.........
And Norendra would
speak of a Great Power behind the universe, and insist that
the true "I,” the true Nature of man, was beyond* thought
and form and that the whole purpose of evolution was to
tnanifest the Divinity already in Man.
And from this height of ecstasy Norendra addressed the
monks charging them to become themselves Christs, to aid in
the Redemption of the World. They were to realise God
and deny themselves even as the Lord Jesus had done.
And the watch-
word of the night and of their hearts were, “ Realisation
throurgh Renunciation ! ”
In their burning desire for God-
vision some one or other would think, as did Norendra, of
giving up the body in Prayopaveshanay that is, starving one-
self to death without rising from the meditation-seat if the
Goal was not reached.
The more circum-
stances are against you, the more will your inner power be-
come manifest. Do you understand?” Of course, the Swami
said all this speaking only to his disciple in order to infuse in
him a longing to lead a similar life of devotion and renuncia-
tion; otherwise he was intensely reticent about these subjects.
“Had I lived in Palestine, in the days of Jesus
of Nazareth, I would have washed His Feet, not with my
tears, but with my heart’s blood !”
the days of the saints....
Nag Mahashaya lived in a low tiled hut near the banks of
the Ganges, in the Kumartoli section of Calcutta. After the
passing of the Master, an intense yearning foi* Realisation
came upon him and he spent days and nights in weeping
for the Beatific Vision of God. Indeed he was like a
madman. He would eat nothing. Sometimes a friend
would force him to eat. Otherwise, so great was his
intensity and agony of spiritual desire that he forgot the
body and all physical requirements. The monks of the
44 the life of the swami vivekananda.
Baranagore Math heard ot the condition of N4g MahAshaya,
and the Leader himself went from the monastery to visit
the shrine of NAg Mahdshaya, for verily was it a shrine and he
the Saint therein. The Leader had heard that for four or five
days the great devotee had eaten nothing in spite of the en-
treaties of his friends. When he with the Monks Turiyinanda
and Akhandananda came to the hut they found N^g Mah&-
shaya lying under the cover of a quilt, writhing in agony for
God, like one suffering from a paroxysm of high fever.
“Eh ! Shall I give food to this wretched body by which God
is not realised !” Therewith he began to throw the sweets and
other things upon the ground. Wonderful was N^g MahS-
sha)'a! Seeing this divine madness of the devotee, Swamiji
could with great difficulty res^ain his tears.
ow many times have I not seen the^orms of Mother Kali and
those ot th*e Personal God I But, O where, O where is Peace !
I am dissatisfied with everything. It all seems so distasteful
to me, even talking to devotees ! I want the highest bliss of
Sachchidanandam I It seems there is no such thing as God.
Let me starve to death and see if I cannot plunge into the
Beyond, beyond all limitations of Name and Form!"
The spirit of true Sannyas was upon all. And the Leader
would say in protest to a householder’s argument, “What I
Even if we do not see God, shall we return to the refuse of
the senses ? Shall we degrade our higher nature ? No matter
what comes, let us live for the Ideal ! Let the body go ! Let
everything go 1 Are we not the Children of Sri Ramakrishna ?’’
And the Swami Vivekananda himself said,
referring to N&g MahAshaya, “Our whole life is spent in
searching for that Honey which is Truth ! You, Nig
Mahishaya, are blessed, since you are a Bee sucking that
Sweet Honey all the time !” Turning to the disciples he
added, “He is a true son of Sri Ramakrishna, He has
truly realised Him !” And in the latter part of his life when
he visited Dacca and saw the house of this great saint, who
had passed away two years before, the Swami Vivekananda
said, “Those who have served N4g Mah4shaya with devotion
need no more sadhana, I have travelled all over the world
but have not come across another saint like N4g Mah4shaya !
