Delivered at the Academy of Sciences on December 27, 1902
Myself in the form of ladies and gentlemen: –
A very wealthy merchant in India was at one time going to give a grand feast to the people living in his city. A bevy of dancing girls is often invited to grand feasts. This custom is now being given up in India, but at the time of which Rama speaks it was very prevalent.
One of the girls began to dance and sing. She sang a song which was very obscene, a song which nobody would have enjoyed, and still on that particular occasion, the song sank deep into the hearts of the whole audience. What was the reason? You know learned men and young gentlemen in India never like such bad and vulgar songs; but on that occasion the song so insinuated itself into the hearts and souls of the audience that they were enraptured by it. Months and months after that occasion, most of the learned scholars who had heard that song once were seen walking through the streets humming it by themselves, and gentlemen were whistling it to themselves. And all of them who had once heard it loved the song and cherished it.
The question is in what lay the charm? Ask any one of those people who heard the song what is it that makes the song so dear to you? All these will say the song is so beautiful, the song is so sweet, the song is so ennobling, so elevating. But it is not so. The same song was abominable to them before they heard it sung by this dancing girl, but now they like it. This is a mistake. The real charm lay in the manner of singing and in the tone, the face, looks, appearance of the girl. The real charm lay in the girl, and that real charm was transferred to the song.
That is what happens in the world. There comes a teacher who has a very sweet face and very sweet eyes. His voice is very clear, and he can throw himself this way and that way. Whomever he says is beautiful and attractive. It is charming. That is the mistake made by the world. Nobody examines the truth by itself. Nobody thinks anything of the song. It is the acting or the way of putting things, or the manner of speaking, the delivery, the charm in the outward things which makes the teaching so attractive to the audience.
The other day a very good friend, a very esteemed hearer was speaking to Rama about a certain Swami, Swami Vivekananda. The question was asked, “Had he not beautiful eyes and nose?” Do you attend to the lectures, or do you regard the nose and the eyes?
That is the way of the world. The charm lies with most speakers in their way of talking, in their delivery, in their voice and that charm is attributed to the speech.
Weigh the things by themselves. Attend more to the real speaker than to the body of the speaker. These words appear to be harsh and terrible, but Rama is no respecter of persons. Rama respects you, you that are the truth. Truth is your real self, and Rama respects you in that sense. Even though you do not like the delivery, even though you do not like the way things are put before you, Rama tells myself in the form of ladies and gentlemen, tells you that if you want true happiness, if you want real peace, you must attend to Rama’s speeches you must hear these lectures. They bring you joy. Weigh them by themselves. Think of them, meditate upon the words that you hear. When you go home, try to recall them and put them into practice.
Rama wanted to speak on the Vedantic religion, but here are so many questions. These questions have been sent to Rama to be answered. Even if no questions are given to Rama, Rama will go on speaking on the subject, taking up proposition after proposition. All questions will be answered in due time, but some want their questions to be answered first. Tonight we cannot answer all these questions. We can have one question on one night, and that question can serve as the subject of discourse for that night. This question was the first, so we will take it up.
Before beginning it a few words might be spoken about the Bible, the Al Koran, the Vedas, and the Gita. People take these books and believe in them implicitly, because they come from the pen of a man or men whom they like. Christ had a fine character, a beautiful influence, and the accounts given in the Gospel are put into his mouth, therefore we must accept them. Krishna was very good and had a fine character, and as the Gita comes from his mouth, we must accept it wholly and solely. Buddha was very good, and such and such a book came from him, or at least was said to proceed from him, therefore we must put implicit faith in it, and we must stop thinking. We should give up meditation, we should accept the truth because it comes from him. Is not that the same fallacy, is not that the same mistake as was made by the hearers and spectators of the dancing girl mentioned a few minutes before? The same mistake. His teaching is one thing and his character and the beauty of his life is another. Oftentimes it happens that the man was the finest man of his time, but his teachings were imperfect. Upon this fallacy is founded all the sectarianism of the world. All the religious quarrels and fights of the world are the result of this mistake. You know Oliver Goldsmith was a man of whom Doctor Johnson said that he wrote like an angel, and he was an M. D., This Oliver Goldsmith was alright when he ate and when he talked, but when describing the way he ate and talked, he used to say that while eating or talking, he never made the lower jaw move. It is always the upper jaw that moves and not the lower jaw. He had a great contest with Dr. Johnson on that subject. He was very stubborn in upholding his wrong position. Everybody now-a-days knows that when we talk or eat, it is the lower jaw that always moves, and never the upper jaw. Of course when we make the whole head turn, then the upper jaw moves. And yet he maintained that never the lower jaw but the upper jaw moves.
So far as actual life is concerned, he is perfectly right, but his own experience, his own action, his own life he cannot describe. You know to act is one thing and to know the philosophy of how we act is another thing. Everybody speaks English, but few know English Gram – mar. Everybody reasons in some way or other, but few know the Science of reasoning or have read Deductive or Inductive Logic. Similarly, to live an ideal life is one thing and to be able to tell the philosophy of it, to be able to render reasons for it is quite another. People make this mistake. They transfer the body or the personal character of the teachers to their teachings and become slaves of the teachers. Rama says, beware, beware!
Christ had very few books, and yet all the Masters of Arts and Doctors of Divinity rack their brains to interpret what is written in the Gospels. Mohammed spoke beautiful things. Where did they get all the inspiration and information? They got it first-hand from a source which is also within you.
Manu had very few books, but he gave the Hindus a beautiful work on Law, Homer had very few books, yet he gave you poems which are being translated into every language, the Iliad and Odyssey. Aristotle was no Master of Arts or Doctor of Divinity, and yet Masters of Arts have to read his books.
Wherefrom did Christ and Krishna derive inspiration? From within. If these people could derive their information from within, can’t you do that? Certainly, you can. The source, the spring, the fountain – head from which they got their inspiration is within you just the same. If that is the case, why hunger and thirst for the water which has been lying in this world for thousands and thousands of years and which has become stale by this time. You can go directly within yourself and drink deep of the nectar. The fountains are within you.
Rama says, “Brothers and my own self, those people lived in those days; you live today, be not the mummies of thousands of years. Do not put the living into the hands of the dead. The divine manna, the blessed nectar is within you. When you take up the books of the ancients, do not take them up with the presumption that you should sell yourself to every word that is given in the books. Think for yourselves, meditate yourselves. Unless you realize those things, unless you put those things into practice yourselves, unless you try to verify them by your own life, you will not be able to understand the meaning of Christ, you will not be able to understand what the Vedas mean, or what the Gita means, or what the Gospels mean. In order to understand Milton, a Milton is required, as the saying runs; in order to understand Christ, you will have to become a Christ. In order to understand Krishna, you will have to become a Krishna, you will have to become a Buddha in order to understand Buddha. What is the meaning’ of “become “? Should you be born in India in order to become a Buddha? No, no. Should you be born in Judea in order to become a Christ? No. Should you be born in Arabia in order to become a Mohammed? No. How to become a Buddha, how to become a Christ, how to become a Mohammed? This short story will illustrate it.
There was a man who was reading a love poem, a beautiful poem, which described the love of Laili and Majnun. He admired the hero of the poem, Majnun, so much that he attempted to become Majnun. In order to become Majnun, he took a picture which Somebody told him was the picture of the heroine of the poem he had been reading. He took up that picture, hugged, it, shed tears over it, placed it on his heart, and never parted with it. But you know artificial love cannot exist long. Here is artificial love. Natural love cannot be imitated, and he was trying to imitate love.
A man came up to him, and asked him, “Brother, what are you doing? That is not the way to become Majnun. If you want to become Majnun, you need not take up his lady love, you ought to have the real internal love of Majnun. You do not want the same object of love, you require the same intensity of love. You may have your own object of love, you may choose your own heroine, you may choose your own lady love, but you ought to have the same intensity of feeling and loving which Majnun, had. That is the way to become a genuine Majnun.”
Similarly Rama tells you, if you want to become a Christ, a Buddha, a Mohammed, or a Krishna, you need not imitate the things that they did, you need not imitate the acts of their lives, you need not become a slave to the way they themselves behaved. You need not sell your liberty to their deeds and their statements, you will have to realize their character, you will have to realize the intensity of their feelings, you will have to realize the depth of their realization, you will have to realize the deep spirit, the genuine power that they had. If you manifest the same spirit in life, the surroundings and environment that you have got before you now must be changed. What would Christ do if he were born tonight? Would he suffer Himself to be crucified? No. You can be a Christ and yet live. Christ suffered His body to be crucified for his, convictions, and Schopenhauer suffered his body to live for his convictions, and to live for your convictions is oftentimes harder than to die for your convictions.
So this introduction is summed up by saying, “Judge of everything on its own merits; do not allow the personality, the life of the prophet to interfere with his teachings. The life and the teaching we should consider separately.”
Here is the first question: “If reincarnation is a truth, is it not a breaking up of family ties?” and there is another part of the question – “And will not those who are linked together in this life meet in the spiritual world?”
This is a beautiful question. We will take it up part by part. “If reincarnation is a truth, is it not the breaking up of family ties?”
Rama simply wants to know if there are any family ties in this world. Have you any family ties? A man has a son, who lives with his father so long as he is under age. The child comes of age, gets a lucrative position, and begins to shun his father. Why should the father be benefited by the salary that the son draws? At once the tie is snapped. The son has a family of his own. It may be that the son goes to India, Germany, or some other country; the father moves to some other country. Where is the family tie?
Yes, there is a family tie, a mere name. I am John S;
my father was George S. A name, a mere name. What is in a name? Let us see if there be any tie.
A man is born here and a girl is born somewhere else. One is an American, the other is a German; they marry. The family tie of the girl was somewhere; the family tie of the boy was somewhere else, and they married. Oh, where are the old ties gone? Now, a new tie is made, and there comes a time when they are divorced. Each marries again. Where are the ties? Could you keep them fixed, stationary? A boy and his sister are born of the same parents, they live together and pass their childhood in the same house, they are tied together; they have a family tie. The boy goes away to Australia and has connections of his own; the sister goes away to France and there she becomes a Frenchwoman. Where are the ties? Now the question comes, “If reincarnation is a truth, is it not the breaking up of family ties?” Family ties are not existent in this world. What will it break? It is not the breaking up of family ties, because family ties are nowhere.
But if we suppose that, family ties do really exist and we can keep them up for some time in this life, reincarnation does not break them. Suppose you say you have got so many children. One of them dies. You want to keep up the family ties, but one is snatched away. The connection is broken even in this world. But some people think that the threads that are broken will be mended in Heaven. If they can be mended in some other world, and if you wish that they should be made up again and these ties should be united, you need not assume the existence of an imaginary Heaven, of which no Geography tells you and of which no Science can give you the address. If you wish that your connection with your friends should continue for a longer period, it cannot go on after death according to the law of reincarnation. According to it, it cannot continue, because man is the master of his own destiny. Your personal ties and your personal relations and connections are made by yourself. When you die, if you have a deep affection for somebody, in your next birth you will find the same person incarnated in some other body and connected with you. If in your present birth you do not wish to see that person, and you want to have nothing to do with him, according to the law of reincarnation in your next birth you will have nothing to do with him. The Law of Reincarnation does not say that even friends and foes, the people whom you do not wish to come in contact with, and the people whom you desire so earnestly to keep with you will be forced upon you after death. The Vedanta does not say that those whose presence you loathe, those whose presence is so terrible to you will be forced upon you. If a lady is divorced from her husband, and she does not want to see him again, according to the Law of Karma, that husband will not bother her any more. Those whom she wants to see, those with whom she wants to keep connections, she will know in the next birth.
There are a great many misunderstandings connected with this subject. All of them will be taken up one by one. We shall take up the heaven as is misunderstood by the people at large, in Europe and America. Shall we call it the Christian heaven? No. We shall call it Churchian heaven. Does not the idea of Heaven involve a contradiction in terms? By the word heaven they understand a place where all of them will live together. Rama asks you to kindly reflect a little, for truth’s sake just think a little. Can there be any perfect happiness where you are limited? In limitation can there be any happiness? Impossible, impossible. If your heaven is to present you with so many rivals, all those that were dead in the past, and those that will die in the future, and all those that are dying tonight whether in India, Australia, America, or elsewhere, will it give you any happiness? You know Alexander Selkirk could sing,
“I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute.”
When you sit in a car, you wish that you could have the whole car to yourself. If other people come in, you feel disturbed a little. When you are sitting in your room and a visitor comes to you, you tell the servant to tell him, not at home.
You have a house and property, and somebody else has a similar house and property, and despite all the teachings of the Gospels and the Veda& you wish that you had more wealth than he. You wish that you had him not as your rival but as your subordinate. Is it not a fact that some Christians, not real Christians, but miscalled Christians, if they have a Buddhist, a Mohammedan, or a Hindu on the same ship with them, loathe his presence? Rama tells of this from experience. They loathe his presence. It mars their happiness, and if in heaven you have to see around you all sorts of persons, – persons who are far superior to you, like Christ and Buddha, and there are other people in advance of you, will that keep you happy? Can that keep you happy? Just think over it a little, just give it a moment’s thought.
Wherever there is difference, there can be no happiness. Impossible, impossible. What is it that mars your cheerfulness? It is the sight of others. Everybody wants to be the only one. Everybody wants to be unrivalled, one without a second. You can have no happiness in the kind of heaven which you have misunderstood to be held out to you by the Bible.
In what way can we interpret the Bible in order that it may have some grain of reason in it? In the Bible we have, “We meet in Heaven.” All of us meet in Heaven. We meet our friends in Heaven. What is the meaning of that? What does it really mean? Interpret it rightly, understand it. Don’t you know in the same Bible where it is said that all of us meet in Heaven, it is stated, “The kingdom of Heaven is within you. The kingdom of God is within you?” The kingdom of God, the real Heaven is within you, not without you. Do not imagine Heaven without you; don’t look for it in the sky or among the stars. Have a little mercy upon God. If that God lives upon the clouds, the poor fellow will catch cold. Heaven is within you. God is within you. Just see.
Throw yourself into a state of blissful God consciousness; throw yourself into a state of perfect unity with the Divinity, enter into the state of Nirvan, so to say, realize that divine blissful state and you are Heaven itself, not merely in Heaven. There you are united with the whole world, there you become one with all the dead and all the living and all the people that are expected to appear on this earth. Heaven is within you, and in this way do we meet in Heaven. Jivan Mukta, a man liberated even in this life, is always in Heaven, he is one with all the living and with all the dead. He is one with all who are expected to come into this world in the future. He realizes and feels that all the stars, all the known animals are his own self. He realizes and feels that he is the true Divinity, the real Being, the true thing in itself, the substance, the Unknowable God. He is all, and thus being All, he is in Heaven and in Heaven he meets everybody.
People in this world crave for the objects of their desires but do not get them. How is it that they do not get them, and how can they get them? People become broken hearted, love stricken, passion stricken, desire stricken, pine away and waste their time and life and even make a wreck of life. Why is this so? Because they do not meet in Heaven, that is the sole reason. If you wish that your friends should meet you, O people of the world who are hungering after worldly riches, if you wish that worldly riches should seek you, O men of this world, you are wasting your energy for the sake of your sweethearts. If you wish that instead of your loving them, they should love you with your intensity of love, O men that want to occupy high positions and fail, follow the advice of Rama, for it is the open Sesame, it is the only master key which unlocks all the hidden objects of Desire. You will have to meet in Heaven and you will have to see that everything seeks you. What is the meaning of meeting in Heaven? So far from there being anything divine in the low and proprietary sense of ‘do you love me,’ begging love, seeking love, asking for love, it is only when you leave me and lose me, by casting yourself on a statement which is higher than both of us, that I draw near and before you, but there is one condition. Before it is realized, there must come upon you a state where you give up the desire, and when you give up the desire, then will it be satisfied. Rama thinks that this part is not understood by all, and the reason is, they have not heard the previous lectures delivered by Rama at the Hermetic Brotherhood. Well, if you do not understand it now, it will be taken up at some other time.
One thing more. The majority of people wish to keep up their ties, their relations, to unite and perpetuate their connections. Let it be cried out at the top of the voice, let it be proclaimed everywhere that it is a mad idea to wish to continue and perpetuate your worldly relations, your earthly connections. You cannot, you cannot. It is hoping against hope; a forlorn hope. You cannot perpetuate your earthly connections and worldly ties. You cannot continue anything worldly. Let this truth penetrate your hearts, let it sink deep into your souls that it is a mad idea to try to perpetuate any worldly ties or relations. Rama repeats it, brother, that you cannot do so. Nothing in this world is permanent; nothing in this world is eternal. The only thing permanent is the divinity within you, the God that you are, the reality that you are. This body cannot be perpetuated, this little body cannot be made to last forever. Even if you live for five billions of years, still there is death. The Sun dies one day, the Earth dies, the stars die, that means change. All these undergo a change, cannot be perpetuated, just as your body is undergoing a change every second. After seven years it is entirely renewed, it becomes a new body altogether.
Similarly your connections, your ties go on changing, they cannot be perpetuated. Give up attachment in that direction if you have any.
Rivers may flow uphill,
winds may blow downward.
Fire may emit cold rays,
the sun may shed darkness,
But this Law of the impermanence of worldly relations cannot be frustrated or foiled. If you think otherwise, you are mistaken. Just as in a river, when logs of wood come floating on the surface, one log comes from one side, another from some other side. They meet for a moment, they remain in contact for a second, and then they part again. A strong wave comes and separates them. It may be that these logs of wood that are adrift on the river, may meet again, but they will have to separate again sometime. Just as in your life, in your every – day, work – a – day life, father and mother, brothers and sisters live together, but every 24 hours they separate. Many a time they meet again for a few minutes; then they separate into their separate rooms or offices. Such is the case on a larger scale with your connections and distant friends. You cannot remain together forever and ever. If that is the case, why play the child’s part? Why not be more concerned with what lasts forever, what is permanent and eternal? Why not care more for that than for fleeting relationships?
Why not think more of the eternal permanent reality from which you cannot part, why not try to secure and realize that? And why try to sacrifice the permanent reality, the real eternity, why sacrifice that for the fleeting impermanent relations?
There was a newly married girl in India. She was sitting with her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law and having a very pleasant chat. The husband of this new bride was absent. Then the sisters-in-law of this new bride passed some remarks against the husband of this girl. Rama was present. Rama heard these sweet words from the lips of this bride. She said, “For your sake, who have to live with him for a few days only, I will not play the child’s part to break with the bridegroom with whom I have to spend my whole life.”
Have as much wisdom as that bride had. All these worldly ties will not last forever. You have to spend your whole life with the true self, that is eternal, you cannot break with it. For the sake of this fleeting present, you should not break with the true Self. Why do you sell yourself? Why do you have the life which belittles you? Why do you not realize the God within, why do you break with the true Self? Have Wisdom.
To Lord Buddha came a man who asked him to go to his father’s hut. You know the same Lord Buddha, who was a prince, was a mendicant at one time, he gave up everything and became a mendicant. As a mendicant he went from place to place, not asking or begging for anything. If anybody threw anything into the bowl which he carried in his hand, well and good, otherwise he did not care a straw for the body, for this worldly life. He went into his father’s kingdom and there he was walking through the streets in the mendicants’ dress. It is a misnomer to call him a mendicant, it is no mendicancy, it is majesty. He does not seek anything, he does not ask for anything. What if he perishes? Let him perish; it matters not He does not come to you to ask for food or clothing.
He was walking through the streets in that garb, and his father heard about it, came up to him, shed bitter tears and said, “Son, dear prince, I never did this, I never took this dress that you wear; my father, that is to say, your grandfather never had this mendicant’s dress, your great-grandfather never walked as a mendicant through the streets. We have been kings, you belong to a royal family, and why is it that you are this day bringing disgrace and shame to the whole family by adopting the mendicant’s garb? Do not do that, please, do not do that, please. Keep my honour.”
Smilingly the Buddha replied, smilingly did he say, “Sir, sir, I look beyond the family to which I belong, I look behind to my previous births, and I see that the family to which I belong has been all along a family of mendicants, as may be illustrated in this way.
Here is one street and there comes another street. Buddha says, “Sir, you have been coming from your births in that line, I have been coming in this line and in this birth we have met at the crossing. Now I have to go my way and you have to go your way.”
Where are the ties? Where are the connections? You say that you have got your children. You will excuse Rama if he says such things as are looked upon as indecent by the civilization of this country. You say that these children are yours, you say here is my son, the flesh of my flesh, the blood of my blood, the bone of my bone. Oh, here is myself, here is my son, oh dear little son, sweet little child. And you hug him to your breast; you keep him close to yourself, but just examine your philosophy. That child is yours and you want to see that tie perpetuated. Will you for Truth’s sake answer, if the child is your son and you are to keep up your connection with the child on the ground that the child is born of your body, what about the lice? Are they not born of your body? Are they not the children of your sweat? Are they not the blood of your blood; is not their blood all taken from you? Is not the whole life your life? Just answer. What injustice it is to kill one kind of child, how unreasonable it is to destroy one kind of child and to caress and shower all your love on the other kind. Look at your logic. Rama does not mean that you should be cruel to your children, that you should not look after their needs, far from it. Rama preaches that you should look upon the whole world as yourself, and your own children, why should they be excepted? Do not misinterpret Rama. What Rama says is, “Do not allow your family ties to retard your progress. Do not allow your family connections to stand in your way. Do not allow them to hinder you from making onward advance.”
When this body, your own self, which you call Rama, took up the order of Swami, gave up family connections and worldly position, some people said, “Sir, how is it that you have disregarded the claims of your wife, children, relatives, and the students who were looking to you for help and aid, why have you utterly disregarded their claims?” This was the question put. Rama says, “Who is your neighbour?” Just see. The man who put that question to Rama was a fellow-Professor in his College. To him Rama said, “You are a Professor, you lecture on Philosophy in the College, and now can you tell whether your wife and children also have got the same learning as you have? Can you tell whether your aunt or grandmamma possess the same learning as you do? Do your cousins possess the same knowledge?” He said, “No, I am a Professor.” Rama said, “How is it that you come to the University and lecture, but you do not lecture to your little children, your wife, and your servants? Why do you not lecture to your grandmamma and to your cousins and to your aunt? How is it? And he said that they could not understand him, and then it was explained to the man as follows.
Look here. These are not your neighbours, these servants, this grandmamma, wife, children, and even your dogs, they are not your neighbours. Even though the dog is your constant companion, never leaves you, and is your greatest companion in the eyes of the ignorant, you know that the dog, the servants, and the ignorant aunt and grandmamma are not your neighbours. Who are you? You are not the body, you are the true self, but you do not admit that, being a European philosopher. You are the mind; your neighbours are those that dwell constantly with you on the same meridian where your mind lives. All the students, Masters of Arts, Bachelors of Arts, in their reading room pore over the same books, they keep pondering over the same subject, reading the same thing as you read. Your mind dwells upon the same subjects as theirs, and they are your neighbours. When you are in your reading room, people say that he is in the reading room. Upon your honour say whether you are in the living room or whether you are in your thoughts. You do not live in the reading room, even though the dog is seated on your lap, even though your children come into the room, they are nothing to you, you are there in the philosophical plane, and on that height your neighbours are the students who are reading the same subject in their own homes. These are your neighbours, your nearest neighbours, and thus can you extend your helping hand to the students more than to your aunt and grandmamma and dog and servants, who are not your neighbours. Your neighbour is he who lives nearer to your spirit, he who lives on the same plane as you live. Your neighbour is not he who lives in the same house; rats and flies live in the same house, dogs and cats live in the same house. Tell me, Professor, if you had an}’ thing to do with it, where would you be born. Would you be born in the family of the same ignorant grandmamma or aunt? No, no. You would be born in the family where the people are of the same mind with you, where the people are such that you have congenial surroundings and environment. You will be born in a different family, so you are all the time changing your family connections. What is the meaning of Love? Love simply means that you feel the same way as another does. Nothing more. You love a man; his interests, his pleasures, his pains are identical with yours. The same objects which pain him pain you, the same objects which please you please him, the same objects which bring delight to you bring delight to him. That is love. You do not love a man for his own sake, you love your own self in him, nothing else. You can love only your own self. There are three men, X, Y and Z, or, as we might put it in the form of a chemical formula: X has got something in common with Y and it has something in common with Z, or X has got more in common with Z than Y, so X will be attracted more to Z than Y.
Thus are your family ties broken and re – broken and reunited. Thus Love simply means recognising something of yourself in some other person. Let a man be wholly and solely your counterpart and you are all love. This brings us to another subject which Rama will not take up tonight. It is a very important subject. The subject is fearlessness. How is fear created, what is the cause of fear? It will be shown that this very attachment, this very desire to perpetuate your ties and relations, is the source of all fear. People say, do not fear, do not fear. How illogical they are! As if fear were in your power and not over you. A remedy for fear will be given, but Rama leaves that subject, it will be taken up again.
A poem which is a translation of one of the Upanishads is going to be recited, and then bus. Rama wishes you to learn at least one word of Hindustan. The translation is not perfect, still it will convey some idea.
The untouched soul, greater than all the
Worlds, (because the worlds by it exist),
Smaller than subtle ties of things minutest,
Last of ultimatest,
Sits in the very heart of all that lives,
Resting, it ranges everywhere! Asleep
It roams the world, unsleeping;
How can one Behold divinest spirit, as it is
Glad beyond joy existing outside life.
Beholding it in bodies, bodiless,
Amid impermanency permanent,
Embracing all things, yet in the midst of all,
The mind enlightened casts its grief away.
OM! OM!!