Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 050

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine. We have entered into the second chapter called Sadhanapada, or the real practice of yoga. And we also discussed the most important parts of this Sadhanapada is three, that is, austerity, study of the scriptures, study of one's own mind, constant monitoring of the mind, and then lastly, total surrender to God, Ishwara Pranidhana, Tapah Swadhyaya Ishwara Pranidhana. So how did this bondage come about? Why should we get rid of it? The only answer is, it is avidya, avidya means ignorance, and ignorance can never be visualized directly, cannot be seen, it can be only inferred through its manifestations. What are its manifestations? Four, first, Ahamkara, Asmita, I am so and so, I am this, I am nothing else. Then out of this egotism comes three, Raga, Vesha, and Abhinivesha. Raga means intense attachment, Vesha means just its opposite, which is aversion, hatred, dislike, disgust, etc., and these two again lead to intense attachment to the body because egotism is impossible if there is no body, though we say we consist, every individual consists of body-mind complex, body plus mind plus pure consciousness, but in reality this mind doesn't exist, cannot exist without the body. It is this body which is the root cause of this egotism, all likes, dislikes, because of this body, and this body also acts as an instrument in the form of five sense organs. We know the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, and the entire, what is called, organism of touch, body, so this creates all our problems. What is egotism? Egotism is to say, to think, to feel, I am this body, to say, I am this only, and I am nothing else. The moment we say, I am this, automatically I am saying, I am not anything else, the whole universe, I, this body, minus the whole universe is me, whereas a saint doesn't have body consciousness, so he says, I am everything, so here there is a beautiful analysis. Very often we ignore this, ego and egotism, the difference between ego and egotism, ego can never be gotten rid of, because ego means identity, either we say, I am Brahman, I am God, I am consciousness, or we say, I am not, I am a body, I am something else. It is this tism or ism, egotism or egoism, in Sanskrit it is called kāra, aham kāra, it is this kāra which creates all problems, aham, we can never get rid of it. Then what does a realized soul feel? He feels, I am. He doesn't say, I am this, because he is everything. When someone is everything, then he cannot say, I am this, the word this means it is exclusion of everything else. He won't say, I am this, I am that, I simply, I am. Let's say in Bible there is that beautiful word, Moses went up onto the hill and he saw a burning bush, that is God, he asks, what is your name? What is your name? Why, why should you ask God's name? Because God can never say, I am Rama, I am Krishna, I am Jesus, I am Buddha, the moment he says, oh, Krishna is different from Rama, Rama is different from Lakshmana, Krishna is different from Balarama, how do you know, because Bhagavatam is full of stories, but the moment you say, I am, there is no problem, that includes everything, then why should God say, I am, God doesn't say, I am, because you are asking God, he says, I am, what is your name? I am, that I am, that means I am, so what am I talking about? The difference between aham and ahamkara, our problem is, avidhya means ahamkara, ahamkara means identification with this body, means identification with this mind and everything connected, the whole universe is connected with this body, today's class I will deal exclusively with this topic of aham, because what is spiritual life? Spiritual life is nothing but to get rid of this kara, ahamkara, individuality, in fact the word individual is a very peculiar word, because truly if you understand its meaning, what is individuality, who is an individual, indivisible, individual, Swami Vivekananda used to squeeze a lot of fun out of it, are you individuals, you are not, because you are only this much and nothing else, it is also very interesting, one of our Swamis have pointed out so beautifully, man is inflated with ego and because of all this identity with this body, just think of this vast cosmos that we know, how many billions of galaxies are there and of all these galaxies, our galaxy is only one of the billions and in that galaxy billions of stars are there and of those stars our sun is one star and of the magnitude of this sun, how many planets are there, our planet earth is even then very little and on this planet earth UK is okay, how much and in that UK there is a blind lane and on that blind lane there is a Vedanta centre and in that Vedanta centre there is this building and in this building there is one Swami, Swami Dayatmananda, he is thinking I am great, find out on the map, what a marvellous thing, that is why knights when it is permitted look at this vast sky and incidentally all the great religions