I have known him for twenty-five years, but have not marked
any ebb and flow in his devotions. Saturated with one uni-
form trend of feeling, with his heart ever fixed in prayer to
God, calm and unmoved in*adversity and physical sufferings,
he is an object-lesson of how to live in the world the un-
worldly life ! O what a wonderful faith, what a longing for
Realisation he had !”
for in those days these
young spiritual heroes who had sat at the Feet of Sri
Ramakrishna, developed the greatest strength and holiness
each was capable of. These trained spiritual lions, had
about them an air of defiance of the universe itself, so pro-
minent in the saints of all ages, so that those who came with-
in the sphere of their influence were caught up in their
spirit of God-intoxication. Here were these young men
whom Sri Ramakrishna had made his very own, each one
representing a phase, in the degree of manifestation, of the
Master himself, undergoing with the delight of children the
most austere of ascetic practices, calling on the name of the
Lord until their voices gave way and they sank into the state
of meditation.
It was all burning ecstasy and tremendous asceticism. It
was the re-kinclling and re-quickening of the great spiritual
Flame which burned at Dakshineswar as the Effulgent
Efilightenmcnt of many souls.
...........calling on the name of the
Lord until their voices gave way and they sank into the state
of meditation.
the pravrajika tendency (after 50)
pavhari Baba
“They are yours ! They are
yours I Your need is greater than mine I” And at another
time, being bitten by a cobra he said on reviving that the
cobra was “a Messenger from my Beloved !” All physical
illness was to him but “a Messenger from the Beloved T He
was as great a Jn&ni as a Bhakta.
86
The lowest and the highest are
the manifestations of Infinite Perfection and the Goal of all
*Creation is the attainment of Brahman ! Personal develop-
tnent and cosmic evolution are the means, and the inspiring
RAMAKRISHNA OR PAVHARI BABA ?
forces are both pain and pleasure, both good and evil, both
light and darkness, and both the creative and the destructive
aspects of Reality !** In this glowing vision all finiteness dies
out, said the Swami. Only the Infinite and Eternal are mani-
fest, and here and now^ in spite of finiteness and of time. Here
and hereafter are only names, the Reality IS, irrespective
of the limitations of space and time.
And that which per-
ceives Reality is the awakened spiritualised consciousness,,
which neither time nor space can circumscribe.
95
Here under this
Banyan-tree one of the greatest problems of my life has
been solved!” His fellow-monk looked at the Swami and saw
his face beaming with ecstasy. “What is it, Swamiji ?” he
cried out. And the Swami answered, “I have found the One-
ness between the macrocosm and the microcosm ! In this
little Brahmanda of the body everything that there is, exists.
I have seen the whole Universe within an atom !” And be
rose to a supreme moment of Jnanam, and for that whole
day discussed with him the history of his realisation.
What Swamiji entered in a fragmentary way in his note-
book on that day, is given here, in translation, as it was
found, verbatim. From this one may get a glimpse of his
trend of thought and realisation. It reads : —
“[Kakrhighat, under the shade of a Banyan, by the bank of a stream.]
‘In the beginning was the Word. Word &c.
“The Microcosm and the Macrocosm are one. As the little self is
covered in the living body, so also the Great Universal Self is covered in
the external universe which is the Prak^iti made up of intelligence or life.
“ ‘Shiva on (the bosom of) the Shiva !’ — is not imagination. As a
mental idea and a word or speech can be pierced through, so is the one^s
covering the other. It can be only realised by analysing, through the
means of mental inference or imaginating faculty. None can think
without words.
“Hence, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, etc.
“This state of manifestation of the Universal Self is without begini^ing
and without end. Hence we know, see, feel, and so on, through the
unification of the dual aspects of the Self— *the Eternally Formless, and
the Eternally- with-Form.”
In the distant West, when as the Teacher he gave his
lectures on the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, one who
knows the story, sees reflected in their contents some of the
light of this sublime realisation.
“Many of these holy men hide in order to guard them-
selves against intrusion. People are a trouble to them. One
h^d human bones strewn about his cave and gave it out that
lie lived on corpses. Another threw stones, and so on.”
The Swami continued : “The Sanny^sin really needs no
longer to worship or to go on pilgrimage or perform austeri-
ties. What then is the motive of all this going from pilgrim-
age to pilgrimage, shrine to shrine, and austerity to austerity ?
He is acquiring merit, and giving it to the world ! ** Yes, such
a life w^s calling the Leader, not in all the severity of its
outward form, but certainly in its spirit, in its desire for reali-
sation and for solitude. His longing to see the Lord and
♦receive His commands became very great, so much so that it
struck his gurubhAis with awe, and it seemed to them that he
had received Direction. For Swamiji told them that he had
decided on the immediate course he was going to follow, and
that he bad iotind his mission. He gave out to bis brother-
monks that he would leave them in order to become the
solitary monk and be by himself. When Akhandananda
begged to be taken along with him he said, “The Maya oT
the gurubhdis is also Maya, even more so ! Thus one is
hindered in one’s resolutions and attainment of the Goal.
He said
to himself, "I must renounce this attachment for those whom
I hold to be the dearest. I must cut it out of my heart even as
I would an evil. All attachment is poison. Let me travel
alone ! Whenever I am in such company, a great uneasiness
pursues me, lest any one of them fall ill. This is a great
obstacle. I must remove ALL hindrances to tapasya !
And in his ears resounded constantly the words of the
Dhammapada, —
** Go forward without a path !
Fearing nothing, caring for nothing.
Wander alone, like the rhinoceros !
E^ven as the Jion, not trembling at noises.
Even as the wind, not caught in a net.
Even as the lotus-leaf, unstained by the water.
Do thou wander alone, like the rhinoceros ! ”
This great strength upheld him and inspired him. He was
saturated with the spirit of Shiva Himself. Renouncing alF
ties, breaking all bondages, tearing asunder all limitations,
destroying all sense of fear, the Leader went forth, even as
the rhinoceros — into the direction of Alwar, ill the beautifu)*
and historic land of Raj pu tana.
And the Swami read into this story the power of the
Maya of the universe and that of the realisation of the monk.
All beings who dwell within the folds of earthly conscious-
ness, churn the ocean of Maya, which is human life, receiving
endless treasures, that are pleasing to the senses. But sooi>
the poison, — the death of the soul — must come. The monk,
however, stands apart. Absorbed in the Self he desires none
of the enticing gifts which Maya offers ; but like Mahadeva,
he is ready to come to the assistance of those who lust after
sense pleasures, when in the presence of death, the terrible, they
approach him for the deliverance of their souls. Then he des-
troys the Maya for them and relieves the world of the fear
and the presence of df ath, showing by his acts that Death has
no terrors for the Soul of Realisation. How wonderful the tale i
How under the guise of legend it narrates the struggle of the
soul, burdened with the influence of desire ! Not until the
body-idea is overcome can there be peace. And the Swamii.
seated himself in meditation posture before the Iijiage,
pondered upon the greatness of its symbolism, desiring like
Mahadeva to renounce all and embrace death, and saying
in his inme^ heart, I am one .with the Indestructible ! **
"Truth, Maharajah, is One and Absolute ;
man travels constantly towards it, from truth to truth and
not from error to truth.” And then he went on, amplifying
his meaning, pointing out how all forms of knowledge and
experience and all forms of worship and of thought are paths
towards the Summit of the Mountain of Truth. He showed
how the true monk and the true householder could attain the
same Truth through separate paths.
He asked, “Swamiji, how can you read so
quickly ? ’* The reply came, “Your Highness, when a boy
first begins to read, be spells each letter of a wofd twice or
thrice in his mind before he pronounces it. His attention b
WITH THE MAHARAJAH OF KHETRI. I5I
confined to each single letter of a word ; but as he learns more
be docs not look at each letter but at a word as a wor^f, and
conceives the meaning at once. And gradually as one advances
more and more, and has perfect concentration on the subject
one is reading, one can take in a whole sentence without
difficulty. Again, if this power of grasping at once the
import of a sentence be greatly developed, one may read
even paragraph by paragraph at a glance, the mind absorbing
instinctively the actual elements and the essence of the
author’s thought It all depends upon practice, unbroken
Brahmacharyam and the concentration of mind. Anyone
may try, and the same experience will come to him !*’
For the woman had sung with
such tenderness and with such depth of feeling that the
words entered into his soul like fire, and verily he perceived
that “All this is One.” And from that day he called this
woman, “Mother ! ** and she, coming to know him, addressed
him as her son. This instance brings to mind the story of
how Sankara, the preacher of the Advaita Vedanta, was freed
from all sense of distinction by Shiva Himself who appeared
before him as a drunken chanddluy as he came from his bath
in the Ganges. Accidentally the chanddla touched the BrAhman
Philosopher and he called out, “Sirrah, how darest thou
touch me ! ” And then the story continues in a beautiful
way, the chanddla instructing the Brihman Advaitin in the
philosophy of Oneness, and showing how the Supreme Spirit
resides in all. And, lo and behold, the chandala revealed
himSelf as the Lord of Monks, and Sankara fell at His Feet.
And here in the palace of the Maharajah of Khetri,the Swami
had a similar experience which caused him to vanquish all
sense of distinction, even that between the very highest and the
very lowest, and he in an intense and luminous way perceived
Oneness, taught even by the song of a nautch-girl I And by
that song the Highest Truth was made manifest to the
wonder-stricken monk. Luminous, indeed, are the ways of
the Most High !
•*1 cannot have him live with me now ! I have still to find
out my mission and test the words of my Master ! Have I
not told them to leave me alone ! Again the old attachment
will arise, unless I tear it out of my heart immediately I”
And so, in spite of himself he assumed an attitude of indiffer-
ence, and going down the flight of stairs to his room on the
ground-floor he received Trigunatita.
187
“My man, you seem rather intelli-
gent. It befits a person of your type to exercise your own
discrimination. Spirituality has nothing to do with the dis-
play of psychical powers which, when analysed, show that the
man who performs them is the slave of desire and the most
egotistical of egotists. Spirituality involves the acquisition
of that true power, which is character. It is the vanquishing
of passion and the rooting out of desire. All this chasing
after psychical illusions, which means nothing in the solution
of the great problems of our life, is a terrible wasting of energy,
the most intense form of selfishness, and leads to degeneracy
of mind and physical conditions. It is this nonsense which
is demoralising our nation.
Once, in the course of his weary marches on foot, he
became dizzy from exhaustion and could walk no farther.
The sun was intolerably hot. Summoning his strength he
reached a tree near by and beneath its spreading branches sat
down. A sense of unutterable fatigue came over his limbs.
His brain was reeling. Everything whirled before his eyes,
and he thought that he would faint. Then, as a great
light chines suddenly upon the darkness, the thought came
to him, “Is it not true that within the soul resides all power ?
How can I be dominated by the body and the senses ?
How can I be weak ?** Therewith a sudden energy
flowed through his body. His mind became luminous. His
senses recovered themselves, and he arose and journeyed on,
determined that he would never yield to weakness. Many
times he was in such a state in his parivrdjaka life ; but he
asserted his higher nature again and again and life came to
him. Says the Swami in one of his lectures in California : —
“Many times I have been in the Jaws of death, starving, footsore, and
weary ; for days and days I had had no food, and could walk no farther ;
I would sink down under a tree, and life would seem to be ebbing away. 1
could not speak ; 1 could scarcely think ; but at last the mind reverted
to the idea : M have no fear nor death ; never was 1 born nor died ; 1
never hunger nor thirst. I am It ! I am It ! The whole of nature cannot
crush me ; nature is my servant, after all. Assert thy strength, thou
Lord of Lords and God of gods ! Regain thy lost empire 1 Arise and
proceed and stop not !’ And I would rise up, reinvigorated, and here ami
I, living, to-day. Thus, whenever the darkness comes, assert the reality
and everything adverse must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream.
Mountain high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though
all things seem, they are but Miy4. Fear not, and it is banished. Knock
it down, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it «nd it dies.”
At another time, whilst travelling afoot Cutch, he was
passing through a desert. The scorching r^ys 6f th<i sun
poured down upon him. His throat was parched and nowhere
near did his eyes find a human abode. On and on he went
until he saw a village with inviting pools of water. He sa^
the houses and be felt happy to think that he would find food,
FURTHER GLIMPSES OF THE PARIVRAJAKA^ LIFE. 217
drink and shelter there. He hastehe^ hfs steps, each moment
believing that it was only a few furlongs farther. But he
walked on and on and still the village seemed as far off as
before! Finally, in despair he sat down upon the sands and
looked up. Where was the village ! Where had it gone !
And then he knew- — it was only a mirage ! And then he
thought, “O, such is life ! Such is the deceit of M&y^. O for
the vision of Reality, O for the seeing of God !’* After a long
meditation he arose and journeyed on, and though he saw the
mirage all the time, he was never deceived by it, for he knew
what it was. When in the West he gave a series of lectures
upon he compared Miy4 to a mirage, speaking of this
experience. And one sees in this incident in the desert and
the solitude the cause of that later eloquence and intellectual
and spiritual insight into the nature of the dreaded MAy4.
Once he said in the presence of a disciple, as if he were
speaking to himself, “O the days of suffering I passed through!
Once having nothing to eat for three days I fell down sense-
less on the road. I did not know how long I was in that
state. When I regained my consciousness, I found my
clothing wet through by a shower of rain. Drenched in it,
I felt somewhat refreshed. I arose and after trudging along
some distance I reached a monastery and my life was saved
by the food that I received there.”
Many, many were the times when the Swami faced danger,
hardship and want in the solitude as the parivrdjt»ka. Often-
times there was nothing in his p)ossession save, perhaps,
a photograph of Sri Ramakrishna and a Gita. In Central
India, probably when he left Khandwa for some distance to
the north, he had many trying experiences meeting with
peoples of various natures who refused to give him food and
shelter, and offife having only the barest food after several days*
fasting.
261
On such occasions he asked
himself, “What is to be done ! What shall 1 say in n?y lec-
ture to-morrow !** And in response to his earnest desii^ to
sound .the very bottom of the creati^ facility for original
ideas he had many • wonderful experiences. At the dead of
night he would hear a, voice shouting at him the very
thoughts which he was to speak on the morrow. Sometimes
it would come from a long distance, speaking to him down
a great avenue, as it were ; and then it would draw nearer
and nearer. Or it would be like someone delivering a lec-
ture standing by him, while he lay on his bed listening thereto.
And what original thoughts expressed in beautiful words he
would hear ! At other times two voices would speak in
argument before h^m, discussing at great length subjects
that the Swami would find himself repeating on the follow-
ing day upon the platform or in the pulpit. Sometimes
these discussions involved ideas that the Swami had never,
heard or thought of previously. He would in some instances
arise from his bed and write down all that he had heard.
He was not, however, puzzled at these strange happen-
ings, and interpreted them as manifestations of the wider
functioning of facuHties. He spoke of thcrfn as subjective,
as mere automatic workings of the mind. The mind, imbued
with given forms of thought, works instinctively fn their
enlargement and on the creative faculties for their more per-
fect presentation and utterance. It was perhaps an extreme
case of the mind becoming its own Guru and the Swami
believed that the Rishis of old must have had such self-revela-
tion in composing the Upanishads. Commenting upon thege
experiences to his more intimate disciples he would remark
that they constituted what had been hitherto classified and
regarded as inspjiKation. Yet, though tfie Swami ascribed
only a |iighlj^ developed subjective character to these
experiences, it must be noted that there were inmates of the
VARYING EXPERIENCES AS PREACHER.
33S
«aine residence v^ho would ask him in the mornings ^‘Swami,
with whom were you discussing last night ? We heard you
talking loudly and enthusiastically and we were wondering/*
Hearing this, the Swami would smile at their bewilderment
and would answer in some far-fetched manner, leaving them
mystified, but to his disciples he would explain, speaking of
the powers and pibtent^ities of the Self, and they would be
wonderstruck to See that he denied them.to be miracles, ^
During this time and at certain subsequent periods of his
stay in the West the Swami felt several extraordinary yoga
powers developed spontaneously in him in a remarkable
manner. But in all these there was no display of psychic
•power. Though he felt that he had in these powers the nets
wherewith to catch souls, rarely did he ever exercise them
with determination ; and in the few cases that he did, it was
only for some grave reason, and that was assuredly not to
gain name and fame or some selfish ends, but invariably to
help a truly good soul, too feeble to rise above certain weak-
nesses and evil influences. He could change, if he so wished,
the whole trend of the life of any one by a simple touch. He
could see clearly things happenings within a great distance.
And some of the intimate disciples to whom he would
casually disclose this fact, becoming sceptic, prevailed upon
liim to allow them to test him, in spite of his abhorrence of
making a display of psychic powers, and they invariably
found his words to be true in every particular. And it so
happened that on many an occasion his students would find
him answering and solving those very doubts and questions
which they would be thinking of at the moment. He could
.also read one’s past life through and through and could see
at a glance the contents of one’s mind. Thus sometimes many
cf those who were sincere seekers after truth, feeling the cor-
rectness of his utterances, became his disciples and enthu*
siastic helpers in his work, and those who were bad at
heart never crossed his way, being afraid thi^t he would know
and might expose their secret thoughts and deeds.
As an
example may be cited the ease of a wealthy citten of.
336 THE LIFE OF THE SWAMI VIVEKANANliA.
Chicago, who meeting the Swami referred rather flippant!)^
to his assertions with regard to the powers of a spiritually
illumined Yogi and challenged him to prove them. The man
said, ‘Well, Sir, if all this which you say be true then tell
me something of my mental make-up, or of my past !” The
Swami hesitated a moment ; then his eyes fixed themselves
upon those of the man as though he would pierce, by some
qujet but irresistible power, through the body to the naked
soul. The man at oncq^ became nervous. His flippancy gave
way to sijdden seriousness and fear and he exclaimed,
“O Swami, what are you doing to me f It seems as if
my whole soul is being churned and all the secrets
of my life are being called up in strong colours !** When the
gentleman left the Swami’s presence he admitted being fully
convinced of the latter’s words. The Swami never attached
any impSItance to these powers as marks of the higlfest
spirituality and never cared to exercise them. At all times be
kept himself spiritually self-possessed, ,colouri|6g each and
every experience in spiritual terms and perceiving in every*
thing the glory of the Spirit. All the illu|iination which his
soul had known in the years of his sadhana and austerities
pressed in upon him in intense and multiform ways, the curr-
ents of spiritual energy running in various directions, increas-
ingthe overwhelming command over men which he possessed
and developing within i|j[m a contagious religious fervouh
356
At this time he worked more strenuously than ever ; he
gave his whole time to teaching by means of talks and
lectures, and regularly each day trained some chosen followers
how to practise quietude ^f mind in the silence of moditation.
Indeed, it was truly said that in the midst of his intense
activity he had the me<3itation>habit. Teaching his auditors
how to meditate he would himself drift into the meditative
state, and oftentimes so deep would he sink the plummet
of personality into then abyss of spiritual introspection that
he could not readily be brought back to normal consciousness ;
and those who were his students would rise from the class
and steal quietly away.
The chief feature of RAja Yoga he preached as intense
recollection or meditation. The results of meditation are
often foreshadowed in ordinary life, as when the mind is in-
tensely absorbed by some subject, one forgets his environment,
and the breathing becomes regulated and slow, and the body
assumes a definite posture. This is often instanced in tjie
case of professors, scientists and deep thinkers. In all ages
meditation has been kriown. Prayer is an approach to it.
Concentration is the result. Indeed, it is the state of the
mind when there is no longer effort at concentration. Conse-
quently, when the subject is highly spiritual, the physical
consebusness is naturally in comparative abeyance. When
ft is ixi complete abeyance what is known as Sam&dhi occurs.
Durin^i: this state perception becomes thoroughly spiritual-
ised and is transformed into spiritual instincts. The scope
of faculty is filled with but one stream of consciousness, and
that the deeply religious, the deeply mystical, the deeply
spiritual
As regards the higher experiences and powers, con-
lerminously awakened with the effort to realise the Divine
Nature^ the Swami knew only too from his personal
knowledge that they occur.
There must be sfag^es of degree
m realisation, minor forms of Insight between the commence-
merit of effort and the final attainment of the goal in
Sam^hi. For example,^! is commonly known that in medi-
tation, there may be a sudden welling-up, as it were, of
deeper conditions of personality from beneath the surface of
normal consciousness and one may find himself outside the
body, floating for the time in luminous spheres. Through
concentrating the mind upon the different organs of sense
hyperesthesia is likewise often induced, under the influence
of which one may smell perfume, or hear ' sweet music ring-
ing in the ears, or experience an order of taste normally un-
known, or find the body radiant with vitality, or feel as if
treading on air, aiid so on. Through concentrsktipn of the mind
upon certain ideas, the Swami said, more luminous visions,
the seeing of other orders of life, additional, physical and »
mental powers — all these and more come.
But all these
psycho- physical experiences lose their novelty and attraction
when meditation is concentred altogether upon the highest
spiritual ideal which is supersensuous in its nature.
Finally,
by the soul’s constant struggle to realise the verjf highest
aspects of the Ideal, comes the Beatific Vision Itself, ip all its
perfect form. This final attainment is that state of pure Mono*
Ideism which is called the Nirvikalpa Sam^dhi when all
dreams end, even that of striving for perfection,, for then all
the illusion and manifoldness of the mortal consciousness
are forever blotted out.
To the ttindu
mind, the mind ifself after a time becomes the Guru, Its
own constant effort at perceiving Reality empowers it with
supernorm|il functions in the development of faculty.
Regularity in meditation, constant vigilance over the
senses, many occasions of self-denial, so tlie Swami held, are
imperative in the practice of R4ja Yoga.
In this connection
he warned his students against the thirsting for the occult,
pointing out how it was an impediment to the pure spiritual
progress. For a seeker’s sole concern shpuld be the Realisa-
tion of the Soul.
The acquisition of psychic powers diverts
one from the Way. The real power is not miracle-working,
nor psychic experiences, but the power to intensify vision,
to actjuire a Vedanta character and to realise That Which is
Divine.
He knew that a man becomes divine if ise strives
to be so ; for this reason he said, following the manner of
his own Master, ‘*Seek only aft^r one thing, and
that, God !”
One sees
him in his New York retreat, in th^ morning or the evening
quiet, or at dead of night, meditating upon the nature of the
soul, seeking to pulverise all false ideas which make up the
illusion of life.
Throughout, his mind constantly concerned
itself with supermundane realities. He was always solving
problems of thought in relation to ^jie*vision of the soul.
And here in the West, as the Teacher, he spoke as he did,
because he felt and had realised innumerable times that which
his voice gave forth so eloquently. In th*e silent hours of
meditation his soul withdrew within itself in the ecstasy of
insight. Oftentimes he lost himself in the depth of medita-*
tion, his mind all absorbed and his body rigid in meditation
posture, revealing his whole nature as merged in the
Innermost.
Certainly, numerous experiences of the soul were his,
else how could he have given those surprisingly spiritual
addresses which make the volumes of his works, known as
Jn&na Yoga and R4ja Yoga. And had he not himself come
into direct contact with various spiritual realities, certainly
be could not have written or preached, as he did, on these
most abstract sciences of spiritual psychology, anc^neither
could his interpretations have received the careful attention
of |he feremost psychologists and scientists of the West.
beyond all the objective features either of his message
or his i^alisation, there is brought constantly to mind the
fact that he w^as a man who had seen God and*had fathomed
the very Depths of ^ he Soul.
It would
seem as if suddenly the veils that blind spiritual vision were
rent apart, and the Swamj would stand before his classes a
‘ veritable knower of the Self.
He might be absorbed
for long periods of time and then suddenly his silence would be broken
by some eager expression or some long deliberate teaching.
The thepry of the Advaita
Vedanta is a complement to tbe l^nkhya in so far as it
postulates the contparative unreality of form and takes
cognizance of the Spirit, expressing itself as individual souls
through the revelations of the universe ; but being /gr se
eternally free, tbe goal of each individual is to fkee him-
self from the entanglements of a purely physical conscious-
ness, which the illusive changes of the universe bring on^ and
to perceive amidst tbe diversity of form the Unit Eternal and*
Free Spirit
“Why shall I be bound down with all this nonsense ? I am a
wzwsrAf, a MONK who has realised the vanity of ^ all £jirthly
nonsense 1 I have no time to give a finish to my manners. I
cannot finfl time enough to give my message. I will give it
after my own fashion. Liberty, Mukti, is» my religion* I
shall never be dictated to. \ feel I am guided by the Most
High, an4 as I am guided so shall I do. I don’t care for
your sort of success.* Shall I be dragged down into the
Qarrow limits of your conventional life ? Never /” .
“No law can make you free, you are free. Nothing can give you
freedom, if you have it not already.
The Atman is self-illumined. Cause
and effect do not reach there, and this disembodiedness is freedom.
Beyond wh»t was, or is, or is to be, is Brahman. As an effect, freedom
would have no value : it would be a compouftd, and as such would
contain the seeds of bondage. It is the one real factor, not to be
attained, but the real nature of the soul.” ^
“Unchaste imagination is as bad as unchaste action. Controlled
desire leads to the highest result. Transform the sexual energy into
spiritual energy but do not emasculate, because thSt is throwing away
the power. \he stronger this force, tlfe more can be done with it.”
“Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes. It is liberty to be affect*
cd by nothing j do not merely endure, be unattached. Remember the
story of the bull. A mosquito sat long on the horn of a certain bull ;
then his conscience troubled him and he said : *Mr. Bull, I have been
sitting here a long timet perhaps 1 annoy you. 1 am sorry, 1 will go
394 the life of the swami viveka]#anda.
away.' But the bull replied : 'Oh no, not at all ! Bring your whole
family and live on my horn ; what can you do to me ?* ”
"Those who give themselves up to the Lord do more for the world
than all the so-called workers. One man who has purified himself
thoroughly, accomplishes mor^ than a regiment of preachers. Oiit of
purity and silence coitics the wprd of power.**
"Go into your own room*^ and get the Upanishads out of your own
Self. You are the greatest book that ever was or ever will be, the infinite
depositary of all that is. Until the inner teacher opens, all outside teach-
ing hi 4 {gin. It mu^ Lead to the opening of the book of the heart to
have any Value.”
"The will is the ‘still small voice,’ the real ruler, The will can
be made strong in thousands of ways { every way is a kind of Yogay but
the systematised Yoga accomplishes the work more quickly.
Bhakti,
Karma, Raja and Jnana Yoga get over the ground more effectively. Put
» on all powers, philosophy, work, prayer, meditation ; crowd all sail, put
on all head of steam, and reach the goal. The sooner, the better.”
....That is, get extensity^with intensity, but not at its expense.
"Cleanse the mind, this is all of religion ; The baby sees no
sip ; be has not yet the measure of it in himself. Get rid of the defects
within yourself and you will not be able to see any without. A b^y
sees, robbery done and it means nothing to him. Once you find the
AT THOUSAND ISLAND PARK.
395
hidden object in a puzzle picture, you see it ever more ; so when once
you are free and stainless, you see only freedom and purity in the world
around. *That moment all the knots of the heart are cut asunder, all
crooked places are made straight and this world vanishes as a dream.^
And when we awake, we wonder ho^ we ever came to dream such
trash I'
“With the axe of knowledge cut the Wheels asunder and the Atman
stands free, even though the old momentum carries on the wheel of mind
and body. The wheel can now only go straight, can only do go^od. If
that body does anything bad, know that the \niti is not ; he
lies if he makes that claim.
All purifying action deals conscious or uncanscious blows on dc*
lusion.
Few only know the Truth. The rest will hate
And laugh at thee, great one ; but pay no heed.
Go thou, the free, from place to place» and help
Them out of darkness, Maya’s veil. Without
The fear of pain or search for pleasure, go
Beyond them both, Sanny^sin bold 1 Say—
“Om Tat Sat, Om i”
God and truth are the only politics in the world,
everything else is trash. • • •
