通向智慧的第一步
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
智慧（Jnana）瑜伽（Yoga）的第一步[6]*
[1895年12月11日星期三，在纽约的一堂智慧瑜伽课上所讲，由斯瓦米·克里帕南达记录]
"智慧"（Jnana）一词意为知识。它源自词根Jnā——意即"知"——英语中的"know"一词也由此同源词根衍生而来。智慧瑜伽即以知识为手段的瑜伽。智慧瑜伽的目标是什么？是自由。从什么中获得自由？从我们的不完美中获得自由，从生命的痛苦中获得自由。我们为何痛苦？因为我们被束缚。束缚是什么？束缚来自自然。是谁束缚了我们？是我们自己。
整个宇宙都受因果律的支配。无论内在世界还是外在世界，没有任何事物、任何事实是没有原因的；而每一个原因都必然产生结果。
如今，我们所处的这种束缚是一个事实。无需证明我们处于束缚之中。例如：我非常愿意穿墙而过离开这个房间，但我做不到；我非常愿意永远不生病，但我无法做到；我非常愿意不死，但我不得不死；我非常愿意做成千上万件事，但我做不到。意志在那里，然而我们却无法实现愿望。当我们有了欲望却没有满足它的手段时，我们便产生了那种特殊的反应——痛苦。谁是欲望的根源？是我自己。因此，我自己就是我所承受的一切痛苦的根源。
痛苦始于婴儿的降生。他以虚弱无助之身来到这个世界。生命的第一个征象便是哭泣。那么，当我们在生命的最初便发现痛苦时，我们怎么可能是痛苦的根源呢？我们在过去已经种下了这个因。[此处辨喜（Vivekananda）进入了一段相当长的关于"那个极为有趣的理论——轮回"的讨论。他接着说道：]
要理解轮回，我们首先必须知道，在这个宇宙中，某物永远不可能从虚无中产生。如果存在人类灵魂这样的东西，它就不可能从虚无中产生。如果某物能从虚无中产生，那么某物也会消失于虚无。如果我们从虚无中产生，那我们也将归于虚无。有始者必有终。因此，作为灵魂，我们不可能有过任何开始。我们一直存在着。
再者，如果我们此前并不存在，那我们当前的存在就无法得到解释。婴儿生来便带着一整套因。在孩子身上我们看到许多事情，若不承认孩子有过去的经验，便永远无法解释——例如对死亡的恐惧和大量与生俱来的倾向。是谁教会婴儿以那种特殊的方式吮吸乳汁的？它从何处获得了这种知识？我们知道，没有经验就不可能有任何知识，因为说这种知识对于孩子而言是直觉的或本能的，在逻辑学家看来不过是一种"预设论点的谬误"。[7]*
那就如同有人问我为什么光能穿过玻璃，而我回答他"因为它是透明的"一样。那实际上根本不是回答，因为我只不过是把他的话翻译成了一个更大的词。"透明"一词的意思就是"光能穿过的"——而这正是他的问题所在。问题是为什么光能穿过玻璃，而我的回答不过是"因为光能穿过玻璃"。
同样地，问题在于为什么这些倾向存在于孩子身上。如果它从未见过死亡，为何会恐惧死亡？如果这是它第一次出生，它怎么知道要吮吸母亲的乳汁？如果答案是"哦，那是本能"，那只不过是把问题原封不动地还了回来。一个人站出来说"我不知道"，他的处境比那个说"那是本能"以及诸如此类废话的人要好得多。
根本不存在所谓的本能；也不存在与习惯分离的所谓天性。习惯是人的第二天性，而习惯也是人的第一天性。你天性中的一切都是习惯的结果，而习惯是经验的结果。没有经验就不可能有任何知识。
因此，这个婴儿也必定有过某些经验。即便是现代唯物主义科学也承认这一事实。它确凿无疑地证明，婴儿带着一笔经验的积蓄来到这个世界。它并不像一些古代哲学家所认为的那样，以"白板"——一张什么也没写的空白心灵——进入这个世界，而是已经装备好了一整套知识。到目前为止，一切都好。
然而，尽管现代科学承认孩子带来的这套知识是通过经验获得的，它同时又断言，这不是孩子自己的——而是它父亲的、祖父的和曾祖父的。知识，他们说，是通过遗传传递而来的。
这比起那个仅适合婴儿和白痴的"本能"旧理论，确实前进了一步。这个"本能"理论不过是文字游戏，毫无意义可言。一个稍有思考能力、稍能洞察词语逻辑精确性的人，决不敢用"本能"来解释与生俱来的倾向，这个术语等于说某物从虚无中产生。然而，现代的经验遗传传递理论——虽然无疑比旧理论前进了一步——也是完全不够的。为什么不够？我们能理解物质的传递，但精神的传递是无法理解的。
是什么使得我——作为一个灵魂——出生于一个传递了某些特质的父亲那里？是什么使我回来？父亲具有某些特质，这可能是一个约束性的原因。假定我是一个独立的灵魂，之前就已存在，并且想要转世——是什么使我的灵魂进入某一特定人的身体？要使解释充分，我们必须假设一种能量的遗传传递，以及我自己先前的经验这样一种东西。这就是所谓的业（Karma），或者用英语说，因果律，亦即适合性法则。
例如，如果我过去的行为全都趋向于酗酒，我自然会被吸引到那些传递酗酒者特质的人那里。我只能利用那些父母所产生的有机体，而这些父母一直在传递某种特定的影响，恰好与我因过去行为而适合的影响相吻合。因此我们看到，确实有某种遗传经验从父传子，代代相传。同时，正是我过去的经验使我与特定的遗传传递因缘相结合。
单纯的遗传传递理论只能触及物质层面的人，对于人的内在灵魂则完全不够。即使从最纯粹的唯物主义立场来看——即人没有灵魂这种东西，人不过是一堆受某些物理力量作用的原子，像自动机器一样运转——即便接受这一点，单纯的传递理论也相当不充分。
关于单纯的物质传递假说，最大的困难在于：如果人没有灵魂这种东西，如果他不过是一堆受某些力量作用的原子，那么在传递的情况下，父亲的灵魂将按照子女数量的比例递减；一个有五个、六个或八个孩子的人，到最后必然变成白痴。那么印度和中国——人们像老鼠一样繁殖的地方——应该遍地都是白痴。但恰恰相反，我们发现疯癫的比例在印度和中国是最低的。
问题是，我们所说的"传递"究竟是什么意思？这是一个大词，但就像许多其他同类不可能且荒谬的术语一样，它在人们尚未理解其含义之前就已被广泛使用。如果我问你什么是传递，你会发现你对它的意义并没有真正的概念，因为这个词并没有附着任何实际的观念。
让我们更仔细地审视这个问题。比方说，这里有一位父亲。他生了一个孩子。我们看到，父亲所拥有的同样特质进入了孩子身上。很好。那么父亲的特质是如何来到孩子身上的？没有人知道。于是现代物理学家想用"传递"这个大词来填补这个空白。而这个传递又意味着什么？没有人知道。
精神的经验特质怎么能被浓缩并寄存于一个单独的原生质细胞中？鸟类的原生质和人类大脑的原生质之间没有区别。关于物质传递，我们所能说的全部不过是，它由从父亲身体切割下来的两三个原生质细胞组成。仅此而已。但假设千秋万代的人类经验被压缩进几个原生质细胞——这简直是荒谬透顶！他们要你伴着"传递"这个小词吞下的药丸也太大了。
在古代，教会拥有威望，而今天科学拥有了它。正如在古代，人们从不自己探究——从不研读《圣经》，所以教士们便有了很好的机会来教授他们喜欢的任何东西——同样，如今大多数人也不自己研究，同时却对任何被称为"科学"的东西怀有巨大的敬畏和恐惧。你们应当记住，比教会中曾存在过的更为恶劣的教皇专制正在到来——即所谓的科学教皇专制，它已如此成功，以至于它以比宗教教皇专制更大的权威来向我们发号施令。
这些现代科学的教皇们确实是伟大的教皇，但有时他们要求我们相信的东西比任何教士或任何宗教所要求的都更为奇妙。其中一件奇妙之事就是那个传递理论，我始终无法理解。如果我问"你所说的传递是什么意思？"他们只是把它变得稍微容易些，说"这是遗传传递"。如果我告诉他们"这对我来说等于天书"，他们就把它变得更容易些，说"这是原生质细胞中父系特质的附着"。就这样越来越容易，直到我的头脑变得一团糟，对整件事感到厌烦透顶。
现在有一件事我们看到了：我们产生思想。今晚我在对你们讲话，这在你们的大脑中产生了思想。通过这种传递行为，我们理解到我的思想正在被传递到你们的大脑和你们的心智中，并产生其他思想。这是一个日常事实。
站在你能理解的事物一边，站在事实一边，总是合理的。思想的传递是
完全可以理解的。因此我们能够采纳思想传递的概念，而不仅仅是原生质细胞遗传印象的传递。我们不必抛弃那个理论，但主要的重点必须放在思想的传递上。
那么，父亲并不传递思想。唯有思想本身传递思想。那个出生的孩子先前就以思想的形式存在。我们所有人都以思想的形式永恒地存在着，并将继续以思想的形式存在下去。
我们所想的，我们的身体便成为那样。一切都由思想所造，因此我们是自己生命的制造者。唯有我们自己对自己所做的一切负责。哭喊"为什么我不幸福？"是愚蠢的。是我自己造成了我自己的不幸。这根本不是上帝的过错。
有人利用阳光闯入你的房子抢劫你。当他被警察抓住时，他可能会哭喊："哦，太阳，你为什么让我偷窃？"这根本不是太阳的过错，因为在同样的阳光下，还有成千上万的人对他们的同胞做了许多好事。太阳并没有叫这个人去偷窃和抢劫。
我们每个人都收获自己亲手种下的果实。我们所承受的这些痛苦，我们挣扎其中的这些束缚，都是我们自己造成的，宇宙中没有任何其他人应受责怪。上帝是最不应受责怪的。
"上帝为什么创造了这个邪恶的世界？"他根本没有创造这个邪恶的世界。是我们使它变得邪恶，我们必须使它变好。"上帝为什么把我创造得如此悲惨？"他没有。他给了我与每一个众生同样的力量。是我自己把自己带到了这步田地。
我自己所做的事，难道要怪上帝吗？他的慈悲永远如一。他的太阳同样照耀邪恶者和善良者。他的空气、他的水、他的大地给予邪恶者和善良者同样的机会。上帝永远是那同一个永恒的、慈悲的天父。我们唯一要做的就是承担自己行为的后果。
我们了解到，首先，我们一直永恒地存在着；其次，我们是自己生命的制造者。不存在所谓的命运。我们的生命是我们过去行为的结果，是我们的业。由此自然可以推出，既然我们自己是自己业的制造者，我们也必定能够消解它。
智慧瑜伽的全部要旨就是向人类展示消解这种业的方法。一条毛虫用自己身体的物质在自己周围吐出一个小茧，最终发现自己被囚禁其中。它可以在里面哭泣、哀号、嚎叫；在它变得智慧之前，没有人会来拯救它，而当它终于变得智慧时，它便破茧而出，成为一只美丽的蝴蝶。我们的这些束缚也是如此。我们在无数劫中绕着自己兜圈子。如今我们感到痛苦，为我们的束缚哭泣哀叹。但哭泣和悲叹毫无用处。我们必须着手斩断这些束缚。
一切束缚的根本原因是无明。人并非天性邪恶——绝非如此。他的天性是纯洁的，完全神圣的。每个人都是神圣的。你所见到的每一个人，其本性都是神。这种本性被无明所遮蔽，正是无明将我们束缚。无明是一切痛苦的根源。无明是一切邪恶的根源；而知识将使世界变好。知识将消除一切痛苦。知识将使我们自由。这就是智慧瑜伽的理念：知识将使我们自由！什么知识？化学？物理学？天文学？地质学？它们对我们有一点帮助，只是一点帮助。但最重要的知识是关于你自己本性的知识。"认识你自己。"你必须知道你是什么，你的真实本性是什么。你必须觉知到内在那个无限的本性。那时你的束缚便会碎裂。
仅仅研究外在世界，人开始觉得自己微不足道。自然界这些巨大的力量，这些发生着的剧烈变化——整个社群在转瞬间从地球表面被抹去，一次火山爆发便将整片大陆震碎——感知和研究这些事物，人开始觉得自己渺小。因此，不是对外在自然的研究使人坚强。但人的内在本性——比任何火山爆发或任何自然法则都强大百万倍——它征服自然，战胜自然的一切法则。唯有它教导人他究竟是什么。
"知识就是力量"，谚语不正是如此说的吗？力量源于知识。人必须去认知。这里有一个拥有无限力量与威能的人。他的本性自然具足力量与全知。而他必须认识到这一点。他越是意识到自己的真我（Atman），就越能彰显这种力量，他的束缚便逐一断裂，最终获得自由。
如何认识我们自己？现在问题依然在此。认识真我有多种途径，但在智慧瑜伽（Jnana-Yoga）中，它仅借助纯粹的理性推理，别无他物。唯有理性，唯有智力，上升至灵性觉悟的层面，方能揭示我们的本质。
这里没有信仰的问题。不相信一切——这就是智慧（Jnana）行者的理念。不相信一切，怀疑一切——这是第一步。敢于做一个理性主义者。敢于跟随理性，无论它引领你去向何方。
我们每天都听到周围的人说："我敢于运用理性。"然而，这实际上是一件极其困难的事。我愿意走上两百英里的路，只为一睹那位敢于运用理性、敢于追随理性的人的容颜。没有什么比说这句话更容易的了，也没有什么比做到这一点更困难的了。我们始终被迫遵循种种迷信——古老的、年深日久的迷信，或属于民族的，或属于全人类的——属于家族的迷信，属于朋友的迷信，属于国家、时尚、书本、性别以及其他种种的迷信。
谈论理性！真正运用理性的人实在少之又少。你听到一个人说："哦，我不喜欢盲目相信什么；我不喜欢在黑暗中摸索。我必须运用理性。"于是他推理了。但当理性将他紧抱于怀中的东西击得粉碎时，他说："够了！这种推理在打碎我的理想之前还算可以。到此为止！"这样的人永远不会成为智慧行者。这样的人将终其一生乃至来世背负着束缚。他将一次又一次落入死亡的权柄之下。这样的人不适合智慧瑜伽。另有他法适合他们——如虔信瑜伽（Bhakti-Yoga）、业瑜伽（Karma-Yoga）或王瑜伽（Raja-Yoga）——但绝非智慧瑜伽。
我想事先告诉你们，这条道路只有最勇毅之人方能行走。不要以为那些不信仰任何教会、不属于任何教派的人，或那些夸耀自己不信神的人就是理性主义者。绝非如此。在现代社会，做这类事情不过是一种逞强罢了。
要成为一个理性主义者，所需的远不止于不信。你不仅要能够运用理性，还要能够遵从理性的指引。如果理性告诉你这个身体是幻象，你准备好放弃它了吗？理性告诉你冷热不过是感官的幻觉，你准备好勇敢面对这些了吗？如果理性告诉你感官传递给心灵的一切都不是真实的，你准备好否定自己的感官知觉了吗？如果你敢，你就是一个理性主义者。
相信理性并追随真理，这是极其艰难的，几乎不可能。整个世界不是充满迷信之人，就是充满三心二意的伪善者。我宁愿站在迷信与无知一边，也不愿与这些三心二意的伪善者为伍。他们毫无价值。他们脚踏两条船。
选定任何一条道路，确立你的理想，勇往直前，至死不渝。这就是解脱（Moksha）之道。三心二意从未引领任何人到达任何地方。做一个迷信者也好，做一个狂热者也罢，随你所愿，但要有所坚持。有所坚持，展现出你有所信仰；但不要像那些对真理左右摇摆的人——那些样样通、样样松的人，他们不过想获得某种神经上的刺激，一剂鸦片，直到这种对刺激的渴求变成了习惯。
这个世界充斥着越来越多这样的人。与基督所说的使徒们是世上的盐恰恰相反，这些人是世上的灰烬，世上的尘土。因此，让我们首先清理好场地，弄清楚追随理性意味着什么，然后我们再来理解追随理性的障碍是什么。
追随理性的第一个障碍，是我们不愿走向真理。我们想让真理来就我们。在我所有的旅行中，大多数人对我说："哦，你所讲的不是一种舒适的宗教。给我们一种舒适的宗教吧！"
我不理解他们所说的"舒适的宗教"是什么意思。我一生中从未被教导过任何舒适的宗教。我要的是以真理为信仰。它舒适与否，我不在意。真理为何必须总是令人舒适？真理很多时候是严厉的打击——我们都从经验中深知这一点。渐渐地，在与这些人长久交往之后，我终于明白了他们那套陈词滥调的含义。这些人已经陷入了窠臼，他们不敢走出来。真理必须向他们赔礼道歉。
我曾遇到一位女士，她极其珍爱她的孩子、她的金钱和她的一切。当我开始向她宣讲，通往上帝的唯一道路是放弃一切时，她第二天就不来了。有一天她来对我说，她不来的原因是我所宣讲的宗教太不舒适了。"什么样的宗教才会让你感到舒适呢？"我问道，为的是试探她。她说："我想在我的孩子身上看到上帝，在我的金钱中看到上帝，在我的钻石里看到上帝。"
"很好，夫人，"我回答道，"你现在已经拥有了所有这些东西。你还将不得不再看上几百万年。然后你会在某处碰壁，回归理性。在那一天到来之前，你永远不会走近上帝。在此期间，继续在你的孩子、你的金钱、你的钻石和你的舞会中去看上帝吧。"
对这样的人来说，放弃感官享乐是困难的，几乎不可能。从生生世世以来，这种习气已深深长在他们身上。如果你要求一头猪放弃它的猪圈，去你最华丽的客厅，那对猪来说无异于死亡。"放开我，我必须住在那里，"猪如是说。
（此处辨喜（Vivekananda）讲述了鱼妇的故事："有一次，一个鱼妇到一个种花的园丁家做客。她在市场上卖完鱼后带着空篮子来到那里，被安排在一间放满鲜花的屋子里睡觉。但因为花香扑鼻，她久久无法入睡。女主人看到她的状况说：'你好！你为什么翻来覆去这样不安呢？'鱼妇说：'我不知道，朋友。也许是花的气味打扰了我的睡眠。你能把我的鱼篮给我吗？也许那样我就能睡着了。'"）
我们也是如此。大多数人乐在其中的正是这种鱼腥味——这个世界，这些感官享受，这些金钱财富和财产妻儿。这个世界所有的荒唐——这股鱼腥味——已经深入我们的骨髓。我们听不到超越它的任何声音，看不到超越它的任何事物；没有什么能超越它。这就是整个宇宙。
所有关于天堂、上帝和灵魂的谈论，对一个普通人来说毫无意义。他在此地已拥有天堂。除了这个世界，他没有任何其他概念。当你告诉他更高的东西时，他说："那不是一种舒适的宗教。给我们一些舒适的东西。"也就是说，宗教不过是他正在做的事情。
如果他是个小偷，你告诉他偷盗是我们所能做的最崇高的事，他会说："这是一种舒适的宗教。"如果他在欺骗别人，你必须告诉他，他正在做的一切都是对的；那么他就会接受你的教导，视之为"舒适的宗教"。所有的麻烦在于，人们永远不想走出他们的窠臼——永远不想丢掉那个旧鱼篮和那股气味，以获得新生。如果他们说"我要真理"，那不过意味着他们要的是那个鱼篮。
你何时才算获得了知识？当你具备了那四种修行条件之时（即吠檀多（Vedanta）文献中所论述的四种证悟资质：辨别真实与非真实、离欲、以寂静为首的六种美德、以及对解脱的渴望）。你必须放弃一切享乐的欲望，无论是今生的还是来世的。今生一切享乐都是虚妄的。让它们来去自如。
你由过去的行为所赢得的一切，无人能夺走。如果你命中注定拥有财富，即使你把自己埋在森林深处，财富也会来找你。如果你命中注定拥有美食华服，即使你去到北极，它们也会被送到你面前。北极熊会把它们带来。如果你命中没有，即使你征服了整个世界，也会饿死。所以，你何必为这些事情烦恼？而且，说到底，它们又有什么用呢？
小时候，我们都以为这个世界是多么美好，大量的欢乐就在那里等着我们去享用。这是每个学童的梦想。而当他走出去，进入日常的世界，他的梦想很快就破灭了。国家也是如此。当人们看到每座城市都建在废墟之上——每片森林都矗立在一座城市之上——他们便确信了这个世界的虚妄。
一切曾经创造的知识与财富的力量都已消逝——古人所有的学问，失落了，永远失落了。没有人知道是怎样失去的。这给我们上了宏大的一课。虚空的虚空，凡事都是虚空，都是捕风。如果我们已看透这一切，我们便对这个世界及其所提供的一切心生厌离。这就是所谓的离欲，即不执著，是通向知识的第一步。
人的天然欲望是趋向感官。从感官转身离开，便将他带回上帝那里。因此，我们要学的第一课就是远离世间的虚妄。
你还要沉浮多久——沉下去又浮上来五分钟，然后再次沉没，再次浮起又沉没，如此反复——被抛来抛去？你还要在这业的轮盘上旋转多久——上上下下，上上下下？你曾多少千次做过国王和统治者？你曾多少次被财富环绕又陷入贫困？你曾多少千次拥有过最伟大的权力？但你又不得不再次成为凡人，在业力洪流的疯狂冲击中翻滚而下。这业的巨轮不会因寡妇的泪水而停转，也不会因孤儿的哭喊而驻足。
你还要继续多久？还要多久？你是否愿意像那个把一生都在监狱中度过的老人一样，被释放出来后，反倒恳求被送回他那黑暗肮脏的地牢？这就是我们所有人的写照！我们用尽全力紧紧抓住这个低下的、阴暗的、肮脏的牢笼——这个叫做世界的地方——这个丑恶的、虚幻的存在，在这里我们被每一阵风像足球一样踢来踢去。
我们是自然之手中的奴隶——一片面包的奴隶，赞美的奴隶，指责的奴隶，妻子的奴隶，丈夫的奴隶，孩子的奴隶，一切的奴隶。为什么？我走遍世界各地——乞讨、偷窃、抢劫、无所不为——只为让一个也许驼背或面目丑陋的男孩快乐。我愿做一切邪恶的事来让他快乐。为什么？因为我是他的父亲。而与此同时，世界上有千千万万的男孩正在饥饿中死去——身体健美、心灵聪慧的孩子。但他们与我无关。让他们全部死去。我宁可杀死他们所有人，也要保全我亲生的这个顽童。这就是你们所谓的爱。我不这样认为。我不这样认为。这是残忍。
世界上有千千万万的女性——身心美好、善良温柔、贤淑端庄——此刻正在饥饿中死去。我对她们毫不关心。但那个属于我的珍妮——那个每天打我三顿、整日骂我的珍妮——为了她我愿意去乞讨、借债、欺骗和偷窃，好让她有一件漂亮的裙子。
你们管这叫爱吗？我不这样认为。这不过是欲望，动物的欲望——仅此而已。从这些事物中转身离开吧。这些丑恶的梦难道没有尽头吗？把它们止住吧。
当心灵达到对人生一切虚妄都感到厌离的境界时，这就叫做远离自然。这是第一步。一切欲望都必须放下——甚至包括获得天堂的欲望。
这些天堂究竟是什么？不过是整日歌唱赞美诗的地方。为了什么？为了住在那里，拥有一个健康美好的身体，身体每个部位都散发着磷光之类的光芒，头上有光环，背上有翅膀，还有穿墙而过的能力？
如果存在这些能力，它们迟早必定消逝。如果存在天堂——也许有许多层天堂，有着不同等级的享乐——也不可能有一个永生不灭的身体。即使在那里，死亡也会追上我们。
一切聚合必有离散。无论粗细，没有任何身体的制造不需要物质粒子的聚合。每当两个粒子聚合在一起，它们被某种引力所维系；而终将到来一个时刻，那些粒子会分离。这是永恒的法则。因此，无论在何处有身体存在——无论是粗的还是细的，无论在天堂还是在人间——死亡都会将其征服。
因此，一切对今生或来世享乐的欲望都应当放下。人有享乐的天然欲望；当他们在今生找不到自私的享乐时，就以为死后会在别处获得大量的享受。如果这些享乐在今生、在这个世界上都不能引领我们走向知识，它们又怎能在来世带给我们知识呢？
人的目标是什么？是享乐还是知识？当然不是享乐。人生来不是为了享受快乐或承受痛苦。知识才是目标。知识是我们唯一能拥有的快乐。
一切感官之乐属于畜生。知识之乐越增长，感官之乐便越衰减。一个人越像动物，他就越享受感官之乐。没有人能像一条饥饿的狗那样吃得津津有味。没有人生来能像一头普通的牛那样从进食中获得同样的快感。看看它们是怎样全神贯注于进食之中的。为什么，你们的百万富翁愿意花费数百万来换取进食中的那种享受——但他们得不到。
这个宇宙就像一片完美平衡的海洋。你不可能在一处掀起波浪而不在另一处造成凹陷。宇宙中能量的总和始终不变。你在一处耗费了，就在另一处失去了。畜生拥有这能量，但它将之花在了感官上；它的每一种感官都比人类强百倍。
狗能从多远的距离闻到气味！它如何追踪一个脚印！我们做不到。野蛮人也是如此。他的感官不如动物敏锐，但比文明人敏锐得多。
每个国家的下层阶级都强烈地享受一切物质之乐。他们的感官比有教养之人更为强健。但随着你在这一阶梯上越升越高，你会看到思维的力量在增强，而感官的力量在以同等比例减弱。
取一粗鄙之人，将其切割得体无完肤，不出五日，他便复原如初。然而若我只是轻轻划破你的皮肤，十之八九你将痛苦数周乃至数月。他所展现的那股生命活力——你同样拥有。然而在你身上，这股能量消耗于锻造大脑、生产思想之中。一切享受与快乐皆如此。要么沉溺于感官之乐——如禽兽般生活，最终沦为禽兽——要么舍弃这一切，由此获得自由。
那些伟大的文明——究竟因何而亡？它们追逐享乐。一路堕落，愈陷愈深，直至在上天的慈悲之下，野蛮人将其剿灭，否则我们将亲眼目睹人形禽兽在世间横行。野蛮人消灭了那些因纵情感官而兽化的民族，以免达尔文所寻之"失落的一环"竟真的被找到。
真正的文明，并非聚居城市、虚度光阴，而是趋向上帝、制驭感官，从而成为这自我（Self）之居所中真正的主宰。
试想我们所身处的奴役之中。每当我见到美丽的形象，便立刻为之吸引；每当我听到赞美之声，便立刻心生喜悦；每当我听到批评之语，便立刻心生抗拒。每一个愚人都能左右我的心灵。世间每一丝细微的扰动都在我心中留下印记。这样的人生，值得活吗？
因此，当你意识到这物质存在之苦——当你确信如此的生活不值得继续——你便迈出了趋向智慧（Jnana，梵文：知识之道）的第一步。
English
THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS JNANA[6]*
[A Jnâna-Yoga class delivered in New York, Wednesday, December 11, 1895, and recorded by Swami Kripananda]
The word Jnâna means knowledge. It is derived from the root Jnâ — to know — the same word from which your English word to know is derived. Jnana-Yoga is Yoga by means of knowledge. What is the object of the Jnana-Yoga? Freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from our imperfections, freedom from the misery of life. Why are we miserable? We are miserable because we are bound. What is the bondage? The bondage is of nature. Who is it that binds us? We, ourselves.
The whole universe is bound by the law of causation. There cannot be anything, any fact — either in the internal or in the external world — that is uncaused; and every cause must produce an effect.
Now this bondage in which we are is a fact. It need not be proved that we are in bondage. For instance: I would be very glad to get out of this room through this wall, but I cannot; I would be very glad if I never became sick, but I cannot prevent it; I would be very glad not to die, but I have to; I would be very glad to do millions of things that I cannot do. The will is there, but we do not succeed in accomplishing the desire. When we have any desire and not the means of fulfilling it, we get that peculiar reaction called misery. Who is the cause of desire? I, myself. Therefore, I myself am the cause of all the miseries I am in.
Misery begins with the birth of the child. Weak and helpless, he enters the world. The first sign of life is weeping. Now, how could we be the cause of misery when we find it at the very beginning? We have caused it in the past. [Here Swami Vivekananda entered into a fairly long discussion of "the very interesting theory called Reincarnation". He continued:]
To understand reincarnation, we have first to know that in this universe something can never be produced out of nothing. If there is such a thing as a human soul, it cannot be produced out of nothing. If something can be produced out of nothing, then something would disappear into nothing also. If we are produced out of nothing, then we will also go back into nothing. That which has a beginning must have an end. Therefore, as souls we could not have had any beginning. We have been existing all the time.
Then again, if we did not exist previously, there is no explanation of our present existence. The child is born with a bundle of causes. How many things we see in a child which can never be explained until we grant that the child has had past experience — for instance, fear of death and a great number of innate tendencies. Who taught the baby to drink milk and to do so in a peculiar fashion? Where did it acquire this knowledge? We know that there cannot be any knowledge without experience, for to say that knowledge is intuitive in the child, or instinctive, is what the logicians would call a "petitio principii".[7]*
It would be the same [logic] as when a man asks me why light comes through a glass, and I answer him, "Because it is transparent". That would be really no answer at all because I am simply translating his word into a bigger one. The word "transparent" means "that through which light comes" — and that was the question. The question was why light comes through the glass, and I answered him, "Because it comes through the glass".
In the same way, the question was why these tendencies are in the child. Why should it have fear of death if it never saw death? If this is the first time it was ever born, how did it know to suck the mother's milk? If the answer is "Oh, it was instinct", that is simply returning the question. If a man stands up and says, "I do not know", he is in a better position than the man who says, "It is instinct" and all such nonsense.
There is no such thing as instinct; there is no such thing as nature separate from habit. Habit is one's second nature, and habit is one's first nature too. All that is in your nature is the result of habit, and habit is the result of experience. There cannot be any knowledge but from experience.
So this baby must have had some experience too. This fact is granted even by modern materialistic science. It proves beyond doubt that the baby brings with it a fund of experience. It does not enter into this world with a "tabula rasa" — a blank mind upon which nothing is written — as some of the old philosophers believed, but ready equipped with a bundle of knowledge. So far so good.
But while modern science grants that this bundle of knowledge which the child brings with it was acquired through experience, it asserts, at the same time, that it is not its own — but its father's and its grandfather's and its great-grandfather's. Knowledge comes, they say, through hereditary transmission.
Now this is one step in advance of that old theory of "instinct", that is fit only for babies and idiots. This "instinct" theory is a mere pun upon words and has no meaning whatsoever. A man with the least thinking power and the least insight into the logical precision of words would never dare to explain innate tendencies by "instinct", a term which is equivalent to saying that something came out of nothing. But the modern theory of transmission through experience — though, no doubt, a step in advance of the old one — is not sufficient at all. Why not? We can understand a physical transmission, but a mental transmission is impossible to understand.
What causes me — who am a soul — to be born with a father who has transmitted certain qualities? What makes me come back? The father, having certain qualities, may be one binding cause. Taking for granted that I am a distinct soul that was existing before and wants to reincarnate — what makes my soul go into the body of a particular man? For the explanation to be sufficient, we have to assume a hereditary transmission of energies and such a thing as my own previous experience. This is what is called Karma, or, in English, the Law of Causation, the law of fitness.
For instance, if my previous actions have all been towards drunkenness, I will naturally gravitate towards persons who are transmitting a drunkard's character. I can only take advantage of the organism produced by those parents who have been transmitting a certain peculiar influence for which I am fit by my previous actions. Thus we see that it is true that a certain hereditary experience is transmitted from father to son, and so on. At the same time, it is my past experience that joins me to the particular cause of hereditary transmission.
A simply hereditary transmission theory will only touch the physical man and would be perfectly insufficient for the internal soul of man. Even when looking upon the matter from the purest materialistic standpoint — viz. that there is no such thing as a soul in man, and man is nothing but a bundle of atoms acted upon by certain physical forces and works like an automaton — even taking that for granted, the mere transmission theory would be quite insufficient.
The greatest difficulties regarding the simple hypothesis of mere physical transmission will be here: If there be no such thing as a soul in man, if he be nothing more than a bundle of atoms acted upon by certain forces, then, in the case of transmission, the soul of the father would decrease in ratio to the number of his children; and the man who has five, six or eight children must, in the end, become an idiot. India and China — where men breed like rats — would then be full of idiots. But, on the contrary, we find that the least amount of lunacy is in India and China.
The question is, What do we mean by the word transmission? It is a big word, but, like so many other impossible and nonsensical terms of the same kind, it has come into use without people understanding it. If I were to ask you what transmission is, you would find that you have no real conception of its meaning because there is no idea attached to it.
Let us look a little closer into the matter. Say, for instance, here is a father. A child is born to him. We see that the same qualities [which the father possesses] have entered into his child. Very good. Now how did the qualities of the father come to be in the child? Nobody knows. So this gap the modern physicists want to fill with the big word transmission. And what does this transmission mean? Nobody knows.
How can mental qualities of experience be condensed and made to live in one single cell of protoplasm? There is no difference between the protoplasm of a bird and that of a human brain. All we can say with regard to physical transmission is that it consists of the two or three protoplasmic cells cut from the father's body. That is all. But what nonsense to assume that ages and ages of past human experience got compressed into a few protoplasmic cells! It is too tremendous a pill they ask you to swallow with this little word transmission.
In olden times the churches had prestige, but today science has got it. And just as in olden times people never inquired for themselves — never studied the Bible, and so the priests had a very good opportunity to teach whatever they liked — so even now the majority of people do not study for themselves and, at the same time, have a tremendous awe and fear before anything called scientific. You ought to remember that there is a worse popery coming than ever existed in the church — the so-called scientific popery, which has become so successful that it dictates to us with more authority than religious popery.
These popes of modern science are great popes indeed, but sometimes they ask us to believe more wonderful things than any priest or any religion ever did. And one of those wonderful things is that transmission theory, which I could never understand. If I ask, "What do you mean by transmission?" they only make it a little easier by saying, "It is hereditary transmission". And if I tell them, "That is rather Greek to me", they make it still easier by saying, "It is the adherence of paternal qualities in the protoplasmic cells". In that way it becomes easier and easier, until my mind becomes muddled and disgusted with the whole thing.
Now one thing we see: we produce thought. I am talking to you this evening and it is producing thought in your brain. By this act of transmission we understand that my thoughts are being transmitted into your brain and your mind, and producing other thoughts. This is an everyday fact.
It is always rational to take the side of things which you can understand — to take the side of fact. Transmission of thought is
perfectly understandable. Therefore we are able to take up the [concept of] transmission of thought, and not of hereditary impressions of protoplasmic cells alone. We need not brush aside the theory, but the main stress must be laid upon the transmission of thought.
Now a father does not transmit thought. It is thought alone that transmits thought. The child that is born existed previously as thought. We all existed eternally as thought and will go on existing as thought.
What we think, that our body becomes. Everything is manufactured by thought, and thus we are the manufacturers of our own lives. We alone are responsible for whatever we do. It is foolish to cry out: "Why am I unhappy?" I made my own unhappiness. It is not the fault of the Lord at all.
Someone takes advantage of the light of the sun to break into your house and rob you. And then when he is caught by the policeman, he may cry: "Oh sun, why did you make me steal?" It was not the sun's fault at all, because there are thousands of other people who did much good to their fellow beings under the light of the same sun. The sun did not tell this man to go about stealing and robbing.
Each one of us reaps what we ourselves have sown. These miseries under which we suffer, these bondages under which we struggle, have been caused by ourselves, and none else in the universe is to blame. God is the least to blame for it.
"Why did God create this evil world?" He did not create this evil world at all. We have made it evil, and we have to make it good. "Why did God create me so miserable?" He did not. He gave me the same powers as [He did] to every being. I brought myself to this pass.
Is God to blame for what I myself have done? His mercy is always the same. His sun shines on the wicked and the good alike. His air, His water, His earth give the same chances to the wicked and the good. God is always the same eternal, merciful Father. The only thing for us to do is to bear the results of our own acts.
We learn that, in the first place, we have been existing eternally; in the second place that we are the makers of our own lives. There is no such thing as fate. Our lives are the result of our previous actions, our Karma. And it naturally follows that having been ourselves the makers of our Karma, we must also be able to unmake it.
The whole gist of Jnana-Yoga is to show humanity the method of undoing this Karma. A caterpillar spins a little cocoon around itself out of the substance of its own body and at last finds itself imprisoned. It may cry and weep and howl there; nobody will come to its rescue until it becomes wise and then comes out, a beautiful butterfly. So with these our bondages. We are going around and around ourselves through countless ages. And now we feel miserable and cry and lament over our bondage. But crying and weeping will be of no avail. We must set ourselves to cutting these bondages.
The main cause of all bondage is ignorance. Man is not wicked by his own nature — not at all. His nature is pure, perfectly holy. Each man is divine. Each man that you see is a God by his very nature. This nature is covered by ignorance, and it is ignorance that binds us down. Ignorance is the cause of all misery. Ignorance is the cause of all wickedness; and knowledge will make the world good. Knowledge will remove all misery. Knowledge will make us free. This is the idea of Jnana-Yoga: knowledge will make us free! What knowledge? Chemistry? Physics? Astronomy? Geology? They help us a little, just a little. But the chief knowledge is that of your own nature. "Know thyself." You must know what you are, what your real nature is. You must become conscious of that infinite nature within. Then your bondages will burst.
Studying the external alone, man begins to feel himself to be nothing. These vast powers of nature, these tremendous changes occurring — whole communities wiped off the face of the earth in a twinkling of time, one volcanic eruption shattering to pieces whole continents — perceiving and studying these things, man begins to feel himself weak. Therefore, it is not the study of external nature that makes [one] strong. But there is the internal nature of man—a million times more powerful than any volcanic eruption or any law of nature — which conquers nature, triumphs over all its laws. And that alone teaches man what he is.
"Knowledge is power", says the proverb, does it not? It is through knowledge that power comes. Man has got to know. Here is a man of infinite power and strength. He himself is by his own nature potent and omniscient. And this he must know. And the more he becomes conscious of his own Self, the more he manifests this power, and his bonds break and at last he becomes free.
How to know ourselves? the question remains now. There are various ways to know this Self, but in Jnana-Yoga it takes the help of nothing but sheer intellectual reasoning. Reason alone, intellect alone, rising to spiritual perception, shows what we are.
There is no question of believing. Disbelieve everything — that is the idea of the Jnani. Believe nothing and disbelieve everything — that is the first step. Dare to be a rationalist. Dare to follow reason wherever it leads you.
We hear everyday people saying all around us: "I dare to reason". It is, however, a very difficult thing to do. I would go two hundred miles to look at the face of the man who dares to reason and to follow reason. Nothing is easier to say, and nothing is more difficult to do. We are bound to follow superstitions all the time — old, hoary superstitions, either national or belonging to humanity in general — superstitions belonging to family, to friends, to country, to fashion, to books, to sex and to what-not.
Talk of reason! Very few people reason, indeed. You hear a man say, "Oh, I don't like to believe in anything; I don't like to grope through darkness. I must reason". And so he reasons. But when reason smashes to pieces things that he hugs unto his breast, he says, "No more! This reasoning is all right until it breaks my ideals. Stop there!" That man would never be a Jnani. That man will carry his bondage all his life and his lives to come. Again and again he will come under the power of death. Such men are not made for Jnana. There are other methods for them — such as bhakti-yoga, Karma-Yoga, or Râja-Yoga — but not Jnana-Yoga.
I want to prepare you by saying that this method can be followed only by the boldest. Do not think that the man who believes in no church or belongs to no sect, or the man who boasts of his unbelief, is a rationalist. Not at all. In modern times it is rather bravado to do anything like that.
To be a rationalist requires more than unbelief. You must be able not only to reason, but also to follow the dictates of your reason. If reason tells you that this body is an illusion, are you ready to give it up? Reason tells you that heat and cold are mere illusions of your senses; are you ready to brave these things? If reason tells you that nothing that the senses convey to your mind is true, are you ready to deny your sense perception? If you dare, you are a rationalist.
It is very hard to believe in reason and follow truth. This whole world is full either of the superstitious or of half-hearted hypocrites. I would rather side with superstition and ignorance than stand with these half-hearted hypocrites. They are no good. They stand on both sides of the river.
Take anything up, fix your ideal and follow it out boldly unto death. That is the way to salvation. Half-heartedness never led to anything. Be superstitious, be a fanatic if you please, but be something. Be something, show that you have something; but be not like these shilly-shallyers with truth — these jacks-of-all-trades who just want to get a sort of nervous titillation, a dose of opium, until this desire after the sensational becomes a habit.
The world is getting too full of such people. Contrary to the apostles who, according to Christ, were the salt of the earth, these fellows are the ashes, the dirt of the earth. So let us first clear the ground and understand what is meant by following reason, and then we will try to understand what the obstructions are to our following reason.
The first obstruction to our following reason is our unwillingness to go to truth. We want truth to come to us. In all my travels, most people told me: "Oh, that is not a comfortable religion you talk about. Give us a comfortable religion!"
I do not understand what they mean by this "comfortable religion". I was never taught any comfortable religion in my life. I want truth for my religion. Whether it be comfortable or not, I do not care. Why should truth be comfortable always? Truth many times hits hard — as we all know by our experience. Gradually, after a long intercourse with such persons, I came to find out what they meant by their stereotypical phrase. These people have got into a rut, and they do not dare to get out of it. Truth must apologize to them.
I once met a lady who was very fond of her children and her money and her everything. When I began to preach to her that the only way to God is by giving up everything, she stopped coming the next day. One day she came and told me that the reason for her staying away was because the religion I preached was very uncomfortable. "What sort of religion would be comfortable to you?" I asked in order to test her. She said: "I want to see God in my children, in my money, in my diamonds".
"Very good, madam", I replied. "You have now got all these things. And you will have to see these things millions of years yet. Then you will be bumped somewhere and come to reason. Until that time comes, you will never come to God. In the meantime, go on seeing God in your children and in your money and your diamonds and your dances."
It is difficult, almost impossible, for such people to give up sense enjoyment. It has grown upon them from birth to birth. If you ask a pig to give up his sty and to go into your most beautiful parlour, why it will be death to the pig. "Let go, I must live there", says the pig.
[Here Swami Vivekananda explained the story of the fishwife: "Once a fishwife was a guest in the house of a gardener who raised flowers. She came there with her empty basket, after selling fish in the market, and was asked to sleep in a room where flowers were kept. But, because of the fragrance of the flowers, she couldn't get to sleep for a long time. Her hostess saw her condition and said, 'Hello! Why are you tossing from side to side so restlessly?' The fishwife said: 'I don't know, friend. Perhaps the smell of the flowers has been disturbing my sleep. Can you give me my fish-basket? Perhaps that will put me to sleep'."][8]*
So with us. The majority of mankind delights in this fish smell — this world, this enjoyment of the senses, this money and wealth and chattel and wife and children. All this nonsense of the world — this fishy smell — has grown upon us. We can hear nothing beyond it, can see nothing beyond it; nothing goes beyond it. This is the whole universe.
All this talk about heaven and God and soul means nothing to an ordinary man. He has heaven already here. He has no other idea beyond this world. When you tell him of something higher, he says, "That is not a comfortable religion. Give us something comfortable". That is to say that religion is nothing but what he is doing.
If he is a thief and you tell him that stealing is the highest thing we can do, he will say, "That is a comfortable religion". If he is cheating, you have to tell him that what he is doing is all right; then he will accept your teaching as a "comfortable religion". The whole trouble is that people never want to get out of their ruts — never want to get rid of the old fish-basket and smell, in order to live. If they say, "I want the truth", that simply means that they want the fish-basket.
When have you reached knowledge? When you are equipped with those four disciplines [i.e. the four qualifications for attainment discussed in Vedantic literature: discrimination between the real and the unreal, renunciation, the six treasures of virtue beginning with tranquillity, and longing for liberation]. You must give up all desire of enjoyment, either in this life or the next. All enjoyments of this life are vain. Let them come and go as they will.
What you have earned by your past actions none can take away from you. If you have deserved wealth, you can bury yourself in the forest and it will come to you. If you have deserved good food and clothing, you may go to the north pole and they will be brought to you. The polar bear will bring them. If you have not deserved them, you may conquer the world and will die of starvation. So, why do you bother about these things? And, after all, what is the use of them?
As children we all think that the world is made so very nice, and that masses of pleasures are simply waiting for our going out to them. That is every schoolboy's dream. And when he goes out into the world, the everyday world, very soon his dreams vanish. So with nations. When they see how every city is built upon ruins — every forest stands upon a city — then they become convinced of the vanity of this world.
All the power of knowledge and wealth once made has passed away — all the sciences of the ancients, lost, lost forever. Nobody knows how. That teaches us a grand lesson. Vanity of vanities; all is vanity and vexation of the spirit. If we have seen all this, then we become disgusted with this world and all it offers us. This is called Vairâgya, non-attachment, and is the first step towards knowledge.
The natural desire of man is to go towards the senses. Turning away from the senses takes him back to God. So the first lesson we have to learn is to turn away from the vanities of the world.
How long will you go on sinking and diving down and going up for five minutes, to again sink down, again come up and sink, and so on — tossed up and down? How long will you be whirled on this wheel of Karma — up and down, up and down? How many thousands of times have you been kings and rulers? How many times have you been surrounded by wealth and plunged into poverty? How many thousands of times have you been possessed of the greatest powers? But again you had to become men, rolling down on this mad rush of Karma's waters. This tremendous wheel of Karma stops neither for the widow's tears nor the orphan's cry.
How long will you go on? How long? Will you be like that old man who had spent all his life in prison and, when let out, begged to be brought back into his dark and filthy dungeon cell? This is the case with us all! We cling with all our might to this low, dark, filthy cell called this world — to this hideous, chimerical existence where we are kicked about like a football by every wind that blows.
We are slaves in the hands of nature — slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything. Why, I go about all over the world — beg, steal, rob, do anything — to make happy a boy who is, perhaps, hump-backed or ugly-looking. I will do every wicked thing to make him happy. Why? Because I am his father. And, at the same time, there are millions and millions of boys in this world dying of starvation — boys beautiful in body and in mind. But they are nothing to me. Let them all die. I am apt to kill them all to save this one rascal to whom I have given birth. This is what you call love. Not I. Not I. This is brutality.
There are millions of women — beautiful in body and mind, good, gentle, virtuous — dying of starvation this minute. I do not care for them at all. But that Jennie who is mine — who beats me three times a day, and scolds me the whole day — for that Jennie I am going to beg, borrow, cheat and steal so that she will have a nice gown.
Do you call that love? Not I. This is mere desire, animal desire — nothing more. Turn away from these things. Is there no end to these hideous dreams? Put a stop to them.
When the mind comes to that state of disgust with all the vanities of life, it is called turning away from nature. This is the first step. All desires must be given up — even the desire of getting heaven.
What are these heavens anyhow? Places where to sing psalms all the time. What for? To live there and have a nice healthy body with phosphorescent light or something of this kind coming out of every part, with a halo around the head, and with wings and the power to penetrate the wall?
If there be powers, they must pass away sooner or later. If there is a heaven — as there may be many heavens with various grades of enjoyment — there cannot be a body that lives forever. Death will overtake us, even there.
Every conjunction must have a disjunction. No body, finer or coarser, can be manufactured without particles of matter coming together. Whenever two particles come together, they are held by a certain attraction; and there will come a time when those particles will separate. This is the eternal law. So, wherever there is a body — either grosser or finer, either in heaven or on earth — death will overcome it.
Therefore, all desires of enjoyment in this life, or in a life to come, should be given up. People have a natural desire to enjoy; and when they do not find their selfish enjoyments in this life, they think that after death they will have a lot of enjoyment somewhere else. If these enjoyments do not take us towards knowledge in this life, in this world, how can they bring us knowledge in another life?
Which is the goal of man? Enjoyment or knowledge? Certainly not enjoyment. Man is not born to have pleasure or to suffer pain. Knowledge is the goal. Knowledge is the only pleasure we can have.
All the sense pleasures belong to the brute. And the more the pleasure in knowledge comes, these sense pleasures fall down. The more animal a man is, the more he enjoys the pleasures of the senses. No man can eat with the same gusto as a famished dog. No man was ever born who could feel the same pleasure in eating as an ordinary bull. See how their whole soul is in that eating. Why, your millionaires would give millions for that enjoyment in eating — but they cannot have it.
This universe is like a perfectly balanced ocean. You cannot raise a wave in one place without making a hollow in another one. The sum total of energy in the universe is the same throughout. You spend it in some place, you lose it in another. The brute has got it, but he spent it on his senses; and each of his senses is a hundred times stronger than that of man.
How the dog smells at a distance! How he traces a footstep! We cannot do that. So, in the savage man. His senses are less keen than the animal's, but keener than the civilized man's.
The lower classes in every country intensely enjoy everything physical. Their senses are stronger than those of the cultured. But as you go higher and higher in the scale, you see the power of thought increasing and the powers of the senses decreasing, in the same ratio.
Take a [brute], cut him [as it were] to pieces, and in five days he is all right. But if I scratch you, it is ten to one you will suffer for weeks or months. That energy of life which he displays — you have it too. But with you, it is used in making up your brain, in the manufacture of thought. So with all enjoyments and all pleasures. Either enjoy the pleasure of the senses — live like the brute and become a brute — or renounce these things and become free.
The great civilizations — what have they died of? They went for pleasure. And they went further down and down until, under the mercy of God, savages came to exterminate them, lest we would see human brutes growling about. Savages killed off those nations that became brutalized through sense enjoyment, lest Darwin's missing link would be found.
True civilization does not mean congregating in cities and living a foolish life, but going Godward, controlling the senses, and thus becoming the ruler in this house of the Self.
Think of the slavery in which we are [bound]. Every beautiful form I see, every sound of praise I hear, immediately attracts me; every word of blame I hear immediately repels me. Every fool has an influence over my mind. Every little movement in the world makes an impression upon me. Is this a life worth living?
So when you have realized the misery of this physical existence — when you have become convinced that such a life is not worth living — you have made the first step towards Jnana.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。