So this is our weekly reading of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, which is the English translation of the Bengali Sri

Sri Rama Krishna Kathamrita. It's a very remarkable spiritual document. You know, the other stuff that we study without the texts, which is wonderful.

But when you study a text, when you study a philosophy, a system, it's very neat, geometrical

almost.

But on the other hand, when you look at the life of a spiritual seeker, of a spiritually

enlightened person, that has a really special value, especially someone as remarkable as

Sri Ramakrishna. The difference between this and the other classes is, you know, just thinking about the Museum of Natural History here in Upper West in Manhattan, where you go there and you see all these fossils of creatures long dead.

And so these books, the texts on Vedant, they are like those fossils,

you know, they are the outline, the skeleton of spiritual life. But if you want to see a living

thing in action, then you must read the lives of saints, the lives of enlightened persons.

And Sri Dama Krishna was, of course, a phenomenon. Christopher Esherwood begins his biography of Sri Ramakrishna.

Ramakrishna and his disciples, if you have not read it, I would really urge you to read that book.

And he begins it by saying that this is a story of a phenomenon.

So here we have the live creature itself.

All right, so let's start.

Ome, Tavakham, tapta, Jivanam, Khabi-vitanam, Kavhāraimāya, Bhuvraigrinanthi Bhuri Dajana. And I've said often in the past.

So this class is not like the other classes here.

It's not so much that we are learning a particular system

as we are reading this text together.

So I'll read, you comment, questions, observations, everything is welcome.

So in this book, we are on page 111 in my copy. This is chapter 4. And the title of the chapter

is, advised to householders. And the date we are reading, the beginning chapter 4, the date is 13th August 1882.

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