{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_6842/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_6842","id":"gutenberg_6842","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6842","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Nobel Prizes in Literature","Philosophy, Hindu","Values"],"text":"Produced by Chetan Jain at BharatLiterature\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nS\u0100DHAN\u0100\n\n\nTHE REALISATION OF LIFE\n\n\nBy\n\nRabindranath Tagore\n\nAuthor of 'Gitanjali'\n\n\n1916\n\n\n\nTo\n\nErnest Rhys\n\n\n\nAuthor's Preface\n\n\nPerhaps it is well for me to explain that the subject-matter of\nthe papers published in this book has not been philosophically\ntreated, nor has it been approached from the scholar's point of\nview.  The writer has been brought up in a family where texts of\nthe Upanishads are used in daily worship; and he has had before\nhim the example of his father, who lived his long life in the\nclosest communion with God, while not neglecting his duties to\nthe world, or allowing his keen interest in all human affairs to\nsuffer any abatement.  So in these papers, it may be hoped,\nwestern readers will have an opportunity of coming into touch\nwith the ancient spirit of India as revealed in our sacred texts\nand manifested in the life of to-day.\n\nAll the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the\nletter but by the spirit--the spirit which unfolds itself with\nthe growth of life in history.  We get to know the real meaning\nof Christianity by observing its living aspect at the present\nmoment--however different that may be, even in important\nrespects, from the Christianity of earlier periods.\n\nFor western scholars the great religious scriptures of India seem\nto possess merely a retrospective and arch\u00e6logical interest; but\nto us they are of living importance, and we cannot help thinking\nthat they lose their significance when exhibited in labelled\ncases--mummied specimens of human thought and aspiration,\npreserved for all time in the wrappings of erudition.\n\nThe meaning of the living words that come out of the experiences\nof great hearts can never be exhausted by any one system of\nlogical interpretation.  They have to be endlessly explained by\nthe commentaries of individual lives, and they gain an added\nmystery in each new revelation.  To me the verses of the\nUpanishads and the teachings of Buddha have ever been things of\nthe spirit, and therefore endowed with boundless vital growth;\nand I have used them, both in my own life and in my preaching, as\nbeing instinct with individual meaning for me, as for others, and\nawaiting for their confirmation, my own special testimony, which\nmust have its value because of its individuality.\n\nI should add perhaps that these papers embody in a connected\nform, suited to this publication, ideas which have been culled\nfrom several of the Bengali discourses which I am in the habit of\ngiving to my students in my school at Bolpur in Bengal; and I\nhave used here and there translations of passages from these done\nby my friends, Babu Satish Chandra Roy and Babu Ajit Kumar\nChakravarti.  The last paper of this series, \"Realisation in\nAction,\" has been translated from my Bengali discourse on\n\"Karma-yoga\" by my nephew, Babu Surendra Nath Tagore.\n\nI take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Professor\nJames H. Woods, of Harvard University, for his generous\nappreciation which encouraged me to complete this series of\npapers and read most of them before the Harvard University.  And\nI offer my thanks to Mr. Ernest Rhys for his kindness in helping\nme with suggestions and revisions, and in going through the\nproofs.\n\nA word may be added about the pronouncing of S\u0101dhan\u0101: the accent\nfalls decisively on the first \u0101, which has the broad sound of the\nletter.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nI. THE RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE UNIVERSE\nII. SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS\nIII. THE PROBLEM OF EVIL\nIV. THE PROBLEM OF SELF\nV. REALISATION IN LOVE\nVI. REALISATION IN ACTION\nVII. THE REALISATION OF BEAUTY\nVIII. THE REALISATION OF THE INFINITE\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nTHE RELATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE UNIVERSE\n\n\nThe civilisation of ancient Greece was nurtured within city\nwalls.  In fact, all the modern civilisations have their cradles\nof brick and mortar.\n\nThese walls leave their mark deep in the minds of men.  They set\nup a principle of \"divide and rule\" in our mental outlook, which\nbegets in us a habit of securing all our conquests by fortifying\nthem and separating them from one another.  We divide nation and\nnation, knowledge and knowledge, man and nature.  It breeds in us\na strong suspicion of whatever is beyond the barriers we have\nbuilt, and everything has to fight hard for its entrance into our\nrecognition.\n\nWhen the first Aryan invaders appeared in India it was a vast\nland of forests, and the new-comers rapidly took advantage of\nthem.  These forests afforded them shelter from the fierce heat\nof the sun and the ravages of tropical storms, pastures for\ncattle, fuel for sacrificial fire, and materials for building\ncottages.  And the different Aryan clans with their patriarchal\nheads settled in the different forest tracts which had some\nspecial advantage of natural protection, and food and water in\nplenty.\n\nThus in India it was in the forests that our civilisation had its\nbirth, and it took a distinct character from this origin and\nenvironment.  It was surrounded by the vast life of nature, was\nfed and clothed by her, and had the closest and most constant\nintercourse with her varying aspects.\n\nSuch a life, it may be thought, tends to have the effect of\ndulling human intelligence and dwarfing the incentives to\nprogress by lowering the standards of existence.  But in ancient\nIndia we find that the circumstances of forest life did not\novercome man's mind, and did not enfeeble the current of his\nenergies, but only gave to it a particular direction.  Having\nbeen in constant contact with the living growth of nature, his\nmind was free from the desire to extend his dominion by erecting\nboundary walls around his acquisitions.  His aim was not to\nacquire but to realise, to enlarge his consciousness by growing\nwith and growing into his surroundings.  He felt that truth is\nall-comprehensive, that there is no such thing as absolute\nisolation in existence, and the only way of attaining truth is\nthrough the interpenetration of our being into all objects.  To\nrealise this great harmony between man's spirit and the spirit of\nthe world was the endeavour of the forest-dwelling sages of\nancient India.\n\nIn later days there came a time when these primeval forests gave\nway to cultivated fields, and wealthy cities sprang up on all\nsides.  Mighty kingdoms were established, which had\ncommunications with all the great powers of the world.  But even\nin the heyday of its material prosperity the heart of India ever\nlooked back with adoration upon the early ideal of strenuous\nself-realisation, and the dignity of the simple life of the\nforest hermitage, and drew its best inspiration from the wisdom\nstored there.\n\nThe west seems to take a pride in thinking that it is subduing\nnature; as if we are living in a hostile world where we have to\nwrest everything we want from an unwilling and alien arrangement\nof things.  This sentiment is the product of the city-wall habit\nand training of mind.  For in the city life man naturally directs\nthe concentrated light of his mental vision upon his own life and\nworks, and this creates an artificial dissociation between\nhimself and the Universal Nature within whose bosom he lies.\n\nBut in India the point of view was different; it included the\nworld with the man as one great truth.  India put all her\nemphasis on the harmony that exists between the individual and\nthe universal.  She felt we could have no communication whatever\nwith our surroundings if they were absolutely foreign to us.\nMan's complaint against nature is that he has to acquire most of\nhis necessaries by his own efforts.  Yes, but his efforts are not\nin vain; he is reaping success every day, and that shows there is\na rational connection between him and nature, for we never can\nmake anything our own except that which is truly related to us.\n\nWe can look upon a road from two different points of view.  One\nregards it as dividing us from the object of our desire; in that\ncase we count every step of our journey over it as something\nattained by force in the face of obstruction.  The other sees it\nas the road which leads us to our destination; and as such it is\npart of our goal.  It is already the beginning of our attainment,\nand by journeying over it we can only gain that which in itself\nit offers to us.  This last point of view is that of India with\nregard to nature.  For her, the great fact is that we are in\nharmony with nature; that man can think because his thoughts are\nin harmony with things; that he can use the forces of nature for\nhis own purpose only because his power is in harmony with the\npower which is universal, and that in the long run his purpose\nnever can knock against the purpose which works through nature.\n\nIn the west the prevalent feeling is that nature belongs\nexclusively to inanimate things and to beasts, that there is a\nsudden unaccountable break where human-nature begins.  According\nto it, everything that is low in the scale of beings is merely\nnature, and whatever has the stamp of perfection on it,\nintellectual or moral, is human-nature.  It is like dividing the\nbud and the blossom into two separate categories, and putting\ntheir grace to the credit of two different and antithetical\nprinciples.  But the Indian mind never has any hesitation in\nacknowledging its kinship with nature, its unbroken relation with\nall.\n\nThe fundamental unity of creation was not simply a philosophical\nspeculation for India; it was her life-object to realise this\ngreat harmony in feeling and in action.  With mediation and\nservice, with a regulation of life, she cultivated her\nconsciousness in such a way that everything had a spiritual\nmeaning to her.  The earth, water and light, fruits and flowers,\nto her were not merely physical phenomena to be turned to use and\nthen left aside.  They were necessary to her in the attainment of\nher ideal of perfection, as every note is necessary to the\ncompleteness of the symphony.  India intuitively felt that the\nessential fact of this world has a vital meaning for us; we have\nto be fully alive to it and establish a conscious relation with\nit, not merely impelled by scientific curiosity or greed of\nmaterial advantage, but realising it in the spirit of sympathy,\nwith a large feeling of joy and peace.\n\nThe man of science knows, in one aspect, that the world is not\nmerely what it appears to be to our senses; he knows that earth\nand water are really the play of forces that manifest themselves\nto us as earth and water--how, we can but partially apprehend.\nLikewise the man who has his spiritual eyes open knows that the\nultimate truth about earth and water lies in our apprehension of\nthe eternal will which works in time and takes shape in the\nforces we realise under those aspects.  This is not mere\nknowledge, as science is, but it is a preception of the soul by\nthe soul.  This does not lead us to power, as knowledge does, but\nit gives us joy, which is the product of the union of kindred\nthings.  The man whose acquaintance with the world does not lead\nhim deeper than science leads him, will never understand what it\nis that the man with the spiritual vision finds in these natural\nphenomena.  The water does not merely cleanse his limbs, but it\npurifies his heart; for it touches his soul.  The earth does not\nmerely hold his body, but it gladdens his mind; for its contact\nis more than a physical contact--it is a living presence.  When a\nman does not realise his kinship with the world, he lives in a\nprison-house whose walls are alien to him.  When he meets the\neternal spirit in all objects, then is he emancipated, for then\nhe discovers the fullest significance of the world into which he\nis born; then he finds himself in perfect truth, and his harmony\nwith the all is established.  In India men are enjoined to be\nfully awake to the fact that they are in the closest relation to\nthings around them, body and soul, and that they are to hail the\nmorning sun, the flowing water, the fruitful earth, as the\nmanifestation of the same living truth which holds them in its\nembrace.  Thus the text of our everyday meditation is the\n_Gayathri_, a verse which is considered to be the epitome of all\nthe Vedas.  By its help we try to realise the essential unity of\nthe world with the conscious soul of man; we learn to perceive\nthe unity held together by the one Eternal Spirit, whose power\ncreates the earth, the sky, and the stars, and at the same time\nirradiates our minds with the light of a consciousness that moves\nand exists in unbroken continuity with the outer world.\n\nIt is not true that India has tried to ignore differences of\nvalue in different things, for she knows that would make life\nimpossible.  The sense of the superiority of man in the scale of\ncreation has not been absent from her mind.  But she has had her\nown idea as to that in which his superiority really consists.  It\nis not in the power of possession but in the power of union.\nTherefore India chose her places of pilgrimage wherever there was\nin nature some special grandeur or beauty, so that her mind could\ncome out of its world of narrow necessities and realise its place\nin the infinite.  This was the reason why in India a whole\npeople who once were meat-eaters gave up taking animal food to\ncultivate the sentiment of universal sympathy for life, an event\nunique in the history of mankind.\n\nIndia knew that when by physical and mental barriers we violently\ndetach ourselves from the inexhaustible life of nature; when we\nbecome merely man, but not man-in-the-universe, we create\nbewildering problems, and having shut off the source of their\nsolution, we try all kinds of artificial methods each of which\nbrings its own crop of interminable difficulties.  When man\nleaves his resting-place in universal nature, when he walks on\nthe single rope of humanity, it means either a dance or a fall\nfor him, he has ceaselessly to strain every nerve and muscle to\nkeep his balance at each step, and then, in the intervals of his\nweariness, he fulminates against Providence and feels a secret\npride and satisfaction in thinking that he has been unfairly\ndealt with by the whole scheme of things.\n\nBut this cannot go on for ever.  Man must realise the wholeness\nof his existence, his place in the infinite; he must know that\nhard as he may strive he can never create his honey within the\ncells of his hive; for the perennial supply of his life food is\noutside their walls.  He must know that when man shuts himself\nout from the vitalising and purifying touch of the infinite, and\nfalls back upon himself for his sustenance and his healing, then\nhe goads himself into madness, tears himself into shreds, and\neats his own substance.  Deprived of the background of the whole,\nhis poverty loses its one great quality, which is simplicity, and\nbecomes squalid and shamefaced.  His wealth is no longer\nmagnanimous; it grows merely extravagant.  His appetites do not\nminister to his life, keeping to the limits of their purpose;\nthey become an end in themselves and set fire to his life and\nplay the fiddle in the lurid light of the conflagration.  Then it\nis that in our self-expression we try to startle and not to\nattract; in art we strive for originality and lose sight of truth\nwhich is old and yet ever new; in literature we miss the complete\nview of man which is simple and yet great, but he appears as a\npsychological problem or the embodiment of a passion that is\nintense because abnormal and because exhibited in the glare of a\nfiercely emphatic light which is artificial.  When man's\nconsciousness is restricted only to the immediate vicinity of his\nhuman self, the deeper roots of his nature do not find their\npermanent soil, his spirit is ever on the brink of starvation,\nand in the place of healthful strength he substitutes rounds of\nstimulation.  Then it is that man misses his inner perspective\nand measures his greatness by its bulk and not by its vital link\nwith the infinite, judges his activity by its movement and not by\nthe repose of perfection--the repose which is in the starry\nheavens, in the ever-flowing rhythmic dance of creation.\n\nThe first invasion of India has its exact parallel in the\ninvasion of America by the European settlers.  They also were\nconfronted with primeval forests and a fierce struggle with\naboriginal races.  But this struggle between man and man, and man\nand nature lasted till the very end; they never came to any\nterms.  In India the forests which were the habitation of the\nbarbarians became the sanctuary of sages, but in America these\ngreat living cathedrals of nature had no deeper significance to\nman.  The brought wealth and power to him, and perhaps at times\nthey ministered to his enjoyment of beauty, and inspired a\nsolitary poet.  They never acquired a sacred association in the\nhearts of men as the site of some great spiritual reconcilement\nwhere man's soul has its meeting-place with the soul of the\nworld.\n\nI do not for a moment wish to suggest that these things should\nhave been otherwise.  It would be an utter waste of opportunities\nif history were to repeat itself exactly in the same manner in\nevery place.  It is best for the commerce of the spirit that\npeople differently situated should bring their different products\ninto the market of humanity, each of which is complementary and\nnecessary to the others.  All that I wish to say is that India at\nthe outset of her career met with a special combination of\ncircumstances which was not lost upon her.  She had, according to\nher opportunities, thought and pondered, striven and suffered,\ndived into the depths of existence, and achieved something which\nsurely cannot be without its value to people whose evolution in\nhistory took a different way altogether.  Man for his perfect\ngrowth requires all the living elements that constitute his\ncomplex life; that is why his food has to be cultivated in\ndifferent fields and brought from different sources.\n\nCivilisation is a kind of mould that each nation is busy making\nfor itself to shape its men and women according to its best\nideal.  All its institutions, its legislature, its standard of\napprobation and condemnation, its conscious and unconscious\nteachings tend toward that object.  The modern civilisation of\nthe west, by all its organised efforts, is trying to turn out men\nperfect in physical, intellectual, and moral efficiency.  There\nthe vast energies of the nations are employed in extending man's\npower over his surroundings, and people are combining and\nstraining every faculty to possess and to turn to account all\nthat they can lay their hands upon, to overcome every obstacle on\ntheir path of conquest.  They are ever disciplining themselves to\nfight nature and other races; their armaments are getting more\nand more stupendous every day; their machines, their appliances,\ntheir organisations go on multiplying at an amazing rate.  This\nis a splendid achievement, no doubt, and a wonderful\nmanifestation of man's masterfulness which knows no obstacle, and\nwhich has for its object the supremacy of himself over everything\nelse.\n\nThe ancient civilisation of India had its own ideal of perfection\ntowards which its efforts were directed.  Its aim was not\nattaining power, and it neglected to cultivate to the utmost its\ncapacities, and to organise men for defensive and offensive\npurposes, for co-operation in the acquisition of wealth and for\nmilitary and political ascendancy.  The ideal that India tried to\nrealise led her best men to the isolation of a contemplative\nlife, and the treasures that she gained for mankind by\npenetrating into the mysteries of reality cost her dear in the\nsphere of worldly success.  Yet, this also was a sublime\nachievement,--it was a supreme manifestation of that human\naspiration which knows no limit, and which has for its object\nnothing less than the realisation of the Infinite.\n\nThere were the virtuous, the wise, the courageous; there were the\nstatesmen, kings and emperors of India; but whom amongst all\nthese classes did she look up to and choose to be the\nrepresentative of men?\n\nThey were the rishis.  What were the rishis?  _They who having\nattained the supreme soul in knowledge were filled with wisdom,\nand having found him in union with the soul were in perfect\nharmony with the inner self; they having realised him in the\nheart were free from all selfish desires, and having experienced\nhim in all the activities of the world, had attained calmness.\nThe rishis were they who having reached the supreme God from all\nsides had found abiding peace, had become united with all, had\nentered into the life of the Universe._ [Footnote:\n/**\n  Sampr\u0101pyainam rishayo j\u00f1\u0101natripat\u0101h\n  Krit\u0101tm\u0101n\u014d v\u012btar\u0101g\u0101h pra\u00e7ant\u0101h\n  t\u0113 sarvagam sarvatah pr\u0101pya dh\u012br\u0101h\n  Yukt\u0101tm\u0101nah sarvam\u0113v\u0101vi\u00e7anti.\n*/\n]\n\nThus the state of realising our relationship with all, of\nentering into everything through union with God, was considered\nin India to be the ultimate end and fulfilment of humanity.\n\nMan can destroy and plunder, earn and accumulate, invent and\ndiscover, but he is great because his soul comprehends all.  It\nis dire destruction for him when he envelopes his soul in a dead\nshell of callous habits, and when a blind fury of works whirls\nround him like an eddying dust storm, shutting out the horizon.\nThat indeed kills the very spirit of his being, which is the\nspirit of comprehension.  Essentially man is not a slave either\nof himself or of the world; but he is a lover.  His freedom and\nfulfilment is in love, which is another name for perfect\ncomprehension.  By this power of comprehension, this permeation\nof his being, he is united with the all-pervading Spirit, who is\nalso the breath of his soul.  Where a man tries to raise himself\nto eminence by pushing and jostling all others, to achieve a\ndistinction by which he prides himself to be more than everybody\nelse, there he is alienated from that Spirit.  This is why the\nUpanishads describe those who have attained the goal of human\nlife as \"_peaceful_\" [Footnote: Pra\u00e7ant\u0101h] and as \"_at-one-with-God_,\"\n[Footnote: Yukt\u0101tm\u0101nah] meaning that they are in perfect\nharmony with man and nature, and therefore in undisturbed union\nwith God.\n\nWe have a glimpse of the same truth in the teachings of Jesus\nwhen he says, \"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye\nof a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven\"--which\nimplies that whatever we treasure for ourselves separates\nus from others; our possessions are our limitations.  He who is\nbent upon accumulating riches is unable, with his ego continually\nbulging, to pass through the gates of comprehension of the\nspiritual world, which is the world of perfect harmony; he is\nshut up within the narrow walls of his limited acquisitions.\n\nHence the spirit of the teachings of Upanishad is: In order to\nfind him you must embrace all.  In the pursuit of wealth you\nreally give up everything to gain a few things, and that is not\nthe way to attain him who is completeness.\n\nSome modern philosophers of Europe, who are directly or\nindirectly indebted to the Upanishads, far from realising their\ndebt, maintain that the Brahma of India is a mere abstraction, a\nnegation of all that is in the world.  In a word, that the\nInfinite Being is to be found nowhere except in metaphysics.  It\nmay be, that such a doctrine has been and still is prevalent with\na section of our countrymen.  But this is certainly not in accord\nwith the pervading spirit of the Indian mind.  Instead, it is the\npractice of realising and affirming the presence of the infinite\nin all things which has been its constant inspiration.\n\nWe are enjoined to see _whatever there is in the world as being\nenveloped by God._\n[Footnote: I\u00e7\u0101v\u0101syamidam sarvam yat ki\u00f1cha jagaty\u0101\u00f1 jagat.]\n\n_I bow to God over and over again who is in fire and in water, who\npermeates the whole world, who is in the annual crops as well as\nin the perennial trees._  [Footnote: Yo d\u0113v\u014d'gnau y'\u014dpsu y'\u014d\nvi\u00e7vambhuvanam\u0101viv\u0113\u00e7a ya \u014dshadhishu y\u014d  vanaspatishu tasmai d\u0113v\u0101ya\nnam\u014dnamah.]\n\nCan this be God abstracted from the world?  Instead, it signifies\nnot merely seeing him in all things, but saluting him in all the\nobjects of the world.  The attitude of the God-conscious man of\nthe Upanishad towards the universe is one of a deep feeling of\nadoration.  His object of worship is present everywhere.  It is\nthe one living truth that makes all realities true.  This truth\nis not only of knowledge but of devotion.  '_Namonamah_,'--we bow\nto him everywhere, and over and over again.  It is recognised in\nthe outburst of the Rishi, who addresses the whole world in a\nsudden ecstasy of joy: _Listen to me, ye sons of the immortal\nspirit, ye who live in the heavenly abode, I have known the\nSupreme Person whose light shines forth from beyond the darkness._\n[Footnote: \u00c7rinvantu vi\u00e7ve amritasya putr\u0101 \u0101 ye divya dh\u0101m\u0101ni\ntasthuh ved\u0101hametam purusham mah\u0101ntam \u0101ditya var\u0146am tamasah\nparast\u0101t.]  Do we not find the overwhelming delight of a direct\nand positive experience where there is not the least trace of\nvagueness or passivity?\n\nBuddha who developed the practical side of the teaching of\nUpanishads, preached the same message when he said, _With\neverything, whether it is above or below, remote or near, visible\nor invisible, thou shalt preserve a relation of unlimited love\nwithout any animosity or without a desire to kill.  To live in\nsuch a consciousness while standing or walking, sitting or lying\ndown till you are asleep, is Brahma vih\u0101ra, or, in other words,\nis living and moving and having your joy in the spirit of\nBrahma._\n\nWhat is that spirit?  The Upanishad says, _The being who is in\nhis essence the light and life of all, who is world-conscious, is\nBrahma._  [Footnote: Ya\u00e7ch\u0101yamasminn\u0101k\u0101\u00e7\u0113 t\u0113j\u014dmay\u014d'mritamayah\npurushah sarv\u0101nubh\u016bh.]  To feel all, to be conscious of\neverything, is his spirit.  We are immersed in his consciousness\nbody and soul.  It is through his consciousness that the sun\nattracts the earth; it is through his consciousness that the\nlight-waves are being transmitted from planet to planet.\n\nNot only in space, but _this light and life, this all-feeling\nbeing is in our souls._  [Footnote: Ya\u00e7ch\u0101yamasminn\u0101tmani\nt\u0113j\u014dmay\u014d'mritamayah purushah sarv\u0101nubh\u016bh.]  He is all-conscious\nin space, or the world of extension; and he is all-conscious in\nsoul, or the world of intension.\n\nThus to attain our world-consciousness, we have to unite our\nfeeling with this all-pervasive infinite feeling.  In fact, the\nonly true human progress is coincident with this widening of the\nrange of feeling.  All our poetry, philosophy, science, art and\nreligion are serving to extend the scope of our consciousness\ntowards higher and larger spheres.  Man does not acquire rights\nthrough occupation of larger space, nor through external conduct,\nbut his rights extend only so far as he is real, and his reality\nis measured by the scope of his consciousness.\n\nWe have, however, to pay a price for this attainment of the\nfreedom of consciousness.  What is the price?  It is to give\none's self away.  Our soul can realise itself truly only by\ndenying itself.  The Upanishad says, _Thou shalt gain by giving\naway_ [Footnote: Tyakt\u0113na bhu\u00f1j\u012bth\u0101h], _Thou shalt not covet._\n[Footnote: M\u0101 gridhah]\n\nIn Gita we are advised to work disinterestedly, abandoning all\nlust for the result.  Many outsiders conclude from this teaching\nthat the conception of the world as something unreal lies at the\nroot of the so-called disinterestedness preached in India.  But\nthe reverse is true.\n\nThe man who aims at his own aggrandisement underrates everything\nelse.  Compared to his ego the rest of the world is unreal.  Thus\nin order to be fully conscious of the reality of all, one has to\nbe free himself from the bonds of personal desires.  This\ndiscipline we have to go through to prepare ourselves for our\nsocial duties--for sharing the burdens of our fellow-beings.\nEvery endeavour to attain a larger life requires of man \"to gain\nby giving away, and not to be greedy.\"  And thus to expand\ngradually the consciousness of one's unity with all is the\nstriving of humanity.\n\nThe Infinite in India was not a thin nonentity, void of all\ncontent.  The Rishis of India asserted emphatically, \"To know him\nin this life is to be true; not to know him in this life is the\ndesolation of death.\"  [Footnote: Iha ch\u0113t av\u0113dit atha\nsatyamasti, nach\u0113t iha av\u0113dit mahat\u012b vinashtih.]  How to know him\nthen?  \"By realising him in each and all.\"  [Footnote: Bh\u016bt\u0113shu\nbh\u016bt\u0113shu vichintva.]  Not only in nature but in the family, in\nsociety, and in the state, the more we realise the World-conscious\nin all, the better for us.  Failing to realise it, we\nturn our faces to destruction.\n\nIt fills me with great joy and a high hope for the future of\nhumanity when I realise that there was a time in the remote past\nwhen our poet-prophets stood under the lavish sunshine of an\nIndian sky and greeted the world with the glad recognition of\nkindred.  It was not an anthropomorphic hallucination.  It was\nnot seeing man reflected everywhere in grotesquely exaggerated\nimages, and witnessing the human drama acted on a gigantic scale\nin nature's arena of flitting lights and shadows.  On the\ncontrary, it meant crossing the limiting barriers of the\nindividual, to become more than man, to become one with the All.\nIt was not a mere play of the imagination, but it was the\nliberation of consciousness from all the mystifications and\nexaggerations of the self.  These ancient seers felt in the\nserene depth of their mind that the same energy which vibrates\nand passes into the endless forms of the world manifests itself\nin our inner being as consciousness; and there is no break in\nunity.  For these seers there was no gap in their luminous vision\nof perfection.  They never acknowledged even death itself as\ncreating a chasm in the field of reality.  They said, _His\nreflection is death as well as immortality._  [Footnote: Yasya\nchh\u0101y\u0101mritam yasya mrityuh.]  They did not recognise any\nessential opposition between life and death, and they said with\nabsolute assurance, \"It is life that is death.\"  [Footnote: Pr\u0101no\nmrityuh.]  They saluted with the same serenity of gladness \"life\nin its aspect of appearing and in its aspect of departure\"--_That\nwhich is past is hidden in life, and that which is to come._\n[Footnote: Nam\u014d astu \u0101yat\u0113 nam\u014d astu par\u0101yat\u0113.  Pr\u0101n\u0113 ha bh\u016btam\nbhavya\u00f1cha.]  They knew that mere appearance and disappearance are\non the surface like waves on the sea, but life which is permanent\nknows no decay or diminution.\n\n_Everything has sprung from immortal life and is vibrating with\nlife_, [Footnote: Yadidan ki\u00f1cha pra\u0146a ejati nihsritam.] _for life\nis immense._  [Footnote: Pr\u0101no vir\u0101t.]\n\nThis is the noble heritage from our forefathers waiting to be\nclaimed by us as our own, this ideal of the supreme freedom of\nconsciousness.  It is not merely intellectual or emotional, it\nhas an ethical basis, and it must be translated into action.  In\nthe Upanishad it is said, _The supreme being is all-pervading,\ntherefore he is the innate good in all._  [Footnote: Sarvavy\u0101p\u012b\nsa bhagav\u0101n tasm\u0101t sarvagatah \u00e7ivah.]  To be truly united in\nknowledge, love, and service with all beings, and thus to\nrealise one's self in the all-pervading God is the essence of\ngoodness, and this is the keynote of the teachings of the\nUpanishads: _Life is immense!_  [Footnote: Pr\u0101\u0146o vir\u0101t.]\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nSOUL CONSCIOUSNESS\n\n\nWe have seen that it was the aspiration of ancient India to live\nand move and have its joy in Brahma, the all-conscious and\nall-pervading Spirit, by extending its field of consciousness over\nall the world.  But that, it may be urged, is an impossible task\nfor man to achieve.  If this extension of consciousness be an\noutward process, then it is endless; it is like attempting to\ncross the ocean after ladling out its water.  By beginning to try\nto realise all, one has to end by realising nothing.\n\nBut, in reality, it is not so absurd as it sounds.  Man has every\nday to solve this problem of enlarging his region and adjusting\nhis burdens.  His burdens are many, too numerous for him to\ncarry, but he knows that by adopting a system he can lighten the\nweight of his load.  Whenever they feel too complicated and\nunwieldy, he knows it is because he has not been able to hit upon\nthe system which would have set everything in place and\ndistributed the weight evenly.  This search for system is really\na search for unity, for synthesis; it is our attempt to harmonise\nthe heterogeneous complexity of outward materials by an inner\nadjustment.  In the search we gradually become aware that to find\nout the One is to possess the All; that there, indeed, is our\nlast and highest privilege.  It is based on the law of that unity\nwhich is, if we only know it, our abiding strength.  Its living\nprinciple is the power that is in truth; the truth of that unity\nwhich comprehends multiplicity.  Facts are many, but the truth is\none.  The animal intelligence knows facts, the human mind has\npower to apprehend truth.  The apple falls from the tree, the\nrain descends upon the earth--you can go on burdening your memory\nwith such facts and never come to an end.  But once you get hold\nof the law of gravitation you can dispense with the necessity of\ncollecting facts _ad infinitum_.  You have got at one truth\nwhich governs numberless facts.  This discovery of truth is pure\njoy to man--it is a liberation of his mind.  For, a mere fact is\nlike a blind lane, it leads only to itself--it has no beyond.\nBut a truth opens up a whole horizon, it leads us to the\ninfinite.  That is the reason why, when a man like Darwin\ndiscovers some simple general truth about Biology, it does not\nstop there, but like a lamp shedding its light far beyond the\nobject for which it was lighted, it illumines the whole region of\nhuman life and thought, transcending its original purpose.  Thus\nwe find that truth, while investing all facts, is not a mere\naggregate of facts--it surpasses them on all sides and points to\nthe infinite reality.\n\nAs in the region of knowledge so in that of consciousness, man\nmust clearly realise some central truth which will give him an\noutlook over the widest possible field.  And that is the object\nwhich the Upanishad has in view when it says, _Know thine own\nSoul_.  Or, in other words, realise the one great principal of\nunity that there is in every man.\n\nAll our egoistic impulses, our selfish desires, obscure our true\nvision of the soul.  For they only indicate our own narrow self.\nWhen we are conscious of our soul, we perceive the inner being\nthat transcends our ego and has its deeper affinity with the All.\n\nChildren, when they begin to learn each separate letter of the\nalphabet, find no pleasure in it, because they miss the real\npurpose of the lesson; in fact, while letters claim our attention\nonly in themselves and as isolated things, they fatigue us.  They\nbecome a source of joy to us only when they combine into words\nand sentences and convey an idea.\n\nLikewise, our soul when detached and imprisoned within the narrow\nlimits of a self loses its significance.  For its very essence is\nunity.  It can only find out its truth by unifying itself with\nothers, and only then it has its joy.  Man was troubled and he\nlived in a state of fear so long as he had not discovered the\nuniformity of law in nature; till then the world was alien to\nhim.  The law that he discovered is nothing but the perception of\nharmony that prevails between reason which is of the soul of man\nand the workings of the world.  This is the bond of union through\nwhich man is related to the world in which he lives, and he feels\nan exceeding joy when he finds this out, for then he realises\nhimself in his surroundings.  To understand anything is to find\nin it something which is our own, and it is the discovery of\nourselves outside us which makes us glad.  This relation of\nunderstanding is partial, but the relation of love is complete.\nIn love the sense of difference is obliterated and the human soul\nfulfils its purpose in perfection, transcending the limits of\nitself and reaching across the threshold of the infinite.\nTherefore love is the highest bliss that man can attain to, for\nthrough it alone he truly knows that he is more than himself, and\nthat he is at one with the All.\n\nThis principal of unity which man has in his soul is ever active,\nestablishing relations far and wide through literature, art, and\nscience, society, statecraft, and religion.  Our great Revealers\nare they who make manifest the true meaning of the soul by giving\nup self for the love of mankind.  They face calumny and\npersecution, deprivation and death in their service of love.\nThey live the life of the soul, not of the self, and thus they\nprove to us the ultimate truth of humanity.  We call them\n_Mah\u0101tm\u0101s,_ \"the men of the great soul.\"\n\nIt is said in one of the Upanishads: _It is not that thou lovest\nthy son because thou desirest him, but thou lovest thy son\nbecause thou desirest thine own soul._  [Footnote: Na v\u0101 ar\u0113\nputrasya k\u0101m\u0101ya putrah priy\u014d bhavati, \u0101tmanastu k\u0101m\u0101ya putrah\npriy\u014d bhavati.]  The meaning of this is, that whomsoever we love,\nin him we find our own soul in the highest sense.  The final\ntruth of our existence lies in this.  _Param\u0101tm\u0101_, the supreme\nsoul, is in me, as well as in my son, and my joy in my son is the\nrealisation of this truth.  It has become quite a commonplace\nfact, yet it is wonderful to think upon, that the joys and\nsorrows of our loved ones are joys and sorrows to us--nay they\nare more.  Why so?  Because in them we have grown larger, in\nthem we have touched that great truth which comprehends the whole\nuniverse.\n\nIt very often happens that our love for our children, our\nfriends, or other loved ones, debars us from the further\nrealisation of our soul.  It enlarges our scope of consciousness,\nno doubt, yet it sets a limit to its freest expansion.\nNevertheless, it is the first step, and all the wonder lies in\nthis first step itself.  It shows to us the true nature of our\nsoul.  From it we know, for certain, that our highest joy is in\nthe losing of our egoistic self and in the uniting with others.\nThis love gives us a new power and insight and beauty of mind to\nthe extent of the limits we set around it, but ceases to do so if\nthose limits lose their elasticity, and militate against the\nspirit of love altogether; then our friendships become exclusive,\nour families selfish and inhospitable, our nations insular and\naggressively inimical to other races.  It is like putting a\nburning light within a sealed enclosure, which shines brightly\ntill the poisonous gases accumulate and smother the flame.\nNevertheless it has proved its truth before it dies, and made\nknown the joy of freedom from the grip of darkness, blind and\nempty and cold.\n\nAccording to the Upanishads, the key to cosmic consciousness, to\nGod-consciousness, is in the consciousness of the soul.  To know\nour soul apart from the self is the first step towards the\nrealisation of the supreme deliverance.  We must know with\nabsolute certainty that essentially we are spirit.  This we can\ndo by winning mastery over self, by rising above all pride and\ngreed and fear, by knowing that worldly losses and physical death\ncan take nothing away from the truth and the greatness of our\nsoul.  The chick knows when it breaks through the self-centered\nisolation of its egg that the hard shell which covered it so long\nwas not really a part of its life.  That shell is a dead thing,\nit has no growth, it affords no glimpse whatever of the vast\nbeyond that lies outside it.  However pleasantly perfect and\nrounded it may be, it must be given a blow to, it must be burst\nthrough and thereby the freedom of light and air be won, and the\ncomplete purpose of bird life be achieved.  In Sanskrit, the bird\nhas been called the twice-born.  So too the man who has gone\nthrough the ceremony of the discipline of self-restraint and high\nthinking for a period of at least twelve years; who has come out\nsimple in wants, pure in heart, and ready to take up all the\nresponsibilities of life in a disinterested largeness of spirit.\nHe is considered to have had his rebirth from the blind\nenvelopment of self to the freedom of soul life; to have come\ninto living relation with his surroundings; to have become at one\nwith the All.\n\nI have already warned my hearers, and must once more warn them\nagainst the idea that the teachers of India preached a\nrenunciation of the world and of self which leads only to the\nblank emptiness of negation.  Their aim was the realisation of\nthe soul, or, in other words, gaining the world in perfect truth.\nWhen Jesus said, \"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit\nthe earth,\" he meant this.  He proclaimed the truth that when man\ngets rid of his pride of self then he comes into his true\ninheritance.  No more has he to fight his way into his position\nin the world; it is secure for him everywhere by the immortal\nright of his soul.  Pride of self interferes with the proper\nfunction of the soul which is to realise itself by perfecting its\nunion with the world and the world's God.\n\nIn his sermon to S\u00e1dhu Simha Buddha says, _It is true, Simha,\nthat I denounce activities, but only the activities that lead to\nthe evil in words, thoughts, or deeds.  It is true, Simha, that I\npreach extinction, but only the extinction of pride, lust, evil\nthought, and ignorance, not that of forgiveness, love, charity,\nand truth._\n\nThe doctrine of deliverance that Buddha preached was the freedom\nfrom the thraldom of _Avidy\u0101_.  _Avidy\u0101_ is the ignorance that\ndarkens our consciousness, and tends to limit it within the\nboundaries of our personal self.  It is this _Avidy\u0101_, this\nignorance, this limiting of consciousness that creates the hard\nseparateness of the ego, and thus becomes the source of all\npride and greed and cruelty incidental to self-seeking.  When a\nman sleeps he is shut up within the narrow activities of his\nphysical life.  He lives, but he knows not the varied relations\nof his life to his surroundings,--therefore he knows not\nhimself.  So when a man lives the life of _Avidy\u0101_ he is\nconfined within his self.  It is a spiritual sleep; his\nconsciousness is not fully awake to the highest reality that\nsurrounds him, therefore he knows not the reality of his own\nsoul.  When he attains _Bodhi_, i.e. the awakenment from the\nsleep of self to the perfection of consciousness, he becomes\nBuddha.\n\nOnce I met two ascetics of a certain religious sect in a village\nof Bengal.  \"Can you tell me,\" I asked them, \"wherein lies the\nspecial features of your religion?\"  One of them hesitated for a\nmoment and answered, \"It is difficult to define that.\"  The other\nsaid, \"No, it is quite simple.  We hold that we have first of all\nto know our own soul under the guidance of our spiritual teacher,\nand when we have done that we can find him, who is the Supreme\nSoul, within us.\"  \"Why don't you preach your doctrine to all the\npeople of the world?\" I asked.  \"Whoever feels thirsty will of\nhimself come to the river,\" was his reply.  \"But then, do you\nfind it so?  Are they coming?\"  The man gave a gentle smile, and\nwith an assurance which had not the least tinge of impatience or\nanxiety, he said, \"They must come, one and all.\"\n\nYes, he is right, this simple ascetic of rural Bengal.  Man is\nindeed abroad to satisfy needs which are more to him than food\nand clothing.  He is out to find himself.  Man's history is the\nhistory of his journey to the unknown in quest of the realisation\nof his immortal self--his soul.  Through the rise and fall of\nempires; through the building up gigantic piles of wealth and the\nruthless scattering of them upon the dust; through the creation\nof vast bodies of symbols that give shape to his dreams and\naspirations, and the casting of them away like the playthings of\nan outworn infancy; through his forging of magic keys with which\nto unlock the mysteries of creation, and through his throwing\naway of this labour of ages to go back to his workshop and work\nup afresh some new form; yes, through it all man is marching from\nepoch to epoch towards the fullest realisation of his soul,--the\nsoul which is greater than the things man accumulates, the deeds\nhe accomplishes, the theories he builds; the soul whose onward\ncourse is never checked by death or dissolution.  Man's mistakes\nand failures have by no means been trifling or small, they have\nstrewn his path with colossal ruins; his sufferings have been\nimmense, like birth-pangs for a giant child; they are the prelude\nof a fulfilment whose scope is infinite.  Man has gone through\nand is still undergoing martyrdoms in various ways, and his\ninstitutions are the altars he has built whereto he brings his\ndaily sacrifices, marvellous in kind and stupendous in quantity.\nAll this would be absolutely unmeaning and unbearable if all\nalong he did not feel that deepest joy of the soul within him,\nwhich tries its divine strength by suffering and proves its\nexhaustless riches by renunciation.  Yes, they are coming, the\npilgrims, one and all--coming to their true inheritance of the\nworld; they are ever broadening their consciousness, ever seeking\na higher and higher unity, ever approaching nearer to the one\ncentral Truth which is all-comprehensive.\n\nMan's poverty is abysmal, his wants are endless till he becomes\ntruly conscious of his soul.  Till then, the world to him is in a\nstate of continual flux-- a phantasm that is and is not.  For a\nman who has realised his soul there is a determinate centre of\nthe universe around which all else can find its proper place, and\nfrom thence only can he draw and enjoy the blessedness of a\nharmonious life.\n\nThere was a time when the earth was only a nebulous mass whose\nparticles were scattered far apart through the expanding force of\nheat; when she had not yet attained her definiteness of form and\nhad neither beauty nor purpose, but only heat and motion.\nGradually, when her vapours were condensed into a unified rounded\nwhole through a force that strove to bring all straggling matters\nunder the control of a centre, she occupied her proper place\namong the planets of the solar system, like an emerald pendant in\na necklace of diamonds.  So with our soul.  When the heat and\nmotion of blind impulses and passions distract it on all sides,\nwe can neither give nor receive anything truly.  But when we find\nour centre in our soul by the power of self-restraint, by the\nforce that harmonises all warring elements and unifies those that\nare apart, then all our isolated impressions reduce themselves to\nwisdom, and all our momentary impulses of heart find their\ncompletion in love; then all the petty details of our life reveal\nan infinite purpose, and all our thoughts and deeds unite\nthemselves inseparably in an internal harmony.\n\nThe Upanishads say with great emphasis, _Know thou the One, the\nSoul._  [Footnote: Tam\u0113vaikam j\u0101natha \u0101tm\u0101nam.]  _It is the bridge\nleading to the immortal being._  [Footnote: Amritasyaisha s\u0113tuh.]\n\nThis is the ultimate end of man, to find the _One_ which is in\nhim; which is his truth, which is his soul; the key with which he\nopens the gate of the spiritual life, the heavenly kingdom.  His\ndesires are many, and madly they run after the varied objects of\nthe world, for therein they have their life and fulfilment.  But\nthat which is _one_ in him is ever seeking for unity--unity in\nknowledge, unity in love, unity in purposes of will; its highest\njoy is when it reaches the infinite one within its eternal unity.\nHence the saying of the Upanishad, _Only those of tranquil minds,\nand none else, can attain abiding joy, by realising within their\nsouls the Being who manifests one essence in a multiplicity of\nforms._  [Footnote: \u0112kam r\u016bpam bahudh\u0101 yah kar\u014dti * * tam\n\u0101tmastham y\u0113 anupa\u00e7yanti d\u012bhr\u0101h, t\u0113sh\u0101m sukham \u00e7\u0101\u00e7vatam\nn\u0113tar\u0113sh\u0101m.]\n\n[Transcriber's note: The above footnote contains the * mark in\nthe original printed version.  This has been retained as is.]\n\nThrough all the diversities of the world the one in us is\nthreading its course towards the one in all; this is its nature\nand this is its joy.  But by that devious path it could never\nreach its goal if it had not a light of its own by which it could\ncatch the sight of what it was seeking in a flash.  The vision of\nthe Supreme One in our own soul is a direct and immediate\nintuition, not based on any ratiocination or demonstration at\nall.  Our eyes naturally see an object as a whole, not by\nbreaking it up into parts, but by bringing all the parts together\ninto a unity with ourselves.  So with the intuition of our\nSoul-consciousness, which naturally and totally realises its unity in\nthe Supreme One.\n\nSays the Upanishad: _This deity who is manifesting himself in the\nactivities of the universe always dwells in the heart of man as\nthe supreme soul.  Those who realise him through the immediate\nperception of the heart attain immortality._  [Footnote: \u0112sha\nd\u0113v\u014d vishvakarm\u0101 mah\u0101tm\u0101 sad\u0101 jan\u0101n\u0101m hriday\u0113 sannivishtah.\nHrid\u0101 man\u012bsha manas\u0101bhiklript\u014d ya \u0113tad viduramrit\u0101st\u0113 bhavanti.]\n\nHe is _Vishvakarma_; that is, in a multiplicity of forms and\nforces lies his outward manifestation in nature; but his inner\nmanifestation in our soul is that which exists in unity.  Our\npursuit of truth in the domain of nature therefore is through\nanalysis and the gradual methods of science, but our apprehension\nof truth in our soul is immediate and through direct intuition.\nWe cannot attain the supreme soul by successive additions of\nknowledge acquired bit by bit even through all eternity, because\nhe is one, he is not made up of parts; we can only know him as\nheart of our hearts and soul of our soul; we can only know him in\nthe love and joy we feel when we give up our self and stand\nbefore him face to face.\n\nThe deepest and the most earnest prayer that has ever risen from\nthe human heart has been uttered in our ancient tongue: _O thou\nself-revealing one, reveal thyself in me._  [Footnote:\n\u0100vir\u0101v\u012brmay\u0113dhi.]  We are in misery because we are creatures of\nself--the self that is unyielding and narrow, that reflects no\nlight, that is blind to the infinite.  Our self is loud with its\nown discordant clamour--it is not the tuned harp whose chords\nvibrate with the music of the eternal.  Sighs of discontent and\nweariness of failure, idle regrets for the past and anxieties for\nthe future are troubling our shallow hearts because we have not\nfound our souls, and the self-revealing spirit has not been\nmanifest within us.  Hence our cry, _O thou awful one, save me\nwith thy smile of grace ever and evermore._  [Footnote: Rudra\nyat t\u0113 dakshinam mukham t\u0113na m\u0101m p\u0101hi nityam.]  It is a stifling\nshroud of death, this self-gratification, this insatiable greed,\nthis pride of possession, this insolent alienation of heart.\n_Rudra, O thou awful one, rend this dark cover in twain and let\nthe saving beam of thy smile of grace strike through this night\nof gloom and waken my soul._\n\n_From unreality lead me to the real, from darkness to the light,\nfrom death to immortality._  [Footnote: Asat\u014dm\u0101 sadgamaya,\ntamas\u014dm\u0101 jy\u014dtirgamaya, mrity\u014drma mritangamaya.]  But how can one\nhope to have this prayer granted?  For infinite is the distance\nthat lies between truth and untruth, between death and\ndeathlessness.  Yet this measureless gulf is bridged in a moment\nwhen the self revealing one reveals himself in the soul.  There\nthe miracle happens, for there is the meeting-ground of the\nfinite and infinite.  _Father, completely sweep away all my\nsins!_  [Footnote: Vishv\u0101nid\u0113va savitar durat\u0101ni par\u0101suva.]  For\nin sin man takes part with the finite against the infinite that\nis in him.  It is the defeat of his soul by his self.  It is a\nperilously losing game, in which man stakes his all to gain a\npart.  Sin is the blurring of truth which clouds the purity of\nour consciousness.  In sin we lust after pleasures, not because\nthey are truly desirable, but because the red light of our\npassions makes them appear desirable; we long for things not\nbecause they are great in themselves, but because our greed\nexaggerates them and makes them appear great.  These\nexaggerations, these falsifications of the perspective of things,\nbreak the harmony of our life at every step; we lose the true\nstandard of values and are distracted by the false claims of the\nvaried interests of life contending with one another.  It is this\nfailure to bring all the elements of his nature under the unity\nand control of the Supreme One that makes man feel the pang of\nhis separation from God and gives rise to the earnest prayer,\n_O God, O Father, completely sweep away all our sins._\n[Footnote: Vishv\u0101ni d\u0113va savitar durit\u0101ni par\u0101suva.]  _Give\nunto us that which is good_ [Footnote: Yad bhadram tanna\n\u0101suva.], the good which is the daily bread of our souls.  In our\npleasures we are confined to ourselves, in the good we are freed\nand we belong to all.  As the child in its mother's womb gets its\nsustenance through the union of its life with the larger life of\nits mother, so our soul is nourished only through the good which\nis the recognition of its inner kinship, the channel of its\ncommunication with the infinite by which it is surrounded and\nfed.  Hence it is said, \"Blessed are they which do hunger and\nthirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.\"  For\nrighteousness is the divine food of the soul; nothing but this\ncan fill him, can make him live the life of the infinite, can\nhelp him in his growth towards the eternal.  _We bow to thee\nfrom whom come the enjoyments of our life._  [Footnote: Namah\nsambhav\u0101ya.]  _We bow also to thee from whom comes the good of\nour soul._  [Footnote: Namah \u00e7ankar\u0101yacha.]  _We bow to thee\nwho art good, the highest good [Footnote: Namah \u00e7iv\u0101yacha,\n\u00e7ivatar\u0101ya cha.], in whom we are united with everything, that is,\nin peace and harmony, in goodness and love.\n\nMan's cry is to reach his fullest expression.  It is this desire\nfor self-expression that leads him to seek wealth and power.  But\nhe has to discover that accumulation is not realisation.  It is\nthe inner light that reveals him, not outer things.  When this\nlight is lighted, then in a moment he knows that Man's highest\nrevelation is God's own revelation in him.  And his cry is for\nthis--the manifestation of his soul, which is the manifestation\nof God in his soul.  Man becomes perfect man, he attains his\nfullest expression, when his soul realises itself in the Infinite\nbeing who is _\u0100vih_ whose very essence is expression.\n\nThe real misery of man is in the fact that he has not fully come\nout, that he is self-obscured, lost in the midst of his own\ndesires.  He cannot feel himself beyond his personal\nsurroundings, his greater self is blotted out, his truth is\nunrealised.  The prayer that rises up from his whole being is\ntherefore, _Thou, who art the spirit of manifestation, manifest\nthyself in me._  [Footnote: \u0100vir\u0101v\u012brmay\u0113dhi.]  This longing for\nthe perfect expression of his self is more deeply inherent in\nman than his hunger and thirst for bodily sustenance, his lust\nfor wealth and distinction.  This prayer is not merely one born\nindividually of him; it is in depth of all things, it is the\nceaseless urging in him of the _\u0100vih_, of the spirit of eternal\nmanifestation.  The revealment of the infinite in the finite,\nwhich is the motive of all creation, is not seen in its\nperfection in the starry heavens, in the beauty of flowers.  It\nis in the soul of man.  For there will seeks its manifestation in\nwill, and freedom turns to win its final prize in the freedom of\nsurrender.\n\nTherefore, it is the self of man which the great King of the\nuniverse has not shadowed with his throne--he has left it free.\nIn his physical and mental organism, where man is related with\nnature, he has to acknowledge the rule of his King, but in his\nself he is free to disown him.  There our God must win his\nentrance.  There he comes as a guest, not as a king, and\ntherefore he has to wait till he is invited.  It is the man's\nself from which God has withdrawn his commands, for there he\ncomes to court our love.  His armed force, the laws of nature,\nstand outside its gate, and only beauty, the messenger of his\nlove, finds admission within its precincts.\n\nIt is only in this region of will that anarchy is permitted; only\nin man's self that the discord of untruth and unrighteousness\nhold its reign; and things can come to such a pass that we may\ncry out in our anguish, \"Such utter lawlessness could never\nprevail if there were a God!\"  Indeed, God has stood aside from\nour self, where his watchful patience knows no bounds, and where\nhe never forces open the doors if shut against him.  For this\nself of ours has to attain its ultimate meaning, which is the\nsoul, not through the compulsion of God's power but through love,\nand thus become united with God in freedom.\n\nHe whose spirit has been made one with God stands before man as\nthe supreme flower of humanity.  There man finds in truth what he\nis; for there the _\u0100vih_ is revealed to him in the soul of man as\nthe most perfect revelation for him of God; for there we see the\nunion of the supreme will with our will, our love with the love\neverlasting.\n\nTherefore, in our country he who truly loves God receives such\nhomage from men as would be considered almost sacrilegious in the\nwest.  We see in him God's wish fulfilled, the most difficult of\nall obstacles to his revealment removed, and God's own perfect\njoy fully blossoming in humanity.  Through him we find the whole\nworld of man overspread with a divine homeliness.  His life,\nburning with God's love, makes all our earthly love resplendent.\nAll the intimate associations of our life, all its experience of\npleasure and pain, group themselves around this display of the\ndivine love, and from the drama that we witness in him.  The\ntouch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the\nfamiliar, making it break out into ineffable music.  The trees\nand the stars and the blue hills appear to us as symbols aching\nwith a meaning which can never be uttered in words.  We seem to\nwatch the Master in the very act of creation of a new world when\na man's soul draws her heavy curtain of self aside, when her veil\nis lifted and she is face to face with her eternal lover.\n\nBut what is this state?  It is like a morning of spring, varied\nin its life and beauty, yet one and entire.  When a man's life\nrescued from distractions finds its unity in the soul, then the\nconsciousness of the infinite becomes at once direct and natural\nto it as the light is to the flame.  All the conflicts and\ncontradictions of life are reconciled; knowledge, love and action\nharmonized; pleasure and pain become one in beauty, enjoyment and\nrenunciation equal in goodness; the breach between the finite and\nthe infinite fills with love and overflows; every moment carries\nits message of the eternal; the formless appears to us in the\nform of the flower, of the fruit; the boundless takes us up in\nhis arms as a father and walks by our side as a friend.  It is\nonly the soul, the One in man which by its very nature can\novercome all limits, and finds its affinity with the Supreme One.\nWhile yet we have not attained the internal harmony, and the\nwholeness of our being, our life remains a life of habits.  The\nworld still appears to us as a machine, to be mastered where it\nis useful, to be guarded against where it is dangerous, and never\nto be known in its full fellowship with us, alike in its physical\nnature and in its spiritual life and beauty.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF EVIL\n\n\nThe question why there is evil in existence is the same as why\nthere is imperfection, or, in other words, why there is creation\nat all.  We must take it for granted that it could not be\notherwise; that creation must be imperfect, must be gradual, and\nthat it is futile to ask the question, Why we are?\n\nBut this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this\nimperfection the final truth, is evil absolute and ultimate?  The\nriver has its boundaries, its banks, but is a river all banks? or\nare the banks the final facts about the river?  Do not these\nobstructions themselves give its water an onward motion?  The\ntowing rope binds a boat, but is the bondage its meaning?  Does\nit not at the same time draw the boat forward?\n\nThe current of the world has its boundaries, otherwise it could\nhave no existence, but its purpose is not shown in the boundaries\nwhich restrain it, but in its movement, which is towards\nperfection.  The wonder is not that there should be obstacles and\nsufferings in this world, but that there should be law and order,\nbeauty and joy, goodness and love.  The idea of God that man has\nin his being is the wonder of all wonders.  He has felt in the\ndepths of his life that what appears as imperfect is the\nmanifestation of the perfect; just as a man who has an ear for\nmusic realises the perfection of a song, while in fact he is only\nlistening to a succession of notes.  Man has found out the great\nparadox that what is limited is not imprisoned within its limits;\nit is ever moving, and therewith shedding its finitude every\nmoment.  In fact, imperfection is not a negation of perfectness;\nfinitude is not contradictory to infinity: they are but\ncompleteness manifested in parts, infinity revealed within\nbounds.\n\nPain, which is the feeling of our finiteness, is not a fixture in\nour life.  It is not an end in itself, as joy is.  To meet with\nit is to know that it has no part in the true permanence of\ncreation.  It is what error is in our intellectual life.  To go\nthrough the history of the development of science is to go\nthrough the maze of mistakes it made current at different times.\nYet no one really believes that science is the one perfect mode\nof disseminating mistakes.  The progressive ascertainment of\ntruth is the important thing to remember in the history of\nscience, not its innumerable mistakes.  Error, by its nature,\ncannot be stationary; it cannot remain with truth; like a tramp,\nit must quit its lodging as soon as it fails to pay its score to\nthe full.\n\nAs in intellectual error, so in evil of any other form, its\nessence is impermanence, for it cannot accord with the whole.\nEvery moment it is being corrected by the totality of things and\nkeeps changing its aspect.  We exaggerate its importance by\nimagining it as a standstill.  Could we collect the statistics of\nthe immense amount of death and putrefaction happening every\nmoment in this earth, they would appal us.  But evil is ever\nmoving; with all its incalculable immensity it does not\neffectually clog the current of our life; and we find that the\nearth, water, and air remain sweet and pure for living beings.\nAll statistics consist of our attempts to represent statistically\nwhat is in motion; and in the process things assume a weight in\nour mind which they have not in reality.  For this reason a man,\nwho by his profession is concerned with any particular aspect of\nlife, is apt to magnify its proportions; in laying undue stress\nupon facts he loses his hold upon truth.  A detective may have\nthe opportunity of studying crimes in detail, but he loses his\nsense of their relative places in the whole social economy.  When\nscience collects facts to illustrate the struggle for existence\nthat is going on in the kingdom of life, it raises a picture in\nour minds of \"nature red in tooth and claw.\"  But in these mental\npictures we give a fixity to colours and forms which are really\nevanescent.  It is like calculating the weight of the air on each\nsquare inch of our body to prove that it must be crushingly heavy\nfor us.  With every weight, however, there is an adjustment, and\nwe lightly bear our burden.  With the struggle for existence in\nnature there is reciprocity.  There is the love for children and\nfor comrades; there is the sacrifice of self, which springs from\nlove; and this love is the positive element in life.\n\nIf we kept the search-light of our observation turned upon the\nfact of death, the world would appear to us like a huge\ncharnel-house; but in the world of life the thought of death has, we\nfind, the least possible hold upon our minds.  Not because it is\nthe least apparent, but because it is the negative aspect of\nlife; just as, in spite of the fact that we shut our eyelids\nevery second, it is the openings of the eye that count.  Life as\na whole never takes death seriously.  It laughs, dances and\nplays, it builds, hoards and loves in death's face.  Only when we\ndetach one individual fact of death do we see its blankness and\nbecome dismayed.  We lose sight of the wholeness of a life of\nwhich death is part.  It is like looking at a piece of cloth\nthrough a microscope.  It appears like a net; we gaze at the big\nholes and shiver in imagination.  But the truth is, death is not\nthe ultimate reality.  It looks black, as the sky looks blue; but\nit does not blacken existence, just as the sky does not leave its\nstain upon the wings of the bird.\n\nWhen we watch a child trying to walk, we see its countless\nfailures; its successes are but few.  If we had to limit our\nobservation within a narrow space of time, the sight would be\ncruel.  But we find that in spite of its repeated failures there\nis an impetus of joy in the child which sustains it in its\nseemingly impossible task.  We see it does not think of its falls\nso much as of its power to keep its balance though for only a\nmoment.\n\nLike these accidents in a child's attempts to walk, we meet with\nsufferings in various forms in our life every day, showing the\nimperfections in our knowledge and our available power, and in\nthe application of our will.  But if these revealed our weakness\nto us only, we should die of utter depression.  When we select\nfor observation a limited area of our activities, our individual\nfailures and miseries loom large in our minds; but our life leads\nus instinctively to take a wider view.  It gives us an ideal of\nperfection which ever carries us beyond our present limitations.\nWithin us we have a hope which always walks in front of our\npresent narrow experience; it is the undying faith in the\ninfinite in us; it will never accept any of our disabilities as a\npermanent fact; it sets no limit to its own scope; it dares to\nassert that man has oneness with God; and its wild dreams become\ntrue every day.\n\nWe see the truth when we set our mind towards the infinite.  The\nideal of truth is not in the narrow present, not in our immediate\nsensations, but in the consciousness of the whole which give us a\ntaste of what we _should_ have in what we _do_ have.  Consciously\nor unconsciously we have in our life this feeling of Truth which\nis ever larger than its appearance; for our life is facing the\ninfinite, and it is in movement.  Its aspiration is therefore\ninfinitely more than its achievement, and as it goes on it finds\nthat no realisation of truth ever leaves it stranded on the\ndesert of finality, but carries it to a region beyond.  Evil\ncannot altogether arrest the course of life on the highway and\nrob it of its possessions.  For the evil has to pass on, it has\nto grow into good; it cannot stand and give battle to the All.\nIf the least evil could stop anywhere indefinitely, it would sink\ndeep and cut into the very roots of existence.  As it is, man\ndoes not really believe in evil, just as he cannot believe that\nviolin strings have been purposely made to create the exquisite\ntorture of discordant notes, though by the aid of statistics it\ncan be mathematically proved that the probability of discord is\nfar greater than that of harmony, and for one who can play the\nviolin there are thousands who cannot.  The potentiality of\nperfection outweighs actual contradictions.  No doubt there have\nbeen people who asserted existence to be an absolute evil, but\nman can never take them seriously.  Their pessimism is a mere\npose, either intellectual or sentimental; but life itself is\noptimistic: it wants to go on.  Pessimism is a form of mental\ndipsomania, it disdains healthy nourishment, indulges in the\nstrong drink of denunciation, and creates an artificial dejection\nwhich thirsts for a stronger draught.  If existence were an evil,\nit would wait for no philosopher to prove it.  It is like\nconvicting a man of suicide, while all the time he stands before\nyou in the flesh.  Existence itself is here to prove that it\ncannot be an evil.\n\nAn imperfection which is not all imperfection, but which has\nperfection for its ideal, must go through a perpetual\nrealisation.  Thus, it is the function of our intellect to\nrealise the truth through untruths, and knowledge is nothing but\nthe continually burning up of error to set free the light of\ntruth.  Our will, our character, has to attain perfection by\ncontinually overcoming evils, either inside or outside us, or\nboth; our physical life is consuming bodily materials every\nmoment to maintain the life fire; and our moral life too has its\nfuel to burn.  This life process is going on--we know it, we have\nfelt it; and we have a faith which no individual instances to the\ncontrary can shake, that the direction of humanity is from evil\nto good.  For we feel that good is the positive element in man's\nnature, and in every age and every clime what man values most is\nhis ideals of goodness.  We have known the good, we have loved\nit, and we have paid our highest reverence to men who have shown\nin their lives what goodness is.\n\nThe question will be asked, What is goodness; what does our moral\nnature mean?  My answer is, that when a man begins to have an\nextended vision of his self, when he realises that he is much\nmore than at present he seems to be, he begins to get conscious\nof his moral nature.  Then he grows aware of that which he is yet\nto be, and the state not yet experienced by him becomes more real\nthan that under his direct experience.  Necessarily, his\nperspective of life changes, and his will takes the place of his\nwishes.  For will is the supreme wish of the larger life, the\nlife whose greater portion is out of our present reach, most of\nwhose objects are not before our sight.  Then comes the conflict\nof our lesser man with our greater man, of our wishes with our\nwill, of the desire for things affecting our senses with the\npurpose that is within our heart.  Then we begin to distinguish\nbetween what we immediately desire and what is good.  For good is\nthat which is desirable for our greater self.  Thus the sense of\ngoodness comes out of a truer view of our life, which is the\nconnected view of the wholeness of the field of life, and which\ntakes into account not only what is present before us but what is\nnot, and perhaps never humanly can be.  Man, who is provident,\nfeels for that life of his which is not yet existent, feels much\nmore that than for the life that is with him; therefore he is\nready to sacrifice his present inclination for the unrealised\nfuture.  In this he becomes great, for he realises truth.  Even\nto be efficiently selfish one has to recognise this truth, and\nhas to curb his immediate impulses--in other words, has to be\nmoral.  For our moral faculty is the faculty by which we know\nthat life is not made up of fragments, purposeless and\ndiscontinuous.  This moral sense of man not only gives him the\npower to see that the self has a continuity in time, but it also\nenables him to see that he is not true when he is only restricted\nto his own self.  He is more in truth than he is in fact.  He\ntruly belongs to individuals who are not included in his own\nindividuality, and whom he is never even likely to know.  As he\nhas a feeling for his future self which is outside his present\nconsciousness, so he has a feeling for his greater self which is\noutside the limits of his personality.  There is no man who has\nnot this feeling to some extent, who has never sacrificed his\nselfish desire for the sake of some other person, who has never\nfelt a pleasure in undergoing some loss or trouble because it\npleased somebody else.  It is a truth that man is not a detached\nbeing, that he has a universal aspect; and when he recognises\nthis he becomes great.  Even the most evilly-disposed selfishness\nhas to recognise this when it seeks the power to do evil; for it\ncannot ignore truth and yet be strong.  So in order to claim the\naid of truth, selfishness has to be unselfish to some extent.  A\nband of robbers must be moral in order to hold together as a\nband; they may rob the whole world but not each other.  To make\nan immoral intention successful, some of its weapons must be\nmoral.  In fact, very often it is our very moral strength which\ngives us most effectively the power to do evil, to exploit other\nindividuals for our own benefit, to rob other people of their\nrights.  The life of an animal is unmoral, for it is aware only\nof an immediate present; the life of a man can be immoral, but\nthat only means that it must have a moral basis.  What is immoral\nis imperfectly moral, just as what is false is true to a small\nextent, or it cannot even be false.  Not to see is to be blind,\nbut to see wrongly is to see only in an imperfect manner.  Man's\nselfishness is a beginning to see some connection, some purpose\nin life; and to act in accordance with its dictates requires\nself-restraint and regulation of conduct.  A selfish man\nwillingly undergoes troubles for the sake of the self, he suffers\nhardship and privation without a murmur, simply because he knows\nthat what is pain and trouble, looked at from the point of view\nof a short space of time, are just the opposite when seen in a\nlarger perspective.  Thus what is a loss to the smaller man is a\ngain to the greater, and _vice versa_.\n\nTo the man who lives for an idea, for his country, for the good\nof humanity, life has an extensive meaning, and to that extent\npain becomes less important to him.  To live the life of goodness\nis to live the life of all.  Pleasure is for one's own self, but\ngoodness is concerned with the happiness of all humanity and for\nall time.  From the point of view of the good, pleasure and pain\nappear in a different meaning; so much so, that pleasure may be\nshunned, and pain be courted in its place, and death itself be\nmade welcome as giving a higher value to life.  From these higher\nstandpoints of a man's life, the standpoints of the good,\npleasure and pain lose their absolute value.  Martyrs prove it in\nhistory, and we prove it every day in our life in our little\nmartyrdoms.  When we take a pitcherful of water from the sea it\nhas its weight, but when we take a dip into the sea itself a\nthousand pitchersful of water flow above our head, and we do not\nfeel their weight.  We have to carry the pitcher of self with our\nstrength; and so, while on the plane of selfishness pleasure and\npain have their full weight, on the moral plane they are so much\nlightened that the man who has reached it appears to us almost\nsuperhuman in his patience under crushing trails, and his\nforbearance in the face of malignant persecution.\n\nTo live in perfect goodness is to realise one's life in the\ninfinitive.  This is the most comprehensive view of life which we\ncan have by our inherent power of the moral vision of the\nwholeness of life.  And the teaching of Buddha is to cultivate\nthis moral power to the highest extent, to know that our field of\nactivities is not bound to the plane of our narrow self.  This is\nthe vision of the heavenly kingdom of Christ.  When we attain to\nthat universal life, which is the moral life, we become freed\nfrom the bonds of pleasure and pain, and the place vacated by our\nself becomes filled with an unspeakable joy which springs from\nmeasureless love.  In this state the soul's activity is all the\nmore heightened, only its motive power is not from desires, but\nin its own joy.  This is the _Karma-yoga_ of the _Gita_, the way\nto become one with the infinite activity by the exercise of the\nactivity of disinterested goodness.\n\nWhen Buddha mentioned upon the way of realising mankind from the\ngrip of misery he came to this truth: that when man attains his\nhighest end by merging the individual in the universal, he\nbecomes free from the thraldom of pain.  Let us consider this\npoint more fully.\n\nA student of mine once related to me his adventure in a storm,\nand complained that all the time he was troubled with the feeling\nthat this great commotion in nature behaved to him as if he were\nno more than a mere handful of dust.  That he was a distinct\npersonality with a will of his own had not the least influence\nupon what was happening.\n\nI said, \"If consideration for our individuality could sway nature\nfrom her path, then it would be the individuals who would suffer\nmost.\"\n\nBut he persisted in his doubt, saying that there was this fact\nwhich could not be ignored--the feeling that I am.  The \"I\" in us\nseeks for a relation which is individual to it.\n\nI replied that the relation of the \"I\" is with something which is\n\"not-I.\"  So we must have a medium which is common to both, and\nwe must be absolutely certain that it is the same to the \"I\" as\nit is to the \"not-I.\"\n\nThis is what needs repeating here.  We have to keep in mind that\nour individuality by its nature is impelled to seek for the\nuniversal.  Our body can only die if it tries to eat its own\nsubstance, and our eye loses the meaning of its function if it\ncan only see itself.\n\nJust as we find that the stronger the imagination the less is it\nmerely imaginary and the more is it in harmony with truth, so we\nsee the more vigorous our individuality the more does it widen\ntowards the universal.  For the greatness of a personality is not\nin itself but in its content, which is universal, just as the\ndepth of a lake is judged not by the size of its cavity but by\nthe depth of its water.\n\nSo, if it is a truth that the yearning of our nature is for\nreality, and that our personality cannot be happy with a\nfantastic universe of its own creation, then it is clearly best\nfor it that our will can only deal with things by following their\nlaw, and cannot do with them just as it pleases.  This unyielding\nsureness of reality sometimes crosses our will, and very often\nleads us to disaster, just as the firmness of the earth\ninvariably hurts the falling child who is learning to walk.\nNevertheless it is the same firmness that hurts him which makes\nhis walking possible.  Once, while passing under a bridge, the\nmast of my boat got stuck in one of its girders.  If only for a\nmoment the mast would have bent an inch or two, or the bridge\nraised its back like a yawning cat, or the river given in, it\nwould have been all right with me.  But they took no notice of my\nhelplessness.  That is the very reason why I could make use of\nthe river, and sail upon it with the help of the mast, and that\nis why, when its current was inconvenient, I could rely upon the\nbridge.  Things are what they are, and we have to know them if we\nwould deal with them, and knowledge of them is possible because\nour wish is not their law.  This knowledge is a joy to us, for\nthe knowledge is one of the channels of our relation with the\nthings outside us; it is making them our own, and thus widening\nthe limit of our self.\n\nAt every step we have to take into account others than ourselves.\nFor only in death are we alone.  A poet is a true poet when he\ncan make his personal idea joyful to all men, which he could not\ndo if he had not a medium common to all his audience.  This\ncommon language has its own law which the poet must discover and\nfollow, by doing which he becomes true and attains poetical\nimmortality.\n\nWe see then that man's individuality is not his highest truth;\nthere is that in him which is universal.  If he were made to live\nin a world where his own self was the only factor to consider,\nthen that would be the worst prison imaginable to him, for man's\ndeepest joy is in growing greater and greater by more and more\nunion with the all.  This, as we have seen, would be an\nimpossibility if there were no law common to all.  Only by\ndiscovering the law and following it, do we become great, do we\nrealise the universal; while, so long as our individual desires\nare at conflict with the universal law, we suffer pain and are\nfutile.\n\nThere was a time when we prayed for special concessions, we\nexpected that the laws of nature should be held in abeyance for\nour own convenience.  But now we know better.  We know that law\ncannot be set aside, and in this knowledge we have become strong.\nFor this law is not something apart from us; it is our own.  The\nuniversal power which is manifested in the universal law is one\nwith our own power.  It will thwart us where we are small, where\nwe are against the current of things; but it will help us where\nwe are great, where we are in unison with the all.  Thus, through\nthe help of science, as we come to know more of the laws of\nnature, we gain in power; we tend to attain a universal body.\nOur organ of sight, our organ of locomotion, our physical\nstrength becomes world-wide; steam and electricity become our\nnerve and muscle.  Thus we find that, just as throughout our\nbodily organisation there is a principle of relation by virtue of\nwhich we can call the entire body our own, and can use it as\nsuch, so all through the universe there is that principle of\nuninterrupted relation by virtue of which we can call the whole\nworld our extended body and use it accordingly.  And in this age\nof science it is our endeavour fully to establish our claim to\nour world-self.  We know all our poverty and sufferings are owing\nto our inability to realise this legitimate claim of ours.\nReally, there is no limit to our powers, for we are not outside\nthe universal power which is the expression of universal law.  We\nare on our way to overcome disease and death, to conquer pain and\npoverty; for through scientific knowledge we are ever on our way\nto realise the universal in its physical aspect.  And as we make\nprogress we find that pain, disease, and poverty of power are not\nabsolute, but that is only the want of adjustment of our\nindividual self to our universal self which gives rise to them.\n\nIt is the same with our spiritual life.  When the individual man\nin us chafes against the lawful rule of the universal man we\nbecome morally small, and we must suffer.  In such a condition\nour successes are our greatest failures, and the very fulfilment\nof our desires leaves us poorer.  We hanker after special gains\nfor ourselves, we want to enjoy privileges which none else can\nshare with us.  But everything that is absolutely special must\nkeep up a perpetual warfare with what is general.  In such a\nstate of civil war man always lives behind barricades, and in any\ncivilisation which is selfish our homes are not real homes, but\nartificial barriers around us.  Yet we complain that we are not\nhappy, as if there were something inherent in the nature of\nthings to make us miserable.  The universal spirit is waiting to\ncrown us with happiness, but our individual spirit would not\naccept it.  It is our life of the self that causes conflicts and\ncomplications everywhere, upsets the normal balance of society\nand gives rise to miseries of all kinds.  It brings things to\nsuch a pass that to maintain order we have to create artificial\ncoercions and organised forms of tyranny, and tolerate infernal\ninstitutions in our midst, whereby at every moment humanity is\nhumiliated.\n\nWe have seen that in order to be powerful we have to submit to\nthe laws of the universal forces, and to realise in practice that\nthey are our own.  So, in order to be happy, we have to submit\nour individual will to the sovereignty of the universal will, and\nto feel in truth that it is our own will.  When we reach that\nstate wherein the adjustment of the finite in us to the infinite\nis made perfect, then pain itself becomes a valuable asset.  It\nbecomes a measuring rod with which to gauge the true value of our\njoy.\n\nThe most important lesson that man can learn from his life is not\nthat there _is_ pain in this world, but that it depends upon him\nto turn it into good account, that it is possible for him to\ntransmute it into joy.  The lesson has not been lost altogether\nto us, and there is no man living who would willingly be deprived\nof his right to suffer pain, for that is his right to be a man.\nOne day the wife of a poor labourer complained bitterly to me\nthat her eldest boy was going to be sent away to a rich relative's\nhouse for part of the year.  It was the implied kind intention of\ntrying to relieve her of her trouble that gave her the shock, for\na mother's trouble is a mother's own by her inalienable right of\nlove, and she was not going to surrender it to any dictates of\nexpediency.  Man's freedom is never in being saved troubles, but\nit is the freedom to take trouble for his own good, to make the\ntrouble an element in his joy.  It can be made so only when we\nrealise that our individual self is not the highest meaning of our\nbeing, that in us we have the world-man who is immortal, who is\nnot afraid of death or sufferings, and who looks upon pain as only\nthe other side of joy.  He who has realised this knows that it is\npain which is our true wealth as imperfect beings, and has made us\ngreat and worthy to take our seat with the perfect.  He knows that\nwe are not beggars; that it is the hard coin which must be paid\nfor everything valuable in this life, for our power, our wisdom,\nour love; that in pain is symbolised the infinite possibility of\nperfection, the eternal unfolding of joy; and the man who loses all\npleasure in accepting pain sinks down and down to the lowest depth\nof penury and degradation.  It is only when we invoke the aid of\npain for our self-gratification that she becomes evil and takes her\nvengeance for the insult done to her by hurling us into misery.\nFor she is the vestal virgin consecrated to the service of the\nimmortal perfection, and when she takes her true place before the\naltar of the infinite she casts off her dark veil and bares her\nface to the beholder as a revelation of supreme joy.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\n\nTHE PROBLEM OF SELF\n\n\nAt one pole of my being I am one with stocks and stones.  There I\nhave to acknowledge the rule of universal law.  That is where the\nfoundation of my existence lies, deep down below.  Its strength\nlies in its being held firm in the clasp of comprehensive world,\nand in the fullness of its community with all things.\n\nBut at the other pole of my being I am separate from all.  There\nI have broken through the cordon of equality and stand alone as\nan individual.  I am absolutely unique, I am I, I am\nincomparable.  The whole weight of the universe cannot crush out\nthis individuality of mine.  I maintain it in spite of the\ntremendous gravitation of all things.  It is small in appearance\nbut great in reality.  For it holds its own against the forces\nthat would rob it of its distinction and make it one with the\ndust.\n\nThis is the superstructure of the self which rises from the\nindeterminate depth and darkness of its foundation into the open,\nproud of its isolation, proud of having given shape to a single\nindividual idea of the architect's which has no duplicate in the\nwhole universe.  If this individuality be demolished, then though\nno material be lost, not an atom destroyed, the creative joy\nwhich was crystallised therein is gone.  We are absolutely\nbankrupt if we are deprived of this specialty, this\nindividuality, which is the only thing we can call our own; and\nwhich, if lost, is also a loss to the whole world.  It is most\nvaluable because it is not universal.  And therefore only through\nit can we gain the universe more truly than if we were lying\nwithin its breast unconscious of our distinctiveness.  The\nuniversal is ever seeking its consummation in the unique.  And\nthe desire we have to keep our uniqueness intact is really the\ndesire of the universe acting in us.  It is our joy of the\ninfinite in us that gives us our joy in ourselves.\n\nThat this separateness of self is considered by man as his most\nprecious possession is proved by the sufferings he undergoes and\nthe sins he commits for its sake.  But the consciousness of\nseparation has come from the eating of the fruit of knowledge.\nIt has led man to shame and crime and death; yet it is dearer to\nhim than any paradise where the self lies, securely slumbering in\nperfect innocence in the womb of mother nature.\n\nIt is a constant striving and suffering for us to maintain the\nseparateness of this self of ours.  And in fact it is this\nsuffering which measures its value.  One side of the value is\nsacrifice, which represents how much the cost has been.  The\nother side of it is the attainment, which represents how much has\nbeen gained.  If the self meant nothing to us but pain and\nsacrifice, it could have no value for us, and on no account would\nwe willingly undergo such sacrifice.  In such case there could be\nno doubt at all that the highest object of humanity would be the\nannihilation of self.\n\nBut if there is a corresponding gain, if it does not end in a\nvoid but in a fullness, then it is clear that its negative\nqualities, its very sufferings and sacrifices, make it all the\nmore precious.  That it is so has been proved by those who have\nrealised the positive significance of self, and have accepted its\nresponsibilities with eagerness and undergone sacrifices without\nflinching.\n\nWith the foregoing introduction it will be easy for me to answer\nthe question once asked by one of my audience as to whether the\nannihilation of self has not been held by India as the supreme\ngoal of humanity?\n\nIn the first place we must keep in mind the fact that man is\nnever literal in the expression of his ideas, except in matters\nmost trivial.  Very often man's words are not a language at all,\nbut merely a vocal gesture of the dumb.  They may indicate, but\ndo not express his thoughts.  The more vital his thoughts the\nmore have his words to be explained by the context of his life.\nThose who seek to know his meaning by the aid of the dictionary\nonly technically reach the house, for they are stopped by the\noutside wall and find no entrance to the hall.  This is the\nreason why the teachings of our greatest prophets give rise to\nendless disputations when we try to understand them by following\ntheir words and not be realising them in our own lives.  The men\nwho are cursed with the gift of the literal mind are the\nunfortunate ones who are always busy with their nets and neglect\nthe fishing.\n\nIt is not only in Buddhism and the Indian religions, but in\nChristianity too, that the ideal of selflessness is preached with\nall fervour.  In the last the symbol of death has been used for\nexpressing the idea of man's deliverance from the life which is\nnot true.  This is the same as Nirvn\u0101na, the symbol of the\nextinction of the lamp.\n\nIn the typical thought of India it is held that the true\ndeliverance of man is the deliverance from _avidy\u0101_, from\nignorance.  It is not in destroying anything that is positive and\nreal, for that cannot be possible, but that which is negative,\nwhich obstructs our vision of truth.  When this obstruction,\nwhich is ignorance, is removed, then only is the eyelid drawn up\nwhich is no loss to the eye.\n\nIt is our ignorance which makes us think that our self, as self,\nis real, that it has its complete meaning in itself.  When we\ntake that wrong view of self then we try to live in such a manner\nas to make self the ultimate object of our life.  Then we are\ndoomed to disappointment like the man who tries to reach his\ndestination by firmly clutching the dust of the road.  Our self\nhas no means of holding us, for its own nature is to pass on; and\nby clinging to this thread of self which is passing through the\nloom of life we cannot make it serve the purpose of the cloth\ninto which it is being woven.  When a man, with elaborate care,\narranges for an enjoyment of the self, he lights a fire but has\nno dough to make his bread with; the fire flares up and consumes\nitself to extinction, like an unnatural beast that eats its own\nprogeny and dies.\n\nIn an unknown language the words are tyrannically prominent.\nThey stop us but say nothing.  To be rescued from this fetter of\nwords we must rid ourselves of the _avidy\u0101_, our ignorance, and\nthen our mind will find its freedom in the inner idea.  But it\nwould be foolish to say that our ignorance of the language can\nbe dispelled only by the destruction of the words.  No, when the\nperfect knowledge comes, every word remains in its place, only\nthey do not bind us to themselves, but let us pass through them\nand lead us to the idea which is emancipation.\n\nThus it is only _avidy\u0101_ which makes the self our fetter by\nmaking us think that it is an end in itself, and by preventing\nour seeing that it contains the idea that transcends its limits.\nThat is why the wise man comes and says, \"Set yourselves free\nfrom the _avidy\u0101_; know your true soul and be saved from the\ngrasp of the self which imprisons you.\"\n\nWe gain our freedom when we attain our truest nature.  The man\nwho is an artist finds his artistic freedom when he finds his\nideal of art.  Then is he freed from laborious attempts at\nimitation, from the goadings of popular approbation.  It is the\nfunction of religion not to destroy our nature but to fulfil it.\n\nThe Sanskrit word _dharma_ which is usually translated into\nEnglish as religion has a deeper meaning in our language.\n_Dharma_ is the innermost nature, the essence, the implicit\ntruth, of all things.  _Dharma_ is the ultimate purpose that\nis working in our self.  When any wrong is done we say that\n_dharma_ is violated, meaning that the lie has been given to\nour true nature.\n\nBut this _dharma_, which is the truth in us, is not apparent,\nbecause it is inherent.  So much so, that it has been held that\nsinfulness is the nature of man, and only by the special grace\nof God can a particular person be saved.  This is like saying\nthat the nature of the seed is to remain enfolded within its\nshell, and it is only by some special miracle that it can be\ngrown into a tree.  But do we not know that the _appearance_ of\nthe seed contradicts its true nature?  When you submit it to\nchemical analysis you may find in it carbon and proteid and a\ngood many other things, but not the idea of a branching tree.\nOnly when the tree begins to take shape do you come to see its\n_dharma_, and then you can affirm without doubt that the seed\nwhich has been wasted and allowed to rot in the ground has been\nthwarted in its _dharma_, in the fulfilment of its true nature.\nIn the history of humanity we have known the living seed in us\nto sprout.  We have seen the great purpose in us taking shape\nin the lives of our greatest men, and have felt certain that\nthough there are numerous individual lives that seem ineffectual,\nstill it is not their _dharma_ to remain barren; but it is for\nthem to burst their cover and transform themselves into a\nvigorous spiritual shoot, growing up into the air and light, and\nbranching out in all directions.\n\nThe freedom of the seed is in the attainment of its\n_dharma_, its nature and destiny of becoming a tree; it is the\nnon-accomplishment which is its prison.  The sacrifice by which\na thing attains its fulfilment is not a sacrifice which ends in\ndeath; it is the casting-off of bonds which wins freedom.\n\nWhen we know the highest ideal of freedom which a man has, we\nknow his _dharma_, the essence of his nature, the real meaning of\nhis self.  At first sight it seems that man counts that as\nfreedom by which he gets unbounded opportunities of self\ngratification and self-aggrandisement.  But surely this is not\nborne out by history.  Our revelatory men have always been those\nwho have lived the life of self-sacrifice.  The higher nature in\nman always seeks for something which transcends itself and yet is\nits deepest truth; which claims all its sacrifice, yet makes this\nsacrifice its own recompense.  This is man's _dharma_, man's\nreligion, and man's self is the vessel which is to carry this\nsacrifice to the altar.\n\nWe can look at our self in its two different aspects.  The self\nwhich displays itself, and the self which transcends itself and\nthereby reveals its own meaning.  To display itself it tries to\nbe big, to stand upon the pedestal of its accumulations, and to\nretain everything to itself.  To reveal itself it gives up\neverything it has; thus becoming perfect like a flower that has\nblossomed out from the bud, pouring from its chalice of beauty\nall its sweetness.\n\nThe lamp contains its oil, which it holds securely in its close\ngrasp and guards from the least loss.  Thus is it separate from\nall other objects around it and is miserly.  But when lighted it\nfinds its meaning at once; its relation with all things far and\nnear is established, and it freely sacrifices its fund of oil to\nfeed the flame.\n\nSuch a lamp is our self.  So long as it hoards its possessions it\nkeeps itself dark, its conduct contradicts its true purpose.\nWhen it finds illumination it forgets itself in a moment, holds\nthe light high, and serves it with everything it has; for therein\nis its revelation.  This revelation is the freedom which Buddha\npreached.  He asked the lamp to give up its oil.  But purposeless\ngiving up is a still darker poverty which he never could have\nmeant.  The lamp must give up its oil to the light and thus set\nfree the purpose it has in its hoarding.  This is emancipation.\nThe path Buddha pointed out was not merely the practice of\nself-abnegation, but the widening of love.  And therein lies the true\nmeaning of Buddha's preaching.\n\nWhen we find that the state of _Nirv\u0101na_ preached by Buddha is\nthrough love, then we know for certain that _Nirv\u0101na_ is the\nhighest culmination of love.  For love is an end unto itself.\nEverything else raises the question \"Why?\" in our mind, and we\nrequire a reason for it.  But when we say, \"I love,\" then there\nis no room for the \"why\"; it is the final answer in itself.\n\nDoubtless, even selfishness impels one to give away.  But the\nselfish man does it on compulsion.  That is like plucking fruit\nwhen it is unripe; you have to tear it from the tree and bruise\nthe branch.  But when a man loves, giving becomes a matter of joy\nto him, like the tree's surrender of the ripe fruit.  All our\nbelongings assume a weight by the ceaseless gravitation of our\nselfish desires; we cannot easily cast them away from us.  They\nseem to belong to our very nature, to stick to us as a second\nskin, and we bleed as we detach them.  But when we are possessed\nby love, its force acts in the opposite direction.  The things\nthat closely adhered to us lose their adhesion and weight, and we\nfind that they are not of us.  Far from being a loss to give them\naway, we find in that the fulfilment of our being.\n\nThus we find in perfect love the freedom of our self.  That only\nwhich is done for love is done freely, however much pain it may\ncause.  Therefore working for love is freedom in action.  This is\nthe meaning of the teaching of disinterested work in the _G\u012bta_.\n\nThe _G\u012bta_ says action we must have, for only in action do we\nmanifest our nature.  But this manifestation is not perfect so\nlong as our action is not free.  In fact, our nature is obscured\nby work done by the compulsion of want or fear.  The mother\nreveals herself in the service of her children, so our true\nfreedom is not the freedom _from_ action but freedom _in_ action,\nwhich can only be attained in the work of love.\n\nGod's manifestation is in his work of creation and it is said in\nthe Upanishad, _Knowledge, power, and action are of his nature_\n[Footnote: \"Sv\u0101bh\u0101vik\u012b jn\u0101na bala kriy\u0101cha.\"]; they are not\nimposed upon him from outside.  Therefore his work is his\nfreedom, and in his creation he realises himself.  The same thing\nis said elsewhere in other words: _From joy does spring all this\ncreation, by joy is it maintained, towards joy does it progress,\nand into joy does it enter_.  [Footnote: \u0100nand\u0101dhy\u0113va khalvim\u0101ni\nbh\u016bt\u0101ni j\u0101yant\u0113, \u0101nand\u0113na j\u0101t\u0101ni j\u012bvanti,\n\u0101nandamprayantyabhisamvi\u00e7anti.]  It means that God's creation has\nnot its source in any necessity; it comes from his fullness of\njoy; it is his love that creates, therefore in creation is his\nown revealment.\n\nThe artist who has a joy in the fullness of his artistic idea\nobjectifies it and thus gains it more fully by holding it afar.\nIt is joy which detaches ourselves from us, and then gives it\nform in creations of love in order to make it more perfectly our\nown.  Hence there must be this separation, not a separation of\nrepulsion but a separation of love.  Repulsion has only the one\nelement, the element of severance.  But love has two, the element\nof severance, which is only an appearance, and the element of\nunion which is the ultimate truth.  Just as when the father\ntosses his child up from his arms it has the appearance of\nrejection but its truth is quite the reverse.\n\nSo we must know that the meaning of our self is not to be found\nin its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless\nrealisation of _yoga_, of union; not on the side of the canvas\nwhere it is blank, but on the side where the picture is being\npainted.\n\nThis is the reason why the separateness of our self has been\ndescribed by our philosophers as _m\u0101y\u0101_, as an illusion, because\nit has no intrinsic reality of its own.  It looks perilous; it\nraises its isolation to a giddy height and casts a black shadow\nupon the fair face of existence; from the outside it has an\naspect of a sudden disruption, rebellious and destructive; it is\nproud, domineering and wayward; it is ready to rob the world of\nall its wealth to gratify its craving of a moment; to pluck with\na reckless, cruel hand all the plumes from the divine bird of\nbeauty to deck its ugliness for a day; indeed man's legend has it\nthat it bears the black mark of disobedience stamped on its\nforehead for ever; but still all this _m\u0101y\u0101_, envelopment of\n_avidy\u0101_; it is the mist, it is not the sun; it is the black\nsmoke that presages the fire of love.\n\nImagine some savage who, in his ignorance, thinks that it is the\npaper of the banknote that has the magic, by virtue of which the\npossessor of it gets all he wants.  He piles up the papers, hides\nthem, handles them in all sorts of absurd ways, and then at last,\nwearied by his efforts, comes to the sad conclusion that they are\nabsolutely worthless, only fit to be thrown into the fire.  But\nthe wise man knows that the paper of the banknote is all _m\u0101y\u0101_,\nand until it is given up to the bank it is futile.  It is only\n_avidy\u0101_, our ignorance, that makes us believe that the\nseparateness of our self like the paper of the banknote is\nprecious in itself, and by acting on this belief our self is\nrendered valueless.  It is only when the _avidy\u0101_ is removed that\nthis very self comes to us with a wealth which is priceless.  For\n_He manifests Himself in forms which His joy assumes_.  [Footnote:\n\u0100nandar\u016bpamamritam yadvibh\u0101ti.]  These forms are separate from\nHim, and the value that these forms have is only what his joy has\nimparted to them.  When we transfer back these forms into that\noriginal joy, which is love, then we cash them in the bank and we\nfind their truth.\n\nWhen pure necessity drives man to his work it takes an accidental\nand contingent character, it becomes a mere makeshift\narrangement; it is deserted and left in ruins when necessity\nchanges its course.  But when his work is the outcome of joy, the\nforms that it takes have the elements of immortality.  The\nimmortal in man imparts to it its own quality of permanence.\n\nOur self, as a form of God's joy, is deathless.  For his joy is\n_amritham_, eternal.  This it is in us which makes us sceptical of\ndeath, even when the fact of death cannot be doubted.  In\nreconcilement of this contradiction in us we come to the truth that\nin the dualism of death and life there is a harmony.  We know that\nthe life of a soul, which is finite in its expression and infinite\nin its principle, must go through the portals of death in its\njourney to realise the infinite.  It is death which is monistic, it\nhas no life in it.  But life is dualistic; it has an appearance as\nwell as truth; and death is that appearance, that _m\u0101y\u0101_, which is\nan inseparable companion to life.  Our self to live must go through\na continual change and growth of form, which may be termed a\ncontinual death and a continual life going on at the same time.  It\nis really courting death when we refuse to accept death; when we\nwish to give the form of the self some fixed changelessness; when\nthe self feels no impulse which urges it to grow out of itself;\nwhen it treats its limits as final and acts accordingly.  Then comes\nour teacher's call to die to this death; not a call to annihilation\nbut to eternal life.  It is the extinction of the lamp in the\nmorning light; not the abolition of the sun.  It is really asking us\nconsciously to give effect to the innermost wish that we have in the\ndepths of our nature.\n\nWe have a dual set of desires in our being, which it should be\nour endeavour to bring into a harmony.  In the region of our\nphysical nature we have one set of which we are conscious always.\nWe wish to enjoy our food and drink, we hanker after bodily\npleasure and comfort.  These desires are self-centered; they are\nsolely concerned with their respective impulses.  The wishes of\nour palate often run counter to what our stomach can allow.\n\nBut we have another set, which is the desire of our physical\nsystem as a whole, of which we are usually unconscious.  It is\nthe wish for health.  This is always doing its work, mending and\nrepairing, making new adjustments in cases of accident, and\nskilfully restoring the balance wherever disturbed.  It has no\nconcern with the fulfilment of our immediate bodily desires, but\nit goes beyond the present time.  It is the principle of our\nphysical wholeness, it links our life with its past and its\nfuture and maintains the unity of its parts.  He who is wise\nknows it, and makes his other physical wishes harmonise with it.\n\nWe have a greater body which is the social body.  Society is an\norganism, of which we as parts have our individual wishes.  We\nwant our own pleasure and license.  We want to pay less and gain\nmore than anybody else.  This causes scramblings and fights.  But\nthere is that other wish in us which does its work in the depths\nof the social being.  It is the wish for the welfare of the\nsociety.  It transcends the limits of the present and the\npersonal.  It is on the side of the infinite.\n\nHe who is wise tries to harmonise the wishes that seek for\nself-gratification with the wish for the social good, and only thus\ncan he realise his higher self.\n\nIn its finite aspect the self is conscious of its separateness,\nand there it is ruthless in its attempt to have more distinction\nthan all others.  But in its infinite aspect its wish is to gain\nthat harmony which leads to its perfection and not its mere\naggrandisement.\n\nThe emancipation of our physical nature is in attaining health,\nof our social being in attaining goodness, and of our self in\nattaining love.  This last is what Buddha describes as\nextinction--the extinction of selfishness--which is the function\nof love, and which does not lead to darkness but to illumination.\nThis is the attainment of _bodhi_, or the true awakening; it is\nthe revealing in us of the infinite joy by the light of love.\n\nThe passage of our self is through its selfhood, which is\nindependent, to its attainment of soul, which is harmonious.\nThis harmony can never be reached through compulsion.  So our\nwill, in the history of its growth, must come through\nindependence and rebellion to the ultimate completion.  We must\nhave the possibility of the negative form of freedom, which is\nlicence, before we can attain the positive freedom, which is\nlove.\n\nThis negative freedom, the freedom of self-will, can turn its\nback upon its highest realisation, but it cannot cut itself away\nfrom it altogether, for then it will lose its own meaning.  Our\nself-will has freedom up to a certain extent; it can know what it\nis to break away from the path, but it cannot continue in that\ndirection indefinitely.  For we are finite on our negative side.\nWe must come to an end in our evil doing, in our career of\ndiscord.  For evil is not infinite, and discord cannot be an end\nin itself.  Our will has freedom in order that it may find out\nthat its true course is towards goodness and love.  For goodness\nand love are infinite, and only in the infinite is the perfect\nrealisation of freedom possible.  So our will can be free not\ntowards the limitations of our self, not where it is _m\u0101y\u0101_ and\nnegation, but towards the unlimited, where is truth and love.\nOur freedom cannot go against its own principle of freedom and\nyet be free; it cannot commit suicide and yet live.  We cannot\nsay that we should have infinite freedom to fetter ourselves, for\nthe fettering ends the freedom.\n\nSo in the freedom of our will, we have the same dualism of\nappearance and truth--our self-will is only the appearance of\nfreedom and love is the truth.  When we try to make this\nappearance independent of truth, then our attempt brings misery\nand proves its own futility in the end.  Everything has this\ndualism of _m\u0101y\u0101_ and _satyam_, appearance and truth.  Words are\n_m\u0101y\u0101_ where they are merely sounds and finite, they are _satyam_\nwhere they are ideas and infinite.  Our self is _m\u0101y\u0101_ where it\nis merely individual and finite, where it considers its\nseparateness as absolute; it is _satyam_ where it recognises its\nessence in the universal and infinite, in the supreme self, in\n_param\u0101tman_.  This is what Christ means when he says, \"Before\nAbraham was I am.\"  This is the eternal _I am_ that speaks\nthrough the _I am_ that is in me.  The individual _I am_ attains\nits perfect end when it realises its freedom of harmony in the\ninfinite _I am_.  Then is it _mukti_, its deliverance from the\nthraldom of _m\u0101y\u0101_, of appearance, which springs from _avidy\u0101_,\nfrom ignorance; its emancipation in _\u00e7\u0101ntam \u00e7ivam advaitam_, in\nthe perfect repose in truth, in the perfect activity in goodness,\nand in the perfect union in love.\n\nNot only in our self but also in nature is there this\nseparateness from God, which has been described as _m\u0101y\u0101_ by our\nphilosophers, because the separateness does not exist by itself,\nit does not limit God's infinity from outside.  It is his own\nwill that has imposed limits to itself, just as the chess-player\nrestricts his will with regard to the moving of the chessmen.\nThe player willingly enters into definite relations with each\nparticular piece and realises the joy of his power by these very\nrestrictions.  It is not that he cannot move the chessmen just as\nhe pleases, but if he does so then there can be no play.  If God\nassumes his r\u00f4le of omnipotence, then his creation is at an end\nand his power loses all its meaning.  For power to be a power must\nact within limits.  God's water must be water, his earth can never\nbe other than earth.  The law that has made them water and earth\nis his own law by which he has separated the play from the player,\nfor therein the joy of the player consists.\n\nAs by the limits of law nature is separated from God, so it is\nthe limits of its egoism which separates the self from him.  He\nhas willingly set limits to his will, and has given us mastery\nover the little world of our own.  It is like a father's settling\nupon his son some allowance within the limit of which he is free\nto do what he likes.  Though it remains a portion of the father's\nown property, yet he frees it from the operation of his own will.\nThe reason of it is that the will, which is love's will and\ntherefore free, can have its joy only in a union with another\nfree will.  The tyrant who must have slaves looks upon them as\ninstruments of his purpose.  It is the consciousness of his own\nnecessity which makes him crush the will out of them, to make his\nself-interest absolutely secure.  This self-interest cannot brook\nthe least freedom in others, because it is not itself free.  The\ntyrant is really dependent on his slaves, and therefore he tries\nto make them completely useful by making them subservient to his\nown will.  But a lover must have two wills for the realisation of\nhis love, because the consummation of love is in harmony, the\nharmony between freedom and freedom.  So God's love from which\nour self has taken form has made it separate from God; and it is\nGod's love which again establishes a reconciliation and unites\nGod with our self through the separation.  That is why our self\nhas to go through endless renewals.  For in its career of\nseparateness it cannot go on for ever.  Separateness is the\nfinitude where it finds its barriers to come back again and again\nto its infinite source.  Our self has ceaselessly to cast off its\nage, repeatedly shed its limits in oblivion and death, in order\nto realise its immortal youth.  Its personality must merge in the\nuniversal time after time, in fact pass through it every moment,\never to refresh its individual life.  It must follow the eternal\nrhythm and touch the fundamental unity at every step, and thus\nmaintain its separation balanced in beauty and strength.\n\nThe play of life and death we see everywhere--this transmutation\nof the old into the new.  The day comes to us every morning,\nnaked and white, fresh as a flower.  But we know it is old.  It\nis age itself.  It is that very ancient day which took up the\nnewborn earth in its arms, covered it with its white mantle of\nlight, and sent it forth on its pilgrimage among the stars.\n\nYet its feet are untired and its eyes undimmed.  It carries the\ngolden amulet of ageless eternity, at whose touch all wrinkles\nvanish from the forehead of creation.  In the very core of the\nworld's heart stands immortal youth.  Death and decay cast over\nits face momentary shadows and pass on; they leave no marks of\ntheir steps--and truth remains fresh and young.\n\nThis old, old day of our earth is born again and again every\nmorning.  It comes back to the original refrain of its music.  If\nits march were the march of an infinite straight line, if it had\nnot the awful pause of its plunge in the abysmal darkness and its\nrepeated rebirth in the life of the endless beginning, then it\nwould gradually soil and bury truth with its dust and spread\nceaseless aching over the earth under its heavy tread.  Then\nevery moment would leave its load of weariness behind, and\ndecrepitude would reign supreme on its throne of eternal dirt.\n\nBut every morning the day is reborn among the newly-blossomed\nflowers with the same message retold and the same assurance\nrenewed that death eternally dies, that the waves of turmoil are\non the surface, and that the sea of tranquillity is fathomless.\nThe curtain of night is drawn aside and truth emerges without a\nspeck of dust on its garment, without a furrow of age on its\nlineaments.\n\nWe see that he who is before everything else is the same to-day.\nEvery note of the song of creation comes fresh from his voice.\nThe universe is not a mere echo, reverberating from sky to sky,\nlike a homeless wanderer--the echo of an old song sung once for\nall in the dim beginning of things and then left orphaned.  Every\nmoment it comes from the heart of the master, it is breathed in\nhis breath.\n\nAnd that is the reason why it overspreads the sky like a thought\ntaking shape in a poem, and never has to break into pieces with\nthe burden of its own accumulating weight.  Hence the surprise of\nendless variations, the advent of the unaccountable, the\nceaseless procession of individuals, each of whom is without a\nparallel in creation.  As at the first so to the last, the\nbeginning never ends--the world is ever old and ever new.\n\nIt is for our self to know that it must be born anew every moment\nof its life.  It must break through all illusions that encase it\nin their crust to make it appear old, burdening it with death.\n\nFor life is immortal youthfulness, and it hates age that tries to\nclog its movements--age that belongs not to life in truth, but\nfollows it as the shadow follows the lamp.\n\nOur life, like a river, strikes its banks not to find itself\nclosed in by them, but to realise anew every moment that it has\nits unending opening towards the sea.  It is a poem that strikes\nits metre at every step not to be silenced by its rigid\nregulations, but to give expression every moment to the inner\nfreedom of its harmony.\n\nThe boundary walls of our individuality thrust us back within our\nlimits, on the one hand, and thus lead us, on the other, to the\nunlimited.  Only when we try to make these limits infinite are we\nlaunched into an impossible contradiction and court miserable\nfailure.\n\nThis is the cause which leads to the great revolutions in human\nhistory.  Whenever the part, spurning the whole, tries to run a\nseparate course of its own, the great pull of the all gives it a\nviolent wrench, stops it suddenly, and brings it to the dust.\nWhenever the individual tries to dam the ever-flowing current of\nthe world-force and imprison it within the area of his particular\nuse, it brings on disaster.  However powerful a king may be, he\ncannot raise his standard or rebellion against the infinite\nsource of strength, which is unity, and yet remain powerful.\n\nIt has been said, _By unrighteousness men prosper, gain what they\ndesire, and triumph over their enemies, but at the end they are\ncut off at the root and suffer extinction._  [Footnote:\nAdharm\u0113naidhat\u0113 t\u0101vat tat\u014d bahdr\u0101\u0146i pa\u00e7yati tatah sapatn\u0101n jayati\nsam\u016blastu vina\u00e7yati.]  Our roots must go deep down into the\nuniversal if we would attain the greatness of personality.\n\nIt is the end of our self to seek that union.  It must bend its\nhead low in love and meekness and take its stand where great and\nsmall all meet.  It has to gain by its loss and rise by its\nsurrender.  His games would be a horror to the child if he could\nnot come back to his mother, and our pride of personality will be\na curse to us if we cannot give it up in love.  We must know that\nit is only the revelation of the Infinite which is endlessly new\nand eternally beautiful in us, and which gives the only meaning\nto our self.\n\n\n\nV\n\n\nREALISATION IN LOVE\n\n\nWe come now to the eternal problem of co-existence of the\ninfinite and the finite, of the supreme being and our soul.\nThere is a sublime paradox that lies at the root of existence.\nWe never can go round it, because we never can stand outside the\nproblem and weigh it against any other possible alternative.  But\nthe problem exists in logic only; in reality it does not offer us\nany difficulty at all.  Logically speaking, the distance between\ntwo points, however near, may be said to be infinite because it\nis infinitely divisible.  But we _do_ cross the infinite at every\nstep, and meet the eternal in every second.  Therefore some of our\nphilosophers say there is no such thing as finitude; it is but a\n_m\u0101y\u0101_, an illusion.  The real is the infinite, and it is only\n_m\u0101y\u0101_, the unreality, which causes the appearance of the finite.\nBut the word _m\u0101y\u0101_ is a mere name, it is no explanation.  It is\nmerely saying that with truth there is this appearance which is\nthe opposite of truth; but how they come to exist at one and the\nsame time is incomprehensible.\n\nWe have what we call in Sanskrit _dvandva_, a series of opposites\nin creation; such as, the positive pole and the negative, the\ncentripetal force and the centrifugal, attraction and repulsion.\nThese are also mere names, they are no explanations.  They are\nonly different ways of asserting that the world in its essence is\na reconciliation of pairs of opposing forces.  These forces, like\nthe left and the right hands of the creator, are acting in\nabsolute harmony, yet acting from opposite directions.\n\nThere is a bond of harmony between our two eyes, which makes them\nact in unison.  Likewise there is an unbreakable continuity of\nrelation in the physical world between heat and cold, light and\ndarkness, motion and rest, as between the bass and treble notes\nof a piano.  That is why these opposites do not bring confusion\nin the universe, but harmony.  If creation were but a chaos, we\nshould have to imagine the two opposing principles as trying to\nget the better of each other.  But the universe is not under\nmartial law, arbitrary and provisional.  Here we find no force\nwhich can run amok, or go on indefinitely in its wild road, like\nan exiled outlaw, breaking all harmony with its surroundings;\neach force, on the contrary, has to come back in a curved line to\nits equilibrium.  Waves rise, each to its individual height in a\nseeming attitude of unrelenting competition, but only up to a\ncertain point; and thus we know of the great repose of the sea to\nwhich they are all related, and to which they must all return in\na rhythm which is marvellously beautiful.\n\nIn fact, these undulations and vibrations, these risings and\nfallings, are not due to the erratic contortions of disparate\nbodies, they are a rhythmic dance.  Rhythm never can be born of\nthe haphazard struggle of combat.  Its underlying principle must\nbe unity, not opposition.\n\nThis principle of unity is the mystery of all mysteries.  The\nexistence of a duality at once raises a question in our minds,\nand we seek its solution in the One.  When at last we find a\nrelation between these two, and thereby see them as one in\nessence, we feel that we have come to the truth.  And then we\ngive utterance to this most startling of all paradoxes, that the\nOne appears as many, that the appearance is the opposite of truth\nand yet is inseparably related to it.\n\nCuriously enough, there are men who lose that feeling of mystery,\nwhich is at the root of all our delights, when they discover the\nuniformity of law among the diversity of nature.  As if\ngravitation is not more of a mystery than the fall of an apple,\nas if the evolution from one scale of being to the other is not\nsomething which is even more shy of explanation than a succession\nof creations.  The trouble is that we very often stop at such a\nlaw as if it were the final end of our search, and then we find\nthat it does not even begin to emancipate our spirit.  It only\ngives satisfaction to our intellect, and as it does not appeal to\nour whole being it only deadens in us the sense of the infinite.\n\nA great poem, when analysed, is a set of detached sounds.  The\nreader who finds out the meaning, which is the inner medium that\nconnects these outer sounds, discovers a perfect law all through,\nwhich is never violated in the least; the law of the evolution of\nideas, the law of the music and the form.\n\nBut law in itself is a limit.  It only shows that whatever is can\nnever be otherwise.  When a man is exclusively occupied with the\nsearch for the links of causality, his mind succumbs to the\ntyranny of law in escaping from the tyranny of facts.  In\nlearning a language, when from mere words we reach the laws of\nwords we have gained a great deal.  But if we stop at that point,\nand only concern ourselves with the marvels of the formation of a\nlanguage, seeking the hidden reason of all its apparent caprices,\nwe do not reach the end--for grammar is not literature, prosody\nis not a poem.\n\nWhen we come to literature we find that though it conforms to\nrules of grammar it is yet a thing of joy, it is freedom itself.\nThe beauty of a poem is bound by strict laws, yet it transcends\nthem.  The laws are its wings, they do not keep it weighed down,\nthey carry it to freedom.  Its form is in law but its spirit is\nin beauty.  Law is the first step towards freedom, and beauty is\nthe complete liberation which stands on the pedestal of law.\nBeauty harmonises in itself the limit and the beyond, the law and\nthe liberty.\n\nIn the world-poem, the discovery of the law of its rhythms, the\nmeasurement of its expansion and contraction, movement and pause,\nthe pursuit of its evolution of forms and characters, are true\nachievements of the mind; but we cannot stop there.  It is like a\nrailway station; but the station platform is not our home.  Only\nhe has attained the final truth who knows that the whole world is\na creation of joy.\n\nThis leads me to think how mysterious the relation of the human\nheart with nature must be.  In the outer world of activity nature\nhas one aspect, but in our hearts, in the inner world, it\npresents an altogether different picture.\n\nTake an instance--the flower of a plant.  However fine and dainty\nit may look, it is pressed to do a great service, and its colours\nand forms are all suited to its work.  It must bring forth the\nfruit, or the continuity of plant life will be broken and the\nearth will be turned into a desert ere long.  The colour and the\nsmell of the flower are all for some purpose therefore; no sooner\nis it fertilised by the bee, and the time of its fruition\narrives, than it sheds its exquisite petals and a cruel economy\ncompels it to give up its sweet perfume.  It has no time to\nflaunt its finery, for it is busy beyond measure.  Viewed from\nwithout, necessity seems to be the only factor in nature for\nwhich everything works and moves.  There the bud develops into\nthe flower, the flower into the fruit, the fruit into the seed,\nthe seed into a new plant again, and so forth, the chain of\nactivity running on unbroken.  Should there crop up any\ndisturbance or impediment, no excuse would be accepted, and the\nunfortunate thing thus choked in its movement would at once be\nlabelled as rejected, and be bound to die and disappear\npost-haste.  In the great office of nature there are innumerable\ndepartments with endless work going on, and the fine flower that\nyou behold there, gaudily attired and scented like a dandy, is by\nno means what it appears to be, but rather, is like a labourer\ntoiling in sun and shower, who has to submit a clear account of\nhis work and has no breathing space to enjoy himself in playful\nfrolic.\n\nBut when this same flower enters the heart of men its aspect of\nbusy practicality is gone, and it becomes the very emblem of\nleisure and repose.  The same object that is the embodiment of\nendless activity without is the perfect expression of beauty and\npeace within.\n\nScience here warns us that we are mistaken, that the purpose of a\nflower is nothing but what is outwardly manifested, and that the\nrelation of beauty and sweetness which we think it bears to us is\nall our own making, gratuitous and imaginary.\n\nBut our heart replies that we are not in the least mistaken.  In\nthe sphere of nature the flower carries with it a certificate\nwhich recommends it as having immense capacity for doing useful\nwork, but it brings an altogether different letter of\nintroduction when it knocks at the door of our hearts.  Beauty\nbecomes its only qualification.  At one place it comes as a\nslave, and at another as a free thing.  How, then, should we give\ncredit to its first recommendation and disbelieve the second one?\nThat the flower has got its being in the unbroken chain of\ncausation is true beyond doubt; but that is an outer truth.  The\ninner truth is: _Verily from the everlasting joy do all objects\nhave their birth._  [Footnote: \u0100nand\u0101dhy\u0113va khalvim\u0101ni bh\u016bt\u0101ni\nj\u0101yant\u0113.]\n\nA flower, therefore, has not its only function in nature, but has\nanother great function to exercise in the mind of man.  And what\nis that function?  In nature its work is that of a servant who\nhas to make his appearance at appointed times, but in the heart\nof man it comes like a messenger from the King.  In the\n_R\u0101m\u0101yana_, when _S\u012bt\u0101,_ forcibly separated from her husband, was\nbewailing her evil fate in _Ravana's_ golden palace, she was met\nby a messenger who brought with him a ring of her beloved\n_R\u0101machandra_ himself.  The very sight of it convinced _S\u012bt\u0101_ of\nthe truth of tidings he bore.  She was at once reassured that he\ncame indeed from her beloved one, who had not forgotten her and\nwas at hand to rescue her.\n\nSuch a messenger is a flower from our great lover.  Surrounded\nwith the pomp and pageantry of worldliness, which may be linked\nto Ravana's golden city, we still live in exile, while the\ninsolent spirit of worldly prosperity tempts us with allurements\nand claims us as its bride.  In the meantime the flower comes\nacross with a message from the other shore, and whispers in our\nears, \"I am come.  He has sent me.  I am a messenger of the\nbeautiful, the one whose soul is the bliss of love.  This island\nof isolation has been bridged over by him, and he has not\nforgotten thee, and will rescue thee even now.  He will draw thee\nunto him and make thee his own.  This illusion will not hold thee\nin thraldom for ever.\"\n\nIf we happen to be awake then, we question him: \"How are we to\nknow that thou art come from him indeed?\"  The messenger says,\n\"Look!  I have this ring from him.  How lovely are its hues and\ncharms!\"\n\nAh, doubtless it is his--indeed, it is our wedding ring.  Now all\nelse passes into oblivion, only this sweet symbol of the touch of\nthe eternal love fills us with a deep longing.  We realise that\nthe palace of gold where we are has nothing to do with us--our\ndeliverance is outside it--and there our love has its fruition\nand our life its fulfilment.\n\nWhat to the bee in nature is merely colour and scent, and the\nmarks or spots which show the right track to the honey, is to the\nhuman heart beauty and joy untrammelled by necessity.  They bring\na love letter to the heart written in many-coloured inks.\n\nI was telling you, therefore, that however busy our active nature\noutwardly may be, she has a secret chamber within the heart where\nshe comes and goes freely, without any design whatsoever.  There\nthe fire of her workshop is transformed into lamps of a festival,\nthe noise of her factory is heard like music.  The iron chain of\ncause and effect sounds heavily outside in nature, but in the\nhuman heart its unalloyed delight seems to sound, as it were,\nlike the golden strings of a harp.\n\nIt indeed seems to be wonderful that nature has these two aspects\nat one and the same time, and so antithetical--one being of\nthraldom and the other of freedom.  In the same form, sound,\ncolour, and taste two contrary notes are heard, one of necessity\nand the other of joy.  Outwardly nature is busy and restless,\ninwardly she is all silence and peace.  She has toil on one side\nand leisure on the other.  You see her bondage only when you see\nher from without, but within her heart is a limitless beauty.\n\nOur seer says, \"From joy are born all creatures, by joy they are\nsustained, towards joy they progress, and into joy they enter.\"\n\nNot that he ignores law, or that his contemplation of this\ninfinite joy is born of the intoxication produced by an\nindulgence in abstract thought.  He fully recognises the\ninexorable laws of nature, and says, \"Fire burns for fear of him\n(i.e. by his law); the sun shines by fear of him; and for fear of\nhim the wind, the clouds, and death perform their offices.\"  It\nis a reign of iron rule, ready to punish the least transgression.\nYet the poet chants the glad song, \"From joy are born all\ncreatures, by joy they are sustained, towards joy they progress,\nand into joy they enter.\"\n\n_The immortal being manifests himself in joy-form._  [Footnote:\n\u0100nandar\u016bpamamritam yad vibh\u0101ti.]  His manifestation in creation\nis out of his fullness of joy.  It is the nature of this\nabounding joy to realise itself in form which is law.  The joy,\nwhich is without form, must create, must translate itself into\nforms.  The joy of the singer is expressed in the form of a song,\nthat of the poet in the form of a poem.  Man in his r\u00f4le of a\ncreator is ever creating forms, and they come out of his\nabounding joy.\n\nThis joy, whose other name is love, must by its very nature have\nduality for its realisation.  When the singer has his inspiration\nhe makes himself into two; he has within him his other self as\nthe hearer, and the outside audience is merely an extension of\nthis other self of his.  The lover seeks his own other self in\nhis beloved.  It is the joy that creates this separation, in\norder to realise through obstacles of union.\n\nThe _amritam_, the immortal bliss, has made himself into two.\nOur soul is the loved one, it is his other self.  We are\nseparate; but if this separation were absolute, then there would\nhave been absolute misery and unmitigated evil in this world.\nThen from untruth we never could reach truth, and from sin we\nnever could hope to attain purity of heart; then all opposites\nwould ever remain opposites, and we could never find a medium\nthrough which our differences could ever tend to meet.  Then we\ncould have no language, no understanding, no blending of hearts,\nno co-operation in life.  But on the contrary, we find that the\nseparateness of objects is in a fluid state.  Their\nindividualities are even changing, they are meeting and merging\ninto each other, till science itself is turning into metaphysics,\nmatter losing its boundaries, and the definition of life becoming\nmore and more indefinite.\n\nYes, our individual soul has been separated from the supreme\nsoul, but this has not been from alienation but from the fullness\nof love.  It is for that reason that untruths, sufferings, and\nevils are not at a standstill; the human soul can defy them, can\novercome them, nay, can altogether transform them into new power\nand beauty.\n\nThe singer is translating his song into singing, his joy into\nforms, and the hearer has to translate back the singing into the\noriginal joy; then the communion between the singer and the\nhearer is complete.  The infinite joy is manifesting itself in\nmanifold forms, taking upon itself the bondage of law, and we\nfulfil our destiny when we go back from forms to joy, from law to\nthe love, when we untie the knot of the finite and hark back to\nthe infinite.\n\nThe human soul is on its journey from the law to love, from\ndiscipline to liberation, from the moral plane to the spiritual.\nBuddha preached the discipline of self-restraint and moral life;\nit is a complete acceptance of law.  But this bondage of law\ncannot be an end by itself; by mastering it thoroughly we acquire\nthe means of getting beyond it.  It is going back to Brahma, to\nthe infinite love, which is manifesting itself through the finite\nforms of law.  Buddha names it _Brahma-vih\u0101ra_, the joy of living\nin Brahma.  He who wants to reach this stage, according to Buddha,\n\"shall deceive none, entertain no hatred for anybody, and never\nwish to injure through anger.  He shall have measureless love for\nall creatures, even as a mother has for her only child, whom she\nprotects with her own life.  Up above, below, and all around him\nhe shall extend his love, which is without bounds and obstacles,\nand which is free from all cruelty and antagonism.  While\nstanding, sitting, walking, lying down, till he fall asleep, he\nshall keep his mind active in this exercise of universal goodwill.\"\n\nWant of love is a degree of callousness; for love is the\nperfection of consciousness.  We do not love because we do not\ncomprehend, or rather we do not comprehend because we do not\nlove.  For love is the ultimate meaning of everything around us.\nIt is not a mere sentiment; it is truth; it is the joy that is at\nthe root of all creation.  It is the white light of pure\nconsciousness that emanates from Brahma.  So, to be one with this\n_sarv\u0101nubh\u016bh_, this all-feeling being who is in the external sky,\nas well as in our inner soul, we must attain to that summit of\nconsciousness, which is love: _Who could have breathed or moved\nif the sky were not filled with joy, with love?_  [Footnote: Ko\nhy\u0113v\u0101ny\u0101t kah pr\u0101ny\u0101t yad\u0113sha \u0101k\u0101\u00e7a \u0101nand\u014d na sy\u0101t.]  It is\nthrough the heightening of our consciousness into love, and\nextending it all over the world, that we can attain\n_Brahma-vih\u0101ra,_ communion with this infinite joy.\n\nLove spontaneously gives itself in endless gifts.  But these\ngifts lose their fullest significance if through them we do not\nreach that love, which is the giver.  To do that, we must have\nlove in our own heart.  He who has no love in him values the\ngifts of his lover only according to their usefulness.  But\nutility is temporary and partial.  It can never occupy our whole\nbeing; what is useful only touches us at the point where we have\nsome want.  When the want is satisfied, utility becomes a burden\nif it still persists.  On the other hand, a mere token is of\npermanent worth to us when we have love in our heart.  For it is\nnot for any special use.  It is an end in itself; it is for our\nwhole being and therefore can never tire us.\n\nThe question is, In what manner do we accept this world, which is\na perfect gift of joy?  Have we been able to receive it in our\nheart where we keep enshrined things that are of deathless value\nto us?  We are frantically busy making use of the forces of the\nuniverse to gain more and more power; we feed and we clothe\nourselves from its stores, we scramble for its riches, and it\nbecomes for us a field of fierce competition.  But were we born\nfor this, to extend our proprietary rights over this world and\nmake of it a marketable commodity?  When our whole mind is bent\nonly upon making use of this world it loses for us its true\nvalue.  We make it cheap by our sordid desires; and thus to the\nend of our days we only try to feed upon it and miss its truth,\njust like the greedy child who tears leaves from a precious book\nand tries to swallow them.\n\nIn the lands where cannibalism is prevalent man looks upon man as\nhis food.  In such a country civilisation can never thrive, for\nthere man loses his higher value and is made common indeed.  But\nthere are other kinds of cannibalism, perhaps not so gross, but\nnot less heinous, for which one need not travel far.  In\ncountries higher in the scale of civilisation we find sometimes\nman looked upon as a mere body, and he is bought and sold in the\nmarket by the price of his flesh only.  And sometimes he gets his\nsole value from being useful; he is made into a machine, and is\ntraded upon by the man of money to acquire for him more money.\nThus our lust, our greed, our love of comfort result in\ncheapening man to his lowest value.  It is self deception on a\nlarge scale.  Our desires blind us to the _truth_ that there is\nin man, and this is the greatest wrong done by ourselves to our\nown soul.  It deadens our consciousness, and is but a gradual\nmethod of spiritual suicide.  It produces ugly sores in the body\nof civilisation, gives rise to its hovels and brothels, its\nvindictive penal codes, its cruel prison systems, its organised\nmethod of exploiting foreign races to the extent of permanently\ninjuring them by depriving them of the discipline of\nself-government and means of self-defence.\n\nOf course man is useful to man, because his body is a marvellous\nmachine and his mind an organ of wonderful efficiency.  But he is\na spirit as well, and this spirit is truly known only by love.\nWhen we define a man by the market value of the service we can\nexpect of him, we know him imperfectly.  With this limited\nknowledge of him it becomes easy for us to be unjust to him and\nto entertain feelings of triumphant self-congratulation when, on\naccount of some cruel advantage on our side, we can get out of\nhim much more than we have paid for.  But when we know him as a\nspirit we know him as our own.  We at once feel that cruelty to\nhim is cruelty to ourselves, to make him small is stealing from\nour own humanity, and in seeking to make use of him solely for\npersonal profit we merely gain in money or comfort what we pay in\ntruth.\n\nOne day I was out in a boat on the Ganges.  It was a beautiful\nevening in autumn.  The sun had just set; the silence of the sky\nwas full to the brim with ineffable peace and beauty.  The vast\nexpanse of water was without a ripple, mirroring all the changing\nshades of the sunset glow.  Miles and miles of a desolate\nsandbank lay like a huge amphibious reptile of some antediluvian\nage, with its scales glistening in shining colours.  As our boat\nwas silently gliding by the precipitous river-bank, riddled with\nthe nest-holes of a colony of birds, suddenly a big fish leapt up\nto the surface of the water and then disappeared, displaying on\nits vanishing figure all the colours of the evening sky.  It drew\naside for a moment the many-coloured screen behind which there\nwas a silent world full of the joy of life.  It came up from the\ndepths of its mysterious dwelling with a beautiful dancing motion\nand added its own music to the silent symphony of the dying day.\nI felt as if I had a friendly greeting from an alien world in its\nown language, and it touched my heart with a flash of gladness.\nThen suddenly the man at the helm exclaimed with a distinct note\nof regret, \"Ah, what a big fish!\"  It at once brought before his\nvision the picture of the fish caught and made ready for his\nsupper.  He could only look at the fish through his desire, and\nthus missed the whole truth of its existence.  But man is not\nentirely an animal.  He aspires to a spiritual vision, which is\nthe vision of the whole truth.  This gives him the highest\ndelight, because it reveals to him the deepest harmony that\nexists between him and his surroundings.  It is our desires that\nlimit the scope of our self-realisation, hinder our extension of\nconsciousness, and give rise to sin, which is the innermost\nbarrier that keeps us apart from our God, setting up disunion and\nthe arrogance of exclusiveness.  For sin is not one mere action,\nbut it is an attitude of life which takes for granted that our\ngoal is finite, that our self is the ultimate truth, and that we\nare not all essentially one but exist each for his own separate\nindividual existence.\n\nSo I repeat we never can have a true view of man unless we have a\nlove for him.  Civilisation must be judged and prized, not by the\namount of power it has developed, but by how much it has evolved\nand given expression to, by its laws and institutions, the love\nof humanity.  The first question and the last which it has to\nanswer is, Whether and how far it recognises man more as a spirit\nthan a machine?  Whenever some ancient civilisation fell into\ndecay and died, it was owing to causes which produced callousness\nof heart and led to the cheapening of man's worth; when either\nthe state or some powerful group of men began to look upon the\npeople as a mere instrument of their power; when, by compelling\nweaker races to slavery and trying to keep them down by every\nmeans, man struck at the foundation of his greatness, his own\nlove of freedom and fair-play.  Civilisation can never sustain\nitself upon cannibalism of any form.  For that by which alone man\nis true can only be nourished by love and justice.\n\nAs with man, so with this universe.  When we look at the world\nthrough the veil of our desires we make it small and narrow, and\nfail to perceive its full truth.  Of course it is obvious that\nthe world serves us and fulfils our needs, but our relation to it\ndoes not end there.  We are bound to it with a deeper and truer\nbond than that of necessity.  Our soul is drawn to it; our love\nof life is really our wish to continue our relation with this\ngreat world.  This relation is one of love.  We are glad that we\nare in it; we are attached to it with numberless threads, which\nextend from this earth to the stars.  Man foolishly tries to\nprove his superiority by imagining his radical separateness from\nwhat he calls his physical world, which, in his blind fanaticism,\nhe sometimes goes to the extent of ignoring altogether, holding\nit at his direst enemy.  Yet the more his knowledge progresses,\nthe more it becomes difficult for man to establish this\nseparateness, and all the imaginary boundaries he had set up\naround himself vanish one after another.  Every time we lose some\nof our badges of absolute distinction by which we conferred upon\nour humanity the right to hold itself apart from its surroundings,\nit gives us a shock of humiliation.  But we have to submit to\nthis.  If we set up our pride on the path of our self-realisation\nto create divisions and disunion, then it must sooner or later\ncome under the wheels of truth and be ground to dust.  No, we are\nnot burdened with some monstrous superiority, unmeaning in its\nsingular abruptness.  It would be utterly degrading for us to\nlive in a world immeasurably less than ourselves in the quality of\nsoul, just as it would be repulsive and degrading to be surrounded\nand served by a host of slaves, day and night, from birth to the\nmoment of death.  On the contrary, this world is our compeer, nay,\nwe are one with it.\n\nThrough our progress in science the wholeness of the world and\nour oneness with it is becoming clearer to our mind.  When this\nperception of the perfection of unity is not merely intellectual,\nwhen it opens out our whole being into a luminous consciousness\nof the all, then it becomes a radiant joy, an overspreading love.\nOur spirit finds its larger self in the whole world, and is\nfilled with an absolute certainty that it is immortal.  It dies a\nhundred times in its enclosures of self; for separateness is\ndoomed to die, it cannot be made eternal.  But it never can die\nwhere it is one with the all, for there is its truth, its joy.\nWhen a man feels the rhythmic throb of the soul-life of the whole\nworld in his own soul, then is he free.  Then he enters into the\nsecret courting that goes on between this beautiful world-bride,\nveiled with the veil of the many-coloured finiteness, and the\n_paramatmam_, the bridegroom, in his spotless white.  Then he\nknows that he is the partaker of this gorgeous love festival, and\nhe is the honoured guest at the feast of immortality.  Then he\nunderstands the meaning of the seer-poet who sings, \"From love the\nworld is born, by love it is sustained, towards love it moves, and\ninto love it enters.\"\n\nIn love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and\nare lost.  Only in love are unity and duality not at variance.\nLove must be one and two at the same time.\n\nOnly love is motion and rest in one.  Our heart ever changes its\nplace till it finds love, and then it has its rest.  But this\nrest itself is an intense form of activity where utter quiescence\nand unceasing energy meet at the same point in love.\n\nIn love, loss and gain are harmonised.  In its balance-sheet,\ncredit and debit accounts are in the same column, and gifts are\nadded to gains.  In this wonderful festival of creation, this\ngreat ceremony of self-sacrifice of God, the lover constantly\ngives himself up to gain himself in love.  Indeed, love is what\nbrings together and inseparably connects both the act of\nabandoning and that of receiving.\n\nIn love, at one of its poles you find the personal, and at the\nother the impersonal.  At one you have the positive assertion--Here\nI am; at the other the equally strong denial--I am not.\nWithout this ego what is love?  And again, with only this ego how\ncan love be possible?\n\nBondage and liberation are not antagonistic in love.  For love is\nmost free and at the same time most bound.  If God were\nabsolutely free there would be no creation.  The infinite being\nhas assumed unto himself the mystery of finitude.  And in him who\nis love the finite and the infinite are made one.\n\nSimilarly, when we talk about the relative values of freedom and\nnon-freedom, it becomes a mere play of words.  It is not that we\ndesire freedom alone, we want thraldom as well.  It is the high\nfunction of love to welcome all limitations and to transcend\nthem.  For nothing is more independent than love, and where else,\nagain, shall we find so much of dependence?  In love, thraldom is\nas glorious as freedom.\n\nThe _Vaishnava_ religion has boldly declared that God has bound\nhimself to man, and in that consists the greatest glory of human\nexistence.  In the spell of the wonderful rhythm of the finite he\nfetters himself at every step, and thus gives his love out in\nmusic in his most perfect lyrics of beauty.  Beauty is his wooing\nof our heart; it can have no other purpose.  It tells us\neverywhere that the display of power is not the ultimate meaning\nof creation; wherever there is a bit of colour, a note of song, a\ngrace of form, there comes the call for our love.  Hunger compels\nus to obey its behests, but hunger is not the last word for a man.\nThere have been men who have deliberately defied its commands to\nshow that the human soul is not to be led by the pressure of wants\nand threat of pain.  In fact, to live the life of man we have to\nresist its demands every day, the least of us as well as the\ngreatest.  But, on the other hand, there is a beauty in the world\nwhich never insults our freedom, never raises even its little\nfinger to make us acknowledge its sovereignty.  We can absolutely\nignore it and suffer no penalty in consequence.  It is a call to\nus, but not a command.  It seeks for love in us, and love can\nnever be had by compulsion.  Compulsion is not indeed the final\nappeal to man, but joy is.  Any joy is everywhere; it is in the\nearth's green covering of grass; in the blue serenity of the sky;\nin the reckless exuberance of spring; in the severe abstinence of\ngrey winter; in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame;\nin the perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright; in\nliving; in the exercise of all our powers; in the acquisition of\nknowledge; in fighting evils; in dying for gains we never can\nshare.  Joy is there everywhere; it is superfluous, unnecessary;\nnay, it very often contradicts the most peremptory behests of\nnecessity.  It exists to show that the bonds of law can only be\nexplained by love; they are like body and soul.  Joy is the\nrealisation of the truth of oneness, the oneness of our soul with\nthe world and of the world-soul with the supreme lover.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\n\nREALISATION IN ACTION\n\n\nIt is only those who have known that joy expresses itself through\nlaw who have learnt to transcend the law.  Not that the bonds of\nlaw have ceased to exist for them--but that the bonds have become\nto them as the form of freedom incarnate.  The freed soul\ndelights in accepting bonds, and does not seek to evade any of\nthem, for in each does it feel the manifestation of an infinite\nenergy whose joy is in creation.\n\nAs a matter of fact, where there are no bonds, where there is the\nmadness of license, the soul ceases to be free.  There is its\nhurt; there is its separation from the infinite, its agony of\nsin.  Whenever at the call of temptation the soul falls away from\nthe bondage of law, then, like a child deprived of the support of\nits mother's arms, it cries out, _Smite me not!_  [Footnote: M\u0101 m\u0101\nhims\u012bh.]  \"Bind me,\" it prays, \"oh, bind me in the bonds of thy\nlaw; bind me within and without; hold me tight; let me in the clasp\nof thy law be bound up together with thy joy; protect me by thy\nfirm hold from the deadly laxity of sin.\"\n\nAs some, under the idea that law is the opposite of joy, mistake\nintoxication for joy, so there are many in our country who\nimagine action to be opposed to freedom.  They think that\nactivity being in the material plane is a restriction of the free\nspirit of the soul.  But we must remember that as joy expresses\nitself in law, so the soul finds its freedom in action.  It is\nbecause joy cannot find expression in itself alone that it\ndesires the law which is outside.  Likewise it is because the\nsoul cannot find freedom within itself that it wants external\naction.  The soul of man is ever freeing itself from its own\nfolds by its activity; had it been otherwise it could not have\ndone any voluntary work.\n\nThe more man acts and makes actual what was latent in him, the\nnearer does he bring the distant Yet-to-be.  In that\nactualisation man is ever making himself more and yet more\ndistinct, and seeing himself clearly under newer and newer\naspects in the midst of his varied activities, in the state, in\nsociety.  This vision makes for freedom.\n\nFreedom is not in darkness, nor in vagueness.  There is no\nbondage so fearful as that of obscurity.  It is to escape from\nthis obscurity that the seed struggles to sprout, the bud to\nblossom.  It is to rid itself of this envelope of vagueness that\nthe ideas in our mind are constantly seeking opportunities to\ntake on outward form.  In the same way our soul, in order to\nrelease itself from the mist of indistinctness and come out into\nthe open, is continually creating for itself fresh fields of\naction, and is busy contriving new forms of activity, even such\nas are not needful for the purposes of its earthly life.  And\nwhy?  Because it wants freedom.  It wants to see itself, to\nrealise itself.\n\nWhen man cuts down the pestilential jungle and makes unto himself\na garden, the beauty that he thus sets free from within its\nenclosure of ugliness is the beauty of his own soul: without\ngiving it this freedom outside, he cannot make it free within.\nWhen he implants law and order in the midst of the waywardness of\nsociety, the good which he sets free from the obstruction of the\nbad is the goodness of his own soul: without being thus made free\noutside it cannot find freedom within.  Thus is man continually\nengaged in setting free in action his powers, his beauty, his\ngoodness, his very soul.  And the more he succeeds in so doing,\nthe greater does he see himself to be, the broader becomes the\nfield of his knowledge of self.\n\nThe Upanishad says: _In the midst of activity alone wilt thou\ndesire to live a hundred years._  [Footnote:  Kurvann\u0113v\u0113ha\nkarm\u0101ni jij\u012bvishet \u00e7atam sam\u0101h.]  It is the saying of those who\nhad amply tasted of the joy of the soul.  Those who have fully\nrealised the soul have never talked in mournful accents of the\nsorrowfulness of life or of the bondage of action.  They are not\nlike the weakling flower whose stem-hold is so light that it\ndrops away before attaining fruition.  They hold on to life with\nall their might and say, \"never will we let go till the fruit is\nripe.\"  They desire in their joy to express themselves\nstrenuously in their life and in their work.  Pain and sorrow\ndismay them not, they are not bowed down to the dust by the\nweight of their own heart.  With the erect head of the victorious\nhero they march through life seeing themselves and showing\nthemselves in increasing resplendence of soul through both joys\nand sorrows.  The joy of their life keeps step with the joy of\nthat energy which is playing at building and breaking throughout\nthe universe.  The joy of the sunlight, the joy of the free air,\nmingling with the joy of their lives, makes one sweet harmony\nreign within and without.  It is they who say, _In the midst of\nactivity alone wilt thou desire to live a hundred years._\n\nThis joy of life, this joy of work, in man is absolutely true.\nIt is no use saying that it is a delusion of ours; that unless we\ncast it away we cannot enter upon the path of self-realisation.\nIt will never do the least good to attempt the realisation of the\ninfinite apart from the world of action.\n\nIt is not the truth that man is active on compulsion.  If there\nis compulsion on one side, on the other there is pleasure; on the\none hand action is spurred on by want, on the other it hies to\nits natural fulfilment.  That is why, as man's civilisation\nadvances, he increases his obligations and the work that he\nwillingly creates for himself.  One should have thought that\nnature had given him quite enough to do to keep him busy, in fact\nthat it was working him to death with the lash of hunger and\nthirst,--but no.  Man does not think that sufficient; he cannot\nrest content with only doing the work that nature prescribes for\nhim in common with the birds and beasts.  He needs must surpass\nall, even in activity.  No creature has to work so hard as man;\nhe has been impelled to contrive for himself a vast field of\naction in society; and in this field he is for every building up\nand pulling down, making and unmaking laws, piling up heaps of\nmaterial, and incessantly thinking, seeking and suffering.  In\nthis field he has fought his mightiest battles, gained continual\nnew life, made death glorious, and, far from evading troubles,\nhas willingly and continually taken up the burden of fresh\ntrouble.  He has discovered the truth that he is not complete in\nthe cage of his immediate surroundings, that he is greater than\nhis present, and that while to stand still in one place may be\ncomforting, the arrest of life destroys his true function and the\nreal purpose of his existence.\n\nThis _mahat\u012b vinashtih--this great destruction_ he cannot bear,\nand accordingly he toils and suffers in order that he may gain in\nstature by transcending his present, in order to become that\nwhich he yet is not.  In this travail is man's glory, and it is\nbecause he knows it, that he has not sought to circumscribe his\nfield of action, but is constantly occupied in extending the\nbounds.  Sometimes he wanders so far that his work tends to lose\nits meaning, and his rushings to and fro create fearful eddies\nround different centres--eddies of self-interest, of pride of\npower.  Still, so long as the strength of the current is not lost,\nthere is no fear; the obstructions and the dead accumulations of\nhis activity are dissipated and carried away; the impetus corrects\nits own mistakes.  Only when the soul sleeps in stagnation do its\nenemies gain overmastering strength, and these obstructions become\ntoo clogging to be fought through.  Hence have we been warned by\nour teachers that to work we must live, to live we must work; that\nlife and activity are inseparably connected.\n\nIt is very characteristic of life that it is not complete within\nitself; it must come out.  Its truth is in the commerce of the\ninside and the outside.  In order to live, the body must maintain\nits various relations with the outside light and air--not only to\ngain life-force, but also to manifest it.  Consider how fully\nemployed the body is with its own inside activities; its heart-beat\nmust not stop for a second, its stomach, its brain, must be\nceaselessly working.  Yet this is not enough; the body is\noutwardly restless all the while.  Its life leads it to an\nendless dance of work and play outside; it cannot be satisfied\nwith the circulations of its internal economy, and only finds the\nfulfilment of joy in its outward excursions.\n\nThe same with the soul.  It cannot live on its own internal\nfeelings and imaginings.  It is ever in need of external objects;\nnot only to feed its inner consciousness but to apply itself in\naction, not only to receive but also to give.\n\nThe real truth is, we cannot live if we divide him who is truth\nitself into two parts.  We must abide in him within as well as\nwithout.  In whichever aspect we deny him we deceive ourselves\nand incur a loss.  _Brahma has not left me, let me not leave\nBrahma._  [Footnote:  M\u0101ham brahma nir\u0101kuryy\u0101m m\u0101 m\u0101 brahma\nnir\u0101kar\u014dt.]  If we say that we would realise him in introspection\nalone and leave him out of our external activity, that we would\nenjoy him by the love in our heart, but not worship him by\noutward ministrations; or if we say the opposite, and overweight\nourselves on one side in the journey of our life's quest, we\nshall alike totter to our downfall.\n\nIn the great western continent we see that the soul of man is\nmainly concerned with extending itself outwards; the open field\nof the exercise of power is its field.  Its partiality is\nentirely for the world of extension, and it would leave aside--nay,\nhardly believe in--that field of inner consciousness which\nis the field of fulfilment.  It has gone so far in this that the\nperfection of fulfilment seems to exist for it nowhere.  Its\nscience has always talked of the never-ending evolution of the\nworld.  Its metaphysic has now begun to talk of the evolution of\nGod himself.  They will not admit that he _is_; they would have\nit that he also is _becoming._\n\nThey fail to realise that while the infinite is always greater\nthan any assignable limit, it is also complete; that on the one\nhand Brahma is evolving, on the other he is perfection; that in\nthe one aspect he is essence, in the other manifestation--both\ntogether at the same time, as is the song and the act of singing.\nThis is like ignoring the consciousness of the singer and saying\nthat only the singing is in progress, that there is no song.\nDoubtless we are directly aware only of the singing, and never at\nany one time of the song as a whole; but do we not all the time\nknow that the complete song is in the soul of the singer?\n\nIt is because of this insistence on the doing and the becoming\nthat we perceive in the west the intoxication of power.  These\nmen seem to have determined to despoil and grasp everything by\nforce.  They would always obstinately be doing and never be done--they\nwould not allow to death its natural place in the scheme of\nthings--they know not the beauty of completion.\n\nIn our country the danger comes from the opposite side.  Our\npartiality is for the internal world.  We would cast aside with\ncontumely the field of power and of extension.  We would realise\nBrahma in mediation only in his aspect of completeness, we have\ndetermined not to see him in the commerce of the universe in his\naspect of evolution.  That is why in our seekers we so often find\nthe intoxication of the spirit and its consequent degradation.\nTheir faith would acknowledge no bondage of law, their\nimagination soars unrestricted, their conduct disdains to offer\nany explanation to reason.  Their intellect, in its vain attempts\nto see Brahma inseparable from his creation, works itself stone-dry,\nand their heart, seeking to confine him within its own\noutpourings, swoons in a drunken ecstasy of emotion.  They have\nnot even kept within reach any standard whereby they can measure\nthe loss of strength and character which manhood sustains by thus\nignoring the bonds of law and the claims of action in the\nexternal universe.\n\nBut true spirituality, as taught in our sacred lore, is calmly\nbalanced in strength, in the correlation of the within and the\nwithout.  The truth has its law, it has its joy.  On one side of\nit is being chanted the _Bhay\u0101dasy\u0101gnistapati_ [Footnote: \"For\nfear of him the fire doth burn,\" etc], on the other the\n_\u0100nand\u0101dhyeva khalvim\u0101ni bh\u016bt\u0101ni j\u0101yante._  [Footnote: \"From Joy\nare born all created things,\" etc.]  Freedom is impossible of\nattainment without submission to law, for Brahma is in one aspect\nbound by his truth, in the other free in his joy.\n\nAs for ourselves, it is only when we wholly submit to the bonds\nof truth that we fully gain the joy of freedom.  And how?  As\ndoes the string that is bound to the harp.  When the harp is\ntruly strung, when there is not the slightest laxity in the\nstrength of the bond, then only does music result; and the string\ntranscending itself in its melody finds at every chord its true\nfreedom.  It is because it is bound by such hard and fast rules\non the one side that it can find this range of freedom in music\non the other.  While the string was not true, it was indeed\nmerely bound; but a loosening of its bondage would not have been\nthe way to freedom, which it can only fully achieve by being\nbound tighter and tighter till it has attained the true pitch.\n\nThe bass and treble strings of our duty are only bonds so long as\nwe cannot maintain them steadfastly attuned according to the law\nof truth; and we cannot call by the name of freedom the loosening\nof them into the nothingness of inaction.  That is why I would\nsay that the true striving in the quest of truth, of _dharma_,\nconsists not in the neglect of action but in the effort to attune\nit closer and closer to the eternal harmony.  The text of this\nstriving should be, _Whatever works thou doest, consecrate them\nto Brahma._  [Footnote:  Yadyat karma prakurv\u012bta tadbrahmani\nsamarpayet.]  That is to say, the soul is to dedicate itself to\nBrahma through all its activities.  This dedication is the song\nof the soul, in this is its freedom.  Joy reigns when all work\nbecomes the path to the union with Brahma; when the soul ceases\nto return constantly to its own desires; when in it our self-offering\ngrows more and more intense.  Then there is completion,\nthen there is freedom, then, in this world, comes the kingdom of\nGod.\n\nWho is there that, sitting in his corner, would deride this grand\nself-expression of humanity in action, this incessant\nself-consecration?  Who is there that thinks the union of God and man\nis to be found in some secluded enjoyment of his own imaginings,\naway from the sky-towering temple of the greatness of humanity,\nwhich the whole of mankind, in sunshine and storm, is toiling to\nerect through the ages?  Who is there that thinks this secluded\ncommunion is the highest form of religion?\n\nO thou distraught wanderer, thou _Sannyasin_, drunk in the wine of\nself-intoxication, dost thou not already hear the progress of the\nhuman soul along the highway traversing the wide fields of\nhumanity--the thunder of its progress in the car of its\nachievements, which is destined to overpass the bounds that\nprevent its expansion into the universe?  The very mountains are\ncleft asunder and give way before the march of its banners waving\ntriumphantly in the heavens; as the mist before the rising sun,\nthe tangled obscurities of material things vanish at its\nirresistible approach.  Pain, disease, and disorder are at every\nstep receding before its onset; the obstructions of ignorance are\nbeing thrust aside; the darkness of blindness is being pierced\nthrough; and behold, the promised land of wealth and health, of\npoetry and art, of knowledge and righteousness is gradually being\nrevealed to view.  Do you in your lethargy desire to say that\nthis car of humanity, which is shaking the very earth with the\ntriumph of its progress along the mighty vistas of history, has\nno charioteer leading it on to its fulfilment?  Who is there who\nrefuses to respond to his call to join in this triumphal progress?\nWho so foolish as to run away from the gladsome throng and seek\nhim in the listlessness of inaction?  Who so steeped in untruth as\nto dare to call all this untrue--this great world of men, this\ncivilisation of expanding humanity, this eternal effort of man,\nthrough depths of sorrow, through heights of gladness, through\ninnumerable impediments within and without, to win victory for his\npowers?  He who can think of this immensity of achievement as an\nimmense fraud, can he truly believe in God who is the truth?  He\nwho thinks to reach God by running away from the world, when and\nwhere does he expect to meet him?  How far can he fly--can he fly\nand fly, till he flies into nothingness itself?  No, the coward\nwho would fly can nowhere find him.  We must be brave enough to\nbe able to say: We are reaching him here in this very spot, now\nat this very moment.  We must be able to assure ourselves that as\nin our actions we are realising ourselves, so in ourselves we are\nrealising him who is the self of self.  We must earn the right to\nsay so unhesitatingly by clearing away with our own effort all\nobstruction, all disorder, all discords from our path of activity;\nwe must be able to say, \"In my work is my joy, and in that joy\ndoes the joy of my joy abide.\"\n\nWhom does the Upanishad call _The chief among the knowers of\nBrahma?_  [Footnote: Brahmavid\u0101mvaristhah.]  He is defined as _He\nwhose joy is in Brahma, whose play is in Brahma, the active one._\n[Footnote: \u0100tmakr\u012brha \u0101tmaratih kriy\u0101v\u0101n.]  Joy without the play\nof joy is no joy at all--play without activity is no play.\nActivity is the play of joy.  He whose joy is in Brahma, how can\nhe live in inaction?  For must he not by his activity provide\nthat in which the joy of Brahma is to take form and manifest\nitself?  That is why he who knows Brahma, who has his joy in\nBrahma, must also have all his activity in Brahma--his eating\nand drinking, his earning of livelihood and his beneficence.\nJust as the joy of the poet in his poem, of the artist in his\nart, of the brave man in the output of his courage, of the wise\nman in his discernment of truths, ever seeks expression in their\nseveral activities, so the joy of the knower of Brahma, in the\nwhole of his everyday work, little and big, in truth, in beauty,\nin orderliness and in beneficence, seeks to give expression to\nthe infinite.\n\nBrahma himself gives expression to his joy in just the same way.\n_By his many-sided activity, which radiates in all directions,\ndoes he fulfil the inherent want of his different creatures._\n[Footnote: Bahudh\u0101 \u00e7akti yog\u0101t var\u0146\u0101nanek\u0101n nihit\u0101rtho dadh\u0101ti.]\nThat inherent want is he himself, and so he is in so many ways,\nin so many forms, giving himself.  He works, for without working\nhow could he give himself.  His joy is ever dedicating itself in\nthe dedication which is his creation.\n\nIn this very thing does our own true meaning lie, in this is our\nlikeness to our father.  We must also give up ourselves in\nmany-sided variously aimed activity.  In the Vedas he is called _the\ngiver of himself, the giver of strength._  [Footnote:  \u0100tmad\u0101\nbalad\u0101.]  He is not content with giving us himself, but he gives\nus strength that we may likewise give ourselves.  That is why the\nseer of the Upanishad prays to him who is thus fulfilling our\nwants, _May he grant us the beneficent mind_ [Footnote: Sa no\nbuddhya \u00e7ubhay\u0101 samyunaktu.], may he fulfil that uttermost want\nof ours by granting us the beneficent mind.  That is to say, it\nis not enough he should alone work to remove our want, but he\nshould give us the desire and the strength to work with him in\nhis activity and in the exercise of the goodness.  Then, indeed,\nwill our union with him alone be accomplished.  The beneficent\nmind is that which shows us the want (_sw\u0101rtha_) of another self\nto be the inherent want (_nihit\u0101rtha_) of our own self; that\nwhich shows that our joy consists in the varied aiming of our\nmany-sided powers in the work of humanity.  When we work under\nthe guidance of this beneficent mind, then our activity is\nregulated, but does not become mechanical; it is action not\ngoaded on by want, but stimulated by the satisfaction of the\nsoul.  Such activity ceases to be a blind imitation of that of\nthe multitude, a cowardly following of the dictates of fashion.\nTherein we begin to see that _He is in the beginning and in the\nend of the universe_ [Footnote: Vichaiti ch\u0101nt\u0113 vi\u00e7vam\u0101dau.],\nand likewise see that of our own work is he the fount and the\ninspiration, and at the end thereof is he, and therefore that all\nour activity is pervaded by peace and good and joy.\n\nThe Upanishad says: _Knowledge, power, and action are of his\nnature._ [Footnote: Sv\u0101bh\u0101vik\u012bjn\u0101na bala kriy\u0101 cha.]  It is\nbecause this naturalness has not yet been born in us that we tend\nto divide joy from work.  Our day of work is not our day of\njoy--for that we require a holiday; for, miserable that we are, we\ncannot find our holiday in our work.  The river finds its holiday\nin its onward flow, the fire in its outburst of flame, the scent\nof the flower in its permeation of the atmosphere; but in our\neveryday work there is no such holiday for us.  It is because we\ndo not let ourselves go, because we do not give ourselves\njoyously and entirely up to it, that our work overpowers us.\n\nO giver of thyself! at the vision of thee as joy let our souls\nflame up to thee as the fire, flow on to thee as the river,\npermeate thy being as the fragrance of the flower.  Give us\nstrength to love, to love fully, our life in its joys and\nsorrows, in its gains and losses, in its rise and fall.  Let us\nhave strength enough fully to see and hear thy universe, and to\nwork with full vigour therein.  Let us fully live the life thou\nhast given us, let us bravely take and bravely give.  This is our\nprayer to thee.  Let us once for all dislodge from our minds the\nfeeble fancy that would make out thy joy to be a thing apart from\naction, thin, formless, and unsustained.  Wherever the peasant\ntills the hard earth, there does thy joy gush out in the green of\nthe corn, wherever man displaces the entangled forest, smooths\nthe stony ground, and clears for himself a homestead, there does\nthy joy enfold it in orderliness and peace.\n\nO worker of the universe!  We would pray to thee to let the\nirresistible current of thy universal energy come like the\nimpetuous south wind of spring, let it come rushing over the vast\nfield of the life of man, let it bring the scent of many flowers,\nthe murmurings of many woodlands, let it make sweet and vocal the\nlifelessness of our dried-up soul-life.  Let our newly awakened\npowers cry out for unlimited fulfilment in leaf and flower and\nfruit.\n\n\n\nVII\n\n\nTHE REALISATION OF BEAUTY\n\n\nThings in which we do not take joy are either a burden upon our\nminds to be got rid of at any cost; or they are useful, and\ntherefore in temporary and partial relation to us, becoming\nburdensome when their utility is lost; or they are like wandering\nvagabonds, loitering for a moment on the outskirts of our\nrecognition, and then passing on.  A thing is only completely our\nown when it is a thing of joy to us.\n\nThe greater part of this world is to us as if it were nothing.\nBut we cannot allow it to remain so, for thus it belittles our\nown self.  The entire world is given to us, and all our powers\nhave their final meaning in the faith that by their help we are\nto take possession of our patrimony.\n\nBut what is the function of our sense of beauty in this process\nof the extension of our consciousness?  Is it there to separate\ntruth into strong lights and shadows, and bring it before us in\nits uncompromising distinction of beauty and ugliness?  If that\nwere so, then we would have had to admit that this sense of\nbeauty creates a dissension in our universe and sets up a wall of\nhindrance across the highway of communication that leads from\neverything to all things.\n\nBut that cannot be true.  As long as our realisation is\nincomplete a division necessarily remains between things known\nand unknown, pleasant and unpleasant.  But in spite of the dictum\nof some philosophers man does not accept any arbitrary and\nabsolute limit to his knowable world.  Every day his science is\npenetrating into the region formerly marked in his map as\nunexplored or inexplorable.  Our sense of beauty is similarly\nengaged in ever pushing on its conquests.  Truth is everywhere,\ntherefore everything is the object of our knowledge.  Beauty is\nomnipresent, therefore everything is capable of giving us joy.\n\nIn the early days of his history man took everything as a\nphenomenon of life.  His science of life began by creating a\nsharp distinction between life and non-life.  But as it is\nproceeding farther and farther the line of demarcation between\nthe animate and inanimate is growing more and more dim.  In the\nbeginning of our apprehension these sharp lines of contrast are\nhelpful to us, but as our comprehension becomes clearer they\ngradually fade away.\n\nThe Upanishads have said that all things are created and\nsustained by an infinite joy.  To realise this principle of\ncreation we have to start with a division--the division into the\nbeautiful and the non-beautiful.  Then the apprehension of beauty\nhas to come to us with a vigorous blow to awaken our\nconsciousness from its primitive lethargy, and it attains its\nobject by the urgency of the contrast.  Therefore our first\nacquaintance with beauty is in her dress of motley colours, that\naffects us with its stripes and feathers, nay, with its\ndisfigurements.  But as our acquaintance ripens, the apparent\ndiscords are resolved into modulations of rhythm.  At first we\ndetach beauty from its surroundings, we hold it apart from the\nrest, but at the end we realise its harmony with all.  Then the\nmusic of beauty has no more need of exciting us with loud noise;\nit renounces violence, and appeals to our heart with the truth\nthat it is meekness inherits the earth.\n\nIn some stage of our growth, in some period of our history, we\ntry to set up a special cult of beauty, and pare it down to a\nnarrow circuit, so as to make it a matter of pride for a chosen\nfew.  Then it breeds in its votaries affections and\nexaggerations, as it did with the Brahmins in the time of the\ndecadence of Indian civilisation, when the perception of the\nhigher truth fell away and superstitions grew up unchecked.\n\nIn the history of \u00e6sthetics there also comes an age of\nemancipation when the recognition of beauty in things great and\nsmall become easy, and when we see it more in the unassuming\nharmony of common objects than in things startling in their\nsingularity.  So much so, that we have to go through the stages\nof reaction when in the representation of beauty we try to avoid\neverything that is obviously pleasing and that has been crowned\nby the sanction of convention.  We are then tempted in defiance\nto exaggerate the commonness of commonplace things, thereby\nmaking them aggressively uncommon.  To restore harmony we create\nthe discords which are a feature of all reactions.  We already\nsee in the present age the sign of this \u00e6sthetic reaction, which\nproves that man has at last come to know that it is only the\nnarrowness of perception which sharply divides the field of his\n\u00e6sthetic consciousness into ugliness and beauty.  When he has the\npower to see things detached from self-interest and from the\ninsistent claims of the lust of the senses, then alone can he\nhave the true vision of the beauty that is everywhere.  Then only\ncan he see that what is unpleasant to us is not necessarily\nunbeautiful, but has its beauty in truth.\n\nWhen we say that beauty is everywhere we do not mean that the\nword ugliness should be abolished from our language, just as it\nwould be absurd to say that there is no such thing as untruth.\nUntruth there certainly is, not in the system of the universe,\nbut in our power of comprehension, as its negative element.  In\nthe same manner there is ugliness in the distorted expression of\nbeauty in our life and in our art which comes from our imperfect\nrealisation of Truth.  To a certain extent we can set our life\nagainst the law of truth which is in us and which is in all, and\nlikewise we can give rise to ugliness by going counter to the\neternal law of harmony which is everywhere.\n\nThrough our sense of truth we realise law in creation, and\nthrough our sense of beauty we realise harmony in the universe.\nWhen we recognise the law in nature we extend our mastery over\nphysical forces and become powerful; when we recognise the law in\nour moral nature we attain mastery over self and become free.  In\nlike manner the more we comprehend the harmony in the physical\nworld the more our life shares the gladness of creation, and our\nexpression of beauty in art becomes more truly catholic.  As we\nbecome conscious of the harmony in our soul, our apprehension of\nthe blissfulness of the spirit of the world becomes universal,\nand the expression of beauty in our life moves in goodness and\nlove towards the infinite.  This is the ultimate object of our\nexistence, that we must ever know that \"beauty is truth, truth\nbeauty\"; we must realise the whole world in love, for love gives\nit birth, sustains it, and takes it back to its bosom.  We must\nhave that perfect emancipation of heart which gives us the power\nto stand at the innermost centre of things and have the taste of\nthat fullness of disinterested joy which belongs to Brahma.\n\nMusic is the purest form of art, and therefore the most direct\nexpression of beauty, with a form and spirit which is one and\nsimple, and least encumbered with anything extraneous.  We seem\nto feel that the manifestation of the infinite in the finite\nforms of creation is music itself, silent and visible.  The\nevening sky, tirelessly repeating the starry constellations,\nseems like a child struck with wonder at the mystery of its own\nfirst utterance, lisping the same word over and over again, and\nlistening to it in unceasing joy.  When in the rainy night of\nJuly the darkness is thick upon the meadows and the pattering\nrain draws veil upon veil over the stillness of the slumbering\nearth, this monotony of the rain patter seems to be the darkness\nof sound itself.  The gloom of the dim and dense line of trees,\nthe thorny bushes scattered in the bare heath like floating heads\nof swimmers with bedraggled hair, the smell of the damp grass and\nthe wet earth, the spire of the temple rising above the undefined\nmass of blackness grouped around the village huts--everything\nseems like notes rising from the heart of the night, mingling and\nlosing themselves in the one sound of ceaseless rain filling the\nsky.\n\nTherefore the true poets, they who are seers, seek to express the\nuniverse in terms of music.\n\nThey rarely use symbols of painting to express the unfolding of\nforms, the mingling of endless lines and colours that goes on\nevery moment on the canvas of the blue sky.\n\nThey have their reason.  For the man who paints must have canvas,\nbrush and colour-box.  The first touch of his brush is very far\nfrom the complete idea.  And then when the work is finished the\nartist is gone, the windowed picture stands alone, the incessant\ntouches of love of the creative hand are withdrawn.\n\nBut the singer has everything within him.  The notes come out\nfrom his very life.  They are not materials gathered from\noutside.  His idea and his expression are brother and sister;\nvery often they are born as twins.  In music the heart reveals\nitself immediately; it suffers not from any barrier of alien\nmaterial.\n\nTherefore though music has to wait for its completeness like any\nother art, yet at every step it gives out the beauty of the\nwhole.  As the material of expression even words are barriers,\nfor their meaning has to be constructed by thought.  But music\nnever has to depend upon any obvious meaning; it expresses what\nno words can ever express.\n\nWhat is more, music and the musician are inseparable.  When the\nsinger departs, his singing dies with him; it is in eternal union\nwith the life and joy of the master.\n\nThis world-song is never for a moment separated from its singer.\nIt is not fashioned from any outward material.  It is his joy\nitself taking never-ending form.  It is the great heart sending\nthe tremor of its thrill over the sky.\n\nThere is a perfection in each individual strain of this music,\nwhich is the revelation of completion in the incomplete.  No one of\nits notes is final, yet each reflects the infinite.\n\nWhat does it matter if we fail to derive the exact meaning of\nthis great harmony?  Is it not like the hand meeting the string\nand drawing out at once all its tones at the touch?  It is the\nlanguage of beauty, the caress, that comes from the heart of the\nworld straightway reaches our heart.\n\nLast night, in the silence which pervaded the darkness, I stood\nalone and heard the voice of the singer of eternal melodies.\nWhen I went to sleep I closed my eyes with this last thought in\nmy mind, that even when I remain unconscious in slumber the dance\nof life will still go on in the hushed arena of my sleeping body,\nkeeping step with the stars.  The heart will throb, the blood\nwill leap in the veins, and the millions of living atoms of my\nbody will vibrate in tune with the note of the harp-string that\nthrills at the touch of the master.\n\n\n\nVIII\n\n\nTHE REALISATION OF THE INFINITE\n\n\nThe Upanishads say: \"Man becomes true if in this life he can\napprehend God; if not, it is the greatest calamity for him.\"\n\nBut what is the nature of this attainment of God?  It is quite\nevident that the infinite is not like one object among many, to\nbe definitely classified and kept among our possessions, to be\nused as an ally specially favouring us in our politics, warfare,\nmoney-making, or in social competitions.  We cannot put our God\nin the same list with our summer-houses, motor-cars, or our\ncredit at the bank, as so many people seem to want to do.\n\nWe must try to understand the true character of the desire that a\nman has when his soul longs for his God.  Does it consist of his\nwish to make an addition, however valuable, to his belongings?\nEmphatically no!  It is an endlessly wearisome task, this\ncontinual adding to our stores.  In fact, when the soul seeks God\nshe seeks her final escape from this incessant gathering and\nheaping and never coming to an end.  It is not an additional\nobject the she seeks, but it is the _nityo 'nity\u0101n\u0101m_, the\npermanent in all that is impermanent, the _ras\u0101n\u0101m rasatamah_,\nthe highest abiding joy unifying all enjoyments.  Therefore when\nthe Upanishads teach us to realise everything in Brahma, it is\nnot to seek something extra, not to manufacture something new.\n\n_Know everything that there is in the universe as enveloped by\nGod._  [Footnote: \u012a\u00e7h\u0101v\u0101syamdiam sarvam yat kincha\njagaty\u0101njagat.]  _Enjoy whatever is given by him and harbour not\nin your mind the greed for wealth which is not your own._\n[Footnoe: T\u0113na tyakt\u0113na bhunj\u012b\u0163h\u0101 m\u0101 g\u0157idhah kasyasviddhanam.]\n\nWhen you know that whatever there is is filled by him and\nwhatever you have is his gift, then you realise the infinite in\nthe finite, and the giver in the gifts.  Then you know that all\nthe facts of the reality have their only meaning in the\nmanifestation of the one truth, and all your possessions have\ntheir only significance for you, not in themselves but in the\nrelation they establish with the infinite.\n\nSo it cannot be said that we can find Brahma as we find other\nobjects; there is no question of searching from him in one thing\nin preference to another, in one place instead of somewhere else.\nWe do not have to run to the grocer's shop for our morning light;\nwe open our eyes and there it is; so we need only give ourselves\nup to find that Brahma is everywhere.\n\nThis is the reason why Buddha admonished us to free ourselves\nfrom the confinement of the life of the self.  If there were\nnothing else to take its place more positively perfect and\nsatisfying, then such admonition would be absolutely unmeaning.\nNo man can seriously consider the advice, much less have any\nenthusiasm for it, of surrendering everything one has for gaining\nnothing whatever.\n\nSo our daily worship of God is not really the process of gradual\nacquisition of him, but the daily process of surrendering\nourselves, removing all obstacles to union and extending our\nconsciousness of him in devotion and service, in goodness and in\nlove.\n\nThe Upanishads say: _Be lost altogether in Brahma like an arrow\nthat has completely penetrated its target._  Thus to be conscious\nof being absolutely enveloped by Brahma is not an act of mere\nconcentration of mind.  It must be the aim of the whole of our\nlife.  In all our thoughts and deeds we must be conscious of the\ninfinite.  Let the realisation of this truth become easier every\nday of our life, that _none could live or move if the energy of\nthe all-pervading joy did not fill the sky._  [Footnote: Ko\nhyev\u0101ny\u0101t kah pr\u0101ny\u0101t yadesha \u0101k\u0101\u00e7ha \u0101nando na sy\u0101t.]  In all our\nactions let us feel that impetus of the infinite energy and be\nglad.\n\nIt may be said that the infinite is beyond our attainment, so it\nis for us as if it were naught.  Yes, if the word attainment\nimplies any idea of possession, then it must be admitted that the\ninfinite is unattainable.  But we must keep in mind that the\nhighest enjoyment of man is not in the having but in a getting,\nwhich is at the same time not getting.  Our physical pleasures\nleave no margin for the unrealised.  They, like the dead\nsatellite of the earth, have but little atmosphere around them.\nWhen we take food and satisfy our hunger it is a complete act of\npossession.  So long as the hunger is not satisfied it is a\npleasure to eat.  For then our enjoyment of eating touches at\nevery point the infinite.  But, when it attains completion, or in\nother words, when our desire for eating reaches the end of the\nstage of its non-realisation, it reaches the end of its pleasure.\nIn all our intellectual pleasures the margin is broader, the\nlimit is far off.  In all our deeper love getting and non-getting\nrun ever parallel.  In one of our Vaishnava lyrics the lover says\nto his beloved: \"I feel as if I have gazed upon the beauty of thy\nface from my birth, yet my eyes are hungry still: as if I have\nkept thee pressed to my heart for millions of years, yet my heart\nis not satisfied.\"\n\nThis makes it clear that it is really the infinite whom we seek\nin our pleasures.  Our desire for being wealthy is not a desire\nfor a particular sum of money but it is indefinite, and the most\nfleeting of our enjoyments are but the momentary touches of the\neternal.  The tragedy of human life consists in our vain attempts\nto stretch the limits of things which can never become\nunlimited,--to reach the infinite by absurdly adding to the rungs\nof the ladder of the finite.\n\nIt is evident from this that the real desire of our soul is to\nget beyond all our possessions.  Surrounded by things she can\ntouch and feel, she cries, \"I am weary of getting; ah, where is\nhe who is never to be got?\"\n\nWe see everywhere in the history of man that the spirit of\nrenunciation is the deepest reality of the human soul.  When the\nsoul says of anything, \"I do not want it, for I am above it,\" she\ngives utterance to the highest truth that is in her.  When a\ngirl's life outgrows her doll, when she realises that in every\nrespect she is more than her doll is, then she throws it away.\nBy the very act of possession we know that we are greater than\nthe things we possess.  It is a perfect misery to be kept bound\nup with things lesser than ourselves.  This it is that Maitrey\u012b\nfelt when her husband gave her his property on the eve of leaving\nhome.  She asked him, \"Would these material things help one to\nattain the highest?\"--or, in other words, \"Are they more than my\nsoul to me?\"  When her husband answered, \"They will make you rich\nin worldly possessions,\" she said at once, \"then what am I to do\nwith these?\"  It is only when a man truly realises what his\npossessions are that he has no more illusions about them; then he\nknows his soul is far above these things and he becomes free from\ntheir bondage.  Thus man truly realises his soul by outgrowing\nhis possessions, and man's progress in the path of eternal life\nis through a series of renunciations.\n\nThat we cannot absolutely possess the infinite being is not a\nmere intellectual proposition.  It has to be experienced, and\nthis experience is bliss.  The bird, while taking its flight in\nthe sky, experiences at every beat of its wings that the sky is\nboundless, that its wings can never carry it beyond.  Therein\nlies its joy.  In the cage the sky is limited; it may be quite\nenough for all the purposes of the bird's life, only it is not\nmore than is necessary.  The bird cannot rejoice within the\nlimits of the necessary.  It must feel that what it has is\nimmeasurably more than it ever can want or comprehend, and then\nonly can it be glad.\n\nThus our soul must soar in the infinite, and she must feel every\nmoment that in the sense of not being able to come to the end of\nher attainment is her supreme joy, her final freedom.\n\nMan's abiding happiness is not in getting anything but in giving\nhimself up to what is greater than himself, to ideas which are\nlarger than his individual life, the idea of his country, of\nhumanity, of God.  They make it easier for him to part with all\nthat he has, not expecting his life.  His existence is miserable\nand sordid till he finds some great idea which can truly claim\nhis all, which can release him from all attachment to his\nbelongings.  Buddha and Jesus, and all our great prophets,\nrepresent such great ideas.  They hold before us opportunities\nfor surrendering our all.  When they bring forth their divine\nalms-bowl we feel we cannot help giving, and we find that in\ngiving is our truest joy and liberation, for it is uniting\nourselves to that extent with the infinite.\n\nMan is not complete; he is yet to be.  In what he _is_ he is\nsmall, and if we could conceive him stopping there for eternity\nwe should have an idea of the most awful hell that man can\nimagine.  In his _to be_ he is infinite, there is his heaven,\nhis deliverance.  His _is_ is occupied every moment with what it\ncan get and have done with; his _to be_ is hungering for\nsomething which is more than can be got, which he never can lose\nbecause he never has possessed.\n\nThe finite pole of our existence has its place in the world of\nnecessity.  There man goes about searching for food to live,\nclothing to get warmth.  In this region--the region of nature--it\nis his function to get things.  The natural man is occupied with\nenlarging his possessions.\n\nBut this act of getting is partial.  It is limited to man's\nnecessities.  We can have a thing only to the extent of our\nrequirements, just as a vessel can contain water only to the\nextent of its emptiness.  Our relation to food is only in\nfeeding, our relation to a house is only in habitation.  We call\nit a benefit when a thing is fitted only to some particular want\nof ours.  Thus to get is always to get partially, and it never\ncan be otherwise.  So this craving for acquisition belongs to our\nfinite self.\n\nBut that side of our existence whose direction is towards the\ninfinite seeks not wealth, but freedom and joy.  There the reign\nof necessity ceases, and there our function is not to get but to\nbe.  To be what?  To be one with Brahma.  For the region of the\ninfinite is the region of unity.  Therefore the Upanishads say:\n_If man apprehends God he becomes true._  Here it is becoming,\nit is not having more.  Words do no gather bulk when you know\ntheir meaning; they become true by being one with the idea.\n\nThough the West has accepted as its teacher him who boldly\nproclaimed his oneness with his Father, and who exhorted his\nfollowers to be perfect as God, it has never been reconciled to\nthis idea of our unity with the infinite being.  It condemns, as\na piece of blasphemy, any implication of man's becoming God.\nThis is certainly not the idea that Christ preached, nor perhaps\nthe idea of the Christian mystics, but this seems to be the idea\nthat has become popular in the Christian west.\n\nBut the highest wisdom in the East holds that it is not the\nfunction of our soul to _gain_ God, to utilise him for any\nspecial material purpose.  All that we can ever aspire to is to\nbecome more and more one with God.  In the region of nature,\nwhich is the region of diversity, we grow by acquisition; in the\nspiritual world, which is the region of unity, we grow by losing\nourselves, by uniting.  Gaining a thing, as we have said, is by\nits nature partial, it is limited only to a particular want; but\n_being_ is complete, it belongs to our wholeness, it springs not\nfrom any necessity but from our affinity with the infinite, which\nis the principle of perfection that we have in our soul.\n\nYes, we must become Brahma.  We must not shrink to avow this.\nOur existence is meaningless if we never can expect to realise\nthe highest perfection that there is.  If we have an aim and yet\ncan never reach it, then it is no aim at all.\n\nBut can it then be said that there is no difference between\nBrahma and our individual soul?  Of course the difference is\nobvious.  Call it illusion or ignorance, or whatever name you may\ngive it, it is there.  You can offer explanations but you cannot\nexplain it away.  Even illusion is true an illusion.\n\nBrahma is Brahma, he is the infinite ideal of perfection.  But we\nare not what we truly are; we are ever to become true, ever to\nbecome Brahma.  There is the eternal play of love in the relation\nbetween this being and the becoming; and in the depth of this\nmystery is the source of all truth and beauty that sustains the\nendless march of creation.\n\nIn the music of the rushing stream sounds the joyful assurance,\n\"I shall become the sea.\"  It is not a vain assumption; it is\ntrue humility, for it is the truth.  The river has no other\nalternative.  On both sides of its banks it has numerous fields\nand forests, villages and towns; it can serve them in various\nways, cleanse them and feed them, carry their produce from place\nto place.  But it can have only partial relations with these, and\nhowever long it may linger among them it remains separate; it\nnever can become a town or a forest.\n\nBut it can and does become the sea.  The lesser moving water has\nits affinity with the great motionless water of the ocean.  It\nmoves through the thousand objects on its onward course, and its\nmotion finds its finality when it reaches the sea.\n\nThe river can become the sea, but she can never make the sea part\nand parcel of herself.  If, by some chance, she has encircled\nsome broad sheet of water and pretends that she has made the sea\na part of herself, we at once know that it is not so, that her\ncurrent is still seeking rest in the great ocean to which it can\nnever set boundaries.\n\nIn the same manner, our soul can only become Brahma as the river\ncan become the sea.  Everything else she touches at one of her\npoints, then leaves and moves on, but she never can leave Brahma\nand move beyond him.  Once our soul realises her ultimate object\nof repose in Brahma, all her movements acquire a purpose.  It is\nthis ocean of infinite rest which gives significance to endless\nactivities.  It is this perfectness of being that lends to the\nimperfection of becoming that quality of beauty which finds its\nexpression in all poetry, drama and art.\n\nThere must be a complete idea that animates a poem.  Every\nsentence of the poem touches that idea.  When the reader realises\nthat pervading idea, as he reads on, then the reading of the poem\nis full of joy to him.  Then every part of the poem becomes\nradiantly significant by the light of the whole.  But if the poem\ngoes on interminably, never expressing the idea of the whole,\nonly throwing off disconnected images, however beautiful, it\nbecomes wearisome and unprofitable in the extreme.  The progress\nof our soul is like a perfect poem.  It has an infinite idea\nwhich once realised makes all movements full of meaning and joy.\nBut if we detach its movements from that ultimate idea, if we do\nnot see the infinite rest and only see the infinite motion, then\nexistence appears to us a monstrous evil, impetuously rushing\ntowards an unending aimlessness.\n\nI remember in our childhood we had a teacher who used to make us\nlearn by heart the whole book of Sanskrit grammer, which is\nwritten in symbols, without explaining their meaning to us.  Day\nafter day we went toiling on, but on towards what, we had not the\nleast notion.  So, as regards our lessons, we were in the\nposition of the pessimist who only counts the breathless\nactivities of the world, but cannot see the infinite repose of\nthe perfection whence these activities are gaining their\nequilibrium every moment in absolute fitness and harmony.  We\nlose all joy in thus contemplating existence, because we miss the\ntruth.  We see the gesticulations of the dancer, and we imagine\nthese are directed by a ruthless tyranny of chance, while we are\ndeaf to the eternal music which makes every one of these gestures\ninevitably spontaneous and beautiful.  These motions are ever\ngrowing into that music of perfection, becoming one with it,\ndedicating to that melody at every step the multitudinous forms\nthey go on creating.\n\nAnd this is the truth of our soul, and this is her joy, that she\nmust ever be growing into Brahma, that all her movements should\nbe modulated by this ultimate idea, and all her creations should\nbe given as offerings to the supreme spirit of perfection.\n\nThere is a remarkable saying in the Upanishads: _I think not that\nI know him well, or that I know him, or even that I know him not._\n[Footnote: N\u0101ham manye suvedeti no na vedeti vedacha.]\n\nBy the process of knowledge we can never know the infinite being.\nBut if he is altogether beyond our reach, then he is absolutely\nnothing to us.  The truth is that we know him not, yet we know\nhim.\n\nThis has been explained in another saying of the Upanishads:\n_From Brahma words come back baffled, as well as the mind, but he\nwho knows him by the joy of him is free from all fears._\n[Footnote: Yato v\u0101cho nivartante apr\u0101pya manas\u0101 saha \u0101nandam\nbrahma\u0146o vidv\u0101n na vibheti kuta\u00e7chana.]\n\nKnowledge is partial, because our intellect is an instrument, it\nis only a part of us, it can give us information about things\nwhich can be divided and analysed, and whose properties can be\nclassified part by part.  But Brahma is perfect, and knowledge\nwhich is partial can never be a knowledge of him.\n\nBut he can be known by joy, by love.  For joy is knowledge in its\ncompleteness, it is knowing by our whole being.  Intellect sets\nus apart from the things to be known, but love knows its object\nby fusion.  Such knowledge is immediate and admits no doubt.  It\nis the same as knowing our own selves, only more so.\n\nTherefore, as the Upanishads say, mind can never know Brahma,\nwords can never describe him; he can only be known by our soul,\nby her joy in him, by her love.  Or, in other words, we can only\ncome into relation with him by union--union of our whole being.\nWe must be one with our Father, we must be perfect as he is.\n\nBut how can that be?  There can be no grade in infinite\nperfection.  We cannot grow more and more into Brahma.  He is the\nabsolute one, and there can be no more or less in him.\n\nIndeed, the realisation of the _param\u0101tman_, the supreme soul,\nwithin our _antar\u0101tman_, our inner individual soul, is in a\nstate of absolute completion.  We cannot think of it as\nnon-existent and depending on our limited powers for its gradual\nconstruction.  If our relation with the divine were all a thing\nof our own making, how should we rely on it as true, and how\nshould it lend us support?\n\nYes, we must know that within us we have that where space and\ntime cease to rule and where the links of evolution are merged in\nunity.  In that everlasting abode of the _\u0101taman_, the soul, the\nrevelation of the _param\u0101tman_, the supreme soul, is already\ncomplete.  Therefore the Upanishads say: _He who knows Brahman,\nthe true, the all-conscious, and the infinite as hidden in the\ndepths of the soul, which is the supreme sky (the inner sky of\nconsciousness), enjoys all objects of desire in union with the\nall-knowing Brahman._  [Footnote: Satyam j\u00f1\u0101nam anantam brahma yo\nveda nihitam guh\u0101y\u0101m paramo vyoman so'\u00e7nute sarv\u0101n k\u0101m\u0101n saha\nbrahma\u0146a vipas\u00e7hite.]\n\nThe union is already accomplished.  The _param\u0101tman_, the supreme\nsoul, has himself chosen this soul of ours as his bride and the\nmarriage has been completed.  The solemn _mantram_ has been\nuttered: _Let thy heart be even as my heart is._ [Footnote:\nYadetat h\u0157idayam mama tadastu h\u0157idayan tava.]  There is no room\nin this marriage for evolution to act the part of the master of\nceremonies.  The _eshah_, who cannot otherwise be described than\nas _This_, the nameless immediate presence, is ever here in our\ninnermost being.  \"This _eshah_, or _This_, is the supreme end of\nthe other this\"; [Footnote: Esh\u0101sya param\u0101 gatih] \"this _This_ is\nthe supreme treasure of the other this\"; [Footnote: Esh\u0101sya param\u0101\nsampat.] \"this _This_ is the supreme dwelling of the other this\";\n[Footnote: Esh\u0101sya paramo lokah] \"this _This_ is the supreme joy\nof the other this.\"  [Footnote: Esh\u0101sya parama \u0101nandah]  Because\nthe marriage of supreme love has been accomplished in timeless\ntime.  And now goes on the endless _l\u012bl\u0101_, the play of love.  He\nwho has been gained in eternity is now being pursued in time and\nspace, in joys and sorrows, in this world and in the worlds beyond.\nWhen the soul-bride understands this well, her heart is blissful\nand at rest.  She knows that she, like a river, has attained the\nocean of her fulfilment at one end of her being, and at the other\nend she is ever attaining it; at one end it is eternal rest and\ncompletion, at the other it is incessant movement and change.\nWhen she knows both ends as inseparably connected, then she knows\nthe world as her own household by the right of knowing the master\nof the world as her own lord.  Then all her services becomes\nservices of love, all the troubles and tribulations of life come\nto her as trials triumphantly borne to prove the strength of her\nlove, smilingly to win the wager from her lover.  But so long as\nshe remains obstinately in the dark, lifts not her veil, does not\nrecognise her lover, and only knows the world dissociated from\nhim, she serves as a handmaid here, where by right she might\nreign as a queen; she sways in doubt, and weeps in sorrow and\ndejection.  _She passes from starvation to starvation, from\ntrouble to trouble, and from fear to fear._  [Footnote:\nDaurbhiksh\u0101t y\u0101ti daurbhiksham kle\u00e7\u0101t kle\u00e7am bhay\u0101t bhayam.]\n\nI can never forget that scrap of a song I once heard in the early\ndawn in the midst of the din of the crowd that had collected for\na festival the night before: \"Ferryman, take me across to the\nother shore!\"\n\nIn the bustle of all our work there comes out this cry, \"Take me\nacross.\"  The carter in India sings while driving his cart, \"Take\nme across.\"  The itinerant grocer deals out his goods to his\ncustomers and sings, \"Take me across\".\n\nWhat is the meaning of this cry?  We feel we have not reached our\ngoal; and we know with all our striving and toiling we do not\ncome to the end, we do not attain our object.  Like a child\ndissatisfied with its dolls, our heart cries, \"Not this, not\nthis.\"  But what is that other?  Where is the further shore?\n\nIs it something else than what we have?  Is it somewhere else\nthan where we are?  Is it to take rest from all our works, to be\nrelieved from all the responsibilities of life?\n\nNo, in the very heart of our activities we are seeking for our\nend.  We are crying for the across, even where we stand.  So,\nwhile our lips utter their prayer to be carried away, our busy\nhands are never idle.\n\nIn truth, thou ocean of joy, this shore and the other shore are\none and the same in thee.  When I call this my own, the other\nlies estranged; and missing the sense of that completeness which\nis in me, my heart incessantly cries out for the other.  All my\nthis, and that other, are waiting to be completely reconciled in\nthy love.\n\nThis \"I\" of mine toils hard, day and night, for a home which it\nknows as its own.  Alas, there will be no end of its sufferings\nso long as it is not able to call this home thine.  Till then it\nwill struggle on, and its heart will ever cry, \"Ferryman, lead me\nacross.\"  When this home of mine is made thine, that very moment\nis it taken across, even while its old walls enclose it.  This\n\"I\" is restless.  It is working for a gain which can never be\nassimilated with its spirit, which it never can hold and retain.\nIn its efforts to clasp in its own arms that which is for all, it\nhurts others and is hurt in its turn, and cries, \"Lead me across\".\nBut as soon as it is able to say, \"All my work is thine,\" everything\nremains the same, only it is taken across.\n\nWhere can I meet thee unless in this mine home made thine?  Where\ncan I join thee unless in this my work transformed into thy work?\nIf I leave my home I shall not reach thy home; if I cease my work\nI can never join thee in thy work.  For thou dwellest in me and I\nin thee.  Thou without me or I without thee are nothing.\n\nTherefore, in the midst of our home and our work, the prayer\nrises, \"Lead me across!\"  For here rolls the sea, and even here\nlies the other shore waiting to be reached--yes, here is this\neverlasting present, not distant, not anywhere else.","title":"Sadhana : the realisation of life","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":37291}