Somethin^ inoie has to be told about the nioial relation. Our boys blithely talk novYada}s, they leai 11 fiom somebody — the Loid knows from whom — that Advaita makes people immoral, because if we are all one and all (Jod, what need of morality will thcie be at all! In the fust place, that is the argument of the brute, who can only be kept down by the whip. If you aic such biutes commit suicide, rather than pass foi human beings, who have to be kept down by the whip. If the whip is taken away, you will all be d '*'s! You ought all 10 be killed, if such is the case; theie is no help foi you; pffl must alvva}s be living under this whip and lod, and there is no salvation, no esc, tor you. In the.second place, Advaita and Advaita alone explains moiality. Ivery religion preaches that the essence of all moiality is to do good to otlieis. Mid why? He unselfish. And why should I? Some God has s.iid it? He is not foi me. Some texts have declaied it? Let them; that is nothing to me; let them all tell it. And if they do, what is it to me? ICach one foi liimsolf, and somebody take the hindermost; that is all the moiality in the woild, at least vvilli many. What is the reason that I should be moral? You cannot explain it except when youjAne to know the tiuth a^ given m the Gita He, who secs cveiy one 111 himself, andn^scll in eveiyone, thus seeing the same God living in all, he, the sage no moie V.s the self by the self.” Know through Advaita that whoever }ou hint you lig^youiself; they aie all )ou. Whcthei you know it or not, ihiough all hands yoi^MDik, Ihiough all feet you move, you aie the king enjoying in the palace, you aro^^ie beggar leading that miseiable existence mi the street; you are in the i;' ^ well as in the learned, you are in the man who is weak, and you are in th(j(<J»^v#g; know this and be sympathetic'. And that is why we must not hint olheis. y 4 why 1 do not even care whether I have to starve, because theie will be ^ns of mouths eating at the same time, and they aie all mine. Theiefore I / yffd not caie vthat becomes of me and mine, for the whole universe is mine, I '.am enjoying all the bliss at the same time; and who can kill me, or the univeise? ^leiein is moialUy. Here, in Advaita alone, is moiality explained. The otheis teach ^1, but cannot give you its reasem. Then, so far about explanation.
What is the gam? It is stiength. Take off that veil of hypnotism which you have cast upon the woild, send not out thoughts and wouis of weak- ' ftiE VEHaNTA heS8 Unto liumanity. Know that all sms and all evils can be sommed up itt that one woi\l, weakness. It is weakness that is the motive power in all' evil doing; it is weakness that is the source of all selfishness; it Is weakness that makes men injure others; it is weakness that makes them manifest what they arc not In reality. f.et them all know what they arc; let them repeat day and night what they are. Soham — Let them suck it in with their molhcis’ milk, this idea of strength — I am He, I am lie. This Is to be heald fiisl.— etc< And then let them think of it, and out of that thought, out of that heait will pioceed woiks- such as tho world has never seen. What has to be done } Aye, this AdvaUa is said by some to be impracticable j that is to say, it is not )et manifesting itself on the mateiial plane* To a ceilain extent that is tiuc, for, icmcmber thc-saying of the Vedas— * ^ argi «Tt i frg; ti “ Om, this is the great secret; Om, this is the giealcsl possession; he who knows the secret of this Om, whatever he desires that he gets.”.\yc, ilieietorc hist know the secret of this Om, that you are the Om; know the secret of this 'J.\\ll;\viuisu.iud then and then alone, whatever you want shall come to you. If you want to be gieal matetially, believe that you are so* I may be a lillle bubblCj^ and you may be a wave iiiouiilam- high, but know that foi both of us the infinite ocean is the backgiouiid, the infinite Biahman is our maga/.ine of powei and sticnglh, and we can diaw as nmeh as wo like, both of us, I the bubble and you the niounl.ain-liigh wave* Believe theicfoie m yourselves, The seciet of Advaila is — Believe m yomscives fust, and then believe in ail) thing else. In the hisioty of the woild, you will fi»»'^fhat only those nations that have believed in themselves have become great and stioiig. In the hisluiy of each nation, you will alw.ays find that only those individuals who have believed in themselves have become gicat and strong. Ileic, to India, came an I'higli.shinaii who was duly a clerk, and for want of funds and olhei leasons he twice Hied to blow his bi.iins out, and when he failed, he believed in himself, he believed that be vv.ts bom to do gieat things, and that man became Lord Clive, the foundei of the Kmpiie* If he had believed the pddris and gone ciavvling all his life— “ Oh Loid I am weak, and 1 am low ■’ — wheie would he have been In a lunatic.isylum. You also aie made limaiics with these evil teachings. 1 have seen all the world over, vie bad ellecLs of these weak teachings of humility destroying the human race Our childien aic bioiight up in this way, and is it a wonder ihai they become semi-lunalics.
