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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.
PRACTICAL VEDANTA
PART I
(Delivered in London, 10th November 1896)
continued from
last month...
For you must always remember that the one central
ideal of Vedanta is this oneness. There are no two in
anything, no two lives, nor even two different kinds of
life for the two worlds. You will find the Vedas
speaking of heavens and things like that at first; but
later on, when they come to the highest ideals of their
philosophy, they brush away all these things. There is
but one life, one world, one existence. Everything is
that One, the difference is in degree and not in kind.
The difference between our lives is not in kind. The
Vedanta entirely denies such ideas as that animals are
separate from men, and that they were made and created
by God to be used for our food.
Some people have been kind enough to start an
antivivisection society. I asked a member, "Why do you
think, my friend, that it is quite lawful to kill
animals for food, and not to kill one or two for
scientific experiments?" He replied, "Vivisection is
most horrible, but animals have been given to us for
food." Oneness includes all animals. If man's life is
immortal, so also is the animal's. The difference is
only in degree and not in kind. The amoeba and I are the
same, the difference is only in degree; and from the
standpoint of the highest life, all these differences
vanish. A man may see a great deal of difference between
grass and a little tree, but if you mount very high, the
grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same.
So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest
animal and the highest man are the same. If you believe
there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures
must be the same. A God who is partial to his children
called men, and cruel to his children called brute
beasts, is worse than a demon. I would rather die a
hundred times than worship such a God. My whole life
would be a fight with such a God But there is no
difference, and those who say there is, are
irresponsible, heartless people who do not know. Here is
a case of the word practical used in a wrong sense. I
myself may not be a very strict vegetarian, but I
understand the ideal. When I eat meat I know it is
wrong. Even if I am bound to eat it under certain
circumstances, I know it is cruel. I must not drag my
ideal down to the actual and apologise for my weak
conduct in this way. The ideal is not to eat flesh, not
to injure any being, for all animals are my brothers. If
you can think of them as your brothers, you have made a
little headway towards the brotherhood of all souls, not
to speak of the brotherhood of man! That is child's
play. You generally find that this is not very
acceptable to many, because it teaches them to give up
the actual, and go higher up to the ideal. But if you
bring out a theory which is reconciled with their
present conduct, they regard it as entirely practical.
There is this strongly conservative tendency in human
nature: we do not like to move one step forward. I think
of mankind just as I read of persons who become frozen
in snow; all such, they say, want to go to sleep, and if
you try to drag them up, they say, "Let me sleep; it is
so beautiful to sleep in the snow", and they die there
in that sleep. So is our nature. That is what we are
doing all our life, getting frozen from the feet
upwards, and yet wanting to sleep. Therefore you must
struggle towards the ideal, and if a man comes who wants
to bring that ideal down to your level, and teach a
religion that does not carry that highest ideal, do not
listen to him. To me that is an impracticable religion.
But if a man teaches a religion which presents the
highest ideal, I am ready for him. Beware when anyone is
trying to apologise for sense vanities and sense
weaknesses. If anyone wants to preach that way to us,
poor, sense-bound clods of earth as we have made
ourselves by following that teaching, we shall never
progress. I have seen many of these things, have had
some experience of the world, and my country is the land
where religious sects grow like mushrooms. Every year
new sects arise. But one thing I have marked, that it is
only those that never want to reconcile the man of flesh
with the man of truth that make progress. Wherever there
is this false idea of reconciling fleshly vanities with
the highest ideals, of dragging down God to the level of
man, there comes decay. Man should not be degraded to
worldly slavery, but should be raised up to God.
At the same time, there is another side to the
question. We must not look down with contempt on others.
All of us are going towards the same goal. The
difference between weakness and strength is one of
degree; the difference between virtue and vice is one of
degree, the difference between heaven and hell is one of
degree, the difference between life and death is one of
degree, all differences in this world are of degree, and
not of kind, because oneness is the secret of
everything. All is One, which manifests Itself, either
as thought, or life, or soul, or body, and the
difference is only in degree. As such, we have no right
to look down with contempt upon those who are not
developed exactly in the same degree as we are. Condemn
none; if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If
you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and
let them go their own way. Dragging down and condemning
is not the way to work. Never is work accomplished in
that way. We spend our energies in condemning others.
Criticism and condemnation is a vain way of spending our
energies, for in the long run we come to learn that all
are seeing the same thing, are more or less approaching
the same ideal, and that most of our differences are
merely differences of expression.
Take the idea of sin. I was telling you just now the
Vedantic idea of it, and the other idea is that man is a
sinner. They are practically the same, only the one
takes the positive and the other the negative side. One
shows to man his strength and the other his weakness.
There may be weakness, says the Vedanta, but never mind,
we want to grow. Disease was found out as soon as man
was born. Everyone knows his disease; it requires no one
to tell us what our diseases are. But thinking all the
time that we are diseased will not cure us — medicine is
necessary. We may forget anything outside, we may try to
become hypocrites to the external world, but in our
heart of hearts we all know our weaknesses. But, says
the Vedanta, being reminded of weakness does not help
much; give strength, and strength does not come by
thinking of weakness all the time. The remedy for
weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of
strength. Teach men of the strength that is already
within them. Instead of telling them they are sinners,
the Vedanta takes the opposite position, and says, "You
are pure and perfect, and what you call sin does not
belong to you." Sins are very low degrees of
Self-manifestation; manifest your Self in a high degree.
That is the one thing to remember; all of us can do
that. Never say, "No", never say, "I cannot", for you
are infinite. Even time and space are as nothing
compared with your nature. You can do anything and
everything, you are almighty.
These are the principles of ethics, but we shall now
come down lower and work out the details. We shall see
how this Vedanta can be carried into our everyday life,
the city life, the country life, the national life, and
the home life of every nation. For, if a religion cannot
help man wherever he may be, wherever he stands, it is
not of much use; it will remain only a theory for the
chosen few. Religion, to help mankind, must be ready and
able to help him in whatever condition he is, in
servitude or in freedom, in the depths of degradation or
on the heights of purity; everywhere, equally, it should
be able to come to his aid. The principles of Vedanta,
or the ideal of religion, or whatever you may call it,
will be fulfilled by its capacity for performing this
great function.
The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest
help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more
extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large
portion of the evils and miseries that we have would
have vanished. Throughout the history of mankind, if any
motive power has been more potent than another in the
lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in
themselves. Born with the consciousness that they were
to be great, they became great. Let a man go down as low
as possible; there must come a time when out of sheer
desperation he will take an upward curve and will learn
to have faith in himself. But it is better for us that
we should know it from the very first. Why should we
have all these bitter experiences in order to gain faith
in ourselves? We can see that all the difference between
man and man is owing to the existence or non-existence
of faith in himself. Faith in ourselves will do
everything. I have experienced it in my own life, and am
still doing so; and as I grow older that faith is
becoming stronger and stronger. He is an atheist who
does not believe in himself. The old religions said that
he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new
religion says that he is the atheist who does not
believe in himself. But it is not selfish faith because
the Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means
faith in all, because you are all. Love for yourselves
means love for all, love for animals, love for
everything, for you are all one. It is the great faith
which will make the world better. I am sure of that. He
is the highest man who can say with truth, "I know all
about myself." Do you know how much energy, how many
powers, how many forces are still lurking behind that
frame of yours? What scientist has known all that is in
man? Millions of years have passed since man first came
here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers
has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that
you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie
behind that degradation on the surface? You know but
little of that which is within you. For behind you is
the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.
"This Âtman is first to be heard of." Hear day and
night that you are that Soul. Repeat it to yourselves
day and night till it enters into your very veins, till
it tingles in every drop of blood, till it is in your
flesh and bone. Let the whole body be full of that one
ideal, "I am the birthless, the deathless, the blissful,
the omniscient, the omnipotent, ever-glorious Soul."
Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes
part and parcel of your life. Meditate upon it, and out
of that will come work. "Out of the fullness of the
heart the mouth speaketh," and out of the fullness of
the heart the hand worketh also. Action will come. Fill
yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well
on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed,
deified, by the very power of the thought. If matter is
powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to
bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of
your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory. Would
to God no superstitions had been put into your head!
Would to God we had not been surrounded from our birth
by all these superstitious influences and paralysing
ideas of our weakness and vileness! Would to God that
mankind had had an easier path through which to attain
to the noblest and highest truths! But man had to pass
through all this; do not make the path more difficult
for those who are coming after you.
These are sometimes terrible doctrines to teach. I
know people who get frightened at these ideas, but for
those who want to be practical, this is the first thing
to learn. Never tell yourselves or others that you are
weak. Do good if you can, but do not injure the world.
You know in your inmost heart that many of your limited
ideas, this humbling of yourself and praying and weeping
to imaginary beings are superstitions. Tell me one case
where these prayers have been answered. All the answers
that came were from your own hearts. You know there are
no ghosts, but no sooner are you in the dark than you
feel a little creepy sensation. That is so because in
our childhood we have had all these fearful ideas put
into our heads. But do not teach these things to others
through fear of society and public opinion, through fear
of incurring the hatred of friends, or for fear of
losing cherished superstitions. Be masters of all these.
What is there to be taught more in religion than the
oneness of the universe and faith in one's self? All the
works of mankind for thousands of years past have been
towards this one goal, and mankind is yet working it
out. It is your turn now and you already know the truth.
For it has been taught on all sides. Not only philosophy
and psychology, but materialistic sciences have declared
it. Where is the scientific man today who fears to
acknowledge the truth of this oneness of the universe?
Who is there who dares talk of many worlds? All these
are superstitions. There is only one life and one world,
and this one life and one world is appearing to us as
manifold. This manifoldness is like a dream. When you
dream, one dream passes away and another comes. You do
not live in your dreams. The dreams come one after
another, scene after scene unfolds before you. So it is
in this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent
happiness. Perhaps after a while it will appear as
ninety per cent happiness, and we shall call it heaven,
but a time comes to the sage when the whole thing
vanishes, and this world appears as God Himself, and his
own soul as God. It is not therefore that there are many
worlds, it is not that there are many lives. All this
manifoldness is the manifestation of that One. That One
is manifesting Himself as many, as matter, spirit, mind,
thought, and everything else. It is that One,
manifesting Himself as many. Therefore the first step
for us to take is to teach the truth to ourselves and to
others.
Let the world resound with this ideal, and let
superstitions vanish. Tell it to men who are weak and
persist in telling it. You are the Pure One; awake and
arise, O mighty one, this sleep does not become you.
Awake and arise, it does not befit you. Think not that
you are weak and miserable. Almighty, arise and awake,
and manifest your own nature. It is not fitting that you
think yourself a sinner. It is not fitting that you
think yourself weak. Say that to the world, say it to
yourselves, and see what a practical result comes, see
how with an electric flash everything is manifested, how
everything is changed. Tell that to mankind, and show
them their power. Then we shall learn how to apply it in
our daily lives.
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