Life of swami Vivekananda -2

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.........whose presence suggests^at ail times the truths and realities

and the great Peace beyond the strife of life. There are 
shades of laughter and sweet human sentiment, as well. But 
thQ dominant note is an intense monasiicism and a supreme 
revelation, the latter being not only a climax of tKe spiritual- 
ised intellectual consciousness, but verily the Radiance of 
Divinity made most humanly manifest. One is brought into 
contact with a personality of tremendous earnestness and 
overwhelming sincerity, the windows of whose mind are 
always thrown wide open to admit the grand day-light of the 
Eternal Truth. 

“We have 
given up the householder’s life. To return is impossible,” 
And Soshi pressed by his father to return home would say, 
full of intense Vairagyam^ “To one who has renounced, the 
world is even as a tiger’s den !”•

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. • • •