To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/03/11 13:11
Subject: [K-list] Words of Vivekananda
From: Maureen Heffernan
On 1999/03/11 13:11, Maureen Heffernan posted thus to the K-list:
> "How are we to know a teacher then? In the first place, the sun
> requires
> no torch to make it visible. We do not light a candle to see the sun.
> When the sun rises, we instinctively become aware of its rising; and
> when a
> teacher of men comes to help us, the soul will instinctively know that it
> has found the truth. Truth stands on its own evidences; it does not
> require any other testimony to attest it; it is self-effulgent. It
> penetrates into the inmost recesses of our nature, and the whole
> universe
> stands up and says, "This is Truth."
>
> "You must not criticize others; you must criticize YOURSELF. If you see
> a
> drunkard, do not criticize him; remember he is you in another shape. He
> who has not darkness sees no darkness in others. What you have inside
> you
> is that which you see in others. This is the surest way of reform. If the
> would-be reformers who criticize and see evil would themselves stop
> creating evil, the world would be better. Beat this idea into yourself."
>
> "There is no such thing as good and bad, they are not two different
> things;
> the same thing is good or bad, and the difference is only in degree. The
> very thing I call pleasurable today, tomorrow under better
> circumstances I
> may call pain. The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the
> fault of the fire. Thus, the Soul being pure and perfect, the man who
> does
> evil is giving the lie unto himself, he does not know the nature of
> himself. Even in the murderer the pure Soul is there; It dies not. It was
> his mistake; he could not manifest It; he had covered It up. Nor in the
> man who thinks that he is killed is the Soul killed; It is eternal."
>
> "We need to have three things; the heart to feel, the brain to conceive,
> the hand to work. First we must go out of the world and make
> ourselves fit
> instruments. Make yourself a dynamo. FEEL first for the world. At a
> time
> when all men are ready to work, where is the man of FEELING?... Test
> your
> love and humility. That man is not humble or loving who is jealous.
> Jealousy is a terrible, horrible sin; it enters a man so mysteriously. Ask
> yourself, does the mind react in hatred or jealousy? Good works are
> continually being undone by the tons of hatred and anger which are
> being
> poured out on the world. If you are pure, if you are strong, YOU, ONE
> MAN,
> are equal to the whole world."
>
> "Our principle should be love, and not compassion. The application of
> the
> word "compassion" even to jiva seems to me to be rash and vain. For us,
> it
> is not to pity but to serve. Ours is not the feeling of compassion but of
> love, and the feeling of Self in all."
>
> "Religion has no business to formulate social laws and insist on the
> difference between beings, because its aim and end is to obliterate all
> such fictions and monstrosities."
>
> "After every happiness comes misery; they may be far apart or near.
> The
> more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other.
> WHAT
> WE WANT IS NEITHER HAPPINESS NOR MISERY. Both make us forget
> our true
> nature; both are chains - one iron, one gold; behind both is the Atman,
> who
> knows neither happiness nor misery. These are STATES, and states
> must ever
> change; but the nature of the Soul is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have
> not to get it, we have it; only to wash away the dross and see it. Stand
> upon the Self, then only can we truly love the world. Take a very, very
> high stand; knowing our universal nature, we must look with perfect
> calmness upon all the PANORAMA of the world."
>
> "All that is real in me is He; all that is real in Him is I. The gulf
> between God and man is thus bridged. Thus we find how, by knowing
> God, we
> find the kingdom of heaven within us."
>
> "All search is vain, until we begin to perceive that knowledge is within
> ourselves, that no one can help us, that we must help ourselves."
>
> "Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity
> within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by
> work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy--by one or more or
> all
> of these-- and be free. This is the whole of religion. Docrines, or
> dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary
> details."
>
> "Desire, ignorance, and inequality--this is the trinity of bondage."
>
> "But as a man sees his own face in a mirror, perfect, distinct, and clear,
> so is the Truth shining in the soul of man. The highest heaven,
> therefore,
> is in our own souls; the greatest temple of worship is the human soul."
>
> "We attend lectures and read books, argue and reason about God and
> soul,
> religion and salvation. These are not spirituality, because spirituality
> does not exist in books or in theories or in philosophies. It is not in
> learning or reasoning, but in actual inner growth. Even parrots can
> learn
> things by heart and repeat them. If you become learned, what of it?
> Asses
> can carry whole libraries. So when real light will come, there will be
> no
> more of this learning from books--no book-learning. The man who
> cannot
> write even his own name can be perfectly religious, and the man with
> all
> the libraries of the world in his head may fail to be. Learning is not a
> condition of spiritual growth; scholarship is not a condition. The
> touch
> of the guru, the transmittal of spiritual energy, will quicken your
> heart.
> Then will begin the growth. That is the real baptism by fire."
Transcribed by Tim Gerchmez
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