Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 069 on 13-September-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADHA PADME TAYO SHRITVA RANAM AMI MOHO RUMOHO HO We have been discussing the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In our last class, we have seen how Sri Ramakrishna was about to praise Narendranath. And in that context, Sri Ramakrishna was telling us that there are four types of Jeevan Muktas are there. Four types of Jeevan Muktas are there. But Sri Ramakrishna did not say that. But this is according to Hindu scriptures. So what are those four types of Jeevan Muktas? First is a very ordinary type of Jeevan Mukta. A Jeevan Mukta is one who has realized, I am Brahman, called Bhagavad Sakshatkara. And he is completely free for some reason by the will of God. There is a body there. This is the lowest type of Jeevan Mukta. Higher than that is some great Acharyas whose influence even now we can say after many centuries. For example, Saint Paul, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya. These three, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya, they rule the entire Indian religious population and almost all the Hindus follow these three Acharyas. Why? Because these three Acharyas respectively propound Dvaita, Kshisht Advaita, Advaita schools of philosophy. These Acharyas have great powers and so they can help a lot of people, not only at that time, even at this time. For example, we have been studying Krishna Upanishad, Mandukya Upanishad and this is possible only by the help of Shankaracharya. Of course, those who follow Ramanujacharya, they will be following his interpretation and those who are following Madhvacharya, they will be following, but whatever may be, that the meaning which is so very difficult to understand in the Upanishads is being explained clearly according to these great Acharyas. And we have to remember these Acharyas are not only great Acharyas, not merely great philosophers, but they are all men of spiritual realization and that is the secret of their influence, not anything else. But even they have limited type of power to help other people. Much, much higher than them is what Sri Ramakrishna used to call Ishwara Koti's, Nitya Mukta's, etc. Every time an Avatar comes, these people come. Sometimes even without the Avatar, some of these great people will come and they have tremendous power of influencing, guiding people in every way. So that is what we see here. But the highest type of power, so far as we know, belongs to the Avatars. Of course, they are ever free. Both the Nitya Mukta's as well as the incarnations of God, they are not born because of some Karmaphala or incomplete spiritual realization, but to help humanity, they voluntarily take their birth. And in this connection, we have to understand that there are three higher type of Lokas are there. One such Loka is called Akhanda Loka or the realm of the indivisible. If we have studied the life of Sri Ramakrishna or Swami Vivekananda, we know that Sri Ramakrishna's mind one day ascended to the realm and then there he found out this marvelous, indivisible Akhanda Rajya, seven Rishis. And it is impossible to describe the glory, the power, the holiness. And it is from that realm, Sri Ramakrishna in the form of a small child has brought down one of the Rishis who later on came to be known as Swami Vivekananda. So this is a peculiar idea. How can a Nitya Mukta and at the same time, out of compassion came, they retain their subtle bodies, spiritual bodies purely for the welfare of the world. Sri Ramakrishna in his gospel also, he mentioned something very interesting for us. He said that there are some realms where the ice is eternally frozen, but other places when the ice is frozen, as soon as the sunlight becomes a little more severe, starts producing heat, immediately people also, the ice starts melting. But there are some places, eternal places where the ice is never ever frozen. I do not, we do not know, we don't understand also. But I guess this Akhanda Rajya is one of those places from where the incarnations do come down. There is no doubt about it. But Swami Vivekananda used to add, there is even higher type of Jeevan Muktas about whom the world knows nothing. They will be living somewhere. Nobody knows what they are. They just live the ideas and they pass away and that idea profoundly influences the entire world. Anyway, these are the four types of Jeevan Muktas. Of them, Sri Ramakrishna is about to talk about Nitya Siddhas, those who are a little bit lower than the incarnations of God, that who have tremendous power. And Sri Ramakrishna continues, Narendra and people of his type belong to the class of the ever free. They are never entangled in the world. When they grow a little older, they feel the awakening of inner consciousness and go directly toward God. They come to the world only to teach others. They never care for anything of the world. They are never attached to women and gold. And then Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful parable. Let us remember, these are not facts, but sometimes to illustrate certain pieces of knowledge, some illustration is given either in the form of a small story called parable. Here is a parable of a Homa bird. The Vedas speak of the Homa bird. It is very interesting because Sri Ramakrishna directly refers to the word Vedaspeak. That means, I don't know, I have never come across this word where he had heard. He must have heard because hundreds of sadhus used to visit that place. So Sri Ramakrishna must have heard about it because he never used to study or read the scriptures himself. But he heard a lot. He said, I heard, I used to hear a lot. And also it was a ekashruti dhara. That means whatever he hears once, that forever remains in his mind. So the Vedas speak of the Homa bird. It lives high up in the sky and there it lays its egg. As soon as the egg is laid, it begins to fall. But it is so high up that it continues to fall for many days. As it falls, it hatches and the chick falls. As the chick falls, its eyes open. It grows wings. As soon as its eyes open, it realizes that it is falling and will be dashed to pieces untouching the earth. Then it at once shoots up toward the mother bird high in the sky. At this point, Narendra, who was in the room, left the room. Kedar, Pranakrishna, M and many others remained there. Now the point is, what is the symbolism of this Homa bird? The mother bird, we can say, is Brahman. And there are chicks, means like Sanathkumara, etc. Sanandana, Sanathkumara, like Brahmas, Manasaputras. They are never entangled in the world. But sometimes they can also, out of compassion for fractured human beings, can incarnate themselves, taking the body of a human being. Very difficult to understand their nature. So it is possible, but very difficult for people like us to recognize. After all, even today, how many people had recognized Swami Vivekananda? Let alone other religions like Christianity, Islam, who never of course accept all these ideas. Even the idea of the incarnation of God is alien to Islam. They don't accept any Avatar. The best they can do is the most powerful, wisest human being called Prophet, Prophet Muhammad. But incarnation of God is alien. Christianity accepts, but only one. It is Hinduism who accepts any number of Avatars as and when the need arises. So how many Hindus who claim to be Hindus, who are born Hindus or who adopt Hinduism, how many of them recognize? Even there are certain fanatical sects like Hare Krishna. They don't accept Shri Ram Krishna as an incarnation of God. They don't accept Shankaracharya as a great Acharya. In fact, they are criticized by these people severely because they don't become fanatical and say Krishna is the only way. So even among Hindus, there are so many people who do not accept. Perhaps the devotees of what is called Lingayats, Shaivas and many Shaktas. Many of them do not accept because there is a peculiar concept. All incarnations come only from Vishnu and there are some sects which do not like Vishnu at all. They are one-sided type of people. But then how do we really judge who is an incarnation of God? We are not talking about certain physical traits, but that personality, even after thousands of years, who has the capacity to completely transform the life of even the worst sinners in the world and transform them into the greatest saints, whether it is Buddha or Jesus Christ or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, not to speak of Shri Krishna, Shri Rama, etc. Shri Ramakrishna's life, when we examine, we can see this phenomena. Many people are extremely influenced by him even today. I know personally, there are so many government officials who are not devotees of Shri Ramakrishna or Ramakrishna Mission, but they admire the ideology of Swami Vivekananda and they do a lot of service to the society in the form of helping many good organizations to get government funds through their influence, etc. So even that is also a great influence, but we have to really speak about spiritual transformation, not merely social transformation at all. So that is how we have to think about it. Shri Ramakrishna was meaning Narendra, that is future Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Niranjanananda, Swami Primananda, Swami Yogananda and Purni Chandraghosh. These six he used to say, these six are my antarangas with the coming of Purna, my inner circle, that is Nitya Siddhas have become complete. Now Narendra never wanted any type of praise. So at this point he left because he thought perhaps Shri Ramakrishna loves me so much, so he is praising me sky high, but the fact is that is the truth. So this is how Master praises Narendra. At the same time we have to understand there is a saying, there is a teaching of Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, in