THE REAL NATURE OF MAN 3

June 15, 2006

Om Namah Sivaya

Discourse by Sri Swami Vivekananda

We are not individuals yet. We are struggling towards individuality, and that is

the Infinite, that is the real nature of man. He alone lives whose life is in the

whole universe, and the more we concentrate our lives on limited things, the

faster we go towards death. Those moments alone we live when our lives are in

the universe, in others; and living this little life is death, simply death, and that

is why the fear of death comes. The fear of death can only be conquered when

man realises that so long as there is one life in this universe, he is living. When

he can say, "I am in everything, in everybody, I am in all lives, I am the

universe," then alone comes the state of fearlessness. To talk of immortality in

constantly changing things is absurd. Says an old Sanskrit philosopher: It is

only the Spirit that is the individual, because it is infinite. No infinity can be

divided; infinity cannot be broken into pieces. It is the same one, undivided

unit for ever, and this is the individual man, the Real Man.

The apparent man ismerely a struggle to express, to manifest this individuality which is beyond; and evolution is not in the Spirit. These changes which are going on — the wicked becoming good, the animal becoming man, take them in whatever way you like — are not in the Spirit. They are evolution of nature and manifestation of Spirit. Suppose there is a screen hiding you from me, in which there is a small hole through which I can see some of the faces before me, just a few faces. Now suppose the hole begins to grow larger and larger, and as it does so, more and more of the scene before me reveals itself and when at last the whole screen has disappeared, I stand face to face with you all. You did not change at all in this case; it was the hole that was evolving, and you were gradually manifesting yourselves. So it is with the Spirit. No perfection is going to be attained. You are already free and perfect. What are these ideas of religion and God and searching for the

hereafter? Why does man look for a God? Why does man, in every nation, in every state of society, want a perfect ideal somewhere, either in man, in God, or elsewhere? Because that idea is within you. It was your own heart beating and you did not know; you were mistaking it for

something external. It is the God within your own self that is

propelling you to seek for Him, to realise Him. After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you come back, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own Self, the reality of your life, body, and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond. Every good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were; and the purity, the Infinity, the God behind, manifests Itself more and more. This is the whole history of man. Finer and finer becomes the veil, more and more of the light

behind shines forth, for it is its nature to shine. It cannot be known; in vain we try to know it. Were it knowable, it would not be what it is, for it is the eternal subject. Knowledge is a limitation, knowledge is objectifying. He is the eternal subject of everything, the eternal witness in this universe, your own Self. Knowledge is, as it were, a lower step, a degeneration.

We are that eternal subject already; how can we know it? It is the real nature of

every man, and he is struggling to express it in various ways; otherwise, why

are there so many ethical codes? Where is the explanation of all ethics? One

idea stands out as the centre of all ethical systems, expressed in various forms,

namely, doing good to others. The guiding motive of mankind should be

charity towards men, charity towards all animals. But these are all various

expressions of that eternal truth that, "I am the universe; this universe is one."

Or else, where is the reason? Why should I do good to my fellowmen? Why

should I do good to others? What compels me? It is sympathy, the feeling of

sameness everywhere. The hardest hearts feel sympathy for other beings

sometimes. Even the man who gets frightened if he is told that this assumed

individuality is really a delusion, that it is ignoble to try to cling to this

apparent individuality, that very man will tell you that extreme self-abnegation is the centre of all morality. And what is perfect self-abnegation? It means the abnegation of this apparent self, the abnegation of all selfishness. This idea of "me and mine" — Ahamkâra and Mamatâ — is the result of past Superstition, and the more this present self pastes away, the more the real Self becomes manifest. This is true self-abnegation, the centre, the basis, the gist of all moral teaching; and whether man knows it or not the whole world is slowly going

towards it, practicing it more or less. Only, the vast majority of mankind are

doing it unconsciously. Let them do it consciously. Let then make the sacrifice,

knowing that this "me and mine" is not the real Self, but only a limitation. But one glimpse Of that infinite reality which is behind — but one spark of that

infinite fire that is the All — represents the present man; the Infinite is his true

nature.

Sivaya Namah