Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 079 on 31-January-2023

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Mohur Moho Ho Today we are entering into a very essential marvelous topic which unconsciously over the ages we have been practicing to the detriment of ourselves and the whole world. How much harm even the greatest so called religious people not spiritual people but religious people unconsciously they commit murders. How much blood has flown in the name of God in the name of religion even in the name of spirituality we will be discussing this one but most important is whenever we are studying the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna we have to understand how is it helping me in my own spiritual life that is the main purpose whether I am speaking or you are speaking, I am listening you are listening, I am reading, you are reading. The only purpose we have to keep in mind is nobody can help anybody we can try to help only ourselves and that is possible also only by the grace of God. A few days later M visited the master at Dakshineswar. It was between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The master and he were sitting on the steps of the Shiva temples looking at the temple of Radhakanta across the courtyard. The master went into an ecstatic mode. The topic came up. Bigotry condemned. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Kali the Divine Mother of the Universe. He said, Mother everyone says my watch alone is right. The Christians, the Brahmos, the Hindus, the Muslims all say my religion alone is true but Mother the fact is that nobody's watch is right. Who can truly understand Thee? But if a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can reach Thee through Thy grace by any path. When we are praying to God, talking about God, God means eternal and infinite. Eternal means beyond time. Infinite means beyond space. That which is beyond time and space can never be described and whatever is describable falls within time and space. Now Sri Ramakrishna's words have tremendous depth. The more we meditate, the more meaning we acquire. What is it really? First of all, Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Kali the Divine Mother of the Universe. What we need to understand that there is no such division that he is talking to Mother Kali sometimes and he is talking to devotees or ordinary people or temple servants. I will give the instance. In this instance he is talking to the Kali, the Divine Mother and sometimes he addresses the devotees directly. Sometimes he has to address for example, Prinde, the maid servant. He has to address or an immoral woman, Rati by name. He has to address and we make the distinction now he is in a high mood. He is talking to Mother. Now it is a less exalted mood. He is talking with the devotees. Now he is in a very ordinary mood. He is talking to ordinary people, even worldly people, even worse immoral people. No. The vision of a realized soul is everything is Brahman and in no one Brahman or divinity is less. Then why does he speak to different people in different ways? Not because his vision of Brahman is obscured but because the body-mind complex has a special requirement. For example, if worldly people happen to touch him, his body will be harmed and we know that that is what had happened. So many people, sinful people and mostly devotees, they got better and he got the sense. Just like if my hand is clean and if an unclean hand is shaken by me, then that other person's hand will be a little bit less dirty but my own hand acquires a little more dirt. That's why we have to be extremely careful. And in this also, we can see what is gross. Somebody is dirty, we can perhaps see something. But if somebody is impure in heart, very difficult. Somebody brings food, somebody gifts something. If the character of the person is impure, we do not see, so we do not understand how much harm we are doing to ourselves. What is the point? Ramakrishna, when he talks to anybody, he sees only Brahman. But for practical purposes, he may adopt different methodology to deal appropriately so that he behaves like a normal man and not anything else. But his vision is never disturbed by anybody else in this world. And that is why we have to remember the incident in the life of Shankaracharya. He has written a beautiful hymn, Manisha Panchakam, five verses, and it came out because he, being a South Indian, being a so called high born Brahmana, encountered a chandala in Kashi of all the places where he is supposed to see, we are supposed to see one Shiva. And then he said, you get out of my way, as if he is superior. Then the chandala addressed him, whom are you addressing? Get out. Are you talking about the body? And my blood also is O positive, your blood also may be positive. There is no difference between your blood, your flesh, and my blood and my flesh. If you are talking about the Atman, there is absolutely no difference. The same pure consciousness is in both of us. Then whom are you addressing? Get out, because in between these two there is nothing else. And supposedly he learnt his lesson, but his followers never learnt their lesson. Even today they observe this terrible Brahmanism in every one of their Shankara mats, blissfully preaching Advaita, everything is Brahman. But appropriately, just because everything is Brahman, and Sri Ram Krishna is an Andhra devotee, and the Andhra devotee, the Brahman of Andhra devotee brings the Brahman of Andhra pickle and gives it to Sri Ram Krishna and the Brahman of Sri Ram Krishna swallows it and the Brahman, the body of Sri Ram Krishna would dissolve instantaneously into highest Samadhi. Therefore behaviour is practical, but vision is of same. That is what we need to do. We don't become odd. We don't behave oddly, impractically. This is what is called practical Vedanta. What is Sri Ram Krishna saying? Mother, everyone says what I watch alone is right. What does it mean? Each one of us thinks what I think is right and what others think most often is either not right or not right to the same extent. Then Sri Ram Krishna is born, has taken incarnation, especially to remove this hatred, the wars, religious wars between different religions including among the Hindus, the Shaktas, what is called the Vaishnavas, the Tantrics, the Advaita Vedantins and other schools of philosophy. Terrible distinction was there. Terrible quarrels were there, even if they do not murder each other. The only difference I am telling you, if you study the Indian history, you will see Muslims, Muslim kings have oppressed Hindus very much and we are all highly aware. The Muslim emperors have demolished Hindu temples, looted Hindu temples and converted many of them into masks, etc. So glaringly obvious, even if they don't accept, even nowadays, anything has been done against the Muslims, they become bristled. But the history cannot be altered. But what about the horrible hatred between the Vaishnavas, between the Shaktas, between the Shaivites and between the Dwaita schools and the Advaita schools? How many people categorizing them under the name of Shudra class have we been oppressing them for them? It is for nothing that they have changed their religion because they wanted a little bit of respect. Everybody is potentially divine. We have conveniently forgotten and we have mistreated them for centuries together. How many types of such oppressions I am going to tell it now. But Ram Krishna is referring but we have to understand bigotry takes innumerable forms. What are those forms? I will come to that. Ram Krishna is telling anybody thinks my religion alone is true, he is completely wrong. In fact at the beginning of this gospel of Ram Krishna, we come across him questioning Ram Krishna logically if God is with form, how can he be without form? And if he is without form, how can he be with form? Ram Krishna said yes he is with form, he is without form and he is beyond both form and formlessness. We have to remind ourselves the way the mind functions. Mind can only function in the form of opposites. Darkness and light, heat and cold, happiness and suffering and good and evil, life and death. If one side of the knowledge is missing, the other side can never even be understood what it is. So everybody thinks that I alone am right. That is why women think we are right, all men are dumb. And men of course think, they smirk and say all women are brainless chaps. This eternal what is called gender hatred or complex is going on and on and on even today in every field of life in one way or the other. But Shri Ram Krishna is born to remove is to say as many faiths. If some person believes this is how God is and this is how anybody can reach but without disturbing, let him keep his own faith and pursue and his own pursuit of truth will bring him to the truth and then he will appreciate God is infinite. His manifestations are infinite and every manifestation is a path to God. If somebody is worshipping a piece of wood, a tree or water, what we call river goddess or a mountain Himalaya Himalayo Nama Nagadhiraja Asti Uttarashyam This is Devataya Kalidasa goes into ecstasy praising the Himalayas. It is nothing but the glory, the manifestation of God himself. Only as we grow, our concept of God also grows which is meant by Swami Vivekananda. As man grows, God also grows but that could create confusion. As man's understanding grows, his understanding of God, his concept of God also expands and that is called spiritual progress. So everybody thinks my religion alone is true. How many wars, even now there are certain religions either what is called it is expressed or not expressed. Some religion openly expressed my religion alone is the pathway, especially Islam. Orthodox Islam. Sufis do not say so but Christians they used to convert even now they are what is called covertly converting people because they believe that every other path is wrong. This is the only path to God. There is no other path. This is what Sri Ram Krishna is telling. More or less many religions openly do not say it but accepting Hinduism most of the religions are what you call very fanatical religions. What is Sri Ram Krishna telling? But mother the fact is that nobody's watch is right. This is one of Sri Ram Krishna's favorite expressions. The sun alone maintains the right time. Everybody's watch is wrong. Who can truly understand God? Mind cannot understand God. I will come to that point a little later. What is the way out? But if a man prays to thee with a yearning heart he can reach thee through thy grace by any path. Any path. Sri Ram Krishna used to give a beautiful illustration. Somebody wants to go to Jagannatha temple and then he goes towards the north from Calcutta. That is a wrong direction to go. But if he is earnest God himself will come in the form of another person. Where are you going? I want to go to Puri. No, no. This is a wrong direction. You go you have to go to the south and very soon such a person will come. This is an inevitable law. That is if a man is earnest and he will get what he wants because God listens to his prayers but God need not come in the form of God. He comes in the form of a child, in the form of an animal, in the form of wind, in the form of many things but he will bring his child to the exact destination. This is the only way. Let me follow my path. Let me be earnest. Let me not bother about others and if I can do that by God's grace I can attain. Not to speak of ordinary person. Even Totapuri Maharaj, a Advaitic teacher was firmly convinced that this world is unreal. For a man of realization everything is God. If anybody says when I close my eyes then I see God. But when I open my eyes it is anatma, mithya. He will be, his realization is a very doubtful realization. That is why albeit without his liking, wanting 11 months he had to stay there but slowly but surely in the presence of satsanga and the greatest satsanga is the company of God himself in the form of an incarnation. He understood. He came down. He bowed down to the Divine Mother. His whole understanding has changed. Everything is God whether he with open eyes, closed eyes and his realization became complete. Now as I was mentioning earlier bigotry we think is only religious bigotry. No. Open your eyes and read any newspaper and you will see how many varieties of bigotry. Not only they are not dead, I feel sometimes they are becoming more and more strong. For example, nationality. So one nation says so many countries to belong to us. How much of fluidity is there? So Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ceylon everything at one time is to call it loosely federation of many states which we now call India. What happened? Separation between Sri Lanka, between Bangladesh, between what we call now Pakistan and may be many other these things. May be at one time they were all separated. May be later on somebody combined them. May be now they have been separated. But how much of internecine war going on? For what? For a bit of this one. This is called nationality. So gender, class, skin color, civilization, size, nationality, you name it, there is a bigotry there. I will just give you small examples. Why am I going into these examples when we are studying the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna? Because spiritual progress is to understand our own personality. Am I suffering from all these type of bigotries? What are the bigotries? First of all gender. What is the gender? There is a masculine gender and there is a feminine gender. Even now there are people after reading the gospel, especially the women, why does Sri Ramakrishna refer again and again woman and gold, woman and gold. In fact, this is a very, what you call, smoothed out translation. But ufologistic translation. But the real translation is Kamini Kanchana. Kamini means a temptress. A woman, not only a woman, but she is a temptress. But for the sake of not having so many conflicts, it was smoothed down and then made into woman and gold. How many women I have come across who objected to it? But what was Sri Ramakrishna's intention? Is he seeing woman or is he seeing Brahman or Divine Mother? And why was he talking about it? What he meant is, clearly I have explained earlier also that woman is not the enemy of man. Man is not the enemy of woman. Man is the greatest enemy of man. Woman is the greatest enemy of woman. Perhaps some of you have understood, hopefully many of you, but what it means is, if a woman thinks, I am a woman, then her temptation will be how to attract the opposite sex, a man. Of course, many people question me, even now, why only opposite, same sex also. Yes, I agree, this is only for illustration purpose. So if a man thinks, I am a man, a masculine, then his attraction will be towards the opposite sex, which is a woman. This is what Swami Vivekananda, more than 100 years back, tried to explain to all of us that man is the greatest enemy of man. That is to feel I am the body, to feel I belong to this gender. Now, coming to the generalities, do you think that any man even today, accepts any woman equal to him? Only a baby says, my mother is greater than me. But as soon as the same fellow gets up, women are okay, but nothing compared to men. And this gender discrimination is going on all over the world, in jobs, in payments, in social treatment, anything. I don't need to go into so many descriptions, but you know that. And the saddest part of it is, women themselves want men to make that discrimination. This is a peculiarly perverted view that is happening. But that is what happens when we think we are the body. Let us come to the class. Doctor's class, upper class, lower class, wealthy class. We know there are clubs only millionaires can join. I am not sure that there is a billionaire's club. I think there is. I read it somewhere. Only a billionaire can join that club. So, if somebody's income is very small income, there is no chance of his coming at all there. Then, you know class also. Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, then workers' union, then officers' union, and prisoners' union, and prison officers' union. This is called class. What about skin color? Every white-skinned person, most of them, exceptions are always there, are convinced a white skin color is superior in every way, and so many psychologists have conclusively proved they are completely wrong. A black man, a brown man, any man can be superior, but what these people say, you know, that okay, exceptional cases we admit, but in general, the percentage of the white man is much, much more intelligent, meaning clever, than other colors of skins. So, so many, Jung had classified these colors of the skin into four categories. The white, the black, the yellow, meaning the Mongolian genders, and then the brown, which is Asians. And he even compared the sizes, the shape of the noses, so that even the nose indicates some kind of personality trait. And the, what is called hook-nosed, eagle-nosed, beak-nosed, like Vindhya Jalvasanesh, bird-nosed, and thin lips, they indicate tremendous selfishness, cruelty, and non-consideration for other people. I will not go into the details, but this is the color discrimination. Even now, it is going on in America, how the black people have beaten black and blue, I don't know how they do it. So, even today, they are proudly declaring, we are the greatest democracy, but it is going on. What about India? Yes, it is going on. So, this is the color discrimination. What about civilization? Western civilization is superior to Egyptian civilization, Chinese civilization, Roman civilization, and of course Indian civilization. We are more civilized because we speak what is called fluent English, naturally their mother tongues, and this what is called the very way they speak, different accents, Irish accent or Middle England accent or Bangladesh accent of Bengali speaking, it makes all for fun, etc. for other people. What about the size discrimination? Have you heard about size discrimination? Supposing you are 5 feet, 6 inches or 8 inches and you come across another person who is only 5 feet, you know what will be your tendency? If you are walking side by side, you take out your hand and put it on the other person's shoulder, indicating that you are somehow superior because of your height. This is what I am calling size discrimination. And there are women, peculiarly in the 19th century, the fatter a woman, the more beautiful she considers herself. But just to the opposite now, if you say, if the woman can fly, then that is considered a definite sign of beauty. So, don't eat, starve, only eat vegetable juice and for the attraction of anything, these are all wrong notions implanted, mostly by men. This is called fashion. So, size discrimination. And see, look, supposing you see a fellow who is very fat, hardly able to move, you don't say because of certain civilizations have trained you, but inside, my God, what a fatty fellow is like an animal inside your mind, you will declare. That means you are looking down upon that type of personality. Now, you can extend this, dresses, possession of cars, possession of money, everything else. Anything that makes me feel a little bit superior, that makes me look down upon other people in the same way, even how we speak. If I can speak English language better than you, I look down upon you. My God, how much this Mahamaya is working now. Only I want to end this topic. One, Hindus have mistreated billions of people, millions of people, Hindus look down, never gave them a chance, even sealed their ears with mercury and with lead and so many other things just because they should not hear even the utterance of the Vedas, etc. And even Swami Vekananda was not permitted to enter into some of the temples. Even today, some type of people cannot enter into the temples at all. So much of discrimination all in the name of religion, nationality, civilization. What is the subject? Sri Ramakrishna was talking mainly about religious bigotry. But I am talking because we all cherish that bigotry and every minute of our life we are what is called emphasizing it, mostly unconsciously and that is how that itself becomes a terrible bondage way to examine ourselves. And this is what Holy Mother wants to tell. My children, you are all my children. Everybody is equal to me. There is no high or low, small or big, great or small. As children, you are all my own children. Remember that you are all children of the Divine Mother. If we do not cherish, if we do not behave according to that knowledge that we are all children of the Divine Mother, if my behaviour doesn't accord with my so-called japa, dhyana, meditation spiritual practices, then whatever I may be doing it will turn into ashes. It is not going to be possible. Now, some illustrations. How much Sri Ramakrishna suffered from other priests? Why? Because the other priests, they had a standard. They used to worship the Divine Mother in a particular way. But Sri Ramakrishna, he had entered into what Swami Sharadananda beautifully categorizes as Raga Anuga Bhakti stage. What Swami Vivekananda called Para Bhakti. And as soon as he entered into that state, there is no what is called order in worship. You can offer food. Not only that, one day he was offering the food meant to be offered to the Divine Mother to a cat. Supposing another day, it did not happen, but supposing a dog enters, he will give. Suppose a prostitute enters, first he will give to the prostitute and then he will give to the Divine Mother. Why? Because in his vision there is no dog, there is no cat, there is no prostitute, there is no Divine Mother, one unbroken Akhanda Chaitanya. Pure Consciousness alone is there. And that is the goal we all want to attain. And only when as we progress towards that, when we identify ourselves with that Consciousness, only then there is a chance for these differences to vanish. But until that time, consciously we should be able to see, look upon them as manifestations of God. This is what Swami Vivekananda meant. Shiva Jnana, Jiva Shiva. And this is what Sri Ramakrishna meant. Bhagavad Gita also tells it. And it is very difficult even for those who attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Here is the incident. Swami Vivekananda was pestering Sri Ramakrishna for Nirvikalpa Samadhi. And then it took him nearly four and a half years for Sri Ramakrishna to bestow this Nirvikalpa Samadhi on Swami Vivekananda. Remember on his third visit, most likely I do not remember, Ramakrishna wanted to touch Narendra and give him what he himself has experienced. As soon as he touched future Vivekananda, Narendranath cried out, What are you doing to me? My parents are in Calcutta. And then Sri Ramakrishna had to retouch him and bring him down. Why did he do that? Because he understood that it is not the wish of the will of the Divine Mother. Why? Because Swami Vivekananda, Narendra had to become Swami Vivekananda, Swami Vivekananda had to become a world teacher. A world teacher must be looking upon sympathetically with every type of opinion and attitude, people believing in form without form, even mastika, those who do not believe in God. But only one condition is absolutely needed condition that is Shraddha. Somebody is honest and completely sincere if that quality is present and whatever his mind says, I don't believe that, I don't believe this, it doesn't really matter. But for all of them, he has to guide them not theoretically but authentically. Therefore, Narendra Nath had to go from theism to atheism to skepticism to agnosticism and a person believing without form, first with form and second without form, lastly with both form and formlessness, everything he had under the trained guidance of Sri Ramakrishna, he had experienced to some extent and then only after four and half years, just a few days before Sri Ramakrishna passed away, he was given. By the way, this happened on the night of Shivaratri and this Shivaratri is going to come in a two weeks time and three days later on, there will be Sri Ramakrishna's birthday this year, February. It is going to happen. So, that is why Narendra Nath could not take but then, what is the point I am emphasizing? That this Nirvikalpa Samadhi was given by the grace of Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji enjoyed it. I will not go into the details. After that, Sri Ramakrishna passed away. Swami Vivekananda was wandering and one day he was passing through a village and he saw a low-caste man smoking hubble-bubble and Swami Vivekananda felt like smoking. So, he went and asked and he was told, Swami, I am a low-caste person. It will be sinful for me. I will incur sin if I give it to an upper-caste man and hearing it, Swami Vivekananda turned away and after walking a mile, a kilometer or so, suddenly remembered I am supposed to see Brahman everywhere. Why did I make this kind of discrimination? Where did all my Nirvikalpa Samadhi knowledge disappear? Immediately, he came running back forcefully snatched, smoked a little and then he assured him, not only you are not going to attain any papa, as a result of this, you are going to be enlightened very soon. This is not there in the book but I am telling a person blessed by one of the Rishis he cannot but obtain Mukti very soon. And the culmination point came when Swamiji was in the Ketri Maharaja's palace a dance of a notch girl was arranged and Swami Vivekananda then requested he refused saying, I am a monk I cannot see women dancing but then this girl awakened that Brahmagnana in him and said, what kind of Brahmagnana you are? Swamiji recognized the message I attained Nirvikalpa Samadhi that means I realized I am Brahman. I realized everything is Brahman. Where does this equation, this is a woman come in, I am a monk and here is a woman. That is for a non-realized person. Immediately he came down and listened to the song, blessed that person and went away. What happened? I am not a monk, you are not a woman, we are all Brahman. That is called Brahmana Ramakrishna had acquired this Samadarshitva, he used to go and clean at midnight the lavatories of the lavatory cleaner and with his long hair, he used to wipe the whole place clean and say, oh mother let not the thought ever enter into my brain that I am superior in any way to these people because you are manifesting as these people you are manifesting as the prostitute, you are manifesting as the chaste woman, there is no high or low, it is nothing but pure Brahman with Nama Rupa and with that point Tautapuri never understood until he lived in the company of Ramakrishna for 11 months and ultimately we have to see Ishwara, Shiva Shiva Jnane, Jiva Shiva that was what Swami Vivekananda wanted to introduce you do your duties but as a Karma Yoga through that you can attain any Yoga can bring you to the field but every Yoga brings spiritual progress every spiritual progress means less amount of bigotry less amount of differentiation and more and more and more unity and when we attain God he doesn't see anything excepting Brahman this is involved in whatever Sri Ramakrishna was telling but Sri Ramakrishna had to suffer from the discrimination of the priest this priest is going to ruin everything he suffered almost until the end, what about Holy Mother she was the purest of the women and rumours have reached her husband had gone mad and everybody like a hen went on pecking the Holy Mother a time had come Holy Mother did not dare to step outside her house because of this all people as if all those people have attained to a great high state because those idiotic women had wanted to suppress their own defects, one the best way of suppressing one's own defects is to find out other people's defects this is what Eric Fromm had remarked very beautifully the only purpose of criticising other people is to suppress our feeling that I am an inferior person but that is not going to help in the teachings, stop finding fault and now start finding fault within yourself these are the bigotries what about Swami Vivekananda because of his colour he could not get admission in the American hotels anywhere not only that even in India how much of discrimination he had attained, he was not admitted to some temples especially in Kerala he was not even allowed, so many Brahmins they thought they were much superior that is why Swami Vivekananda upon his triumphant return from America at Madras he has to declare very significant addressing I will send you a Brahmana who is a hundred times more orthodox than you all of you put together and who is a million times greater greatly devoted to God than all of you put together and then he knew who he was targeting that was Shashi Maharaj Swami Ramakrishnanandaji, now the point is do you think that this kind of bigotry discrimination is stopping now to me I think it is increasing it especially in the name of nationalism and everything but enough about the discussion now I will continue Ramakrishna continues, Mother show me sometime how the Christians pray to you in their churches but you know in those days just listen what is happening but Mother what will people say if I go in, suppose they make a fuss, suppose they don't allow me to enter the Kali temple again, well then show me the Christian worship from the door of the church, even the avatar has to modify his prayer to the Divine Mother because had he gone into a church then he would have been forbidden by the other priests, of course so long as Madhur Babu was there that could not have happened at all, so even Sairam Krishna had to modify his prayer show me from outside so they cannot charge me but you know when Sairam Krishna wanted to practice Islam, he wanted to dress like them, there was no problem but he wanted to eat like them and Madhur Babu understood the problem, the other priests will desert, you know the whole history of Dakshineswar temple was resulted with this priesthood, Brahminism so Madhur Babu said Baba, a Muslim will come, stand outside I will engage a Brahmin cook but he will cook according to the instructions shouted from outside and the Brahmin cook will prepare and some kind of adjustment had to be done, modification has to be done and then only Sairam Krishna was satisfied so not only that, when Sairam Krishna was practicing Islam just to show what is a, even a good Muslim's mental condition all the pictures of the God, Hindu Gods Goddesses and everything has to be totally removed and Sairam Krishna did not salute until his Islamic Sadhana came to an end the only purpose of Sairam Krishna's Islamic Sadhana was to prove to the world that God can be realized through any path, it is not to become Muslim or Christian or whatever it is, same thing is still there, suppose they don't allow me to enter the Kali temple again, this is called outcasting, well then show me the Christian worship from the door of the church, now so much meaning is there, then we read and then Sairam Krishna is going to tell that it is impossible to talk anything about God God is beyond any type of expression description that is what he says, the mind's inability to comprehend God, another day the master was sitting on the small couch of his room with his usual beaming countenance M arrived with Kali Krishna who did not know where his friend M was taking him he had only been told by M, if you want to say grog shop, then come with me you will see a huge jar of wine there the description is not given but perhaps this person was addicted to drinking wine and that is why he said ah, so really so there must be a new type of wine which is far superior in quality this happened to another devotee called Kali Krishna also, I think Kali Krishna if you want to say grog shop wine shop, then come with me and so this Kali Krishna had come, M arrived with him and he was not told, M related this to Ram Krishna, I did not tell my friend where I am going to bring him, the master said then what is this grog what is this wine Ram Krishna is telling, the bliss of worship and communion with God is the true wine the wine of ecstatic love, the goal of human life is to love God Bhakti is the one essential thing, to know God through Jnana and reasoning is extremely difficult not impossible but very difficult, this is what as Sri Krishna earlier also preached in the Bhagavad Gita, especially in the 12th chapter of the Gita klesho adhikataras tesham avyakta sakta chetasam avyakta ghatir dukham deha vadbhi avapyate, for those who are body minded body identified the path of Jnana that I am Brahman is not only difficult but it is also very detrimental but the path of Bhakti from the very beginning it will give you joy and this is what Sri Ramakrishna wanted for most people, this Bhakti Marga is the most important Marga, but then another point also is there most of the people who want to tread the path of knowledge, I make fun of them saying they have deliberately adopted them like the fox which came across unreachable grapes and said grapes are sour, why are you not eating because he said who cares for grapes, grapes are sour, but then that fellow secretly attempted it could not reach the grapes and what is unreachable he labels as justifies himself it is not worthy of attempting and then he goes back and most of these, those who tread the path of Jnana they can't digest as I say even boiled water much less, that's why even barley water also, barley drink also they cannot digest and then Jagat Mithya, they cannot see other people enjoying the nice food, hard food and that is what most of the people, of course there are genuine people are there there is no doubt about it, but they are far and few between certainly we are not belonging to that category, now what is Ramakrishna saying this is especially referring to the pancha makara sadhana, in the tantras there are 5 words used and anybody can hear about these 5 words later they all start with ma but the esoteric meaning, the secret meaning very few people really understand and that is explained by the tantric teacher to the disciple after the initiation is given and what are these things, this is Matsya, Mamsa, Madhya and Mudra and Maithuna, so what is the first thing, Matsya means fish, Mamsa flesh then what is called Mudra Mudra means a kind of posture no sorry what is called wine, Madhya drinking wine most of the ordinary people like us we can understand these 3 but we think this tantric practice is riddled with all these what is called secretly we wish to be there we wish to enjoy all these things but since either because of the caste or because of whatever reason we are not allowed to enjoy them we adopt this sour grapes philosophy and then we condemn them but there is an esoteric meaning is there so what is the last to Mudra and Maithuna, briefly I wish to explain in today's class then proceed, the real topic is God can never be described can never be expressed there are marvelous things to understand about that but that I will do in the next class now coming back, these are called Panchamakaras, in tantric many of us have heard about tantric puja but very few of us have really dealt with that, in essence what it means is what Advaita Vedanta calls Brahman what Dvaita schools call Narayana tantric schools like to call that final cause from which the entire universe has come as Shakti, as the Divine Mother and we are all children of the Divine Mother because creation must come from a female gender, creatrix so the whole thing is adopted God imagined in the form of the Divine Mother, how to please the Divine Mother, Bhakti means how to make her happy with us and for that purpose three stages are evolved, so the tantric teachers divide people, sadhakas into three classes first class is called Tamoguna Sampannaha those who are behaving like animals it is called Pashubhava attitude of an animal for such people worship and self-restraint and they cannot even look at some tempting objects etc that is the teacher keeps a strict eye and that is how the person is supposed to even not cherish not to speak of being near to any tempting object then through long time practice, sincerely practiced he advances now is the time to confront temptations because in the first stage everything is suppressed oppressed and which is not good and our teachers are superb psychologists and they understand it suppression is good at the beginning but not good afterwards so you have to express then bring all sorts of things to tempt the person eatables, what is called Sairam Krishna calls Kama, Kamini, Kanchana etc that is to say every sort of imaginable tempting objects and then the worshipper is asked can you control yourself means control your mind what is the problem when we come across such tempting objects physically we control ourselves but mentally we do not because nobody can see what we are thinking but nevertheless they impress us that is one reason we don't move forward now a sadhaka who reaches this stage he is labeled as Veera, Veera means hero hero means he can face the battlefield any number of enemies so for men women are brought for women men are brought Tantra makes no difference between man and woman anybody can be a sadhaka and all the objects of eating not drinking Madhya etc and peculiar sadhana goes on but the teacher keeps a very resilient eye and then he goes on doing if this fellow is about to fall then he will be pushed back into Pashupava and you again practice those things so that is how when a person is confronted but it doesn't move his thoughts his mind is perfectly under control and even Sri Ram Krishna had to go through some of these virulent tests and he came out in flying colors as we say very successfully and I might narrate some of them in future classes then when the Veera he successfully overcomes any temptations and then sublimates them he converts them into Divine Motherhood he sees Divine Mother everywhere and then he enters into what is called the Sattvika mode of worship called Daivi Bhava Divine mode and for them very simple things and once the mind is firmly established he is done Abhisheka and he is declared as a Tantric successful realized person and he can also become a Tantric teacher so in this second stage Veera this Panchamakaras are used what is it? First is Matsya that is just as a fish joyfully swims when it is released from a narrow vessel into a larger pool of water so a Sadhaka when his mind becomes free from the trammels of these bondages he will attain to that joy of the fish. Swimming in God is the symbolism of Matsya. Mansa means when the Sadhaka is able to identify there is not difference between me and my chosen deity that is the flesh becomes one with the flesh that is called enjoying the Mansa then Madhya means what when a person drinks wine he forgets all worries and he swims he will be at the top of the world this is what Sri Ramakrishna sings that Sudha Khai Joy Kali Bole when a person is advanced even the very remembrance name of the God in any form brings on intoxication we see in Sri Ramakrishna's life so much of this this is called the getting the joy of a drunkard. This is the meaning of esoteric meaning of Madhya Pana. Mudra whatever feeling we have that expresses in the form of certain bodily gestures automatically. When you are angry your heart beats faster your fist curls itself so that you can beat the other person but by consciously imitating these Mudras I will talk about these things a little more in the next class then the same feeling can be induced in the mind if you go on talking for example angrily pretending only not really angry but you pretend that you are angry and after a few minutes you will see you really become angry that is you are imitating a gesture and inducing the corresponding feeling this is called Mudra and the whole Bharatanatyam is dependent upon it. And then the last is of course Maithuna Maithuna is the complete union of the Sadhaka with the Ishta Devata Radha with Krishna. This complete union which ends in Aham Brahmasmi that is the symbolism of Maithuna like man and woman forget the whole universe when they love each other and when they join in this loving union these are beautiful thoughts and so much of inner significance is there. We will talk about it in our next class.