The Argument

We have been taking up the more analytical side of human nature. In this course we shall study the emotional side....The former deals with man as unlimited being, as principle, the latter with man as limited being....One will accept nothing until it has the shining seal of reason; the other has faith, and what it cannot see it believes. Both are necessary. A bird cannot fly with only one wing....

What we want is to see the man who is harmoniously developed...great in heart, great in mind, great in deed...We want the man whose heart feels intensely the miseries and sorrows of the world....

We want the man who not only can feel but can find the meaning of things, who delves deeply into the heart of nature and understanding. We want the man who will not even stop there, but who wants to work out the feeling and meaning by actual deeds. We shall study the love that holds us here in spite of all the miseries of the world, the love that has made us forge the chain of misery, this eternal martyrdom which man is suffering willingly, of his own accord. We want to study that for which man has forged the chain with his own hands, that for which he suffers that eternal love. We do not mean to forget the other. The glacier of the Himalayas must join hands with the rice fields of Kashmir. The thunderbolt must blend its base note with the warbling of the birds.

God, Personal and Impersonal

The One becomes many. When we see the One, any limitations reflected through Maya disappear; but it is quite true that the manifold is not valueless. It is through the many that we reach the One....

Worship is everywhere, in every soul. Everyone worships God. Whatever be the name, they are all worshipping God. The beginnings of worship--like the beautiful lotus, like life itself-- are in the dirt of the earth.... There is the element of fear. There is the hungering for this world's gain. There is the worship of the beggar. These are the beginnings of the world worshipping, culminating in loving God and worshipping God through man. Is there any Personal God--a God who thinks, who understands, a God who guides us? There is. The Impersonal God cannot have any one of these attributes. Each one of you is an individual: you think, you love, you hate, you are angry, sorry, etc., yet you are impersonal, unlimited. You are personal and impersonal in one. You have the personal and the impersonal aspects.

That impersonal reality cannot be angry, nor sorry, nor miserable--cannot even think misery. It cannot think, cannot know. It is knowledge itself. But the personal aspect knows, thinks, and dies, etc. Naturally the universal Absolute must have two a aspects: the one representing the infinite reality of all things; the other, a personal aspect, the Soul of our souls, Lord of all lords. It is He who creates this universe. Under his guidance this universe exists....

The universal soul has become embodied. My soul itself is a part of God. He is the eye of our eyes, the life of our life, the mind of our mind, the soul of our soul. This is the highest ideal of the Personal God we can have.

If you are not a dualist, but are a monist, you can still have the Personal God.... There is the One without a second. That One wanted to love Himself. Therefore, out of that One, He made many.... It is the big Me, the real Me, that that little me is worshipping. Thus in all systems you can have the Personal God.

We have to go back to philosophy to treat things as they are. We are suffering from our own Karma, action. It is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should God be blamed?

Good, Evil, and God

There is no good, and there is no evil. God is all there is.... How do you know what is good? You feel it. How do you know what is evil? If evil comes, you feel it.... We know good and evil by our feelings.

It is very hard work to get money. It is harder work to keep it. You fight the whole world to get a little money together and fight all your life to protect it. Therefore there is more anxiety for the rich than for the poor.... This is the way it is....

There are good and evil everywhere in this world. Sometimes evil becomes good, true; but other times good becomes evil also. All our senses produce evil some time or other. Let a man drink wine. It is not bad at first, but let him go on drinking, and it will produce evil.... A man is born of rich parents; good enough. He becomes a fool, never exercises his body or brain. That is good producing evil. Think of this love of life: we go away and jump about and live a few moments; we work hard. We are born babies, entirely incapable. It takes us years to understand things again. At sixty or seventy we open our eyes, and then comes the word, "Get Out!" And there you are.... We have seen that good and evil are relative terms.

Now, who is responsible for all this good and evil, if God is ever the Good? ...there is a gentleman call Satan. How can you say there are two gentlemen working? There must be one.... The fire that burns the child also cooks the meal. How can you call the fire good or bad, and how can you say it was created by two different persons. Who creates all so called evil? God. There is no other way out. He sends death and life, plague and epidemics, and everything. If such is God, He is the good; He is the evil; He is the beautiful; He is the terrible; He is life; He is death. Tear aside the mask and find the same God.

Now can such a God be worshipped? We shall come to understand how the soul can really learn to worship the terrible; then that soul will have peace. God is the omnipotent supporter of the universe. What is called "law" is the manifestation of His will. He rules the universe by his laws.

The Way Out

What is the nature of the soul? The soul is also omnipotent and omnipresent. Spirit has neither length, nor breadth, nor thickness.... The soul by its very nature is blessed, pure, and perfect; it could never be pure if its nature was impure....

All of us who find ourselves in this plane, attracted to the body, work hard for a living, with jealousies and quarrels and hardships, and then death. That shows we are not what we should be. We are not free, perfectly pure, and so on. The soul, as it were, has become degraded. Then what the soul requires is expansion.... How can you do it? Can you work it out yourself? No.

Then how can you get out of all this, and what are you here for? One idea is to get rid of misery. We are all struggling day and night to get rid of misery....We cannot do it by work. Work will produce more work. It is only possible if there is someone who is free himself and lends us a hand. "Hear, ye children of immortality, all those that reside in this plane and all those that reside in the heavens above, I have found the secret," says the great sage. "I have found Him who is beyond all darkness. Through His mercy alone we cross this ocean of life."

The Indian ideal is not to go to heaven. Get out of this earth, get out of hell, and get out of heaven!

What is the goal? It is freedom. You must all be free. The glory of the soul is covered up. It has to be uncovered again. The soul exists. It is everywhere. Where shall it go?...Where can it go? It can only go where it is not. If you understand that it is ever present,...there will be perfect happiness forever afterwards.

The soul shall stand as soul. Spirit shall live as spirit. How is this to be done. By worshipping the Lord in the soul, who, by His very nature is ever present, pure, and perfect.... The soul attains to perfection; it becomes almost omnipotent and omniscient. This is the worshipper. Who is the worshipped? He, the Lord God Himself, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient. And above all, He is Love. How is the soul to attain this perfection? By worship.