Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 067 on 16-August-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SHRITVA PRANAMAMI MUHURU MUHUHU We have been talking about faith in our last class. There are still a few things you may be wondering. Why am I going on and on about this faith? The reason for that is that we have to transform our life. Faith inside and transformation of life outside. If these do not go together, then it is not faith. It is what we call mere belief, even weak belief at that. In my last class, I have been dealing with the story of Tulasidas, one of the greatest saints in the whole world. See, how generous, liberal-hearted, true liberality can come only from spiritual vision. Tulasidas, it was said, once went to Vrindavan. He visited a temple. He saw the image of Lord Krishna and then he burst through words. How shall I describe Thy beauty, O Lord? But Tulasidas will bow his head. Only when you take up bows and bows and arrows in your hands. What was Tulasidas talking about? He was talking, I want, O Lord, to see you only as Rama. As we know, Tulasidas was one of the greatest Rama bhaktas. It does not mean that he does not recognize Shri Krishna or anybody else as his own Rama. Shri Ramakrishna illustrates it so beautifully. He says that once Rama asked Hanuman, how do you look upon me? And he said, O Lord, Deha buddhyāt udāsoham jīva buddhyāt udaṁśakah ātma buddhyāt vame vāham iti me nishchitā mate he When I am identified with my body, I am the servant, you are my master. When I am identified as part of you, as jīvātmā, I am a part, you are the whole. But when I consider myself as pure ātman, nothing to do with body-mind, then there is no difference between you and me. I am you and you are me. So, Hanuman was a pūrṇa jnāni, he knows. And yet, look at what happened. When Rama was fighting with Rāmana, Rama had to recall Garuda to quell the attack of snakes. And Garuda came, and Garuda looked upon Nārāyaṇa in the form of Viṣṇu, more of Kṛṣṇa. And Hanuman was fidgeting. Rama blessed Garudamān after the whole episode was over, blessed him and sent him away. Then he turned towards Hanuman and asked, Hanuman, you know that I am Rama, I am Viṣṇu, why are you fidgeting? Then he assured that, he says, O Lord, I know, śrī nāte jānakī nāte abhedaha paramātmani tathāpi mama sarvasvaha rāmaha kamalalocanahā I know that Viṣṇu and Rama are all one and the same. But at the same time, my all in all, I only will get delight when I see your form as Rama, not as any other. This is called ishta devata bhakti. But whichever saint, they all know it is only the one Lord who is manifesting in every form. But at the same time, there is faith. Faith is to be tested. When everything is going on, everybody will have faith. Everybody professes faith. But when, as soon as some smallest difficulty comes, not to speak of huge difficulty, then what do we see? That very often, faith deserts us. And that's not a good thing at all. In fact, the only test whether we have real faith, is only when we are having not the slightest change in our faith, even when our throat is about to be cut. And Shri Ramakrishna in his gospel illustrates this through a beautiful story. And we have to be reminded of it any number of times, especially in times of hardship, suffering. So, once a monk went out for begging and he saw a strong man beating down a very weak person. And the monk felt compassionate towards the weak person and went to interfere with the affair. And the strong man's, rich man's anger turned against, who the hell are you to interrupt me, poke your nose in my affairs. And he bet the monk, you know when a person is angry, he loses all discrimination. A child, a helpless weak person, wife, daughter, anybody is a grist to the mill of the anger. So, later on, some of the gurubhais of the monk, who fell down unconscious, carried him back to the monastery and they were sprinkling some water and fanning him. And slowly, the monk was coming back to consciousness. And one of the gurubhais, he wanted to feed him a bit of milk, he was trying to pour in his mouth. And he asked, do you recognize who is the person who is giving you milk now? And without thinking, the monk started replying, yes, the same being who bet me earlier, it is the same one who is giving me also the milk. That means samadarshitva, because it is God only who comes in the form of difficulties, hardships, oppressors, anything. And that is true faith and that is what we have to keep in mind. This particular episode of Tulsidas, I will not bow down to you unless you show yourself to me in the form of Rama, is only to show that we also, at the beginning, must have that ishta devata bhakti. We will not look at anybody, but we will not, unlike some fanatical people, we will not hate. But secretly, we know, O Lord, you are all in all, you are everybody, you are everything. You are everything, but I would delight to see you only in this form and it is to prove this one. Of course, the Lord revealed himself before Tulsidas in the form of Lord Rama with bow and arrows because he knew that my child deserves to see me in this form. So, Tulasi left his mortal coil and entered the abode of immortality in 1623 AD at the age of 91 at Ashi Ghat in Varanasi. At Varanasi, he had the grace of Hanuman and at Chitrakoot, he had the vision of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita, Bharathi Satrughna and Hanuman and Rama commanded him, you go to Varanasi, compose Ramayana, my story in local dialect so that everybody can understand it. And there was a lot of opposition. So many incidents are there, but I quoted how a murderer came to him and Tulsidas said, that one utterance of Rama's name is more than capable of destroying billions and billions of births. Incidentally, every Hindu believes that at Varanasi, Shiva gives liberation to whoever happens or is fortunate to die at Varanasi and it is called Taraka Mantra. Taraka means saving mantra. So what many people say is Rama Nama, but immediately Krishna Bhaktas will take up Kajals. No, that is not necessary. Here Taraka Mantra means it is sufficient for persons, they will get Mukti. That is all. Now we turn to the life of suffering and where even the sage advice is very much necessary. We know Meera Bai, she is none other than, she was none other than Radha Devi herself personified. Her devotion to Krishna, of course every devotee of Krishna is the same, but it is unparalleled. Even childhood, she fell in love with Krishna. She was born to teach all of us Krishna Bhakti and she was an enlightened soul in a way of speaking, but she was a married person. Her husband, it is said, was giving her a lot of trouble. Really speaking, her husband was a good person, but bowing down to social circumstances where some of these people, they consider that if their women folk are to be seen in public, it is an insult to the whole family, which really is not true and there are many incidents, I will not tell you. Sai Ram Krishna himself has proved in his own village when he was a child that unless a woman is pure and chaste, nobody can protect a woman from evil intentions and evil deeds merely through formal rules and regulations. Anyway, coming back, Mirabai found it intolerable. If she had been only tortured, it would have been alright, but she could not tolerate her devotional exposition, her devotional expression in the form of dancing, singing and getting absorbed, where many people used to come, that cannot be interfered with. So when it became too difficult for her, it is said that she wrote a letter to Tulasidas that I am going through this. What is your advice? I suspect she already knew a solution, that is to leave everything and go, but what advice Tulasidas gives to her is a most marvellous advice. So after her marriage with Rana Kumar Bhoja, Meera was given many facilities by the Rana for her worship of Krishna. Unfortunately, the Rana, it is said, was killed in battle and Babur invaded his kingdom. Meera was left helpless. Her brother-in-law Ratnasimha ascended the throne. He harassed Meera in many ways. He hid snakes in the cloth sent to her. He mixed poison in the milk and to be given to her. There was the incident and it seems to be a real incident and he did not make it a secret affair. He openly sent a maid servant with a tumbler of milk and said, You better drink this poison. We don't want a bad name to surround our family in the society. And then she said, I will gladly drink anything because whatever I do, if I dress, if I eat, if I drink, every breath is only for Krishna, only through Krishna. So she offered the whole thing to Krishna. Some of you must have heard this beautiful song. So that was the time she thought every day the difficulties, the obstacles were growing for her free worship and that she could not tolerate. Probably, her brother-in-law was even troubling the people who were attending with sincere devotion. So she thought that it is better to go to my Krishna and then in those horrible circumstances, Mirabai had written, What is my duty? Is it to be here or is it to give up anything? And let us see what marvelous reply Tulsi Das gives in the form of a bhajan. So she wrote, What is my duty? In my present plight, should I leave my home? Should I save God, the reputation of my family, or merge in my Lord, who is the breath of my life? And immediately Tulsi Das sent back a reply in the form of a bhajan, O Meera, whoever comes between the devotee and God, whether that person is a father, a mother, friend, husband, wife, even a Guru, should be given up. God is the eternal protector before birth and after death. To realize the eternal and omnipresent Lord, one should be prepared to ignore the objections of transient persons. Like Prahlada, who attained Narayana, discarding his very father. Like Bharata, who shied away from his own mother Kaikeyi for the sake of Sri Rama. Like King Bali, who ignored the words of his preceptor Shukra and received eternal blessings from Vamanavatara. Like the great Gopis, who crossed the line of family respect simply for being with Krishna. Do I need to say any more now? The reply was in the form of a bhajan. Here goes the bhajan. जाके प्रियन राम बईदेहि तजिये ताहि कोटि बैरी समा जद्यपि परमसनेहि Then he gives an example. तज्यो पिता प्रहलादा विवीशन बन्धु भरत महतारी बलि गुरु तज्यो कन्त ब्रजबनितनि भये मुद मंगल कारि जाके राम बईदेहि प्रियन For those treacherous people for whom Rama and Vaidehi are not at all dear, that means they do not have any devotion to Sita, Rama. तजिये ताहि Give them up like how? कोटि बैरी समा Like a billion most poisonous serpents, जद्यपी परमसनेहि May be they are very close, even they love you, but they will not allow you to think of God. They will come in between. Then he gives some examples. तज्यो पिता प्रहलादा Pralada had given up his father, Hiranyakashyapu, पिवेशन बन्दु Pibheshana had disregarded his eldest brother, elder brother, Ramanasura, gave him up and came to Rama's side. भरता महतारी Bharata, for the sake of Bharata only, Kaikeyi had asked that Rama and Lakshmi, Rama should be sent for 14 years into the forest and Bharata should be crowned as a crown prince. But the same Bharata, when he came, he loved Rama so much that he was about to... He said, just because you are a woman, I don't feel like killing you. Had it been anybody else, I would have cut off your head at that very moment that I heard this incident. So, Mahatari means beloved mother. विवेश बली गुरु तज्यो And you know, we know the story when Narayana Vishnu came in the form of a Vamana to beg three feet of land from King Bali and Shukracharya immediately said, this is that magician Vishnu, his arrival means it forbids some terrible disaster. So he advised, Vishnu has come here, don't promise him anything, otherwise you will be in trouble. And then Bhagavatam narrates this. Bali turned towards Guru and said, In this whole world, everybody is going to Vishnu and begging Him, give me this, give me something else. But today, what is my great good fortune? God Himself has come to me. That is why they also say that if we go to anybody to beg, we also become dwarfs. The giver will become taller and we become shorter, mentally of course. So Vamana means a dwarf. So God Himself has come. I am not going to give up this rare, rare opportunity. So immediately He promised, whatever you want, you will get it from Me. It is a promise. And then the Lord asked for only three feet. The three feet represent, you give me your sthoola sharira, you give me your sookshma sharira, you give me your karana sharira. So your body will be Mine, your mind will be Mine, your causal body will also be Mine. And immediately Bali took some water, that is the formal way of offering something, and then poured water and said, I am offering these things to you, O Divine Lord. And then immediately, what did Vishnu do? In the form of Vamanavatara, He put His feet on the head of Bali and then He pressed him so that he could go to the Patala. What does it mean? Oh, Vishnu took advantage of this man, simple devotee, and simply pushed him down. That is the external meaning. Internal meaning is the footprints of the Divine Lord will forever be on the head. That means this person will be carrying the Divine Lord on his head all the time. And where God is, that is called Vaikuntha, not even Svargaloka. But Vaikunthaloka. So He is telling that. It is only in relation to Rama alone that anybody is worthy of love. What good is the Anjana, eye balm, that destroys the very eyesight? That is, our love and relationship should be only with the Divine Lord, with Shri Rama. And then it goes, Tulasi Sosabu Bhati Paramahita Pujya Pranate Pyaro Jaso Hoya Saneha Rama Pada Eto Mato Hamaro Eto, Eto, Mato, Hamaro. Means, Hamaro means my, this is my final opinion. Jaso Hoya Saneha Rama Pada. Somehow or other, develop Divine love towards the lotus feet of the Rama. And whatever incident, whatever object, whoever helps in this, he is more dear than one's own life itself. And he should be loved. So this was what exactly He sent. And immediately, Mirabai had so much of love and faith in Tulasidasa because she was leaving. She was the Queen. But she was leaving everything and she left her kingdom and then travelled to her Vrindavan and there a wonderful incident had happened which shows how knowledgeable Mirabai was. She went to see Jivagoswami, I think. He was a great devotee, a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself and he was performing severe austerities in order to please Radha Rani because all Vaishnavas believe it is only through Radha Rani one can obtain Shri Krishna or love for Krishna. By the way, Nama and Namne are one and the same. That is the name and the named. That is Krishna and Krishna's name. Krishna's name is more powerful than even Krishna Himself. And this love for name of Krishna, name of Rama can be obtained only through Radha Rani. Remember, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to have darshan of Rama and it could be obtained only through meditation on Hanuman because Hanuman represents the highest devotion condenser. Radha Devi represents the Krishna Bhakti condensed. And that is how Sri Ramakrishna meditated on Hanuman then meditated on Radha and very soon, by their grace of course, he had obtained the darshan of Rama and the darshan of Shri Krishna also. So this Mirabai, she knew only God is there. Everybody else should be a Gopi. We are all Gopis. Every Bhakta is not a Gopi but should become a Gopi. Who is a Gopi? A Gopi is one who had 150% faith that God alone is the only reality. Everything else is unreal, Mithya. A person, any person who has this tremendous knowledge and this knowledge comes in the form of faith and so the whole life is transformed and Tano, Mana, Dhana, everything is only for the service of Bhagawan. That person whose heart becomes like that is a Gopi as if a woman loving her beloved husband. So Mirabai stood in front of the Jiva Goswami's ashrama and a disciple came running and looked perhaps condescendingly at this woman and said, What do you want? Well, I have come. I heard about Jiva Goswami, the great devotee of Bhagawan Krishna. I want to obtain the vision of his lotus feet. And then the disciple, stupid fellow, he did not understand and then he said, My Guru is so great, he will not see any woman. Immediately Mirabai, she passed a sarcastic remark. Oh, I thought that there is only one man in Brindavan. So a second man has come some time back. Go and tell your Guru. This idiotic disciple did not understand. He ran to the Guru and said, A crazy woman has come and this is what she said. But Jiva Goswami was a man of devotion and knowledge. Immediately he understood what she meant. He ran out, almost fell at the feet of her. She would not allow him to touch her feet. Said, Oh mother, today you have opened my eyes. Please come. You are in the place of my Guru because I only want Krishna. I don't want anybody else. But you have opened my eyes. Not seeing a woman is a very low type of spiritual progress because who will see a woman? Only a man will see a woman. What do I mean? Only a person who considers himself, I am a human being, I am a male. Only a male will know what is a female. A female knows what is a male. But a person, even a child doesn't know what is the difference between male and female. So this is what happens when faith comes. Then it is as if somebody is putting a collyrium over the eyes. Ramakrishna used to say that if you take some frogs and powder them, make a collyrium out of those frogs and put, whoever puts, he will be starting seeing snakes everywhere. So it is like a jaundiced person because it is said frogs fear the snakes very much. So whoever has put on this Gnananjana Vimalanayana Vikshane Mohajaya is what I call, with a slight change, Brahmanjana Vimalanayana Vikshane Mohajaya. So put on the collyrium of God on your eyes and what appears will be nothing but nothing else. Wherever we look, whatever we look at, it will be nothing but God only. So faith should, what is the point? Why are we discussing so much about faith? Because what is, first of all, faith? In case you have forgotten, faith is indirect knowledge of God. Ramakrishna tells it very tellingly. A person who has faith, he has already obtained God. Faith is what defines a man. However much faith a person has, that defines that man's character. If a man has faith that this world alone is real, he will become a man of the world. Man of the world. If a man is completely convinced that God alone is real, he will become a man of God. This is an absolute psychological fact. We are talking here, we do not know whether God exists. We do not know what is God. We do not know in what way we have to approach Him. So all these three things, whether there is a God and what is God, if He is there, and how to approach Him and know Him to be, these ati-indriya-jnanam can only come from the scriptures. So having tremendous faith in the scriptures is what is really needed. And that is what we are talking about. Now, very important point. If I really believe that supposing I am walking in darkness and I see something and I think that it is a snake and I am convinced it is a snake, that is my faith, that is my knowledge, is that it is a snake. And immediately all the consequences, my body starts shaking, my heart starts racing and then my blood will be up. I am scared and I want to escape. And even if a thousand people come and say it is not a snake, we will not believe them. Until a person brings light and shows to us, then that same knowledge will come pratyaksha. So earlier it was only paroksha, indirect. But now it is direct. This is not a snake. This is merely a rope. Instantaneously, all the fear, all the trembling, etc. will come down immediately. So faith is indirect knowledge, knowledge which scriptures have. Scriptures means realized souls and knowledge which our Guru has. But hearing their words, we develop faith because I see the result of this knowledge in our Guru. That is why Guru is very necessary. What scriptures tell is indirect knowledge. For the scriptures, it is direct knowledge. But for anybody who hears, it is only indirect knowledge and that doesn't inspire anybody much. But when a person is extremely fortunate to get a Guru and a real Guru and he sees in the life of the Guru how that faith has transformed his life, then we get inspired. If this man who could be a great worldly person, now he has given up everything and he is far more happy than any worldly person that I have seen, I have come across, including my own experiences, if this person can be so happy, if this happiness, love, and unselfishness, and loving service, four characteristics are so real that there must be a cause and that cause is realization. This is what really inspires us. Nobody can have faith by merely reading the scriptures. Only one must see a person in real life and that is why Swami Shardanandji says that God has taken the form of a human being to demonstrate to everybody the truths of the scriptures. They are not merely some statements, blind statements, but these are facts. And by living that kind of life, He inspires people. If we have any faith in the scriptures, it is only because of the great souls like this. Now, I want to finish this subject of faith with a marvellous story from the Old Testament Bible. In the Old Testament, we come across a character and it is such a marvellous story, that I am only going to tell you very briefly. But I request you to go through this or even on the internet also you will get it. But best to go directly to the Old Testament, the story of the Job. J-O-B There was a great soul and this Job, his name was Job. He was in a village and he was a married person. He had children. He had tremendous faith in God. So, what happened was that one day there was an argument in heaven between Satan and God. And Satan said, God said to Satan, Look, on this earth you will not find another man who has so much of faith and devotion in me like Job. And Satan had sneered at God. These are all like Puranas, Puranic stories, only to teach a moral lesson. Satan said, Oh, that is because you gave him prosperity, you gave him a good wife and wonderful children and so many animals, so many fertile lands and if he starts losing any one of them, then you will see what happens. And then Satan challenged God, I will prove to you, give me the power so that I will take away whatever Job had and then I will see how much faith he has got. God smiled and said, Okay, go and try and test Job, whatever way you want. So, on a single day, it is said that four types of news came at four different times in the course of a single day. First, his whole land had become infertile by floods. Second, he lost all his animals. Third, he has lost all the wealth that he had. Like that, news had come. Every time the news comes, Job will exclaim, I have complete faith in God and if God had allowed this to happen, it must be for my own good. Let God's will be done. Let God's will be done. Let God's will be done. And four times he uttered. Then the story goes, then the neighbours came, they started, what type of devotee are they? God doesn't exist. If He exists, we know you are such a good person and good persons have no justice in this world. If there is God, there must be justice and this proves conclusively that there is no God because who can inflict this kind of miseries, especially when you are such a great so-called devotee of God and you claim so much of faith in Him. Give Him up. Simply say, I do not, I no longer believe in God. Job said, it is true. I don't know why these things happen. It is also true that these things really trouble me. I am in great pain, etc. But I will never say, I have lost faith in God. He is great. I adore Him. I pray to Him. He is my God. I have complete faith in Him. So the neighbours thought, this fellow is really mad and they abused him and then went away. Now Saturn could not do anything. So he went with a black face to God and God smiled and said, what could you do? You tried. Saturn said, give me another chance. All right, go and try your level best. This time he came, he visited Job with terrible painful diseases. The man, he was quite entering into old age but this was terrible. All over his body blisters had started bubbling up and then intolerable pain and whether it is head or hand or back or legs or anything, the whole pain in this world as if descended upon his own body. But every time he says, God is great. He knows. But at the same time, Job was not irrational. He said, I do not know what sins have I committed. Why God is visiting me with all these afflictions? I do not know. Maybe I have done something unknown, unbeknown to me but I will never give up God even if I have to die. And then what can? This is in short, the descriptions are marvellous statements and the neighbours went away grumbling and the Saturn also went away grumbling. He went, stood with bent head in front of God and then God looked and said, My son, did you see? That is called faith. That is why I told you that there is no man on the earth who has as much faith as my child Job. Now, go back and restore everything as it was even more prosperity than it was before. And Saturn gladly came down, restored his health immediately, gave back whatever he lost. So he had a family, he had children, he had animals, he had lands, he had wealth and he was glowing with health and glory be to God. Praise be to God. Why did I mention this story? Because every devotee proves and just to support this statement, I will give you the example of Shri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother also. Once Holy Mother was complained by a devotee, Thakur is so great, so simple, he never even thought a harmful, a sinful thought in his mind when Shri Ramakrishna was suffering from throat cancer and why is it he is suffering so much? And Holy Mother impromptu gave such a beautiful reply, said, My son, the Ramakrishna, we, we, we have not come only to eat Rasagullas. That means, we have come to this world just to enjoy our life and at the same time prove to the world God exists, we must have devotion to God. The fact is, if great people, saints did not suffer did not suffer, ordinary people would not have the courage to at least to do some spiritual practice because the true proof of faith in God only when circumstances are completely adverse and extremely painful. A true devotee, even at the time of death, he will not give up even if he is suffering a negative word about God, about disbelief, will not escape his mouth at all. Such a marvellous devotion in the form of faith. Faith and devotion are upwards and reverse of the same coin. As I mentioned, always keep in mind, by the word faith we mean indirect knowledge. I have not seen God, but I will behave, believing the words of the scriptures and the Guru that God is everywhere. And in this regard, I will also tell you another story. These are the marvellous stories and these are not mere stories. These are incidents in the life of great people. And then the second incident, I forgot to mention to you, Ramakrishna was smitten with this throat cancer and even water found it difficult to enter into his throat. And there was a big hole that developed, extremely painful. Holy Mother used to take a small wick and very smoothly, very softly, she used to clean the pus that used to come out of Ramakrishna's throat. At that time, some of the devotees requested him, Sir, your prayer will be heard by Divine Mother because you love her so much. She also loves you. Why don't you pray? Then he said, What can I pray? So they said, If you are able to eat some food and digest, soon you will be cured of this. So, Ramakrishna with the greatest difficulty, because of the pressure of the devotee, because of his intense love for his devotees, he prayed, O Mother, let a little food go through this throat. And immediately the Mother revealed Herself to him and said, Why are you not eating through everybody's mouth? And Sir Ramakrishna said later on, I was ashamed. You forced me to have this most unpleasant vision that I know already I am not the body, I am not the mind, but you forced me to pray for this paltry body. It has to come and it has to go. This shows that is called true faith. Of course, it will not be fair to cite the example of Holy Mother and Sir Ramakrishna because they were realized souls. But a sadhaka who is yet to progress, having complete faith in the words of the Guru, how he can behave? This is the story. I think with regard to one South Indian devotee, Karnataka devotee called Kanakadasa. So he was the disciple of Vyasateertha, another great Vaishnava teacher. Now, as soon as this Kanakadasa joined the ashrama, the Guru started showing special regard to this Kanakadasa and that brought about terrible jealousy in the other disciples. We have been here for so many years. We have been trying to serve our Guru, but as soon as this new man came and he turned his attention to him and this is partiality. This is how Guru is criticized. Holy Mother's advice is do not find fault with anybody and if anybody finds fault with Guru, there is very little hope for that person to progress in spiritual life. So the Guru heard this. Not only these people were audacious enough to talk among themselves, they openly started criticizing the Guru and the Vyasateertha. He came to know about it and he wanted to open the eyes of the other disciples who were really sincere people, but subjected to human frailties. So one day, by his will, by the Guru's will, a devotee had brought a big bunch of bananas. You know Karnataka grows one of the best types of mango bananas. Two types, many types of bananas. One is called cardamom banana, elachi banana. It is very small, like a little bit double than a small finger, four finger. But it is not only tasty, it is one of the healthiest fruits that we know. So this devotee brought and offered it to the Guru and the Guru called. This was a wonderful opportunity for him to open their eyes. He distributed one, one banana. He must be having a lot of disciples and he told them you must go and eat as quickly as possible and come back. But there is one condition. The condition is nobody should be able to see you eating. So one fellow, he went into the forest, hid himself behind a bush and had eaten. Another fellow did the same thing, but he was even more cautious about it. Maybe somebody is watching me from the top of the tree or from some other corner. So he put his chadar, upper cloth all over his body so that nobody could see him. And one finicky fellow, he was so particular that he took a deep breath, went to the bottom of the pond. I don't know how he managed this trick and he swallowed the banana and he came. And after a few minutes, all of them gathered in front of the Guru and everybody had eaten. The Guru asked them, have you all eaten? Yes, excepting this Kanakadasa who was still holding the banana. And then the Guru asked him, why did you not eat? Kanakadasa asked in reply, asked the Guru, what was your condition? You put a condition. What was the condition? Nobody should see me eating, but wherever I turn, look up, look down, look inside, look outside with a million eyes. So God is watching me. How can I fulfill your condition and still eat when somebody is watching me, not even one single millisecond also I can be without this watchful eyes of the Lord. Hopefully, the other disciples understood that the Guru loved the disciple just as Ramakrishna loved Narendranath because in him the knowledge of God is so much there. There was a funny incident also in the life of this Kanakadasa. It is said, so once it so happened, there are a lot of Pandits had come, learned people, because in those days, olden days, a lot of discussions used to happen in the ashramas, especially religious discussions, especially scholarly discussions on the significance, meaning of scriptures. And then the question came, the Guru Vyasa Raja, he is called Vyasa Teertha, he is called Vyasa Raja, and this is in the 16th century and he put a question, so who is eligible to get liberation? And everybody was trying to give this explanation, that explanation. And at last, the Guru's eyes, of course, maybe he had the same idea from the beginning, they alighted on this Kanakadasa and he asked Kanakadasa, Kanakadasa, what is your reply? Who can attain liberation? And in Kannada, first I will tell you in Kannada, he said, If anybody has to attain liberation, then if I go, then I will attain liberation. I will attain liberation. That means I am the only person who is going to get liberation. But this Kannada usage of this language is Nanu means me, Hodare means really, two meanings are there. That is, I can go to God. You know, you must remember, this is not Gnana Mukti. And for those who claim that I will become one with Nirguna Brahma, all devotees believe they go to Vaikuntha and be there as near as possible to the Divine Lord. They don't want to become one with the Lord. They want to enjoy the Lord. I do not wish to become sugar. I wish to enjoy sugar. This is common experience of so many devotees. So, this was the reply he was giving. In Kannada, this word Hodare means perhaps I am the only person who can go to Vaikuntha. And everybody, they got terribly angry. How dare, how audacious, how prideful you are that only you will go to Vaikuntha. None of us will go to Vaikuntha. The Guru smiled and then he looked at Kanakadasa and said, Will you kindly explain what do you mean by that? That others will not go, only you will go. Then he explained, Guruji, you know what I mean. But I will explain because you are asking me. Nanu means I. Hodare means is destroyed. When I, the egotism is destroyed, then only I will get liberation. Mukti, going to Vaikuntha is the liberation for all the Vaishnavas. So, the I has to be completely destroyed. It should be merged. This is called the path of Sharanagati and then only I will be able to get liberation. And the other pandits, after hearing this explanation, what did they understand? Oh, I, Kanakadasa, I have so much devotion that I alone am entitled to enter into Vaikuntha. That is, since they are identified with their body-minds, they could not see beyond their nose. They felt they understood. That is what happens to us also. So, whatever any other person may say, we understand it from our own viewpoint. We make it our own. So, this person, everybody was feeling at how egotistic you are, puffed up with egoism, that you alone are what is called qualified to enter into Vaikuntha, whereas you are implying that we are all worthless fellows. But when Kanakadasa explained this immediately, they were extremely happy. And incidentally, this is what the reply Sri Ramakrishna has given smilingly. He was also, as we know, a pun master. Not only a fun master, but a pun master also. And somebody asked him, when can I obtain liberation? And he said, when you die, then you obtain liberation. And the questioner was puzzled. Then Sri Ramakrishna had to explain the same way Kanakadasa had explained. What is it that stands between the devotee and God? In fact, he gave an illustration on some other occasion, not on this occasion. There was some devotee standing. It is the egotism that stands as a veil which covers our eyes so that we cannot see God who is everywhere, who is so near to us, who is in front of us. Then he had a towel on his shoulders. Immediately he took up the towel and then he put it in between the devotees over his face. He said, look, you are so close to me. I am so near to you, but I can't see you. You can't see me only because of this cover which stands in between us, this curtain which stands, which divides, which as it were blinds your eyes as well as my eyes. In Advaitic knowledge, this is what we give the illustration, that there is a cloud and a small patch of cloud and that cloud as if is covering the whole sun. And so we are not able to see because of this. And a sage explained it further, do not think that the cloud can cover the sun. That is a wrong understanding. The cloud covers your eyes, not the sun. So even one finger is enough. Put your finger in front of your eyes and that is enough. Now what can remove this finger? What can remove this cover? What can remove this ignorance is called knowledge and that knowledge is of two types. Directly when a person beholds God, it is called Aparoksha Anubhuti, direct experience. But when it comes in the form of Guru's teachings, scriptural teachings, it is called Aparoksha Anubhuti. And this Aparoksha Anubhuti, another name for it is called faith. And that is why growth in spirituality, progress in spirituality is nothing but growth in faith. And when the faith grows sufficiently, then S.A. Ramakrishna used to say, that when you see the brilliant orange light, pink light covering the whole eastern sky, in the dawn dawns, we know for certain the sunrise is not very far away. So we have to develop the tremendous faith and in Sanskrit there is a beautiful word, the English word faith is in no way does justice to this word and this is called Shraddha. That is why it is said, Shastreshu Guruvakyeshu Satyabuddhi Avadharana Shraddha Kathitha. Shraddha is absolutely undoubting faith in the words of the scriptures and in the words of the Guru. And that if a person has even to a small extent, to that extent he becomes blessed and of course slowly the faith is tested and it is exercised. It grows strong when there are only difficulties. Then only faith will be exercised. Then only it will grow stronger. That is why Holy Mother says, misery is a gift of God. Misery is that which strengthens our faith in the reality and grace of God. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayoh Sritva Pranam Ami Mohur Mohoh May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna