Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 074 on 22-November-2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPADMETAYO SHRITVA PRANAMAMI MUHURUM OHOHO First I would like to deal with some of the questions as much as it is possible. So let me get back to the first question. What is the truth? Absolute truth. Please give examples. It is not possible to give examples of the absolute truth because after eliminating everything what remains is called the absolute truth. There is a beautiful definition of what is truth. Sathyam. Trikala Abadhitam Sathyam. Whatever doesn't change undergo any change. That means there is no past, present and future. And we don't know anything that was not in the past, present and future because our very mind is constituted of time, space and causation which means we cannot think of any object excepting in the context, background of time and space. And therefore only a little glimpse of what it is could be had during deep sleep. You describe to me what is deep sleep. In fact you cannot. Simply you have to say I was so happy and I will add in brackets you made others also very happy. And the second thing is that I did not know anything because to know something time, space and causation kick in. So it is impossible. In simple words it is called God. And who is going to talk about God? I cannot talk about God because I don't know anything about God. And God cannot talk about God because there is nobody to ask and nobody to answer. So that is the best I can give you. But Shri Ram Krishna gives an example. I want to just remind you because you might have read. There was a small girl. She had an elder sister who was married. And Shri Ram Krishna gives this example. The younger sister, youngest sister asked the eldest sister what type of joy you derive from your husband. And the only answer, you get married, you grow up, you get married, then you understand. So what was Shri Ram Krishna driving at? When we become one with God then we know what is God. That is called the absolute truth. Second, what is the definition of good and bad? Beautiful question again. Swamiji, meaning Swami Vivekananda answered these questions. This good and bad in Vedantic language is called Dharma and Adharma. Swami Vivekananda defined Dharma is that way of thinking, way of speaking and way of living which takes us gradually nearer and nearer to God. And whatever takes us away from God is Adharma. What does it mean in practical terms? It means if we are approaching... I am giving you a beautiful example because these are beautiful questions. Supposing it is winter, it is very cold and there is bright fire burning in your drawing room and you came from outside, you are feeling cold. But as soon as you enter into the room, you feel warm. That itself gives you so much of joy. What happened? Cold has disappeared and warmth has come. But as you approach the fire, you become more and more, feel the heat. And if you approach too near, you become the fire. Beautiful analogy. What do I mean? What am I indicating it? God is defined as Sat, Chit and Ananda. Sat means good, truthful and existence. That which takes us nearer to God by spiritual effort, which means I become holier, I become a truthful person, I become really a good person by meditating upon God and that is what is called goodness. Sat, Satyam, Satsanga. Second, Chit. Chit means growing, developing, discrimination, viveka. It means I become a wiser and wiser person. Simple example because even though you know that, I have to tell you. Supposing you have eaten something, you like it very much, you know our relationship with food and everything else. There are some foods which we like and there are the same foods which may not like us. That means they do not suit us. So there are foods which like us. That means they are very suitable to us. We may not like them. So there are foods which we like, they may not like us. And by eating what we like but what do not like us, there is some physical, even mental problem. Every physical action has its counterpart on the mind. Not only psychosomatic, so more psychic also. By experience, oh that food did not suit me, that person did not suit me, that event, that behavior, that reaction did not suit me and learning the lessons from these events and that is all about life, life is about and we become wiser by thinking, recollecting and squeezing the essence and becoming wiser. That is what we grow into. This is called going towards God. And the more dharmic we become, in these terms that I have described, we become more and more joyous. Only difference is that joy is not coming from outside, not from any object but it is coming from within, from myself or in other words from God because there is no difference between me and God, whether I know it or not. If God is everything, I do not exist, only He exists. Thinking that I exist and some people say God does not exist, only I exist. Some people, the devotees say God alone exists which means I do not exist. That is the nature of God is Ananda. The nearer I approach to God, the more joyous I become. Anybody says I have been leading spiritual life for the last 50 years or any number of years, x number of years, but I am the same old miserable person in spite of increasing our japa, dhyana, etc. That means there is something seriously wrong, not with spiritual practice but how I am doing the spiritual practice. So this is the definition of what is good and what is bad. Third, hurting others. Can it ever be avoided? Really speaking, you cannot avoid. Unconsciously we breathe in, so many creatures die. We drink water, so many creatures die. And South Indians pride themselves, we are vegetarians, but whenever they have a cup of yogurt or curds, millions of bacteria they are killing, albeit unknowingly. What we should do is, we must consciously avoid hurting as much as possible. Is it possible? No, it is not possible. Why is it not possible? Because life cannot be sustained on a stone, on mud, which we consider as lifeless. That is what modern people consider as lifeless. Life can only thrive on life. Energy can only thrive on energy. Prana can only thrive on prana. Then what does it mean? It means we divide life into, these are plants and these are animals. And killing animals and eating is what we normally call non-vegetarian. That is from an ignorant person's viewpoint. Even a brinjal plant, a potato, you put it in the ground, it springs to life. But what it means is, what I absolutely require, and even consciously as a prasadam of God, if I can eat, then that is avoiding. But definitely with the purpose of killing, hurting, causing injury unnecessarily, these must be avoided, even from the viewpoint of karma. Because karma theory says, that you will come, you will get what you do. Karma phala is anivarya, inevitable. Sooner or later, this life or next life, it will be coming. So what is the answer? Can we ever avoid hurting others? No, it is not possible. But we must minimize it and we must do it only as much as is absolutely necessary and we can always say prayers, even when we are hurting something, injuring something. That is why in Africa, the old tribal people, when they kill an animal, they say a prayer to God. Their concept of God, which is the same as ours, Oh God, and you provided us with this, but this creature has to die because of my survival. But please see that this creature will reach you soon after saying prayers. That is what they eat because they cannot avoid killing and eating non-vegetarian food. But if it is possible, it is very, very important for us to avoid it consciously. But we can always say prayers because there is also a karmaphala there. We have to repay even when we have to survive. So that is the answer. So fourth, denial of basic human needs such as physical intimacy. Why? I am not sure I understand this fourth question, but it means probably the relationship between man and woman. But the very question is a wrong question because it is not denial of basic human needs. What is a basic human need? We cannot avoid eating food. We cannot avoid drinking water. We cannot avoid breathing air. But there are happily so many thousands of people or I would say even lakhs of people live and children live, old people live, many people voluntarily give up. Every monk, every sannyasini is supposed to avoid this thing. Not only it is not a necessary basic human need, it is in fact a distress. It is not necessary. That brings in all sorts of problems. As we say funnily, tamasha not only brings in-loss, but out-loss also. There are so many things like that. So what is it? Many people think we cannot survive. That's why the scriptures have provided you find out a good person, you must love that person, that person must love you and then both of you, you fulfil your needs, bring up the children if children come and as we learn love from our parents, you also teach by loving others so that they will also learn. So it is not that Shri Ramakrishna has taught to everybody. Most of his teachings are for householders, but we should not be slaves like what we call worse than animals. That whole life we have to indulge ourselves. That is a very poor sort of human life. There are higher types of joys and I think in my last class I had talked about them which is there is not only vishayananda, there is medhananda, intellectual happiness much superior, there is kalananda, that is aesthetic happiness much much higher, there is dharmananda, even much more happiness, moral happiness, of course brahmananda, spiritual happiness. The answer is, this question itself is long, nobody denies, but it should be channeled towards further evolution whether we like it or not. Prakruti, nature, will help us evolve because many times I told you we are living or we are standing on an evolutionary escalator, but if we can consciously help by moulding our life and character, it will be much better. It is also very important to understand why does a man and woman come together most of the time not because they want children, sometimes yes, most of the time for their own selfish what is called sexual desire. But why is sexual desire? Because it gives us pleasure. But supposing we can get pleasure or joy much better, higher, then we don't need it. This is simple psychology, people do not understand. Those who renounce, they are not running away because they get higher happiness because of past janmas, tapasya and sadhana. So they don't deny, I don't want this pleasure. They say, I don't need it. I had it, I know what it is and not every pleasure brings with it tremendous amount of compound interested pain and we all know that we are slaves, we should never justify our slavery. There are higher happinesses, definitely we can. So don't say it is basic human need. Yes, for some people, yes, it is a need, but it is not a basic human need. Basic human need means whereby we cannot survive, that is basic human need. Beyond that, it is what psychologists call an added type of need. Number five, why are women seen as a problem when men are expected to take responsibility for their own desires, especially sexual desires? This question also is not varied. Women are also a problem. Men are also a problem. It is not that only women are a problem. If men were to write books, then they will write condemning all men as the root cause of every problem in this world, imagined or unimagined. Unfortunately, it so happened in this world, even in the world of animals, it is the males, because of their strength, they dominate, strength of physical energy, or it could be money. Nowadays, money is seen as the most important security, which gives security, but which is not really true. Every second, we are subject to death, to disease, to injury, to accident. We are forgetting the basic truth of life. So, what is it? Most of our Puranas, unfortunately, women are the gateway to hell. Yes, I do admit. Ramakrishna was using that language that women are dangerous, not in the sense we understand, but in the sense we misunderstand. He worshipped Holy Mother, he worshipped God as Mother, and he looked upon every woman as Anandamayi Ma. He wants every man to look upon as every man looks upon his own mother or his own sisters as sacred, as to be respected. That is how we have to take. Now, when are men expected to take responsibility for their own desires? I am not sure whether they will ever do that. Let us confine ourselves to our own spiritual life. So, if we can pray to God and God can listen, only God's grace can control my desires, other people's desires, my partner's desires, my spouse's desires, etc. Seventh or sixth question. If Ahimsa is an eternal truth principle, then why was Paramahamsa eating fish? I think I already answered this question. Today, I will only answer these questions. What is the answer that I gave you? Life is impossible without hurting, killing life. Even a plant has life. You say you eat a cucumber, it has life. You have got a salad, that has life. You drink water, and billions of bacteria is there. It is impossible to live without killing, taking life. But we must do the minimum amount of hurting. So, in course of time, when the question comes, we will definitely talk about it. But today, that much we will do. Now, in our last class, I talked about the four fruits of life. And I talked quite a good amount. Why did I talk so much? Because these are called Purusharthas. Purushartha means desirable by human beings. There is no question of man or woman. Purusha means not male human being. Purusha means human being. Every human being, man or woman, should question. What is the question? What are the things that I really should desire? There are only four. Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Every desire that we desire or want to desire, want to fulfil, must be sandwiched between Dharma and Moksha. By the way, several times I repeated, spiritual life is not an option. Spiritual life is not an option. Why do I say so? Because people misunderstand leading a peculiar type of life, getting up early in the morning, sitting there and meditating, doing Japam, calling upon God, going on pilgrimage, studying holy scriptures, listening to holy talks, etc., etc., etc. is spiritual life. It is true. But that is not true spiritual life. True spiritual life is we are all wanting to have higher joy than we have. In fact, our scriptures put it this way, we don't want to have happiness. I am repeating. We don't want to have happiness. We don't want to get happiness. We don't want to obtain happiness. We want to become happy. Happiness. What is the difference? Whatever comes, goes. This is an inevitable law. Whatever you have used, it comes and goes. You have birth, it comes and goes. You obtain an object, it becomes old. When? After the next millisecond, your car, your house, your jewellery, and your dress, everything becomes old. So you cannot have anything that which comes from outside, it goes away. That means it changes. Body changes. Mind changes. Then what are we talking about? If I become happiness, not obtaining happiness, getting happiness, but if I become happiness, that means if happiness is my nature, nobody can take from me the happiness. I will be always happy. And that happiness is called infinite happiness. That means it is all happiness and it is all the time happiness. If it is all happiness, it is called infinite. If it is for all time, it is called eternal happiness. And every creature, you ask consciously or unconsciously, we are seeking that one. What is spiritual life? That we want to become happiness, we don't want to die, we want to be eternally existent, and we don't want to be unconscious because an unconscious person doesn't even know that he or she is alive, much less to say whether I am happy or unhappy. To know that I am and to know that I am happy, we require self-awareness. That is called Chit. So unbroken consciousness, unbroken existence, unbroken joy, this is called Sat-Chit-Ananda. And that is our nature. How do we know? Because we always seek our nature. And when we deviate from our nature, either voluntarily or involuntarily, we seek to avoid it. And for that, many times I gave you an example, but I will give you an example again. Suppose you are walking and you lose your balance and you are about to fall down. Do you think, what shall I do now? Or automatically your body will try to regain balance. What do you think you will do? If even fall is inevitable, you put up your hands to lessen the injury or whatever it is. Whether it is you fall from a plane, fall from a tree, fall from a chair, fall while walking, but automatically our fall is stopped or prevented by putting up our hands or feet or whatever it is we struggle. What is the point of this example? To be balanced is our nature. To be losing our balance is not our nature. So to be happy is our nature. When we are happy, when we are healthy, we don't struggle to do something. But I will come to that point also. When do you remember your head? When there is an ache. When do you remember your tooth? When there is an ache. When do you remember your stomach? When there is an ache. Whenever there is this kind of deviation from health, we seek redressing. What do we seek? We don't want to think about it. What is health? We don't want to think about our body and mind. That is called healthy. What is sickness? Some things make us think. When there is toothache, I think of tooth. When there is headache, I think of head. So to be healthy is our nature. To be unhealthy is not our nature. And whenever we know that we deviated from our nature, tremendous struggle will come to regain what I was already from where I seem to have fallen. So not to die is our nature. Not to be unconscious is our nature. Not to be unhappy is our nature. That means eternal being, eternal consciousness and eternal joy. That is our nature. So therefore, even though we may not consciously voice in this way, but any deviation, we struggle. That is why we pray असत् ओमा सद्गमय तमसोमा जोतिर्गमय मृत्योर्मा अम्रुतंगमय Therefore, in order to obtain or to know that I am Sat, Chit and Ananda, we have to desire first to be Dharmic. I talked about the poor Purushadha so much because he is not only earning things, obtaining things, but obtaining them in the right way, in the right quantities, etc. That is what our scriptures are talking about. So what we desire and what we really should desire, there is heaven and hell difference. That is why it is called Purusha Artha. A wise, intelligent, conscious human being alone can think deeply and come to the right decision that these are the four fruits of life that we really require. That is why they are called Purusha Artha. That is why we have talked so much about them. And Sri Ramakrishna condemned what is called lust and gold. Why? Because he is not condemning Purusha Artha. He is condemning if these two, that is happiness and obtaining of objects that we think, we imagine, that conduce to our happiness, both of them, there is nothing wrong with them, but they should be obtained in the right manner, which is called Dharma. And if we enjoy them in the right way, slowly our Chitta Shuddhi mind becomes pure and slowly it will take us to higher and higher states of consciousness. That is why it is most important. So spiritual life starts with conscious thinking about the Purusha Artha and moves forward by getting the right answers. Since we do not have the right answers, the textbooks, that is our scriptures, provide us with detailed descriptions of these things. So they digest what is important. And like a mother digesting hard food, producing milk, which is exactly suitable to a child's temperament, that is what exactly is necessary. And I have spoken so much about it. And I am going to speak also about them. Whenever occasion comes, we have to be very, very careful that a Hindu is one, in fact every human being, especially a Hindu, who understands what are the Purusha Arthas, what is my relationship with the Purusha Arthas, and our progress in life, whether you call it spiritual or material or whatever it is, the only measuring rod is am I being healthy physically, am I becoming a truthful person, am I becoming a good and holy person, am I developing wisdom, and am I growing in happiness, this is the only way to measure progress. Any other type of progress, I can live 150 years, I can obtain so much money, I have so much of knowledge through my brain, and I can give talks on that, these are all not important. If I am not a happy person, if I am not a healthy person, even if I am what is called reasonably rich person, what are you going to do with your bank balance when you cannot sleep even on a very good bed, if you cannot digest even what I call boiled water, what is the point of you having so much money, others will enjoy, servants will enjoy, but it only adds to our misery, our food the servants are enjoying, but I am not able to enjoy it, that's why I spoke so much about it. Now I am coming to the next most marvelous subject, effect of music on human mind. Why did this topic come out? Because in our last class we have seen, after completing the subject on the four Purusharthas, we saw M was enchanted with Sri Ram Krishna singing, because not only music but the particular person's way and two persons impressed M and all devotees, Sri Ram Krishna himself and then next Narendra, future Swami Vivekananda. This is the subject and it was the effect of that listening to the singing by Sri Ram Krishna, especially of course Narendranath also was so great, M wanted to hear again, so he came and asked Sri Ram Krishna, will there be music tonight? Sri Ram Krishna said no, no more music, but then he said that tomorrow again there will be music, I will come to that point again when the time comes, but you come, that subject we are going to discuss again. Now what is the effect of music on human mind? Probably some of you have thought about it, probably some of you did not think deeply about it, but I will give you first of all, what is good music or what is perfect music. Every perfect music, whether it is singing, vocal or instrumental, should fulfil what is called six conditions. Six gunas must be there, shat guna should be there. What are they? Briefly bhava, sahitya, raga, shruti, laya and thala. Bhava, that means what? You know Indian music is such a marvellous subject, there are more than 60 ragas are there. It is a raga bringing out a particular bhava, emotion and all emotions according to Indian thinkers have been divided into nine ways classified. That is why we call it nava rasa. Rasa means the aesthetic joy