Delivered on June 10, 1903
There is a very useful Mantram which should be familiar to everyone. It is SOHAM. The meaning of ‘So’ in the English language is such, but in the Sanskrit language ‘So’ means that, and ‘That’ always means God or Divinity. So the word ‘So’ means God. In India the wife never calls her husband by name. To her there is only one man in the world and that is her husband. She always calls him “That,” as if there were no one else present in the whole universe. Consequently to her he is always God, and God is always in her thoughts. Thus to a Vedantin the word ‘So’ always means God or Divinity. There is but one reality, My Self. That thought should be constantly kept in mind.
Ham in the Persian language means I. Drop the H and supply the I and we have So-am-I, That am I, God am I, Divinity am I, and God is always speaking through me for that is all there is. OM is also contained here. Drop the S and H, we have OM. So Ham is the natural sound which comes from the breath, and all the time we should have the full significance of the word continually in our minds. Keep watch over the breath and make the breath harmonical through this Mantram SOHAM. It is a mental, physical, and spiritual exercise. While breathing there are two processes involved, going in and coming out, inspiration and expiration. When inhaling, So is said, and when exhaling, Ham is said. Sometimes a beginner finds it more convenient to chant So Ham than OM. It embraces both. When not chanting aloud, meditate upon it, internally and mentally dwell upon it, all the time breathing quite naturally. This is the real kind of auto suggestion, which leads one away from the hypnotism of the senses and brings one back to Godhead. That am I. There is harmonious motion going on in the universe all the time. The word in Sanskrit also means the. Sun. The Sun am I. I am the giver of light; I receive nothing but give all I am a giver and not a receiver. Supposing we are the recipients of very unkind letters from others, and of severe criticisms of jealous persons. Are we to be disturbed and feel sorry and worry about it? No. Rest undisturbed in your Godhead. Think kindly and lovingly of those who are trying to harm you most. They are your own Self, and to your own Self you can only give good thoughts. I am the Sun of Suns. Light, Glory, Power am 1. Who is there to injure me? My Self cannot injure My Self. Impossible. Rise above the little false opinions of others. Let God always speak, think and act through you. Rest at peace in your Godhead. I am the Sun, the giver of light to the world.
Feel perfect strength. You see all our difficulties are due to our regard of self, of our little self as bound by space. This is the thought which weakens and kills us. In order to remove this disease, anybody or everybody is to sit down naturally in a room and there weep or cry, beat his breast and say,.” Out demon, out, out demon, out.” Put yourself in a state as if this body of yours were never born; you are the Divinity, you are not this. If you keep yourself confined within time and space, the designs of other people and other men’s thoughts molest you. This body that you are addressing is a hallucination. I am God. Do you mark that? Believe in reality more than in false opinions. Divinity you are. Evil thoughts and temptations have no right to enter your holy presence. What right have they, to make their appearance in your presence? Sacred, holy you are. Feel that. Where is the disease? Expect nothing, fear nothing, feel no responsibility. Do not take to your work as in duty bound. What is Duty? Duty is your own creation. Take to your work as a noble prince. Everything should be like a plaything to you. Do the work before you cheerfully, freely.
Diseases are of two kinds. We call them in Indian language Adhyatmik (internal) disease, and Adhibhautic (external) disease. Literally it means demon disease and fairy disease, giant disease and woman disease. What is the meaning of this? Oh, the fairy disease or female disease is the one which rises from within us. Desires within us, our wishes, our attachments, our yearnings are the fairy diseases. And the giant diseases are positive diseases, are those which befall us through the actions or influences of others. Well, how to cure a man. They say do not bother yourself about the male disease, about what is called the adhibhautic disease, demon disease, or outside disease. The very moment you cure yourself of your weakening desires, the very. moment you rid yourself of those, the outside diseases will immediately leave you. But the people in this world make a mistake, they do not attend to their own work. They do not attend to that part of the difficulty which is created by their own desires. They begin to fight first with outside fears, so they begin at the wrong place, they want to fight with the circumstances first. They want to remove the male disease, the disease which comes through the influence of others. The Vedanta says that your desires are your weaknesses, everything else will be decided for you. Here is the female part in you. This is what attracts the outside influences. Just as one dog has a piece of flesh in his mouth, other dogs come to fight for it. When you get rid of your weakness or female disease, the male disease will immediately leave you. The nature of this female or fairy disease ought to be further explained. Here is somebody. If he is perfectly pure, if he can keep himself perfectly above all temptation and realize the Godhead within him and be ready to say “Get behind me, Satan, I will have none of thee,” to him Rama makes a statement. To him nobody’s desires in this world, no one’s thoughts, evils or temptations of no one in this world will do any harm. No force can molest him or bring him down in the least, because he has got rid of the demon disease himself. The very moment we make ourselves weak, and begin to desire fleshy enjoyments, what happens? Evil thoughts of all foes take the shape of this temptation or that and devour us. If you want to enjoy peace and perfect happiness, if you want to realize your divinity, the lower nature must die. In this death is life, in this death is life. Now here feel yourself to be God. Do not postpone your Godhead until you reach India. Free yourself, and when you have to attend to that business, attend to it with a cool head, with a sedate, secure spirit.
I desire nothing. I have no needs, no fear, no expectation, no responsibility.
This circle A is a pulley, and on this pulley hangs a very fine silk thread, and to the ends o£ this silk thread are fastened two weights, one is 10 and the other 6. Now to this weight 6. (the smaller weight), we add another weight 4. Six plus four makes ten, so we have 10 on one side and 10 on the other side. Balance. They will not move at all. Well, now supposing we take away the weight 4 and then we have left 10 on one side and 6 on the other side. The weights are not balanced. What will the consequence be? The 10 will go down and the 6 will rise. After a second, we add this weight 4 to the weight 6. Again we make both the weights equal on both sides. Then what will the consequence be?
So many people state that it will be balanced, but that is not so, it will go on moving. At first sight it seems that after one second when the weights are balanced, the motion will also be balanced. When Kama lectured on the subject in the University, all the students had to say that it would stop, but when the experiment was shown or explained to them, it gave them light. Even when the weights were made equal, it went on running, did not stop. Thus in the beginning we see that if the weights are made equal, it will rest, the original rest will be preserved. When once motion has been started and we make the weights on the two sides equal, the motion will not be arrested. If we allow the weights 6 and 10 to operate on two sides for two seconds and after two seconds we add the weight four again, that would make the weights on two sides equal and yet the motion would not be balanced, would not be attained. So if after three seconds we make the weights equal, still the motion will not be stopped. One difference we mark at the close of the first second, the velocity or speed of the weights must be 4 feet per second. If the unequal weights move on for one second, the resultant velocity is 4 “ft. and if the inequality continues for two seconds, the resultant velocity will be 8. If the unequal weights be allowed to operate for 3 consecutive seconds, the velocity will be 12 and at the end of “seconds, it will be 16, etc. We see that if the weights are kept unequal, the consequence is that at the close of each second, there is a difference of velocity, 4 plus the original velocity. So the velocity goes on receiving its increment of 4. The velocity that has already been acquired remains the same. We see that if the weights were made equal in the beginning before the motion was started, then the weights being equal there will be rest. If the weights are equal after the velocity 4 has been acquired, then the equality of weights will prevent any further increment of velocity, and if the weights are made equal at the end of the 2nd second, then the result will be that the acquired velocity will be 8, but there will be no further increment to this velocity, and after the 3rd second the acquired velocity is 12, there will be no further increment to the velocity. The increase in velocity at the end of the first second is called acceleration. But we see here another thing. When the weights on two sides are made equal, there remains no force acting upon the bodies. If there be no force acting upon the bodies, there cannot be any change produced in a state of rest or motion. There is no change produced in rest or motion. If there is original rest, and we make the force 10 on one side and 10 on the other, and if there has been motion in the weights for one second and the weights are made equal, according to this law the original acquired motion will remain there. It does not prevent the original rest or the original acquired velocity but the equality in the weights will prevent no further change in the velocity; So if at the end of the 2nd second we make the weights equal, the original acquired velocity will remain there. So at the end of the third second, the original acquired velocity being 12, the equality of weights will prevent any further increase of velocity.
So we come now to the case of a man of realization. Realization is simply the equality of weights on both sides. Realization is making the weights equal, taking away the inequality from within you. It is making you free of external circumstances. It is saving you from being at the mercy of winds and storms. Realization frees you from outside influences. It makes you stand by yourself. This being done, all further what we call acceleration is stopped, but the original acquired velocity remains there. The original acquired velocity is what we call inertia or Purva Adhyasa. That remains there. That will have its way. We see that this realization was achieved by some people, in which the original acquired velocity was very, very small, but through their bodies great works were not performed. But there are other people whose original acquired velocity is wonderful, marvellous. They are free but their bodies will be in continuous motion. Their bodies will be doing wonderful deeds, great and sublime actions. Work is another name for realization.
Quotation given by Dr. Anthony – “Pleasures wrapped up in duties’ garments.”
Realize your divinity and everything is done.
Om! Om!! Om!!!