The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/The Real and the Apparent Man
CHAPTER XVI
THE REAL AND THE APPARENT MAN
(Delivered in New York)
Here we stand, and our eyes look forward sometimes miles ahead. Man has been doing that since he began to think. He is always looking forward, looking ahead. He wants to know where he goes even after the dissolution of his body. Various theories have been propounded, system after system has been brought forward to suggest explanations. Some have been rejected, while others have been accepted, and thus it will go on, so long as man is here, so long as man thinks. There is some truth in each of these systems. There is a good deal of what is not truth in all of them. I shall try to place before you the sum and substance, the result, of the inquiries in this line that have been made in India. I shall try to harmonise the various thoughts on the subject, as they have come up from time to time among Indian philosophers. I shall try to harmonise the psychologists and the metaphysicians, and, if possible, I shall harmonise them with modern scientific thinkers also.
The one theme of the Vedanta philosophy is the search after unity. The Hindu
mind does not care for the particular; it is always after the general, nay,
the universal. "What is that, by knowing which everything else is to be
known?" That is the one theme. "As through the knowledge of one lump of clay
all that is of clay is known, so, what is that, by knowing which this whole
universe itself will be known?" That is the one search. The whole of this
universe, according to the Hindu philosophers, can be resolved into one
material, which they call Âkâsha. Everything that we see around us, feel,
touch, taste, is simply a differentiated manifestation of this Akasha. It is
all-pervading, fine. All that we call solids, liquids, or gases, figures,
forms, or bodies, the earth, sun, moon, and stars — everything is composed
of this Akasha.
What force is it which acts upon this Akasha and manufactures this universe
out of it? Along with Akasha exists universal power; all that is power in
the universe, manifesting as force or attraction — nay, even as thought — is
but a different manifestation of that one power which the Hindus call Prâna.
This Prana, acting on Akasha, is creating the whole of this universe. In the
beginning of a cycle, this Prana, as it were, sleeps in the infinite ocean
of Akasha. It existed motionless in the beginning. Then arises motion in
this ocean of Akasha by the action of this Prana, and as this Prana begins
to move, to vibrate, out of this ocean come the various celestial systems,
suns, moons, stars, earth, human beings, animals, plants, and the
manifestations of all the various forces and phenomena. Every manifestation
of power, therefore, according to them, is this Prana. Every material
manifestation is Akasha. When this cycle will end, all that we call solid
will melt away into the next form, the next finer or the liquid form; that
will melt into the gaseous, and that into finer and more uniform heat
vibrations, and all will melt back into the original Akasha, and what we now
call attraction, repulsion, and motion, will slowly resolve into the
original Prana. Then this Prana is said to sleep for a period, again to
emerge and to throw out all those forms; and when this period will end, the
whole thing will subside again. Thus this process of creation is going down,
and coming up, oscillating backwards and forwards. In the language of modern
science, it is becoming static during one period, and during another period
it is becoming dynamic. At one time it becomes potential, and at the next
period it becomes active. This alteration has gone on through eternity.
Yet, this analysis is only partial. This much has been known even to modern
physical science. Beyond that, the research of physical science cannot
reach. But the inquiry does not stop in consequence. We have not yet found
that one, by knowing which everything else will be known. We have resolved
the whole universe into two components, into what are called matter and
energy, or what the ancient philosophers of India called Akasha and Prana.
The next step is to resolve this Akasha and the Prana into their origin.
Both can be resolved into the still higher entity which is called mind. It
is out of mind, the Mahat, the universally existing thought-power, that
these two have been produced. Thought is a still finer manifestation of
being than either Akasha or Prana. It is thought that splits itself into
these two. The universal thought existed in the beginning, and that
manifested, changed, evolved itself into these two Akasha and Prana: and by
the combination of these two the whole universe has been produced.
We next come to psychology. I am looking at you. The external sensations are
brought to me by the eyes; they are carried by the sensory nerves to the
brain. The eyes are not the organs of vision. They are but the external
instruments, because if the real organ behind, that which carries the
sensation to the brain, is destroyed, I may have twenty eyes, yet I cannot
see you. The picture on the retina may be as complete as possible, yet I
shall not see you. Therefore, the organ is different from its instruments;
behind the instruments, the eyes, there must be the organ So it is with all
the sensations. The nose is not the sense of smell; it is but the
instrument, and behind it is the organ. With every sense we have, there is
first the external instrument in the physical body; behind that in the same
physical body, there is the organ; yet these are not sufficient. Suppose I
am talking to you, and you are listening to me with close attention.
Something happens, say, a bell rings; you will not, perhaps, hear the bell
ring. The pulsations of that sound came to your ear, struck the tympanum,
the impression was carried by the nerve into the brain; if the whole process
was complete up to carrying the impulse to the brain, why did you not hear?
Something else was wanting — the mind was not attached to the organ. When
the mind detaches itself from the organ, the organ may bring any news to it,
but the mind will not receive it. When it attaches itself to the organ, then
alone is it possible for the mind to receive the news. Yet, even that does
not complete the whole. The instruments may bring the sensation from
outside, the organs may carry it inside, the mind may attach itself to the
organ, and yet the perception may not be complete. One more factor is
necessary; there must be a reaction within. With this reaction comes
knowledge. That which is outside sends, as it were, the current of news into
my brain. My mind takes it up, and presents it to the intellect, which
groups it in relation to pre-received impressions and sends a current of
reaction, and with that reaction comes perception. Here, then, is the will.
The state of mind which reacts is called Buddhi, the intellect. Yet, even
this does not complete the whole. One step more is required. Suppose here is
a camera and there is a sheet of cloth, and I try to throw a picture on that
sheet. What am I to do? I am to guide various rays of light through the
camera to fall upon the sheet and become grouped there. Something is
necessary to have the picture thrown upon, which does not move. I cannot
form a picture upon something which is moving; that something must be
stationary, because the rays of light which I throw on it are moving, and
these moving rays of light, must be gathered, unified, co-ordinated, and
completed upon something which is stationary. Similar is the case with the
sensations which these organs of ours are carrying inside and presenting to
the mind, and which the mind in its turn is presenting to the intellect.
This process will not be complete unless there is something permanent in the
background upon which the picture, as it were, may be formed, upon which we
may unify all the different impressions. What is it that gives unity to the
changing whole of our being? What is it that keeps up the identity of the
moving thing moment after moment? What is it upon which all our different
impressions are pieced together, upon which the perceptions, as it were,
come together, reside, and form a united whole? We have found that to serve
this end there must be something, and we also see that that something must
be, relatively to the body and mind, motionless. The sheet of cloth upon
which the camera throws the picture is, relatively to the rays of light,
motionless, else there will be no picture. That is to say, the perceiver
must be an individual. This something upon which the mind is painting all
these pictures, this something upon which our sensations, carried by the
mind and intellect, are placed and grouped and formed into a unity, is what
is called the soul of man.
We have seen that it is the universal cosmic mind that splits itself into
the Akasha and Prana, and beyond mind we have found the soul in us. In the
universe, behind the universal mind, there is a Soul that exists, and it is
called God. In the individual it is the soul of man. In this universe, in
the cosmos, just as the universal mind becomes evolved into Akasha and
Prana, even so, we may find that the Universal Soul Itself becomes evolved
as mind. Is it really so with the individual man? Is his mind the creator of
his body, and his soul the creator of his mind? That is to say, are his
body, his mind, and his soul three different existences or are they three in
one or, again, are they different states of existence of the same unit
being? We shall gradually try to find an answer to this question. The first
step that we have now gained is this: here is this external body, behind
this external body are the organs, the mind, the intellect, and behind this
is the soul. At the first step, we have found, as it were, that the soul is
separate from the body, separate from the mind itself. Opinions in the
religious world become divided at this point, and the departure is this. All
those religious views which generally pass under the name of dualism hold
that this soul is qualified, that it is of various qualities, that all
feelings of enjoyment, pleasure, and pain really belong to the soul. The
non-dualists deny that the soul has any such qualities; they say it is
unqualified.
Let me first take up the dualists, and try to present to you their position
with regard to the soul and its destiny; next, the system that contradicts
them; and lastly, let us try to find the harmony which non-dualism will
bring to us. This soul of man, because it is separate from the mind and
body, because it is not composed of Akasha and Prana, must be immortal. Why?
What do we mean by mortality? Decomposition. And that is only possible for
things that are the result of composition; anything that is made of two or
three ingredients must become decomposed. That alone which is not the result
of composition can never become decomposed, and, therefore, can never die.
It is immortal. It has been existing throughout eternity; it is uncreate.
Every item of creation is simply a composition; no one ever saw creation
come out of nothing. All that we know of creation is the combination of
already existing things into newer forms. That being so, this soul of man,
being simple, must have been existing for ever, and it will exist for ever.
When this body falls off, the soul lives on. According to the Vedantists,
when this body dissolves, the vital forces of the man go back to his mind
and the mind becomes dissolved, as it were, into the Prana, and that Prana
enters into the soul of man, and the soul of man comes out, clothed, as it
were, with what they call the fine body, the mental body, or spiritual body,
as you may like to call it. In this body are the Samskâras of the man. What
are the Samskaras? This mind is like a lake, and every thought is like a
wave upon that lake. Just as in the lake waves rise and then fall down and
disappear, so these thought-waves are continually rising in the mind-stuff
and then disappearing, but they do not disappear for ever. They become finer
and finer, but they are all there, ready to start up at another time when
called upon to do so. Memory is simply calling back into waveform some of
those thoughts which have gone into that finer state of existence. Thus,
everything that we have thought, every action that we have done, is lodged
in the mind; it is all there in fine form, and when a man dies, the sum
total of these impressions is in the mind, which again works upon a little
fine material as a medium. The soul, clothed, as it were, with these
impressions and the fine body, passes out, and the destiny of the soul is
guided by the resultant of all the different forces represented by the
different impressions. According to us, there are three different goals for
the soul.
Those that are very spiritual, when they die, follow the solar rays and
reach what is called the solar sphere, through which they reach what is
called the lunar sphere, and through that they reach what is called the
sphere of lightning, and there they meet with another soul who is already
blessed, and he guides the new-comer forward to the highest of all spheres,
which is called the Brahmaloka, the sphere of Brahmâ. There these souls
attain to omniscience and omnipotence, become almost as powerful and
all-knowing as God Himself; and they reside there for ever, according to the
dualists, or, according to the non-dualists, they become one with the
Universal at the end of the cycle. The next class of persons, who have been
doing good work with selfish motives, are carried by the results of their
good works, when they die, to what is called lunar sphere, where there are
various heavens, and there they acquire fine bodies, the bodies of gods.
They become gods and live there and enjoy the blessing of heaven for a long
period; and after that period is finished, the old Karma is again upon them,
and so they fall back again to the earth; they come down through the spheres
of air and clouds and all these various regions, and, at last, reach the
earth through raindrops. There on the earth they attach themselves to some
cereal which is eventually eaten by some man who is fit to supply them with
material to make a new body. The last class, namely, the wicked, when they
die, become ghosts or demons, and live somewhere midway between the lunar
sphere and this earth. Some try to disturb mankind, some are friendly; and
after living there for some time they also fall back to the earth and become
animals. After living for some time in an animal body they get released, and
come back, and become men again, and thus get one more chance to work out
their salvation. We see, then, that those who have nearly attained to
perfection, in whom only very little of impurity remains, go to the
Brahmaloka through the rays of the sun; those who were a middling sort of
people, who did some good work here with the idea of going to heaven, go to
the heavens in the lunar sphere and there obtain god-bodies; but they have
again to become men and so have one more chance to become perfect. Those
that are very wicked become ghosts and demons, and then they may have to
become animals; after that they become men again and get another chance to
perfect themselves. This earth is called the Karma-Bhumi, the sphere of
Karma. Here alone man makes his good or bad Karma. When a man wants to go to
heaven and does good works for that purpose, he becomes as good and does not
as such store up any bad Karma. He just enjoys the effects of the good work
he did on earth; and when this good Karma is exhausted, there come, upon him
the resultant force of all the evil Karma he had previously stored up in
life, and that brings him down again to this earth. In the same way, those
that become ghosts remain in that state, not giving rise to fresh Karma, but
suffer the evil results of their past misdeeds, and later on remain for a
time in an animal body without causing any fresh Karma. When that period is
finished, they too become men again. The states of reward and punishment due
to good and bad Karmas are devoid of the force generating fresh Karmas; they
have only to be enjoyed or suffered. If there is an extraordinarily good or
an extraordinarily evil Karma, it bears fruit very quickly. For instance, if
a man has been doing many evil things all his life, but does one good act,
the result of that good act will immediately appear, but when that result
has been gone through, all the evil acts must produce their results also.
All men who do certain good and great acts, but the general tenor of whose
lives has not been correct, will become gods; and after living for some time
in god-bodies, enjoying the powers of gods, they will have again to become
men; when the power of the good acts is thus finished, the old evil comes up
to be worked out. Those who do extraordinarily evil acts have to put on
ghost and devil bodies, and when the effect of those evil actions is
exhausted, the little good action which remains associated with them, makes
them again become men. The way to Brahmaloka, from which there is no more
fall or return, is called the Devayâna, i.e. the way to God; the way to
heaven is known as Pitriyâna, i.e. the way to the fathers.
Man, therefore, according to the Vedanta philosophy, is the greatest being
that is in the universe, and this world of work the best place in it,
because only herein is the greatest and the best chance for him to become
perfect. Angels or gods, whatever you may call them, have all to become men,
if they want to become perfect. This is the great centre, the wonderful
poise, and the wonderful opportunity — this human life.
We come next to the other aspect of philosophy. There are Buddhists who deny
the whole theory of the soul that I have just now been propounding. "What
use is there," says the Buddhist, "to assume something as the substratum, as
the background of this body and mind? Why may we not allow thoughts to run
on? Why admit a third substance beyond this organism, composed of mind and
body, a third substance called the soul? What is its use? Is not this
organism sufficient to explain itself? Why take anew a third something?"
These arguments are very powerful. This reasoning is very strong. So far as
outside research goes, we see that this organism is a sufficient explanation
of itself — at least, many of us see it in that light. Why then need there
be a soul as substratum, as a something which is neither mind nor body but
stands as a background for both mind and body? Let there be only mind and
body. Body is the name of a stream of matter continuously changing. Mind is
the name of a stream of consciousness or thought continuously changing. What
produces the apparent unity between these two? This unity does not really
exist, let us say. Take, for instance, a lighted torch, and whirl it rapidly
before you. You see a circle of fire. The circle does not really exist, but
because the torch is continually moving, it leaves the appearance of a
circle. So there is no unity in this life; it is a mass of matter
continually rushing down, and the whole of this matter you may call one
unity, but no more. So is mind; each thought is separate from every other
thought; it is only the rushing current that leaves behind the illusion of
unity; there is no need of a third substance. This universal phenomenon of
body and mind is all that really is; do not posit something behind it. You
will find that this Buddhist thought has been taken up by certain sects and
schools in modern times, and all of them claim that it is new — their own
invention. This has been the central idea of most of the Buddhistic
philosophies, that this world is itself all-sufficient; that you need not
ask for any background at all; all that is, is this sense-universe: what is
the use of thinking of something as a support to this universe? Everything
is the aggregate of qualities; why should there be a hypothetical substance
in which they should inhere? The idea of substance comes from the rapid
interchange of qualities, not from something unchangeable which exists
behind them. We see how wonderful some of these arguments are, and they
appeal easily to the ordinary experience of humanity — in fact, not one in a
million can think of anything other than phenomena. To the vast majority of
men nature appears to be only a changing, whirling, combining, mingling mass
of change. Few of us ever have a glimpse of the calm sea behind. For us it
is always lashed into waves; this universe appears to us only as a tossing
mass of waves. Thus we find these two opinions. One is that there is
something behind both body and mind which is an unchangeable and immovable
substance; and the other is that there is no such thing as immovability or
unchangeability in the universe; it is all change and nothing but change.
The solution of this difference comes in the next step of thought, namely,
the non-dualistic.
It says that the dualists are right in finding something behind all, as a
background which does not change; we cannot conceive change without there
being something unchangeable. We can only conceive of anything that is
changeable, by knowing something which is less changeable, and this also
must appear more changeable in comparison with something else which is less
changeable, and so on and on, until we are bound to admit that there must be
something which never changes at all. The whole of this manifestation must
have been in a state of non-manifestation, calm and silent, being the
balance of opposing forces, so to say, when no force operated, because force
acts when a disturbance of the equilibrium comes in. The universe is ever
hurrying on to return to that state of equilibrium again. If we are certain
of any fact whatsoever, we are certain of this. When the dualists claim that
there is a something which does not change, they are perfectly right, but
their analysis that it is an underlying something which is neither the body
nor the mind, a something separate from both, is wrong. So far as the
Buddhists say that the whole universe is a mass of change, they are
perfectly right; so long as I am separate from the universe, so long as I
stand back and look at something before me, so long as there are two things
— the looker-on and the thing looked upon — it will appear always that the
universe is one of change, continuously changing all the time. But the
reality is that there is both change and changelessness in this universe. It
is not that the soul and the mind and the body are three separate
existences, for this organism made of these three is really one. It is the
same thing which appears as the body, as the mind, and as the thing beyond
mind and body, but it is not at the same time all these. He who sees the
body does not see the mind even, he who sees the mind does not see that
which he calls the soul, and he who sees the soul — for him the body and
mind have vanished. He who sees only motion never sees absolute calm, and he
who sees absolute calm — for him motion has vanished. A rope is taken for a
snake. He who sees the rope as the snake, for him the rope has vanished, and
when the delusion ceases and he looks at the rope, the snake has vanished.
There is then but one all-comprehending existence, and that one appears as
manifold. This Self or Soul or Substance is all that exists in the universe.
That Self or Substance or Soul is, in the language of non-dualism, the
Brahman appearing to be manifold by the interposition of name and form. Look
at the waves in the sea. Not one wave is really different from the sea, but
what makes the wave apparently different? Name and form; the form of the
wave and the name which we give to it, "wave". This is what makes it
different from the sea. When name and form go, it is the same sea. Who can
make any real difference between the wave and the sea? So this whole
universe is that one Unit Existence; name and form have created all these
various differences. As when the sun shines upon millions of globules of
water, upon each particle is seen a most perfect representation of the sun,
so the one Soul, the one Self, the one Existence of the universe, being
reflected on all these numerous globules of varying names and forms, appears
to be various. But it is in reality only one. There is no "I" nor "you"; it
is all one. It is either all "I" or all "you". This idea of duality, calf
two, is entirely false, and the whole universe, as we ordinarily know it, is
the result of this false knowledge. When discrimination comes and man finds
there are not two but one, he finds that he is himself this universe. "It is
I who am this universe as it now exists, a continuous mass of change. It is
I who am beyond all changes, beyond all qualities, the eternally perfect,
the eternally blessed."
There is, therefore, but one Atman, one Self, eternally pure, eternally
perfect, unchangeable, unchanged; it has never changed; and all these
various changes in the universe are but appearances in that one Self.
Upon it name and form have painted all these dreams; it is the form that
makes the wave different from the sea. Suppose the wave subsides, will the
form remain? No, it will vanish. The existence of the wave was entirely
dependent upon the existence of the sea, but the existence of the sea was
not at all dependent upon the existence of the wave. The form remains so
long as the wave remains, but as soon as the wave leaves it, it vanishes, it
cannot remain. This name and form is the outcome of what is called Maya. It
is this Maya that is making individuals, making one appear different from
another. Yet it has no existence. Maya cannot be said to exist. Form cannot
be said to exist, because it depends upon the existence of another thing. It
cannot be said as not to exist, seeing that it makes all this difference.
According to the Advaita philosophy, then, this Maya or ignorance — or name
and form, or, as it has been called in Europe, "time, space, and causality"
— is out of this one Infinite Existence showing us the manifoldness of the
universe; in substance, this universe is one. So long as any one thinks that
there are two ultimate realities, he is mistaken. When he has come to know
that there is but one, he is right. This is what is being proved to us every
day, on the physical plane, on the mental plane, and also on the spiritual
plane. Today it has been demonstrated that you and I, the sun, the moon, and
the stars are but the different names of different spots in the same ocean
of matter, and that this matter is continuously changing in its
configuration. This particle of energy that was in the sun several months
ago may be in the human being now; tomorrow it may be in an animal, the day
after tomorrow it may be in a plant. It is ever coming and going. It is all
one unbroken, infinite mass of matter, only differentiated by names and
forms. One point is called the sun; another, the moon; another, the stars;
another, man; another, animal; another, plant; and so on. And all these
names are fictitious; they have no reality, because the whole is a
continuously changing mass of matter. This very same universe, from another
standpoint, is an ocean of thought, where each one of us is a point called a
particular mind. You are a mind, I am a mind, everyone is a mind; and the
very same universe viewed from the standpoint of knowledge, when the eyes
have been cleared of delusions, when the mind has become pure, appears to be
the unbroken Absolute Being, the ever pure, the unchangeable, the immortal.
What then becomes of all this threefold eschatology of the dualist, that
when a man dies he goes to heaven, or goes to this or that sphere, and that
the wicked persons become ghosts, and become animals, and so forth? None
comes and none goes, says the non-dualist. How can you come and go? You are
infinite; where is the place for you to go? In a certain school a number of
little children were being examined. The examiner had foolishly put all
sorts of difficult questions to the little children. Among others there was
this question: "Why does not the earth fall ?" His intention was to bring
out the idea of gravitation or some other intricate scientific truth from
these children. Most of them could not even understand the question, and so
they gave all sorts of wrong answers. But one bright little girl answered it
with another question: "Where shall it fall?" The very question of the
examiner was nonsense on the face of it. There is no up and down in the
universe; the idea is only relative. So it is with regard to the soul; the
very question of birth and death in regard to it is utter nonsense. Who goes
and who comes? Where are you not? Where is the heaven that you are not in
already? Omnipresent is the Self of man. Where is it to go? Where is it not
to go? It is everywhere. So all this childish dream and puerile illusion of
birth and death, of heavens and higher heavens and lower worlds, all vanish
immediately for the perfect. For the nearly perfect it vanishes after
showing them the several scenes up to Brahmaloka. It continues for the
ignorant.
How is it that the whole world believes in going to heaven, and in dying and
being born? I am studying a book, page after page is being read and turned
over. Another page comes and is turned over. Who changes? Who comes and
goes? Not I, but the book. This whole nature is a book before the soul,
chapter after chapter is being read and turned over, and every now and then
a scene opens. That is read and turned over. A fresh one comes, but the soul
is ever the same — eternal. It is nature that is changing, not the soul of
man. This never changes. Birth and death are in nature, not in you. Yet the
ignorant are deluded; just as we under delusion think that the sun is moving
and not the earth, in exactly the same way we think that we are dying, and
not nature. These are all, therefore, hallucinations. Just as it is a
hallucination when we think that the fields are moving and not the railway
train, exactly in the same manner is the hallucination of birth and death.
When men are in a certain frame of mind, they see this very existence as the
earth, as the sun, the moon, the stars; and all those who are in the same
state of mind see the same things. Between you and me there may be millions
of beings on different planes of existence. They will never see us, nor we
them; we only see those who are in the same state of mind and on the same
plane with us. Those musical instruments respond which have the same
attunement of vibration, as it were; if the state of vibration, which they
call "man-vibration", should be changed, no longer would men be seen here;
the whole "man-universe" would vanish, and instead of that, other scenery
would come before us, perhaps gods and the god-universe, or perhaps, for the
wicked man, devils and the diabolic world; but all would be only different
views of the one universe. It is this universe which, from the human plane,
is seen as the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all such things — it
is this very universe which, seen from the plane of wickedness, appears as a
place of punishment. And this very universe is seen as heaven by those who
want to see it as heaven. Those who have been dreaming of going to a God who
is sitting on a throne, and of standing there praising Him all their lives,
when they die, will simply see a vision of what they have in their minds;
this very universe will simply change into a vast heaven, with all sorts of
winged beings flying about and a God sitting on a throne. These heavens are
all of man's own making. So what the dualist says is true, says the
Advaitin, but it is all simply of his own making. These spheres and devils
and gods and reincarnations and transmigrations are all mythology; so also
is this human life. The great mistake that men always make is to think that
this life alone is true. They understand it well enough when other things
are called mythologies, but are never willing to admit the same of their own
position. The whole thing as it appears is mere mythology, and the greatest
of all lies is that we are bodies, which we never were nor even can be. It
is the greatest of all lies that we are mere men; we are the God of the
universe. In worshipping God we have been always worshipping our own hidden
Self. The worst lie that you ever tell yourself is that you were born a
sinner or a wicked man. He alone is a sinner who sees a sinner in another
man. Suppose there is a baby here, and you place a bag of gold on the table.
Suppose a robber comes and takes the gold away. To the baby it is all the
same; because there is no robber inside, there is no robber outside. To
sinners and vile men, there is vileness outside, but not to good men. So the
wicked see this universe as a hell, and the partially good see it as heaven,
while the perfect beings realise it as God Himself. Then alone the veil
falls from the eyes, and the man, purified and cleansed, finds his whole
vision changed. The bad dreams that have been torturing him for millions of
years, all vanish, and he who was thinking of himself either as a man, or a
god, or a demon, he who was thinking of himself as living in low places, in
high places, on earth, in heaven, and so on, finds that he is really
omnipresent; that all time is in him, and that he is not in time; that all
the heavens are in him, that he is not in any heaven; and that all the gods
that man ever worshipped are in him, and that he is not in any one of those
gods. He was the manufacturer of gods and demons, of men and plants and
animals and stones, and the real nature of man now stands unfolded to him as
being higher than heaven, more perfect than this universe of ours, more
infinite than infinite time, more omnipresent than the omnipresent ether.
Thus alone man becomes fearless, and becomes free. Then all delusions cease,
all miseries vanish, all fears come to an end for ever. Birth goes away and
with it death; pains fly, and with them fly away pleasures; earths vanish,
and with them vanish heavens; bodies vanish, and with them vanishes the mind
also. For that man disappears the whole universe, as it were. This
searching, moving, continuous struggle of forces stops for ever, and that
which was manifesting itself as force and matter, as struggles of nature, as
nature itself, as heavens and earths and plants and animals and men and
angels, all that becomes transfigured into one infinite, unbreakable,
unchangeable existence, and the knowing man finds that he is one with that
existence. "Even as clouds of various colours come before the sky, remain
there for a second and then vanish away," even so before this soul are all
these visions coming, of earths and heavens, of the moon and the gods, of
pleasures and pains; but they all pass away leaving the one infinite, blue,
unchangeable sky. The sky never changes; it is the clouds that change. It is
a mistake to think that the sky is changed. It is a mistake to think that we
are impure, that we are limited, that we are separate. The real man is the
one Unit Existence.
Two questions now arise. The first is: "Is it possible to realise this? So
far it is doctrine, philosophy, but is it possible to realise it?" It is.
There are men still living in this world for whom delusion has vanished for
ever. Do they immediately die after such realisation? Not so soon as we
should think. Two wheels joined by one pole are running together. If I get
hold of one of the wheels and, with an axe, cut the pole asunder, the wheel
which I have got hold of stops, but upon the other wheel is its past
momentum, so it runs on a little arid then falls down. This pure and perfect
being, the soul, is one wheel, and this external hallucination of body and
mind is the other wheel, joined together by the pole of work, of Karma.
Knowledge is the axe which will sever the bond between the two, and the
wheel of the soul will stop — stop thinking that it is coming and going,
living and dying, stop thinking that it is nature and has wants and desires,
and will find that it is perfect, desireless. But upon the other wheel, that
of the body and mind, will be the momentum of past acts; so it will live for
some time, until that momentum of past work is exhausted, until that
momentum is worked away, and then the body and mind fall, and the soul
becomes free. No more is there any going to heaven and coming back, not even
any going to the Brahmaloka, or to any of the highest of the spheres, for
where is he to come from, or to go to? The man who has in this life attained
to this state, for whom, for a minute at least, the ordinary vision of the
world has changed and the reality has been apparent, he is called the
"Living Free". This is the goal of the Vedantin, to attain freedom while
living.
Once in Western India I was travelling in the desert country on the coast of
the Indian Ocean. For days and days I used to travel on foot through the
desert, but it was to my surprise that I saw every day beautiful lakes, with
trees all round them, and the shadows of the trees upside down and vibrating
there. "How wonderful it looks and they call this a desert country!" I said
to myself. Nearly a month I travelled, seeing these wonderful lakes and
trees and plants. One day I was very thirsty and wanted to have a drink of
water, so I started to go to one of these clear, beautiful lakes, and as I
approached, it vanished. And with a flash it came to my brain, "This is the
mirage about which I have read all my life," and with that came also the
idea that throughout the whole of this month, every day, I had been seeing
the mirage and did not know it. The next morning I began my march. There was
again the lake, but with it came also the idea that it was the mirage and
not a true lake. So is it with this universe. We are all travelling in this
mirage of the world day after day, month after month, year after year, not
knowing that it is a mirage. One day it will break up, but it will come back
again; the body has to remain under the power of past Karma, and so the
mirage will come back. This world will come back upon us so long as we are
bound by Karma: men, women, animals, plants, our attachments and duties, all
will come back to us, but not with the same power. Under the influence of
the new knowledge the strength of Karma will be broken, its poison will be
lost. It becomes transformed, for along with it there comes the idea that we
know it now, that the sharp distinction between the reality and the mirage
has been known.
This world will not then be the same world as before. There is, however, a
danger here. We see in every country people taking up this philosophy and
saying, "I am beyond all virtue and vice; so I am not bound by any moral
laws; I may do anything I like." You may find many fools in this country at
the present time, saying, "I am not bound; I am God Himself; let me do
anything I like." This is not right, although it is true that the soul is
beyond all laws, physical, mental, or moral. Within law is bondage; beyond
law is freedom. It is also true that freedom is of the nature of the soul,
it is its birthright: that real freedom of the soul shines through veils of
matter in the form of the apparent freedom of man. Every moment of your life
you feel that you are free. We cannot live, talk, or breathe for a moment
without feeling that we are free; but, at the same time, a little thought
shows us that we are like machines and not free. What is true then? Is this
idea of freedom a delusion? One party holds that the idea of freedom is a
delusion; another says that the idea of bondage is a delusion. How does this
happen? Man is really free, the real man cannot but be free. It is when he
comes into the world of Maya, into name and form, that he becomes bound.
Free will is a misnomer. Will can never be free. How can it be? It is only
when the real man has become bound that his will comes into existence, and
not before. The will of man is bound, but that which is the foundation of
that will is eternally free. So, even in the state of bondage which we call
human life or god-life, on earth or in heaven, there yet remains to us that
recollection of the freedom which is ours by divine right. And consciously
or unconsciously we are all struggling towards it. When a man has attained
his own freedom, how can he be bound by any law? No law in this universe can
bind him, for this universe itself is his.
He is the whole universe. Either say he is the whole universe or say that to
him there is no universe. How can he have then all these little ideas about
sex and about country? How can he say, I am a man, I am a woman I am a
child? Are they not lies? He knows that they are. How can he say that these
are man's rights, and these others are woman's rights? Nobody has rights;
nobody separately exists. There is neither man nor woman; the soul is
sexless, eternally pure. It is a lie to say that I am a man or a woman, or
to say that I belong to this country or that. All the world is my country,
the whole universe is mine, because I have clothed myself with it as my
body. Yet we see that there are people in this world who are ready to assert
these doctrines, and at the same time do things which we should call filthy;
and if we ask them why they do so, they tell us that it is our delusion and
that they can do nothing wrong. What is the test by which they are to be
judged? The test is here.
Though evil and good are both conditioned manifestations of the soul, yet
evil is the most external coating, and good is the nearer coating of the
real man, the Self. And unless a man cuts through the layer of evil he
cannot reach the layer of good, and unless he has passed through both the
layers of good and evil he cannot reach the Self. He who reaches the Self,
what remains attached to him? A little Karma, a little bit of the momentum
of past life, but it is all good momentum. Until the bad momentum is
entirely worked out and past impurities are entirely burnt, it is impossible
for any man to see and realise truth. So, what is left attached to the man
who has reached the Self and seen the truth is the remnant of the good
impressions of past life, the good momentum. Even if he lives in the body
and works incessantly, he works only to do good; his lips speak only
benediction to all; his hands do only good works; his mind can only think
good thoughts; his presence is a blessing wherever he goes. He is himself a
living blessing. Such a man will, by his very presence, change even the most
wicked persons into saints. Even if he does not speak, his very presence
will be a blessing to mankind. Can such men do any evil; can they do wicked
deeds? There is, you must remember, all the difference of pole to pole
between realisation and mere talking. Any fool can talk. Even parrots talk.
Talking is one thing, and realising is another. Philosophies, and doctrines,
and arguments, and books, and theories, and churches, and sects, and all
these things are good in their own way; but when that realisation comes,
these things drop away. For instance, maps are good, but when you see the
country itself, and look again at the maps, what a great difference you
find! So those that have realised truth do not require the ratiocinations of
logic and all other gymnastics of the intellect to make them understand the
truth; it is to them the life of their lives, concretised, made more than
tangible. It is, as the sages of the Vedanta say, "even as a fruit in your
hand"; you can stand up and say, it is here. So those that have realised the
truth will stand up and say, "Here is the Self". You may argue with them by
the year, but they will smile at you; they will regard it all as child's
prattle; they will let the child prattle on. They have realised the truth
and are full. Suppose you have seen a country, and another man comes to you
and tries to argue with you that that country never existed, he may go on
arguing indefinitely, but your only attitude of mind towards him must be to
hold that the man is fit for a lunatic asylum. So the man of realisation
says, "All this talk in the world about its little religions is but prattle;
realisation is the soul, the very essence of religion." Religion can be
realised. Are you ready? Do you want it? You will get the realisation if you
do, and then you will be truly religious. Until you have attained
realisation there is no difference between you and atheists. The atheists
are sincere, but the man who says that he believes in religion and never
attempts to realise it is not sincere.
The next question is to know what comes after realisation. Suppose we have
realised this oneness of the universe, that we are that one Infinite Being,
and suppose we have realised that this Self is the only Existence and that
it is the same Self which is manifesting in all these various phenomenal
forms, what becomes of us after that? Shall we become inactive, get into a
corner and sit down there and die away? "What good will it do to the world?"
That old question! In the first place, why should it do good to the world?
Is there any reason why it should? What right has any one to ask the
question, "What good will it do to the world?" What is meant by that? A baby
likes candies. Suppose you are conducting investigations in connection with
some subject of electricity and the baby asks you, "Does it buy candies?"
"No" you answer. "Then what good will it do?" says the baby. So men stand up
and say, "What good will this do to the world; will it give us money?" "No."
"Then what good is there in it?" That is what men mean by doing good to the
world. Yet religious realisation does all the good to the world. People are
afraid that when they attain to it, when they realise that there is but one,
the fountains of love will be dried up, that everything in life will go
away, and that all they love will vanish for them, as it were, in this life
and in the life to come. People never stop to think that those who bestowed
the least thought on their own individualities have been the greatest
workers in the world. Then alone a man loves when he finds that the object
of his love is not any low, little, mortal thing. Then alone a man loves
when he finds that the object of his love is not a clod of earth, but it is
the veritable God Himself. The wife will love the husband the more when she
thinks that the husband is God Himself. The husband will love the wife the
more when he knows that the wife is God Himself. That mother will love the
children more who thinks that the children are God Himself. That man will
love his greatest enemy who knows that that very enemy is God Himself. That
man will love a holy man who knows that the holy man is God Himself, and
that very man will also love the unholiest of men because he knows the
background of that unholiest of men is even He, the Lord. Such a man becomes
a world-mover for whom his little self is dead and God stands in its place.
The whole universe will become transfigured to him. That which is painful
and miserable will all vanish; struggles will all depart and go. Instead of
being a prison-house, where we every day struggle and fight and compete for
a morsel of bread, this universe will then be to us a playground. Beautiful
will be this universe then! Such a man alone has the right to stand up and
say, "How beautiful is this world!" He alone has the right to say that it is
all good. This will be the great good to the world resulting from such
realisation, that instead of this world going on with all its friction and
clashing, if all mankind today realise only a bit of that great truth, the
aspect of the whole world will be changed, and, in place of fighting and
quarrelling, there would be a reign of peace. This indecent and brutal hurry
which forces us to go ahead of every one else will then vanish from the
world. With it will vanish all struggle, with it will vanish all hate, with
it will vanish all jealousy, and all evil will vanish away for ever. Gods
will live then upon this earth. This very earth will then become heaven, and
what evil can there be when gods are playing with gods, when gods are
working with gods, and gods are loving gods? That is the great utility of
divine realisation. Everything that you see in society will be changed and
transfigured then. No more will you think of man as evil; and that is the
first great gain. No more will you stand up and sneeringly cast a glance at
a poor man or woman who has made a mistake. No more, ladies, will you look
down with contempt upon the poor woman who walks the street in the night,
because you will see even there God Himself. No more will you think of
jealousy and punishments. They will all vanish; and love, the great ideal of
love, will be so powerful that no whip and cord will be necessary to guide
mankind aright.
If one millionth part of the men and women who live in this world simply sit
down and for a few minutes say, "You are all God, O ye men and O ye animals
and living beings, you are all the manifestations of the one living Deity!"
the whole world will be changed in half an hour. Instead of throwing
tremendous bomb-shells of hatred into every corner, instead of projecting
currents of jealousy and of evil thought, in every country people will think
that it is all He. He is all that you see and feel. How can you see evil
until there is evil in you? How can you see the thief, unless he is there,
sitting in the heart of your heart? How can you see the murderer until you
are yourself the murderer? Be good, and evil will vanish for you. The whole
universe will thus be changed. This is the greatest gain to society. This is
the great gain to the human organism. These thoughts were thought out,
worked out amongst individuals in ancient times in India. For various
reasons, such as the exclusiveness of the teachers and foreign conquest,
those thoughts were not allowed to spread. Yet they are grand truths; and
wherever they have been working, man has become divine. My whole life has
been changed by the touch of one of these divine men, about whom I am going
to speak to you next Sunday; and the time is coming when these thoughts will
be cast abroad over the whole world. Instead of living in monasteries,
instead of being confined to books of philosophy to be studied only by the
learned, instead of being the exclusive possession of sects and of a few of
the learned, they will all be sown broadcast over the whole world, so that
they may become the common property of the saint and the sinner, of men and
women and children, of the learned and of the ignorant. They will then
permeate the atmosphere of the world, and the very air that we breathe will
say with every one of its pulsations, "Thou art That". And the whole
universe with its myriads of suns and moons, through everything that speaks,
with one voice will say, "Thou art That".