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Written by Swami Vivekananda |
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Every soul is destined to be perfect, and every
being, in the end, will attain the state of perfection.
Whatever we are now is the result of our acts and
thoughts in the past; and whatever we shall be in the
future will be the result of what we think end do now.
But this, the shaping of our own destinies, does not
preclude our receiving help from outside; nay, in the
vast majority of cases such help is absolutely necessary.
When it comes, the higher powers and possibilities of
the soul are quickened, spiritual life is awakened,
growth is animated, and man becomes holy and
perfect in the end.
This quickening impulse cannot be derived from
books. The soul can only receive impulses from
another soul, and from nothing else. We may study
books all our lives, we may become very intellectual,
but in the end we find that we have not developed at
all spiritually. It is not true that a high order of
intellectual development always goes hand in hand
with a proportionate development of the spiritual side
in Man. In studying books we are sometimes deluded
into thinking that thereby we are being spiritually
helped; but if we analyse the effect of the study of
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books on ourselves, we shall find that at the utmost it
is only our intellect that derives profit from such
studies, and not our inner spirit. This inadequacy of
books to quicken spiritual growth is the reason why,
although almost every one of us can speak most
wonderfully on spiritual matters, when it comes to
action and the living of a truly spiritual life, we find
ourselves so awfully deficient. To quicken the spirit,
the impulse must come from another soul.
The person from whose soul such impulse comes is
called the Guru — the teacher; and the person to
whose soul the impulse is conveyed is called the
Shishya — the student. To convey such an impulse to
any soul, in the first place, the soul from which it
proceeds must possess the power of transmitting it, as
it were, to another; and in the second place, the soul
to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it. The
seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready
ploughed; and when both these conditions are
fulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes
place. “The true preacher of religion has to be of
wonderful capabilities, and clever shall his hearer be”
— ; and when both of these are
really wonderful and extraordinary, then will a
splendid spiritual awakening result, and not otherwise.
Such alone are the real teachers, and such alone are
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also the real students, the real aspirants. All others are
only playing with spirituality. They have just a little
curiosity awakened, just a little intellectual aspiration
kindled in them, but are merely standing on the
outward fringe of the horizon of religion. There is no
doubt some value even in that, as it may in course of
time result in the awakening of a real thirst for
religion; and it is a mysterious law of nature that as
soon as the field is ready, the seed must and does
come; as soon as the soul earnestly desires to have
religion, the transmitter of the religious force must and
does appear to help that soul. When the power that
attracts the light of religion in the receiving soul is full
and strong, the power which answers to that attraction
and sends in light does come as a matter of course.
There are, however, certain great dangers in the
way. There is, for instance, the danger to the receiving
soul of its mistaking momentary emotions for real
religious yearning. We may study that in ourselves.
Many a time in our lives, somebody dies whom we
loved; we receive a blow; we feel that the world is
slipping between our fingers, that we want something
surer and higher, and that we must become religious.
In a few days that wave of feeling has passed away,
and we are left stranded just where we were before.
We are all of us often mistaking such impulses for real
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thirst after religion; but as long as these momentary
emotions are thus mistaken, that continuous, real
craving of the soul for religion will not come, and we
shall not find the true transmitter of spirituality into
our nature. So whenever we are tempted to complain
of our search after the truth that we desire so much,
proving vain, instead of so complaining, our first duty
ought to be to look into our own souls and find
whether the craving in the heart is real. Then in the
vast majority of cases it would be discovered that we
were not fit for receiving the truth, that there was no
real thirst for spirituality.
There are still greater dangers in regard to the
transmitter, the Guru. There are many who, though
immersed in ignorance, yet, in the pride of their
hearts, fancy they know everything, and not only do
not stop there, but offer to take others on their
shoulders; and thus the blind leading the blind, both
fall into the ditch.
— “Fools dwelling in darkness, wise in their own
conceit, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round
and round staggering to and fro, like blind men led by
the blind.” — (Katha Up., I. ii. 5). The world is full of
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these. Every one wants to be a teacher, every beggar
wants to make a gift of a million dollars! Just as these
beggars are ridiculous, so are these teachers. |
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