THUS SPAKE VIVEKANANDA

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THUS SPAKE VIVEKANANDA

 

 

Invocation

I bow to Vivekananda, a mere glance of whose eyes is enough to impart both enjoyment and liberation, who tramples down with ease the myriad hordes of vice, who is the veritable Siva with the crescent moon on the forehead, and who is worshipped by Hindu.

A Brief Life-Sketch

We cannot think of Sri Rama without thinking of Hanuman, or remember Sri Krishna without remembering Arjuna. In the same way do Buddha and Ananda go together, as do Christ and St. Paul. Even such is the link between Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. For, the one was the spring and the other was the stream conveying the spring's waters.

God to Ramakrishna was a Fact and a Reality. He did not have to argue about God. He could affirm God. He was the peak of Indian Spiritual Culture. His vision was cosmic and realisation was all-embracing. Swami Vivekananda was his chief disciple, his most beloved pupil, his greatest heir, his right interpreter and his most efficient executive.

Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863 on the holy day of Makara Sankaranthi. His father was Viswanatha Datta, a prominent lawyer of Calcutta and his mother was Bhuvaneswari Devi, a very cultured woman of aristocratic upbringing. The Dattas named the child Narendranath and the mother believed that he had come to her in answer to her ardent prayers to Lord Siva. The child was the darling of everybody in and near the home, and was boisterous and vivacious. There was in him, an exuberance of energy and it was hard for his people to tackle and control hi. He grew into an athlete and was proficient in all kinds of games in sports. He was as good as studies as at play. He was a student with superlative talents both innate and acquired. His range of reading was wide, his powers of understanding were keen. He had a very retentive memory and in discriminative faculty he was very much above his age. Even as a boy he was highly soulful and deeply meditative;

there were deeper powers in his young being than are usually found in youth. He was challenging and knew no fear. A hundred graces and excellences marked him out as a genius even at school and college.

Narendranath was a thinker and the question of God troubled him. His intellect was too robust to take things on feeble faith and customary belief. He demanded verification, asked for proof, before he believed. The doubting youth went here and there in quest of God for long but in vain. And when he almost despaired of discovering God and almost concluded that God was a mad man's idea, Destiny, wise and benevolent Destiny, took him to Sri Ramakrishna. He asked the Saint if he had seen God. Sri Ramakrishna replied with a smile that not only had he seen God, but he could show God to Naren also. Thus in the simple rustic temple-priest did the college-educated rationalist find his Master and Savior.

For nearly five years Narendranath stayed with Sri Ramakrishna and was taught and trained by him. At the end of this period of utmost intensity, Narendranath had imbibed all the superhuman wisdom of the Paramahamsa and had become his alter ego.

Sri Ramakrishna passed away in 1886, when Narendranath was not twenty-three. On Naren's very young shoulders fell the gigantic burden of executing Sri Ramakrishna's mission. It was not an easy task, but if anyone was capable of performing it, it was Narendranath, who had the brain and brawn for it. He renounced home he became Swami Vivekananda; he established a Math (a monastery) where he and his co-disciples could carry on austerities. He then wandered over India as a parivrajaka sadhu. From the northern Himalayan extremity to the southern land's end of Cape Comorin did he travel, studying the Motherland, understanding her problems at first hand and forming solutions for her regeneration. This pilgrimage was one of the landmarks of his life and the very many occurrences and incidents relating to his wanderings are fascinating peeps into the rich variety and compelling charm of his personality.

In 1893 in the month of May, the Swami left by steamer for America to attend the Parliament of Religions to be held there at Chicago in September. He had not been formally invited and enrolled as a delegate. With some difficulty he managed to get into the Parliament; he was too luminous not to be let in. But then it was a case of conquest at first speech. When his turn to address the august assembly came, he rose like the morning sun and spoke to the 'Sisters and Brothers of America'. That hearty call fascinated the Parliament and the western world. Rising above cramping creeds and dwarfing dogmas he spoke of harmony and universalism; his message came like the breath of life to a suffocated people. He stayed many months in America lecturing and teaching and helping Westerners to study Indian philosophy. Then he went to England and Europe. He had become a bridge of understanding between the Orient and the Occident.

In 1897 the Swami returned to India. The nation rose like one man to honour him. The people saw in him a new Shankara who had risen to bring life and Vigour to the motherland. The Swami reminded his countrymen of the Indian national ideal of renunciation, roused them to a sense of privilege in being Indians and showed them how spiritual culture was the secret of India's immortal existence. He made Bharatha a Prabuddha Bharatha.

But he did not stop with advising and preaching. He was a capable organiser and desired to set up an organisation, which could ensure the continuance of his Master's mission. So he founded the Ramakrishna Math and Mission (with its Headquarters at Belur Math near Calcutta), which is a body, dedicated to self-realisation and to the service of humanity. This Sangha is his lasting legacy to mankind.

Swami Vivekananda was not forty, when he entered into Maha Samadhi. But his age is not to be calculated in solar years. For, in just one decade of public work he had implanted into human consciousness ideas which may need one thousand and five hundred years to get worked out in full. There is an Indian side to his life work and there is an international aspect to it. In both the fields, his contribution has been unique.

Viveka Sutras

Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control, or philosophy - by one or more, or all of these - and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas, or rituals or books or temples or forms, are but secondary details.

Strength

Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, O man, be not weak.

Everything that can weaken us as a race we have had for the past thousand years. It seems as if during that period the national life had this one end in view, viz., how to make us weaker and weaker, till we have become real earthworms crawling at the feet of everyone who dares to put his foot on us.

Therefore, my friends, as one of your blood, as the one that lives and dies with you, let me tell you that we want strength, strength and every time strength. And the Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies the strength enough to invigorate the whole world; the whole world can be vivified, made strong, energized through them.

They will call with trumpet voice upon the weak, the miserable, and the downtrodden of all races, all creeds and all sects to stand on their feet and be free. Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads.

What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells the mind of the same material as that of which, the thunderbolt is made. Strength, manhood, Kshatravirya, Brahmateja.

All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that; do not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazed lunatics, as most of us believe now-a-days. You can do anything and everything, without even the guidance of any one. All power is there. Stand up and express the divinity within you.

Your country requires heroes; be heroes. Stand firm like a rock. Truth always triumphs. What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins. Be brave, be brave; man dies but once. My disciples must not be cowards. I hate cowardice. Keep up the deepest mental poise; take not even the slightest notice of what puerile creatures may be saying against you. Indifference! Indifference! Indifference! Bear in mind the eyes are two in number, and so the ears, but the mouth is but one. All great undertakings are achieved through mighty obstacles. Put forth your manly effort. Wretched people under the grip of lust and gold deserve to be looked upon with indifference.

What makes you weep, my friend? In you is all power. Summon up your all-powerful nature, oh, mighty one! And this whole universe will lie at your feet. It is the Self-alone that predominates and not matter. It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their bodies that piteously cry, 'Weak, weak, we are weak'. What the nation wants is pluck and scientific genius. We want Great Spirit, tremendous energy and boundless enthusiasm; no womanishness will do. It is the man of action, the lion heart that the goddess of wealth resorts to.

No need of looking behind. Forward! We want infinite energy, infinite zeal, infinite courage, and infinite patience; then only will great things will be achieved.

Vedanta recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error; and the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature and that you have no power and you cannot do this or that.

Strength is life, weakness is death; strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal! Weakness is constant strain and misery. Weakness is death. Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood.

Weakness is the one cause of suffering. We become miserable, because we are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We suffer, because we are weak. We die, because we are weak. Where there is nothing to weaken us, there is no death, no sorrow.

Strength is the one thing needful. Strength is the medicine for the world's disease. Strength is the medicine which the poor must have when tyrannized over by the rich. Strength is the medicine which the ignorant must have when oppressed by the learned. And it is the medicine that sinners must have when tyrannized over by other sinners.

Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future.

Thinking all the time that we are diseased, will not cure us; medicine is necessary. Being reminded of weakness does not help much. Give strength; and strength does not come by thinking of weakness all the time. The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength.

Either in this world or in the world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature. Each of us is heir-apparent to the Emperor of Emperors.

Know that all sins and all evils can be summed up in that one word - weakness. It is weakness that is the motive power in all evil doing. It is weakness that is the source of all selfishness. It is weakness that makes men injure others. It is weakness that makes them manifest what they are not in reality.

What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel - gigantic whills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and secrets of the universe and will accomplish their purpose even if it meant going to the bottom of the ocean and meeting Death face to face.

We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth - anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, Truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating.

We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything. We must strengthen it. First of all our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through a study of the Gita. You will understand Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet and you feel yourselves as men.

What we want is Vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.

Be moral, be brave, be a whole-hearted man - strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don't bother your head with religious theories; cowards only sin, brave men never. Try to love anybody and everybody.

I have never spoken of revenge; I have always spoken of strength. Do we dream of revenging ourselves on this drop of sea spray? But it is a great thing to a mosquito!

Get up, and set your shoulder to the wheel - how long is this life for? As you have come into this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise where is the difference between you and the trees and stones? - They too come into existence, decay and die.

Be bold! My children should be brave, above all. Not the least compromise on any account. Preach the highest truth broadcast. Do not fear of losing your respect or of causing unhappy friction. Rest assured that if you serve truth in spite of temptations to forsake it, you will attain, a heavenly strength, in the face of which men will quail to speak before you things which you do not believe to be true. People would be convinced of what you would say to them, if you can strictly serve truth for fourteen years continually, without swerving from it.

It is only in our scriptures that this adjective is given to The Lord - Abhih, Abhih. We have to become Abhih, fearless and our task will be done.

Shraddha (Faith)

He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. Those of you who have studied the most beautiful of all the Upanishads, the Katha, will remember how Vajasravas was going to make a great sacrifice, and instead of giving away things that were of any worth, he was giving away cows and horses that were not of any use, and the book says that at that time Shraddha entered into the heart of his son Nachiketa. I would not translate this word Shraddha to you, it would be a mistake; it is a wonderful word to understand, and much depends on it; we will see how it works, for immediately we find Nachiketa telling himself, " I am superior to many, I am inferior to a few, but nowhere am I the last, I can also do something."

And this boldness increased and the boy wanted to solve the problem, which was in his mind, the problem of death. Going to the house of Death could only get the solution, and the boy went. There he was, brave Nachiketa, waiting at the house of Death for three days, and you know how he obtained what he desired.

This Shraddha must enter into you. Whatever of material power you see manifested by the Western races is the outcome of this Shraddha, because they believe in their muscles, and if you believe in your spirit, how much more wills it work!

This Shraddha is what I want, and what all of us here want, this faith in ourselves; and before you is the great task to get that faith. Give up the awful disease that is creeping into our national blood - that idea of ridiculing everything, that loss of seriousness. Give that up. Be strong and have this Shraddha, and everything else is bound to follow.

Faith, sympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God - this is the secret of greatness.

I remember that grand word of the Katha Upanishad - Shraddha, or marvelous faith. To preach the doctrine of Shraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life. Let me repeat to you that this faith is one of the potent factors of humanity, and of all religions. First, have faith in yourselves. Do not look up to the rich and great men who have money. The poor did all the great and gigantic works of the world. Be steady, and above all be pure and sincere to the backbone. Have faith in your destiny.

We are the children of the Almighty; we are sparks of the infinite, divine fire. How can we be nothing? We are everything, do everything and man must do everything. Therefore, my brethren, teach this life-saving, great, ennobling, grand doctrine, to your children, even from their very birth. All sects commonly believe in this marvelous doctrine of the soul, the perfection of the soul.

