Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Volume 2
In Woods of God-Realization
Volume 2
Swami Rama Tirtha
1913 edition
Table of Contents
THE PATH OF TRUTH ............................................................................... 4
THE GOAL OF RELIGION ........................................................................ 37
TRUE SPIRITUALITY AND THE PSYCHIC POWERS .................................. 57
THE SPIRITUAL LAW OF CHARACTER .................................................... 74
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN................................................................... 87
THE SACRED SYLLABLE OM ................................................................. 102
LECTURE VII ......................................................................................... 119
LECTURE VIII ........................................................................................ 135
THE WAY TO THE REALIZATION OF SELF............................................. 151
INFORMAL TALKS ON SELF-REALIZATION ........................................... 165
SOME OF THE OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF REALIZATION .................. 191
LECTURE XII-QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ........................................... 210
IS A PARTICULAR SOCIETY NEEDED? ................................................... 236
THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN ............................................................. 258
RELIGION ............................................................................................. 287
CRITICISM AND UNIVERSAL LOVE ....................................................... 297
THE SPIRIT OF YAJNA .......................................................................... 369
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is
is
the
the
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LECTURE VII
Lecture delivered at the Hermetic Brotherhood
Hall, San Francisco, on December 24, 1902
IN THE Books of Moses we read that God created
the world. He saw his own handiwork and lo, it
was beautiful and sublime. We read about it in the
Book of Genesis, and so it is. You know that the
attitude of mind, expressed by Thy Will be done,
O Lord receives a much stronger expression from
Vedanta. The Hindu puts it, My Will is being
done. My Will is being done.When the wife
identifies her will with her husband's will, she can
joyfully say My will is being done , and she need
not pray, Thy will be done, for they are not two
but one. She has had to make a great effort to make
her will bend to the will of her lord, but when
through repeated efforts the faithful wife has
conquered the difference, she enjoys the doings of
her husband as her own doings. So does a
Vedantin enjoy everything in the world as of his
own doing. To men of enlightenment
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron-bars a cage.
Minds innocent and quiet take that for a hermitage.
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LECTURE VIII
Lecture delivered at the Hermetic Brotherhood
Hall, San Francisco, on December 26, 1902
Ques. - Can any particular benefit be derived from
the chanting of OM without understanding it?
Ans. - Monks living in the forests of the Himalayas
chant OM or sing something else and play upon a
musical instrument. Many times snakes, deer, and
wild beasts of the forests leave their places and
come up to the side of the monks. Now, these wild
animals understand nothing of the laws of music,
nothing of the chanting of DM. still the effect is
there. If the mere sound produces such a
marvellous effect upon snakes and deer, cannot the
mere sound chanted continually in the right time
produce an effect in your life?
In every piece of music there are three phases or
aspects, viz., first, the meaning of the song; wand,
the Laws of music; third, the sound or language of
the song. If you are acquainted thoroughly with all
the three aspects of the song, you enjoy the song
wonderfully. But even if you are familiar with only
one element, you can still enjoy it to some extent.
The snakes and the deer hear only the musical airs,
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Electricity,
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235
IS A PARTICULAR SOCIETY
NEEDED?
Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, January 29, 1903
Ques. - Would it not be best to start a Society of our
own for pursuing these truths given us by tie
Swami?
Ans. - One of Rama's objects is to break down caste
and sectarianism.
It is true that by starting a society or forming an
Association, the cause of Truth may be
strengthened, but often there is more harm than
good done.
If an association or society be formed, it should not
be as other societies. Rama wants no slavery, no
yoke of Vedanta. You are all free to attend any
other Association, to listen to all new comers; my
own will come to me. If you are attracted to other
speakers, if there be something in this one or that
for you, then go to them. Every speaker is Rama.
Krishna I am, Mohammad I am; hear them freely.
Rama does not want you to become slaves to him;
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286
RELIGION
Lecture delivered at Muttra
RELIGION, (as is manifest from the derivation of
the term re, back, ligare, to bind), is that which
binds one back to the origin or fountain-head.
Ques. What is the origin or source? What is it at
whose decree as it were the mind thinks, the eyes
see, and nature lives?
Ans. That which cannot be perceived by the
mind, the eyes, and other organs of sense, but
makes the mind, the eyes, etc., speed to their work
is Brahman. Brahman cannot be the object of
perception or thought. Mind and speech turn back
from it in dismay.
A pair of tongs can catch almost anything else, but
how can it turn back and grasp the very fingers
which hold it? So the mind or intellect can in no
wise be expected to know the great Unknowable
which is its very source.
Religion, then, as distinguished from Theology and
also divested of its dogmatic excrescences, is
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Sense in English
Let Truth gain such immense proportions for you
that before its magnitude all appearances and the
vanity-show of purges and persons may volatilize
into evanescence. And when your identification
with Truth is true and real, the shafts of malice
shall not penetrate you, the rhinoceros shall find no
point wherein to drive his horn, the tiger shall find
no room to fix his claws, the sword shall find no
place to thrust itself, cannon balls raining on your
body shall not touch you.
Your league should be with Truth alone. Even if
you are obliged to stand alone, live with Truth, die
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486
FOREST TALKS NO 9
A MONK had some copper cents and was about to
give them away to some boys. Many poor people
came to him to get them, but he would not give
them. Finally, there came before the monk a king
seated on an elephant. The monk threw the copper
pieces into the howdah on the top of the elephant
where the king was seated. The king was
astonished at this unexpected act of the monk. The
monk said the money was for him, the poorest
man. The king enquired how he could be the
poorest man. The monk said he was the poorest
man, because of his possessions and of his
continual hunger and thirst for more kingdoms.
Hence he was the poorest man.
A man was collecting heaps of money in a box. A
monk passed by. On being invited to the house of
this rich man who was hoarding this money in
large boxes and steel chests, the monk asked the
reason of this act. The wealthy man said, Sir, what
do you care, you are fed by the public, and even if
they do not feed you, you do not care a straw for
your body, but for us it is necessary to lay by some
money so that it may be of use to us at the right
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FOREST TALKS No 10
ONCE upon a time a Kazi or Governor happened
to come to a certain Emperor, under the
Mahomedan rule. The Emperor, who honoured the
Kazi so much because of his religious pretensions,
wanted to examine his capabilities. He was no
scholar himself, but the following questions which
he was going to put to the Kazi were suggested to
him by somebody else who wanted to got the
Governorship. This Kazi came before the Emperor
and he was asked: In which direction does God
keep his face, where does God sit, what does He
eat, what does He do? The King told him if he
could answer the questions to the king's
satisfaction, he would be promoted. The Kazi
thought that the questions coming from the king
must be very difficult. He knew how to humour
and flatter the king by praising him, and then
asked him for an interval of eight days to answer
these questions.
For eight days the Kazi went on thinking and
thinking, but could come to no conclusion. How
could he answer to the king's satisfaction! Finally
the eighth day came, but the answers to the
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FOREST TALKS NO 11
The following story was told by the clerk, a slender, tall young
man, one of the travellers in the Canterbury Tales, whose turn
it was to entertain his listeners.
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Ganges
could
not
bear
Rama's
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uncontrollable,
stable
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of
of
of
of
A LETTER
Honour-winners,
knowledge-gainers,
social
reformers, dear labourers I Well done! God (Rama)
bless you! Go on, sweet ones! Go on! Pursue with
hope and zeal your respective duties. May your
exertions be crowned with abundant success, may
you reach safe and sound your particular
destinations, may joy greet you at the due stations.
But what of Rama? Rama is on a different ticket.
He cannot break journey and sojourn long at any
between stop. Good bye! Darlings! O the Terminus!
The never-ending Terminus.
1
Creating the earths and heavens and birds and beasts
Who enters these as life and soul;
And from the husk of body and mind
Is thrashed out with devotion and Jnana
That Being clothed in forms and names!
That selfsame Sat art thou, the same, the same.
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POEMS
MARCHING LIGHT
No, no one can atone me.
Say, who could have injured,
And who could atone me?
No, no one can atone me.
The world turns aside
To make room for me;
I come, Blazing Light!
And the shadows must flee.
I come, O you Ocean!
Divide up and part;
Or parched up and scorched up,
Be dried up, depart.
O Mountains, beware!
Come not in my way;
Tour ribs will be shattered
And tattered today.
O Kings and Commanders
My fanciful toys I
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OM
PEACE LIKE A RIVER FLOWS TO ME
Peace like a river flows to me,
Peace as an ocean rolls in me,
Peace like the Ganges flows,
It flows from all my hair and toes,
O fetch me quick my wedding robes,
White robes of light, bright rays of gold,
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BE CALM
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GOOD DAY
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LIKENESS OF MY BELOVED
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