Swami Vivekananda speech on Jivanmukta and free soul

[Guest guest]

THE FREE SOUL (Delivered in New York, 1896)

 

Philosophy is no joke or talk. It has to be realised; this body will vanish,

this earth and everything will vanish, this idea that I am the body or the

mind will for some time vanish, or if the Karma is ended it will disappear,

never to come back; but if one part of the Karma remains, then as a potter's

wheel, after the potter has finished the pot, will sometimes go on from the

past momentum, so this body, when the delusion has vanished altogether, will

go on for some time. Again this world will come, men and women and animals

will come, just as the mirage came the next day, but not with the same

force; along with it will come the idea that I know its nature now, and it

will cause no bondage, no more pain, nor grief, nor misery. Whenever

anything miserable will come, the mind will be able to say, " I know you as

hallucination. " When a man has reached that state, he is called Jivanmukta,

living-free " , free even while living. The aim and end in this life for the

Jnâna-Yogi is to become this Jivanmukta, " living-free " .

 

He is Jivanmukta who can live in this world without being attached.He is

like the lotus leaves in water, which are never wetted by the water.

 

If we have known the Âtman as It is, if we have known that there is nothing

else but this Atman, that everything else is but a dream, with no existence

in reality, then this world with its poverties, its miseries, its

wickedness, and its goodness will cease to disturb us. If they do not exist,

for whom and for what shall we take trouble? This is what the Jnana-Yogis

teach.Therefore, dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads,

and dare to carry that out in your life. It is very hard to come to Jnâna. It

is for the bravest and most daring, who dare to smash all idols, not only

intellectual, but in the senses. This body is not I; it must go. All sorts

of curious things may come out of this.

 

A man stands up and says, " I am not the body, therefore my headache must be

cured " ; but where is the headache if not in his body? Let a thousand

headaches and a thousand bodies come and go. What is that to me? I have

neither birth nor death; father or mother I never had; friends and foes I

have none, because they are all I. I am my own friend, and I am my own

enemy. I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.I am He, I am He. If in a

thousand bodies I am suffering from fever and other ills, in millions of

bodies I am healthy. If in a thousand bodies I am starving, in other

thousand bodies I am feasting. If in thousands of bodies I am suffering

misery, in thousands of bodies I am happy. Who shall blame whom, who praise

whom? Whom to seek, whom to avoid? I seek none, nor avoid any, for I am all

the universe. I praise myself, I blame myself, I suffer for myself, I am

happy at my own will, I am free. This is the Jnâni, the brave and daring.

Let the whole universe tumble down; he smiles and says it never existed, it

was all a hallucination. He sees the universe tumble down. Where was it!

Where has it gone!

 

In the vulgar form the question becomes, " How did sin come into this world? "

This is the most vulgar and sensuous form of the question, and the other is

the most philosophic form, but the answer is the same. The same question has

been asked in various grades and fashions, but in its lower forms it finds

no solution, because the stories of apples and serpents and women do not

give the explanation. In that state, the question is childish, and so is the

answer. But the question has assumed very high proportions now: " How did

this illusion come? " And the answer is as fine. The answer is that we cannot

expect any answer to an impossible question. The very question is impossible

in terms. You have no right to ask that question. Why? What is perfection?

That which is beyond time, space, and causation — that is perfect.

 

Then you ask how the perfect became imperfect. In logical language the

question may be put in this form: " How did that which is beyond causation

become caused? " You contradict yourself. You first admit it is beyond

causation, and then ask what causes it. This question can only be asked

within the limits of causation. As far as time and space and causation

extend, so far can this question be asked. But beyond that it will be

nonsense to ask it, because the question is illogical. Within time, space,

and causation it can never be answered, and what answer may lie beyond these

limits can only be known when we have transcended them;therefore the wise

will let this question rest. When a man is ill, he devotes himself to curing

his disease without insisting that he must first learn how he came to have

it.

 

Source:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_3/L\

ectures_and_Discourses/The_Free_Soul

 

--

Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram

 

Love And Love Alone