Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 106 on 13-February-2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

So before we enter deeper into the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, there is a question from one of our devotees. How can we develop goodness and an exact answer is given centuries before. There is a beautiful Sanskrit verse how the development takes place and the Sanskrit goes like this Durjanah Sajjanoh Bhuyat Sajjanoh Shantim Apnuyat Shantoh Mucchet Bandhanat Muktah Anyan Vimochayet Such a marvellous shloka. What is the first step in order to become good? But let me briefly dwell about the psychology of goodness. There are three types of people. Generally, people, most of the people are good towards themselves. In other words, what we call selfish. There are some people who neglect their own selfishness and try to do good to others. They think they are very unselfish, but they could be very, very selfish. But the real person is one who not only respects, loves, does whatever good is necessary for one's own self as well as for other people. Somehow it has been drilled into our brains, which are very poor brains, already weak and cracky. That there is what we call if we do good to others, if we can be extremely unselfish, then that is the goal of life. There is a beautiful psychological truth that unless we have certain quality, we cannot see, recognize that quality anywhere else. If I know I am good, then I can recognize goodness. If I know music, I know who are good musicians. If I am rational, I know who are rational. If I am irrational, do you know what would be our thinking? I am the only rational person. Everyone is irrational. So every madcap thinks I am the only sane person in the world. Everyone else is completely mad. So this is the first law. Unless we are good, we cannot see good in others. We do not know what is good for others. This is a very deep psychology, really. Many people go on to do good or they think they are doing good, but really they are doing terrible harm to people. A simple example, I am narrating one incident. You know, in Swami Vivekananda's time, the ladies always expected help from men. And there were many such rules framed. So I am mentioning two such rules. When women are present, men are not supposed to smoke. And when men and women are climbing, let us say, a mountain, a hill, then the men are supposed to be in the forefront and lend a helping hand for the poor, weak women to get up. And Swamiji violated both the rules. So at first, the reaction was terrible. So he used to not only smoke in the presence of the women, he used to blow the smoke deliberately into their faces. And that was not their experience. They used to protest. Of course, they know how great he was, but they used to protest because we are all victims of our so-called family circumstances, customs, which goes in the name of orthodoxy. And what my grandfather was doing, great-grandfather was doing, what my father was diluting and doing, so we think that is the only way. Swamiji said, you are as good as me and you are even better than me. So don't stand on these things. Get out. So once Swamiji was climbing with another lady, some ladies, men and women, a mountain. Swamiji was like an enthusiastic child. He was jumping from one stone to the other and the lady, she was protesting from below, Swami, lend me a hand. And Swamiji said, why? You are as good as me or better than me. If I can climb, you can definitely climb. And he turned his back and the lady was furious, but she climbed. Swamiji looked back smilingly and said, see, I told you, you are better than me. And from now onwards, do not depend upon anybody and especially your mental expectations. Why am I giving such a long introduction to this simple question? Because this verse that just now I quoted, that verse has to be remembered all the time. What are we now? Full of worldly qualities. That is what in this shloka is called Durjanaha. Durjanaha doesn't mean a person is a Satan. Not that all the evil qualities are present. No, there is nothing in this world, not a single object, which doesn't have a good quality. Even poison is one of the greatest antidotes to some of the deadliest diseases. So Durjanaha, we start being, Durjanaha means what? Selfish. Selfish means what? Trample over everybody's welfare just to achieve my own welfare. But soon evolution teaches us that no happiness can be found unless we share it with others. So we start sharing it with our family members. But then we realize that we stop there. We do not extend beyond family, what is called borderland. But that is where we have to get out. Durjanaha Sajjano Bhuya. That is slowly convert what is called selfishness into unselfishness. And that is the only way for acquiring peace of mind. Sajjanaha Shantim Apniyat. Through that experience, we find that we have gained tremendous peace. Here peace is equated with tremendous happiness. And as I mentioned, there are levels of happiness. According to Hindu philosophy, all happinesses are divided into five categories. Or Panchakosha, Ananda. What is it? Gross sensual happiness. Second, intellectual happiness. Third, aesthetic happiness. Fourth, moral happiness. And last, God happiness or what is popularly known as Brahmananda. The bliss of Brahman. So there is no way, but we have to start the lowest step. Even for Vishayananda, we have to develop certain qualities. We should eat in moderation. We should do exercise. We should only eat proper type of food suitable at proper times. And that too after offering to God, etc. And that is how, is only an example. That is how everybody wants only peace of mind. Everybody wants completely freedom. I'm not talking about political freedom or other types of freedoms. I'm talking about spiritual freedom. So the next step is find out. And the whole five commandments of Holy Mother about how to achieve peace. If you want peace of mind, first of all, stop finding fault with others. Second, start finding fault with yourself. Third, the world is not a stranger. No one is a stranger. And last, make the whole world your own. That is implied here. But what happens is not a Shanti. Just like you are hungry, you eat food and you become temporarily satiated, happy, satisfied. No. True peace always brings clarity of understanding. And that convinces us there is the highest reality. I must reality. So unless a person becomes peaceful, he cannot really progress in spiritual life. It is impossible. And that is what we have been discussing for the last few classes, which we will discuss in today's class also. That is why I mentioned 22 questions earlier classes. And we will continue that one. So Shanto Muchyata Bandhanat. Let the peaceful one turn the attention inward. It is called Antaryamitvan. And this is the third stage of human life, which is called Vanaprasthashyama. That is withdrawing from external attention and paying attention to inside. Kasyiddhiraha avaruttachakshaho amrutattvam ichchan. There was a wise man and he understood I have searched in the external world. I could not get what I want. Now I will search within. This is the only option left out. If there are two rooms and what I am searching is not available in one room, I have to turn into the second room because I know the object is there. It has not gone outside the house. So it must be in the second room. Interestingly, this is called the fifth Ramana. Fifth means of right knowledge. It is called absence of a thing. When we notice the absence of a particular object in one place, we have to guess it is somewhere in the house, not at this place. That is a right knowledge. So when a peaceful person turns his attention inward, gradually he identifies himself with the supreme reality called Brahman. And he is called a freed man, Mukta Purusha and this is what is called Shantaha. A peaceful mind. What is Shantaha? An Adhikari Purusha. Who is a Shantaha? Viveka, Vairagya, Shamadhi Shadghuna Sampatti and Mumukshutham. And he becomes free and he knows I am Brahman. And if he is still alive, he has a duty. What is the duty? Muktaha Anyaan Imochayet. So he should help other people also because just as he was helped by his teacher and other good people or spiritual company, so he should become a spiritual company for other people also. He should be a guiding light for other people. So what is the essence of the answer I gave to this particular question? That it is not a question of doing good to others. Start doing good to yourself. Think deeply. What is it that really can give me peace of mind? And once you find out a way and you will, then there is no choice for you but to practice sooner or later. Just like every sick person finds out that doctors, diagnosis, medicines, all these things form only 10% of the cure. 90% depends upon his diet, his medicine, his style of life has to be changed. And when and as we change, then the whole world changes. This is one of the greatest truths. The world is not an objective world. It is what I make of it. For example, there is a tree. I look at the tree and I say it is a good tree. It is a bad tree. I like it. I dislike it. All these things will come only according to the idea I formed about that tree. So like that, when I have a good idea about myself, then only I understand what is the way to help other people. That is why there is a beautiful saying, help yourself, then only you can help other people. And this maxim of goodness is announced every time you travel in an aeroplane. First, you put on the belt yourself, mask yourself, then only you help other people. It is a very practical help. I hope I have answered this one. But important thing, what is it? Take away, they call it. Take away, try to be good yourself. And you will see along with your development in your own goodness, you will also see the world in a different way and you understand the world better and you are able to help as much as possible as an instrument of God. Jai Ramakrishna. Coming back, how do we progress in spiritual life? So even about Guru, the question came one. Mr. Choudhury asked the question that can we progress in spiritual life? Can we realize God without the help of a Guru? And the categorical answer is no, without the help of Guru. Because Guru means scripture, Guru means the grace of God and scripture means the teaching of God himself. God is speaking through the mouth of the Guru. And so we accept the Guru and what should be our relationship with the Guru? That would be the next subject. I will, we will talk about it later on. So I posed 22 questions and I have explained also some of the questions and now I want to pick up some interesting and very important questions. Ninth question. Ninth question. What will I do if I were informed that only a short time is left for me? Let us take some examples. Shri Ram, a last moment had come and his nephew, he was in his nephew's house and he said, Mama, Uncle, you take the name of God. Of course, Shri Ram need not be told. He was only taking God's name. So he was made to half recline and three times he uttered, Raghuvir, Raghuvir, Raghuvir. He was full of peace and passed away. This is what Bhagavan Krishna was telling in the Bhagavad Gita. Antya kaaleva mam eja smaran mukta kalevaram. He who gives up the body, thinking of me, that is called giving up the body. We do not give up the body. Usually, for ordinary people, the body gives us up. I had enough of you, out with you. It kicks us out. Who can boldly say, I have given up the body? Willy nilly, thinking about it, we do that. But people like Shudra, Holy Mother, her life is mysterious, like Maya. She had inordinate attachment to Radhu and Radhu's son. And this boy, he got his granny and he used to come and play with her. She was quite happy. People thought she was attached to him and to Radhu. But when the time came, Holy Mother declared, I have withdrawn my mind from all attachments. Send Radhu and her entire family, whoever was there, to Jarambati. I cannot bear their sight. When the time came, happily she withdrew. Was she annoyed? Of course not. How could she be annoyed? She wants to be herself now, kicking off all the bonds. Swami Vivekananda, he decided to give up his body. And then we know that on 2nd July, or is it 4th July, he decided to give up the body. Whole day was spent so nicely. Nobody could imagine. Swamiji was sick for some time. But that day, he was extraordinarily alive and happy. Talked about 3 hours Sanskrit grammar. And then went for a walk, came back, laid down and deeply breathed. And before anybody could realize, he has gone. But interesting thing was that Shashi Maharaj Swami Ramakrishnanandaji was meditating at Chennai. And he heard the voice, Shashi, Shashi. I spat out the body. What do we say? We don't say anything because we have nothing to say. We have no say in our deaths. But Swamiji said, was given a boon by Shiva at Amarnath. You will not die until you decide to die. And he decided to give up his body. Why did he decide at such young age? He was not even 40 years old. A few days were left out. The simple answer is, he did not give up the body because he was craving for Mukti. No, he said that I will do much more good through my subtle body than through my gross body. So this is only just a sample. Everybody, whether it is Mirabai, supposed to have merged in the image of Bhagavan Krishna at Dwaraka. Dwarakanatha. And Andal, a replica in South India. And she got married and the priest put her in the sanctum sanctorum. And the next morning when they opened, they did not find anybody excepting Lord Ranganatha. So what happened to them? So Ramakrishna gave up his body, simply saying Kali, Kali, Kali, like that. Then, very important question, next question. Am I attached to my family and friends, relatives and religion, country, race, language? Look at what is happening in the world. We are all deeply attached. We never see any fault with our family, with our relatives, with our friends, with our religion, with our country, with our race, with our language and even our Ishta Devata. We are fanatics. Fanaticism is the worst enemy of spirituality. That is one of the greatest teachings of Ramakrishna. As many faiths, so many paths. But here, if we become by any chance as devotees, then two things can happen. Are we attached to other devotees? And are we attached even to some Swamis? And under the category of the Swami, are you having devotion, bhakti to Guru or are you attached to the Guru? I hope you are able to understand the distinction between these two. Guru is a spiritual teacher and you approach him with devotion, etc. I am going to deal with it separately after this. And Guru having a body, so he likes idli, masala dosa and I have to serve him, then nothing wrong. Don't stop it. But that is not real Guru. Body is a body and his pranabdha also will be there. And you know what happens sometimes? If you happen to be serving him, naturally you will be closer to him. And then you become his greatest critic. And then you will find, Oh, my Guru likes the chutney preparation in this particular way and I must. So on one side, you do your best to prepare such things. On the other side, there is an unspoken criticism. He is also a slave worse than me. I don't care for that kind of chutney. Of course, I like some other kind of chutney. That's a different issue. So am I attached to other devotees? Do I make a special friendship with other devotees? Why? Just because they happen to agree with whatever I say. This is the basis of our friendship actually. Those who are controvert, those who oppose our views, they are the worst of humanity that anybody, not only me, but anybody can cross. Then very important 12th question. Am I really aware of my motives? Am I aware of my thoughts, speech and actions? Do I know what I am doing? Am I doing with awareness? The whole Vipassana system is based upon this. Then do I react instinctively to any action emotionally and regret later? We have to be extremely cautious about it instinctively, emotionally. And if we are good devotees, we have to regret. Otherwise, we justify that fellow deserves not only that much, much more because I was a devotee. I gave only that much. Otherwise, I would have given much more. Then next question. Am I rational? And if anybody says I am rational, then I definitely consider that fellow the most irrational fellow in the whole world. None of us have that objectivity to find ourselves. Am I rational? If you say, if I an answer, I would like to be rational. I will try to be rational. That would be the right answer. How do I know? Can I see the other's point of view and stand in other people's shoes? There is a beautiful saying, unless we stand in the step into the other person's shoes, we will not know what motivates or makes that person do whatever he does or did or is going to do. That is very important. Then the 17th question. Do I crave other's attention and react accordingly? So there is a beautiful incident. I will not go today into deep. There was a very close devotee of Shri Ramakrishna. His name was Manmohan. One day Shri Ramakrishna probably deliberately praised the devotion of another person. Then this Manmohan was very much present there. And Shri Ramakrishna did not criticize or even look at Manmohan. But Manmohan felt hurt. For six months, he stopped visiting a great person like Shri Ramakrishna after having extraordinary experiences with Shri Ramakrishna. Simple example. Once this Manmohan was a married person. And one day, he decided to visit Shri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. At that time, Manmohan had an eight-year-old daughter. And he wanted... She was sick. So he wanted... Manmohan decided to visit Shri Ramakrishna. But his wife was very adamant. You want to go at this time when our daughter is seriously sick? So he decided... I decided I will go to Shri Ramakrishna. He did not listen. He came to Shri Ramakrishna. And as soon as he entered Shri Ramakrishna, he saw... Manmohan saw Shri Ramakrishna as pensive. And Shri Ramakrishna was telling, see, there is a sincere devotee. He wants to come here. But his wife prevents him coming here. I don't know why mother is creating such obstacles. I have my own doubts about Shri Ramakrishna in this case. Maybe he only created these difficulties. Anyway, Manmohan was shocked. How did he know, Shri Ramakrishna know what happened at his home? Because there were, remember, no email, no telephone, no other way of communicating. So Shri Ramakrishna must know everything. In spite of having all these experiences, the jealousy... Somebody could be greater in devotion than me. It haunted him for six months. And he stopped going to Shri Ramakrishna. And one day when this devotee was taking bath in the Ganges, Shri Ramakrishna came by a boat. He was shedding tears. How could I live without seeing you? Then Guru's grace fell upon him. Then Manmohan understood. Sir, I was suffering from Abhimana. Abhimana means intense identification with my own ego. So I was cherishing the view that I am one of the greatest devotees. That day when we appraised Suresh Mitra, that hurt my ego very deeply. That's why I was a victim to this disease, deadliest spiritual disease called Abhimana. That is wounded pride. And he fell at the feet of Shri Ramakrishna. I don't know whether he learned this lesson later on. And incidentally, I just remembered, even the Tantric Guru of Shri Ramakrishna, Bhairavi Brahmin, she became intensely jealous. She had marvellous divine visions of Shri Ramakrishna as Raghuvira, Harishta Devata, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. On several occasions, she had many marvellous visions. But everything became watered down when she went with Shri Ramakrishna to Kamarpukur. Then when the village women were rushing to Shri Ramakrishna past her, she was sitting there. They might have just saluted her, but they were not coming. And she blurted out, Why are you running to him? It is I who made him so great. What does that mean? That means I must be greater than him because I who could make him what he is now, I must be greater than him. But the divine law works very mysteriously. There is something called attraction. And it is difficult to explain this attraction. So anyway, there was nothing they could do about it. So this is what, do I crave others' attention and do I react accordingly? Somebody says you are marvellous and then there is nobody greater than you. That is why even Shri Ramakrishna says that one hemp smoker, when he sees other hemp smokers, he feels so happy. Come, come, bhai, sit down. I did not see you for a long time. They only parted half an hour back. Come and share this hemp, ganja, like that. And cows, they all are together. If a strange cow comes, they push it with their horns out. They don't want. So they form a group. And if some devotee, maybe my guru bhai or guru bhagini, doesn't appreciate me sufficiently, then woe unto not only her or his, but her 14 or his 14 generations. What can this fellow do? After all, he is coming from that family tradition. He is dullard, can't appreciate me. And the worst thing is most of the time, these things happen only unconsciously or subconsciously. And we react accordingly. How do we know? When we see a devotee who appreciates us, our face blooms into thousand petaled lotus. And the other way, when we see somebody who doesn't appreciate, even sometimes when we know that person is having great qualities. So we have to pay attention to that. Then the 18th one, am I a victim of anudharsha and anavasada? I will come to that immediately. Anudharsha means when some positive event happens, I become elated with the joy. So I won a big lottery ticket. I got promotion in my job or my daughter is going to get married, whatever situation and uncontrollable elation. This is what I call bloody, what is called pleasure, blood pressure, pleasure and bloody pressure. So this is what is called happiness, pleasure. And when negative event takes place, we sink to the very bottom of patala. So both should be, anudharsha means, udharsha means excessive joy. No, I will be calm and quiet. Anavasada means when something negative happens, my mind will not go down a little bit. Otherwise, I will be like a stone. A very sleeping person is a great saint actually. No, he is not a saint. But he behaves like, his external appearance will be like a saint. As you pour milk into him, he doesn't praise you excessively. For that's Ramakrishna's beautiful story. A monk was beaten black and blue. He was taken to the ashrama. Someone was fanning and pouring a little bit of milk. Slowly he was regaining external consciousness. And the monk who was giving him milk asked, do you recognize us, who we are? And he said, yes, the same being who beat me into unconsciousness, is now giving me milk. This is called samdarshana. Now coming back to this anudharshana, anavasada. These are two things that Swami Vivekananda in his bhakti yoga, as necessary steps to become a fit person, to acquire bhakti, devotion, as mentioned it. And bodily, he has taken these things from the sri bhashya. That is, Ramanujacharya's commentary on brahma sutras is called sri bhashya. And Ramanuja had bodily lifted it from bodhayana vritti. Vritti means commentary. That bodhayana vritti, that book is not available. But Ramanujacharya, at one point of time, he must have read about it. And he liked these things. So there are seven things are there. Bhakti, according to Ramanujacharya, involves at the first step, the training of both the body, intellect and will. This is classified under the sadhana saptaka. Seven steps to qualify ourselves to become a bhakta. Not we become bhakta, to become a bhakta. Like adhikari of advaita vedanta. Sevenfold moral and spiritual disciplines. And is equivalent to sadhana, chatustaya, sampati. What are these seven? Viveka, imoka, abhyasa, kriya, kalyana, anavasada and anudharsha. This is anavasada and anudharsha. The last two I have taken in one of the questions that I have formulated. What is the first thing? Viveka. According to Ramanuja, viveka means purification of the body through sattvika food and cleanliness. Imoka means freedom from desires and kama, kruda, lobha, moha, madhamacharya. Abhyasa means continuous uninterrupted practice of the presence of the god or narayana. Antarya means kriya, fivefold duty. You know what is fivefold duty? It is simply fivefold duty means pancha rina, by birth every human being, not only Hindus, every human being. Indebted to the ancestors, indebted to the what is called rishis, the discoverers of truth, indebted to so many devatas, indebted to all human beings, indebted to non-human beings. Rishi yagna, pitru yagna, deva yagna, nru yagna and bhuta yagna. And whole life is meant only to get rid of our debts. Pancha yagnas are to be free from the pancha rinas. That is what is called kriya. And then studying the spiritual scriptures and performing pujas and austerity and duty towards the guru and forefathers etc. is called kriya. Kriya means action. Kalyana consists of the practice of truth, integrity, daya and ahimsa. Doing good to others while oneself practicing harmony within oneself and then satya, abhyasa. But at the same time what the pancha yagnas are there, ahimsa, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha etc. Then anavasada, freedom from despair due to disappointment and being always cheerful. And finally anudarsha, absence of exaltation or avoiding extremes. Anavasada and anudarsha. And if we do not practice, we are not going to even become sajjanas. We are in the stage of durjana, are we? I don't think so. We have not even become durjanas. To become a durjana, a wicked person, tremendous amount of physical and intellectual and mental willpower are necessary. There could be only rare people like Genghis Khan or Hitler or people like that. An Alexander, a Caesar, very rare. We may label them as wicked people. But to become wicked requires more strength than even to be good. So we have to be practicing those things. And 19th question of these questions. Do