生死的法则
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中文
辨喜（Swami Vivekananda）昨晚发表了题为"生与死的法则"的演讲。斯瓦米说："如何摆脱这种生死轮回——不是如何去天堂，而是如何能够停止去天堂——这就是印度教徒探索的目标。"
斯瓦米接着说，没有任何事物是孤立存在的——一切都是永无止境的因果链条的一部分。如果有比人更高等的存在，他们也必须遵循法则。生命只能从生命中诞生，思想只能从思想中产生，物质只能从物质中产生。宇宙不可能从物质中被创造出来。它永远存在着。如果人类的灵魂从自然之手中全新地来到这个世界，他们就不会带有任何印记；但我们并非以那种方式降生，这说明我们不是全新被创造的。如果人类灵魂是从虚无中被创造出来的，那有什么能阻止它们回归虚无？如果我们将在未来永远活着，我们就必然在过去也永远活着。
印度教徒的信仰是，灵魂既非心意也非身体。什么是那保持稳定的东西——能够说"我就是我"的东西？不是身体，因为它一直在变化；也不是心意，因为它变化得比身体更快，甚至几分钟内都不会有相同的思想。必定有某种不变的同一性——某种对于人而言如同河岸之于河流的东西——河岸不变，没有河岸的不动性，我们就不会意识到持续流动的河水。在身体背后，在心意背后，必定有某种东西，即灵魂，它统一了人。心意仅仅是灵魂——主人——作用于身体的精密工具。在印度我们说一个人放弃了他的身体，而你们说，一个人放弃了他的灵魂。印度教徒相信人是一个灵魂并拥有一个身体，而西方人相信他是一个身体并拥有一个灵魂。
死亡降临于一切复合之物。灵魂是一个单纯的元素，不由任何其他东西组成，因此它不能死亡。灵魂依其本性必然是不朽的。身体、心意和灵魂在法则之轮上运转——没有什么能够逃脱。我们不能比星辰、比太阳更能超越法则——这完全是一个法则的宇宙。业力（Karma）的法则是每一个行为迟早必然产生一个效果。那颗从木乃伊手中取出的五千年的埃及种子，种下后便萌发了生命——它正是人类行为永无止境之影响力的象征。行为永远不能无果而终。那么，如果我们的行为只能在这个存在层面上产生其相应的效果，那么我们就必然要回来完成因果的循环。这就是轮回的教义。我们是法则的奴隶，行为的奴隶，渴求的奴隶，欲望的奴隶，千种事物的奴隶。只有逃离生命才能从奴役中逃向自由。神是唯一自由的存在。神与自由是一回事。
English
Swami Vivekananda delivered a lecture last evening on the subject, "The Laws of Life and Death". The Swami said: "How to get rid of this birth and death -- not how to go to heaven, but how one can stop going to heaven -- this is the object of the search of the Hindu."
The Swami went on to say that nothing stands isolated -- everything is a part of the never - ending procession of cause and effect. If there are higher beings than man, they also must obey the laws. Life can only spring from life, thought from thought, matter from matter. A universe cannot be created out of matter. It has existed for ever. If human beings came into the world fresh from the hands of nature, they would come without impressions; but we do not come in that way, which shows that we are not created afresh. If human souls are created out of nothing, what is to prevent them from going back into nothing? If we are to live all the time in the future, we must have lived all the time in the past.
It is the belief of the Hindu that the soul is neither mind nor body. What is it which remains stable -- which can say, "I am I"? Not the body, for it is always changing; and not the mind, which changes more rapidly than the body, which never has the same thoughts for even a few minutes. There must be an identity which does not change -- something which is to man what the banks are to the river -- the banks which do not change and without whose immobility we would not be conscious of the constantly moving stream. Behind the body, behind the mind, there must be something, viz the soul, which unifies the man. Mind is merely the fine instrument through which the soul -- the master -- acts on the body. In India we say a man has given up his body, while you say, a man gives up his ghost. The Hindus believe that a man is a soul and has a body, while Western people believe he is a body and possesses a soul.
Death overtakes everything which is complex. The soul is a single element, not composed of anything else, and therefore it cannot die. By its very nature the soul must be immortal. Body, mind, and soul turn upon the wheel of law -- none can escape. No more can we transcend the law than can the stars, than can the sun -- it is all a universe of law. The law of Karma is that every action must be followed sooner or later by an effect. The Egyptian seed which was taken from the hand of a mummy after 5000 years and sprang into life when planted is the type of the never - ending influence of human acts. Action can never die without producing action. Now, if our acts can only produce their appropriate effects on this plane of existence, it follows that we must all come back to round out the circle of causes and effects. This is the doctrine of reincarnation. We are the slaves of law, the slaves of conduct, the slaves of thirst, the slaves of desire, the slaves of a thousand things. Only by escaping from life can we escape from slavery to freedom. God is the only one who is free. God and freedom are one and the same.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。