Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 104 on 16-January-2024

Summary

The lecture discusses the importance of having a Guru (spiritual teacher) to guide one's spiritual progress. The Swami emphasizes that while God's grace is always available, a Guru is often necessary to help the seeker receive and properly utilize that grace.

The Swami begins by recounting a question posed in a previous lecture about whether it is possible to have a vision of God without a Guru's help. The answer is no - a Guru is essential, whether the guidance comes from within as intuition or from outside as instruction. A Guru protects the seeker from dangers like ignorance, doubt, wrong knowledge, carelessness, prejudice, and inadequacy. The Guru is a manifestation of God that saves the devotee through any means, living or non-living. Stories are told of the Avadhuta who had 24 Gurus, including the earth which tolerates all harm, teaching forbearance. The key is to have open, observant eyes to learn from everything.

When the seeker is ready and thirsting for knowledge, the Guru will come. Stories are told of devotees like Ramlal, Vaikunthanath Sanyal, and Narendranath who received Sri Ramakrishna's touch and grace but were unable to retain it due to not being fully prepared. God is ever ready to give grace but the seeker must be ready to receive it properly. Swami Vivekananda says faith, humility, submission and veneration are required towards the Guru for spiritual growth. The seeker needs purity, thirst for knowledge, and perseverance.

To avoid being part of a Guru cult rather than a sincere Guru disciple, one must examine if they consider their Guru the greatest, see other Gurus as inferior, force acceptance of their Guru on others, worship but not follow the Guru, inflate ego through Guru worship, or proclaim their Guru as the only true one. True Guru devotion is seen in Ekalavya who even offered his life to Drona despite ill treatment.

One's transformation proves the greatness of the Guru. The questions "How do I know I am transforming and progressing spiritually?" are addressed. One must honestly assess if they are a true devotee of God, exhibit equanimity, and see God in all. More characteristics of spiritual progress are described. The key is to sincerely apply the Guru's teachings, avoid ego, and let God and the Guru manifest from within.

In summary, the lecture emphasizes the critical role of the Guru in awakening the spiritual consciousness and guiding the aspirant's journey to realization of the Divine. With sincere devotion, humility, and perseverant practice of the Guru's instructions, the seeker can transform their life and attain the ultimate goal. Avoiding egoistic cultish behavior and letting the Guru work from within is vital. Evaluating one's spiritual progress takes ruthless honesty. God and Guru's grace uplift the Seeker who strives in this way.

Detailed Transcript

In our last class, we were discussing the topic of the Guru. There was a devotee, Mr. Choudhury, doesn't matter X, Y, Z, but the most important topic. He was asking a question, "Is it not possible to have the vision of God without the help of a Guru?" The categorical answer is no; it is not possible.

What is a Guru? The right guidance, whether it can come from within our own hearts, this is called intuition. If we take shelter under the teachings of somebody else, it is called tuition. So until we develop intuition, we need to follow tuition.

In that context, what does a Guru really do? A Guru saves a devotee from six-fold dangers. We have discussed, but just to remind ourselves, how does Guru really save? Guru means really God only through the instrumentality of not only human beings but anything, including non-living things, as we have discussed in the 24 Gurus of the Avadhuta.

So the Guru saves us. The most important thing is Agnana, which is right knowledge. Even the definition of right knowledge, we do not know. Then Samsaya, doubts. Then Viparyaya, wrong or erroneous knowledge. Then Pramada, carelessness. Then Vipralabdhehi, prejudiced opinion. Many of us are prejudiced about God, about Guru, about ourselves. The greatest prejudice, if we are completely ignorant about our own nature, not much harmed, but if we are entertaining notions of superiority, of greater wisdom, that is the greatest obstacle, not only in spiritual life but even in secular life. So this is called Vipralabdhehi or it is also called Andha Parampara.

Then Apakaranatva, then every devotee has only limited instruments, a limited body, limited buddhi, limited practice, limited time, limited energy, but provided one is sincere, a Guru will definitely save him. If Guru has to take into consideration our full qualifications, I do not think any one of us will ever get out of this Brahma Chakra; impossible.

Then the next question that naturally follows is, how do we get our Guru, where from, and how do we recognize such a Guru? There is one condition; when we are ready, we are thirsting, that is the qualification. If we are thirsting for water, water can come, food, food can come, help, help can come, knowledge, knowledge will come, definitely it will come.

So we have discussed elaborately a story from Bhagavatam. There was a great soul called Avadhuta, and he learned from 24 Gurus. And I said, why only 24? Anything can teach us a lesson. There is just a small illustration, a foot rug, what can it teach us? Just look at the foot rug and say, "Oh foot rug, where are you?" And if it can reply, it will reply, "Why? Where you have left me 50 years back, I am there only, I have not moved from there." So we have to put that same question to ourselves, where are you? Are you progressing? Are you at least taking faltering steps? At least are you making an effort to take some steps forward? If we put that question, everything can teach us. So this is a marvelous story, 24 Gurus, and the very first Guru is Earth. I will just pass a small remark about this, and we can see; you have to recollect what we have discussed in our last class.

Earth, how much of atrocities we are committing against the Earth. We are digging and we are spoiling and we are leaving her Mother Earth with all sorts of filthy things, pollution, polluting, everything. But in spite of all that, like the sandalwood tree, the more a tree cutter is cutting it, the more it is being sawed, the more it is being rubbed, the more fragrance it will give to the very instrument which it is cutting. And the person, that is the nature of the; that is why Earth is called a representation of Kshama, forbearance. Holy Mother is compared to forbearance, Kshama Roopini Sharada Devi.

So we have seen that if we open our eyes, what does it mean we are open? We are opening our eyes; that is not opening, observing. Then every little thing can teach us a lesson. Death, for example, even the newspaper, which Sri Ramakrishna used to dislike, it can teach us a lesson. What lesson can it teach? First of all, look at the obituary columns; you will see that you have either seen or talked or you are talking about a person, and you see his name in the obituary column. Every day, how many people, how many creatures, day and night, and yet those who are not dead, they think that death is never ever going to come. Do we really think like that? No. We all think death is going to come. But we don't want to think about it; we always postpone about it. So the newspaper can also say, what is the world? Selfish people, cruel people, mostly fighting each other, killing each other, completely biased, depending upon you follow that religion. It is a false religion, and my God told me that I must exterminate anybody who doesn't follow my religion, and the same thing applies to my own Guru also, which I will come to in today's talk shortly.

So we see, and then Sri Ramakrishna himself was the greatest example of this observation. He learned from so many things. I am just quoting because we are students of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He used to tell everything is Anitya, and he used to tell so many examples he will give. Here is a mother; she is bearing, giving birth to child after child; so many children are dying; she doesn't come to her senses and she gets Prasuti Vairagyam, but how long? Only for a few days, and then she forgets everything. Then two brothers over is just half a foot or a few inches of land between their houses; go on quarreling; they become ruined by paying money to the lawyers, going to high court etc. Just now let us open our eyes; we can see plenty of examples.

Third, does anybody love us? We have a right; we ourselves don't love anybody. We even don't love ourselves. This may be the most shocking statement you might have heard. No, no, no, everybody loves himself or herself. No. I will give an illustration which, of course, I have given quite a number of times. Supposing there is a loving mother and there is a child, and the child asks the mother, "Mom do you really love me?" Mom says, "My darling I love you more than my own life and it is absolutely true." Then the child asks, "If you truly love me then you must fulfill my desires." Mother says, "Yes, whatever you want I am ready to give you." Mom, "I don't like to go to school, I want to spend my life only playing with my friends." Do you think the mother will grant it? No, never. No true mother will ever grant it. There is a time, there is a limitation. Definitely the mother wants the child to play but the mother's greatest wish, he becomes a man or a woman and understands what is life and every mother wishes, let my children be happy, fulfilled, creative. So the mother, if necessary, she catches hold of the baby's or child's ears and then pulls him to the school even though he was thinking my mother doesn't love me.

