Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Vol-1
STEPS TO REALISATION
(A class-lecture delivered in America)
First among the qualifications required of the aspirant for
Jnâna, or wisdom, come Shama and Dama, which may be taken
together. They mean the keeping of the organs in their own
centres without allowing them to stray out. I shall explain to
you first what the word "organ" means. Here are the eyes; the
eyes are not the organs of vision but only the instruments.
Unless the organs also are present, I cannot see, even if I have
eyes. But, given both the organs and the instruments, unless the
mind attaches itself to these two, no vision takes place. So, in
each act of perception, three things are necessary - first, the
external instruments, then, the internal organs, and lastly, the
mind. If any one of them be absent, then there will be no
perception. Thus the mind acts through two agencies -one
external, and the other internal. When I see things, my mind
goes out, becomes externalised; but suppose I close my eyes and
begin to think, the mind does not go out, it is internally
active. But, in either case, there is activity of the organs.
When I look at you and speak to you, both the organs and the
instruments are active. When I close my eyes and begin to think,
the organs are active, but not the instruments. Without the
activity of these organs, there will be no thought. You will
find that none of you can think without some symbol. In the case
of the blind man, he has also to think through some figure. The
organs of sight and hearing are generally very active. You must
bear in mind that by the word "organ" is meant the nerve centre
in the brain. The eyes and ears are only the instruments of
seeing and hearing, and the organs are inside. If the organs are
destroyed by any means, even if the eyes or the ears be there,
we shall not see or hear. So in order to control the mind, we
must first be able to control these organs. To restrain the mind
from wandering outward or inward, and keep the organs in their
respective centres, is what is meant by the words Shama and
Dama. Shama consists in not allowing the mind to externalise,
and Dama, in checking the external instruments.
Now comes Uparati which consists in not thinking of things of
the senses. Most of our time is spent in thinking about
sense-objects, things which we have seen, or we have heard,
which we shall see or shall hear, things which we have eaten, or
are eating, or shall eat, places where we have lived, and so on.
We think of them or talk of them most of our time. One who
wishes to be a Vedantin must give up this habit.
Then comes the next preparation (it is a hard task to be a
philosopher!), Titikshâ, the most difficult of all. It is
nothing less than the ideal forbearance - "Resist not evil."
This requires a little explanation. We may not resist an evil,
but at the same time we may feel very miserable. A man may say
very harsh things to me, and I may not outwardly hate him for
it, may not answer him back, and may restrain myself from
apparently getting angry, but anger and hatred may be in my
mind, and I may feel very badly towards that man. That is not
non-resistance; I should be without any feeling of hatred or
anger, without any thought of resistance; my mind must then be
as calm as if nothing had happened. And only when I have got to
that state, have I attained to non-resistance, and not before.
Forbearance of all misery, without even a thought of resisting
or driving it out, without even any painful feeling in the mind,
or any remorse - this is Titiksha. Suppose I do not resist, and
some great evil comes thereby; if I have Titiksha, I should no
feel any remorse for not having resisted. When the mind has
attained to that state, it has become established in Titiksha.
People in India do extraordinary things in order to practice
this Titiksha. They bear tremendous heat and cold without
caring, they do not even care for snow, because they take no
thought for the body; it is left to itself, as if it were a
foreign thing.
The next qualification required is Shraddhâ, faith. One must
have tremendous faith in religion and God. Until one has it, one
cannot aspire to be a Jnâni. A great sage once told me that not
one in twenty millions in this world believed in God. I asked
him why, and he told me, "Suppose there is a thief in this room,
and he gets to know that there is a mass of gold in the next
room, and only a very thin partition between the two rooms; what
will be the condition of that thief?" I answered, "He will not
be able to sleep at all; his brain will be actively thinking of
some means of getting at the gold, and he will think of nothing
else." Then he replied, "Do you believe that a man could believe
in God and not go mad to get him? If a man sincerely believes
that there is that immense, infinite mine of Bliss, and that It
can be reached, would not that man go mad in his struggle to
reach it?" Strong faith in God and the consequent eagerness to
reach Him constitute Shraddha.
Then comes Samâdhâna, or constant practice, to hold the mind in
God. Nothing is done in a day. Religion cannot be swallowed in
the form of a pill. It requires hard and constant practice. The
mind can be conquered only by slow and steady practice.
Next is Mumukshutva, the intense desire to be free. Those of you
who have read Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia remember his
translation of the first sermon of Buddha, where Buddha says,
Ye suffer from yourselves. None else compels.
None other holds you that ye live and die,
And whirl upon the wheel, and hug and kiss
Its spokes of agony,
Its tire of tears, its nave of nothingness.
All the misery we have is of our own choosing; such is our
nature. The old Chinaman, who having been kept in prison for
sixty years was released on the coronation of a new emperor,
exclaimed, when he came out, that he could not live; he must go
back to his horrible dungeon among the rats and mice; he could
not bear the light. So he asked them to kill him or send him
back to the prison, and he was sent back. Exactly similar is the
condition of all men. We run headlong after all sorts of misery,
and are unwilling to be freed from them. Every day we run after
pleasure, and before we reach it, we find it is gone, it has
slipped through our fingers. Still we do not cease from our mad
pursuit, but on and on we go, blinded fools that we are.
In some oil mills in India, bullocks are used that go round and
round to grind the oil-seed. There is a yoke on the bullock's
neck. They have a piece of wood protruding from the yoke, and on
that is fastened a wisp of straw. The bullock is blindfolded in
such a way that it can only look forward, and so it stretches
its neck to get at the straw; and in doing so, it pushes the
piece of wood out a little further; and it makes another attempt
with the same result, and yet another, and so on. It never
catches the straw, but goes round and round in the hope of
getting it, and in so doing, grinds out the oil. In the same way
you and I who are born slaves to nature, money and wealth, wives
and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere
chimera, and are going through an innumerable round of lives
without obtaining what we seek. The great dream is love; we are
all going to love and be loved, we are all going to be happy and
never meet with misery, but the more we go towards happiness,
the more it goes away from us. Thus the world is going on,
society goes on, and we, blinded slaves, have to pay for it
without knowing. Study your own lives, and find how little of
happiness there is in them, and how little in truth you have
gained in the course of this wild-goose chase of the world.
Do you remember the story of Solon and Croesus? The king said to
the great sage that Asia Minor was a very happy place. And the
sage asked him, "Who is the happiest man? I have not seen anyone
very happy." "Nonsense," said Croesus, "I am the happiest man in
the world." "Wait, sir, till the end of your life; don't be in a
hurry," replied the sage and went away. In course of time that
king was conquered by the Persians, and they ordered him to be
burnt alive. The funeral pyre was prepared and when poor Croesus
saw it, he cried aloud "Solon! Solon!" On being asked to whom he
referred, he told his story, and the Persian emperor was
touched, and saved his life.
Such is the life-story of each one of us; such is the tremendous
power of nature over us. It repeatedly kicks us away, but still
we pursue it with feverish excitement. We are always hoping
against hope; this hope, this chimera maddens us; we are always
hoping for happiness.
There was a great king in ancient India who was once asked four
questions, of which one was: "What is the most wonderful thing
in the world?" "Hope," was the answer. This is the most
wonderful thing. Day and nights we see people dying around us,
and yet we think we shall not die; we never think that we shall
die, or that we shall suffer. Each man thinks that success will
be his, hoping against hope, against all odds, against all
mathematical reasoning. Nobody is ever really happy here. If a
man be wealthy and have plenty to eat, his digestion is: out of
order, and he cannot eat. If a man's digestion be good, and he
have the digestive power of a cormorant, he has nothing to put
into his mouth. If he be rich, he has no children. If he be
hungry and poor, he has a whole regiment of children, and does
not know what to do with them. Why is it so? Because happiness
and misery are the obverse and reverse of the same coin; he who
takes happiness, must take misery also. We all have this foolish
idea that we can have happiness without misery, and it has taken
such possession of us that we have no control over the senses.
When I was in Boston, a young man came up to me, and gave me a
scrap of paper on which he had written a name and address,
followed by these words: "All the wealth and all the happiness
of the world are yours, if you only know how to get them. If you
come to me, I will teach you how to get them. Charge, $ 5." He
gave me this and said, "What do you think of this?" I said,
"Young man, why don't you get the money to print this? You have
not even enough money to get this printed !" He did not
understand this. He was infatuated with the idea that he could
get immense wealth and happiness without any trouble. There are
two extremes into which men are running; one is extreme
optimism, when everything is rosy and nice and good; the other,
extreme pessimism, when everything seems to be against them. The
majority of men have more or less undeveloped brains. One in a
million we see with a well-developed brain; the rest either have
peculiar idiosyncrasies, or are monomaniacs.
Naturally we run into extremes. When we are healthy and young,
we think that all the wealth of the world will be ours, and when
later we get kicked about by society like footballs and get
older, we sit in a corner and croak and throw cold water on the
enthusiasm of others. Few men know that with pleasure there is
pain, and with pain, pleasure; and as pain is disgusting, so is
pleasure, as it is the twin brother of pain. It is derogatory to
the glory of man that he should be going after pain, and equally
derogatory, that he should be going after pleasure. Both should
be turned aside by men whose reason is balanced. Why will not
men seek freedom from being played upon? This moment we are
whipped, and when we begin to weep, nature gives us a dollar;
again we are whipped, and when we weep, nature gives us a piece
of ginger-bread, and we begin to laugh again.
The sage wants liberty; he finds that sense-objects are all vain
and that there is no end to pleasures and pains. How many rich
people in the world want to find fresh pleasures! All pleasures
are old, and they want new ones. Do you not see how many foolish
things they are inventing every day, just to titillate the
nerves for a moment, and that done, how there comes a reaction?
The majority of people are just like a flock of sheep. If the
leading sheep falls into a ditch, all the rest follow and break
their necks. In the same way, what one leading member of a
society does, all the others do, without thinking what they are
doing. When a man begins to see the vanity of worldly things, he
will feel he ought not to be thus played upon or borne along by
nature. That is slavery. If a man has a few kind words said to
him, he begins to smile, and when he hears a few harsh words, he
begins to weep. He is a slave to a bit of bread, to a breath of
air; a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to country, to
name, and to fame. He is thus in the midst of slavery and the
real man has become buried within, through his bondage. What you
call man is a slave. When one realises all this slavery, then
comes the desire to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece
of burning charcoal be placed on a man's head, see how he
struggles to throw it off. Similar will be the struggles for
freedom of a man who really understands that he is a slave of
nature.
We have now seen what Mumukshutva, or the desire to be free, is.
The next training is also a very difficult one.
Nityânitya-Viveka - discriminating between that which is true
and that which is untrue, between the eternal and the
transitory. God alone is eternal, everything else is transitory.
Everything dies; the angels die, men die, animals die, earths
die, sun, moon, and stars, all die; everything undergoes
constant change. The mountains of today were the oceans of
yesterday and will be oceans tomorrow. Everything is in a state
of flux. The whole universe is a mass of change. But there is
One who never changes, and that is God; and the nearer we get to
Him, the less will be the change for us, the less will nature be
able to work on us; and when we reach Him, and stand with Him,
we shall conquer nature, we shall be masters of phenomena of
nature, and they will have no effect on us.
You see, if we really have undergone the above discipline, we
really do not require anything else in this world. All knowledge
is within us. All perfection is there already in the soul. But
this perfection has been covered up by nature; layer after layer
of nature is covering this purity of the soul. What have we to
do? Really we do not develop our souls at all. What can develop
the perfect? We simply take the evil off; and the soul manifests
itself in its pristine purity, its natural, innate freedom.
Now begins the inquiry: Why is this discipline so necessary?
Because religion is not attained through the ears, nor through
the eyes, nor yet through the brain. No scriptures can make us
religious. We may study all the books that are in the world, yet
we may not understand a word of religion or of God. We may talk
all our lives and yet may not be the better for it; we may be
the most intellectual people the world ever saw, and yet we may
not come to God at all. On the other hand, have you not seen
what irreligious men have been produced from the most
intellectual training? It is one of the evils of your Western
civilisation that you are after intellectual education alone,
and take no care of the heart. It only makes men ten times more
selfish, and that will be your destruction. When there is
conflict between the heart and the brain, let the heart be
followed, because intellect has only one state, reason, and
within that, intellect works, and cannot get beyond. It is the
heart which takes one to the highest plane, which intellect can
never reach; it goes beyond intellect, and reaches to what is
called inspiration. Intellect can never become inspired; only
the heart when it is enlightened, becomes inspired. An
intellectual, heartless man never becomes an inspired man. It is
always the heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a
greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument
of inspiration. Just as the intellect is the instrument of
knowledge, so is the heart the instrument of inspiration. In a
lower state it is a much weaker instrument than intellect. An
ignorant man knows nothing, but he is a little emotional by
nature. Compare him with a great professor - what wonderful
power the latter possesses! But the professor is bound by his
intellect, and he can be a devil and an intellectual man at the
same time; but the man of heart can never be a devil; no man
with emotion was ever a devil. Properly cultivated, the heart
can be changed, and will go beyond intellect; it will be changed
into inspiration. Man will have to go beyond intellect in the
end. The knowledge of man, his powers of perception, of
reasoning and intellect and heart, all are busy churning this
milk of the world. Out of long churning comes butter, and this
butter is God. Men of heart get the "butter", and the
"buttermilk" is left for the intellectual.
These are all preparations for the heart, for that love, for
that intense sympathy appertaining to the heart. It is not at
all necessary to be educated or learned to get to God. A sage
once told me, "To kill others one must be equipped with swords
and shields, but to commit suicide a needle is sufficient; so to
teach others, much intellect and learning are necessary, but not
so for your own self-illumination." Are on pure? If you are
pure, you will reach God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God." If you are not pure, and you know all the
sciences in the world, that will not help you at all; you may be
buried in all the books you read, but that will not be of much
use. It is the heart that reaches the goal. Follow the heart. A
pure heart sees beyond the intellect; it gets inspired; it knows
things that reason can never know, and whenever there is
conflict between the pure heart and the intellect, always side
with the pure heart, even if you think what your heart is doing
is unreasonable. When it is desirous of doing good to others,
your brain may tell you that it is not politic to do so, but
follow your heart, and you will find that you make less mistakes
than by following your intellect. The pure heart is the best
mirror for the reflection of truth, so all these disciplines are
for the purification of the heart. And as soon as it is pure,
all truths flash upon it in a minute; all truth in the universe
will manifest in your heart, if you are sufficiently pure.
The great truths about atoms, and the finer elements, and the
fine perceptions of men, were discovered ages ago by men who
never saw a telescope, or a microscope, or a laboratory. How did
they know all these things? It was through the heart; they
purified the heart. It is open to us to do the same today; it is
the culture of the heart, really, and not that of the intellect
that will lessen the misery of the world.
Intellect has been cultured with the result that hundreds of
sciences have been discovered, and their effect has been that
the few have made slaves of the many - that is all the good that
has been done. Artificial wants have been created; and every
poor man, whether he has money or not, desires to have those
wants satisfied, and when he cannot, he struggles, and dies in
the struggle. This is the result. Through the intellect is not
the way to solve the problem of misery, but through the heart.
If all this vast amount of effort had been spent in making men
purer, gentler, more forbearing, this world would have a
thousandfold more happiness than it has today. Always cultivate
the heart; through the heart the Lord speaks, and through the
intellect you yourself speak.
You remember in the Old Testament where Moses was told, "Take
off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground." We must always approach the study of
religion with that reverent attitude. He who comes with a pure
heart and a reverent attitude, his heart will be opened; the
doors will open for him, and he will see the truth.
If you come with intellect only, you can have a little
intellectual gymnastics, intellectual theories, but not truth.
Truth has such a face that any one who sees that face becomes
convinced. The sun does not require any torch to show it; the
sun is self-effulgent. If truth requires evidence, what will
evidence that evidence? If something is necessary as witness for
truth, where is the witness for that witness? We must approach
religion with reverence and with love, and our heart will stand
up and say, this is truth, and this is untruth.
The field of religion is beyond our senses, beyond even our
consciousness. We cannot sense God. Nobody has seen God with his
eyes or ever will see; nobody has God in his consciousness. I am
not conscious of God, nor you, nor anybody. Where is God? Where
is the field of religion? It is beyond the senses, beyond
consciousness. Consciousness is only one of the many planes in
which we work; you will have to transcend the field of
consciousness, to go beyond the senses, approach nearer and
nearer to your own centre, and as you do that, you will approach
nearer and nearer to God. What is the proof of God? Direct
perception, Pratyaksha. The proof of this wall is that I
perceive it. God has been perceived that way by thousands
before, and will be perceived by all who want to perceive Him.
But this perception is no sense-perception at all; it is
supersensuous, superconscious, and all this training is needed
to take us beyond the senses. By means of all sorts of past work
and bondages we are being dragged downwards; these preparations
will make us pure and light. Bondages will fall off by
themselves, and we shall be buoyed up beyond this plane of
sense-perception to which we are tied down, and then we shall
see, and hear, and feel things which men in the three ordinary
states (viz waking, dream, and sleep) neither feel, nor see, nor
hear. Then we shall speak a strange language, as it were, and
the world will not understand us, because it does not know
anything but the senses. True religion is entirely
transcendental. Every being that is in the universe has the
potentiality of transcending the senses; even the little worm
will one day transcend the senses and reach God. No life will be
a failure; there is no such thing as failure in the universe. A
hundred times man will hurt himself, a thousand times he will
tumble, but in the end he will realise that he is God. We know
there is no progress in a straight line. Every soul moves, as it
were, in a circle, and will have to complete it, and no soul can
go so low but there will come a time when it will have to go
upwards. No one will be lost. We are all projected from one
common centre, which is God. The highest as well as the lowest
life God ever projected, will come back to the Father of all
lives. "From whom all beings are projected, in whom all live,
and unto whom they all return; that is God."
VEDANTA AND PRIVILEGE
(Delivered in London)
We have nearly finished the metaphysical portion of the Advaita.
One point, and perhaps the most difficult to understand,
remains. We have seen so far that, according to the Advaita
theory, all we see around us, and the whole universe in fact, is
the evolution of that one Absolute. This is called, in Sanskrit,
Brahman. The Absolute has become changed into the whole of
nature. But here comes a difficulty. How is it possible for the
Absolute to change? What made the Absolute to change? By its
very definition, the Absolute is unchangeable. Change of the
unchangeable would be a contradiction. The same difficulty
applies to those who believe in a Personal God. For instance,
how did this creation arise? It could not have arisen out of
nothing; that would be a contradiction - something coming out of
nothing can never be. The effect is the cause in another form.
Out of the seed, the big tree grows; the tree is the seed, plus
air and water taken in. And if there were any method of testing
the amount of the air, and water taken to make the body of the
tree, we should find that it is exactly the same as the effect,
the tree. Modern science has proved beyond doubt that it is so,
that the cause is the effect in another form. The adjustment of
the parts of the cause changes and becomes the effect. So, we
have to avoid this difficulty of having a universe without a
cause, and we are bound to admit that God has become the
universe.
But we have avoided one difficulty, and landed in another. In
every theory, the idea of God comes through the idea of
unchangeability. We have traced historically how the one idea
which we have always in mind in the search for God, even in its
crudest form, is the idea of freedom; and the idea of freedom
and of unchangeability is one and the same. It is the free alone
which never changes, and the unchangeable alone which is free;
for change is produced by something exterior to a thing, or
within itself, which is more powerful than the surroundings.
Everything which can be changed is necessarily bound by certain
cause or causes, which cannot be unchangeable. Supposing God has
become this universe, then God is here and has changed. And
suppose the Infinite has become this finite universe, so much of
the Infinite has gone, and, therefore, God is Infinite minus the
universe. A changeable God would be no God. To avoid this
doctrine of pantheism, there is a very bold theory of the
Vedanta. It is that this universe, as we know and think it, does
not exist, that the unchangeable has not changed, that the whole
of this universe is mere appearance and not reality, that this
idea of parts, and little beings, and differentiations is only
apparent, not the nature of the thing itself. God has not
changed at all, and has not become the universe at all. We see
God as the universe, because we have to look through time,
space, and causation. It is time, space, and causation that make
this differentiation apparently, but not really. This is a very
bold theory indeed. Now this theory ought to be explained a
little more clearly. It does not mean idealism in the sense in
which it is generally understood. It does not say that this
universe does not exist; it exists, but at the same time it is
not what we take it for. To illustrate this, the example given
by the Advaita philosophy is well known. In the darkness of
night, a stump of a tree is looked upon as a ghost by some
superstitious person, as a policeman by a robber, as a friend by
some one waiting for his companion. In all these cases, the
stump of the tree did not change, but there are apparent
changes, and these changes were in the minds of those who saw
it. From the subjective side we can understand it better through
psychology. There is something outside of ourselves, the true
nature of which is unknown and unknowable to us; let us call it
x. And there is something inside, which is also unknown and
unknowable to us; let us call it y. The knowable is a
combination of x plus y, and everything that we know, therefore,
must have two parts, the x outside, and the y inside; and the x
plus y is the thing we know. So, every form in the universe is
partly our creation and partly something outside. Now what the
Vedanta holds is that this x and this y are one and the same.
A very similar conclusion has been arrived at by some western
philosophers, especially by Herbert Spencer, and some other
modern philosophers. When it is said that the same power which
is manifesting itself in the flower is welling up in my own
consciousness, it is the very same idea which the Vedantist
wants to preach, that the reality of the external world and the
reality of the internal world are one and the same. Even the
ideas of the internal and external exist by differentiation and
do not exist in the things themselves. For instance, if we
develop another sense, the whole world will change for us,
showing that it is the subject which will change the object. If
I change, the external world changes. The theory of the Vedanta,
therefore, comes to this, that you and I and everything in the
universe are that Absolute, not parts, but the whole. You are
the whole of that Absolute, and so are all others, because the
idea of part cannot come into it. These divisions, these
limitations, are only apparent, not in the thing itself. I am
complete and perfect, and I was never bound, boldly preaches the
Vedanta. If you think you are bound, bound you will remain; if
you know that you are free, free you are. Thus the end and aim
of this philosophy is to let us know that we have been free
always, and shall remain free for ever. We never change, we
never die, and we are never born. What are all these changes
then? What becomes of this phenomenal world? This world is
admitted as an apparent world, bound by time, space, and
causation, and it comes to what is called the Vivarta-vâda in
Sanskrit, evolution of nature, and manifestation of the
Absolute. The Absolute does not change, or re-evolve. In the
little amoeba is that infinite perfection latent. It is called
amoeba from its amoeba covering, and from the amoeba to the
perfect man the change is not in what is inside - that remains
the same, unchangeable - but the change occurs in the covering.
There is a screen here, and some beautiful scenery outside.
There is a small hole in the screen through which we can only
catch a glimpse of it. Suppose this hole begins to increase; as
it grows larger and larger, more and more of the scenery comes
into view, and when the screen has vanished, we come face to
face with the whole of the scenery. This scene outside is the
soul, and the screen between us and the scenery is Mâyâ - time,
space, and causation. There is a little hole somewhere, through
which I can catch only a glimpse of the soul. When the hole is
bigger, I see more and more, and when the screen has vanished, I
know that I am the soul. So changes in the universe are not in
the Absolute; they are in nature. Nature evolves more and more,
until the Absolute manifests Itself. In everyone It exists; in
some It is manifested more than in others. The whole universe is
really one. In speaking of the soul, to say that one is superior
to another has no meaning. In speaking of the soul, to say that
man is superior to the animal or the plant, has no meaning; the
whole universe is one. In plants the obstacle to
soul-manifestation is very great; in animals a little less; and
in man still less; in cultured, spiritual men still less; and in
perfect men, it has vanished altogether. All our struggles,
exercises, pains, pleasures, tears, and smiles, all that we do
and think tend towards that goal, the tearing up of the screen,
making the hole bigger, thinning the layers that remain between
the manifestation and the reality behind. Our work, therefore,
is not to make the soul free, but to get rid of the bondages.
The sun is covered by layers of clouds, but remains unaffected
by them. The work of the wind is to drive the clouds away, and
the more the clouds disappear, the more the light of the sun
appears. There is no change whatsoever in the soul - Infinite,
Absolute, Eternal, Knowledge, Bliss, and Existence. Neither can
there be birth or death for the soul. Dying, and being born,
reincarnation, and going to heaven, cannot be for the soul.
These are different appearances, different mirages, different
dreams. If a man who is dreaming of this world now dreams of
wicked thoughts and wicked deeds, after a certain time the
thought of that very dream will produce the next dream. He will
dream that he is in a horrible place, being tortured. The man
who is dreaming good thoughts and good deeds, after that period
of dream is over, will dream he is in a better place; and so on
from dream to dream. But the time will come when the whole of
this dream will vanish. To everyone of us there must come a time
when the whole universe will be found to have been a mere dream,
when we shall find that the soul is infinitely better than its
surroundings. In this struggle through what we call our
environments, there will come a time when we shall find that
these environments were almost zero in comparison with the power
of the soul. It is only a question of time, and time is nothing
in the Infinite. It is a drop in the ocean. We can afford to
wait and be calm.
Consciously or unconsciously, therefore, the whole universe is
going towards that goal. The moon is struggling to get out of
the sphere of attraction of other bodies, and will come out of
it, in the long run. But those who consciously strive to get
free hasten the time. One benefit from this theory we
practically see is that the idea of a real universal love is
only possible from this point of view. All are our fellow
passengers, our fellow travellers - all life, plants, animals;
not only my brother man, but my brother brute, my brother plant;
not only my brother the good, but my brother the evil, my
brother the spiritual and my brother the wicked. They are all
going to the same goal. All are in the same stream, each is
hurrying towards that infinite freedom. We cannot stay the
course, none can stay it, none can go back, however he may try;
he will be driven forward, and in the end he will attain to
freedom. Creation means the struggle to get back to freedom, the
centre of our being, whence we have been thrown off, as it were.
The very fact that we are here, shows that we are going towards
the centre, and the manifestation of this attraction towards the
centre is what we call love.
The question is asked: From what does this universe come, in
what does it remain, to what does it go back? And the answer is:
From love it comes, in love it remains, back it goes unto love.
Thus we are in a position to understand that, whether one likes
it or not, there is no going back for anyone. Everyone has to
get to the centre, however he may struggle to go back. Yet if we
struggle consciously, knowingly, it will smooth the passage, it
will lessen the jar, and quicken the time. Another conclusion we
naturally arrive at from this is that all knowledge and all
power are within and not without. What we call nature is a
reflecting glass - that is all the use of nature - and all
knowledge is this reflection of the within on this glass of
nature. What we call powers, secrets of nature, and force, are
all within. In the external world are only a series of changes.
There is no knowledge in nature; all knowledge comes from the
human soul. Man manifests knowledge, discovers it within
himself, which is pre-existing through eternity. Everyone is the
embodiment of Knowledge, everyone is the embodiment of eternal
Bliss, and eternal Existence. The ethical effect is just the
same, as we have seen elsewhere, with regard to equality.
But the idea of privilege is the bane of human life. Two forces,
as it were, are constantly at work, one making caste, and the
other breaking caste; in other words, the one making for
privilege, the other breaking down privilege. And whenever
privilege is broken down, more and more light and progress come
to a race. This struggle we see all around us. Of course there
is first the brutal idea of privilege, that of the strong over
the weak. There is the privilege of wealth. If a man has more
money than another, he wants a little privilege over those who
have less. There is the still subtler and more powerful
privilege of intellect; because one man knows more than others,
he claims more privilege. And the last of all, and the worst,
because the most tyrannical, is the privilege of spirituality.
If some persons think they know more of spirituality, of God,
they claim a superior privilege over everyone else. They say,
"Come down and worships us, ye common herds; we are the
messengers of God, and you have to worship us." None can be
Vedantists, and at the same time admit of privilege to anyone,
either mental, physical, or spiritual; absolutely no privilege
for anyone. The same power is in every man, the one manifesting
more, the other less; the same potentiality is in everyone.
Where is the claim to privilege? All knowledge is in every soul,
even in the most ignorant; he has not manifested it, but,
perhaps, he has not had the opportunity, the environments were
not, perhaps, suitable to him. When he gets the opportunity, he
will manifest it. The idea that one man is born superior to
another has no meaning in the Vedanta; that between two nations
one is superior and the other inferior has no meaning
whatsoever. Put them in the same circumstances, and see whether
the same intelligence comes out or not. Before that you have no
right to say that one nation is superior to another. And as to
spirituality, no privilege should be claimed there. It is a
privilege to serve mankind, for this is the worship of God. God
is here, in all these human souls. He is the soul of man. What
privilege can men ask? There are no special messengers of God,
never were, and never can be. All beings, great or small, are
equally manifestations of God; the difference is only in the
manifestation. The same eternal message, which has been
eternally given, comes to them little by little. The eternal
message has been written in the heart of every being; it is
there already, and all are struggling to express it. Some, in
suitable circumstances, express it a little better than others,
but as bearers of the message they are all one. What claim to
superiority is there? The most ignorant man, the most ignorant
child, is as great a messenger of God as any that ever existed,
and as great as any that are yet to come. For the infinite
message is there imprinted once for all in the heart of every
being. Wherever there is a being, that being contains the
infinite message of the Most High. It is there. The work of the
Advaita, therefore, is to break down all these privileges. It is
the hardest work of all, and curious to say, it has been less
active than anywhere else in the land of its birth. If there is
any land of privilege, it is the land which gave birth to this
philosophy - privilege for the spiritual man as well as for the
man of birth. There they have not so much privilege for money
(that is one of the benefits, I think), but privilege for birth
and spirituality is everywhere.
Once a gigantic attempt was made to preach Vedantic ethics,
which succeeded to a certain extent for several hundred years,
and we know historically that those years were the best times of
that nation. I mean the Buddhistic attempt to break down
privilege. Some of the most beautiful epithets addressed to
Buddha that I remember are, "Thou the breaker of castes,
destroyer of privileges, preacher of equality to all beings."
So, he preached this one idea of equality. Its power has been
misunderstood to a certain extent in the brotherhood of
Shramanas, where we find that hundreds of attempts have been
made to make them into a church, with superiors and inferiors.
Your cannot make much of a church when you tell people they are
all gods. One of the good effects of Vedanta has been freedom of
religious thought, which India enjoyed throughout all times of
its history. It is something to glory in, that it is the land
where there was never a religious persecution, where people are
allowed perfect freedom in religion.
This practical side of Vedanta morality is necessary as much
today as it ever was, more necessary, perhaps, than it ever was,
for all this privilege-claiming has become tremendously
intensified with the extension of knowledge. The idea of God and
the devil, or Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, has a good deal of poetry
in it. The difference between God and the devil is in nothing
except in unselfishness and selfishness. The devil knows as much
as God, is as powerful as God; only he has no holiness - that
makes him a devil. Apply the same idea to the modern world:
excess of knowledge and power, without holiness, makes human
beings devils. Tremendous power is being acquired by the
manufacture of machines and other appliances, and privilege is
claimed today as it never has been claimed in the history of the
world. That is why the Vedanta wants to preach against it, to
break down this tyrannising over the souls of men.
Those of you who have studied the Gita will remember the
memorable passages: "He who looks upon the learned Brahmin, upon
the cow, the elephant, the dog, or the outcast with the same
eye, he indeed is the sage, and the wise man"; "Even in this
life he has conquered relative existence whose mind is firmly
fixed on this sameness, for the Lord is one and the same to all,
and the Lord is pure; therefore those who have this sameness for
all, and are pure, are said to be living in God." This is the
gist of Vedantic morality - this sameness for all. We have seen
that it is the subjective world that rules the objective. Change
the subject, and the object is bound to change; purify yourself,
and the world is bound to be purified. This one thing requires
to be taught now more than ever before. We are becoming more and
more busy about our neighbours, and less and less about
ourselves. The world will change if we change; if we are pure,
the world will become pure. The question is why I should see
evil in others. I cannot see evil unless I be evil. I cannot be
miserable unless I am weak. Things that used to make me
miserable when I was a child, do not do so now. The subject
changed, so the object was bound to change; so says the Vedanta.
All these things which we call causes of misery and evil, we
shall laugh at when we arrive at that wonderful state of
equality, that sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta
attaining to freedom. The sign of approaching that freedom is
more and more of this sameness and equality. In misery and
happiness the same, in success and defeat the same - such a mind
is nearing that state of freedom.
The mind cannot be easily conquered. Minds that rise into waves
at the approach of every little thing at the slightest
provocation or danger, in what a state they must be! What to
talk of greatness or spirituality, when these changes come over
the mind? This unstable condition of the mind must be changed.
We must ask ourselves how far we can be acted upon by the
external world, and how far we can stand on our own feet, in
spite of all the forces outside us. When we have succeeded in
preventing all the forces in the world from throwing us off our
balance, then alone we have attained to freedom, and not before.
That is salvation. It is here and nowhere else; it is this
moment. Out of this idea, out of this fountain-head, all
beautiful streams of thought have flowed upon the world,
generally misunderstood in their expression, apparently
contradicting each other. We find hosts of brave and wonderfully
spiritual souls, in every nation, taking to caves or forests for
meditation, severing their connection with the external world.
This is the one idea. And, on the other hand, we find bright,
illustrious beings coming into society, trying to raise their
fellow men, the poor, the miserable. Apparently these two
methods are contradictory. The man who lives in a cave, apart
from his fellow-beings, smiles contemptuously upon those who are
working for the regeneration of their fellow men. "How foolish!"
he says; "what work is there? The world of Maya will always
remain the world of Maya; it cannot be changed." If I ask one of
our priests in India, "Do you believe in Vedanta?" - he says,
"That is my religion; I certainly do; that is my life." "Very
well, do you admit the equality of all life, the sameness of
everything?" "Certainly, I do." The next moment, when a
low-caste man approaches this priest, he jumps to one side of
the street to avoid that man. "Why do you jump?" "Because his
very touch would have polluted me." "But you were just saying we
are all the same, and you admit there is no difference in
souls." He says, "Oh, that is in theory only for householders;
when I go into a forest, then I will look upon everyone as the
same." You ask one of your great men in England, of great birth
and wealth, if he believes as a Christian in the brotherhood of
mankind, since all came from God. He answers in the affirmative,
but in five minutes he shouts something uncomplimentary about
the common herd. Thus, it has been a theory only for several
thousand years and never came into practice. All understand it,
declare it as the truth, but when you ask them to practice it,
they say, it will take millions of years.
There was a certain king who had a huge number of courtiers, and
each one of these courtiers declared he was ready to sacrifice
his life for his master, and that he was the most sincere being
ever born. In course of time, a Sannyâsin came to the king. The
king said to him that there never was a king who had so many
sincere courtiers as he had. The Sannyasin smiled and said he
did not believe that. The king said the Sannyasin could test it
if he liked. So the Sannyasin declared that he would make a
great sacrifice by which the king's reign would be extended very
long, with the condition that there should be made a small tank
into which each one of his courtiers should pour a pitcher of
milk, in the dark of night. The king smiled and said, "Is this
the test?" And he asked his courtiers to come to him, and told
them what was to be done. They all expressed their joyful assent
to the proposal and returned. In the dead of night, they came
and emptied their pitchers into the tank. But in the morning, it
was found full of water only. The courtiers were assembled and
questioned about the matter. Each one of them had thought there
would be so many pitchers of milk that his water would not be
detected. Unfortunately most of us have the same idea and we do
our share of work as did the courtiers in the story.
There is so much idea of equality, says the priest, that my
little privilege will not be detected. So say our rich men, so
say the tyrants of every country. There is more hope for the
tyrannised over, than for the tyrants. It will take a very long
time for tyrants to arrive at freedom, but less time for the
others. The cruelty of the fox is much more terrible than the
cruelty of the lion. The lion strikes a blow and is quiet for
some time afterwards, but the fox trying persistently to follow
his prey never misses an opportunity. Priestcraft is in its
nature cruel and heartless. That is why religion goes down where
priestcraft arises. Says the Vedanta, we must give up the idea
of privilege, then will religion come. Before that there is no
religion at all.
Do you believe what Christ says, "Sell all that thou hast, and
give to the poor?" Practical equality there; no trying to
torture the texts, but taking the truth as it is. Do not try to
torture texts. I have heard it said that that was preached only
to the handful of Jews who listened to Jesus. The same argument
will apply to other things also. Do not torture texts; dare to
face truth as it is. Even if we cannot reach to it, let us
confess our weakness, but let us not destroy the ideal. Let us
hope that we shall attain to it sometime, and strive for it.
There it is - "Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor,
and follow me." Thus, trampling on every privilege and
everything in us that works for privilege, let us work for that
knowledge which will bring the feeling of sameness towards all
mankind. You think that because you talk a little more polished
language you are superior to the man in the street. Remember
that when you are thinking this, you are not going towards
freedom, but are forging a fresh chain for your feet. And, above
all, if the pride of spirituality enters into you, woe unto you.
It is the most awful bondage that ever existed. Neither can
wealth nor any other bondage of the human heart bind the soul so
much as this. "I am purer than others", is the most awful idea
that can enter into the human heart. In what sense are you pure?
The God in you is the God in all. If you have not known this,
you have known nothing. How can there be difference? It is all
one. Every being is the temple of the Most High; if you can see
that, good, if not, spirituality has yet to come to you.
PRIVILEGE
(Delivered at the Sesame Club, London)
Two forces seem to be working throughout nature. One of these is
constantly differentiating, and the other is as constantly
unifying; the one making more and more for separate individuals,
the other, as it were, bringing the individuals into a mass,
bringing out sameness in the midst of all this differentiation.
It seems that the action of these two forces enters into every
department of nature and of human life. On the physical plane,
we always find the two forces most distinctly at work,
separating the individuals, making them more and more distinct
from other individuals, and again making them into species and
classes, and bringing out similarities of expressions, and form.
The same holds good as regards the social life of man. Since the
time when society began, these two forces have been at work,
differentiating and unifying. Their action appears in various
forms, and is called by various names, in different places, and
at different times. But the essence is present in all, one
making for differentiation, and the other for sameness; the one
making for caste, and the other breaking it down; one making for
classes and privileges, and the other destroying them. The whole
universe seems to be the battle-ground of these two forces. On
the one hand, it is urged, that though this unifying process
exists, we ought to resist it with all our might, because it
leads towards death, that perfect unity is perfect annihilation,
and that when the differentiating process that is at work in
this universe ceases, the universe comes to an end. It is
differentiation that causes the phenomena that are before us;
unification would reduce them all to a homogeneous and lifeless
matter. Such a thing, of course, mankind wants to avoid. The
same argument is applied to all the things and facts that we see
around us. It is urged that even in physical body and social
classification, absolute sameness would produce natural death
and social death. Absolute sameness of thought and feeling would
produce mental decay and degeneration. Sameness, therefore, is
to be avoided. This has been the argument on the one side, and
it has been urged in every country and in various times, with
only a change of language. Practically it is the same argument
which is urged by the Brahmins of India, when they want to
uphold the divisions and castes, when they want to uphold the
privileges of a certain portion of the community, against
everybody else. The destruction of caste, they declare, would
lead to destruction of society, and boldly they produce the
historical fact that theirs has been the longest-lived society.
So they, with some show of force, appeal to this argument. With
some show of authority they declare that that alone which makes
the individual live the longest life must certainly be better
than that which produces shorter lives.
On the other hand, the idea of oneness has had its advocates
throughout all times. From the days of the Upanishads, the
Buddhas, and Christs, and all other great preachers of religion,
down to our present day, in the new political aspirations, and
in the claims of the oppressed and the downtrodden, and of all
those who find themselves bereft of privileges - comes out the
one assertion of this unity and sameness. But human nature
asserts itself. Those who have an advantage want to keep it, and
if they find an argument, however one-sided and crude, they must
cling to it. This applies to both sides.
Applied to metaphysics, this question also assumes another form.
The Buddhist declares that we need not look for anything which
brings unity in the midst of these phenomena, we ought to be
satisfied with this phenomenal world. This variety is the
essence of life, however miserable and weak it may seem to be;
we can have nothing more. The Vedantist declares that unity is
the only thing that exists; variety is but phenomenal, ephemeral
and apparent. "Look not to variety," says the Vedantist, "go
back to unity." "Avoid unity; it is a delusion," says the
Buddhist, "go to variety." The same differences of opinion in
religion and metaphysics have come down to our own day, for, in
fact, the sum-total of the principles of knowledge is very
small. Metaphysics and metaphysical knowledge, religion and
religious knowledge, reached their culmination five thousand
years ago, and we are merely reiterating the same truths in
different languages, only enriching them sometimes by the
accession of fresh illustrations. So this is the fight, even
today. One side wants us to keep to the phenomenal, to all this
variation, and points out, with great show of argument, that
variation has to remain, for when that stops, everything is
gone. What we mean by life has been caused by variation. The
other side, at the same time, valiantly points to unity.
Coming to ethics, we find a tremendous departure. It is,
perhaps, the only science which makes a bold departure from this
fight. For ethics is unity; its basis is love. It will not look
at this variation. The one aim of ethics is this unity, this
sameness. The highest ethical codes that mankind has discovered
up to the present time know no variation; they have no time to
stop to look into it; their one end is to make for that
sameness. The Indian mind, being more analytical - I mean the
Vedantic mind - found this unity as the result of all its
analyses, and wanted to base everything upon this one idea of
unity. But as we have seen, in the same country, there were
other minds (the Buddhistic) who could not find that unity
anywhere. To them all truth was a mass of variation, there was
no connection between one thing and another.
I remember a story told by Prof. Max Müller in one of his books,
an old Greek story, of how a Brahmin visited Socrates in Athens.
The Brahmin asked, "What is the highest knowledge?" And Socrates
answered, "To know man is the end and aim of all knowledge."
"But how can you know man without knowing God?" replied the
Brahmin. The one side, the Greek side, which is represented by
modern Europe, insisted upon the knowledge of man; the Indian
side, mostly represented by the old religions of the world,
insisted upon the knowledge of God. The one sees God in nature,
and the other sees nature in God. To us, at the present time,
perhaps, has been given the privilege of standing aside from
both these aspects, and taking an impartial view of the whole.
This is a fact that variation exists, and so it must, if life is
to be. This is also a fact that in and through these variations
unity must be perceived. This is a fact that God is perceived in
nature. But it is also a fact that nature is perceived in God.
The knowledge of man is the highest knowledge, and only by
knowing man, can we know God. This is also a fact that the
knowledge of God is the highest knowledge, and knowing God alone
we can know man. Apparently contradictory though these
statements may appear, they are the necessity of human nature.
The whole universe is a play of unity in variety, and of variety
in unity. The whole universe is a play of differentiation and
oneness; the whole universe is a play of the finite in the
Infinite. We cannot take one without granting the other. But we
cannot take them both as facts of the same perception, as facts
of the same experience; yet in this way it will always go on.
Therefore, coming to our more particular purpose, which is
religion rather than ethics, a state of things, where all
variation has died down, giving place to a uniform, dead
homogeneity, is impossible so long as life lasts. Nor is it
desirable. At the same time, there is the other side of the
fact, viz that this unity already exists. That is the peculiar
claim - not that this unity has to be made, but that it already
exists, and that you could not perceive the variety at all,
without it. God is not to be made, but He already exists. This
has been the claim of all religions. Whenever one has perceived
the finite, he has also perceived the Infinite. Some laid stress
on the finite side, and declared that they perceived the finite
without; others laid stress on the Infinite side, and declared
they perceived the Infinite only. But we know that it is a
logical necessity that we cannot perceive the one without the
other. So the claim is that this sameness, this unity, this
perfection - as we may call it - is not to be made, it already
exists, and is here. We have only to recognise it, to understand
it. Whether we know it or not, whether we can express it in
clear language or not, whether this perception assumes the force
and clearness of a sense-perception or not, it is there. For we
are bound by the logical necessity of our minds to confess that
it is there, else, the perception of the finite would not be. I
am not speaking of the old theory of substance and qualities,
but of oneness; that in the midst of all this mass of phenomena,
the very fact of the consciousness that you and I are different
brings to us, at the same moment, the consciousness that you and
I are not different. Knowledge would be impossible without that
unity. Without the idea of sameness there would be neither
perception nor knowledge. So both run side by side.
Therefore the absolute sameness of conditions, if that be the
aim of ethics, appears to be impossible. That all men should be
the same, could never be, however we might try. Men will be born
differentiated; some will have more power than others; some will
have natural capacities, others not; some will have perfect
bodies, others not. We can never stop that. At the same time
ring in our ears the wonderful words of morality proclaimed by
various teachers: "Thus, seeing the same God equally present in
all, the sage does not injure Self by the Self, and thus reaches
the highest goal. Even in this life they have conquered relative
existence whose minds are firmly fixed on this sameness; for God
is pure, and God is the same to all. Therefore such are said to
be living in God." We cannot deny that this is the real idea;
yet at the same time comes the difficulty that the sameness as
regards external forms and position can never be attained.
But what can be attained is elimination of privilege. That is
really the work before the whole world. In all social lives,
there has been that one fight in every race and in every
country. The difficulty is not that one body of men are
naturally more intelligent than another, but whether this body
of men, because they have the advantage of intelligence, should
take away even physical enjoyment from those who do not possess
that advantage. The fight is to destroy that privilege. That
some will be stronger physically than others, and will thus
naturally be able to subdue or defeat the weak, is a
self-evident fact, but that because of this strength they should
gather unto themselves all the attainable happiness of this
life, is not according to law, and the fight has been against
it. That some people, through natural aptitude, should be able
to accumulate more wealth than others, is natural: but that on
account of this power to acquire wealth they should tyrannize
and ride roughshod over those who cannot acquire so much wealth,
is not a part of the law, and the fight has been against that.
The enjoyment of advantage over another is privilege, and
throughout ages, the aim of morality has been its destruction.
This is the work which tends towards sameness, towards unity,
without destroying variety.
Let all these variations remain eternally; it is the very
essence of life. We shall all play in this way, eternally. You
will be wealthy, and I shall be poor; you will be strong, and I
shall be weak; you will be learned and I ignorant; you will be
spiritual, and I, less so. But what of that? Let us remain so,
but because you are physically or intellectually stronger, you
must not have more privilege than I, and that you have more
wealth is no reason why you should be considered greater than I,
for that sameness is here, in spite of the different conditions.
The work of ethics has been, and will be in the future, not the
destruction of variation and the establishment of sameness in
the external world - which is impossible for it would bring
death and annihilation - but to recognise the unity in spite of
all these variations, to recognise the God within, in spite of
everything that frightens us, to recognise that infinite
strength as the property of everyone in spite of all apparent
weakness, and to recognise the eternal, infinite, essential
purity of the soul in spite of everything to the contrary that
appears on the surface. This we have to recognise. Taking one
side alone, one half only of the position, is dangerous and
liable to lead to quarrels. We must take the whole thing as it
is, stand on it as our basis and work it out in every part of
our lives, as individuals and as unit members of society.
KRISHNA
(Delivered in California, on April 1, 1900)
[This article was recorded by Ida Ansell in shorthand. As,
however, Swamiji's speed was too great for her in her early
days, dots are put in the articles to indicate the omissions,
while the words within square brackets are added by way of
linking up the disconnected parts.]
Almost the same circumstances which gave birth to Buddhism in
India surrounded the rise of Krishna. Not only this, the events
of that day we find happening in our own times.
There is a certain ideal. At the same time there must always be
a large majority of the human race who cannot come up to the
ideal, not even intellectually. ... The strong ones carry it out
and many times have no sympathy for the weak. The weak to the
strong are only beggars. The strong ones march ahead. ... Of
course, we see at once that the highest position to take is to
be sympathetic and helpful to those who are weak. But then, in
many cases the philosopher bars the way to our being
sympathetic. If we go by the theory that the whole of this
infinite life has to be determined by the few years' existence
here and now, ... then it is very hopeless for us, ... and we
have no time to look back upon those who are weak. But if these
are not the conditions - if the world is only one of the many
schools through which we have to pass, if the eternal life is to
be moulded and fashioned and guided by the eternal law, and
eternal law, eternal chances await everyone - then we need not
be in a hurry. We have time to sympathise, to look around,
stretch out a helping hand to the weak and bring them up.
With Buddhism we have two words in Sanskrit: one is translated
religion, the other, a sect. It is the most curious fact that
the disciples and descendants of Krishna have no name for their
religion [although] foreigners call it Hinduism or Brâhmanism.
There is one religion, and there are many sects. The moment you
give it a name, individualise it and separate it from the rest,
it is a sect, no more a religion. A sect [proclaims] its own
truth and declares that there is no truth anywhere else.
Religion believes that there has been, and still is, one
religion in the world. There never were two religions. It is the
same religion [presenting] different aspects in different
places. The task is to conceive the proper understanding of the
goal and scope of humanity.
This was the great work of Krishna: to clear our eyes and make
us look with broader vision upon humanity in its march upward
and onward. His was the first heart that was large enough to see
truth in all, his the first lips that uttered beautiful words
for each and all.
This Krishna preceded Buddha by some thousand years. ... A great
many people do not believe that he ever existed. Some believe
that [the worship of Krishna grew out of] the old sun worship.
There seem to be several Krishnas: one was mentioned in the
Upanishads, another was king, another a general. All have been
lumped into one Krishna. It does not matter much. The fact is,
some individual comes who is unique in spirituality. Then all
sorts of legends are invented around him. But, all the Bibles
and stories which come to be cast upon this one person have to
be recast in [the mould of] his character. All the stories of
the New Testament have to be modelled upon the accepted life
[and] character of Christ. In all of the Indian stories about
Buddha the one central note of that whole life is kept up -
sacrifice for others. ...
In Krishna we find ... two ideas [stand] supreme in his message:
The first is the harmony of different ideas; the second is
non-attachment. A man can attain to perfection, the highest
goal, sitting on a throne, commanding armies, working out big
plans for nations. In fact, Krishna's great sermon was preached
on the battlefield.
Krishna saw plainly through the vanity of all the mummeries,
mockeries, and ceremonials of the old priests; and yet he saw
some good in them.
If you are a strong man, very good! But do not curse others who
are not strong enough for you. ... Everyone says, "Woe unto you
people!!" Who says, "Woe unto me that I cannot help you?" The
people are doing all right to the best of their ability and
means and knowledge. Woe unto me that I cannot lift them to
where I am!
So the ceremonials, worship of gods, and myths, are all right,
Krishna says. ... Why? Because they all lead to the same goal.
Ceremonies, books, and forms- all these are links in the chain.
Get hold! That is the one thing. If you are sincere and have
really got hold of one link, do not let go; the rest is bound to
come. [But people] do not get hold. They spend the time
quarrelling and determining what they should get hold of, and do
not get hold of anything. ... We are always after truth, but
never want to get it. We simply want the pleasure to go about
and ask. We have a lot of energy and spend it that way. That is
why Krishna says: Get hold of any one of these chains that are
stretched out from the common centre. No one step is greater
than another. ... Blame no view of religion so far as it is
sincere. Hold on to one of these links, and it will pull you to
the centre. Your heart itself will teach all the rest. The
teacher within will teach all the creeds, all the philosophies.
...
Krishna talks of himself as God, as Christ does. He sees the
Deity in himself. And he says, "None can go a day out of my
path. All have to come to me. Whosoever wants to worship in
whatsoever form, I give him faith in that form, and through that
I meet him. ..."(Gita, IV. 12.) His heart is all for the masses.
Independent, Krishna stands out. The very boldness of it
frightens us. We depend upon everything - ... upon a few good
words, upon circumstances. When the soul wants to depend upon
nothing, not even upon life, that is the height of philosophy,
the height of manhood. Worship leads to the same goal. Krishna
lays great stress upon worship. Worship God!
Various sorts of worship we see in this world. The sick man is
very worshipful to God. ... There is the man who loses his
fortune; he also prays very much, to get money. The highest
worship is that of the man who loves God for God's sake. [The
question may be asked :] "Why should there be so much sorrow if
there is a God?" The worshipper replies! " ... There is misery
in the world; [but] because of that I do not cease to love God.
I do not worship Him to take away my [misery]. I love Him
because He is love itself." The other [types of worship] are
lower-grade; but Krishna has no condemnation for anything. It is
better to do something than to stand still. The man who begins
to worship God will grow by degrees and begin to love God for
love's sake. ...
How to attain purity living this life? Shall we all go to the
forest caves? What good would it do? If the mind is not under
control, it is no use living in a cave because the same mind
will bring all disturbances there. We will find twenty devils in
the cave because all the devils are in the mind. If the mind is
under control, we can have the cave anywhere, wherever we are.
It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is
for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make
things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see
things in the proper light. First, believe in this world - that
there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is
good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think
that you are not understanding it in the right light. Throw the
burden on yourselves! ... Whenever we are tempted to say that
the world is going to the dogs, we ought to analyse ourselves,
and we shall find that we have lost the faculty of seeing things
as they are.
Work day and night! "Behold, I am the Lord of the Universe. I
have no duty. Every duty is bondage. But I work for work's sake.
If I ceased to work for a minute, [there would be chaos]."(Ibid.
III. 22-23.) So do thou work, without any idea of duty. ...
This world is a play. You are His playmates. Go on and work,
without any sorrow, without any misery. See His play in the
slums, in the saloons! Work to lift people! Not that they are
vile or degraded; Krishna does not say that.
Do you know why so little good work is done? My lady goes to the
slum. ... She gives a few ducats and says, "My poor men, take
that and be happy!" ... Or my fine woman, walking through the
street, sees a poor fellow and throws him five cents. Think of
the blasphemy of it! Blessed are we that the Lord has given us
his teaching in your own Testament. Jesus says, "Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done
it unto me." It is blasphemy to think that you can help anyone.
First root out this idea of helping, and then go to worship.
God's children are your Master's children. [And children are but
different forms of the father.] You are His servant. ... Serve
the living God! God comes to you in the blind, in the halt, in
the poor, in the weak, in the diabolical. What a glorious chance
for you to worship! The moment you think you are "helping", you
undo the whole thing and degrade yourself. Knowing this, work.
"What follows?" you say. You do not get that heartbreak, that
awful misery. ... Then work is no more slavery. It becomes a
play, and joy itself. ... Work! Be unattached! That is the whole
secret. If you get attached, you become miserable. ...
With everything we do in life we identify ourselves. Here is a
man who says harsh words to me. I feel anger coming on me. In a
few seconds anger and I are one, and then comes misery. Attach
yourselves to the Lord and to nothing else, because everything
else is unreal. Attachment to the unreal will bring misery.
There is only one Existence that is real, only one Life in which
there is neither object nor [subject]. ...
But unattached love will not hurt you. Do anything - marry, have
children. ... Do anything you like - nothing will hurt you. Do
nothing with the idea of "mine". Duty for duty's sake; work for
work's sake. What is that to you? You stand aside.
When we come to that non-attachment, then we can understand the
marvellous mystery of the universe; how it is intense activity
and vibration, and at the same time intensest peace and calm;
how it is work every moment and rest every moment. That is the
mystery of the universe - the impersonal and personal in one,
the infinite and finite in one. Then we shall find the secret.
"He who finds in the midst of intense activity the greatest
rest, and in the midst of the greatest rest intense activity, he
has become a Yogi." (Ibid. IV. 18.) He alone is a real worker,
none else. We do a little work and break ourselves. Why? We
become attached to that work. If we do not become attached, side
by side with it we have infinite rest. ...
How hard it is to arrive at this sort of non-attachment!
Therefore Krishna shows us the lower ways and methods. The
easiest way for everyone is to do [his or her] work and not take
the results. It is our desire that binds us. If we take the
results of actions, whether good or evil, we will have to bear
them. But if we work not for ourselves, but all for the glory of
the Lord, the results will take care of themselves. "To work you
have the right, but not to the fruits thereof." (Ibid. II. 47.)
The soldier works for no results. He does his duty. If defeat
comes, it belongs to the general, not to the soldier. We do our
duty for love's sake - love for the general, love for the Lord.
...
If you are strong, take up the Vedanta philosophy and be
independent. If you cannot do that, worship God; if not, worship
some image. If you lack strength even to do that, do some good
works without the idea of gain. Offer everything you have unto
the service of the Lord. Fight on! "Leaves and water and one
flower - whosoever lays anything on my altar, I receive it with
equal delights."(Ibid IX. 26.) If you cannot do anything, not a
single good work, then take refuge [in the Lord]. "The Lord
resides within the heart of the being, making them turn upon His
wheel. Do thou with all thy soul and heart take refuge in Him.
...(Ibid XVIII. 61-62.)
These are some of the general ideas that Krishna preached on
this idea of love [in the Gita]. There are [in] other great
books, sermons on love - as with Buddha, as with Jesus. ...
A few words about the life of Krishna. There is a great deal of
similarity between the lives of Jesus and Krishna. A discussion
is going on as to which borrowed of the other. There was the
tyrannical king in both places. Both were born in a manger. The
parents were bound in both cases. Both were saved by angels. In
both cases all the boys born in that year were killed. The
childhood is the same. ... Again, in the end, both were killed.
Krishna was killed by accident; he took the man who killed him
to heaven. Christ was killed, and blessed the robber and took
him to heaven.
There are a great many similarities in of the New Testament and
the Gita. The human thought goes the same way. ... I will find
you the answer in the words of Krishna himself: "Whenever virtue
subsides and irreligion prevails, I come down. Again and again I
come. Therefore, whenever thou seest a great soul struggling to
uplift mankind, know that I am come, and worship. ..."(Ibid. IV.
8; X. 41.)
At the same time, if he comes as Jesus or as Buddha, why is
there so much schism? The preachings must be followed! A Hindu
devotee would say: It is God himself who became Christ and
Krishna and Buddha and all these [great teachers]. A Hindu
philosopher would say: These are the great souls; they are
already free. And though free, they refuse to accept their
liberation while the whole world is suffering. They come again
and again, take a human embodiment and help mankind. They know
from their childhood what they are and what they come for. ...
They do not come through bondage like we do. ... They come out
of their own free will, and cannot help having tremendous
spiritual power. We cannot resist it. The vast mass of mankind
is dragged into the whirlpool of spirituality, and the vibration
goes on and on because one of these [great souls] gives a push.
So it continues until all mankind is liberated and the play of
this planet is finished.
Glory unto the great souls whose lives we have been studying!
They are the living gods of the world. They are the persons whom
we ought to worship. If He comes to me, I can only recognise Him
if He takes a human form. He is everywhere, but do we see Him?
We can only see Him if He takes the limitation of man. .... If
men and ... animals are manifestations of God, these teachers of
mankind are leaders, are Gurus. Therefore, salutations unto you,
whose footstool is worshipped by angels! Salutations unto you
leaders of the human race! Salutations unto you great teachers!
You leaders have our salutations for ever and ever!