Realisation

[Guest guest]

So the boy went to Yama's world. But even gods are sometimes not at

home, and three days this boy had to wait there. After the third day

Yama returned. " O learned one, " said Yama, " you have been waiting

here for three days without food, and you are a guest worthy of

respect. Salutation to thee, O Brahmin, and welfare to me! I am very

sorry I was not at home. But for that I will make amends. Ask three

boons, one for each day. " And the boy asked, " My first boon is that

my father's anger against me may pass away; that he will be kind to

me and recognise me when you allow me to depart. " Yama granted this

fully. The next boon was that he wanted to know about a certain

sacrifice which took people to heaven. Now we have seen that the

oldest idea which we got in the Samhita portion of the Vedas was only

about heaven where they had bright bodies and lived with the fathers.

Gradually other ideas came, but they were not satisfying; there was

still need for something higher. Living in heaven would not be very

different from life in this world. At best, it would only be a very

healthy rich man's life, with plenty of sense-enjoyments and a sound

body which knows no disease. It would be this material world, only a

little more refined; and we have seen the difficulty that the

external material world can never solve the problem. So no heaven can

solve the problem. If this world cannot solve the problem, no

multiplication of this world can do so, because we must always

remember that matter is only an infinitesimal part of the phenomena

of nature. The vast part of phenomena which we actually see is not

matter. For instance, in every moment of our life what a great part

is played by thought and feeling, compared with the material

phenomena outside! How vast is this internal world with its

tremendous activity! The sense-phenomena are very small compared with

it. The heaven solution commits this mistake; it insists that the

whole of phenomena is only in touch, taste, sight, etc. So this idea

of heaven did not give full satisfaction to all. Yet Nachiketas asks,

as the second boon, about some sacrifice through which people might

attain to this heaven. There was an idea in the Vedas that these

sacrifices pleased the gods and took human beings to heaven.

 

In studying all religions you will notice the fact that whatever is

old becomes holy. For instance, our forefathers in India used to

write on birch bark, but in time they learnt how to make paper. Yet

the birch bark is still looked upon as very holy. When the utensils

is which they used to cook in ancient times were improved upon, the

old ones became holy; and nowhere is this idea more kept up than in

India. Old methods, which must be nine or ten thousand years old, as

of rubbing two sticks together to make fire, are still followed. At

the time of sacrifice no other method will do. So with the other

branch of the Asiatic Aryans. Their modern descendants still like to

obtain fire from lightning, showing that they used to get fire in

this way. Even when they learnt other customs, they kept up the old

ones, which then became holy. So with the Hebrews. They used to write

on parchment. They now write on paper, but parchment is very holy. So

with all nations. Every rite which you now consider holy was simply

an old custom, and the Vedic sacrifice were of this nature. In course

of time, as they found better methods of life, their ideas were much

improved; still these old forms remained, and from time to time they

were practised and received a holy significance.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued