Vidya Vahini

Whatever be the teaching about the name or form of Eshwara or God is not very important. We need not quarrel over those distinctions and differences. Instruction on God is service enough. Bharateeyas do not accept the view held by others that the world and the universe, of which it is a part, came into being some thousands of years ago and will meet with dissolution sometime in the future. Nor do they accept the statement that the universe was born out of the void (Shoonyam). They believe that Prakriti or the projection (nature) is not born of vacuity, but has always been full and complete (Poornam). It has no beginning, nor end; it has only gross and subtle forms. It is no sign of enlightenment to infer that, since there is no evidence of the full and complete, there must be a void in the beginning. There are other levels of existence to consider.

Man, for example, is not entirely the body; he has, in the gross body, a subtle body, the mind, and another body too, more subtle than the mind, namely, jeevatma, the Individualised Atma or Self. This last has neither beginning nor end, nor does it have any trace of death or decay. This is the truth that Bharateeyas believe in. This faith is based on the declaration of the Vedas themselves. We close our eyes, when we worship God. We do not try to discover God outside us, by raising our faces and looking upwards. Others accept that their scriptures were written by divinely inspired persons, but Bharateeyas believe that the Vedas are the authentic voice of God, emerging from the hearts of sages.

Students! He, who condemns himself, day and night, as petty and weak, can never accomplish anything. He, who thinks that he is luckless and low, thereby becomes luckless and low. Instead, when you cultivate the awareness that you are a spark of God, that you have as your reality divinity itself, you can become really divine and you can have command over all powers. “As you feel, so you become,” (Yad bhaavam, tad bhavati). It is how you feel that matters most. That is the basis for all that you are. Have faith in the Atma, the Self. This is a must for man. In its absence, man is being reduced to a monster, revelling in vice and wickedness. Your forefathers achieved prosperity, peace, and joy and succeeded in attaining their goals through that faith alone. When people lose that faith, they are certain to fall. For, that faith is the very breath of life. When there is no breath, man becomes a corpse (Shavam). With the breath of that faith, he becomes divine (Shivam), the same as Shiva himself. Faith in the Self is the expression of the Shiva principle in man. That faith can endow man with all forms of power and render him full and complete (Poornam). For, the Atma, by its very nature, is self-sufficient and full. No other Sadhana is needed to realise that state.

Purity, too, is our nature; self-sufficiency (Paripoornata) is also the nature of the self. Impurity and insufficiency are alien to man. Students should not ignore or forget this fact. Real education must arouse this faith and infuse the awareness of this fullness in every activity. This is the essential aim, the core of the right type of education.

There is one other truth that we have to keep in mind, more than every other. For Bharateeyas, religion means experience, nothing less. Our position is that no achievement is worthwhile, unless one earns it by one’s own efforts. Everything valuable must be cultivated by oneself. Divine grace awaits individual striving and Sadhana. The doctrines and directives of religion have to be assimilated by means of actual experience. It is not enough, if one learns to repeat them parrot-like.

The Truth has to be identified; this is the very first step. The sooner we understand the Truth the sooner will religious conflicts and credal dissensions disappear. The Paratpara (Beyond the Beyond), the Omniself, is nearer than the nearest; other entities are all, though near, really far away. Become aware of this fact. Then alone can the knots, in which the heart is entangled, be loosened.

In the vocabulary of the West, man gives up his “life”; but, in the language of Bharateeyas, man gives up his “body.” Westerners profess that they have bodies and that the bodies have souls. Bharateeyas do not declare so. They proclaim that man has a soul and that the soul is enclosed temporarily in a body. Therefore, they feel that the civilisations and cultures seeking sensual pleasures and secular glory are built on a foundation of sand, and can shine only for a brief period of time before they collapse.

Students! Imitation can never become culture. You may wear royal robes and act the role; but can you, as a result of this imitation, become a King? A donkey clothed in tiger skin does not become a tiger. Imitation is a sign of cowardice. It cannot further one’s progress. In fact, the tendency to imitate leads man down, step by step, into frightful shape. You must endeavour to uplift yourselves, as yourselves. You must be proud that you are Bharateeyas.

You must be proud of your ancestors. Your commendable heroism lies in your joyous assertion that you are a Bharateeya (a child of Bharat, India). You should not imitate others and copy their attitudes, though you may imbibe the good in them.

We have to learn good things from others. We sow seeds in the ground. We provide it with soil, manure, and water. The seed sprouts, becomes a sapling, and grows into a huge tree. It does not become soil when placed therein, nor manure when it feeds thereon, nor water when it partakes thereof. It only imbibes from each of them whatever it can benefit from them. It grows into what is essentially IT, namely, a huge tree!

May you, too, grow likewise. You have to learn much from others. Learn the Supreme and the means of attaining it from even the lowest. Learn from others how to practise progressive, spiritual Sadhana and saturate yourselves with it. But, do not be transformed into those others. This is the normal teaching for man, the Smriti of Manu. This is the lesson that students have to understand. This is the first and foremost lesson, the crucial lesson.