Amrita Bindu Upanishad Lecture 15 on 24 February 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

So we are studying the Amritabindu Upanishad. The subject matter is how to make the mind pure and what type of sadhanas we can do so that we can attain to the Divine Realization. In that process, the Guru or the Rishi, Amritabindu Rishi is recommending a study of the scriptures. How long? As Shri Ramakrishna puts it so beautifully, a man had received a letter and he lost it and he obtained it after a great deal of searching. Then he got the letter, read the letter, noted the contents and threw it away. That should be our way and this is the way of Jnanamargam. Those who are treading the path of Jnanam or any path for that matter, but Shravana means you listen, you study, Manana, think deeply until the last bit of doubt is cleared away and then forget about the whole thing and practice it. Realize God in your own life. This is what we had discussed. Now the question or the doubt about this statement of the Guru might come. Is the study of the scriptures necessary? Secondly, there are so many types of scriptures and they all speak. Of course, they speak about God. Every scripture must speak about reality, about God, but it looks as if they have different opinions, though not really. That is why Vyasa Bhagawan had to write, reconciling all these seemingly contradictory opinions in the form of Brahma Sutras. Tattu Samanvayat. In the fourth, which is called Chatusrutri, the first four sutras are most important. Of this, the fourth sutra, Tattu Samanvayat. It means every scripture is speaking harmoniously. And why the differences are found? Because of the climate, because of the language, because of the student and because of the changing times. Seemingly contradictory, not really contradictory. Ramakrishna is a beautiful example. By giving the analogy of a pond. Everybody is calling it by different names, but they mean exactly the same thing. Even better than that. Why are there so many schools of philosophy? Like Advaita, resist Advaita, Advaita. We think, many of us think, these are the only three schools of philosophy. But no, there are hundreds of differences. Even among Advaitins, there are so many differing schools, including Shankaracharya's own disciples. So why these opinions? Are they really contradictory? Not at all. But Ramakrishna says, a teaching is given by a wise teacher. And what we mean by a wise teacher is only God speaking through the instrumentality of a person, according to the capacity, need of the disciple. So Dwaitam is very necessary because we all start with Dwaita, reality. Progress into progressive unity. It is called Visistha Dwaitam, halfway to Advaita. And finally, we see only one reality. It all depends upon how much we progress in spiritual life. But scriptures are many, their statements are varied, and many times they seem to be contradictory. There is a very funny incident. Swami Vivekananda was a vastly learned person. And next to Sri Ramakrishna, he remembers everything. Only he has to listen, read twice instead of once. He, that means Swamiji, is Dvishrutidhara. Whereas Sri Ramakrishna is Ekashrutidhara. Only once is enough. That means what? His mind is totally focused, absorbed in it. And once he hears, he will never forget about it. But Swamiji, a little bit less, he could read Encyclopedia Britannica, one whole, one volume, in one day. And that was proved. Not only he reads, not only he understands, but he keeps in memory, page after page, this was tested at Meerut by some people. Now, the point we are talking about is different teachers, they speak in different ways, not that their realization is different, but to suit the capacity, understanding, receptive capacity of the students. And for that particular student, that teaching is most helpful, no other teaching. Unable to understand this, we who read, oh, that Rishi is talking in that way, this Rishi is talking in that way, there is a contradiction, etc., etc. So, Swami Vivekananda, he could speak. He was a born divine orator, and he used to speak. And then, at different times, he will take up one particular position and make people understand that that is the highest. Sometimes devotion is the highest, sometimes Jnanam is highest, sometimes Karma Yoga, forget about your gods, goddesses, you die in the service of people, sometimes everything is bhakwash, it is only pure concentration of mind, chitta vrutti nirodha. If I have to spread an educational process, I will only emphasize one thing, that is concentration of the mind. Teach a child concentration, and everything else follows, he will be the highest knowledgeable person in this world. Not exact words of Swamiji, I am only paraphrasing them. So, his disciples, including brother disciples, used to get confused. But to Swamiji, the other day, you spoke that contradicting bhakti is nothing, Jnanam is everything. Swamiji laughed and said, that all paths are equally valid, but whatever is suitable, all paths lead to the same goal, doesn't mean we can choose any path we like. A guru has to decide, for example, we have to remember these incidents, Shri Ram Krishna came to Keshav Chandra Saints, Brahma Samaj, then he found many types of people, but one type of persons were, the example is Vijay Krishna Goswami, and he was a thorough devotee of Bhagwan Krishna, but for some reason, he was working there, he seemed to be following the Nirakara Brahman, Ram Krishna pulled him aside and said, Vijay, what are you doing here? In your blood, from your Advaita Goswami, only devotion is flowing, and this is not the place for you. Instantaneously, Vijay Krishna Goswami understood it, and resigned from the Brahma Samaj, which of course created a lot of animosity towards Ram Krishna. That is why so many people, they developed a kind of enmity towards Ram Krishna, not understanding, even Keshav Chandra Saint was converted many times. So, the scriptures are many, because disciples are many. This is the simple equation, and according to each person's capacity, the teacher says. But the most important point is, can we progress in spiritual life without scriptures? And the question we have to put before answering is, what do you mean by scripture? You mean to say, you have to learn alphabet academically, and you have to study with some Bhashyams or whatever, and then only you can understand it? No. What it means is, there are many illiterate persons, and they have tremendous faith. Their Gurus teach, take the name of God, and continually go on doing Japa. Surrender yourself to God. You don't need to read anything. And thousands and thousands of people have that capacity to think about, and then you will have to. They progressed, they realized God, and they became very influential. We discussed about it, Kabir Das, etc. Today happens to be the birthday of Swami Adbhutaranandji Maharaj. Ramakrishna himself had tried to teach him alphabet. He could not proceed beyond the first letter, A. The difference between A and Aa could not be made understood. Do you think Ramakrishna was such a dude that he could not make him understand? He is very touchy, he could have made him. But he wanted to prove, academic education is not necessary. By scriptural study means, academic education is not necessary. That is why Ramakrishna himself had refused. But once the grace of God comes, either in the form of the scriptures, in the form of the Guru, in the form of even a causal word, there are many, many stories out there. In Bengal, there was one, Jaminda, and he was quite senior, elderly, and he was thinking of devoting his time for God realization, but he could not take a step. One day, he was passing by a village, and a washerman was addressing his 8-year-old daughter, or the daughter was addressing, Baba, it is already so late, it was past midday, it was almost afternoon, it was coming to an end, you have not yet completed washing of the clothes, so many clothes are lying, unwashed for whatever reason, when are you going to clean them up? In Bengali, the words can give double meaning. Baba, Basana, Kove, Pudave. Plain English translation is, when are you going to clean up all these clothes you collected from the villagers? But here, Basana means Sanskaras, that is our attachments to the world, and Pudave means burn. When are you going to overcome? When are you going to become a Yogi? So the father understood, I have to immediately start washing the clothes. The landlord who was passing by, he understood, I have almost reached, I have entered into old age, but still I have got some energy, so this is the time. That very second, immediately transformation had come, and he was travelling by horse, and then he handed over the horse to his servant, and gave his royal clothes to him, and donning only simplest clothes, he made his way to Brindavan, and he became one of the greatest saints there. Now the point is, when we are ready, even some words from a babe's mouth can also show us the way, but we have to be ready, that being ready is what is called study of the scriptures, it need not be Upanishads or Gita or Bible or Koran, it is only complete faith, that there is God, and going to God is the greatest goal of life, whatever be the human being, whatever religion people are following, that is what is meant, and I cited example of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Adbutananda, Kanakadasa, Akka Mahadevi, Kabir Das, Mirabai, and so many North Indian saints, North Indian, South Indian, who were not given the privilege of studying in schools, that is something marvellous. So what is the second point we were discussing? Scriptures are many, and varied statements are there, but they are contradictory statements also. One master says, that everything is, God is separate from us, we are all separate from everything. Another teacher says, no, no, we are not separate, God is like our body, and we are all part and parcel of limbs, like limbs of a body, or like the parts of a house, etc. But Advaita says, there is no duality, it is only one. So, what shall I do? And for that, Mantra 19, which we have been discussing in our last class, says, गवानां अनेक वर्णानां, शेरस्य अपी एक वर्णता, शेरवत पश्यते घ्नानं, लिंगिनस्तु गवाम्यता, In the earlier days, especially in the Rishis, Urukulams, etc., cows were considered to be the most sacred wealth. So this is called Gau Dhana. Why? Because every yield that comes, whether it is milk, or curds, or ghee, or cow dung, or cow urine, this is called Panchagavya. And everything is sacred for a Hindu. Of course, what is sacred comes only from what is called Kola Parampara, from our ancestors to us, it flows. It is not necessary that everybody should follow the same thing. It is called Sampradaya. So, गवानाम अनेक वर्णानाम, गवा means Gau, Gau means cow. So there are various varied hues, colors of the cow. Some are white, some are pale white, some are completely black, some are small, some are big. Indian cows or Nachiketa's father's cows are very, very small. But if you go to Holland, so that is what is called, they have bred some hybrid cows. All strain is one of them. So different cows, for what purpose? You want for the flesh, then one type. You want for milk, another type. So they are doing all sorts of experiments. But there are various colors. But even if we milk from a thousand cows of varied differences, the milk will be white, it will be rich, it will be nutritious, it is the most suitable food for young babies. That is one of the reasons why cows are so considered as very sacred, like our own mother. In Hindu society, as I mentioned quite a number of times, when in the olden days, mothers used to die at childbirth and the baby is quite okay, but what food? Either another woman who can also feed this baby, or most often, cow milk is the greatest substitute. When a baby grows up drinking cow's milk, it is like a baby suckling upon his own mother's milk and then he considers this is the source of my very existence. So cows are supposed to be sacred. That is one reason. But the most important reason is choose some species and elevate them to the status of divinity. See divinity. So among rivers, this is the divine river. Among mountains, this is the divine mountain. Among human beings, this is the divine human being. Among cows, among animals, cows. So every nation has got its own notion what is most useful, but Hinduism far exceeds many other religions in this respect. But the important point is whatever helps us. So when we are trying to look at the essence of the cow, what is called? Only milk, which is rich, nutritious, tasty, and many, many, most of the sweets nowadays, most of the sweets are made out of only cow's milk, but Ksherasyapi Ekavarnata, only one color is there. So what is this example for? Ksheravat Pashyate Jnanam. A Jnani or a spiritual aspirant, whether a person is treading the path of Bhakti or whatever it is, when he is progressing, what does a Yogi get? Knowledge. What does a devotee get? Knowledge. What does a Karma Yogi get? Knowledge. He starts with knowledge and then he ends up with perfect knowledge. From imperfect knowledge to perfect knowledge. So he says, Ksheravat Pashyate Jnanam. If you squeeze the essence of any scripture, what is it? God exists. At the beginning we have to say, He is the creator, we are the creator. As we progress, we try to understand that He is everything. Like many pots are nothing but clay, any ornament is nothing but gold, as an example. So any furniture is nothing but wood. So there is absolute correlation between the cause and the effect. Ksheravat Pashyate Jnanam. So a person goes on perfecting his knowledge. This is called right knowledge, Samyak Jnanam. Linginastu. Every scripture is only a pointer. This is a beautiful word, Linga. Shiva Linga we call it. It is a small piece of stone which is very smooth at the top. Why is it called Lingam? Lingyate Iti Lingam. So it points out to infinity. That is to say, that if you think deeply, everything is nothing but God. That is why every scripture is only an indicator. Just as we see in so many places, you want a huge building, a university building or something, you have entered and you want to go to the library. So library this way, or there will be in the campus, a huge map will be there. You want to go to the chemistry department, it is clearly written, this is where the chemistry department is. You want to meet a professor, this is where the professor is usually found. So you can meet that person. This is called Linga, means indicator. So all the cows are given as an example only. Every cow is only valued for the Ksheram, for the milk. Every scripture is only valued for the knowledge it gives. What is that knowledge? First knowledge is that each soul is potentially divine. That is the first step. So am I divine? Until now I am thinking I am not divine, I am the body, I am the mind. But now I understand because a great Rishi had come and told us each soul is potentially divine. What do you mean by soul? Soul means everything in this world, living as well as non-living, but primarily it means living. Is a mosquito potentially divine? Yes. But slowly it has to evolve the instruments, both body and brain, so that it can understand this capacity. Because the intellect can work only when the brain is appropriately developed. So the whole evolution is nothing but growing physically and intellectually, shaping the brain, so that the brain will be able to function as what it is supposed to function. This is what this 19th mantra wants to say. So do not worry. So can a Hindu accept the Bible? Absolutely. Only don't say it is a Christian scripture. Forget about that Christian. It is a scripture. And who taught? Forget about it. Even overlook the name Jesus. No. Then who is teaching? A great self-realized soul is teaching. Of course, according to Hindus, He is not a merely realized soul. He is a special incarnation of God. So also Buddha. So what is Buddha telling? Don't say he is not a Hindu. Don't say he doesn't believe in the Vedas. These are all concoctions of these stupid, idiotic pundits. What he is telling is, do you want to be happy? Do you want to attain to that state where you will be merged in eternal bliss? Is it possible? Yes. I am the example. How did you attain? These are the steps I have followed. Just to take that much. What did I do? This is what I did. So meet another Swami or another Yogi or Patanjali. How did you attain to this? I followed. This is the eightfold way. By the way, Buddha is also in the eightfold way only. So go on thinking about these things only. Don't say it is Bible, it is Koran or whatever it is. Whatever makes our mind elevated are the scriptural statements, true scriptural statements. But Shri Ram Krishna was very fond of saying, every scripture contains sand and sugar. How much sugar? Very little sugar. Most of it is only sand. So we have to separate the sugar from the sand. There are ways to do it. Our intellect is quite capable of doing it. That is why it is said, when a Hindu hears the word, your basic scripture is Veda. What do you mean by Veda? Anything that it tells is not Veda. Only that truth which we cannot obtain through our normal sense organs and intellect, that alone we have to take it from the Veda. Whatever I can see, whatever I can understand by interacting in this world is not Veda. For example, I don't need to be taught by the Veda, the sun rises in the east. I can see it for myself. So Swami Vivekananda had made this tremendous contribution and Srishti Nivedita remarks about it. It is not that if Swami Vivekananda was not there, then Hindus will lose Vedas. No, Vedas will be there. But where lies the difficulty to separate the sand from the sugar and only to retain the sugar and to enjoy that sugar. This is what Swami Vivekananda had made it very simple. Even today, sadly, so many so-called Dwaitic teachers, quite popular with their own devotees, followers and all that, they neglect Swamiji who declared, I have taught nothing but Upanishads and that too fearlessness and divinity of the soul, nothing else. And in such a simple modern language, he squeezed the very essence of the Vedas. That is the greatness of Swami Vivekananda for which we have to be eternally grateful. Anybody with a modicum of intelligence can understand without going through the Sanskrit scriptures, etc. It is a marvellous fact. So, what are we talking about? Every scripture talks about Athi Indriya Jnanam that is knowledge which cannot be obtained by any ordinary means. So there were some self-realized souls and God keeps them alive in this world called Jeevan Mukthas and they, out of compassion to humanity, suffering humanity, they preach what they have experienced. This is the goal of life. This is the pathway. These are the obstacles and this is how one can progress in spiritual life. And only that much, if we can understand, that is the essence of the scriptures and this is what, in this 19th mantra, whether it is white cow or black or white and black cow, Holstein or Jersey cow, that is not important. What is important is that I want milk. That is the only thing that is important. And interestingly, Sri Ramakrishna also gives this beautiful example that even though there is a big cow, it has got horns, it has got a face, it has got four legs, it has got everything, but the most important thing is the udder from which the milk flows and that is what most of us are concerned with, which means the very essence. That is what he wants to say. So, you see, incidentally, why did Vyasadeva write these Brahma Sutras? Because, according to the Hindus, the Upanishads are the very essence of Vedas. The teachings of the Vedas, the essential teachings of the Vedas are called Upanishads. That is why it is called Veda Anta. Anta means essence. Usually they come at the very end, which is called Upanishad. So, why? Because many Upanishads are taught by many different Rishis. For example, the Upanishad we are studying is only the teaching of one great Rishi. We do not even know his name. So, Amrutabindu Rishi, you can call him, instead of XYZ, and he is teaching us. Each soul is potentially divine. You are divine, but you are not able to understand you are divine, because your mind is not making you, helping you to understand. Because mind is of two types, pure and impure. And when the very same mind becomes pure, devoid of worldly desires, then that purified mind, like a clean mirror, reflects the truth. Even the understanding of the scripture, understanding of Guru's teaching becomes more and more clear. So, every scripture is only a pointer. And Sri Ramakrishna's pithy statements of reflecting this truth, you know what he said, we have to connect. Whenever we are studying any Upanishadic statements, immediately we must put a question. Did Sri Ramakrishna speak about this idea anywhere in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna? So, he gave a beautiful example. You know, we all believe in what is called almanacs. That is, before the start of the year, somehow there are some people who say so much of rainfall is expected, etc., etc. Then, in one year, the almanac predicts there will be 12 inches of rain during this year. And then Sri Ramakrishna says, you go on squeezing the almanac, you will not get one drop of water. What does it mean? It means this is only an indicator. This is not a source of water or anything else. So, if you have faith in that, you will have to have. Sri Ramakrishna had tremendous faith in it. That's why when Akshay Kumar, Akshay, got married, he specifically asked a question, to which Gana your wife belongs? And he was given the reply, she belongs to Rakshasa Gana. And immediately he was startled. The husband who marries a wife who belongs to the Rakshasa Gana will not survive. If the husband also belongs to the Rakshasa Gana, then happily they will continue without any problem. So, he believed in it. He believed in so many things also. Why? Because belief has to be started somewhere, somehow. At first, it will be only superstition. But in course of time, that faculty called faith slowly grows through experience. So, even a superstition is also very good. There are very good superstitions out there. For example, in Bengali tradition, when one starts on a journey, they go on repeating Durga, Durga, like that. Having faith, if I take mother Durga's name, any possible obstruction can be removed by her grace. Which is not a bad idea. Whether the obstructions will be always removed and completely removed is a different question. But the point is that one is made to think about Divine Mother and then slowly we extend that idea. What is it? When we wake up, it is a journey in life for the day. So, Durga, Durga. You wake up immediately before seeing anything. Look at a holy picture, your Guru or God, whatever it is, Goddess, whatever it is. At night, when you go to sleep, Durga, Durga. Make a pranam and say, Ma, I don't know whether I am going to get up in the morning. So, this is also a journey. And it may be a journey from this life to another life because we don't know what is going to happen next second. And therefore, you are my protector. Please protect me. Now, is anybody who dares to say this is a superstition, nothing happens. At least everything, our happiness or unhappiness, everything depends upon what type of interpretation we give to events. So, if we can give a good interpretation and whatever happens, that is not in our control. In modern psychological language, this is called CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. So, in the scriptures, there are so many statements are there. And of course, we are followers of Shankaracharya. So, we quote only those statements which indicate that everything is Brahma. So, for example, absolute truth is of the nature of existence, consciousness, infinite bliss. Satyam, Gnanam, Anantam, Brahma. That truth is the Self. That, the word, O Shweta Ketu, Tat Satyam, Sa Atma, Tat Tvam Asi, Shweta Ketu. These statements, technologically, are called Spashta Linga Vakyani. This is what this 19th mantra is telling, Linginaha. Lingi means what? Crystal clear statements telling us about the highest reality. Spashta means without any doubt, because the person who is making this statement, he is a realized soul. Linga means definite indication. We all start our journey with a hypothesis. We are like scientists. So, how does a scientist proceed? He is not falling from the sky and he doesn't get immediate knowledge. What does he do? I want to know. I want to develop this particular knowledge of this subject. What does he do? He gathers all the data. First purpose, then he gathers all the available data. Whatever is available until that time. And then he classifies them into small chunks of divisible classifiable chunks. And then everything falls into place. And then he will create some hypothesis. That is, it looks as though this can be the truth. And then he starts experimenting to prove the hypothesis. And once he finds a way to prove this hypothesis, he is absolutely right. Simple example I am giving. Newton is supposed to have discovered what is called the law of gravity. It is said once he was sitting and how far it is, we don't know. Lying and dozing, an apple fell from the apple tree. It fell on his head and that must have awakened his intellect. And then he started thinking why did it fall on my head? And then he understood in a flash he understood that there is something, some indefinable power in the earth. Whatever is thrown out, it will fall down. And the whole, this law of gravity has led to the invention of aeroplanes, satellites, rockets, etc. If we want to go beyond the power of this attraction, then we have to increase the speed, the power of the speed so that when once it goes beyond certain what is called stratosphere, then the gravitational pull will not be there any longer. So, I am just giving an example. This is how first find out whether you are ripe, your intellect is ready, then gather the datum, then classify it, come to certain hypothesis, make experiments and once something is proved, that becomes a scientific fact until of course it is disproved and something else will come in course of time. So, it is no different from scriptural statement also because we also gather datum. What is the data the scriptures are telling? This world is mithya. What does mithya means? Many people mistake the word mithya for non-existence. No. In the 16th shloka of the 2nd chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, this is the most popular shloka. Whatever is existence will never go out of existence and whatever is not existent will never come into existence. Various interpretations are there but what is important for us is mithya doesn't fall under these two categories. So, whatever is existing under certain circumstances can be misread, misunderstood. For example, mistaking in a small bit of light, semi-dark light, a rope that it is not a rope, it is a snake. If it was crystal clear light, then nobody will mistake it. But what is important in this that we have to study these scriptural statements called spashta linga vakyani, crystal clear indicators of what is the truth. And every Upanishad, every scripture as I said, the Bible is a Veda for a Hindu and Koran is a Veda but take only those statements. So, in every scripture there are two types of statements will be there. One is the truth beyond our capacity of the sense organs. God exists after death. One doesn't die. One goes either to God, kingdom of heaven or to hell or to Allah, paradise, whatever it is. Hindus have different opinions but how do we know that life exists after death of this body because nobody comes back and tells. And if somebody comes and tells you, you also may not be survive that experience so you will become another one of the bhutas. So anyway, so, there is no contradiction is there only it is a matter of understanding rightly and to make the disciple understand various strategies are evolved but every scripture as Ramakrishna says about the almanac it only indicates it doesn't, no scripture can give us the truth but it tells us sufficiently you walk that way then you will realize God. So for the Hindu rishis have understood this crystal clearly every scripture is only pointing to one reality which is called God ekam sat but according to language according to culture according to the age according to experience God is called in various ways so there is no contradiction there if we can understand the essence so now we will move on to mantra 20th and 21st also see how much we can progress satatam manthai tamyam manasa mandhana bhutena again this is not a difficult mantra to understand it is another analogy is given what is it? so supposing somebody comes to you a neighbor and says I want some butter or ghee do you have? yes yes I have got, so can you give me some? no I cannot give you but you said you have got you don't feel like giving no no I feel like giving but it is still in the form of the milk only now I have to put the milk make it curds see that it sets down it may take 12 hours 14 hours depending upon the season and then I have to churn it and then a separation from the butter will come out and if you want butter that is how we can bring it out or if you want ghee clarified butter and then I have to heat that butter in a particular way and then it becomes very fragrant ghee which we call ghee Ram Krishna recommended take to M I feel that it applies to everyone of us one spoon of pure ghee applied to your rice or roti or chapati or whatever it is and it will not only the food becomes very tasty according to him the food also becomes very sattvic that is why in Yagnas Yagas this ghee is a most important element there are other things are also offered but ghee is the most important item so what is the mantra telling in this 20th mantra ghritam eva payasi means what milk from this payasi only comes payasa when it is cooked in a particular way adding either jaggery or sugar and added with some rice etc we call it payasam it is very tasty sweet very healthy sweet in fact Ram Krishna advised M at night rice and milk and you eat it is a very sattvic food so here in this particular one ghritam eva payasi nigo dham so just as ghee is completely inherent in the milk that is why it is not available there is a particular methodology one has to find out bhute bhute vignanam vasati bhute bhute vasati vignanam we have to arrange it in the proper prose order bhute bhute in every living creature vignanam vasati this is what Swami Vivekananda had put it in the modern language each soul is potentially divine and we cannot escape our own divinity but how we manifest that divinity slowly slowly that is a different issue and once we are convinced by the scripture by the guru and that is why it is said what is shraddha Shankaracharya is a master in giving definitions so that we can use it without the least bit of doubt guru shastra vakki eshu satya buddhi avadharana what is shraddha that what the scriptures tell and what the guru explains from the scriptures that it is an absolute truth that is called shraddha it happens and you see even though it is not necessary you are all intelligent people that there was a great lady called shabari she was the daughter of a what is called maid servant and her mother died because of a snake bite or so she was serving in a particular monastery so many monks were there and the monks decided to shift their residence what to do with this young girl they cannot take her because they are sanyasins so one of them out of infinite compassion initiated her name was shabari by the way in ramayana this is a very famous story and the rishi now became the guru and guru told her shabari you wait here rama will come one day to you don't go away from here and from that day onwards she went on early in the morning she will get up as soon as it is dawn she goes and gathers what she could see as ripe fruits today rama will come because my guru told me and gurus words will never go in vain they must be fulfilled and months passed years passed she became an old woman she could not see properly with great difficulty and she used to gather that this is called shabari pratiksha waiting for rama because guru told when you are alive rama will come your ishta devata your chosen deity rama will come and on the last day he came and she gathered some fruits and she was not sure whether they are ripe because she was not in a condition to see properly so like a mother who wants to give the best to her child she started biting a little bit tasting it if she found it is ripe and sweet she will offer it to rama in our hindu tradition something eaten or offered to somebody cannot be re-offered to god but shabari was doing it what is the purpose behind only so that rama should not eat anything unripe anything unpleasant and rama also accepted because this is done with the greatest love incidentally we also get the husband husband or brother-in-law of merabai had sent poison and he did not hide the fact i sent you what is called virulent poison you better drink it and die she said no problem at all whatever i eat i first offer to my krishna so she offered if my krishna can digest and you know earlier itself he danced on the kaliya digested all the poison so he had no problem at all so she drank happily and it transformed itself into amrita and that is what had happened very interesting stories we will come across them during this explanation so whatever is the purpose is important how it is offered is not very important so rama was pleased he accepted it is not said whether bitten fruit can be given but a devotee can definitely give that bitten fruit like mother can taste the food whether it is suitable for the baby and the baby will be only too happy to accept it rama granted her a boon and then he said i will perform your funeral because today you are going to ascend to my place Vaikuntha shebari said let me be looking at you and happily give up this body rama means a most pleasurable experience so thinking of god seeing god she gave up happily and emerged in sri rama this is called shraddha that is each soul is potentially divine why did i quote all these things because the very first thing we need to do is that tremendous faith most of us have gurus most of us do we have that faith the mantra given by my guru is very effective i only have to chant it and it will definitely give me the result do we do that anyway time has come i asked he gave me so i will do when i need it so if i don't have shraddha then the result will not come and if there is shraddha then a person will not give up what is it this will take me to god and god is the highest goal because he is of the very nature of existence knowledge and bliss sat chit ananda that is called brahmananda and who doesn't want brahmananda therefore the rishi amrutavindo rishi is telling so you must go on churning if you want to get the amruta nectar you must go on churning and what is the churning rod and what is that both are mind only so we have seen earlier also two pieces of wood one is kept to be lower another to be take what is called conical type of stick and you go on churning it with both hands like indians use it to churn especially early morning the people who churn butter milk so that butter can be brought out so until we bring out the butter the mind has to be churned manasa mantha anabhutena so the mind should be completely dedicated to churn and that should never whatever number of obstacles might come one should never give it up one should go on doing it without giving up because I am convinced my guru will help me he gave me the truth I will realize God and realization of God is what is called the greatest achievement in every human being that is why many people say why should I become spiritual instead of putting it that way if we put so why should I be happy person why should I be healthy person why can't I be most sick person weak person elapidated depressed person will anybody put that kind of question to oneself everybody seeks I want to be healthy I want to be happy and I don't want death and we will today just give a hint as I mentioned many times even to understand the stories in the Indian mythology especially the Puranas like Bhagavatam, Devi Bhagavatam there are so many stories apart from spiritual teachings and every story is like a parable the more we ponder on the parable the depth of meaning will be coming out that is called churning so in the Bhagavatam there is a beautiful story is called the churning of the milk ocean and in the very most of us know about it but it has a deep meaning so as with all mind undivided mind both with the pure samskaras and impure samskaras also milk ocean was being churned what was the first thing that comes? poison and after that so many tempting objects come out but at the very end only the Divine or Guru, Dhanvantari comes with the pot of Amruta. It is a story of considerable significance we will talk about it in our tomorrow's class Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayoh Sritva Pranamami Muhurmuhu May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Jai Ramakrishna