So do we really love ourselves? If we love anybody, we wish their welfare. If we love ourselves, then we must wish our own welfare. The one and only one, one only characteristic of love is we wish the very best for those people whom we love really and everybody knows that we are all selfish only. Our so-called unselfishness is an instrumentality of our selfishness. As Yajnavalkya, so beautifully expounded in the Brihadaranyaka, no husband loves the wife for the sake of the wife. One's own life, the wife becomes very beloved only because for once she contributes for one's own happiness. So also, no jaya loves her pati for the sake of them. That is why Atmanastu Kamaya.

In this world, we are supposed to be lovers of ourselves but do we find ourselves lovers of ourselves? No. We are the greatest unselfish persons in the world. What am I talking? We are the greatest unselfish persons in this world. We want to serve things or persons or beings who do not belong to us at all, who are our greatest obstructions in life. What am I talking about? We love our body, we love our mind, and our body belongs to Pancha Bhutas, our mind also belongs to Pancha Bhutas. Nothing in this world belongs to us and yet day and night whether we want more money, we want to eat, we want to enjoy anything and all wealth etc. is only for the sake of enjoyment and this enjoyment is for the sake of the body and mind and in the end, the body says goodbye and when we go into deep sleep, the mind says goodbye and we are left where we were like the foot rug. So we are most unselfish because sacrificing our own, really speaking, real goal, we are trying to serve everybody else. Where can you get such an unselfish person in this whole world?

These are the ideas we have to cull from the Sankhya school of philosophy. There was one Ishwara Krishna and he has written Sutra form, Aporism form, Sankhya Karika and there itself he says that the whole Prakruti to whom we are so much attached by sometimes carrot means reward, sometimes stick that means correction, punishment. She teaches us the lesson, you do not belong to me, I do not belong to you, you belong to Purusha, God.

So until we wake up and then it doesn't mean that we should not love anything or anybody. It means that even we use the body, mind, the world as instruments for my own selfish love and here S means capital S. I am the Atman, life is given to me for progress in spiritual life and for that purpose we really require a Guru and God himself comes in any form, living or non-living and that is the lesson we have seen in this 24 Gurus and I said not 24, it can be any.

But the next question that comes is when can a Guru really help us? Simply, can a Guru help us? Yes, but when can a Guru really? Because I have a Guru, most many of us have Gurus, that means guidance is there, say spiritual or secular, but are we progressing and if we are really thinking we are progressing for most of the part it is a self-delusion, greatest Brahma instead of saying that I am Brahman, we are progressing towards I am Brahma.

So when we are ready to always follow the Guru, Guru means guidance, guidance means instructions. Do we want to follow the motorway guidance? Do we want to follow a dharmic class etc.? Do we want to follow the physician's instructions? Do we want to follow the psychologist's instructions? No, we pay money and we do not follow. So unless and until we are really fit, even God cannot help us, He wants to help us, even God is incapable of helping us. This statement is a marvelous statement. Do you think that only when you pray, God is ready to help us? No, we can pray, but God wants also to help. When does He want to help? When does not He want to help? That is the question we have to ask.

Sri Ramakrishna's words are profound. The breeze of God's grace is always blowing, unfurl your sail. That means when you are ready, the grace of God also will help. That is what it means. And as an example, I want to cite from Sri Ramakrishna's life, as all of you are devotees and you know that Sri Ramakrishna had bestowed His unstinted grace on 1st January 1886 and every year we celebrate it on the 1st of January as Kalpataru.

Sri Ramakrishna touched the body, the chest of those who were present there and then said, Chaitanya Hoka, let your spiritual consciousness be awakened. And as a result, most of the people, I mean all the people have wonderful spiritual experiences. But we say marvelous. Let Sri Ramakrishna touch me also. But what we have to study is what happened to these devotees, all of them who received Sri Ramakrishna's divine touch and experienced directly many of the marvelous spiritual experiences.

What happened that day to them? Subsequently, I will give you one example, two examples rather. Sri Ramakrishna's own nephew, Ramlal Dada, because he was such a close relative, family member of Sri Ramakrishna, we respectfully call him Ramlal Dada. Dada means elder brother. But really speaking, whenever I think of his life, I don't know whether any change had come later on, but I have to tell he led a most horrible life. Many months later, when Sri Ramakrishna was on deathbed, Sri Ramakrishna called Ramlal and said, after this body passes away, look after your aunts. That is Holy Mother. Holy Mother was so innocent. She was completely devoid of any worldly, what we call worldly wisdom.

Later on, she had to learn with hard work. But at that time, she was completely reliant on Sri Ramakrishna. Do you know what Ramlal Dada replied to Sri Ramakrishna? "There are so many people who will look after her. I don't need to." He did not say that, but he meant, in brackets, "I do not need to look after her." And he did things which pained Holy Mother later on very much. But there is another slightly better example. This is Vaikuntanath Sanyal. He was touched by Sri Ramakrishna and started having a beautiful vision of the spiritual form of Sri Ramakrishna. In whatever he was looking, like Sri Ramakrishna used to see the golden Kashi upon his first visit to Varanasi. So, Vaikuntanath, he started seeing. He could not tolerate it, bear it. He prayed, "O Lord, I am unable to bear it. Please withdraw." Then he himself was citing Arjuna's prayer to Sri Krishna. "I want to see your form as I used to see before you gave me this Divya Chakshu." And Arjuna claims, even today, it is a mystery to me that he used to see Krishna with four hands, Chaturbhujena. If Arjuna was always seeing Krishna with four hands, is it ever possible for him to address him, "Hey Krishna, Hey Yadava, Hey Sakhaiti, Prasavam Yaduktam?" In fun also. And to sleep in the same bed and to share the same plate of food, impossible. It is a mysterious shloka. We don't know. But I think occasionally he used to see it and forget about it. Just like Devaki had a marvelous vision of Bhagwan Vishnu as soon as he was born in this way. Instead of a baby, she saw Chaturbhuja Rupa Vishnu Murthy. And then she prayed, "O Lord, please withdraw your form because I want to enjoy your glorious leelas as my own child. I can also slap you sometimes. So I can twist your ears also. That is not possible if I happen to look at you like that." Then many times I quoted, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to make Swami Vivekananda a Brahma Jnani. Within a few visits, he touched Swamiji even without his asking, without his permission. And Narendra Nath protested, "What are you doing to me? I have my parents at home." And Sri Ramakrishna, he again touched him and brought him back. There is a story, meaning why Swamiji was not ready, not because of his personal defects, because Ramakrishna had to train him as the Jagadacharya, Jagadguru. That's a clear story. I will not go into it. Now, I quoted the instance of Ramlal Dada, Vaikunthanath Sanyal, as well as Narendra Nath Dutta. All of them have received the grace and none of them could retain it. What is the reason? God is ready to give, ever ready to give, wants to give immediately. But are we ready to receive it? So it is not that God is waiting for you to pray. When the baby is hungry, the mother knows even if the baby is asleep, she will suckle the baby, and even in his sleep, he starts suckling. But the next morning, he complains, "Yesterday, I was so hungry, you did not feed me." He doesn't remember. Every incident that happens in the life of any one of us is God's grace. If we rely upon Him, even if we profess we don't believe in God, that we don't profess belief in God is on our part. But God knows, every mother knows, even a sleeping baby, unconscious baby is her own baby, and no mother will ever say, "Oh, my son, my daughter is not calling me Appa." So what is the point? We are laboring it. Guru is, first of all, ever available. Second, Guru's grace is always upon us. But we must have certain qualifications in order to receive, to retain, and to use them practically. In my earlier talks, I mentioned practically most Hindus. They go on saying Gayatri Mantra, whether they are initiated or not, they teach it even to their children. That is the Gayatri Mantra. But the important part of the mantra is, "O Lord, manifest yourself in the form of right understanding, Dhiyo yo naha prachodayat." And He wants to enter into our buddhi. But we do not allow it. Gods, we are praying, grant me buddhi, and we are saying only, "I will tell you what type of buddhi I want, how to cheat people, how to earn more money, how to secure a better position, how to win elections, etc." Rarely people ask, "Do me whatever is good for me." Incidentally, there was a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna called Ramchandra Datta. And Sri Ramakrishna bestowed His grace upon him. And one day Sri Ramakrishna was extraordinarily generous. He entered into Bhava Samadhi and he asked this Ramchandra Datta, "You ask me, whatever you want, I will fulfill your desire." And Ramchandra Datta was later on recollecting, "Now I don't know what is for my own good. Therefore, he prayed, 'O Lord, truly I do not know what is for my own good. And whatever I think what is good for me inevitably turns out to be lacking in something, making me regret. You do what you think is best for me. This is called complete Sharanagati." By the way, Ramchandra Datta was one of the first and one of the great devotees, householder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. He was responsible for bringing Narendranath. So Manomohan was another devotee. These two were friends and they were the first of the batch of Sri Ramakrishna's lay devotees. But Manomohan was the instrument for bringing Rakhal Maharaj, Swami Brahmanandaji to Sri Ramakrishna. Ramchandra Datta was the instrument to bring Narendranath. Of course, it was all ordained, but still, as a historical fact, we have to remember that one. Now, how to receive Guru's grace? Guru's grace means God's grace. Swamiji, such crystal clear thinking we rarely find in this world. He is really a Jagat Guru. Why do I say He is? Because He said, "I have given food for 1500 years." So Swamiji, He called from the scriptures, not His own. He says, "Without faith, humility, submission, and veneration in our hearts towards our religious teacher or Guru, there cannot be any growth of religion in us." Here religion means spirituality, and it is a significant fact that where this kind of relation between the teacher and the taught prevails, there alone gigantic spiritual men are growing. The conditions necessary for the taught, means for the Shishya, are purity, a real thirst after knowledge, and above all, perseverance. No impure soul can be really religious. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary for any one of us to be religious. Now, certain questions, which is, in my opinion, one of the most important parts of our discussion today and in the future also. Having outlined the necessary qualifications, here are the questions we have to ask ourselves. Even if we want to progress in spiritual life also, not only in spiritual life, in secular life also, we have to put these questions. In fact, let me, I have already spoken about it, but let me reintroduce to you, before studying any scripture, there is a condition imposed by our Guru Parampara system. We have to crystal clearly pass pre-study examination. This is called Anubandha Chatursthaya. That is, four questions have to be asked. First question is, what is Prayojana? What is your ultimate real goal, not what you profess? What is your real goal? I'll give you a small example. If you ask some student, "I want to pass brilliantly and I want to earn more money by getting a good job." Is that the real goal? No. "I want to be healthy. I want to be happy. I want to live a long time and I want to enjoy life." That is the real goal. Suppose somebody tells this fellow that you will get a brilliant job, you will be the president or prime minister, but you will not be a happy person. Instantaneously accepting a fool, everybody says, "Let me not. I don't want this kind of. I want to be happy even if I am in the lowliest position." Now what are we talking about? Certain questions we have to put. This is called Prayojanam. This is the first of the Anubandha Chatursthaya. Before delving into any subject deeply, we have to first pass this examination. Do I really want to be a musician, a computer scientist, a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, anything? Then the second question is, what is the subject we have to talk? Vishaya. If you want to be a chemist, you must study chemistry. If you want to be a doctor, medical science. If you want spirituality, scriptures. So Vishaya, subject, very important. So this is the second one. Third one is, what is the relationship between what I am studying and what I want to become? Is there any relationship? I am very good at maths and I am delving deep into maths, but I want to become a great doctor or a great musician. What is the relationship between mathematics and becoming a scientist? Of course, as a mathematician, okay. A doctor or anybody, there must be a relevance, a right relationship. This is called sambandha. This is the third one. Fourth one is called adhikari. A blind man cannot be a great painter. A deaf person cannot be a great musician. Of course, a blind man, but with acute hearing, can become a very good musician. We see so many people. But a blind man can never become a good sculptor, a good painter, etc. Whatever else he might become. Similarly, a deaf person cannot be a great, what is called, musician. So there must be adhikaritva. If somebody wants to be a surgeon, he should not be fainting and seeing blood, etc. So this is called adhikari. These four, we have to certify. What is it I really want? And what is the subject I must pursue? What is the relationship between the subject and what I want to become? And finally, am I a fit person physically and mentally? So that if I am physically fit, but not mentally, I won't be able to achieve. Mentally, okay. Physically, not fit. Certain things are barred from me. Not everything, but certain things. So we have to ask these questions. But what I am trying to find out nowadays, or even in the past also, most people have Gurus. And I am only talking about the Shishyas who claim that we have Gurus. And they develop into a cult. Religion becomes a cult. I am a Hindu because I am born in a Hindu family and I observe certain rituals, etc. And therefore, I am entitled to be a Hindu. No. That is a cult. Religious cult. And this is Guru cult. And how can we avoid being cultish? But do we understand what is a cult? And especially Guru cult? There is something called scientist cult. Are you surprised? A scientist, by definition, is one who doesn't care what the whole world thinks. But is it true? Is it proved? Is there sufficient evidence to come to this conclusion? Scientists are the greatest, blindest people in the whole world. Because every time they discover something, they go on issuing statements. Like for example, nowadays, AI, there are all the scientists were divided into two classifications. One side says AI, artificial intelligence, is going to dramatically transform human life for the better. And the other negative side, they go on telling, "No, this is the greatest danger to us." One day, the machines, the robots can become conscious and wage a war against human beings. They exterminate human beings, etc. Are they really scientists? No, we don't know. So if at all any robot is going to kill us, that is because of our own fault because we have created it. It is my own fault. It is called Karma Siddhanta. My own fault means I have done something I should not have done. I have not done something which I should have done. So I am suffering today. Now, my Gurudev, Swami Yudhishthira Maharaj, he used to always warn us, "Do not develop a Guru cult and Guru cult and God cult." And what you call, instead of saying cult, some of us use the word club, doctor's club, scientist's club, hacker's club, etc., etc. So very few of us are aware what is called Guru cult. I want to discuss this. If I can finish this class, otherwise next class, very important.

"What are the characteristics of a Guru cult? Am I a Shishya of Guru, or am I a follower of Guru cult? How do I know? Certain characteristics are there. Number one, the feeling that no one is greater than my Guru. Why? Because I have scriptural evidence: Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwaraha, Guru Sakshat Param Brahma. I am not saying the scripture is teaching me that my Guru is great. No, not your Guru. Guru is great. You have your Guru. For you, you must consider him God. That is fine. For me, I have another Guru. I must consider my manifestation of my Guru as the greatest. So no one is greater; don't say that. No one is greater. Only God is great. Everybody else may be great in some respects, not in every respect.

Second, looking upon all Gurus, all other Gurus as inferior, and then we don't stop there. We may not openly criticize, but the way we show our thoughts—'Oh, he is okay, he is okay, but not as good as my own teacher.' All other Gurus are inferior, and criticizing other teachers is a definite sign that we are Guru cultish people, not Guru bhaktas, but Guru cult bhaktas.

Third, trying to force everyone to accept one's Guru. 'Oh, you want to progress? My Guru is the greatest. You follow him.' Never say that because God has already decided who is going to be the Guru of which person, and if we are sincere, anyone is sincere, God will guide them to the right destination. This is the third characteristic.

Fourth, always worshipping one's Guru but never following his instructions. Always following, worshipping, Adho Pooja, and garlanding. If there is a photo also, I will put a garland. If there is a photo, I will put it in my shrine room, and sometimes my Guru's photo is larger than even God's photo, and I worship him and look at him with soulful eyes, but never follow his instructions. How do we know? Because we would have progressed.

Fifth, doing Adho Pooja with tremendous bhakti in order to inflate one's own ego. 'I am such a great bhakta,' and earlier also, I told something which I will include in the sixth characteristic. So we worship, and it is absolutely fine to worship, but if it goes, 'Aha, my Guru is such a great Guru, therefore what follows? I must be a great disciple because every disciple of a great Guru, by sequence, must be a great disciple only.' This is the stupid logic we always follow.

