Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantathrough all this; do not make the path more difficult for those who are comingafter you.These are sometimes terrible doctrines to teach. I know people who get frightenedat these ideas, but for those who want to be practical, this is the first thing to learn.Never tell yourselves or others that you are weak. Do good if you can, but do notinjure the world. You know in your inmost heart that many of your limited ideas,this humbling of yourself and praying and weeping to imaginary beings aresuperstitions. Tell me one case where these prayers have been answered. All theanswers that came were from your own hearts. You know there are no ghosts, butno sooner are you in the dark than you feel a little creepy sensation. That is sobecause in our childhood we have had all these fearful ideas put into our heads.But do not teach these things to others through fear of society and public opinion,through fear of incurring the hatred of friends, or for fear of losing cherishedsuperstitions. Be masters of all these. What is there to be taught more in religionthan the oneness of the universe and faith in one's self? All the works of mankindfor thousands of years past have been towards this one goal, and mankind is yetworking it out. It is your turn now and you already know the truth. For it has beentaught on all sides. Not only philosophy and psychology, but materialistic scienceshave declared it. Where is the scientific man today who fears to acknowledge thetruth of this oneness of the universe? Who is there who dares talk of many worlds?All these are superstitions. There is only one life and one world, and this one lifeand one world is appearing to us as manifold. This manifoldness is like a dream.When you dream, one dream passes away and another comes. You do not live inyour dreams. The dreams come one after another, scene after scene unfolds beforeyou. So it is in this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent happiness.Perhaps after a while it will appear as ninety per cent happiness, and we shall callit heaven, but a time comes to the sage when the whole thing vanishes, and thisworld appears as God Himself, and his own soul as God. It is not therefore thatthere are many worlds, it is not that there are many lives. All this manifoldness isthe manifestation of that One. That One is manifesting Himself as many, as matter,spirit, mind, thought, and everything else. It is that One, manifesting Himself asmany. Therefore the first step for us to take is to teach the truth to ourselves and toothers.Let the world resound with this ideal, and let superstitions vanish. Tell it to menwho are weak and persist in telling it. You are the Pure One; awake and arise, Omighty one, this sleep does not become you. Awake and arise, it does not befityou. Think not that you are weak and miserable. Almighty, arise and awake, andmanifest your own nature. It is not fitting that you think yourself a sinner. It is notfitting that you think yourself weak. Say that to the world, say it to yourselves, andsee what a practical result comes, see how with an electric flash everything ismanifested, how everything is changed. Tell that to mankind, and show them theirpower. Then we shall learn how to apply it in our daily lives.To be able to use what we call Viveka (discrimination), to learn how in everyfile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selvar...ooksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (8 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:33 AM