spiritual aspiration and sentimentality

Ordinarily speaking, spiritual aspiration ought to be balanced through the intellect; otherwise it may degenerate into mere sentimentality. . . .

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 7/Inspired Talks/Sunday, June 30

This World is a Circus Ring....

"THIS WORLD IS A CIRCUS RING" (New Discoveries, Vol. 6, p. 156.)

From Mrs. Alice Hansbrough's reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda's conversation with Miss Bell at Camp Taylor, California, in May 1900:

MISS BELL: This world is an old schoolhouse where we come to learn our lessons.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: Who told you that? [Miss Bell could not remember.] Well, I don't think so. I think this world is a circus ring in which we are the clowns tumbling.

MISS BELL: Why do we tumble, Swami?

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: Because we like to tumble. When we get tired, we will quit.

Swami Vivekananda on Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh

Swami Vivekananda on Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh

 Guru Nanak

This [Punjab] is the land which, after all its sufferings, has not yet entirely lost its glory and its strength. Here it was that in later times the gentle Nanak preached his marvellous love for the world. Here it was that his broad heart was opened and his arms outstretched to embrace the whole world, not only of Hindus, but of Mohammedans too. Here it was that one of the last and one of the most glorious heroes of our race, Guru Govinda Singh, after shedding his blood and that of his dearest and nearest for the cause of religion, even when deserted by those for whom this blood was shed, retired into the South to die like a wounded lion struck to the heart, without a word against his country, without a single word of murmur. [Complete Works, 3.366]

Guru Nanak was like that, you know, looking for the one disciple to whom he would give his power. And he passed over all his own family—his children were as nothing to him—till he came upon the boy to whom he gave it; and then he could die. [Complete Works 8.264]

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There was a great prophet in India, Guru Nânak, born [some] four hundred years ago. Some of you have heard of the Sikhs—the fighting people. Guru Nanak was [the founder and also] a follower of the Sikh religion. 

             One day he went to the Mohammedans' mosque. These Mohammedans are feared in their own country, just as in a Christian country no one dare say anything against their religion. . . . So Guru Nanak went in and there was a big mosque, and the Mohammedans were standing in prayer. They stand in lines: they kneel down, stand up, and repeat certain words at the same times, and one fellow leads. So Guru Nanak went there. And when the mullah was saying "In the name of the most merciful and kind God, Teacher of all teachers", Guru Nanak began to smile. He says, "Look at that hypocrite". The mullah got into a passion. "Why do you smile?"

             "Because you are not praying, my friend. That is why I am smiling."

             "Not praying?"

             "Certainly not. There is no prayer in you."

             The mullah was very angry, and he went and laid a complaint before a magistrate and said, "This heathen rascal dares to come to our mosque and smiles at us when we are praying. The only punishment is instant death. Kill him".

             Guru Nanak was brought before the magistrate and asked why he smiled.

             "Because he was not praying."

             "What was he doing?" the magistrate asked.

             "I will tell you what he was doing if you will bring him before me."

             The magistrate ordered the mullah to be brought. And when he came, the magistrate said, "Here is the mullah. [Now] explain why you laughed when he was praying".

             Guru Nanak said, "Give the mullah a piece of the Koran [to swear on]. [In the mosque] when he was saying 'Allah, Allah', he was thinking of some chicken he had left at home".

             The poor mullah was confounded. He was a little more sincere than the others, and he confessed he was thinking of the chicken, and so they let the Sikh go. "And", said the magistrate [to the mullah], "don't go to the mosque again. It is better not to go at all than to commit blasphemy there and hypocrisy. Do not go when you do not feel like praying. Do not be like a hypocrite, and do not think of the chicken and say the name of the Most Merciful and Blissful God". [Complete Works 9.233]

 

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Guru Govind Singh

                One great prophet, however, arose in the north, Govind Singh, the last Guru of the Sikhs, with creative genius; and the result of his spiritual work was followed by the well - known political organisation of the Sikhs. We have seen throughout the history of India, a spiritual upheaval is almost always succeeded by a political unity extending over more or less area of the continent, which in its turn helps to strengthen the spiritual aspiration that brings it to being. [CW, 6.66]

            Then and then alone you are a Hindu when you will be ready to bear everything for them, like the great example I have quoted at the beginning of this lecture, of your great Guru Govind Singh. Driven out from this country, fighting against its oppressors, after having shed his own blood for the defence of the Hindu religion, after having seen his children killed on the battlefield—ay, this example of the great Guru, left even by those for whose sake he was shedding his blood and the blood of his own nearest and dearest—he, the wounded lion, retired from the field calmly to die in the South, but not a word of curse escaped his lips against those who had ungratefully forsaken him! Mark me, every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if you want to do good to your country. You may see thousands of defects in your countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first Gods you will have to worship even if they do everything to hurt you, even if everyone of them send out a curse to you, you send out to them words of love. If they drive you out, retire to die in silence like that mighty lion, Govind Singh. Such a man is worthy of the name of Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before us always. All our hatchets let us bury; send out this grand current of love all round. [Complete Works, 3.379]

 

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While walking to and fro, Swamiji took up the story of Guru Govind Singh and with his great eloquence touched upon the various points in his life—how the revival of the Sikh sect was brought about by his great renunciation, austerities, fortitude, and life - consecrating labours—how by his initiation he re-Hinduised Mohammedan converts and took them back into the Sikh community—and how on the banks of the Narmada he brought his wonderful life to a close. Speaking of the great power that used to be infused in those days into the initiates of Guru Govind, Swamiji recited a popular doha (couplet) of the Sikhs:

sava lakh ka ek chadauo

jab guru gobinda naam sunuo

 

             The meaning is: 'When Guru Govind gives the Name, i.e. the initiation, a single man becomes strong enough to triumph over a lakh and a quarter of his foes." Each disciple, deriving from his inspiration a real spiritual devotion, had his soul filled with such wonderful heroism! While holding forth thus on the glories of religion, Swamiji's eyes dilating with enthusiasm seemed to be emitting fire, and his hearers, dumb - stricken and looking at his face, kept watching the wonderful sight.

             After a while the disciple said: 'Sir, it was very remarkable that Guru Govind could unite both Hindus and Mussulmans within the fold of his religion and lead them both towards the same end. In Indian history, no other example of this can be found."

             Swamiji: Men can never be united unless there is a bond of common interest. You can never unite people merely by getting up meetings, societies, and lectures if their interests be not one and the same. Guru Govind made it understood everywhere that the men of his age, be they Hindus or Mussulmans, were living under a regime of profound injustice and oppression. He did not create any common interest, he only pointed it out to the masses. And so both Hindus and Mussulmans followed him. He was a great worshipper of Shakti. Yet, in Indian history, such an example is indeed very rare. [Complete Works 6.515]

 

 

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Quote from the Bible on quiet spirit

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided
hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it
should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and
quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. -- Peter 3:3-4
KJV

In search of wealth...

"In search of wealth in this world, you are the only wealth I have found, I sacrifice myself unto you, God. In search of someone to be loved, you are the only beloved I have found, I sacrifice myself unto you, God." Let us repeat this day and night, and say, "Nothing for me, no matter whether the thing is good, bad or indifferent. I do not care for it. I sacrifice all unto God."

Swami Vivekannada : Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896. Complete Works, 1.102.

The more opposition there is, the better...

The more opposition there is, the better. Does a river acquire velocity unless there is resistance? The newer and better a thing is, the more opposition it will meet with at the outset. It is opposition which forestalls success. Where there is no opposition, there is no success either.

Swami Vivekananda, From "Memoirs of European Travel," written in Bengali. Complete Works, 7.372.

Interpreting Ramakrishna : Another book on Ramakrishna

Google pointed to a new book today:
Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali's Child Revisited by Swami Tyagananda and Pravrajika Vrajaprana, with foreword by Huston Smith
ISBN(Hardbound): 8120834992, 9788120834996

Published by Motilal Banarsidass
Book's website : http://www.interpretingramakrishna.com

It is particularly interesting to note what Francis X.Clooney has said about the book:

Interpreting Ramakrishna is a substantial and conscientious work of scholarly and religious reflection, the best resource we have for understanding Sri Ramakrishna today. Instigated by recent debates about Ramakrishna's identity and significance, the book fruitfully invites us to step back and take a much longer perspective, noticing a century's worth of Ramakrishna scholarship by devotees, monastic writers, and academic scholars. But the book also looks forward to how we — with all our varied interests and perspectives — can most fruitfully reflect on Ramakrishna in the 21st century. We can only thank Swami Tyagananda and Pravrajika Vrajaprana for showing us how to remember, think clearly, and write constructively about Ramakrishna, with an honesty that is critical, unpresuming, and in fact deeply spiritual. —Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

Dhammapada 165 ~ By oneself one is purified

Sole responsibility "By oneself one does evil. By oneself one is defiled. By oneself one abstains from evil. By oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity are personal matters. No one can purify someone else" (Dhammapada 165). Next to the Four Aryan Truths and the Eightfold Aryan Path, this is perhaps the most important of Buddha's philosophical teachings. It is uncompromising truth: our life is in our hands and ours alone. Yes, we can be influenced by others and even have others affect our life--but it is our choice to do so and we determine to what degree we will be affected. Certainly we reach into the world around us and take to ourselves various elements, but we do that intentionally. Those who wish to escape responsibility insist that something is beyond their control, that they could not help themselves in a certain situation. But even those situations and that susceptibility were determined by them previously. For example, if a person builds a brick wall incompetently and it falls on him and injures him, they certainly did not build it with that as their purpose, but their incompetence brought the injury about, so at the root it was all in their sphere, none else. What about those harmed or even killed in "natural disasters"? That was their karma which they themselves created, and on a subliminal level they understood all the implications when they created that karma. Another example occurred to a healer friend of mind. It was his practice to tune in with the inner mind of a person before attempting to heal them (actually, he taught them to heal themselves). When he tuned into a little girl who was severely retarded, to his shock a deep, male voice shouted: "Leave me alone, I know what I am doing!" He realized this was the voice of the child's former personality, and that the retardation was for a purpose--she was retarded by her own choice. Occasionally he would tune in and ask: "Have you learned what you need, yet?" "No," would be the answer. Then one day her inner mind said: "Yes. You can help me now." And that girl became totally normal. So here we see that it is all our choice, even when another factor enters our life and changes it. Buddha spoke these words to people who had already produced in themselves a significant degree of awakening. Yet they (yes, by their choice) still carried with them mistaken ideas from past religious experience, including the fundamental bane of most religion: the attribution of responsibility to forces other than themselves, especially the reflexive attribution of everything to God. But now they had chosen to approach Buddha to be freed from those childish beliefs, and he did not fail them. Those clinging to the errors of the past accused Buddha of being atheistic, but he was not. You might just as well call someone atheistic if they said God had nothing to do with their cooking failures. Being the Source of all, everything involves God. But there are certain areas in which human beings control everything, and their life is one of them. God has manifested all the worlds and the various forms in which we incarnate. God has also woven various "laws" into the fabric of relative existence which operate at all times without exception. The universe is a great interactive school of learning set up so the students can teach themselves--a kind of ultimate Montessori school. The use, misuse, or neglect of the school and the opportunities it offers are solely the choice of each student. Morality Buddha gave another not very popular teaching: one of the signs of awakening is the ability to feel shame--yes, guilt. Morality is of prime concern in the dharma of Buddha, despite the fact that Westerners flock to Buddhism (or a deformation thereof) to get away from "Judeo-Christian morality." Vain hope! All Eastern religions have moral principles far more complex and realistic than those of Western religions. The difference is, they are voluntary and are not forced on others. That is of course, a better situation, but anyone who thinks they can shake their guilt by "turning East" are self-deluded. The practical side to moral principles is the capacity of the individual for both defilement and purification. Therefore Buddha taught: By oneself one does evil. No one else is involved in the final analysis, for we act solely from our own ever-free will. Even a bent or perverted will got that way by the person's own past choices. So their apparent bondage is the result of the exercise of free will. It is habitual with people to blame environment, other people, disadvantages, etc., but action is done only by each one of us. That is why in one of the Pali sutras there is a section which contains statements such as: "There shall be lying, but we shall not lie. There shall be killing, but we shall not kill. There shall be stealing, but we shall not steal." This is the way it must be understood. We are not herd animals, even though society is usually nothing more than a herd. We are individuals with our own minds and wills. If we choose to run with the herd, it is still all our doing. A sensible aspirant knows that all around him people will be engaging in adharmic actions, and that should not influence him in the least. Yes; there will be wrongdoing, but we shall not do wrong. Wrong actions condition the mind and will to wrongdoing, but that is our choice. We do not do wrong because our wills are weak, but because they are strong and we have pointed them in the wrong direction. By oneself one is defiled. Much of this has just been covered. Eastern religion understands that wrongdoing does not anger God, but that it brings negative results--karma--into our lives, and even worse, it defiles our minds and hearts, darkening and distorting them. This latter is the worst part, because karma can be exhausted, but defilement stays on, inclining us to more of the same negative actions. By oneself one abstains from evil. Again, this is not a group thing--it is totally individual, although we can certainly draw inspiration from others to apply our free will in the right direction. Still, it is a completely personal, private matter. People who cannot stand alone on their own simply will not succeed in the pursuit of higher life. It is not for weaklings, whiners, or cowards. That is why spiritual teachers often use examples from military life, and the Bhagavad Gita is set on a battlefield. By oneself one is purified. Purification is possible--this is Buddha's message of hope--and it can be fully accomplished by us, by our free will. In Parsifal, Parsifal touches the spear to the wounded side of Amfortas, saying: "That which wounded alone can heal." The spear represents the will of the individual. Of course we must know the way to purify ourself, not just cover up the wounds. Meditation is the supreme healer through self-purification. Purity and impurity are personal matters. No, we did not inherit a propensity to evil from Adam, ancestors, "racial memory" or "collective unconscious" (oh, come on), our parents or society. Many people try to blame traumatic experiences, but those experiences came about because they were their karma--results of their past deeds committed through free will. There are no victims, only reapers of personal karma. Good and evil, purity and impurity, are our choice alone. No one can purify someone else. How important this is! False religion and false gurus pretend to be able to purify us and forgive our sins. NOT AT ALL. It is a destructive mythology, no matter how sincere it may be. No one takes away our sins--not even us. We must purify ourselves. Sometimes in yogic treatises it will be stated that a practice burns away of washes away impurities, but it is the individual's engaging in the practice that purifies. And that is a matter of will and action. Actually we see this principle in the life of Jesus. Many times when people were healed by his touch he would assure them that their own faith was what healed them. This was not modesty, but honesty. Their faith and their effort in coming to him was a healing karma, and even more it was an opening, an allying of their will with his. So their healing was their doing, although Jesus was the instrument. We are the answer to our own problems once we know the way to higher life and consciousness. Read more commentaries of the Dhammapada by Swami Nirmalananda.

Excerpt from Vivekananda's letter

Never during his life did Ramakrishna refuse a single prayer of mine. Millions of offenses has he forgiven me. Such great love even my parents never had for me. There is no poetry, no exaggeration in all this. It is the bare truth and every disciple of his knows it.

Swami Vivekananda in Letter to Pramada Das Mitra. Written in Bengali from Ghazipur on March 3, 1890. Complete Works, 6.232.

selfishness and misery

With the sense of possession comes selfishness,
and selfishness brings on misery.

Swami Vivekananda : Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896. Complete Works, 1.100

God is one who can alter the destiny of people

How to recognize God when he assumes a human form?

Vivekananda: God is one who can alter the destiny of people. No sâdhu, however advanced, can claim this unique position. I don't see anyone who truly recognizes Ramakrishna as God. We sometimes feel it hazily, that is all. To realize Ramakrishna as God and yet be attached to the world is inconsistent.

Swami Vivekananda : Selections from the Belur Math Diary. Complete Works, 5.325.

the pains and the miseries

All this that you see, the pains and the miseries, are but the necessary conditions of this world. Poverty and wealth and happiness are but momentary. They do not belong to our real nature at all. Our nature is far beyond misery and happiness, beyond every object of the senses, beyond the imagination. And yet we must go on working all the time.

Swami Vivekananda : Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896. Complete Works, 1.100.

There is not one spark of real enjoyment there...

The idea that the gratification of the senses constitutes enjoyment is purely materialistic.There is not one spark of real enjoyment there; all the joy you find in it is a mere reflection of the true bliss.

Swami Vivekananda at a retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA. June 25, 1895. Complete Works, 7.16.

The Lord looks into a man's heart...

The Lord looks into a man's heart and does not judge him by what he does or where he lives.   
p. 204 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

  

Seek the science of the maker and not that of the made.

Do all as a sacrifice or offering to the Lord. Be in the world, but not of it, like the lotus leaf whose roots are in the mud but which remains always pure. Let your love go to all, whatever they do to you. .... Do not want this world, because what you desire you get. Seek the Lord and the Lord only. The more power there is, the more bondage, the more fear. How much more afraid and miserable are we than the ant! Get out of it all and come to the Lord. Seek the science of the maker and not that of the made.

Swami Vivekananda in Complete Works Vol 7: Inspired talks

If in this hell of a world...

If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true. This I have learnt after suffering all my life. All else is mere moonshine.

Swami Vivekananda in a Letter to Swami Brahmananda. Written in Bengali from Benares on February 18, 1902. Complete Works, 5.177.

Plunder and fight as you may...

Plunder and fight as you may, the enjoyment that you seek can be found only in peace; and peace is only in the renunciation of sensual pleasures. Enjoyment lies not in physical development but in the culture of the mind and the intellect.

From "The East and the West," originally written in Bengali. Complete Works, 5.534.

"It is much easier to refrain from error - in speech or in activity - than to seek forgiveness for ..."

It is much easier to refrain from error - in speech or in activity - than to seek forgiveness for the word quickly spoken.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1669-1

Vivekananda's Quote from Thousand Island Park retreat

Bless others when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing you; they can only hurt themselves. Go where people hate you, let them thrash the ego out of you, and you will get nearer to God.

Swami Vivekananda at a retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA. June 25, 1895. Complete Works, 7.15.

Vivekananda on Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga

It is a most difficult thing to give up is the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that: one way is called neti neti ("not this, not this"), the other is called iti iti ("this, this"). The former is the negative, the latter is the positive way.

The negative way is the most difficult. It is only possible to people of the very highest, exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and say, "No, I will not have this," and the mind and body obey their will, and they come out successful. But such people are rare.

The vast majority choose the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached.

The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of Jñāna Yoga, the second is that of Karma Yoga.

Class on Karma Yoga. New York, January 10, 1896. Complete Works, 1.97.