The Real Nature of Man
Swami Vivekananda
When people cease to think of the past or future, when they give up the idea of body, because the body comes and goes and is limited, then they have risen to a higher ideal. The body is not the real man, neither is the mind, for the mind waxes and wanes. It is the spirit beyond, which alone can live for ever.
The body and mind are continually changing and are, in fact, only names of series of changeful phenomena, like rivers whose waters are in a constant state of flux, yet presenting the appearance of unbroken streams. Every particle in this body is continually changing; no one has the same body for many minutes together, and yet we think of it as the same body. So with the mind; one moment it is happy, another moment unhappy; one moment strong, another weak; an everchanging whirlpool.
That cannot be the spirit which is infinite. Change can only be in the limited. To say that the infinite changes in any way is absurd; it cannot be. You can move and I can move, as limited bodies; every particle in this universe is in a constant state of flux, but taking the universe as a unit, as one whole, it cannot move, it cannot change. Motion is always a relative thing. I move in relation to something else. Any particle in this universe can change in relation to any other particle; but take the whole universe as one, and in relation to what can it move? There is nothing besides it. So this infinite unit is unchangeable, immovable, absolute, and this is the real man.
Our reality, therefore, consists in the universal and not in the limited. These are old delusions, however comfortable they are, to think that we are little limited beings, constantly changing. People are frightened when they are told that they are Universal Being, everywhere present. Through everything you work, through every foot you move, through every lip you talk, through every heart you feel.
People are frightened when they are told this. They will again and again ask you if they are not going to keep their individuality. What is individuality? I should like to see it. A baby has no moustache; when he grows to be a man perhaps he has a moustache and beard. His individuality would be lost, if it were in the body. If I lose one eye, or if I lose one of my hands, my individuality would be lost if it were in the body. Then, a drunkard should not give up drinking because he would lose his individuality. A thief should not be a goodman because he would thereby lose his individuality. No man ought to change his habits for fear of this. There is no individuality except in the infinite. That is the only condition which does not change. Everything else is in a constant state of flux. Neither can individuality be in memory. Suppose, on account of a blow on the head I forget all about my past; then, I have lost all individuality; I am gone. I do not remember two or three years of my childhood, and if memory and existence are one, then whatever I forget is gone. That part of my life which I do not remember. I did not live. That is a very narrow idea of individuality.
We are not individuals yet. We are struggling towards individuality, and that is the infinite, that is the real nature of man. He alone lives whose life is in the whole universe. and the more we concentrate our lives on limited things, the faster we go towards death. Those moments alone we live when our lives are in the universe, in others; and living as little life is death, simply death, and that is why the of death comes. The fear of death can only be conquered when man realises that so long as there is one life in this universe, he is living. When he can say "I am in everything, in everybody, I am in all lives, I am the universe" then alone comes the state of fearlessness. To talk of immortality in constantly changing things is absurd. Says an old Saṁskṛta philosopher- It is only spirit that is the individual, because it is infinite. No infinity can be divided; infinity cannot be broken into pieces.
It is the same one, undivided unit for ever, and this is the individual man, the real man. The apparent manis merely a struggle to express, to manifest this individuality which is beyond; and evolution is not in the spirit. These changes which are going on-the wicked becoming good, the animal becoming man, take them whatever way you like-are not in the spirit.
They are evolution of nature and manifestation of spirit. Suppose there is a screen hiding you from me, in which there isa small hole through which I can see some of the faces before me, just a few faces. Now suppose the hole begins to grow larger and larger, and as it does so, more and more of the scene before me reveals itself and when at last the whole screen has disappeared, I stand face to face with you all. You did not change at all in this case; it was the whole that was evolving, and you were gradually manifesting yourselves.
So it is with the spirit. No perfection is going be attained. You are already free and perfect. What are these ideas of religion and God and searching for the hereafter? Why does man look for a God? Why does man, in every nation, in every state of society, want a perfect ideal somewhere, either in man, in God, or elsewhere? Because that idea is within you. It was your own heart beating and you did not know; you were mistaking it for something external. It is the God within your own self that is propelling you to seek for Him to realize Him. After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you comeback, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own self, the reality of your life, body and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond.
Every good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were; and the purity, the infinity, the God behind manifests itself more and more.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.
Courtesy: March 1995 Kalyana Kalapataru Publised by Gita Press, Gorakhpur
The Real Nature of Man
Swami Vivekananda
When people cease to think of the past or future, when they give up the idea of body, because the body comes and goes and is limited, then they have risen to a higher ideal. The body is not the real man, neither is the mind, for the mind waxes and wanes. It is the spirit beyond, which alone can live for ever.
The body and mind are continually changing and are, in fact, only names of series of changeful phenomena, like rivers whose waters are in a constant state of flux, yet presenting the appearance of unbroken streams. Every particle in this body is continually changing; no one has the same body for many minutes together, and yet we think of it as the same body. So with the mind; one moment it is happy, another moment unhappy; one moment strong, another weak; an everchanging whirlpool.
That cannot be the spirit which is infinite. Change can only be in the limited. To say that the infinite changes in any way is absurd; it cannot be. You can move and I can move, as limited bodies; every particle in this universe is in a constant state of flux, but taking the universe as a unit, as one whole, it cannot move, it cannot change. Motion is always a relative thing. I move in relation to something else. Any particle in this universe can change in relation to any other particle; but take the whole universe as one, and in relation to what can it move? There is nothing besides it. So this infinite unit is unchangeable, immovable, absolute, and this is the real man.
Our reality, therefore, consists in the universal and not in the limited. These are old delusions, however comfortable they are, to think that we are little limited beings, constantly changing. People are frightened when they are told that they are Universal Being, everywhere present. Through everything you work, through every foot you move, through every lip you talk, through every heart you feel.
People are frightened when they are told this. They will again and again ask you if they are not going to keep their individuality. What is individuality? I should like to see it. A baby has no moustache; when he grows to be a man perhaps he has a moustache and beard. His individuality would be lost, if it were in the body. If I lose one eye, or if I lose one of my hands, my individuality would be lost if it were in the body. Then, a drunkard should not give up drinking because he would lose his individuality. A thief should not be a goodman because he would thereby lose his individuality. No man ought to change his habits for fear of this. There is no individuality except in the infinite. That is the only condition which does not change. Everything else is in a constant state of flux. Neither can individuality be in memory. Suppose, on account of a blow on the head I forget all about my past; then, I have lost all individuality; I am gone. I do not remember two or three years of my childhood, and if memory and existence are one, then whatever I forget is gone. That part of my life which I do not remember. I did not live. That is a very narrow idea of individuality.
We are not individuals yet. We are struggling towards individuality, and that is the infinite, that is the real nature of man. He alone lives whose life is in the whole universe. and the more we concentrate our lives on limited things, the faster we go towards death. Those moments alone we live when our lives are in the universe, in others; and living as little life is death, simply death, and that is why the of death comes. The fear of death can only be conquered when man realises that so long as there is one life in this universe, he is living. When he can say "I am in everything, in everybody, I am in all lives, I am the universe" then alone comes the state of fearlessness. To talk of immortality in constantly changing things is absurd. Says an old Saṁskṛta philosopher- It is only spirit that is the individual, because it is infinite. No infinity can be divided; infinity cannot be broken into pieces.
It is the same one, undivided unit for ever, and this is the individual man, the real man. The apparent manis merely a struggle to express, to manifest this individuality which is beyond; and evolution is not in the spirit. These changes which are going on-the wicked becoming good, the animal becoming man, take them whatever way you like-are not in the spirit.
They are evolution of nature and manifestation of spirit. Suppose there is a screen hiding you from me, in which there isa small hole through which I can see some of the faces before me, just a few faces. Now suppose the hole begins to grow larger and larger, and as it does so, more and more of the scene before me reveals itself and when at last the whole screen has disappeared, I stand face to face with you all. You did not change at all in this case; it was the whole that was evolving, and you were gradually manifesting yourselves.
So it is with the spirit. No perfection is going be attained. You are already free and perfect. What are these ideas of religion and God and searching for the hereafter? Why does man look for a God? Why does man, in every nation, in every state of society, want a perfect ideal somewhere, either in man, in God, or elsewhere? Because that idea is within you. It was your own heart beating and you did not know; you were mistaking it for something external. It is the God within your own self that is propelling you to seek for Him to realize Him. After long searches here and there, in temples and in churches, in earths and in heavens, at last you comeback, completing the circle from where you started, to your own soul and find that He for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries shrouded in the clouds, is nearest of the near, is your own self, the reality of your life, body and soul. That is your own nature. Assert it, manifest it. Not to become pure, you are pure already. You are not to be perfect, you are that already. Nature is like that screen which is hiding the reality beyond.
Every good thought that you think or act upon is simply tearing the veil, as it were; and the purity, the infinity, the God behind manifests itself more and more.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.
Courtesy: March 1995 Kalyana Kalapataru Publised by Gita Press, Gorakhpur