Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 081

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahanaavavatu Sahanaubhunaktu Saaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvinavaditamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Om Yogena Chittasyapadena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Javaidyakeena Yopakarottam Pravaram Muninam Patanjalim Praanjali Rana Tosmi I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar and of the body through medicine. We are studying Sri Ramakrishna as the greatest yogi. Whatever types of yoga we may adopt, every system of yoga has its own special requirements, qualifications. If we take for example Jnana Yoga, then Sadhana Chaturstaya Sampatti. If we take Bhakti Yoga, people think there are no qualifications for following the path of Bhakti. But Swami Vivekananda takes from this greatest Acharya of Bhakti, Brahmani Acharya, Viveka, Vimoka, Abhyasa, Kriya, Kalyana, Anudarsha etc. Seven qualifications, requirements. If we follow the path of Karma, are there any requirements? Yes, the very first requirement is a Karma Yogi should have no other desire excepting that of doing good to the world and he doesn't want any result back and he wants to remain absolutely tranquil under all circumstances. What about yoga? For us the standard is Patanjali. As we all know this particular system of yoga consists of eight steps. What is the very first step? Yama, consisting of five qualifications. Or in other words, getting rid of all the impurities, negative qualities. The next step is once we get rid of the negative qualities, then we have to get in the positive qualities, which is called Niyama. Why is it necessary? If there is a place which is filled with full of impurities, if you want to get in something good, what is the first thing we have to do? Get rid of the things which are rotting there already. This is the exact process we follow in our day-to-day life. From birth to death that's what we are doing. So we are studying Sri Ramakrishna as a great Yogi. We can also study Sri Ramakrishna as a great Bhakta. We can also study as a great Karmi. How do we know? Swami Vivekananda had given us the hints as it were, and which we are supposed to sing every day. Pranaarpana jagata tarana krintana kali dor. Pranaarpana, he had offered his whole life. For what purpose? For whose sake? For his sake or for our sake? It is for our good, our welfare. So he is an ideal Karma Yogi. There is a very interesting thing you know. Swami Vivekananda is an exact replica of Sri Ramakrishna. The only difference is Sri Ramakrishna rarely spoke about Karma because we are not fit to be pure Karma Yogis. We are not even fit to become Sakama Karma Yogi. Let me dwell a moment on this. People know about Karma Yoga but there is only one variety of Karma Yoga which is called Nishkama Karma Yoga. By Karma Yoga, we do not need to affix this prefix which is called Nishkama. Nishkama means what? I do not want to have anything else, no desire at all. If you have no desire, you will have no motivation at all. But most of us, we are disqualified for that. But are we qualified for Sakama Karma Yoga? What is Sakama Karma Yoga? Don't try to get anything by hook or crook. Depend totally upon God. Sakama means you have desires. What it means is desire is primary, God is an instrument. That is called Sakama Karma Yoga. In Nishkama Karma Yoga, God is primary and Karma Yoga is only an instrument. So Sakama Karma Yoga, how many of us really depend upon God to get our desires fulfilled? Let us review our life and we will see if a little bit after, a short time after our praying to God, if the desire is not fulfilled, then we raid the fridge as it was. That means we put forth self-effort for whatever result we can get. So that is why the Vedas are meant for whom? This big discussion is, is the Veda a Pramana? It is such a marvellous discussion. That is why it is called Mimamsa Shastra. Mimamsa means, deeply you have to analyse, for whom Veda is really relevant? It is not relevant for a person who doesn't have faith in the Vedas. And one who doesn't have faith in the Vedas, he will not believe God. They go together. Belief in God and belief in the Vedas and belief in everybody else. They go together. Again as I said, it is a psychological issue. I am not going to go deep into it. It is a fact that if any person says, I have faith in humanity but I don't have faith in God. It is a false type of belief. If a person has faith in God, then he has faith in humanity, everything else. If he doesn't have faith in a human being but he says, I have faith in God alone, that also doesn't work. This is the point Eric Fromm has brought out in the book, The Art of Loving. If any person has that capacity to love, no one is excluded. Either humanity, they love themselves and they hate others or they love others and hate oneself. That is not going to happen because it is a unitary vision. Simple example, he gives the example of a black spectacle. Anyone of us, let us put a black spectacle, you look at anything else, it appears as black. Look at yourself, do you appear as white? If you put on a white dress, how do you look upon yourself? How do you appear to yourself in a mirror when you put on black spectacles? You will also appear exactly like anything else and this is a very crucial point. Coming back, a person who believes in the Vedas, he believes in God because Vedas tell so. And when a person has got faith in God, then he will do what God wants him to do. And how do we know what God wants us to do and when he wants us to do, how he wants us to do? Do we know? Yes, we know. How do we know? Because Vedas are nothing but the word of God. Simple example, how do we know what Sri Ramakrishna wants us to do? It is simple. How do you know? Read the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He is telling clearly through the medium of the Gospel to all of us, this is what every devotee must do. Same thing I am putting it that one who has got faith in God, he believes in the scripture and whatever the scripture tells him to do and he will do it. In fact, the very definition of a scripture is that which commands you either to do or not to do. Command consists of two facets. Do this and do not to do this. That is what every scripture is there. Do this and do not to do this. Going back to our subject, Sri Ramakrishna is qualified for any yoga. Why is it so? Because you know, Bhakti yoga requires these qualifications. Jnana yoga requires these qualifications. These are different words. If you analyze them, they come exactly to the same points. But specifically certain terms are used which again as I explained in my past classes, they have a specific reason why they are explained. Briefly, what is the explanation? A yogi need not believe in God. In fact, Sankhya Yoga, most of the followers of Sankhya Yoga were called Nirishvaravadis. No Ishvara exists. How do the things work? You just do it, that's it. And again, I will bring it to your notice. I am not talking from the Sankhya point of view. I have combined both Sankhya and Vedanta together. What is the difference here? The difference is according to Sankhyavadins, Ishvara we also studied. Every now and then I will remind you, what is the definition of Ishvara? He is not God according to Sankhya. He is called Purusha Niseshaha. The first come, first served. Somehow he happened to be the first Purusha and he became God and from him the whole knowledge is coming. And he says, how do I attain to my own nature? Because it is Sankhya Yoga's principle. Philosophy is what? Each one of us is a combination of Purusha and Prakriti. What is the problem? The combination of Purusha and Prakriti is like a man who puts his hands in mud, full of mud. Now what is the appellation of this person? Previously he was clean and here is man, here is mud. And both of them got together. Now what is the appellation of this man? Muddy man, dirty man. And that is not a very good thing. So what is the goal? To get rid of the dirt. So like that Purusha Prakriti Sanyogaha. This is the cause of ignorance. So it has to be separated. And how do we separate? Because the Purusha doesn't do anything. Prakriti does everything. What does he do? Let the Prakriti struggle from Tamas, rise from Tamas to Rajas, Rajas to Sattva and when comes as it were the last bond will automatically snap off, separate itself. How does it do? And these clever teachers give us a beautiful example. You know a wood cutter. He goes into the forest and he wants to cut a tree and he takes a saw. What does he do? Almost 75% of the tree he cuts. Then what happens? The tree by itself will fall down. That is the philosophy of the Sankhyavadians. You come to the Sattvic point and somehow something snaps off and the Purusha becomes totally free. This is called Kaivalya. That is why the very definition of Yoga, Chitta, Vritti, Nirodha. You just control your thoughts and the Purusha will escape. What happens to the Prakriti? It's not your botheration and it doesn't know, neither you know. You know because you are consciousness and you have run away. The Prakriti doesn't know because it is purely non-conscious. So it's not a problem. So this is how it works. Why I am reminding here? That even from the yogic point of view, Sri Ramakrishna's life is one of the greatest examples. He is a Paramayogi. That's what we have studied the Yamas, five. What are these? Brahmacharya, Sathya, Asteya, Aparigraha, five. Now we are coming to Niyamas. The very first of these Niyamas, as you know, what is it? It is called Saucha. Saucha means what? Purity. What is the meaning of purity? What is this Saucha? Saucha means external and internal purity. Sri Ramakrishna's life, if you study, something marvelous happened. He had very few possessions and his room absolutely neat and clean and orderly. And he would not tolerate any object in his room to be misplaced. As an example, there was one of his disciples, I do not remember, maybe Sharath Maharaj. One day he borrowed the pen knife and he used it and he brought it back and he kept it back. But not exactly in the place where Sri Ramakrishna used to keep, accustomed to keep. Sri Ramakrishna asked him, where is that pen knife? It's very particular. So Sharath Maharaj said, sir, I returned it. I don't see it. You know, this only small room. It doesn't have anything else, no clothes, it's nothing. Oh, I kept it in the other place. Sri Ramakrishna said, look, from whichever place you take any object in my room, you will exactly replace it. Then he told something very interesting. You know, that's my habit to keep things at a particular place. Even at midnight, if I need something, I know where it is. So I can blindfold, I can go and get it. That neat he was. And he was absolutely, he doesn't have any problem with memory. Even in Samadhi, he will never forget anything. What is our point here? That neatly, cleanly, he keeps count. And most of us fail in this respect. Outside I am talking about. But most of us nowadays, outside speaking, quite clean, quite neat and everything is there. Here, in Sri Ramakrishna's mind, there would be no impure thought. His mind is totally open. Suppose if you are capable of opening his heart and look inside, nothing bad will come. There are certain examples are given here. Sri Ramakrishna was a young man. When his holy mother came, she was a young woman. And Sri Ramakrishna deliberately wanted to test himself. I am just reminding these incidents so that we study from the viewpoint of the yoga. He wanted to test how much control he had over his own mind. So he told, oh mind, this is your lawfully wedded wife. If you want to enjoy, you enjoy her. But do not pretend. Outside one thing and inside one thing. And his mind of course would not go. So he forced himself one day to touch her. And that day his mind had soul very high. Purity with regard to three things. There are so-called millions of temptations are there. And what is the problem with us? Not only certain things are tempting, but they are also not tempting at all times. Suppose a person, he is very fond of eating sweets. Early morning at 2 o'clock, you wake him up and say I have brought some sweets for you. Have them. Do you think he will slap you? Because this is not the right time. Everything has got a right time. And when a person is worried or angry, then also he is not subjected to certain types of temptations. In fact he will hate things which can tempt him. Okay, coming back. He successfully passed this test. When Shri Ramakrishna was passing through tantric sadhanas. I do not know how many of you really remember that incident. One night Bhairavi Brahmani brought a young man and a young woman. It is part of tantric rituals. I do not really discuss these things, but I am bringing out so that we have to be aware of. What is the right he has to do? They will be co-operating and the sadhaka has to watch them do it. Ramakrishna, he was telling, go back to Ramakrishna's Leela Prasanga. He was telling, no emotion in my mind, nothing, neither disgust nor temptation, nothing. Absolutely no irreaction. Now you just see a nice picture of a man and woman embracing or even not embracing, even a beautiful woman, beautiful man, you know, even though we do not do, the thoughts will come. But in Shri Ramakrishna's mind, as though some grass reeds are moving, no reaction at all. And there are so many other things. One night Bhairavi Brahmani brought a beautiful young woman, asked Shri Ramakrishna to sit on her lap and do japa. I have discussed these things, so I will not go into them. What was Shri Ramakrishna's reaction at first? He said, oh mother, what are you making me go through? But tremendous reaction came from inside. And he sat and hardly had he done 108 japa, he said, my mind plunged into samadhi. Now a person in whom this kind of reaction, not only not pro-reaction but adverse reaction towards the most tempting objects of this world, if this is his mentality, then what type of impure thoughts could possibly arise in his mind? That is the point. Okay, I told you that there are three things, three things which can tempt a person. What are those three things? First is sex. Second is money. What is the third? Honor. No honor. And Madhur Babu tested Shri Ramakrishna. You know Madhur Babu brought a beautiful young woman and Shri Ramakrishna was not a blind person. He could appreciate the beauty of people. And he said, she is a very beautiful woman. What was her name? Lakshmibai. And was he tempted? Not at all. Madhur Babu had taken Shri Ramakrishna to those people and they brought them to Shri Ramakrishna's room and it did not work. Second, Madhur Babu wanted to give a piece of property, genuinely he was a great devotee. He said, Baba, nobody is there to look after you, I will separately give you a piece, wear. Even if, he knew about his own family very well. And he said, nobody will disturb you, this will be yours. And that property would have been a crores of rupees worth today. Shri Ramakrishna's mind externally and internally both was absolutely clean. But that's not the real definition of purity. What is the purity? If a person's mind becomes pure, it becomes like a, what is called in Vedantic language, Chitta Shuddhi. When Chitta Shuddhi comes, what happens? What reaction comes into the mind? That person, according to Patanjali, the person will see his own self reflected like in a clean mirror. That means the desire for God-realization will become very, very intense, very strong. And that is the real measurement of what is called purity of the mind. If anybody says, I am a pure person and you ask him, are you longing for God? Are you feeling the bondage of this world? As though when a person is deep in mud or in filth, does he feel happy there? He wants to get out as soon as possible. If anybody feels this world is like that and wants to get out, then you can say he is a pure person. We have to try our level best. That's why it is called Mala and Vikshepa. These are the two greatest enemies at the beginning of spiritual life. What is the first thing? Mala. Mala means what? Impurities. Somehow we get rid of impurities a little, wash our minds. Then the second greatest devil comes. What is that called? Vikshepa. Vikshepa means terrible distractions. And that is what really puts greatest obstacle, will not allow us to progress in spiritual life. Ramakrishna, as I said, as just now we discussed, externally he was clean and internally also he was very, very clean. This is called Shauja. Then Santosha. What is Santosha? Santushti. Santosha or Santushti. There is a difference between these two. Santosha means a person is very happy. Santushti means a person is very content. Contentment is not excitement. So this is a point we have to keep in our mind. Usually when we say I am not happy, we mean we don't have excitement. But when we use the word Santushti, that means whatever the situation, I am capable of enjoying it. A person who has got contentment, what is the greatest benefit? So Anuttamaha Sukhalabhaha. Santosha Anuttamaha Sukhalabhaha. Patanjali himself is going to tell us what is the result of practicing all these things. We will come to that later on. But here it means a contented person, somehow he acquires that capacity. He will be very happy with whatever he gets. Extremely happy, not excited. Sri Ramakrishna, a man of bliss. Holy Mother says that I have never seen Sri Ramakrishna unhappy. He was seen to be unhappy only on one occasion. I am talking about time occasion. Because of one situation. What is that situation? Whenever he finds his devotees are not making spiritual progress, he was not very happy. In his presence, people used to be so happy. They are filled so much with bliss. Swami Turiyananda says one visit to Sri Ramakrishna is equivalent to one week's full intoxication. He is ever blissful. And whoever used to be in his presence, they were also blissful. And Holy Mother said, so long as I lived with Thakur, as though a part of Amrita is kept in my heart. And that not only... When was Holy Mother separated from Sri Ramakrishna? Was there a time when Sri Ramakrishna was ever separated from Holy Mother? Physically they were for some time. But mentally they were always together. Where there is Holy Mother, there is Ramakrishna. I am using the present tense, not the past tense. Where there is Sri Ramakrishna, there will be Holy Mother is there. Sri Ramakrishna was ever blissful. Why was he ever blissful? There must be a reason. In worldly life also, we can be blissful under only one circumstance. What is it? Rather two circumstances. There is no obstacle for our happiness. And we are constantly united with what can bring us happiness. Which is a very rare thing. It is only spiritually it is possible. Now we come back to the spiritual point of it. The more we move nearer to Sri Ramakrishna or God. What is the nature of God? Satchitananda. If He is Satchitananda and the nearer we are coming to manifest Satchitananda, then also we should experience Satchit and Ananda. So if any spiritual aspirant says I am progressing in spiritual life but I am miserable. He is progressing towards which Santosha is very necessary. But there is one caveat here. Worldly wise, a person should be absolutely content. Spirituality wise, he should ever be discontent until he becomes totally united with God. Third quality is austerity. Tapaha. This is a wonderful word. What is Tapaha? So there are two definitions are given. External definition is Tapasya or austerity means to live such a life which involves a lot of suffering, a lot of difficulties. Voluntarily taken up. First of all it is not externally karmically imposed. A beggar, he is also doing Tapasya. He is sleeping outside. He has no cloths to wear. He is living on alms. And is he doing Tapasya? No. This is also Tapasya but karmically done Tapasya. It is forced to do Tapasya. Sometimes you know when we overheat after 2-3 hours, we have to do Tapasya. It is not called Tapasya because you are only paying back what you have excessively taken before. That is it. The very word Tapas-Tapaha means that which burns. Tapati iti Tapaha. That is why Surya, the Sun God, what is he called? Tapana. Tapana. In South Indian language Tapana means mental worries. Because it is a heat produced you know from outside etc. Now the point here is that a person voluntarily undertaken certain type of suffering, voluntary suffering for the purpose of achieving something. He wants to have willpower or he wants to have certain what is called Siddhis, some kind of powers over others or to obtain something and Tapasya will fulfill that purpose. I will tell you a very interesting story. This is a story I read in the life of Ramana Maharshi. Where he was there were a lot of monkeys. And you know monkeys are just like human beings. These monkeys they have a king and they have a prime minister. So there is a big hierarchy, alpha males, females etc. And David Attenborough if you have watched you will know very clearly what is taking place in human life. Same thing is happening also in animals, many animals life. Now there was a monkey which got injured and Ramana Maharshi, somebody reported so it was brought and it's Ramana Maharshi himself cared for it and it remained lame but he saved its life. So it was very fond of Ramana Maharshi, it will come Ramana Maharshi will give it food everything and this interaction was going on. Now this monkey grew up and then the old monkey king died and immediately there was a scramble who is going to be the king, next king. And there was one huge brute and that fellow got to the topmost Himasana you know, topmost branch of the tree and gave a big cry. He understood the language of the animals. He said this has become the king now and the others as a sign of their acceptance they would go and humbly sit in front of him. Now this lame one has had no chance at all but it wanted tremendous this thing. There was a small scruffle between the king and this fellow. So this fellow had to put his tail in between the legs and run away and it disappeared. And it used to come to Ramana Maharshi every day, it disappeared. Then Ramana Maharshi and others they were all wondering what happened to it. Maybe it has gone away. 15 days or so passed away and suddenly one day they heard a cry, huge very powerful cry and then he said this 15 days king it came down and sat on a lower branch and this lame monkey it was sitting on the uppermost branch. It has become the king and this surprised everybody. Then Ramana Maharshi gave an explanation. He said this fellow went and without eating food it had done tapasya for 15 days and the result is it got this power. Now we have no option but to believe in the truth of these stories and it is true. If anybody had attained anything in this world whether it is secular or spiritual it is only due to the influence of tapasya. What does tapasya do? These two meanings are there. Tapasya gives us strengthens our willpower. The other is tapasya means burning. It burns away the impurities so that the purities our real nature could come out, manifest itself. So Sri Ramakrishna's tapasya. Did he do tapasya or not? According to some Shardanandji Sri Ramakrishna had performed a superhuman tapasya. It is the better word. Superhuman austerities. Because for days together he did not know whether the world existed or not. He was not caring for his body. So many other things are there. You can refer to the Sri Ramakrishna yoga prasanga especially the 12 years of the sadhana period. Beautiful description is there. Now the next quality. Actually Sri Ramakrishna was an embodiment of tapasya because his whole life is meant for whom? For whom was he doing tapasya? For the sake of the world. Giving up kama and kanchana, lust and gold is the greatest tapasya. And remembering God all the time that is the greatest tapasya. And tolerating all the situations that are happening around us that is called the greatest tapasya. You know somebody said in English language what is hell? Hell is other people. And we are surrounded by hells. All of us surrounded by hells. Now where does the tapasya come in? Not to think other people are problematic people but to consider this is our tapasya. There was a devotee who was having lot of domestic problems. And he was a very sincere type of devotee. He came to one of our senior swamis. Swamiji I am unable to do any tapasya. I am having all these problems. He said God has kept you in a situation where you could do the greatest tapasya. How? You take this opportunity to pray for the others who are creating trouble for you and to see how your outlook upon them will be a spiritual positive outlook. Like Kunti. Kunti's prayer to Krishna let me have suffering after suffering. So that is a good spiritual attitude. How do we know? Ramakrishna was an embodiment of austerity. Yes, very easy to know because what is the result of tapasya? He will get siddhis, supernatural powers. And what is the greatest supernatural power? To get God himself. Did Sri Ramakrishna get God or not? So that is clearly it shows he was the greatest tapasvi or person of austerities. The fourth qualification is called svadhyaya. And this word has got two meanings. Svadhyaya means adhyaya means study. Svadhyaya means scriptural study. As scriptures do not mean only Vedas. For the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna what is the scripture? For the devotees of Krishna Bhagavatam is the scripture. Or if they are Vedantins then what is the scripture? Bhagavad Gita is the scripture. And if they are devotee type of people, this last message of Sri Krishna, the teaching of Sri Krishna for Uddhava, that is the greatest scripture. And for us the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the complete works of Swami Vivekananda. In fact Sri Ramakrishna's gospel is considered the aphorisms like Patanjali's. And the complete works is called like the Vyasa's commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. Swami Vivekananda's talks and his lectures, his writings and his conversations, all these things constitute the commentary on Sri Ramakrishna. Did Swami Vivekananda preach anything other than what Sri Ramakrishna had taught? In sentence by sentence you can compare. In fact if you have lot of time on your hands then you can undertake that and say you take any teaching of Sri Ramakrishna and say where do I get the parallel in the teachings of complete works of Swami Vivekananda. It is a wonderful spiritual exercise all by itself. One meaning of it, study of scriptures. What does study of scriptures mean? Suppose there is an illiterate person and he cannot study. Study doesn't mean one has to read. Study means the scriptures somehow have to go inside our minds through many means and one of the most potent means is passing from guru to disciple or from any saintly person if anybody says to us this is a good thing and that is also one way of listening. Who is the best example to understand this point? Sri Ramakrishna himself. Somebody told him, sir how did you know all these things? You never read these scriptures. What was his reply? He said I have not read but I have heard people reading all these things, discussing all those things. There was a very wonderful incident. You know there was an incident in the life of Jesus Christ when he was a young boy. His parents were returning I think from Jerusalem back to their home Bethlehem. On the way because thousands and thousands of Jews he was missing. So after three days searching they couldn't find out so they went back and then they found out he was sitting on one of the rooftops of the temples and he was involved in discussing with great Jewish scholars, rabbis, intricate points and they were all supporting him. This kind of incident was there in the life of Ramakrishna. It happened I think in Kamarpukur. There was a pundit's meeting and some problem had come which could not be solved. You know the incident. Then somebody saw Sri Ramakrishna was a small boy 5, 6, 7 we don't know exact age and he went to one pundit. He was listening and how he was understanding at that age what they were discussing and he nudged one of the pundits and could this be the solution and that pundit was astonished and he told all others this boy says this one and everybody agreed yes that is the solution and same thing happened also at Dakshineswar many times. When did it happen? Whenever Sri Ramakrishna undertook any particular path of spiritual practice and became succeeded people who were trying to follow that particular path in hundreds they used to somehow get attracted to Dakshineswar come because they did not know why they were attracted. They used to come and meet Sri Ramakrishna get all their doubts everything solved and get filled with tremendous faith and enthusiasm for their own particular paths and salute him and depart. So as soon as he passed through this Nirvikalpa Samadhi you know Sri Ramakrishna was initiated by Totapuri and after that Totapuri stayed at Dakshineswar for 11 months almost a year and then you know the big story he wanted to go earlier but could not go because his own practice was not complete. The moment it was complete the mother gave him permission now you can go. After that for six months Sri Ramakrishna was in constant state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. At the end of it he got a commandment from the Divine Mother remain in Bhavamukha. After that he also got some disease transferred. Disease of Jagadambadashi into his own body. He was saved he started suffering and that suffering was actually a blessing a boon in disguise because that helped him bring down his mind like Radhu helped Holy Mother to bring down her own mind. Now as soon as his mind became normal hundreds of Paramahamsas not vagabonds sincere souls practicing Advaita Vedanta sadhana they started flocking to Dakshineswar. Again they did not know why they were going. You know why I am saying this to you? Because Dakshineswar was a Hindu temple. Temple dedicated to whom? To Mother Kali. And what these Paramahamsas have got to do with Mother Kali's temple or Krishna's temple or any temple? Sankarasu sanyasins they do not worship excepting Shiva and Saraswati. What they have got to do? Kali. But they had come unbeknown to them some tremendous force forced them to come to Dakshineswar and then they met Sri Ramakrishna. The description goes and his Paramahamsas they all used to gather in the room. There was no room and at that time Sri Ramakrishna was having terrible what is called dysentery, diarrhea. So they arranged a small mud pot and Sri Ramakrishna used to sit there and day and night discussions Asti, Bhati and Priya were going on. And naturally everybody says hey what have you got to say? Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya. What have you got to say? Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya. What have you got to say? Brahma Satyam Jaganmithya. Afterwards what discussions? Will there be any discussions? No. But they used to raise various objectionable points because they all more or less studied Shankaracharya's commentaries on these Upanishads etc. And they used to discuss. Some of the points they could not understand at all and give a small sample of it. See there is a Upanishad called Kena Upanishad and in the Kena Upanishad it is taught whatever you know is not Brahma and whatever you do not know that is also not Brahma. Whatever you know is not Brahma and whatever you do not know that is also not Brahma. It is something different both from Veditam and Aveditam. Now if you hear this kind of statement what do you think your understanding would be? Known and unknown. So if it is in our cut and dried rational mind there are only two things. Either a thing is known or it is unknown. And what is the something, blessed something which is both beyond the known and the unknown? This was the main teaching of Kena Upanishad. So the Guru teaches the disciple and afterwards the Guru wants to test and then he again defines it and says if you think Sushtu Veditam, Sushtu Veda means very well you understood about Brahman then you have not understood. And if you say I have not understood Brahman then you have understood Brahman. If you say I understand you have not understood. If you say I have not understood then you understood. So he repeats and says, asks the disciple, did you understand Brahman? And the disciple was very intelligent, probably even more intelligent than the Guru. He says it is not that I understood. It is not that I did not understand. And the Guru, sabash, you alone have understood. Not only that. This disciple, he says that there were other students. He says if my statement, this what is called paradoxical, controversial, conflicting statement of mine, if it is truly understood by any one of the other fellow students, he also understood the Brahman. This has got a huge commentary. I will not go into it. But the point is, see there are only two things in this world. What are these two things? Known and the unknown. But what is the point? The known, see you see this table. Is it known or unknown? It is known. If it is known then it is not Brahman because you are the subject and this is an object. It is unknown. Unknown means, and what is the meaning of known? The definition of known is a most marvelous definition. Our brains become very clear after studying these commentaries. But before that you might get confused. He says what is this? There is an object here and that object is known. So the definition of what is known is anybody, anywhere, at any time, if he comes to know that object that is the definition of what is known. That means what? Now you may not know something but after 10 billion years somebody might come to know. So that object falls into which category? Known or unknown? It is the known only. So the definition of known is it might have been known in the past, it might be known now or it might be known any time in the future. That is called known. So there are some things which can never be known. For example, nobody can know whether there is a heaven. But it is also something which people will know but not in your gross sense. If you want to know what is after death, how will you know what is after death? You have to go and find out somebody who knows about it. And if you want to meet that person, you can't meet through email or what application. You will have to die. Now when you die, nobody else will know whether you have known or not. So there are certain things known or unknown. But whether it is known or unknown, if you know, then that is not Brahman. So what is Brahman? If you exclude both the known and unknown from your vocabulary, only one thing remains. What is that? You, I. And that is Brahman. Is Brahman known? Do you know yourself? You can never know yourself. So is it that you are unknown? You ever remain unknown? This is the point Swami Vivekananda gives. If you study Swami Vivekananda, he says God ever remains unknown and unknowable. But it doesn't mean He cannot be known. He can be known in a very special way. I am putting it in the simplest language possible. And if you could not understand this, if you get confused over this, now just imagine what Kenopanishad is trying to tell you, and added to the Shankaracharya's huge bhashya, by the time you complete one page and I am coming to the second page, you have completely forgotten what he has said in the first page. But every paragraph is an invaluable treasure. That is my point here. My point is that Sri Ramakrishna was in that. So asti, bhati, priya. These kind of discussions used to arise in the presence of Sri Ramakrishna. And even though his physical body was like a skeleton, one just pushed here and there. Can it not be this solution? And everybody would accept, yes, you are right. So their doubts, it is not intellectual doubts. They were not trying to discuss to become intellectual scholars. They were really, they had these spiritual problems and that used to be cleared by Sri Ramakrishna's great presence. That is called svadhyaya. What is the other part of svadhyaya? Sva-adhyaya. Study upon self. This is the most mysterious thing in this world. We know everything else excepting ourselves. What a tragedy it is. A person is reluctant to spend one penny even in charity and that person asks, how can I get that motiveless devotion to God? How am I supposed to reply? It is very difficult because the person is not even in a condition to understand what I am trying to tell. That is why you can read Upanishads, you can read the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. There are Prabuddhas everywhere. Prabuddha means so-called intelligent people. Upanishads are extremely difficult. Gita is very difficult. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, so easy to understand. And the teachings of Holy Mother, so easy to understand. Go on. Each one of us understand in our own way. I will give an example of this. One day Sri Ramakrishna had issued a statement while talking about philosophy of Vaishnavism. What was that? A Vaishnava says, Name is Ruchi, Vaishnava Shiva, Jeeva Daya. Taste in the name of God and service of fellow devotees and compassion towards every other person. This was the topic. Sri Ramakrishna accepted the first two but about the third he went into kind of ecstatic state, came out and he issued a statement. He says, Jeeva Daya? No, who the hell are you to show compassion? Because everybody is none other than, for your own benefit, you will have to serve them, looking upon them as God. Shiva Jnane, Jeeva Shiva. And so many of the disciples heard it. But when they came, all of them came out, it was Swamiji made. Today Sri Ramakrishna had opened my eye to another dimension. If I get opportunity, I will preach this to this whole world. Then everybody else questioned Swamiji. We also heard it and we just understood it a little bit. But what is the speciality? Because the expression of Swamiji's statement, it was as though he discovered the greatest truth. But what is it that you understood so much? And then he tried to explain. This is the solution for the age-old controversy whether man has free will or he is totally bound. Sri Ramakrishna has given the greatest answer to it. I think later on he must have explained it to them. Later on Swami Vivekananda, during the course of conversation he said that every teaching of Sri Ramakrishna can be commented upon and caught loads of books, could be written. Now what is my point here? My point is not Sri Ramakrishna's teachings, but how all of them who heard it understood his teaching in his own way. Those who are very very intelligent like Swamiji, intelligent in the sense of purity, not intellectual intelligence, they understood it to the maximum possible. And those who have got less intelligence, they understood in their own way. So Sri Ramakrishna used to remove the genuine doubts of these great sadhus. What is the problem? We can also do that. Because we have to do this particular exercise. What is that exercise called? Swa-Adhyaya. So Swami Brahmanandaji, Holy Mother, Sri Ramakrishna, Aneekvavakali, they said in the beginning you need the help of Guru Shastra. But later on they said your own mind will become your Guru. Unerringly, intuitively it would point out to the truth. And when does our own mind become a Guru and point out the ultimate truth? When does it do it? When only we really study. Like we study the scripture, then study our own mind. So when you study a scripture, you have to study with certain parameters. When we study our mind, we also have to study with the same parameters. Then all the knowledge is within. And each soul is potentially divine. So you should substitute the word soul with the word knowledge. Knowledge is within. And therefore the knowledge will come. Then what is it from outside that comes? It is a suggestion. That's all. It just opens the door. But really the treasure is within ourselves. Sri Ramakrishna used to study his own mind. Sri Ramakrishna also heard a lot of scriptures. We will discuss these points in our next clip. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti