智慧瑜伽讲义
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中文
唵，真实存在！认识唵就是认识宇宙的奥秘。智慧瑜伽的目标与虔信瑜伽和王瑜伽相同，但方法不同。这是强者的瑜伽，适合那些既非神秘主义者也非虔信者，而是理性主义者的人。正如虔信瑜伽修行者通过爱与虔诚达到与至上的完全合一，智慧瑜伽修行者则以纯粹理性的力量，强力开辟通向证悟神的道路。他必须准备好抛弃一切旧偶像、一切旧信仰和迷信，抛弃对此世或来世的一切欲望，只决心寻求自由。没有智慧（知识），解脱不可能属于我们。智慧在于认识我们真正是什么——我们超越恐惧，超越生死。最高的善是证悟真我。它超越感官，超越思想。真正的"我"不可被把握。它是永恒的主体，永远不能成为知识的对象，因为知识只属于相对之物，而非绝对。一切感官知识都是局限，是因果的无尽锁链。这个世界是相对的世界，是真实的影子；然而，作为幸福与痛苦大致平衡的均衡之境，它是人能够证悟真我、认识自己即是梵的唯一层面。
这个世界是"自然的演化与神的显现"。它是我们对梵或绝对的诠释，透过幻相（摩耶）的面纱所见。世界并非虚无，它具有某种实在性；它之所以显现，仅因梵存在。
我们如何认识认知者？吠檀多说："我们即是它，但永远无法认识它，因为它永远不能成为知识的对象。"现代科学也说它不可被认知。然而，我们能够不时瞥见它。一旦这个世界的幻象被打破，它还会回到我们面前，但不再对我们具有任何实在性。我们将知道它是海市蜃楼。穿透海市蜃楼的背后，这是一切宗教的目标。人与神为一体，这是吠陀的恒常教导，但只有少数人能够穿透面纱，达到对这一真理的证悟。
想要成为智慧瑜伽修行者，首先要消除的是恐惧。恐惧是我们最大的敌人之一。其次，在你认识到某事之前，不要相信任何东西。不断告诉自己："我不是身体，我不是心灵，我不是思想，我甚至不是我们所知的意识；我是真我。"当你能抛弃一切时，只有真正的自我会留下。智慧瑜伽修行者的冥想有两种：（一）否定并思维排除一切我们不是的东西；（二）坚持我们真正所是的——真我，唯一的自我——存在、知识与极乐。真正的理性主义者必须继续前行，无畏地追随其理性至最远的极限。在路途中停下来是行不通的。当我们开始否定时，一切都必须消去，直到我们达到不能被抛弃或否定的东西，那就是真正的"我"。那个"我"是宇宙的见证者，它是不变的、永恒的、无限的。现在，一层又一层的无明遮蔽了我们的双眼，使我们看不见它，但它始终如一。
两只鸟栖于同一棵树上。顶上的鸟平静、威严、美丽、完美。底下的鸟总是在枝条间跳来跳去，时而吃甜果而快乐，时而吃苦果而痛苦。有一天，当它吃了一颗比平常更苦的果子时，它抬头望向平静威严的上方那只鸟，心想："我多想像它一样啊！"于是它向上跳了一小段。不久，它忘记了想要像上方那只鸟的愿望，又像从前一样，吃着甜果和苦果，快乐又痛苦。它再次抬头，再次向平静威严的上方那只鸟靠近了一些。如此反复了许多次，直到最后它非常接近上方那只鸟；上方之鸟羽毛的光辉令它目眩，似乎将它吸纳了进去，最终，令它惊奇和惊讶的是，它发现只有一只鸟——它一直就是上方那只鸟，只是刚刚发现了这一点。人就像那只下方的鸟，但如果他坚持努力上升到他所能构想的最高理想，他也会发现自己一直就是那个真我，而其余不过是一场梦。将我们自己与物质及对其实在性的一切信仰彻底分离，这是真正的智慧。智慧瑜伽修行者必须时刻铭记"唵，真实存在"，即唵是唯一真实的存在。抽象的统一是智慧瑜伽的基础。这被称为不二论（"无二元或二元论"）。这是吠檀多哲学的基石，是起始与终结。"唯梵为真，余皆为幻，而我即是梵。"只有不断地这样告诉自己，直到它成为我们存在的一部分，我们才能超越一切二元对立，超越善与恶、快乐与痛苦、欢喜与忧愁，认识自己是那个唯一的、永恒的、不变的、无限的——"不二的太一"。
智慧瑜伽修行者必须像最狭隘的宗派主义者一样专注，同时又像天空一样广阔。他必须完全控制自己的心灵，能够做一个佛教徒或基督徒，拥有自觉地将自己分入所有这些不同观念的能力，同时又持守永恒的和谐。只有持续的训练才能使我们获得这种控制。一切变化都在那个"一"之中，但我们必须学会不把自己等同于我们所做的事，做手头之事时，不闻、不见、不谈其他。我们必须倾注全部灵魂，全神贯注。日日夜夜告诉自己："我即是那，我即是那。"
吠檀多哲学最伟大的导师是商羯罗阿阇梨。他以坚实的推理从吠陀中提取了吠檀多的真理，并在此基础上建立了他的注释中所教授的智慧的宏伟体系。他统一了关于梵的一切相互矛盾的描述，表明只有一个无限的实在。他还表明，由于人只能在上行之路上缓慢前进，所以需要各种不同的呈现方式来适应人不同的能力。我们在耶稣的教导中发现了类似的东西，他显然根据听众的不同能力来调整教导。首先他教导他们天上有一位父，要向他祈祷。接着他上升一步，告诉他们："我是葡萄树，你们是枝条"，最后他给予他们最高的真理："我与我的父是一体"，以及"天国在你们心中"。商羯罗教导说，神有三大恩赐：（一）人身，（二）对神的渴求，（三）能为我们指示光明的导师。当这三大恩赐属于我们时，我们便知道救赎近在眼前。只有知识才能释放和拯救我们，但知识必须伴随美德。
吠檀多的精髓是只有一个存在，每一个灵魂都是那个存在的全体，而非其一部分。整个太阳映照在每一滴露珠中。显现于时间、空间和因果中的这个存在，就是我们所知的人，但在一切表象背后是唯一的实在。无私是对低级的或表面的自我的否定。我们必须将自己从这个悲惨的梦境中解放出来——我们以为自己是这些身体的梦境。我们必须认识真理："我即是那。"我们不是落入大海而消失的水滴；每一个都是完整的、无限的大海，当从幻象的枷锁中释放时就会认识到这一点。无限不可分割，"不二的太一"不可能有第二个，一切都是那个太一。这种知识终将来到一切人面前，但我们应当努力现在就获得它，因为在获得它之前，我们无法真正给予人类最好的帮助。生解脱者（"活着的自由者"或认识者）才能给予真正的爱、真正的慈善、真正的真理，而唯有真理才能使我们自由。欲望使我们沦为奴隶，它是贪得无厌的暴君，不让其受害者有片刻安宁；但生解脱者已征服了一切欲望，因为他已上升到认识自己是那个"一"的境界，再没有什么可以渴求的了。
心灵将我们所有的幻象呈现在我们面前——身体、性别、信条、种姓、束缚；因此我们必须不断地向心灵宣说真理，直到它被迫认识到这一点。我们的真实本性是一切极乐，我们所知的一切快乐不过是我们触及真实本性时所获极乐的一个反映、一个微粒。那超越了快乐与痛苦。它是宇宙的"见证者"，是不变的阅读者，生命之书的页面在他面前翻转。
通过修行达到瑜伽，通过瑜伽获得知识，通过知识产生爱，通过爱获得极乐。
"我的"和"属于我的"是一种迷信；我们在其中生活了如此之久，以至于几乎不可能将它抖落。然而，如果我们想上升到最高境界，就必须摆脱它。我们必须明朗而快乐，愁眉苦脸不能成就宗教。宗教应当是世界上最令人喜悦的事情，因为它是最好的。苦行不能使我们神圣。一个爱神而纯洁的人为什么要悲伤呢？他应当像一个快乐的孩子，真正成为神的孩子。宗教的本质是使心灵纯净；天国在我们心中，但只有心灵纯净的人才能见到王。当我们思想着世界时，它对我们来说只是世界；但让我们带着世界即是神的感受来面对它，我们就会拥有神。这应当是我们对一切人和一切事物的态度——父母、子女、丈夫、妻子、朋友和敌人。想一想，如果我们能自觉地用神充满整个宇宙，它将会怎样改变整个宇宙！只见神！一切悲伤、一切挣扎、一切痛苦都将永远从我们身上消失！
智慧是"无信条的"，但这并不意味着它蔑视信条。它只意味着已经达到了一个超越信条的阶段。智慧瑜伽修行者不寻求毁灭，而是帮助一切。正如所有河流将其水流汇入大海而归于一，一切信条也应通向智慧而归于一。
一切事物的实在性依赖于梵，只有当我们真正把握了这一真理，我们才具有任何实在性。当我们不再看到任何差异时，我们便知道"我与父是一体"。
智慧在薄伽梵歌中由克里希纳非常清晰地教授。这部伟大的诗篇被认为是全部印度文学的王冠明珠。它是吠陀的一种注释。它向我们表明，我们为灵性而战的战斗必须在此生中进行；因此我们不可逃避生活，而要迫使它给予我们它所蕴含的一切。薄伽梵歌以战场为背景来象征这场追求更高事物的斗争，这在诗意上是极为恰当的。克里希纳化身为对立军队之一的统帅阿周那的车夫，劝告他不要悲伤，不要惧怕死亡，因为他知道自己是不朽的，一切变化的东西都不可能是人的真实本性。一章又一章，克里希纳向阿周那教授哲学与宗教的更高真理。正是这些教导使这部诗篇如此奇妙；几乎整个吠檀多哲学都包含在其中。吠陀教导说灵魂是无限的，丝毫不受身体死亡的影响。灵魂是一个圆，其圆周无处不在，而其圆心在某个身体中。死亡（所谓的）不过是圆心的转移。神是一个圆，其圆周无处不在，其圆心也无处不在，当我们能够走出身体这个狭小的圆心时，我们就将证悟神——我们的真我。
现在只是过去与未来之间的一条分界线；因此，说我们只关心现在是不合理的，因为脱离了过去和未来，现在没有独立的存在。这一切是一个完整的整体，时间的观念不过是我们理解形式所强加于我们的一个条件。
智慧教导应当放弃世界，但绝非因此而抛弃它。身在世间而不属于世间，这是出家人的真正考验。这种出离的观念以某种形式普遍存在于几乎所有宗教中。智慧要求我们平等看待一切，只见"同一性"。赞美与责备、善与恶，甚至冷与热，对我们来说都必须同样可以接受。在印度有许多圣人确实如此。他们在喜马拉雅山白雪覆盖的高峰上或灼热的沙漠中漫游，完全不着一物，而显然完全没有意识到温度的任何差异。
我们首先必须放弃对身体的这种迷信；我们不是身体。接下来必须去除的是我们是心灵的进一步迷信。我们不是心灵；它不过是"丝质的身体"，而非灵魂的任何部分。"身体"这个词，几乎应用于一切事物时，包含了所有身体中的某种共同之物。这就是存在。
我们的身体是其背后思想的符号，而思想本身又是其背后某种东西的符号，即我们灵魂之灵魂、宇宙之自我、我们生命之生命的唯一真实存在——我们的真我。只要我们相信自己与神有哪怕最微小的不同，恐惧就伴随着我们；但当我们认识到自己是那个"一"时，恐惧便消失了：我们还能害怕什么呢？智慧瑜伽修行者以纯粹意志的力量超越身体、超越心灵，使这个宇宙归零。如此他摧毁了无明（Avidya），认识了他的真我——真我。幸福与痛苦只在感官之中，它们无法触及我们的真我。灵魂超越时间、空间和因果——因此是无限的、遍在的。
智慧瑜伽修行者必须超越一切形式，超越一切规则和书本，成为他自己的书。被形式所束缚，我们就会僵化而死。但智慧瑜伽修行者绝不能谴责那些尚不能超越形式的人。他甚至不应想到另一个人时说："我比你更圣洁。"
以下是真正的智慧瑜伽修行者的标志：（一）他除了求知之外别无所求。（二）他的一切感官都处于完全的控制之下；他忍受一切而不抱怨，无论是以露天下的赤地为床，还是安居于国王的宫殿，他都同样满足。他不回避任何苦难，他站着承受——他已放弃了一切，只留下真我。（三）他知道除了那个"一"之外，一切都不真实。（四）他有着对自由的强烈渴望。他以坚强的意志，将心念集中于更高的事物，从而获得安宁。如果我们不知安宁，我们比禽兽又强到哪里去？他为他人做一切——为主——放弃一切工作的果实，不期望任何结果，无论在此世还是来世。宇宙能给我们什么超过我们自己灵魂的东西呢？拥有了灵魂，我们便拥有一切。吠陀教导说，真我或自我是唯一的、不可分割的存在。它超越心灵、记忆、思想，甚至超越我们所知的意识。万物由它而生。正是通过它（或因为它），我们才能看、听、感、想。宇宙的目标是证悟与唵或唯一存在的合一。智慧瑜伽修行者必须摆脱一切形式；他既不是印度教徒，也不是佛教徒，也不是基督徒，但他是这三者的全部。一切行为都被放弃了，奉献给了主；这样就没有任何行为有束缚的力量了。智慧瑜伽修行者是一个彻底的理性主义者；他否定一切。他日夜告诉自己："没有信仰，没有神圣的话语，没有天堂，没有地狱，没有信条，没有教会——只有真我。"当一切都被抛弃，直到达到不能被抛弃的东西时，那就是真我。智慧瑜伽修行者不把任何事视为理所当然；他通过纯粹的理性和意志力进行分析，直到达到涅槃——一切相对性的寂灭。对这种状态，任何描述甚至构想都是不可能的。智慧永远不应以任何世间结果来评判。不要像秃鹫那样，它几乎翱翔到视线之外，但一看到腐肉就随时准备俯冲而下。不要求治愈，不要求长寿，不要求繁荣，只求自由。
我们是"存在、知识、极乐"（萨特奇达南达）。存在是宇宙中最终的概括；因此我们存在，我们知道这一点；而极乐是纯净无杂的存在的自然结果。我们时而体验到至上极乐的瞬间，那时我们不求什么，不给什么，不知什么，只有极乐。然后它过去了，我们再次看到宇宙的全景在我们面前展开，我们知道它不过是"镶嵌在神之上的马赛克画，神是一切事物的背景"。当我们回到尘世，将绝对看作相对时，我们将萨特奇达南达看作三位一体——圣父、圣子、圣灵。萨特（Sat）= 创造原理；奇特（Chit）= 引导原理；阿南达（Ananda）= 实现原理，将我们重新与那个"一"结合。没有人能通过"知识"（奇特）之外的方式认识"存在"（萨特），因此耶稣所说的话具有力量：除非通过子，没有人能见到父。吠檀多教导说，涅槃在此时此地就可以证得，我们不必等到死后才能达到。涅槃是对真我的证悟，一旦认识到这一点，哪怕只是一个刹那，就再也不会被人格的幻象所迷惑。有了眼睛，我们必须看到表象；但我们始终知道它是什么，我们已经发现了它的真实本性。那是遮蔽真我的"屏幕"，真我是不变的。屏幕打开，我们在其后发现了真我——一切变化都在屏幕上。在圣人那里，屏幕是薄的，实在几乎可以透射出来；但在罪人那里，屏幕是厚的，我们容易忘记真我也同样存在于罪人的背后，正如存在于圣人的背后。
一切推理最终只能发现统一性；因此我们先用分析，再用综合。在科学的世界中，各种力量在寻求一个根本力量的过程中逐渐缩小。当物理科学能够完美地把握最终的统一时，它将达到终点，因为达到统一我们就找到了安息。知识是最终的。
宗教，一切科学中最珍贵的，很久以前就发现了这个最终的统一，达到它就是智慧瑜伽的目标。宇宙中只有一个自我，一切低级的自我不过是它的显现。然而，自我无限地超越其所有的显现。一切都是自我或梵。圣人、罪人、羔羊、老虎，甚至凶手，就其具有任何实在性而言，不可能是别的什么，因为没有别的什么存在。"存在的那个是一，圣贤们用不同的名称来称呼它。"没有什么比这种知识更高的了，在通过瑜伽净化了的人那里，它以闪光的方式进入灵魂。一个人通过瑜伽和冥想被净化和准备得越多，这些证悟的闪光就越清晰。这在四千年前就被发现了，但尚未成为整个人类的财产；它仍然只是某些个人的财产。
一切所谓的人，并非都是真正的人类。每个人都必须通过自己的心灵来判断这个世界。更高的理解是极其困难的。对大多数人来说，具体比抽象更容易接受。为了说明这一点，有一个关于孟买两个人的故事——一个是印度教徒，另一个是耆那教徒——他们在孟买一个富商家里下棋。房子靠近大海，棋局很长；坐在阳台上的棋手们注意到了下面潮水的涨落。其中一个人用一个传说来解释它，说众神在玩耍时把水扔进一个大坑里，然后又把它扔出来。另一个说：不对，众神把水拉到一座高山顶上来使用，用完后再把它扔下来。在场的一个年轻学生开始嘲笑他们，说："你们难道不知道月球的引力导致了潮汐吗？"听到这话，两人勃然大怒地转向他，质问他是否以为他们是傻瓜。他以为他们会相信月亮有什么绳子来拉动潮汐，或者它能够达到那么远吗？他们完全拒绝接受任何这样愚蠢的解释。正在此时，主人走进房间，双方都向他申诉。他是个受过教育的人，当然知道真相，但明显看到让棋手们理解真相是不可能的，他向学生做了个手势，然后给出了一个关于潮汐的解释，使他无知的听众非常满意。"你们要知道，"他告诉他们，"在远处的大海中央，有一座巨大的海绵山——你们都见过海绵，知道我说的是什么。这座海绵山吸收了大量的水，海水就落了；过了一阵子，众神下来在山上跳舞，他们的重量把所有的水都挤了出来，海水就又涨了。先生们，这就是潮汐的原因，你们可以很容易地自己看到这个解释是多么合理和简单。"那两个嘲笑月球引起潮汐的人，却觉得众神在海绵山上跳舞完全不可思议！众神对他们来说是真实的，他们也确实见过海绵；还有什么比它们共同作用于大海更可能的呢！
"舒适"不是真理的标准；恰恰相反，真理往往远非"舒适"。如果一个人真的想要找到真理，就不能依赖舒适。放下一切是困难的，但智慧瑜伽修行者必须这样做。他必须变得纯洁，消灭一切欲望，不再将自己与身体等同。只有那时，也只有那时，更高的真理才能在他的灵魂中闪耀。牺牲是必要的，而这种低级自我的献祭，正是使牺牲成为一切宗教组成部分的根本真理。所有献给众神的赎罪祭品，不过是人们模糊理解的那唯一有真正价值的牺牲的雏形——即放弃表面的自我，只有通过这种放弃，我们才能证悟更高的自我——真我。智慧瑜伽修行者不应试图保存身体，甚至不应有这样的愿望。他必须坚强，追随真理，即使宇宙崩塌。追随"时尚"的人永远做不到这一点。这是一生的工作，不，是一百辈子的工作！只有少数人敢于证悟内在的神，敢于放弃天堂、人格神和一切报酬的希望。要做到这一点，需要坚定的意志；即使犹豫不决也是巨大软弱的标志。人一直是完美的，否则他永远不可能变得完美；但他必须证悟到这一点。如果人受外在因素的束缚，他就只能是凡人。不朽只能属于无条件的存在。没有什么能作用于真我——这个观念是纯粹的幻象；但人必须将自己与真我认同，而非与身体或心灵认同。让他知道自己是宇宙的见证者，那么他就能欣赏在他面前展开的这幅奇妙全景之美。让他甚至告诉自己："我是宇宙，我是梵。"当人真正将自己与那个"一"——真我——认同时，一切对他都是可能的，一切物质都成为他的仆人。正如室利罗摩克里希纳所说：黄油搅出之后，放入水中或牛奶中都不会再混合；同样，人一旦证悟了真我，就再也不会被世间所污染。
"从气球上看，细微的差异都看不见了，因此当人上升到足够高时，他将看不到善人和恶人。""陶罐一旦烧成，就再也无法被重新塑形；同样，心灵一旦触及了主，并受过火的洗礼，就再也无法被改变。"梵语中的"哲学"意为"清晰的视野"，宗教就是实践哲学。纯粹理论的、思辨的哲学在印度并不太受重视。没有教会，没有信条，没有教条。两大分支是"二元论者"和"不二论者"。前者说："救赎之路在于神的恩典；因果律一旦启动，永远不能被打破；只有不受此律束缚的神，才能以其恩典帮助我们打破它。"后者说："在这一切自然背后有某种自由的东西；找到那超越一切法则的，就给我们带来自由；而自由就是救赎。"二元论只是一个阶段，不二论走向究竟。变得纯洁是通向自由的最短途径。只有我们赚得的才真正属于我们。没有任何权威能拯救我们，没有任何信仰。如果有一个神，一切人都能找到他。没有人需要被告知天气暖和；每个人都可以自己发现。神也应当如此。他应当是一切人意识中的事实。印度教徒不承认西方人所理解的"罪"。恶行不是"罪"，我们并非在冒犯某个统治者；我们只是在伤害自己，我们必须承受惩罚。把手指伸入火中不是罪，但这样做的人肯定会受苦，就如同它是罪一样。一切行为都产生一定的结果，"每一个行为都回到行为者身上"。"三位一体论"是"一位论"（即二元论，神与人永远分离）的进步。向上的第一步是当我们认识到自己是神的孩子；最后一步是当我们证悟自己是那个"一"——真我。
为什么不能有永恒的身体，这个问题本身就是不合逻辑的，因为"身体"是用于描述某种元素组合的术语，它是可变的，本质上就是无常的。当我们不再经历变化时，我们就不会有（所谓的）身体。超出时间、空间和因果限制的"物质"将根本不是物质。时间和空间只存在于我们之中，我们是唯一的永恒存在。一切形式都是暂时的，这就是为什么所有宗教都说"神没有形相"。弥兰陀是一位希腊-巴克特里亚国王。他大约在公元前150年被一位佛教传教僧侣感化而皈依佛教，僧侣们称他为"弥兰陀"。他问一位年轻僧侣，即他的老师："一个完人（如佛陀）会犯错或出差错吗？"年轻僧侣的回答是：完人对于他未曾经历的细微事物可以保持无知，但对于他的洞见实际证悟到的东西，他永远不会出错。他此时此地就是完美的。他知道整个奥秘、宇宙的本质，但他可能不知道那个本质在时间和空间中显现的纯粹外在变化。他知道粘土本身，但没有经历过它可能被制成的每一种形状。完人知道灵魂本身，但不知道灵魂显现的每一种形式和组合。他要获得更多的相对知识，就像我们一样，尽管由于他巨大的力量，他学得会快得多。
一个完全受控的心灵所发出的巨大"探照灯"，当投射到任何对象上时，会迅速将其纳入掌握。理解这一点非常重要，因为它省去了许多关于佛陀或耶稣如何可能在普通的相对知识上犯错的愚蠢解释——我们清楚地知道他们确实如此。弟子们不应被责备为错误地记录了言论。说他们记述中某些东西是真的而另一些是假的，这是胡说。接受整个记述，或者拒绝它。我们怎能从中挑选出真的和假的呢？
如果一件事发生过一次，它就能再次发生。如果任何人曾经证悟了完美，我们也能做到。如果我们不能在此时此地变得完美，那么在我们可以想象的任何状态、天堂或条件中，我们也永远不能。如果耶稣基督不是完美的，那么以他名字命名的宗教就会土崩瓦解。如果他是完美的，那么我们也能变得完美。完人不像我们所理解的那样推理或"知道"，因为我们所有的知识都只是比较，而在绝对中没有比较、没有分类的可能。本能比理性更不容易出错，但理性更高，并通向直觉，直觉更高。知识是直觉的父母，直觉像本能一样也是无误的，但在更高的层面上。生命存在的三个层级的显现是：（一）潜意识——机械的、无误的；（二）意识——知道的、会犯错的；（三）超意识——直觉的、无误的；这些分别以动物、人和神来说明。对于已经变得完美的人来说，剩下的只是运用他的理解。他活着只是为了帮助世界，对自己一无所求。区分事物的是消极面——积极面是越来越广阔的。我们共有的是最广阔的，那就是"存在"。
"法则是解释一系列现象的心理速记"；但法则作为实体，可以这样说，并不存在。我们使用这个词来表达现象世界中某些事件的有规律的连续。我们不能让法则变成一种迷信，一种不可避免的、我们必须服从的东西。错误必然伴随理性，但征服错误的努力本身使我们成为神。疾病是自然抛出某种错误东西的挣扎；同样，罪是我们内在的神性抛弃动物性的挣扎。我们必须"犯罪"（即犯错误），才能上升到神性。
不要怜悯任何人。把所有人都视为你的平等者，清除不平等这一原罪。我们都是平等的，不应想着"我是好的，你是坏的，我在试图拯救你"。平等是自由者的标志。耶稣来到税吏和罪人中间，与他们同住。他从未把自己放在高台之上。只有罪人才看到罪。不要看见人，只看见主。我们制造自己的天堂，即使在地狱中也能创造天堂。罪人只存在于地狱中，只要我们看到他们在我们周围，我们自己就在那里。灵不在时间中，也不在空间中。证悟"我是绝对的存在，绝对的知识，绝对的极乐——我即是那，我即是那"。在生时欢喜，在死时欢喜，永远欢喜于神的爱中。摆脱身体的束缚吧；我们已成了它的奴隶，学会了拥抱我们的锁链，爱上了我们的奴役；以至于我们渴望使它永存，不断地说"身体""身体"，直到永远。不要执着于"身体"的观念，不要寻求任何像今生这样的来世存在；不要爱或想要身体，即使是我们所爱之人的身体。此生是我们的老师，而死亡只是为重新开始腾出空间。身体是我们的教导者，但自杀是愚蠢的，那只是杀死了"教导者"。另一个会取而代之。因此，在我们学会超越身体之前，我们必须拥有它，失去一个就会得到另一个。然而我们不应将自己与身体等同，而应仅仅将其视为达到完美的工具。哈努曼（Hanuman），罗摩的信徒，用这些话概括了他的哲学：当我将自己等同于身体时，主啊，我是你的造物，永远与你分离。当我将自己等同于灵魂时，我是你所是的神圣之火的一个火花。但当我将自己等同于真我时，我与你是一体。
因此，智慧瑜伽修行者努力证悟真我，别无他求。
思想至关重要，因为"我们想什么就成为什么"。从前有一个出家人，一个圣者，坐在一棵树下教导人民。他喝牛奶，只吃水果，做无数的调息（Pranayama），自觉非常圣洁。在同一个村庄里住着一个罪恶的女人。每天这个出家人都去警告她，她的邪恶将带她下地狱。那可怜的女人无法改变她的生活方式——那是她唯一的谋生手段——但仍然深受出家人所描绘的可怕前景的触动。她流泪向主祈祷，乞求他原谅她，因为她无能为力。不久，圣者和那罪恶的女人都死了。天使们来了，把她带到了天堂，而恶魔们来索取出家人的灵魂。"这是为什么！"他惊叫道，"我不是过着最圣洁的生活，向所有人宣讲圣洁吗？为什么这个邪恶的女人被带到天堂，而我却要被带到地狱？""因为，"恶魔们回答说，"她虽然被迫做不圣洁的行为，但她的心念始终专注于主，她寻求解脱，现在解脱已经来到她面前。但你，恰恰相反，虽然你只做圣洁的行为，但你的心念始终关注他人的邪恶。你只看到罪，只想着罪，所以现在你必须去那个只有罪的地方。"这个故事的寓意是显而易见的：外在的生活无关紧要。心灵必须纯净，纯净的心灵只看到善，从不看到恶。我们永远不应试图充当人类的守护者，或站在高台上做改造罪人的圣人。让我们宁可净化自己，其结果必然是在这样做的过程中我们也帮助了他人。
物理学两端都以形而上学为界。理性也是如此——它始于非理性，终于非理性。如果我们在感知的世界中将探究推得足够远，我们必定会到达一个超越感知的层面。理性实际上是由记忆保存的、经过储存和分类的感知。我们永远不能想象或推理超出我们感官感知的范围。超越理性的东西不可能是感官知识的对象。我们感到理性的有限性，但它确实将我们带到一个层面，在那里我们瞥见超越之物。于是问题出现了：人是否有一种超越理性的工具？人很可能有一种达到理性之外的力量；事实上，各个时代的圣者都断言他们自身拥有这种力量。但在事物的本质上，将灵性观念和感悟翻译为理性的语言是不可能的；而这些圣者，每一个，都宣称无法表达他们的灵性体验。语言当然无法提供词汇来表达它们，因此只能断言这些是真实的体验，人人都能拥有。只有通过那种方式它们才能被知晓，但永远无法被描述。宗教是通过人内在的超越来学习自然中的超越的科学。我们对人的了解尚少，因此对宇宙的了解也少。当我们更多地了解人时，我们可能会更多地了解宇宙。人是万物的缩影，一切知识都在他之中。我们只能对进入感官感知的那无穷小部分的宇宙找到理由；我们永远不能为任何基本原理给出理由。为一件事给出理由，不过是将它分类并放入心灵的格子中。当我们遇到一个新事实时，我们立即努力将其放入某个已有的类别中，这种尝试就是理性。当我们成功地安置了这个事实，它给人一定程度的满足，但在这种分类中我们永远不能超越物质层面。人能够超越感官的限制，这是一切过去时代的有力见证。奥义书在五千年前就说过，对神的证悟永远不可能通过感官获得。到此为止，现代不可知论是同意的，但吠陀超越了消极面，以最明白的语言断言人能够而且确实超越这个受感官束缚的、冰冻的宇宙。他可以说是在冰上找到一个洞，穿过它到达整个生命的海洋。只有如此超越感官的世界，他才能达到他的真我，证悟他真正是什么。
智慧从来不是感官知识。我们不能认识梵，但我们就是梵，是它的全部，而非一部分。不可延展的东西永远不可分割。表面的多样性不过是在时间和空间中看到的反映，就像我们看到太阳映照在百万露珠中，尽管我们知道太阳本身是一个而非许多。在智慧中，我们必须忽略多样性，只看到统一。在这里没有主体，没有客体，没有认知，没有你、他或我，只有那个唯一的、绝对的统一。我们一直就是这个；一旦自由，永远自由。人不受因果律的束缚。痛苦和苦难不在人之中，它们不过像飘过太阳的乌云投下的阴影，但乌云过去了，太阳不变；人也是如此。他不生，他不死，他不在时间和空间中。这些观念只是心灵的反映，但我们把它们误认为实在，从而忽略了它们所遮蔽的光辉真理。时间只是我们思维的方式，但我们是永恒的现在时。善与恶的存在只是相对于我们。二者不能有一方而无另一方，因为离开另一方，任何一方都没有意义或存在。只要我们承认二元性，或将神与人分开，我们就必须看到善与恶。只有走向中心，使自己与神合一，我们才能逃脱感官的幻象。当我们放下欲望的永恒热病，那不给我们安宁的无尽渴求，当我们永远熄灭了欲望，我们就将超越善与恶，因为我们已经超越了二者。欲望的满足只会增加欲望，就像往火上浇油只会使它烧得更旺。离中心越远，轮子转得越快，安宁越少。靠近中心，遏制欲望，消灭它，让虚假的自我消失，那时我们的视野将变得清晰，我们将看见神。只有通过放弃此生和一切来世（天堂等等），我们才能到达稳固站立于真我之上的境地。只要我们还寄希望于什么，欲望就仍然统治着我们。有一刻真正地"无望"吧，迷雾就会散去。因为当一个人是存在的全部时，还有什么可以希望的呢？智慧的秘密是放弃一切，自足于自身。说"不是"，你就变成"不是"；说"是"，你就变成"是"。崇拜内在的自我，别无他物存在。束缚我们的一切都是摩耶——幻象。
真我是宇宙中一切的条件，但它本身永远不受条件制约。一旦我们知道我们就是它，我们就自由了。作为凡人，我们不是也永远不可能自由。自由的凡人是一个自相矛盾的说法，因为凡人意味着变化，而只有不变的才能自由。真我独自是自由的，这就是我们的真实本质。我们感到这种内在的自由；不顾一切理论、一切信仰，我们知道它，每一个行为都证明我们知道它。意志不是自由的，其表面的自由不过是真实的反映。如果世界只是一条无尽的因果链条，人站在哪里来帮助它呢？必须有一块干地让拯救者站立，否则他怎能把人从急流中拖出来救他免于溺亡呢？即使那个喊着"我是一条虫"的狂热者，也认为自己正在成为圣人的路上。他甚至在虫中也看到了圣人。
人生有两个目的或目标——真知（辨识智，Vijnana）和极乐。没有自由，这两者都不可能。它们是一切生命的试金石。我们应当如此强烈地感受到永恒的统一，以至于我们应为一切罪人而哭泣，因为知道是我们在犯罪。永恒的法则是自我牺牲，而非自我主张。当一切为一时，有什么自我可以主张呢？没有"权利"，一切都是爱。耶稣所教导的伟大真理从未被真正实践过。让我们试试他的方法，看看世界是否不会得救。相反的方法已几乎毁灭了世界。只有无私，而非自私，才能解决问题。"权利"的观念是一种局限；真正没有"我的"和"你的"，因为我即是你，你即是我。我们有"责任"，而非"权利"。我们应当说"我是宇宙"，而非"我是约翰"或"我是玛丽"。这些局限都是幻象，正是它们把我们束缚在枷锁中，因为一旦我想"我是约翰"，我就想独占某些东西，开始说"我的"和"属于我的"，并在这样做时不断制造新的区分。所以我们的束缚随着每一个新的区分而不断增加，我们离那个中心的统一——那不可分割的无限——越来越远。只有一个个体，我们每个人都是那个。唯有合一才是爱与无畏；分离导致仇恨与恐惧。合一圆满了法则。在这尘世上，我们努力圈起小小的空间并排斥外人，但我们在天空中做不到这一点，尽管宗派宗教在试图这样做时说："只有这条路通向救赎，其余都是错误的。"我们的目标应当是抹去这些小围栏，扩大边界直到它们消失于视野之外，并认识到一切宗教都通向神。这个渺小的可怜自我必须被牺牲。这就是受洗进入新生命所象征的真理——旧人的死亡，新人的诞生——虚假自我的消亡，真我的证悟，宇宙唯一自我的证悟。
吠陀有两大部分：业行篇——关于行动或工作的部分，和智慧篇——关于认知、真知识的部分。在吠陀中，我们可以找到宗教观念成长的完整过程。这是因为当达到更高的真理时，导向它的较低认知仍然被保存了下来。这样做是因为圣贤们认识到，创世是永恒的，总会有人需要通向知识的初始步骤，而最高的哲学虽然向一切人开放，但永远不可能被一切人掌握。在几乎所有其他宗教中，只有对真理的最终或最高证悟被保留了下来，其自然结果是较早的观念丢失了，而较新的只有少数人理解，并逐渐对多数人失去了意义。我们看到这一结果体现在对旧传统和权威日益增长的反叛中。
现代人不是接受它们，而是大胆地挑战它们，要求它们给出理由来支持其主张，阐明它们要求被接受的根据。基督教中许多东西不过是对古老异教信仰和习俗赋予了新的名称和含义。如果旧的来源被保存下来，过渡的原因被充分解释，许多事情就会更加清楚。吠陀保存了旧的观念，这一事实需要大量的注释来解释它们以及保留它们的原因。它也导致了许多迷信，因为在意义已经完全丧失之后仍然固守旧的形式。在许多仪式中，人们重复着从现已被遗忘的语言中留存下来的词语，现在已无法赋予这些词语任何真实的含义。进化的观念在基督纪元很久以前就存在于吠陀中；但在达尔文说它是真的之前，它被视为仅仅是印度教的迷信。
一切外在的祈祷和崇拜形式都包含在业行篇中。如果以无私的精神进行，不让它退化为纯粹的形式主义，这些都是好的。它们净化心灵。行动瑜伽修行者希望所有人都在自己之前得救。他唯一的救赎就是帮助他人得到救赎。"为克里希纳的仆人服务是最高的崇拜。"有一位伟大的圣人祈祷说："让我带着全世界的罪去地狱，但让世界得救吧。"这种真正的崇拜导向强烈的自我牺牲。据说有一位圣贤愿意将他所有的美德给予他的狗，让它上天堂，因为它长久以来忠于他，而他自己甘心下地狱。
智慧篇教导说只有知识才能拯救，换言之，人必须成为"因智慧而得救"。知识首先是客观的，认知者认识其自身。真我，唯一的主体，在显现中只寻求认识自身。镜子越好，反映就越好；因此人是最好的镜子，人越纯洁，就能越清晰地反映神。人犯了一个错误，把自己与神分离，将自己与身体等同。这个错误由摩耶而起，摩耶不完全是幻觉，但可以说是把真实看成了别的什么，而非其本来面目。这种将我们自己与身体等同导致了不平等，不平等不可避免地导致斗争和嫉妒，只要我们看到不平等，就永远不能知道幸福。"无知和不平等是一切苦难的两个根源"，智慧如此说。
当人被世间充分磨砺之后，他就觉醒了对自由的渴望；在寻求从尘世存在的沉闷轮回中解脱的途径时，他追求知识，认识到自己真正是什么，于是获得了自由。此后他把世界看作一台巨大的机器，但小心翼翼地不让自己的手指伸入齿轮之中。对于自由者来说，义务不复存在；有什么力量能约束自由的存在呢？他行善，因为那是他的本性，而不是因为某种虚构的义务命令他如此。这并不适用于那些仍被感官束缚的人。只有超越了低级自我的人，才拥有这种自由。他立于自己的灵魂之上，不服从任何法则；他是自由的、完美的。他已解除了旧的迷信，走出了轮回。自然不过是我们自身的镜子。人的工作能力是有限的，但欲望是无限的；因此我们努力掌握他人的工作能力，享受他人劳动的果实，自己逃避工作。发明机器为我们工作永远不能增加福祉，因为在满足欲望的过程中，我们只是发现了欲望，然后我们无止境地想要更多更多。死时仍然充满未满足的欲望，我们不得不一次又一次地投生，徒劳地寻求满足。
"在获得人身之前，我们已经历了八百万个身体"，印度教徒如此说。智慧说："杀死欲望来摆脱它。"那是唯一的方法。抛弃一切因果，证悟真我。只有自由才能产生真正的道德。如果只有一条无尽的因果链条，涅槃就不可能存在。涅槃是被这条链条束缚的表面自我的寂灭。这就是构成自由的东西——超越因果。
我们的真实本性是善的，是自由的，是纯粹的存在，永远不会也不能做错。当我们用眼睛和心灵去读神时，我们称他为这个或那个；但实际上只有一个，所有的变化都是我们对那个"一"的诠释。我们变成虚无；我们重获了真我。佛陀将苦难总结为"无明和种姓"（不平等）的产物，这一总结被吠檀多学者所采纳，因为这是有史以来最好的总结。它展现了这位人类中最伟大者的惊人洞察力。让我们勇敢而真诚吧：无论我们以虔诚之心追随哪条道路，都必定将我们引向自由。只要抓住链条上的一个环节，整条链条最终必须跟着来。浇灌树根，整棵树都得到了浇灌。逐片浇灌每片树叶是没有多大好处的。换言之，寻求主，得到了他，我们就得到了一切。教会、教义、形式——这些不过是保护宗教嫩苗的篱笆；但后来它们都必须被拆除，让小苗长成大树。各种宗教派别、圣经、吠陀和经典，也只是小苗的"花盆"；但它必须走出花盆，充满世界。
我们必须学会像在太阳中、在星辰中一样感受自己的存在。灵超越一切时间和空间；每一双看见的眼睛都是我的眼睛；每一张赞美主的嘴都是我的嘴；每一个罪人都是我。我们不被限制在任何地方，我们不是身体。宇宙是我们的身体。我们只是反映一切的纯净水晶，但自身永远如一。我们是挥舞魔杖、随意在面前创造场景的魔术师，但我们必须深入表象之后，认识真我。这个世界就像水壶中的水，开始沸腾；先出现一个气泡，然后另一个，接着许多个，直到全部沸腾，最后化为蒸汽消散。伟大的导师就像气泡刚开始时——这里一个，那里一个；但到最后，每一个生灵都必须成为一个气泡而逃离。创造，永远更新，将带来新的水，再次经历整个过程。佛陀和基督是世界所知的两个最伟大的"气泡"。他们是伟大的灵魂，证悟了自由之后帮助他人逃离。两人都不是完美的，但应以他们的美德来评判他们，而绝非以他们的缺陷。耶稣有所不足，因为他并不总是达到他自己最高的理想；尤其是因为他没有给予女性与男性平等的地位。女性为他做了一切，然而没有一个被立为使徒。这无疑是由于他的闪米特血统。伟大的雅利安人，佛陀是其中之一，总是给予女性与男性平等的地位。对他们来说，宗教中不存在性别之分。在吠陀和奥义书中，女性教授最高的真理，并受到与男性同样的尊崇。
幸福和痛苦都是锁链，一个是金的，另一个是铁的；但两者同样有力地束缚我们，阻止我们证悟我们的真实本性。真我既不知幸福也不知痛苦。这些只是"状态"，而状态必须不断变化。灵魂的本性是极乐与安宁，不变的。我们不必去获得它；我们已经拥有它；让我们洗去遮蔽双眼的尘垢来看见它。我们必须始终立于真我之上，以完全的平静观看在我们面前展开的世界的全景。这不过是孩童的游戏，永远不应打扰我们。如果心灵因赞美而悦，就会因责备而痛。一切感官甚至心灵的快乐都是短暂的，但在我们内部有唯一真实的、不依赖外在任何事物的纯粹快乐。"自我的快乐就是世界所称的宗教。"我们的极乐越是内在的，我们就越是灵性的。让我们不要依赖世界来获得快乐。
一些贫穷的渔妇被一场猛烈的暴风雨所困，在一个富人的花园中找到了庇护。他仁慈地接待了她们，给她们食物，让她们在一间夏屋中休息，四周是精美的花卉，浓郁的芬芳弥漫在空气中。女人们在这芳香的天堂中躺下，却无法入睡。她们的生活中缺少了什么，没有它就无法快乐。最后，其中一个女人起身走到她们放鱼篮的地方，把鱼篮带到了夏屋里，然后在熟悉的气味中再次感到幸福，她们很快都沉沉睡去了。
不要让世界成为我们依赖以获取快乐的"鱼篮"。这是多摩（Tamas），即被三种品质（或古纳，Guna）中最低的所束缚。更高一层的是总是谈论"我"、"我"的自我中心者。他们有时做善事，也可能变得灵性。这些是罗阇（Rajasika），即活跃的。最高的是内省的本性（萨埵，Sattvika），只活在真我之中的人。这三种品质以不同的比例存在于每个人之中，不同的品质在不同的时间占主导地位。我们必须努力以罗阇克服多摩，然后将两者都融入萨埵。
创造不是"制造"什么东西，它是恢复平衡的挣扎，就像软木碎片被扔到一桶水的底部：它们单个或成群地冲向水面，当所有的都到达水面、平衡恢复时，一切运动或"生命"就停止了。创造也是如此；如果达到了平衡，一切变化就会停止，所谓的生命就会终结。生命必须伴随着恶，因为当平衡恢复时，世界必须终结，因为同一性和毁灭是一回事。在没有痛苦的情况下获得快乐，或在没有恶的情况下获得善，是不可能的，因为生活本身就是失去的平衡。我们想要的是自由，而不是生命，不是快乐，不是善。创造是永恒的，无始无终，是无限湖泊中永远运动的涟漪。还有未被触及的深处，也有已恢复宁静的地方，但涟漪在不断推进，恢复平衡的挣扎是永恒的。生与死不过是同一事实的不同名称，它们是同一枚硬币的两面。两者都是摩耶，那种不可解释的状态——在一个时刻努力求生，下一个时刻就要死去。在这一切之外的是真实本性——真我。我们进入创造，于是对我们来说，它就成了生活。事物本身是死的，只有我们赋予它们生命，然后像傻瓜一样转过身来害怕它们或享受它们！世界既非真也非非真，它是真理的影子。
"想象是真理的镀金之影"，诗人如此说。内在的宇宙——真实的——无限地大于外在的宇宙，后者不过是真实宇宙的暗影投射。当我们看见"绳子"时，我们看不见"蛇"，当"蛇"在时，"绳子"不在。两者不能同时存在；因此当我们看到世界时，我们没有证悟真我，它只是一个智识概念。在证悟梵时，个人的"我"和一切世界感都消失了。光不知黑暗，因为黑暗在光中没有存在；因此梵是一切。当我们承认一位神时，实际上只是我们从自身分离出来的真我，当作外在的来崇拜；但自始至终它都是我们自己的真我，唯一的神。野兽的本性是停留在原地，人的本性是趋善避恶，神的本性是既不趋也不避，只是永恒地极乐。让我们成为神，让我们的心像大海一样，超越世间一切琐事，只将其视为一幅画。那时我们可以欣赏它而不以任何方式受其影响。为什么要在世间寻找善呢，我们能在那里找到什么？它所能提供的最好的东西，也不过像是在泥坑中玩耍的孩子找到了几颗玻璃珠。他们又失去了它们，不得不重新开始搜寻。无限的力量就是宗教和神。我们只有在自由时才是灵魂，只有在自由时才有不朽，只有在他自由时才有神。
在我们放弃由自我制造的世界之前，我们永远不能进入天国。没有人曾经做到过，也没有人将会做到。放弃世界就是完全忘记自我，根本不知道它的存在，活在身体中但不被身体统治。这个无赖的自我必须被消灭。帮助人类的力量在于沉默者，他们只是活着、爱着，并完全收回自己的人格。他们从不说"我"或"我的"，他们只是幸运地成为帮助他人的工具。他们完全与神认同，不求任何，也不自觉地做任何事。他们是真正的生解脱者——绝对无私，他们渺小的人格已被完全吹散，野心不复存在。他们全是原则，没有人格。我们越是沉没"小我"，神就越多地到来。让我们摆脱小"我"，让只有大"我"活在我们之中。当我们没有一丝自我之念时，我们的工作最好，我们的影响力最大。正是"无欲者"带来伟大的成就。当人们辱骂你时，祝福他们。想想他们在帮助消灭虚假的自我方面做了多大的好事。紧紧持守真实的自我，只想纯净的思想，你将比一个团的说教者完成更多。从纯净与宁静中发出力量之言。
表达必然是退化，因为灵只能通过"文字"来表达，正如圣保罗所说："文字是杀人的。"生命不可能在"文字"中，文字只是反映。然而，原则必须穿上物质的外衣才能被"认知"。我们在外衣中忽略了真实，转而将外衣视为真实，而非将其视为符号。这几乎是一个普遍的错误。每一位伟大的导师都知道这一点并试图防范；但整体而言，人类倾向于崇拜可见的而非不可见的。这就是为什么一系列先知来到世间，一次又一次地指出人格背后的原则，并给予它一个适合时代的新外衣。真理永恒不变，但它只能以"形式"呈现；因此，随着人类进步使其准备好接受，不时会给予真理一个新的"形式"或表达。当我们从名相中解脱，特别是当我们不再需要任何身体——无论善恶、粗细——时，我们才能逃脱束缚。"永恒的进步"将是永恒的束缚。我们必须超越一切差异，达到永恒的"同一性"或同质性或梵。真我是一切人格的统一体，是不变的，"不二的太一"。它不是生命，但它被铸成了生命。它超越生死、善恶。它是绝对的统一。敢于穿越地狱去寻求真理。自由永远不可能属于名相、属于相对之物。没有任何形式可以说"作为一个形式，我是自由的"。直到一切形式的观念都消失了，自由才到来。如果我们的自由伤害了他人，我们在那里就不自由。我们不能伤害他人。真实的感知只有一个，而相对的感知必然是多个。一切知识的源泉在我们每个人之中——在蚂蚁之中，也在最高的天使之中。真正的宗教只有一个；一切争执都在于形式、符号和"说明"。千禧年对于发现它的人已经存在。真相是我们迷失了自己，以为世界迷失了。"愚者啊！你不曾听见吗？在你自己的心中，日日夜夜唱着那永恒的音乐——萨特奇达南达，我即是那，我即是那（存在、知识与极乐，我即是那，我即是那）！"
试图不借助心象来思考，就是试图使不可能的事成为可能。每一个思想都有两个部分——思维和词语，我们必须兼有二者。唯心论者和唯物论者都无法解释世界；要做到这一点，我们必须同时取用观念和表达。一切知识都是关于反映的，因为我们只能在镜子中看见自己的面孔。因此没有人能认识他的真我或梵；但每个人就是那个真我，必须看到它的反映才能使之成为知识的对象。这种看到不可见原则的图像就是导致所谓偶像崇拜的原因。偶像的范围比通常设想的要广。从木头和石头到耶稣或佛陀这样伟大的人物都是偶像。偶像引入印度是佛陀不断反对人格神的结果。吠陀不认识偶像，但对失去作为创造者和朋友的神的反动导致了将伟大的导师制成偶像，佛陀自己也成为了偶像，被数百万人当作偶像来崇拜。激烈的改革尝试总是以阻碍真正的改革而告终。崇拜是每个人本性中固有的；只有最高的哲学才能上升到纯粹的抽象。因此人总是会将他的神人格化以便崇拜。这是很好的，只要那个符号，无论它是什么，是作为其背后神性的象征来崇拜的，而非本身就是目的。最重要的是，我们需要从"因为书上这样说"就相信的迷信中解脱出来。试图让一切——科学、宗教、哲学和一切——都符合某本书的说法，这是最可怕的暴政。书本崇拜是最糟糕的偶像崇拜。从前有一只雄鹿，骄傲而自由，它以威严的口吻对它的孩子说："看看我，看我强壮的鹿角！一下我就能杀死一个人；做一只雄鹿多好啊！"正在此时，远处传来了猎人的号角声，那只雄鹿仓皇逃窜，它疑惑的孩子跟在后面。当它们到达一个安全的地方时，孩子问道："父亲啊，你如此强壮勇猛，为什么要在人面前逃跑呢？"雄鹿回答说："孩子，我知道我强壮有力，但当我听到那个声音时，有什么东西抓住了我，不管我愿不愿意都迫使我逃跑。"我们也是如此。我们听到书中规定的法律的"号角声"，习惯和旧迷信抓住了我们；不知不觉中，我们就被紧紧束缚，忘记了我们的真实本性——自由。
知识是永恒存在的。发现灵性真理的人就是我们所说的"受到启示的人"，他带给世界的就是启示。但启示也是永恒的，不应被固化为最终的东西然后盲目追随。启示可以来到任何已使自己准备好接受它的人。完全的纯洁是最根本的，因为只有"清心的人才能见到神"。人是存在的最高生灵，这是最伟大的世界，因为在这里人可以证悟自由。我们对神所能具有的最高概念就是人。我们赋予神的每一个属性也属于人，只是程度较低。当我们上升更高，想要走出这个关于神的概念时，我们必须走出身体，走出心灵和想象，让这个世界从视野中消失。当我们上升到绝对时，我们不再在世界之中——一切都是主体，没有客体。
人是我们所能认知的唯一"世界"的顶点。那些达到"同一性"或完美的人，被称为"活在神之中"。一切仇恨都是"自我杀害自我"；因此，爱是生命的法则。上升到这一境界就是完美；但我们越"完美"，我们能做的工作就越少。萨埵者看到并知道这整个世界不过是儿戏，不会为此而烦恼。当我们看到两只小狗打架咬架时，我们并不太在意。我们知道这不是什么严重的事。完美者知道这个世界是摩耶。生命被称为轮回——它是作用于我们的冲突力量的结果。唯物主义说："自由的声音是一种幻觉。"唯心主义说："告诉我们束缚的声音不过是一场梦。"吠檀多说："我们既是自由的又不是自由的。"这意味着我们在世间层面上永远不自由，但在灵性层面上永远自由。真我超越自由与束缚。我们是梵，我们是超越感官的不朽知识，我们是绝对的极乐。
## 参考文献
English
Om Tat Sat! To know the Om is to know the secret of the universe. The object of Jnana - Yoga is the same as that of Bhakti and Raja Yogas, but the method is different. This is the Yoga for the strong, for those who are neither mystical nor devotional, but rational. As the Bhakti - Yogi works his way to complete oneness with the Supreme through love and devotion, so the Jnana - yogi forces his way to the realisation of God by the power of pure reason. He must be prepared to throw away all old idols, all old beliefs and superstitions, all desire for this world or another, and be determined only to find freedom. Without Jnana (knowledge) liberation cannot be ours. It consists in knowing what we really are, that we are beyond fear, beyond birth, beyond death. The highest good is the realisation of the Self. It is beyond sense, beyond thought. The real "I" cannot be grasped. It is the eternal subject and can never become the object of knowledge, because knowledge is only of the related, not of the Absolute. All sense - knowledge is limitation, it is an endless chain of cause and effect. This world is a relative world, a shadow of the real; still, being the plane of equipoise where happiness and misery are about evenly balanced, it is the only plane where man can realise his true Self and know that he is Brahman.
This world is "the evolution of nature and the manifestation of God". It is our interpretation of Brahman or the Absolute, seen through the veil of Maya or appearance. The world is not zero, it has a certain reality; it only appears because Brahman is .
How shall we know the knower? The Vedanta says, "We are It, but can never know It, because It can never become the object of knowledge." Modern science also says that It cannot be known. We can, however, have glimpses of It from time to time. When the delusion of this world is once broken, it will come back to us, but no longer will it hold any reality for us. We shall know it as a mirage. To reach behind the mirage is the aim of all religions. That man and God are one is the constant teaching of the Vedas, but only few are able to penetrate behind the veil and reach the realisation of this truth.
The first thing to be got rid of by him who would be a Jnani is fear. Fear is one of our worst enemies. Next, believe in nothing until you know it. Constantly tell yourself, "I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not thought, I am not even consciousness; I am the Atman." When you can throw away all, only the true Self will remain. The Jnani's meditation is of two sorts: (1) to deny and think away everything we are not; (2) to insist upon what we really are -- the Atman, the One Self -- existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. The true rationalist must go on and fearlessly follow his reason to its farthest limits. It will not answer to stop anywhere on the road. When we begin to deny, all must go until we reach what cannot be thrown away or denied, which is the real "I". That "I" is the witness of the universe, it is unchangeable, eternal, infinite. Now, layer after layer of ignorance covers it from our eyes, but it remains ever the same.
Two birds sat on one tree. The bird at the top was calm, majestic, beautiful, perfect. The lower bird was always hopping from twig to twig, now eating sweet fruits and being happy, now eating bitter fruits and being miserable. One day, when he had eaten a fruit more bitter than usual, he glanced up at the calm majestic upper bird and thought, "How I would like to be like him!" and he hopped up a little way towards him. Soon he forgot all about his desire to be like the upper bird, and went on as before, eating sweet and bitter fruits and being happy and miserable. Again he looked up, again he went up a little nearer to the calm and majestic upper bird. Many times was this repeated until at last he drew very near the upper bird; the brilliancy of his plumage dazzled him, seemed to absorb him, and finally, to his wonder and surprise, he found there was only one bird -- he was the upper bird all the time and had but just found it out. Man is like that lower bird, but if he perseveres in his efforts to rise to the highest ideal he can conceive of, he too will find that he was the Self all the time and the other was but a dream. To separate ourselves utterly from matter and all belief in its reality is true Jnana. The Jnani must keep ever in his mind the "Om Tat Sat", that is, Om the only real existence. Abstract unity is the foundation of Jnana - yoga. This is called Advaitism ("without dualism or dvaitism"). This is the corner - stone of the Vedanta philosophy, the Alpha and the Omega. "Brahman alone is true, all else is false and I am Brahman." Only by telling ourselves this until we make it a part of our very being, can we rise beyond all duality, beyond both good and evil, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, and know ourselves as the One, eternal, unchanging, infinite -- the "One without a second".
The Jnana - yogi must be as intense as the narrowest sectarian, yet as broad as the heavens. He must absolutely control his mind, be able to be a Buddhist or a Christian, to have the power to consciously divide himself into all these different ideas and yet hold fast to the eternal harmony. Constant drill alone can enable us to get this control. All variations are in the One, but we must learn not to identify ourselves with what we do, and to hear nothing, see nothing, talk of nothing but the thing in hand. We must put in our whole soul and be intense. Day and night tell yourself, "I am He, I am He."
The greatest teacher of the Vedanta philosophy was Shankaracharya. By solid reasoning he extracted from the Vedas the truths of Vedanta, and on them built up the wonderful system of Jnana that is taught in his commentaries. He unified all the conflicting descriptions of Brahman and showed that there is only one Infinite Reality. He showed too that as man can only travel slowly on the upward road, all the varied presentations are needed to suit his varying capacity. We find something akin to this in the teachings of Jesus, which he evidently adapted to the different abilities of his hearers. First he taught them of a Father in heaven and to pray to Him. Next he rose a step higher and told them, "I am the vine, you are the branches", and lastly he gave them the highest truth: "I and my Father are one", and "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." Shankara taught that three things were the great gifts of God: (1) human body, (2) thirst after God, and (3) a teacher who can show us the light. When these three great gifts are ours, we may know that our redemption is at hand. Only knowledge can free and save us, but with knowledge must go virtue.
The essence of Vedanta is that there is but one Being and that every soul is that Being in full, not a part of that Being. All the sun is reflected in each dew - drop. Appearing in time, space and causality, this Being is man, as we know him, but behind all appearance is the one Reality. Unselfishness is the denial of the lower or apparent self. We have to free ourselves from this miserable dream that we are these bodies. We must know the truth, "I am He". We are not drops to fall into the ocean and be lost; each one is the whole , infinite ocean, and will know it when released from the fetters of illusion. Infinity cannot be divided, the "One without a second" can have no second, all is that One. This knowledge will come to all, but we should struggle to attain it now, because until we have it, we cannot really give mankind the best help. The Jivanmukta ('the living free' or one who knows) alone is able to give real love, real charity, real truth, and it is truth alone that makes us free. Desire makes slaves of us, it is an insatiable tyrant and gives its victims no rest; but the Jivanmukta has conquered all desire by rising to the knowledge that he is the One and there is nothing left to wish for.
The mind brings before us all our delusions -- body, sex, creed, caste, bondage; so we have to tell the truth to the mind incessantly, until it is made to realise it. Our real nature is all bliss, and all the pleasure we know is but a reflection, an atom, of that bliss we get from touching our real nature. That is beyond both pleasure and pain. It is the "witness" of the universe, the unchanging reader before whom turn the leaves of the book of life.
Through practice comes Yoga, through Yoga comes knowledge, through knowledge love, and through love bliss. "Me and mine" is a superstition; we have lived in it so long that it is well - nigh impossible to shake it off. Still we must get rid of it if we would rise to the highest. We must be bright and cheerful, long faces do not make religion. Religion should be the most joyful thing in the world, because it is the best. Asceticism cannot make us holy. Why should a man who loves God and who is pure be sorrowful? He should be like a happy child, be truly a child of God. The essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that the world is God, and we shall have God. This should be our thought towards everyone and everything -- parents, children, husbands, wives, friends, and enemies. Think how it would change the whole universe for us if we could consciously fill it with God! See nothing but God! All sorrow, all struggle, all pain would be for ever lost to us!
Jnana is "creedlessness", but that does not mean that it despises creeds. It only means that a stage above and beyond creeds has been gained. The Jnani seeks not to destroy, but to help all. As all rivers roll their waters into the sea and become one, so all creeds should lead to Jnana and become one.
The reality of everything depends upon Brahman, and only as we really grasp this truth, have we any reality. When we cease to see any differences, then we know that "I and the Father are One".
Jnana is taught very clearly by Krishna in the Bhagavad - gita. This great poem is held to be the Crown jewel of all Indian literature. It is a kind of commentary on the Vedas. It shows us that our battle for spirituality must be fought out in this life; so we must not flee from it, but rather compel it to give us all that it holds. As the Gita typifies this struggle for higher things, it is highly poetical to lay the scene in a battlefield. Krishna in the guise of a charioteer to Arjuna, leader of one of the opposing armies, urges him not to be sorrowful, not to fear death, since he knows he is immortal, that nothing which changes can be in the real nature of man. Through chapter after chapter, Krishna teaches the higher truths of philosophy and religion to Arjuna. It is these teachings which make this poem so wonderful; practically the whole of the Vedanta philosophy is included in them. The Vedas teach that the soul is infinite and in no way affected by the death of the body. The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is in some body. Death (so - called) is but a change of centre. God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere, and when we can get out of the narrow centre of body, we shall realise God -- our true Self.
The present is only a line of demarcation between the past and the future; so we cannot rationally say that we care only for the present, as it has no existence apart from the past and the future. It is all one complete whole, the idea of time being merely a condition imposed upon us by the form of our understanding.
Jnana teaches that the world should be given up, but not on that account to be abandoned. To be in the world, but not of it, is the true test of the Sannyasin. This idea of renunciation has been in some form common to nearly all religions. Jnana demands that we look upon all alike, that we see only "sameness". Praise and blame, good and bad, even heat and cold, must be equally acceptable to us. In India there are many holy men of whom this is literally true. They wander on the snow - clad heights of the Himalayas or over the burning desert sands, entirely unclothed and apparently entirely unconscious of any difference in temperature.
We have first of all to give up this superstition of body; we are not the body. Next must go the further superstition that we are mind. We are not mind; it is but the "silken body", not any part of the soul. The mere word "body", applied to nearly all things, includes something common among all bodies. This is existence .
Our bodies are symbols of thought behind, and the thoughts themselves are in their turn symbols of something behind them, that is, the one Real Existence, the Soul of our soul, the Self of the universe, the Life of our life, our true Self. As long as we believe ourselves to be even the least different from God, fear remains with us; but when we know ourselves to be the One, fear goes: of what can we be afraid? By sheer force of will the Jnani rises beyond body, beyond mind, making this universe zero. Thus he destroys Avidya and knows his true Self, the Atman. Happiness and misery are only in the senses, they cannot touch our real Self. The soul is beyond time, space, and causality -- therefore unlimited, omnipresent.
The Jnani has to come out of all forms, to get beyond all rules and books, and be his own book. Bound by forms, we crystallise and die. Still the Jnani must never condemn those who cannot yet rise above forms. He must never even think of another, "I am holier than thou".
These are the marks of the true Jnana - yogi: (1) He desires nothing, save to know. (2) All his senses are under perfect restraint; he suffers everything without murmuring, equally content if his bed be the bare ground under the open sky, or if he is lodged in a king's palace. He shuns no suffering, he stands and bears it -- he has given up all but the Self. (3) He knows that all but the One is unreal. (4) He has an intense desire for freedom. With a strong will, he fixes his mind on higher things and so attains to peace. If we know not peace, what are we more than the brutes? He does everything for others -- for the Lord -- giving up all fruits of work and looking for no result, either here or hereafter. What can the universe give us more than our own soul? Possessing that, we possess all. The Vedas teach that the Atman, or Self, is the One Undivided Existence. It is beyond mind, memory, thought, or even consciousness as we know it. From it are all things. It is that through which (or because of which) we see, hear, feel, and think. The goal of the universe is to realise oneness with the "Om" or One Existence. The Jnani has to be free from all forms; he is neither a Hindu, a Buddhist, nor a Christian, but he is all three. All action is renounced, given up to the Lord; then no action has power to bind. The Jnani is a tremendous rationalist; he denies everything. He tells himself day and night, "There are no beliefs, no sacred words, no heaven, no hell, no creed, no church -- there is only Atman." When everything has been thrown away until what cannot be thrown away is reached, that is the Self. The Jnani takes nothing for granted; he analyses by pure reason and force of will, until he reaches Nirvana which is the extinction of all relativity. No description or even conception of this state is possible. Jnana is never to be judged by any earthly result. Be not like the vulture which soars almost beyond sight, but which is ever ready to swoop downwards at the sight of a bit of carrion. Ask not for healing, or longevity, or prosperity, ask only to be free.
We are "Existence, Knowledge, Bliss" (Sachchidananda). Existence is the last generalisation in the universe; so we exist, we know it; and bliss is the natural result of existence without alloy. Now and then we know a moment of supreme bliss, when we ask nothing, give nothing, and know nothing but bliss. Then it passes and we again see the panorama of the universe going on before us and we know it is but a "mosaic work set upon God, who is the background of all things". When we return to earth and see the Absolute as relative, we see Sachchidananda as Trinity -- father, Son, Holy Ghost. Sat = the creating principle; Chit = the guiding principle; Ananda = the realising principle, which joins us again to the One. No one can know "existence" (Sat) except through "knowledge" (Chit), and hence the force of the saying of Jesus, No man can see the Father save through the Son. The Vedanta teaches that Nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realisation of the Self, and after having once, if only for an instant, known this, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality. Having eyes, we must see the apparent; but all the time we know it for what it is, we have found out its true nature. It is the "screen" that hides the Self which is unchanging. The screen opens and we find the Self behind it -- all change is in the screen. In the saint the screen is thin and the Reality can almost shine through; but in the sinner it is thick, and we are apt to lose sight of the truth that the Atman is there, as well as behind the saint.
All reasoning ends only in finding Unity; so we first use analysis, then synthesis. In the world of science, the forces are gradually narrowed down in the search for one underlying force. When physical science can perfectly grasp the final unity, it will have reached an end, for reaching unity we find rest. Knowledge is final.
Religion, the most precious of all sciences, long ago discovered that final unity, to reach which is the object of Jnana - yoga. There is but one Self in the universe, of which all lower selves are but manifestations. The Self, however, is infinitely more than all of its manifestations. All is the Self or Brahman. The saint, the sinner, the lamb, the tiger, even the murderer, as far as they have any reality, can be nothing else, because there is nothing else. "That which exists is One, sages call It variously." Nothing can be higher than this knowledge, and in those purified by Yoga it comes in flashes to the soul. The more one has been purified and prepared by Yoga and meditation, the clearer are these flashes of realisation. This was dis -
covered 4,000 years ago, but has not yet become the property of the race; it is still the property of some individuals only.
All men, so - called, are not yet really human beings. Every one has to judge of this world through his own mind. The higher understanding is extremely difficult. The concrete is more to most people than the abstract. As an illustration of this, a story is told of two men in Bombay -- one a Hindu and the other a Jain -- who were playing chess in the house of a rich merchant of Bombay. The house was near the sea, the game long; the ebb and flow of the tide under the balcony where they sat attracted the attention of the players. One explained it by a legend that the gods in their play threw the water into a great pit and then threw it out again. The other said: No, the gods draw it up to the top of a high mountain to use it, and then when they have done with it, they throw it down again. A young student present began to laugh at them and said, "Do you not know that the attraction of the moon causes the tides?" At this, both men turned on him in a fury and inquired if he thought they were fools. Did he suppose that they believed the moon had any ropes to pull up the tides, or that it could reach so far? They utterly refused to accept any such foolish explanation. At this juncture the host entered the room and was appealed to by both parties. He was an educated man and of course knew the truth, but seeing plainly the impossibility of making the chess - players understand it, he made a sign to the student and then proceeded to give an explanation of the tides that proved eminently satisfactory to his ignorant hearers. "You must know", he told them, "that afar off in the middle of the ocean, there is a huge mountain of sponge -- you have both seen sponge, and know what
I mean. This mountain of sponge absorbs a great deal of the water and then the sea falls; by and by the gods come down and dance on the mountain and their weight squeezes all the water out and the sea rises again. This, gentlemen, is the cause of the tides, and you can easily see for yourselves how reasonable and simple is this explanation." The two men who ridiculed the power of the moon to cause the tides, found nothing incredible in a mountain of sponge, danced upon by the gods! The gods were real to them, and they had actually seen sponge; what was more likely than their joint effect upon the sea! "Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable". If one intends to really find truth, one must not cling to comfort. It is hard to let all go, but the Jnani must do it. He must become pure, kill out all desires and cease to identify himself with the body. Then and then only, the higher truth can shine in his soul. Sacrifice is necessary, and this immolation of the lower self is the underlying truth that has made sacrifice a part of all religions. All the propitiatory offerings to the gods were but dimly understood types of the only sacrifice that is of any real value, the surrender of the apparent self, through which alone we can realise the higher Self, the Atman. The Jnani must not try to preserve the body, nor even wish to do so. He must be strong and follow truth, though the universe fall. Those who follow "fads" can never do this. It is a life - work, nay, the work of a hundred lives! Only the few dare to realise the God within, to renounce heaven and Personal God and all hope of reward. A firm will is needed to do this; to be even vacillating is a sign of tremendous weakness. Man always is perfect, or he never could become so; but he had to realise it. If man were bound by external causes, he could only be mortal. Immortality can only be true of the uncondi - tioned. Nothing can act on the Atman -- the idea is pure delusion; but man must identify himself with that, not with body or mind. Let him know that he is the witness of the universe, then he can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful panorama passing before him. Let him even tell himself, "I am the universe, I am Brahman." When man really identifies himself with the One, the Atman, everything is possible to him and all matter becomes his servant. As Shri Ramakrishna has said: After the butter is churned, it can be put in water or milk and will never mix with either; so when man has once realised the Self, he can no more be contaminated by the world. "From a balloon, no minor distinctions are visible, so when man rises high enough, he will not see good and evil people." "Once the pot is burned, no more can it be shaped; so with the mind that has once touched the Lord and has had a baptism of fire, no more can it be changed." Philosophy in Sanskrit means "clear vision", and religion is practical philosophy. Mere theoretic, speculative philosophy is not much regarded in India. There is no church, no creed, no dogma. The two great divisions are the "Dvaitists" and the "Advaitists". The former say, "The way to salvation is through the mercy of God; the law of causation, once set in motion, can never be broken; only God, who is not bound by this law, by His mercy helps us to break it". The latter say, "Behind all this nature is something that is free; and finding that which is beyond all law gets us freedom; and freedom is salvation." Dualism is only one phase, Advaitism goes to the ultimate. To become pure is the shortest path to freedom. Only that is ours which we earn. No authority can save us, no beliefs. If there is a God, all can find Him. No one needs to be told it is warm; each one can discover it for himself. So it should be with God. He should be a fact in the consciousness of all men. The Hindus do not recognise "sin", as it
is understood by the Western mind. Evil deeds are not "sins", we are not offending some Ruler in committing these; we are simply injuring ourselves, and we must suffer the penalty. It is not a sin to put one's finger in the fire, but he who does so will surely suffer just as much as if it were. All deeds produce certain results, and "every deed returns to the doer". "Trinitarianism" is an advance on "Unitarianism" (which is dualism, God and man for ever separate). The first step upwards is when we recognise ourselves as the children of God; the last step is when we realise ourselves as the One, the Atman.
The question why there cannot be eternal bodies is in itself illogical, as "body" is a term applied to a certain combination of elements, changeable and in its very nature impermanent. When we are not passing through changes, we will not have bodies (so - called). "Matter" beyond the limit of time, space, and causality will not be matter at all. Time and space exist only in us, we are the one Permanent Being. All forms are transitory, that is why all religions say, "God has no form". Menander was a Greco - bactrian king. He was converted to Buddhism about 150 B.C. by one of the Buddhist missionary monks and was called by them "Milinda". He asked a young monk, his teacher, "Can a perfect man (such as Buddha) be in error or make mistakes?" The young monk's answer was : The perfect man can remain in ignorance of minor matters not in his experience, but he can never be in error as to what his insight has actually realised. He is perfect here and now. He knows the whole mystery, the Essence of the universe, but he may not know the mere external variation through which that Essence is manifested in time and space. He knows the clay itself, but has not had experience of every shape it may be wrought into. The perfect man knows the Soul itself, but not every form and combination of its manifestation. He would have to attain more relative knowledge just as we do, though on account of his immense power, he would learn it far more quickly.
The tremendous "search - light" of a perfectly controlled mind, when thrown on any subject, would rapidly reduce it to possession. It is very important to understand this, because it saves so much foolish explanation as to how a Buddha or a Jesus could be mistaken in ordinary relative Knowledge, as we well know they were. The disciples should not be blamed as having put down the sayings erroneously. It is humbug to say that one thing is true and another untrue in their statements. Accept the whole account, or reject it. How can we pick out the true from the false?
If a thing happens once, it can happen again. If any human being has ever realised perfection, we too can do so. If we cannot become perfect here and now, we never can in any state or heaven or condition we may imagine. If Jesus Christ was not perfect, then the religion bearing his name falls to the ground. If he was perfect, then we too can become perfect. The perfect man does not reason or "know", as we count "knowing", for all our knowledge is mere comparison, and there is no comparison, no classification, possible in the Absolute. Instinct is less liable to error than reason, but reason is higher and leads to intuition, which is higher still. Knowledge is the parent of intuition, which like instinct, is also unerring, but on a higher plane. There are three grades of manifestation in living beings: (1) sub - conscious -- mechanical, unerring; (2) conscious -- knowing, erring; (3) superconscious -- intuitional, unerring; and these are illustrated in an animal, man, and God. For the man who has become perfect, nothing remains but to apply his understanding. He lives only to help the world, desiring nothing for himself. What distinguishes is negative -- the positive is ever wider and wider. What we have in common is the widest of all, and that is "Being". "Law is a mental shorthand to explain a series of phenomena"; but law as an entity, so to speak, does not exist. We use the word to express the regular succession of certain occurrences in the phenomenal world. We must not let law become a superstition, a something inevitable, to which we must submit. Error must accompany reason, but the very struggle to conquer error makes us gods. Disease is the struggle of nature to cast out something wrong; so sin is the struggle of the divine in us to throw off the animal. We must "sin" (that is, make mistakes) in order to rise to Godhood.
Do not pity anyone. Look upon all as your equal, cleanse yourself of the primal sin of inequality. We are all equal and must not think, "I am good and you are bad, and I am trying to reclaim you". Equality is the sign of the free. Jesus came to publicans and sinners and lived with them. He never set himself on a pedestal. Only sinners see sin. See not man, see only the Lord. We manufacture our own heaven and can make a heaven even in hell. Sinners are only to be found in hell, and as long as we see them around us, we are there ourselves. Spirit is not in time, nor in space. Realise "I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute -- i am He, I am He". Be glad at birth, be glad at death, rejoice always in the love of God. Get rid of the bondage of body; we have become slaves to it and learnt to hug our chains and love our slavery; so much so that we long to perpetuate it, and go on with "body" "body" for ever. Do not cling to the idea of "body", do not look for a future existence in any way like this one; do not love or want the body, even of those dear to us. This life is our teacher, and dying only makes room to begin over again. Body is our schoolmaster, but to commit suicide is folly, it is only killing the "schoolmaster". Another will take his place. So until we have learnt to transcend the body, we must have it, and losing one, will get another. Still we must not identify ourselves with the body, but look upon it only as an instrument to be used in reaching perfection. Hanuman, the devotee of Rama, summed up his philosophy in these words: When I identify myself with the body, O Lord, I am Thy creature, eternally separate from Thee. When I identify myself with the soul, I am a spark of that Divine Fire which Thou art. But when I identify myself with the Atman, I and Thou art one.
Therefore the Jnani strives to realise the Self and nothing else.
Thought is all important, for "what we think we become". There was once a Sannyasin, a holy man, who sat under a tree and taught the people. He drank milk, and ate only fruit, and made endless "Pranayamas", and felt himself to be very holy. In the same village lived an evil woman. Every day the Sannyasin went and warned her that her wickedness would lead her to hell. The poor woman, unable to change her method of life which was her only means of livelihood, was still much moved by the terrible future depicted by the Sannyasin. She wept and prayed to the Lord, begging Him to forgive her because she could not help herself. By and by both the holy man and the evil woman died. The angels came and bore her to heaven, while the demons claimed the soul of the Sannyasin. "Why is this!" he exclaimed, "have I not lived a most holy life, and preached holiness to everybody? Why should I be taken to hell while this wicked woman is taken to heaven?" "Because," answered the demons, "while she was forced to commit unholy acts, her mind was always fixed on the Lord and she sought deliverance, which has now come to her. But you, on the contrary, while you performed only holy acts, had your mind always fixed on the wickedness of others. You saw only sin, and thought only of sin, so now you have to go to that place where only sin is." The moral of the story is obvious: The outer life avails little. The heart must be pure and the pure heart sees only good, never evil. We should never try to be guardians of mankind, or to stand on a pedestal as saints reforming sinners. Let us rather purify ourselves, and the result must be that in so doing we shall help others.
Physics is bounded on both sides by metaphysics. So it is with reason -- it starts from non - reason and ends with non - reason. If we push inquiry far enough in the world of perception, we must reach a plane beyond perception. Reason is really stored up and classified perception, preserved by memory. We can never imagine or reason beyond our sense - perceptions. Nothing beyond reason can be an object of sense - knowledge. We feel the limited character of reason, yet it does bring us to a plane where we get a glimpse of something beyond. The question then arises: Has man an instrument that transcends reason? It is very probable that in man there is a power to reach beyond reason; in fact the saints in all ages assert the existence of this power in themselves. But it is impossible in the very nature of things to translate spiritual ideas and perceptions into the language of reason; and these saints, each and all, have declared their inability to make known their spiritual experiences. Language can, of course, supply no words for them, so that it can only be asserted that these are actual experiences and can be had by all. Only in that way can they become known, but they can never be described. Religion is the science which learns the transcendental in nature through the transcendental in man. We know as yet but little of man, consequently but little of the universe. When we know more of man, we shall probably know more of the universe. Man is the epitome of all things and all knowledge is in him. Only for the infinitesimal portion of the universe, which comes into sense - perception, are we able to find a reason; never can we give the reason for any fundamental principle. Giving a reason for a thing is simply to classify it and put it in a pigeon - hole of the mind. When we meet a new fact, we at once strive to put it in some existing category and the attempt to do this is to reason. When we succeed in placing the fact, it gives a certain amount of satisfaction, but we can never go beyond the physical plane in this classification. That man can transcend the limits of the senses is the emphatic testimony of all past ages. The Upanishads told 5,000 years ago that the realisation of God could never be had through the senses. So far, modern agnosticism agrees, but the Vedas go further than the negative side and assert in the plainest terms that man can and does transcend this sense - bound, frozen universe. He can, as it were, find a hole in the ice, through which he can pass and reach the whole ocean of life. Only by so transcending the world of sense, can he reach his true Self and realise what he really is.
Jnana is never sense - knowledge. We cannot know Brahman, but we are Brahman, the whole of It, not a piece. The unextended can never be divided. The apparent variety is but the reflection seen in time and space, as we see the sun reflected in a million dewdrops, though we know that the sun itself is one and not many. In Jnana we have to lose sight of the variety and see only the Unity. Here there is no subject, no object, no knowing, no thou or he or I, only the one, absolute Unity. We are this all the time; once free,
ever free. Man is not bound by the law of causation. Pain and misery are not in man, they are but as the passing cloud throwing its shadow over the sun, but the cloud passes, the sun is unchanged; and so it is with man. He is not born, he does not die, he is not in time and space. These ideas are mere reflections of the mind, but we mistake them for the reality and so lose sight of the glorious truth they obscure. Time is but the method of our thinking, but we are the eternally present tense. Good and evil have existence only in relation to us. One cannot be had without the other, because neither has meaning or existence apart from the other. As long as we recognise duality, or separate God and man, so long we must see good and evil. Only by going to the centre, by unifying ourselves with God can we escape the delusions of the senses. When we let go the eternal fever of desire, the endless thirst that gives us no rest, when we have for ever quenched desire, we shall escape both good and evil, because we shall have transcended both. The satisfaction of desire only increases it, as oil poured on fire but makes it burn more fiercely. The further from the centre, the faster goes the wheel, the less the rest. Draw near the centre, check desire, stamp it out, let the false self go, then our vision will clear and we shall see God. Only through renunciation of this life and of all life to come (heaven etc.), can we reach the point where we stand firmly on the true Self. While we hope for anything, desire still rules us. Be for one moment really "hopeless", and the mist will clear. For what to hope when one is the all of existence? The secret of Jnana is to give up all and be sufficient unto ourselves. Say "not", and you become "not"; say "is", and you become "is". Worship the Self within, naught else exists. All that binds us is Maya -- delusion.
The Self is the condition of all in the universe, but It can never be conditioned. As soon as we know that we are It, we are free. As mortals we are not and never can be free. Free mortality is a contradiction in terms, for mortality implies change, and only the changeless can be free. The Atman alone is free, and that is our real essence. We feel this inner freedom; in spite of all theories, all beliefs, we know it, and every action proves that we know it. The will is not free, its apparent freedom is but a reflection from the Real. If the world were only an endless chain of cause and effect, where could one stand to help it? There must needs be a piece of dry land for the rescuer to stand on, else how can he drag anyone out of the rushing stream and save him from drowning? Even the fanatic who cries "I am a worm", thinks that he is on the way to become a saint. He sees the saint even in the worm.
There are two ends or aims of human life, real knowing (Vijnana) and bliss. Without freedom, these two are impossible. They are the touchstone of all life. We should feel the Eternal Unity so much, that we should weep for all sinners, knowing that it is we who are sinning. The eternal law is self - sacrifice, not self - assertion. What self to assert when all is one? There are no "rights", all is love. The great truths that Jesus taught have never been lived. Let us try his method and see if the world will not be saved. The contrary method has nearly destroyed it. Selflessness only, not selfishness, can solve the question. The idea of "right" is a limitation; there is really no "mine" and "thine", for I am thou and thou art I. We have "responsibility", not "rights". We should say, "I am the universe", not "I am John" or "I am Mary". These limitations are all delusions and are what holds us in bondage, for as soon as I think, "I am John", I want exclusive posses - sion of certain things and begin to say "me and mine", and continually make new distinctions in so doing. So our bondage goes on increasing with every fresh distinction, and we get further and further away from the central Unity, the undivided Infinite. There is only one Individual, and each of us is That. Oneness alone is love and fearlessness; separation leads us to hatred and fear. Oneness fulfils the law. Here, on earth, we strive to enclose little spaces and exclude outsiders, but we cannot do that in the sky, though that is what sectarian religion tries to do when it says, "Only this way leads to salvation, all others are wrong". Our aim should be to wipe out these little enclosures to widen the boundaries until they are lost sight of, and to realise that all religions lead to God. This little puny self must be sacrificed. This is the truth symbolised by baptism into a new life, the death of the old man, the birth of the new -- the perishing of the false self, the realisation of the Atman, the one Self of the universe.
The two great divisions of the Vedas are Karma Kanda -- the portion pertaining to doing or work, and Jnana Kanda -- the portion treating of knowing, true knowledge. In the Vedas we can find the whole process of the growth of religious ideas. This is because when a higher truth was reached, the lower perception that led to it, was still preserved. This was done, because the sages realised that the world of creation being eternal, there would always be those who needed the first steps to knowledge, that the highest philosophy, while open to all, could never be grasped by all. In nearly every other religion, only the last or highest realisation of truth has been preserved, with the natural consequence that the older ideas were lost, while the newer ones were only understood by the few and gradually came to have no meaning for the many. We see this result illustrated in the growing revolt against old traditions and authorities.
Instead of accepting them, the man of today boldly challenges them to give reasons for their claims, to make clear the grounds upon which they demand acceptance. Much in Christianity is the mere application of new names and meanings to old pagan beliefs and customs. If the old sources had been preserved and the reasons for the transitions fully explained, many things would have been clearer. The Vedas preserved the old ideas and this fact necessitated huge commentaries to explain them and why they were kept. It also led to many superstitions, through clinging to old forms after all sense of their meaning had been lost. In many ceremonials, words are repeated which have survived from a now forgotten language and to which no real meaning can now be attached. The idea of evolution was to be found in the Vedas long before the Christian era; but until Darwin said it was true, it was regarded as a mere Hindu superstition.
All external forms of prayer and worship are included in the Karma Kanda. These are good when performed in a spirit of unselfishness and not allowed to degenerate into mere formality. They purify the heart. The Karma - yogi wants everyone to be saved before himself. His only salvation is to help others to salvation. "To serve Krishna's servants is the highest worship." One great saint prayed, "Let me go to hell with the sins of the whole world, but let the world be saved." This true worship leads to intense self - sacrifice. It is told of one sage that he was willing to give all his virtues to his dog, that it might go to heaven, because it had long been faithful to him, while he himself was content to go to hell.
The Jnana Kanda teaches that knowledge alone can save, in other words, that he must become "wise unto salvation". Knowledge is first objective, the Knower knowing Himself. The Self, the only subject, is in manifestation seeking only to know Itself. The better the mirror, the better reflection it can give; so man is the best mirror, and the purer the man, the more clearly he can reflect God. Man makes the mistake of separating himself from God and identifying himself with the body. This mistake arises through Maya, which is not exactly delusion but might be said to be seeing the real as something else and not as it is. This identifying of ourselves with the body leads to inequality, which inevitably leads to struggle and jealousy, and so long as we see inequality, we can never know happiness. "Ignorance and inequality are the two sources of all misery", says Jnana.
When man has been sufficiently buffeted by the world, he awakes to a desire for freedom; and searching for means of escape from the dreary round of earthly existence, he seeks knowledge, learns what he really is, and is free. After that he looks at the world as a huge machine, but takes good care to keep his fingers out of the wheels. Duty ceases for him who is free; what power can constrain the free being? He does good, because it is his nature, not because any fancied duty commands it. This does not apply to those who are still in the bondage of the senses. Only for him, who has transcended the lower self, is this freedom. He stands on his own soul, obeys no law; he is free and perfect. He has undone the old superstitions and got out of the wheel. Nature is but the mirror of our own selves. There is a limit to the working power of human beings, but no limit to desire; so we strive to get hold of the working powers of others and enjoy the fruits of their labours, escaping work ourselves. Inventing machinery to work for us can never increase well - being, for in gratifying desire, we only find it, and then we want more and more without end. Dying, still filled with ungratified desires, we have to be born again and again in the vain search for satisfaction. "Eight Millions of bodies have we had, before we reached the human", say the Hindus. Jnana says, "Kill desire and so get rid of it". That is the only way. Cast out all causation and realise the Atman. Only freedom can produce true morality. If there were only an endless chain of cause and effect, Nirvana could not be. It is extinction of the seeming self, bound by this chain. That is what constitutes freedom, to get beyond causality.
Our true nature is good, it is free, the pure being that can never be or do wrong. When we read God with our eyes and minds, we call Him this or that; but in reality there is but One, all variations are our interpretations of that One. We become nothing; we regain our true Self. Buddha's summary of misery as the outcome of "ignorance and caste" (inequality) has been adopted by the Vedantists, because it is the best ever made. It manifests the wonderful insight of this greatest among men. Let us then be brave and sincere: whatever path we follow with devotion, must take us to freedom. Once lay hold of one link of the chain and the whole must come after it by degrees. Water the root of the tree and the whole tree is watered. It is of little advantage to waste time to water each leaf. In other words, seek the Lord and getting Him we get all. Churches, doctrines, forms -- these are merely the hedges to protect the tender plant of religion; but later on they must all be broken down, that the little plant may become a tree. So the various religious sects, Bibles, Vedas, and scriptures are just "tubs" for the little plant; but it has to get out of the tub and fill the world.
We must learn to feel ourselves as much in the sun, in the stars, as here. Spirit is beyond all time and space; every eye seeing is my eye; every mouth praising the Lord is my mouth; every sinner is I. We are confined nowhere, we are not body. The universe is our body. We are just the pure crystal reflecting all, but itself
ever the same. We are magicians waving magic wands and creating scenes before us at will, but we have to go behind appearances and know the Self. This world is like water in a kettle, beginning to boil; first a bubble comes, then another, then many until all is in ebullition and passes away in steam. The great teachers are like the bubbles as they begin -- here one, there one; but in the end every creature has to be a bubble and escape. Creation, ever new, will bring new water and go through the process all over again. Buddha and Christ are the two greatest "bubbles" the world has known. They were great souls who having realised freedom helped others to escape. Neither was perfect, but they are to be judged by their virtues, never by their defects. Jesus fell short, because he did not always live up to his own highest ideal; and above all, because he did not give woman an equal place with man. Woman did everything for him, yet not one was made an apostle. This was doubtless owing to his Semitic origin. The great Aryans, Buddha among the rest, have always put woman in an equal position with man. For them sex in religion did not exist. In the Vedas and Upanishads, women taught the highest truths and received the same veneration as men.
Both happiness and misery are chains, the one golden, the other iron; but both are equally strong to bind us and hold us back from realising our true nature. The Atman knows neither happiness nor misery. These are mere "states", and states must ever change. The nature of the soul is bliss and peace unchanging. We have not to get it; we have it; let us wash away the dross from our eyes and see it. We must stand ever on the Self and look with perfect calmness upon all the panorama of the world. It is but baby's play and ought never to disturb us. If the mind is pleased by praise, it will be pained by blame. All pleasures of the senses or even of the mind are evanescent, but within ourselves is the one true unrelated pleasure, dependent on nothing outside. "The pleasure of the Self is what the world calls religion." The more our bliss is within, the more spiritual we are. Let us not depend upon the world for pleasure.
Some poor fishwives, overtaken by a violent storm, found refuge in the garden of a rich man. He received them kindly, fed them, and left them to rest in a summer - house, surrounded by exquisite flowers which filled all the air with their rich perfume. The women lay down in this sweet - smelling paradise, but could not sleep. They missed something out of their lives and could not be happy without it. At last one of the women arose and went to the place where they had left their fish baskets, brought them to the summer - house, and then once more happy in the familiar smell, they were all soon sound asleep.
Let not the world be our "fish basket" which we have to depend upon for enjoyment. This is Tamasika, or being bound by the lowest of the three qualities (or Gunas). Next higher come the egotistical who talk always about "I", "I". Sometimes they do good work and may become spiritual. These are Rajasika or active. Highest come the introspective nature (Sattvika), those who live only in the Self. These three qualities are in every human being in varying proportions, and different ones predominate at different times. We must strive to overcome Tamas with Rajas and then to submerge both in Sattva.
Creation is not a "making" of something, it is the struggle to regain equilibrium, as when atoms of cork are thrown to the bottom of a pail of water: they rush to the top singly and in clusters, and when all have reached the top and equilibrium has been regained, all motion or "life" ceases. So with creation; if equilibrium were reached, all change would cease and life, so - called, would end. Life must be accompanied with evil, for when the balance is regained, the world must end, as sameness and destruction are one. There is no possibility of ever having pleasure without pain, or good without evil, for living itself is just the lost equilibrium. What we want is freedom, not life, nor pleasure, nor good. Creation is eternal, without beginning, without end, the ever moving ripple in an infinite lake. There are yet unreached depths and others where stillness has been regained, but the ripple is ever progressing, the struggle to regain the balance is eternal. Life and death are but different names for the same fact, they are the two sides of one coin. Both are Maya, the inexplicable state of striving at one point to live and a moment later to die. Beyond all this is the true nature, the Atman. We enter into creation, and then, for us, it becomes living. Things are dead in themselves, only we give them life, and then, like fools, we turn round and are afraid of them or enjoy them! The world is neither true nor untrue, it is the shadow of truth. "Imagination is the gilded shadow of truth", says the poet. The internal universe, the Real, is infinitely greater than the external one, which is but the shadowy projection of the true one. When we see the "rope", we do not see the "serpent", and when the "serpent" is, the "rope" is not. Both cannot exist at the same time; so while we see the world we do not realise the Self, it is only an intellectual concept. In the realisation of Brahman, the personal "I" and all sense of the world is lost. The Light does not know the darkness, because it has no existence in the light; so Brahman is all. While we recognise a God, it is really only the Self that we have separated from ourselves and worship as outside of us; but all the time it is our own true Self, the one and only God. The nature of the brute is to remain where he is, of man to seek good and avoid evil, of God to neither seek nor avoid, but just to be blissful eternally. Let us be Gods, let us make our hearts like an ocean, to go beyond all the trifles of the world and see it only as a picture. We can then enjoy it without being in any way affected by it. Why look for good in the world, what can we find there? The best it has to offer is only as if children playing in a mud puddle found a few glass beads. They lose them again and have to begin the search anew. Infinite strength is religion and God. We are only souls if we are free, there is immortality only if we are free, there is God only if He is free.
Until we give up the world manufactured by the ego, never can we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. None ever did, none ever will. To give up the world is to utterly forget the ego, to know it not at all, living in the body but not being ruled by it. This rascal ego must be obliterated. Power to help mankind is with the silent ones who only live and love and withdraw their own personality entirely. They never say "me" or "mine", they are only blessed in being the instruments to help others. They are wholly identified with God, asking nothing and not consciously doing anything. They are the true Jivanmuktas -- the absolutely selfless, their little personality thoroughly blown away, ambition non - existent. They are all principle, with no personality. The more we sink the "little self", the more God comes. Let us get rid of the little "I" and let only the great "I" live in us. Our best work and our greatest influence is when we are without a thought of self. It is the "desireless" who bring great results to pass. Bless men when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego. Hold fast to the real Self, think only pure thoughts, and you will accomplish more than a regiment of mere preachers. Out of purity and silence comes the word of power.
Expression is necessarily degeneration, because spirit can only be expressed by the "letter", and as St. Paul said, "the letter killeth". Life cannot be in the "letter" which is only a reflection. Yet, principle must be clothed in matter to be "known". We lose sight of the Real in the covering and come to consider that as the Real, instead of as the symbol. This is an almost universal mistake. Every great Teacher knows this and tries to guard against it; but humanity, in general, is prone to worship the seen rather than the unseen. This is why a succession of prophets have come to the world to point again and again to the principle behind the personality and to give it a new covering suited to the times. Truth remains ever unchanged, but it can only be presented in a "form"; so from time to time a new "form" or expression is given to Truth, as the progress of mankind makes them ready to receive it. When we free ourselves from name and form, especially when we no longer need a body of any kind, good or bad, coarse or fine, then only do we escape from bondage. "Eternal progression" would be eternal bondage. We must get beyond all differentiation and reach eternal "sameness" or homogeneity or Brahman. The Atman is the unity of all personalities and is unchangeable, the "One without a second". It is not life, but it is coined into life. It is beyond life and death and good and bad. It is the Absolute Unity. Dare to seek Truth even through hell. Freedom can never be true of name and form, of the related. No form can say, "I am free as a form." Not until all idea of form is lost, does freedom come. If our freedom hurts others, we are not free there. We must not hurt others. While real perception is only one, relative perceptions must be many. The fountain of all knowledge is in every one of us -- in the ant as in the highest angel. Real religion is one; all quarrel is with the forms, the symbols, the "illustrations". The millennium exists already for those who find it. The truth is, we have lost ourselves and think the world to be lost. "Fool! Hearest not thou? In thine own heart, day and night, is singing that Eternal Music -- sachchidananda, Soham, Soham, (Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss, I am He, I am He)!"
To try to think without a phantasm is to try to make the impossible possible. Each thought has two parts -- the thinking and the word, and we must have both. Neither idealists nor materialists are able to explain the world; to do that, we must take both idea and expression. All knowledge is of the reflected as we can only see our own faces reflected in a mirror. So no one can know his Self or Brahman; but each is that Self and must see it reflected in order to make it an object of knowledge. This seeing the illustrations of the unseen Principle is what leads to idolatry -- so - called. The range of idols is wider than is usually supposed. They range from wood and stone to great personalities as Jesus or Buddha. The introduction of idols into India was the result of Buddha's constantly inveighing against a Personal God. The Vedas knew them not, but the reaction against the loss of God as Creator and Friend led to making idols of the great teachers, and Buddha himself became an idol and is worshipped as such by millions of people. Violent attempts at reform always end in retarding true reform. To worship is inherent in every man's nature; only the highest philosophy can rise to pure abstraction. So man will ever personify his God in order to worship Him. This is very good, as long as the symbol, be it what it may, is worshipped as a symbol of the Divinity behind and not in and for itself. Above all, we need to free ourselves from the superstition of believing because "it is in the books". To try to make everything -- science, religion, philosophy, and all -- conform to what any book says, is a most horrible tyranny. Book - worship is the worst form of idolatry. There was once a stag, proud and free, and he talked in a lordly fashion to his child, "Look at me, see my powerful horns! With one thrust I can kill a man; it is a fine thing to be a stag!" Just then the sound of the huntsman's bugle was heard in the distance, and the stag precipitately fled, followed by his wondering child. When they had reached a place of safety, he inquired, "Why do you fly before man, O my father, when you are so strong and brave?" The stag answered, "My child, I know I am strong and powerful, but when I hear that sound, something seizes me and makes me fly whether I will or no." So with us. We hear the "bugle sound" of the laws laid down in the books, habits and old superstitions lay hold of us; and before we know it, we are fast bound and forget our real nature which is freedom.
Knowledge exists eternally. The man who discovers a spiritual truth is what we call "inspired", and what he brings to the world is revelation. But revelation too is eternal and is not to be crystallised as final and then blindly followed. Revelation may come to any man who has fitted himself to receive it. Perfect purity is the most essential thing, for only "the pure in heart shall see God". Man is the highest being that exists and this is the greatest world, for here can man realise freedom. The highest concept we can have of God is man. Every attribute we give Him belongs also to man, only in a lesser degree. When we rise higher and want to get out of this concept of God, we have to get out of the body, out of mind and imagination, and leave this world out of sight. When we rise to be the absolute, we are no longer in the world -- all is Subject, without object.
Man is the apex of the only "world" we can ever know. Those who have attained "sameness" or perfection, are said to be "living in God". All hatred is "killing the self by the self"; therefore, love is the law of life. To rise to this is to be perfect; but the more "perfect" we are, the less work can we do. The Sattvika see and know that all this world is mere child's play and do not trouble themselves about that. We are not much disturbed when we see two puppies fighting and biting each other. We know it is not a serious matter. The perfect one knows that this world is Maya. Life is called Samsara -- it is the result of the conflicting forces acting upon us. Materialism says, "The voice of freedom is a delusion." Idealism says, "The voice that tells of bondage is but a dream." Vedanta says, "We are free and not free at the same time." That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side. The Self is beyond both freedom and bondage. We are Brahman, we are immortal knowledge beyond the senses, we are Bliss Absolute.
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文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。