Bhagavad Gita Ch17 part 03 on 06 November 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananem Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padmetayo Sridhva Pranamami Mohur Mohur Om Vasudevasutam Devam Kamsachanuram Adhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadokavo Dogda Gopalanandana Partho Vatsa Sudhir Bhokta Dugdham Geetam Ritam Mahat Mookam Karoti Vachalam Pangum Langayate Girim Yath Kripathamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We are studying the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita called Shraddha Traya Vibhaga Yoga At the end of the 16th chapter Bhagavan Krishna said that he who discards the scriptural injunctions but acts according to the promptings of his desires cannot attain the highest knowledge So Arjuna had a doubt and he asks a question and the 17th chapter starts with that question So Arjuna's question was about the fate of those who have faith but who do not know the scriptures are indifferent to their rules very wonderful question because in this world we come across people some people do not have faith in the scriptures but have certain principles, ideals in life there are some people who have faith in the scriptures they recite the scriptures, they quote the scriptures they seem to appear to be learned, erudite, pundits but they never follow the scriptures about such people Shri Ram Krishna used to compare them to vultures who fly very high but their sight is fixed on the charnel pits that is another type of person so there are persons who neither believe in the scriptures nor follow any of the ideals there are people who have strong faith in the scriptures but at the same time extremely cautious they follow nothing but the scripture so we see varieties of people here so Arjuna's doubt was there are some people perhaps either because they do not have education or the opportunity or the environment or busy with so many things they are endowed with different degrees of faith, Shraddha but they do not follow the scriptures then what type of spiritual aspirant are they? remember from the 14th chapter onwards 14th, 16th is all about three gunas the whole Prakruti that is to say the whole world our bodies, our minds everything made up of three gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas so if some people are endowed with Shraddha but they do not follow the scriptures how do we understand them? what type of Shraddha? and Arjuna by this time because like you and me he also has heard 14th chapter so he knows all about Sattva, Rajas and Tamas so these people Shraddha does it belong to the Sattva guna, Rajas guna, Tamas guna and Bhagawan also says in the last chapter so never deviate from the scripture I would like to insert a note here it doesn't mean that a person has to have Bhagavad Gita or Puranas or any other type of scripture as we are not talking about only Hindus we are talking about everybody in this world they may be Christians they may be Muslims they may be Buddhists they may be anybody else they have their own type of scriptures that is one meaning of the word Shastra scripture in fact let us remind ourselves scripture means Shastra that which commands do this and do not do this there is another meaning of scripture whatever knowledge is not possible to get to obtain through our five sense organs that is called Shastra so Shastra need not mean only a book whether it is read or heard or whatever it also can mean there are persons who themselves follow the scripture perhaps and they got benefit and they advise their teachings if we have that golden opportunity and that is called Satsanga and that also is a scripture because a great person greatness means following the scripture a person follows scientific rules he becomes a great scientist he follows biological knowledge he becomes a great biologist another person studies music and he becomes a great musician so the teachers are only teaching what they have enhanced experienced in their own life so the teachings that come to us from people who are following the scriptures that is even better than a scripture why is it better? because they are living inspiration a book is after all most often we have to say it is a dead book but a person who is practicing having faith in these teachings of the Vedas etc that person is a living scripture demonstrating to us what is really priority in life what should be done, should not be done so Arjuna's question here is a person he doesn't have scriptural knowledge perhaps even he doesn't have the opportunity to come into contact with a wiser people wise people and so may not have but can such a person is endowed with Shraddha what type of Shraddha it will be? then the answer before we go further into the Bhagavad Gita itself is Shraddha is a manifestation of God only those who are sincere Shraddha enters into them and when Shraddha enters they develop even if they do not have anything to guide them their own mind becomes an inner guide and that will guide them unerringly and that's why as I mentioned Ramakrishna practiced spiritual discipline first only through this following intuitively what his heart had told him there was no Guru there was no scripture and he did not ask anybody whatever the Divine Mother from within directed him that's what he did and he said I experienced everything by the Mother's grace and all the Gurus that came later on only confirmed what I had already experienced by following the teachings of the Divine Mother means intuitive heart here something very important Shraddha is a manifestation of God and God doesn't manifest in an evil heart He manifests only in a naturally good heart that means a person who is endowed even with a little bit of Shraddha he is already a little good person that is how we improve nobody is born with 100% Shraddha perhaps they are born with 1% Shraddha but by going through the painful pleasurable experiences in life the person will be slowly increasing it to 2% 5%, 10%, 50% this is called progress in life this is called journeying from a lower truth to a higher truth this is called travelling from a lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness this is called evolution so God will provide us plenty of opportunity if we do not progress in the right way He gives some punishment so stick will be applied and for our good not because for the pleasure of God in answer to Arjuna's question in the second verse a Bhagavan is telling Sri Bhagavan Govaja God replied The Lord said Shraddha is of threefold or an embodied being it is born of the nature of the mind Antahkarana and it can be expressed as and does express inevitably Rajasic or Tamasic I am going to expound this one hear about that threefold Shraddha carefully with Shraddha and with concentration so concentration has to be developed Shraddha also has to be developed now I want to pass some remarks about Shraddha Shraddha is invariably associated with deep concentration interest, joy memory and all those things together so we have discussed the psychological process if anybody is interested his concentration will improve and when there is concentration he grasps his understanding becomes faster and better and when this he understands his knowledge improves then his memory also improves and when his memory improves that alters his behavior so he always does what is right even from a worldly point of view so his joy also will increase so many benefits are there and we are all inevitably seeking only how to be happier than before so life is a journey from a lower state of happiness to a higher state of happiness now Shraddha is not divided there is what is called and there is a special type of Shraddha called Sattvic Shraddha there is another type of Shraddha called Rajasic Shraddha and Tamasic Shraddha no, Shraddha is one let me first give an illustration suppose there is a beautiful light and then you put over that light three different types of colored glasses white, red and black the light is exactly the same but the way it percolates through that colored covering so the white covering gives more light red covering gives red light and black covering it obscures more of the light what is this illustration for? Shraddha is like that pure light if that Shraddha is manifesting in a Sattvika more Sattvika mind it becomes more Sattvika Shraddha if it is manifesting through a restless type of person Rajasika person then it becomes too restless that is called dangerous red is for danger but if a person is a mind Antahkarana is a Tamasic Antahkarana then the light, the Shraddha will be much more obscured but what is the point? Shraddha is only one that is one of the things we have to understand so here the shades of differences in its nature have to be understood as threefold not because Shraddha is of three types but its manifestation is through three types of limitations Avarana, coverings that is very important now earlier also the Lord had said yo et Shraddha saiva saha a person is nothing but Shraddha this Shraddha is like a ghost it sits on our head Shraddha means in English language we translate it with a very weak word called faith faith or belief belief is weakest word faith is a better word but Shraddha is incomparable so we have to use that word Shraddha what does it do? when a ghost takes possession of a person or what we call in some other terminology madness takes place, possesses a person he is completely helpless he is a puppet in the hands of that madness so if you ask why are you doing it it is not right, he will not understand because the covering of rationality removal of rationality is the 90% of madness if he was rational he would never have become mad at all and not only that many psychologists tell us the so called normal people are more abnormal and many of the abnormal people are more normal because we label them they are not behaving like us so he is a abnormal person, like that so Shraddha is one and if a Shraddha possesses a person then the person is nothing but Shraddha and we can understand it by observing his characteristics and a characteristic can be understood through his thoughts, through his words and through his actions so one important point is Shraddha is not something outside external, it is nothing but that which covers our entire Antahkarna and that is why it is said Man is nothing but what his Shraddha is that means what his faith is that means what he really believes in, it is the whole person Shraddha is not just a vacillating belief system but our whole attitude towards life, our attitude towards our body towards other people, towards our possessions, wealth whether we do puja whether we eat, whether we give food to other people whether we do Dhana, Dharma, Yagna Yaga, everything is a manifestation of Shraddha of each person so naturally the Sattvika Shraddha manifests in a different way, Rajasika Shraddha in a different way and Tamasika Shraddha of course in a different way even Sri Ramakrishna is this beautiful example, a Sattvika person's dress absolutely minimal, whatever is necessary, even if his dress is very holy that means full of holes then even then that person doesn't care, if it serves the purpose, it is absolutely fine I recollect one funny incident when I was in Virginia what happened was I was staying in a devotee's house, one day I went to take bath and I put on my banyan, I always put on a banyan when I am with other people and then I came out but unfortunately the banyan was upside down, so the lady of the house happened who is hosting me, saw me and said Swami, you have put on the banyan upside down outside inside, inside outside, it is horrible looking, I said the solution is you close your eyes it makes no difference to me it has to protect me it has protected me, if you don't like, you have freedom to shut your eyes and go about your work, so a Sattvika person, his mosquito curtain is torn he has very few possessions his food, his demeanor his behavior everything is different we are going to talk about it very soon by quoting Sri Ramakrishna so it is not what we think we believe but what possesses us so many times I told in my past talks what is the difference between belief and faith belief is that which we control so even if it is cloudy weather our mind can become depressed but Shraddha, faith is something which sits on our head, doesn't allow us to do what we like to do but it will make a puppet of us and make us do whether it is right or wrong so everything our whole life, Shraddha is how we conduct our whole life and it is not in our hands depending upon what type of Shraddha we have, that dictates our whole life, what we should do, what is our goal what is the means of acquiring our money, possessions how many possessions, what type of attitude we have towards our possessions, whether we are attached or not, everything Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful funny example a beggar once went to a so called person who thought that he was highly spiritual, highly detached person, so he said this beggar went and said I have been starving for so many days will you please give me some money so that I can eat fully and probably the beggar was expecting one rupee but then this man said look my good man I am completely detached and whatever money I have, I have given it to my wife, I will ask my wife, so he went there and said a poor man has come, I would like to give at least four annas will you give me and that lady stared into his eyes and said ah, so you think that money is pouring from the sky, so we can spend it as we like, here is one anna if he wants let him take otherwise get out of our place, so the man helplessly takes that one anna his own money but now being dictated by his wife and he comes out my good man I feel like giving that means I am a good man my wife is not a good person so this is all I got on your behalf, please take it see Ram Krishna scathingly talks about these people consider themselves spiritual even though they have the money but they are born to slaves to their wives and they are the most Tamasic fellows in the whole world, worse than Tamasic fellows because it produced in them a kind of arrogance, I am a great spiritual person, a worldly person never claims I am a spiritual person at least he is frank ok, so even how a person dresses, a dandy a person, he puts on silk cloths and we will quote from Ram Krishna and he goes on whistling and he goes on singing the songs of some dandy and then that is how we can understand and nowadays if you look at the dress of men or women, you better close your eyes because what you see is pure worldliness and nothing else so everything, a person's dress, person's food person's charity person's way of worship person's way of sleep person's way of talking with others everything reveals whether he has got Shraddha if so, whether it is Tamasic Rajasic or Sattvic type of Shraddha so what is Shraddha the whole demeanor of the person, his actions even what kind of house he keeps everything indicates the type of Shraddha that person has, if we are slightly intelligent we can understand whether it is Tamasic, Rajasic or Sattvic now there are 3 kinds of Bhakti we are not talking about pure Sattva, Rajas and Tamas we are talking these 3 Gunas in relationship with spiritual life Bhakti, Master Ram Krishna, I am quoting 3 kinds of Bhakti are found in the nature of the man Sattvika Bhakti, Rajasika Bhakti and Tamasika Bhakti Sattvika Bhakti is known only to God wonderful meaning is there Sattvika Bhakta he keeps himself from drawing anybody's attention Ram Krishna also gives the example he is known to God alone because only God as the Antaryami Indweller, he knows what is going on through the heart of that person it makes no outward display, a man with such devotion loves privacy perhaps he meditates inside the mosquito net where nobody sees him when this kind of devotion is awakened, one hasn't long to wait for the vision of God the appearance of the dawn in the east shows that the sun will rise before long, what is Ram Krishna trying to tell us, Sattvika Shraddha very soon mistows the vision of God upon us, because as I said Shraddha is nothing else but manifestation of God Sattvika Shraddha is a full manifestation of God, but a man with Rajasika Bhakti, Ram Krishna says, feels like making a display of his devotion before others, he worships the deity with 16 ingredients enters the temple wearing a silk cloth and puts around his neck a string of Rudraksha beads interspersed here and there with beads of gold and ruby but a man with Tamasika Bhakti shows the courage and boisterousness of a highway robber a highway robber goes on his expedition openly not secretly, shouting kill, bind, plunder, he is not afraid even of 8 police inspectors the devotee with Tamasika Bhakti also shouts like a mad man, hara hara boom boom, victory to Kali, he has great strength of mind and burning faith Ram Krishna continues all men look alike to be sure, but they have different nature, some have an excess of Sattva others an excess of Rajas and still others an excess of Tamas then he gives a beautiful illustration you must have noticed that the cakes known as Puli all look alike but their contents are very different some contain pure condensed milk, some coconut kernel and others mere boiled kalai pulse outside they all look alike, but inside what is this pure condensed milk? Sattvika sweet, what is the made out of coconut grating? Rajasika, and what about is it pure Kalai Dal is nothing but pure hard dal, etc so Ram Krishna continues different classes of worshippers one looks on God exactly according to one's own inner feeling take for example, a devotee with an excess of Tamas he thinks that the Divine Mother eats goats so he slaughters one for her but the devotee endowed with Rajas cooks rice and various other dishes for the Mother but a Sattvika devotee doesn't make any outward show of his worship, people don't even know he is worshipping if he has no flowers he worships God with mere Ganges water and the leaves of the Bael tree his food offering to the deity consists of sweet and puffed rice or a few candies occasionally he cooks a little rice pudding for the deity there is also another class of devotees those who are beyond the three Gunas, they have the nature of a child, their worship consists in chanting God's name just his name the whole demeanor of that person his actions indicates what type of Shraddha a person has Shraddha is our thinking, our understanding our culture our value structure our priorities in life the paths that we follow so it is not an ordinary word it has tremendous meaning that's why Bhagawan Krishna has dedicated a whole chapter dedicated to understanding what is Shraddha so in this background we go on entering Bhagawan is first of all telling there are three types of Shraddha Sattvika Shraddha, Rajasika Shraddha and Tamasika Shraddha but we should never forget Shraddha is only one like pure light but depending upon the medium through which it is manifesting or expressing we call it Sattvika Shraddha, Rajasika Shraddha or Tamasika Shraddha so in the third verse the Lord is confirming one of the most valuable word that a man is nothing but what his faith is now a man may have several beliefs so a belief system is liable to change one day he says I believe this another day he says I don't believe that but Shraddha is something which will not allow him to deviate it will possess sit like a ghost on his head and make him do it so the Lord is telling Sattvanu roopa sarvasya Shraddha bhavati bharata Shraddha mayo, I am Purushaha yo et Shraddha sahivasa the faith of each man is in accordance with his natural disposition a man O Arjuna is made up of his faith, what his faith is that verily he is, here is one of the greatest truths we have to understand, psychological truths, how do you know whether a person is really has got Shraddha or not observe him, how he sleeps how he reads how he behaves with other people, how he dresses everything indicates his faith in himself including his faith not only in God his faith in himself here is something very wonderful point we have to understand, a person's faith in himself is even of greater value than a person's faith in God, I will give you a small example M started coming to Sri Ramakrishna and one day quite after his association with Sri Ramakrishna several years later one day he came to the river and then there he saw a boat and there was another devotee called Pranakrishna and this Pranakrishna hired a boat and he knew M and he asked M you come I will take you to Sri Ramakrishna so gladly M entered into the boat but hardly the boat started in the Ganges a terrible storm arose and the boat was rising up sinking and moving hither and thither and M was terribly frightened so he begged Pranakrishna put me on the bank, I will rather come walking, I am frightened so Pranakrishna said this is a natural thing everyday we see it here but M had cajoled him, forced him pestered him until Pranakrishna had to ask the boatman to leave M on the shore and then Pranakrishna reached very soon to Dakshineswar, long after that terribly tired M reached and Pranakrishna narrated the whole incident to Sri Ramakrishna and he started laughing he did not make a remark at that time but Sri Ramakrishna's memory was superb memory after sometime some other topic arose and then Sri Ramakrishna became very serious and said is it like you are getting frightened to enter into the boat, on the contrary similar thing happened to another devotee and then somebody challenged him, sir are you not frightened and then that person, that devotee replied what I have taken before starting the name of the Divine Mother, what can anything happen to me, I will reach safely so that is called real real Shraddha so by observing a person's life, even for a short time, we come to know what that person's Shraddha really is and so here is the most important take away point what is it, a person is nothing other than what his faith is, what he believes that will be himself and what is himself merely expresses itself whether it is his thoughts his speech or his actions because the whole of life can be divided only into these three things so the question now comes natural disposition that is to say in accordance with Sattva, Rajas or Tamas dominating in his nature the Shraddha manifests itself now when can we notice this Shraddha and the answer is from the very birth because even one day old baby can also manifest to this Shraddha and I have read about an experiment there was a maternity ward perhaps in America, psychologists were studying just born babies they were all either one day or two days or best three days old babies in their cribs and the psychologist made terrible noise while closing the doors deliberately and monitoring the reactions of every single baby and some babies as soon as they heard even from deep sleep they woke up and started bawling in the loudest voice some babies and they just made some whimpering noises and went back to sleep some fellows they never got up from sleep and of them some people they just opened their eyes and looked here and there and then they went back to sleep and there itself the difference is according to the Shraddha, why? because the person's disposition doesn't start with this life unlike the westerners who think that a baby is born on tabula rasa with a blank slate now Indians, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs believe in innumerable past births Churasi Janam and then every Janma we are adding some kind of impression Samskara and that is what we are all born with, only it takes time when the instrument body and mind are ready then these dominant Samskaras start manifesting either as Tamas or Rajas or Sattva Guna so when do we notice this Shraddha even from the very very birth and just now that incident came to my mind, Shri Ram Krishna came out of his mother's womb and there was a midwife called Dhani and this Dhani had helped Chandramani Devi to bring out the baby and for a moment this Dhani kept the baby aside on the same cot and attended to the mother in cleaning etc after a few minutes then she turned her attention to the baby, where was the baby disappeared she was shocked, I kept the baby here, what happened to that baby, we are talking about Shri Ram Krishna and then she looked, it was a small room, in those days they used to use an outside room which usually either they use to remove the husk or cook some extra etc. festival days and it is given the name the birth giving room itself, it is considered as untouchable by everybody excepting the lady and the midwife then there was a hearth there and this Dhani looked and found the baby happily lying, ashes all over his body and he was looking like 6 months old baby and Dhani could not solve this mystery, how could the baby get down from the bed of the mother and crawl, no baby can crawl why no, and reach that place hearth, it was there nearby but not immediately on the bed, she was shocked even today it is a divine mystery, so you can see the tendency of Shri Ram Krishna, even now he was telling, I am a sanyasi I am not going to be a worldly person like that so the next question that comes is, from where does this Shraddha come, that means to say the question is really from where does this Antahkarana end out with either Sattva, Rajas or Tamas out where from does it come and here is where especially Hinduism gives us, so Sattva here is not the guna but the mind and what is the mind, it is full of this Samskara, a man is full of his Samskaras a person's Shraddha is according to Anurupa, his mind's disposition, its tendencies and value structure just think about what determines the expression of one's life it is going to be in terms of one's value structure and priorities, I heard something, how far it is true I don't know there were a couple of pickpockets, both husband and wife and they had a baby and the midwife she had one small golden necklace and she helped this pickpocket lady to deliver the baby and after that she suddenly found her necklace was missing, she looked here and there, there was nobody accepting this baby, she was looking she could not find, then she noticed the baby was tightly holding his fist so this lady it took some strength for that lady to open the fist of that baby and found her necklace there how do you explain it, anyway take it, anyway you want to take it, but I just heard I wanted to share it with you each one of us are not born tabula rasa, blank slate but full of Samskaras that is why Bhagwan Krishna says as soon as a yogi dies without completing, without attaining perfection, he will be born so he might be born in the family of purely spiritual parents spiritual brothers and sisters, etc. and then the moment he grows up a little, he will take up where he has left his old sadhana and then progresses in life and after several births he will attain perfection that means he knows I am Brahman that means he knows everything is Brahman in Gita's words everything is nothing but Lord Krishna so the word Shraddha usually translated as faith is not a mechanical belief it is a very affirmative and reverent attitude towards the highest of truths Shraddha merely indicates a person's faith in God in afterlife especially in Bhagwan and therefore all his actions follow according to his faith now here are some points through faith, a man is intuitively convinced of the existence of the reality underlying the universe and his capacity for realizing that reality, very very important point, not only he has faith that there is God and God realization is the highest goal of life, that many people have, but a faith in oneself that I can attain God that also part of the Shraddha, Vyapal's fellow says I believe in God but looking at myself I don't have that really self confidence I can realize God that is a, it is not really Shraddha it is only kind of belief second, a Shraddha cannot be imposed from outside, but it is the overall result of the tendencies that we are all born with as a result of our past actions third point intensity of this faith accounts for the passion with which a Shraddha one Purusha undertakes any action take simple example here is a student in a school and he may be 5-6 years old, already the tendencies, a Shraddha one student the way he listens to the teacher, the way he keeps his books the way he studies, the way he remembers, the way he does his homework everything is determined by that student, you can immediately see, he will be obedient to the parents, he will get up early in the morning and he doesn't go on wasting his time excepting for a short time in play etc. but he is focused upon whatever he does, that is the third point fourth, this faith in every person man or woman so it is appealed to his or her real nature real potentialities, a person with faith, that is how Swami Vivekananda defined faith previously a believer is one who claims he has faith in God, but the modern definition is a person who believes in himself who has faith in himself he is a real believer, not who claims he has faith in God so here is a person this is a wonderful point that he always looks to God because he has faith in God and he also knows I have these potentialities and I do not have these potentialities so he doesn't waste his time in what cannot be achieved, so I will give a small example, here is a person young man, young person may be a student and he wants to become a musician so he goes to a music teacher and he works for several years and then he was endowed with Shraddha then he understands that music is not his forte and he can never become a real musician, it may be as a hobby, it is ok, but a real serious musician he cannot become is what is called in psychological language aptitude and immediately he doesn't hesitate to discard it and try to find his own forte his special talent in whether it is engineering, computer science literature, poetry or art or accounts, whatever it is and he doesn't hesitate even if thousand people tell I have come across this kind of situations some parents force their children to be either engineers or doctors or whatever it is but then the children reject them and sometimes the parents force them, that's not good but the students take a bold step say I am not interested I do not get meaning inside I do not get fulfillment and such students they are endowed with Shraddha and they are likely to be successful in life but those students out of fear, meekness they listen to their parents and remain miserable probably for the whole life there are different varieties are there so a person endowed with Shraddha, he knows his real potentialities and what he doesn't possess and focuses upon his potentialities that's why it is said, Bhagawan Krishna says faith is everything so acquire Shraddha and it is everything and Shri Ram Krishna talking about Girish Chandra Ghosh used to say, he is a man possessed with 125% faith, that is why Ram Krishna had given him liberation by accepting himself, you give me your power of attorney Girish Chandra Ghosh was not willing to do anything except even to take God's name once or twice but here is a person Ram Krishna himself says here is a person to whom I can surrender myself and he said yes without understanding the implications later on Ram Krishna's grace made him understand these things so through a person's every action we can understand whether he has Shraddha and what is the percentage of Shraddha, quantum of Shraddha how? by observing that person, now the question comes, why at all do we need to know whether a person's Shraddha is there or not what is that cartoon, the answer is already given, so that a person is what his faith is, if we can know that then we know exactly where we are and progress from there, take steps so that we don't need to waste our time, this is the procedure we are already following when a student passes his high school, he doesn't again enter into the high school he knows exactly now which type, whether he wants science whether he wants literature whether he wants to enter, become a doctor or an engineer and he can take appropriate subjects, by that time he has enough amount of discrimination etc, this is what is called aptitude so if a patient goes to a doctor he simply doesn't take medication medicine and give it to him he first diagnoses, ok this is where you are these are the reasons let us slowly remove so this finding out what type of Shraddha we have is it Tamasic, Rajasic Sattvic and if we come to know, start from there so what is the higher goal and if it is a Tamasic person your goal should be to acquire Rajasic Shraddha, if it is a Rajasic person, you should acquire Sattvic Shraddha if it is a Sattvic person he must get out beyond so the progress is always from Tamas to Rajas to Sattva and go even beyond Sattva because the person must become what we call a Gunatita, we have seen it in the 14th chapter Bhagawan himself has indicated the goal of every being, the final goal of all evolution is to go beyond the Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, going beyond the Gunas is going beyond the Prakruti, going beyond the Prakruti is detaching ourselves from our body and mind that means we remove the delusion that this is a snake and once it is removed the rope stands revealed in all its glory and we come to know we are none other than Bhagawan himself that is why we have to know so the nature of faith Shraddha, again I would like to use that word Shraddha because the English word faith is a very weak translation, very watered down translation the nature of Shraddha is to be inferred from its characteristic effects, namely how a person worships the gods in the life, that is being expounded in the 4th men in whom Sattva prevails worship the gods men in whom Rajas prevails worship demigods and demons or even Navagrahas and men in whom Tamoguna prevails, they worship ghosts, resembled spirits etc. 2 points before we go further, first of all a man cannot help himself because that is his Samskara secondly will this person become stuck only in that or will he progress no, Shraddha of any type as I mentioned earlier is nothing but manifestation of God so that potential divinity will not allow a person to stand slowly, inevitably, inexorably it will take hold of the person and pull him up and up so evolution is inevitable, as I put it many times all of us including even the non-human beings are standing on this evolutionary what is called escalator escalator never stops, when does it stop? when we reach our true nature know who we are, then escalator's work is done its mission is accomplished, fulfilled and it takes leave of us respectfully until that time these are the 2 points so how do we know here is one, so just observe what this person, is he worshipping ghouls, ghosts ferocious things then he has Shraddha but it is Tamasic, is he worshipping demigods etc, not God demigods etc what does it mean? it means that he has got worldly desires he wants wealth he wants name and fame he wants power and position he wants a beautiful husband wife, children, houses dresses, he wants to be known as great person this is the meaning of worshipping the demigods not for the sake nobody worships anybody for the sake of any God we have all got ulterior motives so even if a person worshipping a ghoul he is not worshipping because he loves the ghoul I want something from you, I want power position etc so a person truly worships God, what does it mean? it means God I don't want anything from you I want you that is a person who is worshipping God with Sattva Guna so men in whom Sattva prevails worship the Gods men in whom Rajas prevails worship demigods and demons and men in whom Tamas prevails worship ghosts and disembodied spirits so first of all Devas, Devas mean what? the person wants to acquire highest qualities he wants to attain to the highest goals in life, he wants to attain to highest values in life, so such a person takes advantage of all these Gods etc because who is a God? a God means a shining being a super human being endowed with a preponderance of Sattva he speaks truth, he practices Dharma, he does everything right, he never does anything wrong that is called worshipping the Gods, such a person when we say, you can say that he is endowed with Sattvika and similarly we have to understand Yaksharakshamsi, Rajasik Shraddha people, they what type of people are they? they worship first of all demigods demigods means remember that is not highest ideals but mediocre ideals, who are they? live and let live, who are they? worldly people what do they do? I want worldly things, I want to be healthy I want to be happy I want to live a long time live and let live, I want my family, I want my friends I want my country I want my religion to live a long time but he is not such a person to create problem for anybody else, on the contrary those who worship Yakshas, Rakshasas Pretas, Bhotas, Pishachas, so they are the people, Pretas, Bhotaganaamscha, evil tendencies, people of evil tendencies why? I want to kill other people I want to bring them under my control I want to snatch things belonging to them their property, their wealth, their houses and their wives their husbands, they must come to me, I only have got this tendency look at Sri Rama look at Ravanasura what was he doing? He was always running after other people's wives, look even at Indra, he was a God but he was running after Ahalya he was running after lot of other women also, so many things he was doing, so what type of Shraddha do you think we have to infer he contained only Tamasika type of this thing, so disembodied spirits, according to Hindu tradition, a Brahmin who while on earth neglects his sacred duties becomes after death a disembodied spirit or brother called Brahma Rakshasa the word means in general an evil spirit worshipped by certain types of persons for the fulfillment of morbid earthly desires, desiring death, destruction suffering of other people there are people like that so we can say there are some countries who are led by these so called political leaders, they want to grab other people's lands, other countries' nations, helpless nations put their faith, I don't need to name them, several times I named them specifically also now you recollect your memories so aspirants can be divided into three, first aspirants seeking peace happiness, they worship benign Gods and they belong to the nature of Sattva so their Shraddha also Satvik Shraddha second, those who desire materialistic enjoyments physical pleasures, they worship these in charge of all these things fierce deities but they are Rajasic people and so their Shraddha is called Rajasic Shraddha and people under the influence of Tamas are drawn to ghosts and evil spirits endowed with the traits of inertia delusion and morbidity, that's why even they do not hesitate to kill animals, to kill even human beings, even to offer wine etc. and as Prasada they eat, these beautiful ideas we will further discuss in our tomorrow's class Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Janura Mardanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagad Guru May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti, I hope you all had very happy Diwali Jai Ramakrishna