The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/The Ideal of a Universal Religion
THE IDEAL OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION
How It Must Embrace Different Types Of Minds And Methods
Wheresoever our senses reach, or whatsoever our minds imagine, we find
therein the action and reaction of two forces, the one counteracting the
other and causing the constant play of the mixed phenomena that we see
around us, and of those which we feel in our minds. In the external world,
the action of these opposite forces is expressing itself as attraction and
repulsion, or as centripetal and centrifugal forces; and in the internal, as
love and hatred, good and evil. We repel some things, we attract others. We
are attracted by one, we are repelled by another. Many times in our lives we
find that without any reason whatsoever we are, as it were, attracted
towards certain persons; at other times, similarly, we are repelled by
others. This is patent to all, and the higher the field of action, the more
potent, the more remarkable, are the influences of these opposite forces.
Religion is the highest plane of human thought and life, and herein we find
that the workings of these two forces have been most marked. The intensest
love that humanity has ever known has come from religion, and the most
diabolical hatred that humanity has known has also come from religion. The
noblest words of peace that the world has ever heard have come from men on
the religious plane, and the bitterest denunciation that the world has ever
known has been uttered by religious men. The higher the object of any
religion and the finer its organisation, he more remarkable are its
activities. No other human motive has deluged the world with blood so much
as religion; at the same time, nothing has brought into existence so many
hospitals and asylums for the poor; no other human influence has taken such
care, not only of humanity, but also of the lowest of animals, as religion
has done. Nothing makes us so cruel as religion, and nothing makes us so
tender as religion. This has been so in the past, and will also, in all
probability, be so in the future. Yet out of the midst of this din and
turmoil, this strife and struggle, this hatred and jealousy of religions and
sects, there have arisen, from time to time, potent voices, drowning all
this noise — making themselves heard from pole to pole, as it were —
proclaiming peace and harmony. Will it ever come?
Is it possible that there should ever reign unbroken harmony in this plane
of mighty religious struggle. The world is exercised in the latter part of
this century by the question of harmony; in society, various plans are being
proposed, and attempts are made to carry them into practice; but we know how
difficult it is to do so. People find that it is almost impossible to
mitigate the fury of the struggle of life, to tone down the tremendous
nervous tension that is in man. Now, if it is so difficult to bring harmony
and peace to the physical plane of life — the external, gross, and outward
side of it — then a thousand times more difficult is it to bring peace and
harmony to rule over the internal nature of man. I would ask you for the
time being to come out of the network of words. We have all been hearing
from childhood of such things as love, peace, charity, equality, and
universal brotherhood; but they have become to us mere words without
meaning, words which we repeat like parrots, and it has become quite natural
for us to do so. We cannot help it. Great souls, who first felt these great
ideas in their hearts, manufactured these words; and at that time many
understood their meaning. Later on, ignorant people have taken up those
words to play with them and made religion a mere play upon words, and not a
thing to be carried into practice. It becomes "my father's religion", "our
nation's religion", "our country's religion", and so forth. It becomes only
a phase of patriotism to profess any religion, and patriotism is always
partial. To bring harmony into religion must always be difficult. Yet we
will consider this problem of the harmony of religions.
We see that in every religion there are three parts — I mean in every great
and recognised religion. First, there is the philosophy which presents the
whole scope of that religion, setting forth its basic principles, the goal
and the means of reaching it. The second part is mythology, which is
philosophy made concrete. It consists of legends relating to the lives of
men, or of supernatural beings, and so forth. It is the abstractions of
philosophy concretised in the more or less imaginary lives of men and
supernatural beings. The third part is the ritual. This is still more
concrete and is made up of forms and ceremonies, various physical attitudes,
flowers and incense, and many other things, that appeal to the senses. In
these consists the ritual. You will find that all recognised religions have
these three elements. Some lay more stress on one, some on another. Let us
now take into consideration the first part, philosophy. Is there one
universal philosophy? Not yet. Each religion brings out its own doctrines
and insists upon them as being the only true ones. And not only does it do
that, but it thinks that he who does not believe in them must go to some
horrible place. Some will even draw the sword to compel others to believe as
they do. This is not through wickedness, but through a particular disease of
the human brain called fanaticism. They are very sincere, these fanatics,
the most sincere of human beings; but they are quite as irresponsible as
other lunatics in the world. This disease of fanaticism is one of the most
dangerous of all diseases. All the wickedness of human nature is roused by
it. Anger is stirred up, nerves are strung high, and human beings become
like tigers.
Is there any mythological similarity, is there any mythological harmony, any
universal mythology accepted by all religions? Certainly not. All religions
have their own mythology, only each of them says, "My stories are not mere
myths." Let us try to understand the question by illustration. I simply mean
to illustrate, I do not mean criticism of any religion. The Christian
believes that God took the shape of a dove and came down to earth; to him
this is history, and not mythology. The Hindu believes that God is
manifested in the cow. Christians say that to believe so is mere mythology,
and not history, that it is superstition. The Jews think that if an image be
made in the form of a box, or a chest, with an angel on either side, then it
may be placed in the Holy of Holies; it is sacred to Jehovah; but if the
image be made in the form of a beautiful man or woman, they say, "This is a
horrible idol; break it down! " This is our unity in mythology! If a man
stands up and says, "My prophet did such and such a wonderful thing", others
will say, "That is only superstition", but at the same time they say that
their own prophet did still more wonderful things, which they hold to be
historical. Nobody in the world, as far as I have seen, is able to make out
the fine distinction between history and mythology, as it exists in the
brains of these persons. All such stories, to whatever religion they may
belong, are really mythological, mixed up occasionally, it may be with, a
little history.
Next come the rituals. One sect has one particular form of ritual and thinks
that that is holy, while the rituals of another sect are simply arrant
superstition. If one sect worships a peculiar sort of symbol, another sect
says, "Oh, it is horrible!" Take, for instance, a general form of symbol.
The phallus symbol is certainly a sexual symbol, but gradually that aspect
of it has been forgotten, and it stands now as a symbol of the Creator.
Those nations which have this as their symbol never think of it as the
phallus; it is just a symbol, and there it ends. But a man from another race
or creed sees in it nothing but the phallus, and begins to condemn it; yet
at the same time he may be doing something which to the so-called phallic
worshippers appears most horrible. Let me take two points for illustration,
the phallus symbol and the sacrament of the Christians. To the Christians
the phallus is horrible, and to the Hindus the Christian sacrament is
horrible. They say that the Christian sacrament, the killing of a man and
the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood to get the good
qualities of that man, is cannibalism. This is what some of the savage
tribes do; if a man is brave, they kill him and eat his heart, because they
think that it will give them the qualities of courage and bravery possessed
by that man. Even such a devout Christian as Sir John Lubbock admits this
and says that the origin of this Christian symbol is in this savage idea.
The Christians, of course, do not admit this view of its origin; and what it
may imply never comes to their mind. It stands for holy things, and that is
all they want to know. So even in rituals there is no universal symbol,
which can command general recognition and acceptance. Where then is any
universality? How is it possible then to have a universal form of religion?
That, however, already exists. And let us see what it is.
We all hear about universal brotherhood, and how societies stand up
especially to preach this. I remember an old story. In India, taking wine is
considered very bad. There were two brothers who wished, one night, to drink
wine secretly; and their uncle, who was a very orthodox man was sleeping in
a room quite close to theirs. So, before they began to drink, they said to
each other, "We must be very silent, or uncle will wake up." When they were
drinking, they continued repeating to each other "Silence! Uncle will wake
up", each trying to shout the other down. And, as the shouting increased,
the uncle woke up, came into the room, and discovered the whole thing. Now,
we all shout like these drunken men," Universal brotherhood! We are all
equal, therefore let us make a sect." As soon as you make a sect you protest
against equality, and equality is no more. Mohammedans talk of universal
brotherhood, but what comes out of that in reality? Why, anybody who is not
a Mohammedan will not be admitted into the brotherhood; he will more likely
have his throat cut. Christians talk of universal brotherhood; but anyone
who is not a Christian must go to that place where he will be eternally
barbecued.
And so we go on in this world in our search after universal brotherhood and
equality. When you hear such talk in the world, I would ask you to be a
little reticent, to take care of yourselves, for, behind all this talk is
often the intensest selfishness. "In the winter sometimes a thunder-cloud
comes up; it roars and roars, but it does not rain; but in the rainy season
the clouds speak not, but deluge the world with water." So those who are
really workers, and really feel at heart the universal brotherhood of man,
do not talk much, do not make little sects for universal brotherhood; but
their acts, their movements, their whole life, show out clearly that they in
truth possess the feeling of brotherhood for mankind, that they have love
and sympathy for all. They do not speak, they do and they live. This world
is too full of blustering talk. We want a little more earnest work, and less
talk.
So far we see that it is hard to find any universal features in regard to
religion, and yet we know that they exist. We are all human beings, but are
we all equal? Certainly not. Who says we are equal? Only the lunatic. Are we
all equal in our brains, in our powers, in our bodies? One man is stronger
than another, one man has more brain power than another. If we are all
equal, why is there this inequality? Who made it? We. Because we have more
or less powers, more or less brain, more or less physical strength, it must
make a difference between us. Yet we know that the doctrine of equality
appeals to our heart. We are all human beings; but some are men, and some
are women. Here is a black man, there is a white man; but all are men, all
belong to one humanity. Various are our faces; I see no two alike, yet we
are all human beings. Where is this one humanity? I find a man or a woman,
either dark or fair; and among all these faces I know that there is an
abstract humanity which is common to all. I may not find it when I try to
grasp it, to sense it, and to actualise it, yet I know for certain that it
is there. If I am sure of anything, it is of this humanity which is common
to us all. It is through this generalised entity that I see you as a man or
a woman. So it is with this universal religion, which runs through all the
various religions of the world in the form of God; it must and does exist
through eternity. "I am the thread that runs through all these pearls," and
each pearl is a religion or even a sect thereof. Such are the different
pearls, and the Lord is the thread that runs through all of them; only the
majority of mankind are entirely unconscious of it.
Unity in variety is the plan of the universe. We are all men, and yet we are
all distinct from one another. As a part of humanity I am one with you, and
as Mr. So-and-so I am different from you. As a man you are separate from the
woman; as a human being you are one with the woman. As a man you are
separate from the animal, but as living beings, man, woman, animal, and
plant are all one; and as existence, you are one with the whole universe.
That universal existence is God, the ultimate Unity in the universe. In Him
we are all one. At the same time, in manifestation, these differences must
always remain. In our work, in our energies, as they are being manifested
outside, these differences must always remain. We find then that if by the
idea of a universal religion it is meant that one set of doctrines should be
believed in by all mankind it is wholly impossible. It can never be, there
can never be a time when all faces will be the same. Again, if we expect
that there will be one universal mythology, that is also impossible; it
cannot be. Neither can there be one universal ritual. Such a state of things
can never come into existence; if it ever did, the world would be destroyed,
because variety is the first principle of life. What makes us formed beings?
Differentiation. Perfect balance would be our destruction. Suppose the
amount of heat in this room, the tendency of which is towards equal and
perfect diffusion, gets that kind of diffusion, then for all practical
purposes that heat will cease to be. What makes motion possible in this
universe? Lost balance. The unity of sameness can come only when this
universe is destroyed, otherwise such a thing is impossible. Not only so, it
would be dangerous to have it. We must not wish that all of us should think
alike. There would then be no thought to think. We should be all alike, as
the Egyptian mummies in a museum, looking at each other without a thought to
think. It is this difference, this differentiation, this losing of the
balance between us, which is the very soul of our progress, the soul of all
our thought. This must always be.
What then do I mean by the ideal of a universal religion? I do not mean any
one universal philosophy, or any one universal mythology, or any one
universal ritual held alike by all; for I know that this world must go on
working, wheel within wheel, this intricate mass of machinery, most complex,
most wonderful. What can we do then? We can make it run smoothly, we can
lessen the friction, we can grease the wheels, as it were. How? By
recognising the natural necessity of variation. Just as we have recognised
unity by our very nature, so we must also recognise variation. We must learn
that truth may be expressed in a hundred thousand ways, and that each of
these ways is true as far as it goes. We must learn that the same thing can
be viewed from a hundred different standpoints, and vet be the same thing.
Take for instance the sun. Suppose a man standing on the earth looks at the
sun when it rises in the morning; he sees a big ball. Suppose he starts on a
journey towards the sun and takes a camera with him, taking photographs at
every stage of his journey, until he reaches the sun. The photographs of
each stage will be seen to be different from those of the other stages; in
fact, when he gets back, he brings with him so many photographs of so many
different suns, as it would appear; and yet we know that the same sun was
photographed by the man at the different stages of his progress. Even so is
it with the Lord. Through high philosophy or low, through the most exalted
mythology or the grossest, through the most refined ritualism or arrant
fetishism, every sect, every soul, every nation, every religion, consciously
or unconsciously, is struggling upward, towards God; every vision of truth
that man has, is a vision of Him and of none else. Suppose we all go with
vessels in our hands to fetch water from a lake. One has a cup, another a
jar, another a bucket, and so forth, and we all fill our vessels. The water
in each case naturally takes the form of the vessel carried by each of us.
He who brought the cup has the water in the form of a cup; he who brought
the jar — his water is in the shape of a jar, and so forth; but, in every
case, water, and nothing but water, is in the vessel. So it is in the case
of religion; our minds are like these vessels, and each one of us is trying
to arrive at the realisation of God. God is like that water filling these
different vessels, and in each vessel the vision of God comes in the form of
the vessel. Yet He is One. He is God in every case. This is the only
recognition of universality that we can get.
So far it is all right theoretically. But is there any way of practically
working out this harmony in religions? We find that this recognition that
all the various views of religion are true has been very very old. Hundreds
of attempts have been made in India, in Alexandria, in Europe, in China, in
Japan, in Tibet, and lastly in America, to formulate a harmonious religious
creed, to make all religions come together in love. They have all failed,
because they did not adopt any practical plan. Many have admitted that all
the religions of the world are right, but they show no practical way of
bringing them together, so as to enable each of them to maintain its own
individuality in the conflux. That plan alone is practical, which does not
destroy the individuality of any man in religion and at the same time shows
him a point of union with all others. But so far, all the plans of religious
harmony that have been tried, while proposing to take in all the various
views of religion, have, in practice, tried to bind them all down to a few
doctrines, and so have produced more new sects, fighting, struggling, and
pushing against each other.
I have also my little plan. I do not know whether it will work or not, and I
want to present it to you for discussion. What is my plan? In the first
place I would ask mankind to recognise this maxim, "Do not destroy".
Iconoclastic reformers do no good to the world. Break not, pull not anything
down, but build. Help, if you can; if you cannot, fold your hands and stand
by and see things go on. Do not injure, if you cannot render help. Say not a
word against any man's convictions so far as they are sincere. Secondly,
take man where he stands, and from there give him a lift. If it be true that
God is the centre of all religions, and that each of us is moving towards
Him along one of these radii, then it is certain that all of us must reach
that centre. And at the centre, where all the radii meet, all our
differences will cease; but until we reach there, differences there must be.
All these radii converge to the same centre. One, according to his nature,
travels along one of these lines, and another, along another; and if we all
push onward along our own lines, we shall surely come to the centre,
because, "All roads lead to Rome". Each of us is naturally growing and
developing according to his own nature; each will in time come to know the
highest truth for after all, men must teach themselves. What can you and I
do? Do you think you can teach even a child? You cannot. The child teaches
himself. Your duty is to afford opportunities and to remove obstacles. A
plant grows. Do you make the plant grow? Your duty is to put a hedge round
it and see that no animal eats up the plant, and there your duty ends. The
plant grows of itself. So it is in regard to the spiritual growth of every
man. None can teach you; none can make a spiritual man of you. You have to
teach yourself; your growth must come from inside.
What can an external teacher do? He can remove the obstructions a little,
and there his duty ends. Therefore help, if you can; but do not destroy.
Give up all ideas that you can make men spiritual. It is impossible. There
is no other teacher to you than your own soul. Recognise this. What comes of
it? In society we see so many different natures. There are thousands and
thousands of varieties of minds and inclinations. A thorough generalisation
of them is impossible, but for our practical purpose it is sufficient to
have them characterised into four classes. First, there is the active man,
the worker; he wants to work, and there is tremendous energy in his muscles
and his nerves. His aim is to work — to build hospitals, do charitable
deeds, make streets, to plan and to organise. Then there is the emotional
man who loves the sublime and the beautiful to an excessive degree. He loves
to think of the beautiful, to enjoy the aesthetic side of nature, and adore
Love and the God of Love. He loves with his whole heart the great souls of
all times, the prophets of religions, and the Incarnations of God on earth;
he does not care whether reason can or cannot prove that Christ or Buddha
existed; he does not care for the exact date when the Sermon on the Mount
was preached, or for the exact moment of Krishna's birth; what he cares for
is their personalities, their lovable figures. Such is his ideal. This is
the nature of the lover, the emotional man. Then, there is the mystic whose
mind wants to analyse its own self, to understand the workings of the human
mind, what the forces are that are working inside, and how to know,
manipulate, and obtain control over them. This is the mystical mind. Then,
there is the philosopher who wants to weigh everything and use his intellect
even beyond the possibilities of all human philosophy.
Now a religion, to satisfy the largest proportion of mankind, must be able
to supply food for all these various types of minds; and where this
capability is wanting, the existing sects all become one-sided. Suppose you
go to a sect which preaches love and emotion. They sing and weep, and preach
love. But as soon as you say, "My friend, that is all right, but I want
something stronger than this — a little reason and philosophy; I want to
understand things step by step and more rationally", they say, "Get out";
and they not only ask you to get out but would send you to the other place,
if they could. The result is that that sect can only help people of an
emotional turn of mind. They not only do not help others, but try to destroy
them; and the most wicked part of the whole thing is that they will not only
not help others, but do not believe in their sincerity. Again, there are
philosophers who talk of the wisdom of India and the East and use big
psychological terms, fifty syllables long, but if an ordinary man like me
goes to them and says, "Can you tell me anything to make me spiritual?", the
first thing they would do would be to smile and say, "Oh, you are too far
below us in your reason. What can you understand about spirituality?" These
are high-up philosophers. They simply show you the door. Then there are the
mystical sects who speak all sorts of things about different planes of
existence, different states of mind, and what the power of the mind can do,
and so on; and if you are an ordinary man and say, "Show me anything good
that I can do; I am not much given to speculation; can you give me anything
that will suit me?", they will smile and say, "Listen to that fool; he knows
nothing, his existence is for nothing." And this is going on everywhere in
the world. I would like to get extreme exponents of all these different
sects, and shut them up in a room, and photograph their beautiful derisive
smiles!
This is the existing condition of religion, the existing condition of
things. What I want to propagate is a religion that will be equally
acceptable to all minds; it must be equally philosophic, equally emotional,
equally mystic, and equally conducive to action. If professors from the
colleges come, scientific men and physicists, they will court reason. Let
them have it as much as they want. There will be a point beyond which they
will think they cannot go, without breaking with reason. They will say,
"These ideas of God and salvation are superstitious, guise them up! " I say,
"Mr. Philosopher, this body of yours is a bigger superstition. Give it up,
don't go home to dinner or to your philosophic chair. Give up the body, and
if you cannot, cry quarter and sit down." For religion must be able to show
how to realise the philosophy that teaches us that this world is one, that
there is but one Existence in the universe. Similarly, if the mystic comes,
we must welcome him, be ready to give him the science of mental analysis,
and practically demonstrate it before him. And if emotional people come, we
must sit, laugh, and weep with them in the name of the Lord; we must "drink
the cup of love and become mad". If the energetic worker comes, we must work
with him, with all the energy that we have. And this combination will be the
ideal of the nearest approach to a universal religion. Would to God that all
men were so constituted that in their minds all these elements of
philosophy, mysticism, emotion, and of work were equally present in full!
That is the ideal, my ideal of a perfect man. Everyone who has only one or
two of these elements of character, I consider "one-sided"; and this world
is almost full of such "one-sided" men, with knowledge of that one road only
in which they move; and anything else is dangerous and horrible to them. To
become harmoniously balanced in all these four directions is my ideal of
religion. And this religion is attained by what we, in India, call Yoga —
union. To the worker, it is union between men and the whole of humanity; to
the mystic, between his lower and Higher Self; to the lover, union between
himself and the God of Love; and to the philosopher; it is the union of all
existence. This is what is meant by Yoga. This is a Sanskrit term, and these
four divisions of Yoga have in Sanskrit different names. The man who seeks
after this kind of union is called a Yogi. The worker is called the
Karma-Yogi. He who seeks the union through love is called the Bhakti-Yogi.
He who seeks it through mysticism is called the Râja-Yogi. And he who seeks
it through philosophy is called the Jnâna-Yogi So this word Yogi comprises
them all.
Now first of all let me take up Râja-Yoga. What is this Raja-Yoga, this
controlling of the mind? In this country you are associating all sorts of
hobgoblins with the word Yoga, I am afraid. Therefore, I must start by
telling you that it has nothing to do with such things. No one of these
Yogas gives up reason, no one of them asks you to be hoodwinked, or to
deliver your reason into the hands of priests of any type whatsoever. No one
of them asks that you should give your allegiance to any superhuman
messenger. Each one of them tells you to cling to your reason to hold fast
to it. We find in all beings three sorts of instruments of knowledge. The
first is instinct, which you find most highly developed in animals; this is
the lowest instrument of knowledge. What is the second instrument of
knowledge? Reasoning. You find that most highly developed in man. Now in the
first place, instinct is an inadequate instrument; to animals, the sphere of
action is very limited, and within that limit instinct acts. When you come
to man, you see it is largely developed into reason. The sphere of action
also has here become enlarged. Yet even reason is still very insufficient.
Reason can go only a little way and then it stops, it cannot go any further;
and if you try to push it, the result is helpless confusion, reason itself
becomes unreasonable. Logic becomes argument in a circle. Take, for
instance, the very basis of our perception, matter and force. What is
matter? That which is acted upon by force. And force? That which acts upon
matter. You see the complication, what the logicians call see-saw, one idea
depending on the other, and this again depending on that. You find a mighty
barrier before reason, beyond which reasoning cannot go; yet it always feels
impatient to get into the region of the Infinite beyond. This world, this
universe which our senses feel, or our mind thinks, is but one atom, so to
say, of the Infinite, projected on to the plane of consciousness; and within
that narrow limit, defined by the network of consciousness, works our
reason, and not beyond. Therefore, there must be some other instrument to
take us beyond, and that instrument is called inspiration. So instinct,
reason, and inspiration are the three instruments of knowledge. Instinct
belongs to animals, reason to man, and inspiration to God-men. But in all
human beings are to be found, in a more or less developed condition, the
germs of all these three instruments of knowledge. To have these mental
instruments evolved, the germs must be there. And this must also be
remembered that one instrument is a development of the other, and therefore
does not contradict it. It is reason that develops into inspiration, and
therefore inspiration does not contradict reason, but fulfils it. Things
which reason cannot get at are brought to light by inspiration; and they do
not contradict reason. The old man does not contradict the child, but
fulfils the child. Therefore you must always bear in mind that the great
danger lies in mistaking the lower form of instrument to be the higher. Many
times instinct is presented before the world as inspiration, and then come
all the spurious claims for the gift of prophecy. A fool or a semi-lunatic
thinks that the confusion going on in his brain is inspiration, and he wants
men to follow him. The most contradictory irrational nonsense that has been
preached in the world is simply the instinctive jargon of confused lunatic
brains trying to pass for the language of inspiration.
The first test of true teaching must be, that the teaching should not
contradict reason. And you may see that such is the basis of all these
Yogas. We take the Raja-Yoga, the psychological Yoga, the psychological way
to union. It is a vast subject, and I can only point out to you now the
central idea of this Yoga. We have but one method of acquiring knowledge.
From the lowest man to the highest Yogi, all have to use the same method;
and that method is what is called concentration. The chemist who works in
his laboratory concentrates all the powers of his mind, brings them into one
focus, and throws them on the elements; and the elements stand analysed, and
thus his knowledge comes. The astronomer has also concentrated the powers of
his mind and brought them into one focus; and he throws them on to objects
through his telescope; and stars and systems roll forward and give up their
secrets to him. So it is in every case — with the professor in his chair,
the student with his book — with every man who is working to know. You are
hearing me, and if my words interest you, your mind will become concentrated
on them; and then suppose a clock strikes, you will not hear it, on account
of this concentration; and the more you are able to concentrate your mind,
the better you will understand me; and the more I concentrate my love and
powers, the better I shall be able to give expression to what I want to
convey to you. The more this power of concentration, the more knowledge is
acquired, because this is the one and only method of acquiring knowledge.
Even the lowest shoeblack, if he gives more concentration, will black shoes
better; the cook with concentration will cook a meal all the better. In
making money, or in worshipping God, or in doing anything, the stronger the
power of concentration, the better will that thing be done. This is the one
call, the one knock, which opens the gates of nature, and lets out floods of
light. This, the power of concentration, is the only key to the
treasure-house of knowledge. The system of Raja-Yoga deals almost
exclusively with this. In the present state of our body we are so much
distracted, and the mind is frittering away its energies upon a hundred
sorts of things. As soon as I try to calm my thoughts and concentrate my
mind upon any one object of knowledge, thousands of undesired impulses rush
into the brain, thousands of thoughts rush into the mind and disturb it. How
to check it and bring the mind under control is the whole subject of study
in Raja-Yoga.
Now take Karma-Yoga, the attainment of God through work. It is evident that
in society there are many persons who seem to be born for some sort of
activity or other, whose minds cannot be concentrated on the plane of
thought alone, and who have but one idea, concretised in work, visible and
tangible. There must be a science for this kind of life too. Each one of us
is engaged in some work, but the majority of us fritter away the greater
portion of our energies, because we do not know the secret of work.
Karma-Yoga explains this secret and teaches where and how to work, how to
employ to the greatest advantage the largest part of our energies in the
work that is before us. But with this secret we must take into consideration
the great objection against work, namely that it causes pain. All misery and
pain come from attachment. I want to do work, I want to do good to a human
being; and it is ninety to one that that human being whom I have helped will
prove ungrateful and go against me; and the result to me is pain. Such
things deter mankind from working; and it spoils a good portion of the work
and energy of mankind, this fear of pain and misery. Karma-Yoga teaches us
how to work for work's sake, unattached, without caring who is helped, and
what for. The Karma-Yogi works because it is his nature, because he feels
that it is good for him to do so, and he has no object beyond that. His
position in this world is that of a giver, and he never cares to receive
anything. He knows that he is giving, and does not ask for anything in
return and, therefore, he eludes the grasp of misery. The grasp of pain,
whenever it comes, is the result of the reaction of "attachment".
There is then the Bhakti-Yoga for the man of emotional nature, the lover. He
wants to love God, he relies upon and uses all sorts of rituals, flowers,
incense, beautiful buildings, forms and all such things. Do you mean to say
they are wrong? One fact I must tell you. It is good for you to remember, in
this country especially, that the world's great spiritual giants have all
been produced only by those religious sects which have been in possession of
very rich mythology and ritual. All sects that have attempted to worship God
without any form or ceremony have crushed without mercy everything that is
beautiful and sublime in religion. Their religion is a fanaticism at best, a
dry thing. The history of the world is a standing witness to this fact.
Therefore do not decry these rituals and mythologies. Let people have them;
let those who so desire have them. Do not exhibit that unworthy derisive
smile, and say, "They are fools; let them have it." Not so; the greatest men
I have seen in my life, the most wonderfully developed in spirituality, have
all come through the discipline of these rituals. I do not hold myself
worthy to sit at their feet, and for me to criticise them! How do I know how
these ideas act upon the human minds which of them I am to accept and which
to reject? We are apt to criticise everything in the world: without
sufficient warrant. Let people have all the mythology they want, with its
beautiful inspirations; for you must always bear in mind that emotional
natures do not care for abstract definitions of the truth. God to them is
something tangible, the only thing that is real; they feel, hear, and see
Him, and love Him. Let them have their God. Your rationalist seems to them
to be like the fool who, when he saw a beautiful statue, wanted to break it
to find out of what material it was made. Bhakti-Yoga: teaches them how to
love, without any ulterior motives, loving God and loving the good because
it is good to do so, not for going to heaven, nor to get children, wealth,
or anything else. It teaches them that love itself is the highest recompense
of love --- that God Himself is love. It teaches them to pay all kinds of
tribute to God as the Creator, the Omnipresent, Omniscient, Almighty Ruler,
the Father and the Mother. The highest phrase that can express Him, the
highest idea that the human mind can conceive of Him, is that He is the God
of Love. Wherever there is love, it is He. "Wherever there is any love, it
is He, the Lord is present there." Where the husband kisses the wife, He is
there in the kiss; where the mother kisses the child, He is there in the
kiss; where friends clasp hands, He, the Lord, is present as the God of
Love. When a great man loves and wishes to help mankind, He is there giving
freely His bounty out of His love to mankind. Wherever the heart expands, He
is there manifested. This is what the Bhakti-Yoga teaches.
We lastly come to the Jnana-Yogi, the philosopher, the thinker, he who wants
to go beyond the visible. He is the man who is not satisfied with the little
things of this world. His idea is to go beyond the daily routine of eating,
drinking, and so on; not even the teaching of thousands of books will
satisfy him. Not even all the sciences will satisfy him; at the best, they
only bring this little world before him. What else will give him
satisfaction? Not even myriads of systems of worlds will satisfy him; they
are to him but a drop in the ocean of existence. His soul wants to go beyond
all that into the very heart of being, by seeing Reality as It is; by
realising It, by being It, by becoming one with that Universal Being. That
is the philosopher. To say that God is the Father or the Mother, the Creator
of this universe, its Protector and Guide, is to him quite inadequate to
express Him. To him, God is the life of his life, the soul of his soul. God
is his own Self. Nothing else remains which is other than God. All the
mortal parts of him become pounded by the weighty strokes of philosophy and
are brushed away. What at last truly remains is God Himself.
Upon the same tree there are two birds, one on the top, the other below. The
one on the top is calm, silent, and majestic, immersed in his own glory; the
one on the lower branches, eating sweet and bitter fruits by turns, hopping
from branch to branch, is becoming happy and miserable by turns. After a
time the lower bird eats an exceptionally bitter fruit and gets disgustful
and looks up and sees the other bird, that wondrous one of golden plumage,
who eats neither sweet nor bitter fruit, who is neither happy nor miserable,
but calm, Self-centred, and sees nothing beyond his Self. The lower bird
longs for this condition but soon forgets it, and again begins to eat the
fruits. In a little while, he eats another exceptionally bitter fruit, which
makes him feel miserable, and he again looks up, and tries to get nearer to
the upper bird. Once more he forgets and after a time he looks up, and so on
he goes again and again, until he comes very near to the beautiful bird and
sees the reflection of light from his plumage playing around his own body,
and he feels a change and seems to melt away; still nearer he comes, and
everything about him melts away, and at last he understands this wonderful
change. The lower bird was, as it were, only the substantial-looking shadow,
the reflection of the higher; he himself was in essence the upper bird all
the time. This eating of fruits, sweet and bitter, this lower, little bird,
weeping and happy by turns, was a vain chimera, a dream: all along, the real
bird was there above, calm and silent, glorious and majestic, beyond grief,
beyond sorrow. The upper bird is God, the Lord of this universe; and the
lower bird is the human soul, eating the sweet and bitter fruits of this
world. Now and then comes a heavy blow to the soul. For a time, he stops the
eating and goes towards the unknown God, and a flood of light comes. He
thinks that this world is a vain show. Yet again the senses drag hint down,
and he begins as before to eat the sweet and bitter fruits of the world.
Again an exceptionally hard blow comes. His heart becomes open again to
divine light; thus gradually he approaches God, and as he gets nearer and
nearer, he finds his old self melting away. When he has come near enough, he
sees that he is no other than God, and he exclaims, "He whom I have
described to you as the Life of this universe, as present in the atom, and
in suns and moons — He is the basis of our own life, the Soul of our soul.
Nay, thou art That." This is what this Jnana-Yoga teaches. It tells man that
he is essentially divine. It shows to mankind the real unity of being, and
that each one of us is the Lord God Himself, manifested on earth. All of us,
from the lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the highest beings to
whom we look up with wonder and awe — all are manifestations of the same
Lord.
Lastly, it is imperative that all these various Yogas should be carried out
in, practice; mere theories about them will not do any good. First we have
to hear about them, then we have to think about them. We have to reason the
thoughts out, impress them on our minds, and we have to meditate on them,
realise them, until at last they become our whole life. No longer will
religion remain a bundle of ideas or theories, nor an intellectual assent;
it will enter into our very self. By means of intellectual assent we may
today subscribe to many foolish things, and change our minds altogether
tomorrow. But true religion never changes. Religion is realisation; not
talk, nor doctrine, nor theories, however beautiful they may be. It is being
and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming
changed into what it believes. That is religion.