Bhagavad Gita Ch16 part 13 on 26 September 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Moho Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvo Panishadho Gaavo Dogdha Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dogdham Geetha Amritam Mahat Mookam Karoti Vachalam Pangam Langhayate Girim Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramanandamadham So we have been studying the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita especially 26 divine qualities which we have to acquire the more of these qualities we acquire, the more is our progress in spiritual life it's not how much japa we do, how much of austerity we do how much of whatever else, teertha yatra, shastra patna no, how much we acquire these qualities there is a beautiful story that goes around that there was a great sadhu and he had a disciple who was 80 years old now the disciple always felt since I have been with my guru for such a long time so I must be progressing in spiritual life so the guru detected this feeling in him and then he said, do one thing, go on a pilgrimage for 2 months, 60 days and come back but just before the disciple started, the guru gave him bitter gold and said, whichever holy place you go, you just dip this bitter gold just as you are taking bath, let it also take bath so the disciple could not understand the implication he went around, after 2 months he came back and he brought back the bitter gold also don't ask me whether it is still worth eating or it has become spoiled the story is important, moral of the story is more important then the guru asked, did you make this bitter gold also? take bath, he said yes, wherever I was taking bath I was dipping this bitter gold also into that holy water wonderful, wonderful now cook it, let us eat it and they cooked and then they ate and then the guru asked him, did you detect any sweetness in the bitter gold? the disciple said, no but by this time, the disciple understood yes, you can go on pilgrimage, do so much of japam, study so many books do whatever you like but the bitterness has to go that is the true test whether anyone is progressing this is a transformation from within that is most important so these 26 qualities very interesting point it is that you take up the life of any one saint and apply all these qualities you will not lack one single quality in fact, I suspect there would be many more qualities which are not enumerated here so in our last class, we discussed about Tejaha a special kind of light comes out of the body of a person it doesn't belong to the body it is a spiritual splendor and Shankaracharya takes a lot of pains it is Tejaha Pragalbhyam a kind of special power na tvak gata deepthi it has nothing to do with tvak with the body then we also discussed about dhrithi in quite some detail dhrithi means what? tremendous will power, bulldog mentality patience, forbearance all these are clubbed together into this dhrithi but Shankaracharya gives a beautiful definition what is dhrithi? when we are set to accomplish some act we have not reached the goal probably the goal is far away but here is a person his body is tired his sense organs are tired his mind is tired but something which will not allow that person to become depressed on the other hand it brings about complete peace, relaxation both to the body and mind that special mental ability is called dhrithi we have discussed these points we enter into the 24th spiritual quality which is called shoucham shoucham or purity so according to Shankara two types of purity external and internal external purity is also important but not so important as internal purity so what is external purity? washing something clean keeping everything, removing the dirt, dust etc. could be through soap, could be through water because many Indians use it to do, to use what is called mud etc. that is external purity but what is internal purity? inner purity is that purity the mind becomes pure in Indian Vedantic context there is what in English language is called mind is subdivided into four categories manas, buddhi, chitta and ahankara so to put it in the proper way first mind, then chitta, then buddhi, then ahankara so what is the speciality? first let me give you a small example suppose one day you are walking light is very poor you could see a little bit suddenly you see that something is there at a distance from you and you are going that way then doubt comes is it an animal? is it dangerous? or is it a murderer? what is this? what is this? is it this? is it that? this kind of question what is this? is it this? is it that? that is the characteristic of what we call manas then when we approach nearer we are able to see, distinguish oh just it is a big rock that's all it is nothing much oh then it is there is no danger at all so this chitta means memory when we come near image of that particular object which was making us think doubt, fear etc. making us wonder what it is now it has already seen it before and it identifies this is a big piece of rock nothing more than that so that memory that is called chittam then this information what is this? it is a piece of rock and this information is given to the buddhi buddhi says yes yes there is nothing for you to be afraid of go forward so this is called the particular characteristics of called buddhi and then ahankara ahankara means I-ness ego this egoism what is that? I want to know what is that oh I remember I have seen this before it is a piece of rock so I have nothing to worry about it it is harmless let us walk fast so in all the three functions this egoism is there in that order all the four things combined together that is to say quesitation what is this? this or that? no, it is this particular thing yes yes it is absolutely there then you count the reaction it is something which is dangerous be careful or absolutely harmless nothing to worry about it that is called buddhi then the ahankara egoism it functions even in all the three parts of this mind these four parts manaha chittaha buddhi ahankara these four combined is what we call in English language mind so this is such a beautiful analysis of what is mind etc now what is inner purity internal purity the mind it only thinks about good things thinks about God thinks about purity thinks about spiritual life that is the purity no worldliness no anger no emotional agitation mars the thoughts that is called manas and the buddhi is determined I want to be pure I will not be swayed by anything else that is called the purity of the mind and the purity of the intellect these are the things so we have also discussing actually about this particular quality called shavucha and then Shankara further adds maya raga kalushya abhavaha absence of impurities like attachment likes dislikes ignorance wrong understanding etc so the absence of such impurities as trickery attachment likes and dislikes etc that is called internal abhyantara shavucha evam dvivedham shavucha thus two types of purity there are very interesting examples are there yesterday also if you can remember that one particular teaching of Jesus Christ blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God that's what Sri Ramakrishna used to say pure mind and pure atman there is absolutely no difference at all now we know when Swamiji Swami Vivekananda attended the parliament of religions that was held at Chicago in 1893 so many speakers had spoken but with all the knowledge that he had he uttered only five words brothers and sisters of America spontaneously thousands of people had they could not help but get up and applaud him why did they rise? why did they applaud him? that was the incident while uttering Swami Vivekananda was asked by his western disciples whether he had exercised some yogic power while uttering the now famous words sisters and brothers of America at the inaugural session of the parliament of religions which had such a mesmerizing effect upon the audience so some people had doubts whether Swamiji had used a kind of yogic power to bring about such a response in the audience in reply, Swami said that it was the power of purity he said he had in his life never even once thought an impure thought what a marvelous thing it is a person who never thought an impure thought in his whole life I think practically very few of us can tell whether we also did the same thing most often impure thoughts but sometimes pure thoughts also splash across the sky now and then so what is purity? purity is a state of knowing and being oneself what is purity? supposing there is a vegetable and it is full of dirt and dust because you just picked it up from the garden so let us say it could be a potato and full of dirt or it could be some peanuts you know, peanuts don't grow above the ground that's why it is called groundnut also when we bring it then we have to wash it thoroughly then when everything is washed away, what remains? pure peanut or groundnut so this can be applied to every object in this world when we see an object without the least bit contamination of anything else in this world and that is called purity so here we are referring to purity is a state of mind knowing and being oneself it is abiding in one's real nature it is harder to describe what purity is yet we can recognize it when we encounter it do we really get such people? yes very rare, but yes when you see a person he is 100% absorbed only in music 100% in Desha Bhakti, patriotism 100% absorbed in being a teacher, being an administrator being a military leader, there are no two things about it, there is no external or internal division but rarely we come across such a state when we see a baby, we know what innocence, purity simplicity is because babies represent that and incidentally that's why Sri Ramakrishna used to say, I use it to mix with small babies observe their behavior and try to imitate them to be like that we do not detect any self-deception and hypocrisy in a baby being pure in heart a baby also does not see evil or impurity in others, the greatest thing is a baby is very interesting point please note it down a baby doesn't see any sex this is male this is female there is no such thing at all it will be passing from hand to hand, a baby is happy, but there is of course a condition is there, those hands which just show so much of love so much of affection protection and what is called cuddling and kissing etc babies like all those things because they don't understand stupid language that we use, I love you, I love you without touching a baby go on shouting, I love you, I love you a baby doesn't understand but you take it in your hands and then pass your hands, the baby knows I am nothing if this person wants to finish me he has got that power he or she, but the way we hold the baby the way our eyes are expressing themselves the baby instinctively knows, this person loves me, of course through experience a baby automatically it recognizes its mother and whether it is an animal baby or human baby, any bird's baby any baby it is its nature to be completely trusty, innocent it doesn't detect evil a baby doesn't say you are a thief you are a murderer, you are an unloving person doesn't say that this is how in every baby we come across we see that innocence that purity that unity it doesn't think one thing, say another thing and do something else, that divided personalitism is not there at all in that baby, so also when you see a saint being pure in heart says God only everywhere and in everything a real saint also that is why it is said even animals are not afraid even born enemies in animals they shed their enmity for the time being so long as they are in the presence of the great saint so most of you can recollect the story how Shankaracharya established his center in South India near Sringeri he was thinking of finding a suitable place one day he was going, it was hot a female frog was giving birth to a baby and a poisonous cobra was shielding it from the harsh rays of the sun, protecting the mother who was giving birth and then he says my God if these born enemies are behaving like that then they must be very great though rare this kind of incidents are there when born enemies I have seen one on YouTube where a deer was a baby deer was saved by a leopard and then it leaves him and goes back quite a few number of these incidents we see there, so similarly a saint also being pure in heart, sees God only everywhere and in everything when a person sees God the question of telling lies the question of cheating the question of depriving other people from their properties that doesn't arise because Atma Upam Yena Sarvatra Samam Pashyati Yo Arjuna Sukham Va Yadiva Dukham Sayogi Param Om Adah when a person sees the same Atman as himself in every being and if they are happy others are happy, he is happy for them, if others are unhappy, he also feels tremendous sympathy as though he himself is suffering the Bhagavad Gita tells us that only through austerity alone can we become pure in thought, word and deed so the question comes, how can we attain this kind of purity only through austerity and in the Bhagavad Gita we are going to talk of it, that three types of austerities are there first of all external austerity, bodily austerity then austerity of the words how we utter the words and austerity of thought, that is what is most important for us, serenity of mind, gentleness silence, self restraint and the cultivation of pure motives these are called the austerity of thought various techniques have been adopted in various spiritual paths for the purification of mind, Karma Yoga is of course the standard method advocated for the purification of the mind what is the purpose of Karma Yoga achieving purity of the mind now this Karma Yoga involves performance of prescribed duties without hankering for their fruits or by surrendering the fruits and actions to God the Atman by nature is pure immortal and ever blissful, the best way to attain purity is to assert one's eternally pure nature and to be established in it, this is the goal of life, prayer, japa meditation, holy company selfless service and diligent practice of spiritual disciplines as directed by one's own teacher now and then retiring into solitude, these are some of the means indicated in the scriptures for the attainment of purity, Hindu scriptures, they also say that both for the external as well as internal purity, we have to be extremely careful what type of food we take there is a beautiful discussion about it in the Chandogya Upanishad and this is our teachers also traditionally they advocate what is this Chandogya Upanishad talking about by the purity of food follows the purification of the inner nature, on the purity of the inner nature our inner nature the memory becomes firm and on the strengthening of memory follows the loosening of all ties and the vice get liberation thereby, so what does this mean that when we take pure food that is to say it is completely different from harmful food and indigestible food food becomes impure in three ways, naturally some contamination is there that is impurity then there will be what is called certain admixture of things like hair like dust etc, then most important whose hand has touched that particular food as an example you know certain things like onion, garlic etc it is their very nature they do some good but they do more bad than good but there are some type of foods there will be stones, there will be impure things like hairs and also dust etc and in India most people at least I know use it to sell, mix with finely ground stones to get a little more profit by selling these rice etc, I don't know even now they are doing it or not but certainly ration rice, use it to contain these kind of things such is the greed the harmfulness human beings impose upon everybody else if those fellows are asked to eat that kind of food, they will refuse to do it but they want to sell such kind of food so they buy, there are some shops which will sell this finest kind of ground stones they look like rice and very small and they mix a certain proportion to it and very difficult to separate them so thereby their profit is a little bit increased, this is called adultery so this particular verse, just now we have been discussing, mentions Ahara Shuddhi, purification of food is a crucial element in spiritual progress so it is also very very important for us to understand, even in the western language it is there, we are what we eat if a person goes on eating animals he will become an animal there is absolutely don't cherish any other thought, the person is sure to become an animal then if the person eats vegetables, then you see it is much better food suited to human beings etc but if the same food is cooked nicely offered to God and taken in limited quantities suitable quantities then the body becomes very pure so there are three rules how food should be eaten food should be nutritious, first rule second rule is it must be eaten as much as one can digest it no more than that third is, there are certain kinds of food which create an adverse reaction within us for example, alcohol alcohol, don't worry, even liquids are also foods fruit juices is nothing but fruits made in the form of liquid so this juice also it must be pure now the Upanishad same Chandogya Upanishad goes on to tell us that is a beautiful quotation food when it is eaten it becomes divided into three parts so its grossest part goes to the health and building up of the body and whatever cannot be digested goes out in the form of feces etc so the middle part of which is it purifies the flesh itself, conducive to good health but the finest part of the food subtlest part and that goes to make up the mind so much is there, we do not understand what is the relationship between gross food and the subtler mind there is a deep relationship is there and that is why the saying we are what we eat we become what we eat that becomes very meaningful very relative but in his Bhakti Yoga, Swami Vivekananda quotes this, especially in Swamiji's time in South India people have become obsessed with external purity and that's why he says the religion has entered into the kitchen cooking pot is the god and how it is cooked that becomes a temple ritual more attention is given to that forgetting the common sense so Swamiji says in that context, according to Shankaracharya physical food must be pure then it will help to build up a good body a pure mind, pure intellect etc. but Shankaracharya gives a much wider meaning what does he say? anything we take in through our five sense organs shabda, sparsha, rooparasa, ganda through the eyes through the ears through the nose, through the tongue and through touch it is all aahara whatever is taken in is called aahara and so we have to be careful what our eyes take in what our ears listen that is why the highest Upanishadic prayer may we see what is auspicious may we hear only what is auspicious food doesn't mean merely what we eat but what we gather through all our sense organs if we can take care of what goes through the sense organs that means we have to control our sense organs definitely it is going to help us completely there is no doubt about it at all so this is what is so wonderful if we can understand this the shouja then we are talking about adrohaha means the actual word means droha the 25th spiritual quality droha means injuring others freedom from malice absence of the desire to injure others absence of hatred etc that is called adrohaha which is a most marvelous word we will be discussing it very soon in all its implications droha means betrayal actually for example we call in Sanskrit desha drohi that means a person belonging to one particular country citizen of a country sells the secrets to other countries this is betraying one's own country for the sake of little bit of look etc then comes guru drohaha that is betraying one's own guru by not only not following what the teacher asks us to do but the worst thing also that can be done so here is the most glaring example of this betraying one's own guru is Judas one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ for the sake of 30 dinars or rupees or whatever it is in those days it was of course quite a good amount of money these rabbis they bribed him that you point out who is Jesus Christ we want to arrest him and Christ nothing could be hidden in his eyes so even before he said before the next day dawns one of you is going to betray me and everybody asks me lord me lord who is it and he points directly to Judas and says this is the one I wish you were not born because the amount of suffering you have to go through because you are betraying your own teacher is unimaginable even God cannot help such a person but then the curious thing is that it is written in history one of the disciples will betray him so everything is as if the script has been written and then this person has to act if the script is written I don't know why that person should be really to take the blame or to be pointed out that you have done something wrong after all he just played his part that is all so there is Guru Droha there is Desha Droha then one who what is called sleeps with one's own teacher's wife that is also Guru Droha but there are finer shades of meaning is there one who professes that I am a disciple of so and so and yet does not follow the teachings, the path shown by the Guru, such a person also is called a Guru Drohi, then Dharma Drohi, so many things are there I am just giving you a hint we will talk about it in course of time, so the person who doesn't have the least desire to cause injury or to make other people suffer, this is called Adroha, just imagine that a person how much of suffering a Desha Drohi, a betrayer of one's own country brings upon the country by just betraying many Hindus are very popular or notorious for this when there are wars are going on some fellows bribed they go and open secret doors so that the invading army can silently enter into that kingdom and this is how it has happened in this ancient Troy that a big horse was there people were hiding, it was left there and people thought it was only wood and something it was brought inside and next night at midnight the people came down and then slaughtered everybody opened the door the enemy's armies were waiting and that is how Troy was conquered so this is called Desha Droha, anyway so absence of malice absence of malice and hatred, ill will injury in thought, word and deed so it is a quality without which one cannot progress in spiritual life, what is spiritual life? we must never cherish, entertain any thought about injuring the others because if we are suffering or if somebody has cheated us we have to take it if we have belief faith in the law of karma that I have lost these things not because of the other person's wickedness, evil but because of my own past karma that I had done in the past, either in this life or in the past lives, so that is why Adroha that is to say look upon everybody with love, be a good neighbor in Jesus Christ words of wisdom a good neighbor is one who cares for everybody that needs to be cared so Ramanuja explains it as non inference in other people's affairs when otherwise one may cause them harm or suffering, this is also a beautiful definition that don't poke your nose into other people's this one, so there is this beautiful joke is there, two fellows were eating in a hotel, so they were of course sitting side by side chairs and one person now and then opens his diary and he goes on, look at this fellow peeks into what the other fellow was trying to read for himself so the other person noticed it and was very careful and here the other person whose diary this fellow was trying to peek in, had to go to the bathroom, so he wrote, he took out a small slip of paper and then he wrote something and put it down and took away his diary and went to the bathroom, so this fellow was waiting, as soon as this fellow disappeared, the curiosity ridden neighbor he lifted up that paper and found out, mind your own business so many of us unnecessarily we go on minding poking our nose putting our fingers into other people's pie, poking our nose into other people's affairs and that should be absent, we have enough work cut out in our own lives, there is no need to waste our time in all this, so total absence of self and selfishness is the test of Adroha, it is a spiritual concept it is in the sense that Adroha or absence of malice is equated with truth at its highest level and is regarded as the highest principle in life, long ago the Jain prophet Lord Mahavira declared the being whom you want to injure is none other than you the being whom you wish to govern and enslave is none other than you killing a living being is equivalent to killing one's own self, this is the greatest teaching of Jainism, particularly Lord Mahavira it is of course impossible to live without injuring any creature while walking, while talking while breathing, while drinking water, while moving from one side of the bed to the other side, how much we go on killing, how many creatures sometimes these creatures cannot be they are not visible at all, that's why Jains have a peculiar habit, they put this mask all the time rest through their breathing through their talking it goes on, it's a very curious thing that because this Corona had come, we are all asked to put on the mask, but Jains always practice this one that no breath that comes out of their nose or their mouth should go and affect anybody else, this is their concept of non-violence and they say non-violence, you should not pass it on to other people, that is mask it here itself so it is impossible that we should not we do not injure anybody, it is impossible but two conditions are there, try to be as careful as possible so that deliberately we don't injure other creatures first, second is that even if we do whatever minimum is there pray for the welfare of those very beings so is it possible to live without harming life, it's impossible so it is said, life can be sustained only by life, what do we eat? a grass, a blade of grass a fistful of rice a potato, vegetable a fruit etc they are full of life so Bhagawan Buddha said he who deserves punishment must be punished, those who go to war in a righteous cause after exhausting all means of preserving peace are not blameworthy there is a saying, misunderstanding that Buddha preached Ahimsa and by that he meant that if some evil people are trying to declare war upon us we should not protect ourselves he says no, he who deserves punishment must be punished, so how far extent you will go, well if you have to kill a thousand people and if that can help other people to live in peace, yes do it so those who go to war but in a righteous cause first exhausting all means of preserving peace they are not blameworthy, in our own times Dr. Radhakrishnan writes, we live in an imperfect world where all men are not saints and force has to be used to keep the world going if we say that the criminal's personality should not be violated if we treat the gangsters life as sacred we are acquiescing in evil, we cannot judge the use of violence as evil or as good by looking at it in isolation there are two examples are there, supposing you see a madcap is trying to kill some people and in that case you have to kill that madcap to save many others from being injured or killed so you can never say that violence or evil in isolation but supposing the negative things also happen then supposing by mistake you do something where actually there is no real cause then also even a good deed done, so I recollect an example once a man was sitting in his garden and there was a butterfly which with a cocoon and probably that was the right time the butterfly fully grown of course compressed in that cocoon slowly trying to break it and come out of it and it was fluttering its wings struggling very very hard to come out this person felt pity and he said let me help this butterfly, so he broke open that cocoon very easily as a result that butterfly which was supposed to struggle and thus see that blood flows through every part of its wings, could not expand its wings and very soon it became prey to other creatures and it died, so instead of helping here, even though because of ignorance that very struggle is the one which makes its wings very strong and help it survive in this fight, life is nothing but a continuous battle with of course with everything else but more importantly with one's own self, this inner war is called Kurukshetra war, that is why a constant theme of Hindu scriptures is this unending war between the Devatas and the Asuras it comes in the Chandi, it comes in the Puranas comes in the Bhagavad Gita also this Kauravas and Pandavas everywhere so we cannot see this in evil but at the same time we have to think of every isolated event in its entirety before we can decide a course of action again both good and evil violence and non-violence are not ends in themselves but only the means leading mankind to its goal of realizing its divine nature, sometimes this thought comes most of us believe that God created this world, why did not God create a strife free suffering free life because everywhere we see the fighting here women are suppressed there poor people are made slave just imagine those African people who were trying to eke out a living through hunting etc there these English people, American people they went there and bribing some of their own tribes they literally caught them and then transported them thousands of miles kept them as slaves for generation after generation until Abraham Lincoln came and released in UK also it was outlawed after a lot of torture these people were transported because they were not considered as potential divinities they were just animals you can kill any animal if it contributes to your pleasure etc anyway coming back so both good and evil equally contribute both suffering and joy equally contribute to the growth physical, intellectual moral, aesthetic and spiritual growth of every human beings conditions and circumstances in life influence and dictate whether violent means are necessary or not right conduct is always to be measured by the motive since ethics and morality are all in the mind though Adroha or non-injury or malice is the highest ideal it can truly be practiced only by a rare few in any society at any given period of time such an ideal can only be for the few who have taken to the spiritual path seriously and are bent on self-realization only he who can look upon all creatures as one's own self can truly be said to practice the virtue of Adroha or non-injury Adroha means remaining true to one's faith or trust in the light of this meaning there are five areas in which we should be careful not to break our trust what are they? Dharma first, one's own duty second, Swadesha one's own country third, one's own religion one's own path fourth, one's path, that is whether I have to follow the path of Bhakti, devotion the path of knowledge, the path of Yoga or the path of Karma Yoga, so one should never give up because the teacher specifically pointed out, this is the best path for you to advance towards God maybe others will advance in their own way, but so far you are concerned, this is the only way for you, so that is, then one's Guru if once we choose our Guru then that is it, then you say maybe I have done something wrong, Guru is not a right teacher for me, even he may be right for others but not for me Hindus don't believe it Hindus say that it is God only who arranged it because you deserve exactly that type of teaching, once you accepted a person then it is God will guide you if God thinks what that teacher is telling is wrong he himself will speak through that very teacher's mouth, what is the best thing for you at any given time so one should not give up one's Guru, that is very important, of course the highest what is called devotion is one's own self, we cannot betray our self, we cannot kick or jump out of our own self we have to be completely faithful to our own self so Dharma, one of the meanings of Dharma is sincere discharge of one's duties according to one's station in life this not only purifies the heart but also pleases the Divine Lord, one can advance in any field of life only through proper discharge of one's duties this rule applies whether one works in an office or an institution one who fails to discharge one's duties is called Kartaviyadrohi then we all have duties to the country in which we are born which is helping us to get educated which is helping us to earn our living which is protecting us by building roads by enlisting armies etc. for the best a country shelters nurtures and protects its citizens hence it is the bounden duty of every citizen to love, respect and serve his country to the best of himself to the best of himself and to the best of his ability. If one fails to do so, he will be doing great injury not only to himself but also to the whole nation. Then religion one of the most important teachings of Sri Ramakrishna is that as many faiths so many paths. Each one of us, we follow our own individual single path but it doesn't mean that other paths are wrong every path is absolutely right. So our teacher tells us this is your right path you have to worship God in this particular form and so that's why the Guru is very necessary. Otherwise what happens? For few days few years we worship God in this form. Then we get discouraged. We discard Him and we take to another form finally we may discard the devotion to God Himself. Such is the fickleness of our mind. Therefore Sri Ramakrishna says that all religions are valid paths but we must tread the path of one particular religion which the teacher points out to us and says this is your path. Then of course Guru, Hinduism accords the highest respect to the Guru He is equated with God Himself. Hence one should look upon one's Guru with the highest respect but it doesn't mean merely saluting Him touching His feet, showing outward signs of reverence. Real respect to the Guru is in strictly following the instructions He has given to His student and a Guru's, real Guru's instructions will be absolutely individual and personal, suitable because there are no two students absolutely alike. So my Guru told me this. An example of this is, you see Sri Ramakrishna had told Swami Brahmananda Rakhal, you worship the form of God, take the name of God. But before that, this Rakhal, he joined the Brahmo Samaj taking a pledge that I will not worship God in any form. Idol worship, I will not do it. But when he came to Sri Ramakrishna, he realised this is my Guru. He gave me the right instruction. So soon after that Narendra, he also came there and he was shocked and he scolded did you not give in writing that you will not do idol worship and Sri Ramakrishna like a loving hen, he immediately called Narendra aside and said look, you are a foolish fellow. Everybody's path is different. It may be different for you but you should never deviate. What do the Brahmo Samaj know? What does it know? Does anybody know? Has anybody realised that God through that path, they simply talk about because it was a fashion in those days to deride Hindus as idol worshippers and they are far superior. They only do not worship. Even some Muslims also take pride. We are not idol worshippers. We only worship God. We are far advanced in spiritual life. Nothing can be further from truth etc. So of course, one who fails to follow one's own Guru and to follow one's own Guru is to give up really speaking that externally we may show respect to the Guru but internally if we don't follow, then that is the greatest disrespect to the Guru that is called Guru Droha. Desha Droha, Dharma Droha, Guru Droha etc. Of course, one must be always aiming at the realisation of one's own self. Ramakrishna used to say that the goal of human life is to realise God or the self and one who does not strive to realise he lived in vain. This is what Isavasya Upanishad also says Verily, those worlds of the demons are enveloped in blinding darkness and thereto they all repair after death who are slayers of the Atman. They are like people who commit suicide, not physical suicide, spiritual suicide. One who fails to be spiritual and advance in the spiritual path is called Atma Drohi. The only way to avoid harming or injuring others is to look upon all as one's own self. Needless to say, this state can be achieved only through following a spiritual path and by realising God. Before one reaches this state, one should take care not to injure any creature by thought, word or deed and one should be faithful to one's duties, one's country, one's religion, one's Guru and one's real self. This is a sure way to acquire the spiritual quality called Adroha. May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!