MAN--THE MASTER.
CHAPTER VIII.
MEN
are going up an ascending scale of existence. Some have their feet still
planted upon the lowest rungs of the ladder. Others have climbed higher and
higher.
At
the start, the functions of life are all performed upon a semiconscious plane.
The law of life is for progress, struggle, achievement and realization. The
force of this law swings the physical and mental mechanism of Man to its own
beneficent purpose and propels them to action. Progress at this stage is on the
sub-conscious plane of mentation.
The
soul is in a comatose condition. Impacts from the physical world, the driving
power of the lave of Progress--Evolution,--and the inherent powers of the soul,
all combine to push us on.
Man's
central Being is infinite bliss. I am Happiness itself. I am unhappy because my
eyes have grown blind.
Yes,
Man has forgotten his real, divine Nature. Cycle after cycle of activity thus
goes on. Man is being worked upon by a Divine Law whose stern mandate is
"Awake, Arise, and Stop not till the goal is reached."
Not
all of us hear it thus. The pious Christian devoutly believes, "Oh, There
is an Evil Force, Satan, whose arm strikes me down. Good Lord, Thou alone art
my refuge."
In
praying thus he believes in the Infinite power of the absolute; and since
nothing is lost in the economy of Nature, he delivers a concentrated suggestion
to his soul, which alone is Infinite. He believes that his prayer will bear
fruit, and it does. In believing he delivers the right blow and his belief is
fulfilled.
It
is a very good thing to pray; to believe that Providence is always playing with
your destiny, to believe that a mighty Mephistopheles is laying traps for you,
to believe that the body dying, the soul does not die, to believe that God
alone can save you.
The
good side of it lies in your repulsion of Evil. Fear and at times love of the
Infinite make you cleave to good.
But
do not stop there. Your attitude is out and out a negative one. You cannot
always stand by your none-too-well-grounded convictions. Facts go to prove
this. In this world you often see a man born in poverty, squalor and sin. He
has not a single chance in life. Then take a man born to the purple. There is
nothing to vex him. Plenty stalks majestically in the land. He has but to wish
and to! it is fulfilled.
"Everything
that God commands is for the best," you say. "Perhaps his father is
to blame," some one would say.
First,
why should I be punished for the sins of my father, secondly why should I not
be created as my friend is? Why should every one laugh at my Physical, Mental
and Spiritual endowments; how do I deserve this?
"God's
ways are inexplicable," you say. Very fine, indeed!
Friend,
God does not love mystery mongering. He can never give us pain without rhyme or
reason. My experience tells a different tale. God is Love. He acts in open
daylight. We go to Church and say long prayers for sins committed. We shall
commit that same sin again and again; and we shall cease only when repeated
blows rub the lesson home. "You must cease from this. It has back of it
the most painful results."
Man
is punished not for his sins so much as by them. Nature with her pitiless ways
cannot claim mercy for herself. Her laws are hard. Be it a sin of commission or
of omission, your escape is impossible. This penalty bears a mission peculiar
to itself. Ili is a blessing in disguise. It is the merciful knife of the
surgeon. If there is loss, pain, suffering, disappointment at one pole, it is
all counterpoised by the ripening of experience, wisdom, knowledge at the
other. Hence measured on the scale of Compensation, all pain, come it how it
may, must be faced with patience. Pain comes in jangled vibrations, seems to
asphyxiate the whole man, strikes us down for the needed lesson. In suffering
we pay our debts. The burden is lightened. Sin and suffering are twins and separation is impossible. How we
wish we had been let off scot-free; how like miserable shirkers we wish our bed
had no crumpled rose leaves. Yet would you who weep and lament be minus the
experience and wisdom you have stored up through efforts to brush pain aside?
No right have we then to rule off pain as a visitation of a wrathful Deity.
Rather, we shall see Cause and Effect, not somewhere and sometimes but
everywhere and always. That is the position of Strength. Every sweet has its
sour. We shall confront fate with fate, fire with fire, and, standing aside,
see the one eat the other. The end of all philosophy is the destruction of
pain. Not milksops and lunatics, but men of iron courage are philosophers.
Philosophy is thought passed and purified through the fire of the Living
Spirit. It is deathless, birthless truth established in the constitution of
man. Clay and clay differ, they say, so thought and thought vary in power,
tenacity and texture. Man is a living magnet. He attracts. He repels. He draws
in his own; he throws out what is not related to him. As Emerson, the western
child of eastern thought sings:--
'And
all that Nature made thy own,
Floating in air or pent in stone
Will river the hills and swim the sea,
And, like thy shadow, follow thee.'
Just
that comes to us which is ours by right of thought; just that flies off from us
which is not ours, What we seek we shall find; what we flee from, will flee
from us; as Goethe said, "What we wish for in youth comes to us in heaps
in old age." Everything on the zone of our mental vibration will be ours.
Remember you who read! Thought is a mighty force. It is your friend. It is your
enemy. As your ideal in life, along that line will Everything flow. You are a
Spark from the Eternal Fire and as is proved in Higher Mathematics the parts of
Infinity are an Infinity; you too are Infinite. God re-Exists in each mortal
form. His light shines full upon your Consciousness. You wish, you command, you
demand, you assent, and you get--what you want; though you go to sleep, your
thought if sufficiently vitalized by concentration will come to pass. Determine
the breadth, the solidity, the soundness of the plank of life you stand upon.
You are your master. Knowing and realizing this, you shall step up to the
highest and best in life and with firm hands pluck the fruit you would taste.
The sweet, the bitter, or the bitter-sweet taste is according as you choose.
Where and what is Fear then? It is all cause and effect. Laugh at Astrology, at
Palmistry; know their secrets; know they are emanations from you; and stand
fearless and strike straight from the shoulders, once, twice, thrice, times
innumerable till your strokes tell, till your strokes lay low the monsters that
have broken their teeth upon your unyielding shoulders; till you have what you
should have. This, friend, is a passing glimpse of Life's Conscious Stage. Here
Life is self-determined.
Here
no hand but yours builds. No brains but yours thinks. No strength but yours
avails. No soul but yours bids, bargains and at last bears away the palm.
CHAPTER
IX.
SELF-DEVELOPMENT.
The Objective Mood.
MAN
should ever strive to develop intrinsic worth. Life becomes a song of harmony,
Peace and Power, when once you have developed and expanded the Will-power. The
education of the Will should be the aim of your life. The pleasure-seeker is an
ass. He is ever complaining of his hard lot, of disappointment, of ill-health;
he is as a bird bereft of wings, quivering its shattered pinions in its vain
attempt to soar up in the sky. He is a leaning willow whose whole structure
indicates weakness and dependence. The gods have put their ban upon this
twentieth century fever for pleasure. Go into any large assembly of educated
men and if you are a true judge of character you will hardly pick out five men
out of five hundred with the fine, refined impressive features of Stoic, a
heroic soul in an obedient body. The reason is not far to seek. Their chief
object is to titillate the nerves of sensation. They never learned the great
and important law of Self denial. They are being dragged along by a force far
mightier than their feeble selves. They have never said a firm No, to their
impulses. They are mere masks and not men. They are automatic machines. They
may have picked up a little odd knowledge; they may have a law cunning, but
they lack the Affirmative Force of Character, the vim and pith of a Positive
Personality, the calm poise of controlled energy. They have never realized the
intense joy of a soul that lives only to aspire after what is high and noble.
But then Existence is not all a bed of roses. Shocks will come and, when they
do, these weaklings are bowled over like so many nine-pins. Then they just sit
up and talk of their aching hearts, their bleeding wounds, their sorrow laden,
miserable lives. Their good wishes are as so many soap-bubbles. Their
resolutions are mere effervescence of a dying vitality. Their promises the mere
ebullitions of emotion minus the stamina to accomplish them. They are the blind
worms of fate. They are the victims of wicked-minded men. They are so many
will-less, nerve-less weaklings. They are slaves.
Why?
Because,
they are in the clutches of Ignorance. Ignorance consists in seeking enjoyment
of the senses. To burst the chains that hold you captive, give up, once for
ever, the desire To ENJOY, and DETERMINE to positivize the Will-Force for the
free and smooth-working of the wheels of Progress, upon which weakness is a
clog and must be removed in order to ensure easy action. A man, nearly ten
years my senior in age and the father of three children was suffering from
dyspepsia. It had become chronic. His was a purely nervous trouble. He was
sorely afraid that his stomach had lost all power to digest food. For months he
had been ailing. The doctors could give no aid. His fear was always realized.
At last after quite three months of painful suffering he one evening came to me.
"Can you do anything for me?" "Not knowing the trouble I cannot
prescribe the cure;" I replied. "But what am I to do? I shall be a
wreck in a short time." "Look here, you are thoroughly mistaken. You
fear, and your fear is realized. Fear is a suggestion for adverse conditions.
Don't be afraid and everything will be all right. Trust nature; she will do her
work." "But how can I master this fear? It paralyzes me and my
mind." "Very good," I replied energetically. "Will you obey
me?" "Yes,"--he said. "Don't touch any food for seven
days." He promised. He had never gone without food for seven days. He
fasted for just two days. On the third day he felt famishing for food. He must
eat. He did eat. The food was digested. It is six months since he had this
trouble and from that time till now he eats freely and digests freely.
"When the fear comes over me, I just determine to stop eating and that
drives away my fear," he said. The psychological explanation is simple.
His determination to stop eating was an antidote to his fear; the former was a
Positive Denial of the power of the latter to overcome this man and it
scattered the force of Fear.
By
evident analogy you can conclude that the mere determination to kill out the
desire for enjoyment will bring about a tremendous change of thought-habit and
crush your weakness. "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out."
However keen your suffering you must determinedly pluck out of your nature
everything that weakens you. Rest assured, this step, desperate as it is, shall
ever strengthen you and, although for the moment you may suffer the torments of
Hell, your path shall open out freely. Do not yield. Do not care for life. Die,
if need be, but die a strong man that refused utterly to yield to illness. Your
flesh may not be able to stand the strain of such action; but your spirit shall
live and grow stronger. However, except in extremely desperate cases, the flesh
ever helps the spirit when the latter is strong and the body and the life
forces at once become the best possible co-operators with their master. Hence
determine to stand guard by your High Nature. Draw the line between your animal
and your Divine Nature. Cleave to the latter, happen what may. Remember, my
readers, Doing alone teaches Doing. Therefore determine to perform your duties
according to the dictates of your inner Nature, your conscience, your intuitive
Nature. This is the Objective Mood, Doing and not Dreaming. You shall be at the
top of your condition if you ever obey the suggestions of your soul, for your
heart shall never tell a lie although your tongue may. Determine to be master
of your mind and work at this Concentration exercise daily with earnest and
hopeful steadfastness; sit up at night in perfect silence. Hold yourself steady
bodily and mentally. Then begin to tense your Will. Feel and say "I am
this very moment mastering my mind. Now. This moment. Now. Insist on immediate
mastery. Do not say "tomorrow," but say "This moment." Set
up the strong Present Tense against all else. Do not give up till you are quite
exhausted mentally. Do it with perseverance. It will set up strong vibrations
that will destroy the weak atoms of your brain and thoroughly establish a
vigorous tone of thought-activity. Practice will bring light. Inspiration comes
on the vibratory wires of strong thought and strong action. Action, muscular
exertion, will tune your mind to a responsive condition, will clinch your
intentions into strength and motive power to your entire Nature. Learn to tense
your Will. Learn to be positive to evil suggestions, either from your own
Nature or from that of others. Have a Spirit of your own. Determine to do a
thing and do not desist while there is even a breath left in the body.
Greatness could never be a prize for cowards. Only the brave, the pure, the
strong, the determined, can reach the goal. None else, none else.
CHAPTER
X.
DEVELOPING
THE SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
"The
mind which follows the rambling senses, makes the Soul as helpless as the boat
which the wind leads astray upon the waters."
.
MAN
is man by virtue of willing, not by virtue of knowing and understanding. As he
is, so he sees. His hopes and aspirations are in exact proportion to the depth
and power of his will: for, says Emerson, "The height of the pinnacle is
measured by the breadth of the base."
He
is the microcosm of the macrocosm: the little world of the big world. The
universe exists for the self:--such is the dictum of the sages.
Man
has appropriated this form, this coat of skin, for the exercise and unfoldment
of his Divine Nature. He is above Nature, his body is of Nature.
Man,
Know Thyself, was mandate of the Oracle.
All your efforts, your joys and sorrows, your ups and downs, are to this end.
You now grasp this thing, soon you drop it; then you grasp that thing; soon you
drop it;--Not this, Not that, you say. This is the speech of Negation: neti,
neti: Not this, Not this.
You
who are Infinite in essence drank deep of the waters of Lethe and falling under
the magic spell of Maya, forgot yourself. You have ever since then been
identifying yourself with Nature, with your form, the Not-self. You do not see
that this body, this brittle casket of clay, is for disintegration, for
dissolution. You love it to infatuation. You draw the cruel, merciless knife
across the neck of poor, defenseless animals to gratify your lower Nature. This
body must live, though I eat burnt flesh, rotten flesh, to keep it alive. Man
would eat man, if his digestion did not get upset, thereby. Do not say 'No,'
you animalized ignorant soul! You swallow camels and yet you strain at gnats.
Thus through extreme attachment to your form, have you contracted your soul,
hypnotized yourself into a finite being. You alone can strip off your
limitations and stand in your Native splendour once again. To realize this is
to realize divinity--is to transcend Nature!
As
you learn to control Nature within you, so will you control things outside of
yourself, so shall your great, all-potent will shine out to the universe.
Man's
will is God's will. What is of God is God. The Infinite exists, in full
stature, in each living, breathing form. Hence to know yourself is to know God.
You are Bliss Eternal. You, the Infinite, became confined in sheaths of matter.
Your real, immortal self shines aloft, but what little was caught up by the
physical mechanism of Consciousness, fell senseless under the hypnotic
suggestions of Maya. Yet an impulsion from within is pushing you on. This is
the Desire to achieve happiness which is a distorted reflection on the physical
plane of your own blissful self that is on the spiritual.
It
is the natural magnetism of your real self that is drawing you up. Ends ascend
as Nature descends, said , the Mystic. All things are in a scale; and begin
where we will, ascend and ascend. All things are symbolical; and what we call
results are beginnings: Emerson, on Plato, the philosopher.
So
long as you are flung about under the influence of passions your progress will
be clogged. The soul is under the thrall of matter, just as a muscular pair of
wrists may be loaded with fetters. It is trying to burst the shackles that
chain it down. It is passing through a transition stage. Its continued effort
to free itself thoroughly and entirely is the promise of the future. Conquest
comes. Yes! Conquest comes. I have not read these two words. I do not repeat
them to you like a parrot. It has been given to me to feel the fact. Do not say
"I cannot. It is beyond me;" say "I can. It is in me." So
will you conquer.
This
ascension of the soul is the development of the Spiritual Consciousness.
It
is not intellectualism: nor spiritualism: nor supernaturalism: nor any other
ism.
It
is the quickening of your evolution on the spiritual plane by the up-keep of a
systematized line of thought activity plus the self-determined exercise of
volition.
It
is the polarization of the human life force up to a high pitch of concentrated
exercise of the will-power in Man.
The
task is not easy of accomplishment. You can achieve it only by dedicating a
whole life time to it. It is worth your while. Aim at thoroughness. Take up the
suggestions I pass on. Dream them out. Think them out. Act them out.
Your
aim is the subjugation of the animal soul. Have no other aim. "When one
becomes freed from the bondage of the senses, he transcends all material
relations and realizing the inward light regains his knowledge of Himself--this
a realization of the truth. It dwells beyond Mortality and Fear."
One
thing at a time and that with your entire heart and soul. The ideal you have
set up for yourself must absorb the best and the richest forces in you.
Introduce the thin end of the wedge. Each stroke shall drive it deeper. Do not
scatter your energy. Do not burn your candle at both ends. The secret of
success is Concentration. A man may be an omnivorous reader. He is a walking
Encyclopaedia. His brain is a Library.
Yet he has no worth, no intrinsic qualities, that can give him that breadth and
depth of dignity that go out of a man possessing inner force of character.
Remember,
You are deathless, birthless. You live in the Eternal. One life-span can be but
a short one at best. Therefore arrange your forces so that they shall flow in
one even continuous stream along one line. The man who has thus lived upon five
ideas in one life, will command more than your
Jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none man ever can. You must stand body and
soul, for your ideas, taking up each and quietly working them out in life. This
will avoid much friction and ever insure a clear and steady brain.
Education,
said Vivekananda, is a man-making, life-building assimilation of ideas.
You
must then by patient thinking build up an ideal for yourself. This done, give
up all dreaming, all castle- building, and start in for the work. Then three
things are necessary for effectual work.
The
first is earnest, ardent Desire. Your heart is knitted to things of the earth,
earthy, by a myriad of tiny threads. To break up the links, a strong,
all-impelling force is needed. Desire ardently, longingly, for perfect
establishment of chastity in your Consciousness. This keen desire is a
sine-a-qua-non. Without it you cannot go through the difficulties that bar your
way. Clothe yourself in this panoply of power and the shafts of adverse
fortune, shall glance off from your strong armour. If you haven't this gift, it
shows that your sense of manhood is small. You lack force. The greater the
sinner, the greater the saint. A man must have this force or his good
intentions will die a natural death. He can neither be a saint nor a sinner. He
is tamasic; is of a dull, lazy, ease-loving, insipid nature.
But
do not lose heart, if you belong to this class of men. You can cultivate this
force. There is always a way out. Your imagination is your creative power. Now
there is a close association between thought and imagination. Imagination is
thought in its full freedom. Therefore to train the desire-nature you must
bring thought to bear upon it. Desire cannot train desire. You are helpless
within the narrow limits of the desire aspect of the Self. You desire a thing
or you do not; that's all.
No.
Thought alone can help you here. Says Emerson:--There is no thought in any mind
but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power, and organizes a huge
instrumentality of means.
One
thought repeated for days, months and years will become very strongly
vitalized. Tremendous will be its telling force. It will go to make or mar your
destiny. As the famous axiom goes, "Allow the thought, and it may lead to
a choice, 'carry out the choice, and it will be the act,' repeat the act and it
forms the habit; allow the habit and it shapes the character; continue the
character, and it fixes the destiny."
Thought,
then, is the fine cause. Stamp it well upon your mind. It is a tremendous fact.
Learn it well, now: now, while you read it.
Picture
to yourself, then, the benefits derivable from control of the lower nature.
See
how the man, who is chaste in word, deed and thought, is above the din and
strife of conflicting passions. He is calm, serene, and self-poised. Having
inner control, the control of the outer is an easy affair with him. He does not
go about--anxious for recognition. He is master of himself, and therefore of
others. His mere presence brings peace to the troubled souls of others. His
speech is as a dash of cold water. It makes you sit up and listen. It
stimulates you; it uplifts you; it expands you. Nothing is impossible to you.
You seem or feel as if you were another being. The chaste man has communicated
himself to you in all his fulness and breadth of nature. He has stirred up
forces in you of which perhaps you were never before conscious.
See
how the chaste man seems to purify the very air he breathes. See how dauntless
is the courage that bubbles up from within him.
See
how he is idolized by humanity. The mere sight of him puts new life and vigor
in others. His power of doing good seems to have an inexhaustible reservoir
behind it.
Thus
go on picturing to yourself the all-inclusive uses of chastity.
This
is the positive process of Visualization; Mental photography.
Now
if your case is desperate, one of long standing, take up the negative process.
Picture
to yourself the disappointment, the loss of spiritual force, the gloom and the
melancholy, that cloy all passion; the swinish, grovelling, aspect of the
sensual soul: the consequent exhaustion: the jeer and ridicule of the world:
the breaking-down of all your fond hopes: the pitiable poverty-stricken
condition of those dependent on you; the disgraceful passage through death into
an even more hideous condition of life: the utter degeneration: the shameful
existence: the haunting thoughts beyond.
This
method is the negative one. It is like the surgeon's knife used to cut out a
cancer that threatens life. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. This
process is not advisable, except in otherwise hopeless cases. Rather use the
positive method. As you sit up visualizing your ideal day after day, its
attraction to you will be truly magnetic. Your heart shall go out to it in all
its force. You shall want to embrace the ideal every moment of your life.
Energy will come to you. Indeed your complaint then shall be: I have more
energy than I can control, more thoughts than I can marshal up for serene
action.
Your
thoughts have been energized by constant repetition. Now you must learn to
dominate them: to command them to stillness: to relax the tension in which your
mind is constantly putting itself: to save your brain from giving way under
this surcharge of unmarshalled energy; to absolutely vanquish the waves of
force that bubble up each time you think of your ideal; for it is
intoxication--the irresistible spell of a "fixed idea."
Says
Swami Vivekananda: The organs are the horses, the mind is the reins, the
intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and this body is the
chariot.
If
the horses are very strong and do not obey the reins, if the charioteer, the
intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then this chariot will come
to grief. But if the horses, i.e., the organs, are well-controlled, if the
reins, i.e., the mind, are well held in the hands of the charioteer, i.e., the
intellect, the chariot reaches the goal.
This
then is the line of action. Developing the will-force, the second of the three
requisites I spoke of. What is the principle of development? Exercise. How did
Ram Murti develop his splendid physique, that today is the wonder of the world?
Exercise. How did Vivekananda develop that terrific magnetism that inundated
the entire Parliament of Religions at Chicago? Exercise. How did Sheridan who
once stuttered in his speech, deliver an oration at the famous Impeachment of
Warren Hastings that made the Speaker order an adjournment that the House might
recover from the effect of the volcanic play of words. Exercise. Be convinced,
then, My reader! Exercise is the first, last, and the only condition of growth.
The human will is the grandest culmination of all the complex workings in the
realm of Consciousness. Schopenhauer the philosopher puts will a-top of all
else in Nature.
It
is a grand thing, this human will. Its influence over man is one of compelling,
forcing, driving, impelling, overpowering, commanding, demanding. This force is
essentially Masculine.
I
told you something about the desire-force: drawing, pulling, attracting,
charming. This is the Feminine phase of Mental energy.
When
you combine the two, the positive and the negative electrodes in the human
brain, your suggestions whether turned in upon your sub-conscious self or
projected outward, command an irresistible position; in fact, they influence
the imagination, reason, or will of another man in an uncontrolled man: this is
what comes through the practice of Concentration. We should learn to make use
of both; whether we are suggesting auto-ally or outwardly.
What
is concentration? Holding the mind to a point. There are two phases of
concentration: a lower and a higher. We shall take up the first only. You are
not prepared for the second. Only those whose soul-unfoldment is an actualized
fact can practice it and they will not need these teachings. They are their own
teachers.
Resolve
upon the performance of a certain mental work with concentration, say for half
an hour at the beginning. Then carry it out. Do it every day, each time
prolonging the duration of the exercise. Suppose you cannot find a mental task.
Here is one:
First
of all "relax" mentally and physically, yet remain alert and steady.
Now: Take this virtue: Chastity. Read literature on this subject. That will
provide you with the requisite information and supply many missing links. Study
it from the physical, mental, and spiritual viewpoints. Then sit up and calmly
think out the bearings of the virtue: What it is? How to practice it; its
resulting benefit to humanity; its appreciation; its lifting influence; the
sense of courage which it gives; its absolute importance in the quickening of
your Evolution and so on and on.
Then
steady the mind upon this complete shaping of the virtue. Meditate upon it.
Dwell upon it. Will determinedly that it shall become established in you: that
from the moment you are sitting in this
of Concentrated willing, all your forces are being transmitted to
Chastity: that the protoplasm of your very physique are becoming sensitive to
the fascination of this virtue: that there is a tremendous force being
generated right in the centre of your head that shall present an irresistible
front to all evil thoughts and tendencies: that your entire nature vibrates to
this thought:--I am Chaste: that you recoil instinctively from all that may
coarsen your finely-strung spiritual fibres: that evil falls off, flies off,
from your intensely poised mind: that your Higher consciousness is unfolding:
that your intelligence is expanding: that your will is becoming strong, very
strong: that your body obeys you: that you have power, force, within you: and
that it all is developing. Now. Say "Now"--"this moment" and
insist upon immediate mastery. Do this regularly and at the same time every
day.
Thus
you can will yourself into any state of mind you like. Not in one day or in one
week will you obtain control. It will require a hundred sittings or even more.
But from the very first sitting a sense of assurance, the consciousness of an
internally developing force, shall come to you:--and this if you have been
thoroughly earnest over your task. Perseverance and patience you must have.
Indeed! to have these is to have everything. There shall come about a step
forward in your evolution at each sitting. This is the art of willing. You get
it cheap. Do not treat it with indifference. Practice for a fortnight will
prove to you conclusively the verity of my remarks. You have been neck-deep in
carnalities: it is high time you thought of a change. Be earnest. Be a
determined man. Focus upon an idea and stick to it with the bull-dog's
tenacity, till you have seen it through to the end. Do not talk of it to others.
Never tell others that you are in! training. Sufficient gratification of your
vanity shall you have when you have acquired the wished-for object. The praise
of the world is not at all necessary to your happiness. The approval of your
own soul is quite sufficient. Each man sets his own measure. If you believe
that you are uniquely fitted to be a virtuous pure-hearted man, so will the
world also. Stick to your own. Do not be a busy body, for then you shall be
nobody. Be an earnest thoughtful man. Stand rigidly by your ideal. Do not force
it upon others. But do not be forced out of it. Simply be earnest.
"To your own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou can'st not then be false to any
man."
The
third requisite is a keen and broad intelligence. You must not go and buy a pig
in a poke. You must not drive a nail where it won't go. By steady and much
thinking, you shall be able to expand this faculty. Learn to study in the
manner taught in Chapter III--"READ AND REFLECT." There you have
instructions that you may well utilize. You will be amply repaid for the
trouble of re-reading it. Books supply missing-links and give you the loose-end
of suggestions which you can work out at leisure. Read little, think much. Your
intelligence will be nurtured by contact with a pure soul, for purity charges
your body with subtle, radiant and powerful forces. "Socrates declares
that if some have grown wise by associating with him, no thanks are due to him,
but simply whilst they were with him they grew wise and not because of
him." This is the secret. The vibrations of a stronger mind impinge upon
your receptive consciousness, shake up some of its grossness, and implant seeds
that, fructifying in the long run, work for your spiritual upliftment.
Associate with good men. Let their thought-magnetism encircle you and exercise
its subtle, mysteriously spiritualizing influence upon you. The mere contact
will act as a Living Force and awaken your latent powers. It will shed
benediction by its mere touch. Spirituality is not intellectual gymnastics.
It
is the life; and life alone can convey life. His words shall wring in your ears
even when you are far away from him. His glances shall remain with you, stirring,
prompting and stimulating you. This is why India's spiritual teachers command
the respect of their pupils.
Thus
friend! when you have gone through this simple training, your inner spirit
shall transmute all things that approach you to the nature of your ideals.
Obstructions will be brushed aside. Many of the vexations and tribulations that
you may be suffering now shall be smoothed out of your path. As you speak, as
you look, as you move about, your inner nature shall flash out of you. It will
enter your hands and feet and compel your entire being. Thus by educating
yourself shall you set others a good example. Life will he worth living: Death
will lose its horrible aspect: love, power, and peace shall flow out of you,
and chasten others. Guard it well. Wield it for good purposes alone. You are
now for the divine side of things. Your will is law. Let it be strong and
guided by Love. That will develop in your nature Sattvic or qualities. Then shall you find harmony and
peace.
THE
GOAL OF THE YOGI AND LEVITATION
SURAGHO-THE
LONG-LIVED YOGI THE SECRET OF HIS LONGEVITY
QUEEN CHUNDALAI, THE
GREAT YOGIN
THE POWER OF
DHARANA, DHIYANA, AND SAMYAMA YOGA.
THE POWER OF THE
PRANAYAMA YOGA.
KUNDALINI,
THE MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.
TO THE KUNDALINI—THE
MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.
Yoga Vashist part-1
-or- Heaven Found by Rishi Singh Gherwal
Shakti and Shâkta
-by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe),
Mahanirvana Tantra-
All- Chapter -1 Questions relating to
the Liberation of Beings
Tantra
of the Great Liberation
श्वेतकेतु और
उद्दालक, उपनिषद की कहानी, छान्द्योग्यापनिषद,
GVB THE UNIVERSITY OF VEDA
यजुर्वेद
मंत्रा हिन्दी व्याख्या सहित, प्रथम अध्याय 1-10,
GVB THE UIVERSITY OF VEDA
उषस्ति की
कठिनाई, उपनिषद की कहानी, आपदकालेमर्यादानास्ति,
_4 -GVB the uiversity of veda
वैराग्यशतकम्, योगी
भर्तृहरिकृत, संस्कृत काव्य, हिन्दी
व्याख्या, भाग-1, gvb the university of Veda
G.V.B. THE
UNIVERSITY OF VEDA ON YOU TUBE
इसे भी पढ़े-
इन्द्र औ वृत्त युद्ध- भिष्म का युधिष्ठिर को उपदेश
इसे भी पढ़े
- भाग- ब्रह्मचर्य वैभव
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Article- A Harmony of Faiths and Religions
इसे भी पढ़े-
भाग -2, ब्रह्मचर्य की प्राचीनता
वैदिक इतिहास
संक्षीप्त रामायण की कहानीः-
वैदिक ऋषियों
का सामान्य परिचय-1
वैदिक इतिहास
महाभारत की सुक्ष्म कथाः-
वैदिक ऋषियों
का सामान्य परिचय-2 –वैदिक ऋषि अंगिरस
वैदिक
विद्वान वैज्ञानिक विश्वामित्र के द्वारा अन्तरिक्ष में स्वर्ग की स्थापना
राजकुमार और
उसके पुत्र के बलिदान की कहानीः-
पुरुषार्थ और विद्या- ब्रह्मज्ञान
संस्कृत के अद्भुत सार गर्भित विद्या श्लोक हिन्दी अर्थ सहित
श्रेष्ट
मनुष्य समझ बूझकर चलता है"
पंचतंत्र- कहानि क्षुद्रवुद्धि गिदण की
कनफ्यूशियस के शिष्य चीनी विद्वान के शब्द। लियोटालस्टा
कहानी माधो चमार की-लियोटलस्टाय
पर्मार्थ कि यात्रा के सुक्ष्म सोपान
जीवन संग्राम -1, मिर्जापुर का परिचय
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