ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನ

"ನಾನು" ಎಂಬುದು ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಅಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಅರಿಯುವದು ಅತಿ ಅವಶ್ಯ

2010-10-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

ನಿರಾಕಾರ ಮಾರ್ಗದಿಂದ ಆತ್ಮಜ್ಞಾನ ನಿಶ್ಚಿತ. ಆಕಾರದಿಂದ ನಿರಾಕಾರದೆಡೆಗೆ ಸಾಗಲು ದೇಹಾದಾರಿತವಾದಂತಹ ದರ್ಮ,ದೇವರು, ಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಗೂ ದೇಹದರಿತವಾದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಜ್ಞಾನಗಳು ಮೂಲವಾದ ಅಡೆತಡೆಗಳು. ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಮಿರಿ ವಿಚಾರಗಳು ಮುಂದೆ ಸಾಗಿದಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವಾಗತೋಡಗುವದು.

ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗತ ಅನುಬವಗಳಿಗೂ ಹಾಗೂ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವಕ್ಕೂ ಯಾವ ಸಂಬಂದವೂ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾಗಿರುವದರಿಂದ ಅದು ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರ ಹಾಗೂ ಸಂಸಾರ ಬಂದನದ ಕಕ್ಷೆಯಿಂದ ಹೊರಗಿರುವದರಿಂದ, ಜನನ,ಜೀವನ ,ಮರಣದ ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಅನುಬವಗಳು, ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಿತ್ಯ ಮಾತ್ರ. ಆದರಿಂದ "ನಾನು" ಎಂಬುದು ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಅಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಅರಿಯುವದು ಅತಿ ಅವಶ್ಯ.

ಇಡಿ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾಗಿ ಆವರಿಸಿರುವ ಅರಿವಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮವನ್ನು ಚರ್ಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ ಗ್ರಹಿಸುವದು ಅಸಾದ್ಯ.

2010-10-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

ದೇಹಕ್ಕೆ ಇಟ್ಟ ಹೆಸರನ್ನು ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಎಂದು ಬಗೆದು ದೇಹವಲ್ಲದ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾದ ಈ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಿರ್ದರಿಸುವದು ಮೂರ್ಖತನ. ಈ ನಿರಕಾರವಾದ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಆದಾರದ ಮೇಲೆ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಗೂ ಈ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಮೇಲೆ ಆದರಿಸಿರುವ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗತ ಜೀವನ, ಅಥವಾ ಜನನ,ಜೀವನ ಹಾಗೂ ಮರಣದ ಅನುಬವಗಳೆಲ್ಲವೂ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋನದಲ್ಲಿ ಮರೀಚಿಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ.

ಇಡಿ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾಗಿ ಆವರಿಸಿರುವ ಅರಿವಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮವನ್ನು ಚರ್ಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ ಗ್ರಹಿಸುವದು ಅಸಾದ್ಯ. ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡವೆ ಆತ್ಮದಲ್ಲಿರಿವಾಗ ಹಾಗೂ ಆತ್ಮಾದಾರಿತವಾಗಿರುವಾಗ , ಈ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡದ ಮೂಲವನ್ನಿರಿಯದೆ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವೂ ಅಸಾದ್ಯ.

ಈ ಆತ್ಮದಿಂದ ಉದ್ಬವಿಸಿದ ಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವಂತಹ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಆತ್ಮಮಯ

2010-09-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವವೆ ನಿರ್ಗುಣ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾದ ಅರಿವಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮ. ಈ ಆತ್ಮದಿಂದ ಉದ್ಬವಿಸಿದ ಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವಂತಹ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಆತ್ಮಮಯ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಅನ್ವೇಷಣೆಯೇ ಆ ವಸ್ತುವಿನ ಅಥವಾ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅನ್ವೇಷಣೆ. ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನವಾದಾಗ ಈ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಮನಸ್ಸು ತಂತಾನೇ ಈ ಪರಮ ತತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಶರಣಾಗಿ, ಲೀನವಾಗಿ ಅದರೊಡನೆ ಒಂದಾಗುವದು. ಇದುವೇ ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯ ಅಥವಾ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯ.

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ವೀವೆಕಾನಂದರ ದೇವರ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ ಶ್ರೀ, ರಾಮಕೃಷ್ಣರು ಅವರಿಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟವಕ್ರ ಗೀತೆಯನ್ನು ಓದಲು ಕೊಟ್ಟರು.

2010-09-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ವೀವೆಕಾನಂದರ ದೇವರ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ ಶ್ರೀ, ರಾಮಕೃಷ್ಣರು ಅವರಿಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟವಕ್ರ ಗೀತೆಯನ್ನು ಓದಲು ಕೊಟ್ಟರು. ಈ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಓಶೋ ಹೇಳಿದ ಕತೆ ಇಂತಿದೆ:-

When Vivekananda came to Ramakrishna his name was still Narendranath -- later on Ramakrishna named him Vivekananda. When he came to Ramakrishna he was extremely argumentative, an atheist, a rationalist. He wanted proof for everything. There are some things that have no proof -- it cannot be helped. There is no proof for godliness: it is, and yet there is no proof. There is no proof for love. It is, and yet there is no proof. There is no proof for beauty. It is, and yet there is no proof.

If I say, "Look how beautiful these ironwood trees are," and you say, "I don't see any beauty -- Trees are just trees. Prove it!," it will be difficult. How can one prove they are beautiful? To be beautiful you need a sense of beauty -- there is no other way. You need eyes -- there is no other way. It is reported that Majnu said, "To know Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu." It is true; to see Laila there is no other way. The king of his area called Majnu and said. "You are mad! I know your Laila -- an ordinary girl, jet black -- nothing special.

I feel sorry for you, so here are twelve girls from my palace -- they are the most beautiful women of the country. You can chose any one you like. Seeing you cry, my heart also cries. " Majnu looked at them and said, "There is no Laila among them. They cannot even be compared to Laila, they are not even worth the dust of her feet." The king said, "Majnu, you are mad...!" Majnu said, "That may be so, but I must tell you one thing: to see Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu." Majnu is right. To see the beauty of trees you need an eye for art -- there is no other proof.

If one wants to know love, one will need the heart of a lover -- there is no other proof. And godliness is the collective name of all the beauty, all the love and all the truth of this universe. For it an unwavering consciousness is needed, a witnessing is needed... where no word remains, no thought remains, no wave arises... where no mental dust remains and the mirror of consciousness is perfectly pure. What proof? Vivekananda told Ramakrishna, "I want proof. If God exists then prove it!"

Ramakrishna looked at Vivekananda. This youth had great promise, great potential; much was ready to happen within him. There was a great treasure with which Vivekananda was unacquainted. Ramakrishna looked into, peered into, the past lives of this youth. Vivekananda had come carrying a great treasure, a great treasure of integrity, but it was suppressed under his logic. Seeing this, a cry of anguish and compassion must have risen from Ramakrishna's heart. He said, "Forget all this. We'll talk about proof and such things later on. I have become a little old, I have difficulty reading; you are young, you eyes are still strong -- read from the book lying there."

It was the Ashtavakra Gita. "Read a little out loud to me." It is said that Vivekananda saw nothing wrong in this, this fellow was not requesting anything special. He read three or four sutras and every cell began trembling. He started to panic and he said, "I cannot read on." Ramakrishna insisted, " Go ahead and read. What harm can there be in it? How can this book hurt you? You are young, your eyes are still fresh, and I am old, it is hard for me to read. I must hear this book -- read it out to me."

It is said that Vivekananda kept on reading aloud from the book -- and disappeared in meditation. Ramakrishna had seen great potential in this youth, a very promising potential, like that of a bodhisattva who one day or other is destined to become a buddha. Sooner or later, no matter how much he wanders, he is approaching buddhahood. When Vivekananda came to Ramakrishna his name was still Narendranath -- later on Ramakrishna named him Vivekananda. When he came to Ramakrishna he was extremely argumentative, an atheist, a rationalist.

He wanted proof for everything. There are some things that have no proof -- it cannot be helped. There is no proof for godliness: it is, and yet there is no proof. There is no proof for love. It is, and yet there is no proof. There is no proof for beauty. It is, and yet there is no proof. If I say, "Look how beautiful these ironwood trees are," and you say, "I don't see any beauty -- Trees are just trees. Prove it!," it will be difficult. How can one prove they are beautiful? To be beautiful you need a sense of beauty -- there is no other way. You need eyes -- there is no other way.

It is reported that Majnu said, "To know Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu." It is true; to see Laila there is no other way. The king of his area called Majnu and said. "You are mad! I know your Laila -- an ordinary girl, jet black -- nothing special. I feel sorry for you, so here are twelve girls from my palace -- they are the most beautiful women of the country. You can chose any one you like. Seeing you cry, my heart also cries. " Majnu looked at them and said, "There is no Laila among them. They cannot even be compared to Laila, they are not even worth the dust of her feet."

The king said, "Majnu, you are mad...!" Majnu said, "That may be so, but I must tell you one thing: to see Laila you will need the eyes of Majnu." Majnu is right. To see the beauty of trees you need an eye for art -- there is no other proof. If one wants to know love, one will need the heart of a lover -- there is no other proof. And godliness is the collective name of all the beauty, all the love and all the truth of this universe. For it an unwavering consciousness is needed, a witnessing is needed... where no word remains, no thought remains, no wave arises... where no mental dust remains and the mirror of consciousness is perfectly pure. What proof?

Vivekananda told Ramakrishna, "I want proof. If God exists then prove it!" Ramakrishna looked at Vivekananda. This youth had great promise, great potential; much was ready to happen within him. There was a great treasure with which Vivekananda was unacquainted. Ramakrishna looked into, peered into, the past lives of this youth. Vivekananda had come carrying a great treasure, a great treasure of integrity, but it was suppressed under his logic. Seeing this, a cry of anguish and compassion must have risen from Ramakrishna's heart.

He said, "Forget all this. We'll talk about proof and such things later on. I have become a little old, I have difficulty reading; you are young, you eyes are still strong -- read from the book lying there." It was the Ashtavakra Gita. "Read a little out loud to me." It is said that Vivekananda saw nothing wrong in this, this fellow was not requesting anything special. He read three or four sutras and every cell began trembling. He started to panic and he said, "I cannot read on." Ramakrishna insisted, " Go ahead and read.

What harm can there be in it? How can this book hurt you? You are young, your eyes are still fresh, and I am old, it is hard for me to read. I must hear this book -- read it out to me." It is said that Vivekananda kept on reading aloud from the book -- and disappeared in meditation. Ramakrishna had seen great potential in this youth, a very promising potential, like that of a bodhisattva who one day or other is destined to become a buddha. Sooner or later, no matter how much he wanders, he is approaching buddhahood.

Swami Vivekananda Searching Job There is a small memoir in the life of Vivekananda. When Vivekananda’s father died, there was so much poverty in his home that often there was not enough food for both mother and son. So, Vivekananda would tell his mother, ”Today I am invited to a friend’s house, I will go there.” In fact there was no invitation, no nothing, he would just roam around on the roads and later return home. Otherwise the food was so little that his mother would feed him and would remain hungry herself.

So, he would return home with an empty stomach but happy and laughing saying loudly, ”It was a wonderful meal! Such delicious food dishes were cooked!” He would enter the house talking of those food stuffs that were nowhere cooked for him, that he had not eaten anywhere.

When Ramakrishna came to know of this, he said, ”How mad you are! Why don’t you ask God and all will be taken care of.” Vivekananda said that it will be too ordinary a thing to talk about eating and drinking with God. Still Ramakrishna asked him to ask at least once and see. He sent Vivekananda inside the temple. One hour passed, one and a half hours passed, Vivekananda came out from the temple and was very blissful and estatic. He came out dancing. Ramakrishna asked, ”Did you get it? Did you ask for it?” Vivekananda said, ”Get what?” Ramakrishna said, ”I had told you to put forward your demand. What makes you return so blissful?”

Vivekananda said, ”I forgot that completely ” This happened several times. Ramakrishna would send him in and when Vivekananda came out of the temple, he would inquire about it. Then Vivekananda would remember what he had been sent in for. Ramakrishna said, ”Are you mad or something? Because while going inside, you promised me that you will ask.” Vivekananda would say, ”When I go in, there remains not even a faint memory that I have to ask God for something. On the contrary, a feeling of giving arises in me, that I should give myself to Him. And when I give myself, there is such bliss, so much of it that there is neither hunger, nor thirst, nor the need to ask”

Vivekananda could not ask. It was not possible for him. Until now no truly religious person has asked for anything from God. And those who have asked, it ought to be understood well that they have nothing to do with religion. The religious man has only given.

Source: "Ramakrishna Paramhansa & Swami Vivekananda First Meeting" from book "the mahageeta vol1" By Osho

ದೇಹ ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತು ಸಹಿತವಾದ ಅನುಬವವೇ ಮನಸ್ಸು

2010-09-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

ದೇಹ ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಅಲ್ಲ ಎಂದಮೇಲೆ ,ದೇಹದ್ರುಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ ಸತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಅನ್ವೆಷಿಸುವದು ಅತಿ ದೊಡ್ಡ ತಪ್ಪು. ದೇಹಾದಾರಿತವಾದ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು, ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಅನುಬವಗಳನ್ನು ಮಿತ್ಯವೆಂದು ಮನವರಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸತ್ಯವೇನೆಂದು ಗ್ರಹಿಸಲು ಸಾದ್ಯವಾಗುವದು. ಮೂರು ಅವಸ್ತೆಗಳನ್ನು, ಆತ್ಮದ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋನದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವಲೋಕಿಸಿದರೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸತ್ಯವೇನೆಂಬುದರ ಅರಿವಾಗುವದು. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಸ್ವಯಂ ಅನ್ವೇಷಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ "ನಾನು" ಎಂಬುದು ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವವಲ್ಲ , "ನಾನು" ಎಂಬುದು ಮನಸ್ಸು. ದೇಹ ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತು ಸಹಿತವಾದ ಅನುಬವವೇ ಮನಸ್ಸು. ಮನಸನ್ನು ದೇಹಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತವಾಗಿರದೇ , ದೇಹ ಮತ್ತು ಜಗತ್ತುಗಳೆರಡು ಒಟ್ಟಾಗಿ ಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಳ್ಳುವ ಜಾಗೃತಾವಸ್ತೆ ಅಥವಾ ಸ್ವಪ್ನಾವಸ್ತೆಯ ಅನ್ಬವವೇ ,ಈ ಮನಸ್ಸು.

ಮನಸ್ಸನ್ನು ದೇಹಕ್ಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತಗೊಳಿಸಿದಾಗ ದೇಹದೃಷ್ಟಿ ಅಥವಾ ಅಹಂಕಾರ ಉದ್ಬವವಾಗಿ ಜಗತ್ತು ಪ್ರಕಟಗೋಳ್ಳುವದು. ಈ ಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಂಡ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಜಗತ್ತೇ ಅಜ್ಞಾನ. ಈ ಅಜ್ಞಾನದಿಂದ ಮುಕ್ತಿಪಡೆಯಲು ಮನಸ್ಸೇನೆಂದು ಹಾಗೂ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನ ಮೂಲದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅರಿಯುವದು ಅತ್ಯವಶ್ಯ.

ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವೂ ಬರೀ ಕೆಲ ವಿಚಾರವಂತರ ಹಾಗೂ ಜ್ಞಾನಿಗಳ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳ ಅಧ್ಯಯನದಿಂದ ಹಾಗೂ ಅವುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿಮರ್ಶೆ ಮಾಡುವದರಿಂದ ಆಗುವದು ಅಸಾದ್ಯ.

2010-09-20T02:10:00.000-07:00

ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವೂ ಬರೀ ಕೆಲ ವಿಚಾರವಂತರ ಹಾಗೂ ಜ್ಞಾನಿಗಳ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳ ಅಧ್ಯಯನದಿಂದ ಹಾಗೂ ಅವುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ವಿಮರ್ಶೆ ಮಾಡುವದರಿಂದ ಆಗುವದು ಅಸಾದ್ಯ. ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಷಯಗಳನ್ನು ಆಳವಾಗಿ ಅಬ್ಯಾಸಿಸಿ ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಮನದಾಳದಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಶ್ಲೇಷಿಸಿ ಅವುಗಳ ಗೂಡಾರ್ಥ ಗಳನ್ನೂ ಅರಗಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಾಗ ಮಾತ್ರ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯವೇನೆಂಬುದರ ಅರಿವಾಗುವದು. ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಪಾಂಡಿತ್ಯ ದಿಂದ ಹಾಗೂ ಪಾಂಡಿತ್ಯ ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನದಿಂದ ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಅಸಾದ್ಯ.

ದ್ವೈತ ಹಾಗೂ ಅದ್ವೈತ ಮತಗಳಲ್ಲ. ದ್ವೈತ ಹಾಗೂ ಅದ್ವೈತವೂ ಆತ್ಮದ ಸ್ವಬಾವ. ಅಜ್ಞಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಆತ್ಮವು ದ್ವೈತ ಬಾವದಲ್ಲಿರುವದು. ಸ್ವ ಸ್ವಬಾವದ ಅರಿವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಆತ್ಮವು ಅದ್ವೈತ ಬಾವದಲ್ಲಿರುವದು. ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯವು ಯಾವ ಧರ್ಮಕ್ಕೂ ಸೀಮಿತವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ. ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ಆತ್ಮವು ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾಗಿರುವದರಿಂದ , ಅರಿವಿನರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮವನ್ನು ಹೊರತು ಪಡೆಸಿ ಎರಡನೆಯ ವಸ್ತು ಇರುವದಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಆತ್ಮವಂದೇ ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯ ಹಾಗೂ ಆತ್ಮವನ್ನು ಹೊರತು ಪಡೆಸಿ ಮತೆಲ್ಲವುಗಳು ಆತ್ಮದಿಂದ ಉದ್ಬವವಾದ ಮರೀಚಿಕೆ ಮಾತ್ರ. ಮರಿಚಿಕೆ ಹೇಗೆ ಸತ್ಯವಲ್ಲವೋ ಹಾಗೇ ಈ ದೇಹ ಮತ್ತು ಜಗತ್ತು ಸತ್ಯವಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೇ ಈ ಮರೀಚಿಕೆ ಉದ್ಬವವಾಗಲು ಕಾರಣವಾದ ವಸ್ತು ಸತ್ಯವಾದದ್ದು. ಇದನ್ನು ಅರಿಯುವದು ಅತ್ಯವಶ್ಯ. ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವಿನಿಂದ ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನವಾಗುವದು. ಈ ಅರಿವೂ ಉಪನಿಷದ್ದುಗಳು ಸಾರುವ ಹಾಗೇ ಯಾವುದೇ ಪಾಂಡಿತ್ಯದಿಂದ ಆಗುವದಿಲ್ಲ.

[ This Ataman cannot be attained by the study of the Vedas, or by intelligence, or by much hearing of sacred books. It is attained by him alone whom It chooses. To such a one Ataman reveals Its own form. [Katha Upanishad Ch-II -23-P-20]

Mundaka Upanishad :-

This Ataman cannot be attained through study of the Vedas, nor through intelligence, nor through much learning. He who chooses Ataman—by him alone is Ataman attained. It is Ataman that reveals to the seeker Its true nature. [ 3 –page-70 Mundaka Upanishad Upanishads by Nikilanada]

ಈ ದೇಹಾದರಿತ ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರಗಳು ,ನಡುವಳಿಕೆಗಳು ಕೆಳ ಸ್ತರದ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆಯ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತ

2010-09-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅನ್ವೇಷಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಅನ್ವೇಷಕರು , ಅನೇಕ ರೀತಿಯ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆಗಳ್ಳನ್ನು ವಿಶ್ಲೇಷಿಸುತ್ತ , ಅನೇಕ ವಿಚಾರವಂತರೊಡನೆ ವಿಮರ್ಶಿಸುತ್ತ, ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಹುಡುಕಿ ತಡಕಾಡಿದರು ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವೂ ಹತ್ತಿರವೆನಿಸಿದರೂ ಸಹ ಅದು, ದೂರದ ಬೆಟ್ಟವಾಗಿಯೇ ಉಳಿಯುವದು.

ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳ ವಾಚನದಿಂದ, ಧರ್ಮ ಗ್ರಂಥಗಳ ಪಾಂಡಿತ್ಯದಿಂದ , ಬುದ್ದಿಮತ್ತೆಯ ಪ್ರದಶನದಿಂದ, ಧರ್ಮಗಳು ಮುಕ್ತಿಗಾಗಿ ಸೂಚಿಸಿದ ಮಾರ್ಗ ಸೂಚಿಯ ಆಚರಣೆಗಳಿಂದ, ಧಾರ್ಮಿಕ ಮಡಿವಂತಿಕೆಯಿಂದ, ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂಜಿಸುವದರಿಂದ, ತೀರ್ಥ ಯಾತ್ರೆ ಕೈ ಕೊಳ್ಳುವದರಿಂದ, ಪವಿತ್ರ ನದಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮಿಯುವದರಿಂದ , ಜಪ ತಪಾದಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗುವರಿಂದ, ತಂತ್ರದ ಸಂಬೋಗದಲ್ಲಿ ತೊಡಗುವದರಿಂದ ಹಾಗೂ ಗುರುಗಳ ಪಾದ ಪೂಜೆ ಮಾಡುವದರಿಂದ ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನ ಅಸಾದ್ಯ. ಈ ದೇಹಾದರಿತ ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರಗಳು ,ನಡುವಳಿಕೆಗಳು ಕೆಳ ಸ್ತರದ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆಯ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತ , ಪರಮ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅನ್ವೇಷಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವುಗಳಿಗೆ ಯಾವ ಬೆಲೆಯೂ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಈ ದೇಹದಾರಿತ ವಿಚಾರಗಳು ಕಲ್ಪನೆಗಳ ಆದರಿಸಿರುವದರಿಂದ ಅವುಗಳು ಸತ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ದೂರವಾಗಿರುವವು.

ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ದೇಹವಲ್ಲ ,ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಆತ್ಮವೆಂಬುದನ್ನು ಅರಿತು, ದೇಹದಾರಿತವಾದ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಮಾಯೆ ಎಂದು ಮನವರಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡಾಗ , ಆತ್ಮವೇ ,ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವವೆಂಬುದು ಅಂತರಾಳದಲ್ಲಿ ದ್ರುಡವಾದಾಗ, ಈ ದೇಹ ಮತ್ತು ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಅನುಬವವೂ ಸಹ ಅರಿವಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮದಿಂದ ಉದ್ಬವವಾದ ಮರೀಚಿಕೆ ಎಂಬುದು ಅರಿವಾಗಿ, ಮನಸ್ಸು ಮತ್ತು ಆತ್ಮ ದಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇದವಿರದಾಗ ಅದ್ವೈತ ಸತ್ಯದ ಅರಿವಾಗುವದು.

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:44:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Happiness Within

Lecture delivered on December 17, 1902, in the
Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, U.S.A.

My own Self in the form of ladies and gentlemen, Rama does not blame European or Christian nations for their cohorts and armies to conquer other nations; that is also a stage in the spiritual development of a nation, which is at one time necessary. India had to pass through that stage; but India being a very old nation had weighed the riches of the world in the balance and found them wanting; and the same will be the experience of these nations that are in these days for accumulating worldly prosperity and riches. Why are all these nations trying to march cohorts to conquer other nations? What do they seek in all that? The only thing sought is happiness, joy, pleasure. It is true that some people say they do not seek happiness but knowledge. Others say that they seek not happiness; they seek action. That is all very good; but examine the hearts and minds of average men, or of ordinary mortals. You will find that the ultimate goal which they all set before them, the ultimate goal they all seek directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, is happiness, nothing but happiness.

Let us examine this evening where happiness resides, whether happiness lives in the palace or the cottage, whether happiness dwells in the charms of women or in things that gold and silver can buy. Where is the native home of happiness? Happiness has also a history of its own. These are great travelling days; steam and electricity have annihilated time and space, great travelling days these are, and everybody writes an account of his travels. Happiness also travels. Let us have something of the travels of happiness.

We start with the first glimpse of happiness that a child has in his infancy. All the happiness in this world is for the child located in the skirt of the mother, or in the bosom of the dear mother. All the happiness is located there. This is the first stage on the main road which happiness has to travel along, the mother’s skirt, the mother’s bosom, say. To the infant there is nothing in this world which brings happiness so much as the mother’s bosom. The child hides his face behind the skirts of the mother and there he says, "Look! Look! Find me out! Where am I?" and he laughs heartily. He laughs with all his heart and soul. Books are meaningless to the child; treasures are useless to him. Fruits and sweets have no taste for the child that has not yet been weaned. The whole world of pleasure is, for the child, concentrated there.

A year passes and the happiness of the child changes its centre; it moves on to some thing else. The residence of happiness now becomes the toys, the beautiful toys, pollies and dollies. In the second state, the child does not like the mother so much as he likes his own toys. Sometimes the child quarrels with the dear, dear mother, for the sake of toys, for the sake of dollies.
A few months or years more and no more is his happiness in the pollies and dollies; it has shifted its centre again, it is no longer located in these things. In the third stage, when the child grows up to be a boy, happiness is located for him in books, especially in story books. This is the case with an ordinary intelligent child; sometimes happiness is in other things, but we are taking an ordinary case. Now the story books engross all the love and affection of the boy. Now the toys, dollies and pollies lose their charms; story books take their place, and he finds them beautiful and attractive. But happiness travels on.

The schoolboy enters the college, and in college life, his happiness is found in something else, say, in scientific books or philosophical works or the like. He reads them for sometime, but his happiness has travelled from books to the longing of seeking honours in the university; his desire is to reach the residence of his happiness, the headquarters of his joy. The student comes out of the university with flying colours. He gets a lucrative post and the happiness of this young man is centred in money, in riches. Now the one dream of his life is to accumulate riches, to be rich. He wants to become a big man, to amass a large fortune. When he gets some wealth after working in the office for a few years, his happiness passes on into something else. What is that? Need that be told? It is woman.

Now the young man wants to have a wife, and for the sake of a wife, he is ready to spend away his riches. The mother’s skirt no longer gives him any happiness; the toys have no charm for him; the story-books are cast aside, and they are read only on those occasions when they are expected to give him some insight into the nature of that dream of his life—the woman. He is all a sacrifice for the sake of his wife. Hard-earned riches are cast to the winds for the sake of petty whims of what is now the headquarters of his happiness. The young man lives for sometime with the woman, and lo! the happiness is sighted a little yonder. The pleasure he could derive from the thought of his wife in the beginning, he no longer gets now. Taking the case of an ordinary youth, an ordinary youth of India, the happiness of the youth now passes from the woman on to the coming child. Now a child becomes the dream of his life. He wants to have a child, an angel, a seraph, a cherub in his house. Rama knows not much of the state of affairs in this country; but in India, after marrying, people pray to God and yearn for a child. They do all that lies in their powers to seek the aid of doctors and to invoke the blessings of holy men; all that they can do they do in order to be blessed with a child.

In the expectation of the child, concentrates all the happiness of the youth. The child is the sixth stage in his travel of happiness, in the march of joy. The youth is then blessed with a child. His joy knows no bounds; he is full of spirits, he springs up to his feet; he is elated; he is, as it were, raised above the earth many feet; he does not walk, he swims in the air, so to speak. His soul is full of happiness when he gets a child. In the sixth stage, in the moon-faced child, the happiness of the grown-up youth has reached in a way its acme. The intensest happiness is when he sees the face of his child. The happiness of an ordinary man has reached its zenith. After that, the youth begins to decline in spirits, the child becomes a grown-up boy and the charm is lost. The happiness of this man will go on travelling from object to object, sometimes located in this thing, at other times residing in that thing. But the intensity of happiness in the objects with an ordinary man will be not so strong, as it is in the love of his own child.

Let us now examine whether happiness really dwells in objects like these—the mother’s skirt, dollies and pollies, books, riches, woman, child, or any object and anything of this world at all. Before proceeding further, let us liken the travelling happiness to the travelling Sun-light. Sunshine also travels from place to place. It is at one time shining over India, and at another time on Europe. It travels on. When shades of the evening fall, see how rapidly the Sunshine shifts away from place to place. It shines on eastern America and it travels on to its west. See how the Sunlight goes skipping on tiptoe, slipping on from land to land, and is then seen spreading its lustre on Japan and so on. The Sunshine travels on from place to place. But all these different places where the Sunshine is seen are not the source, the home of Sunshine. The home of Sunshine must be somewhere else; the home of Sunshine is the Sun. Similarly let us examine happiness which goes on travelling from object to object like the Sunshine. Whence does it proceed? Where is its real home? Let us look at the Sun of happiness, as it were.
Take the case of the gentleman who has been blessed with a child. This gentleman is sitting in his office. He is busy with his official duties, and all of a sudden he hears the ding-ding of the bell. What bell? The telephone, but when he is about to hear what the message may be, his heart beats. They say, coming calamities cast their shadows before. His heart beats, never was it so with him before. He reaches up to the telephone and hears a message. Oh, what a distressing message it must have been! The gentleman was panting and sobbing; he lost all presence of mind; his cheeks lost all colour; with a pallid, cadaverous face he came rapidly to his seat, put on his coat and hat and went out of the office as if he were shot like a bullet from a gun. He did not even ask the consent of the chief officer, the head of the department. He did not even exchange a word with the employees in the room. He did not even lock up the papers that were lying on the desk, he lost all presence of mind and went straight out of the office. All his fellow officials were astounded. He reached the streets and saw a car running before him, he ran up to the car and there he met a postman who gave him a letter. This letter brought to him the happy news, (if in the circumstances it can be called happy news from the worldly point of view) the happy news of a large fortune having fallen to his lot. The man had bought a share in a lottery, and about $10,000 had fallen to his lot. This news ought to have cheered him up, ought to have filled him with joy, but it didn’t, it didn’t. The message he had received over the telephone was weighing heavily on his heart. This news brought him no pleasure. He found in the same car one of the greatest officials in the State, sitting just in front of him. This was an official to have an interview with whom had been the one dream of his life. But look here. This gentleman did not exchange glances with the official; he turned his head away. He also noticed the sweet face of lady friend. It had been the ambition of this gentleman’s life to meet her and exchange words with her, but now he was insensible to her sunny smiles. Well, Rama ought not to keep him in a state of suspense so long, nor should you be kept in a state of suspense any longer.

He reached the street where his house was located and a great noise and tumult was there, and he saw clouds of smoke rising to the sky and veiling the Sun. He saw tongues of fire going up to the heavens; he saw his wife, grandmother, mother and other relatives weeping and bewailing the conflagration which was consuming their house. He saw all his relations there but missed one thing; he missed the dear little baby, he missed the sweet little child. That was not there. He asked about the child, and the wife could make no answer. She simply answered by sobbing and crying; she could make no articulate answer. He found out the truth. He came to know that the child had been left in the house. The child was with the nurse at the time when the fire broke. The nurse had placed the child in the cradle, the child was asleep and the nurse had left the room. Now the inmates of the house being panic-stricken at the sight of the fire consuming the house, had quitted the house in haste, each thinking that the child must be with some other inmate of the house. All of them came out, and now they found that the child was left in the room which was then being enveloped by fire. There was crying and gnashing of teeth, cutting of lips, beating of breasts, but no help. Here, this gentleman, his wife, his mother and friends and the nurse were crying aloud to the people, to the standers-by, to the policemen, and asking them to save their child, to rescue their dear, little baby. "Save our little dear child anyway you can. We will give away all our property, we shall give away all the wealth that we may accumulate within ten years from today, we will give up all; save our child, save our child."
They are willing to give up everything for the sake of the child. Indeed, the child is a sweet thing, the dear little baby is a very sweet thing, and it is worthwhile to sacrifice all our property, all our wealth and all our interest for the sake of the child. But Rama asks one thing, "Is the child the source of happiness, the sweetest thing in the world, or is the source of happiness somewhere else?" Mark here. Everything is being sacrificed for the child, but is not the child itself being sacrificed for something higher, or for something else? Wealth is given away, riches are given away, property is given away for the child, but the child is being given away for something else. Even the lives of those people who may venture to jump into the fire may be lost. But even that dear little child is being sacrificed for something else, for something higher, and that something else must of necessity be sweeter than the child, that something else must be the real centre of happiness, must be real source of happiness, and what is that something? Just see. They did not jump into the fire themselves. That something is the Self. If they jump into the fire themselves, they sacrifice themselves and that they are not prepared to do. On the child is everything else sacrificed, and on that Self is the child sacrificed.

