The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures and Discourses/One Existence Appearing as Many
ONE EXISTENCE APPEARING AS MANY
(Delivered in New York, 1896)
Vairâgya or renunciation is the turning point in all the various Yogas. The
Karmi (worker) renounces the fruits of his work. The Bhakta (devotee)
renounces all little loves for the almighty and omnipresent love. The Yogi
renounces his experiences, because his philosophy is that the whole Nature,
although it is for the experience of the soul, at last brings him to know
that he is not in Nature, but eternally separate from Nature. The Jnâni
(philosopher) renounces everything, because his philosophy is that Nature
never existed, neither in the past, nor present, nor will It in the future.
The question of utility cannot be asked in these higher themes. It is very
absurd to ask it; and even if it be asked, after a proper analysis, what do
we find in this question of utility? The ideal of happiness, that which
brings man more happiness, is of greater utility to him than these higher
things which do not improve his material conditions or bring him such great
happiness. All the sciences are for this one end, to bring happiness to
humanity; and that which brings the larger amount of happiness, man takes
and gives up that which brings a lesser amount of happiness. We have seen
how happiness is either in the body, or in the mind, or in the Âtman. With
animals, and in the lowest human beings who are very much like animals,
happiness is all in the body. No man can eat with the same pleasure as a
famished dog or a wolf; so in the dog and the wolf the happiness is entirely
in the body. In men we find a higher plane of happiness, that of thought;
and in the Jnani there is the highest plane of happiness in the Self, the
Atman. So to the philosopher this knowledge of the Self is of the highest
utility, because it gives him the highest happiness possible.
Sense-gratifications or physical things cannot be of the highest utility to
him, because he does not find in them the same pleasure that he finds in
knowledge itself; and after all, knowledge is the one goal and is really the
highest happiness that we know. All who work in ignorance are, as it were,
the draught animals of the Devas. The word Deva is here used in the sense of
a wise man. All the people that work and toil and labour like machines do
not really enjoy life, but it is the wise man who enjoys. A rich man buys a
picture at a cost of a hundred thousand dollars perhaps, but it is the man
who understands art that enjoys it; and if the rich man is without knowledge
of art, it is useless to him, he is only the owner. All over the world, it
is the wise man who enjoys the happiness of the world. The ignorant man
never enjoys; he has to work for others unconsciously.
Thus far we have seen the theories of these Advaitist philosophers, how
there is but one Atman; there cannot be two. We have seen how in the whole
of this universe there is but One Existence; and that One Existence when
seen through the senses is called the world, the world of matter. When It is
seen through the mind, It is called the world of thoughts and ideas; and
when It is seen as it is, then It is the One Infinite Being. You must bear
this in mind; it is not that there is a soul in man, although I had to take
that for granted in order to explain it at first, but that there is only One
Existence, and that one the Atman, the Self; and when this is perceived
through the senses, through sense-imageries, It is called the body. When It
is perceived through thought, It is called the mind. When It is perceived in
Its own nature, It is the Atman, the One Only Existence. So it is not that
there are three things in one, the body and the mind and the Self, although
that was a convenient way of putting it in the course of explanation; but
all is that Atman, and that one Being is sometimes called the body,
sometimes the mind, and sometimes the Self, according to different vision.
There is but one Being which the ignorant call the world. When a man goes
higher in knowledge, he calls the very same Being the world of thought.
Again, when knowledge itself comes, all illusions vanish, and man finds it
is all nothing but Atman. I am that One Existence. This is the last
conclusion. There are neither three nor two in the universe; it is all One.
That One, under the illusion of Maya, is seen as many, just as a rope is
seen as a snake. It is the very rope that is seen as a snake. There are not
two things there, a rope separate and a snake separate. No man sees these
two things there at the same time. Dualism and non-dualism are very good
philosophic terms, but in perfect perception we never perceive the real and
the false at the same time. We are all born monists, we cannot help it. We
always perceive the one. When we perceive the rope, we do not perceive the
snake at all; and when we see the snake, we do not see the rope at all — it
has vanished. When you see illusion, you do not see reality. Suppose you see
one of your friends coming at a distance in the street; you know him very
well, but through the haze and mist that is before you, you think it is
another man. When you see your friend as another man, you do not see your
friend at all, he has vanished. You are perceiving only one. Suppose your
friend is Mr. A; but when you perceive Mr. A as Mr. B. you do not see Mr. A
at all. In each case you perceive only one. When you see yourself as a body,
you are body and nothing else; and that is the perception of the vast
majority of mankind. They may talk of soul and mind, and all these things,
but what they perceive is the physical form, the touch, taste, vision, and
so on. Again, with certain men in certain states of consciousness, they
perceive themselves as thought. You know, of course, the story told of Sir
Humphrey Davy, who has making experiments before his class with
laughing-gas, and suddenly one of the tubes broke, and the gas escaping, he
breathed it in. For some moments he remained like a statue. Afterwards he
told his class that when he was in that state, he actually perceived that
the whole world is made up of ideas. The gas, for a time, made him forget
the consciousness of the body, and that very thing which he was seeing as
the body, he began to perceive as ideas. When the consciousness rises still
higher, when this little puny consciousness is gone for ever, that which is
the Reality behind shines, and we see it as the One
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, the one Atman, the Universal. "One that is only
Knowledge itself, One that is Bliss itself, beyond all compare, beyond all
limit, ever free, never bound, infinite as the sky, unchangeable as the sky.
Such a One will manifest Himself in your heart in meditation."
How does the Advaitist theory explain these various phases of heaven and
hells and these various ideas we find in all religions? When a man dies, it
is said that he goes to heaven or hell, goes here or there, or that when a
man dies he is born again in another body either in heaven or in another
world or somewhere. These are all hallucinations. Really speaking nobody is
ever born or dies. There is neither heaven nor hell nor this world; all
three never really existed. Tell a child a lot of ghost stories, add let him
go out into the street in the evening. There is a little stump of a tree.
What does the child see? A ghost, with hands stretched out, ready to grab
him. Suppose a man comes from the corner of the street, wanting to meet his
sweetheart; he sees that stump of the tree as the girl. A policeman coming
from the street corner sees the stump as a thief. The thief sees it as a
policeman. It is the same stump of a tree that was seen in various ways. The
stump is the reality, and the visions of the stump are the projections of
the various minds. There is one Being, this Self; It neither comes nor goes.
When a man is ignorant, he wants to go to heaven or some place, and all his
life he has been thinking and thinking of this; and when this earth dream
vanishes, he sees this world as a heaven with Devas and angels flying about,
and all such things. If a man all his life desires to meet his forefathers,
he gets them all from Adam downwards, because he creates them. If a man is
still more ignorant and has always been frightened by fanatics with ideas of
hell, with all sorts of punishments, when he dies, he will see this very
world as hell. All that is meant by dying or being born is simply changes in
the plane of vision. Neither do you move, nor does that move upon which you
project your vision. You are the permanent, the unchangeable. How can you
come and go? It is impossible; you are omnipresent. The sky never moves, but
the clouds move over the surface of the sky, and we may think that the sky
itself moves, just as when you are in a railway train, you think the land is
moving. It is not so, but it is the train which is moving. You are where you
are; these dreams, these various clouds move. One dream follows another
without connection. There is no such thing as law or connection in this
world, but we are thinking that there is a great deal of connection. All of
you have probably read Alice in Wonderland. It is the most wonderful book
for children that has been written in this century When I read it, I was
delighted; it was always in my head to write that sort of a book for
children. What pleased me most in it was what you think most incongruous,
that there is no connection there. One idea comes and jumps into another,
without any connection. When you were children, you thought that the most
wonderful connection. So this man brought back his thoughts of childhood,
which were perfectly connected to him as a child, and composed this book for
children. And all these books which men write, trying to make children
swallow their own ideas as men, are nonsense. We too are grown-up children,
that is all. The world is the same unconnected thing — Alice in Wonderland
— with no connection whatever. When we see things happen a number of times
in a certain sequence, we call it cause and effect, and say that the thing
will happen again. When this dream changes, another dream will seem quite as
connected as this. When we dream, the things we see all seem to be
connected; during the dream we never think they are incongruous; it is only
when we wake that we see the want of connection. When we wake from this
dream of the world and compare it with the Reality, it will be found all
incongruous nonsense, a mass of incongruity passing before us, we do not
know whence or whither, but we know it will end; and this is called Maya,
and is like masses of fleeting fleecy clouds. They represent all this
changing existence, and the sun itself, the unchanging, is you. When you
look at that unchanging Existence from the outside, you call it God; and
when you look at it from the inside, you call it yourself. It is but one.
There is no God separate from you, no God higher than you, the real "you".
All the gods are little beings to you, all the ideas of God and Father in
heaven are but your own reflection. God Himself is your image. "God created
man after His own image." That is wrong. Man creates God after his own
image. That is right. Throughout the universe we are creating gods after our
own image. We create the god and fall down at his feet and worship him; and
when this dream comes, we love it!
This is a good point to understand — that the sum and substance of this
lecture is that there is but One Existence, and that One-Existence seen
through different constitutions appears either as the earth, or heaven, or
hell, or gods, or ghosts, or men, or demons, or world, or all these things.
But among these many, "He who sees that One in this ocean of death, he who
sees that One Life in this floating universe, who realises that One who
never changes, unto him belongs eternal peace; unto none else, unto none
else." This One existence has to be realised. How, is the next question. How
is it to be realised? How is this dream to be broken, how shall we wake up
from this dream that we are little men and women, and all such things? We
are the Infinite Being of the universe and have become materialised into
these little beings, men and women, depending upon the sweet word of one
man, or the angry word of another, and so forth. What a terrible dependence,
what a terrible slavery! I who am beyond all pleasure and pain, whose
reflection is the whole universe, little bits of whose life are the suns and
moons and stars — I am held down as a terrible slave! If you pinch my body,
I feel pain. If one says a kind word, I begin to rejoice. See my condition
— slave of the body, slave of the mind, slave of the world, slave of a good
word, slave of a bad word, slave of passion, slave of happiness, slave of
life, slave of death, slave of everything! This slavery has to be broken.
How? "This Atman has first to be heard, then reasoned upon, and then
meditated upon." This is the method of the Advaita Jnâni. The truth has to
be heard, then reflected upon, and then to be constantly asserted. Think
always, "I am Brahman". Every other thought must be cast aside as weakening.
Cast aside every thought that says that you are men or women. Let body go,
and mind go, and gods go, and ghosts go. Let everything go but that One
Existence. "Where one hears another, where one sees another, that is small;
where one does not hear another, where one does not see another, that is
Infinite." That is the highest when the subject and the object become one.
