It is your turn now and you already know the truth.

For it has been taught on all

sides. Not only philosophy and psychology, but materialistic sciences have declared
it. Where is the scientific man today who fears to acknowledge the truth of this
oneness of the universe? Who is there who dares talk of many worlds? All these are
superstitions. There is only one life and one world, and this one life and one
world is appearing to us as manifold. This manifoldness is like a dream. When you
dream, one dream passes away and another comes. You do not live in your dreams. The
dreams come one after another, scene after scene unfolds before you. So it is in
this world of ninety per cent misery and ten per cent happiness. Perhaps after a
while it will appear as ninety per cent happiness, and we shall call it heaven, but
a time comes to the sage when the whole thing vanishes, and this world appears as
God Himself, and his own soul as God. It is not therefore that there are many
worlds, it is not that there are many lives. All this manifoldness is the
manifestation of that One. That One is manifesting Himself as many, as matter,
spirit, mind, thought, and everything else. It is that One, manifesting Himself as
many. Therefore the first step for us to take is to teach the truth to ourselves
and to others. Let the world resound with this ideal, and let superstitions
vanish. Tell it to men who are weak and persist in telling it. You are the Pure
One; awake and arise, O mighty one, this sleep does not become you. Awake and
arise, it does not befit you. Think not that you are weak and miserable. Almighty,
arise and awake, and manifest your own nature. It is not fitting that you think
yourself a sinner. It is not fitting that you think yourself weak. Say that to the
world, say it to yourselves, and see what a practical result comes, see how with an
electric flash everything is manifested, how everything is changed. Tell that to
mankind, and show them their power. Then we shall learn how to apply it in our
daily lives. To be able to use what we call Viveka (discrimination), to learn how
in every
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra
%20Selvar...ooksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (8 of
113)2/26/2007 12:24:33 AM
Practical Vedanta
moment of our lives, in every one of our actions, to discriminate between what is
right and wrong, true and false, we shall have to know the test of truth, which is
purity, oneness. Everything that makes for oneness is truth. Love is truth, and
hatred is false, because hatred makes for multiplicity. It is hatred that separates
man from man; therefore it is wrong and false. It is a disintegrating power; it
separates and destroys. Love binds, love makes for that oneness. You become one,
the mother with the child, families with the city, the whole world becomes one with
the animals. For love is Existence, God Himself; and all this is the manifestation
of that One Love, more or less expressed. The difference is only in degree, but it
is the manifestation of that One Love throughout. Therefore in all our actions we
have to judge whether it is making for diversity or for oneness. If for diversity
we have to give it up, but if it makes for oneness we are sure it is good. So with
our thoughts; we have to decide whether they make for disintegration, multiplicity,
or for oneness, binding soul to soul and bringing one influence to bear. If they do
this, we will take them up, and if not, we will throw them off as criminal. The
whole idea of ethics is that it does not depend on anything unknowable, it does not
teach anything unknown, but in the language of the Upanishad, "The God whom you
worship as an unknown God, the same I preach unto thee." It is through the Self
that you know anything. I see the chair; but to see the chair, I have first to
perceive myself and then the chair. It is in and through the Self that the chair is
perceived. It is in and through the Self that you are known to me, that the whole
world is known to me; and therefore to say this Self is unknown is sheer nonsense.
Take off the Self and the whole universe vanishes. In and through the Self all
knowledge comes. Therefore it is the best known of all. It is yourself, that which
you call I. You may wonder how this I of me can be the I of you. You may wonder how
this limited I can be the unlimited Infinite, but it is so. The limited is a mere
fiction. The Infinite has been covered up, as it were, and a little of It is
manifesting as the I. Limitation can never come upon the unlimited; it is a
fiction. The Self is known, therefore, to every one of us — man, woman, or child —
and even to animals. Without knowing Him we can neither live nor move, nor have our
being; without knowing this Lord of all, we cannot breathe or live a second. The
God of the Vedanta is the most known of all and is not the outcome of imagination.