practical and illustrative. What produced this delusion? Can any
reality produce delusion? Certainly not. We see that one delusion
produces another, and so on. It is delusion always that produces
delusion. It is disease that produces disease, and not health that
produces disease. The wave is the same thing as the water, the effect
is the cause in another form. The effect is delusion, and therefore the
cause must be delusion. What produced this delusion? Another delusion.
And so on without beginning. The only question that remains for you to
ask is, does not this break your monism, because you get two existences
in the universe, one yourself, and the other the delusion? The answer
is,--delusion cannot be called an existence. Thousands of dreams come
into your life, but do not form any part of your life. Dreams come
and go; they have no existence; to call delusion existence will be
sophistry. Therefore there is only one individual existence in the
universe, ever free, and ever blessed, and that is what you are. This
is the last conclusion reached by the _Advaitists_. It may then be
asked, what becomes of all these various forms of worship? They will
remain; they are simply groping in the dark for light, and through
this groping light will come. We have just seen that the Self cannot
see Itself. Our knowledge is within the network of _Mâyâ_ (unreality),
and beyond that is freedom; within the network there is slavery, it is
all under law. Beyond that there is no law. So far as the universe is
concerned, existence is ruled by law, and beyond that is freedom. As
long as you are in the network of time, space and causation, to say you
are free is nonsense, because in that network all is under rigorous
law, sequence and consequence. Every thought that you think is caused,
every feeling has been caused; to say that the will is free is sheer
nonsense. It is only when the infinite existence comes, as it were,
into this network of _Mâyâ_ that it takes the form of will. Will is a
portion of that being caught in the network of _Mâyâ_, and therefore
“free-will” is a misnomer. It means nothing,--sheer nonsense. So is all
this talk about freedom. There is no freedom in _Mâyâ_.
Every one is as much bound in thought, word, deed, and mind, as a
piece of stone or this table. That I talk to you now is as rigorously
in causation as that you listen to me. There is no freedom until you
go beyond _Mâyâ_. That is the real freedom of the soul. Men, however
sharp and intellectual, however clearly they see the force of the
logic that nothing here can be free, are all compelled to think they
are free; they cannot help. No work can go on until we begin to say we
are free. It means that the freedom we talk about is the glimpse of
the blue sky through the clouds, and that the real freedom--the blue
sky itself,--is behind. True freedom cannot exist in the midst of this
delusion, this hallucination, this nonsense of the world, this universe
of the senses, body and mind. All these dreams, without beginning
or end, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, ill-adjusted, broken,
inharmonious, form our idea of this universe. In a dream, when you see
a giant with twenty heads chasing you, and you are flying from him, you
do not think it is inharmonious; you think it is proper and right. So
is this law. All that you call law is simply chance without meaning.
In this dream state you call it law. Within _Mâyâ_, so far as this law
of time, space and causation exists, there is no freedom, and all
these various forms of worship are within this _Mâyâ_. The idea of God
and the ideas of brute and of man are within this _Mâyâ_, and as such
equally hallucinations; all of them are dreams. But you must take care
not to argue like some extraordinary men of whom we hear at the present
time. They say the idea of God is a delusion, but the idea of this
world is true. Both ideas stand or fall by the same logic. He alone has
the right to be an atheist who denies this world, as well as the other.
The same argument is for both. The same mass of delusion extends from
God to the lowest animal, from a blade of grass to the Creator. They
stand or fall by the same logic. The same person who sees falsity in
the idea of God ought also to see it in the idea of his own body, or
his own mind. When God vanishes, then also vanish the body and mind,
and when both vanish, that which is the Real Existence remains forever.
“There the eyes cannot go, nor the speech, nor the mind. We cannot see
it, neither know it.” And we now understand that so far as speech and
thought and knowledge, and intellect go, it is all within this _Mâyâ_,
within bondage. Beyond that is Reality. There neither thought, nor
mind, nor speech, can reach.
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!