Volume I

...how is it that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can be easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother tongue, in fact no words of my mother tongue are now present in my consciousness; but let me try to bring them up, and they rush in. That shows that consciousness is only the surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths are stored up all our experiences. Try and struggle, they would come up and you would be conscious even of your past life

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Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep...

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Thou art ...[That which]...beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life.

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The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realising - not in believing, but in being and becoming.

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As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it would stop from further progress, because it would reach the goal. Thus Chemistry could not progress farther when it would discover one element out of which all others could be made. Physics would stop when it would be able to fulfil its services in discovering one energy of which all the others are but manifestations, and the science of religion become perfect when it would discover...[That which]...is the one life in a universe of death, ...[That which] is the constant basis of an ever-changing world.

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If you really want to judge...character, look not at...[one's]...great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch...[one]...do...[their]...most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great...[person]

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[Those]...of mighty will the world has produced have all been tremendous workers - gigantic souls, with wills powerful enough to overturn worlds, wills they got by persistent work, through ages, and ages. Such a gigantic will as that of a Buddha or a Jesus could not be obtained in one life, for we know who their fathers were. It is not known that their fathers ever spoke a word for the good of...[humanity]. Millions and millions of carpenters...had...[come and] gone; millions are still living. Millions and millions of petty kings like Buddha's father had been in the world. If it was only a case of hereditary transmission, how do you account for this petty prince, who was not, perhaps, obeyed by his own servants, producing this son, whom half a world worships? How do you explain the gulf between the carpenter and his son, whom millions of human beings worships as God? It cannot be solved by the theory of heredity. The gigantic will which Buddha and Jesus threw over the world, whence did it come? Whence came this accumulation of power? It must have been there through ages and ages, continually growing bigger and bigger, until it burst on society in a Buddha or a Jesus, even rolling down to the present day. 

 . . . 

 No one can get anything unless...[they]...earn it. This is an eternal law. We may sometimes think it is not so, but in the long run we become convinced of it. [One]...may struggle all...[their]...life for riches; [they]...may cheat thousands, but...[they]...find at last that...[they]...did not deserve to become rich, and...[their]...life becomes a trouble and nuisance to...[them]. We may go on accumulating things for our physical enjoyment, but only what we earn is really ours. A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library; but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to. 

 . . . 

The majority of us cannot see beyond a few years, just as some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little narrow circle - that is our world. We have not the patience to look beyond, and thus become immoral and wicked. This is our weakness, our powerlessness. 

 . . . 

To the...[one]...who has begun to hate...[themselves]...the gate to degeneration has already opened... 

 . . . 

[They]...who think...of another woman besides...[their spouse]...if [they]...touch...[them]...even with...[their]...mind - that...[person]...goes to a dark hell. 

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Until there is spiritual strength...even physical needs cannot be well satisfied. 

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There was once a little village, and in it there dwelt a poor Brahmin with his wife, his son, and his son's wife. They were very poor and lived on small gifts made to them for preaching and teaching. There came in that land a three years' famine, and the poor Brahmin suffered more than ever. At last when the family had starved for days, the father brought home one morning a little barley flour, which he had been fortunate enough to obtain, and he divided it into four parts, one for each member of the family. They prepared it for their meal, and just as they were about to eat, there was a knock at the door. The father opened it, and there stood a guest. Now in India a guest is a sacred person; he is as a god for the time being, and must be treated as such. So the poor Brahmin said, 'Come in, sir' you are welcome.' He set before the guest his own portion of the food which the guest quickly ate and said, 'Oh, sir, you have killed me. I have been starving for ten days, and this little bit has but increased my hunger.' Then the wife said to her husband, 'Give him my share,' but the husband said, 'Not so.' The wife however insisted, saying, 'Here is a poor man, and it is our duty as householders to see that he is fed, and it is my duty as a wife to give him my portion, seeing that you have no more to offer him.' Then she gave her share to the guest, which he ate, and said he was still burning with hunger. So the son said, 'Take my portion also; it is the duty of a son to help his father to fulfil his obligations.' The guest ate that but remained still unsatisfied; so the son's wife gave him her portion also. That was sufficient, and the guest departed, blessing them. That night those four people died of starvation. 

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Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly; it is a continuous friction otherwise. 

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The world is a grand moral gymnasium wherein we have all to take exercise so as to become stronger and stronger spiritually. 

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We cannot breathe or live without injuring others, and every bit of food we eat is taken away from another's mouth. Our very lives are crowding out other lives. 

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...the bigot does not know that his own end and aim in life is exactly the same as that of those from whom he differs. 

. . . One may live on a throne, in a golden palace, and be perfectly unselfish; and then...[they]... are God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and have nothing in the world; yet, if...[they are]...selfish, ...[they are]...intensely merged in the world. 

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First kill your self and then take the whole world as yourself. 

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 "...Thou hast created this sun for me and this moon for me." as if the Lord has had nothing else to do than to create everything for these babies. Do not teach your children such nonsense. Then again, there are people who are foolish in another way: they teach us that all these animals were created for us to kill and eat, and that this universe is for the enjoyment of...[humans]. That is all foolishness. A tiger may say, "[Humans were]...created for me," and pray, "O Lord, how wicked are these...[people]...who do not come and place themselves before me to be eaten; they are breaking Your law." 

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In the external world the idea of law is the same as in the internal - the expectation that a particular phenomenon will be followed by another, and that the series will repeat itself. Really speaking, therefore, law does not exist in nature. Practically it is an error to say that gravitation exists in the earth, or that there is any law existing objectively anywhere in nature. Law is the method, the manner in which our mind grasps a series of phenomena; it is all in the mind. Certain phenomena, happening one after another or together, and followed by the conviction of the regularity of their recurrence - thus enabling our minds to grasp the method of the whole series - constitute what we call law. 

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This universe is only a part of the infinite existence, thrown into a peculiar mould, composed of space, time, and causation. 

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 ...there cannot be any such thing as free will - the very words are a contradiction, because will is what we know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and everything within our universe is moulded by the conditions of space, time, and causation....But that which has become converted into the will, which was not the will before, but which, when it fell into this mould of sapce, time, and causation, became converted into the human will, is free; and when this will gets out of this mould of space, time, and causation, it will be free again. From freedom it comes, and becomes moulded into this bondage, and it gets out and goes back to freedom again. 

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When...[one]...says that...[they]...will have again and again this same thing which...[they are]...having now, or, as I sometimes put it, when...[one]...asks for a comfortable religion, you may know that...[they have]...become so degenerate that...[they]...cannot think of anything higher than what...[they are]...now. 

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...real religion begins where this little universe ends. 

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Until we give up the thirst after life, the strong attachment to this our transient conditioned existence, we have no hope of catching even a glimpse of that infinite freedom beyond. It stands to reason then that there is only one way to attain to that freedom which is the goal of all the noblest aspirations of...[humanity]...and that is by giving up this little life. 

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The greatest...[humans]...in the world have passed away unknown. The Buddhas and the Christs that we know are but second-rate heroes in comparison with the greatest...[humans]...of whom the world knows nothing. Hundreds of these unknown heroes have lived in every country working silently. Silently they live and silently they pass away; and in time their thoughts find expression in Buddhas or Christs, and it is these latter that become known to us. 

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If you want to have life, you have to die every moment for it. 

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[they]...who...[do]...good work even in order to get to heaven bind...[themselves]...down. 

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Since the dawn of history, various extraordinary phenomena have been recorded as happening amongst human beings. Witnesses are not wanting in modern times to attest to the fact of such events, even in societies living under the full...[light]...of modern science. The vast mass of such evidence is unreliable, as coming from ignorant, superstitious or fraudulent persons. In many instances the so-called miracles are imitations. But what do they imitate? It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence. They are, therefore, more culpable than those who think that their prayers are answered by a being, or beings, above the clouds, or than those who believe that their petitions will make such beings change the course of the universe. The latter have the excuse of ignorance, or at least of a defective education, which has taught them dependence upon such beings, a dependence which has become a part of their degenerate nature. The former have no such excuse. 

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What right has...[one]...to say...[that they have]...a soul if...[they do]...not feel it, or that there is a God if...[they do]...not see...[It]? If there is a God we must see...[It]...if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe. It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite. 

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If you want to become an astronomer and sit down and cry "Astronomy! Astronomy!" it will never come to you. The same with chemistry. A certain method must be followed. You must go to the laboratory, take different substances, mix them up, compound them, experiment with them, and out of that will come a knowledge of chemistry. If you want to b e an astronomer, you must go to an observatory, take a telescope, study the stars and planets, and then you will become an astronomer. 

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From our childhood upwards we have been taught only to pay attention to things external, but never to things internal; hence most of us have nearly lost the faculty of observing the internal mechanism. To turn the mind, as it were, inside, stop it from going outside, and then to concentrate all its powers, and throw them upon the mind itself, in order that it may know its own nature, analyse itself, is very hard work. 

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...in the study of this Raja-Yoga no faith or belief is necessary. believe nothing until you find it out for yourself... 

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You must practice at least twice every day, and the best times are toward the morning and the evening. When night passes into day, and day into night, a state of relative calmness ensues. The early morning and the early evening are the two periods of calmness. Your body will have a like tendency to become calm at those times. We should take advantage of that natural condition and begin then to practice. Make it a rule not to eat until you have practiced; if you do this, the sheer force of hunger will break your laziness. 

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Just as in a rushing stream there may be millions of whirlpools, the water in each of which is different every moment, turning round and round for a few seconds, and then passing out, replaced by a fresh quantity, so the whole universe is one constantly changing mass of matter, in which all forms of existence are so many whirlpools. 

. . . 

The most obvious manifestation of this Prana in the human body is the motion of the lungs. If that stops, as a rule all the other manifestations of force in the body will immediately stop. But there are persons who can train themselves in such a manner that the body will live on, even when this motion has stopped. There are some persons who can bury themselves for days, and yet live without breathing. 

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If it be true that the departed spirits exist, only we cannot see them, it is quite probable that there may be hundreds and millions of them about us we can neither see, feel, nor touch. We may be continually passing and repassing through their bodies, and they do not see or feel us. It is a circle within a circle, universe within universe. We have five senses, and we represent Prana in a certain state of vibration. All beings in the same state of vibration will see one another, but if there are beings who represent Prana in a higher state of vibration, they will not be seen. We may increase the intensity of a light until we cannot see it at all, but there may be beings with eyes so powerful that they can see such light. Again, if its vibrations are very low, we do not see a light, but there are animals that may see it, as cats and owls. Our range of vision is only one plane of the vibrations of this Prana. 

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Think of the universe as an ocean of ether, consisting of layer after layer of varying degrees of vibration under the action of Prana; away from the centre the vibrations are less, nearer to it they become quicker and quicker; one order of vibration makes one place. Then suppose these ranges of vibrations are cut into planes, so many millions of miles one set of vibration, and then so many millions of miles another still higher set of vibration, and so on. It is, therefore, probable, that those who live on that plane of a certain state of vibration will have the power of recognising one another, but will not reconise those above them. Yet, just as by the telescope and the microscope we can increase the scope of our vision, similarly we can by Yoga bring ourselves to the state of vibration of another plane, and thus enable ourselves to see what is going on there. Suppose this room is full of beings whom we do not see. They represent Prana in a certain state of vibration while we represent another. Suppose they represent a quick one, and we the opposite. Prana is the material of which they are composed, as well as we. All are parts of the same ocean of Prana, they differ only in their rate of vibration. If I can bring myself to the quick vibration, this plane will immediately change for me: I shall not see you any more; you vanish and they appear. Some of you, perhaps, know this to be true. 

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I have already spoken of the Ida and Pingala currents, flowing through either side of the spinal column, and also of the Sushumna, the passage through the centre of the spinal cord. These three are present in every animal; whatever being has a spinal column has these three lines of action. 

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...the control of the centres which is established in a hypnotic patient or the patient of faith-healing, by the operator, for a time, is reprehensible, because it leads to ultimate ruin. It is not really controlling the brain centres by the power of one's own will, but is, as it were, stunning the patient's mind for a time by sudden blows which another's will delivers to it. It is not checking by means of reins and muscular strength the mad career of a fiery team, but rather by asking another to deliver heavy blows on the heads of the horses, to stun them for a time into gentleness. At each one of these processes the...[one]...operated upon loses a part of...[their]...mental energies, till at last, the mind, instead of gaining the power of perfect control, becomes a shapeless, powerless mass, and the only goal of the patient is the lunatic asylum. Every attempt at control which is not voluntary, not with the controller's own mind, is not only disastrous, but it defeats the end. The goal of each soul is freedom, mastery - freedom from the slavery of matter and thought, mastery of external and internal nature. Instead of leading toward that, every will-current from another, in whatever from it comes, either as direct control of organs, or as forcing to control them while under a morbid condition, only rivets one link more to the already existing heavy chain of bondage of past thought, past superstitions. 

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...avoid everyone, however great and good...[they]...might be, who asks you to believe blindly. All over the world there have been dancing and jumping and howling sects, who spread like infection when they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also are a sort of hypnotists. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas, often in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Ay, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control. One's heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible yet well-meaning religious fanatics. 

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Take one thing up and do it, and see the end of it, and before you have seen the end, do not give it up. ...[They]...who can become mad with an idea...[they]...alone see light. 

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...give up, once for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines. 

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Practice hard; whether you live or die does not matter. 

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To those who are full of Tamas, ignorant and dull - those whose minds never get fixed on any idea, who only crave for something to amuse them - religion and philosophy are simply objects of entertainment. These are the unpersevereing. 

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"I will drink the ocean," says the persevering soul, "at my will mountains will crumble up" 

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When I eat food, I do it consciously; when I assimilate it, I do it unconsciously. When the food is manufactured into blood, it is done unconsciously. When out of the blood all the different parts of my body are strengthened, it is done unconsciously. And yet it is I who am doing all this; there cannot be twenty people in this one body. How do I know that I do it, and nobody else? It may be urged that my business is only in eating and assimilating the food, and that strengthening the body by the food is done for me by somebody else. That cannot be, because it can be demonstrated that almost every action of which we are now unconscious can be brought up to the plane of our control. None of us here can control the heart; it goes on its own way. But by practice...[there are people who]...can bring even the heart under control, until it will just beat at will, slowly, or quickly, or almost stop. Nearly every part of the body can be brought under control. What does this show? That the functions which are beneath consciousness are also performed by us, only we are doing it unconsciously. 

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To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition. 

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When you hear..[one]...say, "I am inspired," and then talk irrationally, reject it. Why? Because these three states - instinct, reason, and superconsciousness, or the unconscious, conscious, and superconscious states - belong to one and the same mind. There are not three minds in one...[person]...but one state of it develops into the others. Instinct develops into reason, and reason into the transcendental consciousness; therefore, not one of the states contradicts the others. Real inspiration never contradicts reason, but fulfills it. 

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We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth, until we experience it ourselves. You cannot hope to make...[someone]...a surgeon by simply giving...[them]...a few books. You cannot satisfy my curiosity to see a country by showing me a map; I must have actual experience. Maps can only create curiosity in us to get more perfect knowledge. Beyond that, they have no value whatever. Clinging to books only degenerates the human mind. Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare...[humans]...call God infinite, and yet try to compress...[God]...within the covers of a little book. Millions of people have been killed because they did not believe what the books said, because they would not see all the knowledge of God within the covers of a book. 

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Different powers will come to the Yogi, and if...[they]...yield to the temptations of any one of these, the road to...[their]...further progress will be barred. 

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Samadhi is the property of every human being - nay, every animal. From the lowest animal to the highest angel, some time or other, each one will have to come to that state, and then, and then alone, will real religion begin for...[them]. 

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There is no difference now between us and those who have no religion, because we have no experience. 

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...the Yogi finds...[themselves]...and the whole universe as God. 

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...[humanity's]...present state is a degeneration. 

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Every soul must disintegrate to become God. 

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Is it by committing suicide that we get out of this state? Not at all. That will be making it worse. Torturing ourselves, or condemning the world, is not the way to get out. We have to pass through the Slough of Despond, and the sooner we are through, the better. 

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There are much higher states of existence beyond reasoning. It is really beyond the intellect that the first state of religious life is to be found. When you step beyond thought and intellect and all reasoning, then you have made the first step towards God; and that is the beginning of life. What is commonly called life is but an embryo state. 

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...there is the state called Sattva, serenity, calmness, in which the waves cease, and the water of the mind-lake becomes clear. It is not inactive, but rather intensely active. It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be active. Let the reins go, and the horses will run away with you. Anyone can do that, but...[they]...who can stop the plunging horses is the strong...[one]. Which requires the greater strength, letting go or restraining? The calm...[person]...is not the...[one]...who is dull. You must not mistake Sattva for dullness or laziness. The calm...[person]...is the one who has control over the mind waves. Activity is the manifestation of inferior strength, calmness of the superior. 

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The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their impressions are to be controlled by good habits. 

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Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character. 

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There is no liberation in getting powers. It is a worldly search after enjoyments, and there is no enjoyment in this life...The possession of what are called occult powers is only intensifying the world, and in the end, intensifying suffering. 

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[One]...may attain to all powers, and yet fall again. There is no safeguard until the soul goes beyond nature. It is very difficult to do so, although the method seems easy. The method is to meditate on the mind itself, and whenever thought comes, to strike it down, allowing no thought to come into the mind, thus making it an entire vacuum. When we can really do this, that very moment we shall attain liberation. 

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...[they]...neither came nor went, it was nature which was moving, and that movement was reflected upon the soul. The form of the light reflected by the glass upon the wall moves, and the wall foolishly thinks it is moving. So with all of us; it is the Chitta constantly moving making itself into various forms, and we think that we are these various forms. All these delusions will vanish. When that free Soul will command - not pray or beg, but command - then whatever It desires will be immediately fulfilled; whatever It wants It will be able to do. According to the Sankhya philosophy, there is no God. It says that there can be no God in this universe, because if there were one...[It]...must be a soul, and a soul must be either bound or free. How can the soul that is bound by nature, or controlled by nature create? It is itself a slave. 

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The gods in the Indian systems of philosophy represent certain high offices which are filled successively by various souls. But none of them is perfect. 

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 Molecular vibration never ceases. When this universe is destroyed, all the massive vibrations disappear; the sun, moon, stars, and earth, melt down; but the vibrations remain in the atoms. Each atom performs the same function as the big worlds do. 

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"One moment of company with the holy makes a ship to cross this ocean of life." 

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Avoid evil company, because the scars of old wounds are in you, and evil company is just the thing that is necessary to call them out. 

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Some days or weeks when you are practising, the mind will be calm and easily concentrated, and you will find yourself progressing fast. All of a sudden the progress will stop one day, and you will find yourself, as it were, stranded. Persevere. All progress proceeds by such rise and fall. 

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Repetition of Om and self-surrender to the Lord will strengthen the mind, and bring fresh energy. 

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Yoga changes the body. As you go on practising, your body changes; it is not the same body that you had before the practice. That is very rational, and can be explained, because every new thought that we have must make, as it were, a new channel through the brain, and that explains the tremendous conservatism of human nature. Human nature likes to run through the ruts that are already there, because it is easy. If we think, just for example's sake, that the mind is like a needle, and the brain substance a soft lump before it, then each thought that we have makes a street, as it were, in the brain, and this street would close up, but for the grey matter which comes and makes a lining to keep it separate. If there were no grey matter, there would be no memory, because memory means going over these old streets, retracing a thought as it were. Now perhaps you have marked that when one talks on subjects in which one takes a few ideas that are similar to everyone, and combines and recombines them, it is easy to follow because these channels are present in everyone's brain, and it is only necessary to refer to them. But whenever a new subject comes, new channels have to be made, so it is not understood readily. And that is why the brain (it is the brain, and not the people themselves) refuses unconsciously to be acted upon by new ideas. It resists. The Prana is trying to make new channels, and the brain will not allow it. This is the secret of conservatism. The fewer channels there have been in the brain, and the less the needle of the Prana has made these passages, the more conservative will be the brain, the more it will struggle against new thoughts. The more thoughtful the...[person]...the more complicated will be the streets in...[their]...brain, and the more easily...[they]...will take to new ideas, and understand them. So with every fresh idea, we make a new impression in the brain, cut new channels through the brain-stuff, and that is why we find that in the practice of Yoga (it being an entirely new set of thoughts and motives) there is so much physical resistance at first. That is why we find that the part of religion which deals with the world-side of nature is so widely accepted, while the other part, the philosophy, or the psychology, which deals with the inner nature...is so frequently neglected. We must remember the definition of this world of ours; it is only the Infinite Existence projected into the plane of consciousness. A little of the Infinite is projected into consciousness, and that we call our world. 

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...the scriptures cannot take us to realisation. We can read all the Vedas, and yet will not realize anything, but when we practise their teachings, then we attain to that state which realises what the scriptures say... 

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 Realisation is real religion, all the rest is only preperation - hearing lectures, or reading books, or reasoning is merely preparing the ground; it is not religion. 

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Study. What is meant by study in this case? No study of novels or story books, but study of those works which teach the liberation of the Soul. 

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Most of us make our minds like spoilt children, allowing them to do whatever they want. Therefore it is necessary that Kriya-yoga should be constantly practised, in order to gain control of the mind, and bring it into subjection. The obstructions to Yoga arise from lack of control, and cause us pain. They can only be removed by denying the mind, and holding it in check... 

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...the most curios part of it is, that, in Western countries, the idea that this clinging to life indicates a possibility of future life applies only to...[humans]...but does not include animals. 

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...so far as we know, all the cases which we now regard as automatic are degenerated reason. In the language of the Yogi, instinct is involved reason. 

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The Yogis hold that...[those]...who are able to acquire a tremendous power of good Samskaras do not have to die, but, even in this life, can change their bodies into god-bodies. There are several such cases mentioned by the Yogis in their book. [They]...change the very material of their bodies; they re-arrange the molecules in such a fashion that they have no more sickness, and what we call death does not come to them. 

. . . 

Similarly, we can send electricity to any part of the world, but we have to send it by means of wires. Nature can send a vast mass of electricity without any wires at all. Why cannot we do the same? We can send mental electricity. What we call mind is very much the same as electricity. It is clear that this nerve fluid has some amount of electricity, because it is polarised, and it answers all electrical directions. We can only send our electricity through these nerve channels. Why not send the mental electricity without this aid? The Yogis say it is perfectly possible and practicable, and that when you can do that, you will work all over the universe. You will be able to work with any body anywhere, without the help of the nervous system. 

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It is only by giving up this world that the other comes... 

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There is a story that the king of the gods, Indra, once became a pig, wallowing in mire; he had a she-pig and a lot of baby pigs, and was very happy. Then some of the gods saw his plight, and came to him, and told him, "You are the king of the gods, you have all the gods under your command. Why are you here?" But Indra said, "Never mind; I am all right here; I do not care for heaven, while I have this sow and these little pigs." The poor gods were at their wits' end. After a time they decided to slay all the pigs one after another. When all were dead, Indra began to weep and mourn. Then the gods ripped his pig-body open and he came out of it, and began to laugh, when he realised what a hideous dream he had had... 

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...[Experience]...leads, step by step, to that state where all things become small, and the Purusha so great that the whole universe seems as a drop in the ocean and falls off by its own nothingness. 

. . . 

We do not all see it, but we all throw out these Tanmatras, just as a flower continuously sends out fine particles which enable us to smell it. Every day of our lives we throw out a mass of good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full of these materials. That is how there came to the human mind, unconsciously, the idea of building temples and churches. Why should...[one]...build churches in which to worship God? Why not worship...[God]...anywhere? Even if...[we]...did not know the reason,...[we]...found that the place where people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras. Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier they get, and the holier that place becomes. If...[anyone]...who has not much Sattva in...[them]...goes there, the place will influence...[them]...and arouse...[their]...Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the significance of all temples and holy places, but you must remember that their holiness depends on holy people congregating there. The difficulty...is that...[we]...forget the original meaning, and put the cart before the horse. It was...[people that]...made these places holy, and then the effect became the cause and made...[people themselves]...holy. If the wicked only were to go there, it would become as bad as any other place. It is not the building, but the people that make a church, and that is what we always forget. That is why sages and holy persons, who have much of this Sattva quality, can send it out and exert a tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. [One]...may become so pure that...[their]...purity will become tangible. Whosoever comes in contact with...[them]...becomes pure. . . . If you say that the idea of freedom is a delusion, I shall say that the idea of bondage is also a delusion. . . . ...we are bound so far as intelligence goes...we are free so far as the soul is concerned. . . . ...nature has no purpose in view, except to free the Purusha. . . . It is only a fiction to say that I have one body, you another, and the sun another. The whole universe is one ocean of matter, and you are the name of a little particle, and I of another, and the sun of another. We know that this matter is continuously changing. What is forming the sun one day, the next day may form the matter of our bodies. . . . Now comes the practical knowledge. What we have just been speaking about is much higher. It is away above our heads, but it is the ideal. It is first necessary to obtain physical and mental control. Then the realisation will become steady in that ideal. . . . If I tell a lie, or cause another to tell one, or approve of another doing so, it is equally sinful. If it is a very mild lie, still it is a lie. Every vicious thought will rebound, every thought of hatred which you may have thought, in a cave even, is stored up, and will one day come back to you with tremendous power in the form of some misery here. If you project hatred and jealousy, they will rebound on you with compound interest. No power can avert them; when once you have put them in motion, you will have to bear them. . . . The result of mortification is bringing powers to the organs and the body, by destroying the impurity. . . . A Yogi standing in the midst of this room can apparently vanish. . . . When a Yogi has attained to this Samyama and wants strength...[they]...make a Samyama on the strength of the elephant and gets it. Infinite energy is at the disposal of everyone if...[they]...only know how to get it. . . . The Yogi can enter a dead body and make it get up and move, even while...[they themselves are]...working in another body. Or...[they]...can enter a living body and hold that...[person's]...mind and organs in check, and for the time being act through the body of that...[person]. . . . By conquering the current called Udana the Yogi does not sink in water or in swamps...[they]...can walk on thorns ect., and can die at will. Udana is the name of the nerve current that governs the lungs and all the upper parts of the body, and when...[one]...is master of it...[they become]...light in weight. [They do]...not sink in water; [they]...can walk on thorns and sword blades, and stand in fire, and can depart this life whenever...[they]...like. . . . What are all these powers? Simply manifestations. They are no better than dreams. Even omnipotence is a dream. It depends on the mind. So long as there is a mind it can be understood, but the goal is beyond even the mind. . . . We are living in the midst of such a mass of miracles, day and night, that we do not think anything of them. . . . You will find...[people]...with their hands up all their lives, until their hands wither and die. [Some]...keep standing, day and night, until their feet swell, and if they live, the legs become so stiff in this position that they can no more bend them, but have to stand all their lives. . . . If anyone can take the bar off, in rushes nature. Then...[one]...attains the powers which are...[theirs]...already. Those we call wicked become saints, as soon as the bar is broken and nature rushes in. It is nature that is driving us toward perfection, and eventually she will bring everyone there. . . . The two causes of evolution advanced by the moderns, viz...selection and survival of the fittest, are inadequate. . . . The result of this theory is to furnish every oppressor with an argument to calm the qualms of conscience. . . . Even when all competition has ceased, this perfect nature behind will make us go forward until everyone has become perfect. Therefore there is no reason to believe that competition is necessary to progress. . . . All the scriptures sing the glory...of the soul, and then, in the same breath, they preach Karma. A good deed brings such result, and a bad deed such another, but if the soul can be acted upon by a good or a bad deed, the soul amounts to nothing. Bad deeds put a bar to the manifestation of the nature of the Purusha; good deeds take the obstacles off, and the glory of the Purusha becomes manifest. The Purusha itself is never changed. Whatever you do never destroys your own glory, your own nature, because the soul cannot be acted upon by anything, only a veil is spread before it, hiding its perfection. . . . Suppose I have made the three kinds of Karma, good, bad, and mixed, and suppose I die and become a god in heaven. The desires in a god body are not the same as the desires in a human body; the god body neither eats nor drinks. What becomes of my past unworked Karmas which produce as their effect the desire to eat and drink? Where would these Karmas go when I become a god? The answer is that desires can only manifest themselves in proper environments. Only those desires will come out for which the environment is fitted; the rest will remain stored up. In this life we have many godly desires, many human desires, many animal desires. If I take a god body, only the good desires will come up, because for them the environments are suitable. And if I take an animal body, only the animal desires will come up, and the good desires will wait. What does this show? That by means of environment we can check these desires. Only that Karma which is suited to and fitted for the environments will come out. This shows that the power of environment is the great check to control even Karma itself. [If this be true, then we have as many types of Karma to work off, it seems, as bodies (i.e. gross body, finer body, etc), and each type of karma can only be worked out in its respective body. Therefore it would seem to stand to reason that the complete working through of, say, one's karma in the, for example, human form - through all the millenia after millenia of human lives - only represents ONE sliver of all the potential Karma that one may have to work out.] . . . There is consecutiveness in desires, even though separated by species, space, and time, there being identification of memory and impressions. Experiences becoming fine become impression; impressions revivified become memory. The word memory here includes unconscious co-ordination of past experiences, reduced to impressions, with present conscious action. In each body, the group of impressions acquired in a similar body only becomes the cause of action in that body. The experiences of a dissimilar body are held in abeyance. Each body acts as if it were a descendant of a series of bodies of that species only thus, consecutiveness of desires is not to be broken. . . . . . ...a train is in motion, and a carriage is moving alongside it. It is possible to find the motion of both these to a certain extent. But still something else is necessary. Motion can only be perceived when there is something else which is not moving. But when two or three things are relatively moving, we first perceive the motion of the faster one, and then that of the slower ones. How is the mind to perceive: It is also in a flux. Therefore another thing is necessary which moves more slowly, then you must get to something in which the motion is still slower, and so on, and you will find no end. Therefore logic compels you to stop somewhere. You must complete the series by knowing something which never changes. . . . Closely connected with these ideas is the doctrine - which was universal before the Europeans mutilated it - the doctrine of reincarnation. Some of you may have heard of and ignored it. This idea of reincarnation runs parallel with the other doctrine of the eternity of the...soul. Nothing which ends at one point can be without a beginning and nothing that begins at one point can be without an end. We cannot believe in such a monstrous impossibility as the beginning of the...soul. The doctrine of reincarnation asserts the freedom of the soul. Suppose there was an absolute beginning. Then the whole burden of this impurity in...[humans]...falls upon God. The all-merciful...responsible for the sins of the world! If sin comes in this way, why should one suffer more than another? Why such partiality, if it comes from an all-merciful God? Why are millions trampled underfoot? Why do people starve who never did anything to cause it? Who is responsible? If they had no hand in it, surely, God would be responsible. Therefore the better explanation is that one is responsible for the result. And if I can bring misery, I can also stop it. It necessarily follows that we are free. There is no such thing as fate. There is nothing to compel us. What we have done, that we can undo. To one argument in connection with this doctrine I will ask your patient attention, as it is a little intricate. We gain all our knowledge through experience; that is the only way. What we call experiences are on the plane of consciousness. For illustration: [One]...plays a tune on a piano...[they]...place each finger on each key consciously. [They]...then play a tune without having to pay special attention to each particular key. Similarly, we find in regard to ourselves that our tendencies are the result of past conscious actions. A child is born with certain tendencies. Whence do they come? No child is born with a tabula rasa - with a clean, blank page - of a mind. The page has been written on previously. The old Greek and Egyptian philosophers taught that no child came with a vacant mind. Each child comes with a hundred tendencies generated by past conscious actions. It did not acquire these in this life, and we are bound to admit that it must have had them in past lives. The rankest materialist has to admit that these tendencies are the result of past actions, only they add that these tendencies come through heredity. Our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents come down to us through this law of heredity. Now if heredity alone explains this, there is no necessity of believing in the soul at all, because body explains everything. We need not go into the different arguments and discussions on materialism and spiritualism. So far the way is clear for those who believe in an individual soul. We see that to come to a reasonable conclusion we must admit that we have had past lives. This is the belief of the great philosophers and sages of the past and of modern times. Such a doctrine was believed in among the Jews. Jesus Christ believed in it. He says in the Bible, "Before Abraham was, I am." And in another place it is said, "This is Elias who is said to have come." All the different religions which grew among different nations under varying circumstances and conditions had their origin in Asia, and the Asiatics understand them well. When they came out from the motherland, they got mixed up with errors. The most profound and noble ideas of Christianity were never understood in Europe, because the ideas and images used by the writers of the Bible were foreign to it. Take for illustration the pictures of the Madonna. Every artist paints...[their]...Madonna according to...[their]...own pre-conceived ideas. I have been seeing hundreds of pictures of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, and he is made to sit at a table. Now, Christ never sat at a table; he squatted with others, and they had a bowl in which they dipped bread - not the kind of bread you eat today. It is hard for any nation to understand the unfamiliar customs of other people. How much more difficult was it for Europeans to understand the Jewish customs after centuries of changes and accretions from Greek, Roman, and other sources? Through all the myths and mythologies by which it is surrounded it is no wonder that the people get very little of the beautiful religion of Jesus, and no wonder that they have made of it a modern shopkeeping religion. . . . [I realise]...in...[my]...soul that...[I am]...God [Itself], only a lower expression of...[It]. All that is real in me is...[God]; all that is real in...[God]...is I. . . . [One]...may be the greatest philosopher in the world, but a child in religion. . . . ...the apparent contradictions and perplexities in every religion mark but different stages of growth. . . . [One]...may believe in all the churches in the world...[they]...may baptise...[themselves]...in all the rivers of the earth, still if...[they have]...no perception of God, I would class...[them]...with the rankest atheist. And...[one]...may have never entered a church or mosque, nor performed any ceremony, but if...[they]...feel God within...[themselves]...and...[are]...thereby lifted above the vanities of the world, that...[person]...is a holy...[person], a saint, call...[them]...what you will. As soon as...[one]...stands up and says...[they are]...right or...[their]...church is right, and all others are wrong...[they]...are...[ themselves]...all wrong. . . . "...until your religion makes you realise God, it is useless. [They]...who only study books for religion reminds one of the fable of the ass which carried a heavy load of sugar on its back, but did not know the sweetness of it." . . . Q. A man in the audience said, "If ministers stop preaching hell-fire, they will have no control over the people." A. They had better lose it then. The...[one]...who is frightened into religion has no religion at all. . . . I look upon miracles as the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of truth. When the disciples of Buddha told him of a...[person]...who had performed a so-called miracle - had taken a bowl from a great height without touching it - and showed him the bowl, he took it and crushed it under his feet and told him never to build their faith on miracles, but to look for truth in everlasting principles. . . . ...this immortal and perfect soul must be the same in the highest God as well as in the humblest...[person]...the difference between them being only in the degree in which the soul manifests itself. . . . How is it, then, that every child is born with an experience that cannot be accounted for by hereditary transmition? How is it that one is born of good parents, receives a good education and becomes a good...[person]...while another comes from besotted parents and ends on the gallows? How do you explain this inequality without implicating God? Why should a merciful...[God]...set...[Its]...child in such conditions which must bring forth misery? It is no explanation to say God will make amends later on - God has no blood-money. . . . I take upon myself the blame for the misery of this existence, and say I will unmake the evil I have done in another existence. . . . ...we are flying like hunted hares from all that is terrible, and like them, hiding our heads and thinking we are safe. ...the whole world is flying from everything terrible. . . . That is a lesson for all life - face the terrible, face it boldly. ...the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. ...Cowards never win victories. We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to flee before us. What is death? What are terrors? Do you not see the Lord's face in them? Fly from evil and terror and misery, and they will follow you. Face them, they will flee. . . . It is difficult, all very difficult. I say to myself, "This moment I will take refuge in Thee, O Lord. Unto Thy love I will sacrifice all, and on Thine altar I will place all that is good and virtuous. My sins, my sorrows, my actions, good and evil, I will offer unto Thee; do Thou take them and I will never forget." One moment I say, "Thy will be done," and the next moment something comes to try me and I spring up in a rage. . . . Life is infinite, one chapter of which is, "Thy will be done," and unless we realise all the chapters we cannot realise the whole. "Thy will be done" - every moment the traitor mind rebels against it... . . . Wherever you see the most humanitarian ideas fall into the hands of the multitude, the first result, you may notice, is degradation. . . . We have to learn yet that all religions, under whatever name they may be called, either Hindu, Buddhist, Mohammedan, or Christian, have the same God, and...[they]...who deride any one of these derides...[their]...own God. . . . Just as every picture, being composed of successive impulses of light, must be united on something stationary to form a whole, so all the ideas in the mind must be gathered and projected on something that is stationary - relatively to the body and mind - that is, on what is called the Soul or Purusha or Atman. . . . If there were only one existence throughout, how could it be that I am one, and you are one, and so forth? We are all one, and the cause of evil is the perception of duality. As soon as I begin to feel that I am separate from this universe, then first come fear, and then comes misery. . . . In the lowest worm, as well as in the highest human being, the same divine nature is present. ...Behind everything the same divinity is existing, and out of this comes the basis of morality. . . . We must always hold ourselves ready, even to give up our lives for the lowest beings. When...[one]...has become ready even to give up...[their]...life for a little insect...[they have]...reached the perfection which the Advaitist wants to attain... . . . There are, of course, a number of people who seem to acquiesce in the so-called popular faith, but we also know for certain that they do not think. Their idea of belief may be better translated to "not-thinking-carelessness". . . . The whole universe is simply an ocean of matter, of which you and I are like little whirlpools. Masses of matter are coming into each whirlpool, taking the whirlpool form, and coming out as matter again. The matter that is in my body may have been in yours a few years ago, or in the sun, or may have been the matter in a plant, and so on, in a continuous state of flux. . . . The whole of our lives is one; we are one, even in thought. . . . To...[the]...proud...it is told: You are the same as that little worm there; think not that you are something enormously different from it; you are the same. . . . You are one with this universe. [They] who say...[they are]...different from others, even by a hair's breadth, immediately become miserable. . . . You and I are little bits, little points little channels, little expressions, all living inside of that infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. The difference between...[one person and another]...between angels and...[humans]...between...[humans]...and animals and plants, between plants and...[rocks]...is not in kind, because everyone from the highest angel to the lowest particle of matter is but an expression of that one infinite ocean, and the difference is only in degree. ...You and I are both outlets of the same channel, and that is God...You are of the nature of God by your birthright; so am I. You may be an angel of purity, and I may be the blackest of demons. Nevertheless, my birthright is that infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss. So is yours. You have manifested yourself more today. Wait; I will manifest myself more yet, for I have it all within me. . . . ...matter is...God perceived by the five sense; that God as perceived through the intellect is mind; and when the spirit sees, ...[God]...is seen as spirit. . . . Something was outside which my senses brought to me, and to which my mind contributed something else, and the combination of these two is the chair. That which existed eternally, independent of the senses and of the intellect, was the Lord...[Itself]. Upon...[God]...the senses are painting chairs, and tables, and rooms, houses, and worlds, and moons, and suns, and stars, and everything else. How is it , then, that we all see this same chair, that we are all alike painting these various things on the Lord, on this Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss? It need not be that all paint the same way, but those who paint the same way are on the same plane of existence and therefore they see one another's painting as well as one another. There may be millions of beings between you and me who do not paint the Lord in the same way, and them and their paintings we do not see. . . . Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. . . . That "I am" is the same in the murderer as in the saint, the same in the rich as in the poor, the same in the man as in the woman, the same in...[humans]...as in animals. From the lowest amoeba to the highest angel, ...[God]...resides in every soul, and eternally declares, "I am...[That], I am...[That]." . . . To...[everyone]...this is taught: Thou art one with this Universal Being, and, as such, every soul that exists is your soul; and every body that exists is your body; ...I am the universe; this universe is my body. I am the Infinite, only I am not conscious of it now; but I am struggling to get this consciousness of the Infinite... . . . The fine body...is a material but transparent body, made of very fine particles, so fine that no microscope can see...[it]. ...[It]...is...material, only very fine matter... It is not that...[one]...has a fine and also a gross body; it is the one body only, the part which endures longer is the fine body, and that which dissolves sooner is the gross. Just as I can cut this nail any number of times, so millions of times I can shed this gross body, but the fine body will remain. . . . Just as kings change here, so the gods, the Devas, also have to die. In heaven they will all die. . . . It is a significant fact that as the human population is increasing, the animal population is decreasing. The animal souls are all becoming...[human]. So many species of animals have become...[human]...already. Where else have they gone? . . . If you say there is a God who is an infinite Being, and a soul which is also infinite, and a nature which is also infinite, you can go on multiplying infinites without limit which is simply absurd; you smash all logic. . . . ...when these other people say that God is the soul, and the universe is the body, and the body is changing, but God is changeless, the non-dualists say, all this is nonsense. ...If this God has become this universe, you and all these things are God. Certainly. This book is God, everything is God. My body is God, and my mind, and my soul is God. ....."This universe does not exist at all; it is all illusion. The whole of this universe, these Devas, gods, angels, and all the other beings born and dying, all this infinite number of souls coming up and going down, are all dreams." ...As the one sun, reflected on various pieces of water, appears to be many, and millions of globules of water reflect so many millions of suns, and in each globule will be a perfect image of the sun, yet there is only one sun, so are all these Jivas but reflections in different minds. These different minds are like so many different globules, reflecting this one Being. God is being reflected in all these different Jivas. ...You, as body, mind, or soul, are a dream, but what you really are, is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. You are the God of this universe. You are the Advaitist. So all these births and rebirths, coming and going are the figments of Maya. You are infinite. ...The sun, the moon, and the whole universe are but drops in your transcendent nature. . . . So long as the dream that you are body exists, you are bound to see yourself as being born and dying; but as soon as that dream vanishes, so will the dream that there is a universe vanish. That very thing which we now see as the universe will appear to us as God (Absolute), and that very God who has so long been external will appear to be internal, as our own Self. . . . Now comes Uparati which consists in not thinking of things of the senses. Most of our time is spent in thinking about sense-objects, things which we have seen, or we have heard, which we shall see or shall hear, things which we have eaten, or are eating, or shall eat, places where we have lived, and so on. We think of them or talk of them most of our time. One who wishes to be a Vedantin must give up this habit. . . . The mind can be conquered only by slow and steady practice. . . . ...you and I who are born slaves to nature, money and wealth, wives and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere chimera, and are going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. ...the world is going on, society goes on, and we, blinded slaves, have to pay for it without knowing. Study your own lives, and find how little of happiness there is in them, and how little in truth you have gained in the course of this wild-goose chase of the world. . . . The majority of people are just like a flock of sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch, all the rest follow and break their necks. . . . [They are]...a slave to a bit of bread, to a breath of air; a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to country, to name, and to fame. [They are]...thus in the midst of slavery and the real...[person]...has become buried within, through...[their]...bondage. What you call...[human]...is a slave. . . . Really we do not develop our souls at all. What can develop the perfect? We simply take the evil off; and the soul manifests itself in its pristine purity, its natural, innate freedom. Now begins the inquiry: Why is this discipline so necessary? Because religion is not attained through the ears, nor through the eyes, nor yet through the brain. No scriptures can make us religious. We may study all the books in the world, yet may not understand a word of religion or of God. We may talk all our lives and yet may not be the better for it; we may be the most intellectual people the world ever saw, and yet we may not come to God at all. . . . Bondages will fall off by themselves, and we shall be buoyed up beyond this plane of sense-perception to which we are tied down, and then we shall see, and hear, and feel things which...[humans]...in the three ordinary states (viz walking, dream, and sleep) neither feel, nor see, nor hear. Then we shall speak a strange language, as it were, and the world will not understand us, because it does not know anything but the senses. . . . In speaking of the soul, to say that...[the human]...is superior to the animal or the plant, has no meaning; the whole universe is one. . . . Dying, and being born, reincarnation, and going to heaven, cannot be for the soul. These are different appearances, different mirages, different dreams. If...[one]...who is dreaming of this world now dreams of wicked thoughts and wicked deeds, after a certain time the thought of that very dream will produce the next dream. [They]...will dream that...[they are]...in a horrible place; and so on from dream to dream. But the time will come when the whole of this dream will vanish. To everyone of us there must come a time when the whole universe will be found to have been a mere dream, when we shall find that the soul is infinitely better than its surroundings. In this struggle through what we call our environments, there will come a time when we shall find that these environments were almost zero in comparison with the power of the soul. It is only a question of time, and time is nothing in the Infinite. It is a drop in the ocean. . . . "[They]...who look upon the learned Brahmin, upon the cow, the elephant, the dog, or the outcast with the same eye...[they]...indeed...[are]...the sage, and the wise..." . . . When the soul wants to depend upon nothing, not even upon life, that is the height of philosophy... . . . There is a great deal of similarity between the lives of Jesus and Krishna. A discussion is going on as to which borrowed of the other. There was the tyrannical king in both places. Both were born in a manger. The parents were bound in both cases. Both were saved by angels. In both cases all the boys born that year were killed. The childhood is the same. ...Again, in the end, both were killed. Krishna was killed by accident; he took the man who killed him to heaven. Christ was killed, and blessed the robber and took him to heaven. . . . If...[humans]...and...animals are manifestations of God, these teachers of...[humanity]...are leaders, are Gurus. . . . The vast mass of...[humanity]...are never thinkers. Even if they try to think, the [effect of the] vast mass of superstitions on them is terrible. The moment they weaken, one blow comes, and the backbone breaks into twenty pieces. They can only be moved by lures and threats. They can never move of their own accord. They must be frightened, horrified, or terrorised, and they are your slaves for ever. They have nothing else to do but to pay and obey. Everything else is done by the priest. ...How much easier religion becomes. You see, you have nothing to do. Go home and sit quietly. Somebody is doing the whole thing for you. Poor, poor animals. . . . You may have a hundred thousand [urges competing] at the same time. You may repress [them], but the moment the spring rebounds, the whole things is there again. . . . ...the Upanishads condemn all rituals, especially those that involve the killing of animals. They declare those all nonsense. . . . I do not see how you people here believe in the Bible whenever you say about [it], "How wonderful those words are, how right and how good!" Because, if you believe in the Bible as the word of God, you have no right to judge at all. The moment you judge, you think you are higher than the Bible. [Then] what is the use of the Bible to you? . . . All priests are not strong. If the people say, "Preach two thousand gods," the priests will do it. They are the servants of the congregation who pay them. God does not pay them. So blame yourselves before blaming the priests. You can only get the government and the religion and the priesthood you deserve, and no better. . . . Buddha's activity was on one plane, the plane of teaching. He could not keep his wife and child and become a teacher at the same time. Krishna preached in the midst of the battlefield. "[They]...who...[are]...in the midst of intense activity find...[themselves]...in the greatest calmness, and in the greatest peace finds intense activity, that is the greatest [Yogi as well as the wisest [person]]." . . . Many a time comes when we want to interpret our weakness and cowardice as forgiveness and renunciation. There is no merit in the renunciation of the beggar. ...We know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave. . . . Death means only a change of garment. What of it? ...You gain nothing by becoming cowards. ...Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune. You have cried to all the gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million gods, and still die like dogs. Where are the gods? ...The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? Die game. . . . Our ideas are burial grounds. When we leave the body we are bound by thousands of elements to those [ideas]. Who can work without any attachment? That is the real question. Such a...[one]...is the same whether...[their]...work succeeds or fails. [Their]...heart does not give one false beat even if...[their]...whole life-work is burnt to ashes in a moment. "This is the sage who always works for work's sake without caring for the results. Thus...[they go]...beyond the pain of birth and death.Thus...[they become]...free." Then...[they]...see that this attachment is all delusion. The Self can never be attached. ...Then...[they]...go beyond all the scriptures and philosophies. If the mind is deluded and pulled into a whirlpool by books and scriptures, what is the good of all these scriptures? One says this, another says that. What book shall you take? Stand alone! See the glory of your own soul, and see that you will have to work. Then you will become...[one]...of firm will. . . . People want to eat and drink and have children, and then they die a dog's death. ...They are always awake for the senses. Even their religion is just for that. They invent a God to help them, to give them more women, more money, more children - never a God to help them become more godlike. . . . [They who stop their]...activities and at the same time...[are]...still thinking about them attain to nothing; ...[they]...only become a hypocrite. . . . ...religion means realisation, nothing else. It does not matter whether one approaches the destination in a carriage with four horses, in an electric car, or rolling on the ground. The goal is the same. For the [Christians] the problem is how to escape the wrath of the terrible God. For the Indians it is how to become what they really are, to regain their lost Selfhood. . . . You may be the greatest philosopher, but as long as you have the idea that you are the body, you are no better than the little worm crawling under your foot. . . . Two thousand years ago...[someone]...saw God. Moses saw God in a burning bush. Does what Moses did when he saw God save you? No...[one's]...seeing God can help you the least bit except that it may excite you and urge you to do the same thing. That is the whole value of the ancients' examples. Nothing more. [Just] signposts on the way. No...[one's]...eating can satisfy another.... No...[one's]...seeing God can save another.... You have to see God yourself. . . . Our minds are not new minds. ...In modern times we all know that every child brings...[with them]...all the past, not only of humanity, but of the plant life. . . . If you want to be religious, enter not the gate of any organised religions. They do a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each one's individual development. Study everything, but keep your own seat firm. ...The moment they try to put their noose on you, get your neck out and go somewhere else. ...Enter not the door of any organised religion. [Religion] is only between you and your God... . . . The world is not as bad as you think. It is we fools who have made it evil. We manufacture our own goals and demons, and then...we cannot get rid of them. We put our hands before our eyes and cry: "Somebody give us light." Fools! Take your hands from your eyes! . . . Reading books cannot do that. The ass can be burdened with the whole library; that does not make him learned at all. . . . Stand up and die game. ...Do not add one lunacy to another. Do not add your weakness to the evil that is going to come. That is all I have to say to the world. Be strong. ...You talk of ghosts and devils. We are the living devils. The sign of life is strength and growth. The sign of death is weakness. Whatever is weak, avoid. It is death. If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it. There is salvation only for the brave. "None but the brave deserves the fair." None but the bravest deserves salvation. Whose hell? Whose torture? Whose sin? Whose weakness? Whose death? Whose disease? You believe in God. If you do, believe in the real God. "Thou art the man, thou the woman, thou the young man walking in the strength of youth, ...thou the old man tottering with his stick." Thou art weakness. Thou art fear. Thou art heaven, and Thou art hell. Thou art the serpent that would sting. Come thou as fear! Come thou as death! Come thou as misery! . . . Be not an imitation of Jesus, but be Jesus. You are quite as great as Jesus, Buddha, or anybody else. . . . The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. . . . We do not want to think; we want others to think for us. The messengers fulfil their mission. They ask to be up and doing. A hundred years later we cling to the message and go to sleep. . . [Religion] is not a doctrine, [not] a rule. It is a process. That is all. [Doctrines and rules] are all for exercise. By that exercise we get strong and at last break the bonds and become free. Doctrine is of no use except for gymnastics. ...Through exercise the soul becomes perfect. . . . Thoughts can be guided and controlled. ...[The Yogis of India] practised to see how far the thoughts can be guided and controlled. By dint of hard work, thoughts may be silenced altogether. If thoughts were [the real...person], as soon as thought ceases, ...[we]...ought to die. Thought ceases in meditation; even the mind's elements are quite quiet. Blood circulation stops. ...[breath]...stops, but...[we are]...not dead. If thought were...[the real person]...the whole thing ought to go, but they find it does not go. That is practical [proof]. They came to the conclusion that even mind and thought were not the real...[person]. . . . You are the One; there are no two. God was your own reflection cast upon the screen of Maya. . . . Do you see how you are seeing God all the time? As you unfold yourself, the reflection grows [clearer]. . . . Do not say "God". Do not say "Thou". Say "I". The language of [dualism] says, "God, Thou, my Father." The language of [non-dualism] says, "Dearer unto me than I am myself. I would have no name for Thee. The nearest I can use is I. "God is true. The universe is a dream. ...I know that I am worshipping only myself. ...Vanish nature from me, vanish [these] gods; vanish worship; ...vanish superstitions, for I know myself. I am the Infinite." . . . Go on saying, "I am free". Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, "I am bound." Dehypnotise the whole thing. . . . This is the religion of -non-dualism] philosophy. [It is] difficult. Struggle on. Down with all superstitions. Neither teachers nor scriptures nor gods [exist]. Down with temples, with priests, with gods, with incarnations, with God..[Itself]. I am all the God that ever existed. . . . All religious superstitions are vain imaginations. . . . You may reason it out and understand it intellectually, but there is a long way between intellectual understanding and the practical realisation of it. Between the plan of the building and the building itself there is quite a long distance. . . . The Personal God is only the sum total of all, and yet it is an individual by itself, just as you are the individual body of which each cell is an individual part itself. . . . (Speaking of the powers of Yogis which he has seen.) [Once I observed...]...[someone]...bringing out fruits and flowers, etc. [out of nowhere]. . . . [The thoughts, the senses] should be all my servants, not my masters. Then only is it possible that evils will vanish. . . . Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my own mind [is the ideal of education]. . . . By great struggle we get a certain power of concentration, the power of attachment of the mind to certain things. But then there is not the power of detachment. I would give half my life to take my mind off that object. I cannot. It is the power of concentration and attachment as well as the power of detachment [that we must develop]. . . . [Raja-Yoga] proposes no faith, no belief, no God. . . . The greatest difficulty is what? We talk and theorise. The vast majority of...[humanity]...must deal with things that are concrete. For the dull people cannot see all the highest philosophy. Thus it ends. You may be graduates [in] all sciences in the world, ...but if you have not realised, you must become a baby and learn. ...If you give them things in the abstract and infinite, they get lost. Give them things [to do,] a little at a time. [Tell them,] "you take [in] so many breaths, you do this." They go on, [they] understand it, and find pleasure in it. These are the kindergartens of religion. That is why breathing exercises will be so beneficial. I beg you all not to be merely curious. Practise a few days, and if you do not find any benefit, then come an curse me. . . . You must know what you are, and it is done. The dream vanishes. This you [and others] are dreaming here. When they die, they go to [the] heaven [of their dream]. They live in that dream, and [when it ends], they take a nice body [here], and they are good people.... [The wise...say,] "All these [desires] have vanished from me. This time I will not go through all this paraphernalia." [They try]...to get knowledge and struggle hard, and...[they]...see what a dream, what a nightmare this is - [this dreaming], and working up heavens and worlds and worse. . . . I have been studying [Yoga] all my life and have made very little progress yet. But I have got enough [result] to believe that this is the only true way. The day will come when I will be master of myself. If not in this life, [in another...]. I will struggle and never let go. . . . ...what makes the difference between one...[person]...and another? It is their past. The habits make one...a genius and another...a fool. You may have the power of the past and can succeed in five minutes. . . . These Western countries are full of the most degraded beings in the shape of teachers who teach men and women that if they are chaste they will be hurt. . . . Nothing is gained except by sacrifice. . . . It is much easier to do anything upon the external plane, but the greatest conqueror in the world finds...[themselves]...a mere child when...[they try]...to control...[their]...own mind.