吠檀多是未来的宗教吗？
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在过去一个月左右一直参加我讲座的诸位，到现在应该已经熟悉了吠檀多哲学中所包含的思想。吠檀多是世界上最古老的宗教；但从来不能说它已经成为大众化的宗教。因此"它会成为未来的宗教吗？"这个问题非常难以回答。
一开始，我可以告诉你们，我不知道它是否会成为绝大多数人的宗教。它是否能够掌握像美利坚合众国这样一整个国家？或许可以。然而，这正是我们今天下午要讨论的问题。
我将先告诉你们吠檀多不是什么，然后告诉你们它是什么。但你们必须记住，尽管吠檀多强调非人格的原则，它并不与任何事物对立，尽管它不会妥协或放弃它认为根本的真理。
你们都知道，要构成一种宗教，某些东西是必要的。首先，是经典。经典的力量简直是不可思议的！不管是什么样的经典，它都是人类效忠所围绕的中心。现存的每一种宗教无一不有经典。尽管有一切的理性主义和高谈阔论，人类仍然紧紧抱着经典不放。在你们国家，每一次试图建立没有经典的宗教的努力都失败了。在印度，教派兴起时很成功，但几年之内就衰落了，因为背后没有经典。在其他每一个国家也是如此。
研究一下唯一神教运动的兴衰。它代表了你们国家最好的思想。为什么它不能像卫理公会、浸信会和其他基督教教派那样传播呢？因为没有经典。另一方面，想想犹太人。一小群人，从一个国家被驱逐到另一个国家，仍然团结在一起，因为他们有经典。想想帕西人——全世界只有十万左右。印度的耆那教徒也只剩下大约一百万。你们知道吗，这些少数的帕西人和耆那教徒之所以能延续下来，就是因为他们的经典？今天仍然存活的宗教——每一种都有一部经典。
构成一种宗教的第二个要素是对某个人的崇敬。他或被崇拜为世界之主，或被尊为伟大的导师。人必须崇拜某个有形体的人！他们必须有化身或先知或伟大的领袖。你在今天的每一种宗教中都能看到这一点。印度教徒和基督徒——他们有化身；佛教徒、伊斯兰教徒和犹太人有先知。但这大致上是一样的——他们所有的崇敬都围绕着某个人或某些人。
第三个要素似乎是，一种宗教要强大和有自信，必须相信只有它才是真理；否则它就无法影响人们。
自由主义消亡了，因为它是枯燥的，因为它不能在人心中激起狂热，因为它不能引发对自身以外一切事物的憎恨。这就是自由主义注定要一次又一次衰落的原因。它只能影响少数人。原因不难看出。自由主义试图使我们变得无私。但我们不想无私——我们看不到无私有什么直接的好处；自私使我们获得更多。我们在贫穷、一无所有的时候接受自由主义。一旦我们获得金钱和权力，就变得非常保守。穷人
是民主派。当他变富时，他变成了贵族。在宗教中，人性也以同样的方式行事。
一位先知出现了，向追随他的人许诺各种报偿，对不追随的人预言永恒的诅咒。这样他就使他的思想得以传播。所有正在传播的现存宗教都是极其狂热的。一个教派越是憎恨其他教派，它就越成功，吸引越多的人加入。在游历了世界大部分地区并与许多种族生活在一起之后，鉴于世界现有的状况，我的结论是：尽管人们大谈普世兄弟情谊，目前的状态仍将持续下去。
吠檀多不信奉其中任何一种教导。首先，它不信奉经典——这是一开始就遇到的困难。它断然否认任何一本经典的权威高于其他经典。它坚决否认任何一本书能包含关于上帝、灵魂、终极实在的全部真理。读过奥义书的诸位记得，它们一再说："不是通过阅读经典就能证悟真我。"
其次，它发现对某个特定人物的崇敬更难以维持。研究过吠檀多的诸位——吠檀多始终指的是奥义书——知道这是唯一不执着于任何人的宗教。在吠檀多信仰者中，从来没有一个男人或女人成为崇拜的对象。这是不可能的。一个人不比任何鸟或虫更值得崇拜。我们都是兄弟。差别只在于程度。我与最卑微的虫子完全一样。你们看，在吠檀多中几乎没有空间让任何人站在我们前面让我们去崇拜他——他拖着我们前进，我们靠他得救。吠檀多不给你这些。没有经典，没有人可崇拜，什么都没有。
一个更大的困难在于上帝。你们想在这个国家实行民主。吠檀多所教导的正是民主的上帝。
你们有政府，但政府是非人格的。你们的政府不是专制政府，然而它比世界上任何君主制都更强大。似乎没有人理解，真正的力量、真正的生命、真正的力量在于不可见的、非人格的、无名的。作为与他人分离的单个人，你什么都不是，但作为自治国家的一个非人格单位，你是巨大的。你们在政府中都是一体的——你们是巨大的力量。但力量究竟在哪里？每个人就是力量。没有国王。我看到每个人都完全平等。我不必脱帽向任何人鞠躬。然而每个人中都有巨大的力量。
吠檀多正是如此。它的上帝不是高坐在宝座上、完全分离的君主。有些人喜欢那种上帝——一个被敬畏和被取悦的上帝。他们在他面前点蜡烛，匍匐在尘土中。他们想要一个国王来统治他们——他们相信天上有一个国王来统治他们所有人。国王至少已经从这个国家消失了。天上的国王现在在哪里？就在地上的国王所在的地方。在这个国家，国王已经进入你们每个人之中。你们都是国王。吠檀多对宗教也是如此。你们都是上帝。一位上帝是不够的。你们都是上帝，吠檀多如是说。
这使吠檀多非常困难。它完全不教导旧的上帝观念。取代那位坐在云端之上、不经我们允许就管理世事、仅仅因为他高兴就从虚无中创造了我们、仅仅因为他高兴就让我们经受这一切苦难的上帝，吠檀多教导的上帝在每个人之中，已经成为每个人和每样事物。国王陛下已经从
这个国家消失了；天国在几百年前就已从吠檀多中消失了。
印度不能放弃地上的国王陛下——这就是为什么吠檀多不能成为印度的宗教。吠檀多有可能成为你们国家的宗教，因为民主。但只有在你们能够并且确实清晰地理解它，你们成为真正的男人和女人，而不是脑子里装满模糊观念和迷信的人，并且你们想要成为真正灵性的人的情况下，这才可能，因为吠檀多只关心灵性。
天上的上帝是什么观念？唯物主义。吠檀多的观念是体现在我们每个人之中的上帝的无限原则。上帝坐在云端上！想想这是多么彻底的亵渎！这是唯物主义——彻头彻尾的唯物主义。当孩子们这样想，也许还可以，但当成年人试图教导这些东西时，那简直令人厌恶——就是这样。这全是物质，全是身体观念，粗陋的观念，感官的观念。每一分都是泥土，不是别的。这是宗教吗？它和非洲的"蒙博朱博"拜物教没有什么两样。上帝是灵，应以灵和真理来敬拜。灵只住在天上吗？灵是什么？我们都是灵。为什么我们不能认识到这一点？是什么使你与我不同？身体，别无其他。忘记身体，一切都是灵。
这些就是吠檀多所不能给予的东西。没有经典。没有人被从人类中挑出来——"你们是虫子，而我们是上帝！"——没有这种东西。如果你是上帝，我也是上帝。所以吠檀多不知道有罪。有过失但没有罪；从长远来看，一切都会好起来。没有撒旦——没有这些废话。吠檀多只信一种罪，世上唯一的一种，就是：
你认为自己是罪人或任何人是罪人的那一刻，那就是罪。由此衍生出每一个其他的过失或通常所谓的罪。我们的生命中有过许多过失。但我们在前进。光荣归于我们犯了错误！回顾你过去的人生。如果你现在的状况是好的，它是由过去所有的过失和成功共同造成的。光荣归于成功！光荣归于过失！不要回顾已做过的事。向前走！
你看，吠檀多不提罪和罪人。没有需要害怕的上帝。他是我们永远不会害怕的唯一存在，因为他就是我们的自我。然后害怕上帝的人不才是最迷信的人吗？也许有人害怕自己的影子；但即使他也不害怕自己。上帝就是人的自我本身。他是你不可能害怕的唯一存在。所有这些废话是怎么回事，说敬畏上帝进入一个人心中，使他颤抖等等？感谢上帝我们没有全部进精神病院！但如果我们大多数人不是疯子，为什么我们要发明出害怕上帝这样的观念？佛陀说全人类或多或少都是疯子。这似乎完全正确。
没有经典，没有人格，没有人格化的上帝。所有这些都必须去掉。再者，感官也必须去掉。我们不能被束缚于感官。目前我们被绑住了——就像在冰川中冻死的人。他们感到极其强烈的睡意，当朋友试图叫醒他们、警告他们会死时，他们说："让我死吧，我想睡觉。"我们都执着于感官的小事物，即使因此而毁灭：我们忘记了有更伟大得多的东西。
有一个印度教的传说：上主曾经化身为一只猪来到地上。他有了一只母猪配偶，不久
生了几只小猪。他和他的家庭在泥地里非常快乐，欢乐地叫着，忘记了他的神圣荣耀和主宰。众神极为忧虑，来到地上恳求他放弃猪的身体回到天上。但上主不肯；他把他们赶走了。他说他非常快乐，不想被打扰。众神别无他法，只好毁掉上主的猪身。他立刻恢复了神圣的威严，惊讶于自己竟然能在做猪中找到任何快乐。
人的行为也是一样。每当他们听到非人格的上帝时，他们就说："我的个性会怎样？——我的个性将会消失！"下次这种想法出现时，记住那只猪，然后想想你们每个人拥有多么无限的幸福宝藏。你们对自己目前的状况多么满意！但当你认识到你真正是什么时，你会惊讶于自己竟然不愿意放弃你的感官生活。你的个性中有什么？它比那猪的生活好吗？而这你还不想放弃！愿上帝保佑我们所有人！
吠檀多教导我们什么？首先，它教导你甚至不需要走出自身就能认识真理。所有的过去和所有的未来都在现在之中。没有人见过过去。你们中有谁见过过去？当你以为你在认识过去时，你只是在此刻想象过去。要看到未来，你必须将它拉到现在，现在才是唯一的实在——其余的都是想象。这个现在就是一切。只有唯一者。一切都在此刻。无限时间中的一个瞬间与任何其他瞬间一样完整和包含一切。一切存在的、过去的和将来的都在现在之中。让任何人试图想象它之外的任何东西——他不会成功。
什么宗教能描绘一个不像这个地球的天堂？这一切都是艺术，只是这艺术在逐渐向我们揭示。我们凭五种感官看这个世界，觉得它粗糙，有色彩、形状、声音等等。假设我发展了一种电感——一切都会改变。假设我的感官变得更精微——你们所有人都会显得不同。如果我变了，你们就变了。如果我超越了感官的力量，你们就会显现为灵和上帝。事物并非如其所见。
我们终将逐渐理解这一点，然后看到它：所有的天堂——一切——都在此地，此刻，它们实际上不过是神圣存在上的显现。这个存在比所有的地球和天堂都更为伟大。人们以为这个世界是坏的，想象天堂在别处。这个世界不是坏的。如果你认识它，它就是上帝本身。即使要理解这一点都很困难，比相信更难。明天要被绞死的杀人犯也全是上帝，完美的上帝。这确实很难理解；但它是可以理解的。
因此吠檀多提出的不是普世兄弟情谊，而是普世一体。我与任何其他人、任何动物都是一样的——好的、坏的、任何东西。这是一个身体，一个心灵，一个灵魂。灵从不死。哪里也没有死亡，即使对身体也没有。甚至心灵也不死。身体怎么能死呢？一片叶子可能掉落——树会死吗？宇宙是我的身体。看它如何延续。一切心灵都是我的。我以一切脚行走。我通过一切口说话。我住在每一个人之中。
为什么我感觉不到？因为那个个体性，那种猪性。你已经与这个心绑在一起，只能在此处，不能在彼处。什么是不朽？很少有人回答说："就是我们这个存在本身！"大多数人认为这一切都是必死的、死的——上帝不在这里，他们死后才会变得不朽。他们想象他们死后才会见到上帝。但如果他们在此时此地看不到他，死后也看不到。虽然他们都相信不朽，但他们不知道不朽不是通过死亡和上天堂获得的，而是通过放弃这种猪一般的个体性，通过不将自己绑在一个小小的身体上。不朽就是知道自己与一切为一，活在一切身体中，通过一切心灵感知。我们注定要在其他身体中感受，而不仅仅是这一个。我们注定要在其他身体中感受。什么是同情？这种在我们身体中感受的同情有没有限度？完全可能有一天我将通过整个宇宙来感受。
得到了什么？猪的身体难以放弃；我们舍不得失去对我们这一个小小猪身体的享受！吠檀多不说"放弃它"；它说"超越它"。不需要苦行——享受两个身体会更好，三个更好，活在更多的身体中！当我能通过整个宇宙来享受时，整个宇宙就是我的身体。
有许多人听到这些教导时感到恐惧。他们不喜欢被告知他们不只是被暴君上帝所造的小小猪身体。我告诉他们："向上来！"他们说他们生于罪中——除非靠某人的恩典，否则无法上来。我说："你们是神圣的！"他们回答："你这亵渎者，你怎么敢这样说？一个可怜的生灵怎么能是上帝？我们是罪人！"有时候我非常气馁，你知道的。成百上千的男男女女对我说："如果没有地狱，怎么能有宗教呢？"如果这些人自愿下地狱，谁能阻止他们？
你梦想和思考什么，你就创造什么。如果是地狱，你死了就看到地狱。如果是邪恶和撒旦，你就得到撒旦。如果是鬼魂，你就得到鬼魂。你
想什么，你就变成什么。如果你不得不想，就想好的思想，伟大的思想。这种理所当然地认为你是弱小的虫子！通过宣布我们是弱的，我们变弱了，我们不会变得更好。假设我们熄灭灯光，关上窗户，称这个房间是黑暗的。想想这有多荒唐！说我是罪人对我有什么好处？如果我在黑暗中，让我点亮一盏灯。一切就消失了。然而人性是多么奇怪！虽然始终意识到宇宙之心在其生命背后，他们却更多地想到撒旦、黑暗和谎言。你告诉他们真理——他们看不到；他们更喜欢黑暗。
这构成了吠檀多提出的一个伟大问题：为什么人们如此害怕？答案是他们使自己变得无助并依赖他人。我们太懒了，我们不想为自己做任何事。我们想要一个人格化的上帝，一个救世主或一个先知来为我们做一切。非常富有的人从不走路，总是坐马车；但几年后，有一天他醒来发现全身瘫痪。然后他开始感到他过去的生活方式毕竟不好。没有人能替我走路。每次有人替我走，都是对我的伤害。如果一切都由别人为一个人做，他就会丧失使用自己肢体的能力。我们自己做的任何事，才是我们唯一做的事。别人为我们做的事永远不可能是我们自己的。你不能从我的讲座中学到灵性真理。如果你学到了什么，我只是那颗将它引出来、使它闪耀的火花。这就是先知和导师能做的一切。所有这些追求帮助都是愚蠢的。
你知道，印度有牛车。通常两头牛拉一辆车，有时在车辕的末端、稍前于牛但够不到的地方悬挂着一束稻草。牛不断地
试图吃到那束稻草，但永远不成功。这正是我们得到帮助的方式！我们以为我们会从外部获得安全、力量、智慧、幸福。我们总是希望却从未实现。帮助从来没有从外部来过。
没有人能帮助人。从来没有，现在没有，将来也没有。为什么要有呢？你们不是男人和女人吗？这地上的主人需要别人帮助吗？你们不觉得羞耻吗？当你被碾为尘土时，你才会被帮助。但你是灵。靠你自己从困难中拉出自己！靠你自己拯救自己！没有人帮助你——从来没有。以为有，是甜蜜的幻觉。这于事无补。
有一次一个基督徒来找我说："你是一个可怕的罪人。"我回答："是的，我是。继续说。"他是一个基督教传教士。那人不让我安宁。每当我看到他，我就跑。他说："我有非常好的东西给你。你是罪人，你要下地狱。"我回答："很好，还有什么呢？"我问他："你要去哪里？""我要上天堂，"他回答。我说："我要下地狱。"那天他放弃了我。
这里来了一个基督徒，他说："你们都注定了；但如果你们信这个教义，基督会帮你们脱离。"如果这是真的——但当然这不过是迷信——基督教国家就不会有邪恶了。让我们信吧——信不花什么代价——但为什么没有效果？如果我问："为什么有这么多恶人？"他们说："我们必须更加努力。"相信上帝，但要备好火药！向上帝祈祷，让上帝来帮助你！但奋斗的是我，祈祷和崇拜的是我；解决问题的是我——而上帝拿走了功劳。这不好。我从来不这样做。
有一次我被邀请赴宴。女主人
让我做饭前祈祷。我说："我要向你致谢，夫人。我的感恩和谢意献给你。"当我工作时，我向自己致谢。赞美归于我，因为我努力工作并获得了我所拥有的！
你一直在努力工作却感谢别人，因为你迷信，因为你害怕。不要再有这些通过数千年培育出来的迷信了！要成为灵性的需要一些艰苦的工作。迷信全是唯物主义，因为它们全都建立在身体、身体、身体的意识上。那里没有灵。灵没有迷信——它超越了身体的虚妄欲望。
但是这里那里，这些虚妄的欲望甚至被投射到灵的领域中。我参加过几次降灵会。在一次中，领头的是一位女士。她对我说："你的母亲和祖父来找我了。"她说他们向她致意并和她说了话。但我的母亲还活着呢！人们喜欢认为即使死后，他们的亲人仍然以同样的身体存在，而降灵师们就利用他们的迷信。如果知道我已故的父亲仍然穿着他的肮脏躯体，我会非常难过。人们从中得到安慰，得知他们的父亲们都被包裹在物质中。在另一个地方，他们把耶稣基督带到我面前。我说："主啊，你好吗？"这使我感到绝望。如果那位伟大的圣人仍然穿着身体，我们这些可怜的生灵怎么办？降灵师们不让我触碰那些先生。即使这些是真的，我也不想要他们。我想："天哪，天哪！无神论者——这才是人们真正的面目！只是对这五种感官的欲望！在这里拥有的不够满足，死后还想要更多！"
吠檀多的上帝是什么？他是原则，不是人格。你和我都是人格化的上帝。宇宙的绝对上帝，宇宙的创造者、保存者和
毁灭者，是非人格的原则。你和我，猫、老鼠、魔鬼和鬼，所有这些都是它的人格——都是人格化的上帝。你想崇拜人格化的上帝。那就是崇拜你自己。如果你听我的忠告，你永远不会再进任何教堂。出来吧，去把自己洗干净。一遍又一遍地洗，直到你洗掉了多年来粘附在你身上的一切迷信。或者，也许你不想这样做，因为在你们这个国家你们不经常洗——频繁洗涤是印度的习俗，不是你们社会的习俗。
很多人问我："你为什么笑得那么多，开那么多玩笑？"我有时也会严肃——当我胃疼的时候！上主是全然喜乐的。他是一切存在背后的实在，他是每一事物中的善与真。你们是他的化身。这才是光荣的。你离他越近，你就越少有哭泣或悲伤的场合。我们离他越远，愁容就越多。我们越了解他，苦难就越消失。如果一个住在上主之中的人变得悲惨，住在他之中有什么用？这样的上帝有什么用？把他扔进太平洋里去！我们不要他！
但上帝是无限的、非人格的存在——永恒存在、不变、不朽、无畏的；你们都是他的化身，他的体现。这就是吠檀多的上帝，他的天堂无处不在。在这个天堂里住着一切有的人格化的上帝——你们自己。不再祈祷和在庙里供花了！
你们祈祷什么？去天堂，得到什么东西，让别人得不到。"主啊，我想要更多食物！让别人挨饿吧！"这是怎样的上帝观念，他是实在，是无限的，是永远至福的存在，其中无部分也无缺陷，永远自由，永远纯净，永远完美！我们却将我们所有
人类的特征、功能和局限归于他。他必须给我们带来食物，给我们衣服。事实上所有这些事我们都必须自己做，从来没有别人替我们做过。这才是朴素的真理。
但你很少想到这一点。你想象有一个上帝，你是他的特别宠儿，当你向他祈求时他为你做事；你不为所有人、所有众生向他祈求恩惠，只是为你自己、你自己的家庭、你自己的族人。当印度教徒在挨饿时，你们不在乎；那时你们不会想到基督徒的上帝也是印度教徒的上帝。我们关于上帝的整个观念，我们的祈祷，我们的崇拜，都被我们的无知、我们将自己视为身体的愚蠢观念所败坏了。你们也许不喜欢我说的这些。你们今天也许会咒骂我，但明天你们会感谢我。
我们必须成为思想者。每一次诞生都是痛苦的。我们必须从唯物主义中走出来。我的母亲不会让我们脱离她的掌握；但我们必须努力。这种挣扎就是全部的崇拜；其余的一切不过是影子。你们就是人格化的上帝。此刻我正在崇拜你们。这是最伟大的祈祷。以这种方式崇拜整个世界——通过服务它。我站在这高台上，我知道，看起来不像崇拜。但如果它是服务，它就是崇拜。
无限的真理永远不需要去获取。它一直在这里，不灭不生。他，宇宙之主，在每一个人之中。只有一座殿堂——身体。它是唯一曾经存在的殿堂。在这身体中，他居住着，灵魂之主，万王之王。我们看不到，所以我们制作他的石像并在上面建造庙宇。吠檀多在印度一直存在，但印度到处是这些庙宇——不仅是庙宇，还有雕刻着造像的洞窟。"愚人住在恒河岸边，却掘井取水！"我们就是这样！生活在上帝之中——我们
却必须去制造偶像。我们将他投射在偶像的形式中，而他一直存在于我们身体的殿堂中。我们是疯子，这就是那巨大的妄想。
崇拜一切即崇拜上帝——每一种形式都是他的殿堂。其余一切都是妄想。永远向内看，永远不要向外看。这就是吠檀多所宣讲的上帝，这就是对他的崇拜。自然地，吠檀多中没有教派，没有教条，没有种姓。这样的宗教怎么能成为印度的国教呢？
成百上千的种姓！如果一个人碰了另一个人的食物，他就喊道："天哪，我被污染了！"当我从西方回到印度后，几位正统印度教徒大声反对我与西方人交往以及我违反正统规矩。他们不喜欢我向西方人教导吠陀的真理。
但怎么能有这些区别和差异呢？如果我们都是灵、都是一样的，富人怎么能蔑视穷人，有学问的人怎么能蔑视无知的人？除非社会改变，像吠檀多这样的宗教怎能盛行？要有大量真正理性的人类，需要数千年。要向人们展示新事物、给他们伟大的思想，是非常困难的。要打破旧的迷信则更难；它们不容易消亡。即使受过全部教育，学者在黑暗中也会害怕——幼时的故事涌上心头，他看到了鬼魂。
"吠陀"一词的含义——"吠檀多"一词由此而来——是知识。一切知识都是吠陀，如同上帝是无限的一样也是无限的。从来没有人创造过知识。你见过知识被创造吗？它只是被发现——被覆盖的被揭开了。它一直在这里，因为它就是上帝本身。过去、现在和
未来的知识，都存在于我们每个人之中。我们发现它，如此而已。所有这些知识就是上帝本身。吠陀是伟大的梵文经典。在我们国家，我们在读吠陀的人面前跪下，却不在乎研究物理学的人。这是迷信；这根本不是吠檀多。这是彻底的唯物主义。在上帝那里，每一种知识都是神圣的。知识就是上帝。无限的知识以最充分的程度居于每一个人之中。你们不是真的无知，虽然你们可能看起来如此。你们是上帝的化身，你们所有人。你们是全能者、全在者、神圣原则的化身。你们现在也许会嘲笑我，但时候会到来，你们会理解。你们必须理解。没有人会被落下。
目标是什么？我所谈论的吠檀多——并非一种新的宗教。它如此古老——与神本身一样古老。它不受限于任何时间和地点，它无处不在。每个人都知道这个真理。我们所有人都在实践着它。整个宇宙的目标就是那个。这甚至适用于外在的自然——每一个原子都在奔向那个目标。而你是否以为在无限纯净的灵魂中有谁会缺乏对至高真理的认知？所有人都拥有它，所有人都在走向同一个目标——发现内在的神性。疯人、杀人者、迷信者、在这个国家被处以私刑的人——所有人都在走向同一个目标。只不过我们在无知中所做的事，我们应当有意识地、更好地去做。
万有的统一——你们所有人心中已经具备。从无一人生来不具备它。无论你如何否认它，它都在不断地自我确认。什么是人间的爱？它或多或少是对那种统一的肯定："我与你合一，我的妻子，我的孩子，我的朋友！"只不过你们是在无知中肯定那种统一罢了。"没有任何妻子爱丈夫是为了丈夫的缘故，而是为了丈夫中的那个真我的缘故。" 妻子在那里找到了统一。丈夫在妻子中看到了自己——他本能地这样做，但他无法有意识地、自觉地这样做。
整个宇宙是一个存在。不可能有其他任何东西。从多样性中我们都在走向这个普遍的存在。家庭汇入部落，部落汇入种族，种族汇入民族，民族汇入人类——多少意志都在走向那个一！这一切都是知识，都是科学——对这种统一的认识。 统一是知识，多样性是无知。这种知识是你与生俱来的权利。我不必教你们这些。世界上从来就没有不同的宗教。我们都注定要获得解脱，无论我们愿意与否。你终究必须达到解脱而获得自由，因为自由是你的本性。我们已经是自由的了，只是我们不知道而已，我们也不知道自己一直在做些什么。在所有宗教体系和理想中都有同样的道德；只有一件事被宣讲："要无私，要爱他人。"有人说："因为耶和华如此命令。""安拉，"穆罕默德呼喊道。另一个人喊道："耶稣。"如果这只是耶和华的命令，那些从不认识耶和华的人又怎么会有这种命令呢？如果只有耶稣给出了这个命令，那些从不认识耶稣的人又怎么会有呢？如果只有毗湿奴（Vishnu），那些从不认识那位大人物的犹太人又怎么会有呢？还有一个更大的源泉，超越所有这些。它在哪里？在永恒的神殿中，在从最低到最高的一切众生的灵魂中。就在那里——那无限的无私、无限的牺牲、无限的回归统一的驱力。
我们看似被分割了、被局限了，是因为我们的无知；我们似乎变成了所谓的某某太太和某某先生。但所有的自然每时每刻都在揭穿这种幻觉。我不是那个与一切隔绝的小男人或小女人；我是那个宇宙的存在。灵魂以其庄严 每时每刻都在升起，宣告其自身内在的神性。
这个吠檀多无处不在，只是你必须意识到它。这些大量愚蠢的信仰和迷信阻碍了我们的进步。如果我们能够的话，让我们把它们抛开，理解到神是灵，应当以灵和真理来崇拜。试着不要再做唯物主义者了！抛弃一切物质！对神的观念必须是真正灵性的。所有那些或多或少是唯物主义的关于神的不同观念都必须消除。随着人变得越来越有灵性，他必须把所有这些观念抛在身后。事实上，在每个国家中，总有一些人足够强大，能够抛弃一切物质，站在光辉中，以灵来崇拜灵。
如果吠檀多——这种万物一灵的自觉知识——传播开来，全人类将变得具有灵性。但这可能吗？我不知道。不是在数千年之内。那些古老的迷信必须消亡殆尽。你们都对如何延续你们的迷信感兴趣。然后还有家族兄弟、种姓兄弟、民族兄弟的观念。所有这些都是实现吠檀多的障碍。宗教对极少数人来说才是真正的宗教。
大多数在世界各地宗教领域工作过的人，实际上都是政治工作者。这就是人类的历史。他们很少真正尝试毫不妥协地去实践真理。他们总是崇拜那个叫做社会的神；他们最关心的是维护大众所相信的东西——他们的迷信、他们的弱点。他们不试图征服自然，而是适应自然，仅此而已。到印度去宣讲一种新的信条——他们不会听的。但如果你告诉他们这是出自吠陀经的——"那就好！"他们会说。在这里我可以宣讲这个教义，而你们——你们中有多少人认真对待我？但真理都在这里，而我必须把真理告诉你们。
还有这个问题的另一面。每个人都说最高的、纯粹的真理不可能一下子被所有人实现，人们必须通过崇拜、祈祷和其他流行的宗教实践逐步被引导向它。我不确定那是否是正确的方法。在印度，我两种方法都用。
在加尔各答，我有所有这些神像和寺庙——以神和吠陀经的名义，以圣经和基督和佛陀的名义。让它被尝试吧。但在喜马拉雅山的高处，我有一个地方，我决心那里除了纯粹的真理之外什么也不能进入。在那里我要实践我今天跟你们谈到的这个思想。有一位英国男士和一位英国女士在那里负责。目的是培训真理的追求者，养育孩子们不带恐惧、不带迷信。他们不应听到关于基督和佛陀和湿婆和毗湿奴的事——这些一概没有。他们将从一开始就学会自立。他们将从童年起就知道神是灵，应以灵和真理来崇拜。每个人都必须被视为灵。这就是理想。我不知道它会取得怎样的成功。今天我在宣讲我所喜欢的东西。我多希望我自己从小就完全在那种教育中长大，没有所有那些二元论的迷信。
有时候我也同意二元论方法中有一些好处：它帮助许多软弱的人。如果一个人要你指给他看北极星，你先指给他看附近的一颗亮星，然后是一颗不那么亮的星，再是一颗暗星，然后是北极星。这个过程使他容易看到它。所有各种各样的修行和训练、圣经和诸神，不过是宗教的入门，宗教的幼儿园。
但后来我想到了另一面。如果按照这种缓慢的、 渐进的过程，世界还要等多久才能到达真理？多久？而且有什么保证它能达到任何可观的程度？到目前为止还没有。毕竟，不管是渐进的还是非渐进的，对弱者来说是容易还是不容易，二元论的方法难道不是建立在虚假之上的吗？流行的宗教实践难道不经常是使人软弱的、因而是错误的吗？它们建立在一个错误的观念之上，一个关于人的错误认知之上。两个错误能构成一个正确吗？谎言会变成真理吗？黑暗会变成光明吗？
我是一个已经离世之人的仆人。我只是信使。我想做这个实验。我告诉你们的吠檀多的教导以前从未被真正实验过。虽然吠檀多是世界上最古老的哲学，它总是与迷信和其他各种东西混杂在一起。
基督说："我与我的父是一"，你们都在重复它。但它并没有帮助人类。一千九百年来人们都没有理解那句话。他们让基督成为人类的救世主。他是神而我们是虫子！同样在印度。在每个国家，这种信仰都是每个教派的支柱。千百年来，全世界亿万人被教导要崇拜世界的主宰、神的化身、救世主、先知。他们被教导认为自己是无助的、悲惨的生灵，要依赖某个人或某些人的怜悯来获得拯救。无疑在这些信仰中有许多奇妙的东西。但即使在最好的情况下，它们也不过是宗教的幼儿园，而且帮助甚微。人们仍然被催眠，陷于卑微的退化之中。然而，确实有一些坚强的灵魂超越了那种幻觉。时候将到，伟大的人将崛起，抛掉这些宗教的幼儿园，使真正的宗教——以灵崇拜灵——变得鲜明而有力。
English
Those of you who have been attending my lectures for the last month or so must, by this time, be familiar with the ideas contained in the Vedanta philosophy. Vedanta is the most ancient religion of the world; but it can never be said to have become popular. Therefore the question "Is it going to be the religion of the future?" is very difficult to answer.
At the start, I may tell you that I do not know whether it will ever be the religion of the vast majority of men. Will it ever be able to take hold of one whole nation such as the United States of America? Possibly it may. However, that is the question we want to discuss this afternoon.
I shall begin by telling you what Vedanta is not, and then I shall tell you what it is. But you must remember that, with all its emphasis on impersonal principles, Vedanta is not antagonistic to anything, though it does not compromise or give up the truths which it considers fundamental.
You all know that certain things are necessary to make a religion. First of all, there is the book. The power of the book is simply marvellous! Whatever it be, the book is the centre round which human allegiance gathers. Not one religion is living today but has a book. With all its rationalism and tall talk, humanity still clings to the books. In your country every attempt to start a religion without a book has failed. In India sects rise with great success, but within a few years they die down, because there is no book behind them. So in every other country.
Study the rise and fall of the Unitarian movement. It represents the best thought of your nation. Why should it not have spread like the Methodist, Baptist, and other Christian denominations? Because there was no book. On the other hand, think of the Jews. A handful of men, driven from one country to another, still hold together, because they have a book. Think of the Parsees -- only a hundred thousand in the world. About a million are all that remain of the Jains in India. And do you know that these handfuls of Parsees and Jains still keep on just because of their books? The religions that are living at the present day -- every one of them has a book.
The second requisite, to make a religion, is veneration for some person. He is worshipped either as the Lord of the world or as the great Teacher. Men must worship some embodied man! They must have the Incarnation or the prophet or the great leader. You find it in every religion today. Hindus and Christians -- they have Incarnations: Buddhists, Mohammedans, and Jews have prophets. But it is all about the same -- all their veneration twines round some person or persons.
The third requisite seems to be that a religion, to be strong and sure of itself, must believe that it alone is the truth; otherwise it cannot influence people.
Liberalism dies because it is dry, because it cannot rouse fanaticism in the human mind, because it cannot bring out hatred for everything except itself. That is why liberalism is bound to go down again and again. It can influence only small numbers of people. The reason is not hard to see. Liberalism tries to make us unselfish. But we do not want to be unselfish -- we see no immediate gain in unselfishness; we gain more by being selfish. We accept liberalism as long as we are poor, have nothing. The moment we acquire money and power, we turn very conservative. The poor man is a democrat. When he becomes rich, he becomes an aristocrat. In religion, too, human nature acts in the same way.
A prophet arises, promises all kinds of rewards to those who will follow him and eternal doom to those who will not. Thus he makes his ideas spread. All existent religions that are spreading are tremendously fanatic. The more a sect hates other sects, the greater is its success and the more people it draws into its fold. My conclusion, after travelling over a good part of the world and living with many races, and in view of the conditions prevailing in the world, is that the present state of things is going to continue, in spite of much talk of universal brotherhood.
Vedanta does not believe in any of these teachings. First, it does not believe in a book -- that is the difficulty to start with. It denies the authority of any book over any other book. It denies emphatically that any one book can contain all the truths about God, soul, the ultimate reality. Those of you who have read the Upanishads remember that they say again and again, "Not by the reading of books can we realise the Self."
Second, it finds veneration for some particular person still more difficult to uphold. Those of you who are students of Vedanta -- by Vedanta is always meant the Upanishads -- know that this is the only religion that does not cling to any person. Not one man or woman has ever become the object of worship among the Vedantins. It cannot be. A man is no more worthy of worship than any bird, any worm. We are all brothers. The difference is only in degree. I am exactly the same as the lowest worm. You see how very little room there is in Vedanta for any man to stand ahead of us and for us to go and worship him -- he dragging us on and we being saved by him. Vedanta does not give you that. No book, no man to worship, nothing.
A still greater difficulty is about God. You want to be democratic in this country. It is the democratic God that Vedanta teaches.
You have a government, but the government is impersonal. Yours is not an autocratic government, and yet it is more powerful than any monarchy in the world. Nobody seems to understand that the real power, the real life, the real strength is in the unseen, the impersonal, the nobody. As a mere person separated from others, you are nothing, but as an impersonal unit of the nation that rules itself, you are tremendous. You are all one in the government -- you are a tremendous power. But where exactly is the power? Each man is the power. There is no king. I see everybody equally the same. I have not to take off my hat and bow low to anyone. Yet there is a tremendous power in each man.
Vedanta is just that. Its God is not the monarch sitting on a throne, entirely apart. There are those who like their God that way -- a God to be feared and propitiated. They burn candles and crawl in the dust before Him. They want a king to rule them -- they believe in a king in heaven to rule them all. The king is gone from this country at least. Where is the king of heaven now? Just where the earthly king is. In this country the king has entered every one of you. You are all kings in this country. So with the religion of Vedanta. You are all Gods. One God is not sufficient. You are all Gods, says the Vedanta.
This makes Vedanta very difficult. It does not teach the old idea of God at all. In place of that God who sat above the clouds and managed the affairs of the world without asking our permission, who created us out of nothing just because He liked it and made us undergo all this misery just because He liked it, Vedanta teaches the God that is in everyone, has become everyone and everything. His majesty the king has gone from this country; the Kingdom of Heaven went from Vedanta hundreds of years ago.
India cannot give up his majesty the king of the earth -- that is why Vedanta cannot become the religion of India. There is a chance of Vedanta becoming the religion of your country because of democracy. But it can become so only if you can and do clearly understand it, if you become real men and women, not people with vague ideas and superstitions in your brains, and if you want to be truly spiritual, since Vedanta is concerned only with spirituality.
What is the idea of God in heaven? Materialism. The Vedantic idea is the infinite principle of God embodied in every one of us. God sitting up on a cloud! Think of the utter blasphemy of it! It is materialism -- downright materialism. When babies think this way, it may be all right, but when grown - up men try to teach such things, it is downright disgusting -- that is what it is. It is all matter, all body idea, the gross idea, the sense idea. Every bit of it is clay and nothing but clay. Is that religion? It is no more religion than is the Mumbo Jumbo "religion" of Africa. God is spirit and He should be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Does spirit live only in heaven? What is spirit? We are all spirit. Why is it we do not realise it? What makes you different from me? Body and nothing else. Forget the body, and all is spirit.
These are what Vedanta has not to give. No book. No man to be singled out from the rest of mankind --"You are worms, and we are the Lord God!"-- none of that. If you are the Lord God, I also am the Lord God. So Vedanta knows no sin. There are mistakes but no sin; and in the long run everything is going to be all right. No Satan -- none of this nonsense. Vedanta believes in only one sin, only one in the world, and it is this: the moment you think you are a sinner or anybody is a sinner, that is sin. From that follows every other mistake or what is usually called sin. There have been many mistakes in our lives. But we are going on. Glory be unto us that we have made mistakes! Take a long look at your past life. If your present condition is good, it has been caused by all the past mistakes as well as successes. Glory be unto success! Glory be unto mistakes! Do not look back upon what has been done. Go ahead!
You see, Vedanta proposes no sin nor sinner. No God to be afraid of. He is the one being of whom we shall never be afraid, because He is our own Self. There is only one being of whom you cannot possibly be afraid; He is that. Then is not he really the most superstitious person who has fear of God? There may be someone who is afraid of his shadow; but even he is not afraid of himself. God is man's very Self. He is that one being whom you can never possibly fear. What is all this nonsense, the fear of the Lord entering into a man, making him tremble and so on? Lord bless us that we are not all in the lunatic asylum! But if most of us are not lunatics, why should we invent such ideas as fear of God? Lord Buddha said that the whole human race is lunatic, more or less. It is perfectly true, it seems.
No book, no person, no Personal God. All these must go. Again, the senses must go. We cannot be bound to the senses. At present we are tied down -- like persons dying of cold in the glaciers. They feel such a strong desire to sleep, and when their friends try to wake them, warning them of death, they say, "Let me die, I want to sleep." We all cling to the little things of the senses, even if we are ruined thereby: we forget there are much greater things.
There is a Hindu legend that the Lord was once incarnated on earth as a pig. He had a pig mate and in course of time several little pigs were born to Him. He was very happy with His family, living in the mire, squealing with joy, forgetting His divine glory and lordship. The gods became exceedingly concerned and came to the earth to beg Him to give up the pig body and return to heaven. But the Lord would have none of that; He drove them away. He said He was very happy and did not want to be disturbed. Seeing no other course, the gods destroyed the pig body of the Lord. At once He regained His divine majesty and was astonished that He could have found any joy in being a pig.
People behave in the same way. Whenever they hear of the Impersonal God, they say, "What will become of my individuality?-- my individuality will go!" Next time that thought comes, remember the pig, and then think what an infinite mine of happiness you have, each one of you. How pleased you are with your present condition! But when you realise what you truly are, you will be astonished that you were unwilling to give up your sense - life. What is there in your personality? It is any better than that pig life? And this you do not want to give up! Lord bless us all!
What does Vedanta teach us? In the first place, it teaches that you need not even go out of yourself to know the truth. All the past and all the future are here in the present. No man ever saw the past. Did any one of you see the past? When you think you are knowing the past, you only imagine the past in the present moment. To see the future, you would have to bring it down to the present, which is the only reality -- the rest is imagination. This present is all that is. There is only the One. All is here right now. One moment in infinite time is quite as complete and all - inclusive as every other moment. All that is and was and will be is here in the present. Let anybody try to imagine anything outside of it -- he will not succeed.
What religion can paint a heaven which is not like this earth? And it is all art, only this art is being made known to us gradually. We, with five senses, look upon this world and find it gross, having colour, form, sound, and the like. Suppose I develop an electric sense -- all will change. Suppose my senses grow finer -- you will all appear changed. If I change, you change. If I go beyond the power of the senses, you will appear as spirit and God. Things are not what they seem.
We shall understand this by and by, and then see it: all the heavens -- everything -- are here, now, and they really are nothing but appearances on the Divine Presence. This Presence is much greater than all the earths and heavens. People think that this world is bad and imagine that heaven is somewhere else. This world is not bad. It is God Himself if you know it. It is a hard thing even to understand, harder than to believe. The murderer who is going to be hanged tomorrow is all God, perfect God. It is very hard to understand, surely; but it can be understood.
Therefore Vedanta formulates, not universal brotherhood, but universal oneness. I am the same as any other man, as any animal -- good, bad, anything. It is one body, one mind, one soul throughout. Spirit never dies. There is no death anywhere, not even for the body. Not even the mind dies. How can even the body die? One leaf may fall -- does the tree die? The universe is my body. See how it continues. All minds are mine. With all feet I walk. Through all mouths I speak. In everybody I reside.
Why can I not feel it? Because of that individuality, that piggishness. You have become bound up with this mind and can only be here, not there. What is immortality? How few reply, "It is this very existence of ours!" Most people think this is all mortal and dead -- that God is not here, that they will become immortal by going to heaven. They imagine that they will see God after death. But if they do not see Him here and now, they will not see Him after death. Though they all believe in immortality, they do not know that immortality is not gained by dying and going to heaven, but by giving up this piggish individuality, by not tying ourselves down to one little body. Immortality is knowing ourselves as one with all, living in all bodies, perceiving through all minds. We are bound to feel in other bodies than this one. We are bound to feel in other bodies. What is sympathy? Is there any limit to this sympathy, this feeling in our bodies? It is quite possible that the time will come when I shall feel through the whole universe.
What is the gain? The pig body is hard to give up; we are sorry to lose the enjoyment of our one little pig body! Vedanta does not say, "Give it up": it says, "Transcend it". No need of asceticism -- better would be the enjoyment of two bodies, better three, living in more bodies than one! When I can enjoy through the whole universe, the whole universe is my body.
There are many who feel horrified when they hear these teachings. They do not like to be told that they are not just little pig bodies, created by a tyrant God. I tell them, "Come up!" They say they are born in sin -- they cannot come up except through someone's grace. I say, "You are Divine! They answer, "You blasphemer, how dare you speak so? How can a miserable creature be God? We are sinners!" I get very much discouraged at times, you know. Hundreds of men and women tell me, "If there is no hell, how can there be any religion?" If these people go to hell of their own will, who can prevent them?
Whatever you dream and think of, you create. If it is hell, you die and see hell. If it is evil and Satan, you get a Satan. If ghosts, you get ghosts. Whatever you think, that you become. If you have to think, think good thoughts, great thoughts. This taking for granted that you are weak little worms! By declaring we are weak, we become weak, we do not become better. Suppose we put out the light, close the windows, and call the room dark. Think of the nonsense! What good does it do me to say I am a sinner? If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp. The whole thing is gone. Yet how curious is the nature of men! Though always conscious that the universal mind is behind their life, they think more of Satan, of darkness and lies. You tell them the truth -- they do not see it; they like darkness better.
This forms the one great question asked by Vedanta: Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything for ourselves. We want a Personal God, a saviour or a prophet to do everything for us. The very rich man never walks, always goes in the carriage; but in the course of years, he wakes up one day paralysed all over. Then he begins to feel that the way he had lived was not good after all. No man can walk for me. Every time one did, it was to my injury. If everything is done for a man by another, he will lose the use of his own limbs. Anything we do ourselves, that is the only thing we do. Anything that is done for us by another never can be ours. You cannot learn spiritual truths from my lectures. If you have learnt anything, I was only the spark that brought it out, made it flash. That is all the prophets and teachers can do. All this running after help is foolishness.
You know, there are bullock carts in India. Usually two bulls are harnessed to a cart, and sometimes a sheaf of straw is dangled at the tip of the pole, a little in front of the animals but beyond their reach. The bulls try continually to feed upon the straw, but never succeed. This is exactly how we are helped! We think we are going to get security, strength, wisdom, happiness from the outside. We always hope but never realise our hope. Never does any help come from the outside.
There is no help for man. None ever was, none is, and none will be. Why should there be? Are you not men and women? Are the lords of the earth to be helped by others? Are you not ashamed? You will be helped when you are reduced to dust. But you are spirit. Pull yourself out of difficulties by yourself! Save yourself by yourself! There is none to help you -- never was. To think that there is, is sweet delusion. It comes to no good.
There came a Christian to me once and said, "You are a terrible sinner." I answered, "Yes, I am. Go on." He was a Christian missionary. That man would not give me any rest. When I see him, I fly. He said, "I have very good things for you. You are a sinner and you are going to hell." I replied, "Very good, what else?" I asked him, "Where are you going?" "I am going to heaven", he answered. I said, "I will go to hell." That day he gave me up.
Here comes a Christian man and he says, "You are all doomed; but if you believe in this doctrine, Christ will help you out." If this were true -- but of course it is nothing but superstition -- there would be no wickedness in the Christian countries. Let us believe in it -- believing costs nothing -- but why is there no result? If I ask, "Why is it that there are so many wicked people?" they say, "We have to work more." Trust in God, but keep your powder dry! Pray to God, and let God come and help you out! But it is I who struggle, pray, and worship; it is I who work out my problems -- and God takes the credit. This is not good. I never do it.
Once I was invited to a dinner. The hostess asked
me to say grace. I said, "I will say grace to you, madam. My grace and thanks are to you." When I work, I say grace to myself. Praise be unto me that I worked hard and acquired what I have!
All the time you work hard and bless somebody else, because you are superstitious, you are afraid. No more of these superstitions bred through thousands of years! It takes a little hard work to become spiritual. Superstitions are all materialism, because they are all based on the consciousness of body, body, body. No spirit there. Spirit has no superstitions -- it is beyond the vain desires of the body.
But here and there these vain desires are being projected even into the realm of the spirit. I have attended several spiritualistic meetings. In one, the leader was a woman. She said to me, "Your mother and grandfather came to me" She said that they greeted her and talked to her. But my mother is living yet! People like to think that even after death their relatives continue to exist in the same bodies, and the spiritualists play on their superstitions. I would be very sorry to know that my dead father is still wearing his filthy body. People get consolation from this, that their fathers are all encased in matter. In another place they brought me Jesus Christ. I said, "Lord, how do you do?" It makes me feel hopeless. If that great saintly man is still wearing the body, what is to become of us poor creatures? The spiritualists did not allow me to touch any of those gentlemen. Even if these were real, I would not want them. I think, "Mother, Mother! atheists -- that is what people really are! Just the desire for these five senses! Not satisfied with what they have here, they want more of the same when they die!"
What is the God of Vedanta? He is principle, not person. You and I are all Personal Gods. The Absolute God of the universe, the creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe, is impersonal principle. You and I, the cat, rat, devil, and ghost, all these are Its persons -- all are Personal Gods. You want to worship Personal Gods. It is the worship of your own self. If you take my advice, you will never enter any church. Come out and go and wash off. Wash yourself again and again until you are cleansed of all the superstitions that have clung to you through the ages. Or, perhaps, you do not like to do so, since you do not wash yourself so often in this country -- frequent washing is an Indian custom, not a custom of your society.
I have been asked many times, "Why do you laugh so much and make so many jokes?" I become serious sometimes -- when I have stomach - ache! The Lord is all blissfulness. He is the reality behind all that exists, He is the goodness, the truth in everything. You are His incarnations. That is what is glorious. The nearer you are to Him, the less you will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from Him, the more will long faces come. The more we know of Him, the more misery vanishes. If one who lives in the Lord becomes miserable, what is the use of living in Him? What is the use of such a God? Throw Him overboard into the Pacific Ocean! We do not want Him!
But God is the infinite, impersonal being -- ever existent, unchanging, immortal, fearless; and you are all His incarnations, His embodiments. This is the God of Vedanta, and His heaven is everywhere. In this heaven dwell all the Personal Gods there are -- you yourselves. Exit praying and laying flowers in the temples! What do you pray for? To go to heaven, to get something, and let somebody else not have it. "Lord, I want more food! Let somebody else starve!" What an idea of God who is the reality, the infinite, ever blessed existence in which there is neither part nor flaw, who is ever free, ever pure, ever perfect! We attribute to Him all our human characteristics, functions, and limitations. He must bring us food and give us clothes. As a matter of fact we have to do all these things ourselves and nobody else ever did them for us. That is the plain truth.
But you rarely think of this. You imagine there is God of whom you are special favourites, who does things for you when you ask Him; and you do not ask of Him favours for all men, all beings, but only for yourself, your own family, your own people. When the Hindu is starving, you do not care; at that time you do not think that the God of the Christians is also the God of the Hindus. Our whole idea of God, our praying, our worshipping, all are vitiated by our ignorance, our foolish idea of ourselves as body. You may not like what I am saying. You may curse me today, but tomorrow you will bless me.
We must become thinkers. Every birth is painful. We must get out of materialism. My Mother would not let us get out of Her clutches; nevertheless we must try. This struggle is all the worship there is; all the rest is mere shadow. You are the Personal God. Just now I am worshipping you. This is the greatest prayer. Worship the whole world in that sense -- by serving it. This standing on a high platform, I know, does not appear like worship. But if it is service, it is worship.
The infinite truth is never to be acquired. It is here all the time, undying and unborn. He, the Lord of the universe, is in every one. There is but one temple -- the body. It is the only temple that ever existed. In this body, He resides, the Lord of souls and the King of kings. We do not see that, so we make stone images of Him and build temples over them. Vedanta has been in India always, but India is full of these temples -- and not only temples, but also caves containing carved images. "The fool, dwelling on the bank of the Ganga, digs a well for water!" Such are we! Living in the midst of God -- we must go and make images. We project Him in the form of the image, while all the time He exists in the temple of our body. We are lunatics, and this is the great delusion.
Worship everything as God -- every form is His temple. All else is delusion. Always look within, never without. Such is the God that Vedanta preaches, and such is His worship. Naturally there is no sect, no creed, no caste in Vedanta. How can this religion be the national religion of India?
Hundreds of castes! If one man touches another man's food, he cries out, "Lord help me, I am polluted!" When I returned to India after my visit to the West, several orthodox Hindus raised a howl against my association with the Western people and my breaking the rules of orthodoxy. They did not like me to teach the truths of the Vedas to the people of the West.
But how can there be these distinctions and differences? How can the rich man turn up his nose at the poor man, and the learned at the ignorant, if we are all spirit and all the same? Unless society changes, how can such a religion as Vedanta prevail? It will take thousands of years to have large numbers of truly rational human beings. It is very hard to show men new things, to give them great ideas. It is harder still to knock off old superstitions, very hard; they do not die easily. With all his education, even the learned man becomes frightened in the dark -- the nursery tales come into his mind, and he see ghosts.
The meaning of the word "Veda", from which the word "Vedanta" comes, is knowledge. All knowledge is Veda, infinite as God is infinite. Nobody ever creates knowledge. Did you ever see knowledge created? It is only discovered -- what was covered is uncovered. It is always here, because it is God Himself. Past, present, and future knowledge, all exist in all of us. We discover it, that is all. All this knowledge is God Himself. The Vedas are a great Sanskrit book. In our country we go down on our knees before the man who reads the Vedas, and we do not care for the man who is studying physics. That is superstition; it is not Vedanta at all. It is utter materialism. With God every knowledge is sacred. Knowledge is God. Infinite knowledge abides within every one in the fullest measure. You are not really ignorant, though you may appear to be so. You are incarnations of God, all of you. You are incarnations of the Almighty, Omnipresent, Divine Principle. You may laugh at me now, but the time will come when you will understand. You must. Nobody will be left behind.
What is the goal? This that I have spoken of -- vedanta -- is not a new religion. So old -- as old as God Himself. It is not confined to any time and place, it is everywhere. Everybody knows this truth. We are all working it out. The goal of the whole universe is that. This applies even to external nature -- every atom is rushing towards that goal. And do you think that any of the infinite pure souls are left without knowledge of the supreme truth? All have it, all are going to the same goal -- the discovery of the innate Divinity. The maniac, the murderer, the superstitious man, the man who is lynched in this country -- all are travelling to the same goal. Only that which we do ignorantly we ought to do knowingly, and better.
The unity of all existence -- you all have it already within yourselves. None was ever born without it. However you may deny it, it continually asserts itself. What is human love? It is more or less an affirmation of that unity: "I am one with thee, my wife, my child, my friend!" Only you are affirming the unity ignorantly. "None ever loved the husband for the husband's sake, but for the sake of the Self that is in the husband." The wife finds unity there. The husband sees himself in the wife -- instinctively he does it, but he cannot do it knowingly, consciously.
The whole universe is one existence. There cannot be anything else. Out of diversities we are all going towards this universal existence. Families into tribes, tribes into races, races into nations, nations into humanity -- how many wills going to the One! It is all knowledge, all science -- the realisation of this unity. Unity is knowledge, diversity is ignorance. This knowledge is your birthright. I have not to teach it to you. There never were different religions in the world. We are all destined to have salvation, whether we will it or not. You have to attain it in the long run and become free, because it is your nature to be free. We are already free, only we do not know it, and we do not know what we have been doing. Throughout all religious systems and ideals is the same morality; one thing only is preached: "Be unselfish, love others." One says, "Because Jehovah commanded." "Allah," shouted Mohammed. Another cries, "Jesus". If it was only the command of Jehovah, how could it come to those who never knew Jehovah? If it was Jesus alone who gave this command, how could any one who never knew Jesus get it? If only Vishnu, how could the Jews get it, who never were acquainted with that gentleman? There is another source, greater than all of them. Where is it? In the eternal temple of God, in the souls of all beings from the lowest to the highest. It is there -- that infinite unselfishness, infinite sacrifice, infinite compulsion to go back to unity.
We have seemingly been divided, limited, because of our ignorance; and we have become as it were the little Mrs. so - and - so and Mr. so - and - so. But all nature is giving this delusion the lie every moment. I am not that little man or little woman cut off from all else; I am the one universal existence. The soul in its own majesty is rising up every moment and declaring its own intrinsic Divinity.
This Vedanta is everywhere, only you must become conscious of it. These masses of foolish beliefs and superstitions hinder us in our progress. If we can, let us throw them off and understand that God is spirit to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Try to be materialists no more! Throw away all matter! The conception of God must be truly spiritual. All the different ideas of God, which are more or less materialistic, must go. As man becomes more and more spiritual, he has to throw off all these ideas and leave them behind. As a matter of fact, in every country there have always been a few who have been strong enough to throw away all matter and stand out in the shining light, worshipping the spirit by the spirit.
If Vedanta -- this conscious knowledge that all is one spirit -- spreads, the whole of humanity will become spiritual. But is it possible? I do not know. Not within thousands of years. The old superstitions must run out. You are all interested in how to perpetuate all your superstitions. Then there are the ideas of the family brother, the caste brother, the national brother. All these are barriers to the realisation of Vedanta. Religion has been religion to very few.
Most of those who have worked in the field of religion all over the world have really been political workers. That has been the history of human beings. They have rarely tried to live up uncompromisingly to the truth. They have always worshipped the god called society; they have been mostly concerned with upholding what the masses believe -- their superstitions, their weakness. They do not try to conquer nature but to fit into nature, nothing else. God to India and preach a new creed -- they will not listen to it. But if you tell them it is from the Vedas --"That is good!" they will say. Here I can preach this doctrine, and you -- how many of you take me seriously? But the truth is all here, and I must tell you the truth.
There is another side to the question. Everyone says that the highest, the pure, truth cannot be realised all at once by all, that men have to be led to it gradually through worship, prayer, and other kinds of prevalent religious practices. I am not sure whether that is the right method or not. In India I work both ways.
In Calcutta, I have all these images and temples -- in the name of God and the Vedas, of the Bible and Christ and Buddha. Let it be tried. But on the heights of the Himalayas I have a place where I am determined nothing shall enter except pure truth. There I want to work out this idea about which I have spoken to you today. There are an Englishman and an Englishwoman in charge of the place. The purpose is to train seekers of truth and to bring up children without fear and without superstition. They shall not hear about Christs and Buddhas and Shivas and Vishnus -- none of these. They shall learn, from the start, to stand upon their own feet. They shall learn from their childhood that God is the spirit and should be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Everyone must be looked upon as spirit. That is the ideal. I do not know what success will come of it. Today I am preaching the thing I like. I wish I had been brought up entirely on that, without all the dualistic superstitions.
Sometimes I agree that there is some good in the dualistic method: it helps many who are weak. If a man wants you to show him the polar star, you first point out to him a bright star near it, then a less bright star, then a dim star, and then the polar star. This process makes it easy for him to see it. All the various practices and trainings, Bibles and Gods, are but the rudiments of religion, the kindergartens of religion.
But then I think of the other side. How long will the
world have to wait to reach the truth if it follows this slow, gradual process? How long? And where is the surety that it will ever succeed to any appreciable degree? It has not so far. After all, gradual or not gradual, easy or not easy to the weak, is not the dualistic method based on falsehood? Are not all the prevalent religious practices often weakening and therefore wrong? They are based on a wrong idea, a wrong view of man. Would two wrong make one right? Would the lie become truth? Would darkness become light?
I am the servant of a man who has passed away. I am only the messenger. I want to make the experiment. The teachings of Vedanta I have told you about were never really experimented with before. Although Vedanta is the oldest philosophy in the world, it has always become mixed up with superstitions and everything else.
Christ said, "I and my father are one", and you repeat it. Yet it has not helped mankind. For nineteen hundred years men have not understood that saying. They make Christ the saviour of men. He is God and we are worms! Similarly in India. In every country, this sort of belief is the backbone of every sect. For thousands of years millions and millions all over the world have been taught to worship the Lord of the world, the Incarnations, the saviours, the prophets. They have been taught to consider themselves helpless, miserable creatures and to depend upon the mercy of some person or persons for salvation. There are no doubt many marvellous things in such beliefs. But even at their best, they are but kindergartens of religion, and they have helped but little. Men are still hypnotised into abject degradation. However, there are some strong souls who get over that illusion. The hour comes when great men shall arise and cast off these kindergartens of religion and shall make vivid and powerful the true religion, the worship of the spirit by the spirit.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。