This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilization; and if there has been degeneration and if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find degradation to have started on the day our people lost this faith in themselves. Losing faith in one's self means losing faith in God.

What did I learn in the West, and what did I see behind those frothy sayings of the Christian sects repeating that man was a fallen and hopelessly fallen sinner? There I saw that inside the national hearts of both Europe and America resides the tremendous power of the men's faith in themselves.

An English boy will tell you,” I am an Englishman, and I can do anything". The American boy will tell you the same thing, and so will any European boy.

Can our boys say the same thing, here? No, nor even the boys' fathers. We have lost faith in ourselves. There is not one system in India, which does not hold the doctrine that God, is within, that Divinity resides within all things. Every one of our Vedantic systems admits that all purity and perfection and strength are in the soul already.

The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have, would have vanished.

Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves. Born with the consciousness that they were to be great, they become great.

Never quarrel about religion. All quarrels and disputations concerning religion simply show that spirituality is not present. Religious quarrels are always over hate husks. When purity, when spirituality goes, leaving the soul dry, quarrels begin, and not before.

Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, or churches or temples; they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man which is spirituality and the more this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good. Earn that first, acquire that and criticize no one. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realization.

Sincerity of conviction and purity of motive will surely gain the day, and even a small minority, armed with these is surely destined to prevail against all odds.

Truth, purity and unselfishness - wherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition.

Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!

The Call to India

OH! INDIA! Forget not - that your ideal of the womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not - that the God thou worship is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all-renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma; forget not - that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for the sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness; forget not - that though art born as a sacrifice to the Mother's altar; forget not - that the social order is but the reflex of the Infinite Universal Motherhood; forget not - that the lower class, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and blood, are thy brothers. Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou are an Indian - and proudly proclaim, - " I am an Indian - every Indian is my brother".

Say, - " The ignorant India, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother." Thou, too, clad with but a rag round thy loins, proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice, - "The Indian is my brother, - the Indian is my life. India's gods and goddesses are my God. India's society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure-garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age." Say, brother: "The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good," and repeat and pray, day and night, 'O Thou Lord of Gouri, O Thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me; O Thou, Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away unmanliness, and - Make me a Man!"

Oh, India, this is your terrible danger. The spell of imitating the West getting such a hold upon you, that what is good or what is bad, is no longer decided by reason, judgment, discrimination or reference to the Sastras. Whatever ideas, whatever manners the white men praise or like, are good; whatever things they dislike or censure, are bad! Alas! What can be a more tangible proof of foolishness than this? With this mere echoing of others, with this base imitation of others, with this dependence on others, wouldst thou, with these provisions only, scale the highest pinnacle of civilization and greatness? Wouldst thou attain by means of thy disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved only by the brave and the heroic?

Remember always, that there is not in the world any other country whose institutions are really better in their aims and objects than the institutions of this land. I have seen castes in almost every country in the world, but nowhere is their plan purpose so glorious as here. If caste is thus unavoidable, I would rather have a caste of purity and culture and self-sacrifice than a caste of dollars. Therefore, our solution of the caste question is not degrading those who are already high up, is not running amuck through food and drink, is not jumping out of our own limits in order to have more enjoyment, but it comes to every one of us fulfilling the dictates of our Vedantic religion, by our attaining spirituality, and by our becoming the ideal Brahmin.

There is a law laid on each one of you in this land by your ancestors, whether you are Aryans, or non-Aryans, Rishis, or Brahmins, or the very lowest outcastes. The command is the same to you all, that you must make progress without stopping and that, from the highest man to the lowest Pariah, every one in this country has to try and become the ideal Brahmin.

Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and renunciation. By the Brahmin ideal what do I mean? I mean the ideal Brahmin-ness in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. That is the ideal of the Hindu race.

