Dog Poet Transmitting.......
So... the culture blog... It's probably a good thing that I have stayed away from direct interaction with 'kulchar' because these days it really is a landfill burbling with toxic wastes and a disintegrating culture as the masthead states. I do call attention to any number of things, especially those having to do with sexual mores of which, 'less' would be a more desirable word. I'm not surprised by what I see (indirectly) and hear about (indirectly). I've long expected pretty much everything that has appeared since some while ago, because 'trends' can be predicted simply as a by-product of observing trends, the same way that you can predict winding up in Kansas City, if you are on the road to Kansas City. It's not rocket surgery.
There 'seems' to be a lot of people screaming at each other.
I don't want to be anywhere near that. There was a time when I did a lot of performing. It went well mostly but it always 'trended' