Great is the tenacity with which man clings to the senses. Yet, however
substantial he may think the external world in which he lives and moves, there
comes a time in the lives of individuals and of races when, involuntarily, they
ask, "Is this real?" To the person who never finds a moment to question the
credentials of his senses, whose every moment is occupied with some sort of
sense-enjoyment — even to him death comes, and he also is compelled to ask,
"Is this real?" Religion begins with this question and ends with its answer.
Even in the remote past, where recorded history cannot help us, in the
mysterious light of mythology, back in the dim twilight of civilisation, we find
the same question was asked, "What becomes of this? What is real?"
One of the most poetical of the Upanishads, the Katha Upanishad, begins with
the inquiry: "When a man dies, there is a dispute. One party declares that he
has gone for ever, the other insists that he is still living. Which is true?"
Various answers have been given. The whole sphere of metaphysics,
philosophy, and religion is really filled with various answers to this question.
At the same time, attempts have been made to suppress it, to put a stop to the
unrest of mind which asks, "What is beyond? What is real?" But so long as
death remains, all these attempts at suppression will always prove to be
unsuccessful. We may talk about seeing nothing beyond and keeping all our
hopes and aspirations confined to the present moment, and struggle hard not to
think of anything beyond the world of senses; and, perhaps, everything outside
helps to keep us limited within its narrow bounds. The whole world may
combine to prevent us from broadening out beyond the present. Yet, so long as
there is death, the question must come again and again, "Is death the end of all
these things to which we are clinging, as if they were the most real of all
realities, the most substantial of all substances?" The world vanishes in a
moment and is gone. Standing on the brink of a precipice beyond which is the
infinite yawning chasm, every mind, however hardened, is bound to recoil and
ask, "Is this real?" The hopes of a lifetime, built up little by little with all the
energies of a great mind, vanish in a second. Are they real? This question must
be answered. Time never lessens its power; on the other hand, it adds strength
to it.
Then there is the desire to be happy. We run after everything to make ourselves
happy; we pursue our mad career in the external world of senses. If you ask the
young man with whom life is successful, he will declare that it is real; and he
really thinks so. Perhaps, when the same man grows old and finds fortune ever
eluding him, he will then declare that it is fate. He finds at last that his desires
cannot be fulfilled. Wherever he goes, there is an adamantine wall beyond
which he cannot pass. Every sense-activity results in a reaction. Everything is
evanescent. Enjoyment, misery, luxury, wealth, power, and poverty, even life
itself, are all evanescent.
Two positions remain to mankind. One is to believe with the nihilists that all is
nothing, that we know nothing, that we can never know anything either about
the future, the past, or even the present. For we must remember that he who
denies the past and the future and wants to stick to the present is simply a
madman. One may as well deny the father and mother and assert the child. It
would be equally logical. To deny the past and future, the present must
inevitably be denied also. This is one position, that of the nihilists. I have never
seen a man who could really become a nihilist for one minute. It is very easy to
talk.
Then there is the other position — to seek for an explanation, to seek for the
real, to discover in the midst of this eternally changing and evanescent world
whatever is real. In this body which is an aggregate of molecules of matter, is
there anything which is real? This has been the search throughout the history of
the, human mind. In the very oldest times, we often find glimpses of light
coming into men's minds. We find man, even then, going a step beyond this
body, finding something which is not this external body, although very much
like it, much more complete, much more perfect, and which remains even when
this body is dissolved. We read in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, addressed to the
God of Fire who is burning a dead body, "Carry him, O Fire, in your arms
gently, give him a perfect body, a bright body, carry him where the fathers live,
where there is no more sorrow, where there is no more death." The same idea
you will find present in every religion. And we get another idea with it. It is a
significant fact that all religions, without one exception, hold that man is a
degeneration of what he was, whether they clothe this in mythological words,
or in the clear language of philosophy, or in the beautiful expressions of poetry.
This is the one fact that comes out of every scripture and of every mythology
that the man that is, is a degeneration of what he was. This is the kernel of truth
within the story of Adam's fall in the Jewish scripture. This is again and again
repeated in the scriptures of the Hindus; the dream of a period which they call
the Age of Truth, when no man died unless he wished to die, when he could
keep his body as long as he liked, and his mind was pure and strong. There was
no evil and no misery; and the present age is a corruption of that state of
perfection. Side by side with this, we find the story of the deluge everywhere.
That story itself is a proof that this present age is held to be a corruption of a
former age by every religion. It went on becoming more and more corrupt until
the deluge swept away a large portion of mankind, and again the ascending
series began. It is going up slowly again to reach once more that early state of
purity. You are all aware of the story of the deluge in the Old Testament. The
same story was current among the ancient Babylonians, the Egyptians, the
Chinese, and the Hindus. Manu, a great ancient sage, was praying on the bank
of the Gangâ, when a little minnow came to him for protection, and he put it
into a pot of water he had before him. "What do you want?" asked Manu. The
little minnow declared he was pursued by a bigger fish and wanted protection.
Manu carried the little fish to his home, and in the morning he had become as
big as the pot and said, "I cannot live in this pot any longer". Manu put him in a
tank, and the next day he was as big as the tank and declared he could not live
there any more. So Manu had to take him to a river, and in the morning the fish
filled the river. Then Manu put him in the ocean, and he declared, "Manu, I am
the Creator of the universe. I have taken this form to come and warn you that I
will deluge the world. You build an ark and in it put a pair of every kind of
animal, and let your family enter the ark, and there will project out of the water
my horn. Fasten the ark to it; and when the deluge subsides, come out and
people the earth." So the world was deluged, and Manu saved his own family
and two of every kind of animal and seeds of every plant. When the deluge
subsided, he came and peopled the world; and we are all called "man", because
we are the progeny of Manu.
Now, human language is the attempt to express the truth that is within. I am
fully persuaded that a baby whose language consists of unintelligible sounds is
attempting to express the highest philosophy, only the baby has not the organs
to express it nor the means. The difference between the language of the highest
philosophers and the utterances of babies is one of degree and not of kind.
What you call the most correct, systematic, mathematical language of the
present time, and the hazy, mystical, mythological languages of the ancients,
differ only in degree. All of them have a grand idea behind, which is, as it
were, struggling to express itself; and often behind these ancient mythologies
are nuggets of truth; and often, I am sorry to say, behind the fine, polished
phrases of the moderns is arrant trash. So, we need not throw a thing overboard
because it is clothed in mythology, because it does not fit in with the notions of
Mr. So-and-so or Mrs. So-and-so of modern times. If people should laugh at
religion because most religions declare that men must believe in mythologies
taught by such and such a prophet, they ought to laugh more at these moderns.
In modern times, if a man quotes a Moses or a Buddha or a Christ, he is
laughed at; but let him give the name of a Huxley, a Tyndall, or a Darwin, and
it is swallowed without salt. "Huxley has said it", that is enough for many. We
are free from superstitions indeed! That was a religious superstition, and this a
scientific superstition; only, in and through that superstition came life-giving
ideas of spirituality; in and through this modern superstition come lust and
greed. That superstition was worship of God, and this superstition is worship of
filthy lucre, of fame or power. That is the difference.
To return to mythology. Behind all these stories we find one idea standing
supreme — that man is a degeneration of what he was. Coming to the present
times, modern research seems to repudiate this position absolutely.
Evolutionists seem to contradict entirely this assertion. According to them, man
is the evolution of the mollusc; and, therefore, what mythology states cannot be
true. There is in India, however, a mythology which is able to reconcile both
these positions. The Indian mythology has a theory of cycles, that all
progression is in the form of waves. Every wave is attended by a fall, and that
by a rise the next moment, that by a fall in the next, and again another rise The
motion is in cycles. Certainly it is true, even on the grounds of modern
research, that man cannot be simply an evolution. Every evolution presupposes
an involution. The modern scientific man will tell you that you can only get the
amount of energy out of a machine which you have previously put into it.
Something cannot be produced out of nothing. If a man is an evolution of the
mollusc, then the perfect man — the Buddha-man, the Christ-man — was
involved in the mollusc. If it is not so, whence come these gigantic
personalities? Something cannot come out of nothing. Thus we are in the
position of reconciling the scriptures with modern light. That energy which
manifests itself slowly through various stages until it becomes the perfect man,
cannot come out of nothing. It existed somewhere; and if the mollusc or the
protoplasm is the first point to which you can trace it, that protoplasm,
somehow or other, must have contained the energy.
There is a great discussion going on as to whether the aggregate of materials
we call the body is the cause of manifestation of the force we call the soul,
thought, etc., or whether it is the thought that manifests this body. The religions
of the world of course hold that the force called thought manifests the body,
and not the reverse. There are schools of modern thought which hold that what
we call thought is simply the outcome of the adjustment of the parts of the
machine which we call body. Taking the second position that the soul or the
mass of thought, or however you may call it, is the outcome of this machine,
the outcome of the chemical and physical combinations of matter making up
the body and brain, leaves the question unanswered. What makes the body?
What force combines the molecules into the body form? What force is there
which takes up material from the mass of matter around and forms my body
one way, another body another way, and so on? What makes these infinite
distinctions? To say that the force called soul is the outcome of the
combinations of the molecules of the body is putting the cart before the horse.
How did the combinations come; where was the force to make them? If you say
that some other force was the cause of these combinations, and soul was the
outcome of that matter, and that soul — which combined a certain mass of
matter — was itself the result of the combinations, it is no answer. That theory
ought to be taken which explains most of the facts, if not all, and that without
contradicting other existing theories. It is more logical to say that the force
which takes up the matter and forms the body is the same which manifests
through that body. To say, therefore, that the thought forces manifested by the
body are the outcome of the arrangement of molecules and have no
independent existence has no meaning; neither can force evolve out of matter.
Rather it is possible to demonstrate that what we call matter does not exist at
all. It is only a certain state of force. Solidity, hardness, or any other state of
matter can be proved to be the result of motion. Increase of vortex motion
imparted to fluids gives them the force of solids. A mass of air in vortex
motion, as in a tornado, becomes solid-like and by its impact breaks or cuts
through solids. A thread of a spider's web, if it could be moved at almost
infinite velocity, would be as strong as an iron chain and would cut through an
oak tree. Looking at it in this way, it would be easier to prove that what we call
matter does not exist. But the other way cannot be proved.
What is the force which manifests itself through the body? It is obvious to all
of us, whatever that force be, that it is taking particles up, as it were, and
manipulating forms out of them — the human body. None else comes here to
manipulate bodies for you and me. I never saw anybody eat food for me. I have
to assimilate it, manufacture blood and bones and everything out of that food.
What is this mysterious force? Ideas about the future and about the past seem to
be terrifying to many. To many they seem to be mere speculation.
We will take the present theme. What is this force which is now working
through us? We know how in old times, in all the ancient scriptures, this
power, this manifestation of power, was thought to be a bright substance
having the form of this body, and which remained even after this body fell.
Later on, however, we find a higher idea coming — that this bright body did
not represent the force. Whatsoever has form must be the result of
combinations of particles and requires something else behind it to move it. If
this body requires something which is not the body to manipulate it, the bright
body, by the same necessity, will also require something other than itself to
manipulate it. So, that something was called the soul, the Atman in Sanskrit. It
was the Atman which through the bright body, as it were, worked on the gross
body outside. The bright body is considered as the receptacle of the mind, and
the Atman is beyond that It is not the mind even; it works the mind, and
through the mind the body. You have an Atman, I have another each one of us
has a separate Atman and a separate fine body, and through that we work on
the gross external body. Questions were then asked about this Atman about its
nature. What is this Atman, this soul of man which is neither the body nor the
mind? Great discussions followed. Speculations were made, various shades of
philosophic inquiry came into existence; and I shall try to place before you
some of the conclusions that have been reached about this Atman.

The different philosophies seem to agree that this Atman, whatever it be, has
neither form nor shape, and that which has neither form nor shape must be
omnipresent. Time begins with mind, space also is in the mind. Causation
cannot stand without time. Without the idea of succession there cannot be any
idea of causation. Time, space and causation, therefore, are in the mind, and as
this Atman is beyond the mind and formless, it must be beyond time, beyond
space, and beyond causation. Now, if it is beyond time, space, and causation, it
must be infinite. Then comes the highest speculation in our philosophy. The
infinite cannot be two. If the soul be infinite, there can be only one Soul, and
all ideas of various souls — you having one soul, and I having another, and so
forth — are not real. The Real Man, therefore, is one and infinite, the
omnipresent Spirit. And the apparent man is only a limitation of that Real Man.
In that sense the mythologies are true that the apparent man, however great he
may be, is only a dim reflection of the Real Man who is beyond. The Real
Man, the Spirit, being beyond cause and effect, not bound by time and space,
must, therefore, be free. He was never bound, and could not be bound. The
apparent man, the reflection, is limited by time, space, and causation, and is,
therefore, bound. Or in the language of some of our philosophers, he appears to
be bound, but really is not. This is the reality in our souls, this omnipresence,
this spiritual nature, this infinity. Every soul is infinite, therefore there is no
question of birth and death. Some children were being examined. The examiner
put them rather hard questions, and among them was this one: "Why does not
the earth fall?" He wanted to evoke answers about gravitation. Most of the
children could not answer at all; a few answered that it was gravitation or
something. One bright little girl answered it by putting another question:
"Where should it fall?" The question is nonsense. Where should the earth fall?
There is no falling or rising for the earth. In infinite space there is no up or
down; that is only in the relative. Where is the going or coming for the infinite?
Whence should it come and whither should it go?

Thus, when people cease to think of the past or future, when they give up the
idea of body, because the body comes and goes and is limited, then they have
risen to a higher ideal. The body is not the Real Man, neither is the mind, for
the mind waxes and wanes. It is the Spirit beyond, which alone can live for
ever. The body and mind are continually changing, and are, in fact, only names
of series of changeful phenomena, like rivers whose waters are in a constant
state of flux, yet presenting the appearance of unbroken streams. Every particle
in this body is continually changing; no one has the same body for many
minutes together, and yet we think of it as the same body. So with the mind;
one moment it is happy, another moment unhappy; one moment strong, another
weak; an ever-changing whirlpool. That cannot be the Spirit which is infinite.
Change can only be in the limited. To say that the infinite changes in any way
is absurd; it cannot be. You can move and I can move, as limited bodies; every
particle in this universe is in a constant state of flux, but taking the universe as
a unit, as one whole, it cannot move, it cannot change. Motion is always a
relative thing. I move in relation to something else. Any particle in this
universe can change in relation to any other particle; but take the whole
universe as one, and in relation to what can it move? There is nothing besides
it. So this infinite Unit is unchangeable, immovable, absolute, and this is the
Real Man. Our reality, therefore, consists in the Universal and not in the
limited. These are old delusions, however comfortable they are, to think that
we are little limited beings, constantly changing. People are frightened when
they are told that they are Universal Being, everywhere present. Through
everything you work, through every foot you move, through every lip you talk,
through every heart you feel.

People are frightened when they are told this. They will again and again ask
you if they are not going to keep their individuality. What is individuality? I
should like to see it. A baby has no moustache; when he grows to be a man,
perhaps he has a moustache and beard. His individuality would be lost, if it
were in the body. If I lose one eye, or if I lose one of my hands, my
individuality would be lost if it were in the body. Then, a drunkard should not
give up drinking because he would lose his individuality. A thief should not be
a good man because he would thereby lose his individuality. No man ought to
change his habits for fear of this. There is no individuality except in the
Infinite. That is the only condition which does not change. Everything else is in
a constant state of flux. Neither can individuality be in memory. Suppose, on
account of a blow on the head I forget all about my past; then, I have lost all
individuality; I am gone. I do not remember two or three years of my
childhood, and if memory and existence are one, then whatever I forget is gone.
That part of my life which I do not remember, I did not live. That is a very
narrow idea of individuality.

We are not individuals yet. We are struggling towards individuality, and that is
the Infinite, that is the real nature of man. He alone lives whose life is in the
whole universe, and the more we concentrate our lives on limited things, the
faster we go towards death. Those moments alone we live when our lives are in
the universe, in others; and living this little life is death, simply death, and that
is why the fear of death comes. The fear of death can only be conquered when
man realises that so long as there is one life in this universe, he is living. When
he can say, "I am in everything, in everybody, I am in all lives, I am the
universe," then alone comes the state of fearlessness. To talk of immortality in
constantly changing things is absurd. Says an old Sanskrit philosopher: It is
only the Spirit that is the individual, because it is infinite. No infinity can be
divided; infinity cannot be broken into pieces. It is the same one, undivided
unit for ever, and this is the individual man, the Real Man. The apparent man is
merely a struggle to express, to manifest this individuality which is beyond;
and evolution is not in the Spirit. These changes which are going on — the
wicked becoming good, the animal becoming man, take them in whatever way
you like — are not in the Spirit. They are evolution of nature and manifestation
of Spirit. Suppose there is a screen hiding you from me, in which there is a
small hole through which I can see some of the faces before me, just a few
faces. Now suppose the hole begins to grow larger and larger, and as it does so,
more and more of the scene before me reveals itself and when at last the whole
screen has disappeared, I stand face to face with you all. You did not change at
all in this case; it was the hole that was evolving, and you were gradually
manifesting yourselves. So it is with the Spirit. No perfection is going to be
attained. You are already free and perfect. What are these ideas of religion and
God and searching for the hereafter? Why does man look for a God? Why does
man, in every nation, in every state of society, want a perfect ideal somewhere,
either in man, in God, or elsewhere? Because that idea is within you. It was
your own heart beating and you did not know; you were mistaking it for
something external. It is the God within your own self that is propelling you to
seek for Him, to realise Him. After long searches here and there, in temples and
in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you come back, completing the
circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you
have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and
praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of
all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own Self, the
reality of your life, body, and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest
it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are
that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond. Every
good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were;
and the purity, the Infinity, the God behind, manifests Itself more and more.

This is the whole history of man. Finer and finer becomes the veil, more and
more of the light behind shines forth, for it is its nature to shine. It cannot be
known; in vain we try to know it. Were it knowable, it would not be what it is,
for it is the eternal subject. Knowledge is a limitation, knowledge is
objectifying. He is the eternal subject of everything, the eternal witness in this
universe, your own Self. Knowledge is, as it were, a lower step, a degeneration.
We are that eternal subject already; how can we know it? It is the real nature of
every man, and he is struggling to express it in various ways; otherwise, why
are there so many ethical codes? Where is the explanation of all ethics? One
idea stands out as the centre of all ethical systems, expressed in various forms,
namely, doing good to others. The guiding motive of mankind should be
charity towards men, charity towards all animals. But these are all various
expressions of that eternal truth that, "I am the universe; this universe is one."
Or else, where is the reason? Why should I do good to my fellowmen? Why
should I do good to others? What compels me? It is sympathy, the feeling of
sameness everywhere. The hardest hearts feel sympathy for other beings
sometimes. Even the man who gets frightened if he is told that this assumed
individuality is really a delusion, that it is ignoble to try to cling to this
apparent individuality, that very man will tell you that extreme self-abnegation
is the centre of all morality. And what is perfect self-abnegation? It means the
abnegation of this apparent self, the abnegation of all selfishness. This idea of
"me and mine" — Ahamkâra and Mamatâ — is the result of past Superstition,
and the more this present self passes away, the more the real Self becomes
manifest. This is true self-abnegation, the centre, the basis, the gist of all moral
teaching; and whether man knows it or not the whole world is slowly going
towards it, practicing it more or less. Only, the vast majority of mankind are
doing it unconsciously. Let them do it consciously. Let then make the sacrifice,
knowing that this "me and mine" is not the real Self, but only a limitation. But
one glimpse Of that infinite reality which is behind — but one spark of that
infinite fire that is the All — represents the present man; the Infinite is his true
nature.

What is the utility, the effect, the result, of this knowledge? In these days, we
have to measure everything by utility — by how many pounds shillings, and
pence it represents. What right has a person to ask that truth should be judged
by the standard of utility or money? Suppose there is no utility, will it be less
true? Utility is not the test of truth. Nevertheless, there is the highest utility in
this. Happiness, we see is what everyone is seeking for, but the majority seek it
in things which are evanescent and not real. No happiness was ever found in
the senses. There never was a person who found happiness in the senses or in
enjoyment of the senses. Happiness is only found in the Spirit. Therefore the
highest utility for mankind is to find this happiness in the Spirit. The next point
is that ignorance is the great mother of all misery, and the fundamental
ignorance is to think that the Infinite weeps and cries, that He is finite. This is
the basis of all ignorance that we, the immortal, the ever pure, the perfect
Spirit, think that we are little minds, that we are little bodies; it is the mother of
all selfishness. As soon as I think that I am a little body, I want to preserve it, to
protect it, to keep it nice, at the expense of other bodies; then you and I become
separate. As soon as this idea of separation comes, it opens the door to all
mischief and leads to all misery. This is the utility that if a very small fractional
part of human beings living today can put aside the idea of selfishness,
narrowness, and littleness, this earth will become a paradise tomorrow; but
with machines and improvements of material knowledge only, it will never be.
These only increase misery, as oil poured on fire increases the flame all the
more. Without the knowledge of the Spirit, all material knowledge is only
adding fuel to fire, only giving into the hands of selfish man one more
instrument to take what belongs to others, to live upon the life of others, instead
of giving up his life for them.

Is it practical ? — is another question. Can it be practised in modern society?
Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to
pay homage to Truth or die. Societies should be moulded upon truth, and truth
has not to adjust itself to society. If such a noble truth as unselfishness cannot
be practiced in society, it is better for man to give up society and go into the
forest. That is the daring man. There are two sorts of courage. One is the
courage of facing the cannon. And the other is the courage of spiritual
conviction. An Emperor who invaded India was told by his teacher to go and
see some of the sages there. After a long search for one, he found a very old
man sitting on a block of stone. The Emperor talked with him a little and
became very much impressed by his wisdom. He asked the sage to go to his
country with him. "No," said the sage, "I am quite satisfied with my forest
here." Said the Emperor, "I will give you money, position, wealth. I am the
Emperor of the world." "No," replied the man, "I don't care for those things."
The Emperor replied, "I f you do not go, I will kill you." The man smiled
serenely and said, "That is the most foolish thing you ever said, Emperor. You
cannot kill me. Me the sun cannot dry, fire cannot burn, sword cannot kill, for I
am the birthless, the deathless, the ever-living omnipotent, omnipresent Spirit."
This is spiritual boldness, while the other is the courage of a lion or a tiger. In
the Mutiny of 1857 there was a Swami, a very great soul, whom a
Mohammedan mutineer stabbed severely. The Hindu mutineers caught and
brought the man to the Swami, offering to kill him. But the Swami looked up
calmly and said, "My brother, thou art He, thou art He!" and expired. This is
another instance. What good is it to talk of the strength of your muscles, of the
superiority of your Western institutions, if you cannot make Truth square with
your society, if you cannot build up a society into which the highest Truth will
fit? What is the good of this boastful talk about your grandeur and greatness, if
you stand up and say, "This courage is not practical." Is nothing practical but
pounds, shillings, and pence? If so, why boast of your society? That society is
the greatest, where the highest truths become practical. That is my opinion;
and if society is; not fit for the highest truths, make it so; and the sooner, the
better. Stand up, men and women, in this spirit, dare to believe in the Truth,
dare to practice the Truth! The world requires a few hundred bold men and
women. Practise that boldness which dares know the Truth, which dares show
the Truth in life, which does not quake before death, nay, welcomes death,
makes a man know that he, is the Spirit, that, in the whole universe, nothing
can kill him. Then you will be free. Then you will know yours real Soul. "This
Atman is first to be heard, then thoughts about and then meditated upon."
There is a great tendency in modern times to talk too much of work and decry
thought. Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Little
manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there
is no thought, there will be no work. Fill the brain, therefore, with high
thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that
will come great work. Talk not about impurity, but say that we are pure. We
have hypnotised ourselves into this thought that we are little, that we are born,
and that we are going to die, and into a constant state of fear.

There is a story about a lioness, who was big with young, going about in search
of prey; and seeing a flock of sheep, she jumped upon them. She died in the
effort; and a little baby lion was born, motherless. It was taken care of by the
sheep and the sheep brought it up, and it grew up with them, ate grass, and
bleated like the sheep. And although in time it became a big, full-grown lion. it
thought it was a sheep. One day another lion came in search of prey and was
astonished to find that in the midst of this flock of sheep was a lion, fleeing like
the sheep at the approach of danger. He tried to get near the sheep-lion, to tell it
that it was not a sheep but a lion; but the poor animal fled at his approach.
However, he watched his opportunity and one day found the sheep-lion
sleeping. He approached it and said, "You are a lion." "I am a sheep," cried the
other lion and could not believe the contrary but bleated. The lion dragged him
towards a lake and said, "Look here, here is my reflection and yours." Then
came the comparison. It looked at the lion and then at its own reflection, and in
a moment came the idea that it was a lion. The lion roared, the bleating was
gone. You are lions, you are souls, pure, infinite, and perfect. The might of the
universe is within you. "Why weepest thou, my friend? There is neither birth
nor death for thee. Why weepest thou? There is no disease nor misery for thee,
but thou art like the infinite sky; clouds of various colours come over it, play
for a moment, then vanish. But the sky is ever the same eternal blue." Why do
we see wickedness? There was a stump of a tree, and in the dark, a thief came
that way and said, "That is a policeman." A young man waiting for his beloved
saw it and thought that it was his sweetheart. A child who had been told ghost
stories took it for a ghost and began to shriek. But all the time it was the stump
of a tree. We see the world as we are. Suppose there is a baby in a room with a
bag of gold on the table and a thief comes and steals the gold. Would the baby
know it was stolen? That which we have inside, we see outside. The baby has
no thief inside and sees no thief outside. So with all knowledge. Do not talk of
the wickedness of the world and all its sins. Weep that you are bound to see
wickedness yet. Weep that you are bound to see sin everywhere, and if you
want to help the world, do not condemn it. Do not weaken it more. For what is
sin and what is misery, and what are all these, but the results of weakness? The
world is made weaker and weaker every day by such teachings. Men are taught
from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that they are all
glorious children of immortality, even those who are the weakest in
manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter into their brains from
very childhood. Lay yourselves open to these thoughts, and not to weakening
and paralysing ones. Say to your own minds, "I am He, I am He." Let it ring
day and night in your minds like a song, and at the point of death declare "I am
He." That is the Truth; the infinite strength of the world is yours. Drive out the
superstition that has covered your minds. Let us be brave. Know the Truth and
practice the Truth. The goal may be distant, but awake, arise, and stop not till
the goal is reached.