MAY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA BLESS ALL VISITORS ON THIS AUSPICIOUS DAY OF GURU PURNIMA
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| Swami Vivekananda Samadhi Mandir, Belur Math on 22.7.13 |
How are we to know a
teacher, then? The sun requires no torch to make him visible, we need not light
a candle in order to see him. When the sun rises, we instinctively become aware
of the fact, and when a teacher of men comes to help us, the soul will instinctively
know that truth has already begun to shine upon it. Truth stands on its own
evidence, it does not require any other testimony to prove it true, it is self
effulgent. It penetrates into the innermost corners of our nature, and in its
presence the whole universe stands up and says, "This is truth." The
teachers whose wisdom and truth shine like the light of the sun are the very
greatest the world has known, and they are worshipped as God by the major
portion of mankind. But we may get help from comparatively lesser ones also;
only we ourselves do not possess intuition enough to judge properly of the man
from whom we receive teaching and guidance; so there ought to be certain tests,
certain conditions, for the teacher to satisfy, as there are also for the
taught.
The conditions
necessary for the taught are purity, a real thirst after knowledge, and
perseverance. No impure soul can be really religious. Purity in thought,
speech, and act is absolutely necessary for any one to be religious. As to the
thirst after knowledge, it is an old law that we all get whatever we want. None
of us can get anything other than what we fix our hearts upon. To pant for
religion truly is a very difficult thing, not at all so easy as we generally
imagine. Hearing religious talks or reading religious books is no proof yet of
a real want felt in the heart; there must be a continuous struggle, a constant
fight, an unremitting grappling with our lower nature, till the higher want is
actually felt and the victory is achieved. It is not a question of one or two
days, of years, or of lives; the struggle may have to go on for hundreds of
lifetimes. The success sometimes may come immediately, but we must be ready to
wait patiently even for what may look like an infinite length of time. The
student who sets out with such a spirit of perseverance will surely find
success and realisation at last.
In regard to the
teacher, we must see that he knows the spirit of the scriptures. The whole
world reads Bibles, Vedas, and Korans; but they are all only words, syntax,
etymology, philology, the dry bones of religion. The teacher who deals too much
in words and allows the mind to be carried away by the force of words loses the
spirit. It is the knowledge of the spirit of the scriptures alone that constitutes
the true religious teacher. The network of the words of the scriptures is like
a huge forest in which the human mind often loses itself and finds no way
out. — "The network of words is a
big forest; it is the cause of a curious wandering of the mind." "The
various methods of joining words, the various methods of speaking in beautiful
language, the various methods of explaining the diction of the scriptures are
only for the disputations and enjoyment of the learned, they do not conduce to
the development of spiritual perception"
Those who employ such
methods to impart religion to others are only desirous to show off their
learning, so that the world may praise them as great scholars. You will find
that no one of the great teachers of the world ever went into these various
explanations of the text; there is with them no attempt at
"text-torturing", no eternal playing upon the meaning of words and
their roots. Yet they nobly taught, while others who have nothing to teach have
taken up a word sometimes and written a three-volume book on its origin, on the
man who used it first, and on what that man was accustomed to eat, and how long
he slept, and so on.
Bhagavân Ramakrishna
used to tell a story of some men who went into a mango orchard and busied
themselves in counting the leaves, the twigs, and the branches, examining their
colour, comparing their size, and noting down everything most carefully, and
then got up a learned discussion on each of these topics, which were
undoubtedly highly interesting to them. But one of them, more sensible than the
others, did not care for all these things. and instead thereof, began to eat
the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave this counting of leaves and
twigs and note-taking to others. This kind of work has its proper place, but
not here in the spiritual domain. You never see a strong spiritual man among
these "leaf counters". Religion, the highest aim, the highest glory
of man, does not require so much labour. If you want to be a Bhakta, it is not
at all necessary for you to know whether Krishna was born in Mathurâ or in
Vraja, what he was doing, or just the exact date on which he pronounced the
teachings of the Gitâ. You only require to feel the craving for the beautiful
lessons of duty and love in the Gita. All the other particulars about it and
its author are for the enjoyment of the learned. Let them have what they
desire. Say "Shântih, Shântih" to their learned controversies, and
let us "eat the mangoes".
The second condition
necessary in the teacher is — sinlessness. The question is often asked,
"Why should we look into the character and personality of a teacher? We
have only to judge of what he says, and take that up." This is not right.
If a man wants to teach me something of dynamics, or chemistry, or any other
physical science, he may be anything he likes, because what the physical
sciences require is merely an intellectual equipment; but in the spiritual
sciences it is impossible from first to last that there can be any spiritual
light in the soul that is impure. What religion can an impure man teach? The
sine qua non of acquiring spiritual truth for one's self or for imparting it to
others is the purity of heart and soul. A vision of God or a glimpse of the
beyond never comes until the soul is pure. Hence with the teacher of religion
we must see first what he is, and then what he says. He must be perfectly pure,
and then alone comes the value of his words, because he is only then the true
"transmitter". What can he transmit if he has not spiritual power in
himself? There must be the worthy vibration of spirituality in the mind of the
teacher, so that it may be sympathetically conveyed to the mind of the taught.
The function of the teacher is indeed an affair of the transference of
something, and not one of mere stimulation of the existing intellectual or
other faculties in the taught. Something real and appreciable as an influence
comes from the teacher and goes to the taught. Therefore the teacher must be
pure.
The third condition is
in regard to the motile. The teacher must not teach with any ulterior selfish
motive — for money, name, or fame; his work must be simply out of love, out of
pure love for mankind at large. The only medium through which spiritual force
can be transmitted is love. Any selfish motive, such as the desire for gain or
for name, will immediately destroy this conveying median. God is love, and only
he who has known God as love can be a teacher of godliness and God to man.
When you see that in
your teacher these conditions are all fulfilled, you are safe; if they are not,
it is unsafe to allow yourself to be taught by him, for there is the great
danger that, if he cannot convey goodness to your heart, he may convey
wickedness. This danger must by all means be guarded against. — "He who is learned in the scriptures,
sinless, unpolluted by lust, and is the greatest knower of the Brahman" is
the real teacher.
From what has been
said, it naturally follows that we cannot be taught to love, appreciate, and
assimilate religion everywhere and by everybody. The "books in the running
brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything" is all very true as a
poetical figure: but nothing can impart to a man a single grain of truth unless
he has the undeveloped germs of it in himself. To whom do the stones and brooks
preach sermons? To the human soul, the lotus of whose inner holy shrine is
already quick with life. And the light which causes the beautiful opening out
of this lotus comes always from the good and wise teacher. When the heart has
thus been opened, it becomes fit to receive teaching from the stones or the
brooks, the stars, or the sun, or the moon, or from any thing which has its
existence in our divine universe; but the unopened heart will see in them
nothing but mere stones or mere brooks. A blind man may go to a museum, but he
will not profit by it in any way; his eyes must be opened first, and then alone
he will be able to learn what the things in the museum can teach.
This eye-opener of the
aspirant after religion is the teacher. With the teacher, therefore, our
relationship is the same as that between an ancestor and his descendant.
Without faith, humility, submission, and veneration in our hearts towards our
religious teacher, there cannot be any growth of religion in us; and it is a
significant fact that, where this kind of relation between the teacher and the
taught prevails, there alone gigantic spiritual men are growing; while in those
countries which have neglected to keep up this kind of relation the religious
teacher has become a mere lecturer, the teacher expecting his five dollars and
the person taught expecting his brain to be filled with the teacher's words,
and each going his own way after this much has been done. Under such
circumstances spirituality becomes almost an unknown quantity. There is none to
transmit it and none to have it transmitted to. Religion with such people
becomes business; they think they can obtain it with their dollars. Would to
God that religion could be obtained so easily! But unfortunately it cannot be.
Religion, which is the
highest knowledge and the highest wisdom, cannot be bought, nor can it be
acquired from books. You may thrust your head into all the corners of the
world, you may explore the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Caucasus, you may sound
the bottom of the sea and pry into every nook of Tibet and the desert of Gobi,
you will not find it anywhere until your heart is ready for receiving it and
your teacher has come. And when that divinely appointed teacher comes, serve
him with childlike confidence and simplicity, freely open your heart to his
influence, and see in him God manifested. Those who come to seek truth with
such a spirit of love and veneration, to them the Lord of Truth reveals the
most wonderful things regarding truth, goodness, and beauty.
SOURCE: Bhakti Yoga, Volume-5, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
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