Vivekananda Study Circle, IIT Madras

Abstract of Sunday Class

Lecture by: Swami Atmashraddhananda,
Editor, The Vedanta Kesari

Topic: Freedom of Choice Date: 25th September, 2011 Time: 9:30 AM Place: MSB 242

Reading from Letters of Swami Vivekananda: This letter was written to Misses Mary and H. Hale daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Hale who offered Swamiji shelter in America when he had ran out of money and had no other place to go. Quoting poet Tulsidas he said that both the holy and the wicked are torturers. The wicked torture, whenever they come and holy, whenever they leave. Where the world is awake, there the man of self control is sleeping. Where the world sleeps, there he is waking. In this Swamiji becomes very emotional while expressing the love for God. He said that, the infinite One cannot be explained by philosophies, but he can be bonded by love. He gave the example of Sri Krishna-the lord of the universe -dancing to the ringing of bracelets of the Gopis of Brindavan. He says that it is foolery to try to express the inexpressible and that is to be felt only. Book Review (Powers of The Mind Swami Vivekananda): Swamiji says that man from all different cultures has from the ancient times believed in the supernatural. Many times he has experienced extraordinary happenings. Swamiji had personally met many such men possessing extraordinary powers. He described his meeting

with a man who could read mind of any person and also predict future happenings. He also mentioned about a Brahmin from Hyderabad who could produce any fruit or flower from thin air. India abounds with such instances. Of course there is a great deal of fraud, but fraud is only an imitation of something that is real; one cannot imitate -nothing. Ancient Rishis deeply studied these rare cases where some people got possession of extraordinary powers. They found that although extraordinary these powers are natural phenomena and can be studied, practiced and acquired. They made the systematic science of Raja-Yoga out of it. This is one of the aims of the yoga. Through it one can gain control over the workings of the nature and acquire supernatural powers. Sum total of all original ideas in the world is very limited in the world but the number of great men that world has seen, far exceeds this number. Swamiji says that men become great not because of the thoughts that they thought, books that they wrote or speeches that they made, but it only their personality that made them great. This personality is a very mysterious thing and no physical science can explain this. But yogis say that through yoga one can gain control of this personality and develop it. Muscles are powerful because of the finer blood vessels and muscle fibres and the nerves. These fine nerves are controlled by the still subtle thought. Thoughts are the products of the mind. Greatest power is always lodged in the fine and not in the coarse. Outward personality is the manifestation of a much finer instrument which is the mind. Each of our minds is part of the universal mind. He who knows and controls his own mind knows the secret of every mind and has power over every other mind thus develops a magnetic personality. Through methods of yoga one can gain control over ones own mind and develop the personality. Whole of creation is progressing towards perfection. Nature in her workings is making every being more and more perfect. This will take millions of years and thousands of births to achieve complete perfection. Cardinal aim of yoga is to hasten this process; to compress the whole of evolution into a few years or one life time. This is the real aim of studying mind and its control. Peculiarity of Indian mind is that anything that interests it, it gets completely absorbed in it. India too had made great progress in material sciences, but after a particular point in time it all started fading away. India found that everything that is possible by exploring the external world, all that, and much more can be achieved by diving inside and getting complete control of the mind. Although the benefits are extremely tempting, it is very difficult to achieve anything great in yoga. Swamiji said that he himself had to struggle for thirty years of his life doing intense sadhana for 20 hours a day sometimes in completely isolated places to gain whatever little he had gained in this science. Freedom of Choice: Everywhere we have certain amount of freedom and certain amount of bondage. World around us is a mixture of freedom and bondage. Animals do not possess a free will. Mans capability to make choices is his unique possession. The very fact that every one of us does different things shows that each one of us has a free choice. This is called the power of

viveka- The capability to discriminate between ideas by conscious thinking. Four things are common between man and animal. 1. 2. 3. 4. Ahara (Food) Nidra (sleep) Bhaya (Fear) Maithuna (Sexual instinct)

Apart from that human has buddhi (intellect) which is the receptacle of viveka and is exclusive to him. If a man cannot use his intellect then he is equivalent to an animal. We have the unique capability of observing our own thoughts. We can be aware of our awareness. This provides a tremendous opening to change ourselves. We can self-examine ourselves. Kathopanishad says that all our actions can be classified into two catagories, first shreyas (benificial) and second preyas (pleasant) and both are many times exclusive of each other. The action of viveka is to make a distinction between these. Anything that contributes to your well being in the long run is known as shreyas. This has to be cultivated because mind has a natural tendency to follow the path of preyas. If we are watchful of our thoughts and actions we can decide in favour of shreyas. The opposite of viveka is pramada which can lead to slow and imperceptible decline. Many times we get confused between free will and Gods will. This problem defies rationalistic explanation and cannot be explained by logic because it is beyond logic. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that we have freedom but it is not unlimited. For example a cow tied to a pole is free to graze freely in the area that is allowed by the length of the rope but it cannot move out of that area. The more important fact is that have we made the best use of all faculties that have been bestowed upon us? Have we exercised our freewill in the best possible way? Once we make a choice it sets into motion certain laws which govern the results. The results are inherent in the choice made. Type of our actions and reactions are both by choice. If a wrong choice at some point of time has led to an undesirable result we can change our attitude towards the result and still remain absolutely sthira (unperturbed). Todays world is experiencing a rise in the crime. Crime cannot be cured by more no of police it can only be prevented. Crime gets incubation in the mind. Healthy food for the mind is necessary to subdue the animal tendencies. Mind is a helpless recorder. It is also a projector of whatever it has recorded. If we have no control of the recording process we can ensure that it records only good, by exposing it only to good ideas and people. Vivekachudamani says that viveka is differentiating between real and unreal. Viveka can lead to vairagya. vairagya born out of viveka is will power. Many doctors smoke despite being aware of the fact that it is injurious to health, this shows that only intellectual understanding of good and bad is not sufficient, one has to feel the idea of shreyas in ones heart of hearts to muster enough will power to unwaveringly stick to it. How to cultivate viveka: 1. Postpone that which is pleasant and work towards that which is beneficial. 2. Viveka can be developed by developing certain virtues: a. Calmness of mind (sama).

b. Control of the senses (sama). c. Power to forbear (titiksha). d. Desire for realisation of ones true self (mumukshutwa) What you are is the results of your past actions and what you will be depends on your present actions.