February 11 2003

Photos

Following are photographs taken during a Satsang titled 'Arise! Awake!' delivered by The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism to students and professors at the Thiagarajar Polytechnic located in Sona College of Technology, Salem, one of the leading Engineering Colleges in India founded in 1997. (Address: Junction Main Road, Jagir Ammapalayam, Salem, Tamil Nadu 636005). The owner and chairman of the Sona group of instituitions, Sri C. Valliappa was an ardent devotee of The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism and had personally experienced His Grace and healing in his own life. He requested The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism to address the students and citizens of Salem in his campus premises on multiple occasions, this being one such occasion.

The satsang was titled Arise! Awake!' and happened in the forenoon. Schedule: The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism traveled by road (over 200 kilometers) from Bengaluru to Salem the previous night (10 Feb 2003) and stayed in The National Hotel in Salem owned by a devotee. He delivered the satsang the following day in the forenoon at around 10:30 am and returned to Bengaluru. It was the early days of the revival of KAILASA, when The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism was operating from a makeshift car shed in Cunningham Road in Bengaluru, conducting programs, healing people, saving lives and enreaching beings with the powerful Truths from the Hindu Source scriptures - The Veda Agamas. He had inaugurated ADIKAILASA in Bengaluru a month earlier (on 1 Jan 2003) but was still operating from the city center in Cunningham Road, traveling and reaching the people wherever they were.

The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism threw open to the students an opportunity to ask questions and unleashed a powerful questions and answer session through it much to the students' delight and conscious growth. Below is the gist of the revelations, which remain one of the most impactful revelations ever till date:

There are two things in life – Experience (Anubhava) and Anubuthi. The former happens with age, when you go through the intricacies in life. When we touch the candle flame, we learn that it burns; next we touch the fire on the stove and learn that it burns; we touch the cigarette butt and learn that it burns; we touch burning coal and learn that that also burns. In this fashion, by touching various forms of fire, we learn that all forms of fire burn. By the time we learn this, it becomes time for us to go to the burning ghat ourselves. This is what you call Experience. Anubuthi on the other hand is when by touching fire for the first time and getting burnt, you understand that all forms of fire burn. Such a person is an Anubuthivan. An anubhavan will learn after touching all types of fire whereas an anubuthivaan will learn from the first fire itself. The former needs age to learn while for the latter, intelligence is enough.

During student life, a person feels that he will be happy when he gets a job. Once he gets a job, he feels that he will be happy when he gets married. After marriage he feels that he will be happy only when he gets children. Like this, man runs after each desire thinking that he will be happy only when that desire gets fulfilled. When he runs to the end of his life, he realizes that none of his desires really gives him true happiness. Such a man is an anubhavan. An anubuthivan on the other hand clearly understands from his first desire that no desire when fulfilled will give him true happiness; There lies the difference.

Over the years, if you take the lives of anubuthivans like Buddha, Sankara, Ramana Maharishi and Vivekananda, that is all the enlightened people who created the history of India, they all attained enlightenment at a very young age. Therefore age is not related to spirituality and life. Beyond age, there is something called mental age which is the clarity to learn from experience that is anubuthi. If anubuthi has happened to man, he becomes enlightened. I am here today to show you a glimpse of this anubuthi or a glimpse of Jnana (true knowledge). ‘Arise! Awake!’ that’s the title given to us today.

When I was called to talk in this college, I immediately agreed It's always nice to have a joint discussion with youngsters. Youngsters will not fear asking direct questions. Older people will have apprehensions about asking questions. They will think whether they will gather punya (spiritual credit) or paap (sin) in asking certain questions etc. They will be aware of my weightage and influence in Society and hence will feel restrained in what they ask. Youngsters do not have that fear and so they are joyful. They communicate directly with life. Sorrow has not spread and hence they are joyful. They confront life with a fresh attitude. With older people, I talk and teach whereas with students, I learn many things. Youth is on a search in life. When there is a search and a thought, there will definitely be an answer. I am here to answer your questions with joy!

One girl asked me, “Did love failure cause you to become a sanyasi?” I told her “No ma, it was success in love that made me a sanyasi!” I am able to love everyone truly and know what the meaning of real love is. The love that you know is only infatuation, simple hormonal torture. Your mind is not under your control. Your hormones are pushing you out of your mind. You need someone outside to satisfy your psychological image, someone who can give you psychological support. You need a shoulder to support you for two minutes, that’s all. That is what you call love. True love is beyond mind and body. Failure in love will create only Devdas not Sanyasis! Only success in love can create sanyasis. Only a person who can love the whole world can become a sanyasi, a Vivekananda. One night, Vivekananda woke up at 2am and woke up his disciples. He said that he was feeling a lot of pain and that in some part of the world there was a natural calamity that was happening which was causing him the pain. The next day morning papers announced a terrible earthquake in Cuba that ate up many lives. A calamity in some corner of the world caused what is called empathy in him, mind you it is not sympathy.

Sympathy is a very superficial word. Empathy is when you feel the suffering yourself and have the capacity to accept it. This is real love which makes a man a real man. Ordinary love gives birth to children while real love gives birth to your own real self. You give yourself a new birth - a transformation happens. You become a Jnani (a Realised soul). Like how the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, man becomes a Jnani. ‘Arise! Awake!’ – this is Vivekananda’s quotation. Are we sleeping? Definitely! We are sleeping even without knowing that we are sleeping.

From today’s Indian youth, how many things have been taken away? Let us discuss this now. The first loss to the youth was the Gurukul system of education. Today, mechanical engineering and electronics engineering are taught to us, but Life Engineering is missing. You are all missing an invaluable thing called Life Engineering. A senior Swami once said, “Engineering fools sell brain to purchase certificate!” That is the quality of today’s Engineering courses, please do not mistake me. What do we do? We take up our resume file and search for a job. Besides making an income of money, there is no aspiration or individuality that happens in us. Majority are like this. We put the title B.E. behind our names in the wedding invitation; no other great achievement. Some people ask me what else is that which needs to be achieved. The Gurukul system taught Brahmacharyam for the first 25 years of one’s life. A beautiful way of life was taught. Emotional balancing, keys to happiness and the power to live a fulfilling life were taught.

Listen to this story: A German troupe after the world war left an open aircraft in a mountainous village and left. The village people have never heard of an aircraft nor seen the likes of it. They gathered around it and started speculating as to what it might be. Thoughts and imagination poured out. One man concluded by logic that it was a bullock cart. The rest agreed and they started using it as a bullock cart. 6 months passed and a young boy returned to the village after his education. He inspected the aircraft and discovered that it has certain gear mechanisms. He accidentally started the engine and got the vehicle to move. He declared that it was a tractor. The villagers agreed and started using it as a tractor from then on. Yet another 6 months later, a retired army officer came to the village and saw what was happening. He had a mighty laugh and told the villagers that it was actually an aircraft capable of flying in the air! He flew it and showed it to them. It then dawned on the villagers that they had drastically underused the vehicle all those days.

We are using our body as a bullock cart. Ninety percent of our education is only an intellectual process – taking in facts, memorizing them and expressing them back, that’s all, this compares to using ourselves as a bullock cart. You need to take the next step that is doing creative projects that can be given to Society. When you do this, you will be using yourself as a tractor. The next step would be when you excel in any field of Engineering and by virtue of that give back something to the world at large. Then you will be using your body as an aircraft.

Does there need to be any physical change in your body while switching from functioning as a bullock cart to as a tractor to as an aircraft? No. It can be the same body. What then is the difference? The technique of handling it is different at each stage that’s all. When the right technique is known, you are able to function as an aircraft. This technique is what we call meditation. The mechanism inside us or the boundless energy inside us needs to be brought out. The technique for this is meditation. The Gurukul System was successful in bringing it out. Today, we have lost it and are not even aware of it. The people who gave us the techniques to change from being a bullock cart to being an aircraft were heroes of yester years. Vivekananda was one such hero. I plead with the younger generation not use their body as a bullock cart but to use it as an aircraft. Man was not born to be a wriggling worm on the ground. He was born to bend the sky! I am not writing poetry here, I am talking the Truth. Words of Truth have become meaningless these days. After hearing a speech like this, people simply comment on the beauty of the orator’s deliverance, that’s all. The real message is lost.

Those heroes of yester years are not heroes any more today. Today, the villains travel by aircraft and the heroes go by bullock cart chasing them. The hero however catches up with the villain and then he is celebrated as a hero. Whom we take to be our heroes, their ideologies we will imbibe. If we took Vivekananda to be our hero, we would have had our lives transformed by now. But we take people driven by our imagination to be our heroes and our lives get ruined because of this. Is it going to be Vivekananda or theatre heroes? Do you want reality or imagination? You have to decide!

Question and Answer session:

1. Swamiji, who was your hero?

Obviously, my hero was Vivekananda! Vivekananda has the capacity to be one’s hero.

2. Swamiji, in the Godhra Railway incident, the Hindus and Muslims had a clash. The Hindus burnt a carriage carrying Muslims. Gone seems to be the days when man loved man. Today, Man seems to be under a blanket called religion and killing other men. In yester years, the sun and trees were worshipped as God. Enlightened Masters told man that he need not worship anything outside of him and that he is God himself. In order not to misuse this power did man bring in religion? What is religion, why religion and what is God?

For those who talk God, Shiva is Love. For those who talk atheism, Love is Shiva. This is an answer in a nutshell to your beautiful question. This is a line from a cinema song written by Vairamuthu! There is no rule that sanyasis should quote only from the Upanishads. If there is diamond in what Vairamuthu wrote, we have to take it. In whichever garden there are flowers with beautiful fragrance, you are free to pluck them and make a beautiful garland.

One thing – religion is a technique that has been created to convert our life from a bullock cart to an aircraft, to live ultimately and not to live it like a pulling cart. To help us see all aspects of life, these techniques were created. In course of time, man’s mad mind started misconstruing religion. The importance that was to be given to the Bhagavad Gita was given to Lord Krishna and hence the Godhra tragedy happened. If we give importance to the Bhagavad Gita, there is no problem. When we start giving importance to Krishna, the problem starts. If we gave importance to principles, the tragedy would not have happened. We are giving importance to personalities, there starts the problem.

We cannot discard religion. Those who discard religion will create a another new religion. If there be a group of people propagating ‘Religion’, immediately, there will be another group of people propagating ‘No Religion’. The former will rob people in the name of God and the latter will rob people preaching the absence of God, that’s all. The spiritual man who says God is there and the atheist who says God is not there are both fools. (Kadanthu ullirundhu anubavikka vendiya oru porul). God is something that has to be inside you and felt or experienced by you. He is not to be spoken or argued about. Where is he? How is he? Is he standing? Is he sitting? Why hasn’t he appeared? Has he gone on long leave? All these questions are unnecessary. God is not research material. In the Mahabharata, when Draupadi screamed to God for help, He came instantly. Today so many Draupadis are screaming but He does not appear. Has he gone on long leave? No one knows. By discussing it this way, we cannot know God. Be very clear about one thing. Don’t worry about whether God is there or not. Just think about with just the concept of God, how beneficial it can get to your life, how to improve your life, that’s all.

In the West, they have advanced in the outer science. In the East, we have advanced in spirituality and meditation – the inner science. We have a great syllabus in India. Let us see how to benefit from this and be happy. Let those who want to worry, worry.

3. Swamiji, You said earlier that we should resist hormones. Hormones are given to us by God. Why should I oppose it and become a sanyasi? When I can live normally with my wife and children, why should I fear hormones and become a Ssnyasi?

First, be very clear that I never said that you should resist hormones or lust. I only said you are under hormonal torture and that you have to understand lust. A Master enumerates in a book, the losses to India over the years. He says that 40 ships of gold went to England from India, but that was not a great loss to the country; 20 foreign troops invaded India but even that did not impact India much; No other country has been invaded and duped like India but India has never invaded any country in return. In any case, none of these was a great loss to India. After every invasion and loss, India recouperated and the society stood up. Finally, our Gurukul system was abolished and Kamasutra was stopped being taught to people. This is when people stopped understanding the meaning of lust or kama. The television and other forms of media show lust in various forms and we think we know all about it. Only a true sanyasi or gnani can give you the real meaning of lust. Shankara beautifully says, “An ordinary man knows that if you turn on this switch, that light will burn or that fan will work. Only a Master knows the circuit behind the switch.”

Vatsyayanar who wrote Kamasutra was a sanyasi like me. Know the fact! Kamasutra is a science. Man knows only the result or the end. The ultimate Truth behind the result can be told only by a Master. In Physics, there are thousands of scientists working on a subject but there is an ultimate view on the subject. In physics, Albert Einstein’s view is considered the ultimate view is it not? Any other view is a middle man’s view and not the ultimate view. The rest of them are only learning. Can you contradict this concept? On kamasutra, Vatsyayanar’s views are the ultimate. If we read his book once and then discuss, it would do good.

The media is itself a patient of kama or lust. You are all collecting data from it! Will your computer work? The output of your computer depends on the input and your input itself is wrong! You need to feed in data from the right source, then your life’s calculation will be right. A miscalculation on this one subject causes misery in your entire life. If you mis-understand the ‘miss’, your whole life becomes a misunderstanding! What we know in life about lust is that it is a kind of a heat. We don’t know the techniques to live a long and easy life. I feel sad when I see you all. I feel compassionate when I see that the real Indian culture has not been shown to you all as yet. Because the real art or culture has not been shown to us, we all don’t know anything. All that we know is either expression or suppression that’s all.

Suppression! Take moralities – ‘don’t Bend’, ‘don’t look up’, don’t look down’, ‘don’t grow’ all such similar rules. Expression! A motorbike, a cell phone, a cigarette, that’s all. Either of the two will make your life a pulling cart. Suppression will make you a walking corpse. Both suppression and expression are not clear ideas on life. Without knowing what state we are in life, we question sanyasis.

We collect data from dreams and cut and paste features from four different films and form an imaginary figure and wait to see that figure in reality! Our dreams will never get fulfilled. The very word dream means that it is only a dream. We are building dream castles that’s all. If any one person matches our dream figure, we think that that is reality and we go behind it. That is why people call it honey ‘moon’ and not honey ‘sun’. The moon lasts only 16 days. What we know is only honeymoon. The art I am talking about is honeysun. Beyond body and lust lies the basis of life. This can be learnt only from a Master. Even lust needs to be learnt from God! Instead of learning from Him, you are trying to grab imagination and feed your intense hunger and trying to be judgemental of your own life.

When I want to do good, for eg., when traveling in a bus, I see an old man and I want to offer my seat to him, but I decide against it when I think that I have to myself stand for the rest of the journey. Whereas, when I want to smoke a cigarette, I get a total concurrence from inside me to go ahead saying that one cigarette will not ruin my life. Why am I not able to control my mind and do what is really correct?

Your question is to do with morality. The question is ‘The mind agrees but the heart disagrees, why?’ The reason is, when you take in something with your mind, you don’t see its benefits clearly and deeply. The cigarette has merged with your Being. You have experienced it yourself. It is not through someone else’s preaching; so your heart accepts it. But the happiness that you get by offering your seat to someone in the bus is something that you have not experienced deeply, you have been told by people that it is good to offer your seat to an elderly person in the bus, that’s all. The former is Anubuthi (where you become the experience) whereas the latter is only a concept not an experience. What you have not experienced will not attract or pull you to it. If you have really experienced the joy of helping others, you will only continue to help others.

True experience will happen when you start meditating. Our heart which is as hard as a stone will flower and become as soft and sensitive as cotton and we will feel the need to help others. At present, we either read in some magazine or have been told by elders that is good to give our seat to elderly people in the bus. Instead, that feeling should flower within us and we should offer help. For this, meditation should have happened in us at some point in time of our lives. Sensitivity will become a way of life only if meditation has happened in you, else it will remain just skin deep. To push the preaching received through the mind to the heart requires a drilling machine that is meditation. Then, justice, honesty and similar virtues taught to us will become a way of life and there will be a certain juice that you feel when following it. Else, all these virtues will remain as intellectual knowledge without turning into experiential knowledge. In Sanskrit you call the former paroksham and the latter aparoksham.

4. Swamiji, they were showering flowers on you which went under your feet. Flowers are supposed to be divine, isn’t it wrong to stamp them?

You were seated outside and hence probably did not notice how much I was trying to dissuade them from showering flowers. There are certain traditional ways of showing respect and welcoming a person. I try to discourage all this as much as I can. Just this morning, I asked for a glass of water and they brought it to me in a silver tumbler. I told them to take it away because I knew I was going to be sitting in front of a student gathering! In Tamilnadu especially, spiritual people or sanyasis are viewed as luxurious people. They are looked upon as pampered people. Last night I went to sleep at 2:30 am and got up to be in the car by 6am to reach this place on time for the function. You are able to see the flowers showered at my feet but do not see the thousands of thorns that have hurt these feet prior to this. Out of the 30,000 kilometers I have covered in my days of yatra, more than 2000 kilometres I have done by foot. We are all able to see the grandeur and respect given to sanyasis but fail to see the intense hardship that has gone behind getting it. Our younger and older generation find a certain heroism in disrespecting and insulting sanyasis. Not knowing where my next meal is going to be I have wandered through the length and breadth of India, from Gangotri to Kanyakumari and from Akshardham to Calcutta. I have come here to share that gnana with you. For that intensity of gnana, respect is shown in the form of flowers, it is not the respect given to me as a person. Therefore, there is nothing wrong in showering flowers here. Secondly, as I have already told you, I am a person who tries to discourage these type of traditions. So I think I have cleared your doubt in both ways.

5. There is no need to forego a family life, is it?

No not at all. Illaram ‘illai aramaga’ agamal ‘ il aramaga’ irundal podum. Illal allathu allal aramaga maramal il aramaga irundal podum. If your married life is not a turmoil but a life of happiness and justice, there is no need to forego it.

6. You said not to dream or imagine about the future. Our President Dr. Abdul Kalam tells us to dream. What are we supposed to do?

There are many meanings to the same word. When I say ‘don’t dream’, what I mean is, don’t dwell upon ideas that are not conducive to reality, because this becomes simple imagination. If you dream and by following your dream you realize success in life, then it is no more a dream because it has become reality. But dreams about your future wife for example may not work out. Abdul Kalam says to dream in order to change yourself for the better. What I meant was, not to dream about changing others! That’s the difference. The husband tries to sculpt the wife according to his dream and wife tries to sculpt the husband according to her dream. Someone asked me why the moral standards that preach one man to one woman as was portrayed in the Ramayana has been diluted over the years. I told him that it is because the girls of the Ramyana era never saw the actors Shah Rukh or Hrithik on television. What is it that is happening today? A 7 year old girl came with her mother to the ashram. She saw a picture of the actor Hrithik in a magazine and told her mother, “Mom, after grandfather dies, can you please purchase Hrithik and make him my grandfather. He is so good looking!” From the age of 7, images start collecting. We all collect dreams and try giving them life. If you dream and push yourself harder and see a change in your life, it is a welcome dream. In fact it becomes a goal or lakshya and not a dream. It becomes a vision, not imagination. Imagination will try to change others, while vision will change yourself. Abdul Kalam refers to vision, not imagination.

7. I have to work and earn a livelihood. I have to support my parents who have given birth to me. You said that we need to take the path of spirituality. For that, we need an entire lifetime… Swamiji: I did not say that, it is your own pre-supposition! Q contd…) OK, I feel it will take a lifetime. Swamiji: These are all old ideas. These are ideas of Swamijis belonging to the bullock cart age. I belong to the jet age. I am a hi-tech Swami!

According to me, spirituality is nothing but flowering of four things in you that are physical health, mental health, inter-human relationships and the capacity to respond spontaneously in all aspects of life (what is called responsibility). If these four things are achieved, you become a spiritual person. You don’t have to get sanyas or go to temples for this. Do you think that being a sanyasi is so easy? To get flowers at your feet, you do not know how many thorns have to be crossed. Now you are able to see the flowers showered on me, the ten cars that have accompanied me here and the welcoming music band. You immediately see an easy approach and think that you can also become a sanyasi. It is not so. To go fully into spirituality is like gambling with your own life. It may not be possible to achieve it in one life time. Katopanishad beautifully says that sanyas is like walking on the edge of a sword (Shurasya dhatha). I did not walk on flowers earlier this evening, I walked on the sword’s edge; only you see it as flowers. To that extent, we have to enact the drama that is sanyas. It has to be lived with such purity, clarity and awareness. For you, you don’t have to bother about a full time spiritual life. You can explore how spirituality can help you in your lives, how it can enrich your life, that’s enough.

8. Why do Swamijis wear saffron? Why can't they wear ordinary clothes and preach?

Colour therapy has become popular today. Every colour instills a certain feeling inside the body. For eg., if you put on a red light in your room at night time, you will not be able to sleep whereas a blue light will bring sleep. Science has proven that Saffron and this robe instill spirituality in a person. That is why Masters use this colour and robe. From society’s point of view, each profession is identified with an attire. Like how doctors wear coats, Masters wear this!

9. Is there any difference between Spiritual people (anmeegavathi) and religious people (athigavathi)?

All formers are latters while all latters are not formers. Religious people are those who believe that if milk is boiled and sugar is added and drunk, it will be tasty. Spiritual people are those who boil milk, add sugar, drink it and experience the taste. Those who believe are Religious people while those who have experienced are spiritual people.

10. Compared to other countries, India has more spiritual Masters and scholars. But in India, there is more violence and destruction. Why is this so? What are we missing?

It is true that India has more spiritual Masters and scholars, but it is not true that there is more violence here. If you see the ratio between the population and violence, it is not as much as the other countries and that too definitely not in South India. Masters and scholars have given their contribution to people. But as individuals, each of us can work better and can take more initiative towards reducing violence. This issue can never be discussed and resolved. Each of us can think of how we ourselves can contribute, that’s all. Each of you think how you can abstain from violence. When you are walking on the street, avoid plucking flowers or breaking twigs off trees. This way the collective load of violence can be reduced. Don’t discuss why society cannot be changed.

In villages, if you go to tea shops, you can hear great philosophies being discussed. In the narrow bench of the tea shop, people will sit and chew up the heads of God, Masters and Politicians. They will talk of all the atrocities being committed. After finishing drinking tea, a man from the group will leave saying he will pay for his tea the following day. The man who cannot afford to pay for his tea will read the morning paper from the first page to the last without missing a line. Even the editor of the paper would not have read through so meticulously! The amount of time spent on the teashop bench might have even caused depressions on the bench. These people who discuss all this don’t take a single step of action in achieving. That is how it is today. What do we do about this? After hearing lectures such as what you are hearing now, you could try practicing at least one teaching or one point that appealed to you. In Yoga, they say, if you can bend 6 inches today, try bending a half inch more tomorrow; your hip will not break. Like that, add a quarter teaspoon of sugar to what you have heard today and try tasting it. If you do that, the purpose of today’s meeting will be met. My speech and your time will be benefited. Else, like how the people at the tea shop cause depressions in the benches, you would have all caused depressions on the carpet here for these couple of hours that’s all.

11. You were a student like us. What is the incident that caused you to become a spiritual Master?

I was not just a student like you, I was also a student of diploma in mechanical Engineering! (applause) When I was about 12 years of age, some of Ramana Maharishi’s devotees were staying in Thiruvannamalai, my birth place. I will narrate to you one inspirational incident that took place at that time. One of Ramana Maharishi’s devotees was conducting a class wherein he was saying that we are not the body but only the Atman or soul. I overheard this and my curiosity was kindled. I thought to myself that if we are not the body, then we should not feel any pain as well. I ran back home, took a blade and slit my thigh (the mark is still visible). Intense pain and chiding followed. My parents took me to the same devotee and told him what had happened. I asked him why then he said that we are not the body. He tried explaining “When we say that we are not the body, we don’t mean it in ways of pain etc. Beyond the body there is a power. You are the body alongwith that power which is beyond the body.” This incident is what I remember as the first one which prompted me to test what I overheard and hence took the first step in a certain sense. It was a turning point. After this incident, I immersed myself in pursuing great Truths and finally reached the beautiful state of Anubuthi or ‘Becoming the Experience’.

12. Swamiji, are you vegetarian or non-vegetarian? Animals and plants have life. When we tell people not to eat non-veg food, they turn around and ask us why we are eating plants which also have life. What do we tell them?

First, don’t go around telling others not to eat non-veg food. In departments unknown, it is better not to involve yourself and get snubbed in return! Certain issues cannot be resolved by logical reasoning. I am a pure vegetarian. I eat vegetarian food because it is conducive to my body, that’s all. Vivekananda was a non-vegetarian. Hitler was a vegetarian! Do you want Vivekanada or Hitler? It is tough to categorize people based on eating habits. I fear to tell but Vivekananda used to smoke. If I tell this to youngsters, they will start following the smoking habit. Vivekananda was in foreign countries and at that time there was no thermal wear, so he smoked to keep himself warm. With these trivial habits, you cannot judge a person. After hearing such words of preaching, the tendency is to stop smoking for a couple of days and to go around torturing all our friends to stop smoking as well. We will give them continued discourses to dissuade them from smoking. The only reason for this attitude is ahankaram ( The ‘I’) - when I haven’t smoked for two days, how can they enjoy smoking?

In Ramakrishna Mutt, at the time the television was introduced in India, a new television was bought. All except one brahmachari used to watch television This brahmachari used to go to the President and complain about how the sanyasis were watching television for hours together. The President once told him “You too watch television from tomorrow. You are not happy abstaining from watching and hence you are grumbling about them watching. You have the desire but don’t watch it because there is a certain pride holding you back. Your incapacity to understand yourself completely is causing you to grumble like this.” In this same way, you are not completely happy not eating non-veg food so you compel others to become vegetarians. Mind you, this does not mean that I am advocating non-vegetarian food. For my own life, body and mind, vegetarian food is conducive and so I eat it. If you wish to adopt my way of life, become vegetarian.

Infact, I would go on to say that those who eat non-veg food for one hour a day and forget about it are better off than those who eat vegetarian food and think about non-veg 24 hours a day! Listen to this small story: a Zen Master was walking with his disciple towards his city. On the way, there was a river and a beautiful woman was standing near it. She requested the Master to help her cross the river. The Master promptly carried her to the other side of the river, left her there and returned. The disciple was disturbed by what he saw and couldn’t resist asking, “Master, how can you, as a Master, carry a young girl?” The Master turned around and replied, “I left her there long back, why are you still carrying her?” We all take small issues like these and contemplate on it for hours together. Instead I tell you, just eat non-vegetarian food and forget about it. You could decide to fall in one of three following categories:

First would be not to eat non-vegetarian food and not think about it also. The second category would be to eat it and forget about it. The third category would be not to eat it yourself, but feel deprived and hence torture people around not to eat it as well.

13. How to achieve success in life?

You have asked a question which requires a very long answer. What the rest of you were striving to ask through all your questions, this girl has asked through just this one question! The answer to this question will be the collective answers given for all of your questions!

Satsang at Sona College Salem