Swami Vivekananda says It is through the Self that you know anything

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PRACTICAL VEDANTA PART I (Delivered in London, 10th November 1896)

 

Faith in ourselves will do everything.

 

I have experienced it in my own life, and am still doing so; and as I grow

older that faith is becoming stronger and stronger. He is an atheist who

does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist

who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the atheist who

does not believe in himself. But it is not selfish faith because the

Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means faith in all, because

you are all. Love for yourselves means love for all, love for animals, love

for everything, for you are all one. It is the great faith which will make

the world better. I am sure of that. He is the highest man who can say with

truth, " I know all about myself. " Do you know how much energy, how many

powers, how many forces are still lurking behind that frame of yours? What

scientist has known all that is in man?

 

That One is manifesting Himself as many, as matter, spirit, mind, thought,

and everything else. It is that One, manifesting Himself as many. Therefore

the first step for us to take is to teach the truth to ourselves and to

others.

 

The whole idea of ethics is that it does not depend on anything unknowable,

it does not teach anything unknown, but in the language of the Upanishad,

" The God whom you worship as an unknown God, the same I preach unto thee. " It

is through the Self that you know anything. I see the chair; but to see the

chair, I have first to perceive myself and then the chair. It is in and

through the Self that the chair is perceived. It is in and through the Self

that you are known to me, that the whole world is known to me; and therefore

to say this Self is unknown is sheer nonsense. Take off the Self and the

whole universe vanishes. In and through the Self all knowledge comes.

Therefore it is the best known of all. It is yourself, that which you call

I.

 

Source:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_2/P\

ractical_Vedanta_and_other_lectures/Practical_Vedanta:_Part_I

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram