Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 118 on 13-August-2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna had visited Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar. We also discussed why because Vidya Sagar himself had not shown much interest in Sri Ramakrishna either before or after meeting Sri Ramakrishna. But he was a great scholar and he had a large heart, very compassionate. He used to serve society. At one time, he refused even to travel in a Jatka drawn by horses because he felt that the horses are unnecessarily troubled by him. So there was a greater manifestation of power, the subject which today we are going to discuss. Sri Ramakrishna believed that what we are and whatever powers we have, small or big, they all belong to God. Our bodies belong to God. Our minds belong to God. Our possessions, entire universe, entire creation belongs only to God. But wherever there is a special manifestation of either knowledge or compassion or service or leadership or a talent like great singers, great players, great poets, great writers, etc. Sri Ramakrishna believed that belongs only to the Divine Mother or God. So Sri Ramakrishna cannot do without showing respect and we also have to do. We may not like people. That is because we are unable to distinguish between their talents and their character and their personalities. Talent is different. Personality is different. For example, there may be a wonderful writer but it doesn't mean he is a great man, a great writer or a great sculptor, a great musician. Not necessarily, they are great people of character. Unable to understand this difference, so many people fall into the trap of temporary attraction because greatness always attracts because more power is manifest and power attracts the powerless. Our identification with the powerful is a pseudo or vicarious way of making ourselves strong. For example, a father who is illiterate but his son is highly literate, he feels proud vicariously identifying that since this is my son, I am also as great as him. And this subject will come very soon when we are going to discuss about egoism or egotism. In this chapter itself, we are going to discuss very soon. So, Shri Ramakrishna felt, I am not going to see Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar. I am going to pay my respects to the Divine Mother. And when Mother is pleased and this is a wonderful way of life, whether people like us or not or do good or not, but nothing can prevent us from showing respect towards them and by paying respect to them. So, the ultimate goal is to see God in everybody. Is there a wicked person? That is also God. Is there a saintly person? That is also God. But there is also another reason for that because there can be mysterious reasons. Shri Ramakrishna wants to visit and we get a clue in a beautiful book called Narada Bhakti Sutras. Teerthi, Kurvanti, Teerthani. When realized souls, saints, mystics visit holy places, places of pilgrimage, So, there are two ways, two times when people visit holy places. One, before realization. Second, after realization. When we visit before realization, we are going in the role of receivers. But when people become mature, what is called real knowledge, Vidya Ahankara, Shri Ramakrishna, or mature egotism, means complete identity with God, then by the will of the Divine Mother, they go on a pilgrimage. They are called holy people. What do they do? When they go on a pilgrimage to a holy place, then the people, they will get benefit. These realized souls impart, that is, they become wonderful instruments through which God's grace replenishes the holiness of the place. Like in a bank, every bank has two functions. To lend money, to receive money. And if everybody is only receiving, borrowing and not replenishing, then the bank will go bankrupt. But there will be some people who will be keeping the balance, or even more than the balance. And such people are called Teerthankaras, Teerthis. And they go on pilgrimage to replenish, not to receive, so that other people can be benefited. Now, Teerthi, Kurvanti, Teerthani, Naradacharya, doesn't mean only places of pilgrimage. When a realized soul, not to speak of an incarnation of God, visits a holy, a special person, a talented person, a well-known person in the society, then there is also a second purpose. Not only to show veneration to God, but also, if they can inspire a great person, greater good can be done through the instrumentality of a greater person. That is the reason why these great people visit. And in what subtle ways these great people can influence people like Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, we do not know. Because always we are looking for immediate results. But no, the effect of coming into contact with an incarnation of God, the effect of unconsciously receiving. And here also, I have to tell you something very great. The effect can never be calculated. And it can take place later on. Like Sri Ramakrishna used to give an example, a seed was there on the roof of a dilapidated house. For a long time, it was on the roof. But a time had come and the roof had fallen. A seed also had fallen. And it comes into touch with the soil and a little bit of rainwater and immediately it starts sprouting. I have told you during some of my talks that Indian civilization in a highly developed state was found in Punjab or now what we call Pakistan. Harappa, Mohenjodara. And people were digging, anthropologists were digging and discovering a well laid out, well planned out city after city including proper drainage and sewage arrangements, etc. And by chance, they found out the seeds of lotus plant. After how many years? More than perhaps either 2,000 or 4,000 years. Then these people became curious. Are these seeds dead? Or will they sprout? And they sowed them in the soil and to their shock that after 5 or 6 months slowly the lotus plants started to grow. This is what we call in Vedanta, Sanskaras, the seeds that we have gathered. Seeds means effects of what we have done in the innumerable past lives. Churasi Janma. Lak Janma, we call it. 84 lakhs, but it is not exact figure. So we are a little bit manifesting the accumulated effects and that too in a very small extent in this particular life. This itself is a most marvellous topic. Why can't we exhaust all the results of our past karmas in one life? That was the view of the Mimamsakas. And Shankaracharya replies practically in every commentary that he made on the Upanishads because we have done innumerable actions, some good, some bad. First of all, one life is not enough. Secondly, opposite results. Suppose somebody has done both extreme good and extreme evil and then as a result of extreme good the person deserves to have the best bodies, minds, environment and society, everything. But because the same person had also done extreme evil, then that person requires to undergo terrible suffering. But what can this person do in one life? It is not possible to experience these diametrically opposed results If there is a little bit of happiness and a little bit of unhappiness definitely it can be exhausted. But if it is beyond certain measure then two separate bodies are required because every body is created just like any other instrument to suit the experiences of a particular type. Simple example, you need a finest needle to sew a silken rope whereas you require a huge needle to sew gunny bags, etc. or to speak of electronic balances, etc. So this is the argument and then really speaking it is so innumerable that the past effects are not possible. Anyway, I just deviated because the topic of seed had come. That is why we call it Bija Samskaras are like bijas some have sprouted some are awaiting and some will be sprouting in future. That is why they are called Sanchita awaiting, Prarabdha already started and Agami that which is going to sprout in future at appropriate times. Only Ishwara, His intelligence knows which effects have to be brought forward in which life and then He does exactly like AI, Artificial Intelligence. Anyway, coming back to our subject, so great people are visited by these great souls so great people doesn't mean spiritual people a great musician a great king a powerful dictator if some spiritual ideas can be implanted in their minds then they can do a lot of good many people have criticized Swami Vivekananda why do you prefer to stay with kings, maharajas ministers Swamiji replied I have no such idea I should not stay in a poor house but why do I prefer because if I influence a poor person his capacity to do good to society is extremely limited but if I can influence a Maharaja his capacity to do good to a larger section of humanity is really possible and that is why if opportunity comes I will stay with a powerful person not because I wanted to stay with powerful people anyway, there are so many reasons and we are sure Eswar Chandra Vidya Sagar also can, in course of time can manifest spirituality and Sri Ram Krishna himself had certified that gold lies hidden in Eswar Chandra Vidya Sagar just a little bit of digging and that's what Sri Ram Krishna had to do so that gold gold means what? Spirituality because such a person who has done so much of good in service of society his mind as we were discussing in Mandukya or in other Upanishads Chitta Shuddhi purity of the mind Chitta Ekagrata perfect concentration of the mind Vishal Yata and the person's mind has become identified with a larger whole not with one single individual body or family and finally such a person who is doing so much of good he will be earning lot of Puniyam that is virtue accumulating lot of virtue and this virtue can be used at the initial stages only to enjoy higher type of happiness that is why the scriptures are bound to say such people go to higher worlds like Indra Loka Gandharva Loka Prajapati Loka Brihaspati Loka and finally to Brahma Loka in popular Hindu mythology there are 7 Lokas starting counting with our Earth however another 6 higher worlds are there and the highest of all of them is called Brahma Loka or Sathya Loka the higher the Loka higher the enjoyment similarly below the Earth there are 7 gradually diminishing and increasing suffering that is they are called what we call popularly as Naraka but both experiences are possible and in fact persons will be going through all of them even though I raised the topic of heaven and hell but I have to tell you two facts about it one is heaven and hell like America and India Russia and UK are not geographical locations this is a very curious phenomena so whether a person with the hope that he will have a higher type of happiness better happiness in other developed countries like America or Australia or Canada etc. UK etc. they migrate there but according to Hindu belief wherever a person goes the quantum of happiness and unhappiness will be exactly the same because his instrument is so programmed even if he is staying if this person has to suffer and he is staying because of money in a what is called 7 star hotel but he cannot sleep he will have worries and he will be suffering from so many imaginary created by his own mind because one of the effects of punyam or virtue is that the mind becomes free from unnecessary worries there will be a little bit but it varies according to the punyam or papam so a person may be also rich but may suffer also terribly person may be poor the simplest example is Sri Ram Krishna himself and his father Shudra and holy mother in comparison with what nowadays people like us have and what did holy mother have nothing but very plain food and in a village full of mosquitoes, malaria but people just used to throng why? they received peace of mind which they cannot get by themselves or from any other person that is why they used to come to Sri Ram Krishna they used to come to Shudra in that small village because of attraction we are attracted to happiness wherever we think happiness is available whether it is drinking, dancing or a saintly person or an ashrama we only are attracted by this quantum of happiness we hope to receive from them and through direct experience also we can think that way so heaven and hell are not geographical locations but states of the consciousness or you can put it states of the mind even the description of chakras in our human within our human body they are also nothing to do with the physical body much less to do with the psychic body but they are states of consciousness this is we have to understand this is the first point second point is whatever karma phala has started prarabdha karma our body is the result of this particular experiences we have to gain our parents our particular body the house in which we grow the environment in which we have to grow the schools and colleges and the teachers and professors and the people we are supposed to come across the offices that we have to work the families where we get married and we have to stay men and women and the children that we get all these are determined not by the present actions but these are all the results of our past actions that is why it is called prarabdha that is long before along with the birth certain programs are there like any officer is sent by his higher officers to another country another place to accomplish certain type of work and he will be accommodated according to his rank and then he will get food also according to his rank and he has to solve particular type of activities so changing place changing dress or doing any type of job are not going to increase our happiness or unhappiness because we are destined to experience this that is called prarabdha karma and third point why is this prarabdha karma necessary is it as a punishment as a reward no it is to learn lessons life is all about learning lessons that is how Swami Vivekananda had defined as a answers to questions what is life three answers he gave in fact he gave many more answers but we are taking only three answers first life is a school second life is a gymnasium third life is a circus and then he himself explained it later on that we are born here first stage of our life is what is life why are we here what are we supposed to do where are we supposed to go that is who is your father who is your mother who are you where are you supposed to go so that is called learning process this is what he said life is a school learn when of 3 or 4 until the age of 25 or 26 no until we die we have to learn every single event we will have to look back and say this event happened and could I have prevented it no nobody could have prevented it, it is supposed to happen then what benefit we get we have to question this is the event that happened so what lesson am I supposed to learn from this that is very important so we are here to learn that is the first stage but once we learn something we have to use our power of dispassion so that learning what to learn and learning is of two types that is we have to learn what is right, what is wrong what should be discarded this understanding is called viveka discrimination it has nothing to do with the path of knowledge viveka is very important whatever path we are following whether we are worldly people or treading the path of spirituality even worldliness also because our goal is perfect happiness we are seeking that happiness and depending upon where we are seeking and that is called either worldliness or spirituality so worldly person doesn't want smaller happiness he wants but he is seeking where only limited happiness can be obtained and he wakes up at some point of time and he understands a limited instrument can only give a limited result so he will turn his attention to something higher and that is called turning away from the world and focusing the mind where permanent and higher highest happiness can be obtained and this viveka must be followed by vairagya what is vairagya? giving up what is not desirable and actively willingly with complete awareness adopting what is called desirable and then this has to be continued for that purpose we have to have perfect control over the body and mind that is the third qualification called shamadhi shatka sampatti but all these are completely governed by one ultimate goal which is called mumukshatvam what is mumukshatvam? I do not wish to have any limitations I want unlimited why does this arise in anyone's mind because we are not desiring something which doesn't belong to us we are desiring what we really are but what we have forgotten and this was the understanding Sri Ramakrishna was trying to instill or brainwash Ishwachandra Vidya Sagar and the effect of it is what is called inescapable when we sow a seed sooner or later the seed must sprout in some cases we do not get it immediately and that is how we judge people Sri Ramakrishna visited Ishwachandra Vidya Sagar how come he has not visited Sri Ramakrishna which he promised to do and why was he not attracted when we study the life of Sri Ramakrishna we find something very interesting people who led an what is called indifferent life or immoral life like so called Girish Chandra Ghosh Kalipada Ghosh Suresh Mitra etc they were so much attracted to Sri Ramakrishna whereas highly learned Pandits Sri Ramakrishna happened to meet Swami Dayananda Saraswati also the founder of the Arya Samaj and how come he was not attracted Ishwachandra Vidya Sagar was not attracted so many people Sri Ramakrishna had met who were great scholars they were not attracted well it is not that but it will take some time but whereas people like Pandit Gowri Pandit Padmalochan etc they were attracted they surrendered themselves and of them one Narayana who was one of the greatest Pandits but he never entered into any job later on coming under the influence of Sri Ramakrishna he went away from Dakshineshwar even though he was a married person and then he went and took Sanyasa Sri Ramakrishna had bestowed Sanyasa only with his own hands only to one person and that was this Narayana and that is how we see strange things but the effect is inescapable that is what Sri Ramakrishna used to say through beautiful illustrations that if a what is called water snake catches hold of a frog neither it can swallow nor it can spit and it is an agonizing death for both of them but if a king cobra bites a frog at best so one or two days a little time the frog will survive only after that it has to die what does he mean? he means that persons like Sri Ramakrishna who are none other than direct manifestations of the Divine Mother when they bestow their grace by touching, by speaking etc. so the effect is inevitable inescapable but depends upon the past Samskaras are obstructing the proper reception of those things and we get so many illustrations today I am not going to go into them so coming back in our last class we have started to describe Sri Ramakrishna was talking about a Vijnani he made a distinction between a Jnani and a Vijnani a Jnani is a person who is 100% convinced God exists and the whole creation has come from him and I also have come from him and I am striving my level best somehow by God's grace he will attain God, he will see that Aham Brahmasmi but thereafter he will not be able to come back he will become merged his body will fall off after 21 days but a Vijnani is one who not only returns we can say that every Jeevan Muktha is a Vijnani and even among the Jeevan Mukthas there are what we call differences are there in the Upanishads also we get these differences Brahmavit, Brahmavitaraha Brahmavit Tamaha so there are superlative degrees of comparison are there even though Swami Brahmananda, Swami Vekananda Swami Shardananda they were all greatly realized souls but what a tremendous difference is there and what is that difference due to the manifestation of Shakti in their particular bodies, bodies being different, minds also being different the manifestation of Shakti like electricity in a 50 watt bulb or in a 0 watt bulb, in a 100 watt bulb or in a 5000 watt bulb even though electricity is the same the manifestation must differ according to the medium the instrument through which it wants to express itself, so even among Vijnanis Visesha Jnani is called Vijnani even there are differences, Sri Ram Krishna describes it and we have discussed also in that condition that how does a Vijnani perceive this world this also I have dealt with in some of my past classes but I am just recollecting so that we can recall what is the vision of a Vijnani a Vijnani's vision can roughly be compared to the vision of a psychiatrist suppose a patient is brought, he is a normal man and somehow he convinces himself that he is let us say Napoleon and his relatives bring him and now the psychiatrist he understands every patient that comes to a psychiatrist is like that only so the psychiatrist will have a double vision double vision means two types of understanding about this patient what is it, this person is not a Napoleon but he is XYZ that is the normal vision which we have do we know when we see a person behaving abnormally immediately we label him as madcap from that time we forget that he is a normal person like you and me and everybody else but we start treating him as a madcap looking down upon him thinking that we are not mad only he is or she is mad but a psychiatrist knows this is a normal person but temporarily there is an aberration he has forgotten something which he should not have done that and why does this identification come because of some ideas that are very powerfully fighting deep in his unconscious everybody, my friends are recognized as great people but I am remaining them and so sometimes it expresses in the ways of this madness, I am Napoleon but the psychologist is also a second vision what is that vision, I know he is normal and he is normal but he doesn't know that he is normal he has forgotten, this is the vision of a Jeevan Mukta every Jeevan Mukta knows that everything in this world is nothing but Brahman but he also knows from another viewpoint that there are so many people who do not know what is this Brahmanhood, what is their real nature, like this person who thinks I am Napoleon so we all think I am a human being, I am a man I am a woman, I am a even psycho, I am a psychologist I am a psychiatrist etc. forgetting that each soul is potentially divine, this is the double state, so that is why a Vijnani can have this double vision and teaching is possible when there is this double vision otherwise if we start seeing only God everywhere there can be no teaching at all and then having concluded this state of a Vijnani and why did Sri Ram Krishna talk about because He wants all of us at least to become Vijnanis if not Vijnanis but by God's grace and if we are having a suitable talent for example among people like us there are people many of us can be teachers but some people they can be extraordinarily effective teachers, you know you can hear so many talks of so many swamis, so many devotees so many pundits when some people talk it is not very clear and a lot of confusion, lot of what is called no clarity we can see in that, the person knows but he doesn't have the capacity to express but there are some people who are extraordinarily capable of conveying even a person who doesn't have that much IQ can easily understand at least intellectual understanding so there is a huge difference between teachers and if some of us realize God then God utilizes after all even this capacity also is only granted by Him and the body is okay then God uses that person as a Vijnani, as a Jeevan Mukta, I equate every Jeevan Mukta as a Vijnani only but keep in mind there are gradations, degrees of this Vijnana as Muktas they are all the same but as storehouses of power there is differences there, so this much we have to understand, now another topic has come that we cannot distinguish easily between Ego and Egotism, Egotism Egoism are synonymous words that is the effects of Ego and Ego these are two separate things that is why Aham is Ego Ahamkara is either Egotism or Egoism and we must distinguish between Aham and Ahamkara Aham cannot die what is Aham? Identity, if I am existing I have an identity and without becoming non-existent I cannot really get rid of the Ego and in existing something can never become non-existent and of course non-existence cannot have any existence at all, we use the word non-existence but such a thing really doesn't exist at all, there is no being of non-existence, only existence, sometimes when we are talking loosely about non-existence we mean the absence of something but not truly non-existence so Ramakrishna is talking why the Ego cannot die and this is what he is telling the Ego does not vanish altogether the man coming down from Samadhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the Ego, the Universe and all living things this is known as Vijnana what does Ramakrishna mean? what he means is first of all he says the man coming down from Samadhi, that is here in Samadhi what is Samadhi? A state of complete identity with Brahman is called Samadhi it is a state of knowledge nothing to do with bodily posture the eyes go upward and the person, the body becomes, mind becomes unconscious that is not what we are talking, Samadhi means perfect knowledge perfect knowledge is Samadhi Samadhi is perfect knowledge so when the person sometime he will be completely identified but coming down from Samadhi means identification with the body, mind outside world because the moment the self-consciousness identity comes with this so called personality so the mind alone cannot work the body of course cannot work, a combination of body-mind and wherever there is a body-mind there will be also the world so all these things will be there so coming back means what? the person necessarily has to identify I am this body and mind but the person coming down from Samadhi, he doesn't really forgets his real nature he doesn't say that I am the body and mind he says for now my consciousness has become identified with this body and mind because he is a Mukta that is what? what Mukta? Jeevan Mukta, still living and then because he knows what is truth, what is the truth? I am Brahman, not only I am Brahman, Sarvam Kalvidam Brahman, that is inevitable in the case of every Jeevan Mukta, there is no Jeevan Mukta living free who says I know I am Brahman but I know you are not Brahman so this special understanding that everything is Brahman it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe and all living beings the living, non-living and this ineffable knowledge is called Vijnana this is the how that the ego will not die. Sarvam Krishna also has to say I am suffering so much what does he mean? He knows perfectly well I am Brahman and Brahman is not body because Brahman is not anything that is limited body is anything but limited and therefore if it is limited and that limitation itself is bondage, is pain is suffering. So Sarvam Krishna is clarifying not only for Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar but for every devotee that is gathered there. Let us remember even M, the chronicler of this gospel of Sarvam Krishna is also knowing this one then Sarvam Krishna wants to propagate inject some of the special teachings of his to through his people with the hope when these people talk then they will not be narrow-minded at all. So he is emphasizing. What is the point? Every path followed sincerely leads to the same goal God. This is the topic. What does Sarvam Krishna say? Let us read. The path of knowledge leads to truth and so the path that combines knowledge and love the path of love means Bhakti Yoga. Truth leads to this goal. The way of love is as true as the way of knowledge. Why are we reading? Why is Sarvam Krishna saying and why are we reading it even today in this 2024th year? Because there are idiots posing as great teachers and especially leading the path of knowledge and they have published books. There is no path to liberation excepting the path of knowledge and there are living sannyasins who are following this idiot and saying that the only path that leads to God is only the path of knowledge. What is their argument? We are all suffering from Ajnana, ignorance and what is the remedy for ignorance? Knowledge. Therefore the path of, special path of knowledge alone can lead to God Realization and nothing else. But Sarvam Krishna is telling the path of bhakti to lead to this goal. The way of bhakti is as true as the way of knowledge. Not only that all paths including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sufism, Noahism, but if a person is sincere, ultimately leads to the same truth because God is infinite, His paths are also infinite. But then Sarvam Krishna points out something very interesting. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love. So, what does it mean? Because life is nothing but identification of the Aham with the body-mind called egotism. So long as there is this ego means pure consciousness, reflected consciousness identifying itself with the body and mind called egoism or egotism, it is easier to follow the path of love. Love means here bhakti yoga. So, bhakti yoga means what? We are all creatures of emotion. The more knowledge is growing, scientific knowledge, AI knowledge, we are all in every field practically, this knowledge is growing but the most shocking surprise is the more knowledge we are having the more emotional we are becoming. Look at any cinema, look at any song that people hear nowadays on YouTube or anywhere. What is it? That I love you, I love you and if you don't love me I am going to commit suicide. Is this called knowledge or is this called pure emotionalism? So we are becoming more and less and less secure and the less secure, called insecurity, we are becoming victims and we can even watching these kind of movies or what is called wasting, destroying our time with our own hands, unlimited ways of hearing these songs, drinking, dancing and all in the name of what is called as we are highly cultured people is all because terrible emotionalism. How many people are there who can think rationally, who can remain calm and quiet? Very, very, very few people. Even the highly technical people, they are the greatest victims of this emotionalism. That's what Sriram Krishna had realized. The more emotional we are, the more we become susceptible to the smallest change in life and changes in life are becoming very, very rapid nowadays. If God endows us with a little bit of understanding, our pathway lies through emotionalism and when all the emotions are collected, combined and redirected towards God is called Bhakti Yoga. It is not destruction of emotion but it is redirection of emotion. That is what Sriram Krishna is telling. As long as God gives a feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love. Love means Bhakti. Now I want to add something very important here. Our whole life is nothing but an expression of our egoism. Our life is the manifestation of our egoism. Happiness and grief, elation and depression, too many unrelated undesirable thoughts whirling around at breakneck speed, even desirable thoughts are also not in our control. Thoughts of the past, thoughts of the present, thoughts of the future, thoughts of body, thoughts of the mind, thoughts of here and thoughts of hereafter, thoughts of the present and thoughts of the future, at any given time, our life is made up of thoughts only. And the only time we get rest is when we are in deep sleep or called Sushupti. This is a marvelous subject. That is why Swami Brahmanandaji used to advise people that always just before going to bed at night, spend at least a few minutes, review the whole day, what events happened, what actions happened, what reactions we have done, and then what is the effect of these on me? Am I happy or unhappy? And everybody wants only happiness. Everybody wants to reduce unhappiness. So what is the way out? The only way out we can think of is to control our thoughts. And the person who is blessed, who can control his thoughts, the whole universe becomes his slave. It doesn't mean he is going to escape, but it means he escapes from the effects of the events. And that is why Bhagavan Krishna emphasizes in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita called Dhyana Yoga, the path of the yoga of meditation that controls this mind. A person who is a master of the mind is master of the entire universe. He becomes God. And the person who is under the control of the mind, he is the most miserable person in the whole world. In fact, life is meant only gradually obtaining greater and greater control over the mind. So what did we discuss? Go and just keep a few minutes, at least 10 to 15 minutes and sit down and say that what was I thinking? How many thoughts? And what is the essence of every thought? Is it bringing me happiness? Is it bringing me misery? Is it bringing me profit? Is it bringing me loss? So, am I attached to my wife, to my husband, to my children, to my friends, to my job, to my possessions? Everything has only to do with nothing else but self-love. This is the topic which Yajnavalkya so beautifully and so clearly taught to his disciple Maitreyi Yajnavalkya Maitreyi Samvada Prahdhara Nikopanishad Fourth chapter, you will get it. It is a beautiful chapter that really speaking we do not think about anything else except ourselves. But our self is totally related, mistakenly related, wrongly related to family, husband, wife, children, parents, job, our possessions, our religion, our concept of God, everything. So, this is something. It is nothing but pure egotism. What is egotism? Ego identifying itself with the body and the mind. And the mind dominates. And what is the mind consisting of? Thoughts. And every thought has only one particular goal that is, how can I obtain more happiness? I carry a fig for other people's consideration. If they serve for my happiness, then they are beloved. If not, they are not wanted. They have to be discarded. So, this beautiful subject I have something more to say which we will talk about in our next class.