CHAPTER
I.
IF
we study the action of mind upon mind, of mind over matter, of mind over the
human body, we may realize how "each man is a power in himself"--to
use Mr. Randall's phrase in his beautiful book on psychology.
Life
is demonstrative: it speaks with a million, million tongues. Life stands for
Light and Love. Contemplation of Death, which is really a change, will not lead
to Happiness.
All-stagnation
is death. Humanity is a moving mass, and this is true of it as regards single
units as well as of the collective whole.
Stop
we cannot. We must go forwards, which is "God-wards" or there is the
backward line of progress--which is IGNORANCE.
Spasms
of activity catch hold of us and push us onward and, similarly, fear, weakness
and worry, the triple weapons of our Old Friend, the Devil, catch us in their
deadly grip and "crib, cabin and confine" us.
We
all are preparing to live, day in and day out. Is it not so? The body ages; the
soul is ever on the alert.
We
all are trying to grasp life in its proper perspective, to get a clear view of
the goal ahead.
Some
say "I am for enjoying life;" some say, "It is a bad mixture of
heaven and hell, for the most part, hell;" others stand on neutral ground
and say, "Let us make the best of a bad bargain. Since we are here, it is
no use grumbling. This world is for our education."
Right.
Move we must. It may be progress forward or progress backwards.
Life
is a series of awakenings. Ideas dawn upon the mind from time to time, are
caught up by brain and body and find physical expression as acts. Our outward
life with its environment is fitted to our inward development. Wealth,
position, fame, power,--all these are the simple expressions of individual
character. This is not a platitude. Look and see for yourself.
It
is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we
rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufferings, our joys, are
so many projections from ourselves. We alone are responsible for them.
Like
the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling
"Cramped," we set to loosening the bonds.
Enjoyment
is not, ought not to be the goal of life. Sense-enjoyments end in satiety and
exhaustion. Power and self, riches and all that riches mean, may tie us down to a narrow sphere. But in the long
run we do come to know that happiness is not in them. This is a tremendous
truth, yet God mercifully screens it from us till we are prepared to receive
it.
What
remains then? Man wants happiness. He rushes from one thing to another to grasp
it, only to find everything slipping through his fingers. Let none deny it.
"The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain." All pain is caused
by IGNORANCE. Apply the saving remedy of KNOWLEDGE, and PAIN vanishes at once.
This is a great fact and all young men ought to stamp it well upon their minds.
While
we are upon this phase of our subject, it may be worth while to go farther into
these important facts of life--PLEASURE and PAIN.
Our
thoughts and actions are the forces we send out of ourselves. All life is
expression. The soul of man is trying to see itself in everything. How did the
different organs of the body come into existence? How did man get his eyes, his
ears, his nose and so forth? How does the growth of things proceed on the
subconscious plane of existence? The soul willed to see and it saw, willed to
hear and it heard, willed to smell and it smelt. That is the right explanation.
Take
a subject, throw him into a hypnotic trance, lead him into the deepest state
possible, give him vigorous suggestions that a steady increase is taking place
as to his physique, repeat the suggestions twice every day for a few months and
you will have put pounds of flesh on his form. If you know anything of these things at all,
you will be hardly astonished. A striking case once occurred: Some frivolous
students of Aberdeen held a hypnotic seance. A friend of theirs was hypnotised
and made to go through certain illusions. Then a wet towel was put upon his
neck and it was suggested to him that a sharp knife had been drawn right across
his neck to cut his throat and that he was dead. It was such fun! The students
danced for joy. But what was their surprise when they found the man was stone
dead. It taught the eternal truth--what man thinks that he is, that he shall
be.
Now,
man is trying to express himself on the different planes of his being by
appropriating to himself different vehicles of expression. When he meets with
opposition, an obstacle, he chafes like a caged lion. Load the limbs of a man
with fetters of iron and see the result. It is really this--when we can push
forward without opposition, it causes pleasure, a sense of happiness; when we
are held back it causes pain. Place good food before a healthy man. See how he
likes it. It is because he knows that he is making an addition to himself. It
brings on a sense of "MORE-NESS" and pleasure follows. Of course
there are higher grades of this sense of "MORE-NESS." Some ancient
doctors defined passion as an accession of strength due to the surcharge of
arterial blood in the veins. All pleasure is from STRENGTH, all pain from
WEAKNESS. There can be no question as to this fact.
There
is a fire burning. Heap coals. The more coals, the brighter and steadier the
flame. All obstacles are really "coal" feeding the "flame"
of the spirit. They spur a man on. The vibrations of pain are often blessings
in disguise. They drive the lesson home. The effect is not different from the
cause. Both are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Painful results grow
out of deeds that clash with the interests of the DIVINITY WITHIN--which is for
FREEDOM.
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
Read Also Next
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
"Lord,
I want nothing--neither health, nor beauty nor power. Give me FREEDOM and I am
content." This is Jivan mukti. This is the highest ideal of life. Thinking
of the little pleasures of the senses has brought us to this: to dance, to
laugh, to weep, and before the tears are gone, to begin over again. Look at my
condition. Slave of the flesh, slave of the mind, wanting to have this, that
and what not. DARKNESS BEHIND--DARKNESS AHEAD. Such is the wail of IGNORANCE.
Get
rid of it, O! My Friend. It is your greatest, direst enemy. Let the LIGHT of
KNOWLEDGE dissipate this DARKNESS of IGNORANCE. The Lord above is our refuge.
He alone is STRENGTH. "In Him we live and have our being." Where seek
you for your ideals. Here it is. FREEDOM--You are rushing to it, and so am I.
Welcome everything that helps you, yea, compels you, to strike one more blow in
the noble cause of EMANCIPATION. "Can a marble figure brook the blow that
an iron mass can bear."
"Know,
slave is slave, caressed or whipped. Fetters, though of gold are not less strong to bind."
Thus,
let us work it out. Let us cut short this show of five minutes with death and
decay as its sequel. We shall go beyond this to the ONE SOURCE, GOD; and there
is PEACE.
CHAPTER
II.
THE
IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL.
HERE
are two words--IMAGINATION and FANCY. What is the distinction between the two?
Well, the one is closely related to the positive and the conscious side of our
character; the other can claim kinship with the negative and the receptive side
only. Take a youth starting in life. He has not been born with a silver spoon
in his mouth. He is poor and has absolutely none to look to for help of any
sort whatsoever.
Now,
suppose he has spirit, and instead of sitting down and bewailing his lot, he
forms a definite plan of conduct, throws his mind forward into the future, and
decides to reach a certain state of development. He pictures to himself that
state in its perfection, plans out the methods whereby he is to achieve it,
takes in the difficulties to be met with and conquered, and by an effort of
common sense reasoning sees the actual amount of good accruing to humanity and
to all of God's creatures in general. He has had to think hard in order to construct
the whole picture. He has had to breathe life upon it by repeating the images
in connection with the whole picture. He has had to acquire knowledge, seek the
advice of men more experienced than himself, and all the while he has had to keep up a brave and hopeful
attitude of mind. And, mark you, he scorns to think of failure. It is for him
to try his level best. It is for nature, which is a hard though a just
pay-mistress, to bring him his reward in its due season.
The
above is a fair example of the exercise of Imagination.
Fancy
plays us tricks. It is not the man who pulls the strings this time. He simply
yields himself to the influence of all sorts of impossible day-dreams. His mind
is a sieve for thoughts to pass in and out. It is an aimless, idle, wandering,
and brings ready victims for the "pitch-and-toss" game of men whose
principle is to "do" others before the latter can have a turn at
them.
A
man is what his ideals are. If one man with an ideal makes fifty mistakes in a
day, the man without an ideal is sure to commit many more. This is a simple
truth, yet it will bear repetition here. All muscular actions, whether mental
or physical, are simply fragments from the ideal.
"The
life of the ideal is in the practical; it is the ideal that has penetrated the
whole of our life, whether we philosophise or perform the hard, everyday duties
of life. . . . It is the ideal that has made us what we are and will make us
what we are to be. . . . The principle is seldom expressed in the practical,
yet the ideal is never lost sight of"--("Pavhari Baba" by
Vivekananda).
The
very fact of the ideal being present in your mind foreshadows its fulfilment.
Our
thoughts set up a magnetic centre within us. Like attracts like. Good thoughts
draw to themselves corresponding thoughts. This fact is very emphatic. Each
tree brings forth fruits of its kind. If we think well, we cannot act ill. The
greatness of a man must find its measure in the greatness of his thoughts, and
not in the amount of money in his pocket or the bluster on his tongue.
Our
ideal is the hinge upon which our future turns. We create our own fate.
The
first essential is to pitch our aims high. Let us look upward and upward alone.
Let us pray to God for strength by all means, but let us be prepared to deserve
His grace by walking a straight path.
If
we weave our thoughts around a grand purpose in life the ideal so formed may
take material form any day. Its impulsion may stir up concretions of gross
physical matter into activity and may clap spurs to the feet of even a lazy
hack. So much for the ideal.
If
the ideal is to be cherished, it must also be nourished. If you simply sit down
and desire to get a thing, you will never get it and it is good for you that
you should not. For the practical side of things must never be neglected.
"Practice makes perfect." Having set currents of holy desire in
motion, we must set to deepen them in intensity and volume.
"Great
actions are only transformed great concentrations."
Desire
expands the will; action clinches it into strength. Each act in the right
direction goes to establish us in our ideal. Action gives us training.
Education is for self-discipline. Force of character is what we want; money,
fame, praise and blame may well take care of themselves.
What
matters it what the world thinks of me so long as I can think well of myself?
Have I a clear conscience? Is my body under my control? Is my mind pure? Do I
love main? Do I dare to look others straight in the eye? Do I fear anything?
The
answer to such questions will go to make up the sum of our happiness or misery.
A
strong will; a steady pulse; a pure mind; these are what we want.
But
nought comes from nought--Ex nihilo nihil fit. Nothing will drop from the
skies. See here, my brother, do you want a thing? Is it a good thing? Then take
it. Let us deserve what we desire. That is the energetic way of setting about
things.
Action,
right action, unselfish action; these alone can give us strength. To think is
to act. To act is to live. To live is to love. "Love, Love; that is the
sole resource."
Therefore,
O Thou Soul!, pray to thy primal source, God, for the power to make others
happy.
Disease
may come; limb after limb may be lopped off; sorrow may strike thee to the
core; yet cease not to desire nobly, and to bear thyself in action yet more
nobly.
The
privacy of your own room, aye, of your own mind is the place where you must
play the man.
We
have long lived under the influence of fear--the firstborn of Ignorance. Let
knowledge come and with it its power--Courage.
This
is the supreme lesson we have to learn--Fear leads us from death to death;
courage opens the gate into Life, Serenity, and Joy.
CHAPTER
III.
READ
AND REFLECT.
"WHATEVER
is worth doing is worth doing well;"--an age-worn saying but one which
cannot be rung too often on human ears. We are mostly selfish--and all blame to
us!--and this because the Light of the Lord within us is so bedimmed by the
darkness of the lower nature.
Our
deeds are accomplished best when we put heart in them; when we see some gain
accruing to us. Need I prove this?
What
is the Central pivot we turn upon? Attraction;--and its opposite, Repulsion. We
take an interest in certain things. The former gives us a touch of pleasure,
the latter causes pain. Both act diametrically; and the will, unable to assert
itself, is unable to draw to itself the happiness-giving objects. Pain racks
the soul.
The
aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain. It does not bring down upon us the
gloom of despair, but the sunshine of Cheerfulness. Applying this to our
actions we see how philosophy, in the positive sense, is a true helper. It
hands us a weapon which cuts through difficulties. The weapon is Wisdom.
By
Wisdom I mean a light which is self-luminous. Man has an infinite field of
Consciousness. This sphere, as it widens out, realises for us all that we want
rightly. Our actions become linked together symmetrically and at the end of the
chain of wise activity is the desired object.
It
is hence wise to acquire wisdom. How to do it? By unfolding the consciousness.
How to unfold? Well, there are many methods, most difficult; but I am going to
give you a very easy one, applying which, success is as sure as that morning
follows night.
In
the ordinary course of things we walk at a snail's pace, and progress is
woefully slow. But we can quicken the pace and climb swiftly by taking
ourselves in hand, by training the mind.
The
mind is a queer storehouse. The school-boy bakes his brain on a dry course of
lessons daily. Why? To train the mind. That is education: Controlling the
well-nigh uncontrollable: the ever-moving, ever-vibrating mind.
We
read a good deal and all to no purpose. Dry learning never brings peace of
mind. It never gives control over the mind. It never develops the will, nor
does it unfold the consciousness. It simply leads to brain-fag; mental cramp.
Diffusion
of thoughts leads to confusion of results. Now suppose the brain to be a road
filled with mud. A carriage rolls down the road. The wheels have left a deep,
straight track right along the road. Another carriage passes on and deepens the track. It is exactly so with
the brain. One thought passes through it and a track is made through the grey
matter. The intensity of the thought will determine the depth of the track.
As
we think, nerve-tracks are created and the repetition of the same thought
deepens that nerve-track. New sets of atoms start into activity. Brain-cells
are multiplied, and fresh layers of matter cover up these tracks. A similar
thought gives them a blow and they are shaken up, as it were, into new life.
Reading
conveys suggestions to the brain and induces certain trains of thought. The
human will, if it presses a thought with vigor, increases in force and mental
electricity is thus generated. This is "thought-force" in a nutshell.
Now
far greater pressure is exerted if we think by ourselves. The fine nerves of
the brain put themselves in a state of tension, more life flows into them, and,
as this goes on, the inner powers of consciousness, of which the brain is only
an instrument, are called forth from their potential into an active, vigorous
condition.
We
should read only those books which yield us fresh strong thoughts, in a line
with our own aims and aspirations in life. People take up a book and start
reading page after page with the speed of an express train. The mind is in a
state of utter confusion and but faint impressions are being made. This is most
foolish. Haste makes waste, remember!
Books
contain thoughts. If these thoughts are clean, pure, uplifting, stimulating,
and instructive in nature, we should pause upon them and suck all the life out
of them.
Let
a student sit down to read. Let him read a sentence slowly; then let him try to
grasp the thought, and think it over intently. One thought suggests other
thoughts. Thus let him think; stretch his imagination in connection with that
thought as far as possible, and drop it only when he has found a clear-cut,
distinct conclusion. Let him thus continue for fifteen teen minutes. He will
possibly feel quite tired at the end. But as he continues the practice of
deliberate thinking, he will feel a new assurance of power awakening in his
mind. "Read for five minutes; think for ten"--there you have the
whole secret.
The
above practice is very easy, yet most valuable. It will expand your brain and
unfold your Higher Consciousness.
The
fact is there is too little manhood in men. Earnestness of the right sort is
conspicuous by its absence. Such things as spiritual Unfoldment--the conquest
of self, are striven after by but few men. Hence when they resolve upon
achieving these, the initial difficulties quench their ardour.
First
of all we must idealise these Higher Teachings, if we have not done so in the
past. We must love them as the only things worthy of achievement. It is not the
passion of selfish growth that should grip us, but the clear, cheerful atmosphere of purity that should be our guide.
Then
when the thoughts of mind are strung up to action we should find nothing
difficult of achievement.
Come
day, go day, we must stick to our resolve like grim death. Nothing can crush
the spirit, when it has learned to recognise itself.
Hence
let us cherish, nourish, and embellish our Higher Nature by taking upon our
shoulder a little of the heavy Karma of the world. Let us do all that we can
for our growth, but let us remember that selfishness when it develops is
"like a serpent that warms to life by the heat of our hands." Do not
then nurse this viper in your bosom. Be as helpful as you can.
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