From Note Book 3 of ‘In Woods of God-Realization’
1. In music the symphony is not understood by examination and comparison of the notes alone, but by experience of their relation to the deepest feelings; and Nature is not explained by laws, but by its becoming – or rather being felt to be – the body of Man, marvellous interpreter and symbol of his inward being. We cannot say that one note is the cause of another, but we might say that each note stands in a causal subordination to the feeling which inspired the piece, which is the origin of the piece and the result of its performance, the alpha and omega.
2. Similarly the ground-floor in a house is not the cause of the first floor, nor the first floor of the second floor, nor that of the third etc, but these actualities and the whole house stand in strict relationship to a mental something which is not in the same plane with them at all, nor an actuality in the same sense.
The way of the Conservative world in regard to Reformers and Prophets is :—
“Kill thy physician and bestow the fee upon the foul disease”
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In Hydrostatics a slender column of water can balance being at the same height against an ocean. So can you balance with all the prophets and philosophers of the world.
“There goes my evil self”. Just so, you could have done all that Newton or Christ did under their respective circumstances, “There goes your virtuous Self.”
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When one leaf, petal or stamen begins to form on a tree or one plant begins to push its way above the ground in spring, there are hundreds of thousands all around just ready to form.
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As a rule when one man feels any reforming impulse strongly, the hundred thousand are nearer to him than he suspects.
A new moral birth is ever sacred…. as sacred as a child within the mother’s womb … it is a kind of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost to conceal it. Courage is better than conventionality.
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Health: Into that heaven it is indeed hard for a rich man (respectable, fashionable) to enter.
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It is no good trying to set straight the roof and chimneys when the whole foundation is aslant. The whole thing wants to be pulled down.
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A fly (nobility, upper ten) sat stinging on the hind quarters of a horse (working masses) and fancied that without it the cart (State) could not go. It fancied raid fancied till the great beast whisked its tail and it fancied no more.
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The Ocean is so big, but we do not live or remain in it like frogs and fish. Is it necessary for us to embitter our life by dwelling in the sour brine of Civilization?
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In Arabia there are ever so many religious enthusiasts; the reason is that in the extreme simplicity of life their heaven seems so close upon them. But civilised people guard themselves effectually against this danger, by ingenious devices like Smoke pall, raise (such) a dust of trivialities which absorb attention entirely. If this screen subsides for a moment, we are sure to have the daily papers held up before our eyes – so that if a chariot of fire were sent to fetch us, ten to one we should not see it.
To live Vedanta in Civilisation is like carrying a basin of water in the hand. The water should go horizontal, but the disturbances arising from the human side effectually prevent this being realised.
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Trade is against Nature. The true nature of man is to give like the Sun; when giving, his thoughts are broad and he is free; when getting, his thoughts are narrowed down into little self, he is anxious, therefore, and miserable.
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Fine Taste, Artistic Character, Aesthetic Nature, Harmony is the soul of art.
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If things are in their place, they will always look well. What can be more graceful than a ship – the sails, the spars, the rigging, the lines of the hull? Yet you will not find one thing on it for adornment. An imperious necessity rules everything. This rope could have no other plan than it has, nor could it be less thick or thicker than it is; and it is in fact this necessity which makes the ship beautiful.
You cannot make your dress or room beautiful by aping the fashions of respected slums (upper ten); that would be unnatural, You cannot make your room beautiful by buying an expensive vase and putting it on the mantelshelf; but if you live an honest life in it, it will grow beautiful in proportion as it comes to answer to the wants of such a life,
Look to your own real requirements and your life. That is art. Imitating the tastes of others is ugliness.
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The trees that spread their boughs against the evening sky, the marble that I have prepared beforehand these millions of years in the Earth, the cattle that roam over the myriad hills – they are Mine, for all my children – if thou lay hands on them for thyself alone, thou art accursed.