HINTS ON PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY

[Guest guest]

HINTS ON PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY

Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Mon Jun 4, 2007 8:15 pm (PST)

HINTS ON PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY - Swami Vivekananda

(Delivered at the Home of Truth, Los Angeles, California)

 

Practical psychology directs first of all its energies in controlling

the unconscious, and we know that we can do it. Why? Because we know

the cause of the unconscious is the conscious; the unconscious

thoughts are the submerged millions of our old conscious thoughts,

old conscious actions become petrified -- we do not look at them, do

not know them, have forgotten them. But mind you, if the power of

evil is in the unconscious, so also is the power of good. We have

many things stored in us as in a pocket. We have forgotten them, do

not even think of them, and there are many of them, rotting, becoming

positively dangerous; they come forth, the unconscious causes which

kill humanity. True psychology would, therefore, try to bring them

under the control of the conscious. The great task is to revive the

whole man, as it were, in order to make him the complete master of

himself. Even what we call the automatic action of the organs within

our bodies, such as the liver etc., can be made to obey our commands.

 

This is the first part of the study, the control of the unconscious.

The next is to go beyond the conscious. Just as unconscious work is

beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above

consciousness. When this superconscious state is reached, man becomes

free and divine; death becomes immortality, weakness becomes infinite

power, and iron bondage becomes liberty. That is the goal, the

infinite realm of the superconscious.

 

So, therefore, we see now that there must be a twofold work. First,

by the proper working of the Ida and the Pingala, which are the two

existing ordinary currents, to control the subconscious action; and

secondly, to go beyond even consciousness.

 

The books say that he alone is the Yogi who, after long practice in

self-concentration, has attained to this truth. The Sushumna now

opens and a current which never before entered into this new passage

will find its way into it, and gradually ascend to (what we call in

figurative language) the different lotus centres, till at last it

reaches the brain. Then the Yogi becomes conscious of what he really

is, God Himself.

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page : 35 ]

 

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has

the blame, none has the praise.

- Swami Vivekananda