Why do good people suffer?

One answer is karmic debt: We suffer because we must atone for the transgressions of our past lives. It’s karma.  Suppose we restrict our time frame to a period spanning a single lifetime on planet earth.  Can we say with any reasonable certainty that a decent, hard working, law abiding human being will end up living a happy, comfortable life?  Does virtue lead to prosperity? Does every crime lead inexorably to punishment?

We tell our children: Actions have consequences. You can either discipline yourself and act responsibly or face the music. This is rational, it makes sense.   And yet, if you take a good, hard, honest look around you, you see the corrupt flourish and men of integrity get a raw deal – over and over again! Might is right.  The strong crush the weak with impunity. Why?  Their strength is nothing more than muscle, be it power, money, authority, status or brute force! It’s a kind of power that has no ethical, judicial or spiritual basis.

I've been told that ‘good’ people don’t want the same things that the not so good do. To some extent, this is true. But many of us want the bangla, car, makaan – but not by cutting corners. We want it as a return on honest, intelligent hard work and talent.  Why is it so hard for us to survive or to prosper? When I look at relationships, it’s almost a law that most decent women end up with awful husbands and viceversa! Of course there are exceptions but exceptions prove the law.

A sadhu once answered my question by giving a familiar example: the refining of a precious metal like gold: The metal is hammered, put through the fire several times, melted, stretched and beaten into shape before it can be used to make an ornament.  He said: ‘Adversity is a cleanser. It frees us of our base emotions. We evolve as human beings and acquire spiritual and emotional depth. We become compassionate, loving human beings.’  I’m not convinced. A happy person in a comfortable milieu can be generous, loving, caring, and good. Extreme suffering or deprivation may lead to a criminal mindset.

And then there are stories like those of Helen Keller. Mind over matter. Spirit over mind. Spiritual websites like  ‘Speaking Tree’ have many Masters, seekers, savants. I appeal to them to show people like me the way to truth. Why do good people suffer? Why should there be a connection between suffering and goodness?

I loved the film ‘Barfi.’ I leave you with its title song; ‘Ala Barfi.’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyI0C2kBRc

Women on the Path: Sister Nivedita

Dateline London: Circa 1895, a cold Sunday afternoon in November.  It’s the drawing room of a fashionable woman, Lady Isabel Margesson. About fifteen well educated people, mostly friends, some highly skeptical about religion, some atheists are clustered around an Indian monk. Margaret Noble is the last to arrive. Her mental state is fragile.  The man she was deeply in love with and about to marry had dumped her and gone off with another woman. This was the second time she’d known heart break. A few years prior to this she’d been engaged to a young man who died of tuberculosis. Her first impression of Swami Vivekananda is unique.  His gentleness and serenity remind her of a look which ‘Raphael has perhaps painted on the brow of the Sistine child.’[1]  He seemed a Plato in thought and a Savonarola in his fearless way of speaking. She said later: “Suppose he had not come to London that time… If he had meditated, on the Himalayan peaks! I, for one, had never been here.”[2] The rest, as they is history.

I need to back track a bit. Margaret was born in 1867 to a Scottish family settled in Ireland. Her grandmother, Mrs. Hamilton was a front ranking member of the Irish freedom movement. Her father and grandfather were both Protestant ministers. Her father died when he was just 34. He had a premonition of her future greatness. He is reported to have told his wife: ‘When God calls her, ’he said’ let her go. She will spread her wings. She will do great things.’[3]  And Margaret waited for a call which she knew would come. She took to teaching and community work fairly early, working in a mining town, looking after orphans and so on. She was just eighteen when she opened ‘The Ruskin School’ in Wimbledon. She was also the secretary of the ‘Sesame Club’ which had savants like Shaw and T.H. Huxley among its members.

Like many intellectuals of her age, Margaret was going through a crisis of faith. It was difficult for her to believe in the doctrinal shell of Christianity. Ideas like creation, heaven, hell and an afterlife were untenable in the light of Darwinism. The ‘weltanschauung’ of the west had changed. At a time when people had turned their backs on God, here was a monk who said: ‘I am God and so are you and so is everything else in universe.’ We have two themes here: The divinity of man and the oneness of man, regardless of color, creed or nationality. From this it follows that all religions are expressions of one God. The ideas from Vedanta which Swami Vivekananda presented were consistent with science. She was awed by his gift for picking up the finest qualities of each religion and unifying them into one unbroken stream of thought: Brotherhood from Islam, service of humanity and compassion from Christianity, freedom of the soul from Hinduism and so on. In the age of Darwin, Swami Vivekananda traced the evolution of the idea of God from the God of heaven (dualism) through the God in Nature (Immanence) to the God in the temple of the body and finally the temple itself, the soul of man.[4] (Advaita). In Sister Nivedita’s words:

‘Thus it reaches the last words it can teach. He, whom the sages have sought in all these places, is in our own hearts. Thou art He, O Man! Thou art He!’[5]

Swami Vivekananda’s ideas revolved around God as the core of our being. To the question whether God exists or not, his answer was; “If this is true what else could matter? If it is not true, what do our lives matter?”[6]

‘What the world wants today, is twenty men and women who can dare to stand in the street yonder and say that they possess nothing but God. Who will go?’[7]

 By the time Swami Vivekananda left London, Margaret was committed to his cause, i.e. the education and intellectual emancipation of Indian women. He felt that this work could only be done by a foreigner because India could not produce great women just yet. He had gone to the west with a mission: To help the illiterate, poverty stricken masses of India. In 1890, while he was in Almora, the favorite sister of his childhood had committed suicide under tragic circumstances. It shook him and he vowed to do whatever he could for transforming the lives of Indian women.  When he went to North America, he was charmed by the purity, independence, self reliance and kindness of American women. He found them educated, cultured and socially free. They were highly respected in American society. He couldn’t help comparing this with the miserable state of Indian women, suppressed, unlettered and socially bound.

In March 1898, Swami Vivekananda made Margaret take the vow of brahmacharya. He named her ‘Nivedita,’ i.e. the dedicated. During the initiation, he taught her how to worship Siva and then ended the ceremony with an offering to the Buddha:

“Go thou,” he said, as if addressing in one person each separate soul that would ever come to him for guidance, “and follow Him, who was born and gave His life for others FIVE HUNDRED TIMES, before He attained the vision of the Buddha.”[8]

 Thus Sister Nivedita became, in a sense, the bridge between Swami Vivekananda and the west. Before she sailed for India, he explained all the difficulties that she would face and said:

‘You must think well before you plunge in, and after words if you fail in this or get disgusted, on my part I promise you, I will stand by you unto death, whether you work for India or not, whether you give up Vedanta or remain in it.’ “The tusks of the elephant come out but never go back “– so are the words of a man never retracted. I promise you that.’[9]

On the wings of this commitment, a young nun sailed for a much maligned native land. Sister Nivedita left for India on January 28, 1898 with Miss Muller. Swami Vivekananda had been terribly worried about how Sri Sarada Devi would receive his foreign devotees. But with her characteristic simplicity and wisdom, she opened her arms wide and took the ladies under her wing.

 Sister Nivedita, though just four years younger than Swami Vivekananda became his spiritual daughter. Under his guidance, she soon learnt to adopt the language, dress, customs, values and manners of her adopted country. Her grasp of Vedanta as interpreted by Swami Vivekananda was phenomenal. Here is Sister Nivedita summing up the essence of the Upanishads in a few words:

‘If the many and the one be indeed the same Reality, then it is not all modes of worship alone, but equally all modes of work, all modes of struggle, all modes of creation, which are paths of realization. No distinction, henceforth, between sacred and secular. To labor is to pray. To conquer is to renounce. Life is itself religion. To have and to hold is as stern a trust as to quit and to avoid.’[10]

 He was a very hard task master and she reached a breaking point. Among other things he mercilessly destroyed her passionate adoration of her guru. Swami Vivekananda had taken a group of his western disciples to North India. Joe McLeod, an American devotee, couldn’t bear to see Sister Nivedita’s anguish and she spoke to Swami Vivekananda about his harsh treatment of her. He went away for a bit and when he came back, his mood had changed. It was the night of the new moon and he blessed his rebellious disciple and spoke of new beginnings. That night, during deep meditation, Sister Nivedita had her first vision of an infinite God. An impersonal presence replaced her personal relationship with her guru.

Sister Nivedita soon got busy with her plans to start a school for girls in Calcutta. She decided to start slowly, first understanding the needs and priorities of her pupils and then putting a syllabus together. The Nivedita Girls’ School was opened in Calcutta on Kali puja day, November 13, 1898. Sri Sarada Devi came for the inauguration and gave her blessings. In matters of education, Swami Vivekananda gave her complete freedom.

On July 4, 1902 at 9:10 pm, Swami Vivekananda entered into maha Samadhi. That night Sister Nivedita dreamt that Sri Ramakrishna had given up his body for the second time.  A week prior to this, on Ekadeshi day, Swami Vivekananda had insisted on serving her the morning meal. After it was over, he poured water over her hands. When she protested, he said: ‘Jesus washed the feet of his disciples!’[11]  A messenger from the Math brought the news of his death in the early morning. She reached the Ramakrishna Math at 7 a.m. and sat fanning the body until it was taken out for cremation at 2 p.m. Swami Vivekananda had already told his brother monks where he wanted to be cremated. During the cremation, Sister Nivedita wept like a child and rolled on the ground. Suddenly a wisp of Swami Vivekananda’s ochre robe drifted to her. She took it as a benediction.

After Swami Vivekananda’s death, Sister Nivedita got involved in the Indian freedom movement along with her educational and social work. Like her Guru, the funds for her work in India came through the money generated by her lectures in England and North America. She was friendly with people like Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sri Aurobindo and Rabindra nath Tagore and Indians fighting for independence. This finally led to her dissociation from the Ramakrishna Math which is completely nonpolitical though she maintained close ties with some of the senior sadhus like Swami Brahmananda. She went to the extent of introducing the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ during assembly in her schools. She died in Darjeeling in 1911 at the age of 43. Her house in Darjeeling was handed over to the West Bengal government on May 18, 2013. The Ramakrishna Math has been given the responsibility for managing its educational and cultural activities.

Let me close my homage to Sister Nivedita with a poem that Swami Vivekananda dedicated to her:

“The mother’s heart, the hero’s will.

The sweetness of the southern breeze

The sacred charm and strength that dwell

On Aryan altars, flaming, free.

All these be yours and many more

No ancient soul could dream before –

Be thou to India’s future son,

The mistress, servant, friend in one.”

---

[1] Swami Nikhilananda (2010), Swami Vivekananda-A Biography,(Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama) p. 99.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid. p.98

[4] Sister Nivedita (1983), The Master As I Saw Him,(Calcutta: Udbodhan Office), p.15.

[5] Ibid, p.16.

[6] Ibid., p. 21

[7] Ibid., p.21

[8] Ibid., p.133.

[9] Swami Nikhilanana, op.cit. p. 143.

[10] Sister Nivedita, op.cit., p.193

[11] Sister Nivedita,op.cit p.331.

Women on the Path: Gargi

King Janak of Videha, as we all know, was not only a great king but also a great philosopher.  There were many eminent intellectuals and scholars in his court. Of these, nine were known as the ‘navratna’ or the nine gems. One of these nine was Gargi Vachaknavi, daughter of Rishi Vachaknu. She was a brahmavadini like Maitreyi. Her conversations with Yajnavalkya are recorded in the sixth and eighth brahmana of the Brihadranayaka Upanishad. The basic difference between Maitreyi and Gargi is that Maitreyi’s questions had elements of both jnan and bhakti, Gargi is an intellectual interested only in ideas about the cosmos and Brahman.

There were hundreds of men in King Janak’s court who were famous for their erudition and wisdom. King Janak wanted to know who was the greatest of them all.  A philosophic congress, a ‘brahmayajna’ was organized ostensibly around the theme of the sacrificial fire. It was called ‘Bahu dakshina’ because of all that was given away by way of charity. The Brahmins assembled were free to challenge their peers. Who ever won the debates would be given one thousand cows. No ordinary cows, mind you, but creatures as big as elephants, their horns sparkling with ten gold pieces. None of the Brahmins dared to declare himself the greatest except Yajnavalkya. In his trademark ‘I am the best’ style, he said to his disciple Samsrava: ‘Son, drive these cows away’. This infuriated the Brahmins. Asvala, King Janak’s priest came forward: ‘Yajnavalkya, do you then happen to be best among us Brahmins?’ Yajnavalkya’s reply is cryptic: He folded his hands, bowed and then said: ‘Venerable Sir, you are the finest Brahmin in the king’s court. We have taken the cows because I need them. I am a seeker of animals. Not that I have the most knowledge.’ A contest becomes inevitable.  Asvala tells Yajnavalkya that he must now prove he is the best.

Five Brahmins come forward to test Yajnavalkya. They question Yajnavalkya about the sacred fire, life after death, the nature of Brahman and so on. Every one of them is defeated. Others follow and meet the same fate.  Finally, it’s Gargi’s turn. Much has been made of Gargi’s challenge to Yajnavalkya and her attempt to defeat him in argument. I see it as a learning curve. A woman with a sharp intellect like Gargi would have known at once that she was dealing with a mind far more powerful than hers.  She uses the contest as an opportunity to ask Yajnavalkya questions that no one else can answer.

 She starts by asking very elementary questions about sagun Brahma as reflected in the existential universe:

‘Yajnavalkya,” said she, “If all this (earth), is pervaded by water, by what, pray, is water pervaded?” [1] Yajnavalkya replies that water is pervaded by air. She then asks him a series of questions about what pervades the air, sky, world of Gandharvas, sun, moon, stars, gods, Indra, Prajapati or Virij and finally Hiranyagarbha. The rationale is that everything is based on a subtler and less finite element which is its cause. Thus a finite earth is based on a relatively unlimited and subtler element, water.   The earth is the effect. Water is the cause. Similarly, air (subtle) is the cause; water (gross) is the effect. This line of reasoning continues until we come to Hiranyagarbha[2].

Hiranyagarbha is an interesting concept. The word has two roots: ‘hiranya,’ meaning of golden luster and ‘garbha’ meaning womb. Literally, golden womb or the womb of the self born Brahma depicted here as embryo in a self manifested womb[3]. (BU: 3, VI: 10, 12).  Gold signifies value and the simile is used in a way similar to ‘the pearl of great price’ mentioned in the Bible.  We are speaking of something precious. Hiranyagarbha is not the last but the penultimate stage, pervaded by Brahman, the ultimate Reality. In terms of the line of argument, we have made a classic progression from the known and empirically verifiable (earth, water) to the unknowable (Hiranyagarbha).

Gargi’s final question is: “By what, pray, is the World of Hiranyagarbha pervaded?” Yajnavalkya replies: “Do not, O Gargi, question too much, lest your head should fall off.”  I.e. you are asking me questions about that which should not and cannot be questioned. What started out as a search for meaning would then degenerate into an ego trip.  Yajnavalkya is also in a bind.  He is now dealing with that which cannot be defined. If he answers, he looks foolish. If he doesn't  he admits defeat. Yajnavalkya asks Gargi to stop and she does. Unlike Sakalya, she is not stupid and stubborn enough to ignore Yajnavalkya’s warning.  We are now at the point where sages say: ‘Neti, neti’ not, not this.’ (BU: 4: 4-22).  In other words, we have reached a stage where our intellect fails us. We can grasp Brahman only by understanding what it is not. By this negative process, we finally reach a point where there is some amount of conceptual clarity about what Brahman is.

It’s worth noting that the concept of creation is alien to Vedanta. We have the image of the embryonic Brahma in Hiranyagarbha but this is not analogous to the creation of the universe as in Genesis (The Holy Bible). The universe is   one infinite, eternal continuum. According to Swami Vivekananda, the seed or potential universe gradually evolves to manifest the perfect avatar as in Buddha or Christ. Thereafter a process of involution starts which eventually culminates in the seed form. This cycle repeats itself through eternity.

 Gargi’s questions don’t stop here. Like everyone assembled, Gargi had one chance to question Yajnavalkya. However, she is not done. She needs another chance. She turns to the cognoscenti present and begs their permission to ask Yajnavalkya two questions. ‘If he answers them, none of you can defeat him.’ Mercifully, there is no chauvinist present in King Janak’s court to say: ‘You should be sitting at home and peeling potatoes. Who are you to tell us that if he can’t answer your silly questions, none of us can defeat him?’ The savants present are wise. They agree.

There is a threshold beyond which ideas become sublime. This is exactly what happens now. Gargi asks Yajnavalkya[4]:

“O Yajnavalkya that of which they say that it is above the heavens, beneath the earth, embracing heaven and earth, past, present and future, tell me in what is it woven, like the warp and woof?”[5]

Yajnavalkya replies that it is woven on ether or akasa.  The word ‘akasa’ comes from two roots: a+kshate meaning that which shines. It is space associated with light and time. The word is variously translated as sky, space and ether. The first of Gargi’s final questions relates to space (akasa)   and is a transition from the relative to the absolute sphere. At this level, space is an infinite continuum which exists through eternity. So we have both time (Kal) and space (akasa). To quote a familiar example from the Rig Veda, space confined within a pot merges into the limitless space outside when the pot breaks.  Causality is absent from this equation because the space inside the pot and outside it are always one. The breaking of the pot is not the cause of the identity between the two.  We are at a point where Reality just is but consciousness is absent. Hence the mahavakya: ‘Prajnanam Brahman’, i.e. consciousness is Brahman.   (Rig Veda: 3:3.1).

Gargi bows and then asks on what is ether (Akasa) woven and rewoven? Yajnavalkya replies:

“O Gargi, the Brahmanas call this the Akshara (the imperishable). It is neither coarse nor fine, neither short nor long, neither red (like fire) nor fluid (like water), it is without shadow, without darkness… It is without taste, without smell, without eyes…  without speech, without mind, without light (vigor), without breath, without a mouth (or door)… having no within and no without…That Brahman, O Gargi, is unseen, but  seeing; unheard, but hearing, unperceived, but perceiving, unknown, but knowing. There is nothing that sees but it, nothing that hears but it, nothing that knows but it. In that Akshara, then, O Gargi, the ether is woven like warp and woof.”

Gargi bows to Yajnavalkya.  He has both defeated and enlightened her. She says to the pundits in the august assembly: “You will be lucky if you can get off by bowing to him. None of you can defeat him in argument.”

 A word of explanation is in order. Yajnavalkya first uses the ‘neti, neti’ approach to explain what Brahman is not. Brahman is not a substance, not a being, not an energy, not a force but beyond all these.  He doesn’t stop there.  Obviously Brahman, being existence, must have positive attributes. So Yajnavalkya goes on to give Gargi a glimpse of what Brahman is: the unseen by whose light we see, the Imperishable which is unheard but hears and so on. There is no attempt to define that which cannot be defined. An understanding of what Brahman is has been conveyed through a series of metaphors and images

There is another facet worth noting. When Gargi asks her first set of questions, Yajnavalkya speaks in terms of cause and effect. This is because the questions relate by and large to the existential (relative) universe which is bound by time, space and causation.  When Yajnavalkya answers Gargi’s second set of questions, he guides her to the realm of the absolute (Nirguna Brahman).  Swami Vivekananda uses the analogy of the inverted tree to explain the difference between the two:  Brahman (the Absolute) is the seed which slowly evolves and branches out into the relative universe.

Gargi’s second question in round two is an attempt to understand the nature of the Supreme Self or Brahman.   When the knot of the heart is cut, mortal becomes immortal. We are free of all illusion and ignorance:  ‘Aham Brahmasmi!’ (Yajur Veda: BU: I, 4:10) King Janak had once asked Yajnavalkya about the Self:

“When the sun has set and the moon has set and the fire has gone out, and no sound is heard, what then serves as his (man’s) light?”

Yajnavalkya replies: “The Self indeed is his light, for by the light of the Self man sits, moves about, does his work, and when his work is done, dies.”

---

[1]Brihadranayaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya Kanda, Chapter III, Section VI:1, Gargi Brahmana. The Upanishads, p.143 .books.google.co.in/book?id=N7LxQb

[2] www.esamskriti.com>Eassays, T.N.Sethumadhavan.

[3] BU, op.cit, III,VI:10,12

[4] The Upanishads, II, VIII, trans. By Max Muller (1879) www.sacred-texts.com

[5]BU:III,VIII:1-12

Women on The Path: Maitreyi

                                                Women on the Path:

Was there ever a time in India when women walked the earth freely? When men and women were like twin forks of a compass, equal in every way? Was it British India or the age of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and other reformers? Did Independent India usher in a new dawn for the girl child? Alas, O miserari, was it some dark, dark age, when men lost all sense of balance, truth and self respect, when reason bit the dust? The Vedic age, the age of enlightenment, the age when Indian thought reached its zenith is remarkable for the number of distinguished women intellectuals it produced. Seers like Gargi, Maitreyi and Lopamudra are associated with sages like Vashishta and Yajnavalkya.

Rishi Yajnavalkya, often considered the greatest seer and thinker of the Vedic age, was the son of Rishi Devarata and a disciple of his uncle Vaisampayana. He is credited with writing the Shukla Yajurveda Samhita and the Shatapatha Brahmana which contains the largest of the Upanishads – the Brihadaranayaka Upanishad. Legend has it that Vaisampayana considered Yajnavalkya arrogant and cast him off from his ashram after forcing him to vomit all the knowledge and the wisdom he had learnt there. Yajnavalkya obeyed but he vowed that he would never take a human guru again. Yajnavalkya then went through a period of austere tapasya to propitiate Surya. Lord Surya was pleased. Yajnavalkya asked Surya to teach him those portions of the Vedas which were known to no one else. This Surya was most happy to do. He is supposed to have taken the form of a horse and so the shlokas have a rhythm like the canter of a horse.

Yajnavalkya, like many other sages of the time, was both a Rishi and a householder. He was married to a lady called Katayayani. She was a devout housewife whose world revolved around her home, hearth, husband and children. It came to pass that there lived in Mithila a woman with a philosophic bent of mind, a brahmavadini, a seer. She is said to have composed ten verses of the Rig Veda. She was a brahmacharini and had received Vedic initiation or ‘Upanayana’, which at that time was open to both girls and boys. Maitreyi had heard much about Yajnavalkya and wanted him as her guru. She went to Katayayani and begged her permission to marry Yajnavalkya so that she could become his disciple and spiritual companion. Katayayani agreed readily because this aspect of Yajnavalkya’s personality did not interest her in the least.

Years passed. Rishi Yajnavalkya decided that the time had come for him to take sanyas. He settled all his affairs and divided his property equally between Katayayani and Maitreyi so that they should be well provided for after he left them. Maitreyi reasoned that if Yajnavalkya was leaving his community, family and work, it must be for something far greater. A conversation follows between them which is the heart and soul of the Upanishad. Max Muller translates it with the lyricism of a poet and the transparent mind of a mystic.(1)

Maitreyi asks Yajnavalkya; “My Lord, if this whole earth, full of wealth, belonged to me, tell me, should I be immortal by it?”

No,’ replied Yajnavalkya. “Like the life of rich people will be thy life. But there is no hope of immortality by wealth.”

And Maitreyi said: “Then what is the good of all this if one day death is to swallow me up, and transience is to overwhelm me, impermanence of the world is to threaten us and if everything is to be insecure at the very start, if all that you regard as worthwhile is, after all, going to be a phantom, because it is not going to assure us as to how long it can be possessed, how it may not be taken away from us and at what time – if this is the uncertainty of all existence, what good can accrue to me from this that you are bestowing on me, as if it is of great value?”[2]

Yajnavalkya is charmed by Maitreyi’s profound question. She becomes all the more precious in his eyes. His answer connects all existence, bliss and thought in the three worlds to the indestructible, eternal Self. Here is Swami Vivekananda’s translation of Yajnavalkya’s reply:

“None, O beloved, loves the husband for the husband’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the husband that the husband is loved; none, O beloved, loves the wife for the wife’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the wife that the wife is loved...” [3]

Yajnavalkya traces the roots of all bliss to the Self and then goes on to link everything -children, wealth, devas, jatis etc to the Self. Each note of a musical composition is distinct but together each separate note is an indivisible part of a melody, an organic whole:

‘As all sensations of touch meet the skin, all tastes meet the tongue...all perception meets the mind, all knowledge meets the intellect...and all the Vedas meet in one place, speech; ...so does this great Being...rise from these elements and vanish again in them.’

‘When there is as it were duality, then I see the other...I perceive the other, I know the other, but when the Self only is all this...how should he see another...perceive another...know another? How should he know him by whom he knows all this?’[4]

“Idam brahma, idam kshatram, ime lokah, ime devah, imani Bhutani, idam sarvam yada yam atma.”[5]

This Source of Knowledge; this source of power; all these worlds; all these gods; all these beings – all this is just the Self. The little ‘self ‘in each being is an atom of One Universal Self. If we look for say, the love of a child anywhere else except in the Self, we lose that love:

“...Whosoever looks for anything elsewhere than in the Self is abandoned by everything.” [6]Duality is a mirage. To think that I see or perceive another is a delusion and ultimately leads to grief. Realty is one and indivisible.

Maitreyi is confused and afraid. Is there no individuality? Does she have no separate existence, no unique identity? Is there no God? We think of God as someone up there in heaven above the clouds, i.e. as a being with clearly defined attributes confined to a specific, if unknown space. Sri Rama is the prince of Ayodhya. He carries a bow and is ‘Maryada Purshottam.’ Sri Krishna plays the flute in Vrindavan; He is Hari, the great magnet that attracts all beings to Himself, the fountainhead of wisdom in the Geeta. Each avatar has a ‘lila’. The moment you speak of ‘Self,’ you must turn inwards to the deepest recesses of your own self and that is frightening. ‘I’ am not, and you don’t exist either. That truly hideous guy I can barely tolerate is me. There is just One Existence – the Self. As we have seen, the question then is: How can I know that by which everything is known? How do I see the perceiver? How do I reach the incomprehensible, eternal, unattached, unfettered Self? Why am I blind to the heart of my being?

Here is Swami Vivekananda’s translation of Yajnavalkya’s reply:

“This Self...is to be heard, reasoned about and meditated upon. O my Maitreyi, when that Self has been seen, when that Self has been realized then all this becomes known...As to all water, the goal is the ocean, as a morsel of salt put into the sea water melts away and we cannot take it back, even so, Maitreyi, is this Universal Being eternally infinite...The wholeuniverse rises in Him and goes back to Him.[7]

This is the ultimate statement of Advaita philosophy, of monism, its ‘crest jewel’ or ‘chuda mani.’ Everything that is, is the Self. Nothing exists apart from Him. We live and move and have our being in Him. The moment we understand and live this truth, mortal becomes immortal and we are free.

Yajnavalkya leaves his home and  according to some  sources, Maitreyi follows him. The last words have been uttered and understood. For every sincere seeker, this is the path to freedom.

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[1] Muller,Fredrich Max, (2000) The Upanishads, Revised translation by Suren Navlakha, (London: Wordsworth Editions), Part 2, 4^th Brahmana, pp. 88-90

[2]Swam Krishnananda,The Brihadaranayaka Upanishad, Chapter II, swami-Krishnananda.org/brdup /brhd_II – 04.html.

[3] The Complete Works of Swam Vivekananda, (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,1963),3:92

[4]ibid

[5]Swami Krishnananda,www.swami-Krishnanada.org/disc/disc_24.html.

[6] Max Muller, op. cit. 88-90

[7] Complete Works of Swam Vivekananda, 2,417

Swami Vivekananda: A Pilgrim Soul treks to Chicago

"Then alone a man loves when he finds that the object of his love is not any low, little, mortal thing. Then alone a man loves when he finds that the object of his love is not a clod of earth, but it is the veritable God Himself...That man will love his greatest enemy who knows that that very enemy is God Himself. That man will love a holy man, who knows that the holy man is God Himself, and that very man will also love the unholiest of men because he knows the background of that unholiest of men is even He, the Lord. Such a man becomes a world-mover for whom his little self is dead and God stands in its place."

January 12, 2013 marks the 150^th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. It is a momentous event and there are celebrations across the country. The story of Swami Vivekananda’s journey to North America to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago has been told many times, many ways. It is the story of a destitute, unknown monk from an unrecognized order representing an impoverished, slave nation. The masses in India were poor and illiterate. Religion was a dead mass of superstition, of ‘don’t touchism’ Mere ritual. Women were oppressed, so were the lower castes. Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples consisted of a band of poor young men with no roof over their heads, no idea of where the next meal was coming from, a chadar which all of them shared! And yet, Swami Vivekananda dared to go to Chicago to attend an international conference where only the most illustrious figures representing various religions were invited! Today the Ramakrishna Math and Mission is a powerful institution with centres across India and the world.
Often we say: ‘What can I do? What can one man accomplish?’ The amazing story of Swami Vivekananda’s journey to Chicago answers that question once and for all. I’m basing my account on Swami Nikhilananda’s beautiful biography of Swami Vivekananda.
The story begins at the end of Swami Vivekananda’s pilgrimage across India. He swims through the shark infested sea, unafraid, to what is now called Vivekananda rock at Cape Comorin. As he sits on the rock, he thinks of the terrible poverty he has seen in his country. He agonises over how he can pull his people out of misery. Swami Vivekananda comes to Madras. His disciples support his plan to go to North America to raise funds. The Raja of Khetri anoints him with the name of Vivekananda and gifts him a turban and ochre raiment of fine silk.
Swami Vivekananda arrives in Chicago and is told that the Parliament of Religions which was to be held on July 31, 1893 has been postponed to September. Apart from the date, he has another problem; He needs credentials certified by a recognized organization. He has none. It is too late to register. His meagre purse is getting thinner. An American he meets advises him to go to Boston as it is cheaper. In the train to Boston, the affluent Kate Sanborn is intrigued by this regal, picturesque man in fancy dress. She invites him to her home. Swami Vivekananda meets many people at her house including Professor Wright of Harvard. Wright is impressed by his extraordinary intellect and erudition. He writes to several influential people asking them to help him get the necessary credentials: ‘Here is a man more learned than all our learned professors put together.’ He says to Swami Vivekananda: ‘To ask you, Swami, for your credentials, is like asking the sun about its right to shine.’
Swami Vivekananda goes to Chicago but can’t reach the organizing committee responsible for delegates. He spends the night in an empty wagon, hungry. Forgetting that he is in a strange country, he goes begging for food in the time honoured tradition of Hindu monks and has doors slammed in his face. His clothes are dirty. His unshaven face gives him the look of a tramp up to no good. Finally he sinks into a side wall utterly spent. Mrs Hale, an influential lady living in the house opposite, notices him. She guesses that he must be a delegate to the Parliament. Swami Vivekananda, childlike as always, pours out all his troubles. Mrs Hale sees to it that he gets a hot breakfast, bath and fresh clothes. She then takes him to the offices of the Parliament of Religions. Swami Vivekananda is introduced to Dr. Barrows, the president of the Parliament. Thereafter he is accepted as a delegate representing Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda never forgot the kindness and courtesy with which the Hales had received him. He became a part of their family until his death in 1902.
Swami Vivekananda attended the Parliament in the clothes the Raja of Khetri had gifted him: A red turban, ochre robe and scarlet sash. It had not occurred to anyone that these clothes might look a bit odd amidst the suits in Chicago. He carried them off with grace and dignity. At the Parliament, he kept postponing his speech. He had never addressed a public gathering before. It had not occurred to him to prepare a speech. His opening words ‘Sisters and brothers of America’ got a two minute ovation from the seven thousand people assembled. The rest is history. Swami Vivekananda spoke on behalf of the oldest religion and order of monks in the world and in the name of millions of Hindu peoples. The applause after his speech was thunderous. A delegate was amazed by ‘the scores of women walking over the benches to get near him.’ She remarked that if the thirty year old Swami Vivekananda ‘can resist that onslaught, (he is) indeed a God.’ Christopher Isherwood talks of ‘a strange kind of subconscious telepathy’ that spread through the assembly.
How did this sudden adulation and luxury affect Swami Vivekananda? He became even more acutely aware of the degradation of the Indian masses:
‘…what do I care for name and fame when my motherland remains sunk in utmost poverty?’
Life wasn't easy for Swami Vivekananda even after the Parliament of Religions. The new movement he represented consisted only of half a dozen bedraggled young men with hardly enough clothes to cover their backs. He was entirely dependent on donations and charity in the U.S. For this he needed his Indian followers to acknowledge him publicly as a genuine representative of Hinduism. He asked his disciple Alasingha to organize a public meeting with prominent people, move a vote of thanks for his service to his religion and country. It came, but it took months. Many of Swami Vivekananda’s admirers withdrew their support thinking him to be a cheat and an upstart. Funds dried up which caused him a lot of hardship. India has never known how to value its fairest flowers.
It’s typical of Swami Vivekananda that his love for his people did not suffer because of this neglect. In London someone asked him; ’Swami, how do you like now your motherland after three years’ experience of the luxurious and powerful west?’ Swami Vivekananda said: ‘India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy, it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha!’
Swami Vivekananda went to North America with pennies in his pocket, a man no one had heard of and inspired the awe reserved for kings. The greatest American intellectual of the time, William James called him ‘Master.’ There were scores of others. Max Muller, Nikola Tesla, Rockefeller, Gertrude Stein, Salinger... He returned to India with name, fame and enough funds to buy the land on which the Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Belur were built. He put India on the world map as the mother of all religion and spirituality. He was recognized and revered as the spiritual and intellectual giant he was. The onslaught of science had led to a crisis of faith in the west. Swami Vivekananda understood this and preached a universal religion grounded in the rationality of the Upanishads. He brought the world together in one brotherhood of intensely aware, rational, self respecting individuals.
How did he feel when he got home? When his boat landed in Aden en route to Sri Lanka, he saw a ‘pan wallah’smoking a hookah as he went on shore. This is something that he had missed when he was in North America. Swami Vivekananda went up to the vendor and said; ‘Brother, do give me your pipe.’ One of his disciples, Mr Sevier was watching. He said: “Now we see! It was this that made you run away from us so abruptly!’ The welcome he got when he reached home was tumultuous. Did he puff up with pride? No. He was totally detached. He had been entrusted with a task by his guru and he had accomplished it. He offered all his work and achievements at Sri Ramakrishna’s feet. The heart and soul of his leadership ethic – if we can call it that was ‘thou, not I.’ His life is a living testament to his remark that ‘he who is the servant of all has the world at his feet.’
There are many paths to glory. Swami Vivekananda’s stance is like that of the bodhisattva who waits until everyone in the universe is free before seeking his own mukti. His task was to make even the weakest living being realize that it was not the scum of the earth, it was God. There are no impregnable hedges around his words, ideas or life. Everything that he was, everything that he had, became the birth right of every soul that approached him:

“He who in this world of evanescence finds Him who never changes, he who in this universe of death finds that One Life, he who in this manifold finds that Oneness... to (him) belongs eternal peace; unto none else, unto none else. Where to find Him in the external world, where to find Him in the suns, and moons, and stars? There the sun cannot illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, the flash of lightening cannot illumine the place; what to speak of this mortal fire? He shining, everything else shines. It is His Light that they have borrowed...”
If you want to listen to Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Speech, please click on the link below:
http://timesofindia.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/god-and-i/the-chicago-address

Source: Swami Nikhilananda; (2010), Vivekananda, A Biography, (Kolkata, Advaita Ashrama) and Swami Vivekananda; 'Jnan Yoga,'pp 338-9.
For references and full text please see ‘Nietzsche Contra Vivekananda: The Will to Power’, davidsonpramila.blogspot.in

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