Mandukya Karika Lecture 004 on 16 June 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PADAPATME TAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU OM BADRAM KANNE VISHNU YAMA DEVAH BADRAM PASHYE MAKSHA BHIRYA JATRAH STHIRAI RANGAYE STUSHTU VAGAM SASTANUBE VYASHE MA DEVAHI TAYYADAYO SWASTHINA INDRO VRIDDHA SHRAVA SWASTHINA BHUSHA VISHWA VEDA SWASTHINA STARKSHYO ARISTA NIMIH SWASTHINO PRIHASPATIR DADHATO OM SHANTE SHANTE SHANTE HARE OM I know we all remember we are studying the Mandukya Karika. I was giving an introduction. I have dealt with the four pillars, the very foundations of Hinduism. Then I have also discussed the main teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. And I said that every scripture needs to be understood in the light of Sri Ramakrishna's life and teachings. It includes Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, direct disciples, etc. And then I considered the most wonderful opinion, the concept of Maya. Maya is the universal idea of everybody's ignorance. Whereas when we use the word Avidya, it means on an individual level. Please remember some of these what we call technical words. Avidya is always of the individual. Maya is always of the universal. Before Sri Ramakrishna, this word Maya is completely misunderstood, misinterpreted and propagated like that, as if everything in this world doesn't exist. Husband is an illusion, wife is an illusion, etc. Whereas Swami Vivekananda defined Maya as a statement of fact. What does it mean? It means that everything that we experience, whether it is in the waking state or in the dream state or in the dreamless deep sleep state, Jagrat, Swapna, Sushupti, all these are nothing but Mithya. Mithya means that which is temporary. I want to emphasize this particular word. Mithya is heard, the word Mithya is heard many times, but its meaning is very much destroyed practically and brought about a kind of unreality, justifying all sorts of things. But Sri Ramakrishna and through Sri Ramakrishna Swami Vivekananda propagated what is a statement. Maya is a statement of facts. Whatever we experience in all these three states, that is called Maya. What does it mean? Simply for now, it is sufficient for us to understand Maya means that which is very temporary. It is not unreal, but it is not full. If it is full, like when there is full light, we don't see snake, we see only the rope. If it is complete darkness, then we neither see the snake nor see the rope. Seeing something and partially misunderstanding it as something else, something misunderstood as something else, this is called Adhyasa, Mithya, etc. So everything is temporary. This idea all of us can understand. Everything is temporary. This is one of the first changes that was brought by Sri Ramakrishna. Then he elevated the concept of Maya to Mahamaya. Previously, Maya means a negative force, a destructive force. But since Sri Ramakrishna has said no, it is the most positive force. Why is it a positive force? Because it belongs to God. Maya belongs to God. And whatever belongs to God cannot be bad. In fact, it is the highest good. Why? Because God is good. And whatever belongs to Him can never be bad. It should manifest the same quality, like an effect manifests the cause. So this is the elevation. And we have discussed some of Sri Ramakrishna's quotations in our last class. That is to say that even when a person says, I am meditating, I am trying to become a Sadhaka, I am a spiritual person, even then we have to understand that we are in the realm of Maya only. Because Brahman does not say, I am meditating. A realized soul does not say, I am meditating. What is the reason? Because he had already attained what everyone should attain. There is no bondage. There is no illusion. There is no ignorance. I am Brahman. Nothing else exists. I don't need anything. I am Paripoorna. Poornat Poornamudachyate. Poornasya Poornamadaya Poornameva Avasishyate. Nothing can affect me. So that power Sri Ramakrishna called as Shakti. And Shakti is Brahman's power. And Brahman is Sarvamangala. Therefore Shakti can never be anything but Sarvamangala. That is why every day we pray Sarvamangala Mangali. Further he said, whenever we say that this is the heating power of fire, this is the sun's rays that illuminate, then we are committing a terrible mistake. In language we use those words. Sun and sun's rays are not different. Fire and its burning power are not different. If they are different, they can be separated. That which cannot be separated, that we have to understand as one. So Maya and Shakti and Brahman and Shakti are one and the same. That is why he says, one cannot think of Brahman without Shakti or of Shakti without Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the relative. And one cannot think of the relative without the Absolute. What does it mean? It means we cannot think of the world without God. We cannot think of God without the world. This power is called Kali. Kali is verily Brahman