Realisation

[Guest guest]

Perfection is always infinite. We are this infinite already, and we

are trying to manifest that infinity. You and I, and all beings, are

trying to manifest it. So far it is all right. But from this fact

some German philosophers have started a peculiar theory--that this

manifestation will become higher and higher until we attain perfect

manifestation, until we have become perfect beings. What is meant by

perfect manifestation? Perfection means infinity, and manifestation

means limit, and so it means that we shall become unlimited limiteds,

which is self-contradictory. Such a theory may please children; but

it is poisoning their minds with lies, and is very bad for religion.

But we know that this world is a degradation, that man is a

degradation of God, and that Adam fell. There is no religion today

that does not teach that man is a degradation. We have been degraded

down to the animal, and are now going up, to emerge out of this

bondage. But we shall never be able entirely to manifest the Infinite

here. We shall struggle hard, but there will come a time when we

shall find that it is impossible to be perfect here, while we are

bound by the senses. And then the march back to our original state of

Infinity will be sounded.

 

This is renunciation. We shall have to get out of the difficulty by

reversing the process by which we got in, and then morality and

charity will begin. What is the watchword of all ethical codes? " Not

I, but thou " , and this " I " is the outcome of the Infinite behind,

trying to manifest Itself on the outside world. This little " I " is

the result, and it will have to go back and join the Infinite, its

own nature. Every time you say, " Not I, my brother, but thou " , you

are trying to go back, and every time you say " I, and not thou " , you

take the false step of trying to manifest the Infinite through the

sense-world. That brings struggles and evils into the world, but

after a time renunciation must come, eternal renunciation. That

little " I " is dead and gone. Why care so much for this little life?

All these vain desires of living and enjoying this life, here or in

some other place, bring death.

 

If we are developed from animals, the animals also may be degraded

men. How do you know it is not so? You have seen that the proof of

evolution is simply this: you find a series of bodies from the lowest

to the highest rising in a gradually ascending scale. But from that

how can you insist that it is always from the lower upwards, and

never from the higher downwards? The argument applies both ways, and

if anything is true, I believe it is that the series is repeating

itself in going up and down. How can you have evolution without

involution? Our struggle for the higher life shows that we have been

degraded from a high state. It must be so, only it may vary as to

details. I always cling to the idea set forth with one voice by

Christ, Buddha, and the Vedanta, that we must all come to perfection

in time, but only by giving up this imperfection. This world is

nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the

Reality. We must go to the Reality. Renunciation will take us to It.

Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of

goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of

ourselves. This little separate self must die. Then we shall find

that we are in the Real, and that Reality is God, and He is our own

true nature, and He is always in us and with us. Let us live in Him

and stand in Him. It is the only joyful state of existence. Life on

the plane of the Spirit is the only life, and let us all try to

attain to this realisation.

 

- Swami Vivekananda