Soul, Nature, and Their Cause

Says Ramanuja, "So long as you think you are a body, and you think you are a mind, and you think you are a Jiva, every act of perception will give you the three -- Soul, and nature, and something as causing both." 

But yet, at the same time, even the idea of the body disappears where the mind itself becomes finer and finer, till it has almost disappeared, when all the different things that make us fear, make us weak, and bind us down to this body-life have disappeared. 

             - Swami Vivekananda, Address at Calcutta, 

                    Lectures From Colombo to Almora

Changeless Sky

 

National God

You may exhaust the literature of the world that is past, and I may assure you that you will have to exhaust the literature of the world of the future, before finding another Sita. Sita is unique; that character was depicted once and for all. There may have been several Ramas, perhaps, but never more than one Sita! 

She is the very type of the true Indian woman, for all the Indian ideals of a perfected woman have grown out of that one life of Sita; and here she stands these thousands of years, commanding the worship of every man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land of Aryavarta. There she will always be, this glorious Sita, purer than purity itself, all patience, and all suffering. 

She who suffered that life of suffering without a murmur, she the ever-chaste and ever-pure wife, she the ideal of the people, the ideal of the gods, the great Sita, our national God she must always remain. 

              - Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, 

                  Lectures From Colombo to Almora

Judging Others

 

Unique Incarnation

 …time was ripe for one to be born who in one body would have the brilliant intellect of Shankara and the wonderfully expansive, infinite heart of Chaitanya; one who would see in every sect the same spirit working, the same God; one who would see God in every being, one whose heart would weep for the poor, for the weak, for the outcast, for the downtrodden, for every one in this world, inside India or outside India; and at the same time whose grand brilliant intellect would conceive of such noble thoughts as would harmonise all conflicting sects, not only in India but outside of India, and bring a marvellous harmony, the universal religion of head and heart into existence. 

Such a man was born, and I had the good fortune to sit at his feet for years. The time was ripe, it was necessary that such a man should be born, and he came; and the most wonderful part of it was that his life's work was just near a city which was full of Western thought, a city which had run mad after these occidental ideas, a city which had become more Europeanised than any other city in India. 

There he lived, without any book-learning whatsoever; this great intellect never learnt even to write his own name, but the most brilliant graduates of our university found in him an intellectual giant. He was a strange man, this Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. 

It is a long, long story, and I have no time to tell anything about him tonight. Let me now only mention the great Shri Ramakrishna, the fulfilment of the Indian sages, the sage for the time, one whose teaching is just now, in the present time, most beneficial. And mark the divine power working behind the man. The son of a poor priest, born in an out-of-the-way village, unknown and unthought of, today is worshipped literally by thousands in Europe and America, and tomorrow will be worshipped by thousands more. Who knows the plans of the Lord! 

               - Swami Vivekananda, 

                 ‘The Sages of India’ – Talk at Madras, 1897

Atman Behind

 

Greatest Teacher of Vedanta

The greatest teacher of the Vedanta philosophy was Shankaracharya. 

By solid reasoning he extracted from the Vedas the truths of Vedanta, and on them built up the wonderful system of Jnana that is taught in his commentaries. He unified all the conflicting descriptions of Brahman and showed that there is only one Infinite Reality. 

He showed too that as man can only travel slowly on the upward road, all the varied presentations are needed to suit his varying capacity.  

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 

                     Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US

Purifying Action

 

Washington of Religious World

Buddha was a great Vedantist (for Buddhism was really only an offshoot of Vedanta), and Shankara is often called a "hidden Buddhist". Buddha made the analysis, Shankara made the synthesis out of it. 

Buddha never bowed down to anything -- neither Veda, nor caste, nor priest, nor custom. He fearlessly reasoned so far as reason could take him. Such a fearless search for truth and such love for every living thing the world has never seen. 

Buddha was the Washington of the religious world; he conquered a throne only to give it to the world, as Washington did to the American people. He sought nothing for himself. 

                    - Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks

Essence of Knowledge

 

Gopijanavallabha

 … these ideals -- work for work's sake, love for love's sake, duty for duty's sake, … … They were not floating about in the atmosphere when Krishna was born. 

But the Lord Krishna was the first preacher of this; his disciple Vyasa took it up and preached it unto mankind. This is the highest idea to picture. The highest thing we can get out of him is Gopijanavallabha, the Beloved of the Gopis of Vrindaban. 

When that madness comes in your brain, when you understand the blessed Gopis, then you will understand what love is. 

               - Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, 

                     Lectures From Colombo to Almora 

Naturally Pure

 

Song Celestial

The greatest incident of the [Mahabharata] war was the marvelous and immortal poem of the Gita, the Song Celestial. It is the popular scripture of India and the loftiest of all teachings. It consists of a dialogue held by Arjuna with Krishna, just before the commencement of the fight on the battle-field of Kurukshetra. 

I would advise those of you who have not read that book to read it. If you only knew how much it has influenced your own country even! 

If you want to know the source of Emerson's inspiration, it is this book, the Gita. He went to see Carlyle, and Carlyle made him a present of the Gita; and that little book is responsible for the Concord Movement. All the broad movements in America, in one way or other, are indebted to the Concord party. 

                   - Swami Vivekananda, 

                     Talk at Pasadena, California

 

Real Sun

 

All-rounded Personality

You find in Krishna that non-attachment is the central idea. He does not need anything. He does not want anything. He works for work's sake. … 

He is the most rounded man I know of, wonderfully developed equally in brain and heart and hand. Every moment [of his] is alive with activity, either as a gentleman, warrior, minister, or something else. Great as a gentleman, as a scholar, as a poet. 

This all-rounded and wonderful activity and combination of brain and heart you see in the Gita and other books. Most wonderful heart, exquisite language, and nothing can approach it anywhere. 

                - Swami Vivekananda, 

                      Talk in San Francisco

I Am the Infinite

 

No Birth, No Death

There can be no physical death for us and no mental death, when we see that all is one. All bodies are mine; so even body is eternal, because the tree, the animal, the sun, the moon, the universe itself is my body; then how can it die? 

Every mind, every thought is mine, then how can death come? The Self is never born and never dies. 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks  

Christian

 

Dream within Dream

Two things exist in the world--dream and reality.  

What we call life is a succession of dreams--dream within dream. One dream is called heaven, another earth, another hell, and so on. One dream is called the human body, another the animal body, and so on--all are dreams. 

The reality is what is called Brahman, that Being who is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss.  

                     - Swami Vivekananda, 

                        Class on ‘Mundaka Upanishad’, 

                         New York (January 29, 1896)

Inner Light

 

Fire of Knowledge

The human soul, represented by Arjuna, was touched with fear. 

Therefore Bhagavan Shri Krishna, established in the Atman, spoke to him the teachings of the Gita. Still his fear would not leave him. 

Later, when Arjuna saw the Universal Form of the Lord, and became established in the Atman, then with all bondages of Karma burnt by the fire of knowledge, he fought the battle. 

                          - Swami Vivekananda, 

                            Conversations and Dialogues, 

                             recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty 

Knowledge and Bliss

 

I Am Atman

The first thing to be got rid of by him who would be a Jnani is fear. Fear is one of our worst enemies. 

Next, believe in nothing until you know it. Constantly tell yourself, "I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not thought, I am not even consciousness; I am the Atman." When you can throw away all, only the true Self will remain.  

                 - Swami Vivekananda, 

                       Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US

Dynamo of Spirituality

 

Only a Picture

The nature of the brute is to remain where he is, of man to seek good and avoid evil, of God to neither seek nor avoid, but just to be blissful eternally. 

Let us be Gods, let us make our hearts like an ocean, to go beyond all the trifles of the world and see it only as a picture. We can then enjoy it without being in any way affected by it.  

                  - Swami Vivekananda, 

                    Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US 

Greatest Temple

 

Godhood of Man

The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. 

No one is greater:  Realise you are Brahman. Nothing has power except what you give it. We are beyond the sun, the stars, the universe. Teach the Godhood of man. Deny evil, create none. 

Stand up and say, I am the master, the master of all. We forge the chain, and we alone can break it. 

                     - Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks

Ice, Water, Vapour

 

There is but One

The perfect oneness is rest; we refer all manifestations to one Being. 

Taoists, Confucianists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Mohammedans, Christians, and Zoroastrians, all preached the golden rule and in almost the same words; but only the Hindus have given the rationale, because they saw the reason: 

Man must love others because those others are himself. There is but One. 

                 - Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks  

Taking Real for Unreal

 

Giving and Enlightening India

It is the only nation [India] that never went beyond its frontiers to cut the throats of its neighbours. It is a glorious thing. 

It makes me rather patriotic to think I am born a Hindu, a descendant of the only race that never went out to hurt anyone, and whose only action upon humanity has been giving and enlightening and purifying and teaching, but never robbing. 

              - Swami Vivekananda, 

                 Class Talk in London, May 7, 1896

Asia, Europe, America

 

India can't Die

Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct, all moral perfection will be extinct, all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct, all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force, and competition its ceremonies, and the human soul its sacrifice. 

Such a thing can never be. 

                        - Swami Vivekananda, 

                           ‘Reply to the Madras Address’ 

Spreading Education

 

Expansion is Life

If India wants to raise herself once more, it is absolutely necessary that she brings out her treasures and throws them broadcast among the nations of the earth, and in return be ready to receive what others have to give her. 

Expansion is life, contraction is death. Love is life, and hatred is death. We commenced to die the day we began to hate other races; and nothing can prevent our death unless we come back to expansion, which is life. 

                - Swami Vivekananda, 

                   Written from Chicago (Sept 1894)

Rajputs

 

Imitation of West

O India, this is your terrible danger. The spell of imitating the West is getting such a strong hold upon you that what is good or what is bad is no longer decided by reason, judgment, discrimination, or reference to the Shastras. 

Whatever ideas, whatever manners the white men praise or like are good; whatever things they dislike or censure are bad. 

Alas! what can be a more tangible proof of foolishness than this? 

                       - Swami Vivekananda, 

                           ‘Modern India’ – an article written 

                             in Bengali for Udbodhan

Eternal Energy and Progress

 

Om Shri Krishnarpanamastu

Give us strength, O Thou who sawest Thy whole family destroyed before Thine eyes, with Thine hands crossed on Thy breast. 

Come, Lord, Thou Great Teacher, who has taught us that the soldier is only to obey and speak not. 

Come, Lord, come Arjuna's Charioteer, and teach me as Thou once taughtest him, that resignation in Thyself  is the highest end and aim of this life, so that with those great ones of old, I may also firmly and resignedly cry, 

Om Shri Krishnarpanamastu. 

               - Swami Vivekananda, 

                 Written to D.R. Balaji Rao (May 1893)

Look Not for Results

 

Grandest of Ideals

"I do not want wealth, nor many people, nor do I want learning; no, not even do I want to go to heaven. Let me be born again and again, but Lord, grant me this, that I may have love for Thee, and that for love's sake." 

A great landmark in the history of religion is here, the ideal of love for love's sake, work for work's sake, duty for duty's sake, and it for the first time fell from the lips of the greatest of Incarnations, Krishna, and for the first time in the history of humanity, upon the soil of India. 

The religions of fear and of temptations were gone for ever, and in spite of the fear of hell and temptation of enjoyment in heaven, came the grandest of ideals, love for love's sake, duty for duty's sake, work for work's sake. 

                 - Swami Vivekananda, Address at Madras, 

                     Lectures From Colombo to Almora

Preaching on Battlefield

 

Character of Sri Krishna

 … from His playful life at Vrindaban come to the Krishna of Kurukshetra, and see how that also is fascinating -- how, amidst all that horrible din and uproar of fighting, Krishna remains calm, balanced, and peaceful. 

Ay, on the very battlefield, He is speaking the Gita to Arjuna and getting him on to fight, which is the Dharma of a Kshatriya! Himself an agent to bring about this terrible warfare, Shri Krishna remains unattached to action -- he did not take up arms! 

To whichsoever phase of it you look, you will find the character of Shri Krishna perfect. As if He was the embodiment of knowledge, work, devotion, power of concentration, and everything!  

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 

                       Conversations and Dialogues

Sri Krishna as Atman

 

One Existence

The Vedas teach that the Atman, or Self, is the One Undivided Existence. It is beyond mind, memory, thought, or even consciousness as we know it. 

From it are all things. 

It is that through which (or because of which) we see, hear, feel, and think. The goal of the universe is to realise oneness with the "Om" or One Existence.  

                         - Swami Vivekananda, 

                          Discourses on Jnana-Yoga, US

Idea of World

 

Practical Implementation

It will not do merely to listen to great principles. You must apply them in the practical field, turn them into constant practice. 

What will be the good of cramming the high-sounding dicta of the scriptures? You have first to grasp the teachings of the Shastras, and then to work them out in practical life. 

Do you understand? This is called practical religion. 

              - Swami Vivekananda, 

                  Conversations and Dialogues, 

                    recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty

Knowledge gives Freedom

 

Atman

 This Atman is altogether dormant in matter; in man, designated as a living being, It is partially conscious; while in personages like Shri Krishna, Buddha, and Shankara the same Atman has reached the superconscious stage. 

There is a state even beyond that, which cannot be expressed in terms of thought or language –अवाङ्मनसो गोचरम् | 

                    - Swami Vivekananda, 

                       Conversations and Dialogues, 

                       recorded by Sharat Chandra Chakravarty  

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