Bhagavad Gita Ch12 part 10 on 09 January 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM VASUDEVASUTAM DEVAM KAMSACHANURA MARDANAM DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURAM SARVO PANISHADHO GAVO DOGDHA GOPALANANDANA PARTHO VATSAH SUDHIR BHOKTA DUGDHAM GITAM RITAM MAHAT MOOKAM KAROTI VACHALAM PANGUM LENGHAYATI GIRIM YAD KRIPATAMAHAM VANDE PARAMANANDAMADHAVAM We are studying the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which is very aptly named as the chapter on Bhakti Yoga, the chapter on devotion. And in this, the Lord has highlighted certain beautiful points. One, for most of the people, it is the path of devotion that is suitable. Why? Because people are highly, densely body conscious. In fact, we don't know anything else excepting that I am the body. Even the mind is also a terrible slave to the body, excepting in few exceptional cases, where for example, great scientists, great artists, great writers, poets, etc. We know they get absorbed, forgetting food, etc. Even they are not spiritual in a way, but they are far higher than most of the humanity. So for people who are sincerely struggling to progress in spiritual life, the easier path would be the path of devotion. In simple words, if we are subjected to emotion, then devotion, convert emotion, strengthen it and make it one and direct it towards God, that is called Bhakti Yoga. But lest people may think that if we become very emotional while listening to devotional songs, while doing japa, meditation and shed tears, that is no great deal and doesn't at all prove that we are devotees. Only those people whose personality, whose life has been transformed by the acquisition of certain qualities, by the destruction or at least lessening of certain unspiritual qualities, such a person alone is worthy to be called a devotee. And here we are all subjected to slaves to praise by other people. Somebody says we are very great devotees, we feel very happy, but it is not anybody who can give certificate. Only the Divine Lord Himself must give certificate and He gives a certificate. In what form does He give a certificate to us? In the form of drawing us nearer and nearer. When God says this person who had acquired these qualities, He is very dear to me, He also means He is very near to me. And as Sri Ramakrishna puts it, when a man approaches nearer to the seashore, he feels the cooling breeze more and more. So also a devotee who is approaching God by the acquisition of these spiritual qualities, he feels more and more joy, more and more peace, more and more devotion. It is very important for us what are these qualities that we need to develop and to discard. When the Lord says you need in order to be a devotee to acquire these qualities, by the same token He is also telling us these are the opposite qualities and these need to be discarded. As we may move towards the East more and more, the West recedes behind, but we have to make the effort. In our last class, we have been discussing about the 17th shloka where 5 important spiritual qualities have been explained. यो नःरिष्यति नद्रेष्टि नशोचति नकांशति शुभा अशुभा परित्यागि भक्ति मान यह सह मे प्रियः He who rejoices not and hates not, who grieves not and desires not and who has renounced both good and evil and is full of devotion, He is dear to me. So these are the 5 qualities we have to acquire and in the same coin we have to discard the opposite of these qualities. What does it mean? If this verse looks a little bit confusing, we have to be crystal clear about its meaning. He who never rejoices, does it mean he is a stone and he never hates? So is he also a stone? नशोचति, he never grieves and never desires anything. These are perfect characteristics of a lifeless anything, a cloud of earth or a stump of tree or a stone, anything like that. No, on the other hand, these are the highest spiritual qualities. What does it mean? When things become favorable, a person becomes a slave to that emotion called elation, exhilaration, excessive excitement. No, person rejoices certainly, gives thanks to God, accepts that as prasada that the Divine Lord Himself had given me this one for my own good. And in the same way, he never hates. Who can hate and what is the cause of hatred? Somebody criticizes us, does some harm, takes away something from us, deprives of us something, then there is the reason for hating somebody. It could be not only a human being, it could be also circumstance. It is very cold, it is very hot and we use certain abusive words as epithets, which I do not want to repeat it. Nashochati, when a person loses something to which he is attached, then he grieves. Nakamkshati, he doesn't desire, accepting what is necessary and accepting what is given to him as the result of his own actions done in the past or because this person practices. Karma Yoga, he offers everything, he takes a firm vow, I will do anything only to please God. Let us remember the saying of Brother Lawrence and he made an extraordinary statement, I will not lift a straw but for the pleasure of God. That means he will never do anything good or bad excepting for the pleasure of God. But we have to understand it, if a person is struggling to progress spiritually, what does it mean? It means he can tolerate anything good or evil but he cannot tolerate the other person's suffering. He loves the people because he sees the manifestation of God in everything including animals. I have got so many examples, one familiar example would be Brother Francis. He never harmed any creature, tried not to harm anybody and he was not frightened of what we call a ferocious wolf. We know how he encountered the wolf and addressed it as brother, converted the wolf into a very good Christian and he made that wolf a beloved of some villages where people wanted to kill him until that time and the children of those villages, especially one particular village have become so fond of this brother wolf that they will play with him, ride him, pull his hair, pull his ears but he will only love the children. After he came into contact with a Satpurusha, Saint Francis of Assisi, this wolf had turned into not only a good harmless innocent animal but he excelled many many worldly people in spiritual qualities all because of the association with such a great saint. We have to understand every one of these characteristics as a spiritual quality. A devotee really gets very very happy when he approaches God and if something is obstructing him then he will not hate it but he will strive all the more to get rid of the obstruction through prayer, through strong will, through effort to move forward. Similarly, if some personal loss, tragedy happens then also he is not going to grieve but he will grieve very much at the grief of other people. Nakankshati, personally he doesn't desire anything. Why? Does he not have any wants? Does he not lack something? Does he not feel hungry, thirsty? Yes, but like a small child, small baby in fact, he depends completely upon the Divine Lord. We come across hundreds and thousands of examples of these great saints who surrendered themselves to God and totally dependent upon Him. In such a devotee's mind, there is nothing called good and evil. In the kingdom of God, there is nothing called good, nothing called evil. Everything is wonderful. Everything is spiritual. Shubha, Ashubha, Parityagi. Does it mean the world sometimes goes up and down? Happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, heat and cold? Yes, but Parityagi, he renounces, means he changes his mentality. Let good come, well come. Let evil come, well come. Let life come, well come. Let death come, well come. Let loss come, well come. Let gain come, well come. Let anything come. He is firmly convinced only by the bidding of God, by the will of God. Whatever happens in his life, it only comes because of him. If these five qualities can somehow be acquired and made strong and made natural, such a person is considered Bhaktimaan. He is the only devout person and not others by implication. Such a person is very dear to me because these are the things that pull us, keep us away from God. This was what we have discussed in our last class. Now the Lord is stressing. What does he do? He stresses sameness, desirelessness and freedom from the claims of claims of the lower egotistic nature at the foundation of spiritual life. All of us are required to lay a very strong foundation for spiritual life. Why? What does it mean foundation? Foundation means certain state of the mind. The mind should not be restless. It becomes restless, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. That is not a very desirable condition for those who want to think of God. If we are under the control of the mind, then sometimes we are happy. Most often we are not happy in taking God's name. Some nice TV program, some nice book. Suddenly we remember somebody, I have not spoken with that person for a long time. It is time for me to contact that person. Anything will do to relieve the tedium of thinking about God. That's why we have to first lay a very strong foundation. Why? This building called spirituality has to reach heavens. Even if I wanted to add some stories to our house, how much foundation we require, how strong a foundation we require to build a bridge to the very heaven itself. I am not talking in terms of space and causation, but as a simile. What a strong foundation it should be. If a house doesn't stand on a strong foundation and Jesus Christ, this example, this simile, very often in his teachings, it will simply, when the wind becomes a little strong, it just sways and collapses. So we need to build a very strong foundation. The Lord is adding nine more spiritual qualities as a foundation. In fact, it is not nine. All the qualities that the Lord himself, through his own mouth, has been teaching to all of us through the medium of Arjuna, all these qualities have to be acquired. One good thing about all this acquisition of qualities is, as I mentioned earlier, if we want good qualities, then they all come together. You cannot practice in isolation one simple good quality or for that matter, even one bad quality. If one bad quality, it will pull all its friends and relatives. And if it is a good quality, it does exactly the same thing. If by the grace of God, if we pray sincerely to God, all the good qualities slowly albeit surely, or I would put it this surely albeit slowly, they will come to us because when God is gracious to us, he wants to draw us to him. And therefore, he will not be deterred by any failure on our part. This was what Sri Rama once says with regard to Viveshana. If anybody once says sincerely to me, Oh Rama, I am yours, I belong to you. Thereafter, let that devotee do whatever he likes. Let him try to slip away from me, but I will not give him up. I will hold on to his promise and to make his promise true is my promise. We get very beautiful examples of this. In the Mahabharata war, Sri Krishna took a vow that I will not fight with any weapon, but I will lend all my armies. Duryodhana chose everything other than Krishna. Arjuna, though he had the first choice, he chose only Bhagavan Krishna because instinct told him if wherever there is Krishna, there is bound to be victory. Why? Because there is bound to be wisdom, there is bound to be dharma, righteousness. And yato dharmaha tato jayaha. Where there is dharma, there will be sure victory to be there. So in the end, that has proved to be absolutely right. Now Bhishma heard what Krishna had, what vow Krishna had taken. So he took a vow. He said I will make Krishna break his promise. That was his vow and actually a day had come when Krishna had to confront Bhishma, took up a weapon because there was nobody who could stand that day Bhishma. So Krishna said let me break my vow, it doesn't matter. But for the good of the world, for the victory of the Pandavas, I will break my vow. Later on Bhishma came down and then he surrendered to Krishna and said Oh Krishna, how gracious you are. You are willing to break your own vow but you will not allow another devotee's vow to be broken because you are bhakta vachala, you are the mother and father of the devotees. How Bhishma understood? Krishna was not willing to break his vow just because he wanted to protect. For the protection of his devotees, for keeping up the vow of his devotees, for making the vow of the devotees absolute truth, he is willing to break and get bad name etc. And this we get in the life of Ramakrishna. He made a categorical statement. If anybody prayed to me sincerely once in his life, he will have to come to me and I will have to lift him up. The same Ramakrishna who promised in the form of Rama is reinforcing that promise in the form of Ramakrishna. And that is what Bhagavan Krishna also says, Oh Kavanteya, you broadcast without fear. My devotee shall never perish. Madh Bhaktaha, my devotee shall never counter with perishing. He will not perish because I am responsible for that devotee. If we are sincere, pray to God, try our level best, God will endow us with all these qualities. Now let us deal one by one with these nine qualities which are evenly spread in two verses, 18 and 19. Such a man is dear to me. Some of these ideas we did discuss earlier also but for re-emphasizing to see that they are strongly impressed in our brains. The Lord is repeating but the commentators also give slightly different meanings so that we can enjoy the same shlokas much more. In this world, we must be equivalent. Everybody has to go through this what we call dualities. Life is nothing but dualities. Cold and heat, happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, honor and dishonor, loss and gain, victory and defeat, and friends and foes, this is called life. In one simple phrase, it is said dvandvas, dvandva. This idea we get in the second chapter also but it is much more elaborated here. That person who is aspiring to be a devotee, he will not have any enemy because who is an enemy? He who gives us trouble, he is an enemy. And he who does good, he is a friend. This is the real definition. He who praises us whether we deserve or not, he who flatters us, he is not a friend, he is an enemy. And that person who criticizes us seriously, sincerely, finding and highlighting our faults, in case we are not aware of them, he is more of a friend than of an enemy. But in normal understanding, a person who makes us lose something and another person who brings us something which gives us happiness, such persons are called either our enemy or our friend. But for a devotee, there is no enemy, there is no friend. Why? Because such a devotee, what does he see? The same Brahman is manifest everywhere. The same God is manifest everywhere, first of all. Secondly, if something good occurs, who is giving? Not the instrument, not another person, but it is God. If some unhappiness is our lot, then who is giving? Not anybody, not any person, but it is the Divine Lord in accordance with the actions that we have done in the past. Here one of the things that we have to specially keep note is that when we have done something wrong, the result will come by the grace of God. But as Holy Mother says, it may be so mild. We get the opportunity to learn our lesson, but it will not give us unbearable pain because we are sincerely striving to be devotees. God knows it and He is within us, outside us and He gives us just to awaken us, but not to make us suffer like a mother punishing the child. Similarly, if we have done something good, the Lord also will give little bit in moderate proportions so that we won't be overwhelmed. We won't be too much attached. So for a devotee, everything is God and what is spiritual life? Nothing but seeing God. So samaha shetraujya mitreja. Tatha, exactly in the same way, maana apamanayo. Somebody honors us, somebody dishonors us. And if a devotee is honored as a great scholar, as a wonderful singer, as a wonderful speaker, as a wonderful writer or as a wonderful philanthropist or in whatever way, great friend of humanity, we have to remember every power, whether it is knowledge or energy or good intention, they all belong to God. It is a manifestation of God. We should never take any credit for it. That is the idea here. Somebody, he honors us and if he honors us, that person found some good quality within us. But that good quality is, as Bhagavan Krishna says, It's me manifesting. Similarly, apamana. If somebody insults us, dishonors us, something to pull our name down, then that is a great grace of God. Why? Because spiritual life must progress only through secretly, not in public. The more public comes to know, the more harmful, obstructive such a spiritual practice is there. Let me illustrate it. If apamana comes, we have to understand two things. First, it came not from anybody. Though it comes through somebody, not because of that person, because of some unrighteous, evil, improper action, which we call adharma in Vedantic language, that we have done either in the past in this life or it may be in the past lives. Secondly, this devotee, when it comes, it comes deservedly. The other person is only just an instrument. That's what Krishna advises Arjuna in the last chapter, 11th chapter. But if apamana comes, it is a great awakener because it gives us the opportunity. Am I dependent upon God? I am having this dishonor. Who is giving this? It is only the Divine Lord is giving us. This is the second way we have to take it. But there is a third way is there and this is a great opportunity for us to really test our spirituality against these things. If somebody doesn't praise, somebody doesn't dishonor, our mind is not likely to get excited or depressed. In which case, we don't know whether we are progressing in spiritual life or not. I'll give you a beautiful real example that happened, that happens, that is going to happen in everybody's life. There is nobody in this world who is not honored, who is not also dishonored. More dishonor than honor. In Japan, there was a Zen monk. He was living in a village and the people really honored him because of his pure life. There was a young girl, unmarried and she became suddenly pregnant. And when the parents pressed her, she named this monk as the father of that child and the people went, beat him up, abused him and then said that you have done something very wrong. Calm and quietly, he went on bearing with that. After a few months, this girl had given birth and immediately the villagers, they came, brought that baby, said this is your baby. We don't want our girl to have this. You bring this baby up. And most lovingly, the Japanese monk went on bringing up this baby and he had to work very hard. So, every prayer, everything is centered around that baby and 2-3 years passed. That girl who named this monk as the father, she could not tolerate it any longer. She confessed it was with a neighboring young man that she had this child. The monk was totally innocent. The villagers understood, came rushing, fell at his feet and went on babbling excuse after excuse, please pardon us. When they abused him and beat him, his face was very calm and quiet. When these people begged pardon and went on praising him, he kept the same face. He said it has nothing to do with you. God has given me. It's my prarabdha. I have to put it up with it and of course, you know, soon after that he left that village and shifted his residence to some other place. Whatever it is, every person in this life has to go through rich, poor, kings or non-kings. Just look at what is happening to the world leaders. How much of abuse is being heaped upon their heads from every side. Every person will have some good qualities, some not so good qualities. Nobody can really escape these wonderful things that we are talking about. Whether it is what we call honor, praise, friend, enemy, we must try. We means those who are sincere in acquiring devotion. There is a beautiful incident. Swami Advaitanandaji is living at Varanasi and once a householder devotee came and he was in great grief. Advaitanandaji asked him, what happened? He said, Maharaj, my children, they don't listen to me. They disobey me and they do whatever they like. I brought them up with so much difficulty, so much of love, but they have turned so bad. He wanted to get some consolation. Then Latu Maharaj turned and said, Look, with how much difficulty, how much love God is bringing us up and we don't obey Him, we don't listen to Him, we don't take His name, we rarely think about Him. So when you can feel so much of pain because of your children's disobedience, how much God must be feeling who is an embodiment of love. Such a wonderful teaching. If we do not obey our Divine Mother, Divine Father, how much pain we must be causing them. But as Rabindranath Tagore so says, Life after life I was running away from you, but with the same loving gaze you are following. And once after a long time I looked back and I found you have never abandoned me in life. You have been looking at me with the same loving gaze. My child, the moment you turn towards me, I am ready for you. Such a beautiful poem. I do not remember the exact Bengali, this thing. But when I read it, said this is what exactly what God is doing to us. This was what I know, we know. Holy Mother had done even to her disobedient monks. Some monks had to leave, but her gaze was lovingly following. My child, do not forget. Wherever you are, you have a mother, call me when you are in difficulty. I will come to you and aid you. No question of taking revenge, but this is how we all give pain to our Divine Mother. Since how many aeons, yugas, the Divine Lord is waiting. This was the sentiment expressed by Swami Primesanandaji Maharaj in that unforgettable bhajan. Dei bhajan aroopashay re lila lahari, koto jugo goto, tumari ashay, samshay jato aji tirohit, jache amal, laho upahar, shapi no jeevan, tava shebhay. What is the Lord telling? Oh my child, how many aeons I have been waiting that you will turn towards me. Look at least once towards me, but I have never lost my hope and faith. Today I am overwhelmed with joy because you have once for all turned your gaze only towards me. Koto jugo goto, tumari ashay, samshay jato, whatever doubts I had, aji tirohit, they all disappeared just in one try. This jache amal, laho upahar, God is telling my child, whatever I have, I am offering it to you, shapi no jeevan. I lay down my life in your service. We foolish people, we think we can serve God. We think we can give things to God. What have we to give? Our body belongs to Him, our mind belongs to Him. If any such dishonor comes to us, it is a gift from God so that we can make our will strong, our devotion even more steadfast and turn towards God. Similarly, sita ushna, cold and heat, sukha dukha, happiness and unhappiness, these are all very common things. Samaha sanga vivar jithaha, we must keep our mind in equanimous mood. Then tulya nindas tutir mauni, we must be equanimous. Ninda, somebody is blaming us unnecessarily, somebody is praising us. I have seen so many of these dramas. My devotees praise me and those who do not like me, they condemn me like anything. I just say that if you condemn, it doesn't mean I am guilty of those things. If you praise me, I don't think that I am worthy of whatever you are attributing to me. Everything belongs to God and that is how I would like, I would try to keep my mind equi-poised. Tulya nindas tutir. Then mauni. Mauni means going on thinking. What we are thinking? Tattva, hitha, purushartha and hitha. What is the truth? God alone is the truth. Each soul is potentially divine. What is the purushartha? To manifest to this divinity by controlling nature, by controlling the mind and by developing this passion towards the external world. I am quoting from Swami Vivekananda. And manifest to this divinity either through karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, by one, more, all of these put together and be free. This is the whole of religion. Everything else is secondary detail. So to remember this constantly. Remembering God means remembering the ephemerality of this world. Remembering the dualities of this world. The only being where we can anchor our boat so that it will be protected from all storms. That is only God. That is called mauni, not mere silence, not mere suppression of what we call words. Santushtaha. Always we must have, as Patanjali says, saucha santosha. Santosha, whatever comes. Again, whatever comes to a devotee, he accepts it as prasada. And I do not mean only good things. Let good come. Let some unpleasant come. Both are prasada. Prasada, the divine offering from God and it is His grace. That is how we have to accept it. So whatever comes, santushtaha. But do not desire, why did this come? Okay, I will tolerate it. But I expect after some time something very positive, very good. No, sir. Whole life, if you want me to suffer, that is absolutely fine. The only one thing I will beg you and I will not allow you not to give me. I will pester you. Let me never lose devotion to the lotus feet. And let me not have any ulterior motive. Let it be pure for the sake of love of you, bhakti of you. Santushtaha enakena chit. By anything. Remember the story of that mad brahmagnani. Naira Brahman who visited Dakshineswar. He was not allowed by the beggars to sit by their side. By the way, we have to understand that at that time, plenty of very tasty food used to be cooked because that was the Rani Rasmani's wish. The food must be offered to the Divine Mother and the same food which has been offered to Divine Mother must be given to wandering monks, beggars or any other guests that come with the same love. Of course, because of social inequalities, the beggars used to get in a separate place. But they get the same food and in plenty. This great soul, because of his appearance, was not allowed to sit. What did he do? Santushtaha. He was so happy. He went to the refugee camp. A heap and there the food that was thrown could be today's food, yesterday's food. Dogs were eating. I am sure some birds are also there. Some insects were also crawling. But happily he put one hand on one of the dogs and went on eating. What was his mental state? Absolutely, Prabhu mere avaguna chitana dharo samadarishi hai. Namati haro. It's not merely an evocative statement but it is a felt truth. Santushtaha. Whatever comes, let good come, let evil come. Finally, let happiness come, let unhappiness come. It doesn't matter. Remember M used to get up sometimes in winter season and throw off his warm clothing and go down and open the door and then go step into the street. Many beggars will be huddling there putting whatever cloths they had in that winter and somehow curling themselves up and trying to bear and get some sleep. M used to sit there whole night. Somebody who was surprised seeing him there asked, why? He said, who knows? But for the grace of God, I also could have been in the same condition. If they could put up, why can't I put up? This is the difference between voluntary starving, voluntarily refraining from eating food and starving. A beggar also starves. A world renouncing monk also may starve. What is the difference? One is voluntary, another is completely involuntary. That's why the beggar suffers whereas the monk happily he accepts it. Sriram Krishna illustrates it. Beautiful story. A monk who was beaten to unconsciousness and when he was being slowly brought back to consciousness. Who beat you? The same one who is pouring milk into my mouth. And who became free from this dishonor? Was Rama dishonored or not? Was Krishna dishonored or not? Sathya, Harishchandra, Pandavas, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Buddha. Even attempts were made to kill him. And then Jesus Christ was crucified by his own tribe. What a shame it is even to think of it. Then what about Ramakrishna? He was kicked, he was abused. And what about Holy Mother? What about Swami Vivekananda? How much criticism he had to face especially in USA? And people wanted to do away with him at least on two occasions. How did he do? He simply said Shiva, Shiva. And as soon as he uttered Shiva, immediately he becomes free, cheerful. These are the characteristics of a devotee. We have to acquire as I said surely but albeit slowly. Then Aniketaha. Aniketaha means a place, definite place, guaranteed place to stay, a house. But a devotee says today you may keep me in a king's palace. Tomorrow under a tree. Day after tomorrow in a cave. Wherever you put, happily I will bear forward these things. I remember the incident of Swami Akhandanandaji. Once it so happened Swami Akhandanandaji was wandering in the Himalayas. And during that period somehow he saw a beautiful cave. Swami Akhandanandaji was a great lover of nature beauty. So he saw a beautiful cave. He decided that night he is going to spend in thinking about God meditation. But he came down to have some alms. And the village people upon seeing him, they developed a tremendous respect. And then upon inquiry he said after taking food I would like to go back to that cave. And then the villager said Swami please do not go. A man-eating tiger is seen roaming here. Already a few people were killed. So you better spend the night in one of our houses, whichever house you like. Early morning you make your way. So he was persuaded. And after some time he was lying down. A thought came. Did I lose faith in God? If God is there, is He not going to protect me? Immediately he got up. And in spite of the loving protests of the villagers, he made his way up. And the villagers were sure they will find the bones. But fortunately Sri Ramakrishna had saved him. These kind of incidents are there. All over the lives of the direct disciples etc. God is there. But does it mean that every time He saves? No. Sometimes they can also be killed either by accident. They could be also kicked. Saint John of the Cross was kept in prison and beaten regularly and severely by his own brother monks. Until one day God decided to make him free. Saint Teresa had to suffer so much. Jesus Christ had given commandment. You reform my church. And she took it very seriously. And she had to go through so much of abuse by her own nuns and monks. Because she was advising them. You have fallen down from your ideal. And you are bringing bad name and bad ideal to everybody. And they did not like to hear about it. And they put so much of difficulties. And added to her physical health was very very precarious. And one day she went to Jesus and said, Lord you only commanded me to do good. Why do you go on creating all these problems? Because the Lord is capable of removing these unnecessary things. But sweetly, sweet Jesus smiled very sweetly and said, That is how I treat my friends. In quick like lightning, the repose also came from Saint Teresa. Now I know why you have so few friends. If you are going to treat your friends in this way, there is no wonder you have such a few friends. Every devotee, if we study their lives, have to go through tremendous difficulties. I in the past had mentioned some incidents in the lives of devotees of Shiva. I may quote them also later on. But here is certain qualities. No person should ever think that I have a secure house. I have got health insurance. My income is fixed. All these are meant for people who do not have faith in God. A devotee should depend totally upon God. How many of our devotees are even willing to part a bit of their high income just thinking though the future inflation may be there, maybe there may be inflation in the finance system, but there will be deflation in their bhakti system. That people do not understand. These qualities have to be meditated upon. What is the take up of this quality? A homeless man. My only home is God. That's why Swamiji sang, And this devotee's mind is totally fixed. It will not move one millimetre from what it had decided to stick to it. This is called sthiramati. Anything can happen. The greatest example is Buddha. We will talk about it tomorrow. If any devotee has got these kind of qualities, he is called bhaktiman. Endowed with bhakti. So what is bhakti? Devotion. What is being endowed with bhakti? Only acquisition of these spiritual or devotional qualities. And another thing is, every devotional quality is a spiritual quality. Whether you call it the characteristics of jnana, or karma yoga, or bhakti yoga, or raja yoga, as explained by Patanjali, that yama and niyama. There is absolutely no difference. If anybody strives sincerely to acquire these qualities, such a person is sure to be endowed with bhakti because these qualities will only make that person get that knowledge. I and God are very closely related. I belong to God. He belongs to me. I am part of God. He is the whole and I am part. And in the final run, I am none other than God. These are the stages every devotee has to pass through, east or west, consciously or unconsciously. Such a devotee is very dear to me, and by implication, very near to me. We will discuss these things in tomorrow's class. Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Janura Marthanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti. May Swami Sivanandaji, Mahapurush Maharaj also bless us with bhakti. Today is his very auspicious Janma Tithi. Everywhere we celebrated and still celebrating in some places his birthday. May Ramakrishna.