The Path of Love vs. The Path of Knowledge: The "Holy Beggar" Secret (Bhakti Yoga Explained)

0:00 Om lead us from the unreal to the real. Lead us from darkness unto light. Lead us from death to immortality. Om peace. Peace. Peace. Good morning. After yesterday's retreat on non-duality, somebody asked me, "What are you going to do tomorrow?" That's today, Sunday. I said, "I'll try to repair the damage." All these good people. And you're spoiling them by talking about uh about non-duality and that you are God and things like that. You know, you're just ruining them.

0:46 Today we talk about the path of love bi. Now those who attended yesterday's retreat it may seem confusing but because it just looks like the polar opposite just the opposite of what we did yesterday. This is because um spiritual life it can be understood in different ways. In Hinduism you have a wide range of approaches to spiritual life. A whole spectrum. There is the path of knowledge. There's the path of love. There's a path of meditation. There's a path of service. And uh you can combine any two of them or three of them or all of them. Different practices, different approaches, different paradigms. When the path of knowledge which we did

1:31 yesterday, the problem is understood as one of ignorance. The divinity is our real self, our real nature. We just do not know it. And therefore we have to know it. We think what we understand our about ourselves is very wrong. We think we are this little body of flesh and blood and that's who we are. We're born and we suffer and we die and that's our life. Now the path of knowledge comes from there and it says we have to undertake a process of philosophical analysis in Sanskrit vara and this will reveal to us the truth. Hence it's called the path of knowledge. When you inquire, when you philosophically analyze, look into the whole problem, the answer should become obvious.

2:16 That's one way of looking at spiritual life. There's another way in the path of meditation. If you look at the Patanjali yoga sutras, the thrust is not on philosophical analysis. The thrust is on meditation. Why? Because the whole spiritual problem is understood as restlessness of the mind. In the in the Patanjali yoga sutras, it's because our mind is restless that we do not know the truth. If the mind could be calmed down, if the mind could be focused, if the mind could be concentrated, the truth would reveal itself. And if that is the problem, if restlessness of the mind is the problem, then the solution would be concentration of mind, focus of mind. And the method would obviously be meditation, different

3:02 processes of meditation. That would be the method. That's one way of looking at spiritual life. There's a third way which we shall take up today. That is the way of of love, of faith, of surrender, of adoration. Here the spiritual problem is looked at not as a question of ignorance and knowledge, not as a question of restlessness and concentration of mind. No, the spiritual problem is because we have no faith in God. Because we do not surrender to God, that we do not love God. All our love is scattered in the world. That's why we suffer. So this is the path of love. The bacti it's just different ways of looking at it. But bacti has some special

3:47 advantages. And today we shall talk about bacti. All of spiritual life in vanta or in Hinduism in general all of spiritual life comes from this source that we are in this world and we suffer and hence we need uh need to get out of this world of suffering. Buddha for example in Buddhism the first noble truth is that there is suffering in the world and therefore is there a way out of suffering and the Buddha says yes there is. It's something called nirvana and is there a way to attain nirvana? He says yes there is there's a eight-fold path. So just like that in bi also why should we love God? Why should we have faith in God or surrender to God? The answer is the same because you have attained to this world of suffering. In

4:33 the Gita it is said Krishna says to Arjuna which means having attained this world of suffering. Now th now now that thou art in this world of suffering worship the lord thy god. So because it's a world of suffering but that's a common um common problem for all the paths but in bi the specialtity is this that this is the path which god loves. Everybody loves to be loved and god loves to be loved. So God has a special place in his heart or her heart because in Hinduism you can have him or her or it. It can be male or

5:22 female or beyond gender with form or without form. God has been conceived of in many many different ways in Hinduism. So love of God is something specially dear to God. One of the teachers of Bhi put it this way. Look you who are on the path of meditation you want to attain samadhi the deepest absorption meditative absorption so that the truth is revealed that you are this immortal consciousness beyond body and mind. Is that right? I say yes. And then when you when you realize that when you realize that you are this immortal consciousness beyond body and mind through meditation after that meditation has no use because you've already realized it. So the goal in meditation is not to meditate but using meditation as a means

6:08 to attain uh liberation. So when you attain liberation you let go of the means. when you cross the river, you let go of the boat. You don't carry it along with you, right? I said, "Yeah, I guess so." And in the in the path of knowledge, this is some technicality here. In the path of knowledge, in ada vanta, non-dual vanta, they say that there comes a moment of intuition, a flash of enlightenment. In Sanskrit, it is called brahagara or brahagana. The flash of intuition which reveals to you that you are Brahman. That comes at a culmination of your philosophical inquiry into who am I. When that comes you realize that you are Brahman. Now there's a technical

6:53 discussion there. Uh basically what it says is once you have got that you don't have to hold on to that knowledge. I am Brahman. I am Brahman. I am the absolute. No because you realize you are beyond the mind. So the knowledge which is in the mind is of no more consequence to you. Sri Ram Krishna it's a complicated thing but Sri Ram Krishna put it very simply. He said you know what knowledge of God is like you have a thorn in your flesh and you take another thorn and pull out the first thorn but you don't leave the second thorn in your flesh. Now you throw both away. You have the thorn of ignorance. You take the thorn of knowledge, pull out the thorn of ignorance and then you throw both away. Um so after the intuitive realization that you are Brahman you

7:39 don't need to hold on to the the particular intuition which revealed to you that you are Brahman which means to put it um very simply after knowledge is attained that particular knowledge is of no use to you you let go of it you remain as the absolute is that true and the one on the path of knowledge will say yeah that's what our teachers tell us ah the teacher of bacti says but in the path of love do you ever say that I love and adored the lord and finally the lord has revealed himself to me. Uh and so now that I have found the lord I can stop loving him. No in the path of bi it is it begins with love it proceeds with love. In the end when you find the lord love increases all the more all the time as you walk on the path of love increases.

8:28 There's never a time when you say okay I've done what I wanted to do. I'm enlightened. let go of the I can stop loving God and I've got other things to do in my list. I actually found this uh young man in in our ashram in the Himalayas in India uh who was uh who was from New York and um he was on a vacation. He was reading this high text of non-duality ashtavakra sitting under a tree and reading and then he looked very impatient and he said to me swami I'm very worried I still haven't attained enlightenment I've been trying for the last one month nearly 2 months now I I said to him that um well it'll take

9:14 a little more time than that you should give it a little more time you know don't be impatient and then he says no no no you don't understand. I've got a break from my job for 2 months. I have to attain enlightenment, get go. So, I have to attain enlightenment and go back to my job in one wall street. That's not how it works. All of that, in fact, the way spirituality is understood in Vanta, it's not a part-time occupation. Spirituality is what all of life is about. Orurobindo a great philosopher saint of India he put it very beautifully he said that all life is yoga all life is yoga do it consciously you're a spiritual

10:00 seeker if you're not doing it consciously you're just living life it's the same thing life is not a some is not um you know the the whole set out of which one element is spirituality no spirituality and life are one and the same thing do it consciously ly you know that you're a spiritual seeker. Otherwise, it's just what you what people call life. You are here because you are spiritual seekers. All the hundreds of thousands of people out there on the freeways in Santa Barbara, they're just living life. They're not here because they do not consciously think of themselves as spiritual seekers. So, Bhi, the teacher of BI says they trying to sell bacti to us that after enlightenment also bacti does not cease. love of God does not cease. It keeps on

10:46 increasing. It's it's even more at that that point because then God is really real for you after enlightenment. Baki has certain advantages. When you take up any text of adwita or non-dual vant, the path of knowledge, what happens is when you first open it, the very first thing that you find are the preliminary qualifications. That's enough to turn off anybody. You are supposed to have clarity about the absolute. Brahman is the ultimate reality. The world is temporary um uh transient impermanent one. This is called vivea. Second, you're supposed to have utter dispassion and disregard for the world and a one-pointed seeking of

11:33 of the absolute. This is vagya dispassion for the world. Remember all of this is to begin with before you actually start reading the book. You're supposed to have all of that before you enter the book and then you've got to have six disciplines calmness and control of the mind that's what does that mean that I shall think only of my my non-dual vant my inquiry into Brahman and not anything else I will not think about the world that kind of calmness and control of the mind control of the sense organs of all our our our body our sense organs are disciplined there then you have to have fortitude all the troubles that the world throws at you. It should not shake you from the path of knowledge. And you can already see it's pretty

12:19 difficult. And then you are you're supposed to withdraw from the world of enjoyment that taking enjoyment and a half a dozen different things. No, you got to turn off that that internet and the phone and everything and concentrate and put your mind on on the philosophical inquiry in the path of knowledge. And then a settledness, a settledness. Um, instead of getting scattered back into the world, you settle down in your in your quest for realization and a deep faith that though I do not get it yet. What the texts are telling me, they're true. I don't I don't get it yet. I have got to get it ultimately, but right now I have this faith that what the texts are saying are is are true. And finally, an intense desire to

13:05 be liberated. intense desire to be liberated. Sri Ramach Krishna says um if you if somebody catches hold of you and thrusts your head under water and holds you there and you are you are struggling breathless you're struggling breathless trying to get out. Imagine your your your intense desire to have one more gulp of air. In that way one must yearn for liberation and all of this before you start reading the book. Somebody compared uh knowledge the path of knowledge Ghana to the king who comes to visit you. So when the king comes to visit you, you must um arrange. It's after all the king who's coming clean up your room and have your best furniture

13:52 and your best uh crockery on display and you dress up nicely. Everything must be nice and ready because the king is going to come. And what does the king do when he comes? Well, he comes in a lordly way and sits down and does not do anything much. You have to take care of the king. So ghana the path of knowledge is compared to the king. You have to be ready with all of these qualities. You have to be practically a saint before you start the path of knowledge. On the other hand in contrast to this bacti the path of love is described as a humble maid servant. If you let her into your house you don't have to do anything. She she comes and cleans up. You see when a love love of God comes into the heart all the virtues all the virtues of spiritual life they follow in

14:39 its train. When love of God comes you don't have to individually you don't have to individually cultivate honesty and discipline and so on. Love of God will bring all of that. Bakti is compared to an humble maidervant who comes and cleans up your room and decorates it nicely. She does everything that has to be done. How? So yes, we're selling bacti today. How does uh so how do we cultivate this love of god? Meditation is difficult. I mean when you meditate the two common complaints are swami I fall asleep when I try to meditate. That's one complaint. The other complaint is swami my mind thinks

15:24 of so many different things. it usually when I do not meditate my mind is calm but the moment I start meditating my mind goes just just about every which way that's because when we are not meditating we are actually not aware of what's there in the mind the moment we calm down and look into the mind we become aware of what's there in the mind that's why the mind seems to be disturbed but it's difficult meditation is difficult the path of knowledge is difficult the path of bacti how do I get love for god if you ask the teachers of the masters of bhi they tell us it's actually very easy it's very easy you know what you have to do all the things that you consider to be your own in the world um mine when you when you use the word

16:11 mine my house uh my wife or husband my father or mother my children and my grandchildren my car or whatever is mine where you've got mine just say to yourself my God. Attach that that in Sanskrit it's a very precise term mammata which means a sense of ownership. It's mine. Attach that to God. Don't say don't begin with I'm trying to love God. I feel love of God in my heart. It's artificial. Just say my God. Automatically love comes there. A sense of closeness of ownership comes. Say my Lord thou art mine. Just add it. You don't have to give up anything. The path of knowledge will say

16:56 cut out everything else and then focus on this. BI says nothing. You don't have to cut out anything. You have this whole list of mine, my car, my house, my dog. After that, you can add my God. So really, you can actually do that also. You don't have to just say my God and a closeness develops between us and the Lord. And there's a very nice description of how bi operates, love of God operates. Um it's in Sanskrit. It's called Prasaraya. Literally translates into the analogy of the holy beggar stretching his legs. Now whatever does that mean? It means in India many of the beggars are actually

17:43 they are kind of they are beggars but they're also kind of sometimes men of God. um they roam around and they beg for food and they many of them are spiritual seekers. So it's called a bikshu. In fact in Buddhism the term bhikshu meaning means a monk. So these bikes it means both a beggar the one who begs for food and uh also is a spiritual seeker. So this bshu this holy beggar comes to your house and he says I don't need anything. I just just give me a spot in a corner. anything will do. And you say, "All right, just stay there." And he stays there. And then he says, "Just a little more room to stretch out my legs." You see, you have this in English, the story of we have read about

18:30 it. The story of the camel and the Arab who pushed his the camel who pushed his nose into the tent and then little by little finally the one who was staying in the tent was pushed out of the tent because the camel occupied the whole tent. But this is a similar thing but in a good way, in a nice way. So the the biku says, "Let me stretch out my legs." And u Oh, is there a clock here? I can't see the clock. Do you do I have have a watch or something? Just reminded. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's okay. I um That's all right. I've got my thing. He's getting it. All right.

19:17 So the idea is the biku wants to stretch out his legs and takes a little more room. The next thing the biku says well I have the lord here my my rama or my krishna or shiva. Yes thank you and I need a corner for the lord because the often these wandering monks will carry an small image or a holy relic with them. So I need a corner for the lord. So one more corner and now of course the lord has to be given offerings. So a part of your kitchen has to be given for you can't just cook with with uh everybody else. It has to be cooked especially for the lord. So you need a part of your kitchen and of course the flowers in your garden have to be offered to the what it what happens is slowly the lord takes over

20:02 your life and it's a good thing. By has this way love has this way of taking over your over your life. It's called Bhikupa Prasaraya. Uh the the analogy of the holy beggar stretching out his legs. It's it's a beautiful thing actually to uh to see how God slowly spreads over all your life, all your actions and um takes it over. There are the these traditions in India where each family had its deity and the tradition was early in the morning the lord has to be awakened and then food has to be cooked and offered to the lord and nobody restriction of your freedom freedom to do what to be worldly to take

20:49 restriction of your freedom freedom to do what to be worldly to take the time and energy away and concentrate it on god that was the point uh it's not meant to be an encumbrance or some kind of a hardship. Love is also connected to action. I remember this monk in the Himalayas. He was a non-dualist, a path of knowledge. But uh he told me when he was a young monk, a very interesting monk, he lived in a cave for most of his life. Now he has a little asham. And he told me, "I've I've committed only one sin in my life starting this ash. I was much better better off in the cave." We said, "Of course." Um why do you say that Swami so many people can come and meet you here because you have the the Hermitage the asham but he said when he

21:36 was young and he was with his guru in the Himalayas again he was quite um quite active in the sense that he would go around and look up the old monks who were there in their huts or caves and he would ask after them do you need a a a blanket do you need some milk or do you need some service done things like that you know worship to to serve them And then his guru once scolded him. He said he said my guru once scolded me saying that my dear boy in Hindi do some spiritual practices also. Why are you just going around trying to help these people do some spiritual practices which means prayer and meditation things like that? And he said I was depressed when I heard that. And then I looked it up in the Sanskrit dictionary. The

22:23 Sanskrit word or Hindi word for spiritual practice is bhajan. It's called bhajan. Bhajan also means singing the praises of the lord. He looked it up and he saw the root meaning. All the Sanskrit words have roots. So the roots have their meanings. The root meaning of the term bhajan. The root is bhaj the the uh stem of the word and it means he said I saw it means bhajam. The root meaning of the word bhaj of bhajan is service. It's very interesting. It's service. It's the word itself stands for prayer and meditation and everything. But if you go to the grammatical route, it says sava service.

23:10 Love is connected with service. If somebody comes and says I love humanity, sure. What are you doing about it? Oh, nothing. I just love humanity. That's not not very good. They're not very useful. Somebody said, uh, I do believe that um, you know, that that women should have equal rights in in um in the jobs, they have equal pay or something else. He said that the Amazon rainforest should be should be protected. You have a lot of beliefs. What do you do about it? Nothing. I just have beliefs. I don't have to do anything about it. I just like believing these things. But but love automatically translates into action. Whenever you love something,

23:56 mother loves the children, it's always expressed in action. So love of God inevitably is expressed in action in Sava. I've seen this so many times. You know, very senior monk in in in our ministry. It's not his duty. But he gets up every day at 3 3:30 in the morning and goes out into the garden and he plucks flowers, the chicest flowers which he can sometimes in the dark, sometimes when it's raining and gets it, cleans it, brings it back, brings those flowers back to the shrine for the worship of the Lord. It's just an act of service. It's just an act of love, an expression of love. I've seen others not I mean it's not their duty or they're not supposed to do it. They're just I've

24:42 seen them come to the shrine of the Lord at the back of the shrine they're making a garland for the Lord. It's an it's an act of love. Love automatically translates into service into sava. Not only that all our actions there is a wider sense in which all our actions whatever you do in the in the world all of that can be connected back to the l to the lord. Swami viveandanda said never approach anything except as god. Whatever you do in the world can be done as an offering to the lord. You can eat to the lord. You can even sleep to the lord. Whatever you eat you you imagine you are feeding the lord. So when you sleep you imagine this is I'm meditating on the lord. That's a nice way of meditation.

25:28 Um I am going from here to there somewhere but I imagine I'm going to the temple of the lord in in the mind create this u create this atmosphere of divinity a presence of god practicing the presence of the lord. All the actions that we do in life whether it's cooking or whether it's driving or whether it's uh working in the office or the school everything every place becomes a fit place for the meeting of man and god this is I'm quoting nita in her introduction to the complete works of viveandanda she says henceforth no division between the sacred and the secular to labor is to pray to have and hold is as stern a trust as to renounce and quit the the

26:13 the shop floor, the uh school room, the um uh the the factory, whatever, they are all as fit a meeting place between man and God as the cell of a monk. So, converting our day-to-day activities into acts of love, bacti has powerful results. Love of God has powerful and direct results. There is a sutra in the narada bhakti sutras which says siddhawati amtoihawati what does it mean by love of god the spiritual seeker becomes perfect attains immortality and attains complete satisfaction.

26:59 What does that mean? Perfection in spiritual life usually comes through practice. So meditation and prayer many years of dedicated practice in the yoga sutras the path of meditation you find those who practice intensively and for a long time their meditation becomes perfect and here is bi love of god saying that without that practice just by love of god you become perfect without that practice love is not a practice if you see a mother you know taking care of her children will she say oh I'm practicing love no it's natural she doesn't think I have to practice anything it's natural it comes from that immortality becomes

27:45 immortal now in the path of knowledge it is said by knowledge by realizing that you are brahman you one becomes immortal in Sanskrit it is said by realizing that the absolute one transcends death and here in bacti it is said just by love one becomes immortal. How does that work? You see there are two ways to get this non-dual knowledge. One is what we did yesterday. Study the Vanta, reflect upon it, meditate upon it, get that intuitive knowledge. I am Brahman. I'm not the body and mind and you are free. Not easy. The other way and it really works is if you ask the lord for it. In the gita it

28:32 said again and again the lord says be devoted unto me surrender unto me I shall add unto you what you require. Sri raak krishna used to say the mother has shown me what is there in vdanta. She's shown it to me when his vanta teacher came the monk the wandering monk totapuri he came and he said do you want to learn nondual vanta? And he said let me ask my mother. At first he thought he had gone to ask his own mother. You know his uh thought he just wanted permission from his mother. He went to the Kali temple and asked permission from Kali and and and divine mother said yes I have brought him here to teach teach you. It's because of my will. But he would say that divine mother has shown me what's there in vanta. The lord reveals.

29:18 I know of cases where um the mantra the guru gives the mantra to the disciple and the disciple repeats the mantra the name of the lord and by that in a completely dualistic practice this is god I'm meditating on god and repeating the name of god yet the result is the the result is non-dual realization uh it's interesting if you see the on paper what it is supposed to give is you meditate on god and you have a vision of God in whatever form Krishna Christ whatever you're meditating on that's supposed to be the goal but I know of cases where people did that practiced it but what they got was non-dual realization I am Brahman so the ultimate re realization that you

30:05 are Brahman that also comes from love of God and the third one attains complete satisfaction usually all our pursuits in the world what we eat and drink and our relationships and our jobs, our creative pursuits, everything that we do in the world is in pursuit of satisfaction. We want some happiness, some this Sanskrit word is very nice which means sort of fullness of the heart. I want that and yet the world is a desert. We remain as thirsty as ever. We we don't nothing you know it doesn't fulfill our heart. I often say all of us we have been trying from our childhood till today for the last 30 40 50 60 70 years and who

30:54 can say that my heart is full I am calm and full of bliss forever we cannot say the world cannot satisfy that cannot give us that satisfaction but love of God can in fact any love can but especially love of God can it gives us complete satisfaction forever so love by itself gives perfection without the practice though you will do practice but it doesn't seem like practice to you without the pursuit of the path of knowledge by the grace of the lord you get that realization and without trying to get beg for satisfaction from worldly pursuits you get complete satisfaction in the lord now in the time remaining to me let's talk about the higher practices of love

31:40 the the higher sadhana of love. What I mean by higher? You see, religion is of two kinds. Especially bacti, the path of love and devotion to God is clearly of two kinds. Most of mass religion in the world whether it's Christianity or Hinduism or any kind of religion is mostly a dualistic approach where you believe in God and pray to God for the for what you want and most of it is of the lower kind of bacti where I want to make this distinction what is the lower kind of bacti and the higher kind of bacti one is I believe in God I really do and I pray to the Lord for what I want. If I if I want a job, I I I pray to God to

32:26 give me the right job. If I've got a job, I pray to God not to be laid off. I I pray to God to settle my mortgages. I pray to God for the welfare of the stock market so that my short stocks do well. I have suffering. I have pains and aches and diseases in my body. I pray to the Lord to to take care of that. Or or my beloved somebody close to me is suffering. I pray to the Lord for that. All of them worthy. There's nothing really wrong in that. And now what happens is here I'm using God to serve my purposes to enhance my life. There is a there is a convenience you know like a a washing machine is a convenience. A car is a convenience and God is a convenience. So God makes my life better. God makes my

33:13 life better. So I pray to God give me these things. Make my life this way. The problem with that is we often find this that I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing happened. So I don't believe in God anymore. It can happen and it has happened to people. You know what's happening there? The psychology behind it. I prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing happened and I have lost faith in God. I don't believe in all that anymore. You're basically saying I hired God for this job. He didn't do his job. So I fired him. God is fired. He's laid off. I don't want him around anymore. Why does that happen? It's because we used God to enhance our life. God for our life. The higher bi is my life for

34:00 God. What is central? I want a nice life. God will help me to have it. That's one kind of bacti. And that's that's the mass religion. You find it all the time. Krishna says there is nothing wrong in this. He says four kinds of people believe in God, worship God in the Gita. He says artoarti jigasua the one who is in distress one the one who is in distress in trouble suffering some kind of problem in life and I pray to the lord to help me in my suffering that's one kind of devity and he says that's perfectly fine and a second kind is not in trouble but want something more you know money or some kind of

34:45 relationship or some kind of success in life things are okay but I want something more. So that's another kind of devotey. Again, perfectly all right. The third kind is the inquirer. Doesn't is not in trouble, not suffering, does not want anything specifically, but is inquiring a spiritual seeker. Does God exist? Can I find God? Is it true what all the scriptures of the world say that the Lord actually exists and I can see the Lord? And so a spiritual seeker that kind of person also loves God and has faith in God better. And then last Krishna says Gani the one who is enlightened the one who's enlightened also loves God. And Krishna actually says he clearly declares for

35:31 the last one he says it's the enlightened one who is truly in me and I am in him because for that person I'm real. The others are all proceeding on faith. So worshiing God for making my life better there's nothing wrong in that but that should not be the primary purpose of worship. The higher bi is where my life is for God. God is not for my life. Whatever happens in my life I'm ready to take it but I love and adore God. That's my u that's my locust standai. There is this um monk who told me something very nice. He said each of us has three rivers flowing through us. In each human being

36:17 there are three rivers which flow through us. What are they? Um I'll tell you in Sanskrit first and then in uh English karmagana bhava karma easily translated the river of action which means what you do what you do in life your profession and what you do in at home and all of that all the action that you perform that's one river in your life ghana what you know what you have understood what you your wisdom your learning your development that the river of knowledge which flows through And the third one is difficult to translate bhava. It could roughly be translated as heart. Where your heart is. What do you deeply want in life really?

37:03 And that monk said, "I am not interested." He was telling us, "I'm not interested in what you do." Whether you're a householder or a monk or you're an executive or whatever. No, I'm not interested. I'm not even interested in your spiritual practices, whether you meditate or whatever. No, I'm not interested in what you know whether you have read the opanishads and all of that. No, I'm not interested. But I'm interested in your bhava. Tell me where your heart is because that's what you will attain in life. And he told me this beautiful story. He said um there might be a priest in a temple. All the actions of the priest are holy because the priest is performing worship. opens the temple, decorates the lord, performs the worship, chants the

37:49 mantras. So all the actions are religious and the knowledge of the priest may have memorized a lot of Sanskrit verses, may have read all the scriptures. So the knowledge, the river of knowledge is also spiritual. But at the heart is how many devotees have come today? How much did they give in offerings? I can use that to put a new roof on my house and I can send my son to the best school. If that's what he's thinking, then the monk told me then his heart, his bhava, his heart is in the world. It's not in God. And what will he get in this life? He'll get the world. He'll get the word. When he prays to the Lord, what does he ask for? I have just imagine the irony of it. I have devotion to God. I love God

38:34 and I pray to the Lord. And what do I pray for? I pray for the world. I want the world. I want samsara. The great tragedy of it, approaching the Lord and praying for samsara. You'll get samsara. You're asking for trouble. Literally asking for trouble. In contrast to this, there's this beautiful story I heard from another monk. In contrast is a person who may not know much, may not have read much many spiritual books or nothing at all, maybe doing the most humble of tasks, most ordinary of tasks, but really loves and wants God. So this story is of a young of the of

39:20 the sweeper who is to come to the Jarramati asham in the place where Mashara, the holy mother, was born in Bengal. this little village it's not so little anymore but there is an ashram there a big ashram and the monk told me who told you the story that we have seen this person old person who used to come and sweep the grounds clean the grounds and when he was very old and unable to work too well the swami in charge of the asham told him sir you need not come you just stay at home and relax we'll send you your your money your pension or whatever and then the old man said I don't do it for money swami When I was a little boy, I used to come here and then Ma Sharaada, the holy mother was here. I saw her. I used to

40:06 see all these people coming from Kolkata, the big city and all these swamies coming and they had ecstasies, they had deep spiritual experiences. She gave them initiation mantra and I always felt will I not get anything? So one day I went to the mother and asked her mother won't I get anything and she said of course you will my child you'll get everything keep on doing what you are doing that's all she said he used to come with his father to to and he would clean the asham also with his father so he says all his life he kept on cleaning the asham and he told the swami I don't do it for money I I do it because the mother told me to and one day he could not come anymore his daughter came and

40:52 then the swamies asked what about your father? He cannot get out of bed. He is very ill. So the swamies went to see him and the story is so inspiring. When he passed away finally this old man he had a vision of the holy mother. He said mother you have not forgotten me. You have come. Nobody else could see it of course but he actually had a vision. Here is this person who had never read any vanta in his life. Here is this person. All he did was sweep the the temple grounds. All that's all he knew and he attained the highest. So these three rivers which flow through us. I'm reminded of that beautiful story, a French story uh where there's this juggler

41:39 who used to come into the um church at night and you know doing this juggling because um the father thought that somebody's breaking into the church at night. So he waited he lay in wait at night and he saw this juggler a beggar actually come into the church at night and then he was juggling the father caught him. what are you doing? And the poor juggler said, it's our mother, mother Mary. I'm showing her my my juggling. And she comes and listens to me and sees me and she praises my juggling. You see where the heart is. And I'm sure he never studied the Bible. He never did any spiritual practices. What he's doing is juggling. His knowledge, the river of

42:24 knowledge is must be nothing. He doesn't know anything. But the heart is with God. the higher practice of bacti. Now, how do I go into that higher practice of bacti? Here is a powerful practice given to us by the masters of bacti. Do this. The next time you go into the temple or the church, when you approach the lord, approach it in this way. I come my lord because I love you. I I come as a bakta, as a lover of god. I do not come as a father or mother to pray for for my children. I do not come as a person in financial difficulties to pray for my alleviating my mortgage. I do not come here as a person who is in pain or

43:10 sickness so that you can help me to alleviate my pain. No, I leave all those roles outside the door. When I enter here in front of the Lord, I'm just a lover of God. I come because I love thee. You do that and you see the power it has. It just transforms your entire your entire view of God and yourself. All those other things become less important. They sort of become dimminitive. They disappear from view. I come to the Lord because I love God. When Viveand Narendraat at that time a young boy used to come to Ramach Krishna and Ramach Krishna gave him so much importance. Whenever Narendraat came and he all his attention would be on Narendraat and all the other people and

43:56 they would sometimes feel jealous and that aren't we anybody why why are you only focusing on that boy and he was just a college kid and so it went on like that until one day Narendraat came and Ramach Krishna did not speak to him did not look at him and the next day it was the same thing and the third day it was the same thing and it went on for days and days and days when Ramachrishna did not even look at him did not even speak. It made other people uncomfortable and feel bad for Narin. But Narin would come and sit quietly and then leave after the discussion was over. One day Ramach Krishna turned to him and said sharply, I don't even look at you. I don't even speak to you. Why do you come? And Narin said, "Oh, I don't come

44:43 because you pay attention to me. I come because I love you." So you see so this this is the higher bacti that I love God that's why I'm here no other reason I don't want any I don't even want anything from God now there are some so this is the how you enter into higher bi and there are these practices I'll just share They're