HOW DOES A UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY AND
RELIGION
APPROACH THE UNIVERSE?
DHARMA
Reason asks:
"Is spiritual attainment available to everyone?"
TAKEN FROM THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
"Can't the knowledge, by which is attained freedom
from the bondage of worldly existence, bring ordinary
material prosperity? Certainly it can.
Freedom, dispassion, renunciation are the very highest
ideals, but --"Even a little of this Dharma (positive
behavior) saves one from the great fear (of birth
and death)."Infinite power is latent in this
individualized soul; from the ant to the perfect person,
there's the same Self in all, the difference being
only in manifestation. 'As a farmer breaks the obstacles
(to the course of water)'. That power manifests as
soon as it gets the opportunity and the right place
and time. From the highest god to the meanest grass,
the same power is present in all, - whether manifested
or not. We all have to call forth that power."
Doing good to others is virtue (Dharma); injuring
others is sin.
Strength and manliness are virtue; weakness and cowardice
are sin. Independence is virtue; dependence is sin.
Loving others is virtue; hating others is sin. Faith
in God and in one's own Self is virtue; doubt is sin.
Knowledge of oneness is virtue; seeing diversity is
sin. The different scriptures only show the means
of attaining virtue.
If a whole nation practices and follows the path
of Moksha (liberation), that's well and good; but
is that possible? Without enjoyment, renunciation
can never come; first enjoy. Then you can renounce.
Otherwise, if a whole nation suddenly takes up the
life of monasticism, it doesn't gain what it desires,
but loses what it had in the bargain - the bird in
the hand is fled, nor is that in the bush caught.
When, in the heyday of Buddhist supremacy, thousands
of Sannyasins (monastics) lived in every monastery,
then it was that the country (India) was on the verge
of ruin!
Education, habits, customs, laws, and rules should
be different for different men and nations, in conformity
with their difference of temperament.
What will it avail, if one tries to make them all
uniform by compulsion?
The Buddhists declared, "Nothing is more desirable
in life than Moksha (spiritual liberation); whoever
you are, come one and all to take it." I ask,
"Is that possible?" "You're a householder,
you mustn't concern yourself much with things of that
sort; you do your Svadharma (natural duty)" -
thus say the Vedic scriptures.
Exactly so! He who can't leap one foot, is going
to jump across the ocean to Ceylon in one bound!
Is it reason? You can't feed your own family or dole
out food to two of your fellow-men, you can't do even
ordinary work for the common good, in harmony with
others - and you're running after Mukti (liberation)!
"No doubt, liberation is far superior to Dharma
(duty); but Dharma should be finished first of all".
The Buddhists were confounded just there and brought
about all sorts of mischief as a result. Non-injury
is right; "Resist not evil" is a great thing
- these are indeed grand principles; but the scriptures
say, "Thou art a householder; if anyone smites
thee on thy cheek, and thou dost not return him an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, thou wilt verily
be a sinner." Many say, "When one has come
to kill you, there's no sin in killing him, even though
he be a Brahmin" (Manu, VIII. 350). This is true,
and shouldn't be forgotten.
Do your Svadharma (own personal duty) - this is truth,
the truth of truths.
Of course, don't do any wrong, don't injure or tyrannize
over anyone, but try to do good to others as much
as you can. But passively to submit to wrong done
by others is a sin - with the householder. He must
try to pay them back in their own coin then and there.
The householder must earn money with great effort
and enthusiasm, and by that must support and bring
comforts to his own family and to others, and perform
good works as far as possible. If you can't do that,
how do you profess to be a man? You're not a householder,
what to talk of Moksha (liberation)!!
We have said before that Dharma is based on work.
The nature of the Righteous action is constant performance
of action with efficiency.
Whose meditation is real and effective? Who can really
resign himself to the Will of God? Who can utter with
power irresistible, like that of a thunderbolt, the
name of the Lord? It's he whose mind has been purified
by work, or in other words, he who is the Dharmika.
Every individual is a center for the manifestation
of a certain force.
This force has been stored up as the resultant of
our previous works, and each one of us is born with
this force at his back. So long as this force has
not worked itself out, who can possibly remain quiet
and give up work? Until then, he'll have to enjoy
or suffer according to the fruition of his good or
bad work and will be irresistibly impelled to do work.
Since enjoyment and work can't be given up till then,
isn't it better to do good rather than bad works -
to enjoy happiness rather than suffer misery?
Of course, work is always mixed with good and evil,
and to work, one has to incur sin, more or less. But
what of that? Let it be. Isn't something better than
nothing?
Isn't insufficient food better than going without
any? Isn't work, though mixed with good and evil,
better than doing nothing and passing an idle, inactive
life, being like stones? The cow never tells a lie,
and the stone never steals, nevertheless, the cow
remains a cow and the stone a stone. Man steals and
man tells lies, and again it's man that becomes a
god.
With the prevalence of the Sattvic essence (psychological
balance), man becomes inactive and rests always in
a state of deep contemplation; with the prevalence
of the Rajas (strong likes and dislikes), he does
bad as well as good works; and with the prevalence
of the Tamas (laziness and resistance to change) again,
he becomes inactive and inert.
Now, tell me, looking from outside, how are we to
understand, whether you are in a state wherein Sattva
or Tamas prevails? Whether we're in a state of sattva,
calmness (mental poise and balance), beyond all pleasure
and pain, and past all work and activity, or whether
we are in the lowest state, lifeless, passive, dull
as dead matter, and doing no work, because there's
no power in us to do it, and are, thus, silently and
by degrees, getting rotten and corrupted within -
I seriously ask you this question and demand an answer.
Ask your own mind, and you'll know what the reality
is. But, what need to wait for the answer? The tree
is known by its fruit.
There is no greater Dharma than this service of living
beings. If this Dharma can be practiced in the real
spirit, then "Liberation comes as a fruit on
the very palm of one's hand".
