A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda
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A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

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192 MAYA AND FREEDOM.highest as well as the lowest. What we call the most/arrant superstition and the highest philo&ophy all come to xthat common standpoint, that they try to show the wajout of this same difficulty and in most of them this way isthrough the help of some one who is outside this Universe,some one who is not himself bound by the laws of Nature,in one word some one who is free. In spite of all thedifficulties and differences of opinion about the nature ofthe one free agent, whether he is God, whether he is apersonal God, whether he is a sentient being like man,whether he tis a conscious being, whether masculine,feminine, or neuter, the discussions have been endless, andyet they do not alarm us. In spite of the almost helplesscontradictions of the different systems, we find the goldenthread of unity running through them* all, and in thisphilosophy, this golden thread has been traced, revealedlittle by little to our view, and the first step to this revelation is this common ground, that all are approachingtowards freedom.One curious fact is present in the midst of all oursorrows and joys, our difficulties and struggles,we arepatiently journeying towards freedom. Thequestion waspractically, What is this Universe ? From what does itarise? Into what does itgo? And the answer was, infreedom it rises, in freedom it rests, and into freedom, inthe long run, it melts away.This curious fact you cannotrelinquish, your actions, your very lives will be lost without it, this idea, of freedom, that we are free. Everymoment we are being proved by Nature to be slaves, andnot free. Yet, simultaneously rises the other idea, still Iam free. Every step we are knocked down, as it were, byMaya, and shown that we are bound, and yet the samemoment, together with this blow, together with this feeling

"Come"MAYA AND FREEDOM. 193that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free.Something insicr us tells us that we are free. But torealise that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable. Yet, in spiteof that, it insistson asserting itself inwardly, I am free, I am free."And ifyou study all the various religions of the world youwill find this idea expressed. Not only religions do nottake Religion in the narrowest sense the whole life ofsociety is the assertion of that one principle of freedom.All movements are the assertion of that one freedom.It is, as it were, that that voice has been heard byevery one, whether he knows it or not. That voicewhich declares,to me allye that are heavyladen." It may not be in the same language, or the sameform of speech, but somehow or other that voice calling forfreedom has been with us. Yes, we are born here onaccount of that voice ; every one of our movements is forthat. We are all rushing towards freedom, we are allfollowing that voice, whether we know it or not :like theflute player who attracted the children of the tillage, weare all following the music of the flute without knowing it.Whyare we ethical but that we must follow thatvoice ? Not only the human soul, but from the lowestatom to the highest man, all haveheard the voice and arerushing to meet it ;and in the struggle are combiningwith each other, pushing each other out of the way, competition, joys, struggles, life, pleasure and death, come,and the whole Universe isnothing but the result of thismad struggle to reach the voice. That is what we aredoing.This is the manifestation of Nature.What happens then ? The scene begins to shift. Assoon as you know the voice and understand what itis,the whole scene changes. The very world which was the13

"Come"MAYA AND FREEDOM. 193that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free.Something insicr us tells us that we are free. But torealise that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable. Yet, in spiteof that, it insistson asserting itself inwardly, I am free, I am free."And ifyou study all the various religions of the world youwill find this idea expressed. Not only religions do nottake Religion in the narrowest sense the whole life ofsociety is the assertion of that one principle of freedom.All movements are the assertion of that one freedom.It is, as it were, that that voice has been heard byevery one, whether he knows it or not. That voicewhich declares,to me allye that are heavyladen." It may not be in the same language, or the sameform of speech, but somehow or other that voice calling forfreedom has been with us. Yes, we are born here onaccount of that voice ; every one of our movements is forthat. We are all rushing towards freedom, we are allfollowing that voice, whether we know it or not :like theflute player who attracted the children of the tillage, weare all following the music of the flute without knowing it.Whyare we ethical but that we must follow thatvoice ? Not only the human soul, but from the lowestatom to the highest man, all haveheard the voice and arerushing to meet it ;and in the struggle are combiningwith each other, pushing each other out of the way, competition, joys, struggles, life, pleasure and death, come,and the whole Universe isnothing but the result of thismad struggle to reach the voice. That is what we aredoing.This is the manifestation of Nature.What happens then ? The scene begins to shift. Assoon as you know the voice and understand what itis,the whole scene changes. The very world which was the13

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