Paramahamsa Upanishad Lecture 04 on 10 March 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We have been studying the Paramahamsa Upanishad. In our last class, we have completed the very first mantra. This Upanishad contains only four mantras and each mantra is fairly quite long. We can even say every mantra is equivalent to at least four to five smaller mantras or verses. So the question was, what is the goal of life? It is to know who we really are, who I am really. And when I attain, when I know that I am in my real nature is Brahman, I will be called a Paramahamsa. Paramahamsa means supreme. Hamsa means when it is reversed. Soham, I am that Brahman. Aham Brahmasmi, Paramahamsa, absolutely there is no difference between these two. So a great sincere aspirant approached a great realized soul. In fact, he is what is called Ishwara, Saguna Brahma, Brahma himself, not Brahman, Brahma. And then became a fit disciple. He had become an Adhikari. That means he is capable of understanding what the teacher is capable of teaching him. And he puts a question that what are the characteristics of a real Paramahamsa, of a realized soul. This is another way for us to understand the sthita prajna lakshanas. But there is a slight difference. There, in the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan Krishna doesn't talk about sanyasa. He is talking about what is the way, the mind of such a realized soul, how does it act and react. It doesn't act there. That is, he never starts any activity. Because, as we discussed, every activity is the outcome of a desire. First, there will be a duality. I am here, there is an object there. Second, I come to know about that object. Third, I come to know that it is very favorable to me. It can conduce to my happiness. Fourth, I have a desire. Fifth, how can I obtain this object and enjoy it. And fifth, the result of enjoying it. So, if I like it, most likely, I develop a desire, a stronger desire, a deeper desire. I want it again and again and again. Now, we are not talking about the object. We are talking about the happiness that we derive from that object. Every object is desirable only if it can yield us happiness, not otherwise. So, this was the question. How can I realize, how can I get out of this world of bondage or world of transmigration? That was the question. Let us forget about Brahma and Narada. This is a dialogue between a Guru and Sishya, a teacher and a spiritual aspirant. And then the teacher is asking, replying. This question you have asked about the Paramahamsa. There are not plenty. There are very, very few. And even if there is one such person, like one sun can illuminate the entire world. And he is eternal. Not that he illuminates for a short time and then puts off. And he is capable of purifying anybody who comes into contact with him. Such is the power emanating from that personality. And this person, who knows what he is. And this word Purusha is used. Even Swami Vekaranda in America, he says, Starting like that. That I am that Purusha. That is the Purusha described here. And Aditya Varnam is of the nature of indescribable splendor. Splendor of knowledge. And this Purusha, he is called Mahapurusha. Yesterday I narrated about Mahapurusha, how he got that title. And who is this great soul? Whose mind is always abiding in me. Never for a second that knowledge will disappear from such a person. That I am somebody different. There are only two objects. Or there should be two objects. The Atman and the Anatman. The Self and the Non-Self. Really the Non-Self. That means what is called existence and non-existence. We should never talk like that because existence alone is existence. Non-existence does not exist at all. But we use it. When we cannot see the entirety of the existence. For example, a baby is born. We don't know what that baby was in the past life. We don't know what the baby will be in the future life. We cannot even see for one millisecond what is going to happen. Even to ourselves. But he who knows I am Brahman, he is called a Mahapurusha. And therefore there is no difference. Therefore my abidance also in that person. And that person's abidance also in me. But I go and stay in my friend's house. And sometimes my friend comes and stays in my house. Not at all like that. I am he. He is me. And there is no second. He is only one without a second. And therefore he doesn't have a family, children, wife or friends or relatives. He is renounced. This is a formal language. What is the renunciation here? Renunciation that there is nobody excepting Atman. Atman alone is. Then what about certain external paraphernalia, insignia which Sanyasins put on? Should they put on? Absolutely. Until the state of Paramahamsa is reached automatically, naturally. How come? Because these are all very helpful things. Holy Mother used to say if a Sanyasin puts on the ochre cloth, then householders, other society people will come to know here is a person. He had given up his home etc. So he requires to be fed. So that is how in India at least, even in other countries for example, Buddhist monks, when they go, they are provided with food. Very peculiar phenomena used to take place. In UK for example, I know that these Buddhist monks, very intelligent people, they go and stand in front of a huge mall. Why? Because they are intelligent. Because food is available there. So their Buddhist followers come there and when they see the monks, they will buy extra things and then put it as Bhiksha. So some people go there just to buy and then give it to them. Because nourishing the Sanyasins is part of the married people's duty. Grihastha Dharma. So here is a person. He gives up all external insignia and it is very difficult to understand whether he is a monk or non-monk. He will not be anything different. He will not be an imposing personality. This is what he said. Sikha Ignopavita. He even gives up study, Swadhyaya. That is study of the scriptures and study of his own mind because he has reached the goal. And Sarvakarmani. Every activity. Because activity requires an instrument and the instrument is body and mind. And this person had cut off all attachment or identity with the body-mind. Therefore, along with the body-mind, also go all the things that are possible through the body-mind. All activities that are possible only through the body and mind. And Brahmandanjahitva. He gives up this entire cosmos. Not only our earthly planet, but Brahmanda. That means all creation itself. Because there is no other creation other than the Self. Kaupeinam, Dandam, Achyadanandam. Sometimes he may put a loin cloth for the sake of other people. He might carry a staff insignia of a sannyasin. And it also is useful if a householder fellow doesn't give any bhiksha. Then he can threaten. I am not joking. So there is a place. Well-known place in Himalayas. And Swami Akhandanandaji used to roam the whole Himalayas. And he knows what is called habits of some of these people. So once he took Swamiji and some others there. And they wanted some bhiksha and some firewood. But not one single householder was willing to give. Then there is a saying. If you don't threaten the local people, they will never give bhiksha. So Akhandanandaji and others started raising in the middle of the village. It was a very small village. Bring alms. Bring firewood. Otherwise we will reduce the whole village to ashes. And magically within five minutes, food materials have come. Firewood has come. Everything has come. So that place became very notorious. But unless you threaten, you cannot squeeze anything from that place. So sometimes this danda or this staff. Usually it is meant. If you are stumbling or climbing a mountain, it is useful. It is an extra support. There are wild animals to some extent. It is also useful. Because they have to travel especially in those days. So in so many ways it can help. Sometimes it might be helpful. I don't know. If there are some fruits which are beyond our reach, maybe this danda also can help like bael fruit etc. That is called danda. But there is a meaning for this danda. There are some people who carry only one strand of a staff. It is just one small bamboo strip. Some people, they carry three. So accordingly, this person is called either ekadandi or tridandi. One staff, ekadandi. Eka means one. Dandi means he who carries one staff. And sometimes three small bamboo poles or branches, thin branches, they tie together and they carry. They are called tridandis. But the insignia, the significance is what is called this dehadanda, vagdanda, manodanda. I control my body. I control my speech. I control my mind. These three bamboos should remind that person he has taken sanyasa and it should protect him. He should control himself. That is the real meaning of it. That's why Brahma is teaching Narada, Swa sharira upa ugartha, either to protect one's own body or it may be to sustain the body through nourishment, etc. or for the sake of other people who become, what we call, they become shy, especially women, seeing a young paramahamsa. Very interesting story, you remember. In the Bhagavatam, it comes, Shukadeva, he is the pole star of all the paramahamsas. And Shri Ram Krishna, interestingly, used to call Narendra Nath, that is Swami Vivekananda, this is my Shukadeva. Because that tremendous renunciation, discrimination, that's why he was called Vivekananda. That was his very natural quality. And he never fell for anything of this world. Even when he was a young boy, he used to go to sleep. First he used to think, I am the most powerful king. I am a king. I am the most powerful person in the whole world. I can get whatever I want. I can enjoy whatever I want. But the next moment, he used to see the vision of a seven-headed monk, completely, totally dependent upon God and moving about at the will of God. And finally, that indicates that he is going to become a paramahamsa later on. This was long before Swami Vivekananda came into contact with Shri Ram Krishna. So, that's why Shri Ram Krishna used to call him unparalleled renunciation. The thought of kamakanchana, that is sex and money attraction, never the thought has arisen. Just for our reminder's sake, Swami Narendranath, earlier before becoming the sanyasi, he rented a house near his house because his household was a very big household. So, probably he wanted undistracted study. But most of the time he was not studying. He was spending only singing songs, learning music, and studying, no doubt, not his textbooks. Everything else except his textbooks. Only just before examination, he used to mug up, and he had tremendous memory power. So, he used to take a few hours to mug up the entire textbooks and vomit them in the examination hall because he was not interested. He used to pass. If he wanted, he could have passed first class first, but he was not interested. Anyway, so one, what is called childhood widow, she fell in love with Narendranath because he was the most handsome person. Even American women have admired him and said he is like the sculpture of the divine angel by Michelangelo. So attractive he was. But they didn't understand all that attraction was from his spiritual magnetism. Nothing to do with, but physically he was the most beautiful personality in the whole world. Anybody who looks at his eyes, they have no chance, choice, but to fall in love with him. And his voice was, you know, in the whole human personality, the most attractive thing is voice. It surpasses even the form. That is why if somebody can sing nicely or can speak nicely, they will fall in love with that person forever, thinking that this person must be what he sings or what he speaks. Such is the power of the voice. One can hypnotize people, thousands of people by voice. Now what I am trying to tell is Swamiji's greatest hobby, passion, we can say, is singing. And he used to sing. And according to him, even stones used to melt. Even this hard-hearted Dr. Mahendra Lal Sarkar, who used to scold and chide and talk very irreverently with Sairam Krishna. But as soon as he heard Swami Vivekananda, that is Narendranath, and he went and embraced him and said, My child, you have a very great future, tremendously great future, I can assure you. So this is all because of his singing power. And M remarks, after Sairam Krishna, I never found anybody whose voice can simply mesmerize people. Sairam Krishna was such a great singer that even his Guru Totapuri, hard-hearted Advaitin, without understanding a single word, he used to be overwhelmed by emotion when Sairam Krishna used to sing. And he used to say, Ek yaare, ek yaare, what is this, what is this that is happening? I do not understand. So, people with this kind of talents, but I was talking about the physical beauty, but that tremendous spiritual magnetism, most people did not understand. So they cannot help but fall in love with him. Hundreds of American women and very rich women used to simply fall into the mesmerism, hypnotism of Swami Vivekananda. And then some people wanted to marry him also. Some widows, millionaires, offered themselves and said, you accept it. Coming back, this widow, one day used to stand outside Narendra Nath's rented room and listen. And day by day her passion grew and she was quite a rich widow. And then she one day made bold to enter into his room and she offered, you accept me along with all that I possess. Immediately, what did Narendra Nath do? He was, remember, at that time he was suffering very much. If he had accepted her offer, tremendous good would have come. First of all, in those days, there was no chance for widowed women to get remarried. But a reformation was going on, especially by Raja Ram Mohan Rai and then also Vidya Pandit, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and then Keshav Chandra Sen etc. for reformation of this, what is called, stingy Hindu rules. But immediately Swamiji advised, once you are married and you lost your husband and doesn't it open your eyes? I will make a little bit of fun. At least my eyes are open. Your first husband's fate was like that. And if I accept you, I don't know what my fate is going to be. I better not accept you. Just fun. But this tremendous vairagyam and very next day, he closed that rented room and went away to somewhere else. Who can have that kind of mind control, self-control, accepting a Paramahamsa? That is why Sri Ramakrishna used to call that he is a My Shukadeva. But there is a sequel to it. So Girish Chandra Ghosh, later on he observed two disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. One was Nagamahasaya. Another was future Swami Vekananda. And he said, Mahamaya tried to drag Nagamahasaya into her net. And he became like Hanuman in the mouth of Simihika. Smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And Mahamaya could not become small enough to bind him. So that is how he escaped. And Mahamaya wanted to bind Narendra. And he became bigger and bigger and bigger. The net of Mahamaya was not sufficient. And that was exactly the case of Shukadeva. It is said in the Bhagavatam, for 16 years he refused to come lest he might fall into the Mahamaya's net. Then his father prayed. And then for one second, Mahamaya told him, I can overwhelm him. But I can't hold him for more than one second. That second Shukadeva came out of Mother's womb and he started walking completely naked. 16 years old, young man. And he was passing by. Some divine damsels were taking bath and playing there. And he passed quite near to them. But they never minded. As if a piece of log was floating by. But as soon as his father running after him, started coming. And immediately these ladies perceived him. He was an old man. He was fully clothed. But they jumped out of the lake, covered themselves. Then the father asked him, what is this strange situation? He said, when your son passed, we were only thinking about God. He reminded us only, not of the body, but of God. But as soon as you came, he reminded that we are females and you are male. Because you know the female body so thoroughly. You described it so beautifully in Mahabharata and so many other Puranas, etc. So this is called the state of a Paramahamsa that he doesn't have absolutely any relationship. Because there is no second. Relationship always requires two objects. But they are very living in this body after realization. That is, sometimes they keep these things, keeping in their minds the welfare of the world. But these insignia, etc. That is not important. That is how the first mantra concludes. All these external things I have described so far are not very important things. Naturally the question comes, but whether Narada put that question is not given to us. Now I am going to describe in the next mantra what is most important. So we are going to enter into the second mantra. I will just read out because even the very listening of the recitation of these mantras are marvelous. Remember, they are the most beautiful mantras and this belongs to Paramahamsa Upanishad. This is how the description of the Paramahamsas are given. नसुखं नदुखं नमान अवमानेचः शदूर्मिवर्जम् निन्दा गर्व, मच्चर, दंभ, दर्प, इच्चा, वेश, सुख, दुख, काम, रोध, लोभ, मोह, हर्ष, असुय, अहंकार, देन चहित्वा, स्वभपु, उनपमेवध्रिष्यतेयतः, तत्वपुः अपध्वस्तम्, सम्शय इपरीत, मिठ्या ग्नाना, योहेतुः, तेन नित्य निवृत्तः, तत् नित्य बोधः, तत् स्वयमेव अवस्थिति, तत् शान्तं, अचलं, अद्वयं, आनंदं, विज्ञानं, विज्ञान गणं, एवास्मे, तत् एवा, ममा, परमधामा, तदेव शिखाच, तदेव उपवीतंच, परमात्मा आत्मनोहु, एकत्व घ्णानेन, तयोर भेदह एवा, इभत्नह, स संध्या। Marvelous. This very recitation would be most wonderful. So just plain English translation I will give, and then I will go back to original. The Paramahamsa carries neither a staff, nor the hair trough, nor the holy thread, nor any covering, that means any dress. He feels neither cold nor heat, neither happiness nor misery, neither honor nor contempt, etc. He is right that he should be beyond the reach of the six billows of this world ocean. What are these billows? I will come to that. Having given up all thought of calumny, conceit, jealousy, ostentation, arrogance, attachment, antipathy to objects, sorrow and joy, lust, anger, covetousness, self-delusion, elation, envy, egoism and the like, he regards his body as a corpse, as he has thoroughly destroyed the body idea, that is, the idea that I am the body. Not destroying the body, but I am the body. That idea. Being eternally free from the cause of doubt, and of misconceived or false knowledge, and realizing the eternal Brahman, he lives in that supreme reality himself with full consciousness. What does he feel? I myself am he. I am that which is calm, immutable and divided. I am of the essence of knowledge, bliss. That alone is my real nature. That knowledge alone is his shikha, that is, tuft of hair on the head. That knowledge alone is his holy thread. Through the knowledge of the unity of jivatman with paramatman, that is, the individual soul with the supreme soul, the distinction, difference between them is wholly destroyed too. And this unification of I and God alone is called his sandhya ceremony. A very spiritual interpretation of what these things are. Now we will go briefly. He doesn't carry any dandam or shikham. He doesn't keep it especially because brahmacharis especially are supposed to keep this tuft of hair. They shave everything. Especially if you see south Indian brahmacharis, they will be carrying this tuft of hair. And then there will be, just before entering into the teacher's ashram, they will have to go through a ceremony called sacred thread ceremony. And afterwards, they should never give it up, that sacred thread, until they take sanyasa. Only when a person takes sanyasa is to perform a special kind of homa called viraja homa. And there, tuft of hair and then this sacred thread are offered with special mantras into that blazing fire. Nacha, achyadana. He may not cover his body. As we discussed yesterday, what can cover paramatman? The body can be covered. Anything limited can be covered. But the unlimited cannot be covered. Such a person who knows I am the unlimited, I am the infinite in other words, is called a paramahamsa. So without any staff, without any sacred thread, without any tuft of hair, without any dress, just like a baby. Paramahamsa charatee. So paramahamsa, if he is alive, is called a jivanmukta. He moves about in this way. The paramahamsa carries neither the staff, nor the hair tuft, nor the holy thread, nor any covering. But what about inclement weather? That is being said, He doesn't feel cold. Sheetam means cold. Ushnam means heat. No. Does he feel? What does it mean? If there is a body, there will be a feeling. But this person's mind, he knows I am not the body-mind. Not that, you know, there are some people who are blind. There are some people who are deaf. There are some people who cannot smell because that smelling organ, sense organ, is completely destroyed. And there are some people who cannot feel the heat or cold. It is very rare. But the skin loses its power of experiencing either heat or cold. Of course, there is the sense organ of taste. It is said of a great paramahamsa. He was called Sadashiva Brahmendra. He used to go out for begging and whatever he gets, especially South India, full of spices, he will go to the river Kaveri and then he will dip a cloth bag into which he collected all his alms and then keeps it for some minutes so that all the salt and spices and what is called chilli powder, all those things are completely washed away including the oil, etc., which lends taste to the person and he becomes completely only bland food. But it doesn't matter because his activities are very few, physical activities, even mental activities, because forever he will be continuously dwelling in Samadhi state. So like almost hibernation in winter of certain animals like bears. So this person, he doesn't care because why do we want all these things? Because we want to enjoy through all the five sense organs. So we are talking about here this paramahamsa Upanishad, cold and heat. Does this not person feel, especially when there is no appropriate dress both for summer and winter? Then it is to say most of the time this person will not be identified, even not aware that there is a body, there is a mind, such would be the state. How come? Because there is something interesting for us to understand. If a person can get so much of joy in deep sleep and what is deep sleep? It is called Sushupti. What is Sushupti? Swa avasthayam Supti is called Sushupti. One meaning is Sushupti, becomes Sushupti that is deeply asleep. Supti means to take rest actually. But the other meaning is one abides in oneself. There is no body, there is no mind idea. They are there in a causal form but not functioning at that time, not active. That is why it is called Karana Sharira, that is causal body. That is what brings the person to the waking state later on. Now what is important here, this person most of the time he may not feel. Secondly, even if there is slight body consciousness for the sake of keeping the body alive, but he says it is winter, it is cold, that is natural. It is summer, it is hot, that is also natural. That means his mind is not disturbed as the result of the effects of heat and cold. And these all go together. These are called dualities. These are called Dwandwas, Sita, Krishna, Sukha, Dukha, Mana, Apamana, Jaya, Apajaya, etc. So he is not attached to them at all. Therefore, when we are attached to something, when we like something, why are we attached? Because we like. Why do we like? Because anything that gives us happiness, enhances our happiness, that is what we become attached to. But if something is giving us pain all the time, first experience pain, second experience pain, third experience pain, thereafter every time we come into contact it is pain only, and nobody wants pain. Do you think that this person who doesn't want pain goes beyond? No. Either one becomes a slave to both, because our effort will be I don't want to come into contact with any object that will give me only pain. So I want to be happy. One cannot be happy forever. One cannot be unhappy also forever. So life is full of these dualities. Therefore, this person might feel but he is not affected. His mind is not swayed. He doesn't become either happy or unhappy. Now it is Bangalore weather or weather in Athens. Athens is considered the Bangalore city, even temperature of the entire Europe. But no, it is not like that. They may be there, but he will not pay any attention because he is getting so much of joy. What does it mean? It means we derive either happiness or unhappiness from objects other than ourselves, never from our own self. Even though psychologically, if we analyze any object, what does it do? It doesn't have either happiness or unhappiness. But what happens is that it temporarily quells the desire. By removing the desire, our mind becomes restful. When the mind becomes restful, not restless, our own inner joy has a chance to come out. But we mistake this happiness as coming from the object. No object has either happiness or unhappiness. How do we know? Because if happiness or unhappiness is the intrinsic quality of any object, that means 24 hours, so long as that object is there, existing, it should give only that. No, the same object will have different effects upon different people and the same object can have different effects upon the same person at different times. What does that show? That shows happiness and unhappiness are not the intrinsic qualities of any object, but it is somehow affecting our mind either we are away from our own happiness which is called dukkha or pain or we are coming nearer to our own selves by calming the mind and that is called happiness. We mistake it. Sri Ramakrishna used to give two beautiful examples. A camel going on chewing a thorny bush and the other example is a dog worrying a bone, a dry bone and as they go on eating, blood starts coming from their own gums and they mistake that this beautiful, tasty food is coming from either the bone or the dry thorn. That is our mistake. This is the exact analogy we have to give. No object can give us and this Paramahamsa knows it. That is why Sita and Vishnu, these are experiences. Sukha and Dukha are called judgment values. Whether you are eating food, you are putting on dress or you are getting a job or you are getting married or you are obtaining something like a car or a fridge or going on a holiday, every action is judged only by two values. Is this activity resulting in happiness for me or in unhappiness? That is why they are called judgmental values. So this person knows that intrinsically I am Ananda Swaroopa and I have no Dukha because I am existence itself. Nobody can threaten me. Existence can never be made non-existence. This is what in the 16th verse of Bhagavad Gita नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः वयोरपिद्रुष्टो अनयो तत्वधर्शिभिः That is, existence can never become non-existence. Non-existence can never become existence. And the philosophers, the wise people who know about it, they never worry because they know they are existence. Even to say, even to think non-existence we must be existence. Only an existence being can think of non-existence. But such a thing as non-existence never exists at all. It is only an exercise of our thought. That's all. नसुखम् नदुखम् Neither happiness nor unhappiness. And then we are all slaves. Somebody speaks, you are a marvelous person. This is called मान. मान means respecting us. It is appreciating us. Somebody is appreciating me. And even if I am a terrible bad person somebody can praise me, flatter me to curry favor with me. And we think that that person is a great person because he appreciates me. This is how our judgments are. I like you because you appreciate me. And I don't like you because you depreciate me. And these things are most horrible things, slavish things that we are all slaves to this. So such a person, who is that person? Mahapurusha, Paramapurusha, Vedapurusha is also called Paramahamsa. He feels neither cold nor heat. I explained to you, it doesn't mean body doesn't feel. So long as body is there, he is a subject. Body is subject to hunger, to thirst, to aging, to health, to disease, all heat and cold, etc. But these things do not bother him at all. So neither heat nor cold, neither happiness nor misery, neither honor nor contempt, etc. really do not disturb his mind because he has merged his mind in Brahman long back and he is getting so much happiness. Here is something most marvelous, what we call psychological fact. What is that fact? Supposing you are experiencing, for whatever reason, great happiness. So long as you are experiencing, you know, you don't mind some people coming and talking to you, either derogating you, etc. You don't really care because that state of your mind doesn't allow any other thought to enter. If you allow any other thought, that means you have fallen down from that state of bliss or happiness and then all these things will attack. That is our common experience. Then, Shat-Urmi-Varjam. And this person, Urmi means wave, big waves, maybe tsunami waves. Shat means six. So it is said, whether it is a river, whether it is an ocean, that continuously these waves will be coming. Similarly, our experience in this world, this world is compared to an ocean, Samsara-Sagara. That is why devotees sing, I am caught in this Samsara-Sagara, but O Lord, You are the Helmsman and we are all sitting in the boat of Your lotus feet and You are capable of ferrying us across this ocean. Bhavasagara-Tarana-Karana-He Ravinandana-Bandhana So this song goes like that, very popular song. So I am not worried about birth, I am not worried about death, I am not worried about crossing this huge ocean because I am sitting, I am taken up into the arms of my own Divine Mother. But this Samsara continuously is producing so many waves and this word Shat means six, is used under different contexts. For example, Asti, Chayate, Vardhate, Iparnamate, Vinashyate, Apakshiyate and Vinashyate. That is birth and its sustenance, growth, old age, disease and death. That is one way of this. So hunger and thirst, enthusiasm and depression and this birth and death, these are called in same words, other words but same concept. We will come to that. So this Paramahamsa, he knows I am not the body, I am not the mind. So some of these qualities belong to the body. For example, birth and death belong to the body, hunger and thirst, that belongs to the Prana and happiness and unhappiness, they belong to the mind. Since I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am completely bereft of these six waves. But for all the others excepting a Paramahamsa, these six billows of this world ocean, they affect us day and night, they are affecting us. And then this person is described certain characteristics which we can say that the 16th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita beautifully describes these things, what is called the divine spiritual qualities and demonic qualities. So starting with Ahimsa etc, here is Ninda, Garva, Matsara, Dambha, Darpa, Iccha, Vesha, Sukha, Dukha, Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Harsha, Asuya, Ahamkara, Dhinchahitva. So many catalogues of this, what is called demonic qualities. What are they? Ninda, you know in this world when some people criticize us or try to put us down, we get very angry, our egotism gets terribly hurt. This is other people, we also go on putting other people by somehow or other. So gossip is nothing but loudly proclaiming, proclamation of everybody, I am great and you are not great. This is the essence of all gossip, all normal conversation, there is nothing else. When people, even monks, talk about politics and all the news etc. loudly, they want to exhibit how great is their knowledge of things. But very interesting thing I am going to tell you. So Shri Ram Krishna condemned the reading of newspapers, news. One or two examples I will give you because we have to experience these things. One is our tremendous faith in the what is written world. So Shri Ram Krishna gave a beautiful example because some devotees, even though Shri Ram Krishna himself was talking about the scriptures, about God, about His mercy, about the existence of life after death etc. This person has become very sceptical and mostly because of the English education this person had received. That's why Shri Ram Krishna used to call these young Bengal as English people. They are not really English people. Their skin is as thick and black and brown as anybody else. But a little bit of English, a few English words and he starts to whistle all these dream girl songs etc. So about this newspaper. So one such devotee came. He was not paying attention. And then Shri Ram Krishna indirectly is pointing out. See there was a village and there also newspapers were available. And one day a friend came to visit another friend. And then what happened that that friend while he was coming a house caught fire and it was completely it was burned down to cinders. He himself witnessed it. So he came and then he conveyed that news to this person who was sitting at home and then this person said wait a little. I can't believe your words whether it has come in today's newspaper. So he took up the newspaper. There was no mention of fire at all. House getting burned. I don't believe you. This is our faith in scientist words in written word and in spoken word also. We are ready to believe which is so much of degrading for our minds for our life. But if somebody speaks of about God and other things we feel restless and after a few minutes we have got some work. Like that it goes. But what was I mentioning Shri Ram Krishna's view if anybody is full of worldly talk if such a person happens to come and sit somewhere near Shri Ram Krishna Shri Ram Krishna used to say seven inches below the earth becomes polluted by the touch of this person. So when that person leaves then he used to ask somebody you bring some Ganga Ganges water and sprinkle it there. Such was his content for the worldly news. But I teach just the opposite. I don't. I agree with Shri Ram Krishna. I also don't agree with Shri Ram Krishna. What is it? If you have to read the newspaper and it can be a great scripture so but there is a technique of reading. What? How to read? First of all don't open the front page. Go to the usually in UK it will be third or fifth page where there is an obituary column and find out. Yesterday I spoke with this fellow. Today he is gone. So imagine that tomorrow somebody opens the obituary column and says this fellow only is talking about our mutual friend and he is also gone like the other fellow. So somebody will definitely look into that obituary column and that reminds us they are all subject to death. First. Secondly the condition of the world will never change. What is the condition? Changelessness is not the condition. Continuous changefulness everything is changing but that is the changeless nature of the continuous change. That means it will go on changing only. That is the second philosophical idea. Third idea So many great people were born and they tried to do good. Has it impacted the world anyway? Has it become one millimetre better because of these people? Definitely there will be a few people whose life will be affected by this but by and large the same Rao Ramana Yudha the same Kurukshetra Yudha and that is going on. And what is that? First world war as I mentioned so many times is between Christians and Christians. Second world war between Christians and Christians. Third world war now slightly changed if you take Russia-Ukraine war between Christians and Christians. If you take Israel-Hamas war between Jews and Muslims. So these three religions as you know Semitic religions or David religions they are all what is called Judaism Christianity and Islam. So all world wars are only this one. Has the world known a time when absolutely there is no war? Absolutely no. That means nothing changes. Same condition will go on but the saving face saving factor is we can get out of it by choosing a spiritual path. We will talk about it in our next class. Om Jananem Sharadam Devem Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padmetayo Saritva Pranamami Mohor Moho May Sri Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Deve Ramakrishna