Path to Perfection

Each day we are busy in making efforts to be happier than yesterday. A question comes to the mind: What has made me active? Obviously, the desire to acquire something.

We don't take one step forward without any hope of getting something. All activities presupposes restlessness and restlessness comes from want. So long as that restlessness is in us, we will have to be active so as to satisfy our wants. But does man really have any want? Great God-men say that man is birthless, deathless, free from want, all-blissful, self-existent, self-luminous, eternal and indestructible by his very nature. But if that is the definition of man, then what am I? I am also called a man; but I am only three and a half cubits in height; I am born, I die, I have many wants. There is not a single man, the poorest labourer or the greatest emperor, who is not full of wants. Man is born in want, he lives in want and in want he dies. Then, what is the relation of this man to the other man? One is beyond all want, all fear, all birth and death; while other is full of fear and desires, he is born and he must die. This man who has birth and death, who is finite and limited, this very man points towards his infinite nature.

Man is always restless. Why? Because nothing brings him permanent satisfaction. And that he is dissatisfied with his finite nature shows that it is not his natural condition. The fact that he has infinite ambition and insatiable hunger for more and more, proves that he is infinite by nature.

We may say that we are contented with our one hundred rupees a month, but that is laziness. We must never confound laziness with contentment. Nachiketa shows us what true contentment is. Yama offered him wealth, a whole kingdom, beautiful women, but Nachiketa knew that truth alone will satisfy him and he wanted nothing else. But if any one should offer us two hundred rupees instead of one hundred, would we not take it? If we analyze ourself we will see that there is no end to our ambition. When will that ambition come to an end? Only when we can say: 'I am the master of all. The whole of universe belongs to me. I want nothing. I have transcended death. I am responsible to none.' We want to get rid of limitation and until we can say that we are limitless, deathless, immortal, we will not be at rest.

This is what is called Mukti or salvation. So although this little man seems so diametrically opposite to the great man--that infinite man--yet this little man will never rest until he has become one with infinite man, which shows that that is his real nature. If you take a fish and put it on the peacock throne of Shah Jehan, one of the emperors of India, and bow down and worship it, will it be happy? No, it will rather say: 'Throw me even into the cesspool, but do not keep me out of water'; because water is its natural element. In the same way we are all restless after our lost nature: infinite nature.

Blessed is he who is restless, and most miserable is he who is contented with his present lot. We may keep an elephant tied all its life and it will not mind it if we give it some food. Men thus who are contented are no better than animals; 'Eating, sleeping, procreating and getting frightened;' and if we do not know anything higher and better than these, how can we distinguish ourselves from them?

Wherever there is discontent, we must know that there is the germ of greatness. The life of all great men has been constantly active and restless. And those restful people, who have no ambition, they are destined to be coolies. When these people were at school they did not care to learn; but with them there were some who were restless, who were ambitious to learn; and they are the men of importance today. Therefore we must not cease to be active.

Never be satisfied with a little. We are infinite, we are all perfect, and until we realize our infinite nature, we must not stop. Do not think that one is intellectually limited. Each has the brain of the Socrates, has the intelligence of Newton. Only we have allowed a lot of dust and dirt to cover it up. Wipe away the dust, let the ambition arise, stir up activity and know that all power is latent within. No, we are much limitless as any of the great sages of yore between whom and God, space and time never intervened.

The greatest sin is to call a man sinner. The moment we think ourselves a sinner, weakling, we forget our infinite nature and identify ourself with the body and mind. This is the source of all miseries. Throw off all association with finite nature. Disidentify from body and mind. A man is perfectly healthy when he does not remember that he has a body. Only when we have a headache, do we remember that we have a head. We are spirit itself. We are life itself. When we are enjoying a beautiful scene or beautiful music, we forget our body; that is, for the time being you have transcended the body. This is our true nature, and that is the true reason why we are happy.

When we are thinking we have no consciousness of our body, where do we go at that time? We go out of our body and mind, and this is enjoyment. Enjoyment is our true nature and that is why we like it. Man is always restless after happiness, and he is restless because some misery is pinching him. Man is constantly in search of enjoyment; and he is going from one place to another, only to get his lost enjoyment; and this search after enjoyment is same as search after God, for God and bliss are the same. Everyone who seeks happiness seeks God.

Our definition of God is Ananada(bliss). There is no athiest who does not desire happiness and that happiness is God. Out of bliss has come the whole creation, in bliss it exists and into bliss will it merge. Out of God we and the whole universe have come, in God we rest and into God we shall go. Hence bliss and God are synonymous. Therefore, no man can say that he is an athiest. One may be content with this limited happiness which gives momentary enjoyment for a moment, but breakless eternal enjoyment is the ideal and one must realize it. The man who hurries through meals, works hard the whole day, is really in search of pleasure and believes that money will give that happiness. And that man who is sitting in a corner, concentrating his mind, trying to find God inside himself, he is also doing the same thing.

Now let us examine the two methods. One is really after money, because it will bring food and comforts for himself and his family; so he tries to earn money and power because he believes that power can force nature to bring him whatever he wants. But this method is very precarious. He may get money, but he may not be able to digest the food or to enjoy the comforts it brings. Then if the man has wealth, how long will he be able to enjoy it? Only so long as the body lasts. We all know that there is nothing so uncertain in the world as life. Death may come any moment. And when we identify ourselves with the body, then we can understand how perishable happiness may appear.

Every man has to undergo six sorts of transformations. There was a baby in the womb and only because there was a baby in the womb, did a baby come out. When it is born it must increase in stature and so undergo all sorts of changes-it must become a boy, a youth, a man. Then what will follow? A gradual dwindling away. The eyes will lose their power, the ears will cease to hear, the hand and the feet will grow less active, the memory will fail. This is the life-history of every living-being; and such a being, who is tied to a body and whose mind is in all doubts, how can he expect eternal life?

Yet no man wants to die. There is nothing man hates so much as death. But if this be the only life we have, man cannot escape death, so he cannot hope to be happy. Life means being -- to be. Death means not being -- not to be. Out of being, non-being can never come, and being can never become non-being. So life cannot be transformed into death, nor death into life. Thus, man must have to go beyond the body to find life, and if he goes beyond the body, he must go beyond the whole universe, for the whole universe is resting upon this fragile body. Upon the eyes- visible world; upon the ears- sound world; upon the tongue- taste world; nose- odour world.

The phenomenon of sleep proves this easily. Awake state is when one is in the eyes, ears and other sense organs. Thoughtful state is when one is in the mind. When in sound sleep one is away from senses and mind; a friend may sing a tune, that will not heard as one is not in one's ears then. Yet although being away from mind and senses when asleep, one is still in body; for one will wake up if given a push. This waking up means coming back to mind and senses. The whole universe exists for us if our self is present in mind and senses. One can find eternal life by going away from the universe i.e., mind and senses. Then absolute bliss will be ours; this is salvation.

If the aim of our life is to earn money, then we are worshipping our bodies. Our body becomes our God. When we work for this God , what does it give us? It leads us to the thing that we all hate--death. We have been serving this master for so many lives and each time it has rewarded us with death. If we want to offer a service which will bestow us with the real reward, we should serve the real God. Then we will get eternal life.

The path that leads to realize life eternal is the exercise of the ingoing energies and not outgoing energies. We must collect our energies and direct them inwards. We have been worshipping the body-God which is outwards for so many lives, therefore it is not easy to worship the true God at once. It is easier to conquer the whole world than one's own mind. We find this difficult because we have never worked in this direction sincerely. In order to realize our eternal nature we must take this path of real God.

Thus, the path has been found that will make us perfect: the happiest of men, the wealthiest of men and the most powerful of men. Now what is necessary? The will. Unless we have the will to follow it, it is useless to know the path. We may know many recipes but unless we go to kitchen and prepare them, it is of no use. Mere knowledge will be of no help, we must work hard and go there. Religion is therefore a thing that is absolutely practical. We may be the most ignorant person, still if we have the intense desire to go to God, we can go inside and reach Him without any learning whatsoever. Such a man not only sees God himself but he can make others see Him.

Swami Vivekananda in his boyhood was constantly in search after a man who could say that he had seen God, otherwise, he said, how can I know that he exists? Nowhere could he find a man who said that he had seen God, and for that reason he had come to the conclusion God was a matter of imagination. Then one day he came to the great prophet, Shri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar, to this illiterate sage; and asked him 'Have you seen god?' At once Shri Ramakrishna replied, "Yes,' 'Can you make me see Him?' 'I can,' was the immediate answer. Swamiji was thus satisfied. Religion is indeed altogether a matter of realization.

We must see God. We need to work hard to do that. We will have to overcome the old habits which have come by worshipping the false God through so many lives. We must conquer the mind and the senses. Sri Ramakrishna says, "If you would conquer your senses, you must regard God as the highest." If one is a lover of beauty, where can one find such beauty as in God? If one is a lover of eloquence, who can be more eloquent than God? If one is a lover of power, what being can be more powerful than God? Every man loves one of these, and all these are to be found in an infinite degree in God. If we want perennial beauty, indestructible life, all power and all knowledge, we must go to God. To go to God we need neither money nor legs. Neither do we need eyes to see Him nor ears to hear Him. He is inside us and to reach Him we need to shut all these. To see Him we must close our eyes and to hear Him we must close our ears.

Now we must go inside and realize Him. Then only will we be true persons. For this we must have intense will. If for once we recognize our real relation to Him, that He is our real father and mother, real friend and companion, and do go to Him, we will be infinitely rewarded, for He will make Himself even a servant to take care of us; so if we are not mad, we can choose only Him, since from Him alone can we get the highest bliss and highest wisdom.