We once wondered if evil was a real thing. We asked ourselves: Is there something inside us that makes us want to hurt other people?

Through careful investigation, we found that evil is simply love with varying degrees of expansion of self.

• There is one fundamental driving force in all beings: acting according to their own highest good.

• We rarely see ourselves as villains in our own stories. Even the most selfish act is born from a love for ourselves, even if it excludes others.

• Often, we act out of love for a nation, tribe, or family, sometimes leading to monstrous actions.

Therefore, true evil does not exist. It is simply love expressed in a contracted form, harming others. Conversely, expanded love leads to saintly actions, praised by others.

Justifying God: Attempt Two - Is God Necessarily Good According to Human Standards?

The second time we discussed this, we asked the question, “Is God evil?” This question horrified some, who considered it silly. But it’s a question that many struggle with.

• Why do tragedies like school shootings occur if God is a loving creator?

• Theists must confront this question, as it will inevitably affect their faith.

• Swami Vivekananda’s story illustrates this point. He was harassed by monkeys, and only when he turned to face them did they run away. Similarly, we must face the question of God’s responsibility for evil.

If we avoid the question of God’s role in evil, it will haunt us, especially during personal tragedies. We might find ourselves feeling betrayed by God, as if being punished for something we didn’t do.

• All theists must confront this question.

Justifying God: Attempt Three - A Teleology of Experience

We aim to offer a different answer to the problem of evil: a teleology of experience.

• We will explore the purpose behind our experiences, both good and bad.

• This is a demonstrable proof that everything in our lives has led to one thing.

• Everything that will happen to us in the future is also furthering that same cause.

Instead of discussing abstract philosophical concepts, we will focus on personal tragedies. Why do bad things happen to us and our families?

We will explore this question with guidance from Sankhya philosophy, particularly the nature of prakriti and the teleology of experience.

Will God Smite Me If I Mess Up My Spiritual Practices? (Spirituality ≠ Weakness)

The reason I want to talk about this is because, in spiritual life, there’s a lot of what is called shanka, meaning anxiety or fear. Shanka often springs up around ritual practice, particularly the worship of Makali.

For example, even with the worship of baby Krishna, there’s a lot of shanka. People worry about doing the authentic practices associated with deities like Gopala, Bhairava, or Nataraj. The fear is real, even with Makali. You can even go too far the other way and not have enough reverence and respect, acting as if you can co-opt these energies for your own purposes. The American New Age has this idea that you can shop for deities, like buying a Kalima card at Walmart. This kind of disrespect is obviously not what I’m talking about.

In this audience, the tendency might be towards the other extreme – not a healthy respect, but an actual fear, a superstitious wariness of getting things wrong. People worry about being smitten by Makali if they don’t perform the Puja correctly, or if they mispronounce a mantra.

This fear goes beyond Puja. It extends to Mantra recitation, wondering if you are worthy enough to receive a Mantra through diksha, or if you are even pronouncing the Mantra correctly. You question your meditation, wondering if you are doing it right or if something bad will happen if you’re not.

This fear ultimately stems from a fear of personal tragedy. The worry is that improper practices like Puja, pranayama, or meditation could lead to tragedy for yourself or your family. It’s a cognitive fear, a fear of personal tragedy.

I want to dispel this superstition and fear because spirituality should not induce weakness. Fear is a debilitating energy, a lack of confidence and self-assurance. There can be no spirituality without firm self-confidence, almost verging on hubris. You must feel like Swami Vivekananda felt, capable of anything.

This kind of self-determination, confidence, and no-nonsense badassery is required for success in all areas of life, not just spirituality. To make a fortune, you can’t be a wimp. You have to believe in yourself. The same applies to becoming a great musician. Look at Kurt Cobain; he was a hard-driving badass who made sure rehearsals started at 9 A.M. every day.

If this is true for wealth and rock and roll fame, why should it be any less true for spirituality? Spirituality is perhaps the hardest endeavor in life. Anyone can be Alexander the Great, but conquering the citadels of your mind, the rings of your senses, is not easy. It takes subtle strength.

Many traditions focus on denigrating the ego, aiming for satwa, but often end up in tamas. We need to cultivate rajas – not ego in the sense of being better than others, but ego in the sense of knowing that you and everyone else are Divine beings. You are imbued with Shakti and can do anything.

Introducing the Tattva Map

We’ve been exploring the models that make up the foundation of this philosophy. Today I want to introduce you to a new model – a tattva map. Tattva is a difficult word to translate, but it roughly means “thatness” or “reality.” This map is a conceptual representation of the fundamental building blocks of reality as we experience it moment to moment. It’s not a map of some mythical past, but a map of the here and now, the structure of your experience.

Before we begin, a very important disclaimer: Nothing is true unless it is true for you. For something to be true, it must be demonstrably true to you, here and now, verifiable in your own experience. Don’t just accept these ideas because Makali, tantra, and non-dualism are cool.

We need to engage with this material critically. All of this is just a preamble. We’re going to look at this material premise by premise. It’s going to get subtle from this point on, as it combines three different schools of philosophy: sankhya, advaita vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism.

As we discussed before, these are just concepts, words that point to a wordless reality. These words have flowed effortlessly from the lips of great Masters who not only visited truth but are speaking from the truth here and now.

While reality is wordless, these concepts are still helpful. They lead you to truth and then dissolve. Think of this map as a raft that helps you cross the river, but you can discard it once you realize you no longer need it.

This map is an ontological map, meaning it describes your experience here and now. It’s a phenomenological model, so don’t treat it theoretically or conceptually. It’s dangerous to become too abstract. Instead, check these ideas against your own experience.

If we can be honest phenomenologically, many of us will have a direct intuitive realization here and now that will permanently alter the way we feel about Puja, Mantra, and meditation. Remember, the point is to decapitate all fear and anxiety, which stem from a fear of personal tragedy.

To understand why personal tragedies happen, to what extent we can reduce them, and to understand that you are even now beyond all personal tragedy, we must carefully follow this map.

Can Tragedies Even Happen To You?

The World, The Witness, and the Play of Prakriti

What is the World? What are You?

Let’s dive into the fundamentals with a foundational model. Verify this statement for yourself: A world appears to you now.

This seems obvious, a truism even, yet it’s quite profound. Look around at the vast expanse of sky, the buildings, the objects, the smells, the sounds, the textures. As a baby, you were filled with wordless wonder at the world. Without names or labels, you lived in a perpetual state of the unknown, surprised and delighted by everything.

This first realization—that the world appears to me—is quite profound.

Now consider this: The world that appears to me is infinitely varied and layered.

