Notes from:
BHAGAWAD GITA as viewed by Swami Vivekananda
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Vivekananda (1863-1902), foremost disciple of the Hindu spiritual leader Ramakrishna, and one of the key figures in the 19th-century revival of Hinduism. Vivekananda's original name was Narendranath Datta. He was born into a middle-class family in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, where he studied Western philosophy and science. While still a university student Datta encountered Ramakrishna, who initiated him into spiritual practice, teaching him how to meditate and how to pray. Datta then took the name “Vivekananda,” which is Sanskrit for “bliss of discerning knowledge.”
After Ramakrishna's death in 1886, Vivekananda spent a period wandering in India before coming to international attention at the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893. There he presented Ramakrishna's teachings as both the true Hinduism and a world religion. Vivekananda stayed in the United States for four years, gathering disciples. He established the Vedanta Society in New York City in 1895 to teach universal truths of Hinduism. Returning to India from the United States in 1897 with many of his followers, Vivekananda established first the Ramakrishna Mission in Calcutta. He then founded an order of monks to regulate and guide the activities of the mission.
Although Vivekananda died young, he was highly influential in shaping modern Western perceptions of Hinduism. He also regenerated Hindu self-confidence in the context of European political dominance, particularly among India's educated elite. He stressed all-inclusive Indian spirituality rather than orthodox Hinduism. A number of popular ideas about the relationship between Eastern “spirituality” and Western “materialism” can be traced back to Vivekananda. For example, he preached that India must learn science from the West and the West must study Indian spiritualism.
In India, Vivekananda advocated a “practical” or “applied”Vedanta, a Hindu philosophical system. Vivekananda's approach included moral social action based on Advaitin religious philosophy, which stresses knowledge of one's position in God's eyes rather than blind devotion to God. The Ramakrishna Mission today continues to maintain various educational, medical, and cultural institutions.
BHAGAWAD GITA
Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), a Sanskrit poem, consisting of 700 verses divided into 18 chapters, that is regarded by most Hindus as their most important text—the essence of their belief. Almost every significant Hindu philosopher has written a commentary on the Gita, and new translations and interpretations continue to appear.
The Gita, which is set in Book VI of the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, is in the form of a dialogue between the incarnate god Krishna and a human hero, Prince Arjuna, on the holy field of Kurukshetra, before the great Mahabharata battle. Arjuna expresses his unwillingness to engage in a war against friends and relatives. Krishna's reply is an exhortation for Arjuna to do his own duty, that is, as a warrior, to fight and kill. Krishna then explains the nature of the soul and the proper way to reach God.
BHAGAWAD GITA as viewed by Swami Vivekananda
INTRODUCTION
• The book known as Gita forms a part of Mahabharta.
• In ancient times there was very little tendency in our country to find out truths by historical research. So any one could say what he thought best without substantiating it with proper facts and evidences. Another thing: in those ancient times there was very little hankering after name and fame in men. So it often happened that one man composed a book and made it pass current in the name of his Guru or someone else.
• In the olden days, as one sect after another arose, there also came into existence and use among them one new scripture or another. It happened too, that in the lapse of the time both sect and the scripture died out, or the sect ceased to exist but its scripture remained. Similarly, it was quite probable that the Gita was the scripture of such a sect which had embodied its high and noble ideas in this book.
• How could there be so much discussion about jnana, bhakti, and yoga on the battlefield, where the huge army stood in battle array ready to fight, just waiting for the last signal? And was any shorthand writer present there to note down every word spoken between Krishna and Arjuna, in the din and turmoil of the battlefield?
• The Gita is a commentary on the Upanishads.
• The Gita is the gist of the Vedas. It is not our Bible, the Upanishads are our Bible.
• The Gita is like a bouquet composed of beautiful flowers of spiritual truths collected from the Upanishads.
• The Gita is to the Hindus what the New Testament is to the Christians.
• With every great Prophet his life is the only commentary.
• Our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of Gita.
• I know where the shoe pinches; I have gained a little experience. You will understand Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger.
• The highest ideas are not for all. The nonresistance is practiced by a mother’s love towards an angry child.
In Gita we find two special messages:
1. Harmony of different ideas
2. Work without desire: Non-attachment
• The tendency of the true Hindu is not to destroy but to harmonize everything.
• “I am the God Incarnate, I am the inspirer of all books, I am the inspirer of all religions.” Thus we do not reject any.
• In the Gita the way is laid open to all men and women, to all Caste and Color.
• The doctrine is a potent instrument in the hand of the wicked.
• The consciousness that I am doing this and that is never present when one works through yoga.
• He who is one with the Lord through yoga performs all his works by becoming immersed in concentration, and does not seek any personal benefits.
• Men should work for work’s sake only, and love for love’s sake.
• Gita consists of a dialogue held by Krishna with Arjuna, just before the commencement of the fight on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It was the source of Emerson’s inspiration. He went to see Carlyle and Carlyle made his a present of the Gita; and that little book is responsible for the Concord Movement. All the broad movements in America, in one way of other, are indebted to the Concord party.
• The restless Western atheist or agnostic finds in the Gita or in the Dhammapada the only place where his soul can anchor.
• As a character Budhha was the greatest the world has ever seen; next to him Christ. But the teachings of Krishna as taught by Gita are the grandest the world has ever known.
• The greatness of little things, that is what the Gita teaches.
CHAPTER 1
The first discourse in the Gita can be taken allegorically.
There were two branches of the same race fighting for the empire of India about five thousand years ago. The Pandavas had the right, but the Kauravas had the might.
The opening scene is a battlefield, and both sides see their relatives and friends. When Arjuna sees his own friends and relatives on the other side and knows that he may have to kill them, his heart gives way and he says that he will not fight.
Thus begins The Bhagavad Gita.
CHAPTER 2
• It was not that the disinclination of Arjuna to fight arose out of the overwhelming predominance of pure sattva guna; it was all tamas that brought on this unwillingness. The nature of a man of sattva guna is that he is equally calm in all situations of life- whether it be prosperity or adversity.
• You should not decry a man by calling him a sinner, but that you should draw his attention to the omnipotent power that is in him.
• “There is in the world neither sin nor misery, neither disease nor grief; if there is anything in the world which can be called sin, it is this- fear. Know that any work which brings out the latent power in thee is virtue; and that which makes thy body and mind weak is, verily, sin.”
• For all of us in this world life is a continuous fight. Many a time comes when we want to interpret our weakness and cowardice as forgiveness and renunciation. There is no merit in the renunciation of a beggar. If a person, who can give a blow, forbears, there is a merit in that. If a person, who has, gives up, there is merit in that. We know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotize our minds into belief that we are brave.
• In all matters the two extremes are alike. The extreme positive and the extreme negative are always similar. When the vibrations of light are too slow, we do not see them, nor do we see them when they are too rapid. So with sound; when very low in pitch, we do not hear it, when very high, we do not hear it either. One man doesn’t resist because he is weak, lazy. And cannot, not because he will not; the other man knows that he can strike an irresistible blow if he likes; yet he not only does not strike, but blesses the enemies.
• When we speak about this non resistance and ideal love. We must first take care to understand whether we have the power of resistance or not.
• During these last thousand years, the whole country is filling the air with the name of the lord and is sending its prayers to him; and the lord is never lending his ears to them. And why should he? When even man never hears the cries of a fool, do you think God will?
• There is conflict in Arjuna’s heart between his emotionalism and his duty.
• “The sage is not sorry for those that are living nor for those that die.”
• Even forgiveness, if weak and passive, is not true: fight is better.
• Life in this world is an attempt to see God. Make your life a manifestation of will strengthened by renunciation.
• “You cannot die nor can I. There was never a time when we did not exist. There will never be a time when we shall not exist.”
• “The unreal never is. The real never is not. Men possessed of the knowledge of the truth fully know both these.”
• “As in this life a man begins with childhood, and passes through youth and old age, so at death he merely passes into another kind of body. Why should a wise man be sorry?”
• “Existence can never be non-existence, neither can non-existence ever become existence…..Know therefore, that that which pervades all the universe is without beginning or end. It is unchangeable.”
• Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us ! Death means only a change of garment.
• The masses in India cry to sixty million gods, and still die like dogs.
• Any action that you do for yourself will bring its effect to bear upon you.
• “Even if he kills the whole universe (or be himself killed), he is neither the killer nor the killed, when he knows that he is not acting for himself at all.”
• Now freedom is only possible when no external power can exert any influence, produce any change. Freedom is only possible to the being who is beyond all conditions, all laws, all bondages of cause and effect.
• The Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body and that death means the change of this centre from body to body. Nor is the soul bound by the conditions of matter. In its very essence it is free, unbounded, holy, pure, and perfect.
• “This Self, weapons cannot pierce, nor fire can burn, water cannot wet, nor air can dry up. Changeless, all-pervading, unmoving, immovable, eternal is this Self of man.”
• The first step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads, and believe- “I am the Soul.”, “Me the sword cannot cut; nor weapons pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry. I am the Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient.” Do not say we are weak; we can do anything and everything. What can we not do? Everything can be done by us; we all have the same glorious soul, let us believe in it.
• Beings are unknown to our human senses before birth and after death. It is only in the interim that they are manifest. What is there t o grieve about?
• Many who often hear the gospel of Christ, are yet but little affected because they are void of the Spirit of Christ. But whosoever would fully and feelingly understand the words of Christ must endeavour to conform his life wholly to the life of Christ.
• Even if you die in this attempt, well and good, many will take the work, following your example. And if you succeed, you will live a life of great opulence.
• “The mind that succeeds is the mind that is concentrated. The minds that are taken up with two thousands subjects, their energy dispersed. “
• The greatest name man ever gave to God is Truth. Truth is the fruit of realization; therefore seek it within the soul. Get away from all books and forms and let your soul see its self. We are deluded and maddened by books.
• The moment you think creed and form and ceremony the “be-all” and “end-all”, then you’re are in bondage. Take part in them to help others, but take care they do not become bondage.
• The Karma-yogi asks you why you require any motive to work other than the inborn love of freedom.
• When the idea of doing good becomes a part of his very being, then he will not seek for any motive outside. Let us do good because it is good to do good; he who does good work even in order to get heaven binds himself down, says the Karma-yogi.
• “Do all work but without attachment; work for work’s sake, never for yourself.”
• “To work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof.”
• What is your motive? Are you sure that you are not actuated by greed of gold, by thirst for fame, or power? Are you really sure that you stand to your ideals, and work on, even if the whole world wants to crush you down? Are you sure you know what you want and will perform your duty, and that alone, even if your life is at stake? Are you sure that you will persevere so long as life endures, so long as there is one pulsation left in the heart? Then you are a real reformer, you are a teacher, a Master, a blessing to mankind.
• “To weak is to be miserable”, says Milton. Doing and suffering are inseparably joined. (Often, too, the man who laughs most is the one who suffers most).
• The world is not for cowards. Do not try to fly. Look not for success or failure.
• Work incessantly, but see something behind the work. Even good deeds can find a man in great bondage. Therefore be not bound be good deeds or by desire for name and fame.
• I have seen much light on concentration and attention and control of concentration, which if practiced will take us out of anxiety and worry.
• Bring light to the poor; and ring more light to the rich, for they require it more than the poor. Bring light to the ignorant, and more light to the educated, for the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous.
• W are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.
• Gita says that it is doing work with cleverness and as a science; by knowing how to work, one can obtain the greatest results.
• If the mind is deluded and pulled into a whirlpool by books and scriptures, what is the good of all these scriptures? One says this, another says that. What book shall you take? Stand alone! See the glory of your own soul, and see that you will have to work. Then you will become a man of firm will.
• “The man who has given up all the desires, who desires nothing, not even this life, nor freedom, nor gods, nor work, nor anything. When he has become perfectly satisfied, he has no more cravings.” He has seen the glory of the Self and has found that the world, and the gods, and heaven are…within his own Self. Then the gods become no gods; death becomes no death; life becomes no life. Everything has changed.
• As the tortoise tucks its feet and head inside the shell, and you may kill it and break it in pieces, and yet it will not come out, even so the character of that man who has control over his motives and organs is unchangeably established. He controls his own inner forces and nothing can draw them out against his will.
• Fasting and torturing themselves have been practiced by people all over the world. Krishna’s idea is that this is all nonsense. He says that the senses will for that moment recede from the man who tortures himself, but will emerge against with twenty times more power. The idea is to be natural- no ascetism. Go on, work, only mind that you are not attached. The will can never be fixed strongly in the man who has not learnt and practiced the secret of non-attachment.
• “From anger comes delusion, and from delusion loss of memory. From loss of memory comes the ruin of discriminative power, and from the ruin of discrimination, the person perishes.”
• The proud and covetous can never rest. The poor and humble in spirit live together in all peace.
• People want to eat and drink and have children, and then they die a dog’s death…They are always awake for the senses. Even their religion is just for that. They invent a God to help them, to give them more women, more money, more children- never a God to help them become more godlike!
• The end and aim of Yoga is to realize God. To do this we must go beyond relative knowledge.
• “As all the rivers of the world constantly pour their waters into the ocean, but the ocean’s grand, majestic nature remains undisturbed and unchanged, so even though all the senses bring in sensations from nature, the ocean-like heart of the sage knows no disturbance, knows no fear.”
CHAPTER 3
• It is the most difficult thing to give up the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that mentioned in our books. One is called the “neti, neti” (not this, not that), the other is called “iti” (this); the former is the negative, and the latter is the positive way. The negative way is the most difficult. It is only possible to the men of the very highest, exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and say, “No, I will not have this,” and the mind and body obey their will, and they come out successful. But such people are very rare.
• The vast majority of mankind chooses the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached. The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of Jnana-yoga and is characterized by the refusal to do any work; the second is that of Karma-yoga, in which there is no cessation from work.
• Flying from work is never the way to find peace.
• He who stops his activities and at the same time is still thinking about them attains to nothing; he only becomes a hypocrite. But he who by the power of his mind gradually brings his sense-organs under control, employs them in work, that man is better. Therefore do thou work.
• This is the great lesson that we are here to learn through myriads of births and heavens and hells- that there is nothing to be asked for, desired for, beyond one’s self.
• The highest men are calm, silent, and unknown.
• Everyone must work in the universe. Only those who are perfectly satisfied with the self, whose desires do not go beyond the Self, whose mind never strays out of the Self, to whom the Self is all in all, only those do not work. The rest must work.
• Work constantly; work, but be not attached; be not caught. Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul might yearn for it, however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still, reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want.
• “Even if you have known the secret that you have no duty, that you are free, still you have to work for the good of others. Because whatever a great man does, ordinary people will do also.”
• Work day and night!”Behold, I am the Lord of the universe, I have no duty. Every duty is bondage. But I work for work’s sake. If I ceased to work for a minute, there would be chaos.” So do thou work, without any idea of duty.
• It is not that this world was created the other day, not that a God came and created the world and since that time has been sleeping; for that cannot be. The creative energy is still going on. God is eternally creating- is never at rest.
• When a man realizes, he gives up everything. The various sects and ceremonies and books, so far as they are the means of arriving at that point, are all right. But when they fail in that, we must change them.
• If you have knowledge and see a man weak, do not condemn him. Go to his level and help him if you can. He must grow.
• Even if you have knowledge, do not disturb the childlike faith of the ignorant. On the other hand, go down to their level and gradually bring them up. That is why you can see a great philosopher going into temple and worshipping images. It is not hypocrisy.
• We identify ourselves with nature and say, “I am doing this.” This way delusion seizes us. We always act under some compulsion. When hunger compels me, I eat. The real “I” is eternally free. But mind you, the vast majority of mankind is under this delusion; and whenever they do any good, they feel that they are the doers.
• The Gita teaches that all works should be done thus. He who is one with the Lord through yoga performs all his works by becoming immersed in concentration, and does not seek any personal benefit, such a performer of work brings only good to the world, and no evil can come out of it.
• “Nature will have her way. What can suppression do?” That is a terrible statement in Gita. You may have a hundred thousand urges competing at the same time. You may repress them but the moment the spring rebounds, the whole thing is there again.
• “Better die in your own path than attempt the path of another.”
• Wait and grow, and you will attain everything; otherwise there will be great spiritual danger. Here is the fundamental secret of teaching religion.
• Every man should take up his own ideal and endeavor to accomplish it. That is a surer way of progress than taking up another man’s ideal, which he can never hope to accomplish.
• Let everyone do the best he can for realizing his own ideal. Nor is it right that I should be judged by your standard or you by mine. The apple tree should not be judged by the standard of the oak, nor the oak by that of the apple.
• Beware Arjuna, lust and anger are the great enemies. These are to be controlled. These cover the knowledge even of those who are wise.
CHAPTER 4
• Whenever virtue subsides and wickedness prevails, I come to help mankind. For the salvation of the good, for the destruction of wickedness, for the establishment of spirituality I come from time to time.
• Whenever this world of ours, on account of growth, on account of added circumstances, requires a new adjustment, a wave of power comes; and as man is acting on two planes, the spiritual and the material, waves of adjustment come on both planes.
• Religious researches disclose to us the fact that there is not a country possessing a good ethical code but has borrowed something of it from us, and there is not one religion possessing good ideas of the immortality of the soul but has derived it directly or indirectly from us.
• There are a great many similarities in the teaching of the New Testament and the Gita. The central figure of the Gita is Krishna. As you worship Jesus of Nazareth as God come down as man, so the Hindus worship many incarnations of God. They believe in not one or two only, but in many, who have come down from time to time, according to the needs of the world, for the preservation of Dharma and destruction of wickedness.
• Life is short, but the soul is immortal and eternal, and one thing being certain, death, let us therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it.
• “Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which I the end lead to me. “
• Krishna talks of himself as God, as Christ doe. He sees the Deity in himself. And he says,” None can go a day out of my path. All have to come to me. Whosoever wants to worship in whatsoever form, I give him faith in that form, and through that I meet him.”
• Mind is not soul or spirit. It is only matter in a finer form, and we own it and can learn to manipulate it through the nerve energies.
• Krishna preached in the midst of the battlefield. “ He who in the midst of intense activity finds himself in the greatest calmness, and in the greatest peace finds intense activity, that is the greatest yogi as well as the wise man.
• The doctrine which stands out luminously in every page of Gita is intense activity, but in the midst of it, eternal calmness.
• Krishna shows the way how to do it- by being non-attached: do everything but do not get identified with anything. You are the soul, the pure, the free, all the time, you are the witness. Our misery comes, not from work, but by our getting attached to something.
• We cannot remain without action for a moment. Act ! but just as when your neighbor asks you, “ come and help me!” have you exactly the same idea when you are helping yourself? Don’t do anything more for your body than you do for the others. That is religion.
CHAPTER 5
• The whole world is mere child’s play- preaching, teaching, and all included. “Know him to be the sanyasin who neither hates not desires.
• “Fools alone say that work and philosophy are different, not the learned.” The learned know that, though apparently different from each other, they at least lead to the same goal of human perfection.
• Krishna taught that a man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world- his heart to God and his hands to work.
• So Karma-yoga says, first destroy the tendency to project this tentacle of selfishness, and when you have the power of checking it, hold it in and do not allow the mind to get into the ways of selfishness. Then you may go out into the world and work as much you can.
• Every work must necessarily be a mixture of good and evil. Good and evil will both have their results. But good and bad are both bondages of the soul. The solution reached in the Gita in regards to this bondage-producing nature of work is that, if we do not attach ourselves to the work we do, it will not have any binding effect on our soul.
• “He who looks upon the learned Brahmin, upon the cow, the elephant, the dog, or the outcast with the same eye, he indeed is he sage, and the wise man.”
• The real Vendantist alone will give up his life for a fellow-man without any compunction, because he knows he will not die. As long as there is one insect left in the world, he is living; as long as one mouth eats, he eats.
• Even the idea of the body disappears where the mind itself becomes finer and finer, till it has almost disappeared, when all the different things that make us fear, make us weak, and bind us down to this body-life have disappeared.
• Follow this great doctrine of sameness in all things, through all beings, seeing the same God in all. This is the way to freedom; inequality, the way to bondage. No man and no nation can attempt to gain physical freedom without physical equality, nor mental freedom without mental equality. Ignorance, inequality, and desire are the three causes of human misery, and each follows the other in inevitable union. Why should a man think himself above any other man, or even an animal?
CHAPTER 6
• “Raise yourself by yourself; do not let yourself down, for you alone are your own friend, you alone are your own enemy.”
• We are our own help. If we cannot help ourselves, there is none to help us.
• Be not afraid. Think not how many times you fail. Never mind. Time is infinite. Go forward; assert yourself again and again, and light must come.
• Freedom in all matters, i.e. advance towards Mukti is the worthiest gain of man. Those social rules which stand in the way of the unfoldment of this freedom are injurious, and steps should be taken to destroy them speedily.
• We tried, and failed? Why? Because few of us ever studied our own religion, and not one ever underwent the training necessary to understand the Mother of all religions. I claim that no destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society, and that this state of society exists not non account of religion, but because religion has not been applied to society as it should have been.
• A Yogi must avoid the two extremes of luxury and austerity. He must not fast, nor torture his flesh. He who fasts, he who keeps awake, he who sleeps much, he who works too much, he who does no work, none of these can be a Yogi.
• The food must be simple and taken several times a day instead of once or twice. Never get very hungry.
• Proper food, proper exercise, proper sleep, and proper wakefulness- these are necessary for any success.
• The body must be taken care of. The people who torture their flesh are demonical. Always keep your mind joyful; if melancholy thoughts come, kick them out. In all things only the man who holds the golden mean can become yogi.
• The first end of life is knowledge; the second end of life is happiness. Knowledge and happiness lead to freedom. But not one can attain liberty until every being has liberty. Not one can be happy until all are happy. When you hurt anyone you hurt yourself, for you and your brother are one. He is indeed a Yogi who sees himself in the whole universe and the whole universe in himself.
• The world is so evil because Jesus’ teaching “Resist not evil” has never been tried.
• “Without persecution no beneficent idea can enter into the heart of the society.”
• Even the least work done for the others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion. I love you all ever so much, but I wish you all die working for other.
• If the fruition of Yoga does not come in this life, one takes it up again in the next birth. Otherwise how do you explain the marvelous childhood of Jesus, Buddha, Shankara.
CHAPTER 7
• Very few men ask for the truth, fewer dare to learn the truth, and fewest of all dare to follow I in all its practical bearings. It is not their fault; it is all weakness of the brain.
• The lord has declared to the Hindu in His incarnation as Krishna, “I am in every religion as he thread through a string of pearls.”
• “Holy, perfect and pure men are seen in all creeds, therefore they all lead to the same truth- for how can nectar be the outcome of poison?”
• We must not forget that there will come men after us who will laugh at our ideas of religion and God in the same way that we laugh at those of the ancients.
• Just as the ancient Jew has developed into the keen, modern, sharp Jew, and the ancient Aryan into the intellectual Hindu, similarly Jehovah has grown, and Devas have grown.
• “Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” When man’s dependence on his own strength has been crushed down and everything seems to melt away between his fingers and life is a hopeless ruin. Then he hears it. This is called religion.
• Shri Krishna says in the Gita, “four classes of people worship Me: the distressed, the seeker of material things, the inquirer, and the knower of truth.”
CHAPTER 8
• “Remembering at the end of the life, whatever object (divine form), one leaves the body, that (ultimate reality) alone is reached by him or her, O son of Kunti, because of one’s constant thought of that object.”
• The Hindus think very much of that knowledge or consciousness of the nearness of death, because it is taught in the Gita that the thoughts at the moment of departure are great powers in determining the next life.
CHAPTER 9
• When a huge tidal wave comes, all the little brooks and ditches become full to the brim without any effort or consciousness on their own part; so when an incarnation comes, a tidal wave of spirituality breaks upon the worlds, and people feel spirituality almost full in the air.
• In worshipping Christ I would rather worship him just as he desires; on the day of his birth I would rather worship him by fasting than by feasting- by praying.
• Later on we read what Krishna says,” Even those worship other deities are really worshipping me.” Can’t you understand that whatever a man has in his own heart is God- even if he worships a stone? What of that!
• If you are strong, take up the Vedanta philosophy and be independent. If you cannot do that, worship God; if not’ worship some image. If you lack strength even to do that, do some good works without the idea of gain.
• Here are two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is for those who do not believe in God, or in any outside help. They are left to their own devices; they have simply to work with their own will, with the powers of their mind and discrimination, saying, “I must be non-attached”. For those who believe in God there is another way, which is much less difficult. They give up the fruits of work unto the Lord; they work and are never attached to the results. Whatever they see, feel, hear, or do, is for Him.
• The secret shall no more live with monks in cave and forests, and in Himalayas; it must come down to the daily, everyday life of the people; it shall be worked out in the cottage of the poor, by the beggar in the street, everywhere. Therefore do not fear whether you are a women or a Shudra, for this religion is so great, says lord Krishna, that even a little bit of it brings a great amount of good.
CHAPTER 10
• To whomsoever this remembering, which is of the same form as the direct perception, is very dear, because it is dear to the Object of such memory perception, he si desired by the Supreme Atman, by him the Supreme Atman is attained. This constant remembrance is denoted by the word Bhakti.
• The letter A is the least differentiated of all sounds, therefore Krishna says in the Gita “I am A among the letters.”
• “Wherever there is any happiness, wherever there is any bliss, there is a spark of that immortality which is God.”
• It is the same light coming through glasses of different colors. And these little variations are necessary for purposes of adaptation. But in the heart of everything the same truth reigns.
• I challenge the world to find, throughout the whole system of Sanskrit philosophy, any such expression as that the Hindu alone will be saved and not others.
• “Wherever an extraordinary spiritual power is manifested by external man, know that I am there; it is from Me that that manifestation comes. “ That leaves the door open for the Hindu to worship the incarnations of all the countries of the world. The Hindu can worship any sage and any saint from any country whatsoever, and as a fact we know that we go and worship many times in the churches of the Christians, and many, many times in Mohammedan mosques, and that is good. Why not? Ours, as I have said, is the universal religion. It is inclusive enough; it is broad enough to include all the ideals.
• “I, the universal; so great I am that even this universe is but a part of me.” That is why we see God as imperfect, and do not understand him. The only way to understand him and the universe is to go beyond reason, beyond consciousness.
CHAPTER 11
• “Therefore do thou arise and acquire fame. After conquering thy enemies, enjoy unrivalled dominion; verily, by Myself have they been already slain; be thou merely the instrument.”
CHAPTER 12
• Those who, having offered up all their work unto Me, with entire reliance on Me, meditate on Me and worship Me without any attachment to anything else-them, I soon lift up from the ocean of ever-recurring births and deaths, as their mind is wholly attached to Me.
• The devil can and indeed does cite the scriptures for his own purposes; and thus the way of knowledge appears to offer justification to what the bad man does, as much as it offers inducements to what the good man does.
• “One who is the same to friend and foe, and also in honor and dishonor, who is the same in heat and cold, and in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment.”
• He who has no enemy, and is friendly and compassionate towards all, who is free from the feelings of ‘me and mine’, even-minded in pain and pleasure, and forbearing”-these and other epithets of like nature are for him whose goal in life is Moksha.
• “He who hates none, who is the friend of all, who is merciful to all, who has nothing of his own, who is free from egoism, who is even-minded in pain and pleasure, who is forbearing, who is always satisfied, who works always in yoga, whose self has become controlled, whose will is firm, whose mind and intellect are given up unto Me, such a one is My beloved Bhakta. From whom comes no disturbance, who cannot be disturbed by others, who is free from joy, anger, fear, and anxiety, such a one is y beloved. He who does not depend on anything, who is pure and active, who does not care whether good comes or evil, and never becomes miserable, who has given up all efforts for himself; who is the same in praise or in blame, with a silent, thoughtful mind, blessed with what little comes in his way, homeless, for the whole world is his home, and who is steady in his ideas, such a one is my beloved Bhakta”. Such alone become Yogis.
CHAPTER 13
• “With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, and moths everywhere, with ears everywhere n the universe-That exists pervading all.”
• For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote-this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain Gods disappear for the time from our minds. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all around us? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all the other gods.
• “Seeing the lord equally present everywhere, he or she injures not the Self but the self, and so goes the highest Goal.”
• Wherever there is evil and wherever there is ignorance and want of knowledge, I have found out by my experience that all evil comes, as our scriptures say, relying upon differences, and that all good comes from faith in equality, in the underlying sameness and oneness of things. This is the great Vendantic ideal.
• This inequality; this is the source of all bondage, physical, mental and spiritual.” Since seeing the Lord equally existed everywhere, he injures not self by self, and so goes the highest goal.” This one saying contains, in a few words, the universal way to salvation.
• Advaita and Avviata alone explains morality. What is the reason that I should be moral? You cannot explain it except when you come to know the truth as given in Gita. Know through Advaita that whomsoever you hurt, you hurt yourself; they are all you.
• Here in Advaita alone, is morality explained. The others teach it, but cannot give you its reason. Then, so far about explanation.
• Those who have attained sameness are said to be living in God. All hatred is killing the “Self by the self”, therefore Love is the law of life.
CHAPTER 14
• With the prevalence of the Sattvika essence, man becomes inactive and rests always in a state of deep Dhyana or contemplation; with the prevalence of the Rajas, he does bad as well as good works; and with the prevalence of the Tamas again, he becomes inactive and inert.
• Sattva binds through the search for happiness and knowledge, rajas binds through desire, tamas binds through wrong perception and laziness. Conquer the two lower by Sattva, and then give up all to the Lord and be free.
CHAPTER 15
• “Free from pride and delusion, with the evil of attachment conquered, ever dwelling in the Self, with sensory desires completely receded, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded reach that Goal eternal.”
• If you don’t find the Himalayas a place for Sadhana, go somewhere else then. So many gushing inquiries simply betray a weak min. Arise, ye mighty one, and be strong! Work on an don, struggle on and on !
CHAPTER 17
• What the proper food is, what kind, we have to determine ourselves. Nobody can determine that for us.
• There are three sorts of mind, says the Yogi, according to the elements of nature. One is the dull mind which covers the luminosity the luminosity of the soul. Then there is that which make people active, and lastly that which makes them calm and peaceful. Now there are persons born with the tendency to sleep all the time. Their taste will be towards that type of food which is rotting- crawling cheese. They will eat cheese that fairly jumps off the table. It is a natural tendency with them. Then active people, their taste is for everything hot and pungent, strong alcohol….Sattvika people are very thoughtful, quite, and patient. They take food in small quantities, and never anything bad.
• Gita says that there are three kinds of charities: the Tamasika, the Rajasika and the Sattvika. Tamasika charity is performed on an impulse. It is always making mistakes. The doer thinks of nothing but his own impulse to be kind. Rajasika charity is what a man does for his own glory. And Sattvika charity is that which is given to the right person, in the right way, and at the proper time.
CHAPTER 18
• Until you get out of this wheel of Samsara, until the slavery of desire is shaken off, you can’t attain either Bhakti or Mukti. To the knower of Brahman, supernatural powers or prosperity are mere trivialities.
• “Be not afraid even if there is evil in your work, for there is no work which has no evil.” “Leave it unto the Lord, and do not look for the results.”
• The result of every work is mixed with good and evil. There is no good work that has not a touch of evil in it.
• “Give up all Dharma and follow me.”
……..EVER YOUR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER, VIVEKANANDA .
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE GITA
• Even the grand truths of the Gita, so boldly preached by Shri Krishna, received the gloss of compromise in the hands of future generations of disciples, and the result is that the grandest scripture of the world is now made to yield many things which lead men astray.
• Throughout the Gita, Krishna is not favourable to Vedic ritual.
• The present Caste is not the real Jati, but a hindrance to its progress. Any crystallized custom or privilege or hereditary class in any shape really prevents Jati from having its full sway; and whenever any nation ceases to produce this immense variety, it must die.
• Go through all the Upanishads, and even in the Samhitas, nowhere you will find the limited ideas of Moksha. Society may punish anybody by its disapprobation for breaking any of its regulation, but no man, the lowest patita, is ever shut out from Moksha.
• Gita says that he alone is the Yogi who, after long practice in self-concentration, has attained to this truth. The Sushumna now opens and a current which never before entered into this new passage will find its way into it, and gradually ascend to the different lotus centers, till at last it reaches the brain. Then the Yogi becomes conscious of what he really is, GOD HIMSELF !
