1 62 J NANA YOGA ancient times were improved upon, the old became holy, and nowhere has this idea been more kept up than in India. Old methods, which must be nine or ten thousand years old, of rubbing two sticks together to make fire, are still kept up. At the time of sacri- fice no other method will do. So with the other branch of the Asiatic Aryans. Their modern descen- dants still like to preserve fire that comes from light- ning, showing that they used to get fire in this way, afterwards learning to obtain it by rubbing two pieces of wood, and when they learned other customs they kept up the old customs, which then became holy.
So with the Hebrews. They used to write on parchment. They now write on paper, and the other method is very holy. So with all nations, every rite which you now consider holy was simply an old custom, and these sacrifices were of this nature. In course of time, as they found better methods of life, their ideas were much improved, still, these old forms remained, and from time to time they were practised, and received a holy significance. Then a body of men made it their business to carry on these sacrifices. These were the priests, and they speculated on the sacrifices, and the sacrifices became everything to them. The gods came to enjoy the fragrance of the sacrifices, and everything in this world could be got by the power of sacrifices. If certain oblations were made, certain hymns chanted, certain peculiar forms of altars made, the gods would grant everything. So Nachiketas asks by what form of sacrifice a man will go to heaven. This second boon was also readily REALIZATION 163 granted by Yama, who promised that this sacrifice should henceforth be named after Nachiketas.
Then the third boon comes, and with that the Upanishad proper begins. The boy says: "There is this difficuhy; when a man dies some say he is, others that he is not. Instructed by you, I desire to under- stand this."
Yama is frightened. He was very glad to satisfy the other two boons. Now he says, "The gods in ancient times were puzzled on this point. This subtle law is not easy to understand. Choose some other boon, O Nachiketas, do not press me, release me on this point." The boy was determined and said, "What thou hast said is true, O Death, that even the gods doubted on this point, and it is no easy matter to understand. But I cannot obtain another exponent like you and there is no other boon equal to this."
Death said: "Ask for sons and grandsons who will live one hundred years, many cattle, elephants, gold and horses. Ask for empire on this earth and live as many years as you like. Or choose any other boon which you think equal to these — wealth and long life. Or be thou a king, O Nachiketas, on the wide earth I will make thee enjoyer of all desires. Ask for all those desires which are difficult to obtain in this world. These heavenly maidens with chariots and music which are not to be obtained by men. Let these, which I will give to you, serve you, O Nachike- tas, but do not ask me what comes after death."
Nachiketas said: "These are merely things of a day, O Death, they bear away the energy of all the sense- organs. The longest life even is very short. These 164 JNANA YOGA horses and chariots and dances and maidens may remain with thee. Man cannot be satisfied by wealth. Shall we retain wealth when we behold Thee? We shall live only so long as Thou desirest. Only the boon which I have asked is to be chosen by me.''
Yama is pleased with this answer and replies: "Per- fection is one thing and enjoyment another, these two having different ends, bind a man. He who ( chooses perfection becomes pure. He who chooses enjoyment misses his true end. Both perfection and enjoyment present themselves to man; the wise man having examined both distinguishes one from the other. He chooses perfection as being superior to enjoyment, but the foolish chooses enjoyment for the benefit of his body. O Nachiketas, having thought upon the things which are desirable or apparently so, thou hast abandoned them." Death then proceeds to teach Nachiketas.
We now get a very developed idea of renunciation and Vedic morality — that until one has conquered the /desire for enjoyment the truth will not shine in him. So long as the vain desires of our senses are clamoring and, as it were, dragging us every moment outward, making us slaves to everything outside, a little bit of color, a little bit of taste, a little bit of touch, dragging the human soul out, notwithstanding all our preten- sions, how can the truth express itself in our hearts? "That which is to follow never rises before the mind of a thoughtless child deluded by the folly of riches. This world exists, the other does not, thinking thus they come again and again under my power," says Yama.
REALIZATION 1 65 To understand this truth is very difficult. Many, even hearing it continually, do not understand, for the speaker must be wonderful, so must be the hearer. The teacher must be wonderful, so must be the taught. Neither is the mind to be disturbed by vain argument, for it is no more a question of argument, it is a ques- tion of fact. We have always heard that there is a path in every religion which insists on our faith. We have been taught to believe blindly. Well, this idea of blind faith is objectionable, no doubt — no doubt it is very objectionable — but analyzing it we find that behind it is a very great truth. What it really means is what we read now. The mind is not to be ruffled by vain arguments, because argument will not bring us to know God. It is a question of fact, and not of argument. All argument and reasoning must be based upon certain principles. Without these princi- ples there cannot be any argument. Reasoning is the method of comparison between certain facts which we have already absolutely perceived. If these absolutely perceived facts are not there already, there cannot be any reasoning. Just as it is true in the external sense, why should it not be at the same time true in the internal? The external sensations all depend on actual experiences. You are not asked to believe in any assertions, but the rules become established by actual demonstration, not in the form of argument, but by actual perception.
All arguments are based upon certain perceptions. The chemist takes certain things and certain results are produced. This is a fact; you see it, sense it, and make that the basis on which to build all your chemil66 JNANA YOGA cal arguments. So with the physicists, so with all other sciences, all knowledge must stand on certain perception of facts, and upon that we have to build, our reasoning. But, curiously enough, the vast majority of mankind think, especially at the present time, that no such perception is possible in religion, that religion can only be apprehended by vain argu- ments outside. Therefore we are told, the mind is not to be disturbed by vain arguments. Religion is ' a question of fact, not of talk. CWe have to analyze \ our own souls and to find what is there. We have to understand it and to realize what is understood. That is religion. No amount of talk will make religion. So the question of whether there is a God or not can never be proved by argument, for the arguments are as much on one side as the other. But if there be a God, He is in our own hearts. Have you ever seen Him? Just as the question as to whether this world exists or not has not yet been decided, so the debate between the idealists and the realists is eternal. It is a fact, yet we only know that the world exists, that it goes on. We only change the meaning of the word. So with all the questions of life, we must come back to facts. There are certain facts which are to be perceived, and there are certain religious facts, as in external science, that have to be perceived, and upon them religion will be built. Of course the extreme claim that you must believe any dogma of a religion is degrading to the human mind. That man who asks you to believe any- thing degrades himself, and, if you believe, degrades you too. The only right that the sages of the world have to tell us anything, is that they have analyzed REALIZATION 167 their own minds and have found these facts, and if we do the same, we shall believe, and not before. That is all that there is in religion. But you must always remember this, that as a matter of fact 99.9 per cent, of those who attack religion have never analyzed their minds, have never struggled to get at, the facts. So their arguments do not have any weight against religion, any more than those of a blind man who cries against the sun, *'You are all fools who believe in the sun." That would have no weight with us. So the arguments of these people who have not gone to work to analyze their own minds, yet at the same time try to pull down religion, should have no weight with us.
This is one great idea to learn and to hold on to, this idea of realization. This turmoil and fight and difference in religions will only cease when we understand that religion is not in books, neither in temples, nor in the senses. It is an actual percep- ^ tion, and only the man who has actually perceived God and perceived soul, has religion, while all men who have not done that are alike. There is no real difference between the highest ecclesiastical giant, who can talk by the volume, and the lowest, most ^ ignorant materialist. We are all atheists; let us con- ) fess it. Mere intellectual assent will not make us religious, and it does not. Take a Christian, or a Mohammedan, or a follower of any religion in the world. See the Sermon on the Mount. Any man who truly realized it would be a god immediately, would be perfect, and yet it is said that there are many millions of Christi2in3 in the world. Do you 1 68 JNANA YOGA mean to say they are all Christians? What is meant is, that mankind may at some time try to realize that sermon. Not one in twenty millions is a real Chris- tian.
So, in India, there are said to be three hundred millions of Vedantins. If there were one in a thou- sand who had actually realized religion, this world would soon be greatly changed. We are all atheists, and yet we try to fight the man who admits it. We are all in the dark; religion is to us a mere nothing, mere intellectual assent, mere talk — this man talks well, and that man ill — this to us is religion. "Won- derful methods of joining words, rhetorical powers, and explaining texts of the books in various ways, .the^e are for the enjoyment of the learned, not religion." Religion will begin when that actual reali- zation in our own souls begins. That will be the dawn of religion; then we shall become religious; then, and then alone, morality will begin. Now we are not much more moral than the animals in the streets. We are only held down by the whips of society. If society said to-day I will not punish you if you go and steal, we should just make a rush for every one's property. It is the policeman that makes the majority of us moral. It is social opinion that makes a great deal of our morality, and really we are little better than the animals. We understand how much this is so, in the secret of our own rooms. So let us not be hypocrites. Let us confess that we are not religious and have no right to look down on others. We are all brothers, and we shall be moral, we hope, when we have realized religion.
REALIZATION 1 69 If you have seen a certain country, a man may cut you to pieces, but you will never in your heart of hearts say you have not seen the country. Extra- ordinary physical. force may compel you to say you have not seen it, but in your own mind you know you have seen it. When you see Religion and God in a more intense sense than you see this external world, nothing will be able to shake your belief. Then will real faith begm. That is what is meant by the words in your Gospel: *'He who has faith even as a grain of mustard seed." Then you will know the truth because you have become the truth, for mere intellectual assent is nothing.
The one idea is, does this realization exist? This is the watchword of Vedanta, realize religion, no talk- ing will do, but it is only to be done with great difficulty. He has hidden Himself inside the atom, the Ancient One who resides in the inmost recess of every human heart. The sages realized Him through the power of introspection, and then they got beyond both joy and misery, beyond what we call virtue, beyond what we call vice, beyond our bad deeds, beyond our good deeds, beyond being and non-being, he who has seen Him has seen the Reality. But what then about the idea of heaven? It was the idea of happiness minus unhappiness. That is to say, what we want, is all the joys of this life minus its sorrows. That is a very good idea, no doubt; it comes natural- ly; but it is a mistake throughout, because there is no such thing as absolute good, nor any such thing as absolute sorrow.
You have all heard of that very rich man in Rome J NANA YOGA who learned one day that he had only about a million pounds left of his property, and said: *'What shall I do to-morrow?" and forthwith committed suicide. A million pounds was poverty to him. What is joy, and what is sorrow? It is a vanishing quantity, con- tinually vanishing. When I was a child I thought if I could become a cabman that would be the very acme of happiness for me, just to drive about. I do not think so now. To what joy will you cling? This is one point we must all try to understand, and it is one of the last superstitions to leave us. Every one's pleasure is different. I have seen a man who is not happy unless he swallows a lump of opium every day. He may dream of a heaven where the land is made of opium. It would be a very bad heaven for me. Again and again in Arabian poetry we read of heaven full of gardens, where rivers run below. I have lived much of my life in a country where there is too much water; some villages and a few thousand lives are sacrificed to it every year. So my heaven would not have gar- dens beneath which rivers flow; I would have dry land where very little rain falls. So with life, our pleas- ures are always changing. If a young man dreams of heaven he dreams of a heaven where he will have a beautiful wife. Let that very man become old and he does not want a wife. It is our necessities which ^ make our heaven, and the heaven changes with the j change of our necessities. If we had a heaven where all these things were intensified, the heaven desired by those to whom this sense enjoyment is the very end of existence, we should not progress. That would be the most terrible curse we could pronounce on the souL REALIZATION I7I Is this all we can come to? A little weeping and danc- ing, and then to die like a dog. What a curse you pronounce on the head of humanity when you long for these things! That is what you do when you cry after the joys of this world, for you do not know what joy is. What philosophy insists on is not to give up joys, but to know what joy really is. The Norwegian heaven is a tremendous fighting place, where they all sit before Wodin, and then comes a wild boar hunt, and then they go to war and slash each other to pieces. But somehow or other, after a few hours of such fighting the wounds are all healed up, and they go into a hall, where the boar has been roasted, and have a carousal. And then the wild boar is made up again to be hunted the next day. That is quite the same thing, not a whit worse than our ideas, only our ideas are a little more refined. We want to hunt all these wild boars, and get to a place where all the enjoyments will continue, just as they imagine that the wild boar is hunted and eaten every day, and recovers the next day.
Now philosophy insists that there is a joy which is absolute, which never changes, and therefore that joy cannot be the joys and pleasures we have in this life, and yet it is Vedanta alone that proves that every- thing that is joyful in this life is but a particle of that real joy, because that is the only joy there is. Every moment we are really enjoying the absolute bliss, cov- ered up, misunderstood, caricatured. Wherever there is any blessing, any blissfulness, any joy, even the joy of the thief in stealing from somebody else, it is that absolute bliss coming out through him, only it has 1/2 J NANA YOGA 1/2 J NANA YOGA become obscured, muddled up as it were, with all sorts of extraneous circumstances, caricatured, misunder- stood, and that is what we call the thief. But, to understand that, we have first to go through the nega- tion, and then the positive side will begin. First we have to give up all that is ignorance, all that is false, and then truth will begin for us. When we have grasped the truth these things which we have given up at first will take a new shape and form, will appear to us in a new light, they will all have become deified. They will have become sublimated, we shall under- stand them then in their real light. But to under- stand them we have first to get a glirnpse of truth, and we must give them up first, and then take thernback again deified. Therefore we have to give up all our miseries and sorrows, all our little joys. They are but different degrees of happiness or misery as we( may call it. "That which all the Vedas declare, which ^ is proclaimed by all penances, seeking which men lead S lives of continence, I will tell you ih one word — it is; *Om.' *' You will find this word "Om" praised very / much in the Vedas, and it is held to be very sacred. } Now Yama answers the question — "What becomes of a man when the body dies?" "This Wise One never dies, is never born; it arises from nothing, noth- ing arises from it. Unborn, Eternal, Everlasting, this Ancient One can never be destroyed with the destruction of the body. If the killer thinks he can kill, or if the killed thinks he is slain, they both do not know the truth, for the Self neither kills nor is killed." A most tremendous position. The one adjec- tive in the first line is "wise" One. As you go on you REALIZATION r73 will find that the ideal of Vedanta is, that all wisdom, and all purity are in the soul already — dimly expressed, or better expressed — that is the only difference. The difference between man and man, and all things in the whole creation is not in kind but only in degree. The background, the reality of every one is that same eter- nal, ever blessed, ever pure, and ever perfect One. That is the Atman, the soul, in the sinner or the sin- less, in the happy or the unhappy, in the beautiful or the ugly, in man or animals, it is the same throughout. He is the Shining One. The difference is caused by the power of expression. In some it is expressed more, in others less, but this difference of expression has no effect upon Him, the Atman. If in his cloth- ing one shows more of his body, and another less, it would not make any difference in the bodies. The dif- ference is in the clothes that cover or do not cover the body. According to the covering, the body and the man, its powers, its purity begin to shine. Therefore we had better remember here also, that throughout the Vedanta philosophy, there is no such thing as good and bad, they are not two different things; the same thing is good or bad, and the difference is only in degree, and that we see to be an actual fact. The very thing I call pleasurable to-day, to-morrow under better circum- stances, I may call pain. So the difference is only in the degree, the manifestation, not in the thing itself. There is no such thing as what we call good or bad. The fire that warms us, would also consume us,* it would not be the fault of the fire. Thus, the soul being pure and perfect, the man who wants to do evil is giving the lie unto himself, he does not know the 174 JNANA YOGA nature of himself. Even in the murderer the pure soul is there; it dies not. It was his mistake; he could not manifest it; he had covered it up. Nor in the man who thinks that he is killed is the soul killed; it is the eternal, never killed, never destroyed. "Infinitely smaller than the smallest, infinitely larger than the largest, yet this Lord of all is present in the depths of every human heart. The sinless, bereft of all misery, see Him through the mercy of the Lord; the bodiless, yet living in the body, the spaceless, yet seeming to occupy space, infinite, omnipresent; know- ing such to be the soul, the sages never are miserable." This Atman is not to be realized by the power of speech, nor by a vast intellect, nor by the study of the Vedas. This is a very bold thing. As I told you before, the sages were very bold thinkers, never stopped at anything. You will remember that in India these Vedas are regarded in such a light as the Christians never regarded the Bible. Your idea of revelation is, that a man was inspired by God; but their idea was, that things exist because they are in the Vedas. In and through the Vedas the whole creation has come. All that is called knowledge is in the Vedas. Every word is sacred and eternal, eternal as the created man, without beginning and without end. As it were, the whole of the Creator's mind is in this book. That was the light in which they held the Vedas. Why is this moral? Because the Vedas say so. Why is this immoral? Because the Vedas say so, and in spite of that, see these bold men. No, the truth is not to be found by much study of the Vedas. "With whom the Lord is pleased, unto that man He REALIZATION 175 expresses Himself." But then, the objection may be advanced — this is something Hke partisanship. But Yama explains: "Those who are evil doers, whose minds are not peaceful, can never know the light." It is those who are true in heart, pure in their deeds, whose senses have become controlled, unto them this Self manifests Itself.
Here is a beautiful figure. Picture the Self to be the rider and this body the chariot, the intellect to be the charioteer, the mind the reins, and the senses the horses. In that chariot, where the horses are well broken, where the reins are strong and kept well in the hands of the charioteer (the intellect), that chariot reaches the goal which is the state of Him the Omni- present. But where the horses (the senses), are not controlled, nor the reins (the mind), well managed, that chariot comes to destruction. This Atman in all beings does not manifest Himself to the eyes or the senses, but those whose minds have become puri- fied and refined, they see Him. Beyond all sound, all sight, beyond form, absolute, beyond all taste and touch; infinite, without beginning and without end, even beyond nature, the unchangeable, he who realizes Him, frees himself from the jaws of death. But it is very difficult. It is, as it were, walking on the blade of a razor; the way is long and perilous, but struggle on, do not despair. "Awake, arise, and stop not till the goal is reached."
Now you see that the one central idea throughout all the Upanishads is that of realization. A great many questions will arise from time to time, and especially to the modern man. There will be the ques-