21 March :
21 Mar 1896 : Lecture: "The Science of Work" at Procopeia Club, Boston.
Newspaper Report: "Philosophy of Freedom" - My own interpretation
of our ancient books in the light which my master shed upon them. I
claim no supernatural authority. Whatever in my teachings may appeal to
the highest intelligence and be accepted by thinking men, the adoption
of that will be my reward. All religions
have for their object the teaching of devotion, or knowledge, or
activity, in a concrete form. Now, the philosophy of Vedanta is the
abstract science which embraces all these methods, and this is what I
teach, leaving each one to apply it to his own concrete form. I refer
each individual to his own experience, and where reference is made to
books, the latter are procurable, and may be studied for each one by
himself.
The Swami teaches no authority from hidden beings, through
visible objects, any more than he claims learning from hidden books. He
believes no good can come from secret societies. Truth stands on its own authority, and truth can bear the light of day.
21 Mar 1895 : Letter to Mrs Ole Bull - My master used to say that these
names, as Hindu, Christian, etc., stand as great bars to all brotherly
feelings between man and man. We must try to break them down first. They
have lost all their good powers and now only stand as baneful
influences under whose black magic even the best of us behave like
demons. Well, we will have to work hard and must succeed.
That is
why I desire so much to have a centre. Organisation has its faults, no
doubt, but without that nothing can be done. And here, I am afraid, I
will have to differ from you--that no one ever succeeded in keeping
society in good humour and at the same time did great works. One must
work as the dictate comes from within, and then if it is right and good,
society is bound to veer round, perhaps centuries after one is dead and
gone. We must plunge heart and soul and body into the work. And until
we be ready to sacrifice everything else to one Idea and to one alone,
we never, never will see the light.
Those that want to help mankind
must take their own pleasure and pain, name and fame, and all sorts of
interests, and make a bundle of them and throw them into the sea, and
then come to the Lord. This is what all the Masters said and did.
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