Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Vol-8
THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
(Report of a lecture delivered in Oakland on Monday, March 19,
1900, with editorial comments of the Oakland Enquirer)
The lecture which the Swami Vivekananda gave Monday night in his
new course on "The People of India", was interesting, not only for
what he had to relate of the people of that country, but for the
insight into their mental attitude and prejudices which the
speaker gave without really meaning it. It is apparent that the
Swami, educated and intellectual man that he is, is no admirer of
Western civilisation. He has evidently been a good deal embittered
by the talk about child widows, the oppression of women, and other
barbarisms alleged against the people of India, and is somewhat
inclined to resort to the tu quoque in reply.
In commencing his talk, he gave his hearers an idea of the racial
characteristics of the people. He said that the bond of unity in
India, as in other countries of Asia, is not language or race, but
religion. In Europe the race makes the nation, but in Asia people
of diverse origin and different tongues become one nation if they
have the same religion. The people of Northern India are divided
into four great classes, while in Southern India the languages are
so entirely different from those of Northern India that there is
no kinship whatever. The people of Northern India belong to the
great Aryan race, to which all of the people of Europe, except the
Basques in the Pyrennees, and the Finns, are supposed to belong.
The Southern India people belong to the same race as the ancient
Egyptians and the Semites. To illustrate the difficulties of
learning one another's languages in India, the Swami said that
when he had occasion to go into Southern India, he always talked
with the native people in English, unless they belonged to the
select few who could speak Sanskrit.
A good deal of the lecture was taken up in a discussion of the
caste system which the Swami characterised by saying that it had
its bad side, but that its benefits outweighed its disadvantages.
In brief, this caste system had grown by the practice of the son
always following the business of the father. In course of time the
community came thus to be divided into a series of classes, each
held rigidly within its own boundaries. But while this divided the
people, it also united them, because all the members of a caste
were bound to help their fellows in case of need. And as no man
could rise out of his caste, the Hindus have no such struggles for
social or personal supremacy as embitter the people of other
countries.
The worst feature of the caste is that is suppresses competition,
and the checking of competition has really been the cause of the
political downfall of India and its conquest by foreign races.
Respecting the much-discussed subject of marriage, the Hindus are
socialistic and see nothing good in matches being made by a couple
of young people who might be attached to one another, without
regard to the welfare of the community, which is more important
than that of any two persons. "Because I love Jennie and Jennie
loves me", said the Swami, "is no reason why we should be
married."
He denied that the condition of the child widows is as bad as has
been represented, saying that in India the position of widows in
general is one of a great deal of influence, because a large part
of the property in the country is held by widows. In fact, so
enviable is the position of widows that a woman or a man either
might almost pray to be made a widow.
The child widows, or women who have been betrothed to children who
died before marriage, might be pitied if a marriage were the only
real object in life, but, according to the Hindu way of thinking,
marriage is rather a duty than a privilege, and the denial of the
right of child widows to marry is no particular hardship.
I AM THAT I AM
(Notes of a lecture give in San Francisco on March 20, 1900)
The subject tonight is man, man in contrast with nature. For a
long time the word "nature" was used almost exclusively to denote
external phenomena. These phenomena were found to behave
methodically; and they often repeated themselves: that which had
happened in the past happened again - nothing happened only once.
Thus it was concluded that nature was uniform. Uniformity is
closely associated with the idea of nature; without it natural
phenomena cannot be understood. This uniformity is the basis of
what we call law.
Gradually the word "nature" and the idea of uniformity came to be
applied also to internal phenomena, the phenomena of life and
mind. All that is differentiated is nature. Nature is the quality
of the plant, the quality of the animal, and the quality of man.
Man's life behaves according to definite methods; so does his
mind. Thoughts do not just happen; there is a certain method in
their rise, existence and fall. In other words, just as external
phenomena are bound by law, internal phenomena, that is to say,
the life and mind of man are also bound by law.
When we consider law in relation to man's mind and existence, it
is at once obvious that there can be no such thing as free will
and free existence. We know how animal nature is wholly regulated
by law. The animal does not appear to exercise any free will. The
same is true of man; human nature also is bound by law. The law
governing functions of the human mind is called the law of Karma.
Nobody has ever seen anything produced out of nothing; if anything
arises in the mind, that also must have been produced from
something. When we speak of free will, we mean the will is not
caused by anything. But that cannot be true, the will is caused;
and since it is caused, it cannot be free - it is bound by law.
That I am willing to talk to you and you come to listen to me,
that is law. Everything that I do or think or feel, every part of
my conduct or behaviour, my every movement - all is caused and
therefore not free. This regulation of our life and mind - that is
the law of Karma.
If such a doctrine had been introduced in olden times into a
Western community, it would have produced a tremendous commotion.
The Western man does not want to think his mind is governed by
law. In India it was accepted as soon as it was propounded by the
most ancient Indian system of philosophy. There is no such thing
as freedom of the mind; it cannot be. Why did not this teaching
create any disturbance in the Indian mind? India received it
calmly; that is the speciality of Indian thought, wherein it
differs from every other thought in the world.
The external and internal natures are not two different things;
they are really one. Nature is the sum total of all phenomena.
"Nature" means all that is, all that moves. We make a tremendous
distinction between matter and mind; we think that the mind is
entirely different from matter. Actually, they are but one nature,
half of which is continually acting on the other half. Matter is
pressing upon the mind in the form of various sensations. These
sensations are nothing but force. The force from the outside
evokes the force within. From the will to respond to or get away
from the outer force, the inner force becomes what we call
thought.
Both matter and mind are really nothing but forces; and if you
analyse them far enough, you will find that at root they are one.
The very fact that the external force can somehow evoke the
internal force shows that somewhere they join each other - they
must be continuous and, therefore, basically the same force. When
you get to the root of things, they become simple and general.
Since the same force appears in one form as matter and in another
form as mind, there is no reason to think matter and mind are
different. Mind is changed into matter, matter is changed into
mind. Thought force becomes nerve force, muscular force; muscular
and nerve force become thought force. Nature is all this force,
whether expressed as matter or mind.
The difference between the subtlest mind and the grossest matter
is only one of degree. Therefore the whole universe may be called
either mind or matter, it does not matter which. You may call the
mind refined matter, or the body concretised mind; it makes little
difference by which name you call which. All the troubles arising
from the conflict between materialism and spirituality are due to
wrong thinking. Actually, there is no difference between the two.
I and the lowest pig differ only in degree. It is less manifested,
I am more. Sometimes I am worse, the pig is better.
Nor is it any use discussing which comes first - mind or matter.
Is the mind first, out of which matter has come? Or is matter
first, out of which the mind has come? Many of the philosophical
arguments proceed from these futile questions. It is like asking
whether the egg or the hen is first. Both are first, and both last
- mind and matter, matter and mind. If I say matter exists first
and matter, growing finer and finer, becomes mind, then I must
admit that before matter there must have been mind. Otherwise,
where did matter come from? Matter precedes mind, mind precedes
matter. It is the hen and the egg question all through.
The whole of nature is bound by the law of causation and is in
time and space. We cannot see anything outside of space, yet we do
not know space. We cannot perceive anything outside of time, yet
we do not know time. We cannot understand anything except in terms
of causality, yet we do not know what causation is. These three
things - time, space, and causality - are in and through every
phenomena, but they are not phenomena. They are as it were the
forms or moulds in which everything must be cast before it can be
apprehended. Matter is substance plus time, space, and causation.
Mind is substance plus time, space and causation.
This fact can be expressed in another way. Everything is substance
plus name and form. Name and form come and go, but substance
remains ever the same. Substance, form, and name make this
pitcher. When it is broken, you do not call it pitcher any more,
nor do you see its pitcher form. Its name and form vanish, but its
substance remains. All the differentiation in substance is made by
name and form. There are not real, because they vanish. What we
call nature is not the substance, unchanging and indestructible.
Nature is time, space and causation. Nature is name and form.
Nature is Mâyâ. Maya means name and form, into which everything is
cast. Maya is not real. We could not destroy it or change it if it
were real. The substance is the noumenon, Maya is phenomena. There
is the real "me" which nothing can destroy, and there is the
phenomenal "me" which is continually changing and disappearing.
The fact is, everything existing has two aspects. One is noumenal,
unchanging and indestructible; the other is phenomenal, changing
and destructible. Man in his true nature is substance, soul,
spirit. This soul, this spirit, never changes, is never destroyed;
but it appears to be clothed with a form and to have a name
associated with it. This form and name are not immutable or
indestructible; they continually change and are destroyed. Yet men
foolishly seek immortality in this changeable aspect, in the body
and mind - they want to have an eternal body. I do not want that
kind of immortality.
What is the relation between me and nature? In so far as nature
stands for name and form or for time, space, and causality, I am
not part of nature, because I am free, I am immortal, I am
unchanging and infinite. The question does not arise whether I
have free will or not; I am beyond any will at all. Wherever there
is will, it is never free. There is no freedom of will whatever.
There is freedom of that which becomes will when name and form get
hold of it, making it their slave. That substance - the soul - as
it were moulds itself, as it were throws itself into the cast of
name and form, and immediately becomes bound, whereas it was free
before. And yet its original nature is still there. That is why it
says, "I am free; in spite of all this bondage, I am free." And it
never forgets this.
But when the soul has become the will, it is no more really free.
Nature pulls the strings, and it has to dance as nature wants it
to. Thus have you and I danced throughout the years. All the
things that we see, do, feel, know, all our thoughts and actions,
are nothing but dancing to the dictates of nature. There has been,
and there is, no freedom in any of this. From the lowest to the
highest, all thoughts and actions are bound by law, and none of
these pertain to our real Self.
My true Self is beyond all law. Be in tune with slavery, with
nature, and you live under law, you are happy under law. But the
more you obey nature and its dictates, the more bound you become;
the more in harmony with ignorance you are, the more you are at
the beck and call of everything in the universe. Is this harmony
with nature, this obedience to law, in accord with the true nature
and destiny of man? What mineral ever quarrelled with and disputed
any law? What tree or plant ever defied any law? This table is in
harmony with nature, with law; but a table it remains always, it
does not become any better. Man begins to struggle and fight
against nature. He makes many mistakes, he suffers. But eventually
he conquers nature and realises his freedom. When he is free,
nature becomes his slave.
The awakening of the soul to its bondage and its effort to stand
up and assert itself - this is called life. Success in this
struggle is called evolution. The eventual triumph, when all the
slavery is blown away, is called salvation, Nirvâna, freedom.
Everything in the universe is struggling for liberty. When I am
bound by nature, by name and form, by time, space and causality, I
do not know what I truly am. But even in this bondage my real Self
is not completely lost. I strain against the bonds; one by one
they break, and I become conscious of my innate grandeur. Then
comes complete liberation. I attain to the clearest and fullest
consciousness of myself - I know that I am the infinite spirit,
the master of nature, not its slave. Beyond all differentiation
and combination, beyond space, time and causation, I am that I am.
UNITY
(Notes of a lecture delivered at the Vedanta Society, New York, in
June, 1900)
The different sectarian systems of India all radiate from one
central idea of unity or dualism.
They are all under Vedanta, all interpreted by it. Their final
essence is the teaching of unity. This, which we see as many, is
God. We perceive matter, the world, manifold sensation. Yet there
is but one existence.
These various names mark only differences of degree in the
expression of that One. The worm of today is the God of tomorrow.
These distinctions which we do love are all parts of one infinite
fact, and only differ in the degree of expression. That one
infinite fact is the attainment of freedom.
However mistaken we may be as to the method, all our struggle is
really for freedom. We seek neither misery nor happiness, but
freedom. This one aim is the secret of the insatiable thirst of
man. Man's thirst, says the Hindu, man's thirst, says the
Buddhist, is a burning, unquenchable thirst for more and more. You
Americans are always looking for more pleasure, more enjoyment.
You cannot be satisfied, true; but at bottom what you seek is
freedom.
This vastness of his desire is really the sign of man's own
infinitude. It is because he is infinite, that he can only be
satisfied when his desire is infinite and its fulfilment infinite.
What then can satisfy man? Not gold. Not enjoyment. Not beauty.
One Infinite alone can satisfy him, and that Infinite is Himself.
When he realises this, then alone comes freedom.
"This flute, with the sense-organs as its keyholes,
With all its sensations, perceptions, and song,
Is singing only one thing. It longs to go back to the
wood whence it was cut!"
"Deliver thou thyself by thyself!
Ah, do not let thyself sink!
For thou art thyself thy greatest friend.
And thou thyself thy greatest enemy."
Who can help the Infinite? Even the hand that comes to you through
the darkness will have to be your own.
Fear and desire are the two causes of all this, and who creates
them? We ourselves. Our lives are but a passing from dream to
dream. Man the infinite dreamer, dreaming finite dreams!
Oh, the blessedness of it, that nothing external can be eternal!
They little know what they mean, whose hearts quake when they hear
that nothing in this relative world can be eternal.
I am the infinite blue sky. Over me pass these clouds of various
colours, remain a moment, and vanish. I am the same eternal blue.
I am the witness, the same eternal witness of all. I see,
therefore nature exists. I do not see, therefore she does not. Not
one of us could see or speak if this infinite unity were broken
for a moment.
THE WORSHIP OF THE DIVINE MOTHER
(Fragmentary notes taken on a Sunday afternoon in New York in
June, 1900)
From the tribal or clan-God, man arrives, in every religion, at
the sum, the God of gods.
Confucius alone has expressed the one eternal idea of ethics.
"Manu Deva" was transformed into Ahriman. In India, the
mythological expression was suppressed; but the idea remained. In
an old Veda is found the Mantra, "I am the empress of all that
lives, the power in everything."
Mother-worship is a distinct philosophy in itself. Power is the
first of our ideas. It impinges upon man at every step; power felt
within is the soul; without, nature. And the battle between the
two makes human life. All that we know or feel is but the
resultant of these two forces. Man saw that the sun shines on the
good and evil alike. Here was a new idea of God, as the Universal
Power behind all - the Mother-idea was born.
Activity, according to Sânkhya, belongs to Prakriti, to nature,
not to Purusha or soul. Of all feminine types in India, the mother
is pre-eminent. The mother stands by her child through everything.
Wife and children may desert a man, but his mother never! Mother,
again, is the impartial energy of the universe, because of the
colourless love that asks not, desires not, cares not for the evil
in her child, but loves him the more. And today Mother-worship is
the worship of all the highest classes amongst the Hindus.
The goal can only be described as something not yet attained.
Here, there is no goal. This world is all alike the play of
Mother. But we forget this. Even misery can be enjoyed when there
is no selfishness, when we have become the witness of our own
lives. The thinker of this philosophy has been struck by the idea
that one power is behind all phenomena. In our thought of God,
there is human limitation, personality: with Shakti comes the idea
of One Universal Power. "I stretch the bow of Rudra when He
desires to kill", says Shakti. The Upanisads did not develop this
thought; for Vedanta does not care for the God-idea. But in the
Gita comes the significant saying to Arjuna, "I am the real, and I
am the unreal. I bring good, and I bring evil."
Again the idea slept. Later came the new philosophy. This universe
is a composite fact of good and evil; and one Power must be
manifesting through both. "A lame one-legged universe makes only a
lame one-legged God." And this, in the end, lands us in want of
sympathy and makes us brutal. The ethics built upon such a concept
is an ethics of brutality. The saint hates the sinner, and the
sinner struggles against the saint. Yet even this leads onward.
For finally the wicked self-sufficient mind will die, crushed
under repeated blows; and then we shall awake and know the Mother.
Eternal, unquestioning self-surrender to Mother alone can give us
peace. Love Her for Herself, without fear or favour. Love Her
because you are Her child. See Her in all, good and bad alike.
Then alone will come "Sameness" and Bliss Eternal that is Mother
Herself when we realise Her thus. Until then, misery will pursue
us. Only resting in Mother are we safe.
THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION
(Report of a lecture delivered in America)
In France the "rights of man" was long a watchword of the race; in
America the rights of women still beseech the public ear; in India
we have concerned ourselves always with the rights of Gods.
The Vedanta includes all sects. We have a peculiar idea in India.
Suppose I had a child; I should not teach him any religion, but
the practice of concentrating his mind; and just one line of
prayer - not prayer in your sense, but this: "I meditate on Him
who is the Creator of the universe; may He enlighten my mind."
Then, when old enough, he goes about hearing the different
philosophies and teachings, till he finds that which seems the
truth to him. He then becomes the Shishya or disciple of the Guru
(teacher) who is teaching this truth. He may choose to worship
Christ or Buddha or Mohammed: we recognise the rights of each of
these, and the right of all souls to their own Ishta or chosen
way. It is, therefore, quite possible for my son to be a Buddhist,
my wife to be a Christian, and myself a Mohammedan at one and the
same time with absolute freedom from friction.
We are all glad to remember that all roads lead to God; and that
the reformation of the world does not depend upon all seeing God
through our eyes. Our fundamental idea is that your doctrine
cannot be mine, nor mine yours. I am my own sect. It is true that
we have created a system of religion in India which we believe to
be the only rational religious system extant; but our belief in
its rationality rests upon its all-inclusion of the searchers
after God; its absolute charity towards all forms of worship, and
its eternal receptivity of those ideas trending towards the
evolution of God in the universe. We admit the imperfection of our
system, because the reality must be beyond all system; and in this
admission lies the portent and promise of an eternal growth.
Sects, ceremonies, and books, so far as they are the means of a
man's realising his own nature, are all right; when he has
realised that, he gives up everything. "I reject the Vedas!" is
the last word of the Vedanta philosophy. Ritual, hymns, and
scriptures, through which he has travelled to freedom, vanish for
him. "So'ham, So'ham" - I am He, I am He - bursts from his lips,
and to say "Thou" to God is blasphemy, for he is "one with the
Father".
Personally, I take as much of the Vedas as agree with reason.
Parts of the Vedas are apparently contradictory. They are not
considered as inspired in the Western sense of the word, but as
the sum total of the knowledge of God, omniscience, which we
possess. But to say that only those books which we call the Vedas
contain this knowledge is mere sophistry. We know it is shared in
varying degrees by the scriptures of all sects. Manu says, that
part only of the Vedas which agrees with reason is Vedas; and many
of our philosophers have taken this view. Of all the scriptures of
the world, it is the Vedas alone which declare that the study of
the Vedas is secondary.
The real study is that "by which we realise the Unchangeable", and
that is neither by reading, nor believing, nor reasoning, but by
super conscious perception and Samâdhi. When a man has reached
that perfect state, he is of the same nature as the Personal God:
"I and my Father are one." He knows himself one with Brahman, the
Absolute, and projects himself as does the Personal God. The
Personal God is the Absolute looked at through the haze of Mâyâ -
ignorance.
When we approach Him with the five senses, we can only see Him as
the Personal God. The idea is that the Self cannot be objectified.
How can the knower know himself? But he can cast a shadow, as it
were, and the highest form of that shadow, that attempt of
objectifying one's Self is the Personal God. The Self is the
eternal subject, and we are eternally struggling to objectify that
Self, and out of that struggle has come this phenomenon of the
universe: that which we call matter. But these are weak attempts,
and the highest objectification of the Self, possible to us, is
the Personal God.
"An honest God's the noblest work of man", said one of your
Western thinkers. God is as man is. No man can see God but through
these human manifestations. Talk as you may, try as you may, you
cannot think of God but as a man; and as you are, He is. An
ignorant man was asked to make an image of the God Shiva; and
after many days of hard struggle he succeeded only in
manufacturing the image of a monkey! So, when we try to think of
God as He is in His absolute perfection, we meet with miserable
failure, because we are limited and bound by our present
constitution to see God as man. If the buffaloes desire to worship
God, they, in keeping with their own nature, will see Him as a
huge buffalo; if a fish wishes to worship God, its concept of Him
would inevitably be a big fish; and man must think of Him as man.
Suppose man, the buffalo, and the fish represent so many different
vessels; that these vessels all go to the sea of God to be filled,
each according to its shape and capacity. In man the water takes
the shape of man; in the buffalo the shape of the buffalo; and in
the fish the shape of the fish; but in each of these vessels is
the same water of the sea of God.
Two kinds of mind do not worship God as man - the human brute who
has no religion, and the Paramahamsa who has transcended the
limits of his own human nature. To him all nature has become his
own Self; he alone can worship God as He is. The human brute does
not worship because of his ignorance, and the Jivanmuktas (free
souls) do not worship because they have realised God in
themselves. "So'ham, So'ham" - I am He, I am He - they say; and
how shall they worship themselves?
I will tell you a little story. There was once a baby lion left by
its dying mother among some sheep. The sheep fed it and gave it
shelter. The lion grew apace and said "Ba-a-a" when the sheep said
"Ba-a-a". One day another lion came by. "What do you do here?"
said the second lion in astonishment: for he heard the sheep-lion
bleating with the rest. "Ba-a-a," said the other. "I am a little
sheep, I am a little sheep, I am frightened." "Nonsense!" roared
the first lion, "come with me; I will show you." And he took him
to the side of a smooth stream and showed him that which was
reflected therein. "You are a lion; look at me, look at the sheep,
look at yourself." And the sheep-lion looked, and then he said,
"Ba-a-a, I do not look like the sheep - it is true, I am a lion!"
and with that he roared a roar that shook the hills to their
depths.
That is it. We are lions in sheep's clothing of habit, we are
hypnotised into weakness by our surroundings. And the province of
Vedanta is the self-dehypnotisation. The goal to be reached is
freedom. I disagree with the idea that freedom is obedience to the
laws of nature. I do not understand what that means. According to
the history of human progress, it is disobedience to nature that
has constituted that progress. It may be said that the conquest of
lower laws was through the higher, but even there the conquering
mind was still seeking freedom; as soon as it found the struggle
was through law, it wished to conquer that also. So the ideal is
always freedom. The trees never disobey law. I never saw a cow
steal. An oyster never told a lie. Yet these are not greater than
man.
Obedience to law, in the last issue, would make of us simply
matter - either in society, or in politics, or religion. This life
is a tremendous assertion of freedom; excess of laws means death.
No nation possesses so many laws as the Hindus, and the result is
the national death. But the Hindus had one peculiar idea - they
never made any doctrines or dogmas in religion; and the latter has
had the greatest growth. Therein are we practical - wherein you
are impractical - in our religion.
A few men come together in America and say, "We will have a stock
company"; in five minutes it is done. In India twenty men may
discuss a stock company for as many weeks, and it may not be
formed; but if one believes that by holding up his hands in air
for forty years he will attain wisdom, it will be done! So we are
practical in ours, you in your way.
But the way of all ways to realisation is love. When one loves the
Lord, the whole universe becomes dear to one, because it is all
His. "Everything is His, and He is my Lover; I love Him", says the
Bhakta. In this way everything becomes sacred to the Bhakta,
because all things are His. How, then, may we hurt anyone? How,
then, may we not love another? With the love of God will come, as
its effect, the love of everyone in the long run. The nearer we
approach God, the more do we begin to see that all things abide in
Him, our heart will become a perennial fountain of love. Man is
transformed in the presence of this Light of Love and realises at
last the beautiful and inspiring truth that Love, Lover, and the
Beloved are really one.
SAYINGS AND UTTERANCES
1. "Did Buddha teach that the many was real and the ego unreal,
while orthodox Hinduism regards the One as the real, and the many
as unreal?" the Swami was asked. "Yes", answered the Swami. "And
what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and I have added to this is, that the
Many and the One are the same Reality, perceived by the same mind
at different times and in different attitudes."
2. "Remember!" he said once to a disciple, "Remember! the message
of India is always 'Not the soul for nature, but nature for the
soul!'"
3. "What the world wants today is twenty men and women who can
dare to stand in the street yonder, and say that they possess
nothing but God. Who will go? Why should one fear? If this is
true, what else could matter? If it is not true, what do our lives
matter!"
4. "Oh, how calm would be the work of one who really understood
the divinity of man! For such, there is nothing to do, save to
open men's eyes. All the rest does itself."
5. "He (Shri Ramakrishna) was contented simply to live that great
life and to leave it to others to find the explanation!"
6. "Plans! Plans!" Swami Vivekananda explained in indignation,
when one of his disciples had offered him some piece of worldly
wisdom. "That is why . . . Western people can never create a
religion! If any of you ever did, it was only a few Catholic
saints who had no plans. Religion was never preached by planners!"
7. "Social life in the West is like a peal of laughter; but
underneath, it is a wail. It ends in a sob. The fun and frivolity
are all on the surface: really it is full of tragic intensity. Now
here, it is sad and gloomy on the outside, but underneath are
carelessness and merriment.
"We have a theory that the universe is God's manifestation of
Himself just for fun, that the Incarnations came and lived here
'just for fun'. Play, it was all play. Why was Christ crucified?
It was mere play. And so of life. Just play with the Lord. Say,
"It is all play, it is all play". Do you do anything?"
8. "I am persuaded that a leader is not made in one life. He has
to be born for it. For the difficulty is not in organisation and
making plans; the test, the real test, of the leader, lies in
holding widely different people together along the line of their
common sympathies. And this can only be done unconsciously, never
by trying."
9. In explanation of Plato's doctrine of Ideas, Swamiji said, "And
so you see, all this is but a feeble manifestation of the great
ideas, which alone, are real and perfect. Somewhere is an ideal
for you, and here is an attempt to manifest it! The attempt falls
short still in many ways. Still, go on! You will interpret the
ideal someday."
10. Answering the remark of a disciple who felt that it would be
better for her to come back to this life again and again and help
the causes that were of interest to her instead of striving for
personal salvation with a deep longing to get out of life, the
Swami retorted quickly: "That's because you cannot overcome the
idea of progress. But things do not grow better. They remain as
they are; and we grow better by the changes we make in them."
11. It was in Almora that a certain elderly man, with a face full
of amiable weakness, came and put him a question about Karma. What
were they to do, he asked, whose Karma it was to see the strong
oppress the weak? The Swami turned on him in surprised
indignation. "Why, thrash the strong, of course!" he said, "You
forget your own part in this Karma: Yours is always the right to
rebel!"
12. "Ought one to seek an opportunity of death in defense of
right, or ought one to take the lesson of the Gitâ and learn never
to react?" the Swami was asked. "I am for no reaction", said the
Swami, speaking slowly and with a long pause. Then he added " -
for Sannyâsins. Self-defense for the householder!"
13. "It is a mistake to hold that with all men pleasure is the
motive. Quite as many are born to seek after pain. Let us worship
the Terror for Its own sake."
14. "Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was the only man who ever had the
courage to say that we must speak to all men in their own
language!"
15. "How I used to hate Kâli!" he said, referring to his own days
of doubts in accepting the Kali ideal, "And all Her ways! That was
the ground of my six years' fight - that I would not accept Her.
But I had to accept Her at last! Ramakrishna Paramahamsa dedicated
me to Her, and now I believe that She guides me in everything I
do, and does with me what She will. . . . Yet I fought so long! I
loved him, you see, and that was what held me. I saw his
marvellous purity. . . . I felt his wonderful love. . . . His
greatness had not dawned on me then. All that came afterwards when
I had given in. At that time I thought him a brain-sick baby,
always seeing visions and the rest. I hated it. And then I, too,
had to accept Her!
"No, the thing that made me do it is a secret that will die with
me. I had great misfortunes at the time. . . . It was an
opportunity. . . . She made a slave of me. Those were the very
words: 'a slave of you'. And Ramakrishna Paramahamsa made me over
to Her. . . . Strange! He lived only two years after doing that,
and most of the time he was suffering. Not more than six months
did he keep his own health and brightness.
"Guru Nanak was like that, you know, looking for the one disciple
to whom he would give his power. And he passed over all his own
family - his children were as nothing to him - till he came upon
the boy to whom he gave it; and then he could die.
"The future, you say, will call Ramakrishna Paramahamsa an
Incarnation of Kali? Yes, I think there's no doubt that She worked
up the body of Ramakrishna for Her own ends.
"You see, I cannot but believe that there is somewhere a great
Power that thinks of Herself as feminine, and called Kali and
Mother. . . . And I believe in Brahman too. . . . But is it not
always like that? Is it not the multitude of cells in the body
that make up the personality, the many brain-centres, not the one,
that produce consciousness? . . . Unity in complexity! Just so!
And why should it be different with Brahman? It is Brahman. It is
the One. And yet - and yet - it is the gods too!"
16. "The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in
manliness. This is my new gospel."
17. Referring to some European reference to cannibalism, as if it
were a normal part of life in some societies, the Swami remarked,
"That is not true! No nation ever ate human flesh, save as a
religious sacrifice, or in war, out of revenge. Don't you see?
That's not the way of gregarious animals! It would cut at the root
of social life!"
18. "Sex-love and creation! These are at the root of most
religions. And these in India are called Vaishnavism, and in the
West Christianity. How few have dared to worship Death or Kali!
Let us worship Death! Let us embrace the Terrible, because it is
terrible, not asking that it be toned down. Let us take misery for
misery's own sake!"
19. "The three cycles of Buddhism were five hundred years of the
Law, five hundred years of images, and five hundred years of
Tantras. You must not imagine that there was ever a religion in
India called Buddhism with temples and priests of its own order!
Nothing of the sort. It was always within Hinduism. Only at one
time the influence of Buddha was paramount, and this made the
nation monastic."
20. "The conservative's whole ideal is submission. Your ideal is
struggle. Consequently it is we who enjoy the life, and never you!
You are always striving to change yours to something better; and
before a millionth part of the change is carried out, you die. The
Western ideal is to be doing; the Eastern to be suffering. The
perfect life would be a wonderful harmony doing and suffering. But
that can never be.
"In our system it is accepted that a man cannot have all he
desires. Life is subjected to many restraints. This is ugly, yet
it brings out points of light and strength. Our liberals see only
the ugliness and try to throw it off. But they substitute
something quite as bad; and the new custom takes as long as the
old for us to work to its centres of strength.
"Will is not strengthened by change. It is weakened and enslaved
by it. But we must be always absorbing. Will grows stronger by
absorption. And consciously or unconsciously, will is the one
thing in the world that we admire. Suttee is great in the eyes of
the whole world, because of the will that it manifests.
"It is selfishness that we must seek to eliminate. I find that
whenever I have made a mistake in my life, it has always been
because self-entered into the calculation. Where self has not been
involved, my judgment has gone straight to the mark.
"Without self, there would have been no religious system. If man
had not wanted anything for himself, do you think he would have
had all this praying and worship? Why! he would never have thought
of God at all, except perhaps for a little praise now and then, at
the sight of a beautiful landscape or something. And that is the
only attitude there ought to be. All praise and thanks. If only we
were rid of self!
"You are quite wrong when you think that fighting is a sign of
growth. It is not so at all. Absorption is the sign. Hinduism is a
very genius of absorption. We have never cared for fighting. Of
course we could strike a blow now and then, in defense of our
homes! That was right. But we never cared for fighting for its own
sake. Everyone had to learn that. So let these races of newcomers
whirl on! They'll all be taken into Hinduism in the end!"
21. "The totality of all souls, not the human alone, is the
Personal God. The will of the Totality nothing can resist. It is
what we know as law. And this is what we mean by Shiva and Kali
and so on."
22. "Worship the Terrible! Worship Death! All else is vain. All
struggle is vain. That is the last lesson. Yet this is not the
coward's love of death, not the love of the weak or the suicide.
It is the welcome of the strong man who has sounded everything to
its depths and knows that there is no alternative."
23. "I disagree with all those who are giving their superstitions
back to my people. Like the Egyptologist's interest in Egypt, it
is easy to feel an interest in India that is purely selfish. One
may desire to see again the India of one's books, one's studies,
one's dreams. My hope is to see again the strong points of that
India, reinforced by the strong points of this age, only in a
natural way. The new stage of things must be a growth from within.
"So I preach only the Upanishads. If you look, you will find that
I have never quoted anything but the Upanishads. And of the
Upanishads, it is only that One idea, strength. The quintessence
of the Vedas and Vedanta and all lies in that one word. Buddha's
teaching was non-resistance, or non-injury. But I think this is a
better way of teaching the same thing. For behind that non-injury
lay a dreadful weakness. It is weakness that conceives the idea of
resistance. I do not think of punishing or escaping from a drop of
sea-spray. It is nothing to me. Yet to the mosquito it would be
serious. Now I would make all injury like that. Strength and
fearlessness. My own ideal is that saint whom they killed in the
Mutiny and who broke his silence, when stabbed to the heart, to
say, 'And thou also art He!'
"But you may ask, 'What is the place of Ramakrishna in this
scheme?'
"He is the method, that wonderful unconscious method! He did not
understand himself. He knew nothing of England or the English,
save that they were queer folk from over the sea. But he lived
that great life: and I read the meaning. Never a word of
condemnation for any! Once I had been attacking one of our sects
of diabolists. I had been raving on for three hours, and he had
listened quietly. 'Well, well!' said the old man as I finished,
'perhaps every house may have a backdoor. Who knows?'
"Hitherto the great fault of our Indian religion has lain in its
knowing only two words: renunciation and Mukti. Only Mukti here!
Nothing for the householder!
"But these are the very people whom I want to help. For are not
all souls of the same quality? Is not the goal of all the same?
"And so strength must come to the nation through education."
24. The Puranas, the Swami considered, to be the effort of
Hinduism to bring lofty ideas to the door of the masses. There had
been only one mind in India that had foreseen this need, that of
Krishna, probably the greatest man who ever lived.
The Swami said, "Thus is created a religion that ends in the
worship of Vishnu, as the preservation and enjoyment of life,
leading to the realisation of God. Our last movement,
Chaitanyaism, you remember, was for enjoyment. At the same time
Jainism represents the other extreme, the slow destruction of the
body by self-torture. Hence Buddhism, you see, is reformed
Jainism; and this is the real meaning of Buddha's leaving the
company of the five ascetics. In India, in every age, there is a
cycle of sects which represents every gradation of physical
practice, from the extreme of self-torture to the extreme of
excess. And during the same period will always be developed a
metaphysical cycle, which represents the realisation of God as
taking place by every gradation of means, from that of using the
senses as an instrument to that of the annihilation of the senses.
Thus Hinduism always consists, as it were, of two counter-spirals,
completing each other, round a single axis.
"'Yes!' Vaishnavism says, 'it is all right - this tremendous love
for father, for mother, for brother, husband, or child! It is all
right, if only you will think that Krishna is the child, and when
you give him food, that you are feeding Krishna!' This was the cry
of Chaitanya, 'Worship God through the senses', as against the
Vedantic cry, 'Control the senses! Suppress the senses!'
"I see that India is a young and living organism. Europe is young
and living. Neither has arrived at such a stage of development
that we can safely criticise its institutions. They are two great
experiments, neither of which is yet complete. In India we have
social communism, with the light of Advaita - that is, spiritual
individualism - playing on and around it; in Europe you are
socially individualists, but your thought is dualistic, which is
spiritual communism. Thus the one consists of socialist
institutions hedged in by individualist thought, while the other
is made up of individualist institutions within the hedge of
communistic thought.
"Now we must help the Indian experiment as it is. Movements which
do not attempt to help things as they are, are, from that point of
view, no good. In Europe, for instance, I respect marriage as
highly as non-marriage. Never forget that a man is made great and
perfect as much by his faults as by his virtues. So we must not
seek to rob a nation of its character, even if it could be proved
that the character was all faults."
25. "You may always say that the image is God. The error you have
to avoid is to think God is the image."
26. The Swami was appealed to on one occasion to condemn the
fetishism of the Hottentot. "I do not know", he answered, "what
fetishism is!" Then a lurid picture was hastily put before him of
the object alternately worshipped, beaten, and thanked. "I do
that!" he exclaimed. "Don't you see," he went on, a moment later,
in hot resentment of injustice done to the lowly and absent,
"don't you see that there is no fetishism? Oh, your hearts are
steeled, that you cannot see that the child is right! The child
sees person everywhere. Knowledge robs us of the child's vision.
But at last, through higher knowledge, we win back to it. He
connects a living power with rocks, sticks, trees and the rest.
And is there not a living Power behind them? It is symbolism, not
fetishism! Can you not see?"
27. One day he told the story of Satyabhâmâ's sacrifice and how
the word "Krishna", written on a piece of paper and thrown into
the balance, made Krishna himself, on the other side, kick the
beam. "Orthodox Hinduism", he began, "makes Shruti, the sound,
everything. The thing is but a feeble manifestation of the
pre-existing and eternal idea. So the name of God is everything:
God Himself is merely the objectification of that idea in the
eternal mind. Your own name is infinitely more perfect than the
person you! The name of God is greater than God. Guard your
speech!"
28. "I would not worship even the Greek Gods, for they were
separate from humanity! Only those should be worshipped who are
like ourselves but greater. The difference between the gods and me
must be a difference only of degree."
29. "A stone falls and crushes a worm. Hence we infer that all
stones, falling, crush worms. Why do we thus immediately reapply a
perception? Experience, says one. But it happens, let us suppose,
for the first time. Throw a baby into the air, and it cries.
Experience from past lives? But why applied to the future? Because
there is a real connection between certain things, a
pervasiveness, only it lies with us to see that the quality
neither overlaps, nor falls short of, the instance. On this
discrimination depends all human knowledge.
"With regard to fallacies, it must be remembered that direct
perception itself can only be a proof, provided the instrument,
the method, and the persistence of the perception are all
maintained pure. Disease or emotion will have the effect of
disturbing the observation. Therefore direct perception itself is
but a mode of inference. Therefore all human knowledge is
uncertain and may be erroneous. Who is a true witness? He is a
true witness to whom the thing said is a direct perception.
Therefore the Vedas are true, because they consist of the evidence
of competent persons. But is this power of perception peculiar to
any? No! The Rishi, the Aryan, and the Mlechchha all alike have
it.
"Modern Bengal holds that evidence is only a special case of
direct perception, and that analogy and parity of reasoning are
only bad inferences. Therefore, of actual proofs there are only
two, direct perception and inference.
"One set of persons, you see, gives priority to the external
manifestation, the other to the internal idea. Which is prior, the
bird to the egg, or the egg to the bird? Does the oil hold the cup
or the cup the oil? This is a problem of which there is no
solution. Give it up! Escape from Maya!"
30. "Why should I care if the world itself were to disappear?
According to my philosophy, that, you know, would be a very good
thing! But, in fact, all that is against me must be with me in the
end. Am I not Her soldier?"
31. "Yes, my own life is guided by the enthusiasm of a certain
great personality, but what of that? Inspiration was never
filtered out to the world through one man!
"It is true I believe Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to have been
inspired. But then I am myself inspired also. And you are
inspired. And your disciples will be; and theirs after them; and
so on, to the end of time!
"Don't you see that the age for esoteric interpretation is over?
For good or for ill, that day is vanished, never to return. Truth,
in the future, is to be open to the world!"
32. "Buddha made the fatal mistake of thinking that the whole
world could be lifted to the height of the Upanishads. And
self-interest spoilt all. Krishna was wiser, because He was more
politic. But Buddha would have no compromise. The world before now
has seen even the Avatâra ruined by compromise, tortured to death
for want of recognition, and lost. But Buddha would have been
worshipped as God in his own lifetime, all over Asia, for a
moment's compromise. And his reply was only: 'Buddhahood is an
achievement, not a person!' Verily was He the only man is the
world who was ever quite sane, the only sane man ever born!"
33. People had told the Swami in the West that the greatness of
Buddha would have been more appealing, had he been crucified! This
he stigmatised as "Roman brutality", and pointed out, "The lowest
and most animal liking is for action. Therefore the world will
always love the epic. Fortunately for India, however, she has
never produced a Milton, with his 'hurled headlong down the steep
abyss'! The whole of that were well exchanged for a couple of
lines of Browning!" It had been this epic vigour of the story, in
his opinion, that had appealed to the Roman. The crucifixion it
was that carried Christianity over the Roman world. "Yes, Yes!" he
reiterated. "You Western folk want action! You cannot yet perceive
the poetry of every common little incident in life! What beauty
could be greater than that of the story of the young mother coming
to Buddha with her dead boy? Or the incident of the goats? You see
the Great Renunciation was not new in India! . . . But after
Nirvâna, look at the poetry!
"It is a wet night, and he comes to the cowherd's hut and gathers
in to the wall under the dripping eaves. The rain is pouring down
and the wind rising.
"Within, the cowherd catches a glimpse of a face through the
window and thinks, 'Ha, ha! Yellow garb! stay there! It's good
enough for you!' And then he begins to sing.
"'My cattle are housed, and the fire burns bright. My wife is
safe, and my babes sleep sweet! Therefore ye may rain, if ye will,
O clouds, tonight!'
"And the Buddha answers from without, "My mind is controlled: my
senses are all gathered in; my heart firm. Therefore ye may rain,
if ye will, O clouds, tonight!'
"Again the cowherd: 'The fields are reaped, and the hay is fast in
the barn. The stream is full, and the roads are firm. Therefore ye
may rain, if ye will, O clouds, tonight.'
"And so it goes on, till at last the cowherd rises, in contrition
and wonder, and becomes a disciple.
"Or what would be more beautiful than the barber's story?
The Blessed One passed by my house,
my house - the Barber's!
I ran, but He turned and awaited me,
Awaited me - the Barber!
"I said, 'May I speak, O Lord, with Thee?'
And He said 'Yes!'
'Yes!' to me - the Barber!
"And I said, 'Is Nirvana for such as I?'
And He said 'Yes!'
Even for me - the Barber!
"And I said, 'May I follow after Thee?'
And He said, 'Oh yes!'
Even I - the Barber!
And I said, 'May I stay, O Lord, near Thee?'
"And He said, 'Thou mayest!'
Even to me - the poor
Barber!"
34. "The great point of contrast between Buddhism and Hinduism
lies in the fact that Buddhism said, 'Realise all this as
illusion', while Hinduism said, 'Realise that within the illusion
is the Real.' Of how this was to be done, Hinduism never presumed
to enunciate any rigid law. The Buddhist command could only be
carried out through monasticism; the Hindu might be fulfilled
through any state of life. All alike were roads to the One Real.
One of the highest and greatest expressions of the Faith is put
into the mouth of a butcher, preaching by the orders of a married
woman to a Sannyasin. Thus Buddhism became the religion of a
monastic order, but Hinduism, in spite of its exaltation of
monasticism, remains ever the religion of faithfulness to duty,
whatever it be, as the path by which man may attain God."
35. "Lay down the rules for your group and formulate your ideas,"
the Swami said, dealing with the monastic ideal for women, "and
put in a little universalism, if there is room for it. But
remember that not more than half a dozen people in the whole world
are ever at any time ready for this! There must be room for sects,
as well as for rising above sects. You will have to manufacture
your own tools. Frame laws, but frame them in such a fashion that
when people are ready to do without them, they can burst them
asunder. Our originality lies in combining perfect freedom with
perfect authority. This can be done even in monasticism."
36. "Two different races mix and fuse, and out of them rises one
strong distinct type. This tries to save itself from admixture,
and here you see the beginning of caste. Look at the apple. The
best specimens have been produced by crossing; but once crossed,
we try to preserve the variety intact."
37. Referring to education of girls in India he said, "In worship
of the gods, you must of course use images. But you can change
these. Kali need not always be in one position. Encourage your
girls to think of new ways of picturing Her. Have a hundred
different conceptions of Saraswati. Let them draw and model and
paint their own ideas.
"In the chapel, the pitcher on the lowest step of the altar must
be always full of water, and lights in great Tamil butter-lamps
must be always burning. If, in addition, the maintenance of
perpetual adoration could be organised, nothing could be more in
accord with Hindu feeling.
"But the ceremonies employed must themselves be Vedic. There must
be a Vedic altar, on which at the hour of worship to light the
Vedic fire. And the children must be present to share in the
service of oblation. This is a rite which would claim the respect
of the whole of India.
"Gather all sorts of animals about you. The cow makes a fine
beginning. But you will also have dogs and cats and birds and
others. Let the children have a time for going to feed and look
after these.
"Then there is the sacrifice of learning. That is the most
beautiful of all. Do you know that every book is holy in India,
not the Vedas alone, but the English and Mohammedan also? All are
sacred.
"Revive the old arts. Teach your girls fruit-modelling with
hardened milk. Give them artistic cooking and sewing. Let them
learn painting, photography, the cutting of designs in paper, and
gold and silver filigree and embroidery. See that everyone knows
something by which she can earn a living in case of need.
"And never forget Humanity! The idea of a humanitarian man-worship
exists in nucleus in India, but it has never been sufficiently
specialised. Let your students develop it. Make poetry, make art,
of it. Yes, a daily worship at the feet of beggars, after bathing
and before the meal, would be a wonderful practical training of
heart and hand together. On some days, again, the worship might be
of children, of your own pupils. Or you might borrow babies and
nurse and feed them. What was it that Mâtâji (Tapaswini Mataji,
foundress of the Mahâkâli Pâthasâlâ, Calcutta.) said to me?
'Swamiji! I have no help. But these blessed ones I worship, and
they will take me to salvation!' She feels, you see, that she is
serving Umâ in the Kumâri, and that is a wonderful thought, with
which to begin a school."
38. "Love is always a manifestation of bliss. The least shadow of
pain falling upon it is always a sign of physicality and
selfishness."
39. "The West regards marriage as consisting in all that lies
beyond the legal tie, while in India it is thought of as a bond
thrown by society round two people to unite them together for all
eternity. Those two must wed each other, whether they will or not,
in life after life. Each acquires half of the merit of the other.
And if one seems in this life to have fallen hopelessly behind, it
is for the other only to wait and beat time, till he or she
catches up again!"
40. "Consciousness is a mere film between two oceans, the
subconscious and the super conscious."
41. "I could not believe my own ears when I heard Western people
talking so much of consciousness! Consciousness? What does
consciousness matter! Why, it is nothing compared with the
unfathomable depths of the subconscious and the heights of the
super conscious! In this I could never be misled, for had I not
seen Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gather in ten minutes, from a man's
subconscious mind, the whole of his past, and determine from that
his future and his powers?"
42. "All these (visions etc.) are side issues. They are not true
Yoga. They may have a certain usefulness in establishing
indirectly the truth of our statements. Even a little glimpse
gives faith that there is something behind gross matter. Yet those
who spend time on such things run into grave dangers.
"These (psychic developments) are frontier questions! There can
never be any certainty or stability of knowledge reached by their
means. Did I not say they were 'frontier questions'? The boundary
line is always shifting!"
43. "Now on the Advaitic side it is held that the soul neither
comes nor goes, and that all these spheres or layers of the
universe are only so many varying products of Âkâsha and Prâna.
That is to say, the lowest or most condensed is the Solar Sphere,
consisting of the visible universe, in which Prana appears as
physical force, and Akasha as sensible matter. The next is called
the Lunar Sphere, which surrounds the Solar Sphere. This is not
the moon at all, but the habitation of the gods; that is to say,
Prana appears in it as psychic forces, and Akasha as Tanmatras or
fine particles. Beyond this is the Electric Sphere; that is to
say, a condition inseparable from Akasha, and you can hardly tell
whether electricity is force or matter. Next is the Brahmaloka,
where there is neither Prana nor Akasha, but both are merged into
the mind-stuff, the primal energy. And here - there being neither
Prana nor Akasha - the Jiva contemplates the whole universe as
Samashti or the sum total of Mahat or mind. This appears as
Purusha, an abstract Universal Soul, yet not the Absolute, for
still there is multiplicity. From this the Jiva finds at last that
Unity which is the end. Advaitism says that these are the visions
which arise in succession before the Jiva, who himself neither
goes nor comes, and that in the same way this present vision has
been projected. The projection (Srishti) and dissolution must take
place in the same order, only one means going backward and the
other coming out.
"Now, as each individual can only see his own universe, that
universe is created with his bondage and goes away with his
liberation, although it remains for others who are in bondage.
Now, name and form constitute the universe. A wave in the ocean is
a wave only in so far as it is bound by name and form. If the wave
subsides, it is the ocean, but that name-and-form has immediately
vanished forever, so that the name and form of a wave could never
be without the water that was fashioned into the wave by them. Yet
the name and form themselves were not the wave; they die as soon
as ever it returns to water, but other names and forms live on in
relation to other waves. This name-and-form is called Maya and the
water is Brahman. The wave was nothing but water all the time, yet
as a wave it had the name and form. Again this name-and-form
cannot remain for one moment separated from the wave, although the
wave, as water, can remain eternally separate from name and form.
But because the name and form can never be separated, they can
never be said to exist. Yet they are not zero. This is called
Maya."
44. "I am the servant of the servants of the servants of Buddha.
Who was there ever like him? - the Lord - who never performed one
action for himself - with a heart that embraced the whole world!
So full of pity that he - prince and monk - would give his life to
save a little goat! So loving that he sacrificed himself to the
hunger of a tigress! - to the hospitality of a pariah and blessed
him! And he came into my room when I was a boy, and I fell at his
feet! For I knew it was the Lord Himself!"
45. "He (Shuka) is the ideal Paramahamsa. To him alone amongst men
was it given to drink a handful of the waters of that one
undivided Ocean of Sat-Chit-Ânanda - Existence, Knowledge, and
Bliss Absolute! Most saints die, having heard only the thunder of
its waves upon the shore. A few gain the vision, and still fewer,
taste of It. But he drank of the Sea of Bliss!"
46. "What is this idea of Bhakti without renunciation? It is most
pernicious."
47. "We worship neither pain nor pleasure. We seek through either
to come at that which transcends them both."
48. "Shankaracharya had caught the rhythm of the Vedas, the
national cadence. Indeed I always imagine that he had some vision
such as mine when he was young, and recovered the ancient music
that way. Anyway, his whole life's work is nothing but that, the
throbbing of the beauty of the Vedas and the Upanishads."
49. "Though the love of a mother is in some ways greater, yet the
whole world takes the love of man and woman as the type (of the
soul's relation to God). No other has such tremendous idealising
power. The beloved actually becomes what he is imagined to be.
This love transforms its object."
50. "Is it so easy to be Janaka - to sit on a throne absolutely
unattached, caring nothing for wealth or fame, for wife or child?
One after another in the West has told me that he has reached
this. But I could only say, 'Such great men are not born in
India!'".
51. "Never forget to say to yourself and to teach to your
children, as the difference between a firefly and the blazing sun,
between the infinite ocean and a little pond, between a mustard
seed and the mountain Meru, such is the difference between the
householder and the Sannyasin!
"Everything is fraught with fear: Renunciation alone is fearless.
"Blessed be even the fraudulent Sâdhus and those who have failed
to carry out their vows, inasmuch as they also have witnessed to
their ideal and so are in some degree the cause of the success of
others!
"Let us never, never, forget our ideal!"
52. "The river is pure that flows, the monk is pure that goes!"
53. "The Sannyasin who thinks of gold, to desire it, commits
suicide."
54. "What do I care if Mohammed was a good man, or Buddha? Does
that altar my goodness or evil? Let us be good for our own sake on
our own responsibility."
55. "You people in this country are so afraid of losing your
in-di-vid-u-al-i-ty! Why, you are not individuals yet. When you
realise your whole nature, you will attain your true
individuality, not before. There is another thing I am constantly
hearing in this country, and that is that we should live in
harmony with nature. Don't you know that all the progress ever
made in the world was made by conquering nature? We are to resist
nature at every point if we are to make any progress."
56. "In India they tell me I ought not to teach Advaita Vedanta to
the people at large; but I say, I can make even a child understand
it. You cannot begin too early to teach the highest spiritual
truths."
57. "The less you read, the better. Read the Gita and other good
works on Vedanta. That is all you need. The present system of
education is all wrong. The mind is crammed with facts before it
knows how to think. Control of the mind should be taught first. If
I had my education to get over again and had any voice in the
matter, I would learn to master my mind first, and then gather
facts if I wanted them. It takes people a long time to learn
things because they can't concentrate their minds at will."
58. "If a bad time comes, what of that? The pendulum must swing
back to the other side. But that is no better. The thing to do is
to stop it."
Epistles – Fourth Series
NOTE
Before leaving for the USA, Swamiji used to change his name very
often. In earlier years he signed as Narendra or Naren; then for
some time as Vividishananda or Sachchidananda. But for the
convenience of the readers, these volumes use the more familiar
name Vivekananda.
I
(Translated from Bengali)
BAGHBAZAR,
CALCUTTA,
28th November, 1888.
DEAR SIR, (Shri Pramadadas Mitra)
I have received the book of Pânini which you so kindly sent me.
Please accept my gratitude for the same.
I had an attack of fever again - hence I could not reply to you
immediately. Please excuse. I am ailing much. I am praying to the
Divine Mother to keep you happy physically and mentally.
Your servant,
VIVEKANANDA.
II
(Translated from Bengali)
BARANAGORE,
22nd February, 1889.
DEAR SIR, (Shri Pramadadas Mitra)
I had intended to go to Varanasi, and I planned to reach there
after visiting the birthplace of my Master. But unluckily on the
way to that village I had an attack of high fever followed by
vomiting and purging as in cholera. There was again fever after
three or four days - and as the body is now so weak that I can
barely walk even two steps, I have been compelled now to give up
my previous intention. I do not know what is God's will, but my
body is quite unfit for treading on this path. Anyway, the body is
not everything. Recovering my health after a few days here, I
entertain the hope of visiting you there. The will of
Vishweshwara, the Lord of the universe, will prevail - whatever
that may be. You also kindly bless me. My respects to you and
brother Jnanananda.
Your servant,
VIVEKANANDA.
III
(Translated from Bengali)
BAGHBAZAR,
CALCUTTA,
21st March, 1889.
RESPECTED SIR, (Shri Pramadadas Mitra)
It is several days since I received your last letter. Please
excuse the delay in replying, which was due to some special
reasons. I am very ill at present; there is fever now and then,
but there is no disorder in the spleen or other organs. I am under
homeopathic treatment. Now I have had to give up completely the
intention of going to Varanasi. Whatever God dispenses will happen
later on, according to the state of the body. If you meet brother
Jnanananda, please tell him not to be held up there in expectation
of my coming. My going there is very uncertain. My regards to you
and Jnanananda.
Yours sincerely,
VIVEKANANDA.
IV
(Translated from Bengali)
SIMLA (CALCUTTA),
14th July, 1889.
RESPECTED SIR, (Shri Pramadadas Mitra)
I was very glad to get your letter. In such circumstances many
give the advice to incline towards the worldly life. But you are
truthful and have an adamantine heart. I have been highly
comforted by your encouraging and cheering words. My difficulties
here have almost come to a close - only I have engaged the
services of a broker for the sale of a piece of land, and I hope
the sale will be over soon. In that case, I shall be free from all
worry and shall at once go straight off to you to Varanasi.
Your servant,
VIVEKANANDA.
V
(Translated from Bengali)
BAGHBAZAR,
CALCUTTA,
4th June, 1890.
RESPECTED SIR, (Shri Pramadadas Mitra)
I got your letter. There is no doubt that your advice is very
wise. It is quite true that the Lord's Will will prevail. We also
are spreading out here and there in small groups of two or three.
I also got two letters from brother Gangadhar. He is at present in
the house of Gagan Babu suffering from an attack of influenza.
Gagan Babu is taking special care of him. He will come here as
soon as he recovers. Our respectful salutations to you.
Your servant,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. Abhedananda and others are all doing well.
V.
VI
BARODA,
26th April,1892.
DEAR DIWANJI SAHEB, (Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai)
Very happy to receive your kind letter even here. I had not the
least difficulty in reaching your house from the station of
Nadiad. And your brothers, they are what they should be, your
brothers. May the Lord shower his choicest blessings on your
family. I have never found such a glorious one in all my travels.
Your friend Mr. Manibhai has provided every comfort for me; but,
as to his company, I have only seen him twice; once for a minute,
the other for ten minutes at the most when he talked about the
system of education here. Of course, I have seen the Library and
the pictures of Ravi Varma, and that is about all worth seeing
here. So I am going off this evening to Bombay. My thanks to the
Diwanji here (or to you) for his kind behaviour. More from Bombay.
Yours in affection,
VIVEKANANDA.
PS. At Nadiad I met Mr. Manilal Nabhubhai. He is a very learned
and pious gentleman, and I enjoyed his company much.