Narada Bhakti Sutras Lecture 35 Su.49-52 on 18-April-2019
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :
Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.
Narada Bhakti Sutra: Class Discussion on Divine Love and Maya
Review of Previous Class
In our previous class, we discussed the question posed by Narada himself: "Who crosses Maya?" Narada provided certain characteristics that one must develop to obtain divine love and cross over Maya.
The 49th Sutra: Renunciation of Rituals
The 49th sutra states: "Vedānatī saṃnyāsatī" - "He who renounces the Vedas." Here, Vedas refers to rituals. As a householder, rituals are appropriate, but as a vānaprastha, if you have performed rituals properly, you naturally evolve to the next stage.
What do you do then? Now you think of God. I gave an example citing Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa: the ritual called sandhyā merges into Gāyatrī, Gāyatrī merges into Oṃkāra, and then just Om. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to go into samādhi - this is natural development. You cannot simply say, "Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa started chanting Om, so I will also chant Om. Why all this wastage of time?" Nothing happens to you because you have not developed properly.
Unbroken Love (Avicchinna Anurāga)
Then, "kevalam avicchinna anurāgaṃ labhate" - when all these conditions are fulfilled, avicchinna anurāga (unbroken love for God) develops. Even to use the word "love" is almost blasphemy nowadays because we are misusing that word. Every cinema talks only about this distorted love.
The Difference Between Love and Devotion
What should be there? Devotion. What is the difference between someone who has devotion and someone who loves?
Devotion means reverence. Like a child has devotion to mother, a disciple has devotion to the guru, a devotee has devotion to God. Love is there, but what type of love? Reverential love. The other type has no reverence at all.
In fact, we misuse the word "love" for all purposes. A man says to a woman, "I love you." A lover of chicken also says, "I love chicken." What difference is there? Actually, there is no difference.
Why does a man eat chicken or fish? "I love sweets" - it is for my pleasure. Why does a man eat meat? For his pleasure. Why does a man love a woman? For his pleasure. The moment she stops giving pleasure, immediately all the love disappears.
Whereas devotion means: "This is my mother forever. Whether she is happy or not happy, whatever she does to me, she is my mother, I will be there." That is why the scriptures say: "Mātṛ devo bhava, pitṛ devo bhava." It is to make us develop this kind of love towards God - these are the steps we have to follow.
Developing Reverence
The nearest is mother, and we must have complete reverence. "Oh, she is not perfect" - that is not your business. She is your mother; as far as you are concerned, she is a goddess. Your father is a god, your teacher is a god. Afterwards, everybody is a god. Slowly develop.
This is called reverence for life. There was a great soul from Germany - Albert Schweitzer. He went to Africa and served the tribals. He was also a musician and musicologist. He said that even to these tribals, he could teach reverence, because every human being has a concept of reverence. Words may be different, but concepts are there.
Reverence in Tribal Communities
You know some of these so-called savages have tremendous reverence for the animal they are going to kill. For days together they pursue it, and they have to kill because they have to survive. But then they take a bit of sand, pour it, and say: "O spirit, I know that you are sacrificing your life for my survival. May you have the most blessed life in your next birth."
We have that sacredness within our hearts, but modern education is robbing us of it.
I-Thou vs. I-It Relationships
What is modern education creating? I-it relationships. I-thou is a sacred relationship - that means you are like me. I-it relationship means I am the enjoyer, you are the enjoyed, like a machine, your car. You say, "I love my car." What is your relationship with your car? It is an object meant for my pleasure. If it doesn't give me pleasure, I will discard it.
Now, that is not reverence. That is not love. That is utility.
Nowadays, the relationship between employer and employee has degenerated into this: "You do this and bring profit, I will pay you" - this is our relationship, like a man and his cow. In the West, the moment a cow gives less milk and is not profitable, what do they do? They send it to the butcher.
Understanding Anurāga
"Kevalam avicchinna anurāga" - unbroken anurāga. This word anurāga I explained in the last class. "Anu" means "that which comes after." Anujas - Lakṣmaṇa is Rāma's anuja (younger brother). Rāma first, Lakṣmaṇa next.
So rāga means attachment, love, devotion. It comes only after. After what? After jñāna (knowledge).
"Yathā vraja gopikānāṃ tatra api na māhātmya vismṛti āpavādaḥ" - So the gopīs were fully aware that they were not loving an ordinary human being. They were loving the Divine Lord Himself.
The Gopīs' Divine Knowledge
How do we know this is not a mere statement? That is what they really experienced. How do we know? From the Gopī Gītā: "Na khalu gopikā-nandana bhāvāt akhila-dehināṃ antar-ātmasu tava kathaṃ gītāni tattva-ciṅgāni..." These words came from these so-called unlettered, ignorant gopīs.
In what light were they looking upon Śrī Kṛṣṇa? As God. And they knew that God was within themselves. This kind of knowledge - will it come from book reading? It will not come. They must have done sādhana.
Previous Lives of the Gopīs
What sādhana did they do? That is what the Ādhyātma Rāmāyaṇa tells, what the Bhāgavatam tells, what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa reveals to them. Sixty-four thousand maharṣis in the Daṇḍaka forest, who had spent their whole lives meditating upon Nirguṇa Brahman, when they saw Rāma as Saguṇa Brahman, experienced such joy.
They said, "Lord, we never experienced this kind of joy. We want to be with you." God granted their prayer and said, "Yes, you will experience much more joy than what you are experiencing now. Why? Because now you have male bodies. The love that exists between a loving woman and a loving man is an entirely different experience altogether." This is called madhura bhāva.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Mahābhāva
That's why Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa experienced this. The agony was so great that blood used to fall from every joint of his body, and sometimes the body was burning so intensely that even Śrī Māṭhur Bābu could not touch Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's body. Why? Because of bhāva - "I am away from God." Not like ours - mahābhāva.
Our love is what you might call "ṭhaṇḍā bhāva" (cool emotion). The more we love, the more our body becomes cool. The other person also becomes cool. Understand? Ṭhaṇḍā means pleasant. Whereas here, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's body used to burn.
The Bhairavī Brāhmaṇī's Remedy
Incidentally, there is one very important matter I never understood until I read Ṭhākur's life. When he was in such a state, just at that time Bhairavī Brāhmaṇī came. He went and told her, "Mother, what is this? I only know God, but this burning has come."
She said, "First of all, my child, this is not a disease. This is the result of your mahābhāva. Many like Caitanya, Jesus, Buddha - they all experienced it. The scriptures mention it. What is the remedy?"
Remember the remedy? Sandalwood paste and fragrant flower garlands. She prepared many garlands and applied thick sandalwood paste all over his body. Within three days, the burning completely disappeared.
The Mystery of Sandalwood
Now, what is the relationship between sandalwood, garlands, and this burning sensation? In South Indian temples, you know how much sandalwood paste they require every day - Tirupati, Gaṇeśvara - so much they prepare. Why does God require so much sandalwood? Because this is a living God, not a wooden image or piece of stone.
How many devotees are going near? And He is absorbing their pāpas (sins). This is the remedy. This secret - I don't know if I'm correct - this is my understanding. I may be wrong, but it's a meaningful thought.
That's why the scriptures tell those mahāpuruṣas know it, and so they say to put sandalwood paste all over. The whole day, how many pāpas is God absorbing? But we have to have faith because we don't see it.
Many people were telling about Lord Viśvanātha: how many thousands, lakhs of people go and touch his body. He is absorbing their pāpas. That's why continuous abhiṣeka and sandalwood paste have to be applied.
True Devotion vs. Superficial Worship
Then somebody questions: people are like us - they visit, but the person has not become any better. The answer is: the Lord is absorbing only the pāpa and karma-phala, but the saṃskāras - the person has to do sādhana himself.
So he will go the next day and do the same thing again. If he's a real devotee, he goes and says, "O Lord, I have done this. I should not have done this. From today onwards, I will not do that." Such a person alone is a true devotee.
We know in Ṭhākur's life and Holy Mother's life that when some sinners touched their feet, their bodies would start burning. Somebody had to wash their feet with water, and only then would they feel a little better.
Why did this happen in Ṭhākur's life? To make the spiritual world absolutely clear - that these are not just poetic imaginations. Whatever we are talking about regarding the gopīs, they had this tremendous mahābhāva.
The Gopīs as Realized Souls
Because Nārada himself said they were not ordinary people. They had done so much tapasyā, and God decided to bestow His grace: "Next birth, you will all be born with women's bodies, and I will be born at that time."
What is the limit of the highest prema and happiness? According to my understanding, they were all jñānīs. Jñānīs don't experience that much joy because they focus upon cit. Bhaktas experience so much joy because they focus upon ānanda. Understand? Sat-cit-ānanda.
Both focus on sat - sat means God exists. But in what form? For jñānīs, it is cit - nirguṇa brahman, jñāna-svarūpa. But for bhaktas, it is ānanda-svarūpa.
Most jñānīs miss ānanda. That is why these gopīs, these ṛṣis, were asked to take birth as women, not as men, because you cannot develop madhura bhāva with a man's body - only with a woman's body.
They were not ordinary people - they were the greatest jñānīs. What does jñāna produce? Rāga. That's what he is saying: avicchinna anurāga. Rāga means intense love for God, and intense love comes only after knowledge.
The Knowledge Behind True Love
What is the knowledge? "God belongs to me, and I belong to God. Nobody else belongs to me; I don't belong to anybody."
We are not talking philosophy - we are talking about the day-to-day fact of life. Tell me, what belongs to you? Does the body belong to you? Does the mind belong to you? Every day, body and mind are changing.
Do you know that when you are in deep sleep, you don't know anything? Body - gone. Mind also - gone. You don't know anything about the mind. That's why you are so happy. You don't know happiness, you don't know unhappiness - that's God's bliss.
Crossing Maya
So Nārada is telling in this particular sūtra that a person obtains avicchinna anurāga - avicchinna means unbroken. What is this in reply to the question "Who crosses māyā?"
If it is broken anurāga - okay, one hour in the morning I have anurāga, then again you fall into delusion, and again it continues. Actually, we only progress in life gradually. We have one minute of tremendous love, then we fall down. After sometime, ten minutes. After sometime, one hour. After sometime, five hours. But a time will come - twenty-four hours.
That firm knowledge: "I belong to God. God belongs to me." The moment we know what God is - that He is sat, He is cit - that means there is no death.
The Psychology of Eternal Relationship
Observe the psychology: if God is immortal and I am mortal, there can be no relationship. If God is knowledge and I am ignorant, there can be no relationship. If God is ānanda and I am having little bits of happiness, there can be no relationship.
For relationship, both must be equal. But if I die, the relationship, the thread, is broken. So for my love to continue eternally, I also have to be there, He also has to be there.
This is what he is telling: avicchinna anurāga. The result of all these disciplines is only one - to obtain avicchinna anurāga.
But before anurāga comes, what should be there? Knowledge. What is the knowledge? "I belong to God."
Also understand: if something belongs to God, is God mortal? No. So whatever belongs to Him will also be immortal. If I belong to Him, He also... I am also immortal, He is also immortal. Otherwise, you cannot call Him immortal. Whatever belongs to Him becomes immortal. He is immortal, I belong to Him, I am also immortal.
This is why in the Bhāgavata there is Bhakta, Bhagavān, and Bhāgavata. There is Bhagavān, there must be bhakta. What is Bhāgavata here? Don't call it a book. Bhāgavata means anurāga. This is the thread. Here is bhakta, here is Bhagavān. What binds them? There is a thread. What is that thread? Anurāga.
Where there is God, there will be a devotee. Otherwise, if the thread is broken, who is there?
The 50th Sutra: Liberation and Service
Then in the 50th sūtra, He gives the answer: "Sa tarati sa tarati sa lokān tārayati" - such a person who has obtained this unbroken love for God alone crosses māyā. That's why twice He says "sa tarati" - he alone crosses, he alone crosses.
Not only does he cross alone - "sa lokān tārayati" - he also rescues the world.
The Condition for Liberation
But there is a condition. Why doesn't Rāmakṛṣṇa rescue us all immediately? Was He such a bhakta or not? Did He cross māyā or not? Did He become God or not? Then is He going to give us liberation or not? You have to answer; otherwise, the world will disappear in a second. The moment He says, "Okay, you are also Brahman, come along" - where is the world?
What we need to understand: for Him to make us cross, we have to stretch our hand and say, "Lord, please take my hand." What is stretching the hand here? We are all ready to stretch our hands, but it means "I will do whatever you are asking me to do." That is important.
All these qualities - what should we do? "Duḥsaṅga sarva eva tyājya" - like that, all these qualities we have to develop.
Fourth Chapter: Definition of Prema
So we have completed the third chapter. Now we are coming to the fourth chapter - prema nirūpaṇa adhyāya. What is it? Prema nirvacanam - the definition of prema, love. Nirvacanam means definition.
Suppose you want to find somebody, then you have to give the police a description, isn't it? "A man, this height, so many years old, there is a mole here" - like that. Or "there is a birthmark here." You have to give a complete description.
Not like the Tirupati description story: two friends visited Tirupati. Both got their heads shaved, and one fellow got lost. The other fellow went to the inquiry office: "My friend is lost. Will you please announce?" They asked him to give some description. He said, "Only description - shaved head." In Tirupati, millions of people all have shaved heads!
It should not be like that. Very important for us to understand - all these characteristics are necessary. Then anybody who wants to cross must also develop these characteristics.
The Guru's Guidance
How did he cross? By developing all those characteristics. So if someone wants to cross, how does he do it? "I don't know what he did," so he says, "This is my GPS. From here, go there, then turn right, then there is a bridge, then there's heavy traffic" - like that, it guides.
This person will be guided by God: "You cross with the help of your guru. You also help other people to cross."
What we understand is that Nārada did not spell it out completely. He said, "How did he cross? He had to learn from somebody. There was a guru. The guru taught him: 'This is how I crossed. This is the only way I know, so I am telling you how I did it, and you have to do it.'"
And what does he do in his turn? "This is the way my guru taught me, and I crossed. So you also..." "What is the guarantee?" "Because my guru crossed, I also crossed. My guru's guru's guru also crossed. It is a guaranteed path."
Divine Incarnation and Dharma-sthāpanā
So he also helps others - "lokān tārayati." Why does God incarnate? God incarnates to show us the way. How does He establish dharma? That is why it is called dharma-sthāpanā.
What is dharma-sthāpanā? I gave two meanings. Dharma means your nature - not the body-mind complex. What is your true nature? Each soul is potentially divine.
That is called dharma-sthāpanā - you have forgotten your nature. What should be your goal of life? To manifest your true nature. Not behave like an ordinary human being, not behave like an animal. Behave like a divine being. Manifest divinity.
What is the way to manifest it? Karma yoga, bhakti yoga, rāja yoga, jñāna yoga, and finally smaraṇa yoga. Holy Mother propagated smaraṇa yoga: "Just remember, my child, you have a mother." That's all we need to do, like a kitten.
The Practice Behind Remembrance
Is it easy? "Oh, I will not do anything else. I will just remember my mother." No. Unless you practice what she taught you - such as stopping finding fault with others and trying to become a better person - you won't have that confidence that you have a mother and she is going to come and save you.
To get that authority: "I am your real child, so you cannot escape. My inheritance I want." Many meanings are there. Otherwise, simply telling "I remember Mā, Mā, Mā" is not going to really work.
The Indescribable Nature of Love
Now Nārada continues: "Okay sir, you are talking so much about anurāga. What is the description?"
He says: "Anirvachanīyaṃ prema-svarūpam" - the nature of love cannot be described.
How are you going to describe love? In fact, nobody can describe what you call experience. Suppose you have eaten a very tasty mango and you want to tell me that this is a very tasty mango. Can you describe it to me? Can I understand? Even if I have eaten 500 different mangoes, that particular mango's specialty - you cannot describe it to me.
What is the way? You bring that mango and give it to me. That is what devotees say: "Oh, what a wonderful state!" "I don't understand all those states. If you want to prove your point, bring one experience and give it to me. Then only I will understand what you are talking about."
Love Manifests Through Actions
You cannot describe love. "Do you love me?" "Yes, I love you." How are you going to describe how you love?
Love itself cannot be described, but the effects of love can be described. What is the effect of love? A mother - the way she looks at the child, the way she is cooking, grooming, singing, taking care of the baby. That is all the child understands.
Suppose a mother says, "Baby, I love you very much" but doesn't do anything. The baby understands nothing. Whether the mother is loving or not is impossible to know through words alone.
Love always manifests in the form of actions. When you see a person who doesn't care for anything except God, when you see a person who is ready to give up anything - even if he is a very rich man, somebody comes and asks, "Can I take this?" He says, "Yes, you take it away."
Like what happened to Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī. Such a rich man says to his wife, "Distribute everything among people." She said, "No. You are sacrificing everything. No fool will sacrifice something higher for something lower. Every person gives up only the lower for the higher. So you must be getting something very high. Then only give me that. If you love me, don't give me lower things. Don't give me inferior things. Give me only what is best."
Then that beautiful conversation takes place.
The Story of the Philosopher's Stone
Did I tell you the story of a poor man who wanted to become rich? There was a very poor man who suffered many years in life. He understood: "Unless I become rich, I am going to suffer like this."
He went to a holy man and said, "Sir, can you show me a way to become rich?" The holy man said, "Yes. There is a mountain there. Climb up. There is a sādhu, a holy man there. I heard that he has a philosopher's stone. You understand philosopher's stone? Whatever metal it touches turns into gold. We call it the paraśa-maṇi.
"I heard he is a holy man. He doesn't require it. If you go there, he will show it to you. He will definitely give it to you."
So this poor man, three days without food and water, climbed and reached there. Nobody had visited that holy man for 50 years. After 50 years, he was seeing the first human being, and he was very happy. "Please come! What brings you here?"
"This is what I heard. Do you have that?" The holy man said, "I had it, but since I became a monk, I threw it away. That is the bad news. The good news is that after I threw it away, nobody came to visit. You are the first person, so it will be somewhere here. If you search, you will get it."
Immediately the man searched here and there. It has certain characteristics - he found it. He tested some metal, and immediately it turned into gold. So joyous, he came and prostrated, unable to express his gratitude.
He started climbing down. For three days he could not sleep. "How much metal am I going to turn into gold? What am I going to do? Where am I going to get the most beautiful house in the whole world?" Like that his mind went on. His mind was in great agitation.
After three days, he cooled down sufficiently. Then he started thinking: "This man had this stone and he threw it away. He must have gotten something much more precious than this. Otherwise, who would throw it away?"
With that thought, he turned back, again climbed up with the stone. The holy man was surprised: "Why did you come back again?"
He said, "Sir, you had it for fifty years and never used it. When I came, you happily gave it to me, showed it to me. But you renounced it. Definitely you must be getting something much, much superior to this. Please tell me about it."
The holy man said, "Throw it away, come back, and sit. Then I will tell you what is that precious thing." The poor man took sannyāsa.
No one gives up something higher for something lower. Everyone sacrifices only for something much superior.
Stories of Divine Love
That is the point: "Anirvachanīyaṃ prema-svarūpam" - impossible to describe that love. Because love transforms everything. How much Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to love, how much Holy Mother used to love people - we cannot describe.
But there is a beautiful story. I will tell you that story. How do you know a person has become old? You will be telling the same stories again and again, thinking this is the first time you're telling everybody. Same jokes, same stories.
Out of kindness, you also have to listen as if it's the first time. Otherwise, enthusiasm will go down.
Holy Mother and the Little Girl
One devotee family used to come to Holy Mother, and they had a small girl, three years old. As soon as she came near Holy Mother, she used to run and jump onto her lap. Mother also loved her very much. Immediately sweets would come out, and first, that girl would get them.
Naturally, we all love people who give us sweets. Not those who are sweet themselves - those who give us sweets. There are some people who talk sweetly but never give sweets. That is a useless type of love. Those who are not so sweet in talk but give sweets - this is what we all want.
Once Holy Mother had to go back to Jairampur and wouldn't be coming for five or six months. The family had come to take leave of Holy Mother. Naturally, the girl had also come. Immediately the parents said, "Mother, we have a problem with this girl. She has three brothers, and she keeps pestering them 24 hours: 'Give me chocolates, give me sweets.' They are getting annoyed. They love her but are annoyed by this constant pestering. Is there any way to make her stop this?"
Look at Holy Mother. She asked the girl, "My child, do you love me?" Immediately the child replied, "Yes, Mother, I love you."
"How much do you love me?" A small girl cannot express this properly.
"How do I know that you love me?" Even adults cannot answer this question. Of course, the child could not answer.
"What shall I do to prove that I really love you?" Holy Mother said, "If you truly love me, you must do what I ask you to do."
The girl said, "Yes, I will do whatever you ask."
Then Mother said, "Don't ask your brothers for anything. If they give, take it happily. If they don't give, don't pester, don't bother. Will you do it?"
The girl said, "I promise."
Mother departed. After six months or so, she came back. Again this family came. Immediately the girl ran to Holy Mother. Mother asked the parents, "How is this girl's behavior since that time?"
They said, "Mother, do you know what happened? From that day, she stopped asking her brothers for anything. She never asks for anything. The result was they began competing with each other to see how many sweets they could give her. Now she is getting more than what she was getting before, and they are so happy that she is accepting what they are giving."
How Holy Mother transformed this small girl through that small example! That's what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa did to every one of his disciples. It is not by commanding, not by forcing. He simply loved them.
He said, "My children, I am telling you this for your good. If you do it, I am not going to benefit - you are going to benefit."
Nirañjan's Transformation
One small incident: Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was at Dakshineswar. Nirañjan (later Swami Nirañjananda) heard about Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and started coming. He was a planchette player. You know planchette? Five people sit and hold hands, they put a board, and somehow the pieces move all by themselves without anyone touching them. Some kind of spirit comes and gives answers, etc. He belonged to that group.
One day he asked Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa to also sit with them. After a few minutes, Rāmakṛṣṇa said, "I hate this," and left. This happened once or twice, and then again Nirañjan came.
That day Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was standing outside. He went forward, embraced him, and started weeping, saying, "My boy, days are passing. When are you going to realize God?"
Nirañjan Mahārāj was thinking, "I am not anxious for God. Why is this man so anxious that I should realize God?" But then he understood that this was pure love. He only wants our joy, eternal joy. There is no selfishness there.
Then Nirañjan started reforming himself and gave up all those practices. First comes the love, and then whatever they say resonates with us, because we understand intuitively - not by rationality - that they only want our goodness, our welfare.
The Limitations of Description
That is what the sūtra says: "Prema anirvachanīyaṃ prema-svarūpam" - it's impossible to tell what love is. Sometimes you can convey what knowledge is, but what is love? It's a very special thing.
Rāmakṛṣṇa had a wonderful example, and those who read the Gospel must remember this. There were two sisters in a family. One was married, another was a small child. One day the married sister's husband came home.
The younger sister, only 5-6 years old, asked her elder sister, "Elder sister, what type of happiness do you get from your husband?" The elder sister - what could she say? "You grow up, you get married, then only will you understand."
Do you follow what I'm saying? Even ordinary human experience you cannot describe. What type of joy a mother gets by just seeing her beloved son when he comes home after a long absence - who can describe it? Who can understand it? Only another mother who has had a similar experience can understand. "Now I understand because I experienced it myself."
No love can be described. Hatred also cannot be described. No feeling can be described. How am I going to describe it to you? Description is impossible to give, but experience - that is believable.
The Dumb Person's Experience
He says: "Mūka āsvādanavat" - like a dumb person's experience. Mūka means a person who cannot speak. You give him something very nice and ask him to describe it. How can a dumb person describe it? He is unable, incapable of expressing it.
But look at his face - beaming with joy. By that you have to understand. Whoever experiences divine love will also be beaming with bliss, joy, and happiness.
The Disciples' Experience
Every direct disciple of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, when they visited him, used to think, "How soon can I go back? How soon am I going to meet Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa again?"
That's why the Gospel mentions: once someone fed a peacock with opium at 3 o'clock, and then exactly the next day at 3 o'clock, it came for another dose. These people - it is literally true. He used to fill them with joy.
That joy was not ordinary sense-object pleasure, but divine bliss. Because he was divine, and he could give only divine love. They understood this. Later they described: "Even our parents' love is nothing compared to this original love. Because parents have expectations - 'This is my child, therefore I love naturally' - and they expect certain things in return."
In our old age, there is a reverse policy. Most parents think like that: if their children don't fulfill their expectations, they feel hurt. They expect it because they invested in what you might call bad stock - buying bad stock in the stock market.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa never expected anything. "I only know how to give. I don't know how to receive." He doesn't expect anything.
So every week, like birds returning to their nests, they would rush to him. Why? Because this kind of joy they never experienced anywhere else in this world. Naturally, if you experience that, you want to come back.
Conclusion
This is the grace of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. How can you describe or define divine love? Only when you experience it do you know what I am talking about.
That is why he says "mūka" - a dumb person. He is experiencing it but cannot describe it. We are all like dumb people in this regard. How can you express or define something which nobody else has experienced?
So a few more sūtras are there which we will discuss in our next class. People, you know, this Nārada Bhakti Sūtra - if you understand this, at least intellectually, and go back to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's life and Holy Mother's life, I guarantee you will understand their lives at least a thousand times more than what you are able to appreciate now.
God is very gracious.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीं सारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगदगुरुम पादपद्मे तयो: श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहु :
Om Jananim Saradam devim Ramakrishnam jagadgurum Padapadme tayoh shritva pranamami muhurmuhuh.