The Real Nature of Man

[Guest guest]

There is a great tendency in modern times to talk too much of work

and decry thought. Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking.

Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work.

But where there is no thought, there will be no work. Fill the brain,

therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and

night before you, and out of that will come great work. Talk not

about impurity, but say that we are pure. We have hypnotised

ourselves into this thought that we are little, that we are born, and

that we are going to die, and into a constant state of fear.

 

There is a story about a lioness, who was big with young, going about

in search of prey; and seeing a flock of sheep, she jumped upon them.

She died in the effort; and a little baby lion was born, motherless.

It was taken care of by the sheep and the sheep brought it up, and it

grew up with them, ate grass, and bleated like the sheep. And

although in time it became a big, full-grown lion, it thought it was

a sheep. One day another lion came in search of prey and was

astonished to find that in the midst of this flock of sheep was a

lion, fleeing like the sheep at the approach of danger. He tried to

get near the sheep-lion, to tell it that it was not a sheep but a

lion; but the poor animal fled at his approach. However, he watched

his opportunity and one day found the sheep-lion sleeping. He

approached it and said, " You are a lion. " " I am a sheep, " cried the

other lion and could not believe the contrary but bleated. The lion

dragged him towards a lake and said, " Look here, here is my

reflection and yours. " Then came the comparison. It looked at the

lion and then at its own reflection, and in a moment came the idea

that it was a lion. The lion roared, the bleating was gone. You are

lions, you are souls, pure, infinite, and perfect. The might of the

universe is within you. " Why weepest thou, my friend? There is

neither birth nor death for thee. Why weepest thou? There is no

disease nor misery for thee, but thou art like the infinite sky;

clouds of various colours come over it, play for a moment, then

vanish. But the sky is ever the same eternal blue. " Why do we see

wickedness? There was a stump of a tree, and in the dark, a thief

came that way and said, " That is a policeman. " A young man waiting

for his beloved saw it and thought that it was his sweetheart. A

child who had been told ghost stories took it for a ghost and began

to shriek. But all the time it was the stump of a tree. We see the

world as we are. Suppose there is a baby in a room with a bag of gold

on the table and a thief comes and steals the gold. Would the baby

know it was stolen? That which we have inside, we see outside. The

baby has no thief inside and sees no thief outside. So with all

knowledge. Do not talk of the wickedness of the world and all its

sins. Weep that you are bound to see wickedness yet. Weep that you

are bound to see sin everywhere, and if you want to help the world,

do not condemn it. Do not weaken it more. For what is sin and what is

misery, and what are all these, but the results of weakness? The

world is made weaker and weaker every day by such teachings. Men are

taught from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that

they are all glorious children of immortality, even those who are the

weakest in manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter

into their brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these

thoughts, and not to weakening and paralysing ones. Say to your own

minds, " I am He. I am He. " Let it ring day and night in your minds

like a song, and at the point of death declare, " I am He. " That is

the Truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours. Drive out the

superstition that has covered your minds. Let us be brave. Know the

Truth and practise the Truth. The goal may be distant, but awake,

arise, and stop not till the goal is reached.

 

- Swami Vivekananda