and nine types of emotional effects should manifest. Whatever type of aesthetic experience, it may be a painting, it may be poetry, it may be sculpture, it may be music, but especially music. So what is the first thing? Is this music bringing about that particular emotion? Is it rousing that particular emotion within me? That is called bhava. The very purpose of lyrics and putting it to a particular way of music called raga, that the purpose is to bring out this emotion which is there within us already, but maybe it is potentially there or it is subconsciously there, it should be brought out. And a successful music is that which brings out this bhava. This is the very heart of music. Bhava is the very heart of music. Now to bring about this emotion, the sahitya, the lyrics, even instrumental music is based upon somebody's composing. This must be played in such a way whether it is Indian or non-Indian. It doesn't really matter. So this is called sahitya. In useless English language it is called lyrics. And whenever you think of lyrics, you think of this stupid music that every young man, young woman is singing I love you, I love you, but no, this sahitya should be such. It must bring from deep within us and connect us with the infinite. This connection of the finite with the infinite, whatever brings up, that is part of this sahitya or lyrics. So first is very heart is emotion. Emotion must be roused with a particular type of sahitya, literature or lyrics and that lyrics must be composed in a particular way and that is called raga. And I don't know much about western music, but if we are talking about Indian music, so Indian music, there are ragas which can be sung at a particular time. For example, early morning 3 o'clock, you can't sing any raga you like. You can't have discodance. You can have only Bhairava, Bhairavi, similar ragas. And as the day progresses, slowly more activity and midday, it is usually called Bhimapalasi, etc. And as evening comes, just as we become old, our life is entering into the evening stage, slowly our mood has to change. If any old man wants to attend a dance music along with young people, men and women, then something is wrong with his terrible brain. He doesn't know what is life. So according to the change in the day, in the night and at midnight, some ragas like Malakosh, etc. are sung. So our rishis who are the founders of this musical science have observed closely how nature in the form of day and night, not only in the form of day and night, but in the form of seasons. For example, Mallar Raga is sung only in the rainy season. That's why there are varieties of Malhara. That is Meghamallar, etc. And then there is Vasanta Raga. Why is it called Vasanta? I hope you can answer it. Some fellow has asked, some other fellow, who has written Shakespeare's works? And that fellow said, I don't know. What was the question? Who wrote Shakespeare's works? Even though that broad hint is given, the fellow doesn't understand it. So Vasanta Raga means what? That raga which is bubbling with new life and which will bring up a new joy after the deep and suffering cold, etc. And even rainy season brings so much of relief after scorching heat, etc. So that condition should be manifesting in the mind in the form of emotion. That is why according to seasons, not only according to changing times, early in the morning, Brahma Muhurta, then just before sunrise, as the sun rises, midday, the sun is setting, evening ragas, then night ragas, then midnight ragas, all the 24 hours our rishis have observed how they affect our sensitive human mind and they have composed certain combinations of these ragas, or sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sapta, swara, and that is how raga should be understood. So bhava, the central emotion, which we are supposed to get, sahitya, appropriate literature, and then raga. So a sahitya, simple example, because I had varied experience with these things, somebody has composed a song, O Ramakrishna, your name is joy itself, it is immortal. And somebody composed a raga, O Ramakrishna, how horrible is life, your very name is creating so much of dukkha in me. Where is the relationship between sahitya and raga? So this is what every musical composer, and especially we had a golden period, even though I say cinemas, but most of the old classics, they are based upon classical music, raga based music, that's why even today some of us cannot forget. I don't know how many youngsters really appreciate this particular thing. So raga. Then shruti. What is the shruti? Every human being's voice differs from every other human being. Some people's voice is deep, some people's voice is in the middle range, some people's is very high pitched, so they divided that if it is woman, it is high pitched. If it is a man, it is low pitched. One is called boss, another is soprano or whatever you call it, I am not very sure about it. So shruti means, every person, or even playing instruments, that particular middle point, where the person, if a playing instrument, should be able to go comfortably up or down. If he is a person, especially a vocal singer, then that particular middle part, where it would be within the limited voice range of that particular individual, it should be able to easily go up and down and that is the greatness of music directors. They will compose in such a way, they will direct in such a way, that is called shruti. Find out your central place from where you can go up or down or sideways with the least amount of effort. That is called shruti. Then the most wonderful thing is called laya. Laya means rhythm. Life, if it moves in a rhythmic way and that is how the whole nature moves. Sun rises, Sun then moves towards the highest place and again sets. Sunrise, midday, sunset, midnight, then all the six seasons of the year, then birth, then adolescence, youth, middle age, old age, death, everything, every life moves in a rhythmic way and that is called laya. That word rhythm has come from the Sanskrit word Ritam. Every day the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna sing this one. And this rhythm, music must be rhythmic and that is one of the most important gunas, qualification of good music. We are talking about general rhythm. But when this general rhythm is set according to the limitation of the literature, according to the limitation of the number of words, number of letters of the literature, it comes to be known as thala. And if there is no thala, there is no rhythm and there is no shruti, there is no raga, there is no sahitya, there is of course no bhava can be produced. Bhava is the highest goal to be produced by music. For that, and that can be produced only when the sahitya is right, raga is appropriate, shruti is the central point and rhythm set to particular count of the words etc. These are the six lakshanas of perfect music. Anything lacking, it will be a lakshana. In that particular respect, it won't be perfect at all. Now you can see, if these six conditions are fulfilled, you can just imagine. It is said in the Bhagavatam, when Shri Krishna used to play music, the trees used to blossom, out of season they produce flowers, fruits, the cows give more milk because when you are joyous, your whole being moves in a rhythmic way and Krishna's music is the rhythm of life and that is why everybody, animals are attracted, plants are attracted, rivers are attracted, birds are attracted, everybody is attracted, nobody can resist the music of Bhagavan and that unsounded music is called Anahata Dvani and it is going on. What is that Anahata? Unsounded sound. What is that unsounded sound? God's call. Oh my children, you are not different from me. You are me. Please come to me. Then everything will be alright. Then you will become Sat, Chit, Ananda and you are made up of me. You are the manifestation of me and it is your destiny to become me. There is no other way. You can't escape me. You can't go outside me. You can only become me. You may struggle. The struggle will only increase your unhappiness, your distress, your suffering but all life is meant only finally life starts, begins from God, comes down and completes the circle and this is called rhythm and that rhythm is always calling us and that is why the effect of music is incalculable. It can produce a lot of things. It can calm the mind. How many? At least I have catalogued five effects. What is the very first thing? It stills the restless mind. For every type of restlessness there is a type of music there. Unless a person is a horrible fellow gone so far down that he cannot be easily regenerated or reformed music has this effect on every decent type of mind. The first thing it does is instead of our stilling the mind a good music will do that job for us. It stills the mind and then it not only stills the mind in that stilled mind just like churning milk and bringing about butter and in Bhagavatam this churning of the milk ocean is what we call the Amruta. Dhanvantari brings Amruta. This is called Amruta Mathana. Amruta Kshera Sagara Mathana to bring about Amruta. What is Amruta? That which will make us immortal. Sat, Jit, Ananda. So it instills Bhava in us. And as I mentioned there are infinite number of Bhavas and all the Bhavas have been classified into nine main manifestations and that is called Nava Rasa. Nava means nine. What is Rasa? Joy. Nine ways of manifesting joy within human being and music is the best thing. Any aesthetic something can do that one but music is the nearest that we understand. I don't know whether anybody is there who is not moved by music. It is said even music melts stones. There is an instance of when Sri Ramakrishna used to sing and Totapuri never understood the Bengali language but hearing that music the Bhava used to enter and this hardened what is called Advaita Vedantin called Sushka Vedantin Dry Vedantin used to shed tears of joy and he himself could not understand why he was shedding tears of joy and I will tell you why later on. So he used to exclaim What is this? Why am I shedding tears? He could not help because the power of Sri Ramakrishna's singing he fulfilled all the six conditions that particular Bhava has been as it were fished out of the depths of Totapuri's hardened mind dry sand bed river bed and then it has come out it is filled with that indescribable Rasa and he could not explain. Now I will tell you why he was moved because unconsciously he knew that I am a child of the Divine Mother. We all know that Yademi Sarvabhuteshu Matru Rupin The Divine Mother is there within each one of us. We are in her she is in us but sometimes we deny her she never denies us but we deny her but the purpose of the music is to bring about she never knew that I was a devotee of God I thought Jagat is Mithya but here is the power of music Sri Ramakrishna's Bhava and you must remember when Sri Ramakrishna used to sing he himself used to forget the whole world become one with that Sahitya with that Bhava he was what is called condensed manifestation Chid Ghanakaya Kuchavar Bhava Navarasa and naturally anybody who is in that periphery circumference they cannot help themselves but move they may not know they may not be able to retain it afterwards but for the time being in his presence because of the power of his music he would be doing this one so what is the first effect stills the mind I don't need to explain it you know it when you hear a good music automatically stills your mind how do you know because you don't want to do anything else excepting hear that music you want to continue even if somebody is pulling you you want to say later on later on I want to hear this one and then it instills the Bhava that particular Raga induces that particular Bhava helped of course supported of course by that Sahitya by that Shruti by that Laya and by that Thala and then it reverberates to the very depths of the unconscious this music goes down because human being's mind is categorized by psychologists into three ways the conscious the subconscious and the unconscious of course this is the western psychologist explanation but Indian psychology Patanjali Yoga says no actually our personality consists of four layers what is it the unconscious the subconscious the conscious and the super conscious what is spiritual life what is evolution it is from the stones or unconscious life starts with what is called subconscious and it progresses into which is called instinct instinct progresses into what is called self awareness self conscious every human being is supposed to be a self conscious human being but this is only the beginning the vertical evolution must start which is called super conscious our journey is towards that super conscious so if a good musician either sings or plays whatever it is it penetrates it goes to the very depth and it starts bringing about a change that is what I said reverberates in the unconscious and we know that every music produces joy even you hear the saddest song saddest raga but it produces an aesthetic joy bhava so whether it is malakosh bhairava raga vimpalashi or whatever type of raga it is it produces tremendous joy which cannot be obtained by any ordinary experience of object called vishayananda which the dry intellectual understanding can never bring about but this is the greatest joy only below dharmananda that is moral joy that is a different subject altogether the what is the fourth generates joy but it has tremendous power what music what does it do unconsciously effortlessly it focuses the mind it you don't need to do it this is what you call unconsciously effortlessly without our conscious effort the mind becomes focused that is the power of music are there many other things yes modern science did research and they have studied the brain and they tell that alpha waves are created the mind becomes relaxed worries become less the mind becomes more conscious so many other the blood pressure goes down and the health becomes more and this is what we can see if we can study what we have discussed today these five characteristics from the viewpoint of when Krishna used to play music the trees used to bend and shed flowers leaves blossoms fruits everything the animals used to listen they used to become still they used to behave like great yogis so these are consciously I brought about five effects of music to recount so that we can remember music stills the mind music instills bhava a particular bhava music reverberates in the unconscious music generates the greatest joy which cannot be obtained from any intellectual understanding or much less any experience of eating drinking etc but the last music helps us focus on our mind that is why there is something we have to add to this there are so many speakers what is the difference between one speaker and other speaker you go to youtube and then you find out how many views are there how many people are listening to that most of us we get hardly a few but there are some who attract thousands of people what is the reason music is helpful the way they present is very simple and attractive but not only that the voice, the power of the voice even if a wicked person is singing or talking rubbish but you will be simply enchanted the power of the voice is incalculable and that is why even blind fellows are affected so much by the power of the voice we become unconscious devotees of a good voice and unfortunately somebody doesn't have a good voice however much intellect is there the number of people attending will be much less so these are the effects of great music I went into raptures because I know what I am talking about and we all know you reverberate along with me because you understand perfectly what I talked about now no wonder when this music is coming out from a great soul like Sri Ramakrishna not only he was a singer first he led a spiritual life he became a saint and then he was singing no wonder Yama wanted to hear again and again and again and again and we also if we are fortunate to hear that one unconsciously by his grace we can never forget about it and can we hear? yes we can hear is he singing? yes he is still singing where is he singing? you sit still, you pray to him you will hear that divine music this is called music of the spheres this is called Anahata Dvani and then the next question Sri Ramakrishna asks what do you think of me? most marvellous question our entire life is spent only from the childhood until death, what do you think of me? husband, what do you think of me? wife, what do you think of me? child, what do you think of me? parent, what do you think of me? neighbour, what do you think of me? the whole world is like a gigantic mirror in which we want to see ourselves, we want to see what others think of me and rarely we think about the others but everybody wants to think what the others think about me Sri Ramakrishna asks this question and it is a marvellous answer we will talk about it in our next class may Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Jai Ramakrishna