By Swami Sudarshanananda
A prince, who is born heir to his father’s throne, is in a well-protected palace, sleeping in the mother’s arms. He dreams that he is in a forest and sees a tiger. Becoming afraid, he starts crying, though neither the tiger nor the forest he sees really exists. There is no real cause for any fear. But the nightmare makes him cry. What does the mother do? She wakes him up. And, then, when the dream breaks, he realizes that he is perfectly protected and so he smiles.
That is exactly our condition. We are well protected, free from all blemishes and impurities. We have infinite strength and infinite knowledge in us. Yet we are forgetful of that because of this bad dream of a world, and therefore feel miserable and weep. We weep because we do not know that these limitations are not really our inherent nature. It is then that the Veda calls: Uttisthata, Jagrata, Arise, Awake! The actual passage of the Veda is, Uttisthata, Jagrata, prapya varan nibodhata: Arise, Awake, and, having come across a man of wisdom, understand and receive the knowledge.
Swami Vivekananda modifies it thus: ‘Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached.’ He says: ‘We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.’ We have to break the spell of the bad dream.
What do we mean by strength? Ordinarily, for those who are extremely attached to the body, strength lies in the muscles. By strength, such people mean only muscular strength. But, as one rises higher in the scale of evolution, he or she feels that muscular strength is only an inferior kind. There is a superior kind of strength, attainable through the mind – the intellectual strength. Finally, there is the strength derived through the knowledge of the Self. That is what our scriptures teach us.
The scriptures, however, do not instruct us only about the strength that we can achieve through the realization of the Self, but they also explain the steps which will slowly but surely take us to that realization. Unless these lower steps are mentioned, the ideal of the highest truth will not be of much use, because it will always remain beyond our knowledge. That is why our scriptures tutor us all the details by means of which we can steadily rise to that stage where Truth may be figured out.
A newborn baby feels completely dependent. He has to depend on others for everything, even for its very survival. That is because the child is really inadequate bodily and its scope too is very restricted. He does not know anything either about itself or about the world it lives in. It has to learn everything. Similarly we have to begin everything with our limitations, gradually increase our knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. We have got an insatiable desire to transcend our limitations. Whatever be the nature of our limitations, however painful they may be, we have a desire to go beyond. Without that desire, our existence would be miserable and there would be no hope for us. Again, if we did not have the idea of that Limitless, we would never strive to transcend the limitations. We have at the back of our mind somewhere the idea that we still are not what we can surely be. So we strive to go beyond our present limitations and here comes the teachings of the scriptures.
We can get over these deficiencies since they are not our real nature. We are in reality gifted with a sense of eternal knowledge, eternal existence and eternal bliss. It is because of this gift to us since the very beginning that we aspire to have them. Without this inner gift there would be no desire to transcend our present limitations. Swami Vivekananda says: ‘Man is infinite, and this limitation in which he exists now is not his nature.’ He also says: ‘In reality you are neither going nor coming, you are not being born, nor going to be reborn; you are infinite, ever-present, beyond all causation, and ever-free. Swamiji never tired of repeating such teachings. He used to quote from the passage: ‘Srnvantu visve amrtasya putrah’, Hear, ye all of this world, children of immortal bliss! We are the children of immortality and that is our birthright. We have only forgotten that.
Swami Vivekananda tells the story of a little lion cub which got into a herd of sheep and began to think of himself as a sheep. Once a lion came, caught hold of that sheep- like lion, took him to a patch of water and said, ‘Look into the water. You are similar to myself. You are not a lamb; you are a lion.’ The lion also gave him a piece of meat to eat and said, ‘Taste this.’ He then roared, and the little ‘lamb’ also roared like the lion he really was.
The situation we are in is similar to this. We have to dehypnotize ourselves step by step. The scriptures themselves make it clear that, merely repeating their teachings will not make us achieve anything. We shall not be able to attain to the realization of our real nature by mere repetition of words. We have to first of all clear our minds of cobwebs. The feeling that we are little creatures, helpless and under the mercy of all external forces, has to be got rid of. That is why we have to constantly think, discuss, cogitate and understand the truth that we are not really bound souls.
The purport of our real nature cannot be attained by mere thinking, mere argumentation and so on, since these are done with an impure mind. We cannot transcend our limitations with such a mind. So, the steps to reach our goal are mentioned. First, our conduct has to be made pure, our senses will have to be quiet, and we should have control over our senses. Our minds have to be stopped. Then alone can we realize our real strength.
Conclusion: We should not be slave of the mind. Our mind is bound to come under control. It has to be properly tackled. We must realize the inner strength – that is what the scriptures teach us. Swami Vivekananda also says that all the gods and goddesses will not be able to help us unless we help ourselves. We will have to work out our own salvation, none can help us. We will have to be convinced about the inherent strength and that we have to reach that ideal. Without firm faith, we cannot proceed further.