This man
came to live near Calcutta, the capital of India, the most important university
town in our country which was sending out skeptics and materialists by the
hundreds every year. Yet many of these university men--sceptics and
agnostics--used to come and listen to him. I heard of this man, and I went to
hear him. He looked just like an ordinary man, with nothing remarkable about
him. He used the most simple language, and I thought, "Can this man be a
great teacher?"--crept near to him and asked him the question which I had
been asking others all my life: "Do you believe in God, Sir?"
"Yes," he replied. "Can you prove it, Sir?"
"Yes." "How?" "Because I see Him just as I see you
here, only in a much intenser sense." That impressed me at once. For the
first time I found a man who dared to say that he saw God, that religion was a
reality to be felt, to be sensed in an infinitely more intense way than we can
sense the world. I began to go to that man, day after day, and I actually saw
that religion could be given. One touch, one glance, can change a whole life. I
have read about Buddha and Christ and Mohammed, about all those different
luminaries of ancient times, how they would stand up and say, "Be thou
whole", and the man became whole. I now found it to be true, and when I
myself saw this man, all skepticism was brushed aside. It could be done; and my
Master used to say, "Religion can be given and taken more tangibly, more
really than anything else in the world." Be therefore spiritual first; have
something to give and then stand before the world and give it. Religion is not
talk, or doctrines, or theories; nor is it sectarianism. Religion cannot live
in sects and societies. It is the relation between the soul and God; how can it
be made into a society? It would then degenerate into business, and wherever
there are business and business principles in religion, spirituality dies.
Religion does not consist in erecting temples, or building churches, or
attending public worship. It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in
lectures, or in organizations. Religion consists in realization. As a fact, we
all know that nothing will satisfy us until we know the truth for ourselves.
However we may argue, however much we may hear, but one thing will satisfy us,
and that is our own realization; and such an experience is possible for every
one of us if we will only try. The first ideal of this attempt to realize
religion is that of renunciation. As far as we can, we must give up. Darkness
and light, enjoyment of the world and enjoyment of God will never go together.
"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." Let people try it if they will, and
I have seen millions in every country who have tried; but after all, it comes
to nothing. If one word remains true in the saying, it is, give up everything
for the sake of the Lord. This is a hard and long task, but you can begin it
here and now. Bit by bit we must go towards it.
The second idea that I learnt from my Master,
and which is perhaps the most vital, is the wonderful truth that the religions
of the world are not contradictory or antagonistic. They are but various phases
of one eternal religion. That one eternal religion is applied to different
planes of existence, is applied to the opinions of various minds and various
races. There never was my religion or yours, my national religion or your
national religion; there never existed many religions, there is only the one.
One infinite religion existed all through eternity and will ever exist, and
this religion is expressing itself in various countries in various ways.
Therefore we must respect all religions and we must try to accept them all as
far as we can. Religions manifest themselves not only according to race and
geographical position, but according to individual powers. In one man religion
is manifesting itself as intense activity, as work. In another it is
manifesting itself as intense devotion, in yet another, as mysticism, in others
as philosophy, and so forth. It is wrong when we say to others, "Your
methods are not right." Perhaps a man, whose nature is that of love,
thinks that the man who does good to others is not on the right road to
religion, because it is not his own way, and is therefore wrong. If the
philosopher thinks, "Oh, the poor ignorant people, what do they know about
a God of Love, and loving Him? They do not know what they mean," he is
wrong, because they may be right and he also.
In the presence of my Master, I found out that man could be perfect, even in this body. Those lips never cursed anyone, never even criticized anyone. Those eyes were beyond the possibility of seeing evil, that mind had lost the power of thinking evil. He saw nothing but good. That tremendous purity, that tremendous renunciation is the one secret of spirituality. "Neither through wealth, nor through progeny, but through renunciation alone, is immortality to be reached", say the Vedas. "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and follow me", says the Christ. So all great saints and Prophets have expressed it, and have carried it out in their lives. How can great spirituality come without that renunciation? Renunciation is the background of all religious thought wherever it be, and you will always find that as this idea of renunciation lessens, the more will the senses creep into that field of religion, and spirituality will decrease in the same ratio.
That man was the embodiment of renunciation. In our country it is necessary for a man who becomes a Sannyasin to give up all worldly wealth and position, and this my Master carried out literally. There were many who would have felt themselves blest if he would have accepted a present from their hands, who would gladly have given him thousands of rupees if he would have taken them, but these were the only men from whom he would turn away. He was a triumphant example, a living realization of the complete conquest of lust and of desire for money. He was beyond all ideas of either, and such men are necessary for this century. Such renunciation is necessary in these days when men have begun to think that they cannot live a month without what they call their "necessities", and which they are increasing out of all proportion. It is necessary in a time like this that a man should arise to demonstrate to the skeptics of the world that there yet breathes a man who does not care a straw for all the gold or all the fame that is in the universe. Yet there are such men.
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