The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/The Open Secret
THE OPEN SECRET
(Delivered at Los Angeles, Calif., 5th January 1900)
Whichever way we turn in trying to understand things in their reality, if we
analyse far enough, we find that at last we come to a peculiar state of
things, seemingly a contradiction: something which our reason cannot grasp
and yet is a fact. We take up something — we know it is finite; but as soon
as we begin to analyse it, it leads us beyond our reason, and we never find
an end to all its qualities, its possibilities, its powers, its relations.
It has become infinite. Take even a common flower, that is finite enough;
but who is there that can say he knows all about the flower? There is no
possibility of anyone's getting to the end of the knowledge about that one
flower. The flower has become infinite — the flower which was finite to
begin with. Take a grain of sand. Analyse it. We start with the assumption
that it is finite, and at last we find that it is not, it is infinite; all
the same, we have looked upon it as finite. The flower is similarly treated
as a finite something.
So with all our thoughts and experiences, physical and mental. We begin, we
may think, on a small scale, and grasp them as little things; but very soon
they elude our knowledge and plunge into the abyss of the infinite. And the
greatest and the first thing perceived is ourselves. We are also in the same
dilemma about existence. We exist. We see we are finite beings. We live and
die. Our horizon is narrow. We are here, limited, confronted by the universe
all around. Nature can crush us out of existence in a moment. Our little
bodies are just held together, ready to go to pieces at a moment's notice.
We know that. In the region of action how powerless we are! Our will is
being thwarted at every turn. So many things we want to do, and how few we
can do! There is no limit to our willing. We can will everything, want
everything, we can desire to go to the dogstar. But how few of our desires
can be accomplished! The body will not allow it. Well, nature is against the
accomplishment of our will. We are weak. What is true of the flower, of the
grain of sand, of the physical world, and of every thought, is a hundredfold
more true of ourselves. We are also in the same dilemma of existence, being
finite and infinite at the same time. We are like waves in the ocean; the
wave is the ocean and yet not the ocean. There is not any part of the wave
of which you cannot say, "It is the ocean." The name "ocean" applies to the
wave and equally to every other part of the ocean, and yet it is separate
from the ocean. So in this infinite ocean of existence we are like wavelets.
At the same time, when we want really to grasp ourselves, we cannot — we
have become the infinite.
We seem to be walking in dreams. Dreams are all right in a dream-mind; but
as soon as you want to grasp one of them, it is gone. Why? Not that it was
false, but because it is beyond the power of reason, the power of the
intellect to comprehend it. Everything in this life is so vast that the
intellect is nothing in comparison with it. It refuses to be bound by the
laws of the intellect! It laughs at the bondage the intellect wants to
spread around it. And a thousandfold more so is this the case with the human
soul. "We ourselves" — this is the greatest mystery of the universe.
How wonderful it all is! Look at the human eye. How easily it can be
destroyed, and yet the biggest suns exist only because your eyes see them.
The world exists because your eyes certify that it exists. Think of that
mystery! These poor little eyes! A strong light, or a pin, can destroy them.
Yet the most powerful engines of destruction, the most powerful cataclysms,
the most wonderful of existences, millions of suns and stars and moons and
earth — all depend for their existence upon, and have to be certified by,
these two little things! They say, "Nature, you exist", and we believe
nature exists. So with all our senses.
What is this? Where is weakness? Who is strong? What is great and what is
small? What is high and what is low in this marvellous interdependence of
existence where the smallest atom is necessary for the existence of the
whole? Who is great and who is small? It is past finding out! And why?
Because none is great and none is small. All things are interpenetrated by
that infinite ocean; their reality is that infinite; and whatever there is
on the surface is but that infinite. The tree is infinite; so is everything
that you see or feel — every grain of sand, every thought, every soul,
everything that exists, is infinite. Infinite is finite and finite infinite.
This is our existence.
Now, that may be all true, but all this feeling after the Infinite is at
present mostly unconscious. It is not that we have forgotten that infinite
nature of ours: none can ever do that. Who can ever think that he can be
annihilated? Who can think that he will die? None can. All our relation to
the Infinite works in us unconsciously. In a manner, therefore, we forget
our real being, and hence all this misery comes.
In practical daily life we are hurt by small things; we are enslaved by
little beings. Misery comes because we think we are finite — we are little
beings. And yet, how difficult it is to believe that we are infinite beings!
In the midst of all this misery and trouble, when a little thing may throw
me off my balance, it must be my care to believe that I am infinite. And the
fact is that we are, and that consciously or unconsciously we are all
searching after that something which is infinite; we are always seeking for
something that is free.
There was never a human race which did not have a religion and worship some
sort of God or gods. Whether the God or gods existed or not is no question;
but what is the analysis of this psychological phenomenon? Why is all the
world trying to find, or seeking for, a God? Why? Because in spite of all
this bondage, in spite of nature and this tremendous energy of law grinding
us down, never allowing us to turn to any side — wherever we go, whatever we
want to do, we are thwarted by this law, which is everywhere — in spite of
all this, the human soul never forgets its freedom and is ever seeking it.
The search for freedom is the search of all religions; whether they know it
or not, whether they can formulate it well or ill, the idea is there. Even
the lowest man, the most ignorant, seeks for something which has power over
nature's laws. He wants to see a demon, a ghost, a god — somebody who can
subdue nature, for whom nature is not almighty, for whom there is no law.
"Oh, for somebody who can break the law!" That is the cry coming from the
human heart. We are always seeking for someone who breaks the law. The
rushing engine speeds along the railway track; the little worm crawls out of
its way. We at once say, "The engine is dead matter, a machine; and the worm
is alive," because the worm attempted to break the law. The engine, with all
its power and might, can never break the law. It is made to go in any
direction man wants, and it cannot do otherwise; but the worm, small and
little though it was, attempted to break the law and avoid the danger. It
tried to assert itself against law, assert its freedom; and there was the
sign of the future God in it.
Everywhere we see this assertion of freedom, this freedom of the soul. It is
reflected in every religion in the shape of God or gods; but it is all
external yet — for those who only see the gods outside. Man decided that he
was nothing. He was afraid that he could never be free; so he went to seek
for someone outside of nature who was free. Then he thought that there were
many and many such free beings, and gradually he merged them all into one
God of gods and Lord of lords. Even that did not satisfy him. He came a
little closer to truth, a little nearer; and then gradually found that
whatever he was, he was in some way connected with the God of gods and Lord
of lords; that he, though he thought himself bound and low and weak, was
somehow connected with that God of gods. Then visions came to him; thought
arose and knowledge advanced. And he began to come nearer and nearer to that
God, and at last found out that God and all the gods, this whole
psychological phenomenon connected with the search for an all-powerful free
soul, was but a reflection of his own idea of himself. And then at last he
discovered that it was not only true that "God made man after His own
image", but that it was also true that man made God after his own image.
That brought out the idea of divine freedom. The Divine Being was always
within, the nearest of the near. Him we had ever been seeking outside, and
at last found that He is in the heart of our hearts. You may know the story
of the man who mistook his own heartbeat for somebody knocking at the door,
and went to the door and opened it, but found nobody there, so he went back.
Again he seemed to hear a knocking at the door, but nobody was there. Then
he understood that it was his own heartbeat, and he had misinterpreted it as
a knocking at the door. Similarly, man after his search finds out that this
infinite freedom that he was placing in imagination all the time in the
nature outside is the internal subject, the eternal Soul of souls; this
Reality, he himself.
Thus at last he comes to recognise this marvellous duality of existence: the
subject, infinite and finite in one — the Infinite Being is also the same
finite soul. The Infinite is caught, as it were, in the meshes of the
intellect and apparently manifests as finite beings, but the reality remains
unchanged.
This is, therefore, true knowledge: that the Soul of our souls, the Reality
that is within us, is That which is unchangeable, eternal, ever-blessed,
ever-free. This is the only solid ground for us to stand upon.
This, then, is the end of all death, the advent of all immortality, the end
of all misery. And he who sees that One among the many, that One
unchangeable in the universe of change, he who sees Him as the Soul of his
soul, unto him belongs eternal peace — unto none else.
And in the midst of the depths of misery and degradation, the Soul sends a
ray of light, and man wakes up and finds that what is really his, he can
never lose. No, we can never lose what is really ours. Who can lose his
being? Who can lose his very existence? If I am good, it is the existence
first, and then that becomes coloured with the quality of goodness. If I am
evil, it is the existence first, and that becomes coloured with the quality
of badness. That existence is first, last, and always; it is never lost, but
ever present.
Therefore, there is hope for all. None can die; none can be degraded for
ever. Life is but a playground, however gross the play may be. However we
may receive blows, and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there
and is never injured. We are that Infinite.
Thus sang a Vedantin, "I never had fear nor doubt. Death never came to me. I
never had father or mother: for I was never born. Where are my foes? — for I
am All. I am the Existence and Knowledge and Bliss Absolute. I am It. I am
It. Anger and lust and jealousy, evil thoughts and all these things, never
came to me; for I am the Existence, the Knowledge, the Bliss Absolute. I am
It. I am It."
That is the remedy for all disease, the nectar that cures death. Here we are
in this world, and our nature rebels against it. But let us repeat, "I am
It; I am It. I have no fear, nor doubt, nor death. I have no sex, nor creed,
nor colour. What creed can I have? What sect is there to which I should
belong? What sect can hold me? I am in every sect!"
However much the body rebels, however much the mind rebels, in the midst of
the uttermost darkness, in the midst of agonising tortures, in the uttermost
despair, repeat this, once, twice, thrice, ever more. Light comes gently,
slowly, but surely it comes.
Many times I have been in the jaws of death, starving, footsore, and weary;
for days and days I had had no food, and often could walk no farther; I
would sink down under a tree, and life would seem ebbing away. I could not
speak, I could scarcely think, but at last the mind reverted to the idea: "I
have no fear nor death; I never hunger nor thirst. I am It! I am It! The
whole of nature cannot crush me; it is my servant. Assert thy strength, thou
Lord of lords and God of gods! Regain thy lost empire! Arise and walk and
stop not!" And I would rise up, reinvigorated, and here am I, living, today.
Thus, whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse
must vanish. For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-high though the
difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are
but Mâyâ. Fear not — it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon
it, and it dies. Be not afraid. Think not how many times you fail. Never
mind. Time is infinite. Go forward: assert yourself again and again, and
light must come. You may pray to everyone that was ever born, but who will
come to help you? And what of the way of death from which none knows escape?
Help thyself out by thyself. None else can help thee, friend. For thou alone
art thy greatest enemy, thou alone art thy greatest friend. Get hold of the
Self, then. Stand up. Don't be afraid. In the midst of all miseries and all
weakness, let the Self come out, faint and imperceptible though it be at
first. You will gain courage, and at last like a lion you will roar out, "I
am It! I am It!" "I am neither a man, nor a woman, nor a god, nor a demon;
no, nor any of the animals, plants, or trees. I am neither poor nor rich,
neither learned nor ignorant. All these things are very little compared with
what I am: for I am It! I am It! Behold the sun and the moon and the stars:
I am the light that is shining in them! I am the beauty of the fire! I am
the power in the universe! For, I am It! I am It!
"Whoever thinks that I am little makes a mistake, for the Self is all that
exists. The sun exists because I declare it does, the world exists because I
declare it does. Without me they cannot remain, for I am Existence,
Knowledge, and Bliss Absolute — ever happy, ever pure, ever beautiful.
Behold, the sun is the cause of our vision, but is not itself ever affected
by any defect in the eyes of any one; even so I am. I am working through all
organs, working through everything, but never does the good and evil of work
attach to me. For me there is no law, nor Karma. I own the laws of Karma. I
ever was and ever am.
"My real pleasure was never in earthly things — in husband, wife, children,
and other things. For I am like the infinite blue sky: clouds of many
colours pass over it and play for a second; they move off, and there is the
same unchangeable blue. Happiness and misery, good and evil, may envelop me
for a moment, veiling the Self; but I am still there. They pass away because
they are changeable. I shine, because I am unchangeable. If misery comes, I
know it is finite, therefore it must die. If evil comes, I know it is
finite, it must go. I alone am infinite and untouched by anything. For I am
the Infinite, that Eternal, Changeless Self." — So sings one of our poets.
Let us drink of this cup, this cup that leads to everything that is
immortal, everything that is unchangeable. Fear not. Believe not that we are
evil, that we are finite,. that we can ever die. It is not true.
"This is to be heard of, then to be thought upon, and then to be meditated
upon." When the hands work,. the mind should repeat, "I am It. I am It."
Think of it, dream of it, until it becomes bone of your bones and; flesh of
your flesh, until all the hideous dreams of littleness, of weakness, of
misery, and of evil, have entirely vanished, and no more then can the Truth
be hidden from you even for a moment.