{"id":488,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=488"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:18","slug":"17-jnana-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/17-jnana-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-17_Jnana.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tIV<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tTHOUGHTS AND APHORISMS<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t JNANA
\n\t\t\t– KARMA – BHAKTI<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t   <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t  <\/span>
\n\t\t\tJnana
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t                       
\n\t\t\tT<\/b><\/span>HERE<\/span>
\n\t\t\tare two allied powers in man: Knowledge and Wisdom. Knowledge is so
\n\t\t\tmuch of the truth, seen in a distorted medium, as the mind arrives
\n\t\t\tat by groping; Wisdom what the eye of divine vision sees in the
\n\t\t\tspirit.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tInspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and
\n\t\t\teternal knowledge; it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason
\n\t\t\texceeds the knowledge of the senses.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I speak, the reason says, "This will I say"; but God takes the
\n\t\t\tword out of my mouth and the lips say something else at which reason
\n\t\t\ttrembles.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI am not a Jnani, for I have no knowledge except what God gives me
\n\t\t\tfor His work. How am I to know whether what I see be reason or
\n\t\t\tfolly? Nay, it is neither; for the thing seen is simply true and
\n\t\t\tneither folly nor reason.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf mankind only caught a glimpse of what infinite enjoyments, what
\n\t\t\tperfect forces, what luminous reaches of spontaneous knowledge, what
\n\t\t\twide calms of our being lie waiting for us in 1he tracts which our
\n\t\t\tanimal evolution has not yet conquered, they would leave all and
\n\t\t\tnever rest till they had gained these treasures. But the way is
\n\t\t\tnarrow, the doors are hard to force, and fear, distrust and
\n\t\t\tscepticism are there, sentinels of Nature to forbid the turning away
\n\t\t\tof our feet from less ordinary pastures.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tLate, I learned that when reason died then Wisdom was born; before
\n\t\t\tthat liberation, I had only knowledge.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhat men call knowledge is the reasoned acceptance of false
\n\t\t\tappearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. Reason fixes
\n\t\t\tdetails and contrasts them. Reason divides, Wisdom marries contrasts
\n\t\t\tin a single harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage -79<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tEither do not give the name of knowledge to your
\n\t\t\tbeliefs only, and of error, ignorance or charlatanism to the beliefs
\n\t\t\tof others; or do not rail at the dogmas of the sects and their
\n\t\t\tintolerance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhat the soul sees and has experienced, that it knows; the rest is
\n\t\t\tappearance, prejudice and opinion.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMy soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead body to
\n\t\t\tpieces and cry triumphantly, "Where is your soul and where is your
\n\t\t\timmortality ?"<\/p>\n

\t\t\tImmortality is not the survival of the mental personality after
\n\t\t\tdeath, though that also is true, but the waking possession of the
\n\t\t\tunborn and deathless Self of which body is only an instrument and a
\n\t\t\tshadow.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThey proved to me by convincing reasons that God does not exist, and
\n\t\t\tI believed them. Afterwards I saw God, for He came and embraced me.
\n\t\t\tAnd now which am I to believe, the reasonings of others or my own
\n\t\t\texperience?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThey told me, "These things are hallucinations." I inquired what was
\n\t\t\ta hallucination and found that it meant a subjective or psychical
\n\t\t\texperience which corresponds to no objective or no physical reality.
\n\t\t\tThen I sat and wondered at the miracles of the human reason.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tHallucination is the term of Science for those irregular glimpses we
\n\t\t\tstill have of truths shut out from us by our preoccupation with
\n\t\t\tmatter; coincidence for the curious touches of the artist, – in the
\n\t\t\twork of that supreme and universal Intelligence which in its
\n\t\t\tconscious being, as on a canvas, has planned and executed the world.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThat which men term a hallucination is the reflection in the mind
\n\t\t\tand senses of that which is beyond our ordinary mental and sensory
\n\t\t\tperception and superstition arises from the mind’s wrong
\n\t\t\tunderstanding of these reflections. There is no other hallucination.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage -80<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tDo not like so many modern disputants smother
\n\t\t\tthought under polysyllables or charm inquiry to sleep by the spell
\n\t\t\tof formulas and cant words. Search always. Find out the reason for
\n\t\t\tthings which seem to the hasty glance to be mere chance or illusion.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSomeone was laying down that God must be this or that or He would
\n\t\t\tnot be God. But it seemed to me that I can only know what God is and
\n\t\t\tI do not see how I can tell Him what He ought to be. For what is the
\n\t\t\tstandard by which we can judge Him? These judgments are the follies
\n\t\t\tof our egoism.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tChance is not in this universe; the idea of illusion is itself an
\n\t\t\tillusion. There was never illusion yet in the human mind that did
\n\t\t\tnot conceal and disfigure a truth.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I had the dividing reason I shrank from many things; after I
\n\t\t\thad lost it in sight, I hunted through the world for the ugly and
\n\t\t\tthe repellent, but I could no longer find them.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod had opened my eyes; for I saw the nobility of the vulgar, the
\n\t\t\tattractiveness of the repellent, the perfection of the maimed and
\n\t\t\tthe beauty of the hideous.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tForgiveness is praised by the Christian and the Vaishnava, but for
\n\t\t\tme, I ask, "What have I to forgive and whom ?"<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod struck me with a human hand; shall I say then, "I pardon Thee
\n\t\t\tthy insolence, O God?"<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod gave me good in a blow. Shall I say, "I forgive thee, O Almighty
\n\t\t\tOne, the harm and the cruelty, but do it not again ?"<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I pine at misfortune and call it evil, or am jealous and
\n\t\t\tdisappointed, then I know that there is awake in me again the
\n\t\t\teternal fool.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I see others suffer, I feel that I am unfortunate, but the
\n\t\t\twisdom that is not mine, sees the good that is coming and approves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage -81<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tSir Philip Sidney said of the criminal led out to
\n\t\t\tbe hanged, "There, but for the grace of God, goes Sir Philip
\n\t\t\tSidney." Wiser, had he said, "There, by the grace of God, goes Sir
\n\t\t\tPhilip Sidney."<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod is a great and cruel Torturer because he loves. You do not
\n\t\t\tunderstand this, because you have not seen and played with Krishna.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tOne called Napoleon a tyrant and imperial cut-throat; but I saw God
\n\t\t\tarmed striding through Europe.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI have forgotten what vice is and what virtue; I can only see God,
\n\t\t\tHis play in the world and His will in humanity.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI saw a child wallowing in the dirt and the same child cleaned by
\n\t\t\this mother and resplendent, but each time I trembled before his
\n\t\t\tutter purity.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhat I wished or thought to be the right thing does not come about;
\n\t\t\ttherefore it is clear that there is no All-Wise one who guides the
\n\t\t\tworld but only blind Chance or a brute Causality.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Atheist is God playing at hide and seek with Himself; but is the
\n\t\t\tTheist any other? Well, perhaps; for he has seen the shadow of God
\n\t\t\tand clutched at it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tO Thou that lovest, strike! If Thou strike me not now, I shall know
\n\t\t\tthat Thou lovest me not.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tO Misfortune, blessed be thou; for through thee I have seen the face
\n\t\t\tof my Lover.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMen are still in love with grief; when they see one who is too high
\n\t\t\tfor grief or joy, they curse him and cry, "O thou insensible!"
\n\t\t\tTherefore Christ still hangs on the cross in
\n\t\t\tJerusalem.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMen are in love with sin; when they see one who is too high for<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage -82<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tvice or virtue, they curse him and cry, ‘O thou
\n\t\t\tbreaker of bonds; thou wicked and immoral one!’ Therefore Sri
\n\t\t\tKrishna does not live as yet in Brindavan.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSome say Krishna never lived, he is a myth. They mean on earth; for
\n\t\t\tif Brindavan existed nowhere, the Bhagavat could not have been
\n\t\t\twritten.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tStrange! the Germans have disproved the existence of Christ; yet his
\n\t\t\tcrucifixion remains still a greater historic fact than the death of
\n\t\t\tCaesar.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSometimes one is led to think that only those things really matter
\n\t\t\twhich have never happened; for beside them most historic
\n\t\t\tachievements seem almost pale and ineffective.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere are four very great events in history, the siege of Troy, the
\n\t\t\tlife and crucifixion of Christ, the exile of Krishna in Brindavan
\n\t\t\tand the colloquy with Arjuna on the field of Kurukshetra. The siege
\n\t\t\tof Troy created Hellas, the exile in Brindavan created devotional
\n\t\t\treligion, (for before there was only meditation and worship), Christ
\n\t\t\tfrom his cross humanised Europe, the colloquy at Kurukshetra will
\n\t\t\tyet liberate humanity. Yet it is said that none of these four events
\n\t\t\tever happened.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThey say that the gospels are forgeries and Krishna a creation of
\n\t\t\tthe poets. Thank God then for the forgeries and bow down before the
\n\t\t\tinventors.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf God assigns to me my place in Hell, I do not know why I should
\n\t\t\taspire to Heaven. He knows best what is for my welfare.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf God draw me towards Heaven, then, even if His other hand strives
\n\t\t\tto keep me in Hell, yet must I struggle upwards.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tOnly those thoughts are true the opposite of which is also true in
\n\t\t\tits own time and application; indisputable dogmas are the most
\n\t\t\tdangerous kind of falsehoods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage -83<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tLogic is the worst enemy of Truth, as
\n\t\t\tself-righteousness is the worst enemy of virtue; for the one cannot
\n\t\t\tsee its own errors nor the other its own imperfections.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I was asleep in the Ignorance, I came to a place of meditation
\n\t\t\tfull of holy men and I found their company wearisome and the place a
\n\t\t\tprison; when I awoke, God took me to a prison and turned it into a
\n\t\t\tplace of meditation and His trysting ground.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I read a wearisome book through and with pleasure, yet
\n\t\t\tperceived all the perfection of its wearisomeness, then I knew that
\n\t\t\tmy mind was conquered.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI knew my mind to be conquered when it admired the beauty of the
\n\t\t\thideous, yet felt perfectly why other men shrank back or hated.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tTo feel and love the God of beauty and good in the ugly and the
\n\t\t\tevil, and still yearn in utter love to heal it of its ugliness and
\n\t\t\tits evil, this is real virtue and morality. .<\/p>\n

\t\t\tTo hate the sinner is the worst sin, for it is hating God; yet he
\n\t\t\twho commits it glories in his superior virtue.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I hear of a righteous wrath, I wonder at man’s capacity for
\n\t\t\tself-deception.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThis is a miracle that men can love God, yet fail to love humanity.
\n\t\t\tWith whom are they in love then?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe quarrels of religious sects are like the disputing of pots,
\n\t\t\twhich shall be alone allowed to hold the immortalising nectar. Let
\n\t\t\tthem dispute, but the thing for us is to get at the nectar in
\n\t\t\twhatever pot and obtain immortality.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tYou say that the flavour of the pot enters the liquor. That is
\n\t\t\ttaste; but what can deprive it of its immortalising faculty?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-84<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tBe wide in me, O Varuna; be mighty in me, O Indra;
\n\t\t\tO Sun, be very bright and luminous; O Moon, be full of charm and
\n\t\t\tsweetness. Be fierce and terrible, O Rudra; be impetuous and swift,
\n\t\t\tO Maruts; be strong and bold, O Aryama; be voluptuous and
\n\t\t\tpleasurable, O Bhaga; be tender and kind and loving and passionate,
\n\t\t\tO Mitra. Be bright and revealing, O Dawn; O Night, be solemn and
\n\t\t\tpregnant. O Life, be full, ready and buoyant; O Death, lead my steps
\n\t\t\tfrom mansion to mansion. Harmonise all these, O Brahmanaspati. Let
\n\t\t\tme not be subject to these gods, O Kali.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen, O eager disputant, thou hast prevailed in a debate, then art
\n\t\t\tthou greatly to be pitied, for thou hast lost a chance of widening
\n\t\t\tknowledge.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBecause the tiger acts according to his nature and knows not any-
\n\t\t\tthing else, therefore he is divine and there is no evil in him. If
\n\t\t\the questioned himself, then he would be a criminal.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe animal, before he is corrupted, has not yet eaten of the tree of
\n\t\t\tthe knowledge of good and evil; the god has abandoned it for the
\n\t\t\ttree of eternal life; man stands between the upper heaven and the
\n\t\t\tlower nature.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tOne of the greatest comforts of religion is that you can get hold of
\n\t\t\tGod sometimes and give him a satisfactory beating. People mock at
\n\t\t\tthe folly of savages who beat their gods when their prayers are not
\n\t\t\tanswered; but it is the mockers who are the fools and the savages.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere is no mortality. It is only the Immortal who can die; the
\n\t\t\tmortal could neither be born nor perish.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere is nothing finite. It is only the Infinite who can create for
\n\t\t\thimself limits. The finite can have no beginning nor end, for the
\n\t\t\tvery act of conceiving its beginning and end declares its infinity.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI heard a fool discoursing utter folly and wondered what God<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-85<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tmeant by it; then I considered and saw a
\n\t\t\tdistorted mask of truth and wisdom.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod is great, says the Mahomedan. Yes, He is so great that He can
\n\t\t\tafford to be weak, whenever that too is necessary.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod often fails in His workings; it is the sign of His illimitable
\n\t\t\tgodhead.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBecause God is invincibly great, He can afford to be weak; because
\n\t\t\tHe is immutably pure, He can indulge with impunity in sin; He knows
\n\t\t\teternally all delight, therefore He tastes also the delight of pain;
\n\t\t\tHe is inalienably wise, therefore He has not debarred Himself from
\n\t\t\tfolly.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSin is that which was once in its place, persisting now it is out of
\n\t\t\tplace; there is no other sinfulness.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere is no sin in man, but a great deal of disease, ignorance and
\n\t\t\tmisapplication.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become
\n\t\t\tdisgusted with his own imperfections. It was God’s corrective for
\n\t\t\tegoism. But man’s egoism meets God’s device by being very dully
\n\t\t\talive to its own sins and very keenly alive to the sins of others.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His
\n\t\t\tefforts to draw us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us
\n\t\t\tto cherish our sins in secret.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tExamine thyself without pity, then thou wilt be more charitable and
\n\t\t\tpitiful to others.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tA thought is an arrow shot at the truth; it can hit a point, but not
\n\t\t\tcover the whole target. But the archer is too well satisfied with
\n\t\t\this success to ask anything farther.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-86<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe sign of dawning Knowledge is to feel that as
\n\t\t\tyet I know little or nothing; and yet, if I could only<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tknow my knowledge, I already possess everything.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen Wisdom comes, her first lesson is, "There is no such thing as
\n\t\t\tknowledge; there are only apercus <\/i>of the Infinite Deity."<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPractical knowledge is a different thing; that is real and
\n\t\t\tserviceable, but it is never complete. Therefore to systematise and
\n\t\t\tcodify it is necessary but fatal.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSystematise we must, but even in making and holding the system, we
\n\t\t\tshould always keep firm hold on this truth that all systems are in
\n\t\t\ttheir nature transitory and incomplete.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tEurope prides herself on her practical and scientific organisation
\n\t\t\tand efficiency. I am waiting till her organisation is perfect; then
\n\t\t\ta child shall destroy her.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGenius discovers a system; average talent stereotypes it till it is
\n\t\t\tshattered by fresh genus. It is dangerous for an army to be led by
\n\t\t\tveterans; for on the other side God may place Napoleon.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen knowledge is fresh in us, then it is invincible; when it is
\n\t\t\told, it loses its virtue. This is because God moves always forward.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod is infinite Possibility. Therefore Truth is never at rest;
\n\t\t\ttherefore, also, Error is justified of her children.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tTo listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never
\n\t\t\tlaughs; Heine was nearer the mark when he found in Him the divine
\n\t\t\tAristophanes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGod’s laughter is sometimes very coarse and unfit for polite ears;
\n\t\t\tHe is not satisfied with being Moliere, He must needs also be
\n\t\t\tAristophanes and Rabelais.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-87<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tIf men took life less seriously, they could very
\n\t\t\tsoon make it more perfect. God never takes His works seriously;
\n\t\t\ttherefore one looks out on this wonderful Universe.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tShame has admirable results and both in aesthetics and in morality
\n\t\t\twe could ill spare it; but for all that it is a badge of weakness
\n\t\t\tand the proof of ignorance.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe supernatural is that the nature of which we have not attained or
\n\t\t\tdo not yet know, or the means of which we have not yet conquered.
\n\t\t\tThe common taste for miracles is the sign that man’s ascent is not
\n\t\t\tyet finished.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIt is rationality and prudence to distrust the supernatural; but to
\n\t\t\tbelieve in it is also a sort of wisdom.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tGreat saints have performed miracles; greater saints have railed at
\n\t\t\tthem; the greatest have both railed at them and performed them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOpen thy eyes and see what the world really is
\n\t\t\tand what God; have done with vain and pleasant imaginations.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThis world was built by Death that he might live. Wilt thou abolish
\n\t\t\tdeath? Then life too will perish. Thou canst not abolish death, but
\n\t\t\tthou mayst transform it into a greater living.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThis world was built by Cruelty that she might love. Wilt thou
\n\t\t\tabolish cruelty? Then love too will perish. Thou canst not abolish
\n\t\t\tcruelty, but thou mayst transfigure it into its opposite, into a
\n\t\t\tfierce Love and Delightfulness.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThis world was built by Ignorance and Error that they might know.
\n\t\t\tWilt thou abolish ignorance and error? Then knowledge too will
\n\t\t\tperish. Thou canst not abolish ignorance and error, but thou mayst
\n\t\t\ttransmute them into the utter and effulgent reason. (Or, exceeding
\n\t\t\tof reason.)
\n\t\t\t <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-88<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tIf Life alone were and not death, there could be
\n\t\t\tno immortality; if love were alone and not cruelty, joy would be
\n\t\t\tonly a tepid and ephemeral rapture; if reason were alone and not
\n\t\t\tignorance, our highest attainment would not exceed a limited
\n\t\t\trationality and worldly wisdom.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tDeath transformed becomes Life that is Immortality; Cruelty
\n\t\t\ttransfigured becomes Love that is intolerable ecstasy; Ignorance
\n\t\t\ttransmuted becomes Light that leaps beyond wisdom and knowledge.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPain is the touch of our Mother teaching us how to bear and grow in
\n\t\t\trapture. She has three stages of her schooling, endurance first,
\n\t\t\tnext equality of soul, last ecstasy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tAll renunciation is for a greater joy yet ungrasped. Some renounce
\n\t\t\tfor the joy of duty done, some for the joy of peace, some for the
\n\t\t\tjoy of God and some for the joy of self-torture, but renounce rather
\n\t\t\tas a passage to the freedom and untroubled rapture beyond.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tOnly by perfect renunciation of desire or by perfect satisfaction of
\n\t\t\tdesire can the utter embrace of God be experienced, for in both ways
\n\t\t\tthe essential precondition is effected, – desire perishes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tExperience in thy soul the truth of the Scripture; afterwards, if
\n\t\t\tthou wilt, reason and state thy experience intellectually and even
\n\t\t\tthen distrust thy statement, but distrust never thy experience.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen thou affirmest thy soul-experience and deniest the different
\n\t\t\tsoul-experience of another, know that God is making a fool of thee.
\n\t\t\tDost thou not hear His self-delighted laughter behind thy soul’s
\n\t\t\tcurtains?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRevelation is direct sight, the direct hearing or inspired memory of
\n\t\t\tTruth, drsti, sruti, smrti; <\/i>it is the highest experience and
\n\t\t\talways accessible to renewed experience. Not because God spoke it,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-89<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tbut because the soul saw it, is the word of the
\n\t\t\tScriptures our supreme authority.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe word of Scripture is infallible; it is in the interpretation the
\n\t\t\theart and reason put upon the Scripture that error has her portion.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tShun all lowness, narrowness and shallowness in religious thought
\n\t\t\tand experience. Be wider than the widest horizons, be loftier than
\n\t\t\tthe highest Kanchanjungha, profounder than the deepest oceans.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIn God’s sight there is no near or distant, no present, past or
\n\t\t\tfuture. These things are only a convenient perspective for His
\n\t\t\tworld-picture.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tTo the senses it is always true that the sun moves round the earth;
\n\t\t\tthis is false to the reason. To the reason it is always true that
\n\t\t\tthe earth moves round the sun; this is false to the supreme vision.
\n\t\t\tNeither earth moves nor sun; there is only a change in the relation
\n\t\t\tof sun-consciousness and earth-consciousness.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVivekananda, exalting Sannayasa, has said that in all Indian
\n\t\t\thistory, there is only one Janaka. Not so, for Janaka is not the
\n\t\t\tname of a single individual, but a dynasty of self-ruling kings and
\n\t\t\tthe triumph-cry of an ideal.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIn all the lakhs of ochre-clad Sannyasins, how many are perfect? It
\n\t\t\tis the few attainments and the many approximations that justify an
\n\t\t\tideal.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere have been hundreds of perfect Sannyasins, because Sannyasa has
\n\t\t\tbeen widely preached and numerously practised; let it be the same
\n\t\t\twith the ideal freedom and we shall have hundreds of Janakas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSannyasa has a formal garb and outer tokens; therefore men think
\n\t\t\tthey can easily recognise it; but the freedom of a Janaka<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-90<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tdoes not proclaim itself and it wears the garb of
\n\t\t\tthe world; to .its presence even Narada was blinded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHard is it to be in the world, free, yet living
\n\t\t\tthe life of ordinary men; but because it is hard, therefore it must
\n\t\t\tbe attempted and accomplished.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen he watched the actions of Janaka, even Narada the divine sage
\n\t\t\tthought him a luxurious worldling and libertine. Unless thou canst
\n\t\t\tsee the soul, how shalt thou say that a man is free or bound?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tAll things seem hard to man that are above his attained level and
\n\t\t\tthey are hard to his unaided effort; but they become at once easy
\n\t\t\tand simple when God in man takes up the contract.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tTo see the composition of the sun or the lines of Mars is doubt-
\n\t\t\tless a great achievement; but when thou hast the instrument that can
\n\t\t\tshow thee a man’s soul as thou seest a picture, then thou wilt smile
\n\t\t\tat the wonders of physical Science as the playthings of babies.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tKnowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found
\n\t\t\tout something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting;
\n\t\t\tWisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty
\n\t\t\tsilence.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tScience talks and behaves as if it had conquered all knowledge.
\n\t\t\tWisdom, as she walks, hears her solitary tread echoing on the margin
\n\t\t\tof immeasurable Oceans.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tHatred is the sign of a secret attraction that is eager to flee from
\n\t\t\titself and furious to deny its own existence. That too is God’s play
\n\t\t\tin His creature.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSelfishness is the only sin, meanness the only vice, hatred the only
\n\t\t\tcriminality. All else can easily be turned into good, but these are
\n\t\t\tobstinate resisters of deity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-91<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tThe world is a long recurring decimal with
\n\t\t\tBrahman for its integer. The period seems to begin and end, but the
\n\t\t\tfraction is eternal; it will never have an end and never had any
\n\t\t\treal beginning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe beginning and end of things is a conventional term of our
\n\t\t\texperience; in their true existence these terms have no reality,
\n\t\t\tthere is no end and no beginning.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t"Neither is it that I was not before nor thou nor these kings nor
\n\t\t\tthat all we shall not be hereafter." Not only Brahman, but beings
\n\t\t\tand things in Brahman are eternal; their creation and destruction is
\n\t\t\ta play of hide and seek with our outward consciousness.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe love of solitude is a sign of the disposition towards knowledge;
\n\t\t\tbut knowledge itself is only achieved when we have a settled
\n\t\t\tperception of solitude in the crowd, in the battle and in the mart.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf when thou art doing great actions and moving giant results, thou
\n\t\t\tcanst perceive that THOU art doing nothing, then know that God has
\n\t\t\tremoved His seal on thy eyelids.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf when thou sittest alone, still and voiceless on the mountain-
\n\t\t\ttop, thou canst perceive the revolutions thou art conducting, then
\n\t\t\thast thou the divine vision and art freed from appearances.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe love of inaction is folly and the scorn of inaction is folly;
\n\t\t\tthere is no inaction. The stone lying inert upon the sands which is
\n\t\t\tkicked away in an idle moment, has been producing its effect upon
\n\t\t\tthe hemispheres.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf thou wouldst not be the fool of Opinion, first see wherein thy
\n\t\t\tthought is true, then study wherein its opposite and contradiction
\n\t\t\tis true; last, discover the cause of these differences and the key
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tof God’s harmony.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tAn opinion is neither true nor false, but only serviceable for life<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-92<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tor unserviceable; for it is a creation of Time
\n\t\t\tand with time it loses its effect and value. Rise thou above opinion
\n\t\t\tand seek wisdom everlasting.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tUse opinion for life; but let her not bind thy soul in her fetters.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tEvery law, however embracing or tyrannous, meets somewhere a
\n\t\t\tcontrary law by which its operation can be checked, modified,
\n\t\t\tannulled or eluded.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe most binding Law of Nature is only a fixed process which the
\n\t\t\tLord of Nature has framed and uses constantly; the Spirit made it
\n\t\t\tand the Spirit can exceed it, but we must first open the doors of
\n\t\t\tour prison-house and learn to live less in Nature than in the
\n\t\t\tSpirit.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tLaw is a process or a formula; but the soul is the user of processes
\n\t\t\tand exceeds formulas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tLive according to Nature, runs the maxim of the West; but according
\n\t\t\tto what Nature, the nature of the body or the nature which exceeds
\n\t\t\tthe body? This first we ought to determine.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t0 son of Immortality, live not thou according to Nature, but
\n\t\t\taccording to God; and compel her also to live according to the deity
\n\t\t\twithin thee.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tFate is God’s foreknowledge outside Space and Time of all that in
\n\t\t\tSpace and Time shall yet happen; what He has foreseen, Power and
\n\t\t\tNecessity work out by the conflict of forces.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBecause God has willed and foreseen everything, thou shouldst not
\n\t\t\ttherefore sit inactive and wait upon His providence, for thy action
\n\t\t\tis one of His chief effective forces. Up then and be doing, not with
\n\t\t\tegoism, but as the circumstance-instrument and apparent cause of the
\n\t\t\tevent that He has predetermined.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen I knew nothing, then I abhorred the criminal, sinful and<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-93<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\timpure, being myself full of crime, sin and
\n\t\t\timpurity; but when I was cleansed and my eyes unsealed, then I bowed
\n\t\t\tdown in my spirit before the thief and the murderer and adored the
\n\t\t\tfeet of the harlot; for I saw that these souls had accepted the
\n\t\t\tterrible burden of evil and drained for all of us the greater
\n\t\t\tportion of the churned poison of the world-ocean.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Titans are stronger than the gods because they have agreed with
\n\t\t\tGod to front and bear the burden of His wrath and enmity; the gods
\n\t\t\twere able to accept only the pleasant burden of His love and
\n\t\t\tkindlier rapture.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen thou art able to see how necessary is suffering to final
\n\t\t\tdelight, failure to utter effectiveness and retardation to the last
\n\t\t\trapidity, then thou mayst begin to understand something, however
\n\t\t\tfaintly and dimly, of God’s workings.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tAll disease is a means towards some new joy of health, all evil and
\n\t\t\tpain a tuning of Nature for some more intense bliss and good, all
\n\t\t\tdeath an opening on widest immortality. Why and how this should be
\n\t\t\tso, is God’s secret which only the soul purified of egoism can
\n\t\t\tpenetrate.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhy is thy mind or thy body in pain? Because thy soul behind the
\n\t\t\tveil wishes for the pain or takes delight in it; but if thou wilt –
\n\t\t\tand perseverest in thy will- thou canst impose the spirit’s law of
\n\t\t\tunmixed delight on thy lower members.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere is no iron or ineffugable law that a given contact shall
\n\t\t\tcreate pain or pleasure; it is the way thy soul meets the rush or
\n\t\t\tpressure of Brahman upon the members from outside them that
\n\t\t\tdetermines either reaction.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe force of soul in thee meeting the same force from outside cannot
\n\t\t\tharmonise the measures of the contact in values of mind- experience
\n\t\t\tand body-experience; therefore thou hast pain, grief or uneasiness.
\n\t\t\tIf thou canst learn to adjust the replies of the force in thyself to
\n\t\t\tthe questions of world-force, thou shalt find pain becoming
\n\t\t\tpleasurable or turning into pure delightfulness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-94<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tRight relation is the condition of blissfulness,
\n\t\t\trtam <\/i>the key of, Ananda.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWho is the superman? He who can rise above this matter- regarding
\n\t\t\tbroken mental human unit and possess himself universalised and
\n\t\t\tdeified in a divine force, a divine love and joy and a divine
\n\t\t\tknowledge.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf thou keepest this limited human ego and thinkest thyself the
\n\t\t\tsuperman, thou art but the fool of thy own pride, the plaything of
\n\t\t\tthy own force and the instrument of thy own illusions.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tNietzsche saw the superman as the lion-soul passing out of camelhood,
\n\t\t\tbut the true heraldic device and token of the superman is the lion
\n\t\t\tseated upon the camel which stands upon the cow of plenty. If thou
\n\t\t\tcanst not be the slave of all mankind, thou art not fit to be its
\n\t\t\tmaster, and if thou canst not make thy nature as Vasishtha’s cow of
\n\t\t\tplenty with all mankind to draw its wish from her udders, what
\n\t\t\tavails thy leonine supermanhood?<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBe to the world as the lion in fearlessness and lordship, as the
\n\t\t\tcamel in patience and service, as the cow in quiet, forbearing and
\n\t\t\tmaternal beneficence. Raven on all the joys of God as a lion over
\n\t\t\tits prey, but bring also all humanity into that infinite field of
\n\t\t\tluxurious ecstasy to wallow there and to pasture.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\tART<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIf Art’s service is but to imitate Nature, then
\n\t\t\tburn all the picture galleries and let us have instead photographic
\n\t\t\tstudios. It is because Art reveals what Nature hides that a small
\n\t\t\tpicture is worth more than all the jewels of the millionaires and
\n\t\t\tthe treasures of the princes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIf you only imitate visible Nature, you will perpetrate either a
\n\t\t\tcorpse, a dead sketch or a monstrosity; Truth lives in that which
\n\t\t\tgoes behind and beyond the visible and sensible.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tO Poet, O Artist, if thou but holdest up the mirror to Nature,
\n\t\t\tthinkest thou Nature will rejoice in thy work? Rather she will<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-95<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tturn away her face. For what dost thou hold up to
\n\t\t\ther there? Herself? No, but a lifeless outline and reflection, a
\n\t\t\tshadowy mimicry. It is the secret soul of Nature thou hast to seize,
\n\t\t\tthou hast to hunt eternally after the truth in the eternal symbol,
\n\t\t\tand that no mirror will hold for thee, nor for her whom thou seekest.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI find in Shakespeare a far greater and more consistent universalist
\n\t\t\tthan the Greeks. All his creations are universal types from Lancelot
\n\t\t\tGobbo and his dog up to Lear and Hamlet.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe .Greeks sought universality by omitting all finer individual
\n\t\t\ttouches; Shakespeare sought it more successfully by universalising
\n\t\t\tthe rarest individual details of character. That which Nature uses
\n\t\t\tfor concealing from us the Infinite, Shakespeare used for revealing
\n\t\t\tthe Anantaguna in man to the eye of humanity.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tShakespeare who invented the figure of holding up the mirror to
\n\t\t\tNature, was the one poet who never condescended to a copy, a
\n\t\t\tphotograph or a shadow. The reader who sees in Falstaff, Macbeth,
\n\t\t\tLear or Hamlet imitations of Nature, has either no inner eye of the
\n\t\t\tsoul or has been hypnotised by a formula.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhere in material Nature wilt thou find Falstaff, Macbeth or Lear?
\n\t\t\tShadows and hints of them she possesses, but they themselves tower
\n\t\t\tabove her. .<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere are two for whom there is hope, the man who has felt God’s
\n\t\t\ttouch and been drawn to it and the sceptical seeker and
\n\t\t\tself-convinced atheist; but for the formularists of all the
\n\t\t\treligions aI1d the parrots of free thought, they are dead souls who
\n\t\t\tfollow a death that they call living.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tA man came to a scientist and wished to be instructed; this
\n\t\t\tinstructor showed him the revelations of the microscope and
\n\t\t\ttelescope, but the man laughed and said, "These are obviously
\n\t\t\thallucinations inflicted on the eye by the glass which you use as a
\n\t\t\tmedium; I will not believe till you show these wonders to my naked
\n\t\t\tseeing." Then the scientist proved to him by many collateral facts
\n\t\t\tand experiments the reliability of his knowledge but the<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage-96<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tman laughed again and said, "What you term proofs, I term
\n\t\t\tcoincidences, the number of coincidences does not constitute proof;
\n\t\t\tas for your experiments, they are obviously effected under abnormal
\n\t\t\tconditions and constitute a sort of insanity of Nature." When
\n\t\t\tconfronted with the results of mathematics, he was angry and cried
\n\t\t\tout, "This is obviously imposture, gibberish and superstition; will
\n\t\t\tyou try to make me believe that these absurd cabalistic figures have
\n\t\t\tany real force and meaning?" Then the scientist drove him out as a
\n\t\t\thopeless imbecile; for he did not recognise his own system of
\n\t\t\tdenials and his own method of negative reasoning. If we wish to
\n\t\t\trefuse an impartial and open-minded enquiry, we can always find the
\n\t\t\tmost respectable polysyllables to cover our refusal or impose tests
\n\t\t\tand conditions which stultify the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWhen our minds are involved in matter, they think matter the only
\n\t\t\treality; when we draw back into immaterial consciousness, then we
\n\t\t\tsee matter a mask and feel existence in consciousness alone having
\n\t\t\tthe touch of reality. Which then of these two is the truth? Nay, God
\n\t\t\tknoweth; but he who has had both experiences, can easily tell which
\n\t\t\tcondition is the more fertile in knowledge, the mightier and more
\n\t\t\tblissful.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tI believe immaterial consciousness to be truer than material
\n\t\t\tconsciousness. Because I know in the first what in the second is
\n\t\t\thidden from me and also can command what the mind knows in matter.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tHell and Heaven exist only in the soul’s consciousness. Ay, but so
\n\t\t\tdoes the earth and its lands and seas and fields and deserts and
\n\t\t\tmountains and rivers. All world is nothing but arrangement of the
\n\t\t\tSoul’s seeing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tThere is only one soul and one existence; therefore we all see one
\n\t\t\tobjectivity only; but there are many knots of mind and ego in the
\n\t\t\tone soul-existence, therefore we all see the one Object in different
\n\t\t\tlights and shadows. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 97<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Idealist errs; it is not Mind which created the worlds but that
\n\t\t\twhich created mind has created them. Mind’ only mis-sees, be- cause
\n\t\t\tit sees partially and by details what is created.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThus said
\n\t\t\tRamakrishna and thus said Vivekananda. Yes,’ but let me know also
\n\t\t\tthe truths which the Avatar cast not forth into speech and the
\n\t\t\tprophet has omitted from his teachings. There will always be more in
\n\t\t\tGod than the thought of man has ever conceived or the tongue of man
\n\t\t\thas ever uttered.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tWhat was Ramakrishna? God manifest in a human
\n\t\t\tbeing; but behind there is God in His infinite impersonality and His
\n\t\t\tuniversal Personality. And what was Vivekananda? A radiant glance
\n\t\t\tfrom the eye of Shiva; but behind him is the divine gaze from which
\n\t\t\the came and Shiva himself and Brahma and Vishnu and OM
\n\t\t\tall-exceeding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tHe who recognises not Krishna, the God in man,
\n\t\t\tknows not God entirely; he who knows. Krishna only, knows not even
\n\t\t\tKrishna. Yet is the opposite truth also wholly true that if thou
\n\t\t\tcanst see all God in a little pale, unsightly and scentless flower,
\n\t\t\tthen hast thou hold of His supreme reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tShun the barren
\n\t\t\tsnares of an empty metaphysics and the dry dust of unfertile
\n\t\t\tintellectuality. Only that knowledge is worth having which can be
\n\t\t\tmade use of for a living delight and put out into temperament,
\n\t\t\taction, creation and being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tBecome and live the knowledge thou
\n\t\t\thast; then is thy knowledge the living God within thee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tEvolution
\n\t\t\tis not finished; reason is not the last word nor the reasoning
\n\t\t\tanimal the supreme figure of Nature. As man emerged out of the
\n\t\t\tanimal, so out of man the superman emerges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe power to observe
\n\t\t\tlaw rigidly is the basis of freedom; there- fore in most disciplines
\n\t\t\tthe soul has to endure and fulfil the law in its lower members
\n\t\t\tbefore it can rise to the perfect freedom of its <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage-98 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tdivine
\n\t\t\tbeing. Those disciplines which begin with freedom are’ only for the
\n\t\t\tmighty ones who are naturally free or in former lives. have founded
\n\t\t\ttheir freedom. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThose who are deficient in the free, full and
\n\t\t\tintelligent observation of a self-imposed law, must be placed in
\n\t\t\tsubjection to the will of others. This is one principal cause of the
\n\t\t\tsubjection of nations. After their disturbing egoism has been
\n\t\t\ttrampled under the feet of a master, they are given or, if they have
\n\t\t\tforce in them, attain a fresh chance of deserving liberty by
\n\t\t\tliberty. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tTo observe the law we have imposed on ourselves
\n\t\t\trather than the law of others is what is meant by liberty in our
\n\t\t\tunregenerate condition. Only in God and by the supremacy of the
\n\t\t\tspirit can we enjoy a perfect freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe double law of sin and
\n\t\t\tvirtue is imposed on us because we have not that ideal life and
\n\t\t\tknowledge within which guides the soul spontaneously and infallibly
\n\t\t\tto its self-fulfilment. The law of sin and virtue ceases for us when
\n\t\t\tthe sun of God shines upon the soul in truth and love with its
\n\t\t\tunveiled splendour. Moses is replaced by Christ, the Shastra by the
\n\t\t\tVeda. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tGod within is leading us always aright even when we are
\n\t\t\tin the bonds of the ignorance; but then, though the goal is sure, it
\n\t\t\tis attained by circlings and deviations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Cross is in Yoga
\n\t\t\tthe symbol of the soul and nature in their strong and perfect union,
\n\t\t\tbut because of our fall into the impurities of ignorance it has
\n\t\t\tbecome the symbol of suffering and purification.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tChrist came into the world to purify, not to fulfil. He himself
\n\t\t\tforeknew the failure of his mission and the necessity of his re-
\n\t\t\tturn with the sword of God into a world that had rejected him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tMahomed’s mission was necessary, else we might have ended by
\n\t\t\tthinking, in the exaggeration of our efforts at self-purification,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage-99<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tthat earth was meant only for the monk and the city created as a
\n\t\t\tvestibule for the desert.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tWhen all is said, Love and Force together can save the world
\n\t\t\teventually, but not Love only or Force only. Therefore Christ had to
\n\t\t\tlook forward to a second advent and Mahomed’s religion, where it is
\n\t\t\tnot stagnant, looks forward through the Imams to a Mehdi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tLaw cannot save the world, therefore Moses’ ordinances are dead for
\n\t\t\thumanity and the Shastra of the Brahmin is corrupt and dying. Law
\n\t\t\treleased into freedom is the liberator. Not the Pandit, but the
\n\t\t\tYogin, not monasticism, but the inner renunciation of desire and
\n\t\t\tignorance and egoism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tEven Vivekananda once in the stress of emotion admitted the fallacy
\n\t\t\tthat a personal God would be too immoral to be suffered and it would
\n\t\t\tbe the duty of all good men to resist Him. But if an omnipotent
\n\t\t\tsupra-moral Will and Intelligence governs the world, it is surely
\n\t\t\timpossible to resist Him; our resistance would, only serve <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tHis ends
\n\t\t\tand really be dictated by Him. Is it not better then, instead of
\n\t\t\tcondemning or denying, to study and understand Him?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tIf we would understand God, we must renounce our egoistic and
\n\t\t\tignorant human standards or else ennoble and universalise them
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tBecause a good man dies or fails and the evil live and triumph, is
\n\t\t\tGod therefore evil? I do not see the logic of the consequence. I
\n\t\t\tmust first be convinced that death and failure are evil; I sometimes
\n\t\t\tthink that when they come, they are our supreme momentary good. But
\n\t\t\twe are the fools of our hearts and nerves and argue that what they
\n\t\t\tdo not like or desire, must of course be an evil! <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tWhen I look back on my past life, I see that if I had not failed and
\n\t\t\tsuffered, I would have lost my life’s supreme blessings; yet<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage-100<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tat the time of the suffering and failure, I was vexed with the sense
\n\t\t\tof calamity. Because we cannot see anything but the one fact under
\n\t\t\tour noses, therefore we indulge in all these snifflings and clamours.
\n\t\t\tBe silent, ye foolish hearts! Slay the ego, learn to see and feel
\n\t\t\tvastly and universally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe perfect cosmic vision and cosmic sentiment is the cure of all
\n\t\t\terror and suffering; but most men succeed only in enlarging the
\n\t\t\trange of their ego.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tMen say and think "For my country!", "For humanity!", "For the
\n\t\t\tworld!", but they really mean "For myself seen in my country!", "For
\n\t\t\tmyself seen in humanity!", "For myself imaged to my fancy as the
\n\t\t\tworld!"  That may be an enlargement, but it is not liberation. To be
\n\t\t\tat large and to be in a large prison are not one condition of
\n\t\t\tfreedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tLive for God in thy neighbour. God in thyself. God in thy country
\n\t\t\tand the country of thy foeman. God in humanity. God in tree and
\n\t\t\tstone and animal. God in the world and outside the world, then art
\n\t\t\tthou on the straight path to liberation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThere are lesser and larger eternities; for eternity is a term of
\n\t\t\tthe soul and can exist in Time as well as exceeding it. When the
\n\t\t\tScriptures say "śāśvatih samāh<\/i> they mean for a long space and
\n\t\t\tpermanence of time or a hardly measurable aeon; only God Ab\u00adsolute
\n\t\t\thas the absolute eternity. Yet when one goes within, one sees that
\n\t\t\tall things are really eternal; there is no end, neither was there
\n\t\t\tever a beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tWhen thou callest another a fool, as thou must sometimes, yet do not
\n\t\t\tforget that thou thyself hast been the supreme fool in humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tGod loves to play the fool in season; man does it in season and out
\n\t\t\tof season. It is the only difference.\/\/\/\/In the Buddhists’ view to
\n\t\t\thave saved an ant from drowning is<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 101<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tgreater work than to have founded an empire. There is a truth in the
\n\t\t\tidea, but a truth that can easily be exaggerated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tTo exalt one virtue,\u2014compassion even,\u2014-unduly above all others is to
\n\t\t\tcover up with one’s hand the eyes of wisdom. God moves always
\n\t\t\ttowards a harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPity may be reserved, so long as thy soul makes distinctions, for
\n\t\t\tthe suffering animals; but humanity deserves from thee some\u00adthing
\n\t\t\tnobler, it asks for love, for understanding, for comradship, for the
\n\t\t\thelp of the equal and brother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe contributions of evil to the good of the world and the harm
\n\t\t\tsometimes done by the virtuous are distressing to the soul enamoured
\n\t\t\tof good. Nevertheless be not distressed nor con\u00adfounded, but study
\n\t\t\trather and calmly understand God’s ways with humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tIn God’s providence there is no evil, but only good or its
\n\t\t\tpreparation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tVirtue and vice were made for thy soul’s struggle and progress; but
\n\t\t\tfor results they belong to God, who fulfils himself beyond vice and
\n\t\t\tvirtue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tLive within; be not shaken by outward happenings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tFling not thy alms abroad everywhere in an ostentation of charity;
\n\t\t\tunderstand and love where thou helpest. Let thy soul grow within
\n\t\t\tthee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tHelp the poor while the poor are with thee; but study also and
\n\t\t\tstrive that there may be no poor for thy assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe old Indian social ideal demanded of the priest voluntary
\n\t\t\tsim\u00adplicity of life, purity, learning and the gratuitous instruction
\n\t\t\tof the community, of the prince, war, government, protection of the
\n\t\t\tweak and the giving up of his life in the battlefield, of the<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 102<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tmerchant, trade, gain and the return of his gains to the community
\n\t\t\tby free giving, of the serf, labour for the rest and material
\n\t\t\thavings. In atonement for his serfhood, it spared him the tax of
\n\t\t\tself-denial, the tax of blood and the tax of his riches.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe existence of poverty is the proof of an unjust and ill-organised
\n\t\t\tsociety, and our public charities are but the first tardy awakening
\n\t\t\tof the conscience of a robber.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tValmikie, our ancient epic poet, includes among the signs of a just
\n\t\t\tand enlightened state of society not only universal education,
\n\t\t\tmorality and spirituality but this also that there shall be none who
\n\t\t\tis compelled to eat coarse food, none uncrowned and un-anointed, or
\n\t\t\twho lives a mean and petty slave of luxuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe acceptance of poverty is noble and beneficial in a class or an
\n\t\t\tindividual, but it becomes fatal and pauperises life of its richness
\n\t\t\tand expansion if it is perversely organised into a general or
\n\t\t\tnational ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPoverty is no more a necessity of social life than disease of the
\n\t\t\tnatural body; false habits of life and an ignorance of our true
\n\t\t\torganisation are in both cases the peccant causes of an avoidable
\n\t\t\tdisorder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tAthens, not Sparta, is the progressive type for mankind. Ancient
\n\t\t\tIndia with its ideal of vast riches and vast spending was the
\n\t\t\tgreatest of nations. Modern India with its trend towards national
\n\t\t\tasceticism has fully become poor in life and sunk into weakness and
\n\t\t\tdegradation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tDo not dream that when thou hast got rid of material poverty, men
\n\t\t\twill ever so be happy or satisfied or<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tsociety freed from ills, troubles and problems. This is only the
\n\t\t\tfirst and lowest neces\u00adsity. While the soul within remains
\n\t\t\tdefectively organised there will always be outward unrest, disorder
\n\t\t\tand revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tDisease will always return to the body if the soul is flawed; for<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tP-103<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tthe sins of the mind are the secret cause of the sins of the body.
\n\t\t\tSo too poverty and trouble will always return on man in society, so
\n\t\t\tlong as the mind of the race is subjected to egoism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tReligion and philosophy are best to rescue man from his ego; then the
\n\t\t\tkingdom of heaven within will be spontaneously reflected in an
\n\t\t\texternal divine city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tMediaeval Christianity said to the race, "Man, thou art in
\n\t\t\tthy earthly life an evil thing
\n\t\t\tand a worm before God; renounce then egoism, live for the future
\n\t\t\tstate and submit thyself to God and His priest." The results were
\n\t\t\tnot over-good for humanity. Mo\u00addern knowledge says to the race,
\n\t\t\t"Man, thou art an ephemeral animal and no more to Nature than the
\n\t\t\tant and the earthworm, a transitory speck only in the universe. Live
\n\t\t\tthen for the State and submit thyself antlike to the trained
\n\t\t\tadministrator and the scientific expert." Will this gospel succeed
\n\t\t\tany better than the other?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tVedanta says rather, "Man, thou art of one nature and substance with
\n\t\t\tGod, one soul with thy fellow-men. Awake and progress then to thy
\n\t\t\tutter divinity, live for <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tGod in thyself and in others." This gospel
\n\t\t\twhich was given only to the few, must now be offered to all mankind
\n\t\t\tfor its deliverance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe human race always progresses most when most it asserts its
\n\t\t\timportance to Nature, its freedom and its universality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tAnimal man is the obscure starting-point, the present natural man,
\n\t\t\tvaried and tangled, the mid-road, but supernatural man the luminous
\n\t\t\tand transcendent goal of our human journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tLife and action culminate, are
\n\t\t\teternally crowned for thee when thou hast attained the power of
\n\t\t\tsymbolising and manifesting in every thought and act, in art,
\n\t\t\tliterature and life, in home and government and society, in
\n\t\t\twealth-getting, wealth-having or wealth-spending the One Immortal in
\n\t\t\tHis lower mortal being.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage- 104<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IV   THOUGHTS AND APHORISMS  JNANA – KARMA – BHAKTI       Jnana                           THERE are two allied powers in man: Knowledge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}