whomsoever you find a special manifestation of any type of power, that is really my power manifesting in such people. yajyatvibhutimatsatvam srimadurjitam eva va tattvadeva avagacchatvam mama tejo amsa sambhavam And Shri Ramakrishna is explaining this. You see Narendra excels in singing, playing on instruments, study and everything. The other day he had a discussion with Kedar and tore his arguments to shreds, all of them. Now the topic has turned into logic. Now in those days, especially even nowadays, that is why one of the greatest historians has named this yuga, this particular age of ours, the age of reason. So we first want to know why should I think about God and why is it that we have to have faith in these scriptures, in other people's words, first to prove to me that God exists and then only I will see whether I want God or not. That is why for everything, it has a good side. Everything has a good side. Faith also has a good side. Faith also had a negative side. What is the good side of faith? It is the basis of people transforming themselves into higher personalities, into higher idealism. But the same faith can degenerate into fanaticism and what is called incapacity to bear other people's opinions and violence. We see in front of our eyes these things. So reason also has got its both sides. What is the reasoning? It can help our thoughts to get organized in the right way. Rightly used logic can help us to take the right information, to discriminate rightly and to adopt a logical, rational opinion and that really helps us very much in life. In fact, the whole of modern science is based upon this logic only, science only. What is the science? The whole of science can be classified into three parts. First, gather data through proper instruments, pramana. Second, you classify it according to certain logic. Third, deduct hypothesis and that would be the final point from which we have to follow it. This is the modern method of what is called science. And science is nothing but following rationality, logic, etc. But that very logic, the very scientists, many of them, they do not believe in God. Because they say, where is the data? Oh, we say, the scriptures is the data. But scriptures, how do we know? How do they speak of other lokas, life existing in other places, life after death? And there also, everybody suffers. There doesn't seem to be any logic in this world. Good people suffer, evil people enjoy. And all these things seem to be very, very rational, very acceptable. So many people, because of such negative suffering experiences, unhappy experiences, even devotees have turned into nastikas nowadays. So that is the negative side. Therefore, we have to understand, what is the place of logic or reason? Because reason primarily employs logic for arriving at the right conclusions, which is the third part. And once we arrive at the right conclusion, and that is called, what we call knowledge. And we have to follow it, because once we are convinced this is the right conclusion, that means right knowledge, we have no choice but to follow it. Right knowledge, the knowledge, whether it is right or wrong, but it is not necessary it has to be right. But if we are convinced it is right, it will not allow us to behave otherwise. We have to follow its dictates. If someone is convinced, for example, poison is a very healthy medicine. If somebody is convinced, they are ready to take it. And if some good medicine, if they are convinced it is poison, then people will discard it. And so many things, what we call nowadays, we don't follow doctor's advice with regard to dietary restrictions, regard to exercise, etc., etc., it is very clear. If you, a very funny thing, if we look, open our eyes and look, everybody knows wars are evil. Wars do not produce any good results to most of the people. But wars do produce tremendous good to certain industries. Examples are war weapons. Those who manufacture defense weapons, they stand to gain very highly. And they suppress everybody's opinion and they bribe the governments, the politicians. So the politicians, in fact, if they want peace, they can get it. But politicians don't care about the ordinary people. We stand to gain a lot of wealth, power, etc. And through their power, they use all that power to do evil things, the manufacturing of guns, manufacturing of terrible weapons. Now the latest weapon is what is called drones. No human being is involved, but a drone can go and dissolve a person from any place, even hundreds of kilometers also. And in future, we don't know what happens. An atom bomb that had been discharged over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even people are horrified. If one mad person takes it into his head, it will be a terrible destruction, not only for that person, that country, but for most of the world population will be there. Another, if some poorer country, it is incapable of producing these nuclear weapons, but they know how to produce biological weapons. And if they take it into their head to discharge, then do you know what happens? The whole thing will come to an end. The very mild corona virus itself, we were unable to make any point, but just imagine a million times more powerful, faster spreading virus, what it can do. So, but the people who discharge, if you ask them, why do you do that? They say, they give perfect logic and they say this is very necessary, this is the only way. So, this is how everything in this world can have a positive or negative effect. Now, we come to the scripture, reason and revelation, which comes first. According to Hindu scriptures, I think every scripture first comes revelation, that is scriptural statement, because scripture is nothing but the experiences of great Rishis. And then we have got logic, what for? To understand these scriptural statements in the right way, not to misinterpret them. That is where reason helps us very much. There is no other way. This is what we need to understand crystal clearly. Now, Hiram Krishna knew that he was coming into contact with his modern people. Modern people means English educated people. English educated people means those who believe only, do not have that much of faith, but even if they have faith, they are also deeply influenced by logic and then reason is part of that. And logic is taught in every school, in every college until the people take a separate type of discipline. But even whatever may be the discipline, whether it is medicine or social science or literature or whatever it is, the main ingredient is logic. As I said, the function of logic is to make us understand things properly. This is absolutely fine as far as worldly knowledge is concerned. But as far as spiritual knowledge is concerned, divine knowledge is concerned, scriptural knowledge is concerned, these things do not function. Why? Because all logic, it will be logic only when we are discussing about known facts. But scriptural knowledge is Athi Indriya Gnanam, that is knowledge beyond our sense organs. If we do not know something as a fact, the question of reasoning or debating about it will be completely useless. For example, some people argue God exists, some people argue He doesn't. Both are stupid, both are illogical. Why? Because the knowledge of God is beyond sensory knowledge. One may choose, maybe God exists, maybe He doesn't exist. I don't want to bother about it. That choice we have got. But to debate and through logic to prove that God exists or doesn't exist is completely foolish, whether it is like saying the ghosts exist or not. Anyway, Ramakrishna is coming across all the devotees, what he used to call English educated youth, modern people. So English people, that is what he used to call. He was not talking about the England people who used to live in. That is English educated people Ramakrishna used to call as English people. Ramakrishna wants to prove with a finality that logic is not important. Faith is the most important point. Then where does Ramakrishna illogical? No, he says once you accept certain things with complete faith, Shraddha, that is what the scriptures tell about God, about other world, about afterlife, about Dharma, about Adharma, about Punya and Papa, about Sukha and Dukha, about we are experiencing the results of our past karma etc. There is absolutely no way to prove even a single one of them. But we have to take it on faith because we have faith in the scriptures. Simple example I will give you before I proceed. Suppose somebody, a very good person, but the person is suffering, maybe whole family is suffering, we come across many such and then we argue, look you are so, so you believe so much in God, really God doesn't exist, otherwise why so much of evil is in this world, don't you see? I will give you thousands of examples where good people suffer and evil people on the contrary, they are becoming wealthier, powerful and all amenities, facilities, enjoyments seem to belong to them, whether it is the courts or whether it is the positions etc. Seemingly there is no argument for that. But a person of faith, he says that I have faith in God, I will not argue with you, but I will also not draw wrong conclusion that good people suffer and evil people enjoy. I know I must have done something wrong in my past life, that is why God out of His compassion is making me go through these things. So that is what Sri Ramakrishna wants to impress upon these people. So here is Ramakrishna suddenly is asking about logic and he says, is there any book in English on reasoning, on logic? Now I want to tell you English logic deals with three important subjects, induction, reduction and abduction. So induction means, so it is one way of reasoning, M gives the example also, reduction is another type of reasoning and abduction, probably most of you have not heard about this third one. For example, this is what we call in Sanskrit or in English it is called inference, in Sanskrit it is called Anumana Pramana. What is it? One morning you get up and all the streets are completely submerged in water and then you have not heard a single drop of rain falling but you infer that without rains, there can be no rain will be there and therefore it must have rained at night. So that is called abduction. Another example, peculiar example, so one day a house owner enters in his house, he sees there on the table half eaten sandwich, then he deducts, what does he infer? What does he infer? That my son, he must have made it for himself, so then he must have realized by that time he has eaten it half, that it is high time, he was in a hurry so he left half eaten sandwich there and the father goes and finishes the rest of the half. This is called abduction. Abduction also has a bad meaning, if somebody is kidnapped that is also called abduction. But reduction, you see certain facts and you deduce it. So like that from the general to the particular, from the particular to the general, these are called inductions and deductions. And Shri Ramakrishna asks, Is there any book? Of course there are, hundreds of books are there. Yes sir, there is, it is called logic. Tell me what it says? Why was Shri Ramakrishna interested in it? There is a song in the Gospels, Ami Mantra Tantra Jani Nema I do not know what is mantra, tantra. I don't know what is logic. I don't know what is the scripture. Mother, I know I have my mother and you are my mother. I am your child. Please listen to my prayer and fulfill thy child's prayer out of that boundless grace. So here M tries to give an example. See what happens. All men are mortal. Scholars are men. Therefore scholars are mortal. This is, you see a general, everybody is a mortal. So man is also mortal man. Therefore man is also mortal. Scholars are also men. This is from the general, then you deduct. So another part of the logic deals with the method of reasoning from the particular to the general. It's called induction. What it is, this crow is black, that crow is black and the crows we have been seeing for the last, as long as we have been born, they're all black. Therefore, what is the deduction from there? All crows are black. But there may be a fallacy in the conclusion arrived at in this way. For an inquiry, one may find a white crow in some country or I don't know, maybe somebody has painted a crow, a pet crow. Anything is possible in this world. But what is telling you? So M was going on illustrating in his own way. Probably he might have become a little bit over enthusiastic that all the time Sri Ramakrishna is taking out on me and now this is the best opportunity for me to take out on Sri Ramakrishna. So there is another illustration. If there is rain, there is or has been a cloud. Therefore, rain inevitably comes from a cloud. It is just like that smoke always comes from iron only. Still another example. This man has 32 teeth, that man has 32 teeth. So all men we see have 32 teeth. Therefore, all men have 32 teeth. English logic, M says, deals with such inductions and deductions and abductions. Now what happened? Sri Ramakrishna asked the question. Sri Ramakrishna barely heard these words. While listening, he became absent-minded. So the conversation did not proceed far. Why? Because Sri Ramakrishna wanted to illustrate. I am not interested in this subject. You may be interested. Others may be interested. I am not interested in what they are interested. But this certainly does not hold my interest. Once and for all, M's tendency has come to a stop. And there we also get across another incident. Once Sri Ramakrishna called and said, that give me your word that I will never again reason. And by that time, M has sufficiently seen Sri Ramakrishna and he had come to cherish absolute faith in Sri Ramakrishna's words. And immediately he said, yes, sir, I promise. And it is there, if we search in the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, I will never argue. And he says happily, that was the first and last argument. Many times also, unconsciously, this tendency comes up. But Sri Ramakrishna never allowed such a thing to come. He must have warned M whenever such things crop up naturally. So when the meeting broke up, a devotee sauntered in the temple garden. M went in the direction of the Panchavati. It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. After a while, he returned to the master's room. There on the small north veranda, he witnessed an amazing sight. Now we come. Until now, M had not seen Sri Ramakrishna in the mood of Samadhi. This is the very first time M was witnessing. Other devotees had witnessed it many times. And what was amazing, M describes, Sri Ramakrishna was standing still, surrounded by a few devotees, and Narendra was singing. So two points we have to note down. Sri Ramakrishna was standing still in Samadhi, and Narendra was singing. First, M is remarking, soliloquizing. M had never heard anyone except the master sing so sweetly. When he looked at Sri Ramakrishna, he was struck with wonder. For the master stood motionless, with eyes transfixed. He seemed not even to breathe. Seeing M's condition, a devotee must have noticed it and then said, told M that the master was in Samadhi. M had never before seen or heard of such a thing. Silent with wonder, he thought, is it possible for a man to be so oblivious of the outer world in the consciousness of God? How deep his faith and devotion must be to bring about such a state. Narendra was singing, This is the song in Bengali language, but here in the Gospel, the English translation goes like this. Meditate, O my mind, on the Lord Hari, the stainless One, pure spirit through and through. How peerless is the light that in Him shines! How soul-bewitching is His wondrous form! How dear is He to all His devotees! Evermore beauteous in fresh blossoming love that shames the splendor of a million moons, like lightning gleams the glory of His form, raising erect the hair for very joy. The song is going on. Well, while listening to this song, the master shuddered when this last line was sung. His hair stood on end and tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. Now and then his lips parted in a smile. Was he seeing the peerless beauty of God that shames the splendor of a million moons? This was the wondering of him. Was this the vision of God, the essence of spirit? How much austerity and discipline, how much faith and devotion must be necessary for such a vision? The song went on. Worship His feet in the lotus of your heart, with mind serene and eyes made radiant, with heavenly love behold that matchless sight. Again that bewitching smile, the body motionless as before, the eyes half shut as if beholding a strange inner vision. The song grew to a close. Narendra sang the last lines, caught in the spell of his love's ecstasy. Immerse yourself forevermore, O mind, in Him who is pure knowledge and pure bliss. The sight of the Samadhi and the divine bliss he had witnessed left an indelible impression on M's mind. He returned home, deeply moved. Now and then he could hear within himself the echo of those soul-intoxicating lines. Immerse yourself forevermore, O mind, in Him who is pure knowledge and pure bliss. Now this is called Samadhi. What is Samadhi? I have discussed about Samadhi earlier in our Gospel classes and I have discussed it at length. There are in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, these experiences of Sri Ramakrishna again and again going into Samadhi. Now there are... I classified about the Samadhis, not the description of Samadhi we get outside the Gospel, but the Samadhi we are getting in the Gospel into three types. First type, the highest type, whenever Sri Ramakrishna used to sing or listen or even talk, suddenly he goes, he beholds what we call Saguna Brahma. For example, in the form of the Divine Mother, he used to converse with her. Occasionally, he used to go even into Nirvikalpa Samadhi. But this is the first classification of Samadhi that we get in this Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Second is called Bhava Samadhi. Bhava Samadhi means when Sri Ramakrishna was 7 or 8 years old, one day he was walking in the open fields and the whole earth near his village, the green fields and the open air, that must have been rainy season, the whole sky was covered with pure black clouds about to pour rain. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna saw a huge flock of pure white cranes flying in a particular formation. Now only scientists come to know that they are not doing it for the sake of beauty, but they do it for the sake of safety. Not only that, flying that way has many advantages. It consumes, I don't know how, but less energy. But then Sri Ramakrishna was not bothered about the scientific explanations. He saw these pure white cranes flowing against the thick black cloudy background. This is called Soundarya Anubhava, a great aesthetic experience. Immediately Sri Ramakrishna went into deep Samadhi. He was eating some puffed rice and that was the normal type of food people carry, tying in the cloth, upper cloth and then eat a little bit now and then. Very harmless I tell you and very good for diabetes also. You eat this a little bit slightly fried, but very tasty. If you want you can add small bits of chilli also to add a little bit taste to that, but it is very harmless, not like sweets. So Sri Ramakrishna went into that Samadhi and his parents were concerned, others were concerned, but he said I was filled with deep bliss. This is the second type of Samadhi called Bhava Samadhi. Third type of Samadhi is Future Visions, that is some events that occur in the future times. Now Sri Ramakrishna one day, I am giving the illustrations from the Gospel, from the life of Sri Ramakrishna. One day he was talking to devotees at Kasipur and then suddenly he went into Samadhi and then he came back from Samadhi to Consciousness and he said I saw a monk. The devotees looked at each other's face, there was no monk excepting Sri Ramakrishna. After an hour, suddenly a man entered, he looked like an ordinary person and he introduced himself, my name is Mr. Mishra, I was a Hindu, I became a Christian, not I was converted, but I myself converted for the love of Christ and I am actually a Sannyasi. Look here and he was underneath, he was wearing tokka robes, but outside he did not appear like that. Now nobody knew, neither Sri Ramakrishna knew, but this person had come to know, he had a vision of Sri Ramakrishna. In fact, he claimed that I saw three great spiritual persons, we do not know who the other two are. So in search of Sri Ramakrishna, he went to Pauhari Baba, there he saw the photograph, Pauhari Baba informed, he is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, he is on deathbed, you better hurry if you want to see him. That is how he happened to come here. Now I also remember, just now I talked about three types of Samadhi, the highest type is purely Saguna Brahma Samadhi or it could be rarely Nirguna Brahma Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, mostly it is Savikalpa Samadhi, only having Ishta, Devata, and Darshana. Now the second type of Samadhi, I spoke about what is called Saundarya Samadhi, aesthetic Samadhi. Now, there was an incident in the life of Narendra, when he was a young boy, his father was transferred to Raipur and they had to travel by oxen cart and they had to travel through huge mountains and the cart came to such a place, Narendra was always what is called sky high, sky pilot, he was called later on. His eyes never looked down below the telegraph pole as somebody remarked, he can never lower his eyes as we do. I don't know whether he did it in front of Sri Ramakrishna. So suddenly Narendra was sitting at the back of the cart, he saw that in some mountain cave, there was a huge beehive, very huge, probably it was old and then such a huge one that thousands, millions of bees must have been hovering and at that particular period, his mind saw it and entered into the beauty of God and he lost consciousness. Later on he described, I do not know when I came to consciousness, it's already several hours have passed. Probably others might have thought he must have fallen asleep but it was Bhava Samadhi. So this is what Samadhi is. Usually the Samadhis about future events are rare but Samadhis about what is called Saundarya Samadhi are seeing the Ishta Devata Darshana, higher type of Samadhi, not Savikalpa Samadhi but higher type of Samadhi, they are very frequent in Shri Ramakrishna's words. This is what M had seen, the sight of the Samadhi and the divine bliss. Samadhi means another way of saying, what is it? This is what I wanted to define actually. Samadhi is that state where the mind becomes totally immersed in God who is Sachidananda and experiences the infinite joy. Ananda is not even joy but Ananda. Now this happiness is also classified into pleasure which is the lowest, joy which is spontaneous much higher, happiness which is less emotional, more long lasting. For example, a householder settled in the middle age, very good job, good children, loving family, everything is beautiful, his life is going on very steadily, nothing exciting but that is called happiness. Joy means this what is called Bhava Saundarya, suddenly you see sunrise, sunset, a beautiful natural scenery, a beautiful flower, beautiful music etc. and spontaneously your mind becomes concentrated not because of your effort but because of that outer experience. This is called joy and it is also much more spontaneous. It is also Vishaya Ananda but much higher than eating, drinking, smelling, tasting, touching etc. But there is a higher type of joy which is called Kalananda. When a person hears a beautiful piece of classical music rendered perfectly, rendered what is called spotlessly and the joy that comes because the person who is listening is also a master, he knows what he is listening and such is called Kala Ananda. But a person who is highly moral, a dharmic person, the enjoyment he derives is incomparable even to this Kala Saundarya, Saundarya Ananda. This is called Dharma Ananda and Sri Ramakrishna used to call it Bhajanananda. Not the ordinary, neither Kalananda nor Medhananda. It is what is called Dharma Ananda. Of course, the highest which is indescribable which we can only induct by hearing about it, by reading about it, this is called Brahmananda. So Ramakrishna Samadhi varies in all these things. So that is why he returned home deeply moved. Now and then he could, that song is re-echoing within himself that soul intoxicating lines immerse yourself forever more O mind in him who is pure knowledge and pure bliss. With that the third visit of M is over. Now fourth visit. The next day too was a holiday for M. He arrived at Dakshineswar at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The Ramakrishna was in his room. Narendra, Bhavanath and a few other devotees were sitting on a mat spread on the floor. They were all young men of 19 or 20 seated on the small couch. The Ramakrishna was talking with them and smiling. Now something very wonderful has happened. No sooner had M entered the room than the master laughed aloud and said to the boys, there he has come again. And all those devotees, they all joined in the laughter. M of course bowed low before him and took a seat. Before this he had saluted the master with folded hands like one with an English education. What is it? Just bend the head a little bit and then fold the hands. What we call Namaskara. But that day M, he says, he learned to fall down at his feet in orthodox Hindu fashion what you call Pranama. And by the way, this bending, inclining the head a little bit, nodding the head, inclined head a little bit and doing, some people do it, the hands are brought, folded hands to the heart. This is proper Namaskara. But some people have the habit of taking those very hands above the forehead and this is what Lotu Maharaj used to make fun. Axe raising salutation and the devotee did not understand. So he questioned, what do you mean? He says, when you want to break a piece of wood into small pieces, how do you raise the axe? With both hands, this type of Namaskara resembles that one. But real Namaskara again falls into two kinds. One is called just kneel down and then in front of the eyes and then bend. That is called kneeling Pranama. But this is very common Pranama. But in South India, when people go to the temples or when they see highly revered sannyasins, etc., they do another type of Pranama. It is called Sa Ashta Anga Pranama, Sa Ashta Anga Pranama. So M for the first time, I think he did not do Sa Ashta Anga Pranama, but bowed low before him. So like Hindus do, this is what he was referring. Before this, he had saluted the master with folded hands like one with an English education. But that day, he learned to fall down at his feet in orthodox Hindu fashion. Now, Sri Ramakrishna, earlier he remarked, there he comes again. And what does he mean? Sri Ramakrishna has given a most beautiful parable, very, very high meaning is there, deep meaning is there. We will talk about it. But first, I will read out what Sri Ramakrishna said, the peacock and the opium. Presently, a master explained the cause of his laughter to the devotees. He said, a man once fed a peacock with a pill of opium at four o'clock in the afternoon. The next day, exactly at that time, the peacock came back. It had felt the intoxication of the drug and returned just in time to have another dose. All laughed. M heard it. M thought, this is a very apt illustration. Even at home, he had been unable to banish the thought of Sri Ramakrishna for a moment. His mind was constantly at Dakshineshwar and he had counted the minutes until he should go again. This particular illustration, beautiful illustration, is very meaningful. This particular illustration is very meaningful for the devotees. Many complaints come that how come I cannot concentrate? I cannot do my japam longer. I cannot meditate. Even japam cannot be done, let alone meditation. What is the difference between this particular illustration is wonderful. Until we get that intoxication, intoxication means what? The joy that rises beyond both happiness and sorrow. So, khanda dukkha, not only that. The only illustration I can give, when a person drinks, for the time being, he will be on the top of the world. He will be sky high. All the problems, entire world, as if is there far below his feet somewhere and he is floating there. That is why people unable to, in what is called waking state, fully conscious state, unable to cope with life, often they take to drinks and once they experience that and that seems to be the only way for them to live, to be able to continue life together. So, until a devotee experiences this kind of intoxication, in the name of God, and Shri Ram Krishna gives it to sing. South India also there are so many songs and Hindi also there are songs. Today, I will just mention a few of them. So, in Sanskrit, there is Pibare Rama Rasam Rasane Vaisadashiva Brahmendra Rama Nama Rasa Piyo. In Hindi, there is one. So, there is also in Kannada, Nama Amritam. So, Nama must become Amritam. In Bengali, I take, whenever I take the name of the mother, I don't take ordinary wine. I am a drinker of the nectar of the divine mother's name. Beautiful meaning is there. We will talk about it in our next class. Om Jananim Sharadam Deveyim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sridhva Pranamami Mohur Moho May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna