Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 038 on 06-July-2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Moho We are all very blessed to have the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. As I mentioned many times, it's not a book. A Upanishad is not a book primarily, only secondarily. It is the knowledge that we get either by reading or by hearing or by contemplating. So this gospel of Sri Ramakrishna too is nothing but the pure Vedantic knowledge but manifesting in the simplest manner. Saral Kothai Sri Khale, Sri Ramakrishna taught it, even an ordinary person can understand it and not only understand but get inspired by it. Our topic had been, is God with form or without form? Many people, even today, how many billions of people, excepting most people in Hinduism, there are other religions which do not at all advocate the worship of God with any type of form, image and there are many modern Prabuddhas, extremely unintelligent people who do not understand the psychology, who do not understand themselves but go on proclaiming because they have got some several degrees on their visitor's card called PhDs. Permanent head damage. So many things people go on proclaiming and one of our senior Swamis has said something very important. Just as a non-scientist has no right to pronounce anything scientific to a scientist, so a non-spiritual person has no right to proclaim anything against our scriptures etc. which are nothing but pure spirituality. We proceed without further ado. Master, well, do you believe in God with form or without form? And last week I mentioned how Swami Vivekananda had taught such a beautiful lesson to Raja Mangal Singh by pointing out in most uncivilized manner in a way of speaking, spit upon this portrait of either the father or grandfather of the Maharaja, Mangal Singh. Then Mangal Singh, I don't know whether he learned the lessons etc. but certainly we have to learn the lessons because even we who claim the devotees of Shri Ramakrishna and claim or think that we understand things, the teachings of Shri Ramakrishna, we are likely to look upon many people who worship stones, trees, snakes, dogs, birds etc. as if if not they are religious, at least they belong to a very low category of religion. For that there is a beautiful Upanishadic story. I will not go into the details but I will just give you to remind. There was a disciple who was said only to graze the cows. When the cows, lean, famished and weak cows, a few cows were given to the disciple and that was the strange sadhana prescribed by the guru to the disciple. Go into the forest, graze them and when they become strong, useful cows and when they become, when they increase to the size of 1000, then come back with them meaning until that time you are not welcome to my ashrama. So the disciple politely took them but he had immense faith because he was a seeker of truth, satyakama. So he went into the forest and so absorbed, he did not even understand how time had passed and one day suddenly he heard the bull addressing, Sir, we have become 1000. We have fulfilled the requirements of your guru's commandments. Drive us to the ashrama and then on the way the bull taught the truth, one fourth of the truth. That evening when he sat in front of a blazing fire, the fire taught him two fourths of the Vedanta, another one fourth. Then two birds taught another one fourth, one fourth. By the time he reached the guru's ashrama, his face was shining like a Noera Brahman. The guru was surprised, probably not. He asked, who taught you? Because you are supposed to learn from me. The disciple replied, other than human beings. But I would like confirmation from a great soul like you. I might make a mistake, commit a mistake. And immediately the guru taught him exactly the same thing and said, whatever you have learned is absolute truth and so the truth itself has taught. The truth could come in the form of an animal, in the form of inert, what we think inert, a fire or birds or any other form, even a stone. We hear the stories of so many devotees who have heard the words of truth when they are worshipping either an image or a photograph etc. etc. Again when the occasion comes, I will tell you but very briefly I will mention you. There was a man who was suffering from insomnia and one day by chance at the beginning of a Hindu year, saw you know many shops published calendars with their own images of God upon it. So as a beginning of the business year, they distribute to their customers. So somebody gave him a calendar of say Ramakrishna, kept it in his room. Though he didn't have particular devotion, one night he had a very bad time and he could not sleep. He was getting tired of not only day but life. So unable to bear it, he got up from his bed, ran to this calendar and then started striking his head against the feet of Thakur. The image was of the photo, picture was of the Ramakrishna and suddenly he heard words. Are you not getting sleep my child? Go and sleep. He heard it, he went and he doesn't know what happened. So he fell and slept like a log. From that day, there was absolutely no disease of insomnia at all. So it can, the truth, the voice of truth could come in the form of a child, in the form of a teacher, in the form of a book. As it happened to Devendranath Tagore, he was very very despondent because his mother-like aunt who brought him up had passed away. So one day idly, he was sitting on the banks of the Ganges, so the story goes. So a small piece of paper, probably used for wrapping up peanuts, came floating to him. Idly he picked it up, unfolded it and started reading the very first mantra of Isavasya Upanishad. Immediately his whole life was transformed. You know how many ways God is able to speak to us, through the air, through the space, through the fire, through the water, through the earth, through all living creatures, through non-living creatures, through anything the truth can come. Why? What is the secret? Very soon I will come to that. I will give beautiful quotations because the whole universe is nothing but God. For a seeing person, everything is God. For a non-seeing person, everything is non-God. So this is the greatest truth Isavasya Upanishad says, that try to learn to see everything as God. Where is the question of this is an image, this is a living something? There is no such division. It is only foolishness. If we are ready, when we are ready, when our heart is full of purity, purity means the capacity to make it vacant so that it has the capacity to receive. That is the only condition. Until that time all sadhana is not to see God but to remove the blindness, the obstructions from our path. Anyway, I am tempted to quote from Swami Vekananda who at the beginning, he had to go through this period of what is called hating idolatry. As I mentioned in the past, he signed with the Brahma Samaj, I will never worship any idols. Later on, as I quoted in my last class, that if idol worship can produce the greatest spiritual being on earth like Sri Ram Krishna, I will be very happy to sit under the feet of such people, learn how to worship idols if it can make me a great person. A tremendous psychological truth is revealed to us here. It's not what we do. It is not what instrument we use. We have to focus our mind that what is it I want and how can I get what I want. It doesn't matter. Everything, any instrument is good enough which can help us get what we want. That is the most important point. Another point, all these quotations that I am going to quote just now have one single point. Says hardly there is any non-idolater in this world. All of us are idolaters. Idolater means worshippers of idols and the greatest of such idols is our human body. Next comes human mind. Let us bear it in mind when we are listening to these quotations. Swami Vivekananda says, Despite the many inequities that have found entrance into the practices of image worship as it is in vogue now, I do not condemn it. Aye, where would I have been if I had not been blessed with the dust of the holy feet of that orthodox image worshipping Brahmin? Some may be helped by images, some may not. Some require an image outside, others one inside the brain. I'll just insert a small comment here. There are some people who say we do not worship images but we worship the formless. The idea, the thought that God is formless is also an idol because worshippers of thoughts are the worst worshippers of idols. Swami Vivekananda has very caustic remarks upon some of us when the time comes. I'll make some comments upon it. What is the test? That we are not idolaters. The test of having ceased to be an idolater is when you say, Aye, does the body come into your thought or not? If it does, then you are still a worshipper of idols. The world has not gone one step beyond idolatry yet. I would add not only it has not gone beyond idolatry, it has become even more idolatry than before. What do I mean? Cosmetic industry is nothing but the very worst form of idolatry. I'm not saying we should be dirty or we should make ourselves ugly. It is one thing to make ourselves beautiful so that we can really feel I'm a child of God. I'm a beautiful child of God is another thing. I want to attract another body. I want to be admired how beautiful this body is. But do people say, do any one of us say that this person is beautiful? We always say this person is beautiful. We never say this body is beautiful. We are incapable of separating the body from the person. Ugly persons are there but very beautiful persons. Anyway, we are all born idolaters. Idolatry is good because it is in the nature of man. Who can get beyond it? Only the perfect man, the God man. The rest are all idolaters. Then he says, so long as we see this universe before us with its forms and shapes, we are all idolaters. This universe is a gigantic symbol we are worshipping. He who says he is the body is a born idolater. So most of us we are born as idolaters. Unfortunately, we die also as idolaters. We may worship a picture as God but not God as the picture. God in the picture is right but the picture as God is wrong. I highlighted this particular quotation because this is one of the greatest mistakes we commit. Vaishnavas for example, they say God is in Vaikuntha. Shaivas make the same mistake. Shiva is in Kailasa. Devi is in Devi Loka and Krishna is in Goloka. Are they right? They are right. Are they wrong? They are wrong. Is God not in Vaikuntha? Vishnu in Vaikuntha? Shiva in Kailasa? Yes, they are there but we have to add they are not only there, they are everywhere. The moment you say he is Ananta, infinite and he says he is in Vaikuntha, we are denying ourselves outright and say he is not here. I can only see him in Vaikuntha. For the sake of Kalpana, it is absolutely fine but real sadhana is I must feel God here. So Bhagavatam says somewhere, I don't remember the Sanskrit quotation, says the person who says God is up there somewhere in the worst devotee, the person who says God is inside me, he is the second class devotee but the person who says God is inside, God is outside, God is everywhere, he is the best person, he is the best devotee of God. Swamiji is pointing out one of the greatest psychological truth here. When anybody is worshipping, any image, a piece of stone, a piece of idol or even a symbol, what we have to say is the symbol is not God. God is the symbol, the symbol is not God. God is the picture but the picture is not God. What is the big deal of difference here? God is in the picture, God is elsewhere also. Similarly, but the picture is only there, it is only of that size, that dimension, that colour, that shape, that size etc. But God includes that picture etc. I will repeat it. We may worship a picture as God but not God as the picture. We should not elevate a picture itself as God. So many people they worship buffaloes, they are followers of Mahishasura. What do they do? They put up a big bullock or a bull and then worship it, feed it with green grass etc. Go on prostrating before it and worshipping it. Is it right? It can help. Yes, but the bullock itself, God is the bullock but bullock is not God. I hope I am making myself clear, God is everything. He is the chair, He is the table, He is the house, He is the human body, He is anything, everything. Not only that we see, not only that we hear, anything that we can experience through our five sense organs. But they are not God because whatever is limited is not God. God includes everything but everything doesn't include at this stage as God. God in the image is perfectly right. There is no danger there. But this is the real worship of God. But the image God is a mere pratika, a help. Then Swamiji quotes, Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry at its worst. Worship of society. We are all worshippers of society. We are all slaves to the society. Even I dress myself nicely, how do I dress? Is it convenient? Is it to my liking or do I want to blend with the society, to be approved by the society? So my dress, my speech, my habits of food, my everything. Why am I quoting all this? Because we have to understand if we want to be spiritual, we have to be a bit rebellious about it. There is no question. I am not saying we quarrel with the society but we have to consider the society as a straw. It is not going to help me. If I have stomach ache, the society cannot help me. When I am on the point of death, the society cannot help me. Even if I have got a small pin prick, no society, nobody, nothing in this world can help me. Sometimes they can sympathize, they can help physically to get me medicine, to take me to the doctor but they cannot help. The whole world is worshipping the society and nobody knows why we are worshipping it. I make a little bit of fun. Somebody dresses. What kind of dress? They call it fashion. You ask that person, why do you dress in this way even though it is not convenient for you? And that person says that I see my neighbor, my neighbor is dressing like that so if I dress oddly, they will consider me as out of fashion, an odd person, an abnormal person, etc. And then you ask the other person whom this person is referring. That person says, points to this person, this person dresses like that so he will not approve of me. That's why I am dressing like that. So each one is looking at the other as an unfailing, unfallible guideline and this is the greatest slavery in this world. That's why Swamiji points out worship of society and popular opinion. What is popular opinion? Otherwise called fashion is idolatry, the worst of the idolatry. I have dealt a long time upon this. Now what for all these images are kept there? Poojaartham, Kalpiyate, Vigraha, Radhana, etc. I will come to the appropriate quotation when the time comes. Earlier days what we now call worship, earlier days it was called Upasana. The very word Upasana is a marvelous Sanskrit word. In fact Sanskrit is the best language in this world. It is called Samskruta. Samskruta means that which is refined, that which is made into the most worthy cultural thing. You will not get a single bad word in the entire Sanskrit language. Words are there but they are not used at all. Nowadays as I mentioned even civilized people with high degrees especially in the West. Now slowly it is that terrible disease Corona is creeping into Indian society. They are called four-letter words. It has become very common to address mother as girl, wife as girl. Even if she is 80 years old, man, even that fellow is 90 years tottering old man. That means we are closing our eyes to reality. Just use the right words. Old man, yes old man. I am an old man. I am tottering, shaking old man. I am old so that it reminds me and you will be doing a great good to all the people and say oh old man. Then it reminds me even if I tend to forget it. We are doing a great good by using but nobody wants to do it thinking that it is crude. It is uncivilized behavior. Anyway in the olden days our Rishis and Munis they used to do worship and that is called Upasana. This word Upasana consists of two words Upa and Asana. Upa means usually the meaning is near. That's why we say Upavasa. Vasa means to live. Upa means near. To live near. To live near the Guru. To live near the parents. To live near our dear and near and dear. This is called Upa. That meaning is okay but that's not adequate meaning. The real meaning is come nearer and still nearer and still nearer and still nearer. How near? Until there is no space between me and what I worship. That is called Upasana. There is a person, the Guru tells him worship the sun, do the contemplation of the sun. Worship is not the correct word. Contemplate upon the sun. Contemplate upon the fire. Contemplate upon the moon. Upon the fire. Upon the earth. Upon the waters. You know in the ancient days the worship is of nature because for them when we hear the word nature, nature in our understanding is what we see the whole world. The rivers. The mountains. The trees. The human beings. The birds. The insects. The animals. Include all human beings and the stars. The galaxies etc. etc. That is absolutely fine but if you ask a scientist it is soulless. It is consciousnessless. It is bereft of consciousness. It is just something inert, non-living even though so many living things are there. That is the wonder of it. I can never understand it but according to our ancient Rishis, Paramatma, Brahman is manifesting in the form of this whole universe and somehow we are taught by our ancestors, by our parents, by our gurus, by our neighbours the goal is to manifest this innate divinity until one day I manifest it fully which comes in the form of I am divine, I am Brahman, I am Paramatman and everything is Paramatma. Everything is pure consciousness. So that is how this upasana leads us slowly from a lower step to a higher step and we can substitute the word upasana for the modern word worship. There are three kinds of upasanas. Let me introduce these upasanas. Three kinds of upasanas have been developed. Pratikopasana, Namopasana, Ahangrahopasana. So what are these things? First of all we are trying to find out. Last week I think I have mentioned something very important. Even though all of us are human beings, all of us have got minds, all of us have got five sense organs, two sense organs dominate our personality. One is the eye, another is the ear. Most of the knowledge that we get and most of the knowledge that we are able to transfer, pass it on to somebody is through these two. For example, you see television and there is a beautiful scientific experiment or an operation or a beautiful mathematical formula being worked out. The teacher will be showing you in the form of pictures and of course most of the time it's a combination of sight and sound. These are the two important. You read a book. So you are using the eyes but you are also using the sound. Internally you are uttering the words. There was a king called Dasaratha. Dasaratho Nama Raja Babuva. So like that you go on putting a finger as a child and without a finger when you have grown up and you read and then you are hearing it. Yes, there was a king called Dasaratha. So two sense organs dominate but we get knowledge of it when we are passing in darkness. Suddenly you get a fragrance. Yes, there must be a very fragrant flower, flowering tree hereabouts. Then suddenly your foot touches a stone, says there is a dangerous stone here, touch. So also there is something falls into your mouth. Oh it is sweet, it is sour, desirable, non-desirable etc. etc. We get knowledge through the five sense organs. They are called, that's why they are called Gnanendriyas. But most important are two. Even though all of us, most of us have all the five sense organs, two sense organs dominate and within most of us one particular organ dominates. Either we are what is called the Chakshu, the seeing organ, the eye oriented or called form oriented or ear oriented or sound oriented. So how do we distinguish? When a person can remember the faces, beautiful, enjoys beautiful forms, beauty of paintings, beauty of nature etc. then we know and it remains a long time in memory that is called sight oriented. But when the same thing, some people they hear names, they never forget the names, telephone numbers they are there, most many of the telephone numbers and when they hear somebody's voice it comes to them, oh this is such and such a person etc. Their sharpness in getting knowledge is more dominant through the ear, through the sound than through the sight. Just to remind ourselves we are talking about it. Then I mentioned three types of Upasanas, Pratikopasana. Let me talk about Pratika means, it is a symbol, literally the meaning of the Sanskrit word Pratika means going towards a thirsty man, he sees a big lake and he goes towards it. So that lake is a Pratika, Pratika of what? There is water, I am thirsty and this object can quench my thirst. Similarly I see a temple there, God is there, I love that God, I want to see him so I go towards that temple or I turn towards Mecca because Mecca reminds me of Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Muhammad reminds me of the holy life I am supposed to lead. This is called Pratika. Anything that makes us go or makes our mind think of God that is a Pratika, going towards something upon which the mind is focused. Pratika is generally used to mean visual symbols, images, pictures, natural objects and we use it as symbols. Here also there are two types are there, one is called symbols, icons, a cross for example, Shiva Linga for example or Saligrama for example etc. etc. What these do not have a discernible human form but they remind us something and that is why it is called Pratika. The moment supposing for example you are going and suddenly you will see a Trishula on somebody's this one, immediately you are reminded of Lord Shiva. You meet a person and there is what is called three lines, a cross and then immediately you are reminded of Lord Shiva or you see three vertical lines. We are reminded of Lord Vishnu. These are not images but they are symbols and Christians use that symbol and Muslims I think they use a half crescent, moon etc. But these are all great helps to think about God. So Pratika means pictures, natural objects also etc. During the Vedic period what are those symbols which are used to remind them of the highest reality, the sun, the moon, the fire, the Akasha, the Vayu, the waters, the earth, even the mountains, even the rivers etc. etc. So during the Vedic period nature is considered as divine, is worshipped in the form of fire, the sun, the moon, the air but also as the mind. Mind is the symbol because mind is the representation of knowledge. So these were treated as Pratikas to represent Brahman. Now how are the Pratikas related to Brahman? There were two ways of doing this and accordingly Vedic Pratikopasana was of two types. Very very important information, useful even today for us. When Vedic symbols in Vedic civilization were used by the Vedic people, how are they related? This is an important point. Any symbol, any image, it must symbolize to us, it must remind us of God. Then only they fulfill their purpose. So we must be somehow united with God otherwise in Vedic period called Brahman. So there are two ways are there. One is called Sampadupasana. Another is called Adhyasopasana. There is another greatest Upasana which I will deal with it later. It is called Ahamgraha Upasana. I'll give examples also. Let us deal with two types of Upasanas now. Sampadupasana and Adhyasopasana. What are these? First of all Sampadupasana. In Sampadupasana an inferior object is used as a symbol to represent a superior reality. Here the symbol is not important. The attributes of the higher reality superimposed upon the symbol dominate our contemplation. Let us take an example. When a stone idol, Saligrama for example is worshipped as Vishnu or Shiva Linga for another example. Or another example is in Bengal especially they worship the Divine Mother or Sheetala Devi. What is the image? There will be a pot. It is full of cool water and there will be some banana stem or some mango leaves etc. And they put what you call turmeric, kumkum etc. And Kshudiram used to worship. Remember Kshudiram used to worship the Divine Mother in the form of the Sheetala Devi. And the information even today that Sheetala Devi pot is kept in a big pot. If you happen to visit Kamarpukur, specially ask for that and you will be shown that tremendous great Devi, a pot of water with some leaves in it. Is it a pot of water? When Kshudiram used to go to collect flowers early in the morning for worship, a small girl one day appeared and she was holding the branches where there are flowers. He did not know. He asked, my child who are you? And then the girl replied, I am that Sheetala Devi whom you worship Baba. She is addressing him as Baba. I want to help you in collecting the flowers. If that kind of wholehearted worship, bhakti can come in the form of a living Goddess, what to speak of it? So many incidents are there. I will quote them at the appropriate time. But I cannot resist one particular instance. Once Shri Ramakrishna saw Swami Vignanananda not regarding Ganges water as holy and he instructed him, my child, this is Mother Goddess who is taking the sins of millions of human beings whoever is touching earth. And then Vignanananda was telling, I didn't believe this man, very great man, good man, but he is still an orthodox person trying to believe a superstitious person in the superstition. Later on when he was in Allahabad, one day he went to this Triveni and then he had a vision of the Mother and he saw the Divine Mother has taken the form and then she had three plates of hair representing Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati and she was going along in the river and then his eyes were opened. And one day he saw she was following him. Then he understood, oh this is what Shri Ramakrishna was telling. For Shri Ramakrishna this is a living reality, but for others it took a lot of time. For us even worse time, but if we have faith in their words, that's absolutely fine. So what are we talking about here? Coming back to our subject that a Saligrama, a Shiva Linga, etc., a cross, etc., they are symbols. When a Christian sees a cross, he attributes all the great qualities of Jesus Christ upon that cross and then he says, I must imitate that life. I must also follow his footsteps. So Jesus Christ says to an earnest young man, take up my cross and follow me. Means what? You imitate the way I act and react, live and breathe and think and worship my father who is in heaven. When a worshipper takes up a Saligrama for worship, he forgets this is a small piece of stone and thinks only of the luminous splendor of Lord Vishnu or Lord Shiva. This is called Sampad Upasana. Sampad means tremendous wealth, a wealth of divinity superimposed upon what is called inert somethings chosen. Call it Saligrama, call it Shiva Linga, call it cross, call it crescent. Another example is whenever we see our national flag, it is a symbol of the entire living throbbing India. That's what we have to understand. So upon this symbol, the attributes of the reality are superimposed. But the symbol is as important as the attributes because until we really cross over that state of consciousness, the symbol, whenever we look at this symbol Shiva Linga, it reminds us again and again and again. You cannot throw away the symbol. You have to overcome, you have to grow and then automatically it will fall down. Then will that person consider it as a stone? No. By that time, the person has learned to see the real Shiva in that piece of stone, in a tree, in a bird, in an animal, everything etc. We should not simply throw these things but they can be outgrown. Then meditation on the sun. One of the most beautiful meditations ever conceived is an instance of the Sampad Upasana. In the Vedic times and even today, all the twice born, they are supposed to face the rising sun, the setting sun and then Om Bhur Bhuva Swaha Tad Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dheeyo Yonaha Prachodayat. This is the most wonderful thing. Not only that, we hold our hands. Japaakusmasam Kaasham Kaashyapayam Mahadyatim Dvantarim Sarvapapadnam Pranato Asmi Divakaram We worship, we meditate upon the Lord, the Sun, Surya Deva, Aditya Hrudaya. What do we say? Dvantarim, the destroyer of darkness. Sarvapapadnam, he who destroys all our papas. That means by destroying our ignorance about ourselves, about the world, about the sun of course and everything. That's why in the Isavasya Upanishad, we get that beautiful symbol. Don't forget it. O Surya Devata, your face is covered with a golden disc. Golden disc here stands for ignorance or Vidya Maya. Hiranyamayena Patrena Satyasya Apitamukham Tat Tvam Poshan Apavrunu Satya Dharmaya Drishtaye This is how that the sun, the moon, what a beautiful symbol the moon. All the aushudhis, all the plants, they grow and their growth is made possible only because of the moon. This is how what is called Sampad Upasana. That's why the Upanishad teaches the sun is Brahman. This is the instruction. The sun with its dazzling brightness has a striking resemblance to Brahman and can itself be directly meditated upon as Brahman. Tvameva Pratyaksham Brahmasi This is there in the Shanti Patha called Shenomitra. There it is addressing the Vayu. Tvameva Pratyaksham Brahmasi So looking at the sun, Tvameva Pratyaksham Brahmasi. Looking at the moon, Tvameva Pratyaksham Brahmasi. Just a small insertion. Just imagine there is the sun but there is no moon. At night only pitch darkness every single day but look what God has done. It's called Sitaamshu. The whole world becomes cool and that which gives light but cool light, very sweet light evoking the sweetest thoughts in our mind. That is called Sitaamshu, Sudhakaraha etc. So beautiful we are talking about. All that we have to do is to superimpose upon the sun the attributes of Brahman like infinity because sun is undecaying, consciousness, bliss, ultimate causality, as the father, as the mother of life, honour etc. Then we come to what is called Adhyasa Upasana. What is Adhyasa? We superimpose something upon something else. One example that comes to my mind is see Shri Ramakrishna's footprints, Holy Mother's footprints. They are not imaginary and artificially created. Really the feet are dyed and the impression is taken upon the cloth. The feet really touched the piece of cloth. It really represents. So also your Guru might have given you Japa Mala or Asana, some piece of cloth or his Padaraksha, his chappals etc. You superimpose. This is nothing but God. These footprints is nothing but Divine Mother is here sitting and bowing down at her feet etc. Adhyasa means superimposition. In normal terminology Adhyasa indicates something wrong. The reality is covered up. But in what we are talking about the unreality is uncovered by superimposing the reality upon it. So then we come to this in our ritualistic worship. We use all these aids. For example a lotus symbolizing a Chakra or center of consciousness. We all heard about Chakras. We all heard at each Chakra whether it is Muladhara, Manipura or Anahata or Vishuddha, Ajna Chakra. There is a lotus. What is the lotus? Represents our state of knowledge. It is a state of consciousness we have to use. Then we also use what is called space, Akasha. Akasha and Brahman have several very close resemblances. Akasha is invisible. Brahman is invisible. Akasha is infinite. Brahman is infinite. Akasha is partless. Brahman is partless. Akasha has no beginning, no end. Brahman has no beginning, no end. So according to Upadhis, this is a pot space. This is a room space. This is a hall space etc. It all belongs for practical purposes but space itself is divisionless. And the space has come from Brahman himself. Is the space with consciousness? According to Vedanta, yes. Is the Vayu with consciousness? Yes. Is the fire with consciousness? Yes. That's why we say Akasha Devata, Vayu Devata, Agni Devata, Jala Devata, Bhoomata etc. Why Bhoomata? Because it is she who nourishes our bodies, our minds, keeps up our life etc. along with other bhutas also. Then there is a beautiful temple at Chidambaram in South India. What is there? Akasha Devata. Akasha Shiva. There is a small lamp is lit. When a sadhaka enters there, he has to imagine, meditate not upon the small lamp but upon the Akasha there. Say, O Lord, I am not able to see you but I am contained within you. I am part of you. In fact, I am you. That realization one has to come. Then we will come to the lower stage of Pratika. It is called Pratima. Pratima means a life like something. Durga Pratima, Shiva Pratima, Ramakrishna Pratima, wherever you go in the temples, Vishnu Pratima or some God, some Goddess, some Navagrahas etc. will be there. Acharyas will be there. So a Pratima may be a picture drawn on a paper or a cloth or a three-dimensional idol, vigraha made of stone or metal. Now I will come to something very very interesting. This Pratika, three-dimensional, according to Visishta Dvaita, according to Ramanujacharya, God manifests specially in five important forms and one of the most important form is called Archavatara. When there is a temple and a vigraha is established there and prana is invoked into that and with devotion the pujaris, archakas and millions of devotees, they go on worshipping and the deity slowly comes to the prana and then he blesses the devotees whoever comes there. This is a wonderful tattva which I will take up in my next class. So, so much meaning is hidden in that simple words of Sri Ramakrishna, God is with form, God is without form and God is beyond both form and formlessness. We will talk about it next week. Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayoshritva Pranamami Muhurmuhu May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna