Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] thank you um Starbucks good morning and Namaste everybody good to see you turned up in such large numbers celebrate the birthday of Sri ramakrishna though it is not the birthday of sriram Krishna today we've done it for convenience it's actually on Tuesday but nevertheless it turned out very well because it is a very auspicious day it is shivaratri last night we celebrated shivaratri bill was just saying to me for me worshiping Shiva and worshiping SRI ramakrishna the same thing I see that Shiva himself is Sri ramakrishna um so today I'm going to speak about the subject says the life and teachings of Sri ramakrishna it is sort of generic we put it there I'm not going to speak about the life and teachings of Sri ramakrishna um no indeed we are actually going to go deeper than that and deeper than the life and teachings of srirama Krishna into who or what is Sri ramakrishna that's what we're going to talk about today As Americans would say get ready for a wild ride one reason is that um that the material I'm going to draw upon is from an extraordinary book written by an extraordinary spiritual Seeker a veritable Saint Swami bhajananandaji he is a vice president of the ramakrishna order now in belur mat I won't say anything more about him because I'll always do Injustice whatever I say about him those of you who know him they know him yeah so he wrote this extraordinary book a 10 over 10 years ago called SRI ramakrishna the light of the modern world and I'm going to draw from that draw upon that book today materials I'm going to put before you basically it's his meditation on SRI ramakrishna his lifelong meditation and the fruits of that meditation on SRI ramakrishna he gave me a copy a personal copy my copy of that book was given by Swami bhajananji himself when I came here to the West before that and in that copy he has written I still had that note he has written that I feel I did not write this book I feel SRI ramakrishna himself wrote This Book the the one year when I was writing this book I felt I was possessed by SRI ramakrishna so this is the background what we are going to do today is who or what was SRI ramakrishna and most of you will be thinking yeah I know he's going to tell us that srirama Krishna was in Avatar incarnation of God yes but what is an avatar and what is it to us what's it to me as a spiritual Seeker that's what we're going to do investigate that and see how it impacts us as spiritual Secrets what a tremendous resource it is for us what does tremendous support and strength it is for us first SRI ramakrishna and most important I think it's SRI ramakrishna is The Giver of Liberation is The Giver of Moksha there is a very beautiful verse in Sanskrit there's a hymn on SRI ramakrishna called in that there is one verse which goes that the deity who resides in belur mat is our main Monastery in India which was established by Swami Vivekananda the deity who resides in Bellwood meaning sridhama Krishna um who is the Lord of Moksha the treasure called Moksha ishwara the Lord who who commands the treasure who possesses the treasure called Moksha who is the first of gurus who recites there specially for his disciples and the lineage of disciples which come to them through them to that I bow down that Godad is another name for Sri ramakrishna it's the name of Vishnu also to dadadhara I bow down who is none other than the Supreme Brahman very beautiful Sanskrit simple beautiful Sanskrit Amin Shiva more [Music] so here SRI ramakrishna is described as ishwara the Lord but what is the wealth of this ishwara what is the power the glory of this Lord Shiva Moksha Moksha Moksha is liberation Moksha mukti salvation Liberation Nirvana and this is auspicious Shiva one meaning of Shiva is auspicious this most auspicious of things is Moksha freedom from samsara freedom from bondage and he is the Lord of this and he is Adi Guru the first of gurus we'll talk about that also a little later and by the way this the line here says he is there the Lord is there in belur mat now God is everywhere why only in belurumat but especially installed residing in balurmat it's a very touching story of Sri ramakrishna telling Swami Vivekananda that wherever you take me and wherever you keep wherever you take me I will shall go there wherever you keep me I shall stay there and so then the monastery was set up by Swami Vivekananda and the day the formerly it was inaugurated he took the container of with the ashes of Sri ramakrishna's body he took it on his head in a procession with songs and chanting and worship he went and installed it there in belurma which where it is till this day and he prayed that Master you had told me you had promised me that where I take you you will come and where I keep you you shall stay so here I keep you for century and centuries and Millennia to come reside here I pray to thee for the for the welfare and the benefit of humanity all over the world so he is there in belur mat and For Whom the next line says for everybody but visheshitaram especially for his disciples and their disciples so I was a little worried because his disciples that was at that time they are these the monastic and lay disciples they are gone and their disciples also we have seen some of them but they're also gone what about us we are on the Next Generation you know are we left out so I asked one of my teachers in acharya uh I mean grammatically does it come in the are we included you know and he said don't worry you're included we are all included those who come in the lineage those who are initiated or who are devote those who are devoted those who um sudama Krishna says Those Who come here this is their last birth but what do you mean come here and he explains that also those he would say those who like the teachings of this place he was often sometimes called himself this place this this this thing this place those who like the teachings here you're attracted you're pulled so you're part of the lineage and of course those who are formally initiated into this lineage they are of course part of the lineage but what concerns us here is this giving Moksha he has the that is his glory that is the wealth that he has to share for us um Swami Vivekananda proclaims that you know somebody asked him if God incarnates as a human being how are we to recognize what differentiates such a person who is God incarnate from others and Vivekananda gave the one Criterion which would distinguish an Incarnation and Avatar incarnation of God um not the blue Hollywood version though some avatars are blue SRI Krishna is blue too sir what would distinguish an avatar say from a saint a very spiritual person how would you distinguish and Swami vivekantha says there is a one Criterion and that is he uses the word kapala mochana and that's a very evocative term in Sanskrit and some Indian languages it means the one vivekanth explains the one who can save the people from their Doom who can change Karma so what does this mean saving us from our Doom are we doomed is he referring to global warming or chat GPT or AI or what is he referring to or the latest version of what's that the Bing AI it threatened to wipe all of us out and there's a petition I saw a scientists there's a petition going around now that please sign it to shut down this AI so if you can't shut this one down then there's no chance of shutting down the ones which will come afterwards anyway so what is he talking about the Doom no in it's much worse than that in that's it's a sense in which we are actually all doomed by what nobody's fault our own fault our own Karma here we have to take a little bit of a look at what is meant by the one who can remove karma liberators from Karma so the idea of karma is actions have consequences causes of effects what we have done in our past lives gives results in this life um what does it practically what does it mean for us it means everything for us what can what consists of our life today our the people we are with how they are behaving with us the wealth or poverty we are in the health or sickness we are in our age our lifespan the things which happen to us all of it is it flows not maybe the particular details but the general welfare and suffering good and the bad it flows from the ancient past it's not random it's not accidental so this is the idea of of karma this is the most widely accepted idea in all Indian thought all the very diverse schools of Hinduism very diverse but one thing they agree upon is Karma and reincarnation by the way there's a difference between Incarnation and reincarnation all right so we reincarnate but we are not incarnations of God so we reincarnate that means we come again and again there was this cartoon I saw an American is telling a Hindu that I am a born-again Christian and the Hindu is saying I am a born again and again and again and again Hindu but it's born again in two different senses and this born again and again is actually a limitation a prison house what happens is that all that we have done in our past existences and different lives that's all stored up as our Karma and that stored up karma is called sanchita sanchita literally means storehouse oh by the way not just um Hinduism Jainism Buddhism imagine the Buddhists don't agree with the Hindus on almost everything Atma we are Eternal Soul no there's no such thing as an Atma God we worship God Incarnation no there's no such thing as a god and yet we agree with this and Hindus all of us agree on this Karma so all of this accumulated Karma we have this huge Storehouse of karma called sanchita karma stored Karma and from that stored Karma a little bit is released in the sense it is activated activated to give us this particular life each life each lifetime is um the activation of a part of that stored up Karma and that activated karma is called prarabdha prarabda means which is fully begun or activated so that part of the karma right now which part of my karma is active uh my product that's what has given me this birth this set of parents this kind of background and health and or the lack of it and wealth or the lack of it uh various experiences in life that's part of the karma and this is what we are going through it's it seriously locks us into a particular type of life and particular you know we are not entirely free the existentialists were not totally right that you can you're not predetermined you can choose what kind of existence you have what you are you exist before you incarnate yourself as a particular kind of person that's a great idea but it's not entirely true there is a deep limitation set by our past Karma and that is one way in which samsara and bondage bondage is understood in Hinduism Buddhism Jainism as being locked in by my past Karma all right so where does this bring us this past karma is also a great blockage for our spiritual progress the reason why with all this and greater you know non-dualism in Hinduism Buddhism whatever you call it the meditation techniques patanjali yoga all of these powerful bhakti methods all of these are at our disposal we are interested but we don't seem to make much Headway and we keep asking why are so few people liberated this is why this is why we are Shackled by Good and Bad Karma both Good Karma and Bad Karma Swami Vivekananda says that in his poem he says change though of gold are not less strong to bind so iron change binders golden chains also binders iron chains bad karma which produce suffering golden chains Good Karma which give us a nice life both bind us to this samsara here comes the role of God there's only one who can set us free from Karma who can set us free from debt who can forgive debt the president the President's Day is coming so debt forgiveness who can redeem our debt see this is from a Hindu perspective where the Christian perspective is also pretty much similar and it's sort of Central in Christianity the Redemption the Redeemer the savor it's put in the it couched in the language of original sin but basically it's the same thing we are we are tied in so badly that we cannot liberate ourselves through our own works and this is mainstream Catholic theology so that's why we need an incarnation of God who God can free us and God can forgive us our debts and God can free us from past Karma so that we can walk on the path of spirituality and attain Enlightenment and freedom from samsara and the Incarnation of God most visibly can free us so that's the difference between say a great Saint and an avatar a great sin can help us can Inspire us can teach us can guide us but cannot change our Karma even if they sometimes seem to it's only because they were empowered by God to do so but by their own power they cannot they are human beings like us far ahead of us spiritually but they are human beings they don't have power over Karma but God has power over Karma because one of the definitions of God in Hinduism is the president of our Karma who presides over Karma so one who gives us the results of karma can also choose not to give us those results change those results or free us entirely from that Karma um Krishna says maybe the one most powerful verse at the very end of the bhagavad-gita Mommy giving up all other religious rituals take full refuge in me in me alone Krishna says this is incarnation of God what will I do for you if you hold on to me I shall set you free from past sins from past tense includes you know from a spiritual perspective good and bad both are sinful why the good and the bad both tie us down in this limited existence and Krishna says I will free you entirely from all of that do not grieve do not be sorrowful Rejoice you will be set free thousands of years after that Jesus Christ Jesus Christ says another memorable line from the New Testament come unto me all that he all ye who labor and are heavy laden I shall set you free I shall give you rest so those I mean if it should not take it literally literally it sounds like all of you who are working very hard and you know um Manhattan job a lot of pressure to deliver work from home or work in the office it's all the same many people are grumbling work from home has become worse because we seem to be at the back end call of the office all day long and here Jesus seems to be saying that come to me you can Goof Off now I shall give you rest no we should look at it a little more deeply heavy laden what is the burden the burden of all our ancient karma is upon us and we are completely helpless under it come to me your laboring means you're suffering under this burden from Lifetime to Lifetime come to me I shall leave you of your burden and I shall set you free so the Incarnation of God can do that SRI ramakrishna says this week requires some explanation he says the Avatar Incarnation he says French territory now what it means is he remember he lived in colonial times in Calcutta near Calcutta in the temple Garden of dakshineshwar and there was a small French Colony there called chandannagar in near Calcutta and the rules of the game were that the British police the colonial police were not allowed inside French territory so if you are a freedom fighter or a revolutionary and you are running away from the police and the police are chasing you to arrest you well you just have to cross over into chandanagar and the ones you cross over they can't catch you because they're not allowed to enter French territory so this is the background and sudama Krishna says the Incarnation is French territory in the sense that the the karma cops the police of karma look out to catch you the karma cops can't catch you there you go Scott free if you take refuge in in the Incarnation I mean he said the Incarnation of God is uh where you get freedom from Karma will it change my karma will I get Scott free the holy mother says if you take refuge if you practice spiritual disciplines she says then the effect of karma is muted see the law of karma is very strict Karma rule it says that without giving its results without making you pay without making you suffer Karma will not go away even in a million births so it's going to come to us and she says however if you take refuge in God and you do spiritual practices where she says a spear might appears to you or you might have lost a leg cut off a leg you get a pin prick that's the huge difference it'll it'll make the protection of God still have to pay but much much much less but that's not the point that you pay less you know you get a discount on Karma no that's not the point that might be attractive but the whole point is that this leads to Moksha it sets us free it spiritualizes our lives and it's not so that all right so my sins have been forgiven I can make to commit more sins now not in that sense in the sense that we can progress fast in spiritual life which we were unable to do so earlier so this forgiveness of karma leads directly to Moksha this is the connection um the Incarnation of God is The Giver of Moksha of Liberation mukti Nirvana what might be entirely too difficult when if you're left to our own devices becomes entirely possible not by our own strength but by the strength of the avatar the SRI ramakrishna says the Incarnation you know what it's like and he gave examples which were new and latest at that time you know in British India at that time the steamship and the and the railways he says look it's like the Incarnation is like a and steam engine which pulls along so many coaches so it's it's like another coach but it's different from all the other coaches the other coaches can't move themselves and certainly can't pull anybody else but this is here is this one vehicle this engine which chugs along um by itself and also can pull the whole trade so many and then he says they um Incarnation is like a steam ship others teachers maybe like a little boat you can cross across the teacher can go himself or maybe he can take you along but a steamship can take hundreds of people across the river the Big River the ganga where he lived on the bank of the ganga similarly the Incarnation can take us across the ocean of samsara to Liberation so The Giver of Moksha the breaker of the bondage of Karma and of The Giver of Moksha freedom from samsara that's why SRI ramakrishna is a hymn which we sing to Sri ramakrishna composed by Swami Vivekananda foreign it literally means the breaker of the bondage of bhava a bhava means the becoming in samsara world being embodied sent forth into this world again and again and again repeating this cycle again and again the one who breaks this bondage that's the disc first thing that Swami vivekantha says and notice in that him actually very interesting he never mentions sudama Krishna at all the hymn which we sing every evening to Sri ramakrishna know that is it mentioned you can apply to any incarnation of God Hana um all right so we get Moksha Liberation from Sri ramakrishna but then how by revealing to us the Ultimate Reality Brahman the absolute reality our own in our own inner reality Incarnation reveals gives us knowledge of our own self how does an Incarnation do that so that brings us to the next we go deeper into this what exactly is an Incarnation what does it do for us an Incarnation is a doorway to the absolute reality Brahman ramanu jacharya thousand years ago the great teacher of ishist vedanta he says what is the purpose of an Incarnation we all know this we those who have read the bhagavad-gita we say oh yes who rescues the good and destroys the wicked now that might it fits very well with the time of the Gita where Krishna and before him Rama they fought against demons and all we don't see too much of that in later avatars you know the Buddha the Christ or ramakrishna or chaitanya going out and fighting against the bad guys no ramanuja points out that there is a deeper esoteric purpose for an avatar yes uplifting religion reestablishing religion all that is there but especially for us those who are spiritual Seekers those who want God realization Enlightenment Freedom especially for us what does the Avatar Incarnation do and ramanu jacharya says presents before us a fresh new form for worship for devotion for love the Incarnation see God and the different forms of God Shiva we have shivaratri Vishnu Devi they're Eternal they're there always there are different forms and names in which we worship God the Incarnation comes historically so the Incarnation is born and lives for a while in the human body and then the body also dies so the Incarnation is in history so in history being born amidst amidst us in a particular form and that form is he says a worship a form which you can which which you can worship which you can adore that form is presented before us now what is that form what does it do for us SRI ramakrishna he gives an example he says that you know what an Incarnation is like it's like a big hole in a huge wall so you're walking along there's a huge wall and you don't know what's on the other side of the wall um you know tall brick wall you don't know what's on the other side on the other side is an infinite middle beautiful infinite metal but you don't see it but then you come across this hole in the wall and you can see through to the infinity beyond and he says ramakrishna says that is the Incarnation of God Incarnation is an opening in this wall of Maya here in this world as this human being living Our Lives we get a glimpse of the Infinity of and that is enough to liberate us and then sudama Krishna goes further say something mysterious and he says if the hole is large enough you can pass through it and come back go forth and come back and why I say it mischievous and incredible again incredible Echo you find in the New Testament Jesus 2000 years ago he says he doesn't say hole in the wall he says for I am the door and he who shall pass through me shall be saved he goes in and comes back and finds pasture using the language of shepherds finds fulfillment for the first time meaning and fulfillment in life see this hole in the wall or the door to Infinity how is the infinite revealed to us again we refer to Ramana yes the ashankara says the Ultimate Reality existence is existence Consciousness place and you are that upanishads talk about it but that's not what we mean by being revealed because that's very hidden to us it's I know the upanishads are telling me Advantage is telling me you are that you are not the body not the mind but it's not something that's revealed to us it's not something that we can see or hear or smell or taste or touch it's not something that we can catch hold of it's not something that even we can speak about or think all the language that we use about the infinite about the absolute it's not misleading but it's not accurate it fails to refer in the language of the philosopher it fails to refer it can't point out then if I wanted to be revealed to me if I want God to be revealed to me then comes ramanu jacharya and he says God is revealed to us how that Ultimate Reality is revealed to us how God in heaven poet says God's in heaven and all's right with the world so God in heaven yes that concept it's a beautiful concept so narayana Vishnu is in vaikunta or Shiva in kailasha in a perfect Abode the deity resides so how is that revealed to a spell at least we have words we have a conception and if you're a Hindu you're allowed to have a form imagery which is used to visualize so it's in some ways revealed to us and that seems a little pretty far away and entirely dependent on on faith you know and it seems to be imagination well ramanuja acharya says by the grace of God God is revealed more distinctly intimately as antar Yami as the inner indweller the inner controller this Consciousness within us the light which shines we sing every evening to Sri ramakrishna light of Lights illumining our hearts what is that light of Lights Illuminating our hearts I never saw such a light you are seeing it now it's by that light that you see anything it's by that light that we hear and we taste and smell and touch and it's by that light that we speak and think I'm talking about Consciousness awareness so God is revealed to us as the antar Yami the indwelling pure pure uh Consciousness witness consciousness even more so and more to the point says one more even greater sign of the grace of God is Avatar once in a while in history God comes in the form in a human form or if you're Hindu in multiple forms and reveals himself herself itself to us as Avatar as Rama as Krishna and so on and then um adds two more and he says that Avatar also can have there's a special manifestation of an avatar which was only particularly for Krishna with the gopis so where Krishna appeared to each Gopi individually as a separate separate Krishna of her own so that was in a unique incident of the RAS Leela and then ramanuary says there's a fifth way in the in which God's grace manifests itself for us is the Avatar so in a temple if God is installed the deities installed ritualistically and worshiped properly daily so that also is a doorway to God so the doorways are many and one of the most powerful doorways to the infinite is Avatar you see how this is constructed what does Avatar do for us makes you can have Liberation without Avatar also theoretically but give it a spin give it a try you'll see how difficult it is how tremendously difficult it is so Avatar I will not say is the only condition for Moksha but definitely is sufficient condition and is an enabler is an enabler how so now we have come to the second part of it as the doorway to the infinite um once Swami Vivekananda was arguing with Girish gosh at that time was saying well you can't know God God is infinite so by definition you can't know God whatever you know is only part of it is sort of slice of God you know it's agnostic that that position and when this was reported to Sri ramakrishna sudama Krishna says why do you have to know all of God you cannot that's true but why do you have to know all of God if I want to take a bath in the Ganga I go down to the heart there in front of dakshineshwar I take a bath in the ganga and it's a true statement that I have taken the bath in the ganga do I have to take a bath from gangotri to the Bay of Bengal no you'll get you'll get the flu if you try to do that you take a bath in the ganga there and that's as good as taking about that is the day of taking birth in the ganga that's what we mean so if you know the Avatar you know God if you know the Incarnation you know God um Philip was a disciple of Jesus you might be thinking why do so many disease references because I'm the material I'm drawing from is Swami bhajananji's material from that book and he was he is particularly well versed in Christian theology so much so that in Bangalore there's a theological College Christian theological College which used to call him to give to teach theology to the students there so this is this Hindu monk see he is very well versed beautiful instances he draws from the New Testament so Philip was a disciple of Sri of Jesus and he asks Jesus well Father in Heaven Father in Heaven ball great but why don't you show us Father in Heaven that would settle everything just show us the Father in heaven and Jesus's answer there is very interesting he says Philip I have lived with you so long and have you not known me he that hath seen me hath seen the father then why do you ask show me the Father in heaven so he who has seen the son has seen the father who has seen the Avatar has seen God again the doorway to the infinite um how does that function practically in our lives so we come to the Next Level deeper the third level remember the structure Giver of Moksha how because by revealing to us the Ultimate Reality how does he reveal the intimate reality because he's a doorway through SRI ramakrishna through the Incarnation we see the infinite but how practical in our lives what's the method how do we see it and stare at the photo or what do we do um there's this young person who wanted to become a monk he said his mother scolded him saying that what you're going to sit and look at three black and white photos all your life so now we come to the the teaching the concept of the ishta devatha The Chosen Idol this is a an esoteric teaching which is common throughout Hinduism with something worth understanding so what is the um means chosen The Chosen ideal as I said ramanu just said that it is a an adorable form is revealed when an Incarnation is manifested and that adorable form becomes chosen ideal are many so this is the peculiar idea of and the Very Special idea of God in Hinduism it's very important in today's world according to Hinduism god is infinite and can be approached worshiped loved adored in numerous forms and names so so one absolute reality Brahman existence Consciousness place but the same thing you can worship as Shiva as Kali as Durga as Vishnu as Ganesha Shiva also in so many varieties and farms and different You Know Places each has its own what is called Mahatma Glory so innumerable forms and this new innumerable forms also includes the avataras Vishnu especially narayana comes in avatars incarnation in the human world and those are also multiple different times in history God comes as an Incarnation Gita he has promised that I shall come as an Incarnation whenever religion declines and is religion prevails I shall come to re-establish religion so the Incarnation of God now in all of these forms they have a special potency the special power same power to remove our Karma and to liberate us and show us the infinite and liberators so this is the ideal lifted what is the ideal here yes it is true that absolute reality can be worshiped in different names and forms but but when you actually do sadhana when you actually do practice one needs to focus one needs to Bear down and focus this focus is not possible if you have a multiplicity of ideals all ideals are not for all of us might say that but SRI ramakrishna worshiped God in so many ways whether he was an Incarnation he came to teach us something particular that all of these are valid paths to God realization and notice when he did worship he didn't mix it all up no when he worshiped Kali he worshiped with tremendous Focus excluding everything else his practice of Islam at that time he removed all the pictures of the Hindu gods and goddesses from his room he worshiped just like a Muslim for a few days so the tremendous focus and being true to a particular tradition that is the idea of the ishta devata so for us one ishta is enough as the guru indicates and teaches us so the ishta devatha is a particular name and form of God which is your own you know that the same God is in the as the east of other people and no difference there's no disrespect for uh God in any form and there's a great respect and worship but you must focus in one place the idea of the the story the parable he told us the sudam Krishna gives us the parable of um the man who was digging for water so he went and started digging a wealth for water and somebody told him you dig here it started digging there are these people who can they're water diviners you know they can tell you where there is water I saw one of them in our ashram in India we needed a it's a dry area called jharkhand we needed water we needed a well this water diviner came along here this piece of wood like a fork and one staff and that seems to pull him where there is water so it's amazing but when he did find whenever he pointed and he said dig here you we found water they found wealth it's a common phenomenon known in India water diviners not just in India and other countries also you have heard of such people some kind of sense they have I don't know anyway the funny story is this this water diviner comes along and the Swami in charge of arashram he asks so we need water where is uh where do you dig for a well and he says I've already found it where right below where you are sitting in your office Swami so to dig up your office that's what that was one well which was not dug because Swami would have none of it but we found other places so this man went to dig a well for water and he started working it's hard work after some time he got exhausted somebody told him dig there it's easier so he went and started digging there and then dug for water to the third place in the fourth place at the end of the day he had dug in six different places found water nowhere six shallow holes found water nowhere if he had continued to dig in the first place he might have found water so The Parables tells us that ishta devatha is one where you focus it gives us so what the ishta does for us is a tremendous personal involvement so once I have an Easter Avatar so if you go to build our main Monastery balloon or any of our ashrams here also you will see it's all about SRI ramakrishna vedanta Society so are they always going on in logic and Analysis and scripture that's the outer side of it there's an inner core where you will find the monks and the devotees they're all they have an intense personal relationship with their Ishita whether it's ramakrishna or mashada whoever whatever the ishta is so it's all about SRI ramakrishna the ashram is centered around SRI ramakrishna the lives of the monks and devotees are centered around SRI ramakrishna around their ishta and when we work we offer it to sudama Krishna when we worship we offer it to Sri ramakrishna you'll find at the end of everything SRI Rama Krishna every ritual even the food that you'd eat and drink mentally offer it to sudama Krishna and then indeed everything is done schools colleges hospitals in India spiritual teaching everything is offered to sudama Krishna all action mentally our thought our emotion is connected to Sri ramakrishna you might say oh the Swami was so loving I went to this Monastery so many people come back and say that Swami was so loving so affectionate don't be fooled he's loving the srirama Krishna in you not you the person so that sounds strange it's only because we identify ourselves as a person and that's you know the word very word person means a mask Persona it means a mask all of you you've got masks already it's a mask upon a mask yeah so it the ishta allows us to establish a one-pointed deeply personal emotional connection with God this is very important this is how the Avatar functions so you establish a connection with the ishta all right but how do you know srirama Krishna is it can be an ishta how is he how do you know he's an avatar he told us so the famous he told Swami Vivekananda that the famous story is there jeram Jai Krishna ramakrishna who he who was Rama he who in ancient times was Krishna is in this time sriram is ramakrishna or sometimes he said is in this body ramakrishna not just once we have heard the recorded speeches there by Swami abedananda in Bengali he gave a speech in 1936 and it's recorded no thanks to us it was all India radio which recorded it at that time 1936. and there he says in Bengali how many times we have heard him say Krishna ramakrishna we have it on his own words we have it in the words of the holy mother of Vivekananda then many others who saw him and met him he revealed his inner Divinity it's not that they recognized but he revealed so he reveals that he is an incarnation of God he's an avatar and we establish a relationship of each tavitham even more precisely how does it function technically what's the practice the practice is called ishta Mantra I just touch upon this and move on because it's an assertive thing you need to learn it from your Guru so in this lineage if you are initiated if you want SRI ramakrishna or masharada as your ishta the guru initiates you and the guru will give you an ishta Mantra and don't some of you were initiated looking uneasy no I'm not going to tell the ishta Mantra in public don't worry um the famous stories thereof is compassion his Guru initiated him into a mantra of narayana and said repeat this you will be liberated you will go to vikunta after death but remember never tell others so he was curious what happens if I tell others they will be liberated whoever hears it but you will go to hell and ramanuja the first thing he did was he ran straight to the Tower and proclaimed it to the masses let me go to a hell thousand times let all of you be liberated so that was his heart I'm not going to do that I'm not I'm not I'm not taking risks so but you but I do I can say this that I do strongly recommend it we need all the help that we can have in our spiritual past and so Mantra deeksha initiation is very very powerful extremely powerful it's something that if you say is it technically essential you can't have Liberation Enlightenment without it no but it is practically essential yes so practically it is essential we need to have a guru and initiation so what's this Mantra this little bit I'll touch and move on usually the Mantra will have three parts one is it's this is common om will be there this is common I'm not revealing any secrets here everybody knows om is you know the yoga Sutra says just like we all have names the name of God is om how that is so there are many explanations the best explanation I think is the Mandu ke upanishad where om the meaning of om is explained if you want to know that I recommend a talk which I gave about 10 years ago who am I if you look up who am I there's an explanation of om basically that's the first part and the last part is the name of the deity so for example if ramakrishna is your Easter the guru will give you the name of ramakrishna if sarada is your Easter or if Vishnu or Krishna or Rama or or indeed Jesus or uh whoever is your ishta the name of God ishwara saguna Brahman or the name of an incarnation of God so that will be the last part of the Mantra usually and maybe sometimes Nama might be added may not be added but the last part is the name of the deity in between is something interesting and the most secret part of the Mantra which is called the bija the seed this comes from Tantra from Kashmir shaivism there's a whole science to it again not entirely essential but usually it's there and this is what connects it usually stands for the Divine mother of for Shakti this is what shows how the absolute reality which is there every anyway Brahman is there whether you are spiritual not spiritual um you are we are all ordinary sentient beings jivas or your avatar your enlightened not enlightened whatever we are living being not non-living being whatever we are the absolute reality Brahman is there it shines forth as this entire universe but this is not good enough for us it's no use saying that you're Brahman but living an entirely miserable terrible life and suffering endlessly so we want to go out of this suffering even that terrible life and suffering is also mediated because of the presence of Brahman and Brahman is there that's why everything else is good and bad but we want the good we want the spiritual so in that case how does Brahman manifest as as Avatar as God as through Shakti as the world also through Shakti so there is a word corresponding to that and that is the esoteric or the really secret part of it so this is the Mantra which the guru gives to you see the the ishta the Incarnation now you get incarnation in the form of the picture in the form of books in the form of the image worshiped in in the ashrams in belurmat as the installed urn of Ashes there in these days but as the person physically is not there in front of us so how do we get him directly in our lives the mantra he was the vice president of our order many years ago some here who are his disciples he writes that when you have been given the ishta Mantra you have been given God In seed form you have to cultivate it so that it manifests in your life but you have already been given God God is actually present with you now in the form of that Mantra so enough said that is ishta ishta Mantra and that's how the Incarnation becomes relevant active in our lives and very powerful most powerful way for Spiritual practice and Liberation Incarnation we should call it Avatar yoga I don't know if there's such a term but Avatar yogits Professor Jack Hawley was here from Colombia a few years ago he was a professor of Hinduism he was saying he is a Picard you know like follower devotees scholar of Krishna vrindavan mathura he said that is mainstream Hinduism even Professor Edwin Bryant who was here who's a scholar of patanjali yoga this is mainstream Hinduism is a worship of Rama it's a worship of Krishna Professor Bryant he was here he said that in a train going from Delhi to Agra from Agra to mathura with if you ask a person next to you so what do you think about patanjali yoga sutras or patanjali he'll say what all right but if you ask do you know Ram or do you know Krishna of course so that ishta Avatar that is mainstream that is how it is Hinduism is popularly understood yoga sutras Brahma sutras advaita vedanta and for you big people Elite the general masses they hold on to Rama Krishna to ramakrishna to the Incarnation um what differentiates the activities of the Incarnation so this is something additional the core of what I wanted to say and what Swami bhajananji has said there I've already said down the most important I'll summarize at the end but some additional information what really distinguishes an Incarnation from the rest of us avatar from the rest of us from the perspective of action work um I looked it up yesterday the Arabic pronunciation is Gibran so he says work is love made manifest beautifully said like all of Gibran work is love made manifest there Swami bhajananji writes this remarkable sentence single sentence which it ties in all of vedantic thought s that it's not just that the love uh it's not just just the knowledge of this one existence which appears as all of us it's just not that not not just knowledge but it is the basis for the love of all beings that we are one existence that's knowledge but then that expresses itself as love you love everybody because you feel a Oneness with everybody a Oneness with everybody everybody and everything naturally because you see that they are one with you and you are one with them how not as body not even as person a mask but as the one existence Consciousness place the one absolute which is appearing as so many so that knowledge Ghana it becomes love because once you feel the Oneness it becomes love it is expressed as love then that love is expressed as action as jibran says work is love made manifest it must be in what we do in what we give now how does this work differentiate an avatar from the rest of us we all work few points here I'll quickly say what Maharaja is written there he says we all work first of all our karma is we are propelled and bound by our Karma it's because of our past Karma we are here today and as we have been conditioned in this life and past lives that's the way we keep acting and reacting in this world Avatar is not like that Avatar doesn't have a baggage of past Karma Avatar comes entirely out of freedom in Freedom the Avatar comes in Freedom the Avatar lives in the freedom there with articles we are in bondage we come we live in bondage and we are thrown out of this world in bondage so this is one big difference huge difference second all our action is selfish is selfish it's done for I Me Mine and for Avatar completely selfless Avatar needs nothing in this world our actions are desired prompted that's why they are all selfish the Avatar's actions are desireless see even for a spiritual person um God realization is a kind of a desire it's a higher desire which liberates US from all worldly desires so it's still a desire but Avatar does not have that desire also and even the enlightened person doesn't have that desire we sing I desire neither wealth nor pleasure nor even the punya the Merit from Dharma not even Moksha why of course you might say that he's already got Moksha that's why he can brag about it so Avatar is of course always always liberated so Avatar has no personal angle to action that's the second thing the third thing is we act from ego we always feel I am the Doer how else there is no other way we cannot actually we can but it's not so obvious that's what Krishna is trying to point out in the bhagavad-gita Avatar does not act from ego it's a very subtle Point what the avatara does is you might say the Avatar's ego has become the cosmic eye this concept is not emphasized in or it's not not at all there actually in advance it's then kashmiri the term is the I sense which ties us to this one body mind I am this much the rest of it is you other the cosmic eye will say I all of it while being in that one body the enlightened Shiva Yogi can say that I am all of this the cosmic eye Avatar operates from that not that avatar ever says I am all of this in fact Avatar seems to say just the opposite SRI ramakrishna would often say not I not I but thou my mother for him God was Mother so you do all this you are this world I am just a chariot you are the Chariot Here I Am The Machine you are the operator of the machine I do as you make me do I speak as you make me speak I move as you make me move that's equal to saying I am all of it either I am none of it God is all or I am all of it both of them are same thing both of them are beyond the other Beyond division so ramakrishna gives the example of in our our case the ego is a subtle powerful teachings huh our case the ego is like a stick in flowing water water is actually not divided but it clearly seems to be divided if you hold a stick in flowing water clearly seems to be divided this side on that side this much is I the rest is not I you and that this this that you they all other and this is I some of it may be connected to I this is mine so I and my something connected to this body so like a stick held in water this ego works like that now for the enlightened person he says there is still an ego because the enlightened person can also say I but that egosna says is like a line drawn in water water is Flowing if you draw a line in water what happens to that line it's not like a stick the stick is pretty steady solid line as you draw it it is wiped out it continuously disappears that eye disappears continuously similarly the ego of the enlightened person is like that an appearance not binding not dividing this and that huh so uh and even more so for the for the avatar it's a clue to how we can become enlightened so these are obstacles that are set up really so there are these forces oh no they're all going to become enlightened let's disturb it let's disturb them yeah you hear about it in in the mystical traditions of all see they have been shamed into silence the forces is the sense of ego is ignorance we keep on saying that ignore ignorance of our real self is the obstacle and the knowledge comes of the real self I am Brahman existence Consciousness please it overcomes the ignorance and you realize your enlightened you are Brahman but precisely the nature of this ignorance SRI ramakrishna locates it in the sense of ego of I and how you overcome this if we can just step back from it there are two ways of overcoming one is the negative way which is used in Buddhism we dissolve the eye you just see this empty there's nothing there there's nothing there deconstruct it there's so many techniques and Analysis done for that and then what remains remains the Buddhists will either not say anything at all or they will say it's the Buddha nature or the whatever it is they will not say it's existence Consciousness please or God or whatever they won't say that or the other way is to expand the eye to to Infinity the cosmic eye the or identify it with Brahman existence Consciousness please practically the same thing there's no more limited I left that is dissolved anyway leave it at that so this is what is done this is how the Avatar liberates us how the Avatar this is distinguished from our eye the action of the Avatar we operate from the individual eye the Avatar operates from the cosmic we are going far afield from our discussion but very subtle discussion I really recommend that book um SRI ramakrishna light of the modern world amazing so packed I'm giving you just a few pages all of this um the fourth difference between the action of the avatara and us is that the Avatar as action is very powerful our action what we say what we do is like um drawing you know making little sand castles in the face of the tide the tide will come in and wipe out everything so we we know it'll all be wiped out whatever we are doing you may be a powerful speaker writer how little influence we have but look at the influence of a Jesus of a Buddha of a ramakrishna we will see as we are seeing now Millions across the world already accept him as an avatar and we'll see in the centuries to come as the contemporaries of ramakrishna Fade Into insignificance people will forget the 19th Centurion people tonight they'll become irrelevant over as the centuries go by but SRI ramakrishna will stand taller and taller and taller across the centuries and millennia to the influence of the Avatar it is extremely powerful and not only powerful not only much more effective than us but also not limited by time see the greatest of Warriors and businessmen and politicians they are gone and they die they're gone and they diminish over time but Avatar lives across time even when the body perishes the Avatar is present so ramakrishna is present now so are the past avatars and their effect is felt across time we can connect to it it's not yet see the Avatar is not something historical we can read the life and feel inspired by it no the Avatar is a living living presence right now we can connect to the Avatar it is something that was not mention in that particular book this is an even deeper esoteric part of the Avatar Doctrine it comes from vaishnava shastras I'll just share it with you question might be all right I'm sold on the Avatar idea but I have a whole choice of avatars so there is Rama and Krishna and Buddha and Jesus and and yes ramakrishna also so why ramakrishna particularly why are you emphasizing that I mean I understand why you Swami are emphasizing that because your whole uh organization is built around ramakrishna it's that lineage but then I might not be interested is there any particular reason why I should be interested in ramakrishna so here is it may sound a little sectarian but I must share this with you it is this this part of the vaishnava sastra dealing with Avatar assays that as the centuries go by there is the Avatar of Past Times becomes less and less relevant that's why there is a need for avatars to come in each age of humanity Gita also says this when religion declines and religion increases I incarnate myself embody myself forth which means multiple times again and again why again and again why won't if the Avatar is living presence why won't the most ancient avatars suffice for us won't as Society changes it won't suffice and the secret here is this you might be thinking get to the point I can we can see if there's something else you want to say yes there is something it's like this and the away senior monk once told me about this so um the vaishna would say that when a new Avatar comes all older avatars have already receded to what is called the causal body karna Sharia they are there but they're in the causal body and the latest Avatar remains in the subtle body until the next embodiment as an avatara what does that mean in the physical body very easy of access although he would have to go to dakshineshwar and ask where the Mad Brahmin of the priest of Kali lives to physically go and meet him but when the physical body goes how do we access the access is the subtle body who is the Avatar is present and can be accessed through prayer meditation prayer specially and when the Avatar recedes further back into the causal body it requires a lot of sadhana to access if the Avatar is still available Rama Krishna Jesus are all available but a lot of you know the great Saints of a different mystical Traditions imagine the effort they had to put in to access that so this is the difference make of it what you will um so yes the Avatar is present across time last point I'll make and then I'll stop I mentioned that the Avatar is a spiritual teacher ADI Guru this is another important part of the teacher of the idea of Avatar vedanta is a knowledge tradition so in a knowledge tradition teacher is important that's why you will find in vedanta in generally in Hinduism Guru is very important and of and God is the first Guru the real Guru not only first the real Guru SRI ramakrishna said there is only one Guru sachidananda is the guru Brahman is the guru God is the guru and Avatar is incarnation of this real Guru the first Guru ADI Guru um just to give an example now Munda kopanishad says so of all the gods first Brahma appeared you know the Vishnu god with capital G is there the first manifested Divine being is Brahma how creates the universe and what does Brahma do creates the universe but especially he teaches Brahma Vidya the science of Enlightenment the science of the Atman Brahman religion spirituality to in this particular Mantra to atharva the first created first born the foundation and the first of all knowledge the knowledge of of God knowledge of Atman Brahman he teaches so God is the first teacher but like everything God God is the creator of the universe but actually who creates the universe brahmada so God sort of subcontracts everything to Brahma but anyway God is the first teacher Krishna Incarnation he identifies with God and as the first teacher Krishna himself says in the bhagavad-gita um Imam I gave this yoga this ancient yoga Eternal yoga so I am not inventing it there's also something hidden here spiritual knowledge um spirituality is always eternally present with God God doesn't invent it this eternal yoga I taught it in this universe in this cycle to audit your viewers one the sun god the naditya taught it to Manu Manu taught it to ik shwaku the first of the royal sages so like a lineage is established but it shows God is the first Guru not only God is the first Guru God and Incarnation establishes a lineage of gurus this is what points out what does the Incarnation do and what did SRI ramakrishna do he starts a fresh lineage a freshly empowered powerful lineage of gurus that same Munda kopanishad goes on to say so Brahma taught so what foreign and then what happened the moon duck openership starts in this way we turn up next our representative is this this guy thousands of years years ago guy called lived in Manhattan probably yeah foreign ritualistic Manner and asked see he asked the question what was the question sir review it sir what is that by knowing which everything is known yes that's true but we are dealing with words so then the whole upanishad starts when the guru teaches the disciple so God is the first teacher the Incarnation is the establisher of the lineage of gurus and the gurus transmit the knowledge down from them to the Next Generation some of whom become gurus but some are from whom are just plain Joes like us so we get the benefit from the gurus here we have the lineage of gurus srirama Krishna Masha Radha they transmitted to Vivekananda and Brahman and Shivan and and they transmitted to their disciples who transmitted to us here there are some who are Disciples of pavitra and you hear itself some who are Disciples of tataka tanandi and so on so how would the upanishad say upanishad would say that SRI ramakrishna he taught brahmananda and brahmananda passed it down to pavitra and then they passed it down to you or srirama Krishna he awakened I don't see he taught it to the holy mother but he awakened it in the holy mother and she taught it to pass it down to virajananda and he passed it down to Tata and Tata in the past it done to you so this is the upanishadic way of putting it the lineage of gurus this is another thing that the Avatar does and there is some more to it but the Avatar as the dispeller of Doubt Swami Vivekananda called SRI ramakrishna samsaya rakshasa mahastram the great Arrow the weapon which destroys the demon of doubt important today as there today if you say I want to believe in God and God will rescue me and I heard this long talk about avataras and all ah what will Richard Dawkins say to you what will Christopher Richard's bless his soul he's passed on Dawkins and Hitchens and Sam Harris and you know the great atheists you'll have to contend with them in this day and age if you want to believe in God I had this dialogue with Sam Harris a few days ago and I said to him so those who want to believe in God they'll have to face you they have to get through you to get to God I'll put it in some other words but he he took it well he burst out laughing yes and that that um that sharp atheistic critique it helps especially in vedanta or say something like Buddhism it clears your mind and by the way when the advaithic approach or the Buddhist specially Tibetan Buddhist approach it survives all these atheistic critics in fact Sam Harris himself is a practitioner of advaitha intervention Buddhism um but yes in general this is an age of Doubt of skepticism very difficult to seriously believe in God and hold on to God and Avatar and proceed this day and age so the Avatar comes as a destroyer of Doubt as a powerful demonstration of the truths of religion to us doubt about the existence of God doubt about the possibility of God realization doubt about the validity of spiritual experience doubt about scripture all of these doubts are destroyed by this tremendously powerful weapon called SRI ramakrishna samashaya rakshasa mahastram the the great Astra the weapon the arrow which destroys the demon of doubt just a few days ago I was talking about tripura Asura the demons who lived in the three cities and they were destroyed by an arrow shot by Shiva and the Shiva mahimina's daughter actually says what was the arrow if you remember Vishnu became the arrow Vishnu Krishna became the arrow is the arrow which destroys the demon of doubt I pray to Sri ramakrishna to the holy mother sarda Devi to Swami Vivekananda to all the great Mystics and avatars and Saints and sages throughout the ages to bless all of us to purify our hearts to purify us from our Bad Karma to liberate us from samsara give us the knowledge reveal the truth to be the door to the infinity which they have promised to be for us and strong recommendation if you've not been initiated do consider it for future those who have been initiated know what great treasure we have received as the mantra may they bless all of us may Our Lives be blessed may we be blessed may we become a blessing for others around us too [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: Vedanta Society of New York

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Keywords: vedantany, vedanta society of new york, sarvapriyananda, swami sarvapriyananda, sarvapriyananda lectures, swami vivekananda, vivekananda, vivekananda teachings, vedanta ny, vedanta, vedanta lectures, belur math, jnana yoga, hinduism, spirituality, enlightenment, higher consciousness, meditation, mindfulness, realization, consciousness, moksha, nirvana

Id: fnZoItTt2WE

Length: 77min 26sec (4646 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2023