Gospel | Chapter 7: Dec 14, 1882 (Part 1) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda - Vedanta Society of New York

In this episode of Vedanta Talks, Swami Sarvapriyananda explores a passage from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Chapter 7, December 14, 1882), focusing on spiritual insights regarding

Key takeaways

• Suicide is not inherently sinful if it occurs after a direct vision of God or attainment of liberation.
• Past-life samskaras influence present spiritual inclinations and attractions to sacred places like Vrindavan.

Main topics

• Spiritual liberation and voluntary death after divine realization
• Influence of ancestral spiritual lineage on individual samskaras

Notable quotes

"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."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a reflection on the profound connection between spiritual realization,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:16) So this is the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class where we read the English translation of the Bengali Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamritam. Speaker 1 (0:27) It's a wonderful translation by Swami Nikhil Anandaji and published right here in New York from the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center. Of course, there are different versions and there's one published from India as well from the Chennai Ramakrishna Math. This is also very good. We are going to read from page 163 in my book. That's chapter 7, and the date is 14th December 1882. It's a Thursday, 14th December 1882. It was afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed after a short noonday rest. Vijay, Balaram, M and a few other devotees were sitting on the floor with their faces toward the master. They could see the sacred river Ganges through the door. Since it was winter, all were wrapped up in warm clothes. Speaker 1 (1:28) Vijay had been suffering from colic and had brought some medicine with him. Vijay was a paid preacher in the Sadharan Brahma Samaj, 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. Speaker 1 (1:54) 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 Brahmasamaj, 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, who 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. It was a weekday. Generally, devotees came to the master in large numbers on Sundays. Hence, those who wanted to have intimate talks with him visited him on weekdays. Speaker 1 (2:59) A boy named Vishnu living in Ariadhah had recently committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor. The talk turned to him. Master, I felt very badly when I heard of the boy's passing away. He was a pupil in a school and he 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 used to meditate in solitude in the meadows, hills and forests. He told me that 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. There is a story of a man who practiced the Shavasadhana. The Shavasadhana is a footnote. A religious practice prescribed by the Tantra in which the aspirant uses a Shava or corpse as his seat for meditation. He worshipped the Divine Mother in a deep forest. First, he saw many terrible visions. Finally, a tiger attacked and killed him. 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. No sooner had he done a little japa, 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 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, who have done nothing, who have neither devotion nor knowledge nor love, and who haven't practiced any austerities, 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, a devotee. I am frightened to hear of the suicide. Speaker 1 (5:51) Master, suicide is a heinous sin, undoubtedly. A man who kills himself must return again and again to this world and suffer its agony. But I don't call it suicide if a person leaves his body after having the vision of God. There is 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 Baranagar. His name was Gopal Sen. In my presence, he used to experience such intense ecstasy that Hriday had to support him for fear he might fall to the ground and break his limbs. The 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. It is said that there are four classes of human beings. The bound, Those aspiring after liberation, they're liberated and they're ever perfect. I'll read a little more later, but let me just go back to what we have read and make a few comments. Speaker 1 (7:16) So at the beginning, the second paragraph, he introduces Vijaya. Came from a noble family of Bengal, noted for its piety. Advaita Goswami was one of his remote ancestors. Those who have read the life of Sri Chaitanya will know that Advaita was one of the companions, like the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, like that, the companions of Chaitanya. So in the Vaishnava lineage, this would be considered an extraordinarily great family. you know somebody descended from the direct companions of an incarnation of God so and obviously Vijaya Krishna Goswami was deeply deeply devoted. This reminds me of another incident Speaker 1 (8:04) Our Vice President now, Swami Suhit Anandaji, many people do not know that he is actually descended from what might be called Vaishnava royalty. That is, his forefather was Krishnadas Kaviraj, the author of Chaitanya Charita Amrita, the authoritative biography of Sri Chaitanya that was composed by Krishnadas Kaviraj. And Swami Suhit Anandaji is a direct descendant of that family. How I found out was very interesting. I was a new brahmachari. This was 1994. Speaker 1 (8:42) And I had gone to New Delhi as a new brahmachari. And I had gone from Deoghar. The ashram where I joined the order is Deoghar. At that time, it was part of a state called Bihar. Now that state's been partitioned. There are two states now, Bihar and Jharkhand. So Deoghar is in Jharkhand now. So I'd gone from the Deoghar Vidyapeet Ashram. The head of the Deoghar Vidyapeet Ashram was Swami Sohit Anandiji. So he was my head. And I was absolutely new, a novice. And I'd gone to Delhi for some work. I'd been sent to our Delhi Ramakrishna Mission ashram. At that time, the Swami who was in charge of the Vrindavan ashram, Swami Trivikramananda, if you think that's a very big name, he was a big man, he was a huge man and very forbidding, very strict, old Swami. So he was visiting Delhi ashram with another Swami. And those Swamis saw me that I'm an absolute newcomer, you know, and said, have you ever been to Vrindavan? So I said, no, I've just heard about Vrindavan. I've never been there. He said, why don't you come with us? Why don't you come to Vrindavan and see Vrindavan? I said, all right, let me just call my Swami. In those days, no mobile phones. You have to make a phone call with the dial phones and everything. I got the necessary permission to go to Vrindavan. And so I went to Vrindavan. And that was memorable, really memorable, my first visit to Vrindavan. You know, these are very deeply holy places, Vrindavan, Kashi, Banaras, and other places. There's some particularly powerful spots in the south of India, for example. So these places, if you go there, If you feel an upsurge of spiritual emotion, that means you feel very inspired. So you'll generally feel the spirituality of these places wherever, whoever you are, you'll feel it. There's something there. But if you particularly feel attracted to one place more than others, it shows that you have those samskaras. So if you are particularly attracted to Banaras, maybe you have the samskaras of a Shaiva. That is, it's a city, a city of Shiva. But if you feel attracted to Puri, Jagannath Puri, you know, or Tirupati or Vrindavan, you have Vaishnava samskaras. Like that they say. So I liked it a lot. So I guess I have got Vaishnava samskaras. I was very inspired by the short stay in Vrindavan. Anyway. Now there was another old Swami there who was in charge of the kitchen and this Swami his name I remember still remember he has passed away Ramesh Maharaj. He was also a very tall and well-built man a huge man elderly at that time and his and the interesting thing about him was he became a monk a long time ago but he was not granted the the ochre robe and the vows of sannyasa because He didn't fulfill the minimum qualifications for a novice in our order. There are certain academic degrees you need to have at least to complete your college. He had not. So he just stayed for years and years. Normally we get the vows of sannyas in 10 years, 9 to 10 years. And he got it after 25 years. So that shows. But he was a wonderful Swami, a very loving gruff, but very loving. I still remember one afternoon, it was winter in Vrindavan. After a particularly heavy meal, I was going to stagger back to my room for the afternoon siesta. And then I saw these Swamis sitting in the courtyard outside, in the open courtyard. And they were eating guavas, big guavas. And they were standing there, Swami Trivikramananda, big man, Ramesh Maharaj, even bigger man. And Ramesh Maharaj was holding a huge wooden staff. Why? to drive away the monkeys who were pests, who were trying to come and snatch the guavas away from the monks. So the monks and the monkeys had a running battle going on over the guavas. Now when they saw me trying to sneak off to my room to take my siesta, they called out, hey you, come here, join us. When I went there, and one of them, Ramesh Moira, I think he tossed a guava, it's a big one, I barely caught it with my hands, and said, eat! I said I can't, I'm just too full. Then Trivikramanandaji growled. Sanatan is the name of Swami Suhit Anandaji. So Sanatan. He growled. Has Sanatan sent us a brahmachari or a mouse? Can't eat a guava? So there was no other way. I had to eat the guavas. I struggled with it, trying to finish one guava while those monks chomped away at it. And the monkeys circled us ominously, trying to look for an opening to come in. I would have happily shared my guava with the monkey, but Ramesh Maju's stick kept the monkeys away. Anyway, to cut a long story short. The day I was supposed to come away, Ramesh Maj came to me with a little packet. He said, you have been sent by Sanatan, Swami Shohit Anandji. You have come from Sanatan, from Deoghar. Give this to Sanatan. I said, what is this? He said, this is the dust of Vrindavan, especially from Nidhuvan, where the Ras Leela is supposed to take place. This is the dust from there. So in my naive way, I asked, why the dust of Vrindavan? And then he looked at me with utter astonishment. Don't you know anything at all? I said, what? You have joined under Sanatan Maharaj. You don't know who Sanatan is? I said, I don't know. He is the descendant of Krishna Das Kaviraj. He is one of the greatest families in the Vaishnava tradition. And that's why I am sending him the dust of Vrindavan. It's particularly significant for him given his Vaishnava lineage. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that three things are