Longing and Awakening

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Longing and Awakening

 

A disciple went to his master and said to him, "Sir, I want religion." The

master looked at the young man, and did not speak, but only smiled. The

young man came every day, and insisted that he wanted religion. But the old

man knew better than the young man. One day, when it was very hot, he asked

the young man to go to the river with him and take a plunge. The young man

plunged in, and the old man followed him and held the young man down under

the water by force. After the young man had struggled for a while, he let

him go and asked him what he wanted most while he was under the water. "A

breath of air", the disciple answered. "Do you want God in that way? if you

do, you will get Him in a moment," said the master. Until you have that

thirst, that desire, you cannot get religion, however you may struggle with

your intellect, or your books, or your forms. Until that thirst is awakened

in you, you are no better than any atheist; only the atheist is sincere,

and you are not.

 

A great sage used to say, "Suppose there is a thief in a room, and somehow

he comes to know that there is a vast mass of gold in the next room, and

that there is only a thin partition between the two rooms. What would be

the condition of that thief? He would be sleepless, he would not be able to

eat or do anything. His whole mind would be on getting that gold. Do you

mean to say that, if all these people really believe that the Mine of

Happiness, of Blessedness, or Glory were here, they would act as they do in

the world, without trying to get God?" As soon as a man begins to believe

there is a God, he becomes mad with longing to get to Him. Others may go

their way, but as soon as a man is sure that there is a much higher life

than that which he is leading here, as soon as he feels sure that the

senses are not all, that this limited, material body is as nothing compared

with the immortal, eternal, undying bliss of the Self, he becomes mad until

he finds out this bliss for himself. And this madness, this thirst, this

mania, is what is called the "awakening" to religion, and when that has

come, a man is beginning to be religious.

 

http://www.vivekananda.org/bhakti/fs.asp?page=6

 

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With Love,

Cyber Dervish

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