Swami Vivekananda Discourses On Jnana-Yoga

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Volume 8, Lectures And Discourses

 

This world is a relative world, a shadow of the real; still, being the plane

of equipoise where happiness and misery are about evenly balanced, it is the

only plane where man can realise his true Self and know that he is Brahman.

 

The greatest teacher of the Vedanta philosophy was Shankaracharya. By solid

reasoning he extracted from the Vedas the truths of Vedanta, and on them

built up the wonderful system of Jnana that is taught in his commentaries.

He unified all the conflicting descriptions of Brahman and showed that there

is only one Infinite Reality. He showed too that as man can only travel

slowly on the upward road, all the varied presentations are needed to suit

his varying capacity. We find something akin to this in the teachings of

Jesus, which he evidently adapted to the different abilities of his hearers.

First he taught them of a Father in heaven and to pray to Him. Next he rose

a step higher and told them, " I am the vine, you are the branches " , and

lastly he gave them the highest truth: " I and my Father are one " , and " The

Kingdom of Heaven is within you. " Shankara taught that three things were the

great gifts of God: (1) human body, (2) thirst after God, and (3) a teacher

who can show us the light. When these three great gifts are ours, we may

know that our redemption is at hand. Only knowledge can free and save us,

but with knowledge must go virtue.

 

Do not pity anyone. Look upon all as your equal, cleanse yourself of the

primal sin of inequality. We are all equal and must not think, " I am good

and you are bad, and I am trying to reclaim you " . Equality is the sign of

the free. Jesus came to publicans and sinners and lived with them. He never

set himself on a pedestal. Only sinners see sin. See not man, see only the

Lord. Spirit is not in time, nor in space. Realise " I am Existence Absolute,

Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute -- i am He, I am He " . Be glad at birth,

be glad at death, rejoice always in the love of God.

 

Thought is all important, for " what we think we become " . There was once a

Sannyasin, a holy man, who sat under a tree and taught the people. He drank

milk, and ate only fruit, and made endless " Pranayamas " , and felt himself to

be very holy. In the same village lived an evil woman. Every day the

Sannyasin went and warned her that her wickedness would lead her to hell.

The poor woman, unable to change her method of life which was her only means

of livelihood, was still much moved by the terrible future depicted by the

Sannyasin. She wept and prayed to the Lord, begging Him to forgive her

because she could not help herself. By and by both the holy man and the evil

woman died. The angels came and bore her to heaven, while the demons claimed

the soul of the Sannyasin. " Why is this! " he exclaimed, " have I not lived a

most holy life, and preached holiness to everybody? Why should I be taken to

hell while this wicked woman is taken to heaven? " " Because, " answered the

demons, " while she was forced to commit unholy acts, her mind was always

fixed on the Lord and she sought deliverance, which has now come to her. But

you, on the contrary, while you performed only holy acts, had your mind

always fixed on the wickedness of others. You saw only sin, and thought only

of sin, so now you have to go to that place where only sin is. " The moral of

the story is obvious: The outer life avails little. The heart must be pure

and the pure heart sees only good, never evil. We should never try to be

guardians of mankind, or to stand on a pedestal as saints reforming sinners.

Let us rather purify ourselves, and the result must be that in so doing we

shall help others.

 

The satisfaction of desire only increases it, as oil poured on fire but

makes it burn more fiercely. Only through renunciation of this life and of

all life to come (heaven etc.), can we reach the point where we stand firmly

on the true Self. While we hope for anything, desire still rules us.

 

Buddha and Christ are the two greatest " bubbles " the world has known. They

were great souls who having realised freedom helped others to escape.

Neither was perfect, but they are to be judged by their virtues, never by

their defects. Jesus fell short, because he did not always live up to his

own highest ideal; and above all, because he did not give woman an equal

place with man. Woman did everything for him, yet not one was made an

apostle. This was doubtless owing to his Semitic origin. The great Aryans,

Buddha among the rest, have always put woman in an equal position with man.

For them sex in religion did not exist. In the Vedas and Upanishads, women

taught the highest truths and received the same veneration as men.

 

Both happiness and misery are chains, the one golden, the other iron; but

both are equally strong to bind us and hold us back from realising our true

nature. The Atman knows neither happiness nor misery. These are mere

" states " , and states must ever change. The nature of the soul is bliss and

peace unchanging. We have not to get it; we have it; let us wash away the

dross from our eyes and see it. We must stand ever on the Self and look with

perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world. It is but baby's play

and ought never to disturb us. If the mind is pleased by praise, it will be

pained by blame.

 

--

Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram