Paramahamsa Upanishad Lecture 07 on 23 March 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Paramahamsa Upanishad. Narada had approached Brahmadeva for getting instructions how to become a Mukta Purusha, liberated person, also called Paramahamsa. How can I become a Paramahamsa? We have to understand already Narada was a liberated soul, but for the sake of people like us. So he wants to say that please teach me Guru Parampara. The beginning of a tradition from the teacher to the disciple who in his turn realizes and becomes a qualified teacher. So the tradition is continuing. Swami Saradanandaji in his Leela Prasanga says, Where was the need for Sairam Krishna to take up Sanyasa because he was a born Paramahamsa? All the characteristics that we have been studying about the Paramahamsa are 150% present in him from the very birth. Very interesting. Dhani, a midwife in that village of Kamarpukur was assisting Chandramani Devi in looking after the newborn baby. So as soon as the news came, the child was born. And then Dhani was busy in helping Chandramani Devi and suddenly she looked for the baby and she didn't find anywhere. She was shocked. She was astonished. Where is this baby? How could it go away from the cot? But we don't know what mysterious thing has happened. Suddenly she found this baby, future Sairam Krishna, in a hearth full of ashes, Sanyasin. And she was astonished. He looked almost like a six months old baby. And that still more astonished her. And even today it remains a mystery. How did he move from the bed? Just born baby. As we know, the baby is just born. Cannot do anything. Cannot help themselves. Let alone crawl. But somehow he escaped the bed, went into the hearth and saw that his whole body was ornamented with pure ash. Ash is what we call Bhasma. That is the characteristic of a Paramahamsa, absolutely blissful. And he was so attractive, so moon-like face. Nobody can take away their eyes once they behold. That's why he is called Paramchand Sairam Krishna in the moon of my heart. Just as an ocean swells up at the very beholding of the sight of the moon. So also every devotee's heart, loving devotee's heart swells up. So such is, he was a natural Paramahamsa. But why did Sairam Krishna need to take up? Because he was a Paramahamsa. The answer given was, that is alright for the sake of the devotees. But to keep up the tradition, Sanyasi tradition. Hinduism posits Brahmacharya, Brihasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa Ashrama. So there also he has to keep them alive. And he describes that how the Ganges started flowing. As if Mother Ganga knows, after a long time, a great Sanyasin is going to purify the whole world once more. Remember, an Avatar doesn't come only for the sake of a particular locality or language. They come for the dharma stapan of the entire world. So that is what we have to understand. Narada also, for the sake of all of us, he is just what we call a lame excuse to expound this marvellous Upanishad. And then we saw that what are the characteristics of a Paramahamsa. And then Brahmadeva, we have been discovering it for the last two mantras. So many characteristics. What are those characteristics? Daivya Sampath, the wealth of a spiritual person. And why? Because one becomes spiritual only when we have spirituality. And spirituality manifests in the form of qualities. Spirituality is knowledge. And any knowledge, if a person is a musician, he has musical knowledge. And how do we know if he maintains complete silence, never opens his mouth to sing. How do we know he is a singer? Only when he sings and then people will be astonished. Oh, we never knew he was such a great singer. So that is how a Paramahamsa also must acquire those qualities. Those qualities must be acquired with great tapasya, austerity. But once these qualities start accumulating, the person starts progressing. Spiritual progress and acquisition of the spiritual qualities, they go together. And once the qualities make the Paramahamsa, and the Paramahamsa, for him it becomes very natural. These qualities, until he realizes, we have seen what it is, we will recollect also very soon. So as soon as he realizes that I am the Atman, these qualities, so far as we are concerned, here also something very interesting should be noted down. So if a Paramahamsa lives alone in a forest, no characteristic needs to be there. Because he is completely absorbed in his own bliss. Only when a person comes into contact with other persons, or has to do something, express his energy in time and space, then only these characteristics can be observed. So for people like us, who are professing that we would like to progress in spiritual life, there is no other way, we remain worldly people and we progress spiritually. These are diametrically opposed. So we have to give up either the world or God. So most of us, we come to Shri Ramakrishna because there is a desire within us that we will have to slowly progress in spiritual life. And this acquisition of the spiritual qualities has been described so beautifully in a Shanti Mantra. Because we chant it often. अनिराकरणमस्तु अनिराकरणम्यस्तु तद आत्मने नेरते यो उपनिषद्सु धर्माह ते मये संतु ते मये संतु So what does it mean? It means may the different limbs of my body be strong. Not only we need spiritual qualities, we need a very fit body. And when we are talking about the mind, we are talking about the spiritual qualities. Complete positive thoughts. A spiritual person never entertains any negative thought. He blesses everybody. Let people praise him, he will not be elated. Let them criticize him, he will bless them. But he will not be depressed at all. He is always joyful. So he says, let my body and mind be very strong. But at the same time, all indeed is Brahman as taught in the Upanishads. What are we saying? Billions and billions of things different from me. And everything is different from everything else. That is why the Vaitha philosophy posited by Madhvacharya categorizes all differences into five categories. There are three elements. That is God, World and Jeevas. Not Jeeva, but Jeevas. So difference between Jeevas and Jeevas. Difference between worldly objects and worldly objects. Difference between God and worldly objects. Difference between God and Jeevas. Difference between Jeevas and worldly objects. These are the five Vedas. But everything is Brahman. That is what he says. Everything is nothing but Brahman. So such a Brahman, let it not reject me. How can Brahman reject me? Brahman can never reject me. But I reject Brahman by thinking I am not Brahman. That is called rejection. I am a human being. I have a body. I am the body. I am the mind. That is called rejection of the Brahman. But let me not reject Brahman. Let Brahman not reject me. Because my rejecting Brahman is equivalent to Brahman rejecting me. But how can I not reject? Because I think I am the body and mind. I don't need to specially think. Here some people talk about Brahman, God. And I am making this God completely different from me. I reject such a God. No, no. By very identifying myself with the body and mind, I am rejecting Brahman. That is why he says, But how can I not reject Brahman? Because when I realize rejecting Brahman is equivalent to saying that I am not myself. I want to know my real nature, which the Upanishads tell that you are Brahman. So all those qualities which are enumerated in the Bhagavad Gita, in various chapters, especially end of second chapter, twelfth chapter, thirteenth chapter, especially sixteenth chapter, seventeenth and eighteenth chapters, all those qualities, that which were enumerated in all the scriptures, because we must remember, Bhagavad Gita is nothing but the very essence of all Upanishads combined. All Upanishads are compared to cows. And what is the essence of every cow? Only milk. So, By God's grace, let me develop them. What is God's grace? By right understanding that these qualities are necessary, not only for spiritual bliss, but even for worldly bliss. How come? Because even in the world, anything can happen at any time. So many ups and downs will be there. So if we are not having some of these qualities, we will be so devastated. We feel like committing suicide. And so many people commit suicide also. So, may all the virtues described in the Upanishads belong to me. That means may I acquire them. But how? Because I am devoted to self-knowledge. That means I am praying to God. I am praying to the Divine Mother by her grace. But once she gives the right knowledge, these are the right qualities, I must try to keep them. So not that we can acquire them, but it is a gift from God. But once a gift is given, they have to be maintained. That gift has to be maintained. And that requires self-effort. So God's grace and self-effort must always go together. So it is said, such a Paramahamsa, whose natural expression in our transactional world is full of these spiritual qualities, such a person is a rarity. But rarity doesn't mean there are always people. There is a belief that in Varanasi, at any given time, at least a few Jeevan Mukpas will be there. But not only that, we are all destined to be Paramahamsas. Not that somebody else is only destined to be a rare Paramahamsa. Because this is called teleological origin. That is to say, just like a seed. A seed of any plant, you keep it there, but there is a teleological urge. I must fulfil my destiny by becoming a plant, a tree, and travelling towards the light, heliocentric. So as soon as the right opportunity comes, in the form of what we call water, soil, climate, etc., immediately that which is potentially within, that takes place and it starts working. So these qualities, once we set our goal, we want to realise God, which is equivalent to I want to know who I am. That is also called Brahmasakshatkara, Atmasakshatkara. So first of all, whether we meditate, we pray, or we do japam, or we worship God, or we go on pilgrimages, our endeavour should be to acquire these qualities. Because as we go on acquiring, we go on progressing. As we go on progressing, the strength of these qualities becomes stronger and stronger. When we realise, and if we have to transact in this world, then these qualities manifest spontaneously themselves. Just like as soon as a fragrant flower starts blossoming, the fragrance, the flower doesn't think, now I am a fragrant flower, now I will start at 8 o'clock giving fragrance. No. It is an automated process. That is what we have to understand. Spiritual qualities and then spiritual progress, they always go together and each reinforces the other. In our last class, we have completed the second mantra. Just briefly, we will read the English translation of the second mantra and proceed to the third mantra. So the Paramahamsa carries neither a staff nor the hair tuft, shikha, nor the holy thread, nor any covering. He feels neither cold nor heat, neither happiness nor misery, neither honour nor contempt, etc. When we are listening to these translations, we have to be extremely cautious. A Paramahamsa's body, does it feel cold or not? Definitely. Unless the person is in a comatic state or he has been given some anesthesia, definitely, or in deep sleep, definitely he will feel. What is meant is, he is not affected. That is what is necessary. Otherwise, we see so many descriptions of Shri Ramakrishna with a shawl. Somebody has given him a shawl and in winter season, he covers himself with the shawl. There is no doubt about it. So, he feels neither cold nor heat, means, they do not affect us, they affect our mind and change our mind. So, neither happiness nor misery. Why? That means he is immersed always in bliss. Neither honour nor contempt, etc. Because the person who is honoured, the person who honours, both are himself. It is right that he should be beyond the reach of the six billows of this world ocean. What are they? Hunger and thirst, and then joy and happiness, and then strength and weakness, all those things, we discussed them. So, they will undergo. But he is not affected. And if somebody criticizes him, he never criticizes others. But if someone happens to find fault with him, he will be only too happy. He is so much blissful. I remember a beautiful incident in the life of one of the holiest saints, woman saints, in the whole world, I would say. Her name is Rabiya and Mirabai, Andal, etc. Akka Mahadevi, etc. They all belong to that same category. Someone came and informed Rabiya, she was a Sufi woman saint, that somebody is severely criticizing you. And then she was not affected. Then she simply replied that I will not be affected because I am so busy thinking about God, I have no mind, no thought to think, to give time to any other thought. Such is the greatness of that person. So, such a Paramahamsa, he is all thought of calumny, conceit, jealousy, ostentation, arrogance, attachment, antipathy, joy and sorrow, lust, anger, covetousness, self-delusion, elation, envy, egoism, and the like. He is completely free from them. He regards, in fact, his body as a corpse as he has thoroughly destroyed the body again. Again, we should not misunderstand as he jumps into fire and reduces his body to ashes. No! Simply, just as we do not feel that I am anybody else, let alone feel that person's happiness or unhappiness, cold or heat. So, he looks upon his body as if dead. Dead means he is completely unattached to that body, being eternally free from the cause of doubt and of misconceived and false knowledge. So, as we discussed, three types of wrong knowledge. That is doubtful knowledge, partially right, partially wrong knowledge, complete misunderstanding, misknowledge, opposite knowledge. But he becomes one with right knowledge. Not that he is having knowledge. He becomes knowledge. I am Brahman. When we come to know this is a tree, we do not become the tree. Of course, temporarily, yes, in the form of a vritti in the mind. But we are sufficiently aware, I am only observing a tree. I am not the tree. Otherwise, every time we look at a donkey, we have to feel that I am the donkey. No. So, he looks at this Paramahamsa, he has no body consciousness, that is called Videha, being eternally free from the cause of doubt and preconceived and false knowledge. That means he has what is called right knowledge, realizing the eternal Brahma. Realizing means what? I am that eternal Brahma. He lives in that himself with the consciousness. I myself am he. I am that which is calm, immutable and divided. Not only that, I am of the essence of knowledge and bliss. And that alone is my real nature. And this knowledge, that I am Brahman, in short, alone is his shikha, his tuft of hair. That alone is what we call sacred thread. Alone is his holy thread. And through the knowledge of the unity of the Jivatman and the Paramatman, Aham Brahmasmi, the distinction between the Jiva and the Paramatman is completely obliterated. And the Jivatman, for our sake, is described in human language as the unification of the individual and the universal. So this Jiva Paramatman Aike Gnanam alone is his Sandhya ceremony, as we have discussed in the Sriram Krishna saying Sandhya merges in Gayatri, Gayatri merges in Om, Om merges in Brahma Gnanam. So Paramatma Atmanoho Ekatma Gnanayana tayor bhedah eva vibhatmaha sah Sandhya. Through the knowledge of the unity of the Jivatman with the Paramatman, the distinction between them is wholly gone too. This unification is his Sandhya ceremony. Sriram Krishna's just as we quoted, this is the ultimate goal but we have to start only with Sandhya. Sandhya here means rituals, certain type of gross external sacred activities. And with that, the second mantra is complete. Now we move on to the third mantra. What is the summary of the third mantra? It is always good to know what is a chapter going to talk about or what is the book going to talk about. It will be for facilitating, easy for us to grasp because these are the tricks of the trade. How to read a book? First you look at the title. Very often the title itself tells us what the book is going to tell us. Then look at the preface. A short introduction by the author himself or by some other people and then we come to know what is going to be described in the book. Then look at author's own introduction. That will give even better idea about the book. Then look at the index of the contents. Then we say how many chapters are there and each chapter may be subdivided into several sub-chapters and each sub-chapter unifies one particular idea which is given in the entire chapter and through this knowledge then we get even better and our concentration will definitely improve. And in the end, go to the end and every good author must give a summary of what is written. Usually some of the authors are very good in this respect and read the summary. By this time we know the essence of the entire book. Only it has to be reinforced by elaborations, examples, quotations, etc. It will be saving a lot of time and our memory will also be very good. So what is the summary of the third mantra? A true Paramahamsa. Because nowadays so many Paramahamsa, Parivrajaka, 1008, Sri Sri Sri like that or many people describe themselves as Sadgurus like that. There may be real Sadgurus but no real Sadguru ever wants this kind of title Sadguru. It is often given by the admirers, by the disciples, flatterers. Sometimes if the Sadguru is very popular and quite wealthy then many just like honey bees gather round a flower which gives plenty of nectar. So many people join there so that they can also share. So a true Paramahamsa is rare but he is one who is free from all attachments and that gives a whole great meaning. It doesn't mean the objects are absent. If I don't have anything the question of my getting attached to them doesn't arise. A Paramahamsa may have a few things at least or many things like Videha Janaka he was the king of the entire kingdom and in a trice you know what happened in the Brihadaranyaka we get Janaka Maharaja highly pleased Yajnavalkya and Yajnavalkya gave him a boon and then Janaka Maharaja took advantage of that boon and said Sir whenever I have any doubts about Jnana I would approach you so be gracious enough to remove my doubts and make my understanding true and strong and Yajnavalkya granted him that boon. So once there was a conversation many times actually but once and then all the doubts of his disciple Yajnavalkya had completely removed and then gave him a certificate that you are now a Nohira Brahman but he didn't say you are a Nohira Brahman he said you have become fearless this is applicable only to a person who knows there is no object which can create in me fear. There is no second I am one without a second then in gratefulness overwhelming bhakti Janaka says my whole kingdom I am offering it to you. Of course we don't know what Yajnavalkya said he must have laughed at him and then he said alright I accept it but from now onwards I will make you a guardian and then you rule the kingdom and this is what exactly Ramakrishna had done to Madhur Babu once Madhur Babu took Ramakrishna probably he did not know what was coming to his estate in Bihar I think Orissa and then Madhur Babu's intention was to collect the annual rent but for the last two years or so there was complete drought. The poor farmers not only not to speak of inability to pay the rent but they themselves are suffering their children were suffering their animals were suffering Ramakrishna immediately he said mother had made you a trustee and you must be trustworthy many trustees they what is called betray their trusteeship because once they obtain that position it is very advantageous position many facilities can be obtained by them or sometimes they become downright corrupt also and we see people cheating appropriating the money belonging to the trust etc etc it is very common thing Ramakrishna said don't forget you are just a trustee mother has trust in you she had made you a trustee so you should not only you should not collect in this dire condition you must support them so he asked him to feed them gave oil to put on their hair which was kinky hair dried kinky hair and then feed them nicely so at least temporarily because here is something world wise wisdom even one cannot go on feeding the entire nation many many people there is a limit even the whole kingdoms will become paupers if the kings out of generosity wants to feed everybody it is not possible but at least do something with the idea I am a trustee so here also a paramahamsa will never accept I am entrusting this whole kingdom to you you rule because on my behalf as my agent I am appointing you trustee you rule the whole thing of course it is so difficult if we examine Madhubabu's life we don't see that he followed but at least Ramakrishna had given the teaching to him now so a paramahamsa may be a king an emperor but he will have no attachments and moreover he is the master of his mind what Patanjali yogi so beautifully defines yoga chitta vrutti nirodaha tada rastu swaroope avasthanam so that is what we need to understand in this third mantra and I will read out now so we can divide these things into this particular mantra into three parts who is real paramahamsa and what is he called ekadandi but there are many people claiming that we are paramahamsas they also carry certain dandas according to tradition ekadandi, tridandi etc that is called kasta danda but their minds are always full of desires, how to enjoy myself how to squeeze from my admirers my devotees as much as possible, such people they go they think that we are so clever that we can squeeze and be scot free no sir, there is something called karma phala and it will catch up sometime in future at the right time as determined by lord himself I remember a beautiful incident so brahma and shiva went to lord narayana and at that time ramanasura was facing terrible war and he was doing all sorts of mischievous things lord you must incarnate yourself Ramakrishna mentions this and the lord smiled and said definitely I am going to descend, incarnate and destroy ramanasura with all his followers but his time has not come because he did lot of tapasya and he obtained boons from either brahma or shiva himself so his good fortune good luck must run out but soon his punya phala will run out and at that time I will come and I will finish him a beautiful statement with a tremendous feeling that is why we see so many people who are wicked we know they are wicked and they are cheaters and they do not hesitate how many sins they have committed most of the politicians are like that only they are preying upon the ordinary peoples and like mosquitoes etc and drinking their very blood not realizing sooner or later their karma phala will catch up because the lord is watching everything everybody so these people especially a person who claims I am a sanyasi and misbehaves he has to be extremely careful this is the second part first part is who is a real paramahamsa second part is who is a non paramahamsa and third is a person who thoroughly realizes the distinction between the real and the fake and tries to live by acquiring all those marvelous divine qualities he is called paramahamsa so this is what is going to be said so he who relinquishing all desires has his supreme rest in the one without a second and who holds the staff of knowledge is the true ekarandi he who carries a mere wooden staff who takes to all sorts of sense objects and is devoid of jnana he goes to horrible hells known as the maha rauravas not only hells but the greatest hells but knowing the distinction between these two a person tries to lead a sincere paramahamsa spiritual life he becomes a paramahamsa and by the way we have to understand an idea has been firmly implanted in our minds that a paramahamsa is always a sanyasi no Sri Ramakrishna has brought so many of his disciples for example Nagamahasaya, he was a natural born paramahamsa what about him he was also a paramahamsa and many of the householder disciples of Sri Ramakrishna had become paramahamsas by following the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna very sincerely so it is external things are not the criteria but as it is so beautifully said is he who has got this jnanam so he is called ekadandi earlier also we have seen tridandi, ekadandi etc we will again see so now let us go a little bit deep into this sarvan kaman parityajya that is a real paramahamsa is one who will renounce all desires kaman means desire sarvan means all desires parityajya what does it mean because we every person created by Swami Vivekananda is a potentially divine person and do you know what is a desire the only desire however worldly the person may appear to be is I want to attain to my own true knowledge but unable to understand like a person maybe I will find myself in the sweet or in a fragrant flower or beautiful music etc etc we are all searching in the wrong place but we are searching only for one thing unbroken bliss an existence eternal existence right knowledge and eternal infinite bliss this is what every living creature is exhibiting so this person understood it is useless to search here and there such a person has highly advanced in spiritual life already so kaman parityajya sometimes as I said doesn't mean that he doesn't enjoy in fact his enjoyment is greater than anybody so as Bhartruhari expresses in his Vairagya Shatakam here is a sanyasin he doesn't possess anything he is wandering completely free from all expectations and joyfully blissfully abiding in his own self and if he is thirsty there are plenty of beautiful rivers especially in those days when the factories did not come and pollute especially Ganges water because it is said Ganges water the germs will die they can never abide in Ganges water that's why we can keep Ganges water in bottles for years together without having any fear that they will get spoiled any other water after 3-4 days it will become full of germs and then if this person is hungry there are any number of fruits are there roots are there leaves are there and those who live even today there are people who live in the remotest forests and do you think that they are unhappy because they do not know that they do not obtain the paws of bears, the tongue of an oxen and the legs of a frog no, these people they have found out very beautiful things and they live in harmony with nature so in Amazon forest there is a tribe and everybody is sweet what is called sweet toothed so there Rasagullas are not available but honey is available and honey is also of various types in case most people don't know that there are varieties of fragrant honeys especially when there is plenty of lemon trees and the lemon blossoms have a very sweet fragrance and when the bees in the right season collect this dew, the nectar from these flowers that honey becomes smeared with fragrance and it is not only sweet but is so beautiful similarly there are certain flowers which give bitterness and that is called bitter honey now I know because in Cherrapunji we used to cultivate this honey then this bees make because of this bitterness of the flowers that is highly valued by Ayurvedic doctors for medicinal properties because this is collected only from the very essence of the flowers we are only looking at the sweet but how many what you call medicinal benefits are there from this honey how many varieties of fragrances are there, fragrant honeys and not only sweet there is also bitter honey etc so these people they know, they observed it, some birds are there it is called actually honey bird and they made a symbiotic relationship so whenever this bird comes across a honey comb this fellow comes and it twitters and immediately these people understand and they follow and then the bird slowly gradually leads them to that honey comb and it will sit at a distance and then these people will climb they have developed how to make a smoke and drive away the honey bees or sometimes there are no bees but there is plenty of honey and they bring it down in chunks, the very first thing they have to do is they give an appropriate chunk full of honey in a leaf and put it under the tree on which the bird is sitting expecting its share and if they don't give next time it will go to another tribe so these people have developed ways and of course there are some trees which yield some kind of fruits and in course of in season they become, what is called they develop a kind of wine, what we call liquor, they turn into liquor, even elephants understand that truth and exactly at the right time they go and gorge themselves and you have to see David Attenborough had shown how they dance literally, so they sway in their trunks and the whole body, hardly able to keep their eyes open they gorge themselves, monkeys gorge themselves, many birds gorge themselves, many animals gorge, whatever has fallen they will be eating and they got the intoxication so this liquor influences people don't know what it is but once they taste that divine intoxication they will be there and our ancient gods they will be drinking this Soma Pana so much of this, now that is all extra information, useless information, what I am trying to tell you that even this person may have under his control like Janaka Maharaja who was the greatest Paramahamsa all the enjoyable things in this world if he gets, he will enjoy it as the Prasada, Maha Prasada of God, if he doesn't get it equally he is joyful and blissful so Parityajya means Manasa Parityajya mentally renouncing, that means I do not desire I must have this thing I do not say, I don't want this thing, he goes beyond both and Advaite Paramastithi this is called abiding in Advaita only such a person can behave like this and then that knowledge that I am Brahman that is called Gnana Dandaha and so that person is called Ekadandi, what is Ekadandi? Danda, one who has one staff is called Ekadandi here Eka is a special meaning I am one without a second that knowledge he has got and he who bears that knowledge is called Ekadandi and that is called in other words Gnana Dandaha, staff of knowledge Gnana Dando Dhruto Ena Ekadandi Savuchate completely abiding in that state of Advaita remember Shri Ram Krishna after Totapuri left, 11 months after he initiated Thakur into this Sanyasa everyday he was thinking but his knowledge was