VivekaVani

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation

Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation 

1. Where are the elements, where is the body, where are the organs, and where is the mind; where is the void; where, too, is despair for me who am taintless by nature?

2. Where are the scriptures, where is knowledge of the Self, where is the mind not attached to sense-objects, where is contentment, and where is desirelessness for me who am ever devoid of the sense of duality?

3. Where is knowledge and where is ignorance; where is “I”, where is “this”, and where is “mine”; where is bondage and where is liberation? Where is an attribute to the nature of my self?

4. Where are prarabdha karmas, where is liberation-in-life, and where is even liberation-at-death for me, the ever undifferentiated?

5. Where is the doer or enjoyer, where is cessation of thought or the rising of thought, where is direct knowledge or reflected knowledge, for me who am ever Impersonal?

6. Where is the world and where is the aspirant for liberation; where is the contemplative man and where is the man of Knowledge, where is the soul in bondage and where is the liberated soul for me who am non-dual by nature?

7. Where are creation and destruction; where is the end and where the means; where are seeker and success for me abiding in my non-dual nature?

8. Where is the knower, the means to knowledge, the object of knowledge or knowledge itself; where is anything, and where is nothing for me who am ever pure?

9. Where is distraction, where is concentration; where is knowledge, where is delusion; where is joy and where is sorrow for me who am ever actionless?

10. Where is relativity, where is transcendence; where is happiness or misery for me who am ever beyond any discursive thought?

11. Where is illusion, where is the world; where is attachment or detachment; where is jivaor Brahman for me, who am ever pure?

12. Where is activity, where is inactivity; where is liberation or bondage for me who am ever immutable and indivisible, and established in the Self?

13. Where are instruction and scriptural injunction, where is the disciple and where is the preceptor; where, indeed, is the object of life for me who am absolute good and free from limitation?

14. Where is existence, where is non-existence; where is unity, where is duality? What need is there to say more? Nothing emanates from me.

1. I have extracted from the inmost recess of my heart the thorn of different opinions, using the pincers of the knowledge of Truth.

2. Where is dharma, where is kama, where is artha? Where, too, is discrimination, where is duality, and where, even, is non-duality for me who abide in my own glory?

3. Where is past, where is future, where, even, is the present? Where is space, and where even, is eternity for me who abide in my own glory?

4. Where is the Self and where is the non-Self, where, likewise, are good and evil, where is anxiety or non-anxiety for me who abide in my own glory?

5. Where is dreaming, where is deep sleep, where is wakefulness, and where is the fourth state; where, even, is fear for me who abide in my own glory?

6. Where is distance or proximity; where is exterior, where is interior; where is grossness, and where is subtlety for me who abide in my own glory?

7. Where is life or death, where are the worlds, and where are worldly relations; where is lapse, and where is concentration for me who abide in my own glory?

8. To talk about the three ends of life is needless, to talk about yoga is purposeless, and even to talk about wisdom is irrelevant for me who repose in the

Self.

Peace

1. He has gained the fruit of Knowledge as well as of the practice of yoga, who, contented and with purified senses, ever enjoys being alone.

2. Oh, the knower of Truth is never miserable in this world, for the whole universe is filled by himself alone.

3. No sense-objects ever please him who delights in the Self, even as the leaves of the neem tree do not please an elephant who delights in the sallaki leaves.

4. Rare in this world is he on whom impressions are not left of things which he has experienced or who does not desire things which he has not yet experienced.

5. Those desirous of worldly enjoyment and those desirous of liberation, both are found in this world. But rare indeed is the great-souled one who is not desirous of either enjoyment or liberation.

6. Rare is the broad-minded person who has neither attraction for, nor aversion to, dharma (duty), artha(worldly prosperity), kama (desire), and moksa (liberation) as well as life and death.

7. The man of Knowledge does not feel any desire for the dissolution of the universe, or aversion to its existence. The blessed one, therefore, lives happily on whatever subsistence comes as a matter of course.

8. Being fulfilled by the knowledge of the Self and with his mind absorbed, and contented, the wise one lives happily, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and eating.

9. There is no attachment or non-attachment in one for whom the ocean of the world has dried up. His look is vacant, action purposeless and the senses inoperative.

10. The wise one neither keeps awake nor sleeps, he neither opens nor closes his eyes. Oh, the liberated soul anywhere enjoys the supreme condition.

11. The liberated one is always found abiding in Self and is pure in heart; he lives freed from all desires, under all conditions.

12. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, taking, speaking and walking, the great-souled one, free from all efforts and non-efforts, is verily emancipated.

13. The liberated one neither slanders nor praises, he neither rejoices nor is he angry, he neither gives nor takes. He is free from attachment to all objects.

14. The great-souled one is not perturbed and remains self-poised at the sight of a woman full of love as well as of approaching death. He is indeed liberated.

15. The steady one who sees the same everywhere, sees no difference between happiness and misery, man and woman, and prosperity and adversity.

16. In the wise one whose worldly life is exhausted and who has transcended the limitations of human nature, there is neither compassion nor any desire to harm, neither humility nor insolence, neither wonder nor mental disturbance.

17. The liberated one neither abhors the objects of the senses nor craves for them. Ever with a detached mind he experiences them as they come.

18. The wise one of vacant mind knows not the conflict of contemplation and non-contemplation, good and evil. He abides as it were in the state of Absoluteness.

19. Devoid of the feeling of “I” and “mine”, knowing for certain that nothing is, and with all his inner desires set at rest, the man of Knowledge does not act though he may be acting.

20. An indescribable state is attained by the wise one whose mind has melted away, its functions having ceased to operate, and who is free from delusion, dreaming or dullness.