It has become a trite saying that idolatry is wrong, and every man swallows it at the present time without questioning. I once thought so, and to pay the penalty of that, I had to learn my lesson sitting at the feet of a man who realized everything through idols; I allude to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. If such Ramakrishna Paramahamsas are produced by idol-worship, what will you have - the reformer's creed or any number of idols? I want an answer. Take a thousand idols more if you can produce Ramakrishna Paramahamsas through idol-worship, and may God speed you! Produce such noble natures by any means you can.

Yet idolatry is condemned! Why? Nobody knows. Because some hundreds of years ago some man of Jewish blood happened to condemn it! That is , he happened to condemn everybody else's idols except his own. If God is represented in any form, said the Jew, it is awfully bad; it is sin. But if He is represented in the form of a chest, with two angels sitting on each side, and a cloud hanging over it, it is holy of holies. If God comes in the form of a dove, it is holy. But if He comes in the form of cow, it is heathen superstition; condemn it! That is how the world goes.

Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct; all moral perfection will be extinct; all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct; all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force and competition its ceremonies and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be. The power of suffering is infinitely greater than the power of doing; the power of love is infinitely of greater potency than the power of hatred.

India will be raised, not with the power of flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction but with the flag of peace and love, the garb of Sannyasin. Call up the divinity within you, which will enable you to bear hunger and thirst, heat and cold. Sitting in luxurious homes, surrounded with all the comforts of life doling out a little amateur religion may be good for other lands, but India has a truer instinct. It intuitively detects the mask. You must give up. Be great. No great work can be done without sacrifice.

Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your name, fame or position, nay even your lives, and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross this ocean of life. Bring all forces of good together. Do not care under what banner you march. Do not care what be your colour - green, blue, or red - but mix all colours up produce that intense glow of white, the colour of love. Ours is to work. The results will take care of themselves. I do not see into the future; nor do I care to see. But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction.

Feel, therefore my would-be reformers, my would-be patriots! Do you feel? Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbors to brutes? Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of th misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step.

Our Women

There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.

The Hindu women are very religious, perhaps more so than any other women int he world. The idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence.

First Mother and her daughters, then Father and his sons - Can you understand this?

To me Mother's grace is a hundred thousand times more valuable than Father's. Mother's grace, Mother's blessings are all paramount to me.

I know that the race that produced Sita - even if it only dreamt of her - has a reverence for woman that is unmatched on earth. Sita is the name in India for everything that is good, pure and holy - everything that in women we call womanly. Sita never returned injury. Try to be Sita.

Our woman is not learned, but they are more pure. To every woman every man, save her husband, should be her son. To every man every woman, save his own wife, should be as his mother.

Just as centers have to be started for men, so also centers have to be started for teaching women. The uplift of the women, the awakening of the masses, must come first, and then only can any real good about for the country, for India.

Women must be put in a position to solve their problems in their own way. No one can or ought to do this for them. And our Indian women are as capable of doing it as any in the world.

Along with other things, our women should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day, it has become necessary for them also to learn self-defence. See, how grand was the Queen of Jhansi!

Who are you to solve women's problems? Are you the Lord God that you should rule over every widow and every woman? Hands off! They will solve their own problems.

In the Vedas and Upanishads, women taught the highest truths and received the same veneration as men.

If I can raise a thousand Madonnas - Incarnations of the Divine Mother - in our country before I die, I shall die in peace. Then only will our countrymen will become worthy of their name.

Mother (Sri Sharada Devi) has been born to revive that wonderful Sakti in India; and making her the nucleus, once more Gargis and Maitreyis will be born in the world. Without the grace Sakti nothing can be accomplished.

Service and Sacrifice

Look upon every man, woman and everyone as God. You cannot help any one; you can only serve; serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children, blessed you are; do not think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as worship. The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the shape of the lunatic, the leper and the sinner.

The only God to worship is the human should in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the Taj Mahal of temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage.

Vow then to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of the 300 millions going down and down every day.

Him I call a Mahatma whose heart bleeds for the poor; otherwise he is a Duratman.

So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.

Do you love your fellowmen? Where should you go to seek for God? Are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganges? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who cares for these tinsel puffs of name? Have you love? - You are omnipotent. Are you perfectly unselfish? If so, you are irresistible. It is character that pays everywhere. Give up jealousy and conceit. Learn to work unitedly for others. That is the great need of our country. Have patience and be faithful unto death. Do not fight among yourselves. Be perfectly pure in money dealings. So long as you have faith and honesty and devotion, everything will prosper. So long as there is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through grace of the Lord, I assure, there is no danger for you. Do not open your mind, unless you feel it will be positively beneficial. Use agreeable and wholesome language towards even the greatest enemy.

Any expansion is life, all contraction is death. All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of live. He who loves, lives; he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love's sake. Because, it is the only law of life.

All the work you do, is done for your own salvation, is done for your own benefit. God has not fallen into a ditch for you and me to help Him out by building a hospital, or something of that sort! He allows you to work... not in order to help Him, but that you may help yourself. Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most arrogant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Cut out the word help from your mind. You cannot help; it is blasphemy! You worship. When you give a morsel of food to a dog, you worship the dog as God. He is all and is in all.

Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world and thus, become pure and perfect. Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellowmen?

I should see God in the poor and it is for my salvation that I go and worship them. The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord, coming in the shape of the distressed, coming in the shape of the lunatic, the leper, the sinner. Bold are my words and let me repeat that it is the greatest privilege in our lives that we are allowed to serve the Lord in all these shapes.

A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising-up, the gospel of equality.

Have Vairagya. Your ancestors gave up the world for doing great things. At the present times there are men who give up the world to help their own salvation. Throw away everything, even your own salvation, and go and help others.

Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race, everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears; he covers everything. All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods, shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god we see all round us, the Virat? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods.

Liberation is only for him who gives up everything for other, whereas others who tax their brain day and night harping on "my salvation", "my salvation", wander about with their true well-being ruined, both present and prospective.

After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth; God is present in every Jiva, there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed.

The national ideals of India are renunciation and service. Intensify her in these channels and the rest will take care of itself. The banner of the spirituality cannot be raised too high in this country. In it alone is salvation.

Those who want to help mankind must take their own pleasure and pain, name and fame, and all sorts of interests, and make a bundle of them and throw them into the sea and then come to the Lord. This is what all the masters said and did.

Let me help my fellowmen - that is all I seek.

If you want any good to come, just throw your ceremonials overboard and worship the living God, the Man-God - every being that wears a human form - God in His universal as well as individual aspect.

Doing good to others out of compassion is good, but the Seva (service) of all beings in the spirit of the Lord is better.

Calm and silent and steady work and no newspaper humbug, no name making, you must always remember this.

Go, all of you, wherever there is an outbreak of plague or famine, or wherever the people are in distress, and mitigate their sufferings. At the most, you may die in the attempt. What of that? How many like you are taking birth and dying like worms, every day? What difference does that make to the world at large? Die you must, but have a great ideal to die for and, it is better to die with a great ideal in life. Preach this ideal from door to door and you will yourselves be benefited and at the same time, be doing good to your country. On you lies the future hope of our country. I feel extreme pain to see your leading a life of inaction. Set yourselves to work - to work! Do not tarry - the time of death is approaching day by day! Do not sit idle, thinking that everything will be done in time, later. Mind - nothing will be done that way.

Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even thinking of the least good of others gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion. I love you all ever so much, but I would wish you all to die working for others - I should be rather glad to see you do that!

Leave aside your thoughts of poverty! In what respects are you poor? Do you feel regret because you have not a coach and a pair, or a retinue of servants at your beck and call? What of that? You little know how you can leave nothing undone in life, if you labour day and night for others with your heart’s blood.

Work unto death - I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes - wealth, fame, enjoyments are only for a few days. It is better, far better, to dies on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Advance!

Give up jealously and conceit. Learn to work unitedly for others. This is the great need of our country.

I bequeath to you, young men, this sympathy, this struggle for the poor, the ignorant, the oppressed. Go now this minute to the temple of Parthasarathi, and before Him who was friend of the poor and lowly cowherds of Gokula, who never shrank to embrace the pariah Guhaka, who accepted the invitation of a prostitute in preference to that of the nobles and saver her in His incarnation as Buddha - yea, down on your faces before Him and make a great sacrifice, the sacrifice of a whole life for them, for whom He comes from time to time, whom He loves above all, the poor, the lowly and the oppressed.

Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready, waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise, and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was - this motherland of ours.

He who wants to serve Siva must serve His children - must serve all creatures in this world first. It is said in the Sastras that those who serve the servants of God are His greatest servants. Unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has more of this unselfishness is more spiritual and nearer to Siva. And if a man is selfish, even though he has visited all the temples, seen all the places of pilgrimage, and painted himself like a leopard, he is still further off from Siva.

This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Siva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Siva; and if he sees Siva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Siva in him without thinking of his caste, creed or race, or anything, with him Siva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.

What good is it, if we acknowledge in our prayers that God is the Father of us all, and in our daily lives do not treat every man as other brother?

You have now to make the character of Mahavira your ideal. See how at the command of Ramchandra he crossed the ocean. He had no care for life or death. He was a perfect master of his senses and wonderfully sagacious. You have now to build your life on this great ideal of personal service. Through that, all the other ideals will gradually manifest in life. Obedience to the Guru without questioning, and strict observance of Brahmacharya - this is the secret of success. As on the one hand Hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the other, he represents leonine courage, striking the whole world with awe.

From highest Brahman to the yonder worm

And to the very minutest atom

Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love

Friend, offer mind, soul, body at their feet,

These are His manifold forms before thee,

Rejecting them where seekest thou for God?

Who loves all beings without distinction,

He indeed is worshipping best his God.

This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.

Great things can be done by great sacrifices only.

Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment, universality.

Go to hell yourself to buy salvation for others. There is no Mukti on earth to call my own.

Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you - but do not think of that now. It will come back multiplied - a thousand fold - but the attention must not be on that. You have the power to give. Give, and there it ends.

There is no higher virtue than charity. The lowest man is he whose hand draws in receiving; and he is the highest man whose hand goes out in giving. The hand was made to give always. Give the last bit of bread you have, even if you are starving. You will be perfect, you will become God.

Who cares for name? Off with it! If in the attempt to carry morsels of food to starving mouths, name and possession and all be doomed even - thrice blessed art thou! It is the heart that conquers, not the brain. Books and learning, yoga, meditation and illumination - all are but dust compared to love.

India wants the sacrifice of at least a thousand of her young men - men and not brutes.

The essential thing is renunciation - without renunciation none can pour out his whole heart in working for others. The man of renunciation sees all with an equal eye - why then do you cherish the idea that the wife and children are your own more than others? At your very threshold, Narayana Himself in the form of a poor beggar is dying of starvation! Instead of giving him anything, would you only satisfy the appetites of your wife and children with delicacies? Why, that is beastly!

We have to bear in mind that we are all debtors to the world and the world does not owe us anything. It is a great privilege for all of us to be allowed to do anything for the world. In helping the world we really help ourselves.

Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, " Here, my poor man," but be grateful that the poor man is there so that by making a gift to him, you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver.

In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can, but keep out barter. Make no conditions and none will be imposed. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us.

Love never fails, my son; today or tomorrow or ages after, truth will conquer! Love shall win the victory. Do you love your fellowmen?

I do not care for liberation, I would rather go to a hundred thousand hells, "doing good to others (silently) like the spring" - this is my religion.

Self-Control

Know that talking ill of others in private is a sin. You must wholly avoid it. Many things may occur to the mind, but it gradually makes a mountain of a molehill, if you try to express them. Everything ends, if you forgive and forget.

If anybody comes to you for vain dispute, politely withdraw yourself. You must express your sympathy with people of all sects. When these cardinal virtues will be manifested in you, then only you will be able to work with great energy.

Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be. By being pleasant always and smiling, it takes you nearer to God, nearer than any prayer.

The dwelling place of the Jivatman, this body, is a veritable means of work, and he who converts this into an infernal den is guilty, and he who neglects it is also to blame.

See not, touch not with your toes even, anything that is uncanny.

If anybody comes to you to speak ill of any of his brothers, refuse to listen to him in toto. It is a great sin to listen even. In that lies the germ of future troubles. Moreover, bear with everyone's shortcomings. Forgive offences by the million.

If I do not find bliss in the life of the spirit, shall I seek satisfaction in the life of the senses? If I cannot get nectar, shall I fall back upon ditch water?

Happiness presents itself before man, wearing the crown of sorrow on its head. He who welcomes it must also welcome sorrow.

One may gain political and social independence, but if he is a slave to his passions and desires, he cannot feel the pure joy of freedom.

Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task, if it be after his heart. But the intelligent man is he who can convert every work into one that suits his taste. No work is petty.

It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is.

Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that. You never help one by telling about his faults, but you do him an injury, and injure yourself as well.

He who can properly prepare a chillum of tobacco can also meditate properly.

The man that has practiced control over himself cannot be acted upon by anything outside; there is no more slavery for him. His mind has become free; such a man alone is fit to live well in the world.

The calmer we are and the less disturbed our nerves, the more shall we love and the better will our work be.

You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave's work.

Be 'unattached'; let things work; let brain-centers work; work incessantly, but let not a ripple conquer the mind. Work as if you were a stranger in this land, a sojourner; work incessantly, but do not bind youselves; bondage is terrible.

Inactivity should be avoided by all means. Activity always means resistance. Resist all evils mental and physical; and when you have succeeded in resisting, then will calmness come.

To the man who has begun to hate himself, the gate to degeneration has already opened; and the same is true of a nation. Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because, to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God.

If there is any crying sin in India at this time, it is this slavery. Every one wants to command and no one wants to obey; and this is owing to the absence of that wonderful Brahmacharya system of yore. First learn to obey. The command will come by itself. Always first learn to be a servant, and then you will be fit to be a master.

Selections from Swamiji's Poems

Let eyes grow dim and heart grwo faint,

And friendship fail and love betray,

Let Fate its hundred horrors send,

And clotted darkness block the way -

All nature wear one angry frown

To crush you out - still know, my soul,

You are Divine - March on and on,

Nor right nor left but to the goal!

Who dares misery love,

And hug the form of Death,

Dance in Destruction's dance.

To him the Mother comes.

If the sun by the cloud is hidden a bit,

If the welkin shows but gloom,

Still hold on yet a while, brave heart,

The victory is sure to come.

No winter was but summer came behind,

Each hollow crests the wave,

They push each other in light and shade;

Be steady then and brave.

The duties of life are sore indeed,

And its pleasures fleeting vain.

The goal so shadowy seems and dim,

Yet plod on through the dark, brave heart,

With all thy might and main.

Be bold and face

The truth! Be one with it!

Let visions cease.

Or, if you cannot, dream but truer dreams,

Which are Eternal love and Service free.

Strike off thy fetters! Bonds that bind thee down,

Of shining gold or darker, baser ore,

Love, hate - good, bad - and all the dual throng.

Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped, not free;

For fetter, though of gold, are not less strong to bind.

Say, "Peace to all; From me no danger be

To aught that lives, "

Truth never comes where lust and fame and greed

Of gain reside

Let go your vain reliance on knowledge.

Let go your prayers, offerings, and strength,

For Love selfless is the only resource;

Lo, the insects teach, - embracing the flames

Formulas of worship, control of breath,

Science, philosophy, system, varied,

Relinquishment, possession, and the like,

All these are but delusions of the mind; -

Love, Love - that's the one thing, the sole treasure.

COPY RIGHT REGISTERED UNDER ACT XX OF 1847

Published by President Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati Pithoragarh Himalayas

 

 

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