Gospel | Chapter 7: Dec 14, 1882 (Part 2) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

Om Tava Kathaam Ritam Tapta Jeevanam Kaviviritam Kalmasapam Sravana Mangalam Shreemalatatam Bhuvighrinanti Bhuridha Jana So we have this class, this is called the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class. This book is actually a translation of the Sri Ramakrishna Kathaam Ritam, which is a compilation of the dialogues of Sri Ramakrishna with the devotees. So compiled by M, he just calls himself M. His name is Mahendra Nagarukthi, he was a school teacher. He used to come and listen to Sri Ramakrishna and maintain the diary. And from that this book was compiled. This book translation was actually made right here in New York. We have another center across the park on the east side. Swami Nikhil Anandaji was here during the second world war years. Around that time the book was published. It was translated and published from here. In fact this particular edition is still published by the Ramakrishna Vivekanth Center in New York on the east side. It's a remarkable book really. We are reading this online. Now we are switching to this in-person mode. And this we go back to the old way of just reading a little bit and talking about it, questions, discussions, observations that way. So my bookmark tells me in this book we are on page 164. This section is Thursday, December 14th, 1882. Thursday, December 14th, 1882. Master and Vijay Goswami. So we had read a couple of pages but I'll just read through that again. Just because there's been a gap of a few months now. Thursday, December 14th, 1882. It was afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed after a short noon day rest. Vijay Balaram M. the author. And a few other devotees were sitting on the floor with their faces towards the master. They could see the sacred river Ganges, the Ganga, through the door. Since it was winter all were wrapped up in warm clothes. Vijay had been suffering from colic and had brought some medicine with him. So this is the room where Sri Ramakrishna stayed. Those who have been to Dakshineshwar, they can easily recollect that room. It's the geography, the topography of the place is still the same. If you sit in that particular position you can still see the river flowing. If you see through the door and outside you can see the river. Vijay was a paid preacher in the Sadhar and Brahmosamaj. Sadhar and Brahmosamaj was a 19th century Hindu reform movement. So they considered themselves not to be Hindus. So they would say we are Brahmos. And they split into different organizations. The Sadhar and Brahmosamaj was one of those. Vijay was very devoted to Sri Ramakrishna. He was a paid preacher in the Sadhar and Brahmosamaj but there were many things about which he could not agree with the Samaj authorities. He came from a very noble family of Bengal, noted for its piety and other spiritual qualities. Advaita Goswami, one of his remote ancestors, had been an intimate companion of Sri Chaitanya. Thus the blood of a great lover of God flowed in Vijay's veins. As an adherent of the Brahmosamaj, Vijay no doubt meditated on the formless Brahman but his innate love of God, inherited from his distinguished ancestors, had merely been waiting for the proper time to manifest itself in all its sweetness. Thus Vijay was irresistibly attracted by the God intoxicated state of Sri Ramakrishna and often sought his company. He would listen to the master's words with great respect and they would dance together in an ecstasy of divine love. The reference is to Sri Chaitanya, who about 500 years ago in the eastern part of India, she pioneered this movement of the love of God, God as Krishna. This is called the Bengal school of Vaishnavism, Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Sri Chaitanya is regarded as an avatar, an incarnation of God. So it is an entirely Bhakti movement, a movement of love of God, devotion to God. And Vijay is a descendant of one of the close disciples of Sri Chaitanya, Advaita Goswami. In their lineage it's a very noble family because these are like... It's like somebody, if you say they lived with Sri Ramakrishna and you're related to that person or an apostle of the Christ and you're related to that person, it's that kind of lineage for them. It's very noble. In fact, just incidentally, one of our precedents, Swami Atmasthanandaji, who was the 15th president of our order, passed away a few years ago, he was a disciple of Swami Vijnananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and he was descended from the same bloodline from Advaita Goswami and see, I don't know what it is, but how it works. Same family and Swami Atmasthanandaji was the elder son of that family. They had in those days, so many children, so six boys, four of whom became monks. So there is something to that family which is devout for many centuries across multiple generations. Something works there. Four of the six brothers became monks, three of them in a very narrow order. Swami Atmasthanandaji, the president, the two other monks of whom I met one. Yuktatnanji, I didn't meet him. Gopeshanji, I met him. He was a very senior monk. And then the fourth brother, Kali Krishnananda, they are descendants of the same Sri Chaitanya, Advaita Goswami, that family. Also, I should mention, we are here in New York. They are here in New York. You all know them as the Hare Krishna's. So they are the Hare Krishna's here and an offshoot of the school of Bengal Vaishnavism. Prabhu Pada, who came and established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, right here in New York, he belonged to this order of monks. Which also explains Vijay singing and dancing with the master. That's one of the practices that they do. Taking the name of God and Hare Rama, Hare Krishna and dancing here. They started off in Central Park here in the 1960s. It was a weak day. Generally devotees came to the master in large numbers on Sundays. Hence, those who wanted to have intimate talks with him visited him on weak days. A boy named Vishnu, living in Ariadaho, had recently committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. The talk turned to him. So that boy was a devotee actually. Master, I felt very badly when I heard of the boys passing away. He was a pupil in a school and used to come here. He would often say to me that he couldn't enjoy worldly life. He had lived with some relatives in the western provinces. And at that time, he used to meditate in solitude in the meadows, hills and forests. He told me he had visions of many divine forms. Perhaps this was his last birth. He must have finished most of his duties in his previous birth. The little that had been left undone was perhaps finished in this one. One must admit the existence of tendencies inherited from previous births. The entails parable. There is a story about a man who practiced the Shavasadhana, footnote. A religious practice prescribed by the tantra in which the aspirant uses a Shava or corpse as his seat for meditation. There you sit here in meditation. So instead of your yoga mat, you use a dead body. It's not recommended. Don't try it out. Don't try it out at home. And the story gets more gruesome. So nobody will be inspired to try it out. A tantric practice. And a very advanced tantric practice. He worshipped the divine mother in a deep forest. First he saw many terrible visions. Finally a tiger attacked and killed him. So nobody is going to be very encouraged by that. Another man happening to pass and seeing the approach of the tiger had climbed the tree. Afterwards he got down and found all the arrangements for worship at hand. He performed some purifying ceremonies and seated himself on the corpse. So he also happened to be a tantric expert somehow. No sooner had he done a little japa repetition of the mantra of the divine mother. Then the divine mother appeared before him and said, My child, I am very much pleased with you. Accept a boon from me. He bowed low at the lotus feet of the goddess and said, May I ask you one question mother? I am speechless with amazement at your action. The other man worked so hard to get all the ingredients for your worship and tried to propitiate you for such a long time. But you didn't condescend to show him your favor. And I, who don't know anything of worship, well he knew enough to do what has to be done there with that, who have done nothing, who have neither devotion nor knowledge nor love and who haven't practiced any austerities, I am receiving so much of your grace. The divine mother said with a laugh, My child, you don't remember your previous births. For many births you tried to propitiate me through austerities. As a result of those austerities, all these things have come to hand and you have been blessed with my vision. Now ask me your boon. Just to point out that one must accept this is not our first time around here. We have passed through these lands other times. We have had other lives and we are all on a journey. So we are all, we are much further along than we think. And immediately, so what was I in my past life? That's our curiosity. One need not be curious. There's no point to going back to things which are long gone and dusty and dead. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There's no point in being curious. Want to know what I was in my past life? I just have to look at my present life. This was produced by what I was in my past life. So something, some, everybody wants to be Queen Cleopatra or Julius Caesar or something. We were the same mixed bunch and we have produced this particular mixed character right now. Devotee, a devotee says, I'm frightened to hear of the suicide. Master, suicide is a heinous sin undoubtedly. A man who kills himself must return again and again to this world and suffer its agony. So every religion is in strong terms decries suicide because human life is valuable and especially for the experience that we may gain in this world and most especially if you are spiritually inclined this is the most valuable life. In all the Indian traditions which all of them believe in this multiple lives one point to make is now we have a human birth and this human birth, the door to enlightenment, door to God realization is open finally. So make an effort. Let's try at least use the human birth for the best use that we can make of it which is spirituality. A man who kills himself must return again and again to this world and suffer its agony. But, but, I don't call it suicide if a person leaves his body after having the vision of God. There's no harm in giving up one's body that way. After attaining knowledge, some people give up their bodies. After the gold image has been cast in the clay mold you may either preserve the mold or break it. Many years ago a young man of about 20 used to come to the temple garden from Varanagar. His name was Gopal Shane. In my presence he used to experience such intense ecstasy that Ridae had to support him for fear he might fall to the ground and break his limbs. That young man touched my feet one day and said, sir, I shall not be able to see you anymore. Let me bid you goodbye. A few days later, I learned that he had given up his body. Little more. It is said that there are four classes of human beings that bound those aspiring after liberation, the liberated and the ever perfect. The world is like a fishing net, men of the fish and God whose baya has created this world is the fishermen. When the fish are entangled in the net, some of them try to tear through its meshes in order to get their liberation. They are like the men striving after liberation. But by no means all of them escape. Only a few jump out of the net with a loud splash and then people say, ah, there goes a big one. In like manner, three or four men attain liberation. Again, some fish are so careful by nature that they are never caught in the net. Some beings of the ever perfect class like Narada are never entangled in the meshes of worldliness. Most of the fish are trapped, but they are not conscious of the net and of their imminent death. No sooner are they entangled than they run headlong, net and all, trying to hide themselves in the mud. They don't make the least effort to get free. On the contrary, they go deeper and deeper into the mud. These fish are like the bound men. They are still inside the net, but they think that they are quite safe there. A bound creature is immersed in worldliness in lust and gold, having gone deep into the mire of degradation. But still, he believes he's quite happy and secure. Deliberated and the seekers after liberation look on the world as a deep well. They do not enjoy it. To another point, therefore, after the attainment of knowledge, the realization of God, some give up their bodies. But such a thing is rare indeed. Just in case anybody is feeling inspired. I am enlightened, so I can give up my body now. It says that's not a normal thing. That's very rare. So I'll just stop here just a little bit and discuss a little and then go on. A case in point would be Sriramakrishna's own Advaita Guru, Tothapuri, who taught him non-dual... You are the non-dual reality, Aham Bram has me. He was a wandering monk, a Paramahamsa who gave Sriramakrishna the vows of monasticism and initiated him into the philosophy and practice of Advaita Vedanta. But then the other... The later part of the story is interesting. Tothapuri, being a radical non-dualist, he admitted the truth of non-dualism, that there is one limitless reality and you are that. The entire universe is an appearance of one underlying reality. And that one underlying reality is what we are. You are that, Tattva Masi, you are that. But he did not admit the importance of the reality of the personal God. God as Sriramakrishna is to worship. So Sriramakrishna worshiped God as the divine mother, Kali, divine mother. So one day, Sriramakrishna's habit was, you know, as the evening falls, he would take the name of God. In a very simple way, he would clap and take Ram, Ram, Hari, Hari, Govinda, Govinda, he would do that. And his way of deciding when it's evening is if he couldn't count the individual hairs on his arm, it got dark enough, so that's evening. Now I have to take the name of God. So they're discussing high non-dual philosophy, sitting around the fire which that monk would light and they were talking. And Sriramakrishna suddenly started doing that. Tothapuri was exasperated, you know, all the way to UR Brahman and suddenly, what's this? And so he sarcastically said, that roti tokte ho kya? That means are you making chapatis? So that's the kind of flattened bread which people in, especially in the north of India, but also in the south all over India, it's common. So they roll it and then in some villages in the, I mean, in many parts of North India, especially in the villages, the way they do it is this way. So it sounds like clapping. So that's what he was sarcastically referring to. I remember once I was in the high Himalayas with a group of monks around, and similar, you know, they were all non-dualists in the evening, darkness had fallen, but this was in the Himalayas. This was not in the plains, more than 10,000 feet high in Gangotri. And they actually had a little fire going and we're sitting around and talking Vedanta. So time for dinner. And this devout person from a little ashram nearby, they call it, it's not roti, it's not the flattened bread. It's an iteration of that, another form of that. It's called tikkad. It's a very rough form of that bread. It's thick and virtually indigestible, unless you are a tough old monk in the high mountains. So they bought it. And the first monk to try it out, that young man bought it in a basket. It was hot from the fire. You burn it on the fire. So the first monk to try it out, he said, what's this? It's soft. He said, it's a mulaim. It's soft and no, make it so hard that your teeth would break if you tried to bite into it. And I whispered to a monk next to me that I don't think I can eat this. And then that monk said, you know, tikkad khaenge aur peyad karab nahi ho gha toh kesey ho. You have to accept it. The price of eating this is that you're going to get a tummy upset anyway. Another monk who was a European, a white person in one of our ashrams, when he first saw the roti that was served to him, he named it UFOs. What's UFO? Unidentified flat object. Not flying object, unidentified flat object. Another funny story about a roti would be in the ashram, we were sitting for dinner once, all the monks and there was this person who had, you know, they would serve you. So that ashram had chairs and tables and benches and tables actually. So we would all sit together and the cooks would serve and they would have little trolleys on which they would be big cauldrons where the rotis were kept. And in the past you would have to say two or three or whatever you wanted, they would toss it onto your plate. And I was telling the story of Sri Ramakrishna meeting Trilanga Swami in Banaras. Very great well-known Swami was Trilanga Swami who apparently lived, not apparently, sort of, it was documented more or less. He lived to 280. So Sri Ramakrishna met him and Sri Ramakrishna asked him, at that time Trilanga Swami was observing the vow of silence. Sri Ramakrishna had gone to Banaras, met Trilanga Swami, asked him, is God one or two? He said two or one? This is the question, this is the way he asked. This is one or two. And Trilanga Swami said one. And there's a painting of that actually, where if you go to the place where Trilanga Swami is to live, there's a painting of Sri Ramakrishna and Trilanga Swami. It looks like a photograph but it isn't, it's a painting. And Sri Ramakrishna is asking two and Trilanga Swami is saying one. So I showed this to the monk next to me as we are novices, we are all very excited about these stories, we are exchanging. I was telling him like this. Unfortunately that's when the rotis were being distributed. And he saw that, I wanted two, he gave me one and by the time, he's already gone. By the time I could ask him to change the order, no, it's gone. So that's another roti story. Anyway, back to, when Dhodapuri said that, are you making rotis? Why are you clapping and saying Ram, Ram, Hari, Hari, Krishna, Krishna and all of that? And then Sri Ramakrishna said, what kind of talk is that? I am taking the name of the Divine Mother, I am taking the name of God. And you are saying I am making chapatis? So Sri Ramakrishna saw that this monk who is enlightened, who realizes Brahman. But there's, it's still incomplete. He's enlightened and he is free of enlightened being. Obviously this is his last birth and he's free. So he has checked the boxes but it's still not wholesome. And one can go to the highest peak of Everest. But that doesn't mean you have seen all the beautiful valleys around. So one day Sri Ramakrishna wanted to show him that the personal God is Divine Mother Kali. That's real too. So one day Dhodapuri who was a wandering monk from Punjab, very strong person. But anybody's health will break down in Bengal. It's well known for making people sick. There's malaria there, there are any number of bugs which will spoil your tummy. So Dhodapuri, he got a stomach upset and a dysentery and a lot of terrible pain in his stomach. Now he had this ability to meditate and forget the world and the body. But one night when you sit, the pain was a lot and he thought I would go into Samadhi. So we are all very healthy, everything is fine, even then we can't concentrate our minds. He had the capacity even in the midst of terrible pain he could completely forget the body and become absorbed in real nature as pure consciousness. He sat in Samadhi in order to forget the pain in the body. He couldn't, he couldn't. He was astonishment. This is something that he had not seen in the, like he had been practicing all this for 40 years. He had never seen this in his life. He was astonished. And then he thought this what Sriram Krishna says. I have realized I am not the body, that I am n