Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse Oh gee often Asha numbah Veche Wharram suis croissant agora iwasa day ha ha ha me through some yuppie thumbs for Lila, you're charged in a Divya Jeevan um yah P thumbs while ela archery in a Divya Jeevan um then mommy David Ava Ramakrishna I share m-- o Shreve vacant and Orissa Qi Shizuku Ji tire Sri Sharada Devi Avira to say V tire,
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa avatar every start a nama most revered vice president Maharaj Swami's modern an Adagio Raj most revered vice president Mirage

Swami Prabhananda Ji Maharaj most revered president of this meeting Swami Suhitananda tomando Ji Maharaj dear brothers dear friends and devotees of

Sri Ramakrishna it's a great honor to be here to speak with you, this afternoon swami Ji ah group Ananda G just gave you a beautiful synopsis of the life of
Sri Ramakrishna I'm not going to try to give you the life of
Sri Ramakrishna even in a short scope I just want to ask two simple questions asked and discuss two simple questions one is why have we come here today Oh Bangla they Amiga Scottish I am rocky no acgih cave Abner Raja guest per tape Aryan Mirage apne signboard Dakini chaotic a Bellini ghk taco region ma TT now the general Kano a city those of you

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse who don't speak Bengali there's nothing wrong with your ears and there's nothing wrong with my English that was not English that was Bengali because there many people here who don't speak English once in a while not often but once in a while I'll just give the essence in Bengali

so that some others can follow along with a little better so again I want to ask first a simple question why have we come here today as not because I don't know that today is
Sri Ramakrishna's holy birth celebration, John Motiti even knowing that why have we come today people come together for

so many reasons and sometimes they come together without any reason if you go to Calcutta especially on a weekend any day but especially a weekend you'll find the crowd everywhere chari DK piace Kolkata but this is not a beer this is not a crowd there are not people who just happen to be in Beller mud today going about their business and just happen to end up here today no people have come here for a common interest but people go to a football game also or a cricket game with a common interest as well say if India and Pakistan are playing a cricket match there'll be some who are there to cheer for India, some were there to cheer for Pakistan
so they're there for a common interest but the interest is divided

so this also is not a competition even though they're four other speakers here this is not a competition it's a sharing as we've come here for not just a common interest like in a cricket match we've come here because of a common ideal we've come here because of a common ideal because this is a song cub is not a crowd it's not football fans or cricket fans it's a Sanka yes the Sangha is the monastic order is the center of the Sangha but the Sangha also is all of this is all the Sangha all of you are members of the
Ramakrishna in the general the sense in the expanded sense but in a very real and very important sense all of you are members of the Sangha we're here for a common ideal not just common interests but we're here for a common ideal and we're here for a common love some of you may be most of you certainly are Hindu there may be some here

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse who are Muslim there maybe some Christians here there maybe some of the other religions or people who have no religion at all but all of you are part of the Ramakrishna Sangha because of a common love for that which
Sri Ramakrishna is and what he stands for

so we're here for a common ideal and for a common love and
so that's what makes a Sangha there are people who belong to the
Ramakrishna Sangha who are in far far away countries people who have no access to a mart an ashrama mission center nor Vedanta Society as we call them in the West who are far from any other devotees yet they also belong to the
Ramakrishna Sangha because they're tied to the same movement through ties of love the ties of common interest and through the tie of Sri Ramakrishna

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse so one reason we're here is that we're part of a Sangha but did we come here to remember a great man who lived in the 19th century did we come here to remember a great man named
Sri Ramakrishna who lived a beautiful life left many beautiful teachings for us to study and to follow is that why we've come my people come together to celebrate the birth anniversary of

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Maude McGann D Rabindranath Tagore and other great people they come together to celebrate their birth anniversary also to remember a great person who once lived but that's also not why we're here Satan Rama Athena theñi we came because talk war is not because of talk or was not because he once lived a great life but because he is because talk war is the living deity the living awakened deity of the modern age

so that's why we've come here to see and to be here in the company of Shri Rama Krishna himself
so that's one question why have we come here the other question is will take up the rest of the time that I have and that also is a very simple question and even simpler the question in Bengali it's only two words Tok work a top work a very simple question top work a chillin top work an in English who was
Shri Ramakrishna or better who is free Rama Krishna who is
Shri Ramakrishna most of you know the story about how Girish Chandra Ghosh asked Swamiji to write the life of Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji said no, the Girish Babu please ask me anything ask me to drink the ocean ask me to crumble the mountains to dust but not ask me to write the life of
Sri Ramakrishna because that I can't do I don't have the the capacity to her to write his life

so Swamiji was unwilling to write the life of
Sri Ramakrishna how could anyone dare to luckily some people did there - like swami Sheridan and OG and others after him luckily people did there - but it's very significant that Swamiji would not write the life of Sri Ramakrishna

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse I think that Swamiji did it partly because he didn't feel competent because of his own view of
Sri Ramakrishna being infinite but also because he knew that whatever he did that would tend to become a definition even Swamiji couldn't have written everything about taqwa even such a great man he couldn't have said everything that there is to say about taqwa and because of his greatness later people like us small people like us would have come and said well Swamiji didn't say that about talk wars that must not be true we can't accept that because Swamiji didn't say it Swamiji said this much and

so that's all we can accept and that's what has happened in every single religion the world in Christianity and Buddhism in Islam the great teacher came and taught and after that that the teaching became both an inspiration but also it became a limitation that this far and no further if our the teacher didn't say it then we can't accept it you see the wisdom of Swamiji he said in his own rules for the order he said that if in the future new truths new approaches new ideals are discovered which are found to be for the good of humanity that can be accepted as the teaching of
Shri Ramakrishna what an extraordinary saying what an extraordinary principle Swamiji opened doors he didn't close any doors he didn't put any limits

so Swamiji was afraid of two things two main things Swami GU was afraid of one was he was afraid that the great power
Sri Ramakrishna had brought to earth that it would be locked up inside of a temple Swamiji himself wanted this temple to be established he started the worship here he started the Durga Puja in Beller must also

so he wasn't against that but he was afraid that the tremendous power which Rishi
Ramakrishna had brought for the welfare of all that would be locked inside of a temple
so that that would be the place that you would have to go to find it no

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse Swamiji wanted it spread to every everyone he said Shri Ramakrishna had come for the welfare of the whole world and

so that was one thing use afraid of another thing he was afraid of Sri Rama was that Shri Ramakrishna would be limited by his followers he was afraid that Sri Ramakrishna would be limited by his followers he said once to Swami Yogananda at the second meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta and I quote Sri Ramakrishna is greater than his disciples understand him to be and again that's when the direct disciples were alive not us who have limited understanding even the direct disciples he said Sri Ramakrishna is greater than his disciples understand him to be he is the embodiment of infinite spiritual ideas capable of development in infinite ways even if one can find the limit to the knowledge of Brahman one cannot measure the unfathomable depths of our masters mind and

so then and in many ways, Swamiji said he was against setting all limits to Sri Ramakrishna he was against setting all limits to Sri Ramakrishna said that he was the embodiment of infinite ideas
so those are the two things that he was afraid of now again when we come back to the question who was free Ramakrishna Sri Ramakrishna Kay chili Sri Ramakrishna Kay the first thing that comes to mind is that Sri Ramakrishna was an Avatara he was an incarnation of God Swamiji himself accepted that Swamiji himself said it, Sri Ramakrishna himself said that he was an incarnation but as interesting Swamiji said two different things on different occasions about his being an incarnation once someone asked him Swamiji do you believe that Sri Ramakrishna was an incarnation of God Swamiji said what to speak of the belief I know that he was an incarnation of God he was another Thora but another time when he was asked the same question he said the word Avatara, as it's generally understood, would be an insult to Sri Ramakrishna

it would belittle Sri Ramakrishna that is the word of ATAR as it's usually understood would be to belittle Sri Ramakrishna

so why did he say that it would belittle Sri Ramakrishna for one thing because of the insufficiency of our common understanding a word has two powers or three powers we can say one power is a word has the power to illuminate to manifest to illumine when we say we use words in order to illumine a subject it also a word has the power to protect the Quran to divide what makes this is not a table this is the podium that's a table
so this is one word is used for this other word for that and the third part of language is a veranda Shakti that is the power of words to cover and to conceal and

so that's what he was afraid of in using words like Avatara though he accepted Sri Ramakrishna's an Avatara and knew that people would come to accept him but he didn't want three Ramakrishna to be put into a box of our limited understanding

so he said the word of the area as it's commonly understood would be an insult to Sri Ramakrishna that is Sri Ramakrishna would become he didn't want him to come just one more deity for offering incense offering Aarti the light you have Marcia Marcia Vitara Uma Vitara Varaha Vitara Narasimha Vitara and then another several and then you have taqwa and you offer incense to all of them you offer to go to all of them etc just one more in a line of the avatar's no he didn't want three Ramakrishna to be put into a conceptual box like that and there's also the problem the trauma G recognized that the mind has a tendency to become satisfied with words satisfied with concepts hanami boo GT about our Mauna Kea about GT, I'm a banana porta-potty oh boy Toa car no avatar mi palabra Johnny that's the tendency of the mind to say I know the word avatar yes I can spell it I can smell it even in Bengali I can write it in Devanagari I can write it in English I can decline it in Sanskrit

so yes I know Avatara no problem no problem and I can also recite yada yada hi dharmasya glance bhavati Bharata etc yes I know Avatara no I don't know Avatara I know words I know words I can spell the word Avatara

Discourse by Swami Atmarupananda (English)

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse I don't know what Avatara is
so Swamiji was always afraid of that use of a word and a concept to cover rather than to reveal we always have to remember that the definition is the beginning of understanding, not the end of understanding as Swamiji said

so beautifully in one of his American lectures the open secret even a flower a simple flower take the simplest of flowers pool he said if you take even the simplest of flowers you can study it for your whole life and you find that it's infinite it's a relation its depth its infinite in its depth you can spend a whole life studying a single flower and

so what about the Vitara what about Avatara we put them in our little box we call him avatar an incarnation and think we've understood him no that's a pointer pointing us towards the infinite saying it yes look in this direction yadda hi dharmasya etc that's to point us in the direction of understanding it's not the understanding itself and
so he was afraid of that so we need to see Sri Ramakrishna with wonder with Wonder and with a devotion that's what begins to open up what anything is even a flower even another human being is there anyone that knows anyone of you completely no nope a flower we don't know completely

so what about the Avatara is through respect through wonder through worship through dwelling to the holding in the mind holding in the heat for long long periods of time for a lifetime that we begin to get a little bit of understanding of who he was it's therefore Swamiji said that it would be an insult to call Sri Ramakrishna Avatara black in the way that is usually understood not in a more thoughtful way, Shankar Acharya even says that the definition given of such of brahman sat-chit-Ananda such doesn't mean the brahman as such that means that brahman is not asset cheap doesn't mean that that defines brahman but the Brahmin can't be defined cheap means that Burman is not a cheat an under doesn't mean that's what Brahman is Ananda means that Brahman is not mere Ananda that's all and so Avatara also is a pointer to the infinite not or not a limitation

Shri Ramakrishna Discourse so Avatara if we look at the meditation verse and this is what I'll mainly for the remaining minutes I'll mainly discuss this if we look at the meditation verses written by Swami evade Ananda G disciple of taqwa the meditation verses radio camel Ahmad da Raja Tom nirvikalpa etc the first verse describes TOC Wars absolute state his nature as the Paramatma the second verse Nirupama mati Sushma Manish prop on Jim Neary hum that describes taco as an Ishwara pakoras Ishwara and v32 mathy Ramayana bhakti Prashanti that describes taco as the avatar and so the three levels that he recognized to Sri Ramakrishna's being the Avatara Ishwara and the absolute the Paramatma, when we look at three Ramakrishna, 's the Avatara we find Islamic yoga Roopa Angie said and the first talk in Bengali the Sri Ramakrishna father in Gaya had the vision of the daughter of each new who came and said I want to be your son his mother Ramakrishna's mother in kama procure saw the light coming from the Shiva Lingam and entering into her

so even before Sri Ramakrishna's birth that is Conception Vishnu said that he wanted to be born in his son and Shiva also wanted to be born as his son Sri Ramakrishna Sri Ramakrishna's mother said that day after day after day after she was pregnant countless gods and goddesses would come before her and salute her she said gods and goddesses that she knew about and countless ones she had never even heard of never seen all of these would come and salute her as the one who is bearing Sri Ramakrishna

