Real Yoga

Volume 3, Bhakti Yoga

by Swami Vivekananda (1894)

FYI

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.

शब्दजालं महारण्यं चित्तभ्रमणकारणम्।

— 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.

वाग्‍वैखरी शब्दझरी शास्त्रव्याख्यानकौशलम्‌। वैदुष्यं विदुषां तद्वद् भुक्तयॆ न तु मुक्‍तये॥

— 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.

* Shântih in Sanskrit means peace.

You will also see shântih spelled as Shanti.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti is often chanted to invoke peace in three ways:

1. First Shanti: Purification of the body from suffering.
2. Second Shanti: Relief of the mind from negative feelings.
3. Third Shanti: To connect the spirit to a higher self.

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.

* Sine qua non is a Latin phrase and means without which not, referring to something that is essential or indispensable for a particular situation or outcome. It is often used to describe a necessary condition or requirement.

Sine qua non = an essential element or condition.

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.

The above paragraph says it all and why many of the best teachers teach in silence.

Westernized yoga fails all 3 conditions. But there are also honest teachers in the West.

Equally so, not all teachers in the East are honest. Some just want your money.

— Yogi Karmananda

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.

श्रोत्रियोऽवृजिनोऽकामहतो यो ब्रह्मवित्तमः

— 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.

Gauni (Preparation): DefinitionBhakti Narada karma raja Shandilya Vyasa Sutras jnana gnana love hinduism christians Mohammedanism muslims islam christianity Nishtha gauni prepatory Sutra avrittirasakridupadeshat Bhagavan Shankara Shruti atman liberation vedas Sutra of Patanjali Ishvara pranidhanadva supreme atman Brahman

Gauni (Preparation): IshvaraIshvara satchitananda sat chit ananda Brahman Absolute Reality Sutras pada Moksha Jiva aphorism Kshatras Varuna Soma Rudra Parjanya Yama Mrityu Ishâna Atman Ramanuja Advaita brahman not this not this Shrutis Sankhyas Samkhyas Bhagavata Purana Prahlada gopis krishna Acharya Shankara Vyasa Varaha Purana Madhvacharya

Gauni (Preparation): Spiritual Realisationbhakti bhakta realization realisation god moksha gauni para Ishtapurta

Gauni (Preparation): The Need of Guruguru spiritual Shishya student teacher fools blind leading the blind

Gauni (Preparation): Qualifications of the Aspirant and the Teacherguru teacher sun purity bible vedas koran Bhagavân Ramakrishna mango bhakta mango leaves counting twigs Shantih shanti sine qua non sin religion Himalayas the Alps the Caucasus Tibet gobi

Gauni (Preparation): Incarnate Teachers and IncarnationShri Krishna Bhagavata omnipotence omnipresence Avataras of Ishvara Paramahamsa buffalo fish Bhagavan Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa big talker man on the street

Gauni (Preparation): The Mantra: Om: Word and Wisdommantra Chittavritti nama rupa name and form Sphota Brahma Hiranyagarbha Mahat om aum krishna Akhanda-Sachchidânanda Tattvas

Gauni (Preparation): Worship of Substitutes and ImagesPratikas Pratimas Brahman Bhagavan Ramanuja akasha Devas Shankara Karma omnipresent Vidya Ishvara Shrutis Smritis Vishishtâdvaitin Adityas Brahma Sutra Bhasya Vedantism Buddhism Christianity islam Mohammedans Protestantism agnostics August Comte Drishtisaukaryam

Gauni (Preparation): The Chosen IdealIshta Nishtha bhakta vedanta home of truth ocean of bliss maya Svati Hanuman Ramayana Tulasidasa

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