room. Don't go. And the child has 100% faith. He says, yes, I will never go there because my mother loves me. She will never tell an untruth. And the mother is not telling untruth. There is no bhogi man but there is a danger there. Bhogi man means danger. Similarly Sri Ramakrishna gives day to day observed facts. There is a child and there is another man who doesn't belong to the family, who doesn't even belong to the caste, say Brahmin mother. But this person is very reliable and he is serving the family. So the mother tells the child, this is your elder brother. Now you go. And happily the child runs into the arms of the elder person. Complete faith, this is my elder brother. We have seen the story of Dada Madhusodhana. Even though there is no such person existing as Madhusodhana, this boy had complete faith. And when he cried, God himself had appeared as Madhusodhana. We have to recollect. That is a wonderful story. So a classical example of a person with blind faith is an individual who accepts without question every word in the scriptures as the literal truth, even though it may directly contradict scientifically proven facts. When the mind is closed to doubt and reason, faith becomes rigid, unyielding and easily demolished. Now we have to discuss what is the relationship between faith and reason. When we say that sometimes faith directly contradicts known facts and the most telling example of this is every day from birth to death, from early morning, from the time we wake up until we fall into deep sleep, we are seeing this world, we are going through the experience of waking, dream and dreamless. And this is our reality. Whereas the scripture tells this is all mithya. Because first of all these three states are contradicting each other. Second, most important Vedantic principle. Whatever we experience is not us. Whatever I experience is not me. Many times I have mentioned it, but it is better to remind ourselves many times until it becomes a statement of fact. Now it is only a statement of belief, not even faith. I see a house, I know I am not the house. I see a car, even my own car, I know that it is my car, but I am not the car. This is my house, I am not this house. This is my bed, I am not this bed. This is my dress, I am not this dress. But our discrimination stops there because nobody behaves that whatever he is seeing, experiencing is himself. Even a fool doesn't do that. Everybody knows. But even though normal people like us do not identify ourselves, here is my car, I am the car. But for practical behavior, as if I am the car, let somebody scratch the car, break the windows. Of course the car will never feel anything, but I feel somebody has scratched me. I feel that somebody has thrown stones upon me and broken my heart. So with everything, somebody has taken my money. As if he had killed me. We are identifying. So many types of identifications are there. Even though I know nothing happens to me if my house is burned, my car is stolen, my dress is taken away, nothing happens to me. But then the intellectual knowledge I am not these things stops there and it seeps into me and I feel as if I am lost. At least this is a good illustration so far as outside things are concerned. But the fun starts as soon as we see our body. How many times? Every day how many times we run to the mirror and look at our reflection. How many times ladies take out their handbag, take out the mirror and go on making some adjustments in the face, etc. Of course men also do, but not as frequently. It's just for illustration sake. I am seeing my face, I am seeing my body and what is this Vedantic principle? Whatever I experience is not me. But I am so embedded with this body as if that is my alter ego and what to speak of the mind. Every thought that arises I identify. So my car is stolen and then the thought comes your car is stolen and that brings a reaction. It is unjustified, it is theft and then soon there is the person who has taken he must be the most evil person in this world and immediately there is a thought of anger. But that thought belongs to the mind because I am able to see but next millisecond I identify and say I turn into anger and my whole body reacts as it were. And by the way, this is a very good example. If we can turn our faith also into this identity then our whole life will become transformed instantaneously. We know the technique of transforming ourselves but only with the wrong things my body, my mind and every object that we experience in the world. But here rationality ends here when I am not what I experience and what is experienced is either more or becomes less or damaged or improved. It should not bring the reaction either suffering or depression or happiness, excessive joy etc. That is where most of us fail. So what are we talking about? Whatever we experience is not we and whatever we experience undergoes a change and that change doesn't belong to me but that change belongs to that particular object. If we can keep these two points in mind practice of Vedanta. Vedanta means not philosophy, not Advaita Vedanta but practical spirituality. That is what the word Vedanta means. So there is nothing called blind faith. Having complete faith in that which we cannot see but our elders can see, wise people can see, our gurus can see, our scriptures can tell us. Having faith and behaving accordingly, bringing up our normal day-to-day behavior according to our professed faith that is called spiritual practice and that is what we need to do. So many times we call it blind faith. What is the implication? That implication is whatever is reasonable is fact and whatever is not reasoned cannot be reasoned about, unseen, unknown. It is irrational and therefore it should not be believed in. So what is the implication? Reason and faith in God do not and cannot coexist but in fact one must first open the door to doubt and reason before genuine faith in God can be cultivated. Seems paradoxical but we start with doubt. Is there any way to remove that doubt? There is no way because future is unknown to us. For example, there is a child and he writes the examination and expecting the result he can only have faith that I have done my best so I hope reasonably to pass the examination but until the results come this is only tentative faith. It is not proven fact. When the results come yes, my faith is justified but to doubt that I have done but I don't think I am going to pass this is called irrational faith. Even a great scientist like Albert Einstein once said true religion does not come through blind belief but through an extension of our rational knowledge. We are fools to accept whatever we read or hear as the truth without first subjecting it to critical scrutiny in the light of reason. If it passes this test if our so-called faith if we use reason and test it and it satisfies reason it should be accepted and held on to it unswerving faith. If not, it should be discarded as mere superstition. What are we talking about? What am I talking about? That faith is okay but God has given us a way to test it. Is this really faith or is it something my superstition I am turning into a blind believer in it because no superstition can stand the scrutiny of reason but if it is faith it will definitely work. I will give you a small example. Here is a college class and the professor, the lecturer he teaches to the best of his ability and tries to remove the doubts of the students he did his best and then he knows I have done my best and most of my students have understood but he doesn't have a proof but reason comes in I have not skipped over I have not been lazy I have tried my level best to teach to them and by the answers these students of mine gave when I put the questions to them it seems that they have really grasped it and even though he cannot prove it reason tells him that most of my students are going to pass successfully at least in my subject and then the results after the examination prove the fact. This is called you first accept something tentatively with faith but scrutinize it with complete objective rationality because rationality is a very dangerous weapon rationalizing and rationality are diametrically opposed things rationality is objective analysis and after thorough testing coming to a definitive conclusion rationalizing is whatever I believe in is justified so what we do is not put it to critical analysis but to justify most of the time what we do is first we act first we desire first we acquire and then rationalize it we needed it really for this purpose in fact many things that we acquire they just sit there without any use for any time that also can be applied to the body to the intellect to faith to everything that is why Sri Ramakrishna's greatest teaching is bhokta ho le, bhoka hobhi keno you are expected to be a good devotee but spirituality doesn't expect you to be a fool but how can a person not be a fool because God has given a special faculty called reasoning and there are practical examples for that many examples are there but one popular example is he had a disciple called Yogananda and this Yogananda wanted to buy a cooking vessel he went to the shop, gave a lecture that one should not cheat and then said you select for me and you give it to me and he paid the money brought back home and he found that utensil very holy utensil that means full of holes and he felt ashamed now in Indians that's why once sold cannot be returned so this fact Sri Ramakrishna came to know and on that occasion he said God has given you eyes he has given you buddhi why did you not open that utensil there examine it thoroughly when you are paying the full money and then he said bhokta ho le, bhoka hobhi keno but what is meant is faith and reason are complementary and now I want to introduce some subject which most of us are not familiar there is a lot of discussion about these two facts what is the revelation and what is reason what is the relationship between reason and revelation which precedes and which succeeds and according to Indian philosophers revelation is unquestionable because it is not a datum you can collect over through the five sense organs therefore you cannot reason reasoning works only when a fact is completely known in fact not one fact but two facts supposing you want to find out that two shirts are there you want to find out which shirt is superior which piece of cloth is superior if there is only one piece of cloth you cannot argue and say which is superior which is inferior because only one is available but the moment the second piece comes then you can compare, contrast say this is much better in quality and price wise also reasonable that is what we do unconsciously whenever we go on shopping of course we become fools also buy one and get one free later on we find it is either out of date or inferior quality otherwise who is going to give something nice of course sometimes yes we do get nice things also but it is not a very frequent action that is why so do not believe without questioning it doesn't mean you should start with disbelief this statement do not believe without questioning is a statement full of meaning that is why Swamiji said if somebody tells you something if a book tells you if a scripture tells you be open minded listen to it it doesn't mean you should doubt it it doesn't mean that you should be sceptical it doesn't mean immediately you should believe you first to take it in then apply the razor sharp analysis using this weapon called rationality and if rationality tells it is ok it can be believed then only you believe it that is why Buddha's famous statement do not believe because the scriptures tell you so do not believe that many old people wise people tell you so do not believe Buddha tells you so but listen carefully put it in the test fire of rationality and if it is reasonable then only you accept it but having accepted it don't sit quiet you behave you change you alter your behavior accordingly Swamiji Swami Vivekananda that's why he said be an atheist if you want but do not believe in anything unquestioningly this statement should be understood properly he is not telling you start with disbelief he is telling be open minded take it in if somebody says who knows it may be true but then immediately do not have like a superstition do not believe in it in Swamiji's life we get a beautiful incident when Narendra was a small boy may be 5-6 years old he used to go to play in the compound of his uncle who was quite aged person there was a banyan tree and then the boys used to swing and the old man did not want the children to take any risks and fall or he may have some other purpose in mind we don't know he said hey don't play here there is a Brahma Rakshasa here and it will squash your neck if you continue to swing here the boys got very frightened they wanted to run away immediately but Narendra started ridiculing them and said you brainless fellows we have been swinging here for the last 6 months if really there had been a Brahma Rakshasa we would have lost our lives months back it is all this old man wants to frighten us don't fall for this trick and he continued to swing there along with others such was the material out of which Swami Vivekananda was made Swamiji when he met Sri Ramakrishna he had this tremendous power of rationality but his faith in rationality was even stronger than his faith in God so even though he was seeing in front of his eyes the spotlessly unsullied purity of Sri Ramakrishna but he could not believe he had tested him so many times one incident perhaps we all remember and Sri Ramakrishna says that you see I cannot bear the touch of a metal and who cannot bear we see everybody putting on a ring whether it is golden or silver or copper or some kind of magicians this one to ward off evils etc called Kavacha we call it everybody we touch utensils everyday for cooking for eating for drinking for so many things and then here is a man who says my body cannot bear the touch of a metal Vaikaranda said, his old man made a statement let me test him Sri Ramakrishna went out for answering the calls of nature then Swami Vaikaranda took out one rupee coin and do you know what he did he put it under the mattress of Sri Ramakrishna poor Sri Ramakrishna soon came back and then he wanted to sit as soon as he sat he jumped up as though stung by a scorpion and he said why am I feeling like this and then they immediately there may be some sharp object there may be some insect they removed the bed cloth nothing was there then they removed the mattress and then they found this rupee coin immediately Sri Ramakrishna was super intelligent immediately he understood and he knew also who might have tested him he looked directly in the direction of Narendra Narendra was caught red handed and he understood that what Sri Ramakrishna said is absolute truth several statements that Sri Ramakrishna made with regard to himself was doubted by Narendranath and he tested them in every one of the cases Sri Ramakrishna came out victorious and then only Narendranath said I cannot believe that I came into contact with such a man whose body not to speak of his mind even without his knowing his very body cannot bear the touch of impurity and every word that came out of Sri Ramakrishna is a pure truth and this is what we are talking about a scripture is what a person like Sri Ramakrishna who is called a Rishi who is called a mantra drashta that is a one who became one with truth not a discoverer of truth only but one who became one with truth and what is the truth? God is the truth a God realized soul and then whatever comes from their mouth is the purest truth and that is what the scriptures are trying to tell us scriptures are nothing but the utterances of realized souls who became one with truth and you have no way until you prove to yourself that every one of those statements are absolutely true but there are also other characteristics we have to understand sometimes back I have mentioned but then we have to remind ourselves again and again how do we know here is a realized soul? we don't know if anybody says or if anybody asks sir are you a realized soul? have you seen God? in fact Narendra himself asked that question and Sri Ramakrishna's immediate reply was yes I have seen God anybody can tell it it could be a lie I have not seen God if you have not seen God there is no way anybody can prove or disprove a statement of the other person but there is a way there must be a way so what is it? because realization of truth brings certain changes in the whole personality if somebody is touched by a scorpion he can't simply keep quiet he will be jumping up and down if somebody has touched a live charcoal he will be jumping up and down so if somebody has eaten some first class sweet then he will be also dancing with joy some effect should be there of every experience and here is a person who says I have experienced God as what? as myself how do we know? because four characteristics stand out when? all the time when? all the time it is not a particular time we are happy at particular time we are hungry and very tasty food comes we are happy for a short time and when some unsavoury event takes place and we suffer we are unhappy we are depressed for a short time again if anybody says my whole life is a most reprehensible life, a life of suffering he is telling a lie she is telling a lie, you know why? because 90% of the time we don't remember what is suffering and funny psychology I hope you are able to grasp I hope I am able to convey to you supposing somebody is suffering and if that suffering doesn't change the person has no way to understand what is suffering if you have not experienced both darkness and light, you will not know either about light or darkness if a person has experienced only continuous light then if you ask, so where are you? oh I am seeing light he can never say that because he doesn't know what is light if there are only males in this world they will not know they are males or if only females they will not know they are females we know both only when we know both if I know darkness I know what is light only when I know light I know what is darkness so the knowledge of one inevitably, invariably brings up the other night this is light, this is not darkness this is a man, this is not a woman this is happiness this is not unhappiness if somebody continuously is experiencing unhappiness then he will lose that sense and say he cannot say I am experiencing unhappiness for the simple reason there is no opposite experience called happiness and so everybody experiences happiness or unhappiness only for a short time and it is happening every few seconds I would say and people should believe in it and you think about it now what is my point here that Swami Vivekananda has tested Sri Ramakrishna and then asked him also and then Sri Ramakrishna was asked have you seen, sir, God not only Sri Ramakrishna said yes I have seen God but because that answer will not remove doubts Sri Ramakrishna said I can also show God to you how do you know that I have seen God because when I show you God then you say yes I have seen God so this person also must have seen God that is to say that the proof of a fact must be experienced by at least by another person if not by everybody but usually a tree is a tree because everybody sees it as a tree if one person says that everybody says it is not a tree but I say it is a tree then he is most probably mistaken but another way of looking at it is every experience must lead us to some effect if you have eaten a sweet joy, happiness will be dancing on your face at least for a short time if you have experienced unhappiness also your face will show that you are unhappy if you have really slept then complete rest is seen in your body you get up, jump up with fresh energy etc so four characteristics have been identified if anybody had seen God the first characteristic is he is continuously happy 24 hours he is happy for how long? until the body is dropped he is continuously happy what is the cause for happiness? there is no cause only cause is not that he is experiencing happiness he becomes happiness first characteristic he loves everybody because there is no everybody there is only himself in different forms like you have thousand mirrors in your room and you are alone standing there, brilliant light is there in the room and you see as many reflections as the mirrors are so also a person Sarvatra, he sees only Brahma Darshanam Yomaam Pashyati Sarvatra Arvanchamayi Pashyati Tasyaham Na Pranasyami Sachamayi Na Pranasyati Bhagavad Gita categorically says so he who sees me everywhere and who everywhere sees himself as everybody, everybody as himself, himself as everybody there is no God, there is no world, such a person is the real Yogi we all love ourselves, what is love? to know that I am that is called love, nobody can in fact love anybody other than oneself, so here is a person a dog comes oh this is me in the form of dog or to put it theologically that God has assumed the form of this dog and comes to me we see these things in the life of Ramana Maharshi and Shri Ramakrishna etc this is the second characteristic, there is nobody nothing which is not excluded from this love, third this person is ready he treats everybody as equal this statement is given to us in the Bhagavad Gita Vidya Vinaya Sampanne a Yogi who has realized soul who knows I am the Atman what is his practical behavior Vidya Vinaya Sampanne Brahmane, he sees a Brahmana and he is very humble Brahmana and he is one of the most learned, Gavi he sees a cow, Hastini he sees an elephant Shuni, he sees a dog, Swapaka he who eats the flesh of a dog, when he comes across all these people what does he say, he sees himself he sees Atman, he sees Brahman, this is called Samadarshana, so he treats everybody as Brahman and then what is the fourth characteristic he is prepared to help anybody because he knows this is me who is realized in this particular personality, but this is me who is still struggling, but this person, me as this personality does not understand that I am in fact Brahman himself, but I will inspire I will try to see what best I can do, in fact it is God only who lives after God realization when we see a person is always happy, loves everybody treats everybody equally and is ready to help, he doesn't expect anything because we become unequal in dealing with other people when there is some expectation either of monetary or objects or at least this person loves me more this person loves me less and if I am treating somebody and most of us are like that as unequal, that means we have tremendous amount of expectations and the objects or persons who fulfill our expectations to some extent, we try to come near to them and the reverse in the other people so this is the effect of God realization and Swamiji, direct disciples many devotees have categorically seen in Sri Ramakrishna, day and day after day, they are seeing these characteristics, never made the slightest distinction not only between human beings but even non-human beings also so that is called so if you see somebody is telling big things but he himself is behaving like an ordinary person because nobody can hide his or her behavior for long, if you see a person for a minute, for 5 minutes he may pretend to be great monk great sanyasini but he cannot hide himself for long, if you stay that's why, there is a funny saying that if you want to know about a man, everything don't go and try to observe him, go to his wife and ask him, what type of husband you have and she will tell 14 generations of what type of person that person is similarly vice versa so Sri Ramakrishna never discouraged anybody to doubt him to test him, so what is the point, great doubts always precede a great conversion and once that conversion occurs, no one will have greater faith than that which comes after the conversion, that's what exactly happened to Swami Vivekananda, even through countless trials and tribulations misfortunes, his burning faith in God and in Sri Ramakrishna was unswerving and then there is a wonderful point that many people observed it Swami Vivekananda was misunderstood, misquoted mistreated, criticized so harshly none of us would ever do that because we are not worthy of being even criticized and not allowed to be praised or cherished or valued because we are beneath any person's notice, so Swami Vivekananda had to go, even people were there who wished to do away with his life, he had to go through, but whenever he became temporarily for a few seconds because his mind used to be down deliberately for completing the mission of his master he used to feel agitated and then you know he knows the secret mantra, simply he will say Shiva, Shiva, Shiva and the moment he utters Shiva, he becomes his own real self completely untouched unaffected, unmoved by anything in this world and when I say by anything I am not only talking about the evil, the suffering, the unhappiness I am also talking if somebody comes and says I will give you a billion dollars, he is not going to get excited, in fact that had happened and I have to share that experience with you when Swamiji was in America, in Detroit there was one of the richest businessmen there and then somebody suggested to that man that here is a great Hindu Yogi, why don't you go and meet him and then that person had come and then met and Swamiji simply he did not even look at this person for a long time I think it was Rockefeller, yes Rockefeller and then after 15 minutes or so and that man was fuming I am such a famous person and this person even doesn't take notice of me by lifting and that too I am a white skinned man and this is a brown skinned man Swami Vivekananda was writing something he put down his pen looked at him and said God has given, no introduction no telling who are you God had given you so much of wealth you are only a trustee create a trust and see that it benefits the world because that is the only way you can praise God and the man became furious who the hell are you to give me advice like this, he went back and then but you know a Rishi's words will not go without effect so within few days a great transformation had come and this Rockefeller he had created one of the world's largest charitable trust and he wanted Swami Vivekananda to know he again came second time and he said arrogantly thank me Swami I have created one of the largest charitable trust and Swami Vivekananda simply smiled and said you have to thank me because the suggestion came from me so this even if a Jeevan Mukta gets anything it is only Mithya it is only transitory and it has no particular value he doesn't get excited like you don't get excited, suppose you had a dream, somebody had called you for nice dinner your one neighbor and then entertained you with best dinner in the whole world and then the other neighbor came and slapped you abused you right and left and you experienced both happiness and depression and when you wake up do these events really affect you you say they are just imaginations in my mind a realized soul thinks everything that happens in life is nothing but your imagination, that is why you say this Jagat is Sapna Sapna Joopare so real faith is founded upon reason but it doesn't really stop there and what did we say earlier be open, accept anything put it to the scrutiny of reason, rationality and objectively not rationalizing and when it can stand the test of reason then only you have faith in it but don't stop there, transform it transform faith into fact that is what is called true spiritual practice now where does the faith stop and where does rationality stop which proceeds further and which stops it is a tremendous fact we have to understand although real faith is founded upon reason, it doesn't stop there, it goes much beyond what reason can tell, faith generally means belief in something reason cannot penetrate such as the belief in the existence of God, what reason can you, can prove that God exists, that is why physics must step over into metaphysics because the existence of God, existence of life after death, existence of the other world, all these things they go into metaphysics no physics have no, even a glimpse peep into that realm because they are bound by these five sense organs so how can we attempt to understand these lofty spiritual truths that we get from our guru from our scriptures, for example we are studying this gospel of Shri Ramakrishna with our rational mind which is encased by limitations rationality, reason is severely limited why? because what reason can reveal is finite, and the finite can never comprehend the infinite, reason can lead us to a certain point and beyond that point, faith must take over and carry us to the final realization of God, that's why Swami Vivekananda said, all religion is going beyond reason, but reason is the only guide to get there, reason is like the pole vault it will take you to some height, and after that you have to throw out the pole vault and then go beyond the point of, and jump to the other side that's why religion begins where philosophy ends philosophy is based upon reason but religion begins where philosophy ends what is the purpose of philosophy? to convince us, first of all this world cannot solve our problems, second there is a source which alone can solve all our problems Tapatraya Avigatha can be overcome only by knowing there is something, there is a state, there is a life which is beyond the life known to us, and so stick to reason, who says? Swamiji says, stick to reason until you reach something higher and you will know it to be higher because it will not jar with reason, so belief, what is called religion and reason are not enemies they travel together and the reason guides the religion to some distance and very lower distance not far away, and then says, my friend, here we have to part, I have no entrance I have no visa, and you have to take a leap, that is why great poet once he said, it is the journey of the alone to the alone, nobody can accompany you there, and this is what the saint John of the cross goes into ecstasy and he had composed in one of his ecstatic states a beautiful poem very small short poem it is called the dark night of the soul dark night of the soul means where reason is the daylight and when reason stops the daylight that we know ends there and there starts a kind of light which is beyond reason and that alone can guide the soul throughout the dark night until one ends up with all light which is called God there is no way beyond it so we have learned several important points we start with doubt and then only we have to accept the doubt and then reason it out and then find out there is the only way is to have faith faith and reason are not incompatible not enemies but reason has a limitation and we must take the help of reason until we reach the point where reason has to stop and from there it is a leap into the unknown by all by ourselves so they are friends actually they are helpers actually reason is the initial help beginners help and then faith comes when faith comes how do we know what happens to our life these are some of the points in our next class may Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti and Shraddha Jai Ramakrishna