have sprung only from where man looks at the unimaginable magnitude of the cosmos, when he looks up at the stars and the moon and then vast space, vast oceans, highest mountains, something happens to man, he should become humble, he becomes humble, he says what am I on this earth, not even one speck of dust, but this eye how big it looks, how difficult it is to conquer, life after life we are trying, we are attending the classes, how difficult it is even to attend the class and how difficult it is to keep quiet for one hour, what is the point we are discussing, our ego so much inflated, how many quarrels, how much bloodshed, how many of everything, so the first thing we will have to understand is the difference between ego and egotism, our endeavour in yoga is to get rid of this particularisation, that particularisation has a technical name in Vedanta and that is called Nama and Rupa form. Now first let me read out this what are the obstacles or what are the pain bearing vrittis that obstruct our attainment of yoga, yoga means attainment of Samadhi, Samadhi means getting rid of all things that do not belong to us, in Sankhyan terminology what it means is get rid of Prakruti or non-consciousness, all materialism and what is the problem, problem is our Ahankara or identity with what is not our true nature, you know we say I am, I am this and I am not that, what do you mean by I am this, I am the body-mind complex, that is it, then what are you really speaking, you are the divine, you are the child of God, you are the blissful inheritors of the immortality, shunvantu vishwe amrutasya putra, no English word will ever be able to tell how beautiful this word is there, amrutasya putra, children of immortality and if I ask you, do you know where Swamiji used these words, at the Parliament of Religions he used this word, to call a man a sinner is the greatest sin, so the difference between this is very important to understand, some people say get rid of the ego, you can't get rid of the ego, but what they mean is get rid of the egotism, ism, so what is the truth, truth is I must know what I really am, how does this, ignorance, ignorance means not knowing my real nature, ignorance has two aspects, a negative aspect and a positive aspect, what is the negative aspect, negative aspect is not to know my true nature, what is the positive aspect, to know I am something else, this is a classical example you know, in semi-darkness we see a rope and then we mistake it for a snake, so there is the negative aspect is I do not know about the rope, a positive aspect is I am definitely, I know about this snake and snake produces, it is a very apt illustration because snake always produces fear and do you know what is our real effect of ignorance, fear, we have only two causes of fear, many times I mentioned this, two causes of fear, we all suffer from fear, fear is the greatest bondage, what are the two causes of fear, fear of losing what we have including the body and then the properties, everything and fear of not getting what we want. A simple example, fear of death, what is fear of death, fear of losing our body and what is fear of not getting whole life we are limited, going beyond limitation to become unlimited, we want unlimited everything, unlimited life, unlimited wealth, unlimited happiness, what are we talking about, total limited, limitlessness, total freedom that is what we are talking, how can we have total unlimitedness while we are using this instrument which is most severely limited, that is why Sri Ramakrishna's illustrations are so marvellous, the more we meditate, the more meaning we get out of it, you know he used to say what is the difference between an ordinary person and a realised soul, the ordinary person, he gives an imagery, he is there in the open plains and there is a huge wall and there is a small hole and this person is looking at the other side of the open space through this small hole, he is seeing, it is not that he is not seeing anything, so he is seeing something but what he sees, he thinks that is the entire reality and that is where the problem comes, what is this small hole, in fact I would say, I would expand the hole, when hole is expanded it becomes holiness, so I would expand it, how many holes we have, 9, 9 holes we have, 9 doors, 9 windows, city, we are living in that city, what does a spiritual aspirant, how does, he is also looking, what does he do, the more he is progressing, he is enlarging the hole, so he could see more and he could know, oh, the reality is much more and ultimately he is able to cross through that hole and then he stands there and he sees everything and says, this is wonderful, what is it, unlimited, this idea is so beautifully expressed in that Shanti Patha, Purnamadaha, Purnamidam, Purnat, Purnamudachyate, Purnasya, Purnamadaya, Purnameva, Havasishyate, this avidya, it is the main culprit, it is the root cause and it results in 5, what are those? Asmita, Raga, Vesha, Abhinivesha, egotism, intense liking, intense disliking and intense clinging to our small body-mind complex, so they are the greatest obstacles, these obstacles, the causes of man's suffering are ignorance, egotism, attachment, aversion and the desire to cling to life, so the first manifestation of avidya or ignorance is egotism. Ego and egotism, these are 2 different things, that is the point is, how does this egotism, how does it obstruct us, how does it prevent us, how does it cause so much of unhappiness etc., the whole Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, you know, this is Sri Ramakrishna's own, one man asks a question, Sri Ramakrishna, Sir, when do I become free? Ramakrishna was a pun master, not only fun master, he was also a pun master, when do I become free? What was his reply? When your I dies, then you become free, what a beautiful reply, this man is telling, when do I become free? To become free, I have to remain, if I die, how can I become free? What does it mean? It means, let your egotism die, then what remains is your real you or I and then you become free, so how the whole Gospel is, the whole spiritual practice in any religion for all times, what is it, how to get rid of this egotism or in simple language, I, Sri Ramakrishna's all teachings are only this I, some stories also we will encounter, now I will come to this point. So it is the Ahamkara or egotism that we need to be rid of, not Aham or I, all spiritual life is to get rid of this ism and remain as pure I, now first if we want to get rid of, if we want to get rid of a disease, what is the first step? To find out what are the symptoms, diagnose, let us diagnose this I, manifestation of egotism, we know more or less in a simple way, but I am going into some detail. First of all, man is bound by 8 factors, Sri Ramakrishna's words are so supremely valuable, as Pratapchandra Hajira says, man suffers from 8 types of bondages, Sri Ramakrishna immediately came like a rod and says no, there is only one bondage, what is that bondage? Ignorance, but he says there are 8 factors, you see the difference now, bondage is only one, all the 8 factors, even if one factor is there, that will create so much of bondage. Now, what are these factors technically? Lajja, ghrena, bhaya, shanka, jugupsa, kula, jati, shila, this is the Sanskrit words, let me tell the English translations, lajja means modesty, ghrena means hatred, bhaya means fear, shanka means doubt, jugupsa means disgust, revulsion, aversion, kula means I belong to a noble caste, brahmana or etc., jati means creed, I am a Hindu, I am a Vedantist, I am the Ramakrishna's follower, I am the president of the managing board, creed, then shila, good conduct, shila means good conduct, being born in a good family and having wonderful conduct, they are also factors which create terrible bondage, factors means that which bind us, any consciousness which is bound by these 8 bondages or 8 factors is called jiva, individual soul and that consciousness which is free from all these chains is called sadashiva according to tantric language or Shiva siddhanta, more or less Vedanta, it is absolutely, it is the same. Now Sri Ramakrishna says there are 8 factors, shame, hatred, fear, caste, lineage, good conduct, grief and secretiveness, he put it in his own way, these are the 8 factors and they cannot be unfettered without the help of a guru. The gopis were free from all the factors but one, what is that factor? Shame. Therefore Krishna freed them from that one too by taking away their cloths, you know that episode Sri Krishna stole the cloths of gopis. So this is the first thing that we have to realize. Now let us meditate a little bit on Sri Ramakrishna's conduct while he was practicing spiritual disciplines. While meditating, he would lay aside his cloth and his brahminical sacred thread explaining this strange conduct. He once said to Hriday, don't you know that when one thinks of God, one should be freed from all ties from our very birth, we have the 8 factors of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste and grief. The sacred thread reminds me that I am a brahmin and therefore superior to all. When calling on the mother, one has to set aside all such things. It is so difficult and yet we have to do it. Let us take one by one these things. The first thing is called Lajja. Lajja means modesty. Now before we go further, what we need to keep in mind is, Ramakrishna is not advising that we should be shameless, that a woman should dress herself, should not have any dress, men and women should not have any dress. It is very befitting for a child. You know why we never feel ashamed in front of a child? See modesty is good, we must be modest. What is to be avoided is, do not become unusually proud of your modesty. Your modesty should be such that you should never ever make, draw attention to other people. For example, that all of you, most of you know, Girish Chandra Ghosh used to remark about Swami Vivekananda and Nagamahasaya. What did he say? That Mahamaya wanted to bind both of these and the ego of Swami Vivekananda, not egotism, ego of Swami Vivekananda, what is his ego? I am God, I am God. It grew so big, Mahamaya could not bind it. How can the finite bind the infinite? Whereas Nagamahasaya became so small that he easily slipped the net because he was an incarnation of humility. Similarly, we are suffering from this disease called ego, egotism of modesty. What is the remedy? Childlike, childlikeness. A child doesn't have any such egotism at all. He identifies with the mother and that's why the child doesn't identify even with the body. That's why we don't mind, when a child is naked, we don't mind at all. But as soon as that child grows up, becomes conscious of the body, we become highly conscious of it. Sri Ramakrishna, I often used to ask his disciples, can you become naked in front of me? They said, yes, fine. Can you run around this Lakshmi Neswar temple? He said, no, that is not possible. Only one, I think one said, yes, I can do that, but not at all. Why? Because body consciousness is what is called, if you don't have body consciousness, there is no need for cloth. That's why a Paramahamsa always, he has no cloth, even if he puts on cloth, they just drop off. It is very natural. And nobody felt any shame in front of Sri Ramakrishna because he will not remind others of their own body. This is the most wonderful thing. The next is hatred, you know, dvesha. If we like something, it is very important to know, I will be so great that I will be intensely liking something, but I will not dislike something. That is never ever going to happen. If you like something, automatically it means you will not like something. That is why we should not have too much liking for something. We also should not have too much hatred towards anything. Hatred means what? What does hatred do? What does hatred do? It makes us more limited. I am not this, I am not you. I don't like you means I would not like to identify myself with you. What is the remedy? Opposite quality for hatred, intense, intense hatred means intense love. Love is that which identifies oneself with something else. Then fear, you know, fear. We are fearing so many things. What do others think? What do I myself think about myself? You know, what a wonderful subject. I don't like to go into too many details, otherwise fear itself can be a subject matter for so many talks and so many refreshments. What does this fear do? We are fearful of tomorrow, we are fearful of sleeping, we are fearful what other people are thinking about us. We are fearful also what God is thinking about, God is thinking about us. What is the fear of sin? If I commit some sin, secretly, how does anybody know that I am committing a sin? Then why am I afraid of it? Because someone is watching. Who is that who is watching? God is watching. Sri Ramakrishna is watching. This is the truth, fear. And if we are happy, there must be fear. Every one of these qualities have got a good side. You hate the company, not really hatred, but avoid the company of non-believers, who are worldly people, that's fine. But no hatred should be there. Avoid things which could drag us down, let us avoid them. But no hatred, because hatred would only make us think about what we hate. Have you noted that if you hate somebody, think of that somebody even more. Swami Yathishandri used to say that hatred is a much more intenser attachment than even love. Because if you love somebody, you think only for a short time and forget. But if you hate somebody day and night, even in your dreams, who is the example? In our Bhagavatam, there are examples for all those things. Who is the example? No, Shishupala, or you can say Ramanasura, Hiranyakashyapu, Kamsa is an example of what? Fear. He is frightened, Krishna is coming to kill me, Bhayat Kamsaha, Krodhat Shishupalaha, the Bhagavatam verse is there, how they attained liberation through fear. Now what wonderful thing it is, when this Bhaya goes out of proportion, limited fear, limited hatred can be removed by its opposite quality. Unlimited fear, unlimited hatred can be removed only by one being, who is that? Only God. Because if you are suffering from phobias, you know, so many phobias, when the fear goes out of control, then the only remedy, no psychologist would ever be able to cure it, only one supreme psychiatrist is there, who is that? only God can remove it. But what is so wonderful here, that is what I want to draw your attention to. When we can really develop so much of fear, our mind goes automatically to God. When our desires go beyond normal limit, our mind automatically turns to God. When our love goes beyond limits, then it automatically, it has no option, no choice but to go to, because there is only, what is the cure for unlimited something? Unlimited. What is the cure for infinite something? Infinite only. That is the most wonderful thing. So for hatred, the opposite is love. And how to get rid of it? Actually love also means, we should not misunderstand, because all of us love something, our family members, our body of course, our comforts, everything, but our family members, our country, our religion, that will not remove hatred. In fact that creates more hatred. What is it? Seeing God in everything. That is the only way to get rid of this, is Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna, specifically he says, name dveshu asti na priya, samoham sarvabhuteshu, I am equal sighted. Every day also, I mean in our hymns, we sing here. One of the most beautiful things, do you remember, prema arpana sama darshana, equal sighted. How did Sri Ramakrishna become equal sighted? Not by his limited mind, samadar prema arpana, that is he surrendered himself to love. What about holy mother? How did she become sama darshani? Anybody who calls her mother, instantaneously she becomes a mother to her. Anyone who calls mother, she is a mother all the time, but if somebody calls mother, then however hateful that person is, immediately, hateful means mother doesn't hate. By that person's conduct, he becomes hateful person. Immediately holy mother comes and embraces that person. That motherly love removes. That is why the song goes, I am the mother of the good, I am also the mother of the evil. Who created evil? People may be evil, people may be good. Sri Ramakrishna makes a remarkable statement, he says, it is in the hands of God, God creates householders, God creates monks. You can't become a householder, you can't become a monk, just because you wish to be so. It is only God who makes. The final, ultimate of this is Bhagavad Gita, in the last chapter, Ishwara Sarvabhoothanam Hridyeshe Arjunatheshwati, Ishwara, the Supreme Lord, resides in the hearts of every being. What does he do? He goes on moving all of us, the whole universe, not only human beings, the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the galaxies, the earth, everything is moving in its allotted course by whose command? By the command of the Divine Lord. If Bhaya, you know, Taittiriya Upanishad says, because of fear of him the wind moves, wind blows, because of him the sun shines, because of him the fire burns, because of him the Lord of Death functions as Lord of Death. Everything moves by his commandment, Ishwara Sarvabhoothanam, that is most wonderful. If we can see that Ishwara, then there will be no hatred, only love, only reverence, only Samadakshanam, that is the only way. I am also reminding you, you know, one sadhu who looked like a madcap came to Dakshineshwar and he was eating the leaves which were thrown out after beggars had eaten, they throw it in a rubbish heap and he was so ferocious, or I would say, people, so disgusting that people, even beggars didn't allow him to come near them, so nonchalantly he went and some dogs were eating, he put one hand on one dog and both were eating from the same leaf plate, such was Shri Ramakrishna saw him, instantaneously recognized. He called Hriday and said, Hriday, this is a realized soul, Brahma Gnani, Noera Brahma. Immediately Hriday, Hriday had faith sometimes in Shri Ramakrishna's words, not always, sometimes, it is also Maya. So he followed, the sadhu, the holy man was going away and then Hriday followed, sir, sir, make me your disciple. For a long time he followed him, the holy man didn't say anything, then he stopped at one place and there was sewage water flowing and he showed it and said, when you can understand that this sewage water and this sacred Ganges water are exactly the same sacred things because they are nothing but God, when you understand that, you become God, you become a realized soul. Supposing there are only sacred rivers and no sewage canals, no outlets for your toilets, what would be your condition? God created even those things for whose good? For our good, everything, if there are no mosquitoes, just imagine you are sitting, you want to meditate and your mind is going somewhere, what is the mosquito coming and doing? It is reminding you that you fellow, you are supposed to think of God, not think of something else. There was a funny incident, just now I remembered, Swami Ramdas of Anandashram, Kannangad, he was wandering in North India, so he met another wandering monk and both of them stayed under a tree whole night, they didn't have any sleep because of the immense capacity of the huge mosquitoes, they were biting them whole night. So somehow they spent the night and morning came, then Swami Ramdas asked, how did your night go? He said, these damned mosquitoes, I didn't have ink of sleep. Then that sadhu asked Ramdas, what about your sleep? And this Swami Ramdas, how can I describe the grace of Sri Rama, every second he is reminding me, don't forget me, don't forget me, same incident, but two different interpretations. Everything has got a function. Now even scientists or thoughtful people are realizing that there is nothing redundant, nothing wasteful in the creation of God, everything has its exact function, that is called holistic view. Anyway, so for hatred, see manifestation of Divine Mother, then fear, there must be fear. As I mentioned again, every of these factors, they have also positive qualities. If you don't fear snakes, if you don't fear wrong things, if you don't fear society's opinions etc., to some extent, then you will just destroy yourself, you will do whatever you like. That's why all these, if you don't have fear of policemen, if you don't have fear of these red lights, fear is very good. But on the other side, if it is too much fear and everything we are fearing, our life becomes a living hell, what is the remedy? What did Shri Ramakrishna do? He did many things, but I am only mentioning two things. The first thing is, he used to go into a jungle, people feared to enter into that place even in broad daylight, he used to go there fearlessly, even Hriday took many days to enter into that place, fearlessly he used to enter into that place and then he used to sit and meditate whole night. Were there not snakes? Have you ever meditated upon that scene? Shri Ramakrishna sitting under the tree and meditating, were there no mosquitoes biting him? Definitely there were mosquitoes. In case you are wondering whether my Sharma is right or wrong, I am going to tell you. You know Girish Chandra Ghosh, Swami Vivekananda went to Dakshineshwar to meditate. Do you remember? And then it was hot so they did not have cloths and then Girish Chandra Ghosh within few minutes he came out, but he saw Swami was totally absorbed, unconscious, but his whole body was covered with a thick blanket of mosquitoes. That is how we know that there are mosquitoes, but did Shri Ramakrishna ever mention this? He did not mention. Mosquito curtain was there, why was he using mosquito curtain? Why were they giving dhoona, you know, a kind of smoke, why were they giving? It is for driving away the mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were there, but he was totally fearless, unconscious. Snakes would be there and then the second one is called Shavasadhana, that is, you know, fearful things. Bhairavi Brahmani used to bring so many fearful things and at night Tantric practices were done. That is why in the Tantric practice, one of the ways to depend upon God and to get rid of fear is to practice Shavasadhana. Shava means corpse. A practitioner, aspirant, he will sit on a dead body and whole night, not daytime, whole night he will be practicing and it is said now and then that corpse will open its mouth, I will swallow you, then he will be having some puffed rice like that and some mantras he will put into the mouth. Whenever we are eating, whom are we feeding? What is this body? It is nothing but Shava. How do I know? There are only two realities in life, either it is Shava or it is Shiva. If you are not Shiva, then you are definitely Shava. It is consciousness which makes this body really appear like Shiva, but the body itself has no consciousness. That is why it is called Shava, means one without life, without consciousness. Life means without consciousness. So this is the third one. Fourth is doubt. We are all doubting Thomases, Shamsaya. Many times doubt comes, does Shri Ramakrishna exist? Does God exist? Why is he not listening to our prayers? Why is not my temperature, comfortable temperature in my room? Let the whole world go to dogs, but so far as my house is concerned, there must be a nice breeze. If it is too much also, there is something wrong with God's, what is that, temperature control mechanism. If it is too less also, it is something. We are always groaning and complaining, but what about spirituality? Our progress in spiritual life depends upon how much we really believe, have faith in God. That is why Shri Ramakrishna says, Shri Krishna says, Shamsayaatma inasyati, a doubtful person, he has no hope, Shri Ramakrishna says. If a man has faith, then he has achieved everything. What is that faith? Faith that what scriptures say, what Guru says is absolute truth. One of the four spiritual qualities we require, Sadhana, Chitustaya Sampatti, Shraddha, absolutely it is there. So that is the antidote for doubt. What is Shraddha? Faith in Guru and scripture. How do we get Shraddha? This is the most important point. How do we get? Go on reading the scripture. That is why Swadhyaya. One that goes slowly inside, gets rid of the doubts until we are absolutely 100% sure that God exists and I am that God, somehow I have to realize. After faith only, faith is the foundation, after faith only comes spiritual practice. That is why Sadhana, Chitustaya, Sampatti, that is the preliminary requirements for even entering into spiritual practice. We take initiation, why? Because we want somebody whom we trust, we want to trust somebody, we want to trust our Guru. This is the fourth one. Then Jugupsa, Jugupsa means intense dislike, disgust, aversion, it is not hatred, hatred is different. Here Jugupsa means, you know, you see a cockroach, you see a mouse or you see something, something dirty and you don't hate it, but you are disgusted with it, that is also bad. What is the antidote for Jugupsa? Prasada. Whatever be the material, I am giving you a beautiful example, whatever be the material, when it is once offered to God, how should you take it? We have Jugupsa, let me give you, supposing some material which one thought that it is very good and you offered it to God and then as soon as you brought it down, it is disgustingly smelly, you did not realize it, now you realize it, how will you take it? Right. Supposing Nag Mahasaya were to be there and you offer it to him, how will he take it? Now what did Sri Ramakrishna do? We also have tremendous disgust about so many things in this world. That is a factor, how to get rid of it. What did Sri Ramakrishna do during Tantric Sadhana, do you know what he did? Brahmin used to bring lot of disgusting things, two things we have specially, the great master mentions. One is rotten human flesh, rotten human flesh, offer it to mother and say, my child, eat it. He said, how can I eat it? And then she said, what is there? This is also made up of the five elements, look I am eating and she ate as prasada and he also was possessed by the divine spirit and then he also ate it. And then the next is, can you imagine food, fish being cooked in a human skull? There is a sect, they are called Kapalis and they all do that regularly. There is nothing, decomposed material is a material, absolute amrita for certain creatures, you know some worms, grubs, etc., without that we would not even exist here. Diseases would come, but all these, every animal, every creature has its own place, it will come and clean it up, everything, nothing is left out, everything is recycled. This whole universe is a big recycling, huge recycling machine, which will never go out of order. Swami Vivekananda used to say, you look upon the sweepers with disgust, you will not allow them to enter through your front door, always they have to come through the back door, but if these sweepers go on strike for one day, you will be dying of plague and other diseases. So don't hate them because they are rendering greatest service to you. Then the next is noble lineage. Noble lineage means I am born of a very noble family, what did Shri Ramakrishna do to counter that? He says, everyone is born of the same thing. So he did many things, one of the things that he did was, as you know, he went and cleaned the lavatories of those who clean lavatories, Rashiks, Rashik was so fortunate, he employed God to clean his lavatory, though without pay, without his knowledge, Rashik, Shri Ramakrishna did. And then while he used to wipe with his own long hair, wipe it dry and say, oh mother, let me never have that egotism that I am born of a Brahmin family. What is the other thing he used to do? He used to remove his sacred thread, sacred thread, why was he doing it? Because sacred thread reminds, I am born of a very high caste, how noble family, etc. This is how Shri Ramakrishna countered it, what a beautiful practices he did. Then creed, creed means what? Whatever religion or tradition we are following, creed means a tradition, a religion, etc. We think that is the only thing, everybody else is going to dogs, that is the most horrible thing. I have heard a story, I will continue this talk in my next class also because it is very practical. He was a Christian devotee, illiterate and somehow he learned how to recognize the prayer words, you know, the Christian prayer, oh father, forgive us today our sins, etc. And then somehow with great difficulty he will recite that with all sincerity and he was very happy. So one day what happened, he forgot to take his book and he could not, there was no, so he says, oh lord, you know, I cannot read properly, I do not know the prayer and now I forgot to bring, what I do, I will utter A, B, C, D and you put the words together and God was listening to this and he was remarking to his personal assistant PA, this is the best prayer I heard in my whole life because the man is doing with absolute sincerity. So what is important, Sri Ramakrishna said, oh mother, I am a fool, I am an ignorant person, I do not know anything, you revealed to me all that I need to know, I depend upon you. And what is the point here, creed, what is Ramakrishna's main teaching, all religions, everyone is sincerely following, they will reach the same goal, that is why let us never feel we are so proud. The last one is good conduct, you know, when a person, good conduct, just to dwell a few moments on this, good conduct, if we are really following, those who are not following good conduct, they have no problem, they have no egotism because they know they are not following, but really if we follow, then a pride will come, secret, outside you won't show it, but inside, you know, the difference between you and me, I am following, I am a great devotee, I am following, I belong to the inner circle, and you belong to the outer circle, sometimes not even outer circle, terrible pride, this is why Swami Vivekananda says, of all prides, what is the worst pride, spiritual pride, I am a spiritual person, in one of our Upanishads, categorically it states, a person who says I am a Noaira Brahman is not a Noaira Brahman, and a person who says, who means, I am not a Noaira Brahman, he is the greatest Noaira Brahman, so this is very, very important, you practice and you are able to practice all this only because of what, your good conduct is only possible because of what, because of God's grace, not because of your greatness, you know Narada, he considered himself as the greatest devotee, you know that, you know this story, Sri Ramakrishna story, he thought I am the greatest devotee, but he knows it inside his heart, but he wants Lord Vishnu certificate, Sri Ramakrishna story, then he went to Lord Vishnu, and then Lord Vishnu knew, Narada asked, who is your greatest devotee, Narada was thinking, I am the greatest devotee, why because he used to take God's name 24 hours a day, God said, you know Narada, he did not say you are my greatest devotee, he said there is a village and there is a farmer, he is my greatest devotee, Narada was piqued, immediately he rushed, even without saying goodbye to Lord Vishnu, I am adding a little bit of masala, and then he found out this man, and he is observing behind a bush, how many times he takes the name of God, and you know this man, when he gets up from his sleep, he says Narayana, and whole day he was doing back breaking work, at night after eating food, before going to bed, he says Narayana, Narada's peak was aroused immensely, what? I am taking God's name 24 hours a day, and this man takes only twice, once in the morning and once in the evening, and the Lord says he is the greatest devotee of God, how is it possible? So he went back, he rushed back to Lord Vishnu to prove him wrong, what did Lord Vishnu do? He said Narada, okay, do one thing, I will give you a cup of water, full to the brim, put it on your head and go round the room 7 times, but the condition is you must not spill even one drop of it, don't worry, you can substitute it with oil, but because oil is too costly, I substituted it with water, if it spills also it doesn't really matter, so Narada went round 7 times and then he said, Lord, I did it, alright, during these 7 times going round, how many times did you remember me? Narada said, no, I couldn't remember even once, why, because my whole mind is there, how one drop should not be, one droplet should not fall down, and the Lord said, you are carrying only a small cup of water, he is carrying the entire samsara on his head looking after his family and everything, and even then he has time to take my name 2 times, and you fellow, you have no other work excepting this, what is the point of this story, it is not 24 hours taking God's name, that pride had entered, I am a great devotee of God, also the other story, if you remember Sri Ramakrishna, marvellous stories, Arjuna thought he knew Sri Krishna and then Sri Krishna understood, pride had entered, this man thinks he is my greatest devotee and like that, so Arjuna, let us go for a walk, remember, went for a walk and then he saw a naked Brahmin ascetic with the sharpest sword, then Arjuna was stupefied, he said, what Krishna, this man is an ascetic, Brahmin and he is carrying the sword and he is shaking with anger, why is it, Arjuna, you ask him, and then he went, sir, why are you carrying this sword, I see you are an ascetic, ascetics are not supposed to carry this, any of that weapons, then he says, I want to meet three people and until I chop off their heads, I will not have any peace of mind, Arjuna started shaking, who are they, the first was Prahlada, Prahlada, you want, yes, why Prahlada, you know that stupid fellow, his father wanted to kill him and every time he says Narayana, my lord has to go and who is the second one, second one is this Narada, why, 24 hours like a mosquito near our heads, Narayana, Narayana, Narayana, Narayana, when is my lord going to get any sleep, who is the third one, third one is Draupadi, what Draupadi, that wretched lady and she is being disrobed, what is there if she becomes disrobed, my lord had to run all the way from Dwarka to Ashtenapura to save her and who is the fourth one, four people I want to meet, fourth is Arjuna, why Arjuna, sir, by this time Arjuna was shaking, why Arjuna, said that wretched fellow made my lord, he is a charioteer, he is a driver, is there anything more shameful than that and Arjuna's pride has gone, why, what is the point of this story, that one who will take the name of God with greatest love and at the same time doesn't take advantage of the Lord but only wants to serve the Lord, doesn't want to give any trouble to God, he is the greatest devotee, the point is, Ramakrishna says it is not that you should not call on God, what is the point is that you should not be proud that you are a great devotee of God, etc. How this Ramakrishna countered a little bit of example, how other saints countered a little bit of that example, we will take it up in our next class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.