The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 4/Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga/The Ishta
THE ISHTA
The theory of Ishta, which I briefly referred to before, is a subject
requiring careful attention because with a proper understanding of this, all
the various religions of the world can be understood. The word Ishta is
derived from the root Ish, to desire, choose. The ideal of all religions,
all sects, is the same — the attaining of liberty and cessation of misery.
Wherever you find religion, you find this ideal working in one form or
other. Of course in lower stages of religion it is not so well expressed;
but still, well or ill-expressed, it is the one goal to which every religion
approaches. All of us want to get rid of misery; we are struggling to attain
to liberty — physical, mental, spiritual. This is the whole idea upon which
the world is working. Through the goal is one and the same, there may be
many ways to reach it, and these ways are determined by the peculiarities of
our nature. One man's nature is emotional, another's intellectual, another's
active, and so forth. Again, in the same nature there may be many
subdivisions. Take for instance love, with which we are specially concerned
in this subject of Bhakti. One man's nature has a stronger love for
children; another has it for wife, another for mother, another for father,
another for friends. Another by nature has love for country, and a few love
humanity in the broadest sense; they are of course very few, although
everyone of us talks of it as if it were the guiding motive power of our
lives. Some few sages have experienced it. A few great souls among mankind
feel this universal love, and let us hope that this world will never be
without such men.
We find that even in one subject there are so many different ways of
attaining to its goal. All Christians believe in Christ; but think, how many
different explanations they have of him. Each church sees him in a different
light, from different standpoints. The Presbyterian's eyes are fixed upon
that scene in Christ's life when he went to the money-changers; he looks on
him as a fighter. If you ask a Quaker, perhaps he will say, "He forgave his
enemies." The Quaker takes that view, and so on. If you ask a Roman
Catholic, what point of Christ's life is the most pleasing to him, he,
perhaps, will say, "When he gave the keys to Peter". Each sect is bound to
see him in its own way.
It follows that there will be many divisions and subdivisions even of the
same subject. Ignorant persons take one of these subdivisions and take their
stand upon it, and they not only deny the right of every other man to
interpret the universe according to his own light, but dare to say that
others are entirely wrong, and they alone are right. If they are opposed,
they begin to fight. They say that they will kill any man who does not
believe as they believe, just as the Mohammedans do. These are people who
think they are sincere, and who ignore all others. But what is the position
we want to take in this Bhakti-Yoga? Not only that we would not tell others
that they are wrong, but that we would tell them that they are right — all
of these who follow their own ways. That way, which your nature makes it
absolutely necessary for you to take, is the right way. Each one of us is
born with a peculiarity of nature as the result of our past existence.
Either we call it our own reincarnated past experience or a hereditary past;
whatever way we may put it, we are the result of the past - that is
absolutely certain, through whatever channels that past may have come. It
naturally follows that each one of us is an effect, of which our past has
been the cause; and as such, there is a peculiar movement, a peculiar train,
in each one of us; and therefore each one will have to find way for himself.
This way, this method, to which each of us is naturally adapted, is called
the "chosen way". This is the theory of Ishta, and that way which is ours we
call our own Ishta. For instance, one man's idea of God is that He is the
omnipotent Ruler of the universe. His nature is perhaps such. He is an
overbearing man who wants to rule everyone; he naturally finds God an
omnipotent Ruler. Another man, who was perhaps a schoolmaster, and severe,
cannot see any but a just God, a God of punishment, and so on Each one sees
God according to his own nature; and this vision, conditioned by our own
nature, is our Ishta. We have brought ourselves to a position where we can
see that vision of God, and that alone; we cannot see any other vision. You
will perhaps sometimes think of the teaching of a man that it is the best
and fits you exactly, and the next day you ask one of your friends to go and
hear him; but he comes away with the idea that it was the worst teaching he
had ever heard. He is not wrong, and it is useless to quarrel with him. The
teaching was all right, but it was not fitted to that man. To extend it a
little further, we must understand that truth seen from different
standpoints can be truth, and yet not the same truth.
This would seem at first to be a contradiction in terms, but we must
remember that an absolute truth is only one, while relative truths are
necessarily various. Take your vision of this universe, for instance. This
universe, as an absolute entity, is unchangeable, and unchanged, and the
same throughout. But you and I and everybody else hear and see, each one his
own universe. Take the sun. The sun is one; but when you and I and a hundred
other people stand at different places and look at it, each one of us sees a
different sun. We cannot help it. A very little change of place will change
a man's whole vision of the sun. A slight change in the atmosphere will make
again a different vision. So, in relative perception, truth always appears
various. But the Absolute Truth is only one. Therefore we need not fight
with others when we find they; are telling something about religion which is
not exactly according to our view of it. We ought to remember that both of
us may be true, though apparently contradictors. There may be millions of
radii converging towards the same centre in the sun. The further they are
from the centre, the greater is the distance between any two. But as they
all meet at the centre, all difference vanishes. There is such a centre,
which is the absolute goal of mankind. It is God. We are the radii. The
distances between the radii are the constitutional limitations through which
alone we can catch the vision of God. While standing on this plane, we are
bound each one of us to have a different view of the Absolute Reality; and
as such, all views are true, and no one of us need quarrel with another. The
only solution lies in approaching the centre. If we try to settle our
differences by argument or quarrelling, we shall find that we can go on for
hundreds of years without coming to a conclusion. History proves that. The
only solution is to march ahead and go towards the centre; and the sooner we
do that the sooner our differences will vanish.
This theory of Ishta, therefore, means allowing a man to choose his own
religion. One man should not force another to worship what he worships. All
attempts to herd together human beings by means of armies, force, or
arguments, to drive them pell-mell into the same enclosure and make them
worship the same God have failed and will fail always, because it is
constitutionally impossible to do so. Not only so, there is the danger of
arresting their growth. You scarcely meet any man or woman who is not
struggling for some sort of religion; and how many are satisfied, or rather
how few are satisfied! How few find anything! And why? Simply because most
of them go after impossible tasks. They are forced into these by the
dictation of others. For instance, when I am a child, my father puts a book
into my hand which says God is such and such. What business has he to put
that into my mind? How does he know what way I would develop? And being
ignorant of my constitutional development, he wants to force his ideas on my
brain, with the result that my growth is stunted. You cannot make a plant
grow in soil unsuited to it. A child teaches itself. But you can help it to
go forward in its own way. What you can do is not of the positive nature,
but of the negative. You can take away the obstacles, but knowledge comes
out of its own nature. Loosen the soil a little, so that it may come out
easily. Put a hedge round it; see that it is not killed by anything, and
there your work stops. You cannot do anything else. The rest is a
manifestation from within its own nature. So with the education of a child;
a child educates itself. You come to hear me, and when you go home, compare
what you have learnt, and you will find you have thought out the same thing;
I have only given it expression. I can never teach you anything: you will
have to teach yourself, but I can help you perhaps in giving expression to
that thought.
So in religion — more so — I must teach myself religion. What right has my
father to put all sorts of nonsense into my head? What right has my master
or society to put things into my head? Perhaps they are good, but they may
not be my way. Think of the appalling evil that is in the world today, of
the millions and millions of innocent children perverted by wrong ways of
teaching. How many beautiful things which would have become wonderful
spiritual truths have been nipped in the bud by this horrible idea of a
family religion, a social religion, a national religion, and so forth. Think
of what a mass of superstition is in your head just now about your
childhood's religion, or your country's religion, and what an amount of evil
it does, or can do. Man does not know what a potent power lies behind each
thought and action. The old saying is true that, "Fools rush in where angels
fear to tread." This should be kept in view from the very first. How? By
this belief in Ishta. There are so many ideals; I have no right to say what
shall be your ideal, to force any ideal on you. My duty should be to lay
before you all the ideals I know of and enable you to see by your own
constitution what you like best, and which is most fitted to you. Take up
that one which suits you best and persevere in it. This is your Ishta, your
special ideal.
We see then that a congregational religion can never be. The real work of
religion must be one's own concern. I have an idea of my own, I must keep it
sacred and secret, because I know that it need not be your idea. Secondly,
why should I create a disturbance by wanting to tell everyone what my idea
is? Other people would come and fight me. They cannot do so if I do not tell
them; but if I go about telling them what my ideas are, they will all oppose
me. So what is the use of talking about them? This Ishta should be kept
secret, it is between you and God. All theoretical portions of religion can
be preached in public and made congregational, but higher religion cannot be
made public. I cannot get ready my religious feelings at a moment's notice.
What is the result of this mummery and mockery? It is making a joke of
religion, the worst of blasphemy. The result is what you find in the
churches of the present day. How can human beings stand this religious
drilling? It is like soldiers in a barrack. Shoulder arms, kneel down, take
a book, all regulated exactly. Five minutes of feeling, five minutes of
reason, five minutes of prayer, all arranged beforehand. These mummeries
have driven out religion. Let the churches preach doctrines, theories,
philosophies to their hearts' content, but when it comes to worship, the
real practical part of religion, it should be as Jesus says, "When thou
prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to
thy Father which is in secret"
This is the theory of Ishta. It is the only way to make religion meet
practically the necessities of different constitutions, to avoid quarrelling
with others, and to make real practical progress in spiritual life. But I
must warn you that you do not misconstrue my words into the formation of
secret societies. If there were a devil, I would look for him within a
secret society — as the invention of secret societies. They are diabolical
schemes. The Ishta is sacred, not secret. But in what sense? Why should I
not speak of my Ishta to others? Because it is my own most holy thing. It
may help others, but how do I know that it will not rather hurt them? There
may be a man whose nature is such that he cannot worship a Personal God, but
can only worship as an Impersonal God his own highest Self. Suppose I leave
him among you, and he tells you that there is no Personal God, but only God
as the Self in you or me. You will be shocked. His idea is sacred, but not
secret. There never was a great religion or a great teacher that formed
secret societies to preach God's truths. There are no such secret societies
in India. Such things are purely Western in idea, and merely foisted upon
India. We never knew anything about them. Why indeed should there be secret
societies in India? In Europe, people were not allowed to talk a word about
religion that did not agree with the views of the Church. So they were
forced to go about amongst the mountains in hiding and form secret
societies, that they might follow their own kind of worship. There was never
a time in India when a man was persecuted for holding his own views on
religion. There were never secret religious societies in India, so any idea
of that sort you must give up at once. These secret societies always
degenerate into the most horrible things. I have seen enough of this world
to know what evil they cause, and how easily they slide into free love
societies and ghost societies, how men play into the hands of other men or
women, and how their future possibilities of growth in thought and act are
destroyed, and so on. Some of you may be displeased with me for talking in
this way, but I must tell you the truth. Perhaps only half a dozen men and
women will follow me in all my life; but they will be real men and women,
pure and sincere, and I do not want a crowd. What can crowds do? The history
of the world was made by a few dozens, whom you can count on your fingers,
and the rest were a rabble. All these secret societies and humbugs make men
and women impure, weak and narrow; and the weak have no will, and can never
work. Therefore have nothing to do with them. All this false love of mystery
should be knocked on the head the first time it comes into your mind. No one
who is the least impure will ever become religious. Do not try to cover
festering sores with masses of roses. Do you think you can cheat God? None
can. Give me a straightforward man or woman; but Lord save me from ghosts,
flying angels, and devils. Be common, everyday, nice people.
There is such a thing as instinct in us, which we have in common with the
animals, a reflex mechanical movement of the body. There is again a higher
form of guidance, which we call reason, when the intellect obtains facts and
then generalises them. There is a still higher form of knowledge which we
call inspiration, which does not reason, but knows things by flashes. That
is the highest form of knowledge. But how shall we know it from instinct?
That is the great difficulty. Everyone comes to you, nowadays, and says he
is inspired, and puts forth superhuman claims. How are we to distinguish
between inspiration and deception? In the first place, inspiration must not
contradict reason. The old man does not contradict the child, he is the
development of the child. What we call inspiration is the development of
reason. The way to intuition is through reason. Instinctive movements of
your body do not oppose reason. As you cross a street, how instinctively you
move your body to save yourself from the cars. Does your mind tell you it
was foolish to save your body that way? It does not. Similarly, no genuine
inspiration ever contradicts reason. Where it does it is no inspiration.
Secondly, inspiration must be for the good of one and all, and not for name
or fame, or personal gain. It should always be for the good of the world,
and perfectly unselfish. When these tests are fulfilled, you are quite safe
to take it as inspiration. You must remember that there is not one in a
million that is inspired, in the present state of the world. I hope their
number will increase. We are now only playing with religion. With
inspiration we shall begin to have religion. Just as St. Paul says, "For now
we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." But in the present
state of the world they are few and far between who attain to that state;
yet perhaps at no other period were such false claims made to inspiration,
as now. It is said that women have intuitive faculties, while men drag
themselves slowly upward by reason. Do not believe it. There are just as
many inspired men as women, though women have perhaps more claim to peculiar
forms of hysteria and nervousness. You had better die as an unbeliever than
be played upon by cheats and jugglers. The power of reasoning was given you
for use. Show then that you have used it properly. Doing so, you will be
able to take care of higher things.
We must always remember that God is Love. "A fool indeed is he who, living
on the banks of the Ganga, seeks to dig a little well for water. A fool
indeed is the man who, living near a mine of diamonds, spends his life in
searching for beads of glass." God is that mine of diamonds. We are fools
indeed to give up God for legends of ghosts or flying hobgoblins. It is a
disease, a morbid desire. It degenerates the race, weakens the nerves and
the brain, living in incessant morbid fear of hobgoblins, or stimulating the
hunger for wonders; all these wild stories about them keep the nerves at an
unnatural tension — a slow and sure degeneration of the race. It is
degeneration to think of giving up God, purity, holiness, and spirituality,
to go after all this nonsense! Reading other men's thoughts! If I must read
everyone else's thoughts for five minutes at a time I shall go crazy. Be
strong and stand up and seek the God of Love. This is the highest strength.
What power is higher than the power of purity? Love and purity govern the
world. This love of God cannot be reached by the weak; therefore, be not
weak, either physically, mentally, morally or spiritually. The Lord alone is
true. Everything else is untrue; everything else should be rejected for the
salve of the Lord. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Serve the Lord and Him
alone.