not complete so he had to stay, Divine Mother made him stay at the end Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma he realized but at the same time this world is nothing but a manifestation of the Divine Mother so he bowed down Ma forgive me for my ignorance out of your infinite grace you have enlightened me, now I want to move away from here and Mother willed it yes you have fulfilled your job here, go back to your Ashrama, you will be the head of the center and you will help so many disciples who will be going to come to you and also all the sincere devotees even in the remotest villages also there will be devotees will be there so this knowledge is called Gnana Danda what is that knowledge I am Brahman I am Ekameva Dvitiyam that is called Ekadandi I am one without a second but there are people who are pretenders so the Upanishad is trying to say if you are an ignorant person accept I am an ignorant person, O Mother please grant me knowledge, grant me Bhakti wholehearted prayer will be very very fruitful but here what do they do they assume Sri Sri Sri 1001 Paramahamsa Parivrajikacharya all these epithets themselves and they also sometimes very impressive with big beards etc and if it is white beard even more effective Kaashta Dandu Dhritho Yena so Kaashta means a wooden staff what is wooden staff it is not a Gnana Danda it is just some staff made up of the wood and how do we know it is ok, tradition requires that you must have either three pieces tied together or one piece Ekadandi or Tridandi that is fine but Sarvasi he wants to squeeze as much happiness from all the five sense organs as much time as possible as long as possible why? Gnana Varjitaha he doesn't have the knowledge it doesn't mean he doesn't have knowledge it means he has wrong knowledge what is that wrong knowledge? that is called I am the body I am the mind and this gives me even greater happiness than even marrying and then taking responsibilities etc so many people don't marry out of fear of responsibility no, but once a person becomes for whatever reason very famous popular and then lot of people popular means what? lot of people will be gathering around him and such a person naturally the devotees they offer him the best of things and they offer him at the very beginning afterwards only they will be waiting for the Mahaprasada so these people get addicted to it they become intoxicated but there must be some power of God they might have been repeating some mantra or they may have done some tapasya, God's grace only will be manifesting in the form of attraction as a singer if his sanyasi starts singing he will become most popular and if he can also give a talk he will be even more popular why? because the talking will give him what we call a beautiful voice so voice is already beautiful of a person who is what is called a good singer, singing itself is a wonderful exercise for the voice but at the same time if he knows according to the raga, tala, laya etc. if he can sing modulating his voice and then if he can speak also in the same voice and is a beautiful way of expounding the scriptures his popularity will be boundless truly speaking and naturally people only judge this person must be a great God himself so they come there and then they offer so many things but this fellow is totally he doesn't have that knowledge spiritual knowledge he becomes like then he is cheating other people there are people without true knowledge, without spiritual knowledge, without knowledge of God they have talents and ordinary people are likely to think that talents are nothing but true knowledge and many times I have come across, I will talk about it in my next class also but these people not only are destroying themselves they are also destroying other people and therefore they attain to that maha raurava means terrible suffering is in store for them but a paramahamsa idamantaram jnatva he knows what is true knowledge, what is assumed or false knowledge and he has the right knowledge such a person is called paramahamsa so as we discussed earlier there are three staves are kept together, they are called tridandi, one is that I have complete control over my thoughts, I have complete control over my speech, I have also complete control over my actions such a person is a true tridandi, but here instead of that the jnanam, knowledge itself is considered as a staff and such person is called ekadandi and he excels, so in this third mantra we have seen especially it is cautioning if you want to progress in spiritual life then strive to the best of your ability, but at the same time you have to be careful that you will not cheat other people neither, only a person cheats other people before that he has to cheat his own self so with this the third mantra is over, we will take up in our next class the fourth mantra and conclude this paramahamsa upanishad Om Jananim Sharaadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayoh Sritva Pranamami Mohurmoho May Sri Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti and jnanam. Jai Ramakrishna