The Vedanta preaches the ideal, and the ideal, as we know, is always far ahead of the real, of the practi- cal; as we may call it. There are two tendencies in this life of ours, one to harmonize the ideal with the life, and the other to elevate the life to the ideal. It is a great thing to understand this, for the former ten- dency is the temptation of our lives. I think that I can only do a certain class of work. Most of it, per- haps, is bad; most of it, perhaps, has a motive power of passion behind it, anger, or greed, or selfishness. Now if any man comes to preach to me a certain ideal, and the first step is to give up selfishness, to give up self -enjoyment, I think that is impractical. But when a man comes to bring an ideal which reconciles my selfishness, which reconciles all my vileness to itself, I am glad at once, and jump at the ideal. That is the ideal for me. As the word "orthodox" has been manipulated into various forms, so has been the word * PRACTICAL VEDANTA 205 "practical." "My doxy is orthodoxy; your doxy is heterodoxy." So with practicality. What I think is practical is the only practicality in the world. If I am a shopkeeper I think sh(2)Opkeeping the only practi- cal religion in the world. If I am a thief I think the best means of stealing is the only practical thing; the others arc not practical. You see how we all use this word practical for things we can do, as we are at pres- ent situated, and circumstanced. Therefore I will ask you to understand that Vedanta, though it is intensely practical, is always so in the sense of the ideal. It does not preach an impossible ideal however high it is, and it is high enough for an ideal. In one word, its ideal is that "Thou art That," you are divine. That is the result of all this teaching; after all its ramifica- tions and intellectual gymnastics you arrive at the human soul as pure and omniscient; you see that such superstititions as birth and death would be entire non- sense when spoken of the soul. The soul was never born and will never die, and all these ideas that we are going to die and are afraid to die are mere super- stitions. And all such ideas, as we can do or cannot do, are also superstition. We can do everything. The Vedanta preaches to men to have faith in themselves first. As certain religions of the world say a man who does not believe in a personal god outside of himself is an atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist. Not believing in the glory of your own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism. To many this is, no doubt, a terrible idea, and most of us think that this ideal can never be reached, but the Vedanta insists that it can be realized 206 JNANA YOGA by every one. There is neither man nor woman nor child, nor difference of race or sex, nor anything that stands as a bar to the reaHzation of the ideal, because Vedanta shows that it is realized already, it is already here.
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes, and cry that it is dark. Know that there is no darkness round us. Take the hands off and there is light from the beginning. Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. We who are fools cry that we are weak; we who are fools cry that we are impure. Thus not only Vedanta insists that the ideal is practical, but it has been so all the time, and this apparent Ideal, this Reality, is our own nature. Everything else that you see is false, untrue. As soon as you say "I am a little mortal being," you are saying something which is not true, you are giving the lie to yourselves, you are hypnotizing yourselves into something vile and weak and wretched.
It recognizes no sin, it recognizes error: and the greatest error, says the Vedanta, is to say you are weak, and a sinner, and a miserable creature, and that you have no power, and cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that way you, as it were, rivet one more link in the chain that holds you down, you add but one more layer of hypnotism to your own soul. Therefore, whosoever thinks he is weak is wrong, who- soever thinks he is impure, is wrong, and is throwing a bad thought into the world. This we must bear in mind always: that in the Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the present life, the hypnotized life, this PRACTICAL VEDANTA 207 false life which we have assumed, with the ideal, but this false life must go, and the real life, which is always existing, must manifest itself, must shine out. No man becomes purer and purer: it is more or less of manifestation. The veil goes away, and the native purity of the soul begins to manifest itself. All is ours already, infinite purity, freedom, love and power. Also, the Vedanta says, not only can this be realized in the depths of forests, or hidden in caves, but just as we have seen, the first people who discovered these truths for us were neither living in caves nor forests, nor were they ordinary persons in life, but persons whom we have every reason to believe had the busiest lives to lead, persons who had to command armies, to sit on thrones, and look to the welfare of their sub- jects— and in those days of absolute monarchs, not in these days when a king is to a great extent a mere figure head. Yet they could find time to think out all these thoughts, to realize them, and to teach them to humanity. How much more then should it be practi- cal for us whose lives, compared with theirs, are lives of leisure? That we cannot realize them is a shame to us, seeing that we are comparatively free all the time, have very little to do. My wants are as nothing to tlie wants of one of those ancient absolute monarchs. My wants are as nothing to the wants of Arjuna on the battle-field at Kurukshetra, commanding a huge army, and yet finding time in the midst of the din of battle to talk of the highest philosophy, and to carry it into his life also: and we ought to be able to do as much in this life of ours, comparatively free, mostly of ease and comfort. Most of us here have more time 2o8 J NANA YOGA than we think of, or know of, if we really want to use it for good. We can attain two hundred ideals in this life of ours, if we want them, with the amount of freedom we have, but we must not degrade the ideal to the actual. This is one of the most insinuating things that comes to us in the shape of persons who apologize for us here, and teach us how to make special excuses for all our foolish wants, foolish desires, and we think that this is the only ideal we can have, but it is not so. The Vedanta teaches no such thing. The actual is to be reconciled to the ideal, the present life is to be made to coincide with the eternal life.
For you must always remember that the one central ideal of Vedanta is this Oneness. There are not two in anything, no two lives, or two kinds of life for two worlds _even. ^ You will find the Vedas speaking of heavens and all these things at first, but later on, when they come to the highest ideals of their philosophy, they brush off all these things. There is but One Life, and One World, and One Existence. Everything is that Oneness, and the difference is in degree and not of kind. The difference between our lives is not of kind. The Vedanta. entirely denies such ideals as that the animals are separate from men, and that they were made and created by God to be used for our food.
Some people have been kind enough to start an anti- vivisection society. I asked a member, "Why, my friend, do you think it is quite lawful to kill animals for food, and not to kill one or two for scientific experiments?" He replied, "That vivisection is most horrible, but animals have been given to us for food." The Oneness includes all animals. If man's life is PRACTICAL VEDANTA 209 immortal so is the animal's. The difference is only in degree and not in kind. The amoeba is the same as I am; the difference is only in degree, and from the standpoint of the highest life all these little differences vanish. A man may see a great deal of difference between grass and ^ little tree, but if you climb a very high mountain, grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same. So, from the standpoint of the high- est, all these ideals are the same, and if you believe there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures must be the same. A God who is partial to his chil- dren called men, and so cruel to his children called brute-beasts, is worse than a demon. I would rather die a hundred times than worship such a God. My whole life would be a fight with such a God. But it is not so. Those who say so do not know, they are irresponsible, heartless people, who do not know. 'Here is again a case of the practical used in the wrong sense. We want to eat. I myself may not be a very strict vegetarian, but I understand the ideal. When I eat meat I know it is wrong. Even if I were bound ta eat it under certain circumstances I know it is cruel. I must not drag the ideal down to the actual and try to apologize for my weak conduct in this way. The ideal is not eating flesh, not injuring any being, for the animal is my brother; so is the cat and the dog. If you can think of them as that, you have arrived a little towards the brotherhood of all souls, not to speak of the brotherhood of man! That is child's play. You generally find that this is not very acceptable to many, because it teaches to give up the actual, and go up higher to the ideal; but if you bring out a theory which 210 JNANA YOGA reconciles their present conduct they regard that as entirely practical.
There is this strongly conservative tendency in human nature: we do not like to move one step for- ward. I think of mankind just as I read of persons who have become frozen in snow; all such, they say, want to go to sleep, and if you try to drag them up they say, *'Let me sleep. It is so beautiful to sleep in the snow," and they die there in that sleep. So is our nature. That is what we are doing all our life, getting frozen from the feet upwards, and yet wanting tc sleep. Therefore you must struggle towards the ideal, and if there comes any one to bring the ideal down to your level, if a man comes to teach you a religion that is not the highest ideal, do not listen to him. That is impracticable religion for me. But if a man comes and says religion is the highest work in life, I am ready for him. This is one thing to be guarded against, one thing to be taken care of. Beware when any one is trying to apologize for sense vanities and sense weaknesses. If any one wants to preach that way, sense-bound clods of earth as we have made our- selves, if we follow in that teaching, we shall never progress. I have seen a number of these things, I have had some experience of the world, and my coun- try is the land where religious sects grow like mushrooms. Every year new sects arise. But one thing I have marked, that it is only those that never want to reconcile the man of flesh with the man of truth that make progress. Wherever there is this false idea of reconciling fleshly vanities with the highest ideals^ of dragging down God to the level of man, there comes PRACTICAL VEDANTA 211 decay. Man should not be degraded to man where he is; he should be raised up to (^od.
At the same time, there is another side to the ques- tion. We must not look down with contempt on others. All of us are going towards the same goal. The difference between weakness and strength is one of degree; the difference between light and darkness is one of degree; the difference between virtue and vice is one of degree; the difference between heaven and hell is one of degree; the difference between life and death is one of degree; all difference in this world is one of degree, and not of kind, because Oneness is the secret of everything. It is all One, either as thought, or as life, or as soul, or as body, and the difference is only of degree. As such we have no right to look down with contempt upon those who are not exactly in the same degree that we are. Condemn none; if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers and let them go their own way. Dragging down and condemning is not the way to work. Never is work accomplished in that way. We spend our energies in condemning others. Criticism and condemnation is a vain way of spending our energies, for in the long run we come to learn that all are seeing the same thing, are more or less approaching the same ideal, and that most of our differences are merely differences of lan- guage.
Take even the idea of sin, what I was telling you just now, the Vedanta idea and the other idea, that man is a sinner; they are practically the same, only the one is a mistaken direction. One takes the nega- 212 J NANA YOGA 212 J NANA YOGA tive side and the Vedanta the positive. One shows to man his weakness, the other says weakness there may be, but never mind, we want to grow. Disease was found out as soon as man was born. Every one knows his disease; it requires no one to tell us what our dis- eases are. We may forget anything outside, we may try to become hypocrites to the external world, but in the heart of our hearts we all know our weakness. But, says the Vedanta, being reminded of weakness will not help much; give medicine, medicine is not making man think that he is diseased all the time. The remedy for weakness is not by making men think of their weakness all the time, but letting them think of their strength. Teach them of the strength that is already within them. Instead of telling men they are sinners, the Vedanta takes the opposite stand, and says, **You are pure and perfect, and all you call sin does not belong to you." Sins are very low degrees of manifestation; manifest yourself in a higher degree if you can. That is one thing to remember; all of us can. Never say no; never say, "I cannot." It must not be, for you are infinite. Time and space even are nothing compared to your nature. You can do any- thing and everything, you are almighty.
These of course are the principles of ethics. We shall have to come down still lower and work into the details. We shall have to see how this Vedanta can be carried into this everyday life of ours, the city life, the country life, life in every nation, the home life of every nation. For, if a religion cannot help man wherever he may be, wherever he stands, it is not much use; it will remain only a theory for a chosen PRACTICAL VEDANTA 213 few. Religion, to help mankind, must be ready and able to help him wherever he is; in servitude or in the full freedom of life, in the depths of degradation or in the heights of purity, everywhere equally it should be able to help mankind, and then alone the principles of Vedanta, or the ideal of Religion, or how- ever you may call it, will be fulfilled.
The one ideal of faith in ourselves is the greatest help that can come to mankind. Had faith in our- selves been more extensively taught and practiced I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power in the lives of all great men and women from their very birth has been more potent than another it is that of faith in themselves; born in the consciousness that they were to be great, they became great. Let a man go down as low as he likes, but there must come a time when out of sheer desperation an upward curve will be taken and he will learn to have faith in himself. But for us it is better that we know it from the very first. Why should we be compelled to have all this bitter experience in order to have faith in ourselves? We can see that all the difference between man and man is owing to the existence or non-existence of faith in himslf. Faith in ourselves will do everything. I have experienced it in my own life, and am doing so con- tinually, and as I grow older that faith becomes stronger and stronger. He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said he was the atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says he is the atheist who does ngt believe in himself.
214 J NANA YOGA But it is not selfish faith, because the Vedanta, again, is the doctrine of oneness. It means faith in all, because you are pure. Love for yourselves means love for all, for you are one; faith in animals, faith in every- thing. This is the great faith which v^ill make the world better. I am sure of that. He is the highest man who dares to say "1 know all about myself." Do you know how many powers, how many forces, how many energies are stiil lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has yet known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man was here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his power has been manifested. Therefore, how dare you say you are weak? How do you know what is behind that degradation on the surface? How do you know every- thing that is within you? Behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.
'This Atman is first to be listened to, to be heard." Hear day and night that you are that Soul. Repeat it to yourselves day and night till it enters into your very veins, till it tingles in every drop of blood, till it is in your flesh and bone. Let the whole body be full of that one ideal, "I am the birthless, the deathless, the blissful, the omniscient, the omnipotent, ever-glorious Soul." Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes part and parcel of your life. Meditate upon it, and out of that will come work. Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh, and out of the fulness of the heart the hand worketh also. Practice will come. Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be trans- formed, deified, magnified, raised, by the very power PRACTICAL VEDANTA 215 of the thought. If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring that thought, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory. Would to God all the other superstitious things had not been put into your head! Would to God we had not been born surrounded by all these superstitious influences and paralyzing ideas of our weakness and vileness! Would to God that mankind had an easier path through which to attain to the noblest and highest truths! But man has to pass through all this; do not make the path more difficult for those who are coming after you.
These are sometimes terrible doctrines to teach. I know people who get frightened, but for those who want to be practical this is the first practice. Tell not yourselves or others that you are weak. Do good if you can, but do not injure the world. You know in your inmost heart that many of your limited ideas, this humbling yourself, and weeping to imaginary beings, are superstitions. Tell me one case where these prayers have been answered. All the answers that came were from our own hearts. You all know there are no ghosts, but no sooner are you in the dark than there is a little creepy sensation. It is so because in our childhood we have all these fearful ideas put into our heads. But here is the practice. Do not do the same to others, through fear of society, through fear of public opinion, through fear of the hatred of our friends, for fear of loss of superstition. Be mas- ters of it all. What is there more to be taught in religion? Oneness in this Universe, and to have faith in yourselves.
2l6 JNANA YOGA That is all there is to teach. All the works of man- kind for thousands of years have been for this one goal, and mankind is working it out yet. It is yours now. We know it. It has been taught from all sides. Not only philosophy and psychology, but materialistic sciences have every day declared it. Where is the sci- entific man to-day who fears to acknowledge the truth of this oneness of the universe? Who is there who dares talk of many worlds, and so on? All these were superstitions. There is only one life and one world, and this one life and one world is appearing to us as manifold, just as when you dream, one dream passes away and another comes. You do not live in your dreams. The dreams come one after the other, scene after scene unfolds before you. So it is in this world of ours, of ninety per cent, misery and ten per cent, happiness. Perhaps after a while it will appear as ninety per cent, happiness, and we shall call it heaven; but a time will come to the sage when the whole thing will vanish, and this very world will appear as God Himself, and our own soul as God. It is not there- fore that there are many worlds, it is not that there are many lives. All this manifoldness is the manifesta- tion of that One. That One is manifesting Himself as many, either in matter, or in spirit, or in mind, or in thought; or in any other thing. It is that One, mani- festing Himself as many. Therefore the first practice for us is to teach the truth to ourselves and to others.
Let the world resound with this ideal and let super- stitions vanish. Tell it to men who are weak; persist in telling it to them. You are the pure one; arise and awake, oh mighty one, this sleep does not represent PRACTICAL VEDANTA 2\J you. Arise and go; it does not befit you. Think not that you are weak and miserable. Almighty, arise and awake, and manifest your own nature. It is not fitting that you think yourself a sinner. It is not fitting that you think yourself weak. Say that to the world, say it to yourselves, and see what a practical result will come, see how with an electric flash every- thing will be manifested, how everything will be changed. Tell that to mankind and show them their power. Then we shall learn how to practise it In our daily lives.
What we call viveka (discrimination), we shall come to later on, we shall learn how in every moment of our lives, in every one of our actions, to discriminate between what is right and wrong, true or false, and( we shall have, therefore, to know the test of truth,; which is purity, oneness. Everything that makes for oneness is truth. Love is truth, and hatred is false, because hatred makes for multiplicity. It is hatred that separates man from man; it is wrong and false therefore. It is a disintegrating power; it separates and destroys.
Love binds, love makes for that oneness. You are become one, the mother with the child, families become one with the city. The whole world becomes one with the animals. For love is existence, God Himself, and all this is the manifestation of that one love, more or less expressed. The difference is only in degree, but it is the manifestation of that one love throughout. Therefore in all our actions we have to judge whether it is making for diversity or for oneness. If for diversity we have to give it up, but if it makes for one- 2l8 JNANA YOGA