Transcript Karma Yoga - Practical Philosophy and Rational Religion

Message of
Swami Vivekananda
Gokulmuthu Narayanaswamy
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Swami Vivekananda’s Message
• “Arise! Awake!
Stop not till the
goal is reached.”
Arise before awake?
What is the goal?
Swami Vivekananda’s Message
• “The goal is to
manifest the
divinity within.”
(CW I-257)
What is
divinity?
What is to
manifest?
What is Divinity?
• Means “Light”
Arise
• What light?
Awake
1. Will
2. Consciousness
Will
• I am the wielder of
the freewill.
• I am not a part or
property or product
of the body.
• I am responsible for
my actions.
• “You only get what you
deserve.” (CW II-367)
Two Birds
“The whole of the Vedanta
Philosophy is in this story: Two
birds of golden plumage sat on the
same tree. The one above, serene,
majestic, immersed in his own
glory; the one below restless and
eating the fruits of the tree, now
sweet, now bitter. Once he ate an
exceptionally bitter fruit, then he
paused and looked up at the
majestic bird above; …
Two Birds
“but he soon forgot about the
other bird and went on eating
the fruits of the tree as before.
Again he ate a bitter fruit, and
this time he hopped up a few
boughs nearer to the bird at the
top. This happened many
times until at last the lower
bird came to the place of
the upper bird and lost
himself. …
Two Birds
“He found all at once
that there had never
been two birds, but
that he was all the time
that upper bird, serene,
majestic, and
immersed in his own
glory.” (CW VII-80)
Consciousness
• I am pure Consciousness.
• I am the Self, which can
never be an object of
perception or thought.
• I am free from properties.
• I am changeless infinity.
I am Changeless
“The pages of nature are
turned before us like the
pages of a book, and we
think that we ourselves
are turning, while in
reality we remain ever
the same.” (CW IX-501)
Two Birds
• I am the bird on the top.
• I am the witness to
everything.
• I am not affected by the
ups and downs of life.
• I am the actor playing
the role.
Consciousness
• I as a conscious being, I
am greater than any
object or situation in life.
• I am of an order of
reality higher than the
world.
• Images in a movie
cannot affect the
screen.
Recap – Two Divine Natures
1. I am alone responsible for my
situations in life. I am what I am,
because of my own past actions. I
have full control and responsibility to
my future.
2. I am infinitely greater than any object
or situation in my life. There is no
situation in life that is greater than
me. Life is like a road that I walk on. I
am above and life is below my feet.
Never be overwhelmed by life.
Manifest Divinity
• Freedom from fear and
anxiety.
• Freedom from selfishness.
• Emotional independence.
• “Strength is life, weakness
is death.” (CW II-3)
Powerful Words
“Ay, let every man and woman and child, without respect of caste or birth,
weakness or strength, hear and learn that behind the strong and the weak,
behind the high and the low, behind every one, there is that Infinite Soul,
assuring the infinite possibility and the infinite capacity of all to become
great and good. Let us proclaim to every soul: uttishthata jaagrata praapya
varaan nibodhata – Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really
weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert
yourself, proclaim the God within you, do not deny Him! … Teach
yourselves, teach every one his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul
and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will
come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this
sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.” (CW III-193)
Be and Make
“First, let us be Gods, and
then help others to be
Gods. ‘Be and make.’ Let
this be our motto. …
Manifest the divinity within
you, and everything will be
harmoniously arranged
around it.” (CW IV-351)
Purpose in Life
• Have a purpose in life
• “If a man with an ideal
makes a thousand
mistakes, I am sure that the
man without an ideal
makes fifty thousand.
Therefore, it is better to
have an ideal.” (CW II-152)
Self-confidence
“We can see that all the difference
between man and man is owing to the
existence or non-existence of faith in
himself. Faith in ourselves will do
everything. I have experienced it in my
own life, and am still doing so; and as I
grow older that faith is becoming
stronger and stronger. He is an atheist
who does not believe in himself. The old
religions said that he was an atheist who
did not believe in God. The new religion
says that he is the atheist who does not
believe in himself.” (CW II-301)
Be Detached
“We must learn that nothing can happen to us,
unless we make ourselves susceptible to it. … No
disease can come to me until the body is ready; it
does not depend alone on the germs, but upon a
certain predisposition which is already in the
body. … From this very analysis will come a note
of hope, and the note of hope is: ‘I have no control
of the external world, but that which is in me and
nearer unto me, my own world, is in my control. If
the two together are required to make a failure, if
the two together are necessary to give me a blow,
I will not contribute the one which is in my
keeping; and how then can the blow come? If I
get real control of myself, the blow will never
come.’ ” (CW II-7)
Shiva Jnaane Jiva Seva
“So work, says the Vedanta, putting
God in everything, and knowing Him to
be in everything. Work incessantly,
holding life as something deified, as
God Himself, and knowing that this is
all we have to do, this is all we should
ask for. God is in everything, where
else shall we go to find Him? He is
already in every work, in every thought,
in every feeling. Thus knowing, we
must work.” (CW II-150)
India and Religion
• “India’s gift to the world is the light
spiritual.” (CW III-109)
• “Each of you was born with a
splendid heritage, which is the
whole of the infinite past life of your
glorious nation. ... The mission ... of
every child, whether boy or girl, who
is born in this blessed land (is) "for
the protection of the treasury of
religion". And every other problem
in life must be subordinated to that
one principal theme.” (CW III-152)
The World Needs It
“For a complete civilisation the world is waiting,
waiting for the treasures to come out of India,
waiting for the marvellous spiritual inheritance of
the race, which, through decades of degradation
and misery, the nation has still clutched to her
breast. The world is waiting for that treasure;
little do you know how much of hunger and of
thirst there is outside of India for these
wonderful treasures of our forefathers. We talk
here, we quarrel with each other, we laugh at
and we ridicule everything sacred, till it has
become almost a national vice to ridicule
everything holy. Little do we understand the
heart-pangs of millions waiting outside the walls,
stretching forth their hands for a little sip of that
nectar which our forefathers have preserved in
this land of India.” (CW III-317)
Back to the Upanishads
• “Give up these weakening mysticisms and
be strong. Go back to your Upanishads —
the shining, the strengthening, the bright
philosophy — and part from all these
mysterious things, all these weakening
things. Take up this philosophy; the greatest
truths are the simplest things in the world,
simple as your own existence. The truths of
the Upanishads are before you. Take them
up, live up to them, and the salvation of
India will be at hand.” (CW III-225)
• “There is no religion of fear in the
Upanishads; it is one of Love and one of
Knowledge. (CW III-231)
Vedanta For All
“It is there for every one in every occupation of
life. These conceptions of the Vedanta must
come out, must remain not only in the forest,
not only in the cave, but they must come out to
work at the bar and the bench, in the pulpit,
and in the cottage of the poor man, with the
fishermen that are catching fish, and with the
students that are studying. They call to every
man, woman, and child whatever be their
occupation, wherever they may be. ... If the
fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be
a better fisherman; if the student thinks he is
the Spirit, he will be a better student. If the
lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a
better lawyer, and so on.” (CW III-245)
Revive Religion
• “Religion for a long time has come to be static
in India. What we want is to make it dynamic. I
want it to be brought into the life of everybody.
Religion, as it always has been in the past,
must enter the palaces of kings as well as the
homes of the poorest peasants in the land.
Religion, the common inheritance, the
universal birthright of the race, must be
brought free to the door of everybody. Religion
in India must be made as free and as easy of
access as is God's air.” (CW III-383)
• “Open the gates of knowledge to one and all,
and give the downtrodden masses once more
their just and legitimate rights and privileges.”
(CW III-461)
Thank You
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