I try to be calm, balanced and serene? Shri Ramakrishna was geeked by the family priest of Madhura Babu. And he extracted a promise from Hriday that he will not inform this to anybody. And there is a beautiful story, a marvellous story. That's why I quote during these talks, Buddha and a farmer. I will read out. Once the Buddha was in the village of Ekanala in Magadha, kingdom of Magadha. Rain had fallen and it was planting time. In the early morning, when the leaves were still wet with dew, the Buddha went to the field where Kashi Bharadwaja, a Brahmin and at the same time, a cultivator, a farmer had 500 ploughs at work. Means he was a rich man. That meant 500 people were working under him. When the blessed one arrived, it was the time for the Brahmin to distribute food to the workers. The Buddha waited there for his share of alms. Because Buddha lived ever since he took sannyasa only on bhiksha and all his disciples. And when the Brahmin saw him, he sneered and said, in a beautiful poetic language, I plough and sow and having ploughed and sown, I eat. O bhikshu, ascetic, you also should plough and sow and having ploughed and sown, you should eat. That means do not beg, do not be a parasite. And Buddha was replying, O Brahmin, I too plough and sow, replied the Buddha, and having ploughed and sown, only then I eat. The Brahmin was puzzled. He said, you claim that you plough and sow, but I do not see you ploughing and I do not see any fields. I do not see any implements. Buddha replied, beautiful teaching. I sow faith as the seed. My discipline is the rain. My wisdom is my yoke and plough. My modesty is the plough head. The mind is the rope. Mindfulness is the plough share and the goad. I am restrained in deeds, words and food. I do my weeding with truthfulness. The bliss I get is my freedom from suffering. With perseverance, I bear my yoke until I come to nirvana. Thus, I have done my ploughing. It brings the fruit of immortality. By ploughing like this, one escapes all suffering. This is a very brief description only. And when the Brahmin farmer heard this explanation, he realized his mistake and said, may the venerable Gautama eat the milk rice. And the venerable Gautama is a farmer, since his crops bear the fruit of deathlessness. So saying, the Brahmin filled a large bowl with milk rice and offered it to the Buddha. But the Buddha refused the food saying that he could not accept food in return for his teachings. The Brahmin fell at the feet of Buddha and asked to be ordained into the order of monks. And not long after, Kashi Bharadwaja became an Arahant. Arahanta means a realized soul who would like to do, spend like a Jeevan Mukta and good to everybody. In the next one, we have also seen the sthita prajna lakshanas of the second chapter. We have to go through very carefully. And if we try to practice all these mentioned above, we will surely become slowly, slowly, slowly, but surely true devotees of God. My next point, very, very important point. We all, most of us have got gurus. Either we take initiation from him or at least we accept somebody as my guru and try to follow their teachings. Guru is a target practice. This is my term. What is it? How did Ekalavya learn archery? He fashioned an image of his guru, Dronacharya and as if Dronacharya himself was teaching. And his faith was such that really God was teaching. It is a big lesson for all of us to learn. A guru is not whom we think our guru is. God only manifests in the body and mind of such a human being. And why only human being? If you have read the Bhagavatam, the 24 gurus of Vadodara, 24 including the earth, the water, the fire, the sky and the air and the plants, birds, some other human beings, the mountains, the rivers, everything became a guru. That is what Swami Vivekananda used to say. And some of the greatest British poets used to say if you keep your mind open, you will see the whole universe in a dew drop. So guru is a target practice. The question is what should be our relationship with our guru? Of course, we should look upon him as God himself. Acharya Devo Bhavan. So Guru Vishnu, Guru Brahma, Guru Devo Maheshwara, etc. Fine. But at the same time, we should use our guru as a target practice. What does it mean? It means once I choose a person as my guru, thereafter I should consider him as God himself. It means he may or may not come to my expectations. He may not be a worthy person. He may or may not love me. That is his decision. Oh, clearly gurus love us and there can be no greater stupidity than it. Not that we are not talking about the guru. We are talking about our concept of the guru, my concept of the guru. I may think he may not love me or it is equivalent to saying if I see my guru loving some of my gurubhais or bhaginis, then as if he doesn't love me enough. He doesn't give me that place. We will not express it, but that is one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual practice. So whether the guru decides to be gracious to me or not, to love me or not, that is his decision. I will not care for it. He may scold me or even beat me up or choose to mistreat me in any or every possible way. There are so many stories and I know, but it is time, let's move forward. But whatever will be his action towards me or his reaction towards me, but what should be my reaction, my attitude towards him and a beautiful saying in Bengali expresses it beautifully. जद भी अमार गुरु शुड़ी बाड़ी जाय, तथा भी तहा नाम नित्यानन्दर आय। So even if my guru visits a toddy shop, very polite terms, means even a public house, prostitute's house, to be frank, then as far as I am concerned, he is नस्वयम् नरायण, लक्ष्मी नरायण, nobody else, नित्यानन्दर आय, नित्यानन्द, that is Brahman. Even if my guru is known as visiting a toddy shop, so far as I am concerned, he remains always as प्रमानन्द स्वरूप, this should be our attitude. I have chosen him, for me he is my God. I know what you may be, some of you may be thinking, that what are you, what is this Swami talking about? God chooses for me, my guru chooses me, I am only an instrument. No, he doesn't simply choose, only when I choose, he chooses. So I have chosen him, I decided to look upon him as my God, I decided to become his bond slave, he has every right to do whatever he likes with me. So whatever he does, I will take it, it is for my good. His behavior towards me is an expression of his infinite grace and I more than deserve it for my own good. So this is called progress in spiritual life. And of all the means of spiritual progress, this practice of my own guru as my target practice is the greatest. Only one precaution, it is said in the scriptures, that when Krishna tried teaching Dharma to Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kaurava brothers, and Duryodhana said, Krishna, why are you counseling me? I already know what is righteousness and what is unrighteousness. The only problem is that I am not able to adhere to Dharma or even abstain from Adharma. So Duryodhana said, and this comes in a very beautiful hymn called, it is also called Gita, not Bhagavad Gita. Do you know how many Gitas are there? So more than, so far as I know, more than 30 Gitas are there. Anu Gita, Bhagavad Gita, Pandava Gita, Hamsa Gita, Brahma Gita, and Venu Gita, Gopika Gita, Avadhota Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, like that more than 30 are there. So Duryodhana replied, in this particular Gita called, it is called Pandava Gita, the 57th verse, I know what is right. Absolutely no desire to put it into practice. And I also know what is Papa, means what is Adharma. I have no inclination to stop. That means I go on doing it. But why do you do that? Because I don't have any power. What do you mean? There is somebody sitting in my heart. So as he directs me, and so I also behave, I am completely helpless. And what Duryodhana said is the greatest truth on earth. And for that Bhagavad Gita confirms it. Bhagavan himself confirms it. I know that I sit in the hearts of everybody. And like a person who is playing chess, and each one of us are the pieces. And the chess player puts different places, the minister, the soldiers, the king, the queen, all the pieces. So what can anybody do? We don't have. And Duryodhana seems to have realized it. And so in our case also it is true. So what is this for? That if the Guru starts what we call some negative reactions towards me, I have to take it for granted. It's for my good. Because Guru is Ishwara. And he is only acting and reacting towards me. And for whose sake? For my own good. So this is what I wanted to talk with you. That Guru is a target practice. So consider Guru as Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara is on another level. But how do I mould my life? That how do I forge my relationship with my Guru? I will be with him. Whatever he decides to do, I'm just a slave. I have taken a vow that I'm a slave. I'm a born slave. I sold myself to my Guru. And whatever he wishes me to do, that is what I will do. And gladly I will have to do that. So if we go on doing that, then we progress very fast. How do we progress? What is the rationale behind it? Because once we succeed in forging this type of relationship with one person, it could be mother, it could be father, it could be Acharya. If I can forge this relationship, then transferring it to others, applying it to other situations will be extremely easy. Because whatever happens in my life, God decides to do it. And I have faith, whatever God wants to do, and that is for my own good. Shri Ramakrishna illustrates this. This is the attitude of a young one of a cat, kitten. It simply mews, Ma. And then the mother comes wherever it is, when it wants to come. Sometimes it keeps the kitten on the bed of the master, which is so comfortable. Sometimes on a rubbish heap. But the kitten never complains. It knows only how to mew. This is a very great help in living a blissful life. And if we can practice even one hundredth of a one percent, to that extent, we will be extraordinarily happy people in this world. Every spiritual book is only teaching us what we call how to be happy in life, how to be blissful. If we are sincere, God definitely manifests in the form of our guru and takes us into his lap. There is no doubt about it. So the next question is, what is knowledge and what is the nature of this ego? That is what we will discuss in our next class. May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna.