Realisation

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Our only hope then lies in penetrating deeper. The early thinkers

discovered that the farther they were from the centre, the more

marked were the variations and differentiations; and that the nearer

they approached the centre, the nearer they were to unity. The nearer

we are to the centre of a circle, the nearer we are to the common

ground in which all the radii meet; and the farther we are from the

centre, the more divergent is our radial line from the others. The

external world is far away from the centre, and so there is no common

ground in it where all the phenomena of existence can meet. At best,

the external world is but one part of the whole of phenomena. There

are other parts, the mental, the moral, and the intellectual--the

various planes of existence--and to take up only one, and find a

solution of the whole out of that one, is simply impossible. We

first, therefore, want to find somewhere a centre from which, as it

were, all the other planes of existence start, and standing there we

should try to find a solution. That is the proposition. And where is

that centre? It is within us. The ancient sages penetrated deeper and

deeper until they found that in the innermost core of the human soul

is the centre of the whole universe. All the planes gravitate towards

that one point. That is the common ground, and standing there alone

can we find a common solution. So the question who made this world is

not very philosophical, nor does its solution amount to anything.

 

This the Katha Upanishad speaks in very figurative language. There

was, in ancient times, a very rich man, who made a certain sacrifice

which required that he should give away everything that he had. Now,

this man was not sincere. He wanted to get the fame and glory of

having made the sacrifice, but he was only giving things which were

of no further use to him--old cows, barren, blind, and lame. He had a

boy called Nachiketas. This boy saw that his father was not doing

what was right, that he was breaking his vow; but he did not know

what to say to him. In India, father and mother are living gods to

their children. And so the boy approached the father with the

greatest respect and humbly inquired of him, " Father, to whom are you

going to give me? For your sacrifice requires that everything shall

be given away. " The father was very much vexed at this question and

replied, " What do you mean, boy? A father giving away his own son? "

The boy asked the question a second and a third time, and then the

angry father answered, " Thee I give unto Death (Yama). " And the story

goes on to say that the boy went to Yama, the god of death. Yama was

the first man who died. He went to heaven and became the governor of

all the Pitris; all the good people who die, go, and live with him

for a long time. He is very pure and holy person, chaste and good, as

his name (Yama) implies.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued