Each soul is potentially DIVINE. The goal is to manifest
this divinity within, by controlling nature-external &
internal. Do this by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy -
by one or more or all of these and be free
1) God
a) He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the
All-merciful. “Thou art our Father, Thou art our Mother Thou art our beloved
friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength.
b) How to worship Him: Through Love. “He is to be worshipped as the
one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.
c) Krishna taught: A human being ought to live in this world like a
lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a human
being ought to live in the world – his heart to God and his hands to
work.
d) The Hindu does not want to live upon words and theories. If there
are existences beyond the ordinary sensuous existence, he wants to come face to
face with them. If there is a soul in him which is not a matter, if there is an
all-merciful universal soul, he will go to Him direct. He must see Him, and
that alone can destroy all doubts. So a best proof a Hindu sage gives about the
soul, about God, is – “ I have seen the soul; I have seen God.” And that is the
only condition of perfection. The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles
and attempts to believe in certain doctrine or dogma, but in realizing - not in
believing, but in being and becoming.
2) Buddhism
a) If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great
Master, India worships him as God incarnate on earth. The view is Buddha was
not understood properly by his disciples. The relation between Hinduism
(Religion of Vedas) and what is called Buddhism at present day is nearly same
as between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Shakya Muni
was a Hindu. The jews rejected Christ, and crucified him, and the Hiindus
accepted Shakya Muni as God and worship him.Buddha came to preach nothing new
but to fulfil. In the case of Jesus it was jews who did not understand him but
in case of Buddha his disciples did not understand the fulfillment.
Buddhists tried to make every one
in India a monk or a nun.. We cannot expect that from everyone.This led to
gradual relaxation among monks and nuns. It was also caused by their imitating
Tibetean and other barbarous customs in the name of religion. They went to
preach in those places and assimilated their corruption, and then introduced
them into India.
Japanese think that everything
Hindu is great,and believe that India is a holy land. Japenese Buddhism is
entirely different from what you see in Ceylon. It is positive
and theistic Budhisim, not the negative atheistic Buddhism of
Ceylon. (Abroad and problems are Home-The Hindu, Madras, February 1897)
3) Karma
a) One central idea in the Gita: Work
incessantly, but be not attached to it. Samskara can be translated very nearly
by inherent tendency. Using the simile of the lake for the mind, every ripple,
every wave that rises in the mind, when it subsides, does not die out entirely,
but leaves a mark and a future possibility of the wave coming out again. Every
work that we do, every movement of the body, every thought that we think,
leaves such an impression on the mind stuff; and even when such impressions are
not obvious on the surface, subconsciously. What we are every moment is
determined by the sum total of these impression on the mind. What I am just at
this moment is the effect of the sum total of all the impression of my past
life. This is really what is meant by character; each character is determined
by the sum total of these impressions. If good impressions prevail, the
character becomes good; if bad, it becomes bad. When a human being has done so much
good work and thought so many good thoughts that there is irresistible tendency
in him to do good, in spite of himself and even if he wishes to do evil, his
mind as the sum total of his tendencies, will not allow him to do so. The
tendencies will turn him back; his is completely under the influence of good
tendencies.
As the tortoise tuck its feet and head inside the shell, and you
may kill it and break it in pieces, and yet it will not come out, even so the
character of that human being who has control over this motives and organs is
unchangeably established.
Buddha got largely these tendency by meditation or Christ by
prayer. Buddha was a working jnani, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal is
reached by both of them.
4) Guru
a) Every soul is destined to be perfect, and
every being, in the end, will attain to that state. Whatever we are now, is the
result of whatever we have been, or thought, in the past and whatever we shall
be in the future will be the result of what we do or think now. But this does
not preclude our receiving help from outside; the possibilities of the soul are
always quickened by some help from outside, so much so, that in the vast
majority of cases in the world, help from outside is almost absolutely necessary.
Quickening influence comes from outside, and that works upon our
potentialities, and then the growth begins, spiritual life comes, and human
being becomes holy and perfect in the end. This quickening impulse, which comes
from outside, cannot be received from books; the soul can receive impulse only
from other soul, and from nothing else. We may study books all our lives, we
may become very intellectual, but in the end we find we have not developed at
all spiritually. We get intellectual development from books, but in spiritual
development, almost nothing. In studying books, sometimes we are deluded into
thinking that we are being spiritually helped; but if we analyse ourselves we
shall find that only our intellect has been helped, and not the spirit. That is
the reason why almost every one of us can speak most wonderfully on spiritual
subjects, but when the time of action comes, we find ourselves so woefully
deficient. It is because books cannot give that impulse from outside. It must
be from other soul and he is GURU.Shri Ramakrishna used to say that the so
called lotuses during Kundalini of the yogi do not really exist in the human
body, that they are created within oneself by Yoga powers.
5) Soul - Real and apparent man
a) In this universe, in the cosmos, just as
the universal mind becomes evolved into Akasha and Prana, even so, we may find
that the universal soul itself becomes evolved as mind. Is it really so with
the individual human being? Is this mind the creator of his body, and his soul the
creator of his mind? That is to say, are his body, his mind, and his soul three
different existences, or are they three in one, or again, are they different
states of existence of the same unit being?
i) Soul: Here is the external body, behind this external body
are the organs, the mind, the intellect and behind this is the soul. At the
first step it appears that the soul is separate from the body, separate from
mind itself. Religious world become divided at this point and the departure is
this. All those religious view which generally pass under the name of dualism
hold that this soul is qualified, that it is of various qualities, that all
feelings of enjoyment, pleasure, and pain really belong to the soul. The
nondualists deny that the soul has any such qualities.
b) As per Dualist: The soul of human being is
immortal. What do we mean my mortality? Decomposition. Anything that is made of
two or more ingredients decompose. That which is not the result of composition
does not decompose. It is immortal. That being so, soul of human being must
have been existing for ever and will exist for ever. When this body falls off,
soul lives on. According to vedantists when this body dies, the vital forces of
the human being go back to his mind and the mind becomes dissolved, as it were,
into the prana, and the prana enters into the soul of the human being and the
soul of the human being comes out, clothed with what is called fine body, or
the mental body or the spiritual body, as you may like to call it. In this body
are the samskaras of the human being. This mind is like the lake and thought is
like a wave. As the wave rises, falls and disappear is always there in the
lake. They become and finer and finer but is always there. Memory is simply
calling back into wave form some of those thoughts which have gone into that
finer state of existence. Thus, every thing we have thought, every action that
we have done, is lodged in the mind; it is all there in the fine form and when
a human being dies, the sum total of the impressions is in the mind, which
again works upon a little fine material as a medium. The soul clothed with
these impressions and the fine body, passes out, and the destiny of the soul is
guided by the resultant of all different forces represented by the different
impressions.
i) Spiritual view- Vedanta- There are three different goals for the
soul.
This earth is called the Karma-Bhumi, the sphere of karma. Here
alone human being makes his good or bad karma. The way to Brahmaloka, from
which there is no more fall or return, is called the Devayana i.e. the way to
God; the way to heaven is known as Pitriyana i.e the way to the fore-fathers.
(1) When a person dies, soul follows the solar
rays,
(a) Reach what is called the solar sphere then
(b) Reach what is called the lunar sphere and
then
(c) Reach what is called the sphere of
lighting.
(d) Meet with another soul who is already
blessed and guides to highest called Brahmaloka, the sphere of Brahma.
At Brahmaloka souls attain omniscience and omnipotence and become
almost a all-knowing God Himself and reside there for ever according to
dualists
and
According to the non-dualists, they become one with universe at
the end of the cycle.
(2) When a person dies who has done good work
with selfish motives are carried by the result of their good works are guided
to Lunar sphere. They acquire finer bodies and travel to various heavens They
acquire finer bodies or bodies of God and live there for a long period. After
the period is finished, the old Karma is again upon them and so they fall back
again to the earth. They come down to earth through various regions of air and
clouds and reach earth through rain drops. There in earth they attach to a cereals
which is consumed by some human being who is fit to supply them with material
to make a new body
(3) The last class, namely, the wicked, when
they die become ghosts or demons and live somewhere midway between the lunar
sphere and this earth. Some try to disturb mankind, some are friendly. After
living there for sometime they also fall back to the earth and become animals.
After living for sometime in an animal body they get released and come back,
and become men again. And thus get another chance to work out their salvation.
(i) Those who have nearly attained to
perfection, in whom only very little impurity remains, go the Brahmaloka
through the rays of the sun;
(ii) Those who were a middling sort of people,
who did some good work here with the idea of going to Heaven, go to the heavens
in the lunar sphere and there obtain god bodies; but hey have again to become
men, and so have another chance to become perfect.
(iii) Those that are very wicked become ghosts
and demon, and then they may have to become animals; after that they become men
again and get another chance to perfect themselves.
Human being, therefore,
according to the Vedanta Philosophy is the greatest being that is, in the
universe, and this world of work the best place in it. Angels or gods, whatever
you may call them, have all to become men, if they want to become perfect.
ii) Buddhist
philosophy: Buddhists deny the whole theory of soul. They believe only in mind
and body. What use is there to assume something as the substratum, as
back-ground of this body and mind? Let there be only body and mind.
(1) Body
is the name of a stream
of matter continuously
changing
(2) Mind
is the name of a stream
of consciousness or thought continuously
changing.
What produces the unity between these two? This unity does not
really exist. For instance a lighter torch and a whirl is rapidly before
you. You see a circle of fire. This circle does not really exist, but because
the torch is continuously moving, it leaves the appearance of circle. So there
is no unity in this life.
This world is itself all-sufficient and no other background like
soul is required.
Gist:
(a) There is something call soul behind both
body and mind, which is an unchangeable and immovable substance
(b) There is no such thing as immovability or
un-changeability in the universe. It is all change and nothing but change.
6) Advaita:
a) According to the Advaita philosophy,
there is only one thing real in the universe, which it calls Brahman;
everything else is unreal, manifested and manufactured out of Brahman by the
power of Mâyâ. To reach back to that Brahman is our goal. We are, each one of
us, that Brahman, that Reality, plus this Maya. If we can get rid of this Maya
or ignorance, then we become what we really are. According to this philosophy,
each man consists of three parts — the body, the internal organ or the mind,
and behind that, what is called the Âtman, the Self. The body is the external
coating and the mind is the internal coating of the Atman who is the real
perceiver, the real enjoyer, the being in the body who is working the body by means
of the internal organ or the mind.
b) Vedanta says that dualists
(Advaitism) are right in finding something behind all, as a background, which
does not change. Now,
(1) When dualists claim that there is
something which does not change, they are perfectly right, but their analysis
that is an underlying something which is neither the body nor the mind, but
something separate from both is wrong.
(2) Buddhists say that the whole universe in a
mass of change, they are perfectly right; for, so long as I am separate from
the universe, so long as I am something before me, so long as there are two
things – the looker-on and the thing looked upon – it will appear always that
universe is one of change, continuously changing all the time.
(3) But the reality is that there is both
change and changelessness in this universe. It is not that the soul and the
mind and the body are three separate existences, for this organism made of
these three is really one. It is the same thing which appears as this body, as
the mind, and as the thing beyond mind and body, but it is not at same time all
these. He who sees the body does not see the mind even, he who sees the mind
does not see that which he calls the soul, and he who sees the soul- for him
the body and mind have vanished. A rope is taken for a snake in a dim light. He
who sees the rope as the same, for him the rope has vanished, and when the
delusion ceases and looks at the rope, the snake has vanished. This self, or
soul or substance is al that exists in the universe. That self or substance or
soul is, in the language of non-dualism, the Brahman, appearing to be manifold
by the interposition of name and form. Look at the waves in the sea. Not one
wave is really different from the sea, but what makes the wave apparently
different? Name and form: Form of the wave and the name we give to it “WAVE”
That is what makes it different from sea. When name and form go, it the same
sea. Likewise this whole universe is that One Unit Existence, name and form
have created all these difference. This idea of duality, of two, is entirely
false, and the whole universe, as we ordinarily know it, is the result of this
false knowledge. According to Advaita philosophy, any one thinks that there are
two ultimate realities, he is mistaken. When he has come to know that there is
but one, he is right.
Modern science proves that you and I, the sun, the moon and the
stars are but different names of the different spots in the same ocean of
matter, and that this matter is continuously changing in its configuration. The
particle of energy that was in the sun several months ago maybe in the human
being now; tomorrow it may be in an animal, the day after tomorrow it may be in
a plant.
Advaita philosophy says none comes and none goes. How can you come
and go. You are infinite, whre is the place for you to go. Birth and death,
heavens and lower worlds all vanish for the perfect. For the nearly perfect it
vanishes after showing them several scenes upto Brahmaloka. It continues for
ignorant.It is like under delusion that we think that the sun moves and
not the earth . It is like while travelling in a train it appears as if the
fields and mountains are moving and not the train.
It is all mind game. It is this universe which, from the human
plane, is seen as the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars and all such things.
It is this very universe which, seen from the plane of wickedness, appears as
place of punishment. And this very universe is seen as heaven by those
who want to see it as heaven. Those who have been dreaming of going to a God
who is sitting on a throne, and of standing there praising Him all their lives,
when they die, will simply see a vision of what they have in their minds; this
very universe will simply change into a vast heaven, with all sorts of winged
beings flying about and a God sitting on a throne. These heavens are all of
man’s own making. So what a dualist says is true, says the Advaitin, but it is
all simply of his own making. These spheres and devils and gods, and
reincarnations and transmigrations are all mythology; so also is this human
life. The great mistake that men always make is to think that this life alone
is true.The whole thing as it appears is mere mythology. In worshipping God we
have been always worshipping our own hidden self.
Advaitin says that he is really omnipresent, that all time is in
him, and that he is not in time; that all heavens are in him, that he is
not in any heaven, and that all the gods that man ever worshipped are in him,
and that he is not in any one of those gods. He was the manufacturer of gods
and demons, of men and plants, and animals and stones, and the real nature of
man now stands unfolded to him as being higher than heaven, more perfect than
this universe of ours, more infinite than infinite time, more omnipresent than
the omnipresent ether. Thus alone, man becomes fearless, and becomes free. Then
all delusions cease, all miseries vanish, all fears come to an end for ever.
Birth goes away, and with it death; pains fly, and with them fly away
pleasures; earths vanish and with them vanish heavens; bodies vanish and with
them vanishes the mind also. The sky never changes; it is the cloud that
change, remains there for a while and vanish. It is a mistake to think that the
sky is changed. Likewise it is a mistake to think that we are impure, that we
are limited, that we are separate. The real man is the One Unit Exitence.
7) Realisation:
a) Is it possible to realize. There are men
living in this world for whom delusion has vanished for ever. Do they
immediately die after such realization? Not so soon as we should think. Two
wheels joined by one pole are running together. If I get hold of one of the
wheels and, with an axe, cut the pole as under, the wheel, which I have got
hold of stops, but upon the other wheel is its past momentum, so it runs on a
little and then falls down. This pure and perfect being, the soul is one wheel,
and this external hallucination of body and mind is the other wheel, joined
together by the pole of work, of karma. Knowledge is the axe which will
sever the bond between the two, and the wheel of soul will stop.
b) Stop thinking that it is coming and going,
living and dying, stop thinking that it is nature and has wants and desires and
will find that it is perfect, desireless. But upon the other wheel, that of the
body and mind, will be the momentum of the past acts, so it will live for some
time, until that momentum of past work is exhausted, until that momentum is
worked away, and then the body and mind fall, and the soul becomes free.
c) No
more is there any going to heaven and coming back, not even any going to the
Brahmaloka, or to any of the highest of the spheres, for where is he to come
from, or to go to? The man who has in this life attained to this state, for
whom, for a minute at lest, the ordinary vision of the world has changed and
the reality has been apparent, he is called the “LIVING FREE” This is the goal of Vedantin,
to attain freedom while living.
d) While
travelling through a desert we see some wonderful lakes. We see these beautiful
lakes and just enjoy the scene. When we are thirsty we go near the lake and it
vanishes. Then we realize that it just a mirage and not a true lake. So it is
with this universe. We are all travelling in this mirage of the world day after
day, month after month, year after year, life after life, not knowing that it
is a mirage. One day it will break up, but still we will come across. Now we
will not be tempted to drink water from the mirage. We know that it just a
beauty to be enjoyed. Like wise the world will come back upon us so long as
we are bound by Karma; Men, women, animals, plants, our attachments and
duties, all will come back to us, but not with the same power. Under the
influence of the new knowledge the strength of karma will be broken, its poison
will be lost. It becomes transformed, for along with it there comes the
idea that we know it now, that the sharp distinctin between the reality and the
mirage has been known.
e) Is
this idea of freedom a delusion or the idea of bondage is a delusion? When a
man has attained his own freedom how can he be bound by any law? No law in this
universe can bind him, for this universe itself is his or for him there is no
universe. Though evil and good are both conditioned manifestation of the soul,
yet evil is the most external coating, and good, is the nearer coating of the
real man, the self. Unless a man cuts through the layer of evil, he
cannot reach the layer of good, and unless he has passed through both the
layers of good and evil, he cannot reach the Self. What is attached to him is a
little Karma, a little bit of the momentum of past life, but it is all good
momentum. Until the bad momentum is entirely worked out and past impurities are
entirely burnt, it is impossible for any man to see and realize truth. So what
is left attached to the man who has reached the self and seen the truth, is the
remnant of the good impressions of past life, the good momentum. Even if he
lives in the body and works incessantly, he works only to do good. his mind can
only think good thoughts.; his presence is a blessing wherever he goes. He is
himself a living blessing.
f) Talking
is one thing, and realizing is another. Philosophies, and doctrines, and
arguments and books and theories and sects, place of worship and all these
things are good in their own way; but when that realization comes these things
drop away. For instance, maps are good, but when you see the country itself,
and look again at the maps, what a great difference you find!
g) Man
of realization says” all this talk in the world about its little religions is
but prattle; realization is the soul, essence of any religion. Until you have
attained realization there is no difference between you and atheists. The
atheists are sincere but the man who say that he believes in religion and never
attempts to realize it, is not sincere.
8) Religion
a) From ancient times there have been various
sects of thought in India, and as there never was formulated or recognized
church or any body of men to designate the doctrines which should be believed
by each school. People were very free to choose their own form, make their own
philosophy and establish their own sects. We, therefore, find that from the
most ancient times India was full of religious sects. At the present time many
hundreds of sects we have in India, and several fresh ones are coming into
existence every year.
b) These religious sects can be made two main
divisions, the orthodox, and the unorthodox. Those that believe in Hindu
scriptures, the Vedas, as eternal revelation of truth, are called orthodox, and
those that stand on other authorities rejecting Vedas, are the heterodox(Jains
and Buddhists) in India.
c) Three Orthodox divisions are the Sankhyas,
the Naiyayikas and the Mamamsakas. Only Mimamsakas have formed a sect. Their
philosophy is called Vedantism. In the course of time the Vedanta prevailed and
all the various sects of India that now exist can be referred to one or other
of its schools.
d) All the Vedantists believed in God and
also believed that the Vedas as word of God, not exactly in the same sense, as
the Christians or Mohammedans believe, but in a very peculiar sense. Vedas are
an expression of knowledge of God, and as God is eternal, His knowledge is
eternally with Him, and so are the Vedas eternal.
e) Another common ground of belief : Whole of
creation appears and disappears.
f) Dualists and Advaitin
i) There are two school of thoughts, dualists and Advaitin. Dualists
believe that God is the creator of Universe and its ruler. He is eternally
separate from nature, eternally separate from the human soul. The vast mass of
Indian people are dualists. Human nature ordinarily cannot conceive of anything
higher. We find that ninety percent of the population of earth who believe in
any religion are dualists. He can only grasp abstract thoughts by making them
concrete. They believe in a God who is entirely separate from them, a great
king, a high, mighty monarch, as it were. At the same time they make Him purer
than the monarchs of the earth, with all good qualities, without evil. Dualists
believe that every soul must eventually come to salvation. No one will be left
out.
ii) The real Vedanta philosophy is qualified
non-dualists. They say that the effect is never different from the cause; They
say that God himself is the creator and also the material out of which the
whole nature is projected. Bodies come and go, but the soul does not change. As
from a blazing fire fly millions of sparks of the same nature, even so from
this Infinite Being, God, these souls have come.
g) “Know the truth and be free in a moment.”
All the darkness will then vanish. When man has seen himself as one with the
Infinite Being of the universe, when all separateness has ceased, when all men
and women, all gods and angels, all animals and plants and the whole universe
have melted into that Oneness, then all fear disappears.
h) Vedas say, it begins with dualism, goes
through a qualified monism and end in perfect monism Why everyone says do good
to others.? Because whether they were conscious of it or not, behind all that,
through all their irrational and personal superstitions, was peering forth the
eternal lights of the self denying all manifoldness, and asserting that the
whole universe is but one.
i) One universe, which though the sense we see as matter, through the
intellect as souls, and through spirit as God. Man who throws wickedness and
evil, this very universe will change and become a hideous place; to another
man, who wants enjoyments, this very universe will change its appearance and
become a heave, and to the perfect mn the whole thing will vanish and become
his own self.
j) For the society all the three stages are necessary. The one does
not deny the other, one is simply the fulfillment of the other. The advaitist
does not say that dualism is wrong; it is a right view, but a lower one. It is
n the way to truth; therefore let everybody work out his own vision of this universe
according to his own ideas. Injure
none, deny the position of none, take man where he stands and, if you can, lend
him a helping hand and put him on a higher platform. All will come to truth in the long
run. “When all the desires of the heart will be vanquished, then this very
mortal will become immortal – Then the very man will become GOD.
9) Yoga
a) Yoga is union. The man who seeks after
this kind of union is called a Yogi.
i) Karma-Yoga- The worker, union between men and the whole of
humanity;
It is attainment of God through work.
Karma yoga teaches the secret of where and how to work. How to employ the
greatest part of the energy in work? It
teaches us how to work for work’s sake, unattached, without caring who is
helped, and what for. Karma-Yogi works because it is his nature, because he
feels that it is good for him to do so and he has no object beyond that.
ii) Raja-Yoga- The mystic, union between his
lower and Higher Self;
In all beings we find three sorts of
instruments of knowledge, namely instinct, reason and inspiration. Instinct
belongs to animals, reason to men and inspiration to God-men. One Instrument is
a development of the other, and therefore does not contradict it. It is reason
that develops into inspiration, and does not contradict reason, but fulfils it.
Many times instinct is presented before the world as inspiration, and then come
all the spurious claims for gift of prophecy. True teaching of this yoga is
that it should not contradict reason. This yoga is psychological way to union.
There is one method of acquiring knowledge. From the lowest man to highest yogi
all have to use the same method; and that method is called concentration. More
this power of concentration, more the knowledge is acquired. How to check the
mind and bring under control is the whole study in Raja-Yoga.
iii) Bhakti-Yoga- The lover, union between
himself and the God of love;
He, who loves God. He relies upon and
uses all sorts of ritual, flowers, incense, beautiful buildings, forms and all
such things. God to them is something
tangible, the only thing that is real; they feel, hear, and se Him and Love
Him. Let them have their God. Bhakti –Yoga teaches them how to love, without
ulterior motives.
iv) Jnana-Yoga- The philosopher, union of all
existence.
He is the man who is not satisfied
with the little things of this world. Not even the teachings of thousands of
books will satisfy him. His soul wants to go beyond all that into the very
heart of being, by seeing Reality as it is. God is his own Self.
10) GITA
The book known as Gita forms a part
of the Mahabharata.To understand the Gita properly several things are very
important to know. First, whether it formed a part of Mahabharata, that is,
whether the authorship attributed to Veda-vyasa was true, or if it was merely
interpolated within the great epic.Secondly whether thre was any historical
personality of the name of Krishna;Whether the great war Kurukshetra as
mentioned in Gita actually took place. fourthly whether Arjuna and others were
real historical personalities.
Bhashyas on Gita was written by
Shankara, Ramanjua and Madhvacharya. Some infer that Sankara was the author
of Gita, and that it was he who foisted it into the body of
Mahabharata.(Thoughts on the GITA - A class talk given at the Alambazar
Math in 1897)
10)
RITUALS
Rituals are Kindergarten of religion.
They are absolutely necessary for the world, only we shall have to give people
newer and fresher rituals. Old rituals must be rejected and new ones
substituted. All along in the history of the Hindu race, there never was any
attempt at destruction, only construction. One sect wanted to destroy, and they
were thrown out of India; they were the Buddhists and thery were thrown out of
India, We have had a host of reformers - Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhav and
Chaitanya.They were great reformers who always were constructive and built
according to the circumstances of their time. More than rituals concentration
of the powers of the mind is our only instrument to help us see God. If you know
one soul(your own) then you know all souls, past, present and to come.
Concentrated mind is the lamp that shows us every corner of the soul. No
one method can suit all. These rituals which are different methods are non
steps necessary to be taken one after another. Ceremonials are the lowest
form; next God external and after that God internal. In some cases gradation
may be needed, but in many only one way is required. It would be the height of
folly to say to everyone, you must pass through Karma and Bhakti before you can
reach Jnana"All religion is going beyond reason, but reason is the only
guide to get there. Instinct is like ice, reason is the water and inspirationi
is the subtlest form or vapour; one follows the other. In any religion faith is
not belief, it is the grasp on the Ultimte, an illumination. First hear, then
reason and find out all the reason can give about the Atman. Let the flood of
reason flow over it, then take what remains. If nothing remains,thank God you
have escaped a superstition. When you have determined that nothin can take away
the Atman, that it stands every test , hold fast on this and teach it to all.
Truth cannot be partial; it is for the good of all. Finally, in perfect rest
and peace meditate upon it, concentrate your mind upon it, make yourself one
with it. Then no speech is needed; silence will carry the truth. do not spend
your energy in talking, but meditate in silence, and do not let the rush of the
outside world disturb you. When your mind is in the highest state, you are
unconscious of it. Accumulate power in silence and become a dynamo of
spirituality I we look at a picture through a pin -hole in a cardboard, we get
an utterly mistaken notion; yet what we see is really the picture. As we
enlarge the hole, we get a clearer and clearer idea. Out of the reality we
manufacture the different views in conformity with our mistaken perceptions of
name and form. when we throw away the cardboard, we see the same picture, but
we see it as it is. We put in all the attributes, all the errors, the picture
itself is unaltered thereby. that is because Atman is the reality of all, all
we see is Atman, but not as we see It, as name and form; they are al in our
veil, in Maya. God alone is true, all else is false. The soul never kills or is
killed. Live alone or in the company of holy ones. . We should not be like dogs
strayed into a kitchen and eating a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest
at any moment some one may come and drive them out. Instead of that, be a king
and know your own the world. this never comes until you give it up and it
ceases to bind. Give up mentally, if you do not physically. Give up from the
heart of your hearts. Have Vairaghya. this is real sacrifice, and without it,
it is impossible to attain spirituality. do not desire, for what you desire you
get and with it comes terrible bondage. Self is the saviour of self, none else.
Learn to feel yourself in other bodies, to know that we are all one. Throw all
other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your actions, good or bad and never think
of them again. What is done is done. Throw off supersittion.Have no weakness
even in the face of death. Do not repent, do not brood over past deeds, and do
not remember your good deeds, be azad(free). The weak, the fearful, the ignorant
will never reach Atman. You cannot undo, the effect must come; face it, but be
careful never to do the same thing again. Give up the burden of all deeds to
the Lord; give all, both good and bad. Do not keep the good and give only the
bad. God helps those who do not help themselves.Desire and Lord can never come
together. Give up desire. There is a vast difference between saying "food,
food' and eating it. between saying "water, water" and drinking it.
so by merely repeating the words "God, God" we cannot hope to attain
realisation. We must strive and practice. Only by the wave falling back into
the sea can it become unlimited, never as a wave can it be so. Then after it
has become the sea, it can become the wave again and as big a one as it
pleases.
Note : This is only a scribbling note. These are purely my
understanding. These may or may not be the correct one. This is not to hurt
anybody's feeling.
