The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi
YAJNAVALKYA AND MAITREYI
We say, "That day is indeed a bad day on which you do not hear the name of
the Lord, but a cloudy day is not a bad day at all." Yâjnavalkya was a great
sage. You know, the Shastras in India enjoin that every man should give up
the world when he becomes old. So Yajnavalkya said to his wife, "My beloved,
here is all my money, and my possessions, and I am going away." She replied,
"Sir, if I had this whole earth full of wealth, would that give me
immortality?" Yajnavalkya said, "No, it will not. You will be rich, and that
will be all, but wealth cannot give us immortality." She replied, "what
shall I do to gain that through which I shall become immortal? If you know,
tell me." Yajnavalkya replied, "You have been always my beloved; you are
more beloved now by this question. Come, take your seat, and I will tell
you; and when you have heard, meditate upon it." He said, "It is not for the
sake of the husband that the wife loves the husband, but for the sake of the
Âtman that she loves the husband, because she loves the Self. None loves the
wife for the sake of the wife; but it is because one loves the Self that one
loves the wife. None loves the children for the children; but because one
loves the Self, therefore one loves the children. None loves wealth on
account of the wealth; but because one loves the Self, therefore one loves
wealth. None loves the Brâhmin for the sake of the Brahmin; but because one
loves the Self, one loves the Brahmin. So, none loves the Kshatriya for the
sake of the Kshatriya, but because one loves the Self. Neither does any one
love the world on account of the world, but because one loves the Self.
None, similarly, loves the gods on account of the gods, but because one
loves the Self. None loves a thing for that thing's sake; but it is for the
Self that one loves it. This Self, therefore, is to be heard, reasoned
about, and meditated upon. O my Maitreyi, when that Self has been heard,
when that Self has been seen, when that Self has been realised, then, all
this becomes known." What do we get then? Before us we find a curious
philosophy. The statement has been made that every love is selfishness in
the lowest sense of the word: because I love myself, therefore I love
another; it cannot be. There have been philosophers in modern times who have
said that self is the only motive power in the world. That is true, and yet
it is wrong. But this self is but the shadow of that real Self which is
behind. It appears wrong and evil because it is small. That infinite love
for the Self, which is the universe, appears to be evil, appears to be
small, because it appears through a small part. Even when the wife loves the
husband, whether she knows it or not, she loves the husband for that Self.
It is selfishness as it is manifested in the world, but that selfishness is
really but a small part of that Self-ness. Whenever one loves, one has to
love in and through the Self. This Self has to be known. What is the
difference? Those that love the Self without knowing what It is, their love
is selfishness. Those that love, knowing what that Self is, their love is
free; they are sages. "Him the Brahmin gives up who sees the Brahmin
anywhere else but in the Self. Him the Kshatriya gives up who sees the
Kshatriya anywhere else but in the Self. The world gives him up who sees
this world anywhere but in that Atman. The gods give him up who loves the
gods knowing them to be anywhere else but in the Atman. Everything goes away
from him who knows everything as something else except the Atman. These
Brahmins, these Kshatriyas, this world, these gods, whatever exists,
everything is that Atman". Thus he explains what he means by love.
Every time we particularise an object, we differentiate it from the Self. I
am trying to love a woman; as soon as that woman is particularised, she is
separated from the Atman, and my love for her will not be eternal, but will
end in grief. But as soon as I see that woman as the Atman, that love
becomes perfect, and will never suffer. So with everything; as soon as you
are attached to anything in the universe, detaching it from the universe as
a whole, from the Atman, there comes a reaction. With everything that we
love outside the Self, grief and misery will be the result. If we enjoy
everything in the Self, and as the Self, no misery or reaction will come.
This is perfect bliss. How to come to this ideal? Yajnavalkya goes on to
tell us the process by which to reach that state. The universe is infinite:
how can we take every particular thing and look at it as the Atman, without
knowing the Atman? "As with a drum when we are at a distance we cannot catch
the sound, we cannot conquer the sound; but as soon as we come to the drum
and put our hand on it, the sound is conquered. When the conch-shell is
being blown, we cannot catch or conquer the sound, until we come near and
get hold of the shell, and then it is conquered. When the Vina is being
played, when we have come to the Vina, we get to the centre whence the sound
is proceeding. As when some one is burning damp fuel, smoke and sparks of
various kinds come, even so, from this great One has been breathed out
knowledge; everything has come out of Him. He breathed out, as it were, all
knowledge. As to all water, the one goal is the ocean; as to all touch, the
skin is the one centre; as of all smell, the nose is the one centre; as of
all taste, the tongue is the one goal; as of all form, the eyes are the one
goal; as of all sounds, the ears are the one goal; as of all thought, the
mind is the one goal; as of all knowledge, the heart is the one goal; as of
all work, the hands are the one goal; as a morsel of salt put into the
sea-water melts away, and we cannot take it back, even so, Maitreyi, is this
Universal Being eternally infinite; all knowledge is in Him. The whole
universe rises from Him, and again goes down into Him. No more is there any
knowledge, dying, or death." We get the idea that we have all come just like
sparks from Him, and when you know Him, then you go back and become one with
Him again. We are the Universal.
Maitreyi became frightened, just as everywhere people become frightened.
Said she, "Sir, here is exactly where you have thrown a delusion over me.
You have frightened me by saying there will be no more gods; all
individuality will be lost. There will be no one to recognise, no one to
love, no one to hate. What will become of us?" "Maitreyi, I do not mean to
puzzle you, or rather let it rest here. You may be frightened. Where there
are two, one sees another, one hears another, one welcomes another, one
thinks of another, one knows another. But when the whole has become that
Atman, who is seen by whom, who is to be heard by whom, who is to be
welcomed by whom, who is to be known by whom?" That one idea was taken up by
Schopenhauer and echoed in his philosophy. Through whom we know this
universe, through what to know Him? How to know the knower? By what means
can we know the knower? How can that be? Because in and through that we know
everything. By what means can we know Him? By no means, for He is that
means.
So far the idea is that it is all One Infinite Being. That is the real
individuality, when there is no more division, and no more parts; these
little ideas are very low, illusive. But yet in and through every spark of
the individuality is shining that Infinite. Everything is a manifestation of
the Atman. How to reach that? First you make the statement, just as
Yajnavalkya himself tells us: "This Atman is first to be heard of." So he
stated the case; then he argued it out, and the last demonstration was how
to know That, through which all knowledge is possible. Then, last, it is to
be meditated upon. He takes the contrast, the microcosm and the macrocosm,
and shows how they are rolling on in particular lines, and how it is all
beautiful. "This earth is so blissful, so helpful to every being; and all
beings are so helpful to this earth: all these are manifestations of that
Self-effulgent One, the Atman." All that is bliss, even in the lowest sense,
is but the reflection of Him. All that is good is His reflection, and when
that reflection is a shadow it is called evil. There are no two Gods. When
He is less manifested, it is called darkness, evil; and when He is more
manifested, it is called light. That is all. Good and evil are only a
question of degree: more manifested or less manifested. Just take the
example of our own lives. How many things we see in our childhood which we
think to be good, but which really are evil, and how many things seem to be
evil which are good! How the ideas change! How an idea goes up and up! What
we thought very good at one time we do not think so good now. So good and
evil are but superstitions, and do not exist. The difference is only in
degree. It is all a manifestation of that Atman; He is being manifested in
everything; only, when the manifestation is very thick we call it evil; and
when it is very thin, we call it good. It is the best, when all covering
goes away. So everything that is in the universe is to be meditated upon in
that sense alone, that we can see it as all good, because it is the best.
There is evil and there is good; and the apex, the centre, is the Reality.
He is neither evil nor good; He is the best. The best can be only one, the
good can be many and the evil many. There will be degrees of variation
between the good and the evil, but the best is only one, and that best, when
seen through thin coverings, we call different sorts of good, and when
through thick covers, we call evil. Good and evil are different forms of
superstition. They have gone through all sorts of dualistic delusion and all
sorts of ideas, and the words have sunk into the hearts of human beings,
terrorising men and women and living there as terrible tyrants. They make us
become tigers. All the hatred with which we hate others is caused by these
foolish ideas which we have imbibed since our childhood — good and evil. Our
judgment of humanity becomes entirely false; we make this beautiful earth a
hell; but as soon as we can give up good and evil, it becomes a heaven.
"This earth is blissful ('sweet' is the literal translation) to all beings
and all beings are sweet to this earth; they all help each other. And all
the sweetness is the Atman, that effulgent, immortal One who is inside this
earth." Whose is this sweetness? How can there be any sweetness but He? That
one sweetness is manifesting itself in various ways. Wherever there is any
love, any sweetness in any human being, either in a saint or a sinner,
either in an angel or a murderer, either in the body, mind, or the senses,
it is He. Physical enjoyments are but He, mental enjoyments are but He,
spiritual enjoyments are but He. How can there be anything but He? How can
there be twenty thousand gods and devils fighting with each other? Childish
dreams! Whatever is the lowest physical enjoyment is He, and the highest
spiritual enjoyment is He. There is no sweetness but He. Thus says
Yajnavalkya. When you come to that state and look upon all things with the
same eye, when you see even in the drunkard's pleasure in drink only that
sweetness, then you have got the truth, and then alone you will know what
happiness means, what peace means, what love means; and so long as toll make
these vain distinctions, silly, childish, foolish superstitions, all sorts
of misery will come. But that immortal One, the effulgent One, He is inside
the earth, it is all His sweetness, and the same sweetness is in the body.
This body is the earth, as it were, and inside all the powers of the body,
all the enjoyments of the body, is He; the eyes see, the skin touches; what
are all these enjoyments? That Self-effulgent One who is in the body, He is
the Atman. This world, so sweet to all beings, and every being so sweet to
it, is but the Self-effulgent; the Immortal is the bliss in that world. In
us also, He is that bliss. He is the Brahman. "This air is so sweet to all
beings, and all beings are so sweet to it. But He who is that Self-effulgent
Immortal Being in the air — is also in this body. He is expressing Himself
as the life of all beings. This sun is so sweet to all beings. All beings
are so sweet to this sun. He who is the Self-effulgent Being in the sun, we
reflect Him as the smaller light. What can be there but His reflection? He
is in the body, and it is His reflection which makes us see the light. This
moon is so sweet to all, and every one is so sweet to the moon, but that
Self-effulgent and Immortal One who is the soul of that moon, He is in us
expressing Himself as mind. This lightning is so beautiful, every one is so
sweet to the lightning, but the Self-effulgent and Immortal One is the soul
of this lightning, and is also in us, because all is that Brahman. The
Atman, the Self, is the king of all beings." These ideas are very helpful to
men; they are for meditation. For instance, meditate on the earth; think of
the earth and at the same time know that we have That which is in the earth,
that both are the same. Identify the body with the earth, and identify the
soul with the Soul behind. Identify the air with the soul that is in the air
and that is in me. They are all one, manifested in different forms. To
realise this unity is the end and aim of all meditation, and this is what
Yajnavalkya was trying to explain to Maitreyi.