选定的理想
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中文
第九章
所选择的理想
接下来要探讨的，是我们所谓的"专一于所选之法"（Ishta-Nishthā）。一个渴望成为虔信者（Bhakta）的人，必须了知"有多少见解，便有多少道路"。他必须知道，各种宗教的一切不同教派，都是同一上主之荣光的各种显现。"你被人们以如此多的名字来称呼；他们以不同的名字将你分别，然而在每一个名字之中，都能发现你的全能……你通过所有这些接触礼拜你的人，只要灵魂对你有强烈的爱，便没有任何特定的时间限制。你是如此易于趋近；这是我的不幸，我无法爱你。"不仅如此，虔信者必须谨慎，不去仇恨、甚至不去批评那些各教派的创立者——那些光明的儿子们；他甚至不应听任何人对他们出言不逊。在这个世界上，同时兼具广博的同情心与欣赏力、以及强烈宗教情感的人，确实寥寥无几。我们发现，作为一般规律，宽容而富有同情心的教派往往失去宗教情感的强度，宗教在他们手中往往退化为某种政治-社交俱乐部式的生活。另一方面，极端狭隘的宗派人士，虽然对自己的理想显示出值得称道的爱，但他们却是通过仇恨每一个与自己见解不尽相同的人，来获取每一粒这种爱的。但愿上帝使这个世界充满这样的人——他们的爱既如此强烈，同情心又如此宽广！然而，这样的人只是凤毛麟角。尽管如此，我们知道，将大量的人类培育成这种将爱的广度与强度奇妙融合的理想是可行的；而实现这一目标的途径，就是这条"专一于所选理想"（Ishta-Nishthā）的道路。每一种宗教的每一个教派，都只向人类呈现其自身的一种理想，而永恒的吠檀多（Vedanta）宗教则为人类敞开无数扇通往神圣内殿的大门，并在人类面前陈列出几乎取之不竭的理想阵列，每一种理想中都有永恒者的显现。吠檀多以最亲切的关怀，向渴望的男男女女指出众多道路——这些道路由过去和当今的上帝的荣耀之子或人形显现，在人类生命的坚实磐石上凿刻而成——并张开双臂，欢迎所有人——甚至欢迎那些尚未来临的人——来到真理之家、极乐之洋，在那里，从摩耶（Māyā）之网中解脱的人类灵魂，可以以完全的自由与永恒的喜悦翱翔。
因此，虔信瑜伽（Bhakti-Yoga）向我们颁布了不可违背的诫命：不要仇恨或否定任何一条通往救赎的道路。然而，正在生长的幼苗必须用篱笆围护，直至它长成大树。脆弱的灵性之苗，若过早地暴露于理念与理想的不断变化之中，便会枯萎。许多人，以所谓宗教宽容的名义，可以被看见以连续不断的不同理想来喂养自己懒散的好奇心。对他们来说，不断地听闻新事物，已成为一种疾病，一种宗教上的饮酒狂热。他们想要听新鲜事物，只是为了获得短暂的神经兴奋；当某种兴奋影响对他们产生作用之后，他们便准备好接受下一种。对这些人而言，宗教是一种智识的鸦片，止于此处。薄伽万·罗摩克里希纳（Bhagavan Ramakrishna）说："还有另一种人，如同故事中的珍珠牡蛎。珍珠牡蛎离开海底的床，浮上水面，等候'斯瓦提'（Svāti）星升起时的雨水。它在海面上漂浮，壳口大开，直到成功地接住一滴雨水，然后深潜回海底，在那里静止，直到成功地将那滴雨水孕育成一颗美丽的珍珠。"
这确实是迄今为止将"专一于所选之法"理论表达得最富诗意、最有力量的方式。这种"专一于一个理想"（Eka-Nishthā），对于宗教虔信修行的初学者而言是绝对必要的。他必须像《罗摩衍那》（Rāmāyana）中的哈努曼（Hanuman）那样说："尽管我知道室利（Shri）之主与贾纳基（Jānaki）之主都是同一至上存在的显现，然而莲目的罗摩（Rāma）是我的一切。"或者，如圣人图拉西达斯（Tulasidāsa）所说，他必须说："取所有人的甘甜，与所有人同坐，称呼所有人的名字，说是，是的，但要稳守你的座位。"此后，若这位虔信的修行者是真诚的，从这一小小的种子中，便会长出一棵如同印度榕树般巍峨的大树，向四面八方伸展枝桠与气根，直至覆盖整个宗教的领域。如此，真正的虔信者将会证悟：那曾在他生命中作为他自身理想被礼拜的祂，正是在所有教派、以所有名字、通过所有形式所礼拜的一切理想中的那一位。
English
CHAPTER IX
THE CHOSEN IDEAL
The next thing to be considered is what we know as Ishta-Nishthâ. One who aspires to be a Bhakta must know that "so many opinions are so many ways". He must know that all the various sects of the various religions are the various manifestations of the glory of the same Lord. "They call You by so many names; they divide You, as it were, by different names, yet in each one of these is to be found Your omnipotence....You reach the worshipper through all of these, neither is there any special time so long as the soul has intense love for You. You are so easy of approach; it is my misfortune that I cannot love You." Not only this, the Bhakta must take care not to hate, nor even to criticise those radiant sons of light who are the founders of various sects; he must not even hear them spoken ill of. Very few indeed are those who are at once the possessors of an extensive sympathy and power of appreciation, as well as an intensity of love. We find, as a rule, that liberal and sympathetic sects lose the intensity of religious feeling, and in their hands, religion is apt to degenerate into a kind of politico-social club life. On the other hand, intensely narrow sectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their own ideals, are seen to have acquired every particle of that love by hating every one who is not of exactly the same opinions as themselves. Would to God that this world was full of men who were as intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies! But such are only few and far between. Yet we know that it is practicable to educate large numbers of human beings into the ideal of a wonderful blending of both the width and the intensity of love; and the way to do that is by this path of the Istha-Nishtha or "steadfast devotion to the chosen ideal". Every sect of every religion presents only one ideal of its own to mankind, but the eternal Vedantic religion opens to mankind an infinite number of doors for ingress into the inner shrine of divinity, and places before humanity an almost inexhaustible array of ideals, there being in each of them a manifestation of the Eternal One. With the kindest solicitude, the Vedanta points out to aspiring men and women the numerous roads, hewn out of the solid rock of the realities of human life, by the glorious sons, or human manifestations, of God, in the past and in the present, and stands with outstretched arms to welcome all — to welcome even those that are yet to be — to that Home of Truth and that Ocean of Bliss, wherein the human soul, liberated from the net of Mâyâ, may transport itself with perfect freedom and with eternal joy.
Bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative command not to hate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation. Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until it has grown into a tree. The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals. Many people, in the name of what may be called religious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiosity with a continuous succession of different ideals. With them, hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort of religious drink-mania. They want to hear new things just by way of getting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such exciting influence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another. Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opium-eating, and there it ends. "There is another sort of man", says Bhagavan Ramakrishna, "who is like the pearl-oyster of the story. The pearl-oyster leaves its bed at the bottom of the sea, and comes up to the surface to catch the rain-water when the star Svâti is in the ascendant. It floats about on the surface of the sea with its shell wide open, until it has succeeded in catching a drop of the rain-water, and then it dives deep down to its sea-bed, and there rests until it has succeeded in fashioning a beautiful pearl out of that rain-drop."
This is indeed the most poetical and forcible way in which the theory of Ishta-Nishtha has ever been put. This Eka-Nishtha or devotion to one ideal is absolutely necessary for the beginner in the practice of religious devotion. He must say with Hanuman in the Râmâyana, "Though I know that the Lord of Shri and the Lord of Jânaki are both manifestations of the same Supreme Being, yet my all in all is the lotus-eyed Râma." Or, as was said by the sage Tulasidâsa, he must say, "Take the sweetness of all, sit with all, take the name of all, say yea, yea, but keep your seat firm." Then, if the devotional aspirant is sincere, out of this little seed will come a gigantic tree like the Indian banyan, sending out branch after branch and root after root to all sides, till it covers the entire field of religion. Thus will the true devotee realise that He who was his own ideal in life is worshipped in all ideals by all sects, under all names, and through all forms.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。