Monday, September 30, 2019

My Life's Work

… to put the Hindu ideas into English and then make out of dry philosophy and intricate mythology and queer startling psychology, a religion which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the same time meet the requirements of the highest minds -- is a task only those can understand who have attempted it. 

The dry, abstract Advaita must become living -- poetic -- in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology -- 
and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. 

That is my life's work. 

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal 
                        from US (February 1896)


No More Misery


Sunday, September 29, 2019

Die Working for Others

… Put yourself to work, and you will find such tremendous power coming to you that you will find it hard to bear. 
Even the least work done for others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion. 
I love you all ever so much, but I wish you all to die working for others -- i should rather be glad to see you do that!

Disciple: What will become of those, then, who depend on me?
Swamiji: If you are ready to sacrifice your life for others, God will certainly provide some means for them. Have you not read in the Gita (VI. 40) the words of Shri Krishna, 
"न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चित् दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति -- never does a doer of good, O my beloved, come to grief"?

Disciple: I see, sir. 

                - Swami Vivekananda, 
                  Conversations and Dialogues, 
                   recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty  


Indian Idea of Realizing


Saturday, September 28, 2019

To Work, therefore!

Off with your ideas of Mukti and Bhakti! 
There is only one way in the world, "परोपकाराय हि सतां जीवितं", "परार्थे प्राज्ञ उत्सृजेत्"--"The good live for others alone", "The wise man should sacrifice himself for others". 
I can secure my own good only by doing you good. There is no other way, none whatsoever. . . . 

You are God, I am God, and man is God. It is this God manifested through humanity who is doing everything in this world. Is there a different God sitting high up somewhere? 

To work, therefore!

                  - Swami Vivekananda, 
                    in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda (1895)

Salt of Earth


Friday, September 27, 2019

Background of All Religious Thought


Prarabdha

Take a carriage with two wheels. Suppose I cut one of the wheels from the axle. The other wheel will run for some time by its past momentum and will then fall. 
The body is one wheel, and the soul another; and they are joined by the axle of delusion. Knowledge is the axe which will cut the axle, and the soul will stop immediately--will give up all these vain dreams.

But upon the body is that past momentum, and it will run a little, doing this and that, and then it will fall down. But only good momentum will be left, and that body can only do good.

This is to warn you not to mistake a rascal for a free man. It will be impossible for that [free] man to do evil. So you must not be cheated.  

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       Class on ‘Mundaka Upanishad’, 
                        New York (January 29, 1896)

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Lion Out of Cage

He who says he is bound, bound he shall remain. To me, the thought of oneself as low and humble is a sin and ignorance.

 "नायमात्मा बलहीनेन लभ्य -- this Atman is not to be attained by one who is weak." "अस्ति ब्रह्म वदसि चेदस्ति, नास्ति ब्रह्म वदसि चेन्नास्त्येव भविष्यति -- if you say Brahman is , existence will be the result; if you say Brahman is not , non-existent It shall verily become." 

He who always thinks of himself as weak will never become strong, but he who knows himself to be a lion, "निर्गच्छति जगज्जालात् पिन्जरादिव केशरी -- rushes out from the world's meshes, as a lion from its cage." 

                         - Swami Vivekananda, 
                             in a Letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda 
                                 from US (1895)


Power of Suffering


Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Degree of Manifestation

The difference between the subtlest mind and the grossest matter is only one of degree. Therefore the whole universe may be called either mind or matter, it does not matter which. 
You may call the mind refined matter, or the body concretised mind; it makes little difference by which name you call which. 

All the troubles arising from the conflict between materialism and spirituality are due to wrong thinking. Actually, there is no difference between the two. I and the lowest pig differ only in degree. It is less manifested, I am more. Sometimes I am worse, the pig is better.  

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       Lecture in San Francisco, 
                        March 20, 1900 


Infinite Unity


Monday, September 23, 2019

Rationalist


I want to prepare you by saying that this method [of Jnana-Yoga] can be followed only by the boldest. 
Do not think that the man who believes in no church or belongs to no sect, or the man who boasts of his unbelief, is a rationalist. Not at all. In modern times it is rather bravado to do anything like that.

To be a rationalist requires more than unbelief. You must be able not only to reason, but also to follow the dictates of your reason. If reason tells you that this body is an illusion, are you ready to give it up? Reason tells you that heat and cold are mere illusions of your senses; are you ready to brave these things? If reason tells you that nothing that the senses convey to your mind is true, are you ready to deny your sense perception? If you dare, you are a rationalist.

It is very hard to believe in reason and follow truth. 
This whole world is full either of the superstitious or of half hearted hypocrites. I would rather side with superstition and ignorance than stand with these half hearted hypocrites. 
They are no good. They stand on both sides of the river.  

Swami Vivekananda, 
  Class-Talk in New York
   (December 11, 1895)


Infinite Sympathy


Sunday, September 22, 2019

No Negative, All Positive

Self-depreciation! What is it for? I am the child of the Infinite, the all-powerful Divine Mother. What means disease, or fear, or want to me? 
Stamp out the negative spirit as if it were a pestilence, and it will conduce to your welfare in every way. 
No negative, all positive, affirmative. I am , God is , everything is in me. I will manifest health, purity, knowledge, whatever I want. … … 

Who says you are ill -- what is disease to you? Brush it aside!
 "वीर्यामसि वीर्यं मयि धेहि, बलमसि बलं मयि धेहि, ओजोऽसि ओजो मयि धेहि, सहोऽसि सही मयि धेहि -- thou art Energy, impart energy unto me. Thou art Strength, impart strength unto me. Thou art Spirituality, impart spirituality unto me. Thou art Fortitude, impart fortitude unto me!" 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                         in a Letter to Brother Disciple 
                          from New York (September 1894)


Making Systems of Philosophy Practical


Saturday, September 21, 2019

Pleasure-Pain Cycle

The progress of the world means more enjoyment and more misery too. This mixture of life and death, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance is what is called Maya -- or the universal phenomenon. 
You may go on for eternity inside this net, seeking for happiness -- you find much, and much evil too. 
To have good and no evil is childish nonsense. 

Two ways are left open -- one by giving up all hope to take up the world as it is and bear the pangs and pains in the hope of a crumb of happiness now and then. 
The other, to give up the search for pleasure, knowing it to be pain in another form, and seek for truth -- and those that dare try for truth succeed in finding that truth as ever present -- present in themselves.
  
                  - Swami Vivekananda, 
                     in a Letter to Mary Hale 
                     from London (November 1896)


Divinity in All Prophets


Friday, September 20, 2019

Hard to Be Rational

We hear everyday people saying all around us: "I dare to reason". It is, however, a very difficult thing to do. I would go two hundred miles to look at the face of the man who dares to reason and to follow reason. 
Nothing is easier to say, and nothing is more difficult to do. We are bound to follow superstitions all the time--old, hoary superstitions, either national or belonging to humanity in general--superstitions belonging to family, to friends, to country, to fashion, to books, to sex and to what not.

Talk of reason! Very few people reason, indeed. 
You hear a man say, "Oh, I don't like to believe in anything; I don't like to grope through darkness. I must reason". 
And so he reasons. But when reason smashes to pieces things that he hugs unto his breast, he says, "No more! This reasoning is all right until it breaks my ideals. Stop there!" 

That man would never be a Jnani. That man will carry his bondage all his life and his lives to come. Again and again he will come under the power of death. Such men are not made for Jnana
There are other methods for them--such as Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, or Râja Yoga--but not Jnana Yoga.  

                       - Swami Vivekananda, 
                         Class-Talk in New York, 
                         (December 11, 1895)

Give Up for Lord


Thursday, September 19, 2019

Children of Truth Live for Ever

I do not believe in humility. I believe in Samadarshitva -- same state of mind with regard to all. 
The duty of the ordinary man is to obey the commands of his "God", society; but the children of light never do so. 
This is an eternal law. 

One accommodates himself to surroundings and social opinion and gets all good things from society, the giver of all good to such. The other stands alone and draws society up towards him. The accommodating man finds a path of roses; the non-accommodating, one of thorns. 
But the worshippers of "Vox populi" go to annihilation in a moment; the children of truth live for ever. 

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 
                     in a Letter to Mary Hale 
                      from New York (February 1895)

Not only Tolerate but Accept


Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Truth without Fear and Shopkeeping


Battle of Truth

My child, what I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made. 
Strength, manhood, Kshatra-virya + Brahma-teja

Our beautiful hopeful boys -- they have everything, only if they are not slaughtered by the millions at the altar of this brutality they call marriage.

O Lord, hear my wails! Madras will then awake when at least one hundred of its very heart's blood, in the form of its educated young men, will stand aside from the world, gird their loins, and be ready to fight the battle of truth, marching on from country to country. 

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal 
                         from London (1896)

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Anthropomorphic Ideas

God can only be known in and through man. 
Vibrations of light are everywhere, even in the darkest corners; but it is only in the lamp that it becomes visible to man. Similarly God, though everywhere, we can only conceive Him as a big man. 

All ideas of God such as merciful preserver, helper, protector -- all these are human ideas, anthropomorphic; and again these must cling to a man, call him a Guru or a Prophet or an Incarnation. 
Man cannot go beyond his nature, no more than you can jump out of your body. 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                        in a Letter to Haridas V Desai 
                      from Chicago (January 1894)


Serve Lord Alone


Monday, September 16, 2019

Scientific Popery

In olden times the churches had prestige, but today science has got it. And just as in olden times people never inquired for themselves--never studied the Bible, and so the priests had a very good opportunity to teach whatever they liked--so even now the majority of people do not study for themselves and, at the same time, have a tremendous awe and fear before anything called scientific. 

You ought to remember that there is a worse popery coming than ever existed in the church--the so called scientific popery, which has become so successful that it dictates to us with more authority than religious popery.  

                         - Swami Vivekananda, 
                           Class-Talk in New York 
                            (December 11, 1895)


Service to Lower Classes


Sunday, September 15, 2019

Fair Faces and False Hearts

I hate this world, this dream, this horrible nightmare, with its churches and chicaneries, its books and black-guardisms, its fair faces and false hearts, its howling righteousness on the surface and utter hollowness beneath, and, above all, its sanctified shopkeeping. 

What! measure my soul according to what the bond-slaves of the world say? -- pooh! Sister, you do not know the Sannyasin. "He stands on the heads of the Vedas!" say the Vedas, because he is free from churches and sects and religions and prophets and books and all of that ilk! 

Missionary or no missionary, let them howl and attack me with all they can, I take them as Bhartrihari says, "Go thou thy ways, Sannyasin! Some will say, 'Who is this mad man?' Others, 'Who is this Chandala?' Others will know thee to be a sage. Be glad at the prattle of the worldlings." But when they attack, know that, "The elephant passing through the marketplace is always beset by curs, but he cares not. He goes straight on his own way. So it is always, when a great soul appears there will be numbers to bark after him." 

                 - Swami Vivekananda, 
                     in a Letter to Mary Hale 
                      from New York (February 1895)

Future Humanity


Saturday, September 14, 2019

Far Beyond Name and Form

"Who sows must reap," they say, 
             "and cause must bring
The sure effect; good, good; bad, bad; 
           and none Escape the law. 
        But whoso wears a form
        Must wear the chain." 
        
      Too true; but far beyond
  Both name and form is Atman, ever free.
  Know thou art That, Sannyasin bold! 
            Say --  "Om Tat Sat, Om! " 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       ‘The Song of The Sannyasin’, 
                        Composed at the Thousand Island Park, NY,
                         (July, 1895)

To Him Mother Comes


Friday, September 13, 2019

Greatest Sin is Fear

Great things can be done by great sacrifices only. 
No selfishness, no name, no fame, yours or mine, nor my Master's even! 

Work, work the idea, the plan, my boys, my brave, noble, good souls -- to the wheel, to the wheel put your shoulders! Stop not to look back for name, or fame, or any such nonsense. Throw self overboard and work. 
Remember, "The grass when made into a rope by being joined together can even chain a mad elephant." 

The Lord's blessings on you all! His power be in you all -- as I believe it is already. "Wake up, stop not until the goal is reached", say the Vedas. … 
The spirit, my boys, the spirit; the love, my children, the love; the faith, the belief; and fear not! 
The greatest sin is fear. 

                      - Swami Vivekananda, 
                         in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal 
                          from Chicago (May 1894)

Who Can be Happy?


Thursday, September 12, 2019

Onward!

This is the test, he who is Ramakrishna's child does not seek his personal good. 
"प्राणात्ययेऽपि परकल्याणचिकीर्षव:-- they wish to do good to others even when at the point of death." 

Those that care for their personal comforts and seek a lazy life, who are ready to sacrifice all before their personal whims, are none of us; let them pack off, while yet there is time. 
Propagate his character, his teaching, his religion. 
This is the only spiritual practice, the only worship, this verily is the means, and this the goal. 

Arise! Arise! A tidal wave is coming! Onward! 
Men and women, down to the Chandala (Pariah) -- all are pure in his eyes. 
Onward! Onward! There is no time to care for name, or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti!

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       in a Letter to Brother Disciples 
                        from US (1894)

Floating Wavelets


Wednesday, September 11, 2019

From Deva to Worm

Let us take our stand on the one central truth in our religion 
-- the common heritage of the Hindus, the Buddhists, and Jains alike -- the spirit of man, the Atman of man, 
the immortal, birthless, all-pervading, eternal soul of man whose glories the Vedas cannot themselves express, 
before whose majesty the universe with its galaxy upon galaxy of suns and stars and nebulae is as a drop. 

Every man or woman, nay, from the highest Devas to the worm that crawls under our feet, is such a spirit evoluted or involuted. 

The difference is not in kind, but in degree. 

                        - Swami Vivekananda, 
                          ‘Reply to the Madras Address’

Education and Religion


Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Hollow Universe

When all the many movements of the mind
      Are, by Thy grace, made one, and unified,
The light of that unfoldment is so great
    That, in its splendour, it surpasses far
The brilliance of ten thousand rising suns.

Then, sooth, the sun of Chit reveals itself.
   And melt away the sun and moon and stars,
High heaven above, the nether worlds, and all!
    This universe seems but a tiny pool
Held in a hollow caused by some cow's hoof.

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 
                          from ‘A Song I Sing to Thee’ - poem in Bengali



Purity


Monday, September 9, 2019

Kama-Kanchana

To keep one's self steady in the midst of this whirl of Kama-kanchana (lust and gold) and hold on to one's own ideals, until disciples are molded to conceive of the ideas of realization and perfect renunciation, is indeed difficult work, my boy. 

Thank God, already there is great success. 
I cannot blame the missionaries and others for not understanding me -- they hardly ever saw a man who did not care in the least about women and money. 
At first they could not believe it to be possible; how could they? 

You must not think that the Western nations have the same ideas of chastity and purity as the Indians. Their equivalents are virtue and courage. . . . 
People are now flocking to me. Hundreds have now become convinced that there are men who can really control their bodily desires; and reverence and respect for these principles are growing. 
All things come to him who waits. May you be blessed for ever and ever! 

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       in a Letter to Alasinga Perumal 
                       from US (February 1896)


Realization in Heart


Sunday, September 8, 2019

Jnana-Yoga

... Next is Jnana-Yoga. This is divided into three parts. 
First: hearing the truth -- that the Atman is the only reality and that everything else is Maya (relativity). 
Second: reasoning upon this philosophy from all points of view. 
Third: giving up all further argumentation and realizing the truth. 

This realisation comes from 
(1) being certain that Brahman is real and everything else is unreal; 
(2) giving up all desire for enjoyment; 
(3) controlling the senses and the mind; 
(4) intense desire to be free. 

Meditating on this reality always and reminding the soul of its real nature are the only ways in this Yoga. It is the highest, but most difficult. Many persons get an intellectual grasp of it, but very few attain realization.  

                          - Swami Vivekananda, 
                          Answer to a Question in US   


Nature for the Soul


Saturday, September 7, 2019

Cure through Thought

There is only one power to cure the body, and that is in every man. 
Medicine only rouses this power. Disease is only the manifest struggle of that power to throw off the poison which has entered the body. 
Although the power to overthrow poison may be roused by medicine, it may be more permanently roused by the force of thought. 

Imagination must hold to the thought of health and strength in order that in case of illness the memory of the ideal of health may be roused and the particles re-arranged in the position into which they fell when healthy. 
The tendency of the body is then to follow the brain. 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, 
                       ‘Lessons on Raja-Yoga’, 
                        Class Notes in England 


Look not for Success or Failure


Friday, September 6, 2019

Kusumanjali

"He who is the Brahman of the Vedantins, 
  Ishvara of the Naiyayikas, 
  Purusha of the Sankhyas, 
  cause  of the Mimamsakas, 
  law  of the Buddhists, 
  absolute zero  of the Atheists, and 
  love infinite unto those that love, 
may [He] take us all under His merciful protection":
Udayanacharya -- a great philosopher of the Nyaya or Dualistic school. 

And this is the Benediction pronounced at the very beginning of his wonderful book Kusumanjali (A handful of flowers), 
in which he attempts to establish the existence of a personal creator and moral ruler of infinite love independently of revelation.

                      - Swami Vivekananda, 
                        in a Letter to Prof. John H Wright


Giving and Taking