This is teaching on the piactical side. Believe, ihercloie, in yomscives, and if you want mateiial wealth, work it out; it will come to you* It you want to bt inlelleclual, work It out on the intellectual plane, and inlelleclual giants you shall be. Aud if you want to attain to fieedom, work it out on the spiiUual plane, and fiee you shall be, and shall enter into Nirvana, the blissful. But one defect which lay m the Advaiia vjas, its being worked out so long on the spiiilual plane only, and nowheie else; now, the time has come when you have to make it piactical. It shall no moie Ive a Rahcnya, a scciet, it shall no more live with monks in caves and forests, and in the Himalayas, it must come down to the daily, everyd.vy life of the people; it shall be worked out in the palace of lire king, in the cave of the recluse, it shall be vvoiked out in the cottage of the poor, by the beggar in the stieet, cvcrjcfcvheie, tmyvvheie it can be vvoiked ou Therefore do not fear whether you aie a vjjjjjman oi a Sudia, foi this leligion is so great, says Lord Kiislma, that even tire least done, brings a gieat amount of good.
178 LECTURES—FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA Therefore, children of the Aryas, do not sit idle; awake, arise, and stop not till the goal IS reached. The time has come when this Advaila is to be worked out practically. Let us bring it down from heaven unto the earth; this is the present dispen.sation. A} e, the voices of our forefathers of old are telling us to bring it down from heaven to the eaith. Let your teachings permeate the world, till they have entered into every pore of society, till they have become the common propeity of everybody, till they have become part and parcel of our lives, till they have entered into our veins and tingle with every drop of blood there.
Aye, you may be astonished to hear, that as piactical Vedantists the Americans are better than we- are. I used to stand on the.sea-shore at New Yoik, and look at the emi- grants coining fiom different countries, crushed, down-tiodden, hopeless, unable to look a man in the face, with a little bundle of clothes as all their possession, and these all in rags; if they saw a policeman they were afiaidand tried to get to the other side of the footpath. And, maik }Ou, in six months tho.se very men were walking erect, well-clothed, looking eveiybody in the face; and what made this wondeiful differ- ence? Say, this man comes fiom Armenia, or somewhere else where he was crushed down beyond all recognition, where everybody told him he was a born slave, and born to lemain in a low state all his life, and where at the least move on his part he was trodden upon. 'I'heie ever) thing told him as it were, “ Slave! you are a slave, remain «o. Hopeless you were boin, hopeless you must remain.” Kven the very air murmured round him as it weie, “There is no hope for you, hopeless and a slave you must remain”; while the stiong man ciiished the life out of him. And when he landed in the streets of New Yoik, he found a gentleman, welldressed, shaking him by the hand; it made no diffeience that the one was in lags and the other well-clad. He went a step fuither and saw a restaurant, that theie were gentlemen dining at a table, and he was asked to take a seat at the corner of the same table. lie went about, and found anew life, that there was a place wheie he was a man among men. Perhaps he went to Washington, shook hands with the Piesident of the United States, and perhaps there he saw men coming from distant villages, peasants, and ill-clad, all shaking hands with the Piesident. Then the veil of Maya slipped away from him. He is Brahman, he who has been hypnotised into slavery and weakness, is once more awake, and he rises up and finds himself a man, in a woild of men. Aye, in this country of ours, the very birthplace of the Vedanta, our masses have been hypnotised for ages into that stale. To touch them is pollution; to sit with tlujin is pollution! Hopeless they were born; hopele.ss they must remain I And the result is that they have been sinking, sinking, sinking, and have come to the last stage to which a human being can come. For what country is theie in the world where man has to sleep with the cattle; ai d for this blame nobody else, do not commit the mistake of the ignoiant. The effect is here and the cause is here too. We are to blame. Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders. Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all.the faults you suffer from you are the sole and only cause.
Young men of Lahore, understand this, therefore, this great sin, hereditary and national, is on your shouldeis. There is no hope for us. You may make thousands of societies, twenty thousand political assemblages, fifty thousand institu- tions. These will be of no use ufttil there is that sympathy, that love, that heait, that thinks for all; until Buddha’s heart comes once more into India, until the words of IvOid Kiishna aic brought to their piactical use, thete is no hope for us. You go on the VEDA.WA 17, imitating the F.uropeans and their so'dieties and their assemhlages, but let me tell you a story, a fact that I saw with my own eyes. A company of Burmans was taken over to London by some persons here, who turned out to be Kuraslans. 7'hey exhibited tliese people in London, took all the money, and tlien took these Burmans ovei to the Continent, and left them there for good or evil, ’riie.se poor people did not know a word of any European language, but the Knglish Consul in Austiia sent them over to London. They were helpless in London, witlioiit knowing anyone. But an English lady got to know of them, took these foreigneis from Burma into her own house, gave them her own clothes, her bed, and eveiything, and then sent the news to the papers. And, mark you, the next day the whole nation was, as it weie, roused. Money poured in and these people were helped out and sent hack to Buima. On this soit of sympadiy are based all their political and other insiitnlions; it is the rock-fonndalion of love, for themselves at least. They may tiot love the woild; and the Burmans may be their enemies, but in England, it goes without saying, tbeie is this great love for their own people, for truth and justice and charity to the sti anger at the door. I should be the most Jingrateful man if I did not tell you how woudei fully and how hospitably I was received in every country in the West, Where is the heart here to build upon 1 No sooner do we stait a little joint-stock company than we try to cheat each olhei, and the whole thing comes down with a crash. You talk of imitating the English, and building up as big a nation as they ate. But where are the foundations? Ours arc only sand, and therefore the building comes down with a crash in no lime.
'Iheiefore, }Oung men of T.ahoie, raise once more that mlgHty banner of Advaila, for on no other ground can you h.ave that wondeiful love, until you see that the same T.oid is present eveiywhere. Unfuil that banner of love! " Aiise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. ” Atisc, aiise once more, for nothing can be done without renunciation. If you want to help others, your little self must go. In the woids of the C'hiistians— you cannot serve God and Mammon at the same lime. Have Vtii/ diryiun — your ancestors gave up the woild for doing gie.it things. At the present lime theie aic men who give up the w'oild to help their own salvation. 'I'hiow away everything, even your own salvation, and go and help otheis. Aye, you are alw.ays talking hold woids, hut heie is piaclical Vedanta beloie you. Give up this little life of yours. What matters it if you die of slaivation, you and I and thons.ands like us, so long as this nation lives? The nation is sinking, the cnise of unnumbered millions is on our heads; -those to whom we have been giving ditch-water to di ink when they have been dying of thirst and while the peiennial river of water was flowing past; the unnumbered millions whom we have allowed to starve in sight of plenty; the unnumbered millions to whom we have talked of Advaita and whom w'e have hated with all our strength; the unnumbered millions for whom we have invented the doctiine of LoMchdra; — to wlK»m we have l.ilked theoretically that we are all the same, and all are one with the same T.ord, without even an ounce of practice. “ Yet, my friends, it must be only in the mind and never in practice I” Wipe off this blot. “Arise and awake.” What matters it if this little life goes; everyone has to die, the saint 01 the.sinner, the rich or the poor. The body never remains for anyone. Aiise and awake and be peifeclly sincete. Oui insincerity in India is awful; what we want is chaiacter, that steadiness «and chaiacter that make a man cling on to a thing like grim death.
i8o LFXTURES~FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA “ Tx't the sages blame or let them praise, let Lakshmi come to-day or let het go away, let death come just now, or in a hundied years; be indeed is the sage who does not make one false step from the right path.” Arise and awake, for the time is passing and all our eiieigies will be flittered away in vain talking. Arise and awake, let minor things, and (piarrels over little details, and fights over little doctrines be thrown a',ide, lor here is the gieatcst of all woiks, here are the sinking millions. When the Mahommedans fust came into India, what great numbers of Hindus were heie; but maik, how to-day they have dwimlled down. Every day they will become less and less till the whole disappear. Let them disappear, but with them will disap- pear the maivcllous ideas, of which, with all their defects and all their misrepresenta lions, they still stand as rcpiescnlalives. And with them will disappear this marvell- ous Advaita, the crest-jewcl of all spiritual thought. Therefore, arise, awake, with youi hands stretched out to protect the spiiltuality of the world. And first of all, ^YOl■k it out foi your own countiy. What we want Is, not so much spirituality as a little of the biinging down of the Advaita into the mateiial woild. First bread and then religion. We stutf them too much with religion, when the poor fellows have been starving. No dogmas will satisfy the craving of hunger. There are two curses here, first our weakness, secondly, our haticd, our diied-up hearts. You may talk docliines by the millions, yon may have sects by the hundicds of millions; aye, but it is nothing until you have the heart to feel, feel for them as your Veda teaches yon, till you find that they are pails of your own bodies, till you realise that you and they, the poor and the lich, the saint and the sinner, are all paits of One Infinite Whole, which }Ou call Biahman.
Gentlemen, I have tiicd to place before you a few of the most biilliant points of the Advaita system, and now the time has come when it should bo cai lied into practice, not only in this countiy but everywhere. Modem Science and Its sledge- hammer blows are pulveiiMiig the poicelain foundations of all Dualistic religions everywhere. Not only here aie the Dualists toi luring texts till they will extend no longer, — for texts aie not India-iubber, — it Is not only here that they are Hying to get into the nooks and comers to protect themselves, it is still more so in Kuiope and Amciica. And even theie something of this idea will have to go from India. It has all eady got there. It will have to giovv and increase, and save their civilisations too. For, in the West, the old order of things is vanishing, giving way to a new order of things, which is the worship of gold, the woiship of Mammon, 'rims, this old crude B>siem of leligion was heltei than the modern system, namely,— competition and gold. No nation, however strong, can stand on such foundations, and the history of the world tells us that all that had such foundations aiC dead and gone. In the first place wo have to stop the In-coming of.such a wave in India. Therefore, pieach the Advaita to every one, so that religion may vvilhsland the shock of modern science. Not only so, you will have to help others; your thought will help out Europe and Anieilca. Bui above all, let me once more remind you that here is need of practical woik, and the fiisl part of that js, that you should go to the sinking millions of India, and take them by the hand, remembering the words of the Lord Kiishna ft agr asifoi % flw: n “Even in this life they have conquered heaven whose minds are firmed-fixed on the sameness of everything, for God is pme and the same to all; therefore, such Ale said to be living in God.”
VRDANTISM.
At Klietri on 20lh December 1897, Swami Yivekananda delivered a lecture on Vedanlism, in the ball of the I\[aliarajA’s bun}?alow in which he lodged with his disciples. 'Phe Swami was introduced by the Rajaji, who was the' president of the meeting, and spoke for more than an hour and a half. The Swami was at his best, and it was a matter of regret that no shorthand w liter was present to repoit this interesting lecture at length. The following is a summaiy from’ notes Laken down at the time; - Two nations of yore, namely the Oieck and the Aryan, placed in different environments and circunistances,—the formei, suiiounded by all that was beautiful, sweet, and tempting in Nature, with an invigoiating chmatc, and the latter, suiiounded on every side by all that was sublime, and boin and nuitmed in a climate which did not allow of much physical exercise, —developed two peculiai and dineiciit ideals of civilisation. The study of the Greeks was the outer infinite, while that ot the Ai}ans was the inner infinite one studied the macrocosm, and the other, the iniciocosm. Js.uh had its distinct part to play in the civilisation of the woild. Not (hat one was leipiircd to horiow from the other, hut if they compared notes both would be the gamers. The Aryans were by nature an analytical race. In the.sciences of matbemalics and giammar wondciful fruits were gained, and by the analy.si.s ol mind the full tree was developed. In Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and the Egyptian neo-Plalonist.s, we can find traces of Indian thought.
The Swami then traced in detail the induence of Indian ihoughl on Europe, and showed how at different periods Spain, Germ.my, and other Kuiopcan countiies, were greatly influenced by it. I'he Indian piince, Dani Shuko, tianslated the Upani- shads into Persian, ami a Latin translation of the same wms seen by Schopenhauer, whose philosophy was moulded by these. Next to him, the philosophy of Kant also shows traces of the teachings of the Upanisliads. In Europe it is the inteiest in roin- paiative philology that aitiacts scholais to the study ot.Sanskiit. though there are men like Deussen who take interest in philosophy for its own sake. The Swami hoped that in future much more interest would he laken in the study of Sanskiit. He then showed that the word “Hindu” in foimcr limes was full of meaning,.is lefcriing to the people living beyond the Sindhu, or the Indus; it is now meaningless, lepreseu- ting neither the nation, nor their religion, for on this side of the Indus, various nations professing differ«nt religions live at the pre.sent day.
The Swami then dw'clt at length on the Vedas, and stated that they were not spoken by any person, but the ideas were evolving slowly and slowly until they were embodied in book form, and then that book became the auiboiily. He said, that various religions were embodied in books; the power of books seemed to be infinite. The Hindus have their Vedas, and will have to hold on to them for thousands of years more, but their ideas about them are to be changed and built anew on a solid founda- tion of rock. The Vedas, he said, were a huge literature. Ninety-nine per cent, of them were missing; they were in the keeping of certain families, w'lth whose extinc- tion the books were lost. But still, those that are ktt now, could not be contained iSi LECTURES -FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA even in a large hall like that, 'rtiey were written in language, archaic and simple; their grammar was veiy etude, so much so, that it was said that some part of the Vedas had no meaning.
He then dilated on the two portions of the Vedas--lhe Karma-kandam and the Jnana-kandam. 'I'he Karma-kandam, he said, were the Sainhitas and the Ihalunana'^. The Biahmanas dealt with sacniices. The Samhilas weie songs com- posed in ihhandiis known as Anushthup, Trishtup, Jagati, c'i:c. Generally they piaised deities such as Vanina or India, and the (jue.stion arose who were these deities, and if any thcoiy was raised about them they weie smashed up by other theoiies, and so on It went.
'I'lic Swami then pioceeded to explain different ideas of w’orship. With the ancient Babylonians, the soul was only a double, having no individuality of its own and not able to bieak its connecliou with the body. 'I'his double was believed to suffer hunger and thiist, feelings and emotions like that of the old body. Another idea was, that if the fust body was injured the double would be injuied also; when the first was annihilated, the double also pciished; so the tendency grew to preserve the body, and thus mummies, tombs, and graves came into existence. 'I’lie Isgyptians, the liabylonians, and the Jews never got any farther than this idea of the double; they did not leach to the idea of the Atman beyond.
Pi of. I\Iax Muliei’s opinion was, that not the least trace of ancestral worship could be found in the Rig- Veda, 'riierc we do not meet with the lion id sight of mummies staling slaik and blank at us. 'I'here the gods w'ere fi iendly to man; communion between the woishipper and the woishippcd was healthy. Theie was no moroseness, no want of simple joy, no lack of smiles, or light in the eyes. The Swami said that, dwelling on the Vedas he even seemed to hear the laughter of the god^!. The Vedic Rishis might not have had finish in their expression hut they weie men of culluie and heait, and we arc brutes in compaiison to them. Swamiji then lecited sevcial Manilas in confirmation of what he had just said. “Cairyhimto the place where the Kailiers live, where there is no giief or soriow.” &c. Thus the idea aiose that the sooner the dead body was cremated the belter. By and by they came to know that there w-as a finer body that went to a place wheic ihcie was all joy and no soirow. In the Semitic type of religion there was tiihulalion and feai; it was thought that if a man >aw God, he would die. But according to the Rig- Vetla, wlien a man saw God face to face then began his leal life.
Now the question came to be asked, w'hat were these gods. Sometimes Indra came and helped man; sometimes Indra diank too much Soma. Now and again, adjectives.such as, all-powei fill, all-peivading, were alliibu^ed to him; the same was the case with Vaiuna. In this w.iy it went on, and some of these Mantras depicting the chaiacteiibtics of these gods w-ere maivellous, and the language w-as exceedingly grand. The speaker here repeated the famous Nd'iadiya Sukla, which describes the Prala)a stale, and in which occuis the idea of ‘Daikness coveiing darkness,’ and asked, if the persons that desciibed these sublime ideas in such poetic thought w'cre uncivilised and uncultured, what can we call our.selves? It was not for him, Swamiji said, to criticise or pass any judgment on those Rishis anil their Gods — Indra, or Vaiuna. All this was likje.\ panoiama, unfolding one scene after another, and behind them all as a background stood out “ I ” “That which exists is One; sages call It yaiiously.” The whole thing was most mystical, mar- vellous, and exquisitely beautiful. It seemed even yet quitd unapproachable, — VEDANTISM 183 tlie veil was so thin that it would rend, as it were, at the least touch and vanish like a mirage.
Continuing he said, that one thing seemed to him quite clear and possible, that Aryans too, like the Greeks, went to outside Nature for their solution, that Nature tempted them outside, led them step by step to the outward woi Id, beautiful and good. Hut here in India anything which was not sublime, counted for nothing. It never occuried to the Gieeks to piy into the secrets after death. But here fiom the beginning was asked again and again, “ What am f?" *• What will become of me after death.^” There the Greek thought,, the man died and went to heaven. What was meant by going to heaven? It meant going outside of everything; there was nothing inside, everything was outside; his search was all diiected oul.side, nay, he himself v\as, as it were, outside himself. And when he went to a place which was very much like this woild minus all its sorrows, he thought he had got everything that was desirable and was satisfied; and there all ideas of religion stopped. But this did not satisfy the Hindu mind; in its analysis, these heavens were all included within the rnatciial univcise. “Whatever conies by combination” the Hindus said, “dies of annihila- tion.” They asked extcinal Nature, “Do you know what is soul?” and Nature answered, “ No.” Is there any (jod?” Nature answcicd, “ I do not know.” 'rhen they tinned away from Nature. They understood that external Nature, however great and giand, w'as limited in.space and lime. Then there arose another voice; new sublime thoughts dawned in their minds. That voice.said—” AWi, A’eli," “ Not this, Not this.” All the different gods vvcie now leduced into one;.suns, moons, and slurs,— nay, the whole univeise— were one, and upon this new ideal, spiritual basis of leligion was built.
“ There the sun doth not shine, neither the moon, nor stars, nor lightning, what to speak of this fiie. He.shining, everything doth shine. Through Him evciy- thmg shmeth.” No more is there that limited, ciude, personal idea; no more is there that little idea of (jod silling in judgment; no more is that search outside, but hencefoilh it is directed inside. Thus the Upanishads became the Bible of India.
It was a vast literature, these Upanishads, and all the schools holding diffeient opinions in India came to be established on the foundation of the Upanishads.