Sixth one, to consider one's own Guru as the greatest Guru of all times, not only of this time and even put him above God and proclaim him as the only true Guru and cultivate hatred or looking down towards anyone who doesn't concur with our opinion. We go on proclaiming our Guru is the greatest Guru, and nobody was ever born, is ever going to be born. Such a great Guru is never there. He is the truest Guru. And then what happens? 'Oh, unto that person whom I am expressing my opinions and he doesn't encourage me, he doesn't concur with me, and he has his own opinions, and I develop hatred.' Since you don't accept, you are not my true friend, I hate you simply. And any number of manifestations of this ego inflatism we can find between parents and children, between husband and wife, between brothers and sisters, between co-workers and one's boss, etc.

On the other hand, if anybody just to please us because that fellow has come to borrow something from us, either a car or money or whatever help, so to praise one who accepts one's own Guru and accepts Guru's utterances also without examination, these are some of the characteristics of the Guru cult. Very soulful lessons we have to learn from this. Just sit and say, am I a Guru Bhakta, or do I belong to Guru cult? If I am a Guru Bhakta, then I can go ahead.

So how do we know that we have sincere love? Look at Ekalavya. We have to learn many lessons from the Mahabharata. Look at Ekalavya. Ekalavya approached Dronacharya, but he was firmly rejected. But he said, 'I have decided that you are my Guru.' He went into a forest, fashioned an image of the Guru, and really believed his Guru is guiding him through that image. And he became even a greater archer than Arjuna himself, whom Dronacharya taught. And what did Dronacharya do in the end? When he found out about Ekalavya, he was surprised and said, 'But who taught you?' And Ekalavya said, 'You only taught me.' 'How?' Ekalavya told the story. 'Then you accept me as your own Guru.' 'Yes, but you never gave me Guru Dakshina.' 'Whatever you want, my very life.' If Dronacharya said, 'I want your life,' do you think Ekalavya would have hesitated a millisecond? He would have immediately given his own life. But this we should not use bad words toward Dronacharya. What type of Brahmana, what type of Acharya, what type of a Guru, without teaching anything after rejecting, could ask for your right thumb of your right hand so that Ekalavya would never be able to use any other bow and arrow in his whole life? How cruel for a Guru to say this. He could have told that, 'You see, if you were a commonsensical Guru, very good, and I think you better join the Pandavas party and help them.' And Ekalavya would have gladly joined Pandavas army and helped them. Of course, the final outcome will come by Krishna's will. That is why he says, 'All these people long back, they are dead. You are only just an instrument. Whatever has to be done in the form of Kala, I have already decided what to do, what not to do.' So this is what is called true Guru Bhakti.

And then extend the same concept that we have discussed now towards what is called religion, religious cult. Islam is great. Hinduism is great. Judaism is great. Really, Jews believe Judaism is great because they never allow anybody to become Jews unless they are born Jews. Of course, nowadays they accept also. But the point is, even at the cost of death, they refused to change their religion. Had they adopted either Islam or Christianity, most of them would have been alive today. But such extermination, how many millions have been. Even now, anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jews because they are born to that religion. This is called anti-Semitism because they are called Semitic religions. This is the war, present war that is going on. Has no rationale at all excepting this one. What a marvelous thing it is. We have to think about it deeply.

So now, having discussed Guru cult, we have to distinguish it from Guru Bhakti. How do we know? Because if one's life is not transformed even after we proclaim that we have the greatest Bhakti to the Guru and we are not following one's Guru, then that shows we are Guru cultists, not Guru Bhaktas. That is why I cited the example of Ekalavya. And so whatever cult, scientific cult, religious cult, or what you call professional cults, doctor's cult, they will not allow anybody other than a doctor, lawyer's cult, etc. So many religions are cultish and fanatical. Needless to say, Guru cult is not only a great obstruction but a great danger to society. Our God alone is the real God, and every other religion is inferior and every other believer is Kafir. Kafir means a non-believer. And this is no better than Guru cult. We have to assiduously avoid it.

Now, a very important question. What is the proof? How do we prove that our Guru is great? How do you prove that the doctor you are visiting, the doctor whom you are consulting, the doctor who prescribes your diagnosis and prescribes your illness and prescribes proper medications, diet, exercise, etc.? How do you know that doctor is a really great doctor? Because you follow him. So the only way to prove that our Guru is truly great is by transforming our own life and becoming great. And other people look at us. 'Oh, this person is so great. How did he become great?' Then this is what happened, you know. Just as an example, there was a French writer who made Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda popular by writing two beautiful books, 'The Lives of Sri Ramakrishna' and 'Swami Vivekananda,' in marvelous poetic language, in the French language and even in English translation. Their very language has become what is called great guidance for others who want to write, who want to become good writers. So how do we know that when this Roma Rola, he came to know suddenly there was a great change in the Brahmo Samaj which was cultish, which was narrow-minded. Suddenly there was a change, especially that particular branch, especially that was formed and followed by Keshav Chandra Sen. And then he was astonished. How did this change come about? And he came to know it was through a great another person called Sri Ramakrishna. Who was Sri Ramakrishna? Who could bring about such a change in this Brahmo Samaj? So he collected materials and as a result, he has written. So if anybody looks at us, 'You are so happy, you are so creative, you are so unselfish, you are so great. How did you become so great?' 'Oh, I follow my Guru's instructions.' 'Oh, please introduce me to that Guru.' So we become instruments. Our Guru stands proved by our transformation, by our own character, not by anything else. The only proof we have become better people is progressing in spiritual life by following the instructions of our Guru.

Now some questions will come. How do we know we are transforming ourselves? That means we are not what we were. We have become much better people. We have transformed our life and we are progressing. This is called progress. By the way, any progress in secular or spiritual life follows the same methodology. Because if we direct the same methodology to worldly affairs, we improve. What is it? Purposefulness, willpower, the willingness to follow the disciplines, the willingness to avoid all that should be avoided. Choose any field you want and you can progress. One can progress. We can progress, but we have to follow the same thing.

How do we know we are transforming ourselves and progressing in spiritual life? This is a huge subject, but it's a very, very important subject. So what should we do? We should sit down and with a calm mind, practice a little bit of Pranayama. Let the mind quiet down. Then tell to the mind, 'Oh, mind, do not deceive me. Do not give me a facile answer which will satisfy me, which will inflate my ego. I want to know the truth.' This is what Holy Mother used to say, 'Stop finding fault with others, start finding fault with yourselves.' So we have to question ourselves.

These are some of the questions, and one of the first questions is—this is the question—am I truly a devotee of God? And by any chance, if the answer is yes, I am a devotee of God, most likely I am totally wrong. It is for God to certify, 'He is my devotee.' And did He do that anywhere? Yes. If you study the Bhagavad Gita at all, even if you have glimpsed or after this class or tonight, go to the twelfth chapter, and then He says, 'That human being is very dear to me,' means very close to me. Somebody criticizes, somebody praises. Whatever comes, this is the best thing that God has provided me. Like a mother, whatever she gives to the baby is the best, very best. Whatever be the situation, I accept it. Niketa means a dwelling place, actually, but here whatever status, state we are in, the mind is never agitated on any account. If anybody exhibits these characteristics, such a person is very dear to me because I can manifest in that mind very, very soon.

So if we say that truly I am a devotee of God, forget about it. A true devotee never says that I take credit for myself. He doesn't even say, 'O Lord, it is through your infinite grace.' The very desire, 'I want to become a devotee.' I have a human birth. I have the company of great people. These three will come only at the grace of God. So if anybody—we have to answer, not other people, you are a devotee. Normally, we say that. No, never say. Do you say, 'I am a devotee of God'? And if you say, 'I am a devotee,' most probably you are wrong. Why? We will discuss these points in our next class. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna."

Note: The lecture transcript was edited for grammar and punctuations using artificial intelligence, so it may contain inaccuracies. The summarization is provided for informational purposes only, and the original audio lecture should be referenced for complete accuracy. Viewers should use discretion when citing any summarized content edited by AI.