Published byAdvaita Ashrama, Kolkatta
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CHAPTER I
PRAYER

स तन्मयो ह्यमृत ईशसंस्थो ज्ञः सर्वगो भुवनस्यास्य गोप्ता।
य ईशेऽस्य जगतो नित्यमेव नान्यो हेतुर्विद्यत ईशनाय॥
यो ब्रह्माणं विदधाति पूर्व यो वै वेदांश्च प्रहिणोति तस्मै।
तं ह देवं आत्मबुध्दिप्रकाशं मुमुक्षुर्वै शरणमहं प्रपद्ये॥

"He is the Soul of the Universe; He is Immortal; His is theRulership; He is the All-knowing, the All-pervading, the Protectorof the Universe, the Eternal Ruler. None else is there efficientto govern the world eternally. He who at the beginning of creationprojected Brahmâ (i.e. the universal consciousness), and whodelivered the Vedas unto him - seeking liberation I go for refugeunto that effulgent One, whose light turns the understandingtowards the Âtman."

Shvetâshvatara-Upanishad, VI. 17-18.

DEFINITION OF BHAKTI

Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a searchbeginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment ofthe madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom."Bhakti", says Nârada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms,"is intense love to God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hatesnone; he becomes satisfied forever"; "This love cannot be reducedto any earthly benefit", because so long as worldly desires last,that kind of love does not come; "Bhakti is greater than karma,greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object inview, while Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its ownend."

Bhakti has been the one constant theme of our sages. Apart fromthe special writers on Bhakti, such as Shândilya or Narada, thegreat commentators on the Vyâsa-Sutras, evidently advocates ofknowledge (Jnâna), have also something very suggestive to sayabout love. Even when the commentator is anxious to explain many,if not all, of the texts so as to make them import a sort of dryknowledge, the Sutras, in the chapter on worship especially, donot lend themselves to be easily manipulated in that fashion.

There is not really so much difference between knowledge (Jnana)and love (Bhakti) as people sometimes imagine. We shall see, as wego on, that in the end they converge and meet at the same point.So also is it with Râja-Yoga, which when pursued as a means toattain liberation, and not (as unfortunately it frequently becomesin the hands of charlatans and mystery-mongers) as an instrumentto hoodwink the unwary, leads us also to the same goal.

The one great advantage of Bhakti is that it is the easiest andthe most natural way to reach the great divine end in view; itsgreat disadvantage is that in its lower forms it oftentimesdegenerates into hideous fanaticism. The fanatical crew inHinduism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, have always beenalmost exclusively recruited from these worshippers on the lowerplanes of Bhakti. That singleness of attachment (Nishthâ) to aloved object, without which no genuine love can grow, is veryoften also the cause of the denunciation of everything else. Allthe weak and undeveloped minds in every religion or country haveonly one way of loving their own ideal, i.e. by hating every otherideal. Herein is the explanation of why the same man who is solovingly attached to his own ideal of God, so devoted to his ownideal of religion, becomes a howling fanatic as soon as he sees orhears anything of any other ideal. This kind of love is somewhatlike the canine instinct of guarding the master's property fromintrusion; only, the instinct of the dog is better than the reasonof man, for the dog never mistakes its master for an enemy inwhatever dress he may come before it. Again, the fanatic loses allpower of judgment. Personal considerations are in his case of suchabsorbing interest that to him it is no question at all what a mansays - whether it is right or wrong; but the one thing he isalways particularly careful to know is who says it. The same manwho is kind, good, honest, and loving to people of his ownopinion, will not hesitate to do the vilest deeds when they aredirected against persons beyond the pale of his own religiousbrotherhood.

But this danger exists only in that stage of Bhakti which iscalled the preparatory (Gauni). When Bhakti has become ripe andhas passed into that form which is called the supreme (Parâ), nomore is there any fear of these hideous manifestations offanaticism; that soul which is overpowered by this higher form ofBhakti is too near the God of Love to become an instrument for thediffusion of hatred.

It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building upof our characters in this life: yet we know that that character isof the noblest type in which all these three - knowledge and loveand Yoga - are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary fora bird to fly - the two wings and the tail as a rudder forsteering. Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is theother, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance. For thosewho cannot pursue all these three forms of worship together inharmony and take up, therefore, Bhakti alone as their way, it isnecessary always to remember that forms and ceremonials, thoughabsolutely necessary for the progressive soul, have no other valuethan taking us on to that state in which we feel the most intenselove to God.

There is a little difference in opinion between the teachers ofknowledge and those of love, though both admit the power ofBhakti. The Jnanis hold Bhakti to be an instrument of liberation,the Bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing tobe attained. To my mind this is a distinction without muchdifference. In fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument, reallymeans a lower form of worship, and the higher form becomesinseparable from the lower form of realisation at a later stage.Each seems to lay a great stress upon his own peculiar method ofworship, forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is boundto come even unsought, and that from perfect knowledge true loveis inseparable.

Bearing this in mind let us try to understand what the greatVedantic commentators have to say on the subject. In explainingthe Sutra Âvrittirasakridupadeshât (Meditation is necessary, thathaving been often enjoined.), Bhagavân Shankara says, "Thus peoplesay, 'He is devoted to the king, he is devoted to the Guru'; theysay this of him who follows his Guru, and does so, having thatfollowing as the one end in view. Similarly they say, 'The lovingwife meditates on her loving husband'; here also a kind of eagerand continuous remembrance is meant." This is devotion accordingto Shankara.

"Meditation again is a constant remembrance (of the thingmeditated upon) flowing like an unbroken stream of oil poured outfrom one vessel to another. When this kind of remembering has beenattained (in relation to God) all bandages break. Thus it isspoken of in the scriptures regarding constant remembering as ameans to liberation. This remembering again is of the same form asseeing, because it is of the same meaning as in the passage, 'WhenHe who is far and near is seen, the bonds of the heart are broken,all doubts vanish, and all effects of work disappear' He who isnear can be seen, but he who is far can only be remembered.Nevertheless the scripture says that he have to see Him who isnear as well as Him who, is far, thereby indicating to us that theabove kind of remembering is as good as seeing. This remembrancewhen exalted assumes the same form as seeing. . . . Worship isconstant remembering as may be seen from the essential texts ofscriptures. Knowing, which is the same as repeated worship, hasbeen described as constant remembering. . . . Thus the memory,which has attained to the height of what is as good as directperception, is spoken of in the Shruti as a means of liberation.'This Atman is not to be reached through various sciences, nor byintellect, nor by much study of the Vedas. Whomsoever this Atmandesires, by him is the Atman attained, unto him this Atmandiscovers Himself.' Here, after saying that mere hearing, thinkingand meditating are not the means of attaining this Atman, it issaid, 'Whom this Atman desires, by him the Atman is attained.' Theextremely beloved is desired; by whomsoever this Atman isextremely beloved, he becomes the most beloved of the Atman. Sothat this beloved may attain the Atman, the Lord Himself helps.For it has been said by the Lord: 'Those who are constantlyattached to Me and worship Me with love - I give that direction totheir will by which they come to Me.' Therefore it is said that,to whomsoever this remembering, which is of the same form asdirect perception, is very dear, because it is dear to the Objectof such memory perception, he is desired by the Supreme Atman, byhim the Supreme Atman is attained. This constant remembrance isdenoted by the word Bhakti." So says Bhagavân Râmânuja in hiscommentary on the Sutra Athâto Brahma-jijnâsâ (Hence follows adissertation on Brahman.).

In commenting on the Sutra of Patanjali, Ishvara pranidhânâdvâ,i.e. "Or by the worship of the Supreme Lord" - Bhoja says,"Pranidhâna is that sort of Bhakti in which, without seekingresults, such as sense-enjoyments etc., all works are dedicated tothat Teacher of teachers." Bhagavan Vyâsa also, when commenting onthe same, defines Pranidhana as "the form of Bhakti by which themercy of the Supreme Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him bygranting him his desires". According to Shândilya, "Bhakti isintense love to God." The best definition is, however, that givenby the king of Bhaktas, Prahlâda:

या प्रीतिरविवेकानां विषयेष्वनपायिनी।त्वामनुस्मरतः सा मेहृदयान्मापसर्पतु॥
"That deathless love which the ignorant have for the fleetingobjects of the senses - as I keep meditating on Thee - may notthat love slip away from my heart!" Love! For whom? For theSupreme Lord Ishvara. Love for any other being, however greatcannot be Bhakti; for, as Ramanuja says in his Shri Bhâshya,quoting an ancient Âchârya, i.e. a great teacher:

आब्रह्मस्तम्बपर्यन्ताः जगदन्तर्व्यवस्थिताः। प्राणिनःकर्मजनितसंसारवशवर्तिनः॥
यतस्ततो न ते ध्याने ध्यानिनामुपकारकाः। अविद्यान्तर्गतास्सर्वे तेहि संसारगोचराः॥
"From Brahmâ to a clump of grass, all things that live in theworld are slaves of birth and death caused by Karma; thereforethey cannot be helpful as objects of meditation, because they areall in ignorance and subject to change." In commenting on the wordAnurakti used by Shandilya, the commentator Svapneshvara says thatit means Anu, after, and Rakti, attachment; i.e. the attachmentwhich comes after the knowledge of the nature and glory of God;else a blind attachment to any one, e.g. to wife or children,would be Bhakti. We plainly see, therefore, that Bhakti is aseries or succession of mental efforts at religious realisationbeginning with ordinary worship and ending in a supreme intensityof love for Ishvara.

CHAPTER II
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ISHVARA

Who is Ishvara? Janmâdyasya yatah - "From whom is the birth,continuation, and dissolution of the universe," - He is Ishvara -"the Eternal, the Pure, the Ever-Free, the Almighty, theAll-Knowing, the All-Merciful, the Teacher of all teachers"; andabove all, Sa Ishvarah anirvachaniya-premasvarupah - "He the Lordis, of His own nature, inexpressible Love." These certainly arethe definitions of a Personal God. Are there then two Gods - the"Not this, not this," the Sat-chit-ânanda, theExistence-Knowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and this God of Loveof the Bhakta? No, it is the same Sat-chit-ananda who is also theGod of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has always tobe understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta isnot separate or different from the Brahman. All is Brahman, theOne without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, istoo much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so theBhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is, Ishvara,the Supreme Ruler. To use a simile: Brahman is as the clay orsubstance out of which an infinite variety of articles arefashioned. As clay, they are all one; but form or manifestationdifferentiates them. Before every one of them was made, they allexisted potentially in the clay, and, of course, they areidentical substantially; but when formed, and so long as the formremains, they are separate and different; the clay-mouse can neverbecome a clay-elephant, because, as manifestations, form alonemakes them what they are, though as unformed clay they are allone. Ishvara is the highest manifestation of the Absolute Reality,or in other words, the highest possible reading of the Absolute bythe human mind. Creation is eternal, and so also is Ishvara.

In the fourth Pâda of the fourth chapter of his Sutras, afterstating the almost infinite power and knowledge which will come tothe liberated soul after the attainment of Moksha, Vyâsa makes theremark, in an aphorism, that none, however, will get the power ofcreating, ruling, and dissolving the universe, because thatbelongs to God alone. In explaining the Sutra it is easy for thedualistic commentators to show how it is ever impossible for asubordinate soul, Jiva, to have the infinite power and totalindependence of God. The thorough dualistic commentatorMadhvâchârya deals with this passage in his usual summary methodby quoting a verse from the Varâha Purâna.

In explaining this aphorism the commentator Râmânuja says, "Thisdoubt being raised, whether among the powers of the liberatedsouls is included that unique power of the Supreme One, that is,of creation etc. of the universe and even the Lordship of all, orwhether, without that, the glory of the liberated consists only inthe direct perception of the Supreme One, we get as an argumentthe following: It is reasonable that the liberated get theLordship of the universe, because the scriptures say, 'He attainsto extreme sameness with the Supreme One and all his desires arerealised.' Now extreme sameness and realisation of all desirescannot be attained without the unique power of the Supreme Lord,namely, that of governing the universe. Therefore, to attain therealisation of all desires and the extreme sameness with theSupreme, we must all admit that the liberated get the power ofruling the whole universe. To this we reply, that the liberatedget all the powers except that of ruling the universe. Ruling theuniverse is guiding the form and the life and the desires of allthe sentient and the non-sentient beings. The liberated ones fromwhom all that veils His true nature has been removed, only enjoythe unobstructed perception of the Brahman, but do not possess thepower of ruling the universe. This is proved from the scripturaltext, "From whom all these things are born, by which all that areborn live, unto whom they, departing, return - ask about it. Thatis Brahman.' If this quality of ruling the universe be a qualitycommon even to the liberated then this text would not apply as adefinition of Brahman defining Him through His rulership of theuniverse. The uncommon attributes alone define a thing; thereforein texts like - 'My beloved boy, alone, in the beginning thereexisted the One without a second. That saw and felt, "I will givebirth to the many." That projected heat.' - 'Brahman indeed aloneexisted in the beginning. That One evolved. That projected ablessed form, the Kshatra. All these gods are Kshatras: Varuna,Soma, Rudra, Parjanya, Yama, Mrityu, Ishâna.' - 'Atman indeedexisted alone in the beginning; nothing else vibrated; He thoughtof projecting the world; He projected the world after.' - 'AloneNârâyana existed; neither Brahmâ, nor Ishana, nor theDyâvâ-Prithivi, nor the stars, nor water, nor fire, nor Soma, northe sun. He did not take pleasure alone. He after His meditationhad one daughter, the ten organs, etc.' - and in others as, 'Wholiving in the earth is separate from the earth, who living in theAtman, etc.' - the Shrutis speak of the Supreme One as the subjectof the work of ruling the universe. . . . Nor in thesedescriptions of the ruling of the universe is there any positionfor the liberated soul, by which such a soul may have the rulingof the universe ascribed to it."

In explaining the next Sutra, Ramanuja says, "If you say it is notso, because there are direct texts in the Vedas in evidence to thecontrary, these texts refer to the glory of the liberated in thespheres of the subordinate deities." This also is an easy solutionof the difficulty. Although the system of Ramanuja admits theunity of the total, within that totality of existence there are,according to him, eternal differences. Therefore, for allpractical purposes, this system also being dualistic, it was easyfor Ramanuja to keep the distinction between the personal soul andthe Personal God very clear.

We shall now try to understand what the great representative ofthe Advaita School has to say on the point. We shall see how theAdvaita system maintains all the hopes and aspirations of thedualist intact, and at the same time propounds its own solution ofthe problem in consonance with the high destiny of divinehumanity. Those who aspire to retain their individual mind evenafter liberation and to remain distinct will have ampleopportunity of realising their aspirations and enjoying theblessing of the qualified Brahman. These are they who have beenspoken of in the Bhâgavata Purâna thus: "O king, such are the,glorious qualities of the Lord that the sages whose only pleasureis in the Self, and from whom all fetters have fallen off, eventhey love the Omnipresent with the love that is for love's sake."These are they who are spoken of by the Sânkhyas as getting mergedin nature in this cycle, so that, after attaining perfection, theymay come out in the next as lords of world-systems. But none ofthese ever becomes equal to God (Ishvara). Those who attain tothat state where there is neither creation, nor created, norcreator, where there is neither knower, nor knowable, norknowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where thereis neither subject, nor object, nor relation, "there, who is seenby whom?" - such persons have gone beyond everything to "wherewords cannot go nor mind", gone to that which the Shrutis declareas "Not this, not this"; but for those who cannot, or will notreach this state, there will inevitably remain the triune visionof the one undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul, and theinterpenetrating sustainer of both - Ishvara. So, when Prahlâdaforgot himself, he found neither the universe nor its cause; allwas to him one Infinite, undifferentiated by name and form; but assoon as he remembered that he was Prahlada, there was the universebefore him and with it the Lord of the universe - "the Repositoryof an infinite number of blessed qualities". So it was with theblessed Gopis. So long as they had lost sense of their ownpersonal identity and individuality, they were all Krishnas, andwhen they began again to think of Him as the One to be worshipped,then they were Gopis again, and immediately

तासामाविरभूच्छौरिः स्मयमानमुखाम्बुजः।
पीताम्बरधरः स्त्रग्वी साखान्मन्मथमन्मथः॥
(Bhagavata) - "Unto them appeared Krishna with a smile on Hislotus face, clad in yellow robes and having garlands on, theembodied conqueror (in beauty) of the god of love."

Now to go back to our Acharya Shankara: "Those", he says, "who byworshipping the qualified Brahman attain conjunction with theSupreme Ruler, preserving their own mind - is their glory limitedor unlimited? This doubt arising, we get as an argument: Theirglory should be unlimited because of the scriptural texts, 'Theyattain their own kingdom', 'To him all the gods offer worship','Their desires are fulfilled in all the worlds'. As an answer tothis, Vyasa writes, 'Without the power of ruling the universe.'Barring the power of creation etc. of the universe, the otherpowers such as Animâ etc. are acquired by the liberated. As toruling the universe, that belongs to the eternally perfectIshvara. Why? Because He is the subject of all the scripturaltexts as regards creation etc., and the liberated souls are notmentioned therein in any connection whatsoever. The Supreme Lordindeed is alone engaged in ruling the universe. The texts as tocreation etc. all point to Him. Besides, there is given theadjective 'ever-perfect'. Also the scriptures say that the powersAnima etc. of the others are from the search after and the worshipof God. Therefore they have no place in the ruling of theuniverse. Again, on account of their possessing their own minds,it is possible that their wills may differ, and that, whilst onedesires creation, another may desire destruction. The only way ofavoiding this conflict is to make all wills subordinate to someonewill. Therefore the conclusion is that the wills of the liberatedare dependent on the will of the Supreme Ruler."

Bhakti, then, can be directed towards Brahman, only in Hispersonal aspect.

क्लेशोऽधिकतरस्तेषामव्यक्तासक्तचेतसाम् - "The way is more difficultfor those whose mind is attached to the Absolute!" Bhakti has tofloat on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is thatwe cannot have; any idea of the Brahman which is notanthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know?The greatest psychologist the world has ever known, BhagavanKapila, demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one ofthe elements in the make-up of all the objects of our perceptionand conception, internal as well as external. Beginning with ourbodies and going up to Ishvara, we may see that every object ofour perception is this consciousness plus something else, whateverthat may be; and this unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarilythink of as reality. Indeed it is, and ever will be, all of thereality that is possible for the human mind to know. Therefore tosay that Ishvara is unreal, because He is anthropomorphic, issheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the occidentals squabbleon idealism and realism, which fearful-looking quarrel has for itsfoundation a mere play on the word "real". The idea of Ishvaracovers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the word real,and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe; and afterall, the word real means nothing more than what has now beenpointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara.

CHAPTER III
SPIRITUAL REALISATION, THE AIM OF BHAKTI-YOGA

To the Bhakta these dry details are necessary only to strengthenhis will; beyond that they are of no use to him. For he istreading on a path which is fitted very soon to lead him beyondthe hazy and turbulent regions of reason, to lead him to the realmof realisation. He, soon, through the mercy of the Lord, reaches aplane where pedantic and powerless reason is left far behind, andthe mere intellectual groping through the dark gives place to thedaylight of direct perception. He no more reasons and believes, healmost perceives. He no more argues, he senses. And is not thisseeing God, and feeling God, and enjoying God higher thaneverything else? Nay, Bhaktas have not been wanting who havemaintained that it is higher than even Moksha - liberation. And isit not also the highest utility? There are people - and a goodmany of them too - in the world who are convinced that only thatis of use and utility which brings to man creature-comforts. Evenreligion, God, eternity, soul, none of these is of any use tothem, as they do not bring them money or physical comfort. Tosuch, all those things which do not go to gratify the senses andappease the appetites are of no utility. In every mind, utility,however, is conditioned by its own peculiar wants. To men,therefore, who never rise higher than eating, drinking, begettingprogeny, and dying, the only gain is in sense enjoyments; and theymust wait and go through many more births and reincarnations tolearn to feel even the faintest necessity for anything higher. Butthose to whom the eternal interests of the soul are of much highervalue than the fleeting interests of this mundane life, to whomthe gratification of the senses is but like the thoughtless playof the baby, to them God and the love of God form the highest andthe only utility of human existence. Thank God there are some suchstill living in this world of too much worldliness.

Bhakti-Yoga, as we have said, is divided into the Gauni or thepreparatory, and the Parâ or the supreme forms. We shall find, aswe go on, how in the preparatory stage we unavoidably stand inneed of many concrete helps to enable us to get on; and indeed themythological and symbolical parts of all religions are naturalgrowths which early environ the aspiring soul and help it Godward.It is also a significant fact that spiritual giants have beenproduced only in those systems of religion where there is anexuberant growth of rich mythology and ritualism. The dryfanatical forms of religion which attempt to eradicate all that ispoetical, all that is beautiful and sublime, all that gives a firmgrasp to the infant mind tottering in its Godward way - the formswhich attempt to break down the very ridge-poles of the spiritualroof, and in their ignorant and superstitious conceptions of truthtry to drive away all that is life-giving, all that furnishes theformative material to the spiritual plant growing in the humansoul - such forms of religion too soon find that all that is leftto them is but an empty shell, a contentless frame of words andsophistry with perhaps a little flavour of a kind of socialscavengering or the so-called spirit of reform.

The vast mass of those whose religion is like this, are consciousor unconscious materialists - the end and aim of their lives hereand hereafter being enjoyment, which indeed is to them the alphaand the omega of human life, and which is their Ishtâpurta; worklike street-cleaning and scavengering, intended for the materialcomfort of man is, according to them, the be-all and end-all ofhuman existence; and the sooner the followers of this curiousmixture of ignorance and fanaticism come out in their true coloursand join, as they well deserve to do, the ranks of atheists andmaterialists, the better will it be for the world. One ounce ofthe practice of righteousness and of spiritual Self-realisationoutweighs tons and tons of frothy talk and nonsensical sentiments.Show us one, but one gigantic spiritual genius growing out of allthis dry dust of ignorance and fanaticism; and if you cannot,close your mouths, open the windows of your hearts to the clearlight of truth, and sit like children at the feet of those whoknow what they are talking about - the sages of India. Let us thenlisten attentively to what they say.

CHAPTER IV
THE NEED OF GURU

Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every being, in the end,will attain the state of perfection. Whatever we are now is theresult of our acts and thoughts in the past; and whatever we shallbe in the future will be the result of what we think end do now.But this, the shaping of our own destinies, does not preclude ourreceiving help from outside; nay, in the vast majority of casessuch help is absolutely necessary. When it comes, the higherpowers and possibilities of the soul are quickened, spiritual lifeis awakened, growth is animated, and man becomes holy and perfectin the end.

This quickening impulse cannot be derived from books. The soul canonly receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else. Wemay study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual,but in the end we find that we have not developed at allspiritually. It is not true that a high order of intellectualdevelopment always goes hand in hand with a proportionatedevelopment of the spiritual side in Man. In studying books we aresometimes deluded into thinking that thereby we are beingspiritually helped; but if we analyse the effect of the study ofbooks on ourselves, we shall find that at the utmost it is onlyour intellect that derives profit from such studies, and not ourinner spirit. This inadequacy of books to quicken spiritual growthis the reason why, although almost every one of us can speak mostwonderfully on spiritual matters, when it comes to action and theliving of a truly spiritual life, we find ourselves so awfullydeficient. To quicken the spirit, the impulse must come fromanother soul.

The person from whose soul such impulse comes is called the Guru -the teacher; and the person to whose soul the impulse is conveyedis called the Shishya - the student. To convey such an impulse toany soul, in the first place, the soul from which it proceeds mustpossess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to another; andin the second place, the soul to which it is transmitted must befit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the fieldmust be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions arefulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes place."The true preacher of religion has to be of wonderfulcapabilities, and clever shall his hearer be" - आश्चर्यो वक्ताकुशलोऽस्य लब्धा; and when both of these are really wonderful andextraordinary, then will a splendid spiritual awakening result,and not otherwise. Such alone are the real teachers, and suchalone are also the real students, the real aspirants. All othersare only playing with spirituality. They have just a littlecuriosity awakened, just a little intellectual aspiration kindledin them, but are merely standing on the outward fringe of thehorizon of religion. There is no doubt some value even in that, asit may in course of time result in the awakening of a real thirstfor religion; and it is a mysterious law of nature that as soon asthe field is ready, the seed must and does come; as soon as thesoul earnestly desires to have religion, the transmitter of thereligious force must and does appear to help that soul. When thepower that attracts the light of religion in the receiving soul isfull and strong, the power which answers to that attraction andsends in light does come as a matter of course.

There are, however, certain great dangers in the way. There is,for instance, the danger to the receiving soul of its mistakingmomentary emotions for real religious yearning. We may study thatin ourselves. Many a time in our lives, somebody dies whom weloved; we receive a blow; we feel that the world is slippingbetween our fingers, that we want something surer and higher, andthat we must become religious. In a few days that wave of feelinghas passed away, and we are left stranded just where we werebefore. We are all of us often mistaking such impulses for realthirst after religion; but as long as these momentary emotions arethus mistaken, that continuous, real craving of the soul forreligion will not come, and we shall not find the true transmitterof spirituality into our nature. So whenever we are tempted tocomplain of our search after the truth that we desire so much,proving vain, instead of so complaining, our first duty ought tobe to look into our own souls and find whether the craving in theheart is real. Then in the vast majority of cases it would bediscovered that we were not fit for receiving the truth, thatthere was no real thirst for spirituality.

There are still greater dangers in regard to the transmitter, theGuru. There are many who, though immersed in ignorance, yet, inthe pride of their hearts, fancy they know everything, and notonly do not stop there, but offer to take others on theirshoulders; and thus the blind leading the blind, both fall intothe ditch.

अविद्यायामन्तरे वर्तमानाः स्वयं धीराः पण्डितम्मन्यमानाः ।
दन्द्रम्यमाणाः परियन्ति मूढा अन्धेनैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः ॥
- "Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own conceit, andpuffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round staggering toand fro, like blind men led by the blind." - (Katha Up., I. ii.5). The world is full of these. Everyone wants to be a teacher,every beggar wants to make a gift of a million dollars! Just asthese beggars are ridiculous, so are these teachers.

CHAPTER V
QUALIFICATIONS OF THE ASPIRANT AND THE TEACHER

How are we to know a teacher, then? The sun requires no torch tomake him visible, we need not light a candle in order to see him.When the sun rises, we instinctively become aware of the fact, andwhen a teacher of men comes to help us, the soul willinstinctively know that truth has already begun to shine upon it.Truth stands on its own evidence, it does not require any othertestimony to prove it true, it is self-effulgent. It penetratesinto the innermost corners of our nature, and in its presence thewhole universe stands up and says, "This is truth." The teacherswhose wisdom and truth shine like the light of the sun are thevery greatest the world has known, and they are worshipped as Godby the major portion of mankind. But we may get help fromcomparatively lesser ones also; only we ourselves do not possessintuition enough to judge properly of the man from whom we receiveteaching and guidance; so there ought to be certain tests, certainconditions, for the teacher to satisfy, as there are also for thetaught.

The conditions necessary for the taught are purity, a real thirstafter knowledge, and perseverance. No impure soul can be reallyreligious. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutelynecessary for anyone to be religious. As to the thirst afterknowledge, it is an old law that we all get whatever we want. Noneof us can get anything other than what we fix our hearts upon. Topant for religion truly is a very difficult thing, not at all soeasy as we generally imagine. Hearing religious talks or readingreligious books is no proof yet of a real want felt in the heart;there must be a continuous struggle, a constant fight, anunremitting grappling with our lower nature, till the higher wantis actually felt and the victory is achieved. It is not a questionof one or two days, of years, or of lives; the struggle may haveto go on for hundreds of lifetimes. The success sometimes may comeimmediately, but we must be ready to wait patiently even for whatmay look like an infinite length of time. The student who sets outwith such a spirit of perseverance will surely find success andrealisation at last.

In regard to the teacher, we must see that he knows the spirit ofthe scriptures. The whole world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans;but they are all only words, syntax, etymology, philology, the drybones of religion. The teacher who deals too much in words andallows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses thespirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alonethat constitutes the true religious teacher. The network of thewords of the scriptures is like a huge forest in which the humanmind often loses itself and finds no way out. शब्दजालं महारण्यंचित्तभ्रमणकारणम्। - "The network of words is a big forest; it isthe cause of a curious wandering of the mind." "The variousmethods of joining words, the various methods of speaking inbeautiful language, the various methods of explaining the dictionof the scriptures are only for the disputations and enjoyment ofthe learned, they do not conduce to the development of spiritualperception"

- वाग्वैखरी शब्दझरी शास्त्रव्याख्यानकौशलम्। वैदुष्यं विदुषांतद्वद् भुक्तये न तु मुक्तये॥
Those who employ such methods to impart religion to others areonly desirous to show off their learning, so that the world maypraise them as great scholars. You will find that no one of thegreat teachers of the world ever went into these variousexplanations of the text; there is with them no attempt at"text-torturing", no eternal playing upon the meaning of words andtheir roots. Yet they nobly taught, while others who have nothingto teach have taken up a word sometimes and written a three-volumebook on its origin, on the man who used it first, and on what thatman was accustomed to eat, and how long he slept, and so on.

Bhagavân Ramakrishna used to tell a story of some men who wentinto a mango orchard and busied themselves in counting the leaves,the twigs, and the branches, examining their colour, comparingtheir size, and noting down everything most carefully, and thengot up a learned discussion on each of these topics, which wereundoubtedly highly interesting to them. But one of them, moresensible than the others, did not care for all these things. andinstead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he notwise? So leave this counting of leaves and twigs and note-takingto others. This kind of work has its proper place, but not here inthe spiritual domain. You never see a strong spiritual man amongthese "leaf counters". Religion, the highest aim, the highestglory of man, does not require so much labour. If you want to be aBhakta, it is not at all necessary for you to know whether Krishnawas born in Mathurâ or in Vraja, what he was doing, or just theexact date on which he pronounced the teachings of the Gitâ. Youonly require to feel the craving for the beautiful lessons of dutyand love in the Gita. All the other particulars about it and itsauthor are for the enjoyment of the learned. Let them have whatthey desire. Say "Shântih, Shântih" to their learnedcontroversies, and let us "eat the mangoes".

The second condition necessary in the teacher is - sinlessness.The question is often asked, "Why should we look into thecharacter and personality of a teacher? We have only to judge ofwhat he says, and take that up." This is not right. If a man wantsto teach me something of dynamics, or chemistry, or any otherphysical science, he may be anything he likes, because what thephysical sciences require is merely an intellectual equipment; butin the spiritual sciences it is impossible from first to last thatthere can be any spiritual light in the soul that is impure. Whatreligion can an impure man teach? The sine qua non of acquiringspiritual truth for one's self or for imparting it to others isthe purity of heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of thebeyond never comes until the soul is pure. Hence with the teacherof religion we must see first what he is, and then what he says.He must be perfectly pure, and then alone comes the value of hiswords, because he is only then the true "transmitter". What can hetransmit if he has not spiritual power in himself? There must bethe worthy vibration of spirituality in the mind of the teacher,so that it may be sympathetically conveyed to the mind of thetaught. The function of the teacher is indeed an affair of thetransference of something, and not one of mere stimulation of theexisting intellectual or other faculties in the taught. Somethingreal and appreciable as an influence comes from the teacher andgoes to the taught. Therefore the teacher must be pure.

The third condition is in regard to the motile. The teacher mustnot teach with any ulterior selfish motive - for money, name, orfame; his work must be simply out of love, out of pure love formankind at large. The only medium through which spiritual forcecan be transmitted is love. Any selfish motive, such as the desirefor gain or for name, will immediately destroy this conveyingmedian. God is love, and only he who has known God as love can bea teacher of godliness and God to man.

When you see that in your teacher these conditions are allfulfilled, you are safe; if they are not, it is unsafe to allowyourself to be taught by him, for there is the great danger that,if he cannot convey goodness to your heart, he may conveywickedness. This danger must by all means be guarded against.श्रोत्रियोऽवृजिनोऽकामहतो यो ब्रह्मवित्तमः - "He who is learned inthe scriptures, sinless, unpolluted by lust, and is the greatestknower of the Brahman" is the real teacher.

From what has been said, it naturally follows that we cannot betaught to love, appreciate, and assimilate religion everywhere andby everybody. The "books in the running brooks, sermons in stones,and good in everything" is all very true as a poetical figure: butnothing can impart to a man a single grain of truth unless he hasthe undeveloped germs of it in himself. To whom do the stones andbrooks preach sermons? To the human soul, the lotus of whose innerholy shrine is already quick with life. And the light which causesthe beautiful opening out of this lotus comes always from the goodand wise teacher. When the heart has thus been opened, it becomesfit to receive teaching from the stones or the brooks, the stars,or the sun, or the moon, or from anything which has its existencein our divine universe; but the unopened heart will see in themnothing but mere stones or mere brooks. A blind man may go to amuseum, but he will not profit by it in any way; his eyes must beopened first, and then alone he will be able to learn what thethings in the museum can teach.

This eye-opener of the aspirant after religion is the teacher.With the teacher, therefore, our relationship is the same as thatbetween an ancestor and his descendant. Without faith, humility,submission, and veneration in our hearts towards our religiousteacher, there cannot be any growth of religion in us; and it is asignificant fact that, where this kind of relation between theteacher and the taught prevails, there alone gigantic spiritualmen are growing; while in those countries which have neglected tokeep up this kind of relation the religious teacher has become amere lecturer, the teacher expecting his five dollars and theperson taught expecting his brain to be filled with the teacher'swords, and each going his own way after this much has been done.Under such circumstances spirituality becomes almost an unknownquantity. There is none to transmit it and none to have ittransmitted to. Religion with such people becomes business; theythink they can obtain it with their dollars. Would to God thatreligion could be obtained so easily! But unfortunately it cannotbe.

Religion, which is the highest knowledge and the highest wisdom,cannot be bought, nor can it be acquired from books. You maythrust your head into all the corners of the world, you mayexplore the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Caucasus, you may soundthe bottom of the sea and pry into every nook of Tibet and thedesert of Gobi, you will not find it anywhere until your heart isready for receiving it and your teacher has come. And when thatdivinely appointed teacher comes, serve him with childlikeconfidence and simplicity, freely open your heart to hisinfluence, and see in him God manifested. Those who come to seektruth with such a spirit of love and veneration, to them the Lordof Truth reveals the most wonderful things regarding truth,goodness, and beauty.

CHAPTER VI
INCARNATE TEACHERS AND INCARNATION

Wherever His name is spoken, that very place is holy. How muchmore so is the man who speaks His name, and with what venerationought we to approach that man out of whom comes to us spiritualtruth! Such great teachers of spiritual truth are indeed very fewin number in this world, but the world is never altogether withoutthem. They are always the fairest flowers of human life -अहेतुकदयासिन्धुः - "the ocean of mercy without any motive". -आचार्यं मां विजानीयात् - "Know the Guru to be Me", says ShriKrishna in the Bhagavata. The moment the world is absolutelybereft of these, it becomes a hideous hell and hastens on to itsdestruction.

Higher and nobler than all ordinary ones are another set ofteachers, the Avatâras of Ishvara, in the world. They can transmitspirituality with a touch, even with a mere wish. The lowest andthe most degraded characters become in one second saints at theircommand. They are the Teachers of all teachers, the highestmanifestations of God through man. We cannot see God exceptthrough them. We cannot help worshipping them; and indeed they arethe only ones whom we are bound to worship.

No man can really see God except through these humanmanifestations. If we try to see God otherwise, we make forourselves a hideous caricature of Him and believe the caricatureto be no worse than the original. There is a story of an ignorantman who was asked to make an image of the God Shiva, and who,after days of hard struggle, manufactured only the image of amonkey. So whenever we try to think of God as He is in Hisabsolute perfection, we invariably meet with the most miserablefailure, because as long as we are men, we cannot conceive Him asanything higher than man. The time will come when we shalltranscend our human nature and know Him as He is; but as long aswe are men, we must worship Him in man and as man. Talk as youmay, try as you may, you cannot think of God except as a man. Youmay deliver great intellectual discourses on God and on all thingsunder the sun, become great rationalists and prove to yoursatisfaction that all these accounts of the Avataras of God as manare nonsense. But let us come for a moment to practical commonsense. What is there behind this kind of remarkable intellect?Zero, nothing, simply so much froth. When next you hear a mandelivering a great intellectual lecture against this worship ofthe Avataras of God, get hold of him and ask what his idea of Godis, what he understands by "omnipotence", "omnipresence", and allsimilar terms, beyond the spelling of the words. He really meansnothing by them; he cannot formulate as their meaning any ideaunaffected by his own human nature; he is no better off in thismatter than the man in the street who has not read a single book.That man in the street, however, is quiet and does not disturb thepeace of the world, while this big talker creates disturbance andmisery among mankind. Religion is, after all, realisation, and wemust make the sharpest distinction between talk; and intuitiveexperience. What we experience in the depths of our souls isrealisation. Nothing indeed is so uncommon as common sense inregard to this matter.

By our present constitution we are limited and bound to see God asman. If, for instance the buffaloes want to worship God, theywill, in keeping with their own nature, see Him as a huge buffalo;if a fish wants to worship God, it will have to form an Idea ofHim as a big fish, and man has to think of Him as man. And thesevarious conceptions are not due to morbidly active imagination.Man, the buffalo, and the fish all may be supposed to represent somany different vessels, so to say. All these vessels go to the seaof God to get filled with water, each according to its own shapeand capacity; in the man the water takes the shape of man, in thebuffalo, the shape of a buffalo and in the fish, the shape of afish. In each of these vessels there is the same water of the seaof God. When men see Him, they see Him as man, and the animals, ifthey have any conception of God at all, must see Him as animaleach according to its own ideal. So we cannot help seeing God asman, and, therefore, we are bound to worship Him as man. There isno other way.

Two kinds of men do not worship God as man - the human brute whohas no religion, and the Paramahamsa who has risen beyond all theweaknesses of humanity and has transcended the limits of his ownhuman nature. To him all nature has become his own Self. He alonecan worship God as He is. Here, too, as in all other cases, thetwo extremes meet. The extreme of ignorance and the other extremeof knowledge - neither of these go through acts of worship. Thehuman brute does not worship because of his ignorance, and theJivanmuktas (free souls) do not worship because they have realisedGod in themselves. Being between these two poles of existence, ifany one tells you that he is not going to worship God as man, takekindly care of that man; he is, not to use any harsher term, anirresponsible talker; his religion is for unsound and emptybrains.

God understands human failings and becomes man to do good tohumanity:
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत। अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानंसृजाम्यहम्॥
परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम्। धर्मसंस्थापनार्थायसम्भवामि युगे युगे॥
- "Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I manifestMyself. To establish virtue, to destroy evil, to save the good Icome from Yuga (age) to Yuga."

अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम्।
परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम्॥
- "Fools deride Me who have assumed the human form, withoutknowing My real nature as the Lord of the universe." Such is ShriKrishna's declaration in the Gita on Incarnation. "When a hugetidal wave comes," says Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna, "all the littlebrooks and ditches become full to the brim without any effort orconsciousness on their own part; so when an Incarnation comes, atidal wave of spirituality breaks upon the world, and people feelspirituality almost full in the air."

CHAPTER VII
THE MANTRA: OM: WORD AND WISDOM

But we are now considering not these Mahâ-purushas, the greatIncarnations, but only the Siddha-Gurus (teachers who haveattained the goal); they, as a rule, have to convey the germs ofspiritual wisdom to the disciple by means of words (Mantras) to bemeditated upon. What are these Mantras? The whole of this universehas, according to Indian philosophy, both name and form(Nâma-Rupa) as its conditions of manifestation. In the humanmicrocosm, there cannot be a single wave in the mind-stuff(Chittavritti) unconditioned by name and form. If it be true thatnature is built throughout on the same plan, this kind ofconditioning by name and form must also be the plan of thebuilding of the whole of the cosmos.

यथा एकेन मृत्पिण्डेन सर्वं मृन्मयं विज्ञातं स्यात्
- "As one lump of clay being known, all things of clay are known",so the knowledge of the microcosm must lead to the knowledge ofthe macrocosm. Now form is the outer crust, of which the name orthe idea is the inner essence or kernel. The body is the form, andthe mind or the Antahkarana is the name, and sound-symbols areuniversally associated with Nâma (name) in all beings having thepower of speech. In the individual man the thought-waves rising inthe limited Mahat or Chitta (mind-stuff), must manifestthemselves, first as words, and then as the more concrete forms.

In the universe, Brahmâ or Hiranyagarbha or the cosmic Mahat firstmanifested himself as name, and then as form, i.e. as thisuniverse. All this expressed sensible universe is the form, behindwhich stands the eternal inexpressible Sphota, the manifester asLogos or Word. This eternal Sphota, the essential eternal materialof all ideas or names is the power through which the Lord createsthe universe, nay, the Lord first becomes conditioned as theSphota, and then evolves Himself out as the yet more concretesensible universe. This Sphota has one word as its only possiblesymbol, and this is the ओं (Om). And as by no possible means ofanalysis can we separate the word from the idea this Om and theeternal Sphota are inseparable; and therefore, it is out of thisholiest of all holy words, the mother of all names and forms, theeternal Om, that the whole universe may be supposed to have beencreated. But it may be said that, although thought and word areinseparable, yet as there may be various word-symbols for the samethought, it is not necessary that this particular word Om shouldbe the word representative of the thought, out of which theuniverse has become manifested. To this objection we reply thatthis Om is the only possible symbol which covers the whole ground,and there is none other like it. The Sphota is the material of allwords, yet it is not any definite word in its fully formed state.That is to say, if all the peculiarities which distinguish oneword from another be removed, then what remains will be theSphota; therefore this Sphota is called the Nâda-Brahma. theSound-Brahman.

Now, as every word-symbol, intended to express the inexpressibleSphota, will so particularise it that it will no longer be theSphota, that symbol which particularises it the least and at thesame time most approximately expresses its nature, will be thetruest symbol thereof; and this is the Om, and the Om only;because these three letters अ उ म (A.U.M.), pronounced incombination as Om, may well be the generalised symbol of allpossible sounds. The letter A is the least differentiated of allsounds, therefore Krishna says in the Gita अक्षराणां अकारोऽस्मि -"I am A among the letters". Again, all articulate sounds areproduced in the space within the mouth beginning with the root ofthe tongue and ending in the lips - the throat sound is A, and Mis the last lip sound, and the U exactly represents the rollingforward of the impulse which begins at the root of the tongue tillit ends in the lips. If properly pronounced, this Om willrepresent the whole phenomenon of sound-production, and no otherword can do this; and this, therefore, is the fittest symbol ofthe Sphota, which is the real meaning of the Om. And as the symbolcan never be separated from the thing signified, the Om and theSphota are one. And as the Sphota, being the finer side of themanifested universe, is nearer to God and is indeed that firstmanifestation of divine wisdom this Om is truly symbolic of God.Again, just as the "One only" Brahman, the Akhanda-Sachchidânanda,the undivided Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, can be conceived byimperfect human souls only from particular standpoints andassociated with particular qualities, so this universe, His body,has also to be thought of along the line of the thinker's mind.

This direction of the worshipper's mind is guided by itsprevailing elements or Tattvas. The result is that the same Godwill be seen in various manifestations as the possessor of variouspredominant qualities, and the same universe will appear as fullof manifold forms. Even as in the case of the least differentiatedand the most universal symbol Om, thought and sound-symbol areseen to be inseparably associated with each other, so also thislaw of their inseparable association applies to the manydifferentiated views of God and the universe: each of themtherefore must have a particular word-symbol to express it. Theseword-symbols, evolved out of the deepest spiritual perception ofsages, symbolise and express, as nearly as possible the particularview of God and the universe they stand for. And as the Omrepresents the Akhanda, the undifferentiated Brahman, the othersrepresent the Khanda or the differentiated views of the sameBeing; and they are all helpful to divine meditation and theacquisition of true knowledge.

CHAPTER VIII
WORSHIP OF SUBSTITUTES AND IMAGES

The next points to be considered are the worship of Pratikas or ofthings more or less satisfactory as substitutes for God, and theworship of Pratimâs or images. What is the worship of God througha Pratika? It is अब्रह्मणि ब्रह्मदृष्ट्याऽनुसन्धानम् - Joining themind with devotion to that which is not Brahman, taking it to beBrahman" - says Bhagavân Râmânuja. "Worship the mind as Brahmanthis is internal; and the Âkâsha as Brahman, this is with regardto the Devas", says Shankara. The mind is an internal Pratika, theAkasha is an external one, and both have to be worshipped assubstitutes of God. He continues, "Similarly - 'the Sun isBrahman, this is the command', 'He who worships Name as Brahman' -in all such passages the doubt arises as to the worship ofPratikas." The word Pratika means going towards; and worshipping aPratika is worshipping something as a substitute which is, in someone or more respects, like Brahman more and more, but is notBrahman. Along with the Pratikas mentioned in the Shrutis thereare various others to be found in the Purânas and the Tantras. Inthis kind of Pratika-worship may be included all the various formsof Pitri-worship and Deva-worship.

Now worshipping Ishvara and Him alone is Bhakti; the worship ofanything else - Deva, or Pitri, or any other being - cannot beBhakti. The various kinds of worship of the various Devas are allto be included in ritualistic Karma, which gives to the worshipperonly a particular result in the form of some celestial enjoyment,but can neither give rise to Bhakti nor lead to Mukti. One thing,therefore, has to be carefully borne in mind. If, as it may happenin some cases, the highly philosophic ideal, the supreme Brahman,is dragged down by Pratika-worship to the level of the Pratika,and the Pratika itself is taken to be the Atman of the worshipperor his Antaryâmin (Inner Ruler), the worshipper gets entirelymisled, as no Pratika can really be the Atman of the worshipper.

But where Brahman Himself is the object of worship, and thePratika stands only as a substitute or a suggestion thereof, thatis to say, where, through the Pratika the omnipresent Brahman isworshipped - the Pratika itself being idealised into the cause ofall, Brahman - the worship is positively beneficial; nay, it isabsolutely necessary for all mankind until they have all gotbeyond the primary or preparatory state of the mind in regard toworship. When, therefore, any gods or other beings are worshippedin and for themselves, such worship is only a ritualistic Karma;and as a Vidyâ (science) it gives us only the fruit belonging tothat particular Vidya; but when the Devas or any other beings arelooked upon as Brahman and worshipped, the result obtained is thesame as by the worshipping of Ishvara. This explains how, in manycases, both in the Shrutis and the Smritis, a god, or a sage, orsome other extraordinary being is taken up and lifted, as it were,out of his own nature and idealised into Brahman, and is thenworshipped. Says the Advaitin, "Is not everything Brahman when thename and the form have been removed from it?" "Is not He, theLord, the innermost Self of every one?" says the Vishishtâdvaitin.फलम् आदित्याद्युपासनेषु ब्रह्मैव दास्यति सर्वाध्यक्षत्वात् - "Thefruition of even the worship of Adityas etc. Brahman Himselfbestows, because He is the Ruler of all." Says Shankara in hisBrahma-Sutra-Bhâsya - ईदृशं चात्र ब्रह्मण उपास्यत्वं यतः प्रतीकेषुतत्दृष्ट्याध्यारोपणं प्रतिमादिषु इव विष्ण्वादीनाम्। "Here in thisway does Brahman become the object of worship, because He, asBrahman, is superimposed on the Pratikas, just as Vishnu etc. aresuperimposed upon images etc."

The same ideas apply to the worship of the Pratimas as to that ofthe Pratikas; that is to say, if the image stands for a god or asaint, the worship is not the result of Bhakti, and does not leadlo liberation; but if it stands for the one God, the worshipthereof will bring both Bhakti and Mukti. Of the principalreligions of the world we see Vedantism, Buddhism, and certainforms of Christianity freely using images; only two religions,Mohammedanism and Protestantism, refuse such help. Yet theMohammedans use the grave of their saints and martyrs almost inthe place of images; and the Protestants, in rejecting allconcrete helps to religion, are drifting away every year fartherand farther from spirituality till at present there is scarcelyany difference between the advanced Protestants and the followersof August Comte, or agnostics who preach ethics alone. Again, inChristianity and Mohammedanism whatever exists of image worship ismade to fall under that category in which the Pratika or thePratima is worshipped in itself, but not as a "help to the vision"(Drishtisaukaryam) of God; therefore it is at best only of thenature of ritualistic Karmas and cannot produce either Bhakti orMukti. In this form of image-worship, the allegiance of the soulis given to other things than Ishvara, and, therefore, such use ofimages, or graves, or temples, or tombs, is real idolatry; it isin itself neither sinful nor wicked - it is a rite - a Karma, andworshippers must and will get the fruit thereof.

CHAPTER IX
THE CHOSEN IDEAL

The next thing to be considered is what we know as Ishta-Nishthâ.One who aspires to be a Bhakta must know that "so many opinionsare so many ways". He must know that all the various sects of thevarious religions are the various manifestations of the glory ofthe same Lord. "They call You by so many names; they divide You,as it were, by different names, yet in each one of these is to befound Your omnipotence....You reach the worshipper through all ofthese, neither is there any special time so long as the soul hasintense love for You. You are so easy of approach; it is mymisfortune that I cannot love You." Not only this, the Bhakta musttake care not to hate, nor even to criticise those radiant sons oflight who are the founders of various sects; he must not even hearthem spoken ill of. Very few indeed are those who are at once thepossessors of an extensive sympathy and power of appreciation, aswell as an intensity of love. We find, as a rule, that liberal andsympathetic sects lose the intensity of religious feeling, and intheir hands, religion is apt to degenerate into a kind ofpolitico-social club life. On the other hand, intensely narrowsectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their ownideals, are seen to have acquired every particle of that love byhating everyone who is not of exactly the same opinions asthemselves. Would to God that this world was full of men who wereas intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies! Butsuch are only few and far between. Yet we know that it ispracticable to educate large numbers of human beings into theideal of a wonderful blending of both the width and the intensityof love; and the way to do that is by this path of theIstha-Nishtha or "steadfast devotion to the chosen ideal". Everysect of every religion presents only one ideal of its own tomankind, but the eternal Vedantic religion opens to mankind aninfinite number of doors for ingress into the inner shrine ofdivinity, and places before humanity an almost inexhaustible arrayof ideals, there being in each of them a manifestation of theEternal One. With the kindest solicitude, the Vedanta points outto aspiring men and women the numerous roads, hewn out of thesolid rock of the realities of human life, by the glorious sons,or human manifestations, of God, in the past and in the present,and stands with outstretched arms to welcome all - to welcome eventhose that are yet to be - to that Home of Truth and that Ocean ofBliss, wherein the human soul, liberated from the net of Mâyâ, maytransport itself with perfect freedom and with eternal joy.

Bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative command not tohate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation.Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until ithas grown into a tree. The tender plant of spirituality will dieif exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideasand ideals. Many people, in the name of what may be calledreligious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiositywith a continuous succession of different ideals. With them,hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort ofreligious drink-mania. They want to hear new things just by way ofgetting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such excitinginfluence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another.Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opium-eating,and there it ends. "There is another sort of man", says BhagavanRamakrishna, "who is like the pearl-oyster of the story. Thepearl-oyster leaves its bed at the bottom of the sea, and comes upto the surface to catch the rain-water when the star Svâti is inthe ascendant. It floats about on the surface of the sea with itsshell wide open, until it has succeeded in catching a drop of therain-water, and then it dives deep down to its sea-bed, and thererests until it has succeeded in fashioning a beautiful pearl outof that rain-drop."

This is indeed the most poetical and forcible way in which thetheory of Ishta-Nishtha has ever been put. This Eka-Nishtha ordevotion to one ideal is absolutely necessary for the beginner inthe practice of religious devotion. He must say with Hanuman inthe Râmâyana, "Though I know that the Lord of Shri and the Lord ofJânaki are both manifestations of the same Supreme Being, yet myall in all is the lotus-eyed Râma." Or, as was said by the sageTulasidâsa, he must say, "Take the sweetness of all, sit with all,take the name of all, say yea, yea, but keep your seat firm."Then, if the devotional aspirant is sincere, out of this littleseed will come a gigantic tree like the Indian banyan, sending outbranch after branch and root after root to all sides, till itcovers the entire field of religion. Thus will the true devoteerealise that He who was his own ideal in life is worshipped in allideals by all sects, under all names, and through all forms.

CHAPTER X
THE METHOD AND THE MEANS

In regard to the method and the means of Bhakti-Yoga we read inthe commentary of Bhagavan Ramanuja on the Vedanta-Sutras: "Theattaining of That comes through discrimination, controlling thepassions, practice, sacrificial work, purity, strength, andsuppression of excessive joy." Viveka or discrimination is,according to Ramanuja, discriminating, among other things, thepure food from the impure. According to him, food becomes impurefrom three causes: (1) by the nature of the food itself, as in thecase of garlic etc.; (2) owing to its coming from wicked andaccursed persons; and (3) from physical impurities, such as dirt,or hair, etc. The Shrutis say, When the food is pure, the Sattvaelement gets purified, and the memory becomes unwavering", andRamanuja quotes this from the Chhândogya Upanishad.

The question of food has always been one of the most vital withthe Bhaktas. Apart from the extravagance into which some of theBhakti sects have run, there is a great truth underlying thisquestion of food. We must remember that, according to the Sankhyaphilosophy, the Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, which in the state ofhomogeneous equilibrium form the Prakriti, and in theheterogeneous disturbed condition form the universe - are both thesubstance and the quality of Prakriti. As such they are thematerials out of which every human form has been manufactured, andthe predominance of the Sattva material is what is absolutelynecessary for spiritual development. The materials which wereceive through our food into our body-structure go a great way todetermine our mental constitution; therefore the food we eat hasto be particularly taken care of. However, in this matter, as inothers, the fanaticism into which the disciples invariably fall isnot to be laid at the door of the masters.

And this discrimination of food is, after all, of secondaryimportance. The very same passage quoted above is explained byShankara in his Bhâshya on the Upanishads in a different way bygiving an entirely different meaning to the word Âhâra, translatedgenerally as food. According to him, "That which is gathered in isAhara. The knowledge of the sensations, such as sound etc., isgathered in for the enjoyment of the enjoyer (self); thepurification of the knowledge which gathers in the perception ofthe senses is the purifying of the food (Ahara). The word'purification-of-food' means the acquiring of the knowledge ofsensations untouched by the defects of attachment, aversion, anddelusion; such is the meaning. Therefore such knowledge or Aharabeing purified, the Sattva material of the possessor it - theinternal organ - will become purified, and the Sattva beingpurified, an unbroken memory of the Infinite One, who has beenknown in His real nature from scriptures, will result."

These two explanations are apparently conflicting, yet both aretrue and necessary. The manipulating and controlling of what maybe called the finer body, viz the mood, are no doubt higherfunctions than the controlling of the grosser body of flesh. Butthe control of the grosser is absolutely necessary to enable oneto arrive at the control of the finer. The beginner, therefore,must pay particular attention to all such dietetic rules as havecome down from the line of his accredited teachers; but theextravagant, meaningless fanaticism, which has driven religionentirely to the kitchen, as may be noticed in the case of many ofour sects, without any hope of the noble truth of that religionever coming out to the sunlight of spirituality, is a peculiarsort of pure and simple materialism. It is neither Jnâna, norBhakti, nor Karma; it is a special kind of lunacy, and those whopin their souls to it are more likely to go to lunatic asylumsthan to Brahmaloka. So it stands to reason that discrimination inthe choice of food is necessary for the attainment of this higherstate of mental composition which cannot be easily obtainedotherwise.

Controlling the passions is the next thing to be attended to. Torestrain the Indriyas (organs) from going towards the objects ofthe senses, to control them and bring them under the guidance ofthe will, is the very central virtue in religious culture. Thencomes the practice of self-restraint and self-denial. All theimmense possibilities of divine realisation in the soul cannot getactualised without struggle and without such practice on the partof the aspiring devotee. "The mind must always think of the Lord."It is very hard at first to compel the mind to think of the Lordalways, but with every new effort the power to do so growsstronger in us. "By practice, O son of Kunti, and bynon-attachment is it attained", says Shri Krishna in the Gita. Andthen as to sacrificial work, it is understood that the five greatsacrificed (To gods, sages, manes, guests, and all creatures.)(Panchamahâyajna) have to be performed as usual.

Purity is absolutely the basic work, the bed-rock upon which thewhole Bhakti-building rests. Cleansing the external body anddiscriminating the food are both easy, but without internalcleanliness and purity, these external observances are of no valuewhatsoever. In the list of qualities conducive to purity, as givenby Ramanuja, there are enumerated, Satya, truthfulness; Ârjava,sincerity; Dayâ, doing good to others without any gain to one'sself; Ahimsâ, not injuring others by thought, word, or deed;Anabhidhyâ, not coveting others' goods, not thinking vainthoughts, and not brooding over injuries received from another. Inthis list, the one idea that deserves special notice is Ahimsa,non-injury to others. This duty of non-injury is, so to speak,obligatory on us in relation to all beings. As with some, it doesnot simply mean the non-injuring of human beings and mercilessnesstowards the lower animals; nor, as with some others, does it meanthe protecting of cats and dogs and feeding of ants with sugar -with liberty to injure brother-man in every horrible way! It isremarkable that almost every good idea in this world can becarried to a disgusting extreme. A good practice carried to anextreme and worked in accordance with the letter of the lawbecomes a positive evil. The stinking monks of certain religioussects, who do not bathe lest the vermin on their bodies should bekilled, never think of the discomfort and disease they bring totheir fellow human beings. They do not, however, belong to thereligion of the Vedas!

The test of Ahimsa is absence of jealousy. Any man may do a gooddeed or make a good gift on the spur of the moment or under thepressure of some superstition or priest craft; but the real loverof mankind is he who is jealous of none. The so-called great menof the world may all be seen to become jealous of each other for asmall name, for a little fame, and for a few bits of gold. So longas this jealousy exists in a heart, it is far away from theperfection of Ahimsa. The cow does not eat meat, nor does thesheep. Are they great Yogis, great non-injurers (Ahimsakas)? Anyfool may abstain from eating this or that; surely that gives himno more distinction than to herbivorous animals. The man who willmercilessly cheat widows and orphans and do the vilest deeds formoney is worse than any brute even if he lives entirely on grass.The man whose heart never cherishes even the thought of injury toany one, who rejoices at the prosperity of even his greatestenemy, that man is the Bhakta, he is the Yogi, he is the Guru ofall, even though he lives every day of his life on the flesh ofswine. Therefore we must always remember that external practiceshave value only as helps to develop internal purity. It is betterto have internal purity alone when minute attention to externalobservances is not practicable. But woe unto the man and woe untothe nation that forgets the real, internal, spiritual essentialsof religion and mechanically clutches with death-like grasp at allexternal forms and never lets them go. The forms have value onlyso far as they are expressions of the life within. If they haveceased to express life, crush them out without mercy.

The next means to the attainment of Bhakti-Yoga is strength(Anavasâda). "This Atman is not to be attained by the weak", saysthe Shruti. Both physical weakness and mental weakness are meanthere. "The strong, the hardy" are the only fit students. What canpuny, little, decrepit things do? They will break to pieceswhenever the mysterious forces of the body and mind are evenslightly awakened by the practice of any of the Yogas. It is "theyoung, the healthy, the strong" that can score success. Physicalstrength, therefore, is absolutely necessary. It is the strongbody alone that can bear the shock of reaction resulting from theattempt to control the organs. He who wants to become a Bhaktamust be strong, must be healthy. When the miserably weak attemptany of the Yogas, they are likely to get some incurable malady, orthey weaken their minds. Voluntarily weakening the body is reallyno prescription for spiritual enlightenment.

The mentally weak also cannot succeed in attaining the Atman. Theperson who aspires to be a Bhakta must be cheerful. In the Westernworld the idea of a religious man is that he never smiles, that adark cloud must always hang over his face, which, again, must belong drawn with the jaws almost collapsed. People with emaciatedbodies and long faces are fit subjects for the physician, they arenot Yogis. It is the cheerful mind that is persevering. It is thestrong mind that hews its way through a thousand difficulties. Andthis, the hardest task of all, the cutting of our way out of thenet of Maya, is the work reserved only for giant wills.

Yet at the same time excessive mirth should be avoided(Anuddharsha). Excessive mirth makes us unfit for serious thought.It also fritters away the energies of the mind in vain. Thestronger the will, the less the yielding to the sway of theemotions. Excessive hilarity is quite as objectionable as too muchof sad seriousness, and all religious realisation is possible onlywhen the mind is in a steady, peaceful condition of harmoniousequilibrium.

It is thus that one may begin to learn how to love the Lord.