The Master as I Saw Him - by Sister Nivedita

THE MASTER AS

I

SAW HIM

BEING PAGES FROM THE LIFE OF THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

HIS DISCIPLE NIVEDITA OF RAMAKRISHNA-VIVEKANANDA LIFE, ETC.

LONGMANS, GREEN AND 39

PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON AND NEW YORK IQIO All rights reserved

CO.

jtohttafrm t0

In sending out the tribute

her Guru

into the

Nivedita

and good wishes of

Bellur Feb.

world this book

of her love and gratitude

to

has the

blessings

all his

brothers.

Math

ist.

SARADANANDA, 1910.

2021288

TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE

-CHAPTER.

A I.

II.

III.

IV.

WORD TO WESTERN READERS,

THE SWAMI

IN LONDON. 1895

.

.

THE SWAMI

IN LONDON. 1896

.

.

-4 .

-22 49

THE CONFLICT OF IDEALS THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND THE ORDER

74

OF RAMAKRISHNA V.

VI.

VII.

VIII. IX.

X.

XL XII.

WANDERINGS IN NORTHERN INDIA

FLASHES FROM THE BEACON FIRE .

.

.

.

....

THE AWAKENER OF SOULS

AMARNATH

.

.

.

.

.

.

THE SWAMI AND MOTHER-WORSHIP

GLIMPSES OF THE SAINTS

XIV.

PAST AND FUTURE IN INDIA

14

53

l6l

CALCUTTA AND THE HOLY WOMEN

HALF-WAY ACROSS THE WORLD

128

1

.

KSHIR BHOWANI

XIII.

II 3

.

.

.177

.

.

.

.

....

205

22O 235

246

*

CHAPTER. XV. XVI. XVII.

PAGE

....

THE SWAMI ON HINDUISM GLIMPSES IN THE WEST

275

THE SWAMl'S MISSION CONSIDERED AS A

WHOLE XVIII.

289

THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S ATTITUDE TO

BUDDHA XIX.

XX. XXI. XXII.

xxin.

3l8

HIS ESTIMATE OF HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY

WOMAN AND THE PEOPLE HIS

XXV. XXVI.

XXVII

.

.... ....

344 355

METHOD OF TRAINING A WESTERN WORKER 382

MONASTICISM AND MARRIAGE

406

OUR MASTER'S RELATION TO PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, SO-CALLED

XXIV.

257

HIS TEACHING ABOUT

DEATH

SUPER-CONSCIOUSNESS

THE PASSING OF THE SWAMI THE END

.... .... .

.

.

431

448

-475 497 509

APPENDICES. A.

NOTES OF A LECTURE DELIVERED IN LONDON.

B.

NOTES OF A LECTURE DELIVERED IN LONDON.

NOV.

NOV. [

SEE CHAPTER

I.

Ante.

1 6,

1895

23, 1895.

]

C.

NOTES OF LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE VEDANTA

D.

NEW YORK, SUNDAY AFTERNOONS, JUNE IOTH AND I7TH, 1900. NOTES OF A LECTURE ON 'MOTHER-WORSHIP DELIVERSOCIETY,

5

ED AT THE VEDANTA SOCIETY NEW YORK, SUNDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 24TH, [

PRINTED BY

S.

64-1

C.

SEE CHAPTER

1

900.

1 6.

Ante

]

GHOSE AT THE LAKSHMI PRINTING WORKS,

& 64-2

SUKEA'S STREET, CALCUTTA.

A WORD TO WESTERN READERS. FROM

the close of the era

of the Bud-

the day when, as a Missions, yellow-clad Sannyasin, the Swami Vivekadhist

until

nanda stood on the platform of the Parliament of Religions in the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, Hinduism had not thought of missionary faith. Her professional teachers, the Brahmins, being citizens herself as a

and householders, formed a part of Hindu society itself and as such were held to be debarred from crossing the seas.

And

her

wandering Sadhus, who are, in the highest cases, as much above the born Brahmin in authority,

be

above

as

saint

or

or

incarnation

scholar,

had

may

simply not thought of putting their freedom to such use. Nor did the Swami Vivekananda priest

A WORD TO WESTERN READERS appear at the doors of Chicago with any He had been sent across the credentials. Pacific Ocean, as he might have wandered from one Indian village to another, by the

eargerness and faith of a few disciples in And with American hospitality Madras.

and frankness he was welcomed, and accorded an opportunity of speaking. In his case, as in that of the Buddhist missionaries, the

impelling force that drove him out to foreign lands was the great personality of One at

whose

feet

he had

shared, for

many

sat,

and whose

years.

life

he had

Yet, in the West,

he spoke of no personal teacher, he gave the "The religious message of no limited sect.

Hindus" were

theme at similarly, thereafter, it was Chicago those elements which were common to, and characteristic of, orthodox Hinduism in all its parts, that formed the burden of his teachideas

of the ;

ing.

Thus,

Hinduism

his

and

for

itself

the

first

time in history,

formed the subject of the

A WORD TO WESTERN READERS generalisations highest order.

of

a Hindu mind of

The Swami remained August of the year 1895, -Europe for the first time.

in

America

the

until

when he came

to

In September he to England, and a month or

found his way so later, he began teaching

in

London.

I.

IN

LONDON,

1895.

strange to remember, and yet

It is

my good

surely the teachings

fortune, that

of

my

though

heard

Swami

the

Master,

was

it

I

Vivekananda, on both the occasions of his to

visits

England,

knew

little

until

I

in

1895 an his disciples in India faith of his

indomitable souls

who

mission.

showed

that this innate

had never wavered.

Such an hope resides assuredly in all

are born to carry out any special is a deep unspoken conscious-

It

ness of greatness, of which life itself is to be the sole expression. To Hindu thinking, there is a difference as of the poles, between such

consciousness of greatness and vanity, and this is seen, as I think, in the Swami himself at the

moment of his first meeting with when he was decidedly re-

Sri Ramakrishna, pelled,

rather

than attracted,

by what he

regarded as the old man's exaggerated estimate of his powers and of himself.

He

had come, a lad of

fifteen,

as a

mem-

ber of a party visiting Dakshineshwar, and some one, probably knowing the unusual 1

06

THE MASTER'S RECOGNITION, quality of his voice, and his knowledge of music, sugggested that he should sing. He responded with a song of Ram Mohun Roy's,

ending with the words,

"And

for support

keep the treasure in secret, purity." This seems to have acted like a signal

"My boy my

boy !" cried Sri Ramakrishna, have been looking for you these three From years, and you have come at last !" !

"I

that day the older man may be said to have devoted himself to welding the lads about

him

into a brotherhood

whose devotion ta

"Noren," as the Swami was then called, would be unswerving. He was never tired of foretelling his great fame, nor of pointing out the superiority of his genius. If most men had two, or three, or even ten or twelve gifts, he said, he could only say of Noren that his numbered a thousand. He was in fact

"the

Even thousand-petalled lotus." great, while he would allow

amongst the

that with one might be found

107

some "two of

THE ORDER OF RAMAKRISHNA. the marks of Siva," Noren had at least eighteen of such. He was sensitive to the point of physical

those gifts which are

pain himself, in his discrimination of hypoand on one occasion refused to accept a man whose piety of life was regarded by crisy,

those about him as unimpugnable. The man, he said, with all his decorum, was a whited sepulchre. his presence

In spite of constant purification was contamination, while Noren,

on the other hand, if he were to eat beef in an English hotel, would nevertheless be holy, so holy

that his very touch

holiness

to

others.

would convey sayings he

By such

sought constantly to build up an enduring based firmly on essentials, between

relation,

those

who were to be his supporters, and who was to lead. was his habit, when a new disciple

this disciple It

came

to him, to

physically

in

all

human body was

examine him mentally and For the possible ways. to his trained eye, as signifi-

108

VI VEKANAND AS cant in

all its

parts, as

PAST

any model of a machine These exami-

to a skilled scientific observer.

nations moreover would include the throwing

of the newcomer into a sleep, in which he had access to the subconscious mind. The as

privileged,

have been

I

told,

were per-

mitted in this condition to relate their story

;

while from the less honoured

it

own was

It was after evoked by means of questions. such an examination of "Noren" that

the Master told

all

about him, that when the

day should come for this boy to realize who and what he was, he would refuse for a mo-

ment longer

to endure the

bondage of bodi-

ly existence, going out from tations.

by the

And by disciples,

life,

with

its

limi-

was always understood the remembering by the lad this

of what he had already attained, even in this world, in lives anterior to his present consciousness.

No

permitted by

menial service to himself was Sri

particular follower.

Ramakrishna

from this

Fanning, the preparation 109

THE ORDER OF RAMAKRISHNA. of tobacco, and the thousand and one

little

attentions all

commonly rendered to the Guru, these had to be offered to the Master by

others,

Amongst the many quaint-seeming customs is more deep-rooted than

of the East, none

the prejudice against eating food cooked by is not respected. And on this point

one who the

Swami's Master was as sensitive as a

woman.

would not eat him-

But what he

he would give freely to his favourite disciple, for Noren, he said, was the "roaring self

impurity. The core of divinity again, in this boy's nature was masculine in its quality, as compared to his own fire,"

burning up

all

Thus, by an attitude of adunmixed with actual reverence,

merely feminine. miration, not

he created a

belief

in

particular lad, which,

the destiny of this himself had

when he

passed away, was to stand him

in good stead, and support to his For the Swami was nothing, if not a

in furnishing authenticity

work.

no

THE ROARING

FIRE.

And it was essential breaker of bondage. that there should be those about him who understood his breaches

idly

the of

polar

custom

self-indulgent.

days of

my

life

between and those of the

difference

Nothing

in

in India, struck

the

me

early so for-

cibly or so repeatedly as the steadiness with

which the other members of the Order this part of the mission laid

fufilled

upon them.

Men

whose own lives were cast in the strictest mould of Hindu orthodoxy, or even of asceticism, were willing to eat with the Europeans whom their leader had accepted. Was the Swami seen dining in Madras with an Englishman and his wife ? Was it said that while in the West he had touched beef or wine ? Not a quiver was seen on the faces of bis brethren. It was not for them to question, not for them to explain, not even for them to ask for final justification and excuse. Whatever he did, wherever he might lead, it was their place to be found unflinching at his side.

in

THE ORDER OF R And

surely none can pass this spectacle in review, without its being borne in upon him,

meaningless as would have been the Order of Ramakrishna without Vivekananda, even so futile would have been the life and that

labours of Vivekananda, without, behind him,

Order of Ramakrishna. lately by one of the older

his brothers of the It

was said

me

to

generation that "Ramakrishna had lived for the making of Vivekananda." Is it indeed so?

Or

is it

not rather impossible to distinguish

with such

betwen one part and another, mighty utterance of the Divine

fixity

in a single

Mother-heart? all

studying with us a soul nanda, and ing,

appear

with us

still,

Often

it

appears to me,

in

these lives, that there has been

named Ramakrishna-Viveka-

that, in the

many

penumbra of his besome of which are

forms,

and of none of

whom

it

could be

said with entire truth that here ends, in relation to him, the sphere of that there begins his own.

112

those others, or

IN NORTHERN INDIA.

WANDERINGS The summer memory old

of 1898 stands out in my"

as a series of pictures, painted like

altar-pieces,

against

a

golden

back-

ground of religious ardour and simplicity, and all alike glorified by the presence of one who, to us in his immediate circle, formed their central point.

We

were a party of four

Western women, one of whom was Mrs, Ole Bull of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and another a member of the higher official world of Anglo-Indian Calcutta. Side by side with us travelled the Swami, surrounded

by

his brethren (or gurubhais)

and

disciples.

Once arived at Almora, he and his party became the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Sevier, who were then residing there, and we occupied a bungalow some distance away. Thus

"3

IN NORTHERN INDIA. pleasantly grouped, it was possible to combine a high degree of freedom and intercourse. But when, after a month or so, we left Almora for Kashmir, the Swami went with us, as the guest of Mrs. Ole Bull, and left behind him attendants.

all his

What

scenes were those through which the beginning of May

we journeyed from until

end of October

the

one by one reached

!

And

with what

we

introduced

enthusiasm were

passionate

it

to each point of interest, as !

The

ignorance

of

we

educated

Western people about India, excepting of course those who have in some measure specialised on the subject might almost be described as illiteracy, and our object-lessons began, I have no doubt, with Patna, the ancient Pataliputra, itself. The river-front of Benares, as one approaches it by railway from the East, is amongst the sights of the world, and could not praise.

The

fail

industries

114

of our leader's eager and luxuries of

THE PEASANTS WELCOME. Lucknow must needs be dwelt upon and enumerated. But of admitted

it was not only the great cities beauty and historic importance,

Swami, in his eagerness, would Perhaps impress on our memory. nowhere did his love seem more ardent,

that

the

strive to

or his absorption more intense, than as we passed across the long stretches of the Plains, covered with fields and farms and villages.

Here

his

thought was free to brood over the

land as a whole, and he would spend hours explaining the communal system of agriculture, or describing the daily life of the farm housewife, with such details as that of the

pot-du-feu of mixed grains left boiling all It was night, for the morning porridge. the memory, doubtless, of his own days as a wanderer, that so brightened his eyes and thrilled in his voice, as he told us these

For

have heard

it said by sadhus no hospitality in India like that of the humble peasant home. True,

things.

that

there

is

I

IN NORTHERN INDIA. the mistress has no better bedding to offer than straw, no better shelter than an outhouse built of

mud.

But

it is

she

who

steals in at

the last moment, before she goes to rest herself amongst her sleeping household, to place a tooth-brush twig and a bowl of milk where the guest will find them, on waking in the

morning, that he may go forth from beneath her roof comforted and refreshed. It

lived

would seem sometimes as if the Swami and moved and had his very being in

His historic the sense of his country's past. consciousness was extraordinarily developed. Thus, as we journeyed across the Terai,

in^

the hot hours of an afternoon near the berains, we were made to feel was the very earth on which had passed the youth and renunciation of Buddha.

ginning of the that this

The

wild peacocks spoke to us of Rajputana

and her ballad lore. An occasional elephant was the text for tales of ancient battles, and the story of an India that was never defeated,.

116

A RIGHTEOUS RULER. so long as she could oppose to the tide of conquest the military walls of these living artillery.

As we had Bengal

into the

crossed the boundary from North- West Provinces, the

Swami had stopped

to tell us of the

wisdom

.and methods of the great and merciful English ruler who was at that time at the head

"Unlike others," he

of their administration. said,

in

words that impressed

the time,

my memory

at

"he understands the need of per-

sonal government in Oriental countries, where a strong public opinion is not yet developed, so no hospital, no college, no office

knows the day when he

will

pay

it

a

visit

of

And even

the poorest believes inspection. that if only he can reach him personally, he will receive justice at his hands." This idea -of the

importance of personality

in

Eastern

came uppermost in his constantly spoke of a democracy

governments often talk.

He

as theoretically the worst form for an impe-

117

IN NORTHERN INDIA. rial

government

And one

to take.

of his fa-

vourite speculations was that it had been a perception of this truth that had urged Julius

Caesar

authority,

to aspire

on,

We

listened to him,

to the imperial

realised sometimes,

how hard

it

had been

as

we

for the

Indian poor, to understand the transition from the personal rule of sovereigns, always accessible to appeal, always open to the impulse of

mercy, and able to exercise a supreme disbureaucratic methods of

cretion, to the cold

a series of departments. For we heard from him the personal histories of innumerable simple

folk,

who,

in the early years of British

had spent their all in the vain hope of reaching the Queen, and gaining her ear, at Windsor. Heart-broken pilgrims for the most part, who died, of want and disillusionrule,

ment, far from the homes and villages that they would never see again !

It

was as we passed

Rowever, that

we caught 118

into the Punjab, our deepest glimpse

LOVE OF THE PUNJAB. of the Master's love of his

own

Any

land.

one who had seen him here, would have supposed him to have been born in the province, so intensely

with

it.

had he

identified himself

would seem that he had been

It

deeply bound to the people there by many ties of love and reverence had received ;

much and given much for there were some amongst them who urged that they found in him a rare mixture of 'Guru Nanak and Guru ;

Govind," their

Even

the

first

most

teacher and their

last.

amongst them

suspicious

And if they refused to credit judgment, or endorse his outflowing sym-

trusted him. his

pathy, in regard to those Europeans

he had made his own, he,

it

loved the wayward hearts

may have

all

the

whom been,

more

for

condemnation and incorrupsternness. His American disciples

their inflexible tible

were already familiar with called to his

of

the

own

Punjabi

face a

maiden 119

his picture

dreamy at

her

that

delight,

spinning

IN NORTHERN INDIA. Sivoham "Sivoham at the same am He !" Yet

wheel, listening to I

am He

I

!

must

its

!

!

forget to tell that it was here, on entering the Punjab, even as, near the end of his life, he is said to have

time,

I

not

done again at Benares, that he called to him Mussulman vendor of sweetmeats, and bought and ate from his hand Mohami

medan food. As we went through some

village, he would point out to us those strings of marigolds above the door, that distinguished the Hindu homes. Again he would show us the

pure golden

tint

of skin, so different from

the pink and white of the European ideal, that constitutes the 'fairness' admired by the

Indian races. Or as one drove beside him in a tonga, he would forget all, in that tale of which he never wearied, of Siva, the Great

God,

silent,

remote upon the mountains, askmen but solitude, and ''lost

ing nothing of in

one eternal meditation.' 1

20

BEAUTY OF KASHMIR.

We drove from Rawalpindi to Murree, where we spent a few days. And then, partly by tonga, partly by boat, we proceeded to Srinagar in Kashmir, and made it our centre and headquarters, during the wanderings of the following months. It would be easy to lose oneself here in the beauty of our journeys, in descriptions of mountain-forests on the road to Almora, or

of

cathedral-rocks

and

corn-embosomed

the Jhelum Pass. For, as one villages returns upon that time, its record is found in in

a constant succession of scenes of loveliness.

Not

least of these pictures

is

the

memory

of

handsome old woman, wearing the crimson coronet and white veil of Kashmiri peasants, who sat at her spinning-wheel the

under a great chenaar-tree *in a farm-yard, surrounded by

we passed

her daughters-in-law,

when

way, and stopped to visit was the Swami's second call on her.

It *

that,

The Chenaar-tree

is

the Orie ntal Plane.

121

her.

He

IN NORTHERN INDIA. had received some small kindness at her hands the year before, and had never tired of telling how, after

this,

when he had

asked, before

"

And, mother, of what her whole face had religion are you ?" and her lighted up with pride and joy, old voice had rung out in triumph as she answered loudly and clearly, "I thank saying farewell,

our God, by the mercy of the Lord, a Mussulman !"

Or

I

might

Lombardy

I

am

of the avenue of lofty

tell

poplars outside Srinagar, so

like

the well-known picture by Hobbema, where we listened to discourse after discourse on

India and the Faith.

Or

might linger over the harvest merrivillagers, playing in reaped fields on moonlit evenings or talk of the red bronze I

ment of the

;

of amaranth crops, or the green of young rice under tall poplars at Islamabad. For-get-menots of a brilliant blue form the

commonest summer r

wild flower of the Kashmiri fields in

122

-

APPLE-TREES AND IRISES. but

in

autumn and

spring, fields

and river

banks are violet-tinged with small purple irises, and one walks amongst their spear-like leaves as

if

How

they were grass.

infinitely

tender

are the suggestions of those little iris-covered hillocks, rounding off the rise of some road-side

against the sky, that mark the burial places of the Mussulman dead !

Here and there, too, amidst grass and irises, one comes on groups of gnarled apple or pear, or plum, the remains of the village orchards which the State, once upon trees,

a time, supplied to

all

its

subjects

free

of

Walking here once, at twilight, along the high banks of the river, I watched a party of Mussulman herdsmen, crooks in hand,

cost.

driving a small flock of long-haired goats And then, as before them to their village. came to a knot of they apple-trees, they

stopped awhile, and spreading a blanket for praying-carpet, they proceeded to offer their evening-worship in the deepening dusk.

123

NORTHERN

IN

my

Verily, says .beauty.

But

There in

is

heart,

there

no end

good sooth

INDIA. is

no end of

!

it

is

not

of these

things that I am attempting, in the course r the Loving one had not filled this universe ?

Most of us will find that we were born for serWe must leave the results to God. If failure comes, there need be no sorrow. The work was done only for God.

vice.

In women, the mother-nature ed.

They worship God

as

is

nothing, and will do anything. The Catholic Church teaches

deep

things,

and though

it is

much developThey ask

the child.

many

narrow,

it is

of these religious

VI in the highest sense. In

ism

good

modern

broad but shallow.

is

it

does,

is

as

society, Protestant-

To judge

truth

by what

bad as to question the value of a

discovery to a baby. Society must be outgrown. and become outlaws. oil

scientific

We

We ow

must crush law

only in order to conquer her. Renunciation means that none can serve God and Mammon. nature,

Deepen your own power of thought and love. Bring your own lotus to blossom the bees will :

come of

themselves.

then in God. the

world.

Believe

first

in

yourself,

A handful of strong men will We need a heart to feel a ;

move brain

and a strong arm to do the work Buddha gave himself for the animals. Make But it is God who yourself a fit agent to work. to conceive

works,

;

not you.

universe.

One

One man particle

of

contains

the

matter has

whole all

the

energy of the Universe at its back. In a conflict between the heart and the brain follow your heart.

Yesterday, competition was the law. is the law. To-morrow,

co-operation

no

To-day, there

is

blame.

Let sages praise thee, or let the world Let fortune itself come, or let poverty

and rags

stare thee in the face.

law.

Eat the herbs of

Vll

the forest one day, for food and the next, share a banquet of fifty courses. Looking neither to the ;

right

hand nor to the

left,

follow thou on

!

APPENDIX

TO CHAPTER

B,

I

NOTES OF A LECTURE DELIVERED IN LONDON

NOVEMBER

THE Swami

began by

his

to

fall t(

own

O

Lord,

Take them child

vessels,

at his feet

"

!

I

anwer to

in

telling,

how Pavhari Baba snatched

questions, the story of

up

23RD, 1895.

and ran

after the

thief,

only

and say

knew not

They

that

are Thine

!

Thou wast

there

!

Pardon me, Thy

!

Again he told how the same

saint

was

bitten

by

a cobra, and when, towards nightfall he recovered, he " said A messenger came to me from the Beloved."

The

greatest

of thought. ful.

The

force

The finer silent

is

derived from the

the element, the

power

of

thought

influences

people, even at a distance, because mind as well as many. The universe is a cobweb

are the spiders. The universe

equals the

power

mort poweris ;

one,

minds

phenomena of one

IX

He, seen through our senses, Being. Universe. Jesus or Buddha sees the Universe as God. This is Maya. So the world Universal

is

the

that is, the imperfect vision of the a semi-revelation, even as the sun in the morning is a red ball. Thus all evils and wicked-

is

illusion,

Real,

ness are but weakness, the

imperfect

Vision

of

Goodness.

A a

straight

self.

I

am

projected infinitely becomes search for God comes back to

line

The

circle.

the

whole mystery, God. I am a I am the Lord of the

body, the lower self; and Universe.

Why should a man be moral and pure ? Because this strengthens his will. Everything that strengthens the will, by revealing the real nature, is moral. moral.

Everything that does the reverse, is imstandard varies from country to

The

country, and from

individual to individual.

must recover from to words, and so on.

his

Man

of slavery to laws, have no freedom of the

state

We

now, but we shall have, when we are free, denunciation is this giving up of the world. vill

Ihrough the senses, anger ccmes.

As long

ths passion

as

it

is

are different.

comes, and sorrow not yet there, self and

At

last

they become

identified,

The

and the man

instrument within

an animal at

is

once.

Become pos-

infinite.

is

sessed with the feeling of renunciation. I once had a body, was born, struggled, and

What

-died.

awful hallucinations

one was cramped tion

to

!

think that

a body, weeping for salva-

in

!

But does renunciation demand that we

become

ascetics

Renunciation Christs?

is

not

the

How

does I

it

come

and

their

month

being

thirsty,

for a

Are

synonym

was

all

beggars

for holiness

;

of the mind.

is

a desert, It

all

to help the others ?

when

in the

I

was

midst of a

There were trees surrounding could be seen in the

reflections

But the whole thing proved

Then

mirage.

a

day

In

?

upside down.

water,

to be a for

not a

lake.

beautiful landscape. it,

is

Renunciation

reverse.

saw a

then

asceticism. is

Poverty

often

thirsty,

Who

?

I

I

had seen

had learnt

month

I

knew this,

it

that every day and only today,

be unreal.

to

should see

it

Ever/

But I So, when

again.

should never again take it to be real. reach God, the idea of the universe, the bocy

we

.and so on, will vanish.

But next time we

The

history

shall

It will

know

of the

it

world

return, to is

afterwards.

be unreal. the history of

XI

'Buddha and Jesus.

ed do most He slums.

The

passionless and unattachPicture Jesus in the

for the world.

sees

brethren, are

all

.removes causes.

beyond the misery, "You, His work is calm. You are only able to work

divine."

my He for

when you know for a fact The more unconsthat this work is all illusion. cious this work, the better, because the more superconscious. Our search is not for good or evil but the good of the world,

;

happiness and good are nearer to truth than their man ran a thorn into his finger, and opposites.

A

with another thorn took

it

out.

The second thorn

is

Good.

Evil.

.Peace which

The >to

God.

both

passeth beyond

melting down For one moment, he

universe

is

is re-differentiated

world trembles.

A

The first thorn is The Self is that

:

evil

and good.

man draws is

real

nearer

God.

He

a prophet. Before him, now, the fool sleeps, and wakes a fool.

A

man, unconscious and super-conscious, returns ^with infinite power, purity, and love the God-

Man.

This

is

the

use

of

the

super-conscious

rstate.

Wisdom can be practised even on a battle-field. The Gita was preached so. There are three states of mind

The

:

the active, the passive, and the serene. is characterised by slow vibra-

passive state

Xll

tions

the

;

active,

the serene

by

Know

all.

The body horses

man

the

quick vibrations, and by most intense vibrations of

that the soul

is

is

sitting

and the inner senses the

;

in the chariot.

the chariot; the outer senses are the

crosses the ocean of

He

reaches God.

trol

of his

When

senses, he

is

Maya. a

man

charioteer.

So

He goes is

beyond. under the con-

of this world.

When he

has controlled the senses, he has renounced.

Even true

forgiveness,

fight

:

is

if

better.

weak and

passive,

is

not

Forgive when you could

being legions of angels to the victory. Krishna, the charioteer of Arjuna, hears it said, "The general will forgive," and answers "You speak the words of wise men, but you are not a wise man, but a coward." As a lotus-leaf, living in the water

yet untouched by it, so should the soul be, in the This is a battle field, fight your way out. world.

Make is a poor attempt to see God. a manifestation of will strengthened by

This world

your

life

renunciation.

We

must learn to control

The

all

our brain-centres

happiness. AsceTo laugh is better than to ticism is fiendish. pray. Sing. Get rid of misery. Don't for heaven's sake infect others with it. Never think God sellsconsciously.

first

step

is

Xlll

a

happiness and a

little

little

Sur-

unhappiness.

round yourself with flowers and pictures and incense. The saints went to the mountain tops to enjoy nature.

The Second Step is Purity. The third is full training of out what

God

is

alone

true from is

true.

are not God,

you

what

If for a

great terror

the mind.

eason

untrue.

See that

is

moment you will seize

think

you.

As

soon as you think / am He, great peace and joy will come to you. Control the senses. If a man curse, see in

ness

I

him God, whom through

see as

curser,

as

tiger,

as

my weak-

chair.

The

whom you do good, are extending a priviHe allows you, through His mercy, lege to you. to worship Him thus. poor to

The history of the world is the history of a men who had faith in themselves. That faith calls out the divinity within. You can do anything. You fail, only when you do not strive As soon as sufficiently to manifest infinite power. a man, or a nation, loses faith in himself, death few

comes.

There come,

is

a divine within,

either

guardism.

A

by church

that cannot

dogmas

or

be overby black-

handful of Greeks speak, wherever

XIV there

Do

Some

civilisation.

is

always

Do

be.

'twere done better

None

be

will

Ocean

time have become insane,

its

What

is

penitence.

none destroyed. All will Say, day and night,

left,

perfect.

You

brothers!

my

of Purity

Be God

!

insight.

If

end be made

'come up,

great

this

!"

humanity would by with its litames and in the

Have

done is done. Oh that man had not been God,

"What

think

not

mistakes there must

not grieve.

are

the infinite

Manifest as

!

God

'

!

feeling of the When you find time, repeat these divine within. That is all.. ideas to yourself, and desire freedom.

Deny thing night. I

nor

is

civilisation

everything that that

God.

is

So the

am

limit.

veil

neither I

is

It is

?

the

not God.

Assert every-

Mentally assert this,

day and

grows thinner.

man

nor angel.

am knowledge

itself.

I

have no sex I

am

He.

I

have neither anger nor hatred. I have neither pain nor pleasure. Death or birth I never had.

For I

It

I

am Knowledge

am

Absolute, and Bliss Absolute.

am He

He, my soul, Find yourself bodiless. You never had a body. was all superstition. Give back the divine cons-

ciousness to

I

all

the poor,

oppressed, and the

sick.

!

the down-trodden, the

XV five hundred years or so, a over the world. Little comes thought waves arise, in many directions but one swallows That up all the others, and sweeps over society. wave does this, which has most character at its back.

Apparently, every

wave of

this

:

Confucius, Moses, and Pythagoras

Mahomet

Christ,

;

Theosophy, Spiritualism, and the

mean only

;

Buddha r

Luther, Calvin, and the Sikhs like

;

all

;

these

the preaching of the Divine-in- Man.

Never say man

is

weak.

better than the others.

requires no object.

Love

Wisdom-Yoga

Love is

is

the ideal,

no-

is

and

God. So even through

the subjective God. I am He f How can one work, unless one loves, city, country, animals, the universe? Reason leads to the finding of unity in variety. Let the atheist and the

devotion

we reach

So God comes. must Do not disturb the you guard. faith of any. For you must know that religion is not in doctrines. Religion lies in being and beagnostic work for the social good.

But

coming,

The

this

All men are born idolators. man is an animal. The highest man And between these two, all have to

in realisation.

lowest

is perfect.

think in sound and colour, in doctrine and

ritual.

The test of having ceased to be an idolater is, 'When you say /', does the body come into your '

XVI thought, or not

worshipper of jargon at

?

but

all,

If

it

idols.

realisation.

you are

still

a

is

not intellectual

If

you think about

The

are only a fool.

God, you prayer and

then

does,

Religion

ignorant man, by devotion, can reach beyond the philo-

sopher. To know God, no philosophy is necessary. Our duty is not to disturb the faith of others. Religion is experience. Above all and in all, be Identification brings misery, because it sincere. brings desire. Thus the poor man sees gold, and identifies himself with the need of gold. Be the

witness.

In

Learn never to

answer

ness

who

most

unselfish

react.

to * question

testifies

of

:

The

artist is the wit-

the beautiful.

form of happiness

Art

is

in the world.

the

APPENDIX

C,

TO CHAPTER XVL

NOTES OF LECTURES DKLIVERED AT THE VEDANTA SOCIETY,

NEW YORK SUNDAY AFTERNOONS ;

THE

JUNE, 1900.

UNITY.

The

different

sectarian

systems of India

alt

radiate from one central idea of Unity or Dualism.

They by

it.

are

Their

This, which

all

final

we

under Vedanta, essence

is

see as many,

all interpreted the teaching of Unity. is

matter, the world, manifold there but one existence.

God.

We

sensation.

perceive

Yet

is

These various names mark only differences of degree in the expression of that One. The worm of to-day is the God of to-morrow. These distinctions infinite

which we so love are fact,

and only differ That one infinite

expression. ment of Freedom.

in

parts of one the degree of

all

fact is the attain-

However mistaken we may

be, as to the method,, our struggle is really for Freedom. seek neither misery nor happiness, but Freedom. This.

all

We

XV111

one aim man.

the secret of the insatiable thirst of

is

Man's

thirst, says the Hindu, man's thirst, says the Buddhist, is a burning, unquenchable thirst, for more and more. You Americans are always

looking for more pleasure, more enjoyment. You cannot be satisfied. True, but at bottom what you seek is Freedom.

This vastness of his desire

man's

own

infinitude.

is

infinite,

that

he can only be

his desire

What

is infinite,

Not beauty.

joy.

and

its

then can satisfy

One

It

really the sign

is

of

because he

is

is

when

satisfied,

fulfilment infinite.

man

?

Not

Not

gold.

can satisfy Himself. When he realises Infinite alone

him, and that infinite is this, then alone comes Freedom.

"This

flute,

With Is

with the sense-organs as

all its

its

sensations, perceptions,

key-holes,

and song,

It longs to singing only one thing. back to the wood whence it was cut " " Deliver thou thyself by thyself Ah, do not let thyself sink

go

!

!

!

For thou

And

art thyself thy greatest friend. thou thyself thy greatest enemy.

Who can help the Infinite ? comes

to

your own.

Even the hand

you through the darkness

will

that

have to be

XIX

Fear and desire are the two causes of

and who

creates

them

?

We ourselves.

all

this,

Our

lives

are but a passing from dream to dream. Man. the infinite dreamer, dreaming finite dreams Oh the blessedness of it, that nothing external !

be eternal They little know what they mean, whose hearts quake when they hear that nothing in this relative world can be eternal.

can

!

I

am

the infinite blue sky.

clouds of various

am

colours,

Over me pass these

remain a moment, and

the same eternal blue.

vanish.

I

witness,

the same eternal witness, of

therefore nature exists.

she does not. if this infinite

I

Not one of

do not

I

am

all.

the

I see,,

see, therefore

us could see or speak,,

unity were broken for a moment.

XX

WHAT

locomotive, with

machine

What

RELIGION ?

IS

A

and a

;

makes us

that

is it

living and the

dead

is

between the

differentiate,

?

All over the world serpents,

trees, gods.

miracle.

We

are

powers, is only a a living being.

all its

worm

little

all

is

worship,

of ghosts, of

The whole world expects a running after the curious, the

extraordinary. dismiss this as

We

remains.

ignorance, but the fact believe nothing to be vain or meaning-

I

The Jews were not for a sign. Then

less.

world asks

the whole singular there is this universal :

We work for an object, or an ideal, and before we reach it, our desire has changed. Man is a born rebel against nature, and nature's laws. The first act of our life is one of rebellion dissatisfaction.

against

The

life.

ous as they

moon, and

earth,

are, are

but machines.

stars,

Life,

tremendfrom

its

highest growth, is above all is the cry of life. these. 'Freedom, oh Freedom is the song of the soul. ^Freedom, oh Freedom first

twinkling to

its

!'

!'

All worship,

all

this thirst for

is, at bottom, Science on her countless

desire for miracles,

Freedom.

watch-towers signals back to the asking soul, 'No, Nature has no freedom. She is all law.'

not yet

!

XXI This

God

the idea of

why

is

is

essential to the

There must be the concept of some being or beings with Freedom. Mind.

Religion thus becomes only a question of the or personification of the idea.

materialisation

Even a plant could not be, without this notion of Embodied Freedom, the Master of Nature, is what we call God. Which of you would come or go or eat, if you did not believe yourself FREE to do or not to do ?

Freedom.

a false notion, yet it shows the conmuch a fact as the bondage Freedom must bring the mastery of nature.

may be

This

ception, itself.

and

this is as

Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Freedom must go hand in hand, and must be beyond nature. All its

dust and mire leaves little

every

Him

Him

thing produces

So SATCHITANANDA

!

"He

is

unstained.

In us,

change. Not so in alone describes Him.

the Ruler of this

universe.

Him

the

sun cannot illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars. The flash of the lightning cannot irradiate Him.

How

then speak of this mortal

fire ?"

He

depends upon Himself alone. All movement is His Worship. No action, no movement, no throb in the universe, but goes towards Him.

Not only

all

that

we

call

good, but

evil

also, is

XX11

from

the

Lord.

of His is

vial,

am

"I

He who

Unreal."

gave us

the

Real

life,

He

shadow

is

the

pouring out

'He whose shadow

the direst death.

death, whose

am

I

:

is

immortality

!'

We may

But bury our heads in the sand, like the ostrich. there is no escape that way Once, in (Benares, I was pursued by troops of monkeys, and I turned !

to

flee,

when suddenly behind

sannyasin

face the brute

Face

I

me

heard the voice of an old out "Stop!

call

So, face nature.

!"

Never

illusion.

Always

Face ignorance.

You remember

fly.

the

story of the king who saw the vision of an enchanted palace, but he spat upon the ground, and all

vanished

?

Your own

child

comes

to

A

you masked.

moment

The of terror, and then It is the Lord world has been ever preaching the God of virtue. !

I preach to you a God of virtue and of sin. No The more looking up and down at each other !

less

one

differentiation,

the sooner God.

sin, differentiation.

differentiation.

This

Only when

is

the

This

this is broken,

the

is

door to

hell,

when

pulverised to atoms, can we attain the Can we, or can we not, see God in all equally is

"Thou

Thou

art the

man, Thou

art the

woman

?

!

art the youth, in the pride of his youth,

it

XXlll

And

Two "tree.

man tottering on his crutches. the sinner, thou the saint !"

thou the old

Thou

birds of golden

One

on the same The lower bird some sweet, some bitter,

plumage

sat

above, and one below.

was pecking

at the berries,

at last he ate one most bitter, and looking up,

saw immersed in his own Then he drew nearer and nearer, till the glory. rays of light from the plumage of the upper bird drew nearer, till he found that the fell on himself bird was all. He, the lower, had been only upper

his fellow, calm,

majestic,

;

a

reflection seen

amongst the branches.

The man who

is

groping his way through sin for himself

and misery, the man who has chosen

the path that runs through hell, will also reach. But we may choose for ourselves the path that

runs through heaven, the path of unselfishness, of Let us come consciouspurity, of love, and virtue.

by seeing all beings as identified with ourselves. want to move consciously. Let us be rid, then, of all these limited ideas, and see Him, the

ly,

We

Ever-Present

Self,

own

This has to be

selves

!

evident, nearer to us than our felt.

This has to be

realised.

May it please the Lord to grant us soon this 'knowledge of ourselves as one with the universe.

XXIV This

the highest development of humility. "Sharp as the blade of a razor, long, and distant, is

and the way so hard

to find

So the sages have declared. Yet do not despond Awake !

Struggle on

and stop

!

reached

not,

Arise

!

till

!

the goal

!

is

!"

"Giving up all these paths and struggles do I will take thee unto thou take refuge in Me !

Be not

the other shore. all

Say

Either say

'I

:

Be not

!

afraid

!"

am

thou,

O

Lord

!'

thus killing

am

nothing. Thou art all. will be done on earth This last is a little

the lower /;

Thy

or,

'I

!'

easier.

But we

the Mother

slip,

It

!

has

philosopher, twice,

!'

is

for

all,

condemned

and we stretchout the hand all

been done.

save only for a

as

traitor.

traitors, traitors

We

salva-

all

stand

against our

selves, against the majesty of Mother. "For Thine is the Kingdom and the power For ever and ever !" the glory !

to

Well said an Thy will be

"who says, commits a sin." Manu says

Indian

done tion

afraid

the scriptures of the world.

own

APPENDIX

D.

THE WORSHIP OF THE DIVINE MOTHER. FRAGMENTARY

From

TAKEN BY Miss WALDO, ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN JUNE, igoo.

NOTES,

man

the tribal or clan- God,

in

arrives,

every religion, at the sum, the God of gods. Confucius alone has expressed the one eternal '

Manu Deva

'

was transformed Ahriman. In India, the mythological expression was suppressed, but the idea remained.

idea of Ethics. into

Veda

In an old

the Empress

of

is

found the

all

that

Mantram

lives,

the

"

I

am

Power

in

everything."

Mother-Worship Power is the

itself.

upon man, soul

;

at every step.

without, nature.

the two feel is

is first

makes human

a distinct philosophy in It impinges of our ideas.

Power

And life.

felt

within,

is

the

the battle between All that

we know

but the resultant of these two forces.

or

Man

saw that the sun shines on the good and the evil Here was a new idea of God, as the ^alike. Universal Power behind all. The Mother-idea was 'born.

XXVI Activity, according to Sankhya, belongs Prakriti, to nature, not to Purusha, or soul. all

feminine types, in

eminent.

India,

the mother

is

to

Of pre-

The mother

everything.

stands by her child through Wife and children may desert a man,,

mother, never Mother, again, is the impartial energy of the Universe, because of the colourless love, that asks not, desires not, cares not

but his

!

for the evil in her child, but

And

loves

him the more.

the worship of

all to-day Mother-Worship the highest classes amongst the Hindus. The goal can only be described as something is

Here, there is no goal. This of Mother. But we

not yet attained.

world

is all

is

no

the play

Even misery can be enjoyed, when when we have become the

this.

forget

there

alike

selfishness,

witness of our

own

The

lives.

thinker of this

philosophy has been struck by the idea that one power is behind all phenomena. In our thought of God, there

is

human

limitation, personality

with Sakti comes the idea of "

I

stretch the

kill,"

says

:

One Universal Power.

bow of Rudra, when He desires to The Upanishads did not de-

Sakti.

velope this thought; for Vedanta does not care But in the Gita comes the for the God-idea. significant

saying,

to

Arjuna, "I

am

the Real,,

XXV11

and

I

am

the Unreal.

I

bring good, and

I

bring:

evil."

Again the idea philosophy.

good and

Later came the new

slept.

is a composite fact, of and one Power must be manifesting

This universe

evil

;

" A lame one-legged universe both. makes only a lame one-legged God." And this,, in the end, lands us in want of sympathy, and makes us brutal. The ethic built on such a concept

through

is

an ethic of

brutality.

The

saint hates the sinner^

and the sinner struggles against the saint. Yet even this leads onward. For finally, the wicked self-sufficient mind will die, crushed under repeated bows, and then we shall awake and know the Mother. Eternal, unquestioning self-surrender to Mother alone can give us peace. Love Her for Herself^ without fear or favour. Love Her because you are

Her child. See Her in Then alone will come Eternal that

is

Her

thus.

Only

resting in

all,

"

good and bad

Mother Herself, when we

Until

then,

alike.

Sameness", the Bliss

misery

Mother are we

will

safe.

realise

pursue

us*.

THE WORKS OF THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. RAJA YOGA

v

KARMA YOGA BHAKTI YOGA

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