Chapter III: Part 3

So far it is intellectually all right, but then comes the practice. The real work in these classes is the practice. Are any practices necessary to realize this one-ness? Most decidedly. It is not that you become this _Brahman_. You are already that. It is not that you are going to become God or perfect; you are already perfect, and whenever you think you are not, it is a delusion. This delusion which says that you are Mr. So-and-So, or Mrs. So-and-So, can be got rid of by another delusion, and that is practice. Fire will eat fire, and you can use one delusion to conquer another delusion. One cloud will come and brush away another cloud, and then both will go away. What are these practices then? We must always bear in mind that we are not going to be free, but are free already. Every idea that we are bound is a delusion. Every idea that we are happy or unhappy, is a tremendous delusion; and another delusion will come,--that we have got to work and worship and struggle to be free,--and this will chase out the first delusion, and then both will stop.

The fox is considered very unholy by the Mohammedans, also by the Hindus. Also, if a dog touches any bit of food it has to be thrown out, it cannot be eaten by any man. In a certain Mohammedan house a fox entered and took a little bit of food from the table, ate it up and fled. The man was a poor man, and had prepared a very nice feast for himself, and that feast was made unholy, and he could not eat it. So he went to a _Mulla_, a priest, and said: “This has happened to me; a fox came and took a mouthful out of my meal; what can be done? I had prepared a feast and wanted so much to eat it, and now comes this fox and destroys the whole affair.” The _Mulla_ thought for a minute, and then found only one solution and said: “The only way is for you to get a dog, and make him eat a bit out of the same plate, because dog and fox are eternally quarrelling. The food that was left by the fox will go into your stomach, and that not eaten by the dog will go there, and both will be purified.” We are very much in the same Predicament. This is an hallucination that we are imperfect, and we take up another, that we have to practice to become perfect. Then one will chase the other, as we can use one thorn to extract another and then throw both away. There are people for whom it is sufficient knowledge to hear, “Thou art That.” With a flash this universe goes away and the real nature shines, but others have to struggle hard to get rid of this idea of bondage.

The first question is, who are fit to become _Jnâna Yogis_? Those who are equipped with these requisites. First, renunciation of all fruits of work and of all enjoyments in this life or another life. If you are the creator of this universe whatever you desire you will have, because you will create it for yourself. It is only a question of time. Some get it immediately; with others the past _samskâras_ (impressions) stand in the way of getting their desires. We give the first place to desires for enjoyment, either in this or another life. Deny there is any life at all, because life is only another name for death. Deny that you are a living being. Who cares for life? Life is one of these hallucinations and death is its counterpart. Joy is one part of these hallucinations, and misery the other part, and so on. What have you to do with life or death? These are all creations of the mind. This is called giving up desires of enjoyment either in this life or another.

Then comes controlling the mind, calming it so that it will not break into waves and have all sorts of desires; holding the mind steady, not allowing it to get into waves from external or internal causes, controlling the mind perfectly just by the power of will. The _Jnâna Yogi_ does not take any one of these physical helps, or mental helps, simply philosophic reasoning, knowledge and his own will, these are the instrumentality he believes in. Next comes _Titikshâ_, forbearance, bearing all miseries without murmuring, without complaining. When an injury comes, do not mind it. If a tiger comes, stand there. Who flies? There are men who practice _titikshâ_, and succeed in it. There are men who sleep on the banks of the Ganges in the mid-summer sun of India, and in winter float in the waters of the Ganges for a whole day; they do not care. Men sit in the snow of the Himâlayas, and do not care to wear any garment. What is heat? What is cold? Let things come and go, what is that to me, I am not the body. It is hard to believe this in these Western countries, but it is better to know that it is done. Just as your people are brave to jump at the mouth of a cannon, or into the midst of the battle-field, so our people are brave to think and act out their philosophy. They give up their lives for it. “I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute; I am He; I am He.” Just as the Western ideal is to keep up luxury in practical life, so ours is to keep up the highest form of spirituality, to demonstrate that religion is not merely frothy words, but can be carried out, every bit of it, in this life. This is _titikshâ_, to bear everything, not to complain of anything. I myself have seen men who say “I am the soul; what is the universe to me? Neither pleasure, nor pain, nor virtue, nor vice, nor heat, nor cold are anything to me.” That is _titikshâ_; not running after the enjoyments of the body. What is religion? To pray: “give me this and that”? Foolish ideas of religion! Those who believe them have no true idea of God and soul. My Master used to say the vulture rises high and high until he becomes a speck, but his eye is always in the piece of rotten carrion on the earth. After all, what is the result of your ideas of religion? To cleanse the streets, and have more bread and clothes. Who cares for bread and clothes? Millions come and go every minute. Who cares? Why care for the joys and vicissitudes of this little world? Go beyond that if you dare; go beyond law, let the whole universe vanish, and stand alone. “I am Existence-Absolute, Knowledge-Absolute, Bliss-Absolute; I am He; I am He.”

V

ONE EXISTENCE APPEARING AS MANY

We have seen how _Vairâgyam_, or renunciation, is the turning point in all these 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, present nor future. We have also seen how the question of utility cannot be asked in these higher themes; it is very absurd to ask utility, 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 greater happiness is of greater utility to him than those 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, mankind 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 of 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 gone entirely into the body. In men we find a higher plane of happiness, that of thought, and in the _Jnâni_ there is the highest plane of happiness in the Self, the _Âtman_. 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 that, 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 labor 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 a 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 _Âtman_; 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 _Âtman_, 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 _Âtman_, 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 _Âtman_, 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 _Âtman_. 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 _Mâyâ_ 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 two things there. 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 real men. Suppose one of your friends is coming from 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 was 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 forever, that which is the Reality behind shines, and we see it as the One Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, the one _Âtman_, 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 an One will manifest Himself in your heart in meditation.”

How does the Advaitist theory explain all these various phases of heavens and hells and all 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. Nobody is ever born or dies, really speaking. There is neither heaven nor hell, nor this world; all three never really existed. Tell a child a lot of ghost stories, and 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 police-man coming from the street corner sees the stump as a thief. The thief sees it as a police-man. 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, when he dies he will see this very world as hell, with all sorts of punishments. 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 go and come? 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 you go into a railway train, and you think the land is moving. It is not so, but it is the train which is moving. You are where you are; this dream, 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 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, 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 _Mâyâ_, 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 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; and when this dream comes, we love it!

This is a good point to understand,--that the sum and substance of this morning’s 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 God, 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 realizes that One who never changes, unto him belongs eternal peace; unto none else, unto none else.” This One Existence has to be realized. How, is the next question. How is it to be realized? 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 materialized into these little beings, men and women, depending upon the sweet word of one man, or the angry word of another man 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 _Âtman_ 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 but 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, and as 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 battle-field, 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 _Âtman_.” Never say: “O Lord, I am a miserable sinner.” Who shall 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? Cut 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 _Jnâni_.

Before you begin to practise, 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 realized, 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 _Jnâni_ 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 _Jnâni_ wants to tear away the universe from the Self by the sheer force of analysis. It is very easy to say, “I am a _Jnâni_,” but very hard to really be 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 _Jnâni_? 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, Swâmi,” 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 _Jnâni_. 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 _Jnâni_ 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 _Jnâni_ 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 forever. The _Jnâni_ 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”).

VI

UNITY OF THE SELF

To illustrate the conclusion arrived at in our last lesson, I will read to you from one of the Upanishads, showing how these ideas were taught in India from the most ancient times.

_Yajnavalkya_ was a great sage. You know the rule in India was that every man must give up the world when he became 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, that cannot be. Your life will be that of the rich, and that will be all, but wealth cannot give you immortality.” She replied: “That through which I shall become immortal, what shall I do to gain that? If you know that, tell me.” _Yajnavalkya_ replied: “You have always been 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 continued: “It is not for the sake of the husband that the wife loves the husband, but for the sake of the _Âtman_ (the Self) that she loves the husband, because she loves the Self. None loves the wife for the sake of the wife, but it is because he loves the Self that he loves the wife. None loves the children for the sake of the children, but because he loves the Self, therefore he loves the children. None loves wealth on account of the wealth, but because he loves the Self, therefore he loves wealth. None loves the Brahmin for the sake of the Brahmin, but because he loves the Self, he loves the Brahmin. So none loves the _Kshatriya_ for the sake of the _Kshatriya_, but because he loves the Self. Neither does anyone love the world on account of the world, but because he loves the Self. None similarly loves the gods on account of the gods, but because he loves the Self. None loves anything for that thing’s sake, but it is for the Self of that thing that he loves it. This Self therefore, is to be heard, is to be reasoned, and is to be meditated upon. Oh my _Maitreyi_, when that Self has been heard, when that Self has been seen, when that Self has been realized, then all these things become known.”

What does this mean? Before us we find a curious philosophy. That the Self shines through all these various things which we call the world. 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. This self is but the shadow of that real Self which is behind. It appears wrong and evil because it is limited. That very love we have for the Self, which is the universe, appears to be evil, because it is seen through limitation. Even when a wife loves a 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. 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. None loves the Brahmin for the Brahmin, but because he loves the Self, which is appearing through the Brahmin. “Him the Brahmin gives up who sees the Brahmin as separate from the Self. Him the _Kshatriya_ gives up who sees the _Kshatriya_ as separate from the Self. The world gives him up who sees this world as separate from the Self. The gods give him up who believes the gods to be separate from the Self. All things give him up who knows them as separate from the Self. These Brahmins, these _Kshatriyas_, this world, these gods, whatever exists, everything is that Self.” Thus _Yajnavalkya_ explains what he means by that love. The difficulty comes when we particularize this love. Suppose I love a woman; as soon as that woman is particularized, is separated, from that _Âtman_ (the Self), my love will not be eternal; it has become selfish and is likely to end in grief, but as soon as I see that woman as the _Âtman_, that Love becomes perfect, and will never suffer. So, as soon as you are attached to anything in the universe detaching it from the universe as a whole--from the _Âtman_--then 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 _Âtman_, without knowing the _Âtman_? “With a drum, when we are at a distance, we cannot conquer the sound by trying to control the sound waves, 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 conquer the sound, until we come near and get hold of the shell, and then it is conquered. When the vina is being played, as soon as we come to the vina, we can control the centre of the sound, whence the sound is proceeding. As when some one is burning damp fuel, all sorts of smoke and sparks of various kinds rise, even so from this great One has been breathed out history and 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 hand is the one centre, as to all smell the nose is the one centre, as of all taste the tongue is the one centre, as of all form the eyes are the one centre, as of all sounds the ears are the one centre, as of all thought the mind is the one centre, as of all knowledge the heart is the one centre, as of all work the hands are the one centre, as of all speech the organ of speech is the one centre, as the concentrated salt is through and through the waters of the sea, yet not to be seen by the eyes; even so, oh _Maitreyi_, is this _Âtman_ not to be seen by the eyes, yet He permeates this universe. He is everything. He is concentrated knowledge. The whole universe rises from Him, and again goes down unto Him. Reaching Him, we go beyond knowledge.” We here get the idea that we have all come just like sparks from Him, and that when we know Him then we go back, and become one with Him again.

_Maitreyi_ became frightened, just as everywhere people become frightened. She said: “Sir, here is exactly where you have thrown a confusion over me. You have frightened me by saying there will be no more gods; all individuality will be lost. When I reach that stage shall I know that _Âtman_, shall I reach the unconscious state and lose my individuality, or will the knowledge remain with me that I know Him? Will there be no one to recognize, no one to feel, no one to love, no one to hate? What will become of me?” “O _Maitreyi_!” replied her husband, “think not that I am speaking of an unconscious state, neither be frightened. This _Âtman_ is indestructible, eternal in His essence; the stage where there are two is a lower one. Where there are two there one smells another, one sees another, one hears another, one welcomes another, one thinks of another, one knows another. But when the whole has become that _Âtman_, who is to be smelled by whom, who is to be seen by whom, who is to be heard by whom, who is to be welcomed by whom, who is to be known by whom? Who can know Him by whom everything is known? This _Âtman_ can only be described as “_neti, neti_” (not this, not this). Incomprehensible, He cannot be comprehended by the intellect. Unchangeable, He never fades. Unattached, He never gets mixed up with Nature. Perfect, He is beyond all pleasure and pain. Who can know the Knower? By what means can we know Him? By no means; this is the conclusion of the sages, O _Maitreyi_! Going beyond all knowledge, is to attain Him and to attain immortality.”

So far the idea is, that it is all One Infinite Being, that is the Real Individuality, when there is no more division, no more parts and parcels, no more such low and illusory ideas. And yet, in and through every part of this little individuality is shining that Infinite, the Real Individuality. Everything is a manifestation of the _Âtman_. How to reach to that? _Yajnavalkya_ told us in the beginning that--“This _Âtman_ is first to be heard, then to be reasoned, then to be meditated upon.” Thus far he has spoken about the Self, the _Âtman_, as being the essence of everything in this universe. Then reasoning on the Infinite nature of that Self and the finite nature of the human mind he comes to the conclusion that it is impossible for the finite mind to know the Knower of all--the Self. What is to be done then if we cannot know the Self? _Yajnavalkya_ tells _Maitreyi_ that It can be realized, although It cannot be known, and he enters upon a discourse as to how It is to be meditated upon. This universe is helpful to every being and every being is also helping this universe, for they are both part and parcel of each other, the development of the one helps the development of the other; but to the _Âtman_, the self-effulgent One, nothing can be helpful because It is perfect and infinite. All that is bliss, even in the lowest sense, is but the reflection of It. All that is good is the reflection of that _Âtman_, and when that reflection is less clear it is called evil. When the _Âtman_ is less manifested it is called darkness--evil, and when it is more manifested it is called light--goodness. That is all. This good and evil are only a question of degree, the _Âtman_ 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 our ideas change! How an idea becomes higher and higher! What we thought very good at one time, we do not think so good now. Thus good and evil depend on the development of our minds, and do not exist objectively. The difference is only in the degree. All is a manifestation of that _Âtman_; It is being manifested in everything, only when the manifestation is very poor we call it evil, and when it is clearer we call it good. That _Âtman_ Itself is beyond both good and evil. So everything that is in the universe is first to be meditated upon as all good, because it is a manifestation of that perfect One. He is neither evil nor good; He is perfect and the perfect 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 perfect is only one, and that perfect One when seen through certain covering we call different degrees of good, and when seen through other covering we call evil. Our ideas of good and evil as two distinct things are mere superstition. There is only more good and less good and the less good we call evil. These mistaken ideas of good and evil have produced all sorts of dualistic delusions. They have gone deep into the hearts of human beings, terrorizing men and women in all ages. All the hatred with which we hate others is caused by these foolish ideas which we have imbibed since our childhood. Our judgment of humanity becomes entirely false; we make this beautiful earth a hell, but as soon as we can give up these false ideas of good and evil, it will become 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 this sweetness is the _Âtman_, that effulgent, immortal One.” 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 or the mind or the senses, it is all He. How can there be anything but the One? Whatever is the lowest physical enjoyment is He, and the highest spiritual enjoyment is also He. There is no sweetness but He. Thus says _Yajnavalkya_. When you come to that state, and look upon all things with the same eyes; when you see in the drunkard’s pleasure in drink only that sweetness, or in the saints’ meditation only that sweetness, then you have got the truth, and then alone you will know what happiness means, what peace means, what love means. But as long as you make these vain distinctions, silly, childish, foolish superstitions, all sorts of misery will come. But that immortal One, the effulgent One, He is the background of the whole universe, it is all His sweetness. This body is a miniature universe, as it were; and through all the powers of the body, all the enjoyments of the mind, shines that effulgent One. That self-effulgent One who is in the body, He is the _Âtman_. “This world is so sweet to all beings, and every being is so sweet to it!” But the self-effulgent One, the Immortal is the bliss in this 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 this air.” But He who is that self-effulgent immortal Being in the air, He is also in this body. He is expressing Himself as the life of all beings. “This sun is so sweet to all beings, and all beings are so sweet to this sun.” He who is the self-effulgent Being in the sun, Him we reflect as smaller lights. What can there be 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 beings, and all beings are so sweet to this 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 sweet to all beings and all beings are sweet to this lightning,” but the self-effulgent and immortal One is the soul of this lightning, and is also in us, because all is that _Brahman_. This _Brahman_, this _Âtman_, this 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, at the same time knowing that we have in us 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 you and so on. All these are one, manifested in different forms. To realize this unity is the end and aim of all meditation, and this is what _Yajnavalkya_ was trying to explain to _Maitreyi_.

VII

THE HIGHEST IDEAL OF JNÂNA YOGA

As this is the last of these classes it is better that I give a brief _resumé_ of all that I have been trying to tell you. In the Vedas and Upanishads we find records of some of the very earliest religious ideas of the Hindus, ideas that long antedated the time of Kapila, ancient as this great sage is. He did not propound the _Sânkhya_ philosophy as a new theory of his own. His task was to throw the light of his genius on the vast mass of religious theories that were existing in his time and bring out a rational and coherent system. He succeeded in giving India a psychology that is accepted to the present day by all the diverse and seemingly opposing philosophical systems to be found among the Hindus. His masterly analysis and his comprehensive statement of the processes of the human mind have not yet been surpassed by any later philosopher and he undoubtedly laid the foundation for the Advaita philosophy, which accepted his conclusions as far as they went and then pushed them a step farther, thus reaching a final unity beyond the duality that was the last word of the _Sânkhyas_.

Among the religious ideas that preceded the time of Kapila the first groups that we see coming up,--I mean among recognized religious ideas, and not the very low ones, which do not deserve the name of religion,--all include the idea of inspiration, and revealed book and so forth. In the earliest step, the idea of creation is very peculiar; it is that the whole universe is created out of zero, at the will of God; that all this universe did not exist, and out of nothingness all this has come. In the next stage we find this conclusion is questioned. The first step in Vedânta asks this question: How can existence be produced out of non-existence? If this universe is existent it must have come out of something, because it was easy for them to see that there is nothing coming out of nothing anywhere. All work that is going on by human hands requires materials. Naturally, therefore, the ancient Hindus rejected the first idea that this world was created out of nothing, and sought some material out of which this world was created. The whole history of religion, in fact, is this search for material. Out of what has all this been produced? Apart from the question of the efficient cause, or God, apart from the question whether God created the universe, the great question of all questions has been, out of what did God create it? All the philosophies are turning, as it were, on this question.

One solution is that nature and God and soul are eternal existences, as if three parallel lines are running eternally, of which nature and soul comprise what they call the dependent, and God the independent Being. Every soul, like every particle of matter, is perfectly dependent on the will of God. These and many other ideas we find already existing when the _Sânkhya_ psychology was brought forward by Kapila. According to it, perception comes by the transmission of the suggestion, which causes perception first to the eyes, from the eyes to the organs, from the organs to the mind, the mind to the _buddhi_ and from the _buddhi_ to something which is a unit, which they call the _Âtman_. Coming to modern physiology we know that they have found centres for all the different sensations. First are found the lower centres, then a higher grade of centres, and these two will exactly correspond with the actions of the _buddhi_ and the _manas_ (mind), but not one centre has been found which controls all the other centres, so philosophy cannot answer what unifies all these centres. Where and how do the centres get unified? The centres in the brain are all different, and there is not one centre which controls all the others; therefore, so far as it goes, the _Sânkhya_ psychology stands unchallenged upon this point. We must have this unification, something upon which the sensations will be reflected to form a complete whole. Until there is that something I cannot have any idea of you, or the picture, or anything else. If we had not that unifying something we would only see, then after a while hear, and then feel, and while we heard a man talking we should not see him at all, because all the centres are different.

This body is made of particles which we call matter, and it is dull and insentient. So is what is called the fine body. The fine body, according to the _Sânkhyas_ is a little body, made of very fine particles, so fine that no microscope can see them. What is the use of it? It is the receptacle of what we call mind. Just as this gross body is the receptacle of the grosser forces, so the fine body is the receptacle of the finer forces, that which we call thought, in its various modifications. First is the body, which is gross matter, with gross force. Force cannot exist without matter. It can only manifest itself through matter, so the grosser forces work through the body and those very forces become finer; the very force which is working in a gross form works in a fine form and becomes thought. There is no real difference between them, simply one is the gross and the other the fine manifestation of the same thing. Neither is there any difference in substance between the fine body and the gross body. The fine body is also material, only very fine material.

Whence do all these forces come? According to the Vedânta philosophy there are two things in Nature, one of which they call _Âkâsa_, which is substance, or matter, infinitely fine, and the other they call _Prâna_. Whatever you see, or feel, or hear, as air or earth, or anything, is material. And everything is a form of this _âkâsa_. It becomes finer and finer, or grosser and grosser, and it changes under the action of _Prâna_ (universal Energy). Like _âkâsa_, _prâna_ is omnipresent, interpenetrating everything. _Âkâsa_ is like the water, and everything else in the universe like blocks of ice, made out of that water and floating in it, and _prâna_ is the power that changes the _âkâsa_ into all these various forms. This body is the instrument made out of _âkâsa_ for the manifestation of _prâna_ in gross forms, as muscular motion, or walking, sitting, talking, and so on. The fine body also is made of _âkâsa_, a much finer form of _âkâsa_, for the manifestation of the same _prâna_ in the finer form of thought. So, first there is this gross body, beyond that is the fine body, and beyond that is the _jiva_ (soul), the real man. Just as these finger nails can be pared off a hundred times a year, and yet are still a part of our bodies, not different, so we have not two bodies. It is not that man has a fine and also a gross body; it is the one body, only it remains longer when it is a fine body, and the grosser it is the sooner it dissolves. Just as I can cut this nail a hundred times a year, so millions of times I can shed this body in one æon, but the fine body will remain. According to the dualists this _jiva_, or the real man, is very fine, minute.