Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Worship of Living God.


The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good--that is the whole of religion. 'Not he that crieth "Lord", "Lord", but he that doeth that will of the Father.'
Be moral. Be brave. Be a heart-whole man. Strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don't bother your head with religious theories. Cowards only sin, brave men never, no, not even in mind.
If you are really pure, how do you see the impure ? For what is within, is withoug. We cannot see impurity without having it inside ourselves. this is one of the practical sides of Vedanta, and I hope that we shall all try to carry it into our lives.
Doing good to others is virtue (Dharma or Religion); injuring others is sin. Strength and manliness are virtue; weakness and cowardice are sin. Independence is virtue; dependence is sin. Loving others is virtue; hating others is sin. Faith is God and in one's own Self is virtue; doubt is sin. Knowledge of oneness is virtue ; seeing diversity is sin.
The watcword of all well-being, of all moral good is not 'I' but 'Thou'. Who cares whether there is a heaven or a hell, whocares if there is a soul or not, who cares if there is an unchangeable or not ? Here is the world, and it is full of misery. Go out into it as Buddha did, and struggle to lessen it or die in the attempt. forget yourselves ; this is the first lesson to be learnt, whether you are a theist or an atheist, whether you are an agnostic or a Vedantist, a Christian or a Mohammedan. The one lesson obvious to all the destruction of the little self and the building up ;of the Real Self.
After so muchausterity, I have understood this as the real truth -- God is present in every living being; there is no other God besides that. ' Who serves all the living beings, serves God indeed.'

These are His manifold forms before thee,
Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God?
Who loves all beings, without distinction,
He indeed is worshipping best his God
(Swami Vivekananda)

Sita - The other name of Purity .


Rama, the ancient idol of the heroic ages, the embodiment of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the ideal husband, the ideal father, and above all, the ideal king, this Rama has been presented before us by the great sage Valmiki....And what to speak of Sita ? You may exhaust the literature of the world that is past, and I may assure you that you will have the exhaust the literature of the world of the future, before finding another Sita. Sita is unique ; that character was depicted once and for all. There may have been several Ramas, perhaps, but never more than one Sita ! She is the very type of the true Indian woman, for all the Indian ideals of a perfect woman have grown out of that ond life of Sita.
Rama was the soul of the old king ; but he was a king, and he could not go back on his word.

Sita was chastity itself ; she would never touch the body of another man except that of her husband.

'Pure ? She is chastity itself ', says Rama....

Rama gave up his body and joined Sita in the other world.

Sita-the pure, the pure , the all-suffering !

Sita is the name in India for everything that is good pure, and holy; everything that in woman we call woman. Sita-the patient, all-suffering, ever-faithful, ever-pure wife! Through all the suffering she had, there was not one harsh word against Rama. Sita never returned injury.'Be Sita !'