and Brahman is verily Kali. What does it mean? It means whenever Shri Ramakrishna used to utter the word Kali, he means Brahman. He doesn't mean our concept of Mother Kali. So that is one of the things that we have to keep in mind. In the Vedas, Shri Ramakrishna continues, creation is linked to a spider and its web. The spider brings the web out of itself and then remains in it. In Mundaka Upanishad, other Upanishads also, this is given as an apt analogy. What is it? In this world, the material cause is different. The efficient cause is different. The instrumental cause is different. All three are different. So to make an object, we need three things in this world of Maya. For example, if a potter wants to make a pot, potter is the intelligent cause and clay is the material cause. A potter's wheel and a stick to move that wheel etc. are called instrumental causes. But before creation, there is only one God, one Brahman, one infinite Brahman. So by necessity, logic convinces us that Brahman must be the efficient cause, intelligent cause. Brahman alone must be the material cause. Brahman alone must be the instrumental cause. That is beautifully described. So Purnamadaha, Purnamidham. That is perfect, infinite. This world also is perfect and infinite. Purnasya Purnamadaya. This infinite world is as if a little bit of that infinity is taken out. This is a silly idea. A little bit of infinity you cannot take because infinity is indivisible, partless, changeless. If something is taken out of something, then that something from which something is taken out becomes changed. For example, if you take a leg of a table, out of the four legs, it doesn't remain a perfect table. Previously it was perfect. Now it is what we call a lame table or a defective table. So if anything is taken off, then it will become defective, changeful. And if this world has come from God and it is taken out of God, then Brahman becomes changeful and whatever is changeful is not reliant. Whatever is not reliant can never be infinite and whatever is not infinite cannot fulfil our infinite desires. This is how the argument goes. Sri Ramakrishna continues, God is the container of the universe and also what is contained in it. Like clay is the container in the form of a pot and what it contains is also nothing but clay. There is no separate object called pot. It is made out of clay, it remains as a clay and it goes back again into clay. That was the great teaching. In the Taittiriya Upanishad, Third Vali, Bhrigu Vali, Varuna was teaching to Bhrigu. Varuna was the father of Bhrigu. Here he is not the father, he is the Guru and Bhrigu had become the disciple. So the Guru was teaching the disciple. Wherefrom this whole universe has come, both living and non-living and because of which it is being sustained as a world, the living creatures live and the non-living creatures exist only because of the Sat, Chit, Ananda of that Paramatma, the cause and at the end they all go back into the causal state. This is the constantly recurring pre-cycle period. So what is said here is that Kali and Brahman are one and the same. God is both the container of the universe and what is contained in it. Then there is another. Always Mother Kali is depicted either as a black coloured person or blue coloured person. Krishna is always blue or maybe black also. The very word Krishna means black. There are three Krishnas famous. Krishna is Draupadi. Krishna, not Krishna. Then there are other two Krishnas, males. One is called Krishna Dwaipayana who was later known as Vedavyasa and here also the third one is of course Bhagavan Krishna. So Ramakrishna says, is my Mother Kali black or blue? Then he gives an analogy. She appears black because she is viewed from a distance. When intimately known, she is no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance but look at it close by and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance but when you go near it and take it in your hand, you find it is completely colourless. Then Sri Ramakrishna goes into ecstasy while describing and then plunges into Shyama, Maaki, Amar, Kalo, Re and then comes here which is very useful for us. She says, Sri Ramakrishna continues, both bondage and liberation are both of her making. By her Maya, worldly people become entangled in lust and gold. By her Maya, will and again through her grace they attain their liberation. Both are Maya. I will explain it. So she is called Saviour. That is called Tharini and the removal of the bondage that binds one to the world. This whole world is Divine Mother's will. So let me explain now. Supposing you are dreaming. In the dream, you are caught by wicked people, tied to a tree and is being thrashed, lashed out, whipped by those wicked people and you could not tolerate the pain. You are shouting, Oh my Guruji, fortunately you had a Guru. You remember I have a Guru and He is Parabrahma. He can come and save me. Like Draupadi had faith in Krishna. So you are crying, Gurudev, please come and save me. And then suddenly your Guru appears. What were the others doing? They were lashing you, whipping you, beating you. What does the Guru do? He will take a bigger stick than them and gives you a big blow. And you are able to see that big stick is coming nearer and nearer and then what would be your thoughts? My God, I thought my Guru will be rescuing me and instead that He is adding to my already having sufferings and then with that thought what happens? By that time you could complete your thought. The Guru's big stick has landed on your head and then suddenly you wake up and then you realise both the bondage and both the liberation both are Swapna dream like and so Vedanta is affirming you that this is what is happening to us also. So long as we think it is real, it affects us as real. But once we awaken to the fact this is all my own imagination. So pray to the Mother and she will free us from our imagination. This is the absolute truth if you want that truth. So she is called the severe. And then why all this? There is happiness, there is unhappiness, there is suffering and there seems to be greater suffering. If you really sit and analyse you will see two things. What is the proportion of Sukha compared with Dukha? So I have to quote a revered Ateeshwara Maharashtra. It is like 50-50. That means what? 50% Sukha, 50% Dukha. That is a mistaken view. Then how do we understand? So like that famous cook who replied, one horse versus one rabbit. So what is the rabbit? Sukha. What is the horse? Dukha. Whole day, life after life, how many years we go on struggling to get education and in the end we land a job. Probably most people get married and they settle down to life and they are slogging like donkeys. This is a literal truth whether people like it or not. So 99% suffering in the form of working hard etc. May be 1%. I am doubtful but I will concede. May be 1% Sukha is there. Is that what we want? Is it proportionate? No. Naturally the question comes why did God or Divine Mother create this horrendous world? And then the answer is Ramakrishna gives. This is all Divine Mother's sport, Leela. The Master said that Divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This universe is her play. She is self-willed and must always have her own way. She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand and thou dost laugh and clap by hands, O Mother, watching them. And then Ramakrishna gives an unparalleled analogy. It is as if Divine Mother said to the human mind in confidence with a sigh from her eye, go and enjoy the world. How can one blame the poor mind? The mind can disentangle itself from worldliness if only through her grace she makes it to turn toward herself. Only then does it become devoted to the lotus feet of the Mother. This is beautifully illustrated through the life of Totapuri which we narrated in our last class. So the final teaching Ramakrishna illustrated through his life and Sadhana is here is something and what is the central idea. Let us never forget Ramakrishna brought about a revolution in understanding that everything the scripture teaches is absolutely good for the good of humanity. There is nothing called that is destructive in this universe. Everything is Romangala. And here are some of his divisions. So Kacha Ami, Paka Ami, unripe ego and ripe ego. So this unripe ego, is it inimical? Is it bad like a Vidya Maya? No. What is its function? Slowly it prepares the mind from Kachanas to ripeness. That is its purpose and it will do inevitably. If we do it consciously then the process can be completed sooner. If not, she whips us and then slowly brings us back to that same idea. So Avidya Maya, Vidya Maya. Same thing I am putting in this Advaita Vedanta's Gnanamargis terminology. Avidya Maya, is it bad? No, it is not bad. Avidya Maya's purpose is to prepare the mind to move towards Vidya Maya. Then Karma Kanda and Gnana Kanda. Shankara and Shankarites severely condemn Gnana Karma Samuchaya, the combination of Karma and then Gnana. Sri Ram Krishna emphatically states Karma is not inimical. The first part of Veda is called Karma Kanda. Its purpose is to make first of all an unregenerated mind into a purified mind. That is called Chitta Shuddhi. That is its purpose. Then make him follow through the Dharma Kanda. Avoid what is forbidden and perform what is laid upon as your bounden duty, Vidhi and Nishedha. Gradually it will lead us to what is called Gnana Kanda. Here Gnana Kanda means not knowledge, the path of knowledge. Knowledge, Brahma to God. What is the difference? Because once our mind is ready then we can adopt. When a person is ready, he has prepared himself, packed his things nicely and then he comes to a station and then there, various vehicles are there. Some have got aeroplane, money for flying through aeroplane. Some have got only money for bullock cart. Some have money for trains. Some have money for taxi, etc. So they can take various, but all of them reach the same way. Even this analogy is not a very satisfactory analogy. The analogy is motorways can be divided into four. So for those who drive very slowly, left side. In England, of course. In America, it would be just the opposite. But the idea is the same. For those who can drive faster, the next lane. For those who can drive still more fast, the third lane. But for those who can drive extraordinarily fast, very fast, for them, the fourth lane. All the lanes at the same time equally take one to the same goal. Even this analogy, according to me, is defective. What is it? That everybody is travelling according to their samskaras towards the same goal. So Karma Yoga leads one to God. So also Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, every Yoga, Hinduism, Christianity, Tantra, Vedanta, all lead one to the same goal. So the purpose of Karma Kanda is not negative, not to entangle him in samsara, but to release him slowly by making him understand that is the Samya. Then from prayas to sreyas. What is prayas? In Katha Upanishad, we have this wonderful verse, terminology. To seek anything in this world, including Svargalokas, etc., that is called prayas. And to seek the highest realisation, that self-knowledge, is called sreyas. Both of them are considered as enemies, according to the commentators. Sri Ramakrishna has given us this. First, everyone has to go through Dharma, learn Dharma, then earn righteously, then you enjoy again religiously by offering everything to God, and this way, slowly your worldly desires, worldly attachments, fears and worries, they become gradually less and less, and finally, you will reach a state of mind where you will only want spirituality, not religion. So religion and spirituality are not opposed to each other. Religion, followed faithfully, would reach the same goal, which is called spirituality. So there is a lower stage and a higher stage, not inimical stages. That is what I want to say. Life is a slow evolution through mantra, brahmana, aranya and upanishad. Now I am going to take Vedas. Every Veda is divided into four parts. First is called mantra, second is called brahmana, third is called aranyaka, and fourth is called upanishad. Now what is the harmony? Human goals are also divided into four – dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. Life is divided into four – brahmacharya ashrama, vyasat ashrama, vanaprastha ashrama, and sannyasa ashrama. So when a person is of immature mind, that is called brahmacharya ashrama, still he has to learn the distinction between what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. For such people, the mantra portion tells clearly there are better things, this is how you have to do, this is what you have to avoid. Then his mind becomes mature. Then naturally he will get married, he will put into practice what he learnt. This is called brahmana. He will perform certain rituals, certain religious practices, which will further purify the mind and take us gradually up and up and up. So the grihastha, he experiments and experiences both happiness and dukkha. If he follows righteousness, then more sukha and less dukkha. Then his mind longs, I don't need marriage, I am putting it plainly, I don't need marriage, I had a desire and I fulfilled my desire, I learnt my lesson, I know now I can remain independently, absolutely happy. This is called vanaprastha ashrama, cultivating one's own mind and abiding in that mind with complete fulfilment and derivation of meaning of life. Such a person is self-contained, self-content and extremely happy. If something good comes from outside, it's fine. Something evil happens, that is also fine. Takes it in his stride, but he derives his happiness more from within than from without. This is called vanaprastha. This is called aranyaka. And a time will come when the man says, I have to get out completely out of this entangling circus called samsara and that is called upanishad. We will explore that meaning in a little while, not today. Then he will also take to sannyas ashrama and what is the goal? Moksha. In the three states, rather in the two states, Brahmachari ashrama, grhastha ashrama, dharma, artha and kama. What about vanaprastha ashrama? Upasana. Converting everything into mental worship, contemplation, much more effective than anything else. Nowadays we know how psychology explains to us that depending upon our thoughts, our whole life, including our body and external circumstances are all influenced by this. This is the explanation that we are getting. A time will come when he says, dharma, artha, kama, I don't need them. I want moksha. I want to be completely free. I don't want ever to return to this wretched samsara. That is what I want to do and that is what he will be doing in the future also. That is called sannyasa ashrama. What am I trying to tell? Life is a gradual evolution from a lower state to a higher state. That was what Swami Vivekananda said. Life is a journey from not untruth to truth, but from a lower truth to a higher truth. Expanding it a little, I would add this. Life is a journey from a lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness. And when we reach the highest state of consciousness and identify ourselves with it, and that is called moksha, this is how the harmony goes. Then dharma, artha, kama, they are the foundation of moksha. Without a person, without dharma, it is impossible for him to progress in any life, even in our worldly life. Our sukha depends upon dharma and if we are not dharmic, we will be adharmic and that will bring endless indescribable suffering. Then artha and kama, righteously acquiring what is needed and righteously, religiously enjoying them as prasada of Bhagawan, of dharma. So this is the change that comes and if it does, this becomes a foundation for such a person to become spiritual and take off. There is no maya involved here. Dharma, artha and kama, by the way, are known as prayers. Then brahmacharya ashrama leads in the scale of evolution to grhastha ashrama. Grhastha ashrama in the course of time, it may be one life or it may be hundred lives, inevitably it leads to independence. That is called vanaprastha ashrama and vanaprastha inevitably leads to sannyasa ashrama and sannyasa ashrama inevitably leads to a particular word is there, it is called athyasrama. Beyond all the four ashramas, the person is there. But you ask him, are you a brahmachari? No. Grhastha? No. Vanaprastha? No. Sannyasi? No. He says he doesn't wear any sannyasin's clothes. He may be living in a householder's house but he is not identified with his body-mind. So he is none of these. He doesn't do anything, abides within himself like Jada Bharata and this is athyashrami state. So I hope you are getting. Then life is divided according to Hinduism into four castes. As I explained earlier, caste system is nothing but expression of our physical life, external life, according to the guna that we have. If it is tamo guna, shudra. If it is less tamo guna, more raja guna, vaisya. If it is more raja guna and less sattva guna, still less tamo guna, it is called kshatriya. And if it is more sattva, less rajas and less tamas, this is called brahmana. It is dependent upon the quality of our mind, the ideology of our mind, nothing to do with what we call the birth related I am born in a brahmin family so I am a brahmin like that. No, not like that. It is an evolution. So this is how every creature from God it has come and it is going back to God. And when we say everything has come from God, it is called involution. And when we say everything is going back to the source from which it has come, that is called evolution. So, Swami Vivekananda challenged the West at the Parliament of Religions, how will you know what is the meaning of evolution if you do not understand what is the meaning of involution? That is to say, if you don't know what is the cause, what is the source, then the word evolution is totally meaningless. We have come from God, that makes meaning because we are going back to God. That is called evolution. So, having said, this is what Sri Ramakrishna was trying, attempting to inculcate. Nothing is bad. Every experience is good. You take the experience and think about it, take advantage of it, learn your lesson and move forward. So, this is how we do. Our mind has become pure, then we become tricked to spiritual life and we practice spiritual disciplines either as a Karma Yogi or Bhakti Yogi or Raja Yogi or Jnana Yogi. Will it give us Moksha? No. Then what gives us Moksha? What is the way out? Sharanagati. The final and the only way out of this Samsara is by accepting, by surrendering to the Divine Mother and then by her grace alone that one can get out of her kingdom which is this Samsara. And the story of Totapuri amply illustrates this. Now, we come to what is called Shastra. What is the way out? That by Divine Mother's grace, the seed of the desire is planted. I had had enough of this Samsara, now I want to get out of it. That desire to lead a spiritual life is her grace only. The great Shankara, in his Vivekachudamani, reiterates it so beautifully. He says, दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतत् देवानुग्रहेतुकं मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्ष्यत्वं महापुरुषसंशयः Rare are three things that can be obtained only by God's grace. What are the three? First of all, a human birth. Secondly, a strong, intense desire to lead a spiritual life and become free. And favourable circumstances in the form of a Sadguru, in the form of a good devotee, Satsanga, etc. can be obtained only by God's grace. Even he has conceded it, not by my effort. But we have to go further and say it is not enough. Yes, there is human birth, there is a Sadguru and there is favourable circumstance, but self-effort is necessary. Why? Not to get liberation, that is never possible, but to enjoy, to receive and to retain the grace of God. We know on the 1st January 1886, Shri Ramakrishna blessed so many people. How many people were able to retain it? They received it, but did not have the capacity to retain it. It is a marvellous story to be contemplated upon. We derive so much meaning out of it. So, we have to prepare. What is self-effort? It is to prepare ourselves to become fit utensils, to receive the grace of God when that grace comes. And when does it come? When we are ready. God is ever ready. We are not ready. There will be a time when we will be ready, but God's grace is like the ever-blowing southern breeze. Always it is there. So, life is full of suffering and there are three main sources of suffering. So, how does God create this desire? And here is one of the schools of philosophy called Sankhya. It is giving the answer. See, we are all suffering. Suffering from three sources. What are the three sources? You must be familiar by this time. Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. Troubles can come from our own personality, body as well as mind. Or troubles can come from outside, like this corona, or like plague, like wars, like each country trying to cheat by various ways, threatening to swallow other countries. This is Adhibhautika. It could be too cold, it could be too hot, there could be no rain, or ativrishti, anavrishti. Neither famine nor floods. In so many ways, a tsunami can come, an earthquake can come, and a huge mountain can be sliced off, which they claim is Antarctica. One huge block has been sliced off, all because of, so to say, human making, but I don't believe it is the Divine Mother's making only, ultimately. So, life is full of suffering. So, this Ishwara Krishna, who is the author of Sankhya Darshana, he starts his very book with this Uttara, Tapatraya Abhigathat Jignasa. Man turns towards a deeper meaning of life only because he wants to escape suffering from these three sources. The question asked is, is it not possible to get remedy? He says yes, but this remedy has got three problems. First problem is, it is very temporary. Even if it can help us, it is very temporary. After that again, you see, if you are hungry, the food is provided. And for the time being, your hunger is appeased. And then you have to turn again for more food because after a few hours... This will go on until the death of the body will occur. It starts from the birth of the baby and ends only with the death of the person whenever the death comes. So this is very temporary. Second, what is it? Incompleteness. That is the problem. Incomplete means what? Even while I am eating a sweet, I also desire to eat a mixture of what you call Khatta and Metta. Somehow that desire cannot be fulfilled. Why? Because my stomach can hold only this much. I wish I could eat 10 curries because all of them are tasty. I wish I could eat 20 sweets because all of them are well made and they have their own peculiar tastes and I am in love with all of them. So that is also possible. But one can only enjoy to a very limited time and in a very limited way. This is called incompleteness. What was the first one? Temporary. What is the second one? Incompleteness. What is the third one? The third one is when we enjoy something, say, I was very happy. That's it. Now where can we say that's it? Say, that was wonderful. I want it tomorrow morning again. I want it practically once in a way, once in a week, once in a month, whatever it is, I want it. So this is called the root cause of suffering is we become attached to whatever gives us happiness and we become enslaved by them and we cannot get out of the longing and then in such a mind the desire for liberation very rarely it will come. So this is the Tapatraya we have to understand. So is there, now the question comes, every fulfilment in this life is full of defects, these three defects, temporary, incomplete and it brings bondage in its turn by making us slaves by making us wanting it again and again and again and again. So these are the three defects. Is there any defect-free solution? Yes. The scriptures emphatically tell us that yes. No scripture of worldly knowledge can give us that assurance. Only scripture can give us that assurance. There is no other way. So that is where the usefulness of the scriptures come and these scriptures which give us that assurance and that assurance comes beyond the sensory knowledge. That assurance is not belonging to any knowledge related to the five sense organs. This assurance can come only that which is beyond the five sense organs. And what is that assurance? That my friend, you don't need to seek happiness. You are infinite happiness. Your very nature is infinite happiness. For that, we need to have faith in the scriptures. So many people study scriptures academically and write big theses on what they have discovered. It is all intellectual, it is all partial, it is all misleading, it is completely useless, both for the person. That is what Sri Ramakrishna was referring to. These pandits talk high, but their minds are like vultures soaring very high. Their eyesight is fixed on carcasses and the carrion, rotting carrion, far below down on earth. What does he mean? It is on kama and kanchana. So we have to understand the scripture is there. So the Mandukya Karika Upanishad, it is a Upanishad, it gives us how we can get out of the way and it has got a peculiar approach. Its speciality is studying these three states of experience. I will talk about it when the time comes. So another question with regard to the suffering. Why do we suffer? What are the causes of suffering? There are two types of sufferings. One is called sufferings due to prarabdha karma. Whatever wrong thing we have done, it is also peculiar. A person who is born rich with a golden spoon or diamond spoon and everything is available at his beck and call, does he call it suffering? Eating first-class sweets, first-class food, first-class room, first-class temperature, everything? No. We don't complain about that. We do not give a second thought to it. Only when we are suffering, the question comes how to get rid of suffering. This proves two things. The first thing it proves is if suffering is our nature, we would never know about it, we will be happy with it, we will never complain about it. Since suffering is not our nature, when we are happy, we don't complain, we don't even take notice of it. In fact, we forget the whole world. Therefore, that conclusively proves that happiness is our true nature. Any deviation, slightest deviation from this happiness, which means suffering, we cannot tolerate. Even a slight, what is called itchy sensation, immediately our hand goes involuntarily and wants to remove it because to have any type of suffering is not our nature. This is what it proves. In this world, body is suffering, mind is suffering, external world is suffering. Everything brings suffering sooner or later. Either it brings suffering or when we love something, it becomes dead and death brings its own suffering. This is our common experience. But there is another type of suffering which nobody can escape. What is that? It is called existential suffering. What is it? Whether a saint or sinner, king or pauper, pundit or illiterate person, whatever man or woman, living or non-living, every creature, including mountains and rivers and everything, is subjected to this existential suffering. To manifest as existent, that is called existential suffering. That is beautifully put in our Vedanta, Shraddha, Vikara, sixfold changes, birth, confirmation, growth, old age, disease and death. So, these are the things, inevitable, whether it was Ramakrishna, Jesus or Buddha, Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swamiji, senior Swamis, everybody, in fact, the moment we say senior Swami, that means he is more nearer to death than a junior Swami. Though unconsciously we use old man, old woman, forgetting, from the moment we are born, we are only becoming older and still older and still oldest. How do we know? Suppose you go to see a baby who is born a few days back. What would be your first question to the mother? How old is the baby? Already it is three days old, four days old, five days old. The moment it is born, already it is going to meet its death, dashing from birth to death. So, this is what is existential suffering. What is the difference? The difference is, existential suffering is inevitable, but prarabdha suffering, it changes. It is not equal to everybody. Some people have done good karma, some people have done bad karma. So, whatever karma we have done, accordingly we have this suffering. So, this prarabdha karma suffering cannot be escaped. It is trying to teach us a good lesson. So, these are important points we have discussed from the viewpoint of Shri Ramakrishna. What is Maya? And there is nothing called that is an inimical power, a destructive power, a deluding power. The whole discussion if you have followed is that the power of God can never be evil, can never be bad, but it can create suffering for our own good, like a surgeon cutting off a limb of a patient, or like a mother spanking a child, because for the good of the child, not for the pleasure of the mother, etc. The whole world is in evolution and we have come from God. That is called evolution. Going back to God, that is called evolution. Then we spoke about why do we turn spiritual? Because of that dukkha, suffering. Suffering comes from three sources. Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. Then there are two types of suffering. One is prarabdha suffering, another is existential suffering. In any case, prarabdha suffering is inevitable. Existential suffering is inevitable. Existential suffering is common to everybody, but prarabdha suffering differs from person to person, time to time, etc. So I will stop here. If anyone has got any questions, we will deal with it. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Murnaho May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti.