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GYAN YOGA |
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THE PATH OF KNOWLEDGE |
Great is the tenacity with which man clings
to the senses. Yet, however substantial he may think the external world in which he lives
and moves, there comes a time in the lives of individuals and of races when involuntarily
they ask "Is this real?" To the person who never finds moment to question
the credentials and of his senses, whose every moment is occupied with some sort of sense
enjoyment-even to him death comes, and he also is compelled to ask, "Is this
real?" Religion begins with this question and ends with its answer. Even in the
remote past, where recorded history cannot help us, in the mysterious light of mythology,
back in the dim twilight of civilization, we find the same question was asked: "What
becomes of this? What is real?" One of the most poetical of the Upanishads the KATHA Upanishad, begins with the inquiry: "When a man dies, there is a dispute. One party declares that he has gone forever; the other insists that he is still living. Which is true?" Various answers have been given. The whole sphere of metaphysics philosophy, and religion is really filled with various answers to this question. At the same time, attempts have been made to suppress it, to put a stop to the unrest of the mind, which asks: "What is beyond? What is real?" But as long as death remains, all these attempts at suppression will prove to be unsuccessful. We may talk about seeing nothing beyond and keeping all our hopes and aspirations confined to the present moment, and struggle hard not to think of anything beyond the world of the senses. And perhaps everything outside helps to keep us limited within its narrow bounds. The whole world may combine to prevent us from broadening out beyond the present.Yet, as long as there is death, the question must come again and again: "Is death the end of all these things to which we are clinging, as if they were the most real of all realities, the most substantial of all substances?" The world vanishes in a moment and is gone . Standing on the brink of a precipice beyond which is the infinite, yawning chasm, every mind, however hardened, is bound to recoil and ask, "Is this real?" The hope of a lifetime builtup little by little with all the energies of a great mind, vanish in a second. Are they real? This question must be answered. Time never listens its power; on the other hand, it adds strength to it. True it is that we are all salves of MAYA, born in Maya, and live in Maya. Is there then no way out , no hope? On the one side, therefore, is the bold assertion that this is all nonsense, that is Maya. But along with it, there is the most hopeful assertions that beyond Maya there is way out. On the other hand, practical men tell us: "Don't bother your heads about such nonsense religion and metaphysics. Live here. This is a very bad world indeed, but make best out of it." Which, put in plain language means: Live a hypocritical, lying life, a life of continuous fraud, covering all sores in the best way you can. Go on applying patch after patch, until everything is lost and you are mass of patchwork. This is what is called practical life. Those who are satisfied with this patchwork will never come to religion. One curious fact, present in the midst of all our joys and sorrows, difficulties and struggles, is that we are surely journeying towards freedom. The question was practically this: "What is this universe? From what does it arise? Into what does it go?' And the answer was ; "In freedom it rises, in freedom it reset, and into freedom it melts away." At every step we are knocked down, as it were by Maya, and shown that we are bound. And yet at the same moment, together with the blow, together with this feeling that we are bound, comes the other feeling that we are free. Some inner voice [ SWANAD ] tell us that we are free. But if we attempts to realize that freedom, to make it manifest, we find the difficulties almost insuperable. Yet, in spite of that , it insists on asserting itself in wardly: "I am Free, I am Free." And if you study all the various religion of the world you will find this idea expressed. Freedom is knowledge. |
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-Swami Vivekanand |
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