Realisation

[Guest guest]

" This Atman is not to be realised by the power of speech, nor by a

vast intellect, nor by the study of the Vedas. " This is a very bold

utterance. As I told you before, the sages were very bold thinkers,

and never stopped at anything. You will remember that in India these

Vedas are regarded in a much higher light than even the Christians

regard their Bible. Your idea of revelation is that a man was

inspired by God; but in India the idea is that things exist because

they are in the Vedas. In and through the Vedas the whole creation

has come. All that is called knowledge is in the Vedas. Every word is

sacred and eternal, eternal as the soul, without beginning and

without end. The whole of the Creator's mind is in this book, as it

were. That is the light in which the Vedas are held. Why is this

thing moral? Because the Vedas say so. Why is that thing immoral?

Because the Vedas say so. In spite of that, look at the boldness of

these sages who proclaimed that the truth is not to be found by much

study of the Vedas. " With whom the Lord is pleased, to that man He

expresses Himself. " But then, the objection may be advanced that this

is something like partisanship. But Yama explains, " Those who are

evil-doers, whose minds are not peaceful, can never see the Light. It

is to those who are true in heart, pure in deed, whose senses are

controlled, that this Self manifests Itself. "

 

Here is a beautiful figure. Picture the Self to be the rider and this

body the chariot, the intellect to be the charioteer, mind the reins,

and the senses the horses. He whose horses are well broken, and whose

reins are strong and kept well in the hands of the charioteer (the

intellect) reaches the goal which is the state of Him, the

Omnipresent. But the man whose horses (the senses) are not

controlled, nor the reins (the mind) well managed, goes to

destruction. This Atman in all beings does not manifest

 

Himself to the eyes or the senses, but those whose minds have become

purified and refined realise Him. Beyond all sound, all sight, beyond

form, absolute, beyond all taste and touch, infinite, without

beginning and without end, even beyond nature, the Unchangeable; he

who realises Him, frees himself from the jaws of death. But it is

very difficult. It is, as it were, walking on the edge of a razor;

the way is long and perilous, but struggle on, do not despair. Awake,

arise, and stop not till the goal is reached.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued