Religion and Social Values : 15.

-




 2.The Mistake of Religions :  The Need for a Larger Outlook : 4.



You love beautiful things, artistic arrangements. There is what is called the aesthetic impulse. Why does this impulse arise in you? How is it that you love only beauty and not ugliness? What is wrong with ugly things? You cannot answer this question. Ugly things are ugly things; beautiful things are beautiful things. “I do not like ugly things.” Why do you not like ugly things? What defects do you see in that which you call ugly? Why do you give it that name? Who asked you to give that peculiar designation of ugliness to that which you do not like? And why do you not like it? You cannot answer this question. “I like this. I do not like this. That is all.” The matter ends.


There is an insatiable hunger of the intellect and the reason to know more and more. Here again, an insatiable appetite operates within you, in the body, in the mind and in the intellect. You pursue your studies, and pursue them further and further. You go to foreign countries and pursue studies more and more, and they never end. There is something which you cannot understand even afterwards. Finally—I come to the point—there is something which keeps you in terrible insecurity of what will happen to you tomorrow, or even the next moment. “The greatest wonder in the world,” said Yudhishthira, “is that man, while he accepts the eventuality of dying, imagines that he is exempt from this phenomenon.”


You carry dead bodies to the cremation grounds and drop crocodile tears for a few minutes, but never do you feel, “This is the way I have to tread. Even if it be true that this is the way I have to walk, it is not today.” What can be a greater wonder than this? What can be a greater wonder than the fact that you are asking for things which you cannot understand? How is it that you cannot understand anything, and yet you are asking for everything? Here comes the need for a larger outlook and a deeper study of things. The present educational career is inadequate. It is empirical, it is sensory, it is a make-believe; it is a tentative adjustment and a workable arrangement, not an in-depth entry into the facts of things.

To be continued  ...



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VEDANTA FOR BEGINNERS -1 : 24. : 7,8 & 9 - SWAMI SIVANANDA

-
Image
======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20/10/2019 1. INTRODUCTION : 24 24. ILLUSTRATIONS IN VEDANTA  : 7,8, AND 9. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Padmapatra-Nyaya This is the analogy of the lotus-leaf and water. Rain water often falls on a lotus-leaf but the water drips down and the leaf does not get stained by or attached to the water on it. In the same manner, this Atman or Brahman is untainted, though there are countless worlds rolling in it, and countless bodies are seen to be put on by it. 8. Vatagandha-Nyaya The wind carries whatever scent is exposed to it and spreads it everywhere. But the air is pure and is not defiled by bad scent or ornamented by a good scent therein. This is similar to the illustration of the lot
Read more

VEDANTA FOR BEGINNERS -1.7 . SWAMI SIVANANDA

-
Image
======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23/01/2020. 1. Introduction -7. 7.The Mind And Its Works  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind is Jagat. The mind moves the senses, the Pranas, etc. Mind is the cause of bondage and  liberation. A keen study of the mind and its works is necessary for the study of Vedanta.  The presiding deity of the mind is Moon or Soma. Moon is cool. It is formed of Apas-Tattva (water). Water has a tendency to run downwards. So also the tendency of the mind is always to run downwards towards sensual objects. The external ear, the eye-balls, etc., are only instruments. They are not the real senses of Indriyas. The real centres or senses are in the brain or most correctly in the astral body (Suk
Read more

On Reason and Higher Life - 3 : Swami Krishnananda.

-
Image
============================================================= Tuesday, 09  Jan 2024.  05:30. Article Philosophy On Reason and Higher Life -3. ================================================================ We do not 'give' merely because another man's need is identical with his lack of ability. This is not the reason behind giving. We give because thereby we evolve, and there is the end of it. In this world there is always someone who has a larger ability and some other who has a lesser one. There is no point in mentioning it in the interpretation of the psychology of giving. In the performance of duty the result is not the motive. The motive is the psychological process that is going on in the act of giving. What you think and feel is important. The end beyond it is not the consideration. Our philosophy of Karma Yoga, which is the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, is one of emphasis on the essential value of active duty and not the passive existence of its remote end. It w
Read more