We have waking experiences, inhabiting cities, interacting with people. But we also have dream experiences, inhabiting different cities, different bodies, interacting with beings with no waking-life counterparts. And then there are the liminal spaces in between—daydreaming, hallucinations, even psychedelic experiences.

All of this—the waking, the dreaming, the in-between, from the mundane to the exalted—I call the world. A world of infinite variety, layered beyond belief, appearing to you now.

The Will to Know, The Will to Do

In this world, there are things I can know, things I can do, and things I can will. Typically, I will to know, and I will to do. This willing is often precognitive. I feel a driving force to learn, to do something with that knowledge.

Let’s say I feel a pull towards becoming a makeup artist. I go to school for four years, driven by the will to know. Then, armed with this knowledge, the will to do emerges. I want to start a business, work in movies, maybe even become a special effects makeup artist.

This illustrates how my willing leads to knowing and doing. Everything in my life, so far, has been a confluence of the world appearing to me, and my will to know and do within it. The world invites my involvement; I engage, interface, enter into it, and experience my being within it.

The Building Blocks of Experience

To understand this further, let’s consider the fundamental elements of our experience:

• Five Senses (Organs of Perception): Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue, Skin. Without these, the world, as we know it, wouldn’t exist.

• Five Organs of Action: Feet (movement), Hands (grasping), Organs of Evacuation, Reproduction, and Speech. These allow us to interact with and affect the world.

• Five Physical Elements (Mahabhutas): Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Space. These are the fundamental building blocks of our physical experience.

• Five Subtle Sensations (Tanmatras): These are the subtle, often imperceptible, qualities of the five elements. Think “vibe” - the feeling a place evokes.

These four sets of five form what we call the physical world (Stula) – the tangible, gross dimension of our experience.

The Subtle World Within

But there’s also a subtler world – the world of dreams, thoughts, imagination. This is the realm of the mind. Even without physical senses, we can experience this inner world.

The ancient Indians identified four key components of the mind:

• Manas (Basic Mind): Where sense perceptions are gathered.

• Ahankara (Ego): The sense of “I” that creates a sense of self-referentiality and appropriates experiences.

• Buddhi (Intellect): Assigns meaning, labels, and subjective evaluations to experiences.

• Chitta (Storehouse of Impressions): Our memory bank, holding all past experiences, influencing our current perceptions.

Together, these elements form the subtle body (Sukshma) or the inner world (Antakarana).

Prakriti: The Primordial Mother

Both the physical and subtle worlds arise from a primordial source called Mula Prakriti (Root Matter-Energy). Think of it as the quantum foam, the womb from which everything emerges.

Your first kiss, the feeling of grass under your feet, every experience – all made possible by, and occurring within, Prakriti. At the end of it all, you’ll find a stamp: Made in Prakriti.

Key Takeaway: Everything you’ve ever experienced has been experienced through the instruments of your body and mind, within the realm of Prakriti.

The Witness and the Witnessed

This brings us to the key insight of Sāmkhya: I am the one to whom Prakriti appears.

You, the witness consciousness, are distinct from the witnessed – the world, your experiences. You are not your thoughts, your sensations, your body.

Think of it like this: a light is not the object it illuminates. Similarly, you are the awareness that perceives the world, not the world itself.

Sāmkhya suggests there’s no inherent connection between the witness (you) and the witnessed (Prakriti). Modern interpretations represent this with dotted lines, signifying the crucial point of separation.

Freedom in Detachment

Recognizing this distinction is liberating. Once you see yourself as separate from the fluctuations of your body and mind, you are no longer defined by them. You can experience the world, even its tragedies, with a sense of calm complacency, recognizing that they are happening within Prakriti, not to you.

Swami Vivekananda encourages us to: “Look upon this world and know that nothing can affect you, and then enjoy its beauty.”

By taking a stand as the witness consciousness – Purusha – we break free from the illusion of identifying with our experiences. We become free to enjoy the beauty of the world, the dance of Prakriti, without being swept away by its tides.

Now, there’s something quite passive about this, and maybe a little off-putting.

DISCLAIMER #2: Take Necessary Action, Take Your Medicine, etc.

Oh, so I’m just supposed to watch and not take any action? No, no. That’s not what’s being said. The body and mind need to take appropriate action to reduce and minimize suffering that occurs to the body and mind. So, if the body is sick, it should take medicine, right? It should go and get medical help.

The doctor is God. I mean, in America, that’s a difficult statement to make because of the consumerism and capitalism, around medicine. But in India, Sri Ramakrishna was very firm about this: “Look upon the doctor as Narayana himself. God is the doctor.” In other words, God is prakriti, and prakriti heals, right? So, when the body is sick, you have the herbs that prakriti offers. You know, you visit doctors. What is medicine but prakriti too? All is Mother. All is prakriti. So, both allopathic and homeopathic and Ayurvedic remedies and everything in between, all of that is prakriti. It’s not like some things are prakriti and some things aren’t. All things are prakriti in the end. Render unto Caesar what is due to Caesar, as they say in the Gnostic texts.

So, it’s important, and the body understands that it should do what it can to, like, maximize its life, minimize pain, you know, be healthy. The mind also, like a subtle body, needs to do what it needs to do to stay healthy. But what’s any of that to you? So, the body just goes on being a body. The mind goes on being a mind, taking the necessary precautions, doing the practical and intelligible things, right? Very important. But what’s that to you, the witness to whom body and mind both come and go?

So, this is the insight of purusha. It’s a very subtle thing. You know, what typically happens,I can’t highlight this because everything gets highlighted. But typically, when I offer this teaching, people think it’s the ahankara (ego) that is different from buddhi, manas in the body. So then they go on this, like,period of saying, “Why should I take care of my body? Why should I take care of the mind?” Basically, this is the mind rebelling against itself, or the ego rebelling against the mind and body. Very dangerous. You should leave all of that intact. Let the body and mind be a…

Why Personal Tragedies Can Never Happen To YOU, and Two Arguments For Why God Will NEVER “Smite” You

…healthy, you know, physically and mentally healthy being, but you, the purusha, who you feel yourself to be right now, just watches. Okay.

So, this first realization already helps with the problem of suffering. Say you get a puja wrong, or you mess up on something in meditation. Now, it’s important to remember that none of that is really happening to you. Even if there is a fallout—not saying there is, but even if Mother appears and smites—what can she smite? She can only smite what’s within her realm. This is out of her jurisdiction, at least as far as prakriti is concerned. So, if Mother prakriti appears and smites, she can only smite the body and mind, but you are here, purusha, so why would she, you know, why would she threaten you? What can she do, and why would she smite the body and mind? The body and mind are hers, not yours. Ha! Do you see this stunning insight? The body and mind belong to Mother, not to you. So, if Mother smites you, well, she can’t because you’re outside of the jurisdiction of prakriti.

So, what, what else can she smite about herself? Why would she smite herself? Why are you hitting yourself, Ma? Why are you hitting yourself, Ma? Why are you hitting yourself, Ma? Right? So, do you see this insight? It’s ingenious, right? Mother is everything within matter-energy. She’s body. She’s mind. She’s all body. She’s all mind. For Mother to smite, she can only smite bodies and minds. But since you are not the body and mind, what’s any of her smiting to you?

That’s argument number one.

Argument number two: Why would she smite? Because that very body and mind which you previously called yours actually, through philosophical inquiry, turns out to be hers. So, why would she smite what is hers and already hers? What could she gain thereby?

Now, we come to a deeper part of our question. What could she gain indeed? Because we know that she does smite bodies and minds, right? Not in the sense of, okay, I got a puja wrong, and now she’s going to smite me. Maybe in that sense, I’m not close to that possibility. But when she does smite bodies and minds, Sāmkhya is bold enough to ask why?

I’m now going to offer a teleology—basically, teleology means reasons or like,a direction in which…

A Sāmkhyan Teleology of Experience (featuring Swami Vivekananda)

…things are progressing. Okay. So, according to Sāmkhya, and Swami Vivekananda says it best, all of nature—by nature here he means prakriti—all of nature is one big storybook which the purusha is reading. Now, you are any of the characters in that storybook, but it’s still worth reading that storybook. Why? According to Sāmkhya, the purpose of prakriti is to not literally, but hold purusha’s hand and take her through a series of experiences until she’s satisfied and comes to, until she realizes who she really is.

So, everything that’s ever happened, according to Sāmkhya, and Swami ji implies this when he says, “All of nature is a great storybook,” and he even says this at the end of his series on Raja Yoga, he says, “Maybe I should read it to you.” It’s quite beautiful, actually, the very end of Raja Yoga. I really think I should read it to you because I, I won’t be able to do it justice, I think, but this is his commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras, rather. He’s commenting on the Yoga Sutras.

This is his commentary on verse 33 of the Āthārya-Bhasha, the final book in the four-book series, Yoga Sutra. He says:

“Nature’s task is done, this unselfish task with which our sweet nurse Nature had imposed upon herself. She gently took the self-forgetting Soul by the hand, as it were, and showed him all the experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing him higher and higher through various bodies. This is, of course, the doctrine of reincarnation, till his lost Glory came back, and he remembered his own nature. Then the kind mother went back the same way she came, for others who have also lost their way in the trackless desert of life. And thus is she working without beginning and without end. And thus through pleasure and pain, through good and evil, the infinite river of souls is flowing into the ocean of perfection of self-realization. Glory unto those who have realized their own nature. May their blessing be on us all.”

See what has been said here. Now, this is a departure from the original conception of prakriti in Sāmkhya, as in sentient matter. Sāmkhya sometimes uses terms like “blind woman” to indicate that prakriti is just, you know, kind of doing all of this mechanistically. I mean, the common understanding of Sāmkhya is that it’s a non-theistic model, very at home with thinkers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, and all that. They have a kind of Big Bang theory.

So, Sāmkhya, in its traditional sense, doesn’t consider prakriti to be active or intelligent or to have any kind of telos (any, there’s no teleology, democracy). It just is, but the good thing is that it just is, and that has nothing to do with me because I’m purusha. I’m the one to whom it appears, but not the one to whom it occurs. Is that beautiful? I am the one to whom it appears, but not the one to whom it occurs.

But look what Swami ji has done. Swami ji has given a more Śiva interpretation of it, if you will, interpretation of it. He’s saying that, no, prakriti is sentient, and you do get the seed of this idea also in Sāmkhya. This idea being that it has a purpose, and its purpose is to give you a broad range of experiences for the sake of your awakening, of your realization, which here just means recognizing what I just told you. Not believing me because I told you, but seeing that it’s true for yourself. That recognition, not only one, not only that you should have it, but you should also be stable in it.

So, once you are stabilizing the recognition that I am purusha, unaffected by what goes on in the body and mind, then you would have achieved the goal of all nature. So, everything she’s ever done up to this point was to bring you to this point, and everything that will happen after this point is to help you understand what I just told you: I am not the body. I am not the mind. I am the one to whom all of these sensations, thoughts, coming—I am the screen upon which the movie is played, and whatever might happen in the movie is not happening to me. Knowing that, I can rest infinitely as the witness, enjoying the beauty of everything, being mad with joy both at good and evil, knowing them all to be prakriti’s display.

So, once you have that realization, she’s done her job. Supposedly, right? So, notice, there’s a teleology of suffering here. She needs to whack you on the back of the head as many times as she needs to whack you on the back of the head until you come to. The only reason she’s whacking you on the back of the head is so she can fulfill her one purpose, which is to help you see what you really are so you can come to. Isn’t that beautiful? Such a beautiful idea that means that there is a meaning to suffering, a purpose to your suffering.

And don’t just take my word for it. Verify it for yourself. Have you not been benefited by all of it? Now, of course, I can’t say this to someone who is in the midst of that suffering. But those of you who have endured great suffering, now often years later, look back and say, “Thank God,” right? Haven’t you been grateful for all the horrible things that have happened to you? For the most part, because for the most part, they’ve been learning lessons. You’ve either learned not to associate with a certain kind of person, at the very least, but at the very best, you’ve come to spiritual life because of these things. You’ve realized the emptiness of worldly pleasure—so fleeting, promising infinite sweetness, and yet leaving you with poison in the throat, a bitterness that only seems to be cloying more and more each day you’ve pursued things in the world. Not only pleasure, but wealth, to discover what a great disappointment it is that money comes and goes and can never be enough. You’ve pursued power only to find how powerless you are by being a slave to that power. You pursue name and fame, only to find how isolated you became when you could no longer leave your house because of the paparazzi. Look, you did everything here. You experienced everything here, and all the horrible stuff that happened to you because of the things that you got or didn’t get, all of that has brought you to spiritual life. All of that has awakened your appetite.

But we forget and repeat—good, good, forget, forget, everything I told you right now. Go back there. You’ll be whipped back into the Zoom room, trust me. I’ve seen, I’ve seen many people come here. I’ve seen many people leave. I’ve seen many people crawl back.

The Wake-Up Call: A Spiritual Perspective

"Do you know why I’m not going anywhere?" I’m standing by the door, pointing the way out. But you don’t want to step out, and that’s okay. Because I have a partner, Prakriti, and she’s going to beat your ass silly until you want what I want you to want.

Do you see? It’s beautiful. You can leave as much as you want. But let’s be clear, I’m not condoning any cult behavior here. I’m simply saying you’re free to walk away from spiritual life as many times as you choose. But the world? The world will have its way with you. It’ll slap you silly until you crawl back, yearning for this again.

So forget it. It’s no big deal. Go ahead, go back out there and chase your pleasures. You’ve clearly forgotten how deeply unsatisfying they are. Go back and try to grasp that fleeting fulfillment, as if this time it will be different. Perhaps you seek power, maybe this time as a spiritual leader or some such figure. Or maybe it’s fame and recognition you’re after. Try it. Life after life, birth after birth, you’ll be knocked down until you realize: the only thing truly worth desiring in this existence is what spiritual life offers – God-realization.

And you can take your time. There’s no rush. Life after life, existence after existence, she (Prakriti, nature) will patiently guide you, orchestrate the experiences necessary to nudge you onto the path of Awakening.

Here’s my claim: once you’ve stepped onto the path of Awakening, half of her work is done. Most of the hardships inflicted by Prakriti are meant to bring you to this very path. And should you stray? Well, she’ll deliver a firm slap to guide you back.

The point is, if you wander away from spiritual life, she will slap you back to your senses. She’ll make you realize…

…that anytime you stray from the path, as Ankit says, and you can take my word for it now, but verify it in your own life, something awful is bound to happen. The further you wander, the deeper you fall asleep, the louder the wake-up call needs to be. Does that make sense? The deeper the slumber, the more jarring the alarm.

Friends, I may have rambled today, but if there’s one thing you take away from this, let it be this: the deeper you’re sleeping, the louder the wake-up call. The more you chase worldly pleasures, the more you believe lasting fulfillment can be found in the material world – in acquiring wealth, power, or sensory gratification – the deeper the delusion, and the harsher the reckoning. It’s the only way she can get your attention.

And thank God for that! She’s saving you precious time. You know the story of the frog in lukewarm water? Slowly brought to a boil, oblivious until it’s cooked. If you toss it straight into boiling water, it jumps out immediately. Mother (Prakriti) is saving you time by making the water scorching hot, forcing you to leap out of your complacency. Thank God for personal tragedies.

These tragedies are only necessary because you’ve forgotten your true purpose. So, remember this, and test it in your own life: when hardship strikes, ask yourself, “Have I fallen asleep again? Am I clinging to the illusion of finding lasting happiness in fleeting, ego-driven pursuits?” If the answer is yes, then the hardship makes perfect sense.

Now you’re on the path. Now the real work begins.

How to Reduce Personal Tragedies in Your Life

The Purpose of Personal Tragedies

Swami Brahmananda says, “If you give the body and mind to the world, it will be swiftly destroyed. If you give the body and mind to God, it will be protected.” In other words, if you are on the spiritual path, it means a few things. Practically speaking, you’re probably:

• Getting up earlier

• Spending more time in meditation (Numerous health benefits)

• Learning to be less stressed (Numerous health benefits)

• Doing some yoga

All of these things, in a very mundane, practical way, might justify Swami Brahmananda’s statement that, generally speaking, if you give your body to spiritual life, you will be healthy. A lot of bad health comes from wasting away our energies in a scattered attempt for fulfillment out there in the world. So, that’s one way to understand Swami Brahmananda.

Another way, maybe a more esoteric, metaphysical way, is to say that wake-up calls don’t need to be so loud anymore because you are already clearly on the path. So, why should you continue suffering personal tragedies?

Why Tragedy Strikes Even on the Spiritual Path

They do happen, however. So, let’s justify that. You’re on the path, right? Personal tragedies might sound convenient, but even trying to verify it against your own experience might be a kind of convenient thing to do. However, we could do worse.

Let’s say personal tragedy is visited upon you after you come to the path of awakening. We already said that the reason for personal tragedy is to bring you back to the path of awakening. So, why should it happen once you are already on the path of awakening?

Well, probably because you thought you were, but you weren’t. That’s one explanation. You have this concept of what the path of awakening looks like, and you think you’re on the spiritual journey, but actually, it’s just a subtle, unveiled form of the same worldliness under a new name. Maybe that’s another reason why you could have a rude awakening: your version of spirituality wasn’t really spirituality.

Let’s say you are a genuine, sincere seeker on the path, in whatever tradition, and personal tragedies are visited upon you. Then we say, “Ah, what a wonderful opportunity to practice Vedanta!” In other words, you’ve learned something now, apply it. Show yourself your own strength. You learned that you are not the body and mind. So, let’s see how far you’ve come. Here’s something… and it’s beautiful because it’s always related to what you are learning in that moment.

It’s like the professor very rarely gives a random assignment that has nothing to do with your development here and now. Even if you don’t understand why the assignment is being assigned, the professor typically knows, and she typically has a reason.

So, if something happens to you, the Course in Miracles uses the language of assignment. A person might have been assigned to you, or a situation might have been assigned to you. This is going to be on the midterm.

If you say that you’re not a body-mind, you know what will happen? Maybe a cold, or maybe a fever, or something. Ah, wonderful! Now you can test to what extent you have digested, assimilated, and applied this knowledge that you’re not the body and mind. If it turns out that you haven’t really digested, assimilated, and applied that knowledge, good! Now you know.

Now you can ask questions like, “How do I turn intellectual concept into lived experience?” You go to your guru, and you ask these questions because life showed you where you are not.

A Threefold Structure

Notice there is a threefold structure here:

1. Tragedy is visited upon you to the degree that you are asleep. That tragedy brings you to spiritual life.

2. Insofar as you are mistaken about what spiritual life is, more tragedy is visited upon you to refine and clarify your notion of real spirituality.

3. While you’re on the path of awakening, then further tragedy might be visited upon you, albeit on a smaller scale. Why? To test you, to offer you the arena in which you can sense your own strength.

Does this sound like a rather anthropomorphic explanation? Yes, it is. Don’t worry, I’m going to get deeper. I’m not going to leave you with this.

You might say that was cute, it’s a nice idea, but prove it. Make sure it’s true. One way to prove it is just to check this against your own experience. If it resonates, then wonderful!

But I don’t want to just naively sell it, and I don’t want you to naively buy this. We’ll go a little deeper, don’t worry. But for now, this is the first claim I am going to make: this is the purpose of personal tragedy. This is the teleology of suffering.

This is a unique answer to the problem of evil. There is no real evil insofar as it’s not happening to you; it’s happening to the body and mind. And nobody is a body and mind, but insofar as a person thinks they are, to the degree that they think they are, to that degree, they need to experience suffering in order to come to spiritual life.

This is all to be applied only to yourself and not to others. So here’s my disclaimer: you cannot therefore opt out of caring, of sympathy, of helping by using this philosophy and saying, “Oh, everyone deserves it.”

Yes, in a sense, they are getting what they need to come to spiritual life. Not because they’re being punished by past karmas, but because this is the particular assignment that will be for their greatest good.

But you know what’s for your greatest good? That you help them, that you do your best to be there for the people that are around you. And if you mess up, and they die in your care, well, that’s what you needed to come to this next stage of your spiritual evolution. Do you see?

You do your best for the world, recognizing that everything that happens, happens ultimately for the greatest good. But I’m not going to leave it at that. I’m saying what the greatest good is: your personal, individual spiritual development.

Now, let’s go a little deeper.

Prakriti and Purusha: The Eternal Relationship

It seems like there’s this eternal relationship between Prakriti and Purusha, where she’s trying to remind him who he is.

Why do I say “he” and “she”? Mostly because, in Sanskrit, that’s implied. Prakriti is a feminine singular noun. Purusha is a masculine singular noun. And Purusha actually just means “dude.”

I think the reason why it’s just “Purusha,” like just “fella,” just “guy,” is to make sure it’s not exotified or abstracted. We don’t want Purusha to be some concept; it should be what you feel yourself to be.

Now, all gender aside, remember that sex is only in the body and gender is only in the mind. Purusha is actually sexless, as Swami Vivekananda says, “the sexless self whose mother, whose father, whose child…” like that. Obviously, being beyond body and mind means I am beyond all notions of genitalia, and also all notions of cultural gender roles.

Obviously, I stand in my own glory as beyond both male and female. However, we use the word “male” here just to denote a principle that is quite familiar in a heteronormal sense. There is a relationship - father and mother. Most of us have come through some father-mother structure, obviously with a lot of variation, but most of us at least understand the archetypal roles of father and mother. And we are the offspring of father and mother.

So, father is Purusha, mother is Prakriti. Notice how there’s a Shiva-Shakti dynamic happening here: Shiva is Purusha, Prakriti is Shakti.

Now, of course, I’m going to go deeper. She’s one part of Shakti, but in this kind of naive relationship, what’s going on is that he and she are playing a game, and that game is you.

He pretends to forget; he falls asleep, as it were, and she playfully nudges him to help him awaken.

Once he awakens, he then goes on to enjoy the rest of Prakriti. This is the key to Swami Vivekananda’s statement, “Enjoy all, knowing it to be God’s play. Be mad with joy even at evil, because you know life begins after spiritual realization.”

Everything before spiritual realization was there; everything before your awakening was there for your awakening. But then, really, life begins after your awakening, real awakening. I’m not saying like, you know, in a Reddit chat forum, where… I mean like truly, in a wordless, embodied way.

When you’re truly awakened, a flame with awakened consciousness, then life can really begin at that point. There’s no suffering anymore, which shows you that suffering was only there to turn you into a saint.

Once you are jivan mukta, liberated while embodied, there is no longer any suffering. Even if pain is visited upon the body and mind, it’s no longer experienced as suffering.

So, the real experience of Prakriti, let me just say, is an experience of joy, of wordless wonder, of being mad with joy even at evil, knowing all to be God’s play. The real experience of this world is to stand back, knowing that nothing affects me, and thereby enjoying its beauty.

All of this is beautiful, all of this is good, all of this is ma. Until you realize that, some hard knocks are coming.

Okay, that’s a pretty interesting way to think about it. I think it’s one way to understand the problem of evil. But now I want to go back to that slightly more challenging idea.

Maya: The Creative Power of Brahman

So far, we’ve only covered what is actually 25… the numbering here is different because I’m introducing you to the expanded tattva map, central to Kashmir Shaivism, or Advaita Shaiva Tantra.

By the way, I’m trying to move away from the phrase “Kashmir Shaivism” because it’s not as broad or inclusive as I’d like. At the Kali Mandir, I realized, “No, no, I really do mean Maheshwarananda from Tamil Nadu. I mean Sri Vidya Chakravartin. I mean a lot more than just the authors of Kashmir, though their contributions were foundational for these ideas in trika and grama.”

So, I want to move away from “Kashmir Shaivism,” but at least for now, it provides this expanded tattva map. To introduce it, I’m bringing in the concept of Maya.

Understanding the Tattva Map

The numbering here goes from one, the subtlest principle, to 36, the most tangible and gross. 36, representing Prithvi, is the final manifestation pouring forth from number one, Shiva. This sequence from 1 to 36 is called shishti krama – the sequence of manifestation.

Conversely, going from Prithvi at number one up to Shiva at 36 would be sanghara krama – the reverse process of dissolution. Think viloma and anuloma.

I’m not focusing on the numbering right now, but for context, the sixth tattva is Maya.

Delving into Maya

Within Maya, there are five further tattvas:

• Classical: Kala, Vidya, Raga

• Later additions: Kala and Niyati (order varies in texts)

All this connects to Samkhya, which gets subsumed into Advaita Vedanta. Advaita introduces Maya Vada – the doctrine of Maya, or illusion.

Maya is a tricky ontological property; it both is and isn’t. Advaita can be vague about Maya because they don’t fully believe in its ultimate reality. They use it to explain plurality – the seeming existence of many things. It’s messy, but essentially, Maya creates the perceived dichotomy of Purusha and Prakriti.

In truth, there are no real divisions; Prakriti is not separate from Purusha. They both appear through the illusion of Maya. Maya is the One projected into the seeming Many.

The Illusion of Experience

This Many, which we’ve discussed, is not truly real. Everything – the idea that tragedy spurs spiritual growth, the challenges on the spiritual path – occurs within a dream. None of it truly happened, is happening, or will happen. It’s like a mirage – the appearance of an oasis in a desert.

Crucially, none of it can affect the Purusha. Advaita Vedanta, like Samkhya, posits that you are beyond all this, but it goes further: while you are beyond it, it’s not beyond you. It appears within you, like a dream within the dreamer’s mind.

Reflecting on Life’s “Big Deals”

At the end of your life, it can feel like none of it truly mattered. Look back even just a year – do past tragedies hold the same weight? Remember that breakup you thought you’d never get over? What seemed monumental then might be insignificant now.

The things we take so seriously – meditation, rituals, even high school finals – often reveal their true lack of importance in time. College degrees might not dictate our life paths.

The takeaway? If it’s consuming you now, remember that this too shall pass. What frightens you today might be meaningless tomorrow.

Maya in Kashmir Shaivism

So, why discuss Maya in the context of Kashmir Shaivism? Here, Maya isn’t an error or superimposition, but the creative power through which the One conceals its true nature and appears as the Many.

The problem of evil, the question of suffering, all stem from this: “Why did the One become Many?”

Introducing Maha Maya

Maya, in Kashmir Shaivism, is not an illusion but the dynamic creative power of your non-dual Essence. It’s the game of life – your experience as body, mind, even as the sense of separate consciousness. All projected by Maya.

We’ve discussed Prakriti as Mother, but let’s refine that. Prakriti is the canvas upon which Mother paints. Maha Maya is the true artist.

• Prakriti: Mother level one

• Maha Maya: Mother level two

• Shakti: Mother level three

• Kali: The ultimate Mother, encompassing both Shiva and Shakti

Maha Maya is the Supreme Sorceress, the Magician. The magic might not be “real,” but the Magician is. Kashmir Shaivism doesn’t see Maya as unreal; it’s a real power of Brahman called Shakti.

Maya is your creative power to fantasize. And why do you fantasize? Because that’s the way kids have fun.

So you, Shiva, none other than pure non-dual consciousness, have this power, a Shakti called Mahamayi. And that Mahamayi, the Supreme Goddess, the Supreme Sorceress, does a few things for you:

1. She is a contraction of your Kriya Shakti. So, as non-dual consciousness, you are all-powerful. Literally, I mean that. But as an individual, you have some power, not no power, some power.

2. As non-dual consciousness, you are omniscient. As non-dual consciousness, you are omniscient. However, Vidya (knowledge) is a limitation of Jnana Shakti (the power of knowing). Just as Kala (time) is a limitation of Kriya Shakti (the power of action), Vidya is a limitation of omniscience. Finally, there is Raga (desire), which is a conditioned response to life through the perception of things being separate from you. This Raga is a contraction of Iccha Shakti, the primordial, pre-cognitive desire to express yourself.

So notice your three powers: willing, knowing, and doing. When contracted, they become your limited agency, limited doing, limited knowledge, and limited desire. And further, you could say the canvas upon which this is painted is time and causality, kala and niyati.

if you really analyze Prakriti, it’s time, space, and isn’t that what Einstein said? Isn’t it so beautiful that 110 years ago Einstein was like, “Matter and energy are one thing.” The Indians are like, “We’re telling you, Prakriti, Prakriti means matter-energy.” Then they’re like, “It’s time, space, causality.”

The Matrix is time and space. And we’re like, “We’re telling you, it’s time and space.” Right now…let’s go deeper.

The Illusion of Separation

And so this whole Maya has been described… it’s been described in a way that it isn’t really described in Advaita. You just get anirvachaniya here, you get a few more statements about it. But notice, essentially, what all of this is saying, if you are really going to get down to the bottom of it, what all of it is saying is just this: You, through your own creative power, contract yourself for fun and thereby create the seeming illusion of being a Purusha to which a Prakriti appears. This Prakriti seems to be giving you many hard lessons until you come to spiritual life.

From Samkhya to Advaita Vedanta

So, it is conceivable that upon having a Prakriti-Purusha realization, meaning upon attaining the fruit of Samkhya, some tragedy brings you to Advaita Vedanta because a higher realization exists… It’s not to say that Samkhya is wrong. It’s not wrong, but it’s not deep enough, any more than, like, Southern Theravada Buddhism is wrong. It’s not wrong. It’s not the Hinayana because they are wrong. It’s the Hinayana because it’s not broad enough. And the Mahayana, the great vehicle, expands upon the Hinayana.

Of course, the Hinayanas will never say that, right? They’re never gonna… they won’t even use the word; that’s like, kind of almost pejorative. But anyway, so notice that the Mahayana Buddhists are not saying the Hinayana Buddhists are wrong, any more than Advaita Vedantins are saying Samkhyans are wrong. Well, Shankar does use pretty harsh language in Aparokshanubhuti. He says, “If you believed any of this stuff, that’s really stupid, like if you really believe Purusha and Prakriti are different, that’s pretty dumb stuff.” Like, no, but really, honestly, they build off of Samkhya. There’s a reason why Advaita is like Samkhya and almost halfway… all the way through the halfway point, you know. So, Samkhya is needed for Advaita.

Now, if you had a Samkhya realization, you might still have to suffer some tragedy to bring you to the Advaita Vedanta realization. See, and then, if you have the Advaita Vedanta realization, you might still need to suffer from some tragedy to bring you into the highest realization.

Sri Ramakrishna and the Limits of Non-Duality

And now, I want to give you that higher realization, at least according to Kashmir Shaivism, and in my argument, according to Sri Ramakrishna. Now, notice he was an Advaita Vedantin par excellence. Not only was he a great gyani, he was also a great yogi.

Totapuri, the case of this great…Naga monk, okay. So, he could regularly go into nirvikalpa samadhi. In fact, he spent much of his day in nirvikalpa samadhi, every single day. So, not only was he a great gyani, but his gyana, his knowledge of the true nature of things, was premised upon his yoga, particularly his yoga samadhi.

Now then, the roles were reversed. So, in the story, after Totapuri teaches Sri Ramakrishna the non-dual, nirguna, nirvishesha Brahman, then Totapuri develops a horrible stomach ache. At which point, because he is a gyani, no longer identified with the body and mind, he feels like, “Eh, these clothes are worn out, I’m gonna get rid of them.”

So, he goes to the river to drown himself. Obviously, he doesn’t feel like he is drowning himself because he knows without a shadow of a doubt that he’s not the body and mind.

So, disclaimer, this is a pretty far-out story, and some people can really misunderstand what’s being said here, so this is maybe a trigger warning, right? He’s not suicidal. This is different. He doesn’t feel depressed, rather, he no longer identifies with the body-mind any more than you would identify with clothes. Which is kind of like dissociation, right, a little bit?

It’s a lofty, exalted, celebrated dissociation, but still dissociation. I’m sorry, I mean I’m trying to be gentle here, but it’s… I mean, this like transcendentalism that excludes the world, dress it up how you like it, it’s just dissociation with more steps and with more justification. Okay, so you know what’s happening. He is having some kind of dissociative experience, and he’s so dissociated, in other words, to be kind, so established in non-dual reality,as Brahman, the passive, that he’s more than happy to get rid of the body. So, he goes to the river to do that. Remember, he has this arrogance.

The Teleology of Tragedy: Saint-Making

He believes that Prakriti has no power over him anymore. He believes that he is beyond Prakriti because he… he’s gone beyond Maya, right? So to speak.

So, he goes to the river and tries to drown himself, to no avail. He finds that to his shock and surprise, there’s not enough water in the Ganga to drown him. He walks, and Ganga is broad. Okay, you got… you can’t swim across. I mean, maybe you can if you’re like some kind of Olympic guy, but you need… or Olympic woman, or person, you need a boat to go across the bank, at least in Kolkata, like that. Why, man? It’s like an hour down the Ganga to go from Kolkata to Dakshineswar, taking a boat. This is wide.

So, he goes into the Ganga and walks into the middle of the river, and the water doesn’t get higher than his… I mean, maybe you can if you’re like some kind of Olympic guy, but you need… or Olympic woman, or person, you need a boat to go across the bank, at least in Kolkata, like that. Why, man? It’s like an hour down the Ganga to go from Kolkata to Dakshineswar, taking a boat. This is wide. So he goes into the Ganga and walks into the middle of the river, and the water doesn’t get higher than his knees or something, and that’s a miracle, right? But it’s not a miracle that he’s doing. It’s like the opposite of the Jesus story. Jesus is walking on water and proving to Peter… “But you know, ye of little faith…” But faith,but… but he’s… he is freaked out because he’s not able to drown, so it’s the opposite of Jesus. He’s like, “No, I’m trying to drown! I’m trying to… try… I want to be Peter, but…” you know? And then he has a vision of Divine Mother. In other words, he has a revelation of Shakti, of Shiva, because Shiva and Shakti are inseparable, and he gets converted. So after he has that revelation, he realizes that Advaita Vedanta is not complete.

It’s not complete because, although it’s pretty lofty, it’s got into the very highest transcendence, it’s left one thing unaccounted for: the immanence. So then he runs back to Sri Ramakrishna, apologizes for not only, like, you know, abusing him for the last 11 months but also for refusing to accept any doctrine that Sri Ramakrishna taught him. And there’s a beautiful scene in which Ramakrishna says, “You suffer because you don’t accept Mother.” They go to the temple, and he sings a beautiful song to Mother, and Totapuri is weeping and weeping and weeping, and he accepts the Divine Mother, and then he leaves. By the way, this guy doesn’t stay anywhere for more than 3 days. So the fact that he was there, as Dylan is pointing out, for 11 months, it’s really special. He was there to teach Sri Ramakrishna something and be like Sri Ramakrishna’s sounding board, and they had really great,debates and dialogues as indeed Advaita Vedanta and Shakta. But notice that he, like, learned something, yeah? Those 11 months with Sri Ramakrishna, with Ma, was more powerful in decades of meditating on the formulas. But he might not have achieved it without those decades. So notice he needed that personal tragedy to bring him to the next realization.

So notice, I’ve leveled up the threshold in the first part. I was rather naive in saying, “Yeah, you know, tragedies, they bring into spiritual life,” as if spiritual life is any one thing. Tragedies, they bring you to spiritual realization, as if spiritual realization is just one thing. It’s not. There’s infinite depth to spiritual realization. So maybe tragedies need to come to bring you deeper, but notice the theme that we started with remains the same:

• Tragedies are there to help you, not harm you.

• They’re not there to punish you, they’re there to teach you.

Do you see? Only a child thinks she’s being punished. When she grows up a little, she’ll realize that those lessons are for her own good.

The Purpose of Life is to Become a Saint

Okay, now we go to the last thing I want to share with you. Something that Sri Ramakrishna himself said,just to close out. I’ve been trying to close for some time now, but okay.

So, I’m gonna go back to Paulina’s thing. So, Paulina had posted in the check-in a very, very important… In fact, you know what? Maybe we’ll just prescribe it for, like, required reading. It’s page 436 of Swami… right, Paulina? 436 of Swami Nikhilananda Ji’s Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the translation of the Kathamrita. There, Sri Ramakrishna gives a response to none other than Hari Maharaj, who will later be Swami Turi, regarding this question, and he uses an example:

The patient might not be ready to take the medicine, so the doctor waits a while, and when the patient has suffered enough and the patient is finally ready to take the medicine, then the doctor gives the medicine. So the only reason the doctor is complicit in the patient’s suffering is because the patient himself is too stubborn to take the medicine if given at the outset.

So, if I’m telling you now who you really are, and you don’t believe me, then we’ll just have to wait until life opens you up to the realization that we’re trying to convey, you see? So that’s why the doctor must wait for the patient to have his suffering, and then only can the doctor prescribe.

Then he gives an example of Rama staying his hand, waiting to slay Ravana. Like, “Let Ravana’s past karmas come to fruition first. Let him suffer for what he did.” Like, then only would the ego be ready to, like, surrender. So that’s coming from the Atma Rama, and I decided that Rama is God, and Ravana is the ego, and all these like subtle,readings into… Okay, anyway.

Point here being, Sri Ramakrishna gives this beautiful point, and it’s this:

Suffering happens because that’s how you make saints. In other words, the purpose of life is to become a saint. He says in other places, the purpose of life is God-realization, the purpose of life is to become a saint. So everything that ever happens is there to help you become a saint, is to teach you to become a saint.

So isn’t that why you’re all here? Aren’t you all here in the Zoom room right now because you’re all aspiring saints? In other words, you’re all here to recognize that sainthood is your very nature. So why should you be scared of anything that should happen to you from this moment forward? Because you know now that everything that will ever happen to you from this moment forward is already in line with your purpose, right? So why don’t you just give your consent to it? Why don’t you recognize that the things that are going to happen to you are going to happen to you because they are the best possible thing that could happen to you to bring you to life’s one purpose – realization – which you already… assuming… assuming, what, right?

Isn’t that so sweet? So cool?

And trust that each time you think you’ve attained it, and you haven’t really, something will come to show you what’s more to be attained.

So Sri Ramakrishna gives this beautiful understanding of the problem of evil, perhaps the final iteration of the problem of evil. But there’s one more, the deeper one.

So I said, right? It starts with skeptical theism, “I can never understand God’s will. Leave it at that, okay? God’s will is inscrutable.” This is called skeptical theism. Just like I can’t, as Swami Medhananda Ji beautifully pointed out, just like I can’t understand the move of a great chess player, being myself a puny mind, why should I deem to understand the infinitude of God and her ways when I, myself, don’t even know how to make my bed in the morning, right? It’s one thing. Why should I force God to justify herself for a decision that I can never understand? That’s… why… that’s one.

The second thing is,it’s God’s play. So now, using the Prakriti Purusha dichotomy, using the Maya Vada, we can see that it’s not really happening. It’s not like there’s actual evil that God needs to justify; it’s an appearance like a theater production. And so, it’s God’s play, which Hari Maharaj, in page 436, doesn’t like. He doesn’t like that answer because he says, “It’s play for her; it’s death for me.” So you can say for God, from God’s point of view, it’s all theater. From my point of view, I don’t recognize that I’m the actor. It sucks to be me! That still doesn’t give me a justification. That only makes God seem sadistic. At least the will thing I can accept. You know, there might be some inscrutable… but… but play? That sounds flippant! “Why should my death be your play? Are you so sadistic that you like this?” Okay, then he goes further,and he says something like this:

The game is to make saints. So her play is a great saint-making game. So it’s not a purposeless play, you know? Notice, I hope this can help some people here. It’s not this feeling of, like, God is just having her way with you, having fun at your expense. No! She’s, like we said in the beginning, Prakriti, carefully sculpting your life to bring you to your highest good. So the game is a saint-making game.

And now, the final statement, the closing statement of this whole thing says beautifully, when asked, “But why? You shouldn’t be afraid of God ‘smiting’ you. Her play is my dad…” Sri Ramakrishna, without missing a beat, says, "But who are you?"

Translation, please? Tell me who you are.

In other words: you are Divine Mother.

Duality is the Source of Weakness

Duality is the source of all weakness because it gives you the sense that there is something outside of yourself that can punish you, that can restrict you. Non-duality, or monism, is the cure because it shows you that you are that deity which daily you worship. Why should you be scared of yourself? You are more intimate than Divine Mother with Divine Mother than you could have ever hoped.

So for those of you who are afraid of Divine Mother, I say it’s a goblin story, a superimposition. The Divine Mother that you are afraid of doesn’t exist because you’ve set her up as something outside of yourself, some foreign entity from a different culture that will smite you for mispronouncing a Sanskrit word that you only just now started to learn.

Ah, what fools we are! We look at our shadows and we go, “Eek!”

Divine Mother is not your shadow; you are her shadow. In other words, you, the shadow, are afraid of your own shadow. Could there be a sadder predicament than that?

I’m telling you, friends, the God that you fear is none other than the one who is afraid. What a predicament! Like a dog chasing its own tail. You won’t smite yourself. In fact, if you do smite yourself, it will be to help yourself. You’ve only ever blessed yourself; from this point on, you will only go on to bless yourself, giving yourself just what you need to get to the next stage of your journey. And everything prior to this point has been you blessing yourself.

So all the blessings in life come from you to you, for you are that very God that you worship.

Have No Fear

Does this come across? Are you… are you sure that you understand this? Because if you do, you will never fear anything ever again. Fear only comes when there is two. There is not two. So have… the… no fear. What fear, friends? For you are the servant of the Divine, the child of the Divine… nay, understatement! You are the Divine. What fear?

Why Ramakrishna Slapped Rani Rasmani

I’ll tell you one more thing.

Why does Sri Ramakrishna slap Rani Rasmani?

Do you know the scene I’m talking about? Rani, she’s the owner of the temple, okay? And she walks into the temple one day to participate in the evening worship. Sri Ramakrishna gives her a seat of honor next to him while he performs the worship, or I think he’s singing a song… he’s singing a song to Divine Mother, and Rani Rasmani, she becomes abstracted, and she starts thinking about a court case that she wants to win. Without missing a beat, Sri Ramakrishna turns around, slaps her across the face.

What?

So, first of all, she’s a woman. So yes! Sri Ramakrishna, supreme feminist that he is, just hit a woman, right? That’s one. Secondly, she’s his boss. And, thirdly, these people should not be trifled with. If you slap around rich people in Kolkata, chances are they might hire someone to kill you. Mathur Babu has done that, right? Mathur Babu is not above… Mathur Babu being, you know, the relative of Rani Rasmani and also a co-owner of the temple, he’s not above hiring goons to do his dirty work. We know he did have someone killed. So not only is this your boss, but this is a dangerous boss to [expletive] around with. So he slaps Rani Rasmani across the face.

Fourthly, his entire livelihood, his entire life depends on her! So not only is she a dangerous boss to mess with, she’s his entire support, his patron! Can you imagine slapping your patron who keeps you alive every day?

Why did he do it?

And you know, at that point, the temple guards, they were furious. People rushed in to grab him and drag him out! Rani Rasmani, she had no… she didn’t want him punished. In fact… And she just sat there smiling after he slapped her! He just sat there smiling, and she’s, like… Can you imagine? A shock.

But because he’s her guru, he did that. Now, why did he do that?

You see, her mind was drifting after the court case. There’s a meaning to this. She was becoming worldly, no less in the presence of Divine Mother, as Sri Ramakrishna.

So, he is Kali, and Kali chooses to slap Rani Rasmani. Why? To bring her back. To bring her mind back to what was important. She recognized that, mature as she was, and therefore she did not have Sri Ramakrishna punished. She actually, fell to his feet and was very happy, very grateful.

Right. Yeah, exactly. As it was a Zen stick to bring her back.

Now, why is Sri Ramakrishna so indulgent with Swami Brahmananda? So much so that Sri Ramakrishna sends Rakhal back home to sleep with his wife?

Do you know this?

By the way, Swami Brahmananda, the future head, the president of the Ramakrishna Mission, not only was married but also had a child. And this is all because Sri Ramakrishna… I mean, he, apparently, he had this desire for enjoyment; he still wanted the world, okay? And Sri Ramakrishna said, because he has that desire for enjoyment, it’d be good for him to go and spend some time with his wife and have a child thereby… but notice, Sri Ramakrishna didn’t punish him, didn’t abuse him for any of that worldliness, though in other places he abuses a lot of other people for their worldliness, albeit in his charming way, right? He shames people, especially M, for even having the sex instinct.

You know, one place he says, “Are you… you’re no better than an animal! You already have children, and yet you continue to enjoy sexual intercourse? Are you better than an animal?” He’s shaming M, and yet he’s indulging Swami Brahmananda.

What’s the meaning in that? You tell me.

There’s a meaning, and it’s deep.

Rani Rasmani was straying from the path; he slapped her to bring her back to the path. Swami Brahmananda was at no risk of straying from the path, even though he, temporarily, was caught in some worldly enjoyments. So he enjoyed it and happily came back, all the while being fed directly by Sri Ramakrishna, calm Divine Mother.

So, Divine Mother will spoon-feed you, even if you have worldliness. But you have to be sincere. You have to really… you have to deep down inside want only her. And then, if you have a little worldliness here and there, it’ll come and it’ll go. By her grace, it’ll go. But if you really want the world, then you’ll get a slap, and it will be for your own good, too.

- Thanks to Nish