# Gospel | Chapter 7: Dec 14, 1882 (Part 3) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

An episode of [Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1247628265), 24 Aug 2026, 55 min.

Audio: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/384f4753-2501-488a-b75b-f74c771bfcdb/stream.mp3

Swami Sarvapriyananda reads and discusses the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is an English translation of the Bengali spiritual text Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita by Swami Nikhilananda. The text records conversations of Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees and visitors, recorded by Mahendranath Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." This session was recorded on Jan 10, 2023. 🙏 Please Support the Vedanta Society of New York http://www.vedantany.org/donate 🌐 Please Visit Us • Website: https://vedantany.org • Apple & Spotify Podcasts: https://www.vedantany.org/media-channels • YouTube (Main Channel): / @vedantany • YouTube (Archives): / @vedantanyarchives • Facebook: / vedantany • X / Twitter: / vedantany 📙 Books by Swami Sarvapriyananda • https://www.vedantany.org/swamis-books Lecture Series by Swami Sarvapriyananda 📓 Introductory Lectures: https://www.vedantany.org/introductor... 📚 Vedanta Scriptures: https://www.vedantany.org/by-scriptures 🧩 Lectures by Topics: https://www.vedantany.org/by-topic 💬 AskSwami Q&A: https://www.vedantany.org/ask-swami-qa 📖 Scriptures Taught by Swami Sarvapriyananda • Aparokshanubhuti | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Bhagavad Gita | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Brihadaranyaka Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriy... • Dṛg Dṛśya Viveka | Swami Sarvapriyananda • The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna | Swami Sarv... • Isha Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Katha Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Kena Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Mandukya Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Mundaka Upanishad | Swami Sarvapriyananda • Vedantasara of Sadananda | Swami Sarvapriy... 🪔 About Vedanta Vedanta is among the world’s oldest spiritual philosophies and one of its most inclusive. Rooted in the Vedas, India’s sacred scriptures, Vedanta upholds the unity of all existence, the divinity of the soul, and harmony among religions. 🏛️ About This Channel This is the official channel of the Vedanta Society of New York, a spiritual institution affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of India and holds the distinction of being its first established Center, founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1894. Swami Sarvapriyananda currently serves as the Resident Minister and Spiritual Leader of the Vedanta Society of New York. 📜 Content Use Policy https://www.vedantany.org/content-policy

## Transcript

[0:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This verse which we chant traditionally just before reading the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
[0:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This was actually the verse included from the Bhagavatam by M, the one who compiled the Gospels Ramakrishna in Bengali, the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita.
[0:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he selected it from the Gopi Gita in the Bhagavatam.
[0:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Why I mentioned this is that in a recent talk at the Institute of Culture in Golpark, the philosopher Arunam Jagraverty.
[1:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He made an interesting observation.
[1:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, till now, we have all heard in Vedanta, the study of Vedanta, the foundation of Vedanta, the textual foundation of Vedanta is threefold.
[1:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The Upanishads.
[1:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: called the shruti prasthan, which literally means the Vedic foundation of Vedanta.
[1:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There's the source texts of Vedanta.
[1:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Second, the Bhagavad-gita.
[1:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is technically called the smriti prasthan, which means the smriti foundation.
[1:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The smritis are more like applications.
[1:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The shruti is revelation.
[1:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I used truths which were seen by pages.
[1:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They put it down in the Upanishads.
[1:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: How do you do what you do with that in life?
[1:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Gita talks about it, practical spirituality.
[1:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then there is the philosophical side of it.
[1:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Called Niaia Bresthan, which is the logical side of it.
[1:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The text there is the Brahmasutras, the sutras on Brahman.
[2:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this everybody knows, when you study Vedanta, the foundational texts are these three.
[2:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The collection of texts called the Upanishads, Shruti Prastana.
[2:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The text called the Bhagavad-gita, Smelty Prastana, and text called the Brahma Sutras, Nyaya Prastana.
[2:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Everybody knows Prastana, Treya, triple foundations of Vedanta.
[2:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But what he added new this time, this professor, Arindam Chakrabati, he said, we will add a fourth one, a fourth foundation for Vedanta.
[2:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He called it the Resaprasthana.
[2:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Resam means sweetness, joy, the syrup, the candy, the sweet part of spirituality, which is the Bhagavatam.
[2:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, we can consider the Bhagavatam, which talks about the incarnations of God, especially famous for the stories of Krishna.
[2:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it's a wonderful mixture of devotion and knowledge.
[2:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not considered a foundational text of Vedanta in the tradition, but he wanted to say that it should be.
[3:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And so he said, from now on, let's call it a Rasa Prasthan.
[3:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Rasa means literally it means sit-up, it means sweetness, it means aesthetics, it means joy, beauty.
[3:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So for example, music and dance and art are all part of the Rasa tradition in India.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And here it's interesting that M, the author of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, he starts this text with a quote from the Bhagavatam.
[3:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this is what we call it.
[3:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now we can call it the Rasa Prasthan.
[3:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All right.
[3:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now we were studying.
[3:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: in the text, the long section.
[3:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Fort, 14th December, 1882, 14th December, 1882, the master, and Vijay Goswami, who was a major religious leader, reformer, part of the Brahman Samaj in Calcutta in those days.
[4:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: A devotee.
[4:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, we are on page 166, actually 165 at the end in my book, 166.
[4:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is about three pages into the long dialogue of Sri Ramakrishna.
[4:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: By the way, this is just reading, feel free to jump in with observations, comments, raise your hand and just say what you want to say.
[4:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, Vijay asks a question, this is the bottom of page 165, I'll read it a little bit and then talk about it.
[4:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Vijay asks a question, what must be the bound source condition of mind in order to what must it be in order to achieve liberation?
[5:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, just before this, Sri Ramakrishna was talking about the Bound soul, the worldly soul, but not attracted to spiritual life, and he gave some stark examples.
[5:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, I once met a relative of Keshav Sain, 50 years old.
[5:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He was playing cards.
[5:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As if the time had not yet come for him to think of God.
[5:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Remember in those days, the average lifespan was 50 or less, so 50 would be an old man.
[5:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sri Ramakrishna passed when he was 1886, so he was 50 years old at that time, and so I really can't often refer to him as the old man.
[5:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I'm already 51.
[5:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it's the point being that time is flying.
[5:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That is ever coming closer.
[5:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Where are you going to turn to God to switch your life?
[6:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Where are you going to start thinking of the eternal?
[6:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he says, he's playing cards at the age of 50.
[6:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then he gives another example.
[6:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There is another characteristic of the bound so.
[6:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you remove him from his worldly surroundings to a spiritual environment, he will
[6:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The worm that grows in fields feels very happy there.
[6:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It strides in fields.
[6:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It will die if you put it in a pot of rice.
[6:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Which is a harsh thing to say.
[6:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: which is also true.
[6:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We find people simply not interested in any kind of spiritual.
[6:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not just you're not interested in Vedanta, but they are not interested in Christian mysticism.
[6:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They're not interested in Sufi mysticism.
[6:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They are not interested in Buddhist meditation.
[6:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Nothing.
[6:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: None of these things are in devotion of the Hari Rama Krishna variety.
[6:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Nothing.
[6:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Nothing appeals to them.
[7:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And there is something that does appeal to them, that is money and pleasure and something in the world.
[7:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's it.
[7:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Nothing more than that.
[7:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you bring them to such a discussion, they'll find it boring.
[7:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So Sri Ramakrishna, there's a funny incident in a Daksyaneshwar temple, when Sri Ramakrishna is talking about spiritual matters as he did, he had visitors, a lot of people were sitting there, two friends had come, they were sitting and listening and then one of them is
[7:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Okay, when will you go?
[7:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let's go.
[7:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Okay, enough.
[7:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And the other person is there.
[7:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You like the discussion.
[7:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He says, let me listen a little more.
[7:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let me listen a little more.
[7:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And finally his friend has had enough.
[7:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, all right, you listen.
[7:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'll go and wait in the boat.
[7:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Remember, it was to cross the river and come to visit Sri Ramakrishna.
[7:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So in the Ganga, the river.
[7:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So obviously there's a boat.
[7:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's like I'll go and sit in the car.
[7:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You listen and come and you.
[7:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He can't bear it.
[7:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It finds it boring, positively irritating to talk about these things.
[8:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So that's the terribly worldly person, who's happy taking them to a bar or a movie hall of whatever?
[8:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Happy.
[8:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But bringing them to spiritual talk, a meditation center is bored out of his mind.
[8:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Or little better interested.
[8:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's fine, but only for a little bit.
[8:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Okay, enough.
[8:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now let's go back to where I was.
[8:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I remember going as a kid to the ashram nearby ashram in our town and I loved it most fair of the monastery, but I used to think that is it possible to live with this kind of an atmosphere all day long and all month long and all year long and all your life.
[8:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It seems too much, but it's not really, you get used to it and it's it's good.
[9:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So when he says these things, it says, all remained silent.
[9:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So they were little gathering, they became a little reflective.
[9:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Okay, so we want spiritual life, but is it too much for us?
[9:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So what kind of a mind should we cultivate to be enlightened, to be freed from some sorrow?
[9:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So that's the question.
[9:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now, that's the background to the question.
[9:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What must be the bound souls' condition of mind in order to achieve liberation?
[9:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So what kind of mind should we cultivate?
[9:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Master.
[9:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We had relatively bit of this last time, but I'm going to leave because it's relevant.
[9:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Master, he can free himself from attachment to less than gold, if by the grace of God, he cultivates a spirit of strong renunciation.
[9:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What is this strong renunciation?
[10:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One who has only a mild spirit of renunciation says, well, all will happen in the course of time.
[10:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let me now simply repeat the name of God.
[10:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But a man possessed of a strong spirit of renunciation feels restless for God.
[10:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As the mother feels for her own child, a man of strong renunciation seeks nothing but God.
[10:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He regards the world as a deep will, and feels, as if he were going to be drowned in it.
[10:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He looks on his relatives as venomous snakes.
[10:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The why Venomus snakes, if they were the spiritual, if they were spiritually inclined, absolutely it is fine.
[10:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If they are not, if they are all the time trying to drag you back into what you are not interested in, that's what he is talking about.
[10:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He is Lulukson, his relatives as Venomus snakes, he wants to fly from them, and he does go away.
[11:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He never thinks, let me first make some arrangements for my family, and then I shall think of God.
[11:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He has great inward resolution.
[11:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We sing in the art in the evening we were singing, one of the phrases in the art of which we sing, Drula Nish Chayama Anasavan.
[11:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Manasavan meets mind, possessing a mind, what kind of mind?
[11:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Drula Nish Chayama, Drula firm.
[11:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Nish Chayama, resolution.
[11:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: a firm resolve.
[11:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like a thunderbolt, mind and resolve like a thunderbolt, I shall realize God.
[11:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All I want is God and God only.
[11:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I take a stand on that, not the world.
[11:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You might say, it's not true.
[11:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: My mind has it's so mixed up, it wants so many other things.
[11:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All right, at least this much is true.
[11:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I want to want God, this much is true.
[11:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All right, take a stand
[12:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As for the rest, whatever is there in my mind, I'll deal with it.
[12:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: With the help of God, we'll deal with it.
[12:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But I want God, whoever I am, wherever I am, whatever condition, I want God.
[12:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Take a firm stand on that.
[12:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now, that feeling is not that we do not have that feeling.
[12:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sometimes we do, but the problem is sometimes.
[12:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: not most of the time, not all the time.
[12:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One Sadhu said in Ram Subdha's second tell you his name.
[12:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, who is a sadhka spiritual seeker?
[12:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Remember, this is in the context of India.
[12:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he says, everybody goes to the temple sometime or the other.
[12:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Everybody prays to God sometime or the other.
[12:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Everybody listens to a, you know, budget, a devotional song sometime or the other.
[12:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sometime or the other, if you do that, you're not a spiritual seeker.
[12:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One has to be a consistent spiritual secret.
[12:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm moving towards something.
[12:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Who is a student?
[13:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Not somebody who reads a book once in a while.
[13:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sometime or the other.
[13:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: No.
[13:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You have a regular course of studying which you are pursuing systematically towards a certain goal.
[13:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then you are a student.
[13:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this consistent spiritual seeking.
[13:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It requires resolve, resolve.
[13:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Duryad Nishchaya Marnasavan, Sri Ramakrishna's described in that Arathi, in the song which we sing every day, very interesting quality of Trimman's Resolve.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And if you see his life and the life of Vivekananda, Mahshara, or the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, they share this one thing in common.
[13:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They have a very diverse bunch of people.
[13:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But they are this one thing in common, they were tremendously determined, we will find God, we will realize God, we will hold on to God in this life, and nothing else matters.
[13:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's a quality, it's a blessed quality, and people who have been successful all their life they have had it in this quality.
[14:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Right here, the famous example, Edison,
[14:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So Edison had his laboratory here in New Jersey, right?
[14:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So there's so many stories we read about.
[14:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: For example, in his quest to find the perfect filament for the light bulb.
[14:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He's said to have failed thousands of times.
[14:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I've come across different numbers, 20,000 experiments failed.
[14:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And one number, a 10,000 experiments failed.
[14:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But the interesting thing is he failed.
[14:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This much is short.
[14:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He failed thousands of times, thousands of times.
[14:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And there are two interesting quotes when he had failed 10,000 times or whatever.
[14:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, I don't look at it as 10,000 failures.
[14:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now I know 10,000 ways of not making a light filament for light bulb.
[14:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: when his laboratory burnt up at one time it did.
[15:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And his famous incident burnt up, he rushed to see and all his work of years, decades going up in flames.
[15:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And his son ran behind him to try to put out the flames.
[15:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And his son was shocked, you know, his son writes that I've looked at the old man and all his life's work going up in flames.
[15:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's what he was all about and I looked at his face in the light of the flickering flames.
[15:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He was calm and his only reaction was that well, there go all my mistakes, they've been
[15:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he writes that he, he had a strange look on his face as he looked at the, his whole life's work burning down and he says go call your mother, she has never seen a fire like this.
[16:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There's a, I don't know the exact words, but the famous code from Edison, it says, the formula for success, it says that the way to success, which I know is after all your failures, try one more time.
[16:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's the sheer fire way of success, way to success.
[16:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Anyway, this result, not giving up.
[16:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It could have failed, we wouldn't have light bulbs.
[16:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's all right.
[16:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But the result was there.
[16:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not a question of success.
[16:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He's going to do it.
[16:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I know this professor who's talked at Harvard in the science auditorium there.
[16:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Steinhardt, the name of the book, is a second kind of impossible.
[16:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He was searching for a particular crystal.
[16:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he gave a talk of how he searched for 30 years to find a particular kind of crystal.
[17:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The book is about that.
[17:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So after the talk, I asked him, in the Q&A, I asked him, you worked with Nobel Prize, Nobel Laureate, you worked with researchers on the top of your field, all your life.
[17:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What's the one psychological factor which he would say is common to success in such cutting-edge endeavours at the cutting-edge of science?
[17:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said to me, did you not hear what I said?
[17:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This 30 years, I've been searching for the answer to one question.
[17:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then he pointed, I still remember, I think it's on YouTube also, you can see, you can see me, little flash off orange in the audience.
[17:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But you can see him also.
[17:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he is saying, did he say in the answer?
[17:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Did you not hear what I said, search for these, and how many 20 or 30 years for the answer to that question?
[17:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: then he pointed to the wall of the auditorium.
[18:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, to find an answer to my research question I'm willing to go through that wall to find it.
[18:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So you see the result, the tremendous focus.
[18:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I mean, well, it's knowledge.
[18:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I was just thinking, go to Wall Street here.
[18:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You see, the tremendous amount of focus people have for earning money.
[18:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: all those young people with MBAs and all day and night, money, money, money, money, money focused, tremendous focus.
[18:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Resolve, you go to the, what is the famous music school here?
[18:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The Julia.
[18:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah, sometimes we walk past that and see all these little kids, then usually the moms were bringing them there.
[18:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But how much hard work goes into it?
[18:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: to learn to sing or to play an instrument.
[18:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Heroes and years of hard work.
[18:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'm not going below that because the search for pleasure or being addicted to a drug, that is not resolved.
[19:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's already one is being sucked forward by some kind of addiction or pleasure.
[19:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But anything higher, it's art or knowledge or research.
[19:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All of that entirely only, but that takes tremendous result.
[19:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And this resolve in spiritual life is very, very important.
[19:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: to have this kind of a mind that I want God and not the word, because our natural instinct is to float towards the word.
[19:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And that is like a rowing about which is anchored to the shore.
[19:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If the boat is anchored to the shore, no matter how much we roll, it's all in vain.
[19:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So
[19:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: pulling off the anchor, floating the boat on the water that letting go of our worldly attachments and that has to be done with resolve.
[20:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The dead bury the dead.
[20:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You are going towards God.
[20:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: World will take care of itself.
[20:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: God will take care of the world.
[20:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We don't have to worry about it.
[20:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Here he says that he never thinks let me make some arrangements for my family and then I shall
[20:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He has great inward resolution, tremendous inward resolution.
[20:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This makes meditation and prayer much more effective.
[20:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If inwardly, I say enough inwardly, very strongly.
[20:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No longer the search for sensuous pleasure.
[20:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No longer this endless involvement with money and property.
[20:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No longer this involvement, this is a kind of delusion.
[20:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Husband, wife, father, mother, children, especially children, grandchildren.
[20:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Do whatever you have to do, but minimal.
[21:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Step back.
[21:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I am now engaged in the greatest of human adventures
[21:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I have to clear the text for action, inwardly, step back.
[21:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The monk steps back actually externally, no more connection with, you know, father, mother, brother and sister, husband, wife, if the monk, they were married, they didn't, children, grandchildren, no, cut it off completely, no more connection with property, no more connection with possessions, no more connection with politics and society.
[21:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: it's not, not at all in the, you know, the politically correct worldview, especially in this country.
[21:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's a Protestant country, you know, very much engaged in the world.
[21:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No, step back.
[21:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One pointed.
[21:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I want God and God alone.
[22:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the monk does that, steps away from it.
[22:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And those were not monks.
[22:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: inner renunciation, external renunciation, the monk has to do the inner renunciation and the external renunciation.
[22:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And everybody, whether monk or not a monk, they have to do the inner renunciation.
[22:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Otherwise spiritual life is, there's no power behind it in the inner renunciation.
[22:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Externally, one may be in the middle of the world doing once duty, once activities, spiritualizing it, like Arjuna was advised by Sri Krishna, but internally,
[22:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The inner renunciation must be clear, diamond sharp and with tremendous resolution, whether it's for a monk, or for a household, man, woman, whoever old young, this inner renunciation, with tremendous resolution, and renew that renunciation, that renew that resolution, everyday, day by day.
[22:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this is the question was asked, all right, I feel I'm bound in the world, then what kind of mind do I need to cultivate to become enlightened?
[23:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This is the kind of mind.
[23:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Renunciation and the renunciation backed up by tremendous resolution.
[23:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Before this, something else is required.
[23:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's the example of the man who was playing the playing cards in his old age, quote unquote old age.
[23:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's first of all, one has to come to this view that spiritual life is possible.
[23:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: worldly life is in itself.
[23:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That is fine.
[23:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There is no ultimate solution to to my quest in worldly life.
[23:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's ever changing full of ultimately a mature point of view will see that there is deep unhappiness in worldly life.
[23:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We are never safe in worldly life.
[23:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They are always vulnerable to deep suffering in worldly life.
[24:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So we are also all the time, unfulfilled, unfulfilled.
[24:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So fulfillment, safety from suffering, transcendence of holiness, all of this is possible, this is called spiritual life.
[24:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is the core of all religions in the world, however different they are, whatever path they take.
[24:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this one first has to come to this view.
[24:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Buddhism calls it Dhrishty, Samyat Dhrishty, the proper view, a spiritual view of life.
[24:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then second, one decides, I've got the view, the next step is, I'll do something about it.
[24:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I'll do something about it.
[24:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Buddhism calls it Samyak Sankalpa.
[24:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sankalpa means the result to something.
[24:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then Saddam Krishna here says, and that result has to be backed up with, you know, renunciation, strong result, strong renunciation.
[25:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I have to do something about it.
[25:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Lot's something, this is the goal.
[25:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Otherwise it'll become like, as he said, all right, I'll be spiritual, but there are lots of things to do first, and spirituality is a long game, you know.
[25:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So let's make a small beginning.
[25:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Like a piggy bank, I put a dollar in it and it'll build up over time.
[25:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Well over time, God has got plenty of time.
[25:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Take your time, multiple lifetimes ahead of you take your time.
[25:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You're exposing yourself to great risk, great suffering, great unhappiness.
[25:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If we knew the kind of danger we are in, if we knew the preciousness of this opportunity, we would be much more up and doing.
[25:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he gives a tells us a story.
[25:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sri Ramakrishna tells us a story.
[25:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Let me tell you a story about strong renunciation.
[25:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: At one time there was a drought in a certain part of the country, the farmers began to cut long channels to bring water to their fields.
[26:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One farmer was stubbornly determined.
[26:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He took a vow that he would not stop digging until the channel connecting connected his field with the river.
[26:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said to work.
[26:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The time came for his baths and his wife sent their daughter to him with oil.
[26:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Father said the girl, it is already late, rub your body with oil with oil and take your baths.
[26:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Go away, send her the farmer.
[26:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I have too much to do now.
[26:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It was past midday, and the farmer was still at work in his field.
[26:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He didn't even think of his past.
[26:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then his wife came and said, why haven't you taken your bath?
[26:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The food is getting cold.
[26:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You overdo everything.
[26:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can finish that.
[26:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You can finish the rest tomorrow or even today after dinner.
[26:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The farmers called it her furiously and ran at her spade in hand, crying, what have you no sense?
[26:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There is no rain, the crops are dying, what will the children eat?
[27:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You'll all start to death.
[27:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I have taken a vow, not to think of a bath and food today, before I bring water to my field.
[27:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The wife saw his state of mind and ran away in fear.
[27:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Through a whole day's back-breaking labor, the farmer managed by evening to connect his field with the river.
[27:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then he sat down and watched the water flowing into his field with a murmuring sound.
[27:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: His mind was filled with peace and joy.
[27:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He went home, called his wife, and said to her, now give me some oil and prepare me a smoke.
[27:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: With serene mind, he finished his bath and me, and retired to bed, very snored to his heart's content.
[27:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The determination he showed is an example of strong renunciation.
[27:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now, there was still not over, the other side.
[27:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now there was another farmer, who was also digging a channel to bring water to his field.
[28:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: His wife too came to the field and said to him, it's very late, come home, it isn't necessary to overdo things.
[28:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The farmer didn't protest much, but put aside his paid and said to his wife, well I'll go home since you asked me to, since you asked me to, all laugh.
[28:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That man never succeeded in irrigating his field.
[28:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As without strong determination, the farmer cannot bring water to his field, so also without intense yearning, a man cannot realize God.
[28:39] \[UNKNOWN\]: Yes.
[28:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So this is the parable of the farmer.
[28:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I remember
[28:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Swami Bhuteshavandaji, who's the 12th president of our order, once we monks, I was, of course, a very junior novice.
[29:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: A little, I can't resist this, a play on words.
[29:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I was a wee monk, W.E.
[29:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Anyway, we monks, we went to him.
[29:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Every day, we used to go there and bow down to him and ask, the seniors would ask questions.
[29:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And one day, I remember, he was insisting on intensifying spiritual practices.
[29:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One of the senior monks said to him, so I remember the station, he was 96, 97 years old.
[29:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I was the president of the whole order, nearly 100 years old, he was sitting there.
[29:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One of the monks said, so I'm a many of the monks here in the monastery.
[29:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They are doing spiritual practices.
[29:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There are a lot of spiritual practices.
[29:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he said straight away, he said, that I remember this slow draw, that is not enough, that is not enough.
[30:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So there must be a certain minimum amount to achieve a breakthrough.
[30:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What is enough?
[30:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What is enough?
[30:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Example.
[30:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: those disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
[30:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I'm a trigunati tananda who was here in who established the Vedant of the Society in San Francisco.
[30:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He didn't establish, we were going to establish it, but he built it up.
[30:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So here's the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.
[30:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: In the initial days as young monks in Baranagar in Calcutta, in the first monastery, there are so many interesting stories of their spiritual practices as young monks.
[30:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: One day, he sat down to repeat the mantra, the name of God.
[30:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He sat down with the vow that I will keep on repeating the mantra until I have the vision of God or let me die.
[30:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I will not get
[30:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he kept on repeating from early morning and breakfast time is gone and lunch time is gone.
[31:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And Swami Ramakrishna and the, he was the one who used to take care of the shrine, the kitchen such as it was.
[31:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There was nothing almost, but he was very used to take care of the other monks.
[31:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He was very motherly that way.
[31:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It makes sure they were fed.
[31:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He tried his best to tell him that, come eat your food.
[31:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's getting cold.
[31:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then you can go and do your repeat your month
[31:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: is it no?
[31:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He will not get up.
[31:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He said, I'm ready to start, but I will not get up.
[31:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Finally, Swami Shivan and the upon whom Swami Trigunathita and the had great reverence.
[31:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he, the arrangement was Swami Shivan and they will sit next to him and Shivan and they will repeat the mantra and Trigunathita and they will touch his Shivan, this body and eat quickly.
[31:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I am so.
[31:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it remains connected to the mantra, to quickly finish eating and washing his mouth and said, and then he will take over the mantra again.
[31:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's like a relay race or something, but that is a sign of resolve, that's the kind of resolve.
[32:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And this is something they had all the time.
[32:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They had a difficult time with him when he came to the United States and he took over the Vedanta society of northern California, San Francisco.
[32:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Just before that Swami Turian and the had gone back, he was in charge and he had gone back to India.
[32:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he was replaced by Swami Trigunati Taranda.
[32:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The theory of energy, as far as the world is concerned, people are concerned, devotees are content, he is completely surrendered to the Divine Mother.
[32:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You've centered in God and you've surrendered to the Divine Mother as the Mother will wills and things did work out.
[32:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Anyway, the funny thing is, so this Swami, to the end, he went back to India, and Swami Trigunathi's on the came and took over, and when American devotee, the gentle man he writes about the new Swami, he says, the new Swami does not believe in leaving things to the mother.
[33:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You have to do.
[33:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You have to work.
[33:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And he put up these slogans in the monastery, says work like a horse.
[33:08] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then on the place, do or die.
[33:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And below that written, but you won't die.
[33:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Another place is written.
[33:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Do it now.
[33:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: who thinks like that.
[33:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And they had a tough time with him because he was unsparing.
[33:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And this is a very inspiring letter he writes to an American lady who was his disciple.
[33:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We can only guess at her letter.
[33:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is the reply from Tureyana, from TIGUNATI TANANDI.
[33:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He writes, madam, I have taken responsibility for your spiritual life.
[33:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it is my duty to drag you willingly to the ocean enough immortality and throw you in there.
[33:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If, on the way I break your bones, I cannot.
[33:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So he's a guru who has taken up responsibility that you are going to become enlightened and realize God in this life.
[34:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So that's my job, and I'll make sure you do it.
[34:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That was his way.
[34:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's resolved.
[34:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's resolved.
[34:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yes.
[34:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You are discussing the intensity of spiritual factors.
[34:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I mean, you know, if the practice you are doing is right, you are... ...in person.
[34:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yes.
[34:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: First of all, it has been... What has the Guru has taught you about the mantra.
[34:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You've been initiated into particular tradition.
[34:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And there are many signs of that.
[34:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sri Ramakrishna himself says, Bishayai Birag ishshari Anurag, a dispassion for the world genuine dispassion develops.
[34:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Not revolution, revolution is just the opposite of desire.
[34:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Dispassion is, it doesn't affect you.
[34:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Well, or so much, it doesn't pull you, it doesn't disturb you, you're not concerned.
[34:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is called Vairagya, a dispassion.
[35:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And literally, you know, the word is very evocative.
[35:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Raga is a kind of attachment, is a kind of coloring of the mind.
[35:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the coloring has been washed away, mind is purified.
[35:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's one side of spiritual progress.
[35:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The other side is a positive pull towards God.
[35:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Anuraga means love, attachment, or it's a divine attachment.
[35:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: A pull towards God.
[35:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Another Swami put it nicely, as far as the world is concerned, how do I know I am developing detachment?
[35:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He said,
[35:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: negativities, whether it's anger, lust, depression, anxiety, all the concerns with the world.
[35:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: How will they go down?
[35:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Three things.
[35:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He says, as far as all these negativities are concerned, the frequency will go down.
[36:02] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Earlier, maybe, I used to get angry every other day.
[36:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now maybe once in a month, once in two months.
[36:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I can't recall the last time I really got angry.
[36:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it goes.
[36:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Second, the intensity will go down.
[36:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So earlier, maybe I used to fly into a rage.
[36:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If anger is my problem, I used to fly into a rage.
[36:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now it's a burst of irritation.
[36:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: A burst of irritation.
[36:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the intensity will go down.
[36:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Third, the recovery time will go down.
[36:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: earlier I used to get upset or angry and I would burn for hours and days and I would recollect it and grumble and you know just defy it in my mind now it comes and it's close.
[36:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There's a saying, Shadhu Raj, Jolly Dagan Bengali, anger of Asadhu, of a spiritual seeker, a monk or a cigar seeker, should be like a line drawn in flowing water.
[36:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What happens in a draw, a line in flowing water?
[36:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it goes up immediately, as water is flowing, you draw a line, it's fading up at the moment.
[37:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I've seen this, I thoroughly being scolded by senior monks when we were juniors who joined the order, harsh scolding.
[37:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This seems really angry with us, but no, the next moment it's gone.
[37:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's out of just a concern for our spiritual welfare.
[37:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And so of my early days as a newcomer in this order, some of my most precious memories are the scoldings, the angry scoldings of the mug, but it's not anger.
[37:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It goes away.
[37:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So these three things will go down.
[37:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The frequency of the negativeities, the intensity of the negative, the negativeities includes everything.
[37:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The intensity of the negativeities and the recovery time.
[37:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All of them will go down.
[37:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That's a sign that might detach from the world is growing.
[37:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is called Vairakya.
[37:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is the strong renunciation which Sri Ram Krishna is speaking about, mentally, I must strongly step away from the world.
[37:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Notice, in spiritual life also, most of the complaints that we have are world-related complaints, often it's the behavior of others.
[38:13] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Don't bother.
[38:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you have strong dispassion, strong renunciation, way ragya, strong way ragya, that's the answer.
[38:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Whether a person is not grateful to me, whether a person is behaving rudely, a person is disturbing me, that's answer to all of that is, I have dispassion.
[38:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I really don't care.
[38:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Tibetan monk put it beautifully, he said, proper place for meditation.
[38:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Initially it seems a good place is a peaceful place where you get your daily food in your bag in the monks bag for food.
[38:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That'll be available.
[38:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is the climate is good.
[38:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There aren't mosquitoes.
[38:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There's a big problem in India.
[38:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There aren't mosquitoes.
[39:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: In Tibet I guess there are a few or mosquitoes.
[39:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it's not too hot, not too cold special in Tibet is that two cold is the problem.
[39:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not too cold.
[39:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not too windy.
[39:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Tibetan again windy is a problem.
[39:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Windy, howling wind.
[39:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They had an exhibition in the Rubin Museum here in New York, Tibetan art and one of the things was the wind in the Mustang Valley.
[39:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So they recorded it in the Mustang Valley and they played it here.
[39:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So when you're meditating in a cave and the valley there, what you hear, the soundscape.
[39:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So it's not too windy.
[39:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: All of it is very nice.
[39:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now the Tibetan monk said something perceptive.
[39:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Such a suitable place for meditation is only initially good for you.
[39:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Very soon, very soon the attractive features which made it a good place for meditation.
[39:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They will diminish and fade away.
[39:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then the place will not be particularly useful to you for meditation.
[40:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It will get used to it.
[40:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: On the other hand, he said, and place which is initially challenging.
[40:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Maybe it's too hard or maybe something.
[40:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you struggle with meditation such a place, it becomes a powerful place for speedy spiritual development.
[40:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: So it depends.
[40:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Whether it's all our complaints, complaints, it's usually behavior of others, it's the place is not suitable, or my health is not good, or I have affairs of the world to settle before I become seriously spiritual, all of that is lack of a hierarchy, lack of a hierarchy,
[40:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: catching hold of us and don't blame the world.
[40:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The world is not catching hold of us.
[40:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: We are catching hold of the world.
[40:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The world is every day, every hour, every minute abandoning us.
[41:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's moving on.
[41:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some sort of the word in Sanskrit.
[41:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some sort of in some sort of in some sort of that which slips away from you.
[41:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But you mean slips of it from isn't it all the time we are in the world?
[41:15] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No, no, no, it's slipping away from us moment to moment day to day, weeks, months, years, moving away from us fast, time is flowing continuously, nothing in the samsara stable, none of it really belongs to me, I try to hold on to it and I fail miserably.
[41:35] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So this is let go.
[41:36] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Moment you let go, both of our questions will be answered there.
[41:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They're not really spiritual questions.
[41:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They're all questions arising out of lack of strong resolution for detachment.
[41:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Rehensiation.
[41:49] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Rehensiation, resolution for renunciation.
[41:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is Ram Krishna's one pointed recommendation.
[41:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's an internal attitude for every spiritual secret.
[41:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And if you are formally among it, it should also be an external attitude.
[42:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I remember them, Mankai joined the order under, I could tell you his name Swami, so he turned on the G. He is the vice president of our order now, but he was the head of the monastery when I joined.
[42:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, someone asked him, what's your spiritual practice?
[42:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Your unique spiritual practice Swami?
[42:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And he said, he said, a Sanghaktor, a Sanghaktor, non-attachment.
[42:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: non-attachment, detachment, not connected, this is strong resolution, not connected to anything anywhere except God.
[42:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: See how it solves, we just think of all the problems we have, most of them will be solved by this attitude.
[42:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Yes.
[42:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On the idea of Sala.
[42:56] \[UNKNOWN\]: Yeah.
[42:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: What you are
[43:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: How do you know, it's the side and not, it's taking you closer, and at what point if it becomes frustrating or you don't connect with that, practice, you change their crisis, it's, it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it
[43:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I don't think one should try something different.
[43:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: In general, what we always recommend is you have a core practice.
[43:23] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Hold on to that.
[43:24] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It should work because it has worked for so many in the past.
[43:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Along with that, you can always tweak it, you can add something to it, you can change something to, you know, your daily practices, if a particular text appeals to you, you study that seriously, think over it.
[43:41] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If meditation is not working, reduce the time for meditation, but don't give it up entirely.
[43:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So the core practices, there must be a time for meditation and prayer.
[43:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There must be a time for service action, there must be a time for devotion, there must be a time for scriptural study.
[43:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is the core, the basic, I mean, a very preliminary kind of entry into the four yoga's, the Gany yoga, raja yoga, karma yoga bhakti yoga.
[44:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Each of them is very deep, but these components must be there in our life.
[44:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now, whichever tradition you want belongs to, whichever religion, they will be some of these things in that.
[44:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Read the lives of spiritual seekers, the saints, the lives of the saints in different traditions.
[44:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You will find certain things appeal to you.
[44:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But why one should stick to a particular course of sadhana is because these are part of a lineage, which has taken many people to God-realization spiritual life.
[44:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So they are bound to work.
[44:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If it does not work, it's really our problem right now.
[44:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And it might not be our problem in a few months, few years since.
[44:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It might actually start working much better than I thought today would.
[44:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But one should always be alive and intelligent.
[44:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Yeah.
[44:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Should keep seeking.
[45:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some people are not so good at mantra japa.
[45:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You might be good at meditation.
[45:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What should they do?
[45:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Don't repeat the mantra too much, but the minimum your guru has told you to repeat that.
[45:11] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some may not be good at meditation, but they can do the mantra japa.
[45:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Well, then in that case, do not abandon meditation.
[45:17] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Maybe do a two minutes of that and the rest of the time would be mantra japa.
[45:21] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Some are more good at, you know, service really fills them up.
[45:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Good, but don't neglect your meditation.
[45:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: again a Tibetan monk I was one of the books I was reading very nicely put the highest realization this monk says and is a 13th century teacher this is the highest realization has no cause no condition no path no practice and no result what does it mean if you look at it
[46:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: This is no cause to it, because of this, you are Brahman, you are, that's your state, that's your reality, that's what you are, you are pure consciousness, the world is that, the world is an appearance of that only, there is no condition to it.
[46:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: If you do this or if you have this, then only you are Brahman.
[46:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: No, you understand, you get the point.
[46:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There's no practice for it.
[46:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You are that, whether you practice it or not.
[46:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So that's one.
[46:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The first thing he said.
[46:30] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Second thing he says is, it has no, no cause, but faith and devotion are the cause.
[46:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It has no condition, but a guru, a spiritual teacher, is the condition.
[46:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It has no practice, but a one-pointed mind is the practice.
[46:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: And then like that, he goes on.
[46:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You see, one must first is a statement of the ultimate truth.
[46:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The second is, if that is not, you're not enlightened, then this is not at all clear to us.
[47:00] \[SPEAKER_02\]: In that case, notice these things.
[47:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You'd abandon them only at your peril.
[47:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: More detailed instruction of course only if talk to a spiritual master personally they can give you more advice is only the general principles So this is a story story the parable of the farmer let's go ahead Now
[47:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Sri Ramakrishna says to Vijay, why don't you come here now as frequently as before?
[47:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Vijay, sir, I wish to very much, but I'm not free.
[47:44] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I have accepted work in the Brahma Samaj.
[47:47] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So there's a religious organization, and there are centers and there are devotees and there's work to be done, publications, and regular services to conduct and all of that.
[47:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So I'm busy.
[47:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Master.
[47:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is lust and gold that binds man and robs him of his freedom.
[48:04] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It is lust that creates the need for gold.
[48:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: For lust one man becomes the slave of another and so loses his freedom.
[48:12] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then he cannot act as he likes.
[48:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The priest's in the temple of Govindaji, at Jaipur, was celebrated at first, and at that time they had fiery natures.
[48:25] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Once the king of Jaipur sent for themselves a parable, which is coming up.
[48:29] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Once the king of Jaipur sent for them, but they didn't obey him.
[48:33] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They sent to the messenger, as the king to come and see us.
[48:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: After consultation, the king and his messengers arranged marriages for them.
[48:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: From then on, the king didn't have to send for them.
[48:45] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They would come to him of themselves and say, you're majesty, we have come with our blessings.
[48:51] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You are all the sacred flowers of the temple, day into accept them.
[48:55] \[SPEAKER_02\]: became to the palace for now, they always wanted money for one thing or another, the building of a house, the rice-taking ceremony of their babies, or the rituals connected with the beginning of the children's education.
[49:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So they always wanted, you know, grants from the federal grants.
[49:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: There is the story of the 1,200 narrows and 1,300 narries, the footnote, literally shaven headed.
[49:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Among the Vaishneva devotees, those who renounced the world-shaped their heads.
[49:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They attained great spiritual powers.
[49:37] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That alarmed their teacher.
[49:40] \[SPEAKER_02\]: My disciples have acquired great spiritual powers, thought Vira Bhattra, the teacher.
[49:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Whatever they say to people will come to pass.
[49:52] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Oh, it's not because of that.
[49:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They had a good reason for that.
[49:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Whatever they say to people will come to pass.
[49:59] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Wherever they go, they make create alarming situations.
[50:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: For people offending them unbeatingly will come to grief.
[50:07] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Thinking thus, Veerabhadra wanted to call them to him and said, See, see me after performing your daily devotions on the bank of the Ganges.
[50:16] \[SPEAKER_02\]: These disciples had such a high spiritual nature that while meditating, they would go into Samadhi and be unaware of the river water flowing over their heads during the flood tide.
[50:26] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then the edd tide would come and still they would remain absorbed in meditation.
[50:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: These are not impossible things, it is like a parable, but this story of Latu Maras, Adbutan and the sitting in meditation on the bank of the Ganga in near Belur and the river rose in high tide and he was surrounded by water, luckily he didn't drown, the meditation was so deep he didn't even feel that the river is rising all around him.
[50:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now, one hundred of these disciples had anticipated what the teacher would ask of them, less they should have to disobey his injunctions, they had quickly disappeared from the place before he summoned them.
[51:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So they did not go to Virabhadra with the others.
[51:09] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The remaining twelve hundred disciples went to the teacher after finishing their meditation.
[51:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Virabhadra said to them, these thirteen hundred nuns will serve you.
[51:18] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I ask you to marry them.
[51:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: As you please, revered sir, they said, but 100 of us have gone, gone heavy, gone heavy.
[51:27] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then sports, each of these 1200 disciples had a wife.
[51:31] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Consequently, they all lost their spiritual power.
[51:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Their austerities did not have their original fire.
[51:38] \[SPEAKER_02\]: The company of women robbed them of their spirituality because they destroyed their freedom.
[51:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: To Vijay,
[51:46] \[SPEAKER_02\]: you yourself perceive how far you have gone down by being a servant of others.
[51:53] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Again, one finds that people with many university degrees, scholars, with their vast English education, accept service under their English masters and are daily trampled under their boots.
[52:06] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Remember, this is the colonial time and Calcutta was the capital of the British Empire.
[52:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, in India, not true now, but until even very recently, this is to think that all white people were British.
[52:20] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, Americans would protest, we are not British, and we were also colonized for the British.
[52:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: the, um, the one cause of all of this is lust.
[52:34] \[SPEAKER_02\]: They have married and have set up a gay fair with their wives and children.
[52:39] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Now they cannot go back much as they would like to.
[52:43] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Hence, all these inserts and humiliations all this suffering from slavery.
[52:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Once a man realizes God through intense dispassion, he is no longer attached to lust.
[52:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Even if he must leave the life of a householder, he is free from a fear of an attachment to lust.
[53:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Suppose there are two magnets, one big and the other small, which one will attract the iron, the big one, of course.
[53:14] \[SPEAKER_02\]: God is the big magnet, compared to him, lust is a small one.
[53:19] \[SPEAKER_02\]: What can lust do?
[53:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, I've been using the word lust, he used his woman because they were, the gathering was entirely meant there.
[53:28] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So, the devotee asks, Sir shall we hate women then?
[53:32] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Master, he who has realized God does not look upon the woman with the eye of lust, so he is not afraid of her, he perceives clearly that women are so many but so many aspects of the Divine Mother, he worships them all as the Mother herself.
[53:48] \[SPEAKER_02\]: To Vijay, come here now and then, I like to see you very much.
[53:54] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Vijay, I have to do my various duties.
[53:56] \[SPEAKER_02\]: It's not taking the hint.
[53:58] \[SPEAKER_02\]: He says, I have to do my various duties in the Brahmus Samas.
[54:01] \[SPEAKER_02\]: That is why I can't come here.
[54:03] \[SPEAKER_02\]: I can't always come here.
[54:05] \[SPEAKER_02\]: But I shall visit you whenever I find it possible.
[54:10] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Then he changes the subject, the next thing.
[54:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The question of being a religious teacher will take it up next time.
[54:22] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Because then you will say, I have all this work for teaching religion to people and Sri Ramakrishna will tell him that even being a religious teacher that's not so easy is you must receive the command of God, otherwise thinking that I shall liberate men everywhere, I shall spread the word of God, unless the power of God is behind you, this it has no effect at all.
[54:42] \[SPEAKER_02\]: You might give a fine speech, people will forget the next moment, it doesn't change people's lives.
[54:50] \[SPEAKER_02\]: So all alone not in easy deal.
[54:57] \[SPEAKER_02\]: Oh, shanti, shanti, shanti, hari, hiyom, tatsat, shirang, krishnan, rupanam, astu.

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