THE REAL NATURE OF MAN

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Posted by: " Uttishthata " uttishthata

Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:23 pm (PST)

 

THE REAL NATURE OF MAN - Swami Vivekananda

 

Then there is the other position -- to seek for an explanation, to

seek for the real, to discover in the midst of this eternally

changing and evanescent world whatever is real. In this body which

is an aggregate of molecules of matter, is there anything which is

real? This has been the search throughout the history of the human

mind. In the very oldest times, we often find glimpses of light

coming into men's minds. We find man, even then, going a step beyond

this body, finding something which is not this external body,

although very much like it, much more complete, much more perfect,

and which remains even when this body is dissolved. We read in the

hymns of the Rig - veda, addressed to the God of Fire who is burning

a dead body, " Carry him, O Fire, in your arms gently, give him a

perfect body, a bright body, carry him where the fathers live, where

there is no more sorrow, where there is no more death. " The same

idea you will find present in every religion. And we get another

idea with it. It is a significant fact that all religions, without

one exception, hold that man is a degeneration of what he was,

whether they clothe this in mythological words, or in the clear

language of philosophy, or in the beautiful expressions of poetry.

This is the one fact that comes out of every scripture and of every

mythology that the man that is, is a degeneration of what he was.

This is the kernel of truth within the story of Adam's fall in the

Jewish scripture. This is again and again repeated in the scriptures

of the Hindus; the dream of a period which they call the Age of

Truth, when no man died unless he wished to die, when he could keep

his body as long as he liked, and his mind was pure and strong.

There was no evil and no misery; and the present age is a corruption

of that state of perfection. Side by side with this, we find the

story of the deluge everywhere. That story itself is a proof that

this present age is held to be a corruption of a former age by every

religion. It went on becoming more and more corrupt until the deluge

swept away a large portion of mankind, and again the ascending

series began. It is going up slowly again to reach once more the

early state of purity. You are all aware of the story of the deluge

in the Old Testament. The same story was current among the ancient

Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Chinese, and the Hindus. Manu, a

great ancient sage, was praying on the bank of the Ganga, when a

little minnow came to him for protection, and he put it into a pot

of water he had before him. " What do you want? " asked Manu. The

little minnow declared he was pursued by a bigger fish and wanted

protection. Manu carried the little fish to his home, and in the

morning he had become as big as the pot and said, " I cannot live in

this pot any longer " . Manu put him in a tank, and the next day he

was as big as the tank and declared he could not live there any

more. So Manu had to take him to a river, and in the morning the

fish filled the river. Then Manu put him in the ocean, and he

declared, " Manu, I am the Creator of the universe. I have taken this

form to come and warn you that I will deluge the world. You build an

ark and in it put a pair of every kind of animal, and let your

family enter the ark, and there will project out of the water my

horn. Fasten the ark to it; and when the deluge subsides, come out

and people the earth. " So the world was deluged, and Manu saved his

own family and two of every kind of animal and seeds of every plant.

When the deluge subsided, he came and peopled the world; and we are

called " man " , because we are the progeny of Manu.

 

To be continued..

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume 2 [ Page : 72 ]

(Delivered in London)

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

The Atman alone is eternal. Hospitals will tumble down. Railroad

givers will all die. This earth will be blown to pieces, suns wiped

out. The Atman endures for ever.

- Swami Vivekananda