The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 7/Inspired Talks/Sunday, June 23
(RECORDED BY MISS S. E. WALDO, A DISCIPLE)
SUNDAY, June 23, 1895.
Be brave and be sincere; then follow any path with devotion, and you must reach the Whole. Once lay hold of one link of the chain, and the whole chain must come by degrees. Water the roots of the tree (that is, reach the Lord), and the whole tree is watered; getting the Lord, we get all.
One-sidedness is the bane of the world. The more sides you can develop the more souls you have, and you can see the universe through all souls — through the Bhakta (devotee) and the Jnâni (philosopher). Determine your own nature and stick to it. Nishthâ (devotion to one ideal) is the only method for the beginner; but with devotion and sincerity it will lead to all. Churches, doctrines, forms, are the hedges to protect the tender plant, but they must later be broken down that the plant may become a tree. So the various religions, Bibles, Vedas, dogmas — all are just tubs for the little plant; but it must get out of the tub. Nishthâ is, in a manner, placing the plant in the tub, shielding the struggling soul in its path. . . .
Look at the "ocean" and not at the "wave"; see no difference between ant and
angel. Every worm is the brother of the Nazarene. How say one is greater and
one less? Each is great in his own place. We are in the sun and in the stars
as much as here. Spirit is beyond space and time and is everywhere. Every
mouth praising the Lord is my mouth, every eye seeing is my eye. We are
confined nowhere; we are not body, the universe is our body. We are
magicians waving magic wands and creating scenes before us at will. We are
the spider in his huge web, who can go on the varied strands wheresoever he
desires. The spider is now only conscious of the spot where he is, but he
will in time become conscious of the whole web. We are now conscious only
where the body is, we can use only one brain; but when we reach
ultraconsciousness, we know all, we can use all brains. Even now we can
"give the push" in consciousness, and it goes beyond and acts in the
superconscious.
We are striving "to be" and nothing more, no "I" ever — just pure crystal,
reflecting all, but ever the same, When that state is reached, there is no
more doing; the body becomes a mere mechanism, pure without care for it; it
cannot become impure.
Know you are the Infinite, then fear must die. Say ever, "I and my Father
are one."
* * *
In time to come Christs will be in numbers like bunches of grapes on a vine;
then the play will be over and will pass out — as water in a kettle
beginning to boil shows first one bubble, then another then more and more,
until all is in ebullition and passes out as steam. Buddha and Christ are
the two biggest "bubbles" the world has yet produced. Moses was a tiny
bubble, greater and greater ones came. Sometime, however, all will be
bubbles and escape; but creation, ever new, will bring new water to go
through the process all over again.