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interconnectedness of all circles everywhere, so that each one in this infinite number of
circles would then be seen to form a phase of a single Universal Whole, or a focus of the
projection of aspects of the Light of the single completeness which is the Absolute
Reality. There would not then be many realities or many aims in life for different kinds
of people, since it would be seen that the little purposes apparently visible are the
divergent spectra of a single Universal Light passing through the prisms of the various
individualities which these so-called persons and things in life appear to be. When this
recognition comes, and this knowledge dawns, it becomes possible to organise persons
or societies into a larger comprehensive atmosphere of a wider reality. The
implementation of this knowledge in the practical affairs of life is the wisdom of life
which would at once cause a living change and reorientation in the life of humanity,
pointing to the fact that the rise of the vitalising, illumining and warming sun with the
daylight of an insight into the real meaning of life is, after all, a possibility.
The Ascent of the Spirit by Swami Krishnananda
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CHAPTER 16
THE AIMS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE-III
The secret of success is in the concept of the universal, and this is the crucial point in the
adjustment of human thought. Inasmuch as Reality is a non-externalised organism with
no object outside it and also as success is obviously the outcome of consonance with the
nature of Reality, it follows that to achieve success in any direction in life, it is obligatory
that the endeavour for success should be always in consonance with the demands of a
non-externalised structure of thinking.
Whenever one starts thinking, the thought happens to be the one of an object, whether
physical or conceptual. But it is always forgotten that the object of thought is a part of
the organic structure of the universe, of which, very unfortunately, the thinker himself is
a part. Great wonder, indeed! How can thought function, then, under such
circumstances? This is the problem. But this is also the secret of success. For, success is
the name that is given to the manifestation of the nature of Reality in one s experience,
whatever be the degree, extent or intensity of that manifestation. It can be mild or
emphatic, partial or highly pronounced, visible or invisible, but of the form of an
internal illumination or an external achievement.
And how is this success achieved, after all? By the tuning of thought with the universe, is
the answer. And what does it mean? It means simply the bringing of the object of
thought, whatever it be, in a togetherness which fuses its bodily structure and entire
constitution with the total being of the subject, so that one can say either that the object
is thinking the object or that the subject is thinking the subject, but not that the subject
is thinking the object. The former method leads to success, the latter to failure. The
reason is simple, for, the object thinking the object is another name for the subject
thinking the subject, since the object is a subject from its own standpoint. But the
moment the object is isolated from the subject and becomes an externalised content of
the subject, it flees away from the clutches of the subject, as it were, for, then, the object
is wrested from the organic nature of the universe, which is also the nature of Reality.
The whole of life is an effort of the spirit within to unite itself with the universe outside.
This is so because the spirit is universal in nature and cannot rest peacefully even for a
moment in the locality of a personal body. This is the reason why everything,
everywhere, is in a state of restlessness, and all life is a scene of intense struggle for
something of which one may not be always aware. This is a truth which a lay mind
cannot fully understand and it requires some sort of a specialised training of the mind to
come to an appreciable knowledge of this fact.
But the spirit within cannot become one with the universe outside, though this seems to
be its intention; hence the struggle without any achievement. This is so because the
spirit has no outside, and it would be futile to seek for a unity with anything that is really
outside, though this something that is outside may be the entire universe itself. Those
who know the art of yoga are able to detect this snag in the effort of the spirit within to
come in union with anything outside by way of proximity, possession and enjoyment, all
which is ultimately a meaningless wish and hope of the spirit within, for the reasons
mentioned. Knowing this, adepts in yoga endeavour hard to fix the spirit within in a
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universality not which is without, not also which is merely within, but which it really is ;
which means to say that the spirit ceases to be something which is within, but itself
becomes the universal which it was erroneously seeking as an outside something and
with which it sought to get united by means of its instruments of action, namely the
body, the senses and the ego. This yoga is humanly impossible to practise, but there is
no other alternative. It is something like saying with the poet, in another context: You
are not to question why; you are but to do and die.
But, and it is a difficult but indeed, man is not destined to practise this kind of yoga,
because the weaknesses of the body and the ego attempt to render fruitless even the first
step that one may try to take in this noble and sublime direction. Then, what does the
spirit within do? It cannot tread the path of true yoga mentioned above, for the reasons
stated; but it also cannot rest peacefully in a localised body without coming in contact
with the universal. Then it tries to search out certain milder alternatives in the form of a
via media of approach in its attempt to unite itself with the universe outside. This via
media or golden mean is what it attempts in trying to achieve that impossible unity with
things outside, by what is known as social organisation. This achievement is something
between true spirituality which is the ultimate aim of yoga and utter isolation in a bodily
individuality with which no one can rest contented, again, for the reasons already
mentioned.
The initial unit of a social organisation is the family and the group of intimate blood
relations. The individual spirit feels tentatively satisfied with this artificial expansion it
has created by externally connecting itself with the members of the family. This is a
pleasant but a humorous solution of problems which are deep-rooted in the very nature
of the spirit. But one knows very well that the family cannot survive if the community
threatens it, and so one becomes a member of the community larger than a family. But
the nation can threaten the community and the international atmosphere can threaten
the nation also, and then one has no other go than to participate in a national
membership or even an international membership such as that provided in the
formation of a United Nations Organisation, and the like. It is quite obvious that this is
not likely to be a successful attempt in the end, because the members of a social body,
however large it may be, cannot unite one with the other, since bodies are the vehicles of
the ego and the essence of egoism is repulsion of other egos, though for the time being it
may look that one ego agrees with the other by a certain amount of sacrifice of its nature
when it feels that its wishes cannot be fulfilled without such a surrender or acquiescence
in the wishes of other egos also. All this is a mischievous drama, indeed, of the ego-
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