We see now the highest stage of happiness, the child has not happiness in itself. The child is beautiful, lovely and the source of happiness, because the child is blessed with the Sunshine which proceeds from the Self; that Sunshine was not inherent in the child itself. If that Sunshine of happiness had been inherent in the child, it would have lasted in the person of the child for ever. Notice that the Sunshine which brightened the face of the child proceeded from the source within. The source was within the Self.

Here we come a little nearer to the source of happiness, to the home of happiness. Not for the sake of the child is the child dear, the child is dear for the sake of the Self. Not for the sake of the wife is wife dear; not for the sake of the husband is husband dear; the wife is dear for the sake of the Self; the husband is dear for the sake of the Self. This is the truth. People say they love a thing for its own sake. But this cannot be; this cannot be. Nor for the sake of the wealth is wealth dear, wealth is dear for the sake of the Self. When the wife who was dear at one time, does not serve the interests of the husband, she is divorced; when the husband who was dear at one time, does not serve the interests of the wife, he is divorced. When wealth does not serve the purpose, it is given up. You know the case of Nero. He did not see that the beautiful Rome, that metropolis of his, was of much interest to him, was of much use to him. To him it was of greater interest to see a conflagration; to him it was of more interest to see a big bonfire. Look here. He went up to the top of an adjoining hill and asked his friends to go and set the whole city on fire in order that he might enjoy the sight of a grand conflagration. Here was he fiddling while Rome was burning. Thus we see that even wealth is divorced, given up, when it does not serve our interests.

Rama was an eyewitness of a very strange phenomenon, a very curious phenomenon. There was a great flood, a great inundation of the river Ganga, and the river went on rising. On the branches of a tree were sitting several monkeys; there was a female-monkey and some children of this female-monkey. All these children came up to the female monkey. The water rose up to the place where the female monkey was seated. Then the she-monkey jumped up to a higher branch; the water came up to that place. The female monkey come to the highest top-branch, and the water rose up even to that place. All the children were clinging to the body of this female-monkey. The water reached her feet; then she just took hold of one child, one baby-monkey, and placed it underneath her feet. The water rose still higher, and then this female-monkey took hold of another child and placed it under her feet. The water still rose; and the third child was also taken up and mercilessly placed under her feet to save herself. Just so it is. People and things are dear to us as long as they serve our interests, our purposes. The very moment that our interests are at stake, we sacrifice everything.

Thus we come to the conclusion that the seat of happiness, the source of happiness is somewhere within the Self. The home of happiness is somewhere in the Self, but where is it? Is it in the feet? The feet support the whole body, it may be in the feet, but no, it is not in the feet. Had it been in the feet, the feet ought to have been the dearest thing in the world. Of course, the feet are dearer than anything else outside, but they are not so dear as the hands are. Is the home of happiness in the hands? The hands are dearer than the feet, but they are not the home of happiness. Then, is happiness located in the nose or in the eye? The eyes are dearer than the hands or the nose, but happiness is not located in them. Think of something that is dearer even than the eyes. You might say it is the life. Rama says take the whole body first. The whole body is not the home of happiness. We see that this whole body we are changing every moment. In several years, every particle of the body is replaced by a new particle. It may be in the intellect, in the brain, in the mind. It may be there. But let us see if there is not something even dearer than the intellect. Let us examine that. If there be something which is dearer and sweeter even than the intellect, then, that may be the home of happiness. We say that life, or as the Hindus put it, prana may be the source of happiness, because oftentimes people want to live even at the sacrifice of their reasoning powers. Here is a choice between two alternatives, die altogether, or live as a crazy, lunatic man. Everybody will choose the alternative of life, even in a crazy, lunatic frame. Thus we see that intellect or intelligence is sacrificed at the altar of life. Then life, personal life, this may be the home of happiness, the Sun from which all happiness emanates. Just examine whether life is really the home of happiness or not. Vedanta says, No! No! Even life is not the home of happiness, the Heaven within is higher up still; even beyond individual, personal life. Where is it then?

Rama once saw a young man at the point of death. He was suffering from a very bad disease. There was excruciating pain in his body. The pain began in the toes of the feet. At first it was not so great, but after a while it kept coming up, and then his body was undergoing a hysterical movement. Gradually, the pain came up to the knees, and then rose higher, until that dreadful pain reached the stomach, and when the pain reached the heart, the man died. The last words this young man uttered were these, "Oh, when shall this life leave me, when shall these pranas leave me!" These were the words of that young man. You know, in this country you say he gave up the ghost. In India we say he gave up the body. This shows the difference. Here the body is looked upon as the Self and the ghost is looked upon as something tacked on. In India the body is looked upon as something foreign to the spirit; the real Self is looked upon as the reality. There, when the body dies, nobody believes that he dies; the body changes, he does not perish. And so, the words that escaped the lips of that youth were, "Of, when shall I give up this life; when shall this prana leave me!"

Here we have something higher even than life; some thing superior to "prana", something which says, "My life," something which says, "My prana," something which possesses the "prana" and is above the "prana" or life, and that something is sweeter by far than the individual, personal life or "prana" Here we see that the "prana" or life in that particular body did not serve interests of the higher Self, of the Self higher than "prana", and the "prana" or life was sacrificed; the "prana" or life was thrown off. Here we see something which is superior to the "prana" or life, for which the life is sacrificed. This must be, by all means, sweeter by far than life even and that must be the home of "anand" or happiness; that must be the source, the origin of our joy. Now we see, why "prana" or life is sweeter than intellect; because pranas are nearer to the real Self, the Self within. Why is it that the intellect is sweeter than the eyes? Because the intellect is nearer to the real Self than the eyes. And why is it that the eyes are dearer than the feet? Because the eyes partake more of the real Self in you than the feet do. Why is it that everybody looks upon his child as being far more beautiful than the child of somebody else, of his neighbour? Vedanta says, "Because this particular child you call ‘mine’ you have gilded a little with the gold of your real Self." Any book in which you may write a line of your own, any work that contains something contributed by your pen appears to you to be far more worthy than any other book, even if it came from the pen of Plato. Why is it? Because this book which you call ‘mine’ has the sunshine of your real Self in it. It is blessed with the sunshine of Heaven within. Thus the Hindu says that the bliss, the real metropolis of happiness is within you. All Heaven is within you, the source of all pleasure is within you. This being the case, how unreasonable it is to seek happiness elsewhere!

In India, we have this story about a lover. He pined for his beloved one; all his body was reduced to a veritable skeleton; all his flesh was dried up, so to say. The king of the country in which this young man lived brought him into his court one day, and he also brought the lady-love of the young man into his presence. The king saw that the woman was very ugly. The king then brought before this lover all the fair damsels that adorned his court, and asked this lover to choose one of the these. This man said, "O Shah! O King! Don’t make a fool of yourself. O King! you know, love makes a man very blind. O King! you have no eyes to see. Look at her with my eyes, and then say whether she is fair or ugly. Look at her with my eyes." This is the secret of all the charms in this world. That is all. That is the secret of all the fascination of the attractive objects in the world; O man! you yourself make all objects attractive by the way you look at them. Looking at an object with those eyes you yourself shed your lustre upon the object and then you fall in love with it. We read the story of Echo in Grecian mythology. She fell in love with her own image. So it is with all charms; they are simply the image of self within you, the Heaven within you. They are simply your shadow. Nothing else. That being the case, how unreasonable it is to hunt after your own shadow.

Rama knows of the case of a little child, a small baby that had just learnt to crawl, to walk on all fours. The child saw its shadow and thought it to be something strange, something remarkable. The child wanted to catch hold of the head of the shadow; it began to crawl to the head of the shadow; and the shadow also crawled. The child moved and the shadow also moved. The child began to cry because he could not catch the head of the shadow. The child falls down, the shadow is with him; the child rises up and begins to hunt for the shadow. In the meantime, the mother taking mercy on the child made the child touch his own head, and lo! the head of this shadow was also caught. Catch hold of your own head and the shadow is also caught. Heaven and hell are within you. The source of power, joy and life is within you. The God of men and nature and nations is within you. O people of the world! listen, listen. This is a lesson worthy of being proclaimed from the house-tops, in all the crossings of big cities, in all the thoroughfares. This is a lesson worthy of being proclaimed at the top of the voice. If you want to realize an object, if you want to get anything, do not hunt after the shadow. Touch your own head. Go within you. Realize this and you will see that the stars are your handiwork, you will see that all the objects of love, all the bewitching and fascinating things are simply your own reflection or shadow. How unreasonable it is that—

For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking.

There is a beautiful story about a woman in India. She lost her needle in her house. She was too poor to afford a light in her house, so she went out of the house and was searching it in the streets. A gentleman inquired from her what she was doing. She said that she was searching for her needle? The gentleman asked, "Where did you lose the needle?" She said, "In the house." He said, "How unreasonable it is to search in the street a thing which was lost in the house!" She said that she could not afford a light in the house and there was a lantern in the street. She could not hunt in the house, she had to do something, so she must hunt in the street.
This is exactly the way with the people. You have the Heaven within you; and yet you are searching pleasures in the objects in the streets, searching that thing outside, outside in the objects of the senses. How strange!

There is another very beautiful story extant in India about a crazy man. He came up to the boys of the street and told them that the Mayor of the city was preparing a grand, royal feast, and had invited all the children to partake of the feast. You know, children like candies and sweets. The children being assured by this crazy man of the feast arranged by the Mayor, ran to the house of the Mayor, but there was no feast at all, nothing of the kind. The children were baffled; they were put out of countenance for a while, and there was hansi (laughing), and the children said to him, "How is it Mr. that you too came when you knew that this story which you told was wrong?" He said, "Lest there be a real feast, lest the story be true and I should miss it." For this reason, because he did not wish to miss it, he also followed the boys.

Exactly the same is the case of those who by their imagination, by their own benediction, you may say, make flowers beautiful, make everything desirable by their own imagination and like the crazy man, then, they want to run after it, so that they may not miss it.

Conclusion

Realize the Heaven within you, and all at once all the desires are fulfilled, all the misery and suffering is put an end to.

Lo! the trees of the wood are my next of kin.
And the rocks alive with what beats in me.
The clay is my flesh, and the fox my skin.
I am fierce with the gadfly and sweet with the bee.
The flower is naught but the bloom of my love.
And the waters run down in the tune I dream.
The Sun is my flower, up hung above.
I cannot die, though forever death
Weave back and fro in the warp of me.
I was never born, yet my births of breath
Are as many as waves on the sleepless sea.

Oh, Heaven is within you, seek Happiness not in the objects of sense; realize that Happiness is within yourself.
Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Spiritual Power That Wins

Lecture delivered on February 5, 1903, in the
Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco.

My own Self in form of ladles and gentlemen,

Here are some questions for Rama to answer.

Question—How can we learn to see ourselves as others see us?

Answer—If you learn to see yourself as others see you, it will do you no good. Others see us as that which we are not; they see us not as we really are. If people looked upon you as God, if they could see the Godhead within you, if they could see you as Divinity, then you would be truly understood. Relatives, brothers, father, mother, friends—all din into your ears that you are what you are not. Somebody calls you son, others brothers, friend, enemy, etc., all these limit you. One man calls you a good man, he limits you; another calls you a bad man, he limits you; another flatters you or puffs you up, he also limits you; another degrades you, denounces you, that also places manacles upon you, limits and binds you. Happy is the man who stands up in opposition to each and all, and asserts his Divinity, his Godhead. The man who realizes his true Atman, his true Self, the man who can stand aright and assert his Divinity before the whole world and before all other worlds around him and recognize his oneness with Divinity, is in a position to defy all these worlds. The very moment you are ready to stand up for your Divinity, that very moment the whole world is bound to regard you God; the whole universe must regard you as God.

Question—Please tell us the meaning of Raja Yoga.

Answer—Raja Yoga means the royal method or royal road to concentration. That is the literal meaning. Raja means royal method or road and Yoga means concentration.

Question—Give us the best method or give us a method such as all may adopt to spread the Vedantic Philosophy.

Answer—The very best method of spreading the Vedantic Philosophy is to live it, there is no other royal road.

People always want to get something material, something gross, something that they can lay their hands on. They want to lay their hands on or get hold of gross material objects and are continually foiled, yet they don’t want to give up that materiality; they want something in the form of hard cash, they don’t want to give up form and figure.

O dear brother, these so-called hard cash forms, these material facts are nothing but illusions of the senses, nothing else. He who relies on so-called facts and figures will never succeed. Relying upon forms and limitations will never bring success; that is not the secret of success. The secret of success is to rely on the subtle principle—Truth, Get hold of that, realize that, feel that, live that, and these names, these facts and forms and figures will seek you.

It was illustrated by two men who were being carried away by a mighty river. One of the men caught hold of a big log and the other caught hold of a fine thread. The one who caught hold of the big log was drowned, while the one who caught hold of the fine thread was saved. Similarly people who depend upon big supports, people who depend upon big names and property, will be foiled in the long run. Depend upon the fine thread of Truth, the fine thread of Reality. If you feel your Divinity, you realize your Divinity, it matters not where you live, in the deep forests or in the crowded streets; realizing Truth will convert everything, will change the whole world.

Here is a table. Suppose you want to move it. If you exert a force at any corner, if you take hold of the table at any corner or at any one of the sides, you can move the table, the table is gone. The whole world is like a great rigid body and your body is like one corner or one point of this table. If you catch hold of this single point, if you lift it, if you elevate it, if you call it God, if you call it Divinity, if this single point be merged, as it were, in Divinity, if this single point be raised with this force, the whole world will be drawn, the whole world will be moved, because the whole world is like a rigid, solid body as the table. Give your personality a lift and you lift the whole world. It is a great blunder, a grand mistake to believe in organizations or big bodies, in great churches and missions. It is a grand blunder, it brings nothing but failure, and it will be seen by the world sooner or later. Similarly people, who depend upon one body only, and not upon organizations and societies, are the people who change the whole world. People who belong to associations and societies, raise dollars, build houses, buy clothing, but such conquest is not spiritual growth.

Jackals in the woods always form great congregations, large associations. They always meet in large numbers, they stand and sit together and also howl together, grand assemblies are they and lots of noise they make. Similarly sheep depend upon their flocks, they congregate and form associations; but are jackals or sheep able to stand up and face the enemy? No, no. Did you ever hear of lions living in numbers, did you ever learn of lions travelling in numbers, did you ever hear of their forming associations or congregations?

Eagles are the kings of the birds. Do they form associations? O, no. It is the tiny, the small birds that fly together. Eagles and lions live alone, but an eagle can put to flight all your congregations of small birds.

Elephants form congregations. They travel in large numbers, it is because of their sociable nature; they are gregarious animals, huge animals in size, but a single lion comes alone and repulses and scatters a whole congregation of elephants. Depend not on associations or congregations, it is the business of each and all to be strong within himself.

Similarly the best way to spread Vedanta is to live Vedanta, whether it be in the midst of others or alone. Live it, the air is bound to take it up; the sun, the moon, the stars, the skies, all are bound to take it up and it must spread.

Did Christ form a congregation? No, no. The poor fellow lived alone. Did Shankaracharya form a congregation? No, the poor fellow lived alone. Each fellow must stand alone, each one must feel and realize the Divinity within. The very moment you feel it, the very moment you realize and live it, that very moment it will gush out of you like the light going out of the Sun.

Remember, mind ye, all these attempts to bring about reform, all these attempts to reform mankind, which are based upon or which depend upon money or outside help or which seek something from others, all these attempts which beg, all result in failure. This is the Law. Depend only upon the Supreme, Infinite, Reality within, and when aid from outside seeks you, all right, you may condescend to accept it. It should be a condescension on your part, if they are willing to become recruits, willing to become disciples. Depend upon them, the very moment you depend on them, that very moment they will leave you, they will forsake you, this is the Law. Never depend upon outside aid, depend only on yourself, upon the Spirit within, that is necessary, nothing else. These big forms, taken up by people, all these long-tailed titles, all are failures; they miss the mark; they do not release any body, they do not free anybody, they do not make anybody independent, they bring about suffering and trouble.

Take a dead carcass. We can vivify it by electricity, we can make it move its lips, we can make it lift its arms, we can make it bend this way and that way, but Oh! that is not life. Similarly all the aid which comes from outside, all the power that you gain from riches, from wealth, from clothes, all the flattery that is bestowed upon you by the newspapers and all the praise which you gain from the press, all the attention which you get from disciples and devotees, all this aid is simply the aid of electricity to make the carcass move, it brings no life, it removes no suffering, it makes you not free and independent. Life comes not at the beat of trumpets, life grows from the seed, from within and not from without.

Here is a living seed, the small embryo; life is there, it will grow from within, it will take a little time, but it will be real life and no sham.

We can produce instantaneous effects and most astonishing results through electricity by making a carcass move, by making a carcass lift up its head or lift up its hand etc., but life is not there. Life is what we want. Similarly Rama says, let the seeds be sown, let the Truth be dinned and instilled into your ears, the seed once sown we need not bother much about it. Similarly to spread Vedanta, to preach Vedanta, you must realize the Truth yourself; the seeds will be sown; never mind about its further growth; it will continue to grow without your bothering about it.

There was once a sage who had a very devoted disciple, a very devoted follower who used to visit him everyday. It happened once that the sage went away for a time, and when he returned to that place, his former devoted disciple never visited him. Other people came and remarked the continued absence of the disciple, and lodged a complaint against the former disciple who used to keep company with the sage. The sage smiled and said, "Why find fault; why utter any complaint against him; what need is there of his coming to me; why should he attach himself to this body? I am not this personality, I am not this body. If he regards me as this body, if he regards me as this personality, he himself will be crucified. Let him alone see this real Self that I am, this Truth, this Divinity, Supreme Power that I am. Let him be faithful to my teachings, and he will be free, he will be blissful." Again the sage said, "When a mare is once conceived, she need not again visit the horse; the seed is sown and in due time she will bring forth a colt." Similarly he said, "Seeds are being sown and I bother not about results, the seed will produce results."

So it is nothing to Rama whether you continue holding meetings or not; it is nothing to Rama whether you remember the name of Rama or crush it under your feet, it is nothing to Rama, whether you flatter or curse or denounce this body, all the time the seed is being sown, let it produce results. Again why should we bother about the world or whatever there is in it? The moment we stand up as reformers of the world, we become deformers of the world. Physician, heal thyself.

According to Vedanta, the whole world is nothing else but God, the whole world is perfect, the whole world is Divinity, is my own Self, the whole world is one. In that case, if I take up a method of reform, if I see that you are down-trodden, if I see that you are miserable and wretched through petty desires, that very moment I am deforming you, because I look upon you as something different from myself. So Vedanta says, "O reformers, who take up this role, you look upon the world as sinners, you look upon the world as deformed and abuse them." Why should the world be so poor as to ask help of you? Christ came and did all he could to raise, to enlighten the people, but the world was not reformed. Krishna came and did what he could. Buddha came, all the many philosophers came, but there is still the same pain, suffering and trouble, the world we find the same. Are people any happier today? Have your railways, your cars, your telegraphs, your telephones, your great ships, all your great scientific productions make people happier? It is just like a fraction whose numerator and denominator have both been increased; the fraction seems different, it seems to be increased, but it is in reality the same fraction increased proportionately. If your incomes or possessions have increased, your desires have also increased. It is like the tail of a dog; if you hold it out straight, it is straight; but the moment you let it go, it curls up as it was before. So those people who stand up or start with a desire of reforming, those who make noise in this way in the universe, are self-deluded. Young men, remember, you make a great mistake by starting something in the world. Throw not your centre of gravity outside yourself. Feel, feel your real Godhead, and the moment you are filled with Divinity, that very moment spontaneously, permanently will flow life, energy and power. That is the way to spread the Truth.

Archimedes used to say, "I can move the whole world if I can get a fixed point," but the poor fellow never found the fixed point. The fixed point is within you; get hold of it, feel it, feel it, realize it, realize that you are Divinity, that you are the Lord of lords, the Arbiter of all justice, the Source of all beauty, all force, all power, realize that you are the King of the whole world: you are that and this realization of your true Self will of itself conquer the whole world, will give the world life, will set it agoing.

The Sun does all his work according to or on the principles of Vedanta. He is the origin, the source of life and energy of the whole world. The Sun is a Vedantin and acts upon the advice given to you by Rama. The Sun does that. He gives all life, all energy to the world, but he does it impersonally. There is no egoism in him, there is no selfish nature in him, no little self-aggrandizement in him: he fills himself with energy, he is all force, all energy, all light and activity. So when you get up and the Sun comes, does he make any special announcement of his coming, does he write a book or a pamphlet about it, does he make any noise about it? O, no, but you see all this earth, this world of yours is vivified, this earth of yours is brought into life; O, how slowly, how gradually, how slowly but surely Nature wakes up; rivers wake up; you know at night they are frozen, but the Sun comes up, warms them, gives them life, and they flow. Roses and flowers on the banks of the lakes and streams are blown up by the warm, loving rays of the Sun.

Again the lotuses of the eyes of men are blown up, or in other words, men also wake up and are filled with life and activity; the air is set in motion, the air is full of life and action, because the sun has life and action, and through him flow light and activity to the whole world. He thinks not of taking any credit to himself for vivifying the world, for waking you up, or making the birds sing, or for making the flowers bloom. Everything comes to pass through him, because he depends upon himself, because he lives that life within him. This is the principle—Live that life within you, live that Atman within you, feel that you are the Light of lights, the Lord of lords, the Arbiter of all justice, vigour and beauty, and that all existence is due to you; feel that, feel that! Try these spiritual experience, and then see!

What do they do to keep a little son, a little child happy, cheerful? All these silly mothers and silly fathers, all become disciples of the child. The child’s lessons are learnt by each and all. How are they disciples? They begin to talk like children, they begin to dance like children, they begin to make faces with the child; the child begins to ride their shoulders, this little tyrant! The child lives his innocence; the child is free, he is not afraid of anybody. Those pouting, little lips are more imperative, more impressive, more persuasive than any of your Demosthenes or Burkes. His will must be done. This little tyrant whose physique is so frail, whose hands and limbs are so tiny, has faith in himself, his will must be done. He is strong in his weakness. Filled with faith in himself he does not compromise himself. Parents often sell property, everything is sacrificed for the good of the child, of that little tyrant, and woe to the man who does not obey his commands! The secret power in the child is Vedanta. To him the world is no world, to him this prudence is nothing, to him there is nothing but happiness supreme, and all power; all power is within the innocent sweet little child. This is the secret of success of the child.

Similarly live Vedanta, feel, realize that you are the Lord Almighty; the Ruler of the universe, the Lord of lords, God of gods, the Governor and Controller of all the bodies in the world; feel, feel that "I am the Reality" and feel it, live it, and you will get disciples, disciples enough. Children without advertising, without currying favour with any great man, without soliciting favours from the press, get disciples; any one who looks at a child is a disciple. Is it not a fact?

Live Vedanta and you will get people enough to listen to you. When the Moon rises, there is no lack of people who come forth to enjoy its beauty. In India, on new Moon day, all come out of the houses and look at the Moon, and worship the Divinity within. That is called dwitiya which means "Happy Day." On that day the people eat good and delicious food, and visit relatives and friends, and make merry.

Let the Moon rise in your hearts and do not bother about the modus operandi, the ways and means will seek you, they must seek you. When a rose blooms there is no scarcity of bees. Where there is honey, ants must seek it.

Similarly care only to produce honey within your hearts, bring forth the full grown roses of knowledge within you, then all will come, you will need nothing, you will want nothing. If there is anything you want, it is Divinity, realization within. When you fall back, everything will leave you. When you have a firm hold of the Divinity within, when you have learnt that, when you live it, then the whole world is like a dog, it wants to lick your feet. Do not hunt after it, the secret of all power is within you and nothing else.

There are the Shasta Springs here in California. It is said the water there is very fine. Everybody wants to go there. Shasta Springs ought not to be anxious about visitors, they ought not to have to issue any proclamations, they need not send any advertisements to people. People must and will seek them out.

Similarly the moment the pure, fresh springs of Knowledge, of Life, of Purity and Love gush forth from your heart, that very moment you are possessed of those Shasta Springs, as it were; visitors and people will seek you out. It is the unalterable, immutable law. The one thing needful is to get those springs within you, it matters not whether you remain in one place or go about from place to place. If you remain in one place, people will come to you; if you travel from place to place, people will seek you, when there is real Truth and Spirituality. Nothing is dependent on outside behaviour, the whole effort in getting those springs there consists in letting Divinity flow fresh and free within you.

It is said of Kant that he did not know when he was born, but people know of him all over the world. The secret of success does not lie in keeping at one place. Get spiritual force within you, and you can recline on a sofa and woe unto the world when it does not come to receive Truth from you.

When a magistrate comes and takes his seat in the court, all the plaintiffs, lawyers, all the defendants and witnesses come of their own accord; the magistrate need not trouble about sending for them; he need not bother about arranging the chairs in the court-room; he need not bother about the arranging of the tapestry of the court-room; he need not bother about sending invitations to defendants, plaintiffs, or witnesses; all things will be looked after by others.

Rama says, get hold of this Kingdom of Heaven, get hold of this Divine Majesty within you. O Supreme Divinity! O Divine Majesty! O Man! walk in your dignity, a king that you are, walk in your Divine Majesty, pass on in your Divinity, a god that you are. Bother not about your business affairs, about your dress, about your railway passage, about your property, about your house, bother not about all these things that is the business of the outside world, that is the business of the powers that be. Come up, realize your Divinity, your Godhead, realize yourself to be the Sun of suns; the moon, the stars and angels will administer to your needs, they must. This is the Law. This is the Truth, and Vedanta preaches this as the secret of success. The moment you are in Divinity, the moment you realize your true Self, that moment will your power be great, that very moment will the world seek you, that very moment will the world solicit your favour.

Look here, it is the great mistake of the people to think that success can be achieved by rules and artificial laws, that success depends upon the dollars almighty, upon aids, helps, money, relatives, servants, friends. O, this is how they work their ruin. Attempts in this direction are the same as the attempt to make the nightingale sing artificially.

Take the dove. Let it perch on the top of the loftiest cypress tree on the Himalayas, the dove will be inspired of itself, and sweet sounds will come forth. The nightingale on those delectable heights of the Himalayas, perched on the roses, sends forth its delicious melody; full shrill notes come forth. Similarly Rama says, when you get perched on those delectable mountains of realization, when you are settled, when you are firmly rooted in your Divinity, then through your Divinity your actions, your sublime life, your pure conduct, your noble deeds must sprout forth, must of themselves ooze forth, gush out, sprout forth, That is the way.

Reformers want to bring out great men, grand men by laying down laws and rules and they want to dictate to them, and make themselves the examiners of other people. It is unnatural, it will not do.

People say, O! but we want practice. Rama says, "Brother, where is practice to come from?" Look here, this practice by outside acts is like the artificial singing of the nightingale. The sweet songs of the nightingale we could not bring out by taking hold of the throat of the nightingale and saying, "Come down here nightingale, and sing." The moment the nightingale or dove is free, the moment the nightingale sings and the dove coos. So the moment you are in your centre, the moment you are in Divinity, the moment you are rooted in Godhead, the moment you reach those heights of realization; through your noble practices, heroic deeds will gush forth in the same way as do the cooing of the dove, and the sweet songs of the nightingale when seated in the right place; this is the right way.

Here is, suppose, a piece of iron, and we want this small piece of iron to become a magnet and draw other pieces of iron to it. How can we do that? By magnetizing that small piece of iron. This is the real way, then this small piece of iron may be made to attract other small pieces of iron and hold them. Now this small piece of iron cannot hold another small piece of iron to itself, but in order to do that we must first convert the small piece of iron into a magnet. Now suppose here is a magnet. Let us attach this first piece to the magnet, then the first piece of iron becomes a magnet also, and can attract and hold the second piece of iron. Now this first piece of iron has been converted into a magnet, but detach this first piece of iron from the true magnet and its power is gone, it cannot hold the second piece of iron. Remember, while the first piece of iron is attached to or connected with the true magnet, it is also a magnet, it is possessed of all the properties of a magnet and can hold any pieces of iron to itself. The very moment we break the connection of this first piece of iron with the original magnet, its power is gone, it is unable to hold any other piece of iron.

Similarly here is one body. Suppose we call it Christ. He was a very good, pure man. What is he? During the first thirty years of his life he was like this small piece of iron, nobody knew him, he was the son of a carpenter, he was a very poor boy, the child of an unknown mother, he was looked down upon. Now this piece of iron got itself connected with the true Self, the Spirit, that is the magnet, the source of attraction, the centre of all life and power; he got connected with Divinity, with Truth, with Realization, Power, and what became of him; that piece of iron was also magnetized, he became a magnet, and people were attracted to him; disciples and many people were drawn to him, they naturally began to bow down before him. There came a time towards the end of his life when again the body of Christ, called the piece of iron, was detached from the magnet what happened to the spirit? All the pieces of iron which were attached to it fell off, all his disciples left him, the same people of Jerusalem who loved and worshipped him before, all those who had received him royally before, those who had decorated the city in his honour, all left him, his power was gone; just as the power of the magnet being taken away from the piece of iron, its power is gone, it is no longer possessed of the properties of a magnet. When his disciples left him, when those eleven left him, so much did the people turn from him that they wanted to wreak vengeance upon him, that they wanted to crucify him. That was the time when Christ said, "O Father, why hast Thou forsaken me!" This shows that the connection was broken. See what the life of Christ teaches you. It teaches you that all the power and virtue of Christ lay in his connection with or attachment to the true Spirit or Magnet. When the solid body of Christ was attached to the true Spirit or Magnet, the body of Christ was a magnet also; but when the body of Christ was detached from the true Spirit or Magnet, then his power was gone, his disciples and followers left him. Now Christ regained this union with the Spirit before his death. You know Christ did not die when he was crucified. This is a fact which may be proved. He was in a state called Samadhi, a state where all life-functions stop, where the pulse beats not, where the blood apparently leaves the veins, where all signs of life are no more, when the body is, as it were, crucified. Christ threw himself into that state for three days and like a yogi came to life again and made his escape and came back to live in Kashmir. Rama had been there and had found many signs of Christ having lived there. Up to that time there was no Christian sect in Kashmir. There are many places called by his name, places where Christians never came, many cities called by the same names as the cities of Jerusalem through which Christ passed. There is a grave there of 2,000 years standing. It is held very sacred and called the grave of Esah which is the name of Christ in Hindustani language, and Esah means prince, so there are many reasons to prove that he came to India, the same India where he learned his teachings.

Again the people in India have a kind of magic ointment which is called the Christ ointment, and the story, which the people who prepare this ointment tell, is that this ointment Christ used to heal his wounds with after he came to life; and that ointment really heals all sorts of wounds miraculously.

There is plenty of evidence to show that he went back there; but Rama will not detail it here. Rama is telling you that when Christ got his body attached to the Magnet, to the Divinity, the whole world was drawn to him. How was that connection severed? There were several causes, outside influences, mixing too much with the people, remaining away too long from those spiritual heights. By these things we fall away from that power. You know, Christ had to leave the multitude and retire to the mountains and to one of his disciples he said, "I feel the power has been taken away from me, who has touched me?" This is how living too long with people, living below those heights of spirituality too long, this connection got severed. It is quite human, quite natural. Even the faults of Christ do you good, the life of everybody does us good if we read it aright; the right reading of anybody’s life can do you as much good as that of the life of Christ. Rama says, the moment you sever yourself from the Spirit, that moment you are nothing. Keep yourself within Divinity, keep yourself one with Divinity, descend not from those heights, realize the Truth, and you are the magnet; just as the piece of iron is the magnet. Your body becomes alive, just as in the case of the small child, his flesh is alive, all his tears, his liquid grief, so to speak, is real.

Similarly if you are one with Divinity, you are sacred, you are a piece of iron magnetized, and you become a magnet by remaining in touch with the magnet. This leads us on to another aspect of the same question. We have pointed out the real source, the real cause, the real secret of power, but people mistake it to be something else. Just as in the child the real power comes from realizing the true Atman, the true Self, but people attach all importance to his body, and instead of developing this true source of power in the life of the child, people make the life of the child down-trodden.

Read the life of Christ and just as Christ did, do yourself; depend not upon the body of Christ, but depend on the Spirit of Christ, upon the Spirit within you. That is the true way to become Christ.

Vedanta is not confined to India; it is for the Christians as well as for the Hindus. In the light of Vedanta how is the saving of man in the name of Christ effected, how is this problem solved? This may be illustrated by a story. There was once a mother, not a good sensible mother who made her child believe that the room adjoining the parlour was haunted by a ghost, a terrible monster, something hideous. The child became very much terrified and was afraid to step into that room. One evening the father returned from his office and asked the boy to go into the adjoining room and bring him something that he wanted at that time. The child was afraid, he did not dare enter the dark room. He ran to his father and said, "O papa, I won’t go into that room, for there is a terrible big monster, a ghost, and I am afraid." The father did not like it and said," No, no, dear boy, there is no ghost, no monster there, there is nothing to hurt you in that room, so please go and bring me what I ask." But the child would not budge. The father was very wise and so he thought of a remedy, a cure for this disease, this superstition which the child had contacted. The father called the servant and whispered something into his ears. The servant left the room where the father was, and by a back door entered the adjoining room, the supposed haunted room. He took one of the pillows, and over one corner of it he placed a black cloth and projected one of the corners of the pillow which was covered with the black cloth through a hole in one of the windows of the room; he stuffed it out, and fixed it so that it looked hideous. The attention of the child was drawn to that and the child looked at something strange and terrible-looking. The father said, "That looks like an ear," (pointing to one corner of the pillow which was sticking out) and the imagination of the child, which was very active, at once made out that it was the ear of the supposed ghost, and cried. "O papa, that is the ear of the monster, did I not tell you that this house is haunted, now we know it is true." The father said, "Dear boy, you are right, but be brave and strong; get hold of this stick and we will destroy the ghost." You know, boys are very heroic, they can dare anything, they have great courage, and so getting his father’s beautiful cane, the boy struck a hard blow, a noise was heard and there was heard a tiny cry. The servant in the dark room then drew the supposed ear of the monster back into the room. That pleased the boy and with courage he cried that he was getting the better of the monster. The father cheered him up, puffed him up, praised him and said, "O my dear boy, you are so brave, you are a hero." But while talking to the child there appeared two ears of the monster in the crack or opening between the doors of the room. The child was urged on and he ran towards the monster and dealt blow after blow upon the head of the supposed monster. He beat it and beat it repeatedly, and cries were heard from within and the father said, "Hear, O child, the monster is crying in anguish, you have conquered, you have conquered. "The child went on beating the supposed monster, and the father pulled out that pillow. The father cried, "O brave boy, you have beaten the monster into pillow, you have converted him into a pillow." The child was satisfied that it was a fact; the monster, the ghost, the superstition was gone.

The child became brave and jumped and danced with joy. He went about singing and then he went into the room and brought what the father wanted; but would any sane father advise a similar remedy for grown-up boys? O, no. That remedy is very good for small boys, but not for others. For that small child this method did some good, it served its purpose, but grown-up children need no such remedy, as that. From every small child we can drive out any haunting fancies or dreams, if there be time enough to devote to them. Now just mark. Vedanta says, as in this case of the haunted room, the real ghost was not driven out by the beating of the pillow by the child; the real cause of the driving out of the monster was not the beating of the pillow, it was the evolution of the faith in the child that there was no ghost in the room. The child was made to believe there was no ghost, and there was no ghost; the ghost had come into the room through the imagination of the child. The ghost was in reality never there, it was this false imagination which put the ghost in the room, and this false imagination it was, that must be cured.

Grown-up peoples’ imagination can be cured differently. People believe first that we are lost, that we are naturally sinners, that ‘we are on the brink of a dreadful hell which awaits us, that there is a whole lot of sins weighing us down; that through the crime of Adam came our sinful nature, that by nature we are sinful, that we are poor, crawling, weak creatures!’ (You will please excuse Rama for speaking plainly). One part of the Bible makes people believe in their sinful nature. The Old Testament drove into the souls of the poor Christians in this world, it drove into the lighted rooms of your hearts, it drove into your minds, the cellar of your immutable Self, the ghost of the fall, the sinful nature, the ghost of the menial, down-trodden, poor self. These ideas were forced into the hearts of the people, the idea that they are nothing in the world but poor creatures, poor worms, and nothing else, verily nothing else but poor, weak creatures at the mercy of wind and storm, powerless in this world. First was the ghost of superstition driven into the souls of the world.

Then came the New Testament. Rama speaks not from a biased stand-point. In the New Testament the Father strove to undo the silly superstition, worked into the people by the mother, the Old Testament. In the New Testament the father, St. Paul came and did his best to drive out this ghost from the hearts of the people, and tried his best to rid them of this ghost and to free themselves. What plan did he adopt? Rama says, St. Paul did not do that, but Divinity through the body of St. Paul did that, and told the people how it was to be done. It was told that these sins, this gross sinful nature, this grovelling in the mind, this groping in the dark, this sin, this ghost of a sin and perdition may be driven out by a certain process, regarded by him as baptism by becoming Christians, by joining the Church, by attending services, by asking grace over roasted pigs, by feeding and supporting high priests, by putting on the livery of Christ; by doing all these things you are saved and your name is written in the book of life. Do this process, the beating of the pillow, as it were, perform these ceremonies, do these things, take the name of Christ, sing in the Church, hold services, pay priests, feed them fat and by that method you are saved. Rama says, if people having performed those services, acquire a living faith, if they acquire a living conviction that they are saved, then they are really saved. Rama says if the really true Christian after performing these services in the name of the Church believes himself to be saved, he must be saved; just as the child performed the service of beating the monster into a pillow, the room was no longer haunted, the monster, the ghost was no longer there.

Similarly if you are Christians and get firm conviction that you are saved, as a matter of fact you are saved. Rama does not agree with the free thinkers and agnostics who call the Christians’ living faith lost or gone; he does not agree with these people in denouncing the Christian faith. If your faith gives you courage of mind, and makes you firm in the belief that you are saved, then you are saved; but at the same time Rama says the world is no longer a child, the world is in the state of a grown-up boy. This kind of dogma has saved millions and millions of people up to this time, but it is now high time to drive the ghost out of your rooms by trying to realize that your nature is not sinful, that your room is not haunted by any ghost, by realizing that you are no wretched crawling worm, by realizing that your soul is not down-trodden, is not low. Realize that you have always been pure, that you have always been immaculate, have always been the All-in-all, realize that you are the Holy of holies, the Lord of lords, the God Supreme. Think that, feel that, realize that, live that. What is the use of touching your nose by stretching the arm around the back of the head when you can touch the nose from the front of the face? There is no use believing in salvation by performing services.

Vedanta says if you bring your faith to believe that you have always been saved, you are the saviour of the universe. If you believe that you never were the body, that you never were in thraldom, if you be as grown-up boys and not as silly children, if you realize with Vedanta that you are always saved, if you realize with Vedanta that you are the saving energy, then you are the saviour of the whole world. Waste not your energies in superfluous, meaningless and extravagant ceremonies. Waste not your energies in the puerile ceremonies of beating the pillow in order to save yourselves. Be no longer children. Realize yourselves to be saved, and saved you are. Thus the saving element in all Christianity is Vedanta. Vedanta is the finer process. If after all the ceremonies are over, you become firm in the conviction of "I am saved" and nothing else, just remember, it is Vedanta permeating and pervading your Christianity which saves you. Attach not undue importance to outside names and forms and ceremonies.

In the Crusades during which so much blood was shed, war and struggle were brought on by the Christians in Judea. In one of the skirmishes, the Christians were beaten, were repulsed and driven back. One of the fanatics in the Christian armies, who wanted to win fame for himself gave out that he had a vision in which an angel had revealed himself and told him about a certain lance which had once touched the body of Christ, and which was buried under his feet and that by finding this lance the Christians would be led to victory. The people took up the story and passed it on until it spread to the entire army, and all the people without giving any thought as to the truthfulness or falsity of the story, began to dig and dig, but could not find the lance; they dug from early morn till late at night, but still no lance was found. They became very much discouraged and were about to give up the search when all of a sudden the same fellow began to cry out at the top of his voice that he had found the spot. All went with him to the place where he said the lance was to be found and they found the lance. It was old and rotten, it was eaten up by ants and worms, and he said," Here is a lance, corroded by the earth, a lance which must have touched the body of Christ ". He held it up where everybody might see it. The Christians jumped around it with joy, their happiness knew no bounds. Being inspired with the finding of the lance covered with earth, being filled with energy and strength, all attacked the enemies again and came out victorious. Afterwards when the Christians came back to Europe, all believed that it was the virtue of the lance which had brought them victory.

But after a while this same man who had told the first story fell sick and was at the point of death. He confessed to the priest who came to bless him and told him that the lance story was a fraud. He said the lance in reality belonged to his great-grandfather who also was in the army. The lance had been wrapped in rags and kept in the house since his great grandfather’s death. It had been used not only by his great-grandfather but had been handed down to him from his ancestors. Now when the Christians were going to Jerusalem, he said he took this lance with him, wrapped up as it was but on the field he found it worthless but when fleeing, the idea came that he might as well be popular, he might as well win a name for himself. So he gave out the story about the lance, and when the people were digging on the opposite side from him he took the lance and threw it into the ditch, and when they came there and began to dig, they found it. Historians played the eavesdropper, divulged the secret and made it out that no virtue belonged to the lance, but the virtue lay in the enthusiasm and perfect faith of the people. They gave out that the victory was not due to the lance, but to the power within the people; the people, they said, manufactured spiritual force within them, and that living faith of the people brought victory and not the lance. Similarly Vedanta says, "O Christians, O Mohammedans, O Vaishnavas, ye different sects of the whole world, if you think you are being saved through the name of Christ or Buddha or Krishna or any other saint, remember the real virtue does not lie in the Christ, or the Buddha, or the Krishna or any body; the real virtue lies in your own Self. Distinguish between creed and faith. The story of the lance was the creed of the people and the living power, the enthusiasm manifested was what might be called the faith of the people. It is the living faith which saves and not the creed.

Vedanta says if it is this living faith, this living power, which was the cause of the Christians being victorious, why not take it up and apply that living faith to your own beloved Atman, your own true Self? Why not apply it to the Atman, the true Self within? Why apply living or dead faith in Christ, Buddha, or Krishna and others? Why not apply it to the Atman within, to God within? What an easy process, what a natural application of the living faith!

This question is put to Rama most frequently. If such is Vedanta, if this is the substance of Vedanta and if Vedanta had its origin in India, why is India so downtrodden? The reason of India’s downfall is that the people do not live Vedanta. Americans live Vedanta more than the people of India do, and they are prosperous. The world has no right to attribute the downfall of India to Vedanta. Rama will prove that by telling a beautiful story. In a village in India a boy became quite a scholar. He had studied in the university and while living in the university town he got some of the European ways. You know in India the people are very conservative and it is of very recent date that English ways and customs have been introduced.

Rama knows many people who have attended English universities, but who never wear English clothes, never speak the English language. The parents would not tolerate such insolence before them. Well, this student purchased a clock in the university town and during the three months’ vacation he lived where his grandmama was. He felt the need of this clock and so he took it with him to his grandmother’s house. Now the grandmama was naturally averse to this intrusion in the house. The young man brought no English clothing with him, but he felt that this clock was indispensable for him in his study. He dared not bring any English chairs or tables, for they were regarded as awful, but he brought the clock at all hazards. The whole family was against it and especially the grandmama. She could not bear this intrusion, it was something terrible. "Oh" said she, "It is all the time giving forth tick, tick, such an odious sound; break it up, destroy it, throw it out, it is a bad omen, it will engender something awful, it will be the cause of some disaster." She would not be reconciled. The young man did his best to explain, but she would not be pleased. The boy kept the clock in his study despite his grandmama’s remonstrances. It happened that thieves broke into the house and some jewellery and money were stolen. The grandmama got additional evidence in her favour and exclaimed, "Did I not tell you that this clock would bring disaster? Thieves came and stole our jewellery and money but the clock is not stolen. They knew if they took the clock they would be ruined. O, why do you keep this dreadful thing in the house?" The boy was very headstrong and all her ravings were of no avail. The boy kept the clock in his study, and not long after, the father of the boy died and then the grandmama became fearful. She cried, "O audacious boy, throw away this terrible omen from the house. How can you dare to keep it longer?" The boy still kept the clock; and again after a short time the mother of the boy died, and then the grandmama could not tolerate the clock in the house any longer. Like so many other people, she thought the clock to contain a worm, for they had never seen anything run by machinery. So she thought there must be a worm in the clock to make it move, she could not conceive of its ticking and running of itself. She thought the clock to be the cause of all the troubles in the family; so she caught hold of the clock, took it into her private parlour and put a stone under it, and by the aid of another stone she broke the clock into pieces, she wrecked vengeance on the clock. Now mark please! You may laugh at the state of the grandmamas in India, but you are playing the part of these grandmamas in other respects. People put this and that together and jump at conclusions; they say that one thing is the cause of the other. Europeans, are especially prejudiced and jump at the conclusions that Vedanta is the cause of all the downfall of India. In the same manner do they jump at conclusions in their arguments in other matters in this world.

The rise of Europe and America is not due to Christ’s personality. The right cause is Vedanta practised unconsciously. The downfall of India is due to Vedanta being absent in practice.

Just here let Rama say a few words as to the part of mother plays in raising the whole world. All the great heroes of the world were sons of great and noble mothers.

It is the mothers who can raise the whole world; it is the mothers who can make the country rise or fall; it is the mothers who can make the tide of nature ebb and flow. It is always the great heroes who are the sons of great mothers. If these truths are instilled into the child in its infancy, if the realization of the true Self is instilled into the child in its infancy, it may grow to be a Krishna or a Christ.

Mothers may spoil the nature of their children, or raise and elevate it. This is the mother’s part. You have heard of the Spartan mother having said to her son who was about to go to the battlefield, "Come either with the shield or upon the shield, come not without it. Come to me either alive or dead, but never come defeated."

There was a queen in India, who shut the gates of the city against her husband when he returned defeated. She sent this word to him, "Go away, you traitor, you are not my husband, you have allowed yourself to be defeated; I know you no longer, go away, you are not my husband."

Here is the story of an Indian queen who took the vow of seeing that all her children were perfect. She took the vow of making all her children free from transmigration. The one goal and object of the mothers in India is to make their children free from transmigration. A man of realization is a free soul and is never born again. She also took the vow of making all her territories filled with men of realization, with God-men.

She also wanted to make all her subjects God-men. This was one vow by one mother and she succeeded. Her sons were God-men, they were Krishnas, Buddhas, philosophical men, men of renunciation and they ruled the whole community; all her subjects were made free. One woman did that; and what was her process? She used to sing to her children while very young, she used to sing to her children while she nursed them at her bosom, she used to instil into them with her milk, the milk of Divine wisdom. The milk of Vedanta she drilled into them while she rocked the cradle, while she sang her lullaby to them—

1
Sleep, baby, sleep
No sobs, no cries, ne’er weep.
Rest undisturbed, all fears fling,
To praise Thee all the angels sing.
Arbiter of riches, beauty; and gifts
Thy innocent Atman governs and lifts;
Sleep, baby, sleep.

2
Soft roses, silvery dew-drops sweet,
Honey, fragrance, zephyrs genial heat
Melodious warbling, notes so dear.
And all that pleases eye or ear.
Comes from Thy heavenly, blissful home.
Pure, pure Thou art, untainted Om.
Sleep, baby, sleep.

3
No foes, no fear, no danger, none,
Can touch Thee, O Eternal One!
Sweet, lovely, tender, gentle calm,
Of sleep Thy Atman doth embalm.
Thyself doth raise the spangled dome
Of starry heavens, O darling Om.
Sleep, baby, sleep.

4
The sun and moon Thy playing balls,
The rainbow arch bedecks Thy halls,
The milky ways for Thee to walk,
The clouds, when meet, of Thee they talk;
The spheres, Thy dolls, sing, dance and roam,
They praise Thee Om Tat Sat Om!
Sleep, baby, sleep.

5
In lilies and violets, lakes and brooks,
How sweet Thy sleeping beauty looks.
Let time and space, the blankets warm,
Roll off Thy face by sleeping arm.
Look half askance as baby lies,
Dear naughty boy with laughing eyes!
Sleep, baby, sleep.

6
The shrill, sharp echoes of cuckoos
Are whistles, rattles, Thou doth choose,
The sparrows, winds, and all the stars
Are beautiful toys and baby’s cars.
The world is but Thy playfull dream,
It is in Thee, tho’ outside seem.
Sleep, baby, sleep.

7
O wakeful home of rest and sleep!
O active source of wisdom deep!
O peaceful spring of life and action!
O lovely cause of strife and fraction!
To limiting darkness bid adieu.
Adieu! adieu! adieu!
Sleep, baby, sleep.

8
The beauteous objects, charming things,
Are flattering sounds of beating wings.
Of thee, O Eagle blessed King,
Or fleeting shadows of Thy wing,
Bewitching beauty half reveals,
And as a veil it half conceals,
The wearer of this veil, Sweet Om,
The real Self, Om, Tat Sat Om.
Sleep, baby, sleep.

This gives some idea of the lullaby which the queen sang to seven of her sons. When the sons left home, they went abroad filled with Divinity. Through them was Vedanta spread. The eighth child was not trained exactly that way, because the father did not wish this child to leave the throne; he was not wanted to become a perfectly free man. So to this child the mother did not sing this lullaby, but she had to carry out her vow in some other way, that the child should not suffer sorrow or be pained in this life. As the eighth child was not to leave the royal throne it was not brought up the same way as the other seven. The eighth son was placed in the care of a nurse, but when the mother was about to die, this son was brought before her, and she gave him this lullaby which was written on paper and wrapped in some rich, costly material and covered with jewels. She encircled it around his arm, and asked him to keep the amulet most sacred. She asked him to read the paper contained within, she asked him to think it, feel it and it would make him free, it would take away all sorrow. But she told him the amulet was not to be opened except in case of emergency. The mother died and the father died, and the boy became the king and ruled for many years.

One day elder brothers of the boy came to the capital of their father, and sent a message to the boy, Alark by name, and menaced him to leave the throne, because they were the elder brothers, and they were the rightful heirs to the throne. They said, "He ought to leave the throne in favour of the eldest brother." When this Alark was threatened by the authority of the elder brothers, when he was threatened by the precedence of his eldest brother, he trembled with fear, he was terrified and knew not what to do; he wept at the fear of losing all his grandeur and glory. On returning to his bed at night he noticed this amulet around his arm, and the last words of his mother flashed through his mind. He opened it and read the paper, with tears in his eyes he read, "Thou art pure, thou art immutable, thou art all knowledge, all power, thou art the arbiter of all power, thou art the giver and restorer of all beauty, all joy in the world. Think not yourself to be the body, depend not on worldly things, rise above it, meditate upon it, think it over, friend and enemy ye are!" The son realized it through and through, his anxiety and fear were gone, cheerfulness and joy were brought to him. He sang it again and again. What with the meaning and virtue of the song and what with the good wishes of the mother, he was resuscitated, became himself; all fears and anxiety had fled, and sorrow was gone; he bade adieu to all worldly expectations, all worldly longing, all petty desires. He realized it so much, so filled was he with purity and power that it was gushing out of him; he forgot to go to bed. He dressed and went to the spot where his brothers were, and cried, "Come, brothers and release me of this burden—this head-aching crown—here is the burden, take it, release me from it, I know I am all these bodies desirous of sitting on the throne and ruling the kingdom; I am you, and you and I are one, there is no difference." When the brothers marked this sacredness on his face, it filled them with joy, and they said that they came not to take the throne, for they were the rulers of the whole world; they simply wanted to give him his true birth-right which he must not lose. They said, "O brother, this is not you who are the dupe of the senses; you brother, you are not the king of the earth only, but the king and ruler of the Sun, the stars, the worlds, and all the lokas that be. O brother, come, realize that you are the Infinite, the Immutable Self, the Sun of suns, the Light of lights." The prince realized this truth, and he (Alark) went on ruling, but he looked upon the office of the king as an actor’s role in the theatre, imagining himself to be playing that part. Well, this prince was sane and nothing could make him sorrowful. He ruled as a mighty monarch and was a most successful king of the world. Success sought him.

Joy Eternal, Unbroken Peace is yours, nay, you are that. Realize your Centre and be there for ever and ever.

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Way to the Fulfilment of All Desires

Lecture delivered on December 13, 1902,
before the Hermitic Brotherhood, U.S.A.

My own Self in all these forms,
Before beginning the subject, a few words will be spoken on India’s material backwardness. There was a time when India possessed probably more riches than all Europe possesses at this time; there was a time when India had more jewels and more diamonds, pearls, and rubies than all America has today. India had had her day in material prosperity. Nations after nations overran India from time to time. Greece became rich at the cost of India, Persia became rich at the cost of India, Afghanistan became rich at the cost of India, and at this day England is amassing fortune at the cost of India. India was once really the land of gold and diamonds.
We do not repent. We are not sorry at the present backwardness in material prosperity of India. We know that there is a law, a divine law, a law of our own nature, which is ruling affairs, which is bringing about everything. The divine hand which directs and leads our affairs we know and knowing that we do not pine at material backwardness. We do not worry about the loss of material wealth. These things, these material objects of prosperity, all these were tried, they were weighed in the balance by Indians and found wanting. America is very young today, very young, a mere baby; so is Europe very young. They are trying these experiments at this time. India has tried the experiments in the material line, has weighed all these things and found them wanting. They are looked upon by Indians as simply a drop of spray, nothing else. They are no factor in your happiness; they cannot make you truly happy, never, never. Iron and gold are good for buying iron and gold; that is all. Happiness is not of the same kind as these material objects are; it cannot be purchased. Happiness, true bliss cannot be purchased by these things.
The secret of happiness is different. The secret is that the more you seek things, the more you lose them. The more above desire you are, the more you feel yourself higher than want, the more the objects will seek you. Even Indians of today, Indians of worldly wisdom do not know this secret and for want of keen and deep observation they ascribe causes to some phenomena which are not the true causes. Why has India fallen politically, or from the material point of view, why is India so low? It is because the present day Indians are the Indians of those times when the fall of India began; they lack Practical Vedanta. You will be astonished to hear that the home of Vedanta, the home of spirituality, India, the fountain-head of the idea of unity, the fountain-head of the idea that all is one; the very creek from which flowed out the Ganga of divine knowledge, spiritual knowledge, self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-respect, that India lacks Practical Vedanta, and that was the cause of India’s fall. You will be astonished to hear that, but now there is no time to dwell on that subject. If time allows, in some future lecture it will be dwelt upon. How nations rise and fall, what is behind the scene that brings one nation down and raises another, what moon is there that causes the ebb and flow of nations? Suffice it to say, and you will welcome these words from the mouth of a man who comes from India, and has studied India and other nations, that no nation can fall from any point of view without being degraded spiritually. In this statement, perhaps, other Indians will not agree with Rama, but Rama makes this statement on his own authority, on the authority of keen observation. But how is it that America is at this time advancing rapidly and making wonderful progress? From the point of view of materialistic progress, why is America advancing so rapidly? Because the Americans unconsciously live Vedanta on the material plane. How the Americans live Vedanta practically and why that is the cause of their material progress, we need not dwell on any longer. Well, so it is. Truth, truth, truth alone will have the glory. The reality, the real character, sterling character alone will have the glory and will have success. Nothing else can have.
Now leaving aside all details, and leaving aside all comments upon the true, apparently paradoxical remark, those astonishing assertions we have made just now, leaving them aside for further consideration, let us come to the subject in hand.
We read in the Bible, "Ask and ye shall find it; Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Again the Hindus preach the Law of Karma (Action) which means that every desire carries with it its fulfilment, as it were; that every wish and every will gives a promise of being fulfilled at one time or another; it must be fulfilled. Rama is not going to lecture on that subject. Simply to refer to it will be sufficient for the present. They say every bud that is seen in a garden gets its promise realized, it flowers and blooms at one time or another; and all the hopes held out by the lower animals either at one time or another are carried into effect. No energy is lost in this world, no force is lost, no matter is lost, nothing is lost. We read about the law of persistence of force, the law of conservation of energy, the law of the indestructibility of matter; and so the mental activity, the mental desires, the willing and wishing, this mental energy, how can it be destroyed? It must bear fruit, it must be fulfilled sooner or later. Thus all the desires must be fulfilled. This is the sum and substance of the Law of Karma. The Hindus preach that according to this Law, "Ask and ye shall find it; knock and it shall be opened unto you." But is it really so? Is it actually so? Do we find it so in our everyday life? It is so; but then if you want to prove it by your experience in the way in which people usually understand the Law of Karma, or if you want to verify this statement in the way in which ordinary people understand the meaning of "Ask and ye shall find it; knock and it shall be opened unto you," you will be mistaken. You will find yourself at a loss. You will see that it does not work; this principle does not work in practice. This statement is not the whole truth; it is only a part of the truth. Ordinary people neglect or do not understand what was understood when the statement was made in the Bible or by the Hindus, "Knock and it shall be opened unto you, ask and ye shall find it;" but you will have to pay the price also for it. There is a price too to be paid. Do not forget that the price is also absolutely necessary. The question as to the price we find in the Bible, "He that would keep his life will lose it." What does it mean? It implies that he who will crave, yearn and wish, will not have it. In yearning, craving and wishing we want to keep our life. "He that would keep his life will lose it."
"Man shall not live by bread alone." Look here. In the Lord’s Prayer we say, "Give us this day our daily bread," "Give us this day our daily bread," and here we say that man shall not live by bread alone. Reconcile these statements; understand them thoroughly. The meaning of that Lord’s Prayer when it was stated, "Give us this day our daily bread," is not that you should be craving, willing and wishing; not at all. That is not the meaning. The meaning of that is that even a king, an emperor, who is in no danger of not having his daily bread, even a prince who is sure that the daily bread is guaranteed to him, even he is to offer that prayer. If so, evidently "Give us this day our daily bread" does not mean that they should put themselves in the begging mood, they should ask for material prosperity; it does not mean that. That prayer means that everybody, let him be a prince, a king, a monk, anybody, he is to look upon all these things around him, all the wealth and plenty, all the riches, all the beautiful and attractive objects as not his, as not belonging to him, as God’s, God’s, "not mine," "not mine." That does not mean begging, but that means rather renouncing. Look here. "Give us this day our daily bread." That does not mean begging, and asking, but it means rather renouncing and giving up; giving up: renouncing unto God: that was the meaning of it. You know how unreasonable it is on the part of a king to offer that prayer, "Give us this day etc.," if it be taken in its ordinary sense. How unreasonable! It becomes unreasonable enough when the king, while offering that prayer puts himself in the mood where all the jewels in his treasury, all the riches in his house, the house itself, all these he renounces, as it were, he gives them up, as it were, he disclaims them. He breaks his connections with them, so to say, and stands apart from them. He is the monk of monks. He says, "this is God’s, this table, everything lying upon the table is His, not mine; I do not possess anything. Anything that comes, comes from my beloved One." He realizes it that way. And if you take the meaning of "Give me this day etc.," as explained just now by Rama, then you will find it consistent with "Man shall not live by bread alone!" Then you will find it consistent with it; otherwise inconsistent.
Again in the Bible we find, "Seek the Kingdom of Heaven and all things will be added unto you." Here is the secret. Here is the secret of the prayer. This was the compliment the Master gave to the Lord’s Prayer; the expression, "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all things will be added unto you."
Again "In sorrow she would bring forth child." Here we find the missing link, the missing factor. Child she will bring forth, but sorrow, sorrow is the price. The desires will bear fruit; all that you ask will come to pass; all that you wish you will have realized. Oh, but you will have to pay the price of sorrow. "In sorrow she would bring forth child." It is not spoken of woman alone; it is spoken of everybody. The desires will be fructified, but by paying the price. What is the price? Sorrow! Even this word sorrow requires explanation. Sorrow means renunciation of all desires. Who will see his desires fulfilled? Who? He who clings to his desires; he who sells himself heart and soul to his wishes, no, no. The man who entertains desires majestically, as it were, who entertains desires with indifference, with a neutral attitude, will alone see his desires fructifying.
People say that their prayers are answered. What are prayers? By taking the word prayer to mean asking, begging, desiring, willing and wishing (some people take the word prayer in that sense), now, by understanding the term prayer, as willing, wishing, asking; begging, are prayers heard? This is a wrong statement. If you mean by the word prayer, asking, begging, willing, wishing, desiring, then no prayers are ever heard. Pray and you will never get it. Ask and you will never have it. Beg and everything will be denied unto you. But usually by the word ‘prayer’ something higher is meant. What is that? By the word prayer, we mean just rising to a state where you will be above desire, where you will be in tune with the expression, "Thy will be done." Look here. Prayer does not mean asking, begging, willing and desiring and having one’s own will done. People understand the word prayer to mean let their will be done, by the self they understand the little self, this begging self, but the gist, the whole life of prayer lies in the feeling—"Thy will be done." When the body is subject to all sorts of trouble, all sorts of pain and suffering, even then from the heart of your heart, from the heart of hearts springs forth the idea or say the thought, "Thy will be done." It is all right. When the body is sick, when all the circumstances around you, all these are adverse, and they go against you, there springs up from within you the feeling "Let thy will be done," not mine. That is resignation, that is self-denial, the denial of the little self, that is the gist, the spirit, the soul of the prayers, of the prayers of the heart. Those prayers which end only in selfish desires, those prayers are never, never heard. Those prayers only are heard when the mind rises to such planes where the world is no world, there is absolute consecration and the body is no body; the mind is no mind, relations left behind, connections all forgotten and your mind is in that state of super-consciousness for sometime, even for a second say. And after that, just waking up from that state, ‘nay, just sleeping after that state,’ just coming down from the state, if any desire crops up before you, it must get fulfilled. Prayers of this kind are heard, when one has risen to a level, has risen to a height of perfect body-denial, perfect little-self-denial, perfect world-denial, perfect everything-denial, perfect resignation, perfect renunciation. But these should not be called begging prayers, these should not be called ‘asking prayers.’
Again there are some people who do not pray in the usual way; who do not say any form of prayers and their desires find fulfilment, their desires get fulfilled. On what conditions? What kind of men are these? What kind of persons are these? What kind of persons are these? What are they like? Just see. You have a desire and you go on desiring, yearning, willing, wishing, craving. So long as you are in that beggarly mood, everything is denied unto you. You see if you have to go to a great man, you go to him in decent clothing. God is the Greatest of the great, the Highest of the high, above all needs, above all wants. If you go to Him, go in decent dress, go in a dress which is like Him, which is worthy of a man who is to approach a Being above want. You also must be above want. You also should be above beggary, above the shopkeeper’s dress, above the beggar’s dress. Nobody likes a beggar. A beggar is refused. People shun his presence. In this country beggars and loafers are not wanted; there is no room for them. So if you have to approach God, go in a godly dress. What is a godly dress? A dress which does not smack of a beggar, which does not smack of need or want. Above need or want you should feel yourself; then you will be welcomed by God, then alone.
They say, a person who is yearning, willing, wishing, who is in a state of unhappiness, who feels want, being in a state of want and unhappiness, happiness cannot come to him. So long as you are yearning, willing and desiring, you are in a state of discomfort; you are in a state of unhappiness. Now the fulfilment of a desire which is happiness or say, that object of desire which is in your eyes full of happiness, that will not come to you. There is antagonism between the two. Your self is beggarly, needful; that object of desire is high, glorious, full of happiness. Now there is antagonism between the two. That object will not come to you. You will be drawn towards the object; you will be seeking it, but it will shun you, always so. And when you leave it and when you turn your back to the object, after being discouraged for sometime, after suffering from failure for sometime, after not achieving success, after not achieving that object for sometime, you leave and lose the object, you become hopeless about it, you give it up. You turn your back to it. Now the very moment you turn your back to the object, you leave it and lose it, that very moment you are above the object. That very moment you place yourself at a higher level than the object. You rise above the object, and that object will seek you. Is it not so? Every person knows it by experience, simply appeal to your own experience; and in every desire you have had this kind of experience. When you love a person and yearn for him and hunger for him and thirst for him, you want him, oh, you want him. It is only when you leave him and lose him for a higher sentiment, a sentiment which rises above all ‘me and thee,’ it is then alone that you will find the desired object by your side. That is a fact, a stern fact. Then alone you will have the object by your side.
How is it? Because you see the like attracts the like; the sun is matter; the earth is matter. The Sun attracts the earth and all the planets. The earth does not draw the Sun to it; but it is drawn by the Sun. The Sun attracts the earth to it. So with positive and negative electricity, there is a difference of degree, not of kind. Science proves it. Here is a magnet, and here is a piece of iron; that which is heavier will draw the lighter. That is a well-known law of Science.
So it is when you leave the object, you leave and lose the object and give it up, you rise into a sentiment or feeling which is a feeling of wantlessness, which is a feeling above need, above desire, desirelessness, which is a feeling of desirelessness. You are at a higher level and you are the Sun, and at that time that pleasure and that object simply becomes the earth or some other planet and you draw it to yourself, it comes to you.
Again when the object of desire is brought to you, there again you feel elated a little, and then again you feel yourself in want, then again there is a rupture and thus it goes on. You take the king’s throne and all other people will seek you, as to a king are drawn all the subjects, all the courtiers and officers; they seek the king, they want to have an audience with him, they call upon him, even uninvited. So it is when you feel yourself above desire, above want, above need, you keep the king’s throne; all these objects, these desires being like officers and courtiers, they seek you, they want to have an audience with you, they call upon you. And what happens? Usually people, after remaining in that state which cannot be described, which can be experienced only, in that state of transcendentalism, find the lovely, attractive objects drawn to them. When they approach them, just they leave their throne and come down, they find themselves harassed by need or want: there again they put themselves at a lower level, and the object of desire leaves them. Thus it goes on. It might be explained in another way.
In a car there is a door, and a person is standing at the door. He invites his friend, "Come in, come in." When the friend comes, on account of over-anxiety this person at the door does not vacate the door, remains standing there. Where is the friend to come in? He make no room for the friend, the friend cannot come to him; the car goes on, and he remains without the friend. Just so.
You have a desire, this willing or craving. The desire is most intense, very deep. By desiring you are inviting the object of desire. It comes but in your anxiety you do not vacate the door, you keep the door blocked up, you do not make room for it. You suffer, you suffer. You were simply begging and you did not find it. After begging, asking, desiring, you will have to vacate the door, you will have to leave that place and turn in; turn in, and then will the friend come in, step in and you will find the friend by you. So it is.
Suppose you have a desire, will or wish, or anything of that kind. You keep on desiring; the object is drawn towards you, but you will never have it unless you rise above the desire, and enter within you, as the man has to enter the car, so you have to enter within you, in the real Self. Thus is the object received or not received according as we vacate the position or keep it blocked up.
The air in this place is warmed by the sun and rises; and the air from around rushes in to fill the vacant place. If the air keeps its place, the air from outside cannot come and take its place.
Just so long as you keep the desires and the little self, and the willing and wishing state, the objects of desire do not rush towards you. Leave those desires. First ask, you may beg even but that is not enough. You have afterwards to rise above begging and desiring and go beyond them, and then they are fulfilled.
There are people whose desires, say, whose commands or mandates are obeyed by the Sun, the Moon, the elements. What is the secret of their power and dignity? What is the secret? The secret simply is that those peoples’ desires are not personal desires, are not selfish desires. Their desires are just like the words of a king who stands above all needs, and, mark, who really wants nothing, who simply utters a sentence or speaks out anything for pleasure’s sake. If the thing is done, all right; if it is not done, then all right. He stands above all desires. A king who has no desires, asks nothing of anybody, but the courtiers and the people around him seek his pleasure. He has no desire on his own part, but simply asks his friends to do anything for him with the only motive of pleasing them and not pleasing himself. He is well-pleased and contented within himself.
It is those who are, as it were, kings, princes who stand above all desires; and those alone whose orders are obeyed by the earth, the Sun, and all the elements in this world. They are above desires and their desires are fulfilled. You have only to be above desires and then will the desires be fulfilled. That is the secret of the fulfilment of desires.
The Sun does everything in this world. But how is everything being done by it? How is it? Because the Sun is simply a sakshi, is simply a witness, a witness in his glory, just like a king. If a king or prince comes here, he will not have to ask you for anything, but everybody of his own accord will make room for him, will give him a seat, water, bread or anything else, will offer him money and other things, everybody of his own accord. Just so the Sun does all that you see. All that you see, you see through the Sun, all that you hear, you hear through the Sun. If there were no Sun, the air would become chilled, immovable and no sound could reach your ears. In consequence of the Sun’s heat you enjoy the sense of taste. The Sun’s heat produces vegetation. All that you smell is due to the Sun. The earth stays in its present form on account of the Sun. Everything is due to the Sun, and still in no law-court was ever a complaint lodged against the Sun. The thief steals everything on account of the Sun, but never was a complaint filed against the Sun in a law-court.
The Sun, the sakshi, the witness, the neutral witness! The Sun is a neutral witness in his glory and thus it is that the earth goes on turning, turning and showing all her parts to the Sun. The planets go on turning round and round, showing all their sides to the Sun. Thus it is that the very moment the Sun makes its appearance, the waters go on flowing from the glaciers; also in the presence of the Sun, the wind goes on blowing, the grass goes on growing, etc. Therefore, in the presence of the Sun, everything comes and goes. How is this? Because the Sun is in the position of a witness, a neutral witness; does not become mixed up, or travel with the things that are being done through him, he remains a witness in his glory.
Vedanta says, if you keep yourself in that state while moving about in the world, that state of the witness in his glory, that state of neutral interest, taking no personal, selfish interest in the world, taking only the interest of the Sun, so to say, shedding lustre and life wherever you go, having no personal interest, keeping yourself in the true glory of God-consciousness, of Godliness, "the same am I," keeping yourself at the home of truth in the real Self of self, looking at nothing from the stand-point of the little selfish interested ego, if you do that, you will find yourself to be the same Supreme Power whose commands all the powers in this world must obey.
Let all the miseries, troubles, pleasures, all the magnificence, riches and all the poverty and degradation of this world fall upon you as softly, and at the same time as perfectly as a bright landscape falls upon your eyes. As the landscape passes before your vision, you see everything clearly but softly. It does not burden you; it is not wearisome to the eyes. So live in this world, travel around, pass through the streets of life untouched, the witness light seeing everything clearly but softly, not overburdened, not bothered by anything. If you can do this, you are the sage whose behests the powers of Nature obey. You are that sage.
Rise above desires, and they are fulfilled. They say, what about the Law of Karma? How is the Law of Karma (Action) to be reconciled with determinism or the powers of nature that are working through the whole world? In other words, how is determinism or fatalism to be reconciled with free-will?
A simple illustration will be given.
They say that desires within you are, as a matter of fact, not really spontaneous desires, but the desires within you are natural, these desires are simply shadows of the coming events which have to take place and come to pass in the regular course of nature; these cast their shadows before in your mind and they appear as desires.
There is a story about a lady who went to a first class photographer to have her picture taken. The operator put his camera in good order, using a highly sensitized plate. When he examined the negative, he found on the lady’s face indications of small-pox. He was astonished. What does this mean? Her face is clean but there are unmistakable signs of that dreaded disease. After repeated attempts to secure a picture of the lady without indications of small-pox on the face, he gave up in disgust and asked the lady to call some other day when conditions were better, he would succeed in taking a good photograph of her. The lady went home and after a few hours she got small-pox. What was the cause? She afterwards recalled having received a letter from her sister who was down with the small-pox, and she had wetted the envelope with her lips and closed it with her fingers. When the lady opened the letter, she became infected with the disease, and in due time became ill. The camera detected it by the refined materials used by the photographer, although the naked eye was deceived and could not see the small-pox already at work in the skin.
Well, so are desires, in fact, the small-pox marks seen in the camera, which have not made their appearance on the face. Desires are, in fact, a guarantee of their fulfilment. Desires are simply the index of the events which are sure to come to pass.
From one stand-point all these things that fall to our lot are determined by our surroundings, by the circumstances and by the influences from outside. From another stand-point all desires within usually appear to us as belonging to free-will, they must find fulfilment. We say that we are free, and our free-will is sure to have its way. Thus are free-will and determinism reconciled. The desires are in fact already fulfilled. But how and why this suffering? Why this price which we have to pay for their fulfilment? This also is necessary. This will be explained by an illustration.
There was a man, writing a letter to a friend whom he was pining for and longing to see. He had been separated from his friend for a long time. The letter he was writing was a long, long letter, and he wrote page after page. So intent was he on his writing that he did not stop or look up for a second. About three quarters of an hour he spent on the letter not raising his head during the whole time. When the letter was finished and signed, he raised his head, and lo! his beloved friend stood before him. He jumped to his feet and going to his friend embraced him expressing his love. Then he remonstrated, "Are you here?" The friend answered, "I have been here for more than half an hour." Then the man said, "If you have been here so long why did you not tell me?" The friend said, "You were too busy, I did not like to interfere with your work." So it is, so it is.
Your desires are like writing the letter. You are craving, willing, wishing, hungering, thirsting and worrying, all this is writing the letter and you go on writing. He whom you are addressing the letter, the object that you are desiring, is according to the secret Law of Karma (Action) already before you. But why do you not feel it, find it before you? Because you are desiring, you are writing the letter. That is the reason. The very moment you cease desiring, you give up writing the letter, you will find all the desired objects before you. This is why it becomes absolutely necessary to pay the price.
There are hundreds of stories illustrating this subjects in the Hindu scriptures. There is an Indian story about the prime minister of a king, who underwent all the ascetic practices which are necessary to see the goddess of fortune in flesh and blood before him. Well, he practised all those mantrum, incantations and charms. A million times he repeated sacred mantrum that were calculated to make him realize the presence of goddess Lakshmi. She did not appear. Three million times he underwent all the ascetic practices, still the Goddess was not visible.
He lost all faith in these things and renounced everything in the world, took up sannyasa and became a monk. The very moment that he embraced sannyasa (monk-life) and left the palace and retired into the forests, he found the goddess before him. He cried, "Go away, goddess, why are you here now? I want you no more. I am a monk. What has monk to do with luxury, with riches, with wealth and worldly enjoyments? When I wanted you, you came not; now that I do not desire you, you come before me". The goddess replied, "You yourself stood in the way. So long you were desiring, you were asserting duality, you were making a beggar of yourself and that kind of being can have nothing." The moment you rise above desires and spurn them, you are God, and to God belongs the glory. That is the secret.
Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Nature of Inspiration

Lecture delivered on February 21, 1903,
in the Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, U.S.A.

My own Self in the form of ladies and gentlemen,
At a certain meeting in India wise men were there, very wise men were present and sacred texts from the Hindu Scriptures were being recited and explained by the savants. One of the audience—at the time when the meeting was about to dissolve—spoke about a certain sage who had come to the town, and was living on the banks of the river and he praised this saint very highly. The people then became naturally anxious to know more about this saint. There was a parrot who was listening to the talk, or you might say, a slave hearing this conversation about the sage that had come to the town. This parrot that was confined in the cage, or this slave asked the gentleman who was talking about the sage, to go to the sage on behalf of this imprisoned parrot or enslaved person, and ask him to tell certain means of escape for this confined bird or enslaved person. Well, the gentleman who had first interviewed the great saint went to him at the time when he was bathing in the river, and put to him this question, "How could that bird-parrot confined in the cage or say, that particular enslaved person, be released? How could he be released?" Just when the question was put, the sage was seen to be carried off by the torrent; he was observed by the people of the town as dead. The people who were witnessing this state of the sage were astonished and they rebuked the person who put this question or who conveyed this message from the parrot or from the slave. The people thought that the saint was fainting or was swooning through pity for the imprisoned parrot or through sympathy for the bond slave. The saint did not recover that day, so it appeared.
Well, next day when the meeting was held again at the place where the encaged bird was, or where the confined slave was, the parrot or you might say the slave asked the gentleman who had interviewed the saint, whether the parrot’s message had been conveyed to him. The gentleman said that the message had been conveyed but added that he was sorry to convey the message from such a wretched fellow as the encaged bird, or from such a sorry person as the bond slave. The parrot or the slave enquired why he was sorry. Then the gentleman said that just when the message was conveyed to the sage, he fainted away. And all the people were wondering, were astonished what all this meant.
But the parrot or the slave understood through and through the whole secret. The parrot or the slave you might say, was not so intelligent, but immediately after hearing that the saint fainted, he also fainted and was dead to all intents and purposes. There the by-standers were surprised; lo, this must be a strange message which had caused death of the two. When the message was conveyed to the saint, he died, and when the message was repeated to the parrot or the slave, the slave died. Do you know what happened next? When the by-standers saw that the parrot was dead, they thought it no longer worthwhile to keep the parrot imprisoned. They opened the cage, and immediately the parrot flew out and said, "O audience, O people, who gather here everyday to hear the sacred scriptures, you do not know how realization, salvation, inspiration is to be achieved. I have learnt it today from the answer to my message that I received from that saint. The saint did not faint; the saint, as it were, answered my message; the saint by fainting, by falling in a swoon told me the way to realization, told me the path of realization. The path of salvation, the way to realization is apparent death, that and nothing else, crucifixion and nothing less, there is no other way to inspiration. The way to realization is getting above the body, rising to that state spiritually, rising to the state of inner salvation, where the body is, as it were, dead, where the small personality is unconscious, is altogether lost, is entirely left behind, that is the way to life.
In Sanskrit we have got two words most significant, one is bhoga and the other is yoga. Most of you are familiar with the word Yoga, perhaps you have read the opposite of yoga is bhoga. Bhoga literally means enjoyment, and yoga means renunciation. People in this world talk about enjoyment. What is enjoyment? If you examine, analyse enjoyment, you will find it to be nothing else but yoga, renunciation. There is no real enjoyment except in renunciation, there is no inspiration except in renunciation, there is no prayer except in renunciation. You cannot, cannot keep your little personality, enjoying self at the same time with joy. The very moment when joy is there, the enjoying self is not there. The very moment inspiration is there, the idea of "I know" and "I do it" is absent, it cannot be there. This is what the great masters have said on the subject. ‘The man who is his own master knocks in vain at the doors of poetry.’ You cannot be in a state to write poetry, and at the same time be an enjoyer of poetry. No. You cannot be your own master and at the same time write poetry. Nobody can write and be conscious of the fact that he is writing. When he becomes the consciousness itself, then is the point of inspiration reached. The artist must be sacrificed to his art. When you are playing the part of the greatest artist, there in the eyes of others you are a great artist, but from your own standpoint you are not. No thought of "I am doing" is present, you have become one with the All. You are no artist from your own standpoint; there the interpreter, the interpretation, the writer, the writing—all have become one. There all the difference has been annihilated. This is the nature, the secret of inspiration.
People say, "He is a spiritual man," but when he is inspired he is not inspired from his own standpoint. Others call him inspired. Other people look at the rainbow and admire the colours, the beautiful magnificent tints. They like them, they admire them, but go there where you see the rainbow. Examine, see carefully and you will find no rainbow; you will find no rainbow there. The rainbow is present in the eyes of others; but from the standpoint of the exact place or from the standpoint of the person who is seated at the place where others see the rainbow, there is no rainbow. Similarly from the standpoint of others a person is called inspired, a great man, a writer, a thinker, a philosopher, but from his own standpoint at that time there is no delusion of this kind present—that "I am writing" or "I am inspired." The artist must be sacrificed to his art. Like the bees the artists must put their lives into the sting they give. There is the whole secret of inspiration. The bee, when it stings you, dies after it. So he is inspired who gives his whole life into the sting he gives. There is the whole secret. You cannot be inspired and at the same time enjoyer; try to enjoy a thing and you are no longer inspired; others will enjoy you, the world will enjoy you, when you are inspired, but you yourself will not be an enjoyer and an inspired man at the same time. You will be no enjoyer, but you will be better still, joy itself.
The moth flies into the flame of the lamp and then the moth proves its love. In order that the moth may be distinguished from a common fly, we shall see the moth singed by the lamp in order that it may prove that it is a moth. Similarly in order that a man of inspiration may be seen to be a man of inspiration, in order that his power of inspiration may be evinced and revealed, he must be a man of Yoga. Away, away above desire he goes, dead to all intents and purposes for the world.
No great genius could ever draw real inspiration except from living Nature. This will be illustrated by an example from Nature. Water gives life to this earth; it is the cause of all growth in this world along with light. Your crops are ripened by water, water is a great blessing of God. In this country people do not like rain, but in India and in all countries in the East, rain is quite the highest blessing of the world. The greatest philosophers and the greatest poets, the great people who wish inspiration always avail themselves of the opportunity when clouds are roaring in the skies, when it is raining heavily outside. These are the occasions that are most earnestly sought by all poets and by all seekers after inspiration; and from personal experience Rama can say, always when it is raining outside, it is much easier for Rama to write poetry than on other occasions. When it is about to rain or when it is drizzling, of itself the mind becomes elevated and the brain is thrown into a poetic mood, and everything becomes so inspiring, and no apparent cause can be assigned for this extraordinary exultation, except the union of heaven and earth through rain. Through rain earth and heaven unite. Usually marriage festivals in India take place on such occasions. People think the earth and heaven unite. Hence let man and woman also unite in marriage bond. Here let us see how it is that the atmosphere gives inspiration and gives us rain, gives us dew, gives us beautiful breezes. What is it that inspires the whole heaven?
Science tells us that the cause of the inspiration of the heaven is what is called saturation. Now this is a word which ought to be explained. Take a cup of milk and add sugar to it. The sugar will be dissolved. Add a little more sugar, this also may get dissolved. But there will come ultimately a point where sugar will be no longer dissolved. You may add sugar ever so little or ever so much, it will no longer be dissolved. This is the point where a certain amount of sugar is dissolved and no more can be imbibed by the milk, no more is accepted by the milk. This point is called the point of saturation. We see that water will dissolve salt to a certain point, to a certain degree, but beyond that degree no more salt will by accepted by the water. If more salt is added, it will lie, it will settle down at the bottom, it will not be dissolved. There the water is saturated with salt. Water may be saturated with earth, we may add a certain quantity of earth, it will get dissolved, but add a little more, it will not get dissolved, there is water saturated with earth. Here is the atmosphere of ours, which consists of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, organic matter, material particles, and also aqueous vapour. The particles of water are suspended in the air. There comes a time when the atmosphere is saturated with aqueous vapour. There are times when the atmosphere is not saturated with aqueous vapour. But when the atmosphere is highly saturated with aqueous vapour and a little more quantity of it makes its presence, there the air can no longer hold its water. The superfluous water—the water that is there and above the quantity of vapour which will saturate the atmosphere, that water falls down in the form of rain. Thus when the atmosphere is more than saturated with water, we have rain in this world; we have dew-fall; we have storms, we have drizzling, we have such phenomena after the point of saturation. We shall consider afterwards how this saturation is effected, but at present suffice it to say that in order that the atmosphere may be inspired, in order that we may have any rain, the point of saturation must be reached, nay, it must be more than reached; the vapour must be saturated, and more than that, then we have beneficent results, great consequences in this world.
Similarly here is your mind, it might be compared to the atmosphere of the air. When the mind gets saturated with an idea, it fills the mind, conquers your mind, permeates and pervades your mind, fills your whole soul, saturates you. Now mark, whenever your mind is saturated with any idea, you find your mind in a very strange stage, you call it the state of unrest. It is a state of mind which remarkably resembles what we call calm, what we call on this earth a state of closeness, and you know when it is very close, people expect rain. When you find it is very close, the atmosphere is saturated and after that we expect rain, beyond the point of saturation. Thus when your mind gets entirely filled with an idea, it is in a state which remarkably resembles what we call a state of closeness, calm, close. When your mind is saturated with the thought or your loved object, you may have observed that there comes a time when the mind is in a state of closeness, calm or restlessness; it is indescribable, people call it marvellous restlessness. Now when that state is exceeded, when you go beyond that state, you become a poet, there poetry begins to fall from you, begins to rain down melodious verses, splendid songs. That is the state. When your mind exceeds or goes beyond the point of saturation, the ideas drop down in a condensed form in black and white, there is inspiration.
Here is a man. He takes into his mind a certain thought, the thought to solve a problem. He begins to work it out, he works and works, but cannot arrive at the solution. Those of you who have tried to work out deep problems, philosophical or mathematical, can bear out Rama from their personal experience. We begin to work at a deep problem; originally, in the beginning when we are trying to solve the problem, our mind is not saturated, our mind has got some other desires also permeating it. The desire to possess this object or attachment for this object or that, is predominant in your mind and also the desire to work out the problem is present in the mind. The deep problem is not solved. When you see that by such efforts the problem is not solved, you become a little restless and throw aside your attachment to other objects, you become more free, in other words that particular idea before you becomes more prominent, fills your mind more and more, and drives out other thoughts. The problem is not solved yet. Most of the feelings and attachments are dispensed with, yet there remains in your mind the idea of ahamkara as we call it in Sanskrit, "I am doing it" and "I get the credit for it." What happens? The problem is not solved. After a while when you persist in working at it and you go on hammering on it, all thought of meum et teum is lost, the idea remains supreme in your mind; and when that point is reached, all thought of meum et teum, all thought of mine and thine, or time and space is entirely got rid of. The one idea fills the whole space in your mind, leaves no vacancy in your heart, leaves no vacuum in your heart, and the soul is saturated so to say with the idea, and you become one with the idea. There the moth is singed, there the bee has given up its life, there mastery over the little self is lost, there the idea of enjoyment is gone, there is crucifixion; when that point is reached, all of a sudden you are inspired, and there flashes within yourself the solution. Do not people make use of this expression—"It strikes me," "It struck me?" Without this death-in-life, you cannot succeed and cannot be inspired.
Artist, teachers, philosophers and thinkers in their own lines get inspiration, but this inspiration comes only through crucifixion. People in this world want to keep themselves as enjoyers, keep themselves as agents, but Vedanta shows it is not in accordance with the laws of Nature that you should enjoy anything. It is not for man to enjoy anything. This enjoyer is the false self, it is not the real Self, it is not you. All thinkers, philosophers will have to see their body, their mind, their whole being enjoyed by the whole world. There is the road. If you want to be an enjoyer, the way to salvation, the way to happiness, the way to enjoyment is barred for you, is marred for you. You cannot, cannot enjoy this world, for you there is only one way, and that one way is to see the body, the mind and everything of yours enjoyed by Divinity, eaten up by Divinity. As Christ says, "Here, eat my flesh, eat it." "Here, you will have to drink my blood!" at the Lord’s Supper! Very happy is he and blessed is he whose life is a continuous sacrifice.
Whenever we reach that point of saturation, when the mind is filled with the idea, when the whole being is lost and merged in the thought, the machine, the organ, the musical instrument is taken up by the great musician, by God, by Divinity, and through this organ are produced beautiful, magnificent, sublime tunes. Great notes, splendid music come out of the organ, but so long as the child wants to keep the organ to itself, and does not want the great organist or musician to handle the organ, only notes of discord will be emanated by the organ; so long as this self, this false ego, this unreal self which is the "enjoying self", is present and wants to keep hold of the body and does not let go this body, through this body or musical instrument notes of discord will come out. Make over this instrument or this body to Divinity, get yourself rid of this false ego, away with this little self, sacrifice it, and rise above it. Then, when the point of saturation is exceeded, God himself takes up this instrument, the great musician handles this instrument himself and through this instrument, music comes out, magnificent notes spring forth. There you are inspired. Inspiration is God-doing. When the little self gives up possession of the body, the person is inspired.
We find that before Christ began his mission, Satan tried to tempt him in everyway to become an enjoyer. Here were the seven worlds, here were beautiful, delicious dishes, here was sovereignty, here was an occasion of getting a great name by working a miracle, here were the temptations, here was enjoyment laid before Christ. What did Christ say? "Get behind me, Satan, I will have nothing at thy hands." Splendid, splendid. O people of America or Europe, keep this teaching of Christ before you. "Get behind me, Satan, I shall have nothing at thine hands." Despite all this outside ravage of materiality, keep this teaching of Christ in your mind. "Get behind me, Satan, I shall have nothing at thine hands." There was Christ putting away all worldly enjoyment, he takes up renunciation and cross, gives up all that. Here is the emblem laid before you, the secret of inspiration. So long as the enjoyer or agent-idea is retained in your mind, you cannot, cannot be inspired. It is only when the enjoyer or agent-idea—"I am working, I am doing, I must take the credit"—is entirely renounced, then are you inspired.
Rama will finish it with a story. In the Hindu Scriptures there is a magnificent story told about three persons called Asuras. These three persons had wonderful powers. They were warriors, nobody could get the better of them, they were wonderful, wonderful people. People came, fought with them, and were defeated immediately; hosts of enemies came and were defeated. The men who fought with them came in thousands but were defeated by these three persons. The enemies being defeated so frequently went to a great saint and asked how they could win these three fellows; and the saint told them they must enquire into the cause of their invincibility, how these three Asuras were invincible. With great effort and trouble it was found that the secret of their invincibility lay in the fact that these persons, never, never did entertain the thought that they were workers or enjoyers. When the victory was gained, they thought nothing of it. They did not stoop down to enjoy the victory. When they were fighting, the idea that "I as this body am fighting" was entirely absent. Such are the heroes in this world. You know every hero in war, while engaged in action, as people say "I am all ears," so the hero is all action. There is no room left for the idea "I am doing." There his body gets mechanical, so to say. He is all action, there head and feet are saturated with the Divinity. So these people whenever they fought, became all action, they never for a moment allowed the idea, "I am acting." Just as a machine worked, their bodies worked; like machines of God, machines of Divinity, their bodies worked. This was the secret of their success, nobody could win them.
Now the secret of their invincibility being found out, the great sage told the enemies of these three warriors the means of conquering them. He told those enemies to engage in action with them and then run away from them. Go to them and call them out into action, and just when they begin to attack you, leave those warriors as conquerors. Just draw them out and flee away from them. The enemies of those warriors drew them out and fled from them. Thus a few times more were the enemies of those warriors defeated. By and by those three invincible warriors were drawn out of their true position, were drawn out of their real invincibility and were brought down into their bodies, they were made to believe that they were conquerors. They were made to believe that they were great, that they were victorious. Those continued victories engendered in them the idea that they were victorious, they were conquerors. Here were the three men brought down into the cage of the body; here the three men put into the prison house of the body. The idea of "I am doing" or the thought of "I am great" got hold of them and held them in prison. There the God in them was replaced by the small ego; and then it was no hard task to win them and catch them and imprison them. It was not a hard task, they were defeated immediately, immediately were they caught.
Now mark the application of this story. So long as you are doing a work, your body being a machine in the hands of God, as it were, your personality being merged in Divinity, so long as you are in that position, you are invincible, you are like those three Asuras above the idea of "I am enjoying or I am doing." You are invincible; but when people come to you and begin to praise you, to puff you up, flatter you, favourably review you from all sides, you are made to believe that you are a conqueror, you are a hero, you are victorious, others are defeated, your rivals are downtrodden. You are like those three Asuras. The idea of "I am doing it", "I must enjoy the deed", and "I am the enjoyer"—that very thought imprisons you, brings you down into the cage of the body. You are undone, the power is lost.
Do you not see even in the Bible, when Christ came fresh from the mountains, he was possessed of the great power. He lived in the midst of his friends; he talked a great deal, and Christ had to say, "Who is it that touched me? I find my power going out of me." We see that in the Bible. There you see the same thing. When you are above this "I am doing, I am enjoying," God is working through you and you are inspired; but as soon as you do a thing and accept peoples reviews and favourable criticisms, people’s applause, and people’s flattery, the power goes out immediately. Immediately it goes out; you are brought into the cage again. Go out of the cage and you are inspired, go into the cage again and you are no more.
Here is a beautiful watch, suppose. It is in working order and running day and night. It gets magnetized, it comes close to a strong magnet, the iron springs are magnetized. The watch cannot run, it is useless now, it gives us no time. What shall we do with it? Let the watch be buried underground, keep it away from the magnetic influences, keep it away from those influences, it will be de-magnetized, it will regain its original working power, and you can use it again. Beneath your minds, your inner Self is heavenly, is godly. Every child is by nature an inspired child; every child is by nature a poet, and if you live, live in accordance with divine laws, if you live in harmony with Divinity, you are always inspired. If you live in unison with your true Atman or Spirit, if you always keep yourself in touch with God in you, with your own Self or Atman, you are inspired all the time. What is wrong with you is that your mind comes in contact with earthly magnets on all sides, worldly attachments which magnetize you and put you out of order, you are no longer in running order, deranged. If you are not inspired today, the sole reason is that you do not keep yourself isolated, or insulated enough. You allow worldly objects to magnetize, to hypnotize you, you allow them to play foul and fast with you. If you want to regain your original powers and inspiration, keep yourself insulated, isolated for a while. Bury yourself in the Reality, in Divinity, in God, in the true Atman. Keep yourself buried in the Spirit, in the Truth. Live alone for a time, set apart sometime of your day for keeping in touch with the Reality; merge yourself, bury yourself in God. Do that and the spoiling magnetism and wrong hypnotism that you have got from these worldly objects will leave you, your mind will be running in order again. You will be again inspired.
Ships when they keep sailing in the sea for sometime, become a little deranged, are put out of order. They require to be placed in the dock for sometime to be repaired. Similarly by keeping yourself too long in worldly affairs, in worldly matters, in the company of hypnotizing circumstances, in the midst of spoiling and wearing and tearing surroundings, you are put out of order, you are fallen, you get your inner natural powers of inspiration lost. Just as you do with your ships, so should you do with your bodies. Keep your bodies, for sometime at least, in the docks, away from those influences; keep your bodies, for sometime at least, in Spirit. Read books which will inspire you, live in the company of people who will inspire you, live alone by yourself. Devote sometime to meditation and you will regain your power of inspiration. Does not your body require to be washed everyday, does not your house require to be rubbed and scrubbed everyday? Similarly does your mind require to be cleansed and purified, washed and bathed everyday. So long as worldly ideas, worldly attachments or thoughts of worldly enjoyment, or the idea of "I am doing this" etc., is present, so long as you are not entirely crucified, there is no hope for you. The way to inspiration is nothing less than crucifixion.

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Secret of Success

Lecture delivered on January 26, 1903,
in the Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, U.S.A.

(This lecture is much more developed than
the short discourse delivered in Tokyo.)

My own Self in the form of ladies and gentlemen,
Three boys were given one five cent piece by their master to share equally among themselves. They decided to purchase something with the money. One of the boys was an Englishman, the other a Hindu and the third a Persian. None of them fully understood the language of the other, so they had some difficulty in deciding what to buy. The English boy insisted on purchasing a watermelon. The Hindu boy said, "No, no, I would like to have a hindwana." The third boy, the Persian said, "No, no, we must have a tarbooz." Thus they could not decide what to buy. Each insisted upon purchasing the thing which he preferred, disregarding the inclinations of the others. There was quite a wrangle among them. They were quarrelling and walking through the streets. They happened to pass a man who understood these three languages—English, Persian and Hindustani. That man was amused over their quarrel. He said, he could decide the matter for them. All the three referred to him and were willing to abide by his decision. This man took the five cent piece from them and asked them to wait at the corner. He himself went out to the shop of a fruitseller and purchased one big watermelon for the five cent piece. He kept it concealed from them and called them one by one. He asked first the English boy to come and not allowing the young boy to know what he was doing, he cut the watermelon into three equal slices, took out one part; handed it to the English boy and said, "Is not that what you wanted?" The boy was highly pleased; he accepted it cheerfully, gratefully, and went away frisking and jumping, saying that it was what he wanted. Then the gentleman called the Persian boy to approach him and handed him the second piece and asked him if that was what he desired. Oh, the Persian boy was highly elated and said, "This is my tarbooz! This is what I wanted!" He went away very merry. Then the Hindu boy was called, the third piece was handed to him and he was asked if that was the object of his desire. The Hindu boy was well satisfied. He said, "This is what I wanted; this is my hindwana." Why was the quarrel or quibble caused? What is it that brought about the misunderstanding among the lads? The mere names. The mere names, nothing else. Take off the names, see behind the veil of names. Oh! there you find that the three different names—watermelon, tarbooz and hindwana—imply one and the same thing. It is one object which underlies them all. It may be that the Persian tarbooz, the watermelon that grows in Persia, is slightly different from the watermelon they have in England, and it may be that the watermelons of India are slightly different from the watermelons of England, but in reality the fruit is the same. It is one and the same thing. Slight differences can be ignored.
Just so is Rama highly amused at the quibbles, quarrels, misunderstandings and controversies between different religions; Christians fighting Jews, Jews conflicting with Mohammadans, Mohammadans combating the Brahmanas, Brahmanas finding fault with the Buddhists, and the Buddhists returning the compliment in a similar manner. It is highly amusing to see such quarrels. The cause of those quarrels and misunderstandings is chiefly in names. Take off the veil of names, strike out the curtain of names, see behind them, look at what they imply, and there you will not find much difference.
Rama oftentimes uses the word "Vedanta," a name. It is this name which makes some people prejudiced against hearing anything from Rama. One man comes and he preaches in the name of Buddha; many people do not like to hear him, because he brings to them a name which is not agreeable to their ears. Be more considerate, please. In the twentieth century it is high time to rise above names. What Rama brings to you or what anybody else brings to you, take it on its own merits. Be not confounded by names, be not misled by names. Examine everything by itself, see if it works.
Accept not a religion because it is the oldest, its being the oldest is no proof of its being the true one. Sometimes the oldest houses ought to be pulled down and the oldest clothes must be changed. The latest innovation, if it can stand the test of reason, is as good as the fresh rose bedecked with sparkling dew. Accept not a religion because it is the latest. The latest things are not always the best, not having stood the test of time. Accept not a religion on the ground of its being believed in by a vast majority of mankind, because the vast majority of mankind believes practically in the religion of Satan, in the religion of ignorance. There was a time when the vast majority of mankind believed in slavery, but that could be no proof of slavery being a proper institution. Believe not in a religion on the ground of its being believed in by the chosen few. Sometimes the small minority that accepts a religion is in darkness, misled. Accept not a religion because it comes from a great ascetic, from a man who has renounced everything; because we see that there are many ascetics, men who have renounced every thing, and yet they know nothing, they are veritable fanatics. Accept not a religion because it comes from princes or kings, kings are often enough spiritually poor. Accept not a religion because it comes from a person whose character was the highest; oftentimes people of the grandest character have failed in expounding the truth. A man’s digestive power may be exceptionally strong and yet he may not know anything about the process of assimilation. Here is a painter. He gives you a lovely, exquisite, splendid work of art, and yet the painter may be the ugliest man in the world. There are people who are very ugly and yet they promulgate beautiful truths. Socrates was such a man. There was Sir Francis Bacon, not a very moral man, not of over-fine character and yet he gave to the world "Novum Organum", and was the first to teach Inductive Logic; his philosophy was sublime. Believe not in a religion because it comes from a very famous man. Sir Isaac Newton is very famous, and yet his emissory theory of light is wrong, his rate or proportion at which a flowing quantity increases its magnitude, method of fluxions (Newtonian calculus) does not come up to the Differential System of Liebnitz. Accept a thing and believe in a religion on its own merits. Examine it yourself. Sift it. Sell not your liberty to Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad or Krishna. If Buddha taught that way or Christ taught this way, or if Mohammad taught in some other way, it was all good and all right for them; they lived in other times. They mastered their problems; they judged by their own intellects; it was so grand of them. But you are living today; you shall have to judge and scrutinize and examine matters for yourselves. Be free, free to look at everything by your own light. If your ancestors believed in a particular religion, it was perhaps very good for them to believe in that, but now your salvation is your own business, your redemption is not the business of your ancestors. They believed in a particular religion which may or may not have saved them, but you have to work out your own emancipation. Whatever comes before you, examine it per se, examine it by yourself, not giving up your freedom. To your ancestors only one particular religion may have been shown; to you all sorts of truths, all sorts of religions, all sorts of philosophies, all sorts of sciences are being demonstrated. If the religion of your ancestors is yours on the ground of its being laid before you, so is the religion of Buddhism yours on the ground of its being placed before you, so is Vedanta yours on the ground of its being put before you.
Truth is nobody’s property; truth is not the property of Jesus; we ought not to preach it in the name of Jesus. Truth is not the property of Buddha; we need not preach it in the name of Buddha. It is not the property of Mohammad; it is not the property of Krishna or anybody. It is everybody’s property. If anybody basked in the Sun’s rays before, you can bask in the Sun today. If one man drinks the fresh waters of the spring, you can drink the same fresh water. Such should your attitude be towards all religions. Nobody in his heart of hearts would hesitate to divest his neighbours of his worldly possessions, but is it not strange that when our neighbours offer us most willingly their spiritual or religious treasures which are admittedly far superior to worldly riches, we instead of cheerfully accepting stand up in arms against them? Rama brings Vedanta to you, not with the intention of nicknaming you Vedantins, no. Take all that, assimilate it, make it your own, you may call it Christianity—names are nothing to us. Rama brings to you a religion which is not only found in the Bible and in the most ancient Scriptures but also in the latest works on Philosophy and Science. Rama brings you a religion, which is found in the streets, which is written upon the leaves, which is murmured by the brooks, which is whispered in the winds, which is throbbing in your own veins and arteries; a religion which concerns your business and bosom; a religion which you have not to practise by going into a particular church only; a religion which you have to practise and live in your everyday life, in your hearth, in your dining room; everywhere you have to live that religion. We might not call it Vedanta, we might call it by some other name—the term Vedanta simply means the fundamental truth; the Truth is your own, it is not Rama’s more than yours, it does not belong to the Hindu more than to you. Truth belongs to nobody, everybody and everything belongs to it.
We will see now how it is that this Vedanta makes our way smooth and our undertakings so pleasant in this life. We shall take up Practical Vedanta today, in other words, the Secret of Success. The secret of success is Vedanta put into practice. Practical Vedanta is the secret of success. Every science has its corresponding art, and we shall take up today that phase of Vedanta which is more Art than Science—the Practical Vedanta.
Some people say that Vedanta teaches pessimism, Vedanta teaches hopelessness; it teaches idleness, laziness. Rama requests those people to keep their logic with them and not to sell their intellect to others; keep it to themselves and see whether the teachings of Vedanta lead to life, energy, power, success or something else. Ask not whether the Indians live it or not. Rama tells plainly that it is not the exclusive property of the Indians, it is everybody’s property. It is your own birthright. The Americans in business-life live it more and thus they are successful in the line; the Indians in practice do not live it to the same extent as the Americans do, thus they are backward from the material standpoint.
Rama brings you no perverted Vedanta, but the real Vedanta from the fountain-heads of Nature. Apply your logic and bring your reason to bear upon the subject; and you will see how wonderful Vedanta is and how it leads us to success in every department, how everybody despite himself must drift along the line of Vedanta and obey its dictates.
The Secret of Success is manifold. There are phases of the secret. We shall take these principles one by one and find out their relation to Vedanta as expounded in the Hindu Scriptures.

First Principle—Work
It is an open secret that work, attack, persistent application is the secret of success.
"Hammer on! hammer on!" is the first principle of success. Without work you can never succeed. A lazy man is bound to perish in the "struggle for existence," he cannot live, he must die. Here presents a question most commonly raised against Vedanta. How can you reconcile continuous labour with the unaffected, impersonal, pure nature of Self or Atman, as demonstrated by Vedanta? Does not Vedanta lead to laziness and inaction by inculcating the realization of rest and peace of Divine Self and by preaching renunciation? This objection is due to the terrible misunderstanding of the nature of work or renunciation.
What is work? Intense work, according to Vedanta, is rest. Here is a paradoxical statement, a startling statement, "Work is rest." All true work is rest. That is what Vedanta preaches. The greatest worker, when he is at the height of his work, when he is doing his best, mark him. In the eyes of others he is engaged in strenuous efforts, but examine him from his own standpoint, he is no doer. Just as in the eyes of distant observers, the rainbow contains beautiful colours, examine it on the spot, there are no colours of any kind present therein. The hero in war, say Napoleon or Washington or anybody, when he is fighting, doing his best, look at him. The body works automatically, as it were, the mind is absorbed in the work to such a degree that "I am working" is entirely gone, the small enjoying ego is absolutely lost, the credit-seeking little self is absent. This incessant work unwittingly leads you to the highest yoga.
Vedanta wants you to rise above the little self, the small ego through intense work. Let the body and mind be continuously at work to such a degree that the labour may not be felt at all. A poet is inspired when he is above the idea of the little self or ego, when he has no thought of "I am writing poetry". Ask anybody who has had the experience of solving difficult problems in Mathematics, and he will tell you that only then are problems solved and difficulties removed when the idea—"I am doing this" is entirely absent; and the more a man can rise above the little ego or the small self, the more glorious works come out of him.
Thus does Vedanta teach rising above the little ego by dint of earnest work and losing everything in the real indescribable principle which, according to Vedanta, is the real Self, Atman or God. When a thinker, philosopher, poet, scientist or any worker attunes himself to a state of abstraction and rises to the heights of resignation to such a degree that no trace of personality is left in him, and Vedanta is practically realized, then and then only does God, the Master Musician, take up in His own hands the organ or instrument of his body and mind and send forth grand vibrations, sweet notes, exquisite symphonies out of him. People say, "Oh, he is inspired!" whereas there is no I or me in him, no doing, no enjoying traceable from his standpoint. This was realizing Vedanta in practical life. Thus all success flows from Vedanta being unknowingly put into practice.
There is no necessity of your retiring into the forests and pursuing abnormal practices to realize Vedantic Yoga. You are the father of Yoga Shiva himself, when you are lost in activity or merged in work. According to Vedanta the body is not your Self, do you not see that you are at the height of glory, at your very best, only when in practice you realize this truth, and the body and mind become to you non-existent by virtue of intense exertion?
What work is, will be explained by a lamp or light. Take a gas or oil lamp. The light is so glorious, so dazzling, so splendid, brilliant and bright. What is it that lends glory and lustre to the lamp? It is denying the ego through constant work. Let the lamp try to spare its wick and oil, the lamp will be dark, all failure, no success. In order that there may be success, the lamp must burn, must not spare its wick and oil. That is what Vedanta preaches. In order that you may have success, in order that you may prosper, you must through your acts, by your own everyday life, burn your own body and muscles, cremate them in the fire of use. You must use them. You must consume your body and mind, put them in a burning state; crucify your body and mind; work and work and then will light shine through you. All work is nothing else but the burning of your wick and oil; in other words, all work is nothing else but making your body and mind illusions, practically nothing from the standpoint of your own consciousness. Rise above them and that is work.
All true work is accomplished when we rise above it. Once there came two brave Hindu brothers to the court of Akbar, the great, an emperor of India. They requested to be employed by the king. The king inquired about their qualifications. They said they were heroes. The king asked them to give a proof of their heroism. In Akbar’s court they stood face to face; off flashed their shining daggers, sharp-pointed daggers. Each of them placed the sharp end of his dagger against the breast of his brother. Cheerfully and smilingly they ran to each other. Their hands were steady, and the daggers were piercing through the bodies, but unflinchingly and calmly they approached each other, no swerving, no hesitating; their souls united in heaven, their bodies met on earth and fell bleeding on the ground. A very queer proof of their heroism was given to the king. That is an illustration of the fact that true work is accomplished only when the self-asserting worker is sacrificed. Bees have to put their lives into the sting they give. "The man who is his own master knocks in vain at the doors of poetry," says Plato.
Thus all prosperity and success come by living Vedanta in practice. Incessant work, incessant labour is the greatest Yoga for a man of the world. You are the greatest worker to the world when to yourself you are no worker.
Again in what mood and mode does successful work become natural for us? It is very easy to say, "Work, work," but it is very hard to work. Everybody wants to become the greatest painter, everybody wants to become a great musician, but everybody does not become what he wants. What is it that disposes you to inaction? What is it that makes you enjoy labour? Have you not found that oftentimes when you wished to work, you could not? Have you not observed that sometimes you did not like to labour and yet was splendid work done? Have you not marked that there is something higher which governs your working capacity? How often a man wakes up in the morning and finds himself in a peculiar mood, a mood which is indescribable in perfect harmony with Nature; he takes up his pen and from his pen flows magnificent poetry or philosophy. A painter tries to paint a beautiful picture but he cannot, despite all his struggles. He rises one morning and finds himself inspired, as it were, and there he draws beautiful works of art. Is it not so?
Thus we see that there is something higher which puts all your working powers at their best. If you avail yourself of that higher mood, you can always keep yourself at your best and the work through your hands will be perfect, most beautiful. That higher mood or that higher secret Vedanta lays before you; it is nothing else but being in perfect harmony with the universe, being in tune with the Divinity, practically living in the true Atman or God within you and being raised above the little ego or selfish desires. Thus work can become wonderful by availing yourself of the secret of all light or power within you.
An artist or painter goes into the street, and there he sees many faces; the eyes of one person charm him, those eyes are unconsciously stored up in his mind; he meets another person and the chin of that person impresses him, he stores up that chin in his mind; the eyes taken from one person and the chin stolen from another. Another man comes to his shop to purchase a picture. A picture is sold to that man, the customer goes away with the picture, knows not that he has left his hair behind in the mind of the artist. Then comes another man who wants the painter to do something for him; the painter does that something for him but he snatches the remarkable ears from this man and so impersonally the mind of the painter is at work. While the painter is appropriating the eyes, chin, nose, etc., of different people, he is not living in the idea that he is taking these, but impersonally, unconsciously, this work is being done. After a few days the painter sits in his studio before the canvas. He wants to produce a striking portrait, and there the eyes of one person, the remarkable nose of another person, the attractive hair of another, all these are blended into one painting, and the artist brings out a most magnificent piece of work, a picture which excels all the originals. How was this beautiful work of art done? Was this work personal? No, the work was impersonal. All this work was done by living continually in a mood free from egotistical, selfish taint, above the "I am doing" mood. Let the artist suffer from hatred or cupidity, oftentimes miscalled love; the watch of his mind becomes magnetized, remains no longer in working order, he is deranged or out of gear. The impersonal tone of his mood is lost, he is hypnotized into selfishness, the serene mood has disappeared, the Vedanta spirit which keeps us in touch with the All is replaced by limiting attachment or repulsion, and no longer can the artist’s mind do the impersonal work of abstracting from the features of this man or that. The practical Vedanta is gone, and gone with it is the master-power of producing exquisite work of art.
Thus you see that the more your work becomes impersonal and the more you rise above "I am doing," the more you renounce the proprietary, copyrighting spirit, and the more you leave behind the accumulating, favour-currying spirit, the more you deny your unreal apparent self, the better will your work be. Vedanta requires you to work for its own sake. In order that your work should be success, you should not mind the end, you should not care for the consequences or the result. Let the means and the end be brought together, let the very work be your end. Vedanta wants you to be at rest in your inner Self. Let the inner Soul be at rest and the body be continually at work, the body subject to the laws of dynamics being in action, and the inner Self always at statical rest. It is our selfish restlessness that spoils all our work. Follow work for the sake of peace or nirvana connected with it.

Second Principle—Unselfish Sacrifice
There was a quarrel between a pond and a river. The pond addressed the river thus: "O river, you are very foolish to give all your water and all your wealth to the ocean; do not squander your water and wealth on the ocean. The ocean is ungrateful, the ocean needs it not. If you go on pouring into the ocean all your accumulated treasures, the ocean will remain as salty as it is today, the ocean will remain as bitter as it is today, the brine of the sea will not be altered. ‘Do not throw pearls before the swine.’ Keep all your treasures with you." This was worldly wisdom. Here was the river told to consider the end, to care for the result and regard the consequences. But the river was a Vedantin. After hearing this worldly wisdom the river replied, "No, the consequence and the result are nothing to me; failure and success are nothing to me; I must work because I love work; I must work for its own sake. To work is my aim, to keep in activity is my life. My Soul, my real Atman is energy itself. I must work." The river went on working, the river went on pouring into the ocean millions upon millions of gallons of water. The miserly economic pond became dry in three or four months; it became putrid, stagnant, full of festering filth but the river remained fresh and pure, its perennial springs did not dry up. Silently and slowly was water taken from the surface of the ocean to replenish the fountain-heads of the river; monsoons and trade winds invisibly, silently and slowly carried water from the ocean and kept the river source fresh for ever.
Just so Vedanta requires not to follow the sophistic policy of the pond. It is the small selfish pond that cares for the result, "What will become of me and my work?" Let your work be for work’s sake; you must work. Your work should be your goal and thus Vedanta frees you from fretting and worrying desires. This is the meaning of freedom from desires which Vedanta preaches. Worry not about the consequences, expect nothing from the people, bother not about favourable reviews of your work or severe criticism thereon. Care not whether what you are doing will tell or not; think nothing of that. Do the work for its own sake. This way you have to free yourself from desire; you have not to free yourself from work, but you have to free yourself from yearning restlessness. This way how splendid does your work become. The most effective and best cure for all sorts of distracting passions and temptations is work. But that would be only a negative recommendation. The positive joy that accompanies faithful work is a spark of Salvation, unconscious Self-realization. It keeps you pure, untainted, and one with Divinity. This happiness is the highest and surest reward of work. Corrupt not this health-bringing, heavenly treasure by setting your heart on selfish motives for work. Sordid ambitions and petty hankerings retard rather than accelerate our progress; outward and concrete allurements are detrimental rather than beneficial to our efficiency of labour. No prize or appreciation can be more benign or salubrious than the immediate joy which accompanies earnest action. Follow, then, action to realize the renunciation, religion or worship it involves, and be not led by the childish frivolities it promises. Feel no responsibility, ask for no reward. Now here should your goal be. People say, "First deserve and then desire." Vedanta says, "Deserve only, no need of desiring." "A stone that is fit for the wall will never be found in the way." If you deserve, by an irresistible Divine Law, everything will come to you. If there is a lamp burning, the lamp should go on burning, the lamp need not send any invitations to the moths; moths will flock to the lamp of their own accord. Where there is a fresh spring, people of their own accord will be drawn to it; the spring need not care a straw for the people. When the moon rises, people will be drawn out of themselves to enjoy the moonlight. Attack! Attack! Hammer on! Hammer on! Work, work, work so as to realize the nothingness of the body and the supreme reality of the true Self. Thus at the height of apparent activity you will taste Nirvana and Kaivalya, and when in this way you have suffered your personality and ego to be raised on the cross of labour, success will seek you and there will be no scarcity of people who will come and appreciate. People did not accept Christ so long as he was alive; he must be crucified before he is worshipped. ‘Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.’ No seed can spring up and multiply without suffering destruction as to its form and appearance. So the second essential to success is sacrifice, crucifying the little self, renunciation. Misunderstand not that word "renunciation." Renunciation does not mean asceticism.
Everybody wants to be white, dazzling, brilliant, bright. How can you become glorious? Why are objects white? Just look at the white objects. What makes them so white? Science tells you that the secret of whiteness is renunciation, nothing less. The seven colours in the rays of the Sun impinge upon different objects. Some objects absorb and retain most of these colours and project back only one. Such objects are known by the very colour they throw back or deny to themselves. You call that rose pink, but that is the very colour which does not belong to the rose. The colours it has absorbed, which are really in it, are the colours you do not attribute to the rose. How strange! The black objects absorb all the colours in the rays of the Sun. They give out no colour, they renounce nothing, they throw back nothing, and they are dark, black. The white objects absorb nothing, claim nothing, they renounce everything. They do not try to keep selfish possession. They have not a proprietary spirit and thus they are white, dazzling, bright, brilliant.
Similarly if you want to become glorious and prosperous, you shall have to rise in your heart of hearts above the selfish, proprietary spirit. You must rise above that. Be always a giver, a free worker; never throw your heart in a begging, expecting attitude. Get rid of the monopolizing habit. Why should you lay exclusive claim to the air in your lungs? That air is everybody’s property. On the other hand when you cease to appropriate the small quantity of air in your lungs, you find yourself heir to all the atmosphere, unlimited become your resources; breathe in the oxygen of the universe. Be not vain, be not proud. Never feel that anything belongs to your little self; it is God’s, your real Atman’s. Take the case of Sir Isaac Newton. How was it that he became so bright, brilliant, glorious in the eyes of the world? At the time of his death, the spirit in which he had worked was made known. When complimented on being the greatest man in the world, he replied, "Oh, no! this intellect or this small personality of mine is simply like a little child gathering pebbles on the vast, immense sea-shore of knowledge." He was yet lying upon the sands, gathering pebbles. Thus we see that the unassuming spirit which appropriates or claims nothing, which does not aggrandize the little self, is the spirit which puts your capacity and working powers at their best and this is the characteristic spirit of Vedanta.
You own desires, you have all kinds of desires, and you wish that your desires should be fulfilled; but learn the secret of the fulfilment of desires. How do we raise the window shade? We want the window shade to rise up, but we have to give it a downward pull and let it go and there the window shade ascends. This illustrates the secret of the fulfilment of all your desires. It is only when you let go the desire that it fructifies. How are arrows shot? We take up the bow and bend it. So long as we are stretching the string, the arrow does not reach the enemy. You may stretch it ever so hard, the arrow will be with you still. It is only when you let it go that bang flies the arrow to pierce the bosom of your foe. Similarly so long as you keep your desire stretched or go on desiring, willing, wishing and yearning, it will not reach the bosom of the other party; it is only when you let it go that it penetrates the soul of the party concerned. "It is only when you leave me and lose me that you find me by your side." It is only when you cast yourself in a strange, indescribable sentiment which is higher than both of us, that you find me. This is what Vedanta tells you.
Two monks were travelling together. One of them maintained in practice the spirit of accumulation. The other was a man of renunciation. They discussed the subject of possession versus renunciation till they reached the bank of a river. It was late in the evening. The man who preached renunciation had no money with him, but the other had. The man of renunciation said, "What do we care for the body; we have no money to pay the boatman, we can pass away the night even on this bank singing the name of God." The moneyed monk replied, "If we stay on this side of the river, we can find no village, no hamlet or hut, no company, wolves will devour us, snakes will bite us, cold will chill us. We had better ferry to the other side. I have money with which to pay the boatman to ferry us over to the other bank. On that side there is a village; we will live there comfortably." Well, the boatman came over and both of them were ferried across the river to the opposite shore. At night the man who had paid the fare remonstrated with the man of renunciation: "Do you not see the advantage of keeping money? I kept money and two lives were saved. Henceforth you should never preach renunciation. Had I also been a man of renunciation like you, we would have both starved or been chilled and killed on that side of the river." But the man of renunciation answered, "Had you kept the money with you, had you not parted with the money, renounced it to the boatman, we would have died on the other bank. Thus it was the giving up of money or renunciation that brought us safety." Again, he continued, "If I kept no money in my pocket, your pocket became my pocket. My faith kept money for me in that pocket. I never suffer. Whenever I am in need, I am provided for." This story indicates that so long as you keep your desires in your pocket, there is no safety or rest for you. Renounce your desires, rise above them and you find double peace—immediate rest and eventual fruition of desires. Remember that your desires will be realized only when you consciously or unconsciously lose yourself in the Divinity, then and then only will the time be ripe for the fulfilment of desires.

Third Principle—Love
Well, the third principle of success is love, harmony with the universe, adaptation to circumstances. What does Love mean? Love means practically realizing your oneness and identity with your neighbours, with all those who come in contact with you. If you are a shopkeeper, unless you realize the interests of your customers to be one with your own, you will make no progress, your work will suffer. If the hand want to be selfish and assert itself as different from the other members of the body and begin to argue this way, "Look here, I am the right hand, I do all sorts of labour, why should the whole body partake of what is earned by my sweating drudgery? Should the food earned by my toil be given to the stomach and thence to all other organs? No, no, I will have everything to myself." Then in order to carry into effect this selfish idea, there is no other way for the hand but to take that food and inoculate or inject it into skin. Will that be beneficial to the hand? Will the hand succeed that way? Impossible! Never! Oh yes; one way the hand can become very fat, can exclusively prosper to the envy of all other members of the body; the hand can take a wasp or bee, and get itself stung. Thus the hand will become very fat, very big. Thus and thus alone can the selfishness of the hand be gratified, thus can the selfish philosophy of the hand be carried out. But how undesirable is that! We do not wish that kind of gratification or that kind of success. That is disease.
Similarly remember that all the world is one body. Your body is simply like the hand, one organ simply like the finger or nail. In order that you may succeed, you should not look upon yourself as separate and distinct from the Self of the whole world. In order that the hand may prosper, it must realize that its interests are identical with those of the whole. In other words, the hand must feel and realize that its Self is not confined within the small area beyond the wrist, but must practically feel itself as identical and one with the Self of the whole system. Feeding the Self of the whole is feeding the Self of the hand. Unless you realize this fact, live this truth that you are one with the universe, that you and God are one, you cannot succeed. Deprived of ease, afflicted by disease you are when you stagnate in the slough of separation and division. You are perfect and whole when you realize yourself to be the Whole and the All. By feeling this oneness you practically live Vedanta. Infringe upon this divine and sublime truth, break this sacred law in practice and you are bound to suffer for your sacrilege like the silly, selfish hand. Coleridge in his ‘Ancient Mariner’, very beautifully brings out this truth. So does Byron in his ‘Prisoner of Chillon.’ It is proved in these poems that whenever a man falls out of harmony with Nature he suffers; the very moment you realize your unity with fellow-beings, all prosperity is yours:

He prayeth best who loveth best,
Both man and bird, and beast.
He prayeth well who loveth well,
All things both great and small.

A king went into a forest on a hunting expedition. In the heat of chase the king became separated from his companions. Under the scorching rays of the burning Sun, he felt very thirsty. He found in the woods a small garden. He went into the garden, but being in his sportsman’s dress the gardener could not recognize him; the poor village gardener having not seen the king’s person before. The king asked the gardener to bring him something to drink, because he felt so very thirsty. The gardener went straight into the garden, took some pomegranates, squeezed out the juice and brought a big cup full of it to the king. The king gulped it down but it did not quench his parching thirst entirely. The king asked him to bring another cup of the pomegranate juice. The gardener went for it. When the gardener had left the king’s presence, the latter began to reflect within himself, "This garden seems to be very rich; in a few minutes the man could bring me a large cup full of the fresh juice; a heavy income-tax ought to be levied on the owner of such a flourishing concern, etc., etc." On the other hand the gardener delayed and delayed, did not return to the king even in an hour. The king began to wonder, "How is it that when I first asked him to bring me something to drink, he brought that pomegranate juice in only a few minutes, and now he has been squeezing out the juice of pomegranates for about an hour and the cup is not full yet? How is that?" After one hour the cup was brought to the king, but not brimful. The king asked the reason why the cup was somewhat empty, whereas he filled the cup so soon at first. The gardener who was a sage replied: "Our king had very good intentions when I went out to bring you the first cup of pomegranate juice but when I went out to bring you the second cup, our king’s kind, benevolent nature must have changed. I can give no other explanation for such a sudden change in the rich nature of my pomegranates." The king reflected within himself and lo! the statement was perfectly right. When the king had first stepped into the garden, he was very charitably disposed to and full of love for the people there, thinking in his mind that they were very poor and needed help but when the old man had brought him one cup of pomegranate juice in so short a time, the king’s mind had changed and his views altered. The falling out of tune with Nature on the king’s part affected the pomegranates in the garden. The moment the Law of Love was violated by the king, that very moment the trees held back the juice from him.
The story may be true or false. We have nothing to do with it. But truth is undeniable that so long as you are in perfect harmony with Nature, so long as your mind is in tune with the universe and you are feeling and realizing your oneness with each and all, all the circumstances and surroundings, even winds and waves, will be in your favour. The very moment you are at discord with the All, that very moment our friends and relatives will turn against you, that very moment you will make the whole world stand up in arms against you. Understand this divine Law of Love and practise it. Love is a vital principle of success.

Fourth Principle—Cheerfulness
The fourth principle of success is self-possession or cheerfulness. And how is self-possession or cheerfulness kept up? It is very easy to say, "Be cheerful, be calm, be collected." But how difficult it is to remain cheerful, calm and collected under all circumstances! By simply laying down the law you cannot be cheerful. You cannot do anything by artificial rules. How are we then to keep ourselves cheerful? What is it that governs your mood? Vedanta points out that we become moody, cheerless or "in blues," we become sad and melancholic, when we descend to the plane of the body, the little self and craving desires. Then only are we unbalanced. We feel our stomach only when it is sick. We feel our nose only when we are suffering from cold. We feel our arm only when it is aching. So we feel our personal ego, little self, or body only when we are spiritually out of order. The engrossing regard for the body and care-creating attention to the personal little ego involves sad spiritual illness. We fall from ‘Eden’ the moment our bodily weakness makes itself felt. Hurled are we from Heaven the instant we taste of the tree of distinction and difference. But we can regain the ‘Paradise lost’ by suffering the flesh to be crucified. You can recover your balance and be cheerful the moment you rise above the body, above the little selfish, sordid, paltry, petty clingings.
Thus in order to secure cheerfulness, self-possession, you will have to put into practice the central teaching of Vedanta, the eternal Truth that your true Atman, your real Self is the only rigid Reality. The phenomenal worldly circumstances become mobile, malleable and volatile unto you when you are soaked in the stern fact, your true Atman. I am not the body; all the bodily concerns, connections and ties are mere playthings. They are simply the relations or offices in a theatrical performance. I, as an actor, have one man for my enemy and one man for my friend, another man is my father, someone else my son, but in reality I am neither the son nor the father; the foes and friends are no foes and friends. I am Absolute Divinity. The worldly ties and connections do not concern me. All relations are mere illusions. Every actor should well perform his role in the play; but he who takes to heart and applies to his real Self the dramatic part of love or hatred is nothing short of insane. Again the world being but a dramatic show, why should I attach undue importance to the outside forms of duty? If one man is king, why envy him; another a beggar, why despise him?

Honour and disgrace from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Vedanta inculcates that you should not bother yourself about your surroundings and circumstances. Know the Law and shake off all fear. Here is, suppose a magistrate. He comes into his court and takes his seat. He finds the parties, clerks, lawyers, servants and other people already waiting for him. The magistrate has not to send for the witnesses, invite the lawyers or go and call the plaintiffs and others. He has not to dust the room, sweep the floor, and fix the table, etc. The very influence of the magistrate puts everything in order just as the very presence of the Sun wakes up all Nature, enlivens rivers, plants, birds, beasts and men. Similarly when you plant yourself firmly in the Truth, when you install yourself in the position of the disinterested Supreme Judge, your very Atman, when your glorious Self shines in its full splendour, all the circumstances, all your surroundings will take care of themselves, everything will be enlivened and put in order in the genial light of your presence. It is related of Rama, the greatest hero of India that when he started to regain Sita, which represents Divine Knowledge, all Nature offered services to him; monkeys, geese, squirrels and even stones, air and water vied with one another to get enlisted on his side. Shine in the glory and majesty of your Self. Away beyond grovelling attachment and degrading hatred, and woe unto the gods and angels if they do not serve you as abject slaves. Why does everybody lackey a child? The little tyrant rides on the strongest shoulders and pulls the hair of laurelled heads. How is that? Why, because the child lives above the circumstances, in Divinity unconsciously.
If you go on doing your duty, if you are faithful to your work, bother not yourself about the outside aids and helps. They are bound to come to you, must come to you. When you make a speech and have anything worth being preserved, bother not yourself about who will come and take it down or who will publish it, etc. Take the seat of a magistrate, be firm in your pristine dignity, never mar your cheerfulness by scruples about the outside matters and external aids.
If there be felt an itching sensation in any part of the body, the hand automatically reaches that region to scratch. The power or Self which underlies the hand is evidently the same as the power or Self which underlies the place of irritation. Just so bear in mind that the Self in you is the same as the Self in all surroundings or environments and when your mind is in harmonious vibration with this underlying Self Supreme and to you has become the whole world your body, outside aids and helps must fly to you as naturally and spontaneously as the hand runs to the place of sensation.
When we run after our shadow to catch it, the shadow will never be caught; the shadow will always outrun us. But if we run towards the Sun, turning our back on the shadow, it will dog us. Similarly the moment you turn towards these outside matters and want to grasp them and keep them, they will elude your grasp, will outrun you. The very moment you turn your back upon them and face the Light of lights, your inner Self, that very moment favourable circumstances will seek you. This is the Law.
Most people are turned pale, are driven into the corner by the word "Duty." Duty like a bugbear haunts them, goes on thrashing them, leaves them no rest or time, is always upon them. Such hurrying slaves, nay, machines of "Duty" lose in power what they gain in speed. Allow not the sense of Duty to throw you off the balance or damp your spirits. Remember that all duty is after all imposed on you by yourself. Ultimately you are your own master. You yourself chose your position, offered your services and created your superiors. Again if you need their money, they require your services just as much. The terms are of equality, the action and reaction being equal. You serve your own will and of nobody else. Your present surroundings are created by yourself, the little world of relations is your own workmanship, your future will be your own doing. You are the master of your own destiny. Know that and rejoice, be cheerful.

We build our future thought by thought
For good or bad and know it not.
Thought is another name for fate;
Choose, then, thy destiny, and wait.
Mind is the master of its sphere;
Be calm, be steadfast and sincere;
Fear is the only foe to fear
Let the God in thee rise and say
To adverse circumstance—‘Obey’
And thy dear wish shall have its way.

Take to your work, not as a plodding labourer but like a noble prince for pleasure’s sake, as useful exercise, as happy play or merry game. Never approach a task in a scared spirit. Be yourself. Realize that kings and presidents are simply your servants. Work as stars work—

Undismayed at all the things about them.
    Unaffrighted at the things they see,
These demand not that the things without them
    Yield them love, amusement, sympathy.
The exquisite reward of song
    Was sung—the self-same thrill and glow
Which to unfolding flowers belong.
    And wrens and thrushes know.

Feel no responsibility, ask for no reward. All authority should be subservient to you. You are your own authority. No sense of duty or outside authority should be to you an overshadowing cloud. The order wrought by outside authority may at best be geometrical, but the order which you create yourself will be organic.

Fifth Principle—Fearlessness
We come next to the fifth principle of success, fearlessness. What is fearlessness? No faith in Maya, but a living knowledge and a true faith in the real Self. Fear comes to us when we feel ourselves to be the abode of fear or the body; the body is always liable to be eaten by worms of anguish; it is vulnerable and pregnable to all kinds of suffering. The very moment we rise above the little body, we are free from fear. Live as Divinity, live Vedanta, and who can harm you? Who can inflict injury upon you? Fearlessness and Vedanta are inseparable.
How is fearlessness essential to success? This will be illustrated by a fact of personal experience. There came five bears at one time in the Himalayan forests face to face with Rama, but they did not molest him at all. Why was it so? Simply on account of fearlessness. Rama was filled with that spirit, "I am not the body, I am not the mind; the Supreme Divinity I am, I am God; no fire can burn me; no weapon can wound me."
They were looked straight in the eyes and they ran away. At one time a wild wolf was outstared; at another time a tiger likewise fled. When a cat comes, pigeons close their eyes; they think the cat does not see them because they do not see the cat, nevertheless the cat eats them up. If you are afraid, the cat will eat you up. Have you not noticed that while walking in the suburban quarters, if we betray the least sign of fear, even dogs rush at us and molest? Dogs even will tear us if we fear. But if we are fearless, we can overcome and tame lions and tigers. When we are pouring liquid from one vessel into another, if our hands waver even so little, the liquid is sure to be spilt. Pour the fluid unhesitatingly, confidently, fearlessly into the receptacle, no drop will be lost.
It is by hesitation and fear that you bring yourself into sad plights. Let nothing disconcert you or take you by surprise. You are the All. Dispel the fear inducing attachment to the body. Is it not a pity that the noise of a trivial fire-cracker or even a small mouse, a rustling leaf, nay, a trembling shadow should startle a full hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois of wool-clad flesh? No calamity is ever worse than the dread of the calamity. You would rather suffer death than harbour fear of death.
Some one says: "No one ever found the walking fern who did not have the walking fern in his mind." If you have love in your mind, you will find love; if you entertain hate, you will meet hate. If you are afraid of detectives and defrauders, you will not miss them. If you expect selfishness and deceit, you shall not be disappointed; from all sides will selfishness and deceit confront you. Fear not then; have holiness and purity in you; you will never come across anything unclean. Life-success and spiritual success must go together. Deluded are they who divorce one from the other.
Thieves break into a house only when it is unguarded. If the house is kept lighted all the time, they dare not steal into it. Keep in your mind the light of Truth ever ablaze, no devil of fear or temptation will approach you. Believe in the Law Divine. Please make not your life wretched by hanging on worldly wisdom. Timid prudence makes a downright atheist out of you. Why allow the mists and fogs of circumstances to cloud you? Are you not the Sun of suns? Are you not the Lord of the Universe? What vagaries of circumstances are there which you cannot disperse, dispel and evaporate? Far be it from you to consider any menacing surroundings as real in the least. Fearless, fearless, fearless you are.

Sixth Principle—Self-Reliance
The sixth secret of success is Self-reliance. You know the elephant is a much larger animal than the lion. The elephant’s body seems to be much stronger than the body of a lion, and yet a single lion can put to flight a whole herd of elephants. What is the secret of the lion’s power? The only secret is that the lion is a practical Vedantin and the elephants are dualists. The elephants believe in the body; the lion practically believes not in the body, but in something higher than the body, the spirit. Even though the body of the lion is comparatively very small, the lion practically believes his power to be infinite, his inner force illimitable? The elephants live in groups of forty or fifty, sometimes one hundred or two hundred, and when the elephants go to rest, they always keep one strong elephant as watch and guard. They fear that their enemies may attack and devour them. They know not that a single one of them is capable of destroying thousands of lions, only if he has faith in himself, but the poor tuskers lack faith in the inner Self and the consequent courage.
Thus is self-trust, a fundamental principle of bliss. Vedanta teaches you not to call yourself a grovelling, sneaking, miserable sinner or wretch. Vedanta wants you to believe in your innate power. You are Infinite, God Almighty you are, Infinite God you are. Believe that. What an inspiring truth! Believe in the outside and you fail. That is the law.
Two brothers involved in litigation appeared before a magistrate. One of them was a millionaire, the other a pauper. The magistrate asked the millionaire how it was that he became so rich and his brother so poor. He said: "Five years ago we inherited equal property from our parents. Fifty thousand dollars fell to his share and fifty thousand dollars to me. This man, regarding himself as wealthy became lazy (you know some rich people think it beneath their dignity to labour) and whatever work was to be done he entrusted to his servants. If he received a letter, he would give it to his servants and say, ‘Go, attend to this business.’ Anything that was to be accomplished he told his servants to do. He lolled away his time in ease and comfort—‘Eat, drink and be merry.’ He would always bid his servants, ‘Go, go, attend to this business or that.’ Speaking of himself the rich man said: "When I got my fifty thousand dollars, I never committed my work to anybody; when anything was to be done, I would always run to do it myself and I always told the servants, ‘Come, come, follow me.’ The words on my lips were always ‘Come, come,’ and the words on the lips of my brother were ‘Go, go.’ Everything he possessed obeyed his motto; his servants, friends, property and wealth went away, entirely left him. My maxim was ‘Come.’ Friends came to me, property increased, everything multiplied."
When we depend upon others, we say "Go, go." Everything will go away, and when we rely upon Self and trust nothing but the Atman, all things flock to us. If you think yourself a poor, sneaking vermin, that you become and if you honour yourself and rely on your Self, grandeur you win. What you think the same you must become.
An inspector came to a school in India. One of the schoolmasters pointing to a student said that he was so bright as to have learnt by heart such and such a piece of literature, say, Milton’s Paradise Lost; he could recite any part of it. The student was presented to the inspector but he had no Vedanta in him. He assumed bashfulness and modesty and when asked, "Do you know that piece by heart?" He said, "No sir, I am nothing, I know nothing." Those words he thought to be an indication of modesty, a sign of bashfulness. "No sir, I know nothing; I did not learn it." The inspector asked again, but the boy still said, "No sir, no sir, I do not know it." The master was put out of countenance. There was another boy who did not know the whole book by heart, but he said, "I know it; I think I shall be able to recite any passage you may desire." The inspector put to him a few questions. All the questions were readily answered by the boy; this second boy declaimed passage after passage and secured the prize. No one can ever estimate you at a higher value than you set upon yourselves.
Do not, please, make yourselves cringing, sneaking, miserable creatures. As you think, so will you become. Think yourselves to be God and God you are. Think yourselves to be free and free you are this moment.
A man came into the house of a Vedantin one day and occupied the vacant seat of honour in the absence of the master of the house. When the master of the house was coming back into the room, that intruder put this question, "O Vedantin, let me know what God is, and what man is." Well the sage did not directly answer the question. He simply called his servants and began to talk loud and use harsh language, telling them to turn him out of the house. This peculiar language did the really wise man use. When such unexpected language was employed, the intruder got frightened, he became nervous and left the seat of honour. The wise man occupied the same and then calmly, serenely told him," Here (pointing to himself) is God, and there (pointing to the other) is man. Had you not been frightened, had you kept your place, had you preserved your balance, had you not been put out of countenance, then you were also God. But the very fact of your trembling, quivering and losing faith in your Godhead makes you a poor vermin." Think yourself to be Divinity, have a living faith in your Divinity and nothing can harm you, nobody can injure you.
So long as you go on relying and depending upon outside powers, failure will be the result. Trusting upon God within put the body in action and success is assured. If the mountain does not come to Mohammad, Mohammad will go to the mountain. There was a man who was hungry and in order that he might appease his hunger he sat down at a certain place, closed his eyes and began to eat imaginary curry. After a while he was seen with his mouth open, endeavouring to cool his burnt tongue. Somebody asked him what the matter was. He said that in his food there was a very hot chilli. The name is cool but the thing itself is very hot. Thereupon the bystander remarked, "Oh, poor fellow, if you had to live on imaginary food, then why not select something far sweeter than hot chilli, pepper. As it was your own creation, your own doing, your own imagination, why did you not make a better choice?"
According to Vedanta all the world being but your own creation, your own idea, why think yourself a low, miserable sinner? Why not think yourself a fearless, self-reliant incarnation of Divinity?
Have a living faith in the Truth, a right knowledge of things around you, take all your circumstances at their own worth and realize the spirit to such a degree that this world becomes unreal to you. Don’t you know, in Astronomy, while calculating the distances of the fixed stars, this world is looked upon as a mathematical point as nothing in relation to those stars and planets, a mere cypher? If so, can this earth be anything in contrast with the Supreme Infinite Power, the Atman? Realize that, feel that. The Light of lights you are, all glory is yours. Feel that. Feel that and realize it to such a degree that this earth and name and fame, the earthly relations, and popularity and unpopularity, worldly honour and disgrace, criticism of your foes and flattery of your friends may become meaningless to you. This is the secret of success.
Two men were being carried down by the swift current of the Niagra. One of them found a big log and he caught hold of it with the desire to be saved; the other man found a tiny rope thrown down for their rescue by the people on the bank. Happily he caught hold of this rope which was not heavy like the log of wood, and though the rope was apparently very wavering and frail he was saved; but the man who caught hold of the big log of wood was carried off with the log by the rapid current into the yawning grave of surging waters beneath the roaring falls.
Similarly O people of the world, you trust in these outward names, fame, riches, wealth, land and prosperity. These seem to be big like the log of wood; but the saving principle they are not. The saving principle is like the fine thread. It is not material, you cannot feel and handle it, you cannot touch it; the subtle principle, the subtle truth is very fine, but that is the rope which will save you. All these worldly things on which you depend will simply work your ruin and throw you into a deep abyss of hopelessness, anxiety and pain. Beware, beware. Have a strong hold of the Truth. Believe more in the Truth than in outside objects. The law of Nature is that whenever a man believes practically in the outside objects and wealth he must fail. That is the law. Trust in the Divinity and you are safe. Be not dupes of senses.
Rise above hypnotism and suggestions of your neighbours. All your worldly ties and connections hypnotize you into misery and anxiety. Rise above that. Believe in the truth, realize your oneness with the Divinity, and saved you are; nay, Salvation itself ye are.
Far be it from you to regard the world more seriously than the real Self. Do not keep yourself a sensitive, pitiable, limited ego. Let nothing pique you. Attend to business as doctors attend their patients without contacting the disease. Work in the spirit of an unaffected witness, free from all entanglements. Remain immune.

Seventh Principle—Purity
The last but not the least point which guarantees success is Purity. It is true that—"Thought is another name for fate"; what a man thinks that he becomes. But if you begin to think impure thoughts and harbour debasing immorality, with the fulfilment of selfish desire, heart-breaking affliction, excruciating suffering and distracting sorrow shall be forced upon you in bargain. Grief shall prey upon your soul. The fool thinks he enjoys sensuous pleasures, but knows not that in an impure thought or deed, his very vitality is bought, sold and consumed. The Law of Karma (action) retaliates and baffles you when you want to abuse it for selfish ends. Do not dictate your will to God. Let God’s will be done regarding bodily wants. In earthly requirements, let God’s will become your will. Feel, feel that you are the very Power Supreme, whose will has shaped the circumstances in the forms they have. Enjoy your poverty as your own work. But if you find yourself led astray by the flesh and caught in the quagmire of carnality, there is the occasion to assert and exert strenuously your giant will to secure and retain God-consciousness. In this country, cupidity is glazed under the holy name of Love. What a mockery! People don’t live whole. Abnormal affections and inordinate passions cut and divide their days into patches.
It is very seldom that an entire young man speaks. It is always a disabled proper fraction, more correctly, a most improper portion of him that appears in public. One part of him lies with his sweetheart, another with some other object. Love your labour, keep your heart where you hand is. While the feet and hands are warm and working, let your head be cool and collected. Keep your thoughts always at home, centred in the real Self, and never mind the circumstances. Let not the thought of doing good to humanity vex you; why should the world be so poor as to be constantly begging your attention? Let the body go on working for your own Salvation’s sake. Ignorant folk keep vainly yearning and praying for light. Why should you desire even that? The craving for the light keeps you in the dark. For one minute, cast overboard all desire; chant OM; no attachment, no repulsion, perfect poise, and there your whole being is Light personified. Banish all worldly motives of work. Cast off, exorcise the demons of desires. Make all your work sacred. Rid yourself of the disease of attachment or clinging. Attachment to one object detaches you from the All. It is the selfish swinish motives that make your business and life secular. Attend your labour to taste renunciation, it unconsciously entails your work because work keeps you with God, above the body or little self. Work minus desire is a synonym for the highest renunciation or worship. Why should you have any motive for work?
Ignorant wretches believe that objects accomplished bring more happiness than the work itself. The blind knows not that no result can bring more happiness than the work itself. Happiness lives clothed in the garb of work. You can have your success always with you. This way does the wide world become your holy temple and your whole life one continuous hymn! What care have you for the effect? Far be it from you to worry about salary or pay. If you get no proud position, let not glaring vanity prevent you from sweeping the streets. Hesitate not to do the duty that lies next to your hand. It is no self-respect to shun the work not sanctioned by fashion. True self-respect is respect for the real Self, the God within. Body-respect is the opposite pole of virtue, the shortest cut to perdition. When you are ready to extend your hands to any labour, the noblest offices and the most respectable occupations will stretch their hands to receive you cordially. That is the Law. If you do not shrink and curl up from God indwelling in labour, God will not be outdone in courtesy. Light will shine through you despite yourself. Believe not in the applause or censure of mankind. All that simply misleads and deceives you. Your Heaven is within you. You play the part of an impure, unchaste adulterer when you stoop down to indulge in so-called outside objects of pleasure. Tell to the external enjoyments, "Get behind me, Satan, I’ll take nothing at thy hands." Are you not really the source of all joy?

For him in vain the envious seasons roll,
Who bears eternal summer in his soul.

Perch the Indian dove or the nightingale on the top of a pine tree and delicious songs naturally flow from it. Let your mind be seated at home and the sweetest melodies spring from it naturally, spontaneously, without effort. Your God-head is not a thing to be accomplished. Realization is not a thing to be achieved, you have not to do anything to gain God-vision, you have simply to undo what you have already done in the way of forming dark cocoons of desires around you. Fear not, you are free. Even your seeming bondage is imposed by your freedom. To you no harm can accrue unless you invite it. No sword can cut unless you think that it cuts. No need of loving your shackles and chains as ornaments. Shake off vain fancies, burn up all crookedness, and what power is there under the Sun which will not be only too thankful to get the privilege of unloosing your shoes? Assert your God-head, fling into utter oblivion the little self as if it had never existed. When the little bubble bursts, it finds itself the whole Ocean. You are the Whole, the Infinite, the All. Shine in your pristine glory. For you, O perfect One, there is no duty, no action, nothing to be done, all Nature waits on you with bated breath. The world thanks her stars to have the good fortune of paying you homage, adoring you. Please, would you mind the Powers of Nature kneeling and bowing before you!

Trust, trust the Self Supreme.
The restlessness of Soul is due
To faith in things that seem
The things that fleet as fog or dew,
The way to keep you fresh and new,
To every secret treasure due,
Is to assert the real Self
And to deny deluding pelf.
There is no duty to be done
For you, O everything, O One!
Why chafe and worry o’er the work,
Feel, feel the Truth, anxiety shirk.
Believe not when the people say,
"Oh, what a fine game you play!"
Believe not, never, in their praise,
No, ne’er can acts degrade or raise.
I never did a personal deed,
Impersonal Lord I am indeed.
In vain the raving critics fought;
The dupes of senses know me not.
I am for each and all the home,
I am the Om! the Om! the Om! O happy, happy, happy Rama!
Serene and peaceful, tranquil, calm.
My joy can nothing, nothing mar,
My course can nothing, nothing bar.
My livery wear gods, men and birds.
My bliss supreme transcendeth words.
Here, there, and everywhere;
There, where no more a "Where?"
Now, ever, anon and then;
Then, when’s no more a "When?"
This, that and which and what;
That, that’s above "What?"
First, last and mid and high
The One beyond a "Why?"
One, five and hundred, All,
Transcending number, one and all.
The subject, object, knowledge, sight;
E’en that description is not right.
Was, is, and e’er shall be,
Confounder of the verb "to be."
The sweetest Self, the truest Me.
No Me, no Thee, no He.
The Infinite is that, the Infinite this;
And on and on, unchanged is Infinite.
Goes out the Infinite from the Infinite
And there remains unchanged the Infinite.
The outward loss betrays the Infinite,
The seeming gain displays the Infinite,
The going, coming, substracting, adding
Are seeming mode and truth the Infinite.
O, what a charm marvellous spreads,
Over every hill and dale,
Wond’rous blue and green my beds
Charming every red and pale.
Glorious, glorious light it sheds
Over every storm and hail,
Beauteous, beauteous one and all,
Heavenly, heavenly blessd call.

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Prognosis And Diagnosis Of Sin

Lecture delivered on December 20, 1902, in the
Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.

My own Self in the form of ladies and gentlemen,

Tonight we will investigate sin, if there be any. You will observe some very curious phenomena in this world, most curious phenomena. You will mark some facts in this world which baffle the ingenuity of philosophers and you will notice certain facts, moral and religious facts, in this world which are perplexing to scientists. The explanation of these, in the light of Vedanta, will be given tonight. These strange facts comprise the phenomena of sin also. How is it that everybody knows that whoever is born in this world is destined to die? Every tree that is seen on the earth must perish one day; every animal that is seen on this earth must perish, every man must die. Everybody knows it. Those who were the cause of millions of people’s deaths, those greatest warriors, Alexander, Napoleon, Washington, Wellington, all died; all those, through whose hands bloodshed and slaughter were perpetrated to a degree beyond description, also died; and so also died those who brought the dead to life. Bodies, we know, are perishable; every man knows it, but then nobody believes in it in practice.
Intellectually everybody subscribes to the fact that in this world the bodies of each and all must perish, but nobody in practice believes in it. Intellectual consent they give, but no practical belief in this fact. How is it? The oldest man who has passed his three scores and ten, the oldest man who is bordering on 90, the oldest man, go to him and you will see that he wants to continue spreading his connections; he wants to live in this world for ever and ever; wants to shun death and he never thinks of his death in practical life. He wants to extend his property, he wants to enlarge his circle of friends and relatives, he wants to have more and more of property under his dominion. He hopes to live on. Practically he has no faith in death and besides that, the very name of death sends a shudder through the whole frame from the top of the head to the tip of the toe. The whole body quivers at the name of death. How is it that man cannot bear the idea of death, cannot bear the name of death and at the same time knows that death is certain? How is it? Here is an anomaly, a kind of paradox. Explain it. Why should not people have any practical faith in death, although they have intellectual knowledge of it? Vedanta explains it this way: "In man there is the real Self, which is immortal, there is the real Self which is everlasting, unchanging, the same yesterday, today and for ever; in man there is something which knows no death, which knows no change. The practical nonbelief in death is due to the existence of this real Self in man, and it is this real, eternal, immortal Self that asserts its existence in the practical nonbelief in death."
We come to another curious phenomenon, the phenomenon of the desire to be free. Everybody in this world wants to be free; dogs, lions, tigers, birds, men love freedom. The thought of freedom is universal; nations shed blood and wet the earth with it, with that red gore of mankind; the fairy face of the earth is made to blush with slaughter, with red blood in the name of freedom. Christians, Hindus, Mohammadans, all religions have set up before them one goal. What is that? Salvation, the literal meaning of which is freedom.
If you touch the feathers or the body of the water-fowl which lives in a dirty pond, you will see that it is dry, it is not affected in the least by the dirt or mud of the water; it is dry. It does not get wet. Similarly, Vedanta says, "In you, O man, there is something which is pure, which is not contaminated by faults, sins and weaknesses of the body; in this world of sinfulness and sloth, it remains pure." Where is the mistake made? Sinlessness belongs in reality to the real Self, the Atman, but by mistake it is attributed to the body in practice. Whence did this idea of regarding the body and the mind pure, whence did it originate? Who planted it in the hearts of people? Nobody else, nobody; no Satan came to plant it in your hearts; no outside demon came. It is within you; the cause must be in the phenomenon itself. Those days are past when people sought the causes of phenomena outside themselves. If a man fell down, the fall was attributed to some cause outside the person. Those days are gone. Science and philosophy do not allow such explanations. We should seek the explanation in the phenomenon itself. We know the body to be full of sins, always at fault, and yet we look upon ourselves as sinless. How do they explain this phenomenon? Vedanta says, "Explain it not by resorting to some outside Satan, explain it not by attributing it to outside devils; no, no. The cause is within you. Within you is the Holy of holies. Within you is the purest of the pure, within you is the sinless One, the Atman which makes its existence felt, which cannot be destroyed, cannot be dispensed with, cannot be done away with. It is there; however faulty, however sinful the body may be, the real Self, the sinlessness of the real Self must be there; it must make itself felt; it is there, it cannot be destroyed."
We come now to the different sins, to the different phenomena which are called sins.
1. Flattery—This comes first. This is not looked upon as a deadly sin, but it is universal.
How is it that from the lowest vermin to the highest god, flattery is welcome? How is it that everybody is a slave of flattery, and everybody wants to be complimented, humoured, patted, and be thought highly of? How is it?
Even the dogs, when you pat and flatter them, are full of joy at it. Even the dogs like flattery. Horses like flattery. The master of the horse comes up and pats him, strokes him, the horse pricks up his ears, is filled with energy.
In India, some princes use tigers instead of dogs for hunting purposes and the way of the tiger is to catch the prey in three leaps. If the prey is caught, well and good, if not the tiger loses heart and sits down. On such occasions princes come up and stroke the tiger and flatter him, and then he is filled with energy again. We see that even the tigers love flattery. Take the man who is good-for-nothing, who is worthless. Go to him and just humour him, flatter him. Oh! his countenance beams with joy. You will find a bloom on his cheeks on the spot.
In those countries where the people worship gods, we find that even the gods are appeased by flattery. And what are the prayers of some monotheists? What are their prayers, what are their invocations? Examine them. Examine them disinterestedly, impersonally, and you will see that they are nothing else but flattery. How is it that flattery is universal? Everybody loves flattery, while at the same time, there is not a single man who deserves that kind of flattery which pleases him. There is not a single man who deserves the unnecessary compliments that are paid to him by his admirers.
Vedanta explains it by saying that in every individual, in every person, in everybody, there is the real Self, the real Atman, which is, as a matter of fact, the greatest of the great, the highest of the high. There is in reality something in you which is the highest of the high and that makes its existence felt. When the flatterer comes, and begins to admire us and pay us compliments, we feel elated, we feel cheered. Why? The cause is not that these statements are true, but Vedanta says that the real cause lies in our real Self. There is something behind the scenes, some potent force, something stern and indestructible, the greatest of the great, the highest of the high, which is your real Self and deserves all flattery, all compliments; and no compliments, no flattery, no aggrandizement can be unworthy of the real Self. But from this nobody should draw the conclusion that flattery is justified by Rama. No flattery, praise and glory are to be rendered unto the real Self. It ought not to be rendered to the body, to the little self it ought not to be given. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s." The sinfulness of flattery lies in making the mistake of rendering unto God what was to be Caesar’s, and giving unto Caesar what was to be given unto God. In this topsy-turvy state lies the sinfulness of our being slaves to flattery. Herein lies the sinfulness. The cart is put before the horse. If you realize the Self and feel and become one with the Greatest of the great and the Highest of the high, and know it to be your Atman, rise above the body, above the mind, you are really the Greatest of the great, the Highest of the high; you are your own Ideal; no, you are your own God. Realize this and you are free, but the mistake is made in giving the glory of the Ataman, the real Self to the body and in seeking flattery and aggrandizement for the body. Herein lies the mistake. How is it that each and every person in this world, everybody in this world, and even every animal is tainted with flattery or pride? How is it that vanity and pride are universal?
A certain gentleman came to Rama and said, "Look here, look here. Our religion has got the largest number of people as its devotees, as its converts, therefore, our religion must be the highest. We have the largest majority of mankind belonging to our religion, therefore, it must be the best." Rama said, "Brother, brother, make your remarks after observing rightly. Do you believe in Satan?" He said, "Yes". "Then please say whether Satan’s religion has got the largest number of followers or yours. If truth is to be judged by majority, then Satan has the supremacy over all."
2. Vanity—We say that vanity or pride, you might call it one of the faces of Satan, has taken a stronghold of everybody in this world. How is it? At the same time we know that the body does not deserve any pride, that this body has no right to take airs of superiority or to be proud. Everybody knows that the body does not deserve or is not worthy of any vanity or pride, and yet everybody has it. How is it? Wherefrom did it come, this universal phenomenon? From where did come this universal anomaly, this universal paradox? Wherefrom does it come? It must come from within you. The cause it not far to seek. There is in you the Greatest of the great, that is your real Self. You will have to realize that and know that; and when you realize and know the true Self, the Atman, you will no longer stoop down to seek praise for this little body. If you realize the true Self, if you redeem your own heart, you are your own redeemer. If you realize God within you, then to hear praises for this little body, to hear any tributes for your body will appear to you as belittling yourself, will appear to you as bemeaning yourself. Then you will stand above bodily vanity or selfish pride. This is the way to stand above bodily vanity or selfish pride.
The true Atman within, the true Self being the Greatest of the great, the Highest of the high, the God of gods, how can it give up its nature? How can this Atman degrade itself, believe itself to be poor, wretched, vermin or worm? How can it degrade itself to that depth of ignorance? It cannot give up its nature; it cannot give up its nature. And that is the cause of vanity or pride being universal. But vanity or pride is not justified by this explanation. Vanity or pride for the body is not justified.
We know that the earth moves; and relatively to the earth, the Sun is stationary. All know that the Sun does not move and that the earth revolves; but we make a mistake, we fall into an error, we ascribe the motion of the earth to the Sun and the rest of the Sun we ascribe to the earth. The same kind of mistake is made by the people who hunger for pride, who are subject to vanity. The same king of error comes in here. Here is the Atman, the real Sun, the Light of lights, which is Immovable, which is really the source of all glory, and here is the body, like the earth, all the time changing and worthy of no praise, worthy of no glory, but we make a mistake in attributing the glory of the Atman to the body and the worthlessness of the body to the Atman, the real Self. This error, this mistake, this form of ignorance is the cause of seeking aggrandizement for the little body. Now if this ignorance could be called Satan, if Satan could be translated as ignorance, then we might say that herein comes Satan which puts the things in confusion; the Atman’s glory to the body and the body’s worthlessness to the Atman. Remove this ignorance, remove this ignorance and you kill vanity or pride.
3. Avarice—How is it that greed, aggrandizement or avarice is universal? Animals have greed, men have it, women have it, everybody has it. How is it that greed, avarice or aggrandizement is universal? Everybody wants to have all sorts of things around him. Everybody wants to accumulate things around his body, and this greed is never satisfied. The more you get, the more does the flame of greed increase, the more is this flame fed. You become an emperor, and still the greed is there and your greed is also princely. You are a poor man and your greed is poor. How is it that it is universal? In the churches, in the Hindu temples, in the Mohammadan mosques everywhere, the preachers deliver long sermons and say, "Brothers, no greed, no greed, no greed." They put forth all their energies to strangle it; they want to remove it, to eradicate it, but it is there despite all their remonstrances. How is it? It cannot be throttled, it cannot be checked, it is there. Explain it. Before you want to kill greed, before you want to kill this disease, let us know the cause of it. Unless you tell the cause of the disease, you are not expected to be in a position to cure the disease. Let us know the cause of it. To say that Satan puts it into our hearts is unscientific; is unphilosophical. It is contrary to all the laws of logic. That will not do. If you cannot give a scientific explanation of the fact, why this mythological explanation? Why is it universal?
Vedanta explains it by saying that "there is in you, O man, the reality, the true Self, the real Atman asserting itself; it cannot be crushed." They say that no energy can be destroyed, no force can be annihilated. We hear about the law of conservation of energy, indestructibility of matter, persistence of force. We hear all that, and here Vedanta says, "O Preachers, O Ministers, O Christians, Hindus and Mohammadans, you cannot crush down this energy, you cannot crush down this force which appears in the form of greed. You cannot crush it down. From time immemorial all sorts of religions have been preaching against greed, against avarice, against aggrandizement but the world is not a bit better despite all your Vedas, Bibles and Korans. Greed is there. The energy cannot be destroyed, but you can make the right use of it." Vedanta says; "O man of the world, you make a mistake. Take that greatest of words, that word of three letters, G-o-d; read the letters in the reverse order. What does it become? D-o-g. Thus you are misreading the Holy of holies, the pure G-o-d in you, you are misunderstanding it; you are reading it in the contrary way; and thus you make a veritable dog of yourself, whereas you are in reality the Holy of holies, the pure God. Through the error, through the ignorance of attributing the glory of the Atman to the body and the worthlessness of the body to the Atman, by this mistake you fall a victim to greed. Eradicate this error, and you are God immortal. Redeem the real Self in you, take a firm stand in the true Self, and realize yourself to be the God of gods, the Holy Of holies, the Master of universe, the Lord of lords, and it becomes impossible for you to seek these outside things and accumulate them round this body."
4. Attachment—We come now to the phenomenon of attachment or grief. What is the cause of attachment, which means that the person subject to this evil wants that the things around him should not change? A man is filled with sorrow and anxiety at the death of a loved one. What does his sorrow or anxiety show? What does it prove? Can we expect conditions to remain as they are; can we expect to keep our loved ones always with us, when we know intellectually that everything in this world is changeful, is in a state of flux? And yet we wish that there should be no change, how is it? Vedanta says, "O man, in you there is something which is really unchangeable, which is the same yesterday, today and for ever, but by mistake, by ignorance, the unchangeable nature of the true Self is ascribed to the circumstances of the body. That is the cause of it. Eradicate ignorance and you stand above worldly attachments."
5. Sloth—What is the cause of sloth or indolence? According to Vedanta, the cause of the universality of sloth or indolence is that the real Self within each and all is perfect rest, is peace, and the real Self being infinity cannot move, the infinite cannot move. It is the finite only that can move. This is a circle and here is another circle. Where this is, the other is not; where the other is, the first is not. If one limits the being of the other, both are finite: if we want to make one circle infinite it will cover the whole space. There will be no room for the little circles. As long as a smaller circle limits it, it could not be called infinite. In order that the first circle might become infinite, it must be one, it must have nothing else outside it, and so having nothing else outside it there is no room which is not filled up by the infinity, and so the infinity having no room cannot move. In the infinity there must be no change. The Atman, the true Self within is infinite; it is all rest; it is all peace. There is no motion there. That being the case, the infinity, the Atman’s peacefulness is through ignorance carried to the body and the body suffers from sloth and has indolence in it. That is the cause of indolence or sloth being universal in the whole world.
6. Rivalry—How is it that everybody in this world wants to have no rival to himself? Everybody wants to be the supreme ruler—

I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute.

This is what everybody wants to feel. What is the cause of the universality of this? Explain this fact, this hard, stern reality, explain it. Vedanta says, "The real cause is that in you, O man, is the true Atman which is one without a second, which is rivalless, matchless; and by ignorance, by mistake, is the oneness and the glory of the Atman being attributed to the body, and there is the tendency to have no rivals of the body."
7. Sensuality—sensuality is nothing but gratifying the senses, wanting all beauty. This too is universal and can be treated just as other sins. "We are all beauty, the unchangeable Self is all beauty now and for ever" and the realization of this will show us that what we are trying to get for the physical body belongs to, or is the real Self.
8. Anger—How is that anger or rebellion is universal? It is because of our real Self which is free now and for ever, that we are not satisfied to be limited in any way. We see rebellion in the small child it must have its way; we see rebellion in sects, they must have their way; we see rebellion in nations and we see the country washed with the blood, shed in the cause of freedom. All this is because the Self is not realized. The real Self is free, how could it be anything else! It was never born, will never die, remains the same for ever. Free it must be. If it were true that you were bound, you never could be free. But the truth is that we, by our inner nature, are free, and the knowledge of the truth reveals our Self in true colour.
We will not enter into other sins. Other sins are also explained in the same way by Vedanta. All the possible deadly sins are explained, and the way to remove all these sins is simply to remove the universal ignorance which makes you confound the two.
A man was suffering from two diseases. He had a disease of the eyes and a disease of the stomach. He came to a doctor and asked him to treat him. The doctor gave to this patient two kinds of medicines, two kinds of powders. One of the powders was to be applied to the eyes. It contained antimony or lead sulphide, and if taken internally, it is a poison. It can be applied externally to the eyes and the people in India use this powder for the eyes. So the doctor gave him the powder for the eyes containing antimony or lead sulphide. Another powder he gave him to be taken orally. This powder contained pepper and chillies; chillies which have a very cold name, but which are very hot. He gave him one powder containing chillies to be taken. This man being in a state of confusion just interchanged the two powders. The powder which was to be taken orally he applied to the eyes, and the antimony and other things, which were poisons, he ate. Here were the eyes blinded and the stomach worsted.
That is what is being done by the people, and that is the cause of all the so-called sins in this world. Here is the Atman, the Light of lights within you and here is the body, the stomach, so to say. What is to be done to the body is being done to the Atman, and the respect and honour and glory of the Atman are being paid unto the body; everything mixed up; everything put into a state of confusion. That causes this phenomenon of so-called sins in this world. Get things right and right you are, you prosper materially, you are God of gods spiritually.
Similarly in you is everything, but by the misplacement of things God is put down below and the body is placed above it, and the highest heaven is turned into the direct hell. Place them in the right order and you will see that even this dire and abominable phenomenon of sins speaks of your godliness, of your purity. Get the right vision and you are the greatest God.
A man, who believed in no God, wrote everywhere on the walls of his house, "God is nowhere." He was an atheist. He was a lawyer, and at one time a client came to him and offered him $500. He said, "No, I will take $1,000." The client said, "All right. I will pay you $1,000 if you win the case, but I will pay you afterwards; if you want to take $ 500, then you may have it first." The lawyer felt sure of success and took up the case. He went to the court, feeling sure that he had done everything right. He had studied the case carefully, but when the case was tried, the lawyer of the opposite party brought out such a strong point that he lost the case and the $1,000 which he had expected to receive for his services. He came to his house dejected, crest-fallen and in a sad plight. He was leaning over his table in a state of dejection, when there came to him his darling child who was just learning to spell. He began to spell out "G-o-d-i-s- and thereafter was a long word, so many letters; that word the poor child could not spell. He divided it into two parts, n-o-w, h-e-r-e, and the child jumped up with joy; he was amazed at his own success in spelling out the whole sentence, "God is now here." "God is now here." The same "God is nowhere" was read "God is now here." That is all.
Vedanta wants you to spell things in the right way. Do not misread them; do not misspell them. Read this "God is nowhere," that is to say, the phenomenon of sin, crime as, "God is now here." Even in your sins is proved your Divinity, the divinity of your nature. Realize that and the whole world blooms for you a paradise, the whole world is converted into a garden, a heaven.
Once in an examination the students were asked to write an essay on the miracle of Christ turning water into wine. The hall was filled with students and they were writing. One poor fellow was whistling, singing, looking at this corner and at that. He did not write a single syllable, he did not write a single word. He went on making fun even in the examination hall, he went on enjoying himself. Oh, his was an independent spirit. When the time was up and the superintendent was collecting the answer-books, the superintendent made a joke with Byron, and told him that the superintendent was very sorry that Byron was fatigued by writing so long an essay. But Byron at the time took up his pen and wrote one sentence on the answer book, and handed it to the superintendent. When the result of the examination was out, he got the first prize. Byron got the first prize, the man who had written nothing, who simply took up his pen and with one stroke scribbled out a single sentence, got the first prize. The superintendent of the examination who thought Byron to be an idler was amazed, and all the other competitors asked the examiner to be kind enough to read before the whole class, before the whole congregation of students, the essay by which Byron got the prize. The essay was: "The water saw her master and blushed." This was on the miracle of Christ by which he turned water into wine. That was the whole essay. Is it not really wonderful? In blushing the face becomes red; the water became red wine. When a lady hears out her lord, her lover, she blushes; the water saw her master and blushed. That is all. Splendid, is it not?
Realize the true Self within you; like Christ, realize that the father and the son are one. "In the beginning was the word; the word was with God". Realize it, realize it. The Heaven of heavens is within you. Realize that and wherever you go, the dirtiest water will blush into the sparkling wine for you; every dungeon will be converted into the Heaven of heavens for you. There will not be a single difficulty or trouble for you; the master of all ye become.

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Sin—Its Relation To The Atman
Or Real Self

Lecture delivered on November 16, 1902, in the
Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, U.S.A.

My own Self in the form of sisters and brothers,
Today’s subject is in continuation of the several lectures that have been delivered during the last week. Those who have heard the previous lectures will understand it most.
Rama is not going to enter in this lecture into the definition of sin, or how this sin is in this world, who brought it, whence it came, why it is that some people are more sinful than others, why it is that some people have more greed than others, and others have more anger than greed. These questions will be taken up in some other lecture, if time allows.
We use the word ‘sin’, tonight in its ordinary sense or in the sense in which all the Christian world takes it.
In India, in a certain temple, a man was seen distributing sweets. The way with Indians is that on occasions of great joy and prosperity, they distribute sweets or some such things among the poor. Somebody came and asked what the cause of this rejoicing was. The man said that he had lost his horse; that was the cause of his rejoicing. The people were astonished and surprised. They said, "Well, you have lost a horse and you are rejoicing?" He said, "Misunderstand me not. I have lost a horse but I have saved the rider. My horse was stolen by a band of robbers. I was not riding the horse at the time the horse was stolen. Had I been mounted on the horse, I might also have been stolen. I am thankful that I was not stolen with the horse, and that it was only the horse that was stolen."
The people laughed heartily. What a simple man!
Sisters and brothers, this story seems to be ridiculous. But everyone has to apply it to himself and examine whether he or she is not behaving worse than that man. He lost the horse, but saved himself, the rider. Oh, but thousands, nay millions of people—what are they doing? They are trying to save the horse and lose the rider. This is the worst of it. So he had high occasion to rejoice when he saved the rider and lost the horse. Everybody knows that the real Spirit, or the real Self, Soul, is related to the astral body as a rider or horseman is related to the horse. But let us go to anybody and ask about his whereabouts and his real nature. What is yourself, what does it do? The answer will be, "I am Mr. so and so. I work in such and such office." All these signs and all these answers relate to the gross body only. That is to say, these are answers which are not to the point. We ask, "Who are you—what are you?" and his answer does not let us know what he is in reality. It is wide of the mark, not to the point. We ask about his Self, and he is telling us about the horse. We want to know about the rider, and he evades the question and tells us things not asked at all. Is it not that we are taking the horse to be the rider? The horse is lost; it is high time to raise a ‘cry-lost, lost, lost!’ Let it be published in newspapers, lost, lost, lost, lost! What is lost? The horse? Nay, the horse is not lost. Everybody tells about the horse. The signs, the symbols, and whereabouts of the person, everybody is ready to tell. The thing lost is the rider; the thing lost is the soul, the spirit, the Atman, the true Self. Wonder of wonders!
How are we to discover and find out the true Self, the rider, the real Atman? The answers to this question were given almost everyday during the last week’s lectures. Today we shall see an answer to it from a different point of view-from the phenomenon of sin. What is the origin of sin? How did sin enter this world? The explanation which is to be given will appear to be preposterous, will appear to be something startling, something very strange. But be not surprised. Even this apparently surprising explanation can be proved to be exactly in accord with the teachings of your own Bible—the Bible which the European people cannot understand in the same way as the Indians, because Christ belongs to Asia, and it can be shown that he also belongs to India. All the similes, figures of speech in the Bible, have so often been repeated in the Hindu Scriptures. So the Hindus, the Asiatic people, being accustomed to that sort of speech, can understand it better than the Western people. And so the people who will look upon the explanation which will be given presently to be startling and diametrically against their cherished thoughts and highly revered feelings should bear up with it, because after all, this apparently strange explanation is not opposed to the teachings of your own Bible. Before entering upon the problem of sin, we shall discuss a few preliminary matters.
How is it that everybody who is born must die, and still the people can never think of death? The very thought of death causes a shudder in their bodies and sends a thrill into them from the tip of the toes to the top of the head. How is it, we say, that all the kings who existed in the past passed away, all the prophets—who raised the dead—their bodies also died away? They brought the dead to life but their bodies are also dead. We see that all the rich men in the past, all the strong men in the past have died; and from the intellectual point of view we are sure that our bodies must die sooner or later. You may live three score years and ten, nay, double that—four times that—but you must die; you cannot avoid death. It is so sure. Oh, but wonder of wonders, that in spite of all that, nobody can practically believe in this death. Everyone will shun the idea of death, he will not tolerate the thought of death. Everybody goes on expanding his relations with his fellowmen and developing his connections with his fellows, spreading the growth of his field of work, and goes on with his life as if death had never to take hold of him, as if no death were possible for him. How is it? What is the cause? A man mentions the name of death, and there is fever in the whole frame. Why is it? It is so certain on the one hand, and on the other hand, we cannot allow it to touch our thoughts even, just as a bird, after some water falls on its wings, will shed it off. How is it that we can never believe in death practically? You may sing songs which portray death, but can never believe in death in practice. What is the cause?
Vedanta gives an explanation and says that the real cause is that your real Self is incapable of death. Your real Self can never die. The body which is to die, which is dying every moment—by death let us understand here change—which is undergoing a change every second, and is dying out, is not your real Self. There is something in you which can never die. In conjunction with the body there is the Soul, the real Spirit which can never die. But you will say that in practical life, in everyday life, we do not believe that the spirit is not to die, but we believe that our bodies should not die—believe that our bodies should remain immortal. Now the Vedantic philosophy of Hindu religion says that it is true that, whereas it is the spirit that is not to die and the body that is to die, yet the attributes of the spirit, the glory of the real Self are, by mistake, attributed to the mortal body. There is ignorance at the root. This thought is universal. It is present everywhere, in all countries, and is present even in the animal kingdom. No other philosophy than Vedanta explains the universality of this belief. Now the universality of this belief is a fact, and this fact ought to be explained. Any philosophy which does not explain all the facts in nature is no philosophy. Vedanta does not leave this fact unexplained, as most of the philosophies do. The cause must be intrinsic. The days of referring to external causes are gone. A man falls down and the cause of his fall should be shown within himself. He may say the ground was slippery or something like that. The cause must be shown in the phenomenon and not outside it. And if the cause can be found within the phenomenon, we have no right to go to outside causes. How are you to explain a practical belief in immortality by a cause which may be internal and not external? In the body we find nothing which could give us that faith, which could give us that belief of immortality. In the mind we find nothing which could give us that idea. Go beyond the mind, go beyond the body, and Vedanta points out the true spirit, the true Atman which was described in a previous lecture. That is immortal, the witness light, the same yesterday, today and for ever. Therein we can find the cause of this universal faith in ‘no death.’ And in practical life the mistake made is the same as the mistake made by all mankind previous to the time of Galileo. The motion of the earth is attributed to the Sun. The same mistake lies in your attributing the divine immortality of the Spirit to the body.
Now the question comes—the immortal soul is there and the mortal body is there, and along with them there is ignorance, want of knowledge. Wherefrom did this want of knowledge come? Here we see that ignorance is in man, and that divine spirit is in man, and the body is also in man. These things are internal; none of them is external, none of them is outside your range. And by the action of these, the body, the mind and the immortal spirit and ignorance, there is explained the presence of the phenomenon of practical disbelief in the death of the body.
Again, how is it that nobody in this world can be free, and yet everybody regards himself as free, and thinks of freedom, and freedom is so much desired? You will say that man is free. Have you not so many passions, desires and temptations? How then can you call yourselves free? Sweet fruits or delicious food can make you a slave. Any attractive colour can at once captivate you, charm you and make you a slave. Any thought of worldly prosperity can make you a slave, and still you call yourselves free. Examine it minutely, whether you can do what you like with perfect freedom. It is not that something goes wrong with your affairs and you cannot control your temper? You are a slave of anger, you are a slave of passions. How it is that people cannot, as a matter of fact, be perfectly free, and still they are all the time thinking of freedom, talking of freedom, and freedom is so sweet, so desirable, so lovely!
In India, Sunday is the day of freedom, and children are taught the days of the week through the thought of freedom. Everyday they ask their mothers, what is the day? She tells them it is Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Then they begin to count on their fingers Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. Oh! when will Sunday come?
What is it that causes so much bloodshed on the face of the earth? The thought of liberty, freedom. What was the thought that made the Americans sever their connection with what they used to call their motherland? What was it? The thought of freedom. And what is the object of every religion? In Sanskrit we have the word moksha which means salvation, which means freedom, liberty. O liberty, liberty, liberty! Everybody hungers and thirsts after sweet liberty. And yet how many men are there who are really free? Very few.
In this world, Vedanta says, you are all the time confined in a prison, a prison with threefold walls—the wall of time, the wall of space, and the wall of causation. When every thought of yours, every deed of yours is determined by the chain of causation and by that chain you are bound, how can you be free while living in this world? And still freedom is the hobby of each and all. Is not that paradoxical and strange? Does it not appear to be a contradiction in terms? Explain that.
Vedanta says there is a cause for it, and the cause is within you, it is not without yourself. This thought of freedom in you, this universal thought tells us that there is something in you; and that something in you is your true Self, the real Me, because this freedom you want to have for Me, for the I, the real Self, and for nobody else. There is something in you which is really free, unlimited, unbound. The universality of this idea preaches in unmistakable language that the real Self, the real Atman, is something which is absolutely free. But owing to the same kind of mistake which the ignorant people make in attributing the motion of the earth to the Sun interchanging the attributes through ignorance—we want to have freedom realized for the body, for the mind, for the gross self.
We see in this world another very strange phenomenon. Everybody in this world from the point of view of his little self is a sinner. Everybody is somehow or other responsible for some defect or some deficiency or the other and yet nobody in his heart of hearts thinks that he is a sinner. Nobody on the face of the earth—in the wide world—not a single individual believes in his sinful nature. In his heart of hearts he regards himself pure. In practical life nobody thinks himself a sinner. What, if outwardly you call yourself a sinner? Even then the real object in view is to be looked upon by the people to be a holy man. By calling themselves sinners, people really intend to be regarded as holy. But in their heart of hearts they have no faith in their sinful nature. Everybody is pure to himself. The worst culprits and criminals brought before the tribunal when asked: "Did you commit the sin?" would seldom say that they committed a sin. If they are forced to say that they did commit a sin, there might be something else in the matter. Though they outwardly confess their sins, in their hearts they believe that their confession is wrong. They committed no sin. How is that? People who are in a temple confessing their sins before a priest, when they come out into the street and are called by some one by the name of a robber they at once turn round and impeach him, prosecute him, and get him convicted in the court. It was only before God, it was only in a temple that they wanted to throw dust in the eyes of God. It was only in the temple that they said they were sinners, confessing their sins.
Even this phenomenon shows what an anomaly there is in this world. How is that anomaly to be solved? Vedanta says that this incapability of suppression is a living proof; a living sign of the sinless nature of the idea that we are not sinners, that we are far beyond sin, and the universality of the practical belief in our sinless nature of the real Self, of the sinless, pure, holy character of the true Atman, of the real Spirit. The real Spirit, the real Atman, is sinless, pure, the Holy of holies. If you do not admit this explanation, explain this apparent anomaly in any other way.
How it is that everybody knows intellectually that he cannot accumulate all the wealth in this world, he cannot become rich to his own satisfaction? We see that everyday amongst us. Just go to people who are reputed to have millions and enquire whether they are contented and satisfied. Let them lay before you their true hearts and they will say that they are not satisfied, not contented. More, more, more they want. They are just as poor in heart as the people who possess four dollars. Four billion dollars and four dollars make no difference in bringing about peace of mind, rest and contentment; they are no resultant of riches. If in spite of their riches, they are really men of rest and men who have got peace, the cause of that peace is not their riches, but the cause of that peace must be something else, must be Vedanta unconsciously put into practice and nothing else. That alone can be the cause of their peace, because riches by themselves give no joy to their owners.
Now we are sure that the accumulation of wealth, material prosperity brings no calm, and yet everybody is hungering and hankering after lucre. Is not that a strange anomaly? Explain that. Now no system of philosophy or religion explains that reasonably or with any perfect argument. Vedanta says here is this hunger after prosperity, for possessing, accumulating everything. Why is it so? The body can never possess the whole world. Even if you possess the whole world, you will not be satisfied, you will be thinking of possessing the moonland. Think of the emperors who governed the whole earth, the emperors of Rome. Think of those Neros—does it not make you shudder? Think of their states of mind, of those Caesars and Neros. Were they happy? Were they contented? There is one of them who eats, who is fond of eating, and he has all the time the most delicious food cooked for him. He eats one dish and eats it to his fill, and there is no more room in his stomach and he has medicines which will make him vomit, and he vomits that food and other dishes are brought to him, and he eats them to his fill—and this is just to satisfy his taste. He goes on eating and vomiting and eating and vomiting all day long. Is he satisfied? Is he at peace? Not at all. We are sure of that. Nay, we cannot possess the whole world, and even if we possess that, what does that amount to? Gain the whole world and lose your own soul—what does that amount to? This earth of yours is simply a point in astronomical calculations when we deal with the fixed stars. This earth is dealt with as a mathematical point for a position, but no magnitude.
This earth of yours, what is it? How can it bring any real satisfaction, any real peace, to possess this earth? We know it from the intellectual side, and yet we cannot but rush after its wealth. Vedanta says it is because the Real Self in you, the real Me in you is, as a matter of fact, the master of the whole universe. That is the cause of your wanting to see yourself the master of the whole world.
There is a story in India about an emperor who was put into prison by his son. He was put into prison because his son wanted to see himself possessed of the whole kingdom. The son put his father into prison so that he might satisfy his hunger after lucre. At one time, the father wrote to his own son to send him some students so that he might amuse himself by teaching them something. Then the son said, "Will you hear this fellow, my father? He had been ruling over the kingdom for so many years, and even now he cannot give up his old habit of ruling. He still wants to rule over students; he wants somebody to rule over. He cannot give up his old habits."
So it is. How can we give up our old habits? The old habit clings to us. We cannot shake it off. The Real Self of yours, the emperor Shah-i-jahan (the literal meaning of the word is ‘ruler of whole world,’ and so the name of that emperor Shah-i-jahan means the emperor of the whole universe) is the emperor of the universe. Now you have put the emperor into a prison, into the blackhole of your body, into the quarantine of your little self. How can that real self, that emperor of the universe, forget his old habits? How can he give up his nature. Nobody is capable of shaking off his own nature. Nobody can jump out of his own nature. So the Atman, the true Self, the real Reality in you—how can that give up its nature? You have confined that in the prison, but even in the prison it wants to possess the whole world, because it has been possessing the whole; it cannot give up its old habits. If you wish this ambitious spirit, the avarice should be shaken off, if you desire that the people in this world should give up this ambitious nature, could you preach them to give it up? Impossible.
You will excuse Rama for making some strong statements, but the truth must be told. Rama respects truth more than persons. The truth must be told. In the Bible it is stated in the fifth chapter of Mathew, in the Sermon on the Mount, if somebody slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other. When you have to preach the Holy Gospels, take with you no money, bare-footed, bare-headed you should go. If you are called to the courts of justice, before going to the courts think not of what you will have to say. Open your mouth and it will be filled. Look at the lilies of the field and the sparrows of the forest. They take no thought for tomorrow, and the lilies and the sparrows wear garments which even Solomon might grudge. Have you not a statement in the Bible that it may be possible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, but it is impossible for the rich to realize the kingdom of heaven? Have you not read in the Bible about the rich man who came to Christ and asked to be initiated and Christ said, "There is only one way with you, no other way; you should give up your riches; do this alone, and you can be in peace." This spirit of renunciation, this chapter which is so much kept in the background by at least the missionaries in India, and even all over the world, this chapter teaches Vedanta and the teachings which are lived by the Indian monks even at this time. In the name of that holy religion, in the name of that teaching of renunciation, just mark people going as priests and missionaries to India. You will kindly excuse Rama. If you regard Self as the body, nobody should feel offended. Nobody has a right to feel in the least offended if anything is said against his little body.
Is it not strange that even the people who go to India in the name of that renunciation, everyday rolling in their coaches, living in magnificent palaces and drawing large salaries of three or four hundred dollars a month and living in princely style, say that they are teaching and preaching the religion of renunciation? Is it not strange? Vedanta says that you cannot repress by any teaching or preaching from the pulpit, the idea of accumulating and getting everything into your possession. You cannot repress it because you cannot destroy the universal kingship of your real Self, the universal monarchy of your real Self. But is this disease incurable? Has this malady no antidote, no medicine? It has, it has. The cause of this enormity is ignorance, ignorance which makes you attribute to the body the glory of the Self and makes you, on the contrary, attribute to the real Self the misery of the body. Remove this ignorance, and you will see the man rich, rich with no money; and you will find the man, the monarch of the whole universe with no land or property. So long as the ignorance is present, you must be ambitious, you must be avaricious. There is no help for it, no other remedy. Possess this knowledge; possess this divine wisdom, and free the Atman, keep it no longer in prison. Free it, that is to say, realize your true, eternal, everlasting Atman, which is God, the Master, Ruler of the Universe. Realize that, and you are the holy of holies, the holiest of the holy. To you it would appear degrading and sinful to entertain any thought of worldly prosperity or worldly riches.
When Alexander, the Great visited India after conquering all the other countries in the world that were known to him, he wanted to see the strange Indians of whom he had been hearing so much. He was just led to a monk or priest on the bank of the Indus river. The monk lay there on the sands, bare-footed, naked, wearing no clothes and not knowing wherefrom his tomorrow’s food was to come, just lying there and basking in the Sun. Alexander, the Great, with his crown shining, dazzling with the brilliant diamonds and gems that he had got from Persia, stood beside him in all his glory. Beside him was the monk with no clothes on! What a contrast, what a contrast! The riches of the whole world represented by the body of Alexander on one side, and all the outward poverty represented by the saint on the other side! But you have simply to look at their faces to be convinced of the poverty or riches of their true souls.
Sisters and brothers, you hanker after riches in order to hide your wounds, put on linen bandages in order to conceal them. Here is the saint whose soul was rich; here is the saint who had realized the richness and glory of his Atman. Beside him stood Alexander, the Great who wanted to hide his inner poverty. Look at the beaming countenance of the saint, the happy, joyful face of the saint. Alexander, the Great, was struck by his appearance. He fell in love with him, and just asked the saint to come with him to Greece. The saint laughed, and his answer was: "The world is in Me. The world cannot contain Me. The universe is in Me. I cannot be confined in the universe. Greece and Rome are in Me. The suns and stars rise and set in Me."
Alexander, the Great, not being used to this kind of language, was surprised. He said, "I will give you riches. I will just flood you with worldly pleasures. All sorts of things that people desire, all sorts of things which captivate and charm people will be in wild profusion at your service. Please accompany me to Greece."
The saint laughed, laughed at his reply and said, "There is not a diamond, there is not a sun or star which shines, but to Me is due its lustre. To me is due the glory of all the heavenly bodies. To Me is due all the attractive nature, all the charms of the things desired. It would be beneath my dignity, it would be degrading on my part, first, to lend the glory and charm to these objects, and then go about seeking them, to go begging at the door of worldly riches, to go begging at the door of flesh and animal desires to receive pleasure, happiness. It is below my dignity. I can never stoop to that level. No, I can never go begging at theirs."
This astonished Alexander, the Great. He just drew his sword and was going to strike off the head of that saint. And again the saint laughed a hearty laugh and said, "O Alexander! never in your life did you speak such a falsehood, such an abominable lie. Kill Me, kill Me, kill Me! Where is the sword that can kill Me? Where is the weapon that can wound Me? Where is the calamity that can mar my cheerfulness? Where is the sorrow that can tamper with my happiness? Everlasting, the same yesterday, today and for ever, pure and holy of holies, the Master of the Universe, that I am, that I am. Even in your hands I am the power that makes them move, O Alexander! If this body dies, there I remain the power that makes your hands move. I am the power that makes your muscles move." The sword fell down from the hands of Alexander.
Here we see that there is only one way of making people realize the spirit of renunciation. From the worldly point of view we become ready to renounce everything only when we become rich from the other point of view. Have you not heard the unquestionable law of science—what is gained in poverty is lasting? The outward loss, the outward renunciation can be achieved when inward perfection, inward mastery or kinghood is attained. No other way, no other way.
How is it that in this world anger exists? We hear loud preachings everyday that we should never give way to weakness, should never lose our temper. We hear preachings to that effect everyday, and still when the time comes, we give way to weakness. Why is it? Why anger, why animosity, why the thought of self-aggrandizement and why other sins? Why these animal passions? All these sins are explained by Vedanta on the same line and the same principle. Perhaps there is hardly any time to enter into the details of these sins. If you want to know more about it, you had better come to Rama, and all these sins will be perfectly explained, their cause and their diagnosis. But there being little time now, Rama simply sums up all that; and your attention is drawn to the fact that all these sins are due to ignorance, which makes you confound the real Self with the apparent body and mind. Give up this ignorance and these sins are no more. If you were to remove these sins by any other ways, the attempts will end in failure because nothing positive like matter can be destroyed. Of course, ignorance can be destroyed. Ignorance we can remove. Children when they are born are ignorant of many things in this world, but we see that gradually their ignorance about many subjects goes on diminishing and diminishing. Ignorance can only be removed.
That being the case, there is the power which leads you to anger, which leads you to desires and sins, and leads you to the accumulation. This energy you cannot destroy by your teachings or preachings in any way. You cannot repress; you can never suppress it—the energy is there. Vedanta says we can spiritualise this energy. Let it not be misapplied. Let it be applied properly. This is the energy of the true spirit in you, the energy of the true Atman in you, which is the master of the whole world, which is rivalless.
Everybody wants to be free, and the idea of freedom—what is its essential character, the fundamental feature of the desire for freedom? It is rising to a height where we have no rival. The energy of the true Atman wants you to realize the state where you are perfectly free, that is to say, where you have no equal, where you have no rival. The Atman, the true spirit is rivalless. If you want to get rid of worldly selfishness or the thought of self-aggrandizement, you cannot push down and destroy the real energy. No energy can be destroyed; nor can the eternal Atman be destroyed. How can the eternal Atman be destroyed? The improper use you can make of everything and turn heaven into hell.
There is a story about a priest, a Christian priest in England. He read about the deaths of some great men, great scientists, Darwin and Huxley. He began to think in his mind whether they had gone to hell or heaven. He was thinking and thinking and thinking. He said to himself, "These people did not commit any crimes, and yet they did not believe in the Bible, they did not believe in Christ, they were no Christians in the proper sense of the word. They must have gone to hell." But he could not make up his own mind to think that way. He thought: "They were good men, they had done some good work in the world, they did not deserve hell. Where did they go?" He fell asleep and dreamt a most wonderful dream. He saw that he himself had died and was taken to the highest heaven. He found there all the people whom he had expected to find; he found all his Christian brothers who used to come to his Church. He found them all there. Then he asked about these scientists, Huxley and Darwin. The doorkeeper of heaven or some other steward told him that these people were in the lowest hell.
Now this priest asked if he could be allowed to go to the lowest hell on a flying visit simply to see them, and there to go and preach to them the Holy Bible and show them that they had perpetrated a most heinous crime in not believing in the letter of the Bible. After some fuss and trouble the steward yielded and consented to get for him a ticket to the lowest hell. You will be astonished that even in hell and heaven, you come and go in your railway cars, but so it was. The man had been bred in the midst of surroundings overflowing with railway traffic and telegraphs. So in his thoughts, in his dreams, it is no wonder if the railways got mixed up with hell and heaven.
Well, this priest got a first class ticket. The railway train went on and on and on. There were some intermediate stations, because he came from the highest heaven going to the lowest hell. He stopped at the intermediate stations and found that there was a change for the worse as he went on down and down. When he came to the lowest hell but one, he could not keep himself in senses. Such a stench was coming out that he had to put all his napkins and handkerchiefs before his nose, and yet he could not but be senseless; he had to fall into a swoon. There were so many crying voices, weeping and crying and gnashing of teeth down there, he could not bear it. He could not keep his eyes open because of those sights. He repented on his persistence to come to see the lowest hell.
In a few minutes the people on the railway platform were crying, "The lowest hell, the lowest hell" for the convenience of the passengers. There was engraved on the walls of the station, "The lowest hell." But the priest was astonished. He asked everybody. "This cannot be the lowest hell? It must be about the highest heaven. No, no, it cannot be. This is not the lowest, this is not the lowest hell; it must be heaven." The railway guard or conductor told him that this was the place, and there came a man who said, "Just get down, sir, this is your destination."
He got down—poor fellow, but was surprised. He expected the lowest hell to be worse than the lowest hell but one. But this well-nigh rivalled his highest heaven. He got out of the railway station and found there magnificent gardens, sweet-scented flowers, and fragrant breezes blowing into his face. He met one tall gentleman. He asked his name and he thought he saw in him something or somebody whom he had seen before. The man was walking before him, was going ahead of him and he followed after him; and when the man stopped, the priest was delighted. They shook hands, and the priest recognized him. Who was he? That was Huxley. He asked, "What is it, is it the lowest hell?" Huxley said, "Yes, doubtless it is." And he said, "I came to preach to you, but first of all, answer how is it that I find such a strange phenomenon before me?" Huxley said, "You were not wrong in your expectations for the worst. Indeed, when we came here, it was the worst possible hell in the universe. It was the most undesirable that could be conceived." And here he pointed out certain places—"There were dirty ditches." And he pointed out another spot "There was burning iron." And he pointed out another spot—"There was hot sand and there was steaming dung."
He said, "We were first of all placed in the most dirty ditches, but while there, with our hands we were throwing water to the next adjoining hot burning iron; and we went on with that work of throwing that dirty water out of the ditches on the hot burning iron that was on the banks. Then the stewards of the lowest hell had to take us to those places where there was burning liquid iron but by the time they took us to that place most of the iron had become wholly cooled, most of the iron could be handled, and still a great deal of iron was in its liquid burning condition, fiery condition. Then, with the aid of that iron which had cooled down, and holding it before the fire, we succeeded in making some machines and some other instruments. After that we were to be taken to the third place where there was the dung. We were taken to that place and with the help of our instruments, iron spades and machines, we began the digging work. After that we were taken to the other kind of soil, and there by means of machines and other instruments that we had got them ready, we threw some of those things into the soil to which we were taken; that served as manure, and thus we succeeded by and by in turning this hell into a veritable heaven."
Now the thing is that in that lowest hell, there were present all the materials which being simply placed in their right positions, might make the highest heaven. So it is. Vedanta says, in you is present the divine God, and in you is present the worthless body; but you have misplaced the things. You have done things upside down; in a topsy-turvy way you have put them. You have put the cart before the horse; and that is how you make this world a hell for you. You have simply not to destroy any thing, not to dig up anything. This ambitious spirit of yours, or this selfishness of yours, which is just like a hell you cannot destroy, but you can rearrange. No energy can be destroyed, but you can rearrange this hell and convert it into the highest heaven.
Vedanta says, the ‘only open sesame,’ the only way to really stamp out all misery from the world-long faces and gloomy, sad tempers, will not mend matters—the only way to escape from all sins, the only way to stand above all temptations is to realize the true Self. You will never be able to withstand animal passions unless you do away with all this splendour and glory that bewitches you, do away with all that attracts you. When you realize that, you stand above all the passions, and at the same time be perfectly free, be perfectly free, be perfectly full of bliss, and that is Heaven.*

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

2010-09-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Real Self

Lecture delivered on January 7, 1903, at
Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, U.S.A.

The All-Powerful God in the form of ladies and gentlemen,
In a German folk-lore we hear about a man who lost his shadow. That is a very strange thing. A man lost his shadow and that man had to suffer for it. All his friends deserted him, all prosperity left him, and he was in a very sorry plight for it. What will you think of a man who instead of losing his shadow loses the substance? There may be hope for a man who loses only the shadow, but what hope can there be for a man who loses the substance, the body?
Such is the case of the majority of people in this world. Most men have lost not their shadow but their substance, the reality. Wonder of wonders! The body is simply the shadow, and the real Self, the real Atman, is the reality. Everybody will tell us about his shadow, everybody will tell us anything and everything about his body, but how few are there who will tell us anything and everything about their real Self, the real Soul, the real Atman. What are you? What is the use of gaining the whole world and losing your own soul? People are trying to gain the whole world but they miss the Soul, they miss the Atman. Lost, lost, lost. What is lost? The horse or the rider? The horseman is lost. The body is like the horse, and the Atman, the true Self, the Soul is like the rider. The rider is lost, the horse is there. Everybody will tell us anything and everything about the horse, but we want to know something about the rider, the horseman, the owner of the horse. Tonight we propose to know what the horseman or the rider, the true Self, the Atman is. That is a deep subject; that is a subject upon which the philosophers of the world have been racking their brains, upon which each and all have been trying their best. It is a deep subject, and it is hard to do justice to this subject within this short space of one hour or so. Still we shall try to make it as easy as possible by means of an illustration or story.
This subject was explained once to a young boy of the age of about 15 or 16, and he understood it thoroughly in a short time. If that boy of the age of 15 or 16 could understand it, each and all of you will be able to understand the subject thoroughly, provided you pay close, undivided attention. The method of exposition will be the same as was adopted in the case of that small boy.
Once upon a time, the son of an Indian king came to Rama in the mountains, and put this question, "Swami, Swami, What is God?" This is a deep question, a very difficult problem. This is the one subject which all the theologies and all the religions propose to investigate, and you want to know all about "it in a short time". He said, "Yes, sir yes, Swami. Where shall I go to have it explained? Explain it to me." The boy was asked, "Dear prince, you want to know what God is, you want to make acquaintance with God, but do you not know that the rule is, when a man wants to see a great personage, he will have to send his own card first, he will have to send to the chief his own address and name? Now you want to see God. You had better send to God your card; you had better let God know what you are. Give Him your card. Rama will place it in the hands of God directly and God will come to you, and you will see what God is." "Well", the boy said, "It is all right, it is reasonable. I will directly let you know what I am. I am the son of king so and so, living on the Himalayas in Northern India. This is my name." He wrote it out on a piece of paper. It was taken up by Rama and read. It was not put into the hands of God directly, but was given back to that prince and the prince was told, "O prince, you do not know what you are. You are like the illiterate, ignorant person who wants to see your father, the king and cannot write his own name. Will your father, the king receive him? Prince, you cannot write your name. How will God receive you? First tell us correctly what you are, and then will God come to you and receive you with open arms."
The boy reflected. He began to think and think over the subject. He said, "Swami, Swami, now I see, now I see. I made a mistake in writing my own name. I have given you the address of the body only, and I have not put upon the paper what I am."
There was an attendant of that prince standing by. The attendant could not understand it. Now the prince was asked to make his meaning clear to this attendant, and so the prince asked the attendant this question, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this card belong?" The man said, "To me." and taking up a stick from the hands of the attendant the prince asked him, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this stick belong?" The man said "To me." "Well, to whom does this turban of yours belong?" The man said, "To me." The prince said, "All right. If the turban belongs to you, there is a relation between the turban and you; the turban is your property, and you are the owner. Then you are not the turban, the turban is yours." He said, "Indeed, that is so plain." "Well, the pencil belongs to you, the pencil is yours, and you are not the pencil." He said, "I am not the pencil because the pencil is mine; that is my property, I am the owner." All right. Then the prince asked that attendant, taking hold of the ears of that attendant, "Whom do these ears belong to?" The attendant said, "To me." The prince said, "All right, the ears belong to you, the ears are yours. As such you are not the ears. Similarly the nose belongs to you. As the nose is yours, you are not the nose. Then, whose body is that?" (Just beckoning to the body of the attendant.) The attendant said, "The body is mine; this body is mine." "If the body is yours, Mr. attendant, then you are not the body; you cannot be the body because you say that the body is yours; you cannot be the body. The very statement—my body, my ears, my head, my hand proves that you are something else and the body together with the ears and hands and eyes, etc., is something else. This is your property, you are the owner, the master; the body is like your garment and you are the owner. The body is like your horse and you are the owner. Now, what are you?" The attendant understood it so far, and also concurred with the prince in saying that when the prince had put down on paper the address of the body and had meant that this address stood for himself, the prince had made a mistake. "You are not the body, not the ears, not the nose, not the eyes, nothing of the kind. What are you then?" Now the prince began to reflect, and said, "Well, well, I am the mind, I am the mind, I must be the mind."
"Is that so indeed?" The question was put to that prince. "Now, can you tell me how many bones you have got in your body? Can you tell where the food lies in your body that you took this morning?" The prince could make no answer, and these words escaped his lips, "Well, my intellect does not reach that. I have not read that. I have not yet read anything of physiology or anatomy. My brain does not catch it, my mind cannot comprehend it."
Now the prince was asked, "Dear prince, O good boy, you say your mind cannot comprehend it, your intellect cannot reach up to that, your brain cannot understand this. By making these remarks you confess and admit that the brain is yours, the mind is yours, the intellect is yours. Well, if the intellect is yours, you are not the intellect. If the mind is yours, you are not the mind. If the brain is yours, you are not the brain. These very words of yours show that you are the master of the intellect, the owner of the brain and the ruler of the mind. You are not the mind, the intellect or the brain. What are you? Think, think, please. Be more careful and let us know correctly what you are. Then will God be just brought to you, and you will see God, you will be introduced directly into the presence of God. Please tell us what you are."
The boy began to think, and thought and thought but could not go further. The body said, "My intellect, my mind cannot, reach further."
Oh, how true are these words! Indeed the mind or the intellect cannot reach the true Divinity or God within.
The real Atman, the true God is beyond the reach of words and minds.
The boy was asked to sit down for a while and meditate upon what his intellect had reached so far. "I am not the body; I am not the mind." If so, feel it, put it into practice, repeat it in the language of feeling, in the language of action; realize that you are not the body. If you live this thought only, if you work into practice even so much of the truth, if you are above the body and the mind, you become free from all anxiety, all fear. Fear leaves you when you raise yourself above the level of the body or the mind. All anxiety ceases, all sorrow is gone, when you realize even so much of the Truth that you are something beyond the body, beyond the mind.
After that, the boy was helped on a little to realize what he himself is, and he was asked, "Brother, prince, what have you done today? Will you please let us know the works or deeds that you have performed this morning?"
He began to relate, "I woke up early in the morning, took bath, and did this thing and that thing, took my breakfast, read a great deal, wrote some letters, visited some friends, received some friends, and came here to pay my respects to the Swami."
Now the prince was asked, "Is that all? Have you not done a great deal more? Is that all? Just see." He thought and thought; and then mentioned a few other things of the same sort. "That is not all; you have done thousands of things more; you have done hundreds, thousands, nay, millions of things more. Innumerable deeds you have done, and you refuse to make mention of them. This is not becoming. Please let us know what you have done. Tell us everything that you have done this morning."
The prince, hearing such strange words that he had done thousands of things besides the few that he had named, was startled. "I have not done anything more than what I have told you, sir, I have not done anything." "No, you have done millions, trillions, quadrillions of things more." How is that?
The boy was asked, "Who is looking at the Swami at this time?" He said, "I". "Are you seeing this face, this river Ganga that flows beside us?" He said, "Yes, indeed." "Well, you see the river and you see the face of the Swami, but who makes the six muscles in the eyes move? You know the six muscles in the eyes move, but who makes the muscles move? It cannot be anybody else; it cannot be anything extra. It must be your own Self that makes the muscles in the eyes move in the act of seeing."
The boy said, "Oh, indeed, it must be I; it cannot be anything else."
"Well, who is seeing just now, who is attending to this discourse?" The boy said, "I, it is I." "Well, if you are seeing, if you are attending to this discourse, who is making the oratory nerves vibrate? It must be you, it must be you. Nobody else. Who took the meals this morning." The boy said, "I, I." "Well, if you took the meals this morning and it is you that will go to the toilet and vacate, who is it that assimilates and digests the food? Who is it, please? Tell us if you eat and you throw it out, it must be you who digests, it must be yourself that assimilates, it cannot be anybody else. Those days are gone when outside causes were sought after to explain the phenomena in nature. If a man fell down, the cause of his fall was said to be some outside ghost. Science does not admit such solutions of the problem. Science and philosophy require you to seek the cause of a phenomenon in the phenomenon itself."
"Here you take the food, go into the toilet and throw it off. When it is digested, it must be digested by yourself, no outside power comes and digests it; it must be your own Self. The cause of digestion also must be sought within you and not without you."
Well, the boy admitted so far. Now he was asked, "Dear Prince, just reflect, just think for a while. The process of digestion implies hundreds of kinds of movements. In the process of digestion, in mastication, saliva is emitted from the glands in the mouth. Here is again the next process of oxidation going on. Here is blood being formed. There is the blood coursing through the veins, there is the same food being converted into carnatic muscles, bones, and hair; here is the process of growth going on in the body. Here are a great many processes going on, and all these processes in the body are connected with the process of assimilation and digestion."
"If you take the food, it is you yourself who are the cause of respiration; you yourself make the blood course through your veins; you yourself make the hair grow; you yourself make the body develop, and here mark how many processes there are; how many acts, how many deeds there are that you are performing every moment."
The boy began to think and said, "Indeed, indeed, sir, in my body, in this body, there are thousands of processes that the intellect does not know, about which the mind is unconscious, and still they are being performed, and it must be I that am the cause of all that, it must be I that am performing all that; and indeed it was a mistake I made when I said that I had done a few things, a few things only, and nothing more, a few things that were done through the agency of the intellect or mind."
It must be made further clear. In this body of yours there are two kinds of functions being discharged; there are two kinds of work being done, involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary acts are those that are performed through the agency of the intellect or mind; for instance, reading, writing, walking, talking and drinking. These are acts done through the agency of the intellect or mind. Besides these, there are thousands of acts or processes being performed directly, so to say, without the agency, or without the medium of mind or intellect, for instance, respiration, the coursing of blood through the veins, the growth of hair, etc.
People make this mistake, this glaring blunder that they admit only those acts to be performed by them which are performed through the agency of mind or intellect. All the other deeds, all the other acts which are being performed directly without the agency of intellect or mind, are disclaimed entirely. They are entirely cast aside, they are entirely neglected, and by this neglect and by this mistake, by this imprisoning the real Self in the little mind, identifying the Infinity with the small brain, people are making themselves miserable and wretched. People say, "Oh, God is within me." All right, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, God is within you, but that kernel which is within you, that kernel is yourself and not the shell. Please think over it seriously. Reflect whether you are the kernel or the shell, whether you are He that is within you, or you are the shell that is without.
Some people say, "O sir, I eat and nature digests; O sir, I see but nature makes the muscles move; O sir, I hear but it is nature that makes the nerves vibrate." Mark, in the name of justice, in the name of truth, in the name of freedom, just mark, whether you are that nature or whether you are the mere body. Mark, you are that nature. You are the infinite God. If throwing aside all prejudice, waiving all preconceptions and casting off all superstitions, you reflect over the matter, discuss it, sift it, investigate it, examine it, you will become of the same mind as what you call Rama standing for. You will see that you are the kernel, the nature, the whole nature you are.
Most of you may have understood the drift of the argument; but that boy, that Indian prince, did not understand it thoroughly. "Well," he said, "Indeed, I have understood it so far that I am something beyond the intellect." At this time the attendant of the prince asked, "Sir, make it more clear to me, I have not quite comprehended it yet." Well, that attendant was asked, "Mr. so and so, when you go to bed, do you die or live?" The attendant said, "I live; I do not die." "And what about the intellect?" He said, "I go on dreaming, the intellect is still there." "And when you are in the deep sleep state (you know there is a state called the deep sleep state, in that state even no dreams are seen), where is the intellect, where is the mind?"
He began to think. "Well, it passes into nothingness; it is no longer there, the intellect is not there, the mind is not there." "But are you there or not?" He said, "Oh, indeed I must be there; I cannot die, I remain there." Well, mark here, even in the deep sleep state, where the intellect ceases, where the intellect is, as it were, like a garment hoisted on a peg, hoisted on a post, like an overcoat, the intellect is taken off and placed upon the post, you are still there, you do not die out. The boy said, "The intellect is not there, and I do not die out. This I do not quite comprehend."
Well, the boy was asked, "When you wake up after enjoying this deep sleep, when you wake up, do you not make such statements, ‘I enjoyed profound sleep tonight, I had no dreams tonight.’ Do you not make remarks of that kind?" He said, "Yes." Well. This point is very subtle. All of you will have to listen closely. When after waking up from the deep sleep state, this remark is made, "I slept so soundly that I saw no dreams, I saw no rivers, no mountains, in that state there was no father, no mother, no house, no family, nothing of the kind; all was dead and gone; there was nothing, nothing, nothing there. I slept and there was nothing there." This statement is like the statement made by the man who bore witness to the desolation of a place, and said, "At the dead of night, at such and such a place, there was not a single human being present." That man was asked to write out this statement. He put it on paper. The magistrate asked him, "Well, is this statement true?" He said, "Yes, sir." "Well, is this statement made on hearsay or founded upon your own evidence, are you an eyewitness?" He said, "Yes, sir, I am an eyewitness. This is not based on hearsay." "You are an eyewitness that at the time mentioned on the paper and at the place mentioned on the paper, there was not a single human being present?" He said, "Yes." "What are you? Are you a human being or not?" He said, "Yes, I am a human being." "Well, then, if this statement is true according to you, it must be wrong according to us, because, as you were present and you are a human being, the statement that there was not a single human being present is not literally true. You were present there. In order that this statement may be true according to you, it must be false according to us, because in order that there might be nobody, there must be somebody, must be some body, must be at least yourself, present at the time."
So when you wake up after enjoying the deep sleep state and make this remark, "I did not see anything in the dream;" well, we may say that you must have been present; there was no father, no mother, no husband, no wife, no house, no river, no family present in that state, but you must have been present; the very evidence that you give, the very witness that you bear proves that you did not sleep, that you did not go to sleep, for had you been asleep, who would have told us about the nothingness of that? You are something beyond the intellect; the intellect was asleep, the brain was at rest in a way, but you were not asleep. If you had been asleep, who would have made the blood run through the blood-vessels, who would have continued the process of digestion in the stomach? Who would have continued the process of the growth of your body, if you had really fallen into the deep sleep state? So you are something which is never asleep. The intellect sleeps, but not you. "I am something beyond the intellect, mind and body."
Now the boy said, "Sir, sir, I have understood it so far, and have come to know that I am a power Divine, that I am the Infinite power which never sleeps, never changes. In my youth, the body is different, in my childhood the mind was not the same as I have now, the body was not the same as I have now. In my childhood, my intellect, brain, body and mind were entirely different from what they are now." Doctors tell us that after seven years, the whole system undergoes a thorough change; every moment the body is changing, and every second the mind is changing, and the mental thoughts, the mental ideas which you entertained in your childhood, where are they now? In the days of childhood you looked upon the Sun as a beautiful cake which was eaten by the angels, the Moon was a beautiful piece of silver; the stars were as big as diamonds. Where are these ideas gone? The mind of yours, the intellect of yours has undergone a thorough, a whole-sale change. But you still say, "When I was a child, when I was a boy, when I shall grow up to the age of seventy." You still make such remark which show that you are something which was the same in childhood, which was the same in boyhood, which will be the same at the age of seventy. When you say, "I went to sleep, I went into the deep sleep state, etc,"; when you make remarks of that kind, it shows that there is the true ‘I’ in you, the real Self in you, which remains the same in the dreamland, which remains the same in the deep sleep state, which remains the same in the wakeful state. There is something within you which remains the same when you are in a swoon, which remains the same when you are bathing, when you are writing. Just think, reflect, just mark, please. Are you not something which remains the same under all circumstances, unchanging in its being, the same yesterday, today and for ever? If so, just reflect a little more, think a little more and you will be immediately brought face to face with God. You know the promise was, know your-self, put down your right address on paper, and God will be introduced to you immediately.

Now the boy, the prince, expected that as he knew about himself, he had come to know that he was something unchanging, something constant, something which was never asleep; so he wanted to know what God is. The prince was asked; "Brother, mark, here are these trees growing. Is the power that makes this tree grow different from the power that makes that tree grow?" He said, "No, no, it must be the same power certainly." "Now, is the power which makes all these trees grow different from the power that makes the bodies of animals grow?" He said, "No, No, it cannot be different, it must be the same." Now is the power, the force which makes the stars move, different from the power which makes these rivers flow? He said, "It cannot be different, it must be the same."
Well, now the power that makes these trees grow cannot be different from the power which makes your body grow, it cannot be different from the power which makes your hair grow. The same universal power of nature, the same universal Divinity or the Unknowable, which makes the stars shine, makes your eyes twinkle, the same power which is the cause of the growth of that body’s hair which you call mine, the same power makes the blood course through the veins of each and all. Indeed, and then what are you? Are you not that power which makes your hair grow, which makes your blood flow through your veins, which makes your food get digested? Are you not that power? That power which is beyond the intellect, the mind, indeed you are. If so, you are the same power which is governing the force of the whole Universe, you are the same Divinity, you are the same God, the same Unknowable, the same energy, force, substance anything you may call it, the same Divinity, the All which is present everywhere. The same, the same you are.
The boy was astonished and he said, "Really, really, I wanted to know God. I put the question what God is, and I find my own Self, my true Atman is God. What was I asking, what did I ask, what a silly question did I put! I had to know myself. I had to know what I am, and God was known." Thus was God known.
The only difficulty in the way of realizing this truth is that people play the part of children. You know, children sometimes take a fancy to a particular kind of plate and do not want to eat anything except when it is served to them in the plates which have their fancy. They will say, "I will eat in my plate, I will eat in my dish, I won’t have anything in any other plate." O children! see, it is not this particular plate alone which is yours; all the plates in the house are yours; all the golden dishes are yours. This is a mistake. If the people in this world know themselves, they will find the true Self to be God Almighty, to be the Infinite Power, but they have taken a fancy for this particular plate, this head, this brain. "What is done through this brain only, that is done by me. What is done through this mind or intellect, that is mine, and all else I won’t have; all else I disclaim. I will have only that which is served to me in this particular plate." Herein comes selfishness. They want to get everything done through this plate and to take credit for this plate, they want to have everything accumulated around this little plate, which they call particularly theirs, that with which they have identified themselves. This is the cause of all selfishness, all anxiety and misery. Get rid of this false notion; realize your true Self to be the All; rise above this selfish egoism, you are happy this moment, one with the whole universe you are. This is a mistake of the same character as that which the prince made. The prince was put a catch question. "Where is your place?" And he named the metropolis of the state. "That is my place." O boy, that metropolis of the state is not the only place you have got. The whole state, the whole country is yours. You live in that metropolis, that capital of the state, while that capital is not the only place that is yours, the whole state is yours, this magnificent landscape, these fairy scenes, this grand Himalayan scenery, all this belongs to you, and not only that particular small town.
This is the mistake made by the people. This intellect or brain may be called the metropolis or the capital of your real Self, the Atman. You have no right to claim this to yourself and deny everything else; this little metropolis of the brain, this metropolis of the mind or intellect is not the only place you have got. The wide world, the moons, the earths the planets, the milkyways, all these are yours. Realize that. Just regain your birthright; and all anxiety, all misery ceases.
People talk about freedom; people talk about salvation. What is it that has bound you first? If you want to be free, if you want to get salvation, you ought to know what is the cause of your bondage. It is just like a monkey in the fable. A monkey is caught in India in a very queer manner. A narrow-necked basin is fixed in the ground, and in that basin are put some nuts and other eatables which the monkeys like. The monkeys come up and thrust their hands into the narrow-necked basin and fill their hands with the nuts. The fist becomes thick, and it cannot be taken out. There the monkey is caught; he cannot come out. Queerly, strangely he is caught.
We ask what it is that binds you first. You yourself have brought you under thraldom and bondage. Here is the whole wide world, a grand magnificent forest; and in this grand magnificent wood of the whole universe, there is a narrow-necked vessel found. What is that narrow-necked vessel? It is your brain; this little brain, narrow-necked. Herein are some nuts and people have got hold of these nuts and all what is done through the agency of this brain or through the medium of this intellect, is owned as one’s own. "I am the mind," is what everybody says; everybody has practically identified himself with the mind, "I am the mind," "I am the intellect," and he takes a strong grip of these nuts of this narrow-necked vessel. That is what makes you slave, that is what makes you slave to anxiety, slave to fear, slave to temptations, slave to all sorts of troubles. That is what binds you; that is the cause of all the sufferings in this world. If you want salvation, if you want freedom only let go the hold, free your hand. The whole forest is yours, you can jump from tree to tree and eat all the nuts and eat all the walnuts and all the fruits in the wood, all being yours. The whole world is yours; just get rid of this selfish ignorance and you are free, you are your own saviour.

Making a famine where abundance lies,
(is it fair? No, it is not fair, it is not becoming.)
Making a famine where abundance lies,
This thy foe, to thy sweet self so cruel,
Should not be so, should not do this,
Within thine own but buriest thou content,
Thou makest waste and niggarding.
Be not niggardly, be not miserly.

It is niggardliness to give away all this property and confine thyself unto the few things in this little brain only.
You will see that this brain of yours will become of infinite power if you realize your oneness with the All. That is what puts you in perfect harmony with the whole world.

Oh, we can wait no longer,
We too take ship, O soul, (Here the word ‘soul’ means intellect)Joyous we too launch out on trackless seas
Fearless for unknown shores on waves of ecstasy to sail.
Amid the wafting winds, (thou pressing me to thee, I thee to me, O Soul).
Carolling free, singing our song of God,
Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration
With laugh and many a kiss,
(Let others deprecate, let others weep for sin, remorse, humiliation)
O soul, thou pleasest me, I thee.
Ah, more than any priest, O soul, we too believe in God,
But with the mystery of God we dare not dally.
O soul, thou pleasest me, I thee.
Sailing these seas or on the hills, or waking in the night,
Thoughts, silent thoughts of Time and Space and Death, like waters flowing,
Bear me indeed as through the regions infinite,
Whose air I breathe, whose ripples hear, leave me all over,
Bathe me, O God, in thee, mounting to thee
I and my soul to range in range of thee
O thou transcendent,
Nameless, the fibre and the breath.
Light of the lights, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them,
Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving
Thou moral, spiritual fountain-affection’s source thou reservoir,
(O pensive soul of me—O thirst unsatisfied-waitest not there?
Waitest not happy for us somewhere there the Comrade perfect?)
Thou pulse—thou motive of the stars, suns, systems,
That, circling, move in order, safe, harmonious,
Athwart the shapeless vastnesses of space,
How should I think, how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself,
I could not launch to those superior universes?
Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God,
At Nature and its wonders, Time and Space and Death
But that I, turning, call to thee, O soul, thou actual me,
And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs,
Thou matest Time, smilest content at Death,
And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space.
Greater than stars or suns
Bounding, O soul, thou journeyest forth;
What love other than thine and ours could wider amplify?
What aspirations, wishes, outvie thine and ours, O soul?
What dreams of the ideal? What plans of purity, perfection, strength?
What cheerful willingness for others’ sake to give up all?
For others’ sake to suffer all?
Reckoning ahead, O soul, when thou, the time achiev’d
The seas all cross’d, weather’d the capes, the voyage done,
Surrounded, copest, frontest God, yieldest the aim attain’d,
As fill’d with friendship, love complete, the Elder Brother found,
The Younger melts in fondness in his arms.

Sail on, march on to the real Self; get rid of all this superstition, this superstition of the body. Get rid of this hypnotism of this little body; you have hypnotized your-self into this brain or body. Get rid of that, sail on, march on to the eternity, the reality, the true Self; passage to more than India.

Passage to more than India!
Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
O soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like those?
Disportest thou on waters such as those?
Soundest below the Sanskrit and the Vedas?
Then have thy bent unleas’d.
Passage to you, you shores, ye aged fierce enigmas!
Passage to you, to mastership of you, ye strangling problems
You, strew’d with the wrecks of skeletons, that, living, never reached you.
Passage to more than India!
O Secret of the earth and sky!
Of you, O waters of the sea! O winding creeks and rivers!
Of you, O woods and fields! of you strong mountains of my land!
Of you, O Prairies! of you, gray rocks!
O morning red! O clouds! O rain, snows!
O day and night, passage to you!

Rise above the body, and you become all these, you get a passage unto all these. All these you realize yourself to be.

O Sun and Moon and all stars! Sirius and Jupiter!
Passage to you!
Passage, immediate passage! the blood burns in my veins!
Away, O soul! hoist instantly the anchor!
Cut the hawsers-haul out-shake out every sail!
Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?
Have we not grovel’d here long enough, eating and drinking like mere brutes?
Have we not darken’d and dazed ourselves with books long enough?
Sail forth-steer for the deep waters only,
Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all
O my brave soul!
O farther, farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, father sail!

Om! Om!! Om!!!

ಆತ್ಮ ಜ್ಞಾನ

"ನಾನು" ಎಂಬುದು ಸ್ವ ಅಸ್ತಿತ್ವ ಅಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ಅರಿಯುವದು ಅತಿ ಅವಶ್ಯ

ಇಡಿ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರಾಕಾರವಾಗಿ ಆವರಿಸಿರುವ ಅರಿವಿನ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಆತ್ಮವನ್ನು ಚರ್ಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ ಗ್ರಹಿಸುವದು ಅಸಾದ್ಯ.

ಈ ಆತ್ಮದಿಂದ ಉದ್ಬವಿಸಿದ ಜಗತ್ತು ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇರುವಂತಹ ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಆತ್ಮಮಯ

ದೇಹ ಹಾಗೂ ಜಗತ್ತು ಸಹಿತವಾದ ಅನುಬವವೇ ಮನಸ್ಸು

ಈ ದೇಹಾದರಿತ ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರಗಳು ,ನಡುವಳಿಕೆಗಳು ಕೆಳ ಸ್ತರದ ತಿಳುವಳಿಕೆಯ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಸೀಮಿತ

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Happiness Within

Conclusion

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Spiritual Power That Wins

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Way to the Fulfilment of All Desires

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Nature of Inspiration

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Secret of Success

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Prognosis And Diagnosis Of Sin

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

Sin—Its Relation To The AtmanOr Real Self

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮತೀರ್ಥರ ವಿಚಾರದಾರೆ

The Real Self

Sin—Its Relation To The Atman
Or Real Self