When I am the listener and I am the speaker, when I am the teacher and I am
the taught, when I am the creator and I am the created — then alone fear
ceases; there is not another to make us afraid. There is nothing but myself,
what can frighten me? This is to be heard day after day. Get rid of all
other thoughts. Everything else must be thrown aside, and this is to be
repeated continually, poured through the ears until it reaches the heart,
until every nerve and muscle, every drop of blood tingles with the idea that
I am He, I am He. Even at the gate of death say, "I am He". There was a man
in India, a Sannyâsin, who used to repeat "Shivoham" — "I am Bliss Eternal";
and a tiger jumped on him one day and dragged him away and killed him; but
so long as he was living, the sound came, "Shivoham, Shivoham". Even at the
gate of death, in the greatest danger, in the thick of the battlefield, at
the bottom of the ocean, on the tops of the highest mountains, in the
thickest of the forest, tell yourself, "I am He, I am He". Day and night
say, "I am He". It is the greatest strength; it is religion. "The weak will
never reach the Atman." Never say, "O Lord, I am a miserable sinner." Who
will help you? You are the help of the universe. What in this universe can
help you? Where is the man, or the god, or the demon to help you? What can
prevail over you? You are the God of the universe; where can you seek for
help? Never help came from anywhere but from yourself. In your ignorance,
every prayer that you made and that was answered, you thought was answered
by some Being, but you answered the prayer yourself unknowingly. The help
came from yourself, and you fondly imagined that some one was sending help
to you. There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of
the universe. Like the silkworm you have built a cocoon around yourself. Who
will save you? Burst your own cocoon and come out as the beautiful
butterfly, as the free soul. Then alone you will see Truth. Ever tell
yourself, "I am He." These are words that will burn up the dross that is in
the mind, words that will bring out the tremendous energy which is within
you already, the infinite power which is sleeping in your heart. This is to
be brought out by constantly hearing the truth and nothing else. Wherever
there is thought of weakness, approach not the place. Avoid all weakness if
you want to be a Jnani.
Before you begin to practice, clear your mind of all doubts. Fight and
reason and argue; and when you have established it in your mind that this
and this alone can be the truth and nothing else, do not argue any more;
close your mouth. Hear not argumentation, neither argue yourself. What is
the use of any more arguments? You have satisfied yourself, you have decided
the question. What remains? The truth has now to be realised, therefore why
waste valuable time in vain arguments? The truth has now to be meditated
upon, and every idea that strengthens you must be taken up and every thought
that weakens you must be rejected. The Bhakta meditates upon forms and
images and all such things and upon God. This is the natural process, but a
slower one. The Yogi meditates upon various centres in his body and
manipulates powers in his mind. The Jnani says, the mind does not exist,
neither the body. This idea of the body and of the mind must go, must be
driven off; therefore it is foolish to think of them. It would be like
trying to cure one ailment by bringing in another. His meditation therefore
is the most difficult one, the negative; he denies everything, and what is
left is the Self. This is the most analytical way. The Jnani wants to tear
away the universe from the Self by the sheer force of analysis. It is very
easy to say, "I am a Jnani", but very hard to be really one. "The way is
long", it is, as it were, walking on the sharp edge of a razor; yet despair
not. "Awake, arise, and stop not until the goal is reached", say the Vedas.
So what is the meditation of the Jnani? He wants to rise above every idea of
body or mind, to drive away the idea that he is the body. For instance, when
I say, "I Swami", immediately the idea of the body comes. What must I do
then? I must give the mind a hard blow and say, "No, I am not the body, I am
the Self." Who cares if disease comes or death in the most horrible form? I
am not the body. Why make the body nice? To enjoy the illusion once more? To
continue the slavery? Let it go, I am not the body. That is the way of the
Jnani. The Bhakta says, "The Lord has given me this body that I may safely
cross the ocean of life, and I must cherish it until the journey is
accomplished." The Yogi says, "I must be careful of the body, so that I may
go on steadily and finally attain liberation." The Jnani feels that he
cannot wait, he must reach the goal this very moment. He says, "I am free
through eternity, I am never bound; I am the God of the universe through all
eternity. Who shall make me perfect? I am perfect already." When a man is
perfect, he sees perfection in others. When he sees imperfection, it is his
own mind projecting itself. How can he see imperfection if he has not got it
in himself? So the Jnani does not care for perfection or imperfection. None
exists for him. As soon as he is free, he does not see good and evil. Who
sees evil and good? He who has it in himself. Who sees the body? He who
thinks he is the body. The moment you get rid of the idea that you are the
body, you do not see the world at all; it vanishes for ever. The Jnani seeks
to tear himself away from this bondage of matter by the force of
intellectual conviction. This is the negative way — the "Neti, Neti" — "Not
this, not this."