Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 05 on 19 June 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Taittiriya Upanishad. We have not yet entered into the text itself but certain preliminaries which without fulfilling nobody can really understand any scripture. Though we are speaking of only the Upanishads but the scripture, every scripture of every religion and even if it is not a formal religion, to understand them we must fulfill certain conditions. But curious to say it is not only the scriptures, any type of knowledge. So everybody cannot become a doctor or cannot become a lawyer, cannot become a cook because certain capacities, intelligence as well as propensities, aptitudes are necessary even for any subject. Be it worldly subject or spiritual subject. Then what to speak of spiritual subject. So before entering the proper text certain terms we are discussing and then we also have spoken about and as I mentioned please keep it in mind at least for this first part of the introductions. We must transit between Wednesday class and also Saturday Sunday class because what I am explaining in Chandogya Upanishad in greater detail I may not explain here and what I am explaining here may not explain in the Chandogya Upanishad but until this introductory portion is over you must transit and it is not difficult. Even if you don't hear, if you go to our website srisairudadevi.com then the transcripts are available. All that you need to do, take that much trouble to download them and then combine them and then the introduction will be, should be very clear. So first of all we have talked about that the whole of human life is full of activities and all activities fall under three types – thoughts, speech and action and every life be it amoeba's life or a great sadhaka's life. So there are three types of achievements – sadhyatrayam. What are they? First of all we want to keep our own body and mind fit because without that basic requirement we cannot enjoy, we cannot progress. Then we want acquisition of certain objects which we think will give us happiness and prevent us from suffering and there are some people who believe that after the fall of this body there are other worlds and some people are endowed with faith called Shraddha here which is a marvelous subject which I am going to speak in detail in today's class. So higher lokas, remember higher loka means higher state of enjoyment even if we are rational in any experience we don't care what the object is, we don't care what type of experience we are having, we only care what is the resultant of that experience. Does it make me for example eating a sweet fruit or a sweet that is existence of a fruit or a sweet is first condition and obtaining that fruit or sweet and trying to experience it in the form of eating or listening or smelling or tasting or touching, seeing that is called experience. We don't care but we will care for the what is the result, is it making me happy and how long does that happiness last, what is the intensity of that happiness and does it come with any other baggage. So there are people who believe after death also there is life, there are higher worlds and there are methods how we can go to the higher world. So higher world means higher happiness, higher worlds means higher and higher still higher and highest and still highest type of happiness which is beautifully described, we will come to that in this very Taittiriya Upanishad second chapter. But lower worlds, if we go to the lower worlds that means the result of our evil deeds, wrong deeds, unscriptural what is called forbidden deeds that means lesser and lesser happiness, more and more suffering. So naturally nobody wants to suffer, everybody wants, is a natural tendency that we want to experience higher and still higher happiness until the highest which is called Bhuma in the Chandogya Upanishad is obtained. So these are the three, our body mind complex must be perfect instrument for experiencing and just like a person has a wonderful car but there are no roads, is this example viable? Yes, the present Dalai Lama was very much interested in all the latest inventions. So he purchased one car when he was in Tibet and there are no roads, car was delivered only round and round his building there was some kind of passage and he used to enjoy. So an instrument without something to use it for is completely useless. So that is what is called higher Loka Vishaya Prapti or objects and the essence of all experience is to avoid as much suffering as possible and obtain as much happiness as possible. Then after experiencing this thing and higher worlds remember can be experienced only by following with complete faith the teachings of the scriptures and they are called by two names Ishta and Portha. Ishta means prayer to God or performing sacrifices or pilgrimages etc. but simply I want to experience higher things will never come, I must serve the society, the world here. That is why Swami Vivekananda's twin motto for this Ramakrishna order Atmano Mokshartham Jagatitayacha, they are insufferable and if anybody misunderstands he will become insufferable. So Atmano Moksha, how can I become better person? By becoming less and less and less selfish, more and more and more unselfish and unselfishness cannot be achieved unless there are some things which we have to do. This is called Pancha Maha Yagna and technically these are called Ishta and Portha. Ishta means personal struggles for acquiring certain qualities and using those acquired qualities put them to work for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many. This was what Buddha also had preached. Preached this excellent message for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many and probably Swamiji who himself was Buddha. Because once Buddha, once when Swami Vivekananda, that is Narendranath, young Narendra as a small boy was meditating and then suddenly Buddha, there was a picture of Buddha and the picture came alive and a young Sanyasi was looking and steadfastly approaching and Swami Vivekananda got frightened and ran away. We believe that Buddha is not going to leave any person even if anybody runs away. So he must have possessed him because it was this Vivekananda who declared, if I can help even one single dog on the street, I am ready to be reborn a thousand times. This is the spirit of Bahujana Hitaaya, Bahujana Sukhaaya, a beautiful Sanskrit word. That is what Swamiji had incorporated as the twin motto. So that is what we have to do and through that we get merit and the result of this merit is to go to higher lokas. And then what happens? When a person experiences repeatedly higher happinesses, after sometime the intelligence dawns upon this person that these are all temporary happinesses, everything comes to an end, whatever is acquired will come to an end and whatever is not acquired will alone last forever. So then his eyes get opened even though the scripture is open to that person all the time and he becomes awakened to the fact that there is one method, that is any attainment of the world is short, temporary, beset with three defects called Doshatrayam of which we discussed elaborately. Then he wants such a person. Who is such a person? A person who leads a Vedic guided life. Such a person alone is fit to be called Vaidika. Simply saying my father was a Brahmana, my grandfather was a Rishi will not do. That is everybody has to eat for himself, everybody has to sleep for himself. There are certain things which we have to do ourselves which others cannot do. Even if I say Ram Krishna, I make fun, you know. Ram Krishna was very fond of sweets, especially two. One is called Jalebi, another is called Sandesh. So my saying is that if Ram Krishna had enjoyed Jalebi and Sandesh, what good is it going to do to me? I must enjoy it. So for that I have to work out. Of course I can pray to him. So show me the shop where the best Jalebi and Sandesh is available and he will enlighten my buddhi. That is a different story. But I have to obtain it. I have to experience it. This is Swami Vivekananda's greatest interpretation of the scriptures. There is nothing called experience by proxy or you get to heaven by faith. There are so many people, so many religions. By faith you will go to the kingdom of heaven. No, you will not. Nobody can go. What do I mean? I mean if there is faith, then that faith itself transforms our life. It makes us from a selfish person and transforms us into an unselfish person. So faith can work about which we are going to talk soon. So the person turns to a scripture and then the scripture tells him that you don't need to attain. You cannot attain not because it is impossible but because it is unnecessary. You are already what you are seeking. And that statement comes as a tremendous shock, a revelation. And okay, I may have faith in it but how to transform that faith into reality. That is the purpose of sadhana or spiritual practice. Such a person must approach a qualified Guru. And who is that qualified Guru? A qualified Guru is one, as we discussed earlier, who is endowed with, first of all, he must be a person who has reached the goal. Such a person is called a Rishi. Secondly, he must be a knower of the scriptures because he has followed the scriptures to what we call to the T. That means full stop, comma, everything with absolute faith. We get this beautiful idea so beautifully expounded in Kata Upanishad. Nobody can understand Kata Upanishad unless he puts tremendous effort to understand that single sentence shraddha avivesha. Shraddha possessed Nachiketa. And the rest of it is only an explanation of those two words shraddha or one word shraddha. So a Guru must be Shrotriya. Then Avrujina. How do we know he is a realized soul? Because only one realized soul can understand another realized soul. One Jeevan Mukta can alone understand the other Jeevan Mukta. One Einstein alone can understand other Einstein. We may guess what he is if we are not qualified. But we will not have complete understanding, appreciation of the other person. So he must be a person who has reached and he has followed his scriptures. He had tremendous faith towards his own Guru. That is why sampradaya is given so much of importance. I want to bring out that subject right now even though I planned to do it later on. See, why did Sri Ramakrishna need to take sanyasa? When Totapuri looked at him for the first time, he understood this man is completely fit to take sanyasa. This kind of judgemental statements are extremely rare. How many Gurus looking at the disciples can say this person is such a person and then what happens when a person is completely found to be having all the qualities? Let us turn to Katha Upanishad. Yamadharma Raja tested and then he said, Nachiketa, you have already attained what you wanted to attain. How come Yamadharma Raja even did not start teaching? But then he understood that a person who has these qualifications like Nachiketa, for him, the moment the truth is given, immediately he will realize it. Like Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Saradhanandi writes in his Great Master, any particular type of practice he had undertaken, within three days he reached his goal. But even that may be a remote statement. Totapuri, he saw, he understood, I will give him sanyasa ceremony and made him a sanyasi and then initiated him into our particular Mahavakya, Aham Brahmasmi and gave him some preliminary instructions, asked him to sit and meditate. But he himself, though he said, I have never seen another person who is so much endowed with these qualifications. All those qualifications necessary for the complete successfulness in any endeavour, this man already possesses. He did not understand his own understanding. Then he initiated. He expected him. So I struggled for 40 years. This man, he might get maybe one year less or five years less, but immediately he never expected it. How do we know that he did not expect it? Three days he observed him. He was wonderstruck and then he admitted, what a divine maya, because he never expected such things. So what is the point I am making? When the proper qualifications are in full evident, then the person reaches the goal instantaneously. As if as soon as the light comes, the darkness vanishes simultaneously. There is no time gap. So this guru must have had that kind of shraddha and so naturally he attained that one. And then why does he want to teach? Really speaking, I spoke in the Gospel class about this. A jivanmukta is not the same old person. It is God only who is trying to work out that particular body-mind instrument so that old man is dead. This is only God. That is why it is said, And then this person, such a person is qualified to teach others. So why is this particularly mentioned here? Because we see that there are so many jivanmuktas and God does not choose every jivanmukta to be a teacher. There are so many wandering jivanmuktas. For example, Sri Ramakrishna himself met several of them at Dakshineshwar, but they were not only looking normal, they were looking terribly abnormal, full of madness, like a gowl. Some jivanmuktas are described as childlike, some are described as completely inert, jadavat, balakavat, punmadavat, completely mad, vishachavat, gowlish, very ferocious looking. Sri Ramakrishna had experienced all these things. So why God doesn't use every jivanmukta's body or He might be using? And in what way? That remains a locked mystery to all of us. But certainly every jivanmukta is fulfilling God's will. Absolutely, there is no doubt about it. And then when the disciple is very earnest about it, so that is what some way Kananda says that first of all the person must have intense longing and he must be possessed of shraddha and he must be a third qualification, he must be possessed of shakti. Eka shraddha is okay, longing is okay, but whether the body-mind will be suitable for that. We get several examples in Sri Ramakrishna's life also and then he remarked about some devotees, you are a good man, but in this life you are not going to realize God. And in some cases Ramakrishna was touching people and passing higher experiences to other people, but in some cases categorically even in that state he said that not this time but sometime in future. These are all beautiful incidents we have to meditate upon and enjoy them. So shraddha must be there, absolute shraddha. What is shraddha? We have already seen how Shankaracharya, the master not only of realization of even the language, very few people can write with that facility like that Shankaracharya. So he has defined beautifully, shastra guru vakyeshu satya buddhiya vadharana, for a person who every word of the scripture is a truth. Whatever comes out from his guru's mouth that is the truth, that is called shraddha. The problem now is we don't have shraddha. How do we know we don't have shraddha? Very simple, because whatever we believe 100% that is where our actions and reactions will be there. Whatever it may be there. You may be saying I am a devotee, I have devotion, but you remember somebody who insulted you every day, but you say I believe in God, but rarely. Rarely means what? Even when you specifically sit for meditation to think about God, then your mind is wandering to that fellow who looked down contemptuously. One look is enough, he did not even open his mouth. What does it show? You have more shraddha towards the reality of this person than even God himself. So we have to obtain shraddha and Sri Ramakrishna was very particular about this shraddha. So we will talk as much as possible in today's class about shraddha. How to obtain shraddha? There are two particular hymns or suktams. One is called medha suktam. Medha means right intelligence and for that it should come from God only. We believe that it is the Divine Mother who is the embodiment of all these qualities. Ya Devi sarva bhuteshu shraddha roopena samsthita. Ya Devi sarva bhuteshu buddhi roopena samsthita. How to obtain that faith or how to awaken that Divine Mother in that particular format? So if a person wants to meditate or become a musician, then he or she must meditate upon the Divine Mother in the form of knowledge. If a person wants tremendous power, Ya Devi sarva bhuteshu shraddha roopena samsthita, then meditate upon Mother Kali and like that there are particular manifestations of the Divinity expressing or fulfilling particular types of desires. So there are suktam. Suktam means it is discovered by a realized soul to fulfill the needs of people like us who want to attain something. And medha suktam gives us that right knowledge. And right knowledge, what does it produce? It produces whatever the scripture is telling and that is the truth. So mayi indriyam dadhatu. Mayisuryo brajo dadhatu. Like that prayers are there, concluding prayers in the medha suktam. So please refer to it. But there is another suktam and it is found in Rig Veda in mandala 10, that is sukta 151 and it is aptly named as shraddha. In my last class, I also have told about nama japa. When we want to repeat the name of God, simply don't go on repeating. First of all, you salute your own mantra or the name of God. What is a mantra or name of God? Salute it. Say O Nama. Nama means the name of God. O Nama, you please bestow your grace and so that you become awakened. So I don't need to repeat with tremendous effort. Effortlessly, spontaneously, you should manifest yourself in me. This is called mantra chaitanya or we can also call it nama chaitanya. So if we pray to the name of the God and that is why it is said the name of God is even more powerful than God himself. Ram Krishna himself gives a beautiful example. Hanuman uttering the name of Rama crossed the ocean in a trice. But the man whose name he uttered, for him a huge bridge had to be built. And Hanuman was the main, what is called, labourer who used to bring huge mountains. And they say even now it is there. It is called Ram Chaitu and Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka now. So it is very necessary to pray to the Divine Mother. Then the Divine Mother will come in the form of Medha or in the form of Shraddha. Shraddha in Guru's words. Because Guru is the one who interprets the words of the script. So how do we know scriptures are true? Because it is just like a scientific experiment. Some scientists have discovered a method to produce certain result and then he publishes it. There are other people who are very intelligent. Quickly they understand how to operate and then they make the experiment. And if it is scientific, it must yield exactly the same result. So same way if my Guru or his Guru experimented and they obtained the result, the same result which was obtained by the first person who discovered that experiment. In this case, realization of God. So how do we know that the scripture is telling us truth? Because the proof is my Guru. Whatever is described as the characteristics of a realized soul or I see in this person, in front of my eyes. So you see what I am driving to instill into all of us is that you can't simply say I have faith, I have faith. That is a vain sound which makes no meaning. But when I see that my Guru is teaching me that and he is an embodiment of what he is teaching and he is always joyful. That's why I told you how do we know that this person is a spiritual person. The first quality that we see in a spiritual person, without any means of happiness, he is continuously happy because he has become God. God is of the nature of bliss. Therefore, anybody who has become God, he must manifest the same. In fact, God has got three qualities. That is Sat. He doesn't know what is called change. What it is? He is ever-existent. Secondly, God is of the nature of pure consciousness. He is always conscious. And third is of course bliss, Ananda. And anybody who becomes God, he must be Sat. The very word Sat is not only existence, a stone also exists but that is no good for us. Here Sat means other meanings are there. He is good, he is pure, he is unselfish and nothing but truth comes out of his mouth. Sat. That is why Ramakrishna used to say cultivate the holy company. Sat Sangha. Then it leads to Satya Sangha. Then it leads to Sat which is none other than God himself. Same process with the other two qualities called Chit and Ananda. So when a person sees does God exist or not, is it true what the scripture is trying to tell in so many different ways, so many scriptures, everything becomes true because I see in front of me a person. Even if I read thousand scriptures without coming across a person who is ever happy and at the same time who is all good and there is an invariable relationship between goodness and purity or pure knowledge and happiness. A wicked person may appear to be happy but he can never be happy and here we have to have that intelligence to understand because our conclusion is this person is wicked and so he is obtaining everything by hook or crook. So even if I attain that I can become hook or crook and then just like this person I will enjoy. No, that is not going to work out. So when I see in front of me then it is possible that I will develop faith only by cultivating the company of people who have this Shraddha. Can we develop Shraddha not merely by listening to lectures etc. And in this Rig Veda, 10th Mandala, Shukta number 151, there is a beautiful Shuktam. It is a prayer to the Shraddha Devi, that is the Divine Mother in the form of Shraddha. Shraddha, Divine Mother herself is manifesting as Shraddha. And here it goes, very plain meaning I am giving and we have to meditate on each one of them. Shraddha makes the fire burn splendidly. When a person is doing Agni with Shraddha, naturally he will do whatever is necessary. And as a consequence, the fire burns spontaneously, splendidly because he is fulfilling the conditions. But more than that, the fire itself becomes manifest in the form of the deity as it happened to many Rishis. But especially Satyakama Jabala, when he was tending the fires, every evening he used to make up this fire and then sit in front of it. And then one day the fire spoke to him, O Satyakama, I am going to teach you one quarter about Brahman. So first a bull, then fire, then two birds and with that each taught one quarter, one quarter, one quarter, one quarter, hundred percent. When Satyakama Jabala reached his Guru's place, Guru immediately said, your face is shining like an Oira Brahman, who taught you? And then Satyakama says that other than human being, what does he mean? Means not the bull, not the fire, but the Divine Mother who is there in the form of Ya Devi Sarva Bhutesho Vidya Roopena Samsthita, She who is manifest in the form of pure knowledge. She manifested as if in the form of the bull, fire and two birds. But the end result is Satyakama Jabala became an Oira Brahman. So when a person is endowed with this, Shraddha makes the fire burn splendidly and we have to connect all these things in Sri Ramakrishna's life. There are so many incidents. Ramakrishna started doing worship of the Divine Mother and there is a mantra called Agni Mantra. As soon as he took a little bit of water, sprinkled it all around with the mantra Ram and Sri Ramakrishna was endowed with 200% faith. And then immediately he saw a wall of fire springing up and that is what I think is indicated here. When a person is endowed with that Shraddha, he brings out the fire by rubbing. Immediately it becomes burning splendidly. So Shraddha makes the fire burn splendidly. The oblation when this person offers with Shraddha, that is accepted immediately and Shraddha is the best among all kinds of wealth. What does it mean? It means if a person is endowed with this Shraddha, then that is the instrument which will give him not only worldly happiness but the highest Brahma Ananda also he will get. And in my last classes, past classes, I have quoted the story of Sabari from the Ramayana. Because she was endowed with this Shraddha, then God himself came. She never went out anywhere. She never went on a pilgrimage but Rama himself came and Rama gave her Moksha, liberation. And Rama had performed her what is called last rites Shraddha, Agni, etc. Now see, Shraddha is the best among all kinds of wealth. If anybody is endowed with this wealth called Shraddha, he attains everything. And we assert this fact with our words of praise. Because Vachasa Vedayamasi, O Divine Mother Shraddha, we are only conveying because You bestowed or You are manifesting within us in the form of Shraddha. Priyam Shraddhe Dadataha, Priyam Shraddhe Deedasataha, Priyam Bhojeshu Eshwasvidam Ma Uditam Kruthi. Directly addressing the Goddess called Shraddha. O Goddess Shraddha, bestow pleasing and agreeable things on one who is charitable and also on the one who wishes to be charitable. Why should you bestow your grace, O Divine Mother? Because this person is most charitable, means unselfish. And another person, similar, he wants to become charitable. Because once that determination, Sankalpa is done, to do charitable work and to become unselfish and God Himself manifests in that person. That is what Shri Ram Krishna advised in His simple words to Mathur Babu, that you are only a trustee. That which Divine Mother has given you, it is meant as a trustee to be given to the rightful persons. What a marvellous thing it is. And then Yatha Deva, Asureshu Shraddham Ugreshu Chakrire, Evam Bhojeshu, Yajvasva Asmakam Uditam Kruthi. The Gods, you know, in our mythologies, there is a continuous, what is called friction, battles between the Gods and the Asuras. That is to say, each one of us are possessed of both the good samskaras, tendencies and evil tendencies. They are fighting with each other. One part of us wants to be spiritual, the other part wants to be worldly. At the beginning, only the worldliness conquers. But divinity cannot be suppressed, cannot be thrown out, much less destroyed. And it will assert its power sooner or later and if necessary through suffering and the person will turn to spiritual life. So the Gods pay particular attention to the frightening demons. What does it mean? Here is a demon and how can we overcome that? So a demon is necessary to frighten us so that we can turn towards God. Every suffering is nothing but a demon working indirectly to fulfil the purpose of the Divine Mother. This child of mine is not turning towards me with prayer. So he should come only to me, only through this, what is called unhappy or suffering experience. So what happens? These people, invariably we see in our mythologies, whenever they are defeated, they become frightened. And then they have forgotten God until that time. That is the root cause of their suffering. And then they come running to Vishnu or Brahma or Shiva and pray, please rescue us, we have forgotten. So the interpretation of the mythologies should be very, very clear for us. That simply saying, Oh God, you please save me, God is not going to save me. Have you become reformed? Have you recovered your original nature? At the beginning, how did you become a God? Because you lived a godly life as a human being. And as a result, you became a God. But now, having obtained this position, you became completely intoxicated with enjoyments and forgot God and everything, lost Shraddha in the Divine. And then this is the result. And curiously, there was a great historian. His name was Arnold Toynbee in UK. And then he came to the same conclusion. Whenever people become civilized, they become weak, they become addicted to temporary happinesses. They become weak as a result. They become dependent upon slaves. And then a rough tribe, accustomed to tremendous amount of cold and heat and what is called lack of food, etc., become endowed with tremendous bodily as well as mental strength. And they fall like thunderbolts upon this civilized society, occupy their place. What happens after that? They adopt that civilization. And then they become addicted to that luxury. And the former gods now become demons. And the former demons have now become the gods. And the same Brahma Chakra goes on. They become weak. And then the former Devas come and conquer these fellows, kick them out. And these fellows realize their mistake. And this learning and relearning and relearning these lessons is what we call Brahma Chakra, Samsara Chakra. Nothing else. So just as the gods pay particular attention to the frightening demons by taking refuge to the Divine Lord, by showing reverence to the Divine, that is Vishnu or Shiva, in the same way, O Goddess Shraddha, we are showing reverence to you because we were demons. Now we have learnt our lessons. So Mother, kindly fulfill our intent towards our priests who perform rituals to enjoy the fruits thereof. So endow us with Shraddha. So that in the beginning, we will take to the first part of the teachings of the Veda, which is called Karma Kanda. And once endowed with that, we perform, we live a Vedic type of life. And we enjoy for a long time all the happinesses that can come. But every happiness comes with a big, what is called, fee. And then one day, these performances done with Shraddha, what do they do? They give us four results. Every virtuous act done gives four results. What is the first result? That is Shraddha, endowment with full faith. And when they find, if I do this one with faith, I am getting this result. Slowly the Shraddha, like muscle exercised in the gymnasium, becomes stronger and stronger and still more strong. That is the first one, Shraddha. Secondly, mind becomes, what is called, focused, concentrated. Mind comes under control. This is the second result. Third result will be that the mind becomes Chitta Shuddhi, pure. That is, it acquires the ability to understand the deeper meanings of the scriptures. And the last, fourth result is Chitta Vaishaliyata. As a person has higher experiences, he understands that there are higher and still higher Gods. The higher the God, the larger will be his universality. For example, Indra is only identified with Indraloka. But Brahma is identified with the whole universe. Vishnu is identified with the whole universe. How do we know? Because in the Vishnu Sahasranama, the very first name that comes is Vishwam. He who is manifesting as the entire universe, He is Vishnu. Then only, second name only, Vishwam Vishnuhu. And interesting, then Vashatkaraha. What is Vashatkaraha? All the rituals are done according to the direction of the second part of the Veda called Brahmana. Part of it. That is performance of the rituals. So perform the rituals. It produces more result. And the result produces Shraddha. Shraddha makes us rise higher than what we were before. So our identity with the higher and higher, still higher reality goes on increasing. That is how the four results, as we said, will happen. Concentration, then complete faith, increase of the faith, and then the ability to understand things in the right manner. And the mind transcending the lower lokas and obtaining higher. Until our eye is completely fixed on the very highest. These are the four results of doing any of these Yajnas and Yagas. As I mentioned earlier, if I am personally doing something, it is called Ishta. Whatever makes me a better person is technically called Ishta. But I cannot become better unless I expand my personality. So higher happiness means what? If I am eating something, my happiness is very limited. But if I am distributing it and eating it with many others, my happiness will be the happiness of all your people. Interestingly, when a mother forgoes eating tasty things, she might have cooked something, a small quantity. But when the child is enjoying the delicacy, she is prepared to give the whole thing to others, to her children. And she derives higher happiness. And the same thing happened when Parick disciples prayed to Sri Ramakrishna during the last days. Pray that you may be able to eat something. And then he had a tremendous revelation. Why? Am I not eating through all of you? Am I not deriving so much of joy? Only I have to eat like an ignorant person for myself. Then only you think I know what is called this happiness. So whoever is very charitable, whoever is leading a good life, transforming his life, To him, O Mother, O Goddess Shraddha, kindly fulfil our intent towards our priests who perform rituals to enjoy the fruits thereof. That is how performance of rituals slowly leads a person to higher and higher state of consciousness. Then Shraddham Deva Yajamana Vayu Gopa Upasate Shraddham Hridaya Kutya Shraddhaya Vindate Vasu The Devas and the performers of rituals protected by the Divine Mother in the form of Vayu are worshipping Goddess Shraddha. And all worship Goddess Shraddha with devotion, intent in their heart. And thereby one gains Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha all through Shraddha. We invite the Goddess Shraddha in the morning. We invite Goddess Shraddha at noon and at sunset and by implication throughout the 24 hours. O Goddess Shraddha, bless us that we may have Shraddha in this life, at this time and in the place. This ends the Shraddha Sukta. There are five mantras are there. O Mother Shraddha, you have to bestow your grace. But what does it mean? It means endow me with Shraddha all the time. Morning, afternoon, evening, night. Let there not be a single second when I am bereft of Shraddha. How is it possible? Only by your grace. Because you are the Divine Mother. Now, if we want to interpret the different manifestations of the Divine Mother that we get in the Durga Saptashruthi, Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu and then that particular quality is mentioned. For example, Shraddha Roopena Samsthita, Buddhi Roopena Samsthita, Tushthi Roopena Samsthita, etc. There are so many manifestations of the Divine Mother and their mantras. If we can, with faith, repeat those mantras, we get that result. I always tell you, if you are not getting sleep, then you repeat that mantra. Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu Nidra Roopena Samsthita. She who is manifest in the form of Nidra. I don't understand. You have to excuse me. Why Swami Vivekananda was ignorant of this? He should have repeated the mantra and he should have got better sleep. Anyway, is that only a person who is not getting sleep? No. A person who is troubled by too much of sleep. So, it is the same Goddess who will awaken. Is there any proof for that? Brahma hymns to the Divine Mother because Vishnu was overcome with terrible sleep. And then the Divine Mother said, I must bestow my grace upon Brahma and then he should be protected. So, she withdrew herself from Vishnu. Suddenly, Vishnu woke up, saw the demons Madhu and Kaitava and slayed them and thus saved Brahma. I have spoken on the symbolism of these three stories in my earlier talk. You might even refer to it. So, this is called Shraddha Suktam. And one develops the Shraddha in the Vedas by constantly offering frustrations in the form of repeating the Shraddha Suktam or Medha Suktam or both. So, we must do everything. Our whole life must be endowed with Shraddha only. And the word Hindus understand it as Shraddha. It means the last rite after a person gives up the body because it is faith. Shraddha. This word Shraddha comes from the word Shraddha. And what it has got to do with this word Shraddha? It is the Shraddha, faith that this person's physical body is gone but he is not dead. He obtains a new body either in the higher worlds or the lower worlds or on this earth itself as a human being. And every scripture gives the proof for this again and again in Bhagavad Gita, in the Upanishads, everywhere. And even the process how a dead person is reborn. That is called Panchagni Vidya. That comes in the Chandogya Upanishad. And so Shraddha is very necessary. That is why Shri Ramakrishna gave a very beautiful interpretation of this word Shraddha about which there are some other things we have to talk which we will do in our next class.