Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 151 on 18-November-2025
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PAHADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU
ओम् जननीम् शर्दाम् देवेम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुरुम् पादपत्मे तयोस्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुरु मुहु
The Question of Evil and Suffering
One of the questions that very often comes, especially nowadays, is: Why is there so much evil in this world? This is a very profound question. There are so many implications in this question.
The first: Why is there suffering? Evil means suffering, and the question, when probed deeply, creates a lot of sub-questions. First of all, do we question why there is so much evil in the world when we are happy? Do we question when other people are suffering? It is only when we are suffering most likely we are putting this question: If God has created, then why is there so much suffering? Evil means nothing else but suffering. Even the slightest amount of suffering can make us question.
The Nature of the Creator
Second: Who is the creator? Is it God? If God is the creator, is God good or evil, or is a mixture of both? Unequivocally, every religion asserts through the scriptures, through the saints, that God is all good. Bhagavān—one of the meanings of the word Bhagavān—all auspiciousness. So can a good God create an evil world? And there is no life—however good—every happiness is a temporary happiness. And if we probe a bit deeper inside it, we also understand that the payment for happiness is not anything else, not money, not objects, but it is suffering.
You suffer from cold, then anything that is warm will remove it to that extent. To what extent? To some extent. You are hungry—hunger is a suffering, thirst is a suffering, tiredness is suffering, disease is suffering, and separation from what we love is suffering, and uniting with what we hate, we dislike, is suffering.
The Duality of Existence
Life is nothing but pure dvandva. In Vedantic terminology, dvandva means duality. Duality are not two things, two inseparable things. One is less, then the other one becomes more. Duḥkha is less, which is called sukha; sukha is less, which is called duḥkha—and the payment for duḥkha is sukha. The higher we are and the fall from that height, greater the height, greater will be the injury, suffering, etc.
So are we paying, are we buying duḥkha? Nobody agrees with this statement. Are we buying duḥkha? Yes. Whenever we are talking about sukha, thinking about sukha, and attempting to obtain sukha and experiencing sukha, that is the payment we are making—because sukha, the moment it disappears, it brings on duḥkha. That is the beginning of duḥkha, and it goes on increasing.
You eat food, your stomach is full, you are satiated, you won't eat anymore, you can't eat anymore, then you stop eating. Then slowly whatever we have eaten is going to get digested. It may take five hours, ten hours—it doesn't matter—but in course of time, again we get hungry. So the end of sukha is the beginning of duḥkha; the end of duḥkha is the beginning of sukha. And they are inevitable, because this world is nothing but sṛṣṭi. What is the duality of sṛṣṭi? Birth. Death is the counterpart. What is the counterpart of death? Birth. Until we attain liberation, that is the truth. So that is the second question.
What is the first question? Why is there so much evil? And we question only when we are suffering. A few people do question why other people are suffering. Then is God really good? If God is good, how can a good man and an all-knowing being, an all-powerful being, how can he create evil? Because there are many good people, but they are powerless. They are also knowledge-less, ignorant. They might wish the happiness of other people, the good of other people, the welfare of other people, but they may be helpless—and actually we are completely helpless.
The Study of History and Self-Knowledge
That is why study of history—Swami Vivekananda used to advise Hindus, "You study your past history, you study the Vedas." Somebody asked, counter-questioned Swami Vivekananda, "Sir, Vedas are not in vogue, hardly anybody knows, the language is archaic, the meaning is obscure, and the people who are interested are very few, and you are advising."
Then Swami Vivekananda had given a most marvelous reply. First reply he said that many of the things which you take for granted—that women are inferior, they are less intelligent, and they are not capable of doing many things that men do. How many, I would say billions of women for billions of years, have suffered from the superstition cherished solely by men.
It is only Swami Vivekananda who wandered after the passing of Ramakrishna throughout India. It was not a wandering, it was wondering. He started wondering: I know this country is one of the greatest countries, but why is it in this condition now? Then he understood that people have forgotten their religion—not what goes by the name of religion.
The State of Modern Religion
Even today, what type of religion we are practicing? Just open the newspaper. Even the so-called religious people, they are fearful of God, their superstition. God will punish them. But they have a provision: If only we can do without God's knowledge, then we will be safe. So if nobody comes to know about it, we are safe. Secretly if we do, we are safe.
We hear how even today in this 21st century, we see people are dying of getting crushed in the crowds, overcrowded temples. Sometimes people have to wait—old, disabled—for hours and hours together. When the politicians just walk in, have their hearts' content to pūjā, and the priests do ārātrikam to them, all because of their power, while the other people have to go through terrible suffering—which of course, in brackets, I would say, is not a bad idea, because that is a kind of tapasyā. Certainly it will give us its own fruit, but that is a different issue.
Why can't Hindus become intelligent like Christians and then devise our temples, modify our temples in such a way that within a short time, everybody can have their hearts' content to darśana? It is not impossible. There are four walls, and it is not the walls that make a temple sacred. It is the devotion of people who are visiting. And some of the dirtiest people on earth—they profess so much of religion, but the moment they come outside the temple, they make it the dirtiest place on earth, public sewage. I don't know what to call these people. We are all guilty.
Anyway, I don't want to go on ranting, but what I wanted to tell you: What type of idea we have about God? Very few people understand really God. Even if we have to be good religious people, it requires intelligence, diligence, hard work, self-sacrifice, regulating our character. So many things are necessary even if we claim to be religious, not to speak of spirituality.
The Dual Nature of Reality
Anyway, the point is one of the most important questions: Why is there so much of evil? Another question which we ought to ask but which we do not: Why is there so much of good in this world? Study history. Ninety-nine percent of the time it is wars, pestilences, torture.
So there was one Russian author called Sorokin. He had studied society and then he wrote a book. He said: In the thousands of years of known history in this world, you can count on your fingers how many years the world was without any war—either small or big, either national or international or inter-nation, family quarrels. We are doing terrible things.
The Meaning of Evil
So what is the answer? Remember, whenever we ask why is there so much suffering in the world, nowadays people hardly use the word "evil." They use the word "suffering." And this also has an interesting connotation, because previously people believed there is something called evil, Satan. And God has created Satan. And Satan rebelled against God. Whoever rebelled against God, they are called Satans.
And even in Upaniṣads they are called asuras:
āsuriyā nāma te lokā andhena tamasāvṛtāḥ
tāṃs te pretya abhigacchanti ye ke cātmahano janāḥ
This Īśā Upaniṣad, third mantra, categorically names the people who do not know who they are. They are called killers of themselves—ātmahanaḥ. And they are called asuras. An asura is a person who worships the body—only body—and the mind, sense organs, possessions. Everything is to be subservient to this body worship. There is nothing else.
So if we study history, we find that not only there are some people who are evil, manifestly evil, but we are also evil. What is the answer? Saints give the answer. They never talk about evil, but they use another word. That is what Sri Ramakrishna is trying to make.
Sri Ramakrishna's Teaching on Maya
So Sri Ramakrishna is giving these marvelous Vedic teachings, Upaniṣadic teachings. Bondage and liberation are both of her making. Before we go further, we also have to forestall another question that comes: Okay, she is sitting there like an autocratic queen and she is making all these things. But why is she targeting me? Every one of us question: Why is she doing it to me?
And Vedanta categorically says—and I think Vedanta only categorically tells—that it is not real. It appears to be real, not real. And that not real, not really real, but appears to be real, it has a peculiar connotation, and that is called līlā.
The Concept of Divine Play (Līlā)
And even Brahma Sūtras, which I will refer later on, also in the second adhyāya, second chapter, refers to it: lokavat tu līlā kaivalyam. Entire creation is a sport of the Divine Lord. And I have spoken quite a number of times on that, giving the example of our dream. We are the creators of our dream. We know that we have created our own dreams.
How do we know? Because upon waking up, we do not blame anybody. We only blame ourselves: "Oh, I had a dream." Nobody says that I created your dream. I am not aware of your thoughts, your dreams, your imaginations, good or evil. I only know. When do I know? When I wake up, I know.
And taking that analogy, the Upaniṣads have analyzed life. So when we are in this waking state, we are not really awake. Andhenaiva nīyamānāḥ yathā andhāḥ—as Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad says—we are like blind people, thinking that we know, we see. That is not true. What we see—I am not referring to this physical blindness, but something that is called ignorance—ajñāna, avidyā. We don't know who we are. We have to awake from this illusory state called ajñāna.
The Call to Awakening
And that is why the Kaṭhopaniṣad says—and it is not talking to the dreaming people (of course, it cannot address the people in deep sleep; Upaniṣad is meant only for people who are fully awake):
uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata
kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṃ pathas tat kavayo vadanti
"The way to truth is like walking on the sharp edge of a razor. Every second there is a danger of being cut into pieces." But we have to awake. Not only awake—jāgrata—become aware, awake, become conscious, become aware where you are going.
The Parable of the Homa Bird
Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example in this gospel. It seems there is a peculiar bird of which nobody had heard, but Ramakrishna gives the example. There is a bird called homa bird, and it lives in the sky so high and it lays eggs. What does it mean? How does it lay egg? That means there is also saṃsāra. However high it stays in the sky, there is a husband bird, there is a wife bird, and there are children birds.
By the way, the eggs are also called dvija, because birds are called dvijas. Why? Because first birth is in the form of an egg, and then later on from the egg the chicks come out. In fact, we are all only dvijas. Only we don't call ourselves. So aṇḍaja—aṇḍa means egg.
Anyway, the point is this homa bird, mother bird gives birth to these eggs and they start falling, and it takes several days, and they are still very high up in the sky. As they are falling, they hatch. The chicks come out. They start still falling, and after several days slowly they start growing, and then they open their eyes and they see they are falling down, and they know they will go to death. So they reverse their journey and they go back.
This coming down is called involution. This again going to the mother, safety of the mother, is called evolution. And evolution is inevitable. Involution is also inevitable. So this is like escalators. So one escalator is coming down and another escalator is taking one up, and the whole sṛṣṭi.
The Nature of Creation and Dreams
This is what our master Sri Ramakrishna is telling. Bondage and liberation are both of mother's will. "Making" means: Does she make like a potter makes a pot? No, just līlā, just as we make dreams.
What is the material in the dream? First of all, the whole dream world. That is: Who is the creator? Each one of us. What is the material? Mind. What is the intelligent cause? The aware mind. What is the material? It is the mind only. And we create ourselves into infinite number of the whole world.
Suppose you are traveling in a forest and there are countless number of insects, birds, plants, everything. It is all a world in itself. And that world we think: I am an individual in that world. Others are separate from me. And we act and interact. Action and reaction. As if we are in the waking state.
Only upon waking up, we look back. Remember: Cognition, recognition. And then we realize that if somebody had abused me, I abused myself. Somebody praised me, I praised myself. I lost something, and I gained something. Everything is nothing but my thought.
The World as Our Creation
Now apply the same principle to the waking state also. Everything is nothing but our own making. That is why there is a Sanskrit word called loka. Loka means world. World means what? That which is experienced is called world. I also spoke about this subject quite a number of times, and I will be speaking also, because these are profound ideas. Not only we have to intellectually understand them, but we also have to understand that the whole sṛṣṭi is our own creation.
And that is what Vedanta first primarily points out: That God has not put you in an adverse universe willingly. You have put yourself through your past karma, though you are not aware of what you have done in the past life. So the whole world—who created my parents? I created, because I have to exhaust my karma, and they have to exhaust my karma. I have to exhaust their karma. So brothers, sisters, friends, enemies, the society, the opportunities—whether I am in the lower class, middle class, upper middle class, higher class—everything is my doing only. And hardly anybody understands this.
Everybody says, "I am born helplessly, accidentally. My parents were not deliberately planning." Very few parents deliberately plan.
The Example of Śaṅkarācārya
Simple example: Śaṅkarācārya's parents did not have any issue. Then his father prayed to his Iṣṭa Devatā Śaṅkara, Śiva. And Śiva appeared and said that "I am pleased with you. I will give you a child. But I will give you two choices. One, a child prodigy who will bring tremendous name and fame not only to himself but to you also. People will remember you. But he will be very short-lived. Eight years only. But if you want an ordinary son like any other child, he will live a longer time."
So without hesitation, Śaṅkarācārya's father chose only: "I want a son who will bring name and fame and people revere our vaṃśa, our lineage." And that is what happened.
But actually Śaṅkarācārya lived for 32 years, because somebody had renewed eight years into 16 years. And it is said Vedavyāsa Bādarāyaṇa appeared before him, pleased with him. He said, "You still have to awaken the whole world, actually. So I will double your life span. So you will die at the age of 32," and that is what had happened.
Sri Ramakrishna predicted of Swami Vivekananda, Narendranath: "This boy, his breathing is very shallow. He will live only a short time. Shallow breathing people will not live a long time." Shallow breathing also means fast breathing. So we have to deliberately breathe slow, and that will give rest also. Anyway, that is a different matter.
The World as Self-Created
The main point we are discussing is that this world that we find ourselves in, like the world we find ourselves in our dream world, is solely of our own making. It has nothing to do with Brahmā or Viṣṇu or Maheśvara. It is solely our past karma.
And this saṃsāra is anādi, beginningless. And that which is beginningless is also endless. The whole world is going to get liberation at one point of time? That is not going to happen. But there will be some individuals who are continuously asserting themselves, doing sādhana, and by the grace of God they will get out.
The Ferris Wheel Analogy
And Swami Vivekananda compared to ferris wheel. There are some things where people go and sit in a box shaped like a horse, etc., and the ferris wheel continuously goes up and down. But it never changes. The box never changes. But the people, the passengers who purchase the ticket, there will be an entry point and there will be also an exit point. Continuously people are sitting, but continuously new people are also entering and sitting. So day and night it goes on and on and on. So the saṃsāra is something like that.
This is what Sri Ramakrishna is telling: that bondage and liberation are both of our making. By her māyā, worldly people become entangled in women and gold. Women and gold for sex and money. And if you open your eyes and look at, the whole world is running mad only after two things: sex and money. Sex represents body identification. Money represents enjoyment of the body. The whole effort of everybody, practically: How can I make this body happy? Whether it be food or dress, what they call, "I look beautiful." What looks beautiful? Body looks beautiful. And how long will it look beautiful? People don't realize the sheen of youth wears away very soon.
Psychological Insights on Relationships
Not only that, there are so many wonderful psychological insights we have to develop. Even if we have to say, you live with somebody most beautiful, man or woman. You know what happens? Certain things happen. I love to make this kind of observations, because we all know what is happening, but we are not pausing and thinking about them.
The couple who are in the greatest love, super-glued together before marriage—after a few days, slowly Kurukṣetra starts. Why do you think it starts? So Kurukṣetra is going on. But then, you know, because of children and because everybody is like that, or because of some religious influence, people continue to live together, try to adjust. Few people adjust. Rest of them, they wish they are not born. "Why did I commit such a mistake? I think the other partner would have been better."
Not understanding, whomsoever I start living with, soon our eyes will lose the sheen, external sheen, and we start noticing the defects, the faults.
The Challenge of Modern Times
So especially nowadays, this is called Kali Kāla. Not only people are running after—and this is being highlighted in every channel of entertainment. And it is very sad. And then, to make it possible, we are bombarded with algorithms. And our very mindsets are going to be changed, especially now because of the easiness of these algorithms.
So then, we don't know. But still, every human being is endowed with an independent power of thinking. And if we make a small attempt, we can regain it. Nobody can take it away from us, because each soul is potentially divine. And Śrī Ramakrishna is reminding us. The scripture is reminding us.
What does the scripture remind? Who are you? Wherefrom have you come? What for? What purpose you are living? Where is your destination? And how are you going to reach your destination? This is called philosophy. A beautiful song is there. You have to be reminded of it.
So when we are children playing dolls, our whole life is gone. And we still continue to play with grown-up dolls, which is called marriage, which is called job, which is called attraction, eating, catering to the five senses, like the asura Virocana. This is called māyā. And this māyā belongs to the Divine Mother. And Divine Mother is called Brahman.
Liberation Through Grace
By her māyā, worldly people become entangled. But only entangled? No. Again, through her grace, they attain their liberation.
The second question that we have asked earlier: Why does she target us for her pleasure? Somebody remarked, the whole life is nothing but a play of cat and mouse. And somebody had counted: It is okay for the cat. What about the mouse?
We are thinking it is okay for rich people, for powerful people, and they can escape. No, sir. You are only profoundly mistaken. They do not know what is real joy. They are like the worst type of people, who are—just imagine—some seeds have fallen into a gutter, sewage gutter, full of filth. And these people are scrambling against each other, pushing each other to gain.
The Hierarchy of Happiness
Only after long evolution, they become aware what we are doing is like these people running after, but truly speaking, there are higher joys. And that is why, just a short reminder:
Viṣayānanda—objective happiness, or happiness or pleasure derived from objects, sensual objects.
Higher, much higher, is called Medhānanda—intellectual happiness. If you enjoy even a novel, days and days together, you can go and enjoy. You can't go on eating for hours together, let alone days. And then you get tired. But intellectual happiness, it grows and grows and grows.
Higher than that is called Kalānanda, or aesthetic happiness. And that is something marvelous, far superior happiness. And those who do not know, they cannot be described also.
Then higher than them is called Dharmānanda—a life where we expand ourselves, identify with many other people. We become identified with a larger whole. That is called Dharmānanda, moral life. And the joy that one derives from it is indescribable.
The highest is called Brahmānanda—a joy of knowing that I am God, I am Brahman. That is called Brahmānanda.
So that is what Sri Ramakrishna wants to tell us. Again, through her grace, they attain their liberation. And then, she is called the savior, the remover of the bondage that binds one to the world.
The Divine Mother's Play
Again, that crucial question: Why is she targeting us? Vedanta categorically reminds us: It is just like our dream. If you had a nightmarish dream where a devil comes and starts torturing you, and upon waking up, you laugh, recollecting, "What a stupid person I am, I myself have created."
No. What is sṛṣṭi? Divine Mother herself has become I, you, we, everything in this world. I do not exist separately. Then why do I feel that I am separate from everybody else? Not to speak from the Divine Mother—that is the solitaire game mother wants, Brahman wants to play, and it takes time.
And that is what this beautiful meaning Śrī Ramakrishna is conveying through a view, very beautiful Śyāmā Saṅgīt—that is, a bhajan composed on the Divine Mother.
Śyāmā Saṅgīt and Śyāma Saṅgīt
So in Bengal, these are very popular. There are two types of bhajans, but the words are so close, we have to pay attention to understand. One is called Śyāmā Saṅgīt. Another is called Śyāma Saṅgīt. Śyāmā means Divine Mother. Ramprasad, Kamalakanta, etc.—very famous songs, a few songs we get in the gospel of Śrī Ramakrishna. They have composed hundreds and hundreds of songs. Śyāma means Kṛṣṇa. So Śyāmā Saṅgīt, Śyāma Saṅgīt.
This Śyāmā Saṅgīt has so many styles. One style is called Vaiṣṇava Padāvalī. There are some specialists who sing this Padāvalī, and Chaitanya Mahāprabhu had preached this glory of God's name, the power of God's name. That is what Śrī Ramakrishna mainly propagated. Bhakti is the easier path. All paths are leading to the same goal, but devotion is easier for most of the people, and one can choose in which form, in which name, we can call upon God.
Complete freedom in matters religion is the specialty of Hindus. Other religions, they are fixated and they fix. You can't call God by any other name, and they can never understand that what they call Allah or Christ or God or Buddha, the same God is called upon as Kṛṣṇa, as Śiva, as Nārāyaṇa, as the Tārā, Durgā, Kālī, etc., by the Hindus.
So Śrī Ramakrishna not only had taken for his sādhana, spiritual practice, some of these bhajans, and he used to dwell upon their meaning. He used to weep uncontrollably, falling at the feet of the Divine Mother, and he also advanced in spiritual life through singing. But he also advances other devotees through this singing. When Śrī Ramakrishna or when Swami Vivekananda sings a song, just like they are teaching, they have profound unimaginable effect upon the other people, but like copper wire, we have to be receptive. If we are not receptive, it won't work.
The Song: Śyāmā Mā Is Flying Kites
So here is a beautiful song from the Gospel of Śrī Ramakrishna. I have hundreds—I don't know, I have not counted—hundreds of such songs are there. One such song is Śyāmā Mā Uḍāche Guḍi. Guḍi means a kite. Children play with kites, and Śyāmā Mā, the Divine Mother, is playing with kites. How many kites? Hundreds and thousands of kites, and every kite is a living creature.
First we will read, then we will dwell upon the meaning, because even to dwell upon the meaning of these bhajans is a great spiritual sādhana. Let us meditate upon them.
The Song Text
So, Śyāmā Mā Uḍāche Guḍi:
In the world's busy marketplace, O Śyāmā, thou art flying kites.
High up they soar on the wind of hope, held fast by māyā string.
Their friends are human skeletons, their sails are the three guṇas made,
But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.
Upon the kite strings thou hast rubbed the mañjā paste of worldliness,
So as to make each straining strand all the more sharp and strong.
Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free.
So that is the song.
The Teaching of the Bhagavad Gītā
And then the same thing is taught by Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free:
manuṣyāṇāṃ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṃ kaścin māṃ vetti tattvataḥ
"Thousands and thousands of spiritual aspirants practice sādhana in the hope of realizing me. Out of billions and billions of people, only a few strive. And out of thousands of such strivers, only one or two people become free. kaścin māṃ vetti tattvataḥ—really, who am I?"
To know who is God is to know who am I, because once we know what is God, we know there is nothing other than God, which means I do not exist. If I say God doesn't exist, only I exist. If I say only God exists, I do not exist. There are no two. Ekam eva advitīyam—that is so beautifully expressed in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad.
Sorry, Taittirīya Upaniṣad: Satyaṃ jñānam anantaṃ brahma—that which alone exists and that which is pure consciousness and that which is infinite, unbroken bliss, that is the human way of trying to understand what Brahman really is.
The Song Continues
We will continue. Then what happens? Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free, and thou dost laugh and clap thy hands, O Mother, watching them. On favoring winds, says Ramprasad, the kites set loose will speedily be borne away to the infinite across the sea of the world.
I will come back to that meaning, but I want to just read a little bit of the gospel.
The Gospel Teaching
After singing this song, the master continued. He said:
"The Divine Mother is always playful and sporty. This universe is her play."
And this was what I was referring earlier. Even in the Brahma Sūtras, pure Advaitic work, lokavat tu līlā kaivalyam—the creation is merely a sport of Brahman. So does it look like God created us for fun? This is the beautiful exposition of the truth. This is what Ramakrishna is trying to tell in simple words.
"The Divine Mother is always playful and sporty. It is her līlā. This universe is her play. Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-layeśāna-śakti-bhūte sanātanī—she is self-willed and must always have her own way. But she is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand."
We have to slightly change the language. She gives freedom to herself. She has created, replicated herself in an infinite number, and she herself gives freedom to herself. Only one or two. Because she wants to continue to play.
Nitya and Līlā
Naturally the question comes that: Why doesn't she—she is only thinking about the whole creation. Līlā means nothing but her imagination. Why can't she give? And are there two aspects? When she is not doing anything, that is one state. When she is doing something, it is another state. Nitya and Līlā.
The answer is crystal clear. Again given by Śrī Ramakrishna. It is an implied answer that both—Brahman remains as Brahman. And Brahman goes on also sporting. Brahman is infinite. This world is also infinite. Brahman is timeless. Saṃsāra is also timeless.
When a person awakens to this fact that I am Brahman—I was Brahman, I am Brahman, I will be Brahman—and that state, when a person understands, because the statement "I was, I am, and I will be" can only be uttered through the mind. A man in Nirvikalpa Samādhi is not going to say that. So, "I am Brahman." At the same time, I am also sporting. These are my aspects. After some time, when I am tired, I go back. This eternal play between the Nitya and the Līlā is going on and on.
Now coming back: In the world's busy marketplace—that means in the midst of our life—O Śyāmā, as if you are flying kites. And then, who are the kites? We are the kites, both living as well as non-living.
High on the Wind of Hope
High up they soar on the wind of hope. All living beings, one thing they have in common, one thing that pulls us towards the desire to live, not to die—that is called hope. And: Maybe I am not happy now, but I will be happy at some time in future. Maybe I am happy now, but I am hoping for more happiness, better happiness, higher happiness, which is beautifully described again in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, if we can see that one, really.
So what is beautifully described here: You are flying, and what are these kites made up of? You know, kites—paper, some bamboo strips, and then there will be some kind of thread. That is what is being described.
Their frames are human skeletons. Their cells are the three guṇas made. So frames means here: body and mind. Made up of what? Three guṇas. And they, these human skeletons—but inside that skeleton, there is something called mind. And the mind and the body, both are enlivened by cit-ābhāsa, by the reflected consciousness. And whole life is made up of what? Three guṇas. Our bodies, our minds are also made up of three guṇas. All the, what we call external world, that is also made up of three guṇas.
The Workmanship of Maya
But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament. This is only intellectual understanding. What did the mother do? Upon the kite strings, thou hast rubbed the mañjā paste of worldliness—ajñāna, avidyā, māyā—so that these strings, made up of the three guṇas, will not break so easily. The thread must be very strong.
You know, when children are playing, so they try to destroy each other's kite. They do not understand. That is what exactly they will do in real life also. That is also part of the Līlā. Even in dream also, that is what we try to do.
So, upon the kite strings, thou hast rubbed the mañjā paste of worldliness, so as to make each straining strand all the more sharp and strong, so that the Līlā continues. Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best, but one or two break free.
The Awakening
But there will come a time—some people become awakened, again by the will of the Divine Mother. Then what happens? That they strive, they fall at your feet, they cry, "Oh Mother, I am tired, I want to go back."
Śrī Ramakrishna often, as we know, used to give the illustration of a granny, blind man's bluff. And she doesn't want the game to come very quickly to an end. But most children also, they don't want the game to come to an end. Great fun—even if they tumble and fall down, it is great fun. But everybody wants to have the satisfaction that I want to touch the granny.
Ramakrishna's unimaginably great simile: But when she finds a particular child is getting tired, she stands in such a way that the child has the satisfaction, "I have touched the granny, now I have touched the granny." His ego becomes inflated, and the granny also says, "Oh, you are wonderful, marvelous, you are free. Now you can go."
The child is very happy, ego is retained intact, and he says, "I am not falling down and removed. I have touched granny, I have earned my freedom," and that being touched or touching the granny is also her will. This is so beautifully illustrated again by the story of Totāpuri Mahārāj, which I have recounted umpteen number of times.
Freedom and the Divine Mother's Joy
On favoring winds, says Ramprasad, the kites set loose will speedily be borne away to the infinite across the sea of the world. And seeing that the strings have broken—what is the string? Guṇas. When the guṇas break, one becomes guṇātīta, sthita-prajña, sthira-prajña—and then what does the mother do?
Thou dost laugh and clap thy hands, O Mother, watching them.
So who bound them? Divine Mother. Who is playing with them? Divine Mother. Who had made them blind-folded? Divine Mother. And who made them long for freedom? Divine Mother. And who allows them to touch her? Divine Mother. From the beginning to the end, it is all Divine Mother. This is called Līlā.
The Exposition of Brahma Sūtra
So Ramakrishna says: "The Divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This universe is her play," and that is the beautiful explanation for the Brahma Sūtra, second chapter, first section, thirty-third sūtra: Lokavat tu līlā kaivalyam—the creation is merely a sport of Brahman.
But does it look like God created us for fun? This we will explore in our next class.
Closing Prayer
OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PAHADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU
ओम् जननीम् शर्दाम् देवेम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुरुम् पादपत्मे तयोस्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुरु मुहु
May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!