so even in the beginning, Sri Ramakrishna was Sarva dharma Samantha's Sarva David Davis for upaya the embodiment of all gods and goddesses Swami Swami Vivekananda said that in future times three Ramakrishna would be seen as an incarnation of Kali
so he was Vishnu Shiva Shiva he was Kali the by Ravi Brahman II said that Nithyananda : Mahaprabhu revere vow that in the sheath of Nithyananda that Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya had come so he was an incarnation of Mahaprabhu also and Ramakrishna himself says in the gospel in answer to him that he was the same as Jesus and Mahaprabhu so already you have all of these gods and goddesses that he was the incarnation of all of them

so in that first verse, we find that victory tomb of Athena me on Ibaka person D pranayama Goleta Cheatham Deva Duke Asahi Shawn he whose mind melted at the sufferings of others who couldn't bear the sufferings of others he who came to give jhana bhakti Prashanti he came to give Jana bhakti and peace to all beings and
so Sri Ramakrishna was the incarnation of love no matter what deity he was associated with he was the incarnation of love for God who wept during his sudden appear yet oh mother another day has passed and still, I haven't realized you and him would weep at that thought and then later he began to weep all my disciples where are you please come I'm waiting I'm longing for your company he wept for his disciples and he wept for Humanity at large

so he was the embodiment of love love for God love of God for Humanity Sri Ramakrishna as a manifestation of God his love for Humanity
so he was the incarnation of God but let me read to you a short passage from the great master that Sri Ramakrishna said about himself it's a beautiful passage he said one day I saw that through Samadhi my mind was going up by a luminous path going beyond the gross world studied with the Sun the moon and the stars it entered first of all into the subtle world of ideas the more it began to subtle to subtler the more it began to ascend to subtler and subtler strata of that realm the more did I see beautiful ideal forms of deities existing on either side of the path it came gradually to the last extremity of that region I saw a barrier of light they are separating the realm of the divisible from that of the indivisible leaping over it the mind entered by degrees the realm of the indivisible I saw there that there was no more any person or thing having a form as if afraid to enter there even the gods and goddesses possessing heavenly bodies exercised their authority over realms far below but the very next moment I saw seven wise Rishi's having body as consisting of divine light only seated there in Samadhi I felt that in virtue and knowledge love and renunciation they had excelled even the gods and goddesses not to speak of human beings astonished I was pondering over their greatness when I saw before me that apart of that hormone homogeneous mass of light from the abode of the indivisible devoid of the slightest tinge of difference Lesch mater Abed till one became solidified and converted into the form of a divine child coming down to one of those Rishi's and throwing it soft and delicate arms around his neck the divine child embraced him and then he to said I'm going down you please come with me and later he said that Rishi, as you know, was Swami Vivekananda and the divine a child who took form out of the indivisible was Shri Ramakrishna himself now when we read that we might think we're Shri Ramakrishna he didn't have much education he never went to the university they never studied philosophy he didn't know nya all of that and

so we can't take this too seriously after all in the Bengali he says October ah October a chill oh that uh jyothirmayi Barrichello long honker a I'm armed on my mind entered into the realm of the indivisible I crossed the fence there was a fence between the realm of the divisible and the realm of the indivisible so for Sri Ramakrishna he wasn't very philosophical he was just a poor village men, so he said that there was a fence between

the divisible and the indivisible and I jumped over it and then he says something even more strange there in the realm of the indivisible where their bed mater of chiloé na there was not the slightest difference there I saw seven rishis is seated in meditation how do you get seven Rishi's he did in meditation where there's no difference whatsoever no we can't say that we can't to doubt what Shri Ramakrishna said why because he had a lifetime of spiritual experience all types of the spiritual experience he spent six months Indian recalled for Samadhi before he said this day and night he was in different types of Samadhi different states of bhava he followed different paths and realized the fruits of all of the different paths
so we can't just laugh off what Shri Ramakrishna said everything he said in this must have some meaning but what it means to us we don't know it points to something it points to something that we can't get to but he told it to us in images

so that we could understand something every single word in here must have had some deep significance and it gives even for those of us who have no philosophical background, it gives a beautiful sense of the divine what it actually means that we'll have to go there to find out but it directs our mind towards that to the beautiful images but you may say well what about someone like Shankar Acharya, he was a great philosopher
so he wouldn't give all of these images he would give the pure philosophical truth we'll look at his introduction to the Bhagavad-gita where he says three gonna become Vaishnava Moi Maya Mula para team washy criteria Rashi criteria having controlled his own Maya SWA my arm which was Wyson of him which was divine

so that we can understand yes controlling I'm going to control my I'm going to grab it and control it now I'm going to do something with it no but Maya is not an object there's no God here and Maya there that he can grab it and say now I'm going to do something with it
so already we're in trouble when we look at Shankar Acharya zone words and then he says AHA obvious bhutanam Ishwara Aishwarya Nietzsche should the buddha Mukha soba Volpe son even though I'm the eternally pure even though God was eternal is the eternally pure eternally awakened eternally free unborn eternal the Lord of beings
so my ayah by his own Maya sua Moscow Maya odd that they have on Eva Jaffa Eva it was as if he took on a body as if he was born local new group Yerevan for the sake of the welfare of all beings

so when we try to understand it even philosophically we find that the mind is boggled we can't understand it it's pointing to something we can't understand true but beyond our understanding the same with taqwa and
so, in conclusion, let me say just a word to bring it all together Sri Ramakrishna as I said in this verse of Swami evade Ananda G he's described as an Avatara he's also described as Ishwara himself the under a Yami the lord of all beings Sri Ramakrishna said that God hears even the footfall of an amped Sri Ramakrishna as Ishwara hears even the footfall of an ant certainly as Sri Ramakrishna said if God hears the footfall of an ant he will hear our prayers

so certainly Sri Ramakrishna's hears our prayers as well Sri Ramakrishna after the leaving of his body the Ishwara sigh - Sri Ramakrishna becomes more predominant not that the avatar aside is gone but the Ishwara side becomes more predominant if you went to Sri Ramakrishna during his life you would have to speak to him in Bengali or Hindi or have a translator did you know that now Sri Ramakrishna speaks English yes he does did you know that he speaks Spanish yes he speaks Spanish did you know that he doesn't just eat rice and daal no he eats all types of food that are offered to him all over the world, Sri Ramakrishna has become a universal being he's become a cosmic being I know people who have heard Sri Ramakrishna speak to them in English even sleek speaking American slang English, not even a book is written English but American slang holy mother herself who only spoke to Bengali holy mother came to someone that I know a simple Mexican-American who speaks Spanish and she said in Spanish yo Quiero comer frijoles si tortillas yo Quiero comer tortilla si frijoles I want to eat the bread of the poor people of Mexico I want to eat tortillas that are the flatbread made from maize and beans the poor food of Mexico
so Sri Ramakrishna the holy mother speak foreign languages they eat foreign food and they appear to foreign devotees as well as to people here not that it's common but it does happen and I know people who have seen Sri Ramakrishna who have seen holy mother heard the words of the holy mother heard the words of Sri Ramakrishna

The Bhagavad gita bus line man Dr. E Sreedharan to speak

Bhagavad-Gita pdf in English Download

so he's a universal being and then the last verse of Swami obeyed Ananda's meditation him his own tree Ramakrishna is the absolute where there nation on a stick in Jannah there's no difference whatsoever
we can't be Sri Ramakrishna the Incarnation
we can't be Sri Ramakrishna the Avatara but
we can be one with Sri Ramakrishna the
absolute the permit man we can never we can know-how when we follow the path of knowledge also we're worshipping Shri Ramakrishna in our own way the fish Shri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of knowledge the embodiment of wisdom he was the embodiment of love he was also the embodiment of knowledge as Swami Ji said in one of his beautiful hymns in the last verse of him he said Draya that was militia Cheatham Raju Allah bhakti Patara the rhythm karma Calavera mud Buddha chased them Yami GU room, Sharon Imbaba void iam a duet that was a Mahi to cheat them his mind was controlled and absorbed in the non-dual truth he's the embodiment of the non-dual truth he is the giver of knowledge beyond ADATA produ Allah bhakti Patara the rhythm he's clothed in the garb of prawns wallah not just in jeweler but pro Jolla professional rupena you Allah a very shining that whole body was given for the service of others and every one of his actions was one of supreme power and

so when we think of Sri Ramakrishna let us think of him with love think of him with adoration think of him as the nearest of the near the closest of the close to us the most loving the most all accepting but also let us not try to put him in a box and say thus far but no further no because as Swamiji said talk war was the embodiment of infinite ideas

WATCH THE VIDEO