Part2 -- Swami Vivekananda Inspired Talks

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Volume 7, Inspired Talks

 

The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. No one is greater: realise you

are Brahman. Nothing has power except what you give it. We are beyond the

sun, the stars, the universe. Teach the Godhood of man. Deny evil, create

none. Stand up and say, I am the master, the master of all. We forge the

chain, and we alone can break it.

 

The Bhagavad-Gita is the best authority on Vedanta.

 

Hold your money merely as custodian for what is God's. Have no attachment

for it. Let name and fame and money go; they are a terrible bondage. Feel

the wonderful atmosphere of freedom. You are free, free, free! Oh, blessed

am I! Freedom am I! I am the Infinite! In my soul I can find no beginning

and no end. All is my Self. Say this unceasingly.

 

To attain liberation through work, join yourself to work but without desire,

looking for no result. Such work leads to knowledge, which in turn brings

emancipation. To give up work before you know, leads to misery. Work done

for the Self gives no bondage. Neither desire pleasure nor fear pain from

work. It is the mind and body that work, not I. Tell yourself this

unceasingly and realise it. Try not to know that you work.

 

" I am the doer and the deed. " " He who can stem the tide of lust and anger is

a great Yogi. "

 

" Only by practice and non-attachment can we conquer mind. " . . .

 

To love anyone personally is bondage. Love all alike, then all desires fall

off.

 

Time, the " eater of everything " , comes, and all has to go. Why try to

improve the earth, to paint the butterfly? It all has to go at last. Do not

be mere white mice in a treadmill, working always and never accomplishing

anything. Every desire is fraught with evil, whether the desire itself be

good or evil. It is like a dog jumping for a piece of meat which is ever

receding from his reach, and dying a dog's death at last. Do not be like

that. Cut off all desire.

 

To injure another creates bondage and hides the truth. Negative virtues are

not enough; we have to conquer Maya, and then she will follow us. We only

deserve things when they cease to bind us. When the bondage ceases, really

and truly, all things come to us. Only those who want nothing are masters of

nature.

 

Take refuge in some soul who has already broken his bondage, and in time he

will free you through his mercy. Higher still is to take refuge in the Lord

(Ishvara), but it is the most difficult; only once in a century can one be

found who has really done it. Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have

nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, " Thy will be done " . We only

dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go. Take refuge in God, only so can

we cross the desert of Maya. " Let go thy hold, Sannyasin bold, say, Om tat

sat, Om! "

 

What we need today is to know there is a God and that we can see and feel

Him here and now. A Chicago professor says, " Take care of this world, God

will take care of the next. " What nonsense! If we can take care of this

world, what need of a gratuitous Lord to take care of the other!

 

Say, " it is my nature " , never say, " It is my duty " — to do anything

whatever.

 

From the earliest times in India the Brahmin caste have held themselves

beyond all law; they claim to be gods. They are poor, but their weakness is

that they seek power. Here are about sixty millions of people who are good

and moral and hold no property, and they are what they are because from

their birth they are taught that they are above law, above punishment. They

feel themselves to be " twice-born " , to be sons of God.

 

" All knowledge depends upon calmness of mind. "

 

" No thought, no word, no deed, creates a bondage for me. I am beyond the

senses, I am knowledge and bliss. "

 

Jesus was imperfect because he did not live up fully to his own ideal, and

above all because he did not give woman a place equal to man. Women did

everything for him, and yet he was so bound by the Jewish custom that not

one was made an apostle. Still he was the greatest character next to Buddha,

who in his turn was not fully perfect. Buddha, however, recognised woman's

right to an equal place in religion, and his first and one of his greatest

disciples was his own wife, who became the head of the whole Buddhistic

movement among the women of India. But we ought not to criticise these great

ones, we should only look upon them as far above ourselves. Nonetheless we

must not pin our faith to any man, however great; we too must become Buddhas

and Christs.

 

.... To Be Continued

 

 

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram