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Excerpts from The Complete
Works of Swami Vivekananda (Vol. 1 - 8), published by
Advaita Ashrama, 5, Dehi Entally Road, Calcutta 14,
India.
THE IDEAL OF A UNIVERSAL
RELIGION (contd.)
HOW
IT MUST EMBRACE DIFFERENT TYPES
OF MINDS AND METHODS
We lastly come to the Jnana-Yogi, the philosopher,
the thinker, he who wants to go beyond the visible. He
is the man who is not satisfied with the little things
of this world. His idea is to go beyond the daily
routine of eating, drinking, and so on; not even the
teaching of thousands of books will satisfy him. Not
even all the sciences will satisfy him; at the best,
they only bring this little world before him. What else
will give him satisfaction? Not even myriads of systems
of worlds will satisfy him; they are to him but a drop
in the ocean of existence. His soul wants to go beyond
all that into the very heart of being, by seeing Reality
as It is; by realising It, by being It, by becoming one
with that Universal Being. That is the philosopher. To
say that God is the Father or the Mother, the Creator of
this universe, its Protector and Guide, is to him quite
inadequate to express Him. To him, God is the life of
his life, the soul of his soul. God is his own Self.
Nothing else remains which is other than God. All the
mortal parts of him become pounded by the weighty
strokes of philosophy and are brushed away. What at last
truly remains is God Himself.
Upon the same tree there are two birds, one on the
top, the other below. The one on the top is calm,
silent, and majestic, immersed in his own glory; the one
on the lower branches, eating sweet and bitter fruits by
turns, hopping from branch to branch, is becoming happy
and miserable by turns. After a time the lower bird eats
an exceptionally bitter fruit and gets disgustful and
looks up and sees the other bird, that wondrous one of
golden plumage, who eats neither sweet nor bitter fruit,
who is neither happy nor miserable, but calm, Self-centred,
and sees nothing beyond his Self. The lower bird longs
for this condition but soon forgets it, and again begins
to eat the fruits. In a little while, he eats another
exceptionally bitter fruit, which makes him feel
miserable, and he again looks up, and tries to get
nearer to the upper bird. Once more he forgets and after
a time he looks up, and so on he goes again and again,
until he comes very near to the beautiful bird and sees
the reflection of light from his plumage playing around
his own body, and he feels a change and seems to melt
away; still nearer he comes, and everything about him
melts away, and at last he understands this wonderful
change. The lower bird was, as it were, only the
substantial-looking shadow, the reflection of the
higher; he himself was in essence the upper bird all the
time. This eating of fruits, sweet and bitter, this
lower, little bird, weeping and happy by turns, was a
vain chimera, a dream: all along, the real bird was
there above, calm and silent, glorious and majestic,
beyond grief, beyond sorrow. The upper bird is God, the
Lord of this universe; and the lower bird is the human
soul, eating the sweet and bitter fruits of this world.
Now and then comes a heavy blow to the soul. For a time,
he stops the eating and goes towards the unknown God,
and a flood of light comes. He thinks that this world is
a vain show. Yet again the senses drag hint down, and he
begins as before to eat the sweet and bitter fruits of
the world. Again an exceptionally hard blow comes. His
heart becomes open again to divine light; thus gradually
he approaches God, and as he gets nearer and nearer, he
finds his old self melting away. When he has come near
enough, he sees that he is no other than God, and he
exclaims, "He whom I have described to you as the Life
of this universe, as present in the atom, and in suns
and moons — He is the basis of our own life, the Soul of
our soul. Nay, thou art That." This is what this Jnana-Yoga
teaches. It tells man that he is essentially divine. It
shows to mankind the real unity of being, and that each
one of us is the Lord God Himself, manifested on earth.
All of us, from the lowest worm that crawls under our
feet to the highest beings to whom we look up with
wonder and awe — all are manifestations of the same
Lord.
Lastly, it is imperative that all these various Yogas
should be carried out in, practice; mere theories about
them will not do any good. First we have to hear about
them, then we have to think about them. We have to
reason the thoughts out, impress them on our minds, and
we have to meditate on them, realise them, until at last
they become our whole life. No longer will religion
remain a bundle of ideas or theories, nor an
intellectual assent; it will enter into our very self.
By means of intellectual assent we may today subscribe
to many foolish things, and change our minds altogether
tomorrow. But true religion never changes. Religion is
realisation; not talk, nor doctrine, nor theories,
however beautiful they may be. It is being and becoming,
not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul
becoming changed into what it believes. That is
religion. |
