Bhagavad Gita Ch14 part 04 on 23 May 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadogago Dogdha Gopalanandana Partho Achcha Sudeer Bhokta Dugdham Geetha Amritam Mahat Mukham Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yat Kripatamaham Vande Paramananda Madhavam We have been dealing with the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. It's called Guna Traya Vibhaga Yoga. It gives us a clear idea of the three Gunas. The whole universe has come out of a combination of Purusha and Prakruti. This combination of Purusha and Prakruti according to Sankhya has a new name according to Advaita Vedanta Brahman and Maya. A combination of Brahman and Maya is called Ishwara and Ishwara creates this universe. Creation means manifestation. Everything in this universe as I mentioned yesterday both living as well as non-living is the manifestation of nothing but Ishwara and so ultimate understanding there are no two principles. Only that pure consciousness manifesting through certain mediums is called Jada and that medium is called in the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita which we had studied as Aparaprakruti, my lower nature. Jiva or reflected consciousness is called Paraprakruti and Prakruti which seems to be inert is called the lower nature. In this universe everything is endowed with consciousness. In some it's not manifest. For example in a piece of stone, in water, in air, in fire, in space etc. So we call it inert. This body according to Advaita is called inert. This mind is called inert. But when pure consciousness joins this body-mind it is joined means manifest. Pure consciousness manifesting through this body and mind through any body and mind. It could be a microbe. It could be an ant. It could be a bird. Could be a plant. Could be any animal. Could be of course human being or devas, anything. That is what we call Jivatma. But it doesn't mean where consciousness is not manifest. It is wrong to think there is no consciousness. Merely it is not manifest that's all. Because the inviolable law, the effect must have the same qualities as the cause and the cause is Ishvara. And Ishvara as I just now we discussed is a combination of Brahman which is pure consciousness and Maya. And that's what we had been discussing in the third verse of this 14th chapter and that is where we have stopped yesterday with the third one. What is it? This whole universe is an outcome, a manifestation of both Purusha and Prakruti. Here it is called Brahman and it is called Mahabrahma. The Lord is telling a little bit of confusing words. That's why the commentators give us the help to understand properly. So this whole universe is what? The union of matter and spirit. Matter means Prakruti. Matter means Maya. Spirit means Brahman, Kshetrajna called Ishvara. Under the control of the Supreme Lord this Ishvara is the cause of the birth of all beings. This is the view of both Sankhya philosophy as well as Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Only difference is that according to Vedanta the Prakruti, Maya is not a separate principle but it is exactly one and the same. We chant the third verse. mamayo nihi mahabrahma tasmin gadbham dadhamyaham sambhavah sarvabhutana tato bhavati bharata Hey Bharata! Many times Bhagavan Krishna uses this word addressing Arjuna Bharata. Bharata means he who is born in the lineage of Bharata. It is said our country is called Bharata. Varsha Bharata Khanda because the founder's name was Bharata and Bharata was the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala and Shakuntala was the daughter of Vishwamitra Rishi and Menaka. Combination of these. This what we call India is called Bharata Varsha. From the lineage of Bharata after so many generations these Kurus have come. They claim we come from Bharata. Bharata Rishi or Bharata the great king. Now there is another meaning Bharata means Bha means light. Prakasha Tremendous knowledge. Bha means knowledge. Prata means one who is completely concentrated on this knowledge because as we understand Partho vachah Partha Arjuna is the cough through which the milk flows. This is what we are seeing here so wonderfully well that this Arjuna is a spiritual seeker. Arjuna is not an individual. He is representative of all of us. But here this beautiful meaning you spiritual aspirant who is completely sincerely engaged in spiritual practice with the goal of attaining to God. I am addressing to it. What is the knowledge? Earlier the Lord promised I am going to give you the highest knowledge not knowledge of physics, chemistry or any other knowledge but that self-knowledge by having which knowledge you will know who you are. You will know you are Brahman. You will know you are not different from me. You will know this whole universe is not different from you. The whole universe is nothing but Brahman. That's what he is telling. How do we know that each soul is potentially divine that you are Brahman, you are Atman because this whole creation is nothing but a manifestation of Brahman. Now we have to again clear the meaning of the word Srishti creation. In our experience in this world a potter creates a pot out of clay. So the clay is different. Potter is different. The instrument is different. The material cause of any object is called Upadana Karana and the intelligent cause is called Nimitta Karana. Let us use these English words intelligent cause and material cause. In this world both are separate. A mother for example gives birth to a baby. Baby is separate. Mother is separate. But that's not the meaning of the Srishti or creation. It is as Sri Ramakrishna puts it so beautifully the milk and its whiteness, they are not separate. Fire and its heating power are not separate. Heating power is not a quality. It is its very nature. You cannot separate. What is the nature? That which can never be separated is called nature. For example, if there is sweet water you can separate water. You can separate sweetness by a process of drying up or boiling the water or distilling the water. It is not in that sense. You can never separate. Heat means fire. Fire means heat. Similarly, fire means light. Light means fire. Similarly, sun is light. When we say sunlight, we mean sun's light as if the light belongs to the sun and is separate from the sun. This is my house. Me, I am different and house is different. Not like that. Here sun means light. Light means the sun. In that sense creation means this universe is Brahman. Brahman is this universe. Brahman's light, Brahman's manifestation, God's manifestation is called this world. With this understanding, let us proceed. Oh Bharata, how did this creation, what is this creation? It is nothing but my manifestation. But then here creation means some change. Change means two things are there. Apparently, according to Advaita Vedanta, one is Maya, another is Brahman, pure consciousness and inert Maya. That is what is being implied here. Oh, what does he say Bharata? Mahat Brahma mama yoni he This entire universe has come out from Prakruti, one Prakruti. How great must be! Here is a baby. She was given birth by a mother. Here is a puppy. It was given birth by a small dog, big female dog, female human being, female mosquito. That is only because every mother can give birth only to her limited capacity. But here we are talking about this entire unimaginably huge universe. According to scientists, there are billions of galaxies. Each galaxy contains billions of suns like our sun and ours is only a small galaxy. In that galaxy, billions of stars are there. Of that stars, our sun is only one and then compared to that sun, our earth is very, very, very tiny. You cannot even find it on the map and in that earth, we are sitting somewhere and ego-filled, we think we are the greatest. How can we imagine who is the cause of this unimaginable huge universe? That is called Prakruti and that is one and that huge Prakruti is my female partner. Female means here the inert material and I, the pure consciousness, I join. This is called giving the seed. There is some very interesting point we have to understand here. Here is a man, here is a woman and they have union and out of that union, a child is born. So it is said the man's rethus, it is a seed, the man's seed and man's seed joins with the woman's seed and the combination results in the fetus and the baby later on. Now the thing is does the father really give consciousness? No male human being or male being ever gives. Both are inert things. The bija of the father, the seed of the father, the seed of the mother, they are only 50% of seed as if a seed is divided into 50-50 and they have to come together in order to become one complete whole to manifest later on. This is the understanding we have to have whereas when the Lord is telling, He is not telling that I am pure consciousness and you are inert matter. Yes, you are inert matter but I am consciousness. What is the seed? Consciousness. What does it mean? Consciousness joins the inert seed. The seed called consciousness joins the seed called inertness and that inert thing immediately comes to consciousness and says I am somebody, I am a mosquito, I am an animal, I am a plant, I am a human being, etc., etc. This is how we have to understand this great Prakruti. It is called Brahman here. So do not mistake this word Brahma, Mahat Brahma. These two words as Parabrahma of the Advaitins. Here it means Maya. Mahat Brahma Mahat because this universe is great. Mahat means unimaginably great and Mahat Brahma means unimaginably great Prakruti and that is my field. Mama Yonihi means cause of this universe. That is called Yonihi and that is called field just like soil is the Yoni for the seed to take effect. So Tasmin in that great Mahat Prakruti Aham Garbham Dadami I keep my seed. As I just now mentioned the pure consciousness joins this so-called inert Maya and both of them what happens? The combination of both of them as if manifesting Tathah Sarva Bhootanam Sambhavah Bhavati This Srishti creation seems to have come as a result of consciousness as well as inert something and that is the great Srishti and from that great Srishti what has come out? Sarva Bhootanam Tathah from that combination of pure consciousness and inert thing Sarva Bhootanam Sarva means every Bhoota means what? Whatever is created. Whatever is manifested including rivers mountains water air fire space anything we experience in this world that has come out of that Tathah Sarva Bhootanam Sambhavah Bhavati Why is the Lord telling in this third shloka this particular fact to tell us to prove to us each soul is potentially divine. A cloud of earth is potentially divine. Is it potentially divine? Yes. A cloud of earth? Yes. A piece of stone? Yes. How does it happen? Because even according to science what was before life came what was everything inorganic that means life is not manifested. I won't say lifeless but unmanifested life just as a dead body it is there. When we say dead body is there a consciousness in dead body? Absolutely. It is nothing but manifestation of pure consciousness. Then why doesn't it react? Because the instrument is not there like a thoroughly paralysed person he is conscious but he doesn't have the instrument to talk and to express what is in his body and mind mutely he goes on looking. Like that inorganic matter as we know slowly starts to evolve. What is the first evolution? It becomes organic. What does organic mean? Slowly life seems to be manifesting itself like a train coming out of a huge miles together tunnel complete darkness. Imagine that you are travelling in such a train and at mind-boggling speed but the tunnel is very long. It could be of course 5 minutes journey or it could be 20 minutes journey. You know there are certain tunnels which are very very long. Imagine usually there will be light preserved by the batteries and created also by the movement motion. Imagine there is no light pitch dark thoroughly dark total dark and then as you are going on open your eyes go on looking you can't see anything of course you can feel the movement of the other people and slowly very very faint light starts coming and then you will see slowly that light is increasing and after some moments slowly you are in full light. This analogy that faint light is the first manifestation of prana microbes or amoeba one celled creature then it evolves into two cells multi cells then plants and then animals birds and then human beings etc. etc. This is a beautiful analogy. What is my point? Our point is that anything that we experience in this world that is called the world it is an object object because we experience it anything that we see is the outcome of the manifestation of pure consciousness and maya. That is the point. So the Lord is telling tatah sarva-bhutanaam sambhava-bhavati everything in this world is a bhuta even from the other viewpoint of the model pancha-bhuta model from atman manifested as space akasha akasha space manifested as air vayu vayu manifested as fire agni agni manifested as water jala jala manifested as prithvi urvi earth and from the earth everything has come the whole cosmos has come. This is similar understanding but a different model we see in the Taittiriya Upanishad. Now what is the point? Anything our body our mind and our consciousness our prana everything is the outcome of this creation. There is nothing outside consciousness that is the point. The next point is everything is a combination of prakruti and purusha brahman and maya called Ishwara that is only first stage. The last stage will be that Ishwara himself is only a manifestation of pure consciousness called brahman. So each soul is potentially divine. Nothing is excluded. That is why Sri Ramakrishna and holy mother have the incarnations for this age. Again and again tell us that everybody is not only potentially divine bound to know that they are divine. It may take time and that is the purpose of evolution. Continuous evolution is going on. We are all standing on this escalator called evolution and this escalator will take us ultimately to self-knowledge. I will give another analogy. We are standing on this escalator and trying to do a lot of things sometimes playing sometimes going down a bit again coming up but all the time the escalator is only taking us up and up towards where towards realization that we are brahman and then how does it do? We come to the final point of where we have to get out of the escalator and there is a huge mirror there and when we go there and lot of changes are taking place within our body and mind and when we come to that point where we have to step off the escalator and you know think supposing a person forgets to get out of the escalator you know what happens? He will stumble. The escalator will not take him further. It will simply throw him on the outside step. So also imagine linearly we are all bound choicelessly bound helplessly bound to evolve. There is no other way. So when we come to that step-off point at where the escalator ends and there imagine this is an analogy huge mirror will be there and we look at our reflection and that reflection shows us as we really are we are beyond the panchakoshas beyond the three cross subtle and causal bodies. We are pure Atman and that is bound to happen. Meanwhile some play is going on a little bit of drama is going on and from the highest standpoint of everything is called drama that is called in Sanskrit Daiva Leela Bhagavata Leela Leela means divine sport. That is how we have to understand every one of us are gopis and the Lord is playing with us. Sometimes he plays a bit of mischief not for his benefit but for our benefit. This is what we have seen yesterday that according to Sankhya Prakruti and Purusha are separate but according to Sri Ramakrishna according to the what is called Bhagavad Gita especially 7th chapter 13th chapter and now in the 14th chapter both Prakruti and Purusha are not separate principles but they seem to have pure consciousness seem to have divided itself as subject and object as the experiencer and the experienced the seer and the seen that's all it is a play. These two principles are called Shiva and Shakti. You see let us look at what Sri Ramakrishna is telling as Sri Ramakrishna says Brahman and Shakti are non-different. So this is what the Lord is telling O Kaunteya O Arjuna that whatever forms are produced it is nothing but a pure principle of Shakti Shiva and Shakti according to Tantras Brahman and Maya according to Vedanta Purusha and Prakruti according to Sankhya Yoga These two is the Srishti world world means duality duality means two things combined subject and object seer and the seen experiencer and experienced but as I mentioned this is a divine sport we will not understand it is a divine sport right now but we will be understanding it in future. Let us move on what is the essence of the third shloka the whole universe is the manifestation of combination of what is called Purusha and Prakruti consciousness and Maya the same idea is elaborated a little bit in the fourth shloka he says O Kaunteya whatever is seen to be born in this world on this earth not only on this earth according to Vedanta there are 14 Lokas are there according to Puranas there are innumerable worlds are there innumerable Brahmas are there so everything is an outcome of this Brahman and Maya called Ishwara or Prakruti and Purusha this is the essence of the fourth one Sarvayonishu Kaunteya Murtahya Sambhavanti Yaaha Taasam Brahma Aham Taasam Brahma Mahadyoni Aham Bijapradaha Pita Hey Kaunteya O Arjuna Sana Kunti Sarvayonishu in every female principle Yoni means the origin the cause a flower that flower is fertilized polonized by pollen either by wind or by bees etc. there are two principles the male and the female when the pollen joins this female and then it produces seeds and that becomes the cause so whatever be the female principle whatever form is produced O Sana Kunti in any womb could be mosquito could be microbe it could be corona anything the great nature is its womb and I am the seed giving father practically the same idea that we had seen in that what is the elaboration here that he is telling that every womb that means every female principle whether it is human or non-human in that the consciousness me pure consciousness join there I join because there is no other way that maya can be separate that pure consciousness is confined here and maya is separate from there because consciousness is infinite if it is infinite there cannot be second one if there cannot be a second one there cannot be something called maya is all as if a water is divided by a stick or if you put something in between a huge mirror there appears to be two images or image split into two so whatever form is produced whatever body is produced whatever mind is produced both are forms O son of Kunti in any womb mosquito womb plant's womb bird's womb animal's womb human being's womb good human being's womb or wicked human being's womb or the celestial being's womb it doesn't really matter the great nature is its womb and I am the seed giving father that means I am pure consciousness if I am not conscious then there is nobody who can experience just take a simple example if I do not have consciousness will I know that I am a being my name is Swami Dayatmananda and I am of such and such an age I am a monk I am living in Varanasi I am giving a talk on Gita if I am unconscious will I be able to even cognize that this is my body this is my mind this is my present activity can you do that can anything do that this great spiritual fact is being expounded here that everything in this universe is a combination of more consciousness as well as something called Prakruti or the great womb whatever form pertaining to gods angels men animals birds or trees created beings are produced inevitably from the union of Purusha and Prakruti by the power of the Lord the soul or spirit becomes then entangled in the world by its contact with the body or matter this is the important point when the consciousness and the body when they combine together as Shankaracharya in his introduction to Brahmasutras called Adhyasa Bhashya so beautifully expounds that two things which are completely separate in no way can be compared they come together the subject and the object and the subject thinks I am the object and the object thinks I am the subject this beautiful Maya of superimposing one's nature upon the other the nature of the consciousness is assumed in the material and the nature of non-consciousness is superimposed upon consciousness and the combination of these two is called Ahamkara egotism and this egotism what does it do? I am the I am a mosquito I am a plant I am a dog I am a celestial being I am a human being I am a good human being bad human being etc. etc. etc. and this is called bondage then we talked about that what is the purpose of the Lord telling this secret? Secret because if the effect knows that this is my cause then the effect will not keep quiet it will slowly try to evolve and know what it really is this is a great fact please note down and keep this point if we are really potentially divine we means not only human beings the mosquito also indirectly unconsciously knows I am Brahman how does it know? through three prayers through making effort to obtain three things what are the three things? by this time you must be familiar with my terminology I don't want to die I don't want to suffer I want to enjoy always and I want to know that I am very happy alive and happy being Sath is to be not to die and Ananda is not to suffer but to feel happy and Chit means that I am not I was not I will be but I am a very happy being that is the effort if I am not happy being what then? well I would do everything in my power to make myself a happy being this constant effort is what is called that which leads to evolution what is the evolution? trying to succeed in trying to not to die and not to be unhappy escape suffering and to be as happy as possible and trying to be more happy trying to be living longer and trying to know that base knowledge how I can become more and more more deathless and happy this is how all of us are unconsciously evolving evolution means slowly unfolding manifesting our true nature through this inevitable struggle that is how first biological evolution then inside evolution called moral evolution then a final evolution called spiritual evolution until that time we are struggling why are we struggling? to manifest our potentiality what does that struggle mean? it means there is some power which is trying to stop us which is making us mortals which is making us not to move forward easily but at the same time which is also prodding us to move forward this peculiar power it wants us to go forward by not doing anything by doing something by doing everything in our power so ultimate thing is we feel I am not the Atman I am mortal means I am not the Atman I am mortal means I encounter death I am subject to death death subject to death at any time not only at the end of a fruitful full life but at any given time anything can cause my death or it may cause dysfunctionality accidents I can lose my limbs I can lose my mind my brain my thinking power my consciousness and that is constant this is called bondage and every millisecond of our life as Swami Vivekananda says the soul bound soul is singing the song of freedom I want to be free this is the foundation of that beautiful ancient prayer asato ma sadgamaya tamaso ma jyotir gamaya mrutyor ma amrutangamaya so I feel the bondage what is the bondage? I feel I am limited I feel I lack something I feel I am imperfect but here is something another point from of course the viewpoint of Advaita Vedanta am I really imperfect? am I really bound? am I really lacking? am I really subject to death? and that's where the Advaita Vedanta says no no no no no it is not real bondage it is seeming bondage and to make us understand this point Advaita Vedanta gives two beautiful illustrations one that of mistaking a rope in semi-darkness as a snake is there a real snake? no but the snake what does the unreal snake produce? fear now important question and we are all very intelligent people I have complete faith in you I am going to ask you this question can an unreal object create a real effect? can an unreal object produce a real effect? I will give an illustration to aid our deeper understanding suppose you have a dream in the dream you won a lottery ticket you bought a lottery ticket and you won the lottery and you have become a Koteshwara a millionaire let us say and you check your bank balance absolutely yesterday it was some amount now 1 million plus that sum is there and you are very happy where? in the dream then suddenly you wake up and then you recollect the dream will you be checking your waking state bank balance? you don't now this is the point this is an illustration what is my point? my point is an unreal object can give only an unreal result but experiencing an unreal object experiencing an unreal object can only give unreal effect what are you talking Swami? I am not able to understand well, well, well so long as you are in the dream do you think it is unreal? do you think you are buying a lottery ticket is unreal? do you feel that winning the lottery ticket is unreal? do you feel that your bank balance even after checking it is 1 million plus something is unreal? so long as you are in that state this word unreal ticket unreal winning unreal bank balance doesn't apply that is the point but as soon as you wake up then you look back and say that was just my thought and then that is called superimposition now apply it to the rope snake example so long as you think that is a snake is it a real snake or unreal snake? it is absolutely real snake unreal snake produces real fright or unreal fright real joy or unreal joy what are you talking about? can a snake produce joy? yes, for a snake catcher it gives joy for a person who is terrified of a snake it does the opposite what are we talking about here? where so long as we know something as real so long the effect also will be real you cannot separate the experience of a real object from a real effect but as soon as that state ends for example as soon as we wake up and then we recollect and say that was unreal the buying a ticket was unreal and winning the lottery was unreal of course if you are in the in your right senses you will never check your bank balance because you know an unreal object cannot produce real effect so similarly this whole world so long as it we think it is real its effect is also real now why did I bring up this point because so many times we mistake Advaita Vedanta says it is all unreal Maya but let us have right understanding not foolish understanding misunderstanding wrong understanding what is it? Advaita Vedanta says divides our experiences into three categories real experience and unreal experience and imaginary experience what are the technical names? Paramarthika Drishti Yavaharika Drishti and Pratibhasika Drishti let us take only two Yavaharika means what? you are listening to my talk and this is Vyavaharika I also think I am real I also think I am talking you also think you are listening you are also think you are understanding so this process is called Vyavaharika but just like getting out of a dream state when we wake up the analogy is from the dream state to the waking state here the analogy is from the Vyavaharika state to the Paramarthika state so when Advaita Vedanta when Sri Ramakrishna when Holy Mother when Swami Vivekananda when Ramana Maharshi great saints, sages like that categorically with one voice declare that this world is Maya don't take it from the Vyavaharika level take it from the Paramarthika level what does it mean? it means you have tremendous faith but so long as we are identified with the body-mind entire world is absolutely real this is illustrated a very beautiful Greek philosopher story I mentioned it several times there was a Greek philosopher who used to say that the world is a dream and some youth didn't like it young people usually do not like to hear these words Maya is unreal is substanceless and all that because their senses are in full power they want to enjoy so they decided to teach this philosopher a lesson and one day they caught hold of his legs started pulling his naked body on very sharp edged cobbled road and he was bleeding all over they asked him do you still declare that this world is a dream? he said yes it is a dream but it is a very painful dream my point is so long as we are in the Vyavaharika you have to behave according to that truth if you have a headache then you have to go to a doctor if you have mental problem you have to go to a psychologist but then what is the point of this scriptural teaching? that is to say this is a goal to be achieved that is the highest truth have faith in it prepare yourself practice spiritual discipline and one day your mind attains to that level which is called Paramarthika level and then you realize that is called realization that all the scriptures are telling a truth until that time what is the point? until that time the point is have complete faith in the scriptures but strive to attain to that vision but keeping at the same time Paramarthika level that's why Shri Ramakrishna's beautiful saying you can be a devotee but you should not be a foolish devotee foolishness is from the Yavaharika point of view you should be intelligent person intelligent devotee not foolish devotee but devotee from the Paramarthika level this is what is being said in this what is it that binds? what is the point? let me recollect whatever I have spoken until this point this Prakruti this Srishti is nothing but a combination of body mind and a bit of this reflected consciousness called Jeeva this is called Bhuta subject and object combination subject is the reflected consciousness and object is the body-mind complex a beautiful inseparable combination of these two is called Jeeva Bhava a feeling that I am an individual soul individuality I am a person etc. now as I said even though I say I am an individual I am going on struggling struggling for what? to become infinite to become eternal never to die and always to be happy experience unbroken bliss as well as what we call to know I am a very happy person Sat, Jit, Ananda consciously or unconsciously we are all struggling towards that now why are we struggling? because we feel unconsciously we feel we want to achieve perfection consciously we feel we are limited beings and we have got so much of bondage and how did this bondage come? what is the root cause of this bondage? and how to slowly get rid of this bondage? so that is what the Lord is telling this bondage comes because of Prakruti Prakruti consists Prakruti is nothing but three gunas as I mentioned fire and heat sun and its light so Prakruti the gunas and those gunas are called Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and when a person's understanding is very low or misunderstanding, delusion the guna called Tamoguna dominates and when through struggle prayer and the advice of great people I progress further then I become my knowledge becomes better it is partial knowledge a little bit mistaken knowledge but not complete delusion and then I strive to acquire as much as possible and you know what is the psychology of acquisition? why do I want to acquire everything? because I want to be everything that is the simple reason I am infinite I did not know I do not know I am infinite but unconsciously I know I am infinite the only way I can feel infinite is to accumulate everything man's greed is never satisfied however much he acquires I want to acquire all the three worlds as we say entire cosmos will be mine then I feel I am entire cosmos and why? because I know unconsciously I am that infinite this is the root cause of all desire this is the root cause of all restlessness etc. so progress evolution consists of this transcending from the lowest guna to a higher guna from the higher guna to the highest guna from the highest guna to go to beyond guna that is what the Lord wants to say in the fifth one now in this today's talk let us remember recollect that Sri Ramakrishna's beautiful story illustrating as it were the very essence of this 14th chapter every time we read a scripture be it Gita be it Upanishads be it Puranas anything let us study and try to understand in the light of Sri Ramakrishna's words parables and stories every story even ordinary story has a deep meaning behind it I will just give you an illustration one day Ramakrishna was sitting at Dakshineswar and quite a number of devotees were present in his room and suddenly an elderly man perhaps in his 50 plus or 60s entered his room by seeing his looking at his face everybody understood he was just full of grief his very face indicates he was drowned in grief then they asked they knew him sir what happened and then he said I am just coming from the crematorium I just cremated my 25 year old son and anybody can understand usually the krama the order is that aged people will die first younger people will die later on but here is a father who loved his son who is looking forward and his 25 year old son died I do not know whether he had other sons and other daughters must be having anyway I don't know so his grief stricken is what is called moorthi moorthi maan dukha as if grief has taken a particular form and everybody genuinely felt sympathy we all feel sympathy and they gave worldly advice oh and Indians are great in giving dispensing this unwarranted advice the world is like that this is only of the three days as if three days a man's life is guaranteed and they don't believe it themselves because if they believe they would be running to a temple and praying to God gave the advice most of them genuinely they gave that sympathy but he was not consoled then they have exhausted their advice and they looked at Shri Ram Krishna and his grief he was not talking anything and they were wondering this is the description M gives in the gospel is his heart made up of stone just because he is a spiritual person a saint does it mean that he never feels the sufferings of the ordinary worldly people is he devoid of any sympathy empathy etc. suddenly Shri Ram Krishna went into what we call Bhava Samadhi after some time he came out and he slapped his thigh and then he said Jeev Sajo Samare Jeeva a individual being Sajo Samare be ready prepared to battle with death death has surrounded your house and it will not you there is no way for you to go out most deep words surrounded means what the soul is encased surrounded by the body and by the mind etc. by three bodies in fact or five what is called layers Panchakosha model the causal body and the subtle body and the gross body surrounded completely there is not even a back door the only way is to put up a battle so take the name of the Divine Mother and that would be your great armor and cultivate the company of the holy people and they will be your soldiers who will fight along with you and like that the meaning of the song goes and then this man heard the song he understood what did he understand Ram Krishna conveyed that great truth my son you are grieving for your son's death don't you know every creature is enveloped by death that was what Mahabharata I have quoted also earlier which we are going to discuss in the Yaksha Prashnas what is the most wonderful thing in this world and then he says Yudhishthira answers Yaksha's question question was what is the most wonderful thing and Yaksha answers day and night every day Bhutas living beings could be microbes could be animals insects plants human beings celestial beings going to death that means they are going they are dying losing all their identity upon which they have banked their whole aspirations everything but Sesha there are people who are not yet dead what is their understanding death is never going to come to me Stavara means a life without death unbroken life eternal life Ichchanti they all desire Himaschari Mata Parama what could be more foolish than this more wonderful this is called Mahamaya this is called Mahamaya so this man had been given that injection spiritual injection Corona fighting injection Corona means what in Bengali Corona means Corona do not do what do not do do not think you fellow you are going to live for long do not think anybody is going to live for long do not go on accumulating riches do not go on hoping that I will enjoy life on this earth Corona Hey Corona Oi Corona do not do this do not do that then what should be done something must be done yes think of God take the divine name and cultivate Satsanga practice the five commandments of Shri Ramakrishna and then slowly you put up a battle and the mother's name will completely kill destroy death you will become Mrityunjaya a conqueror of death that is the only way that is the entire essence of this one and of course Shri Ramakrishna told us the story of the three robbers which we will discuss in greater details all the three gunas are robbers but though they are robbers there is a huge difference between them one completely binds us one completely gives us rest another makes us restless and another makes us restless first it makes us restless for world then it makes us restless for God so that is called the good side of Lobha Rajoguna Tamas also under certain circumstances deludes us but it gives us complete rest so that we can practice our spiritual discipline that is the good side of Tamas Tamoguna and there is lower side of Rajoguna higher side of Rajoguna there is a lower side type of Satvaguna which gives us knowledge which makes us arrogant which makes us produce feel superiority complex but there is another higher type of Satvaguna this is all illusory everything is Kshanabhangura only for a moment get out of this illusion the only way is take complete surrender to the Divine Lord's Lotus Feet Divine Mother's Lotus Feet understand what is Prakruti understand what is your mind and body understand it is nothing but consisting of the three gunas understand there is a way to evolve rightly understand make a plan and practice and by the grace of God the final spiritual practice is to surrender ourselves totally at the feet of the Divine Lord this is the wonderful point we will discuss in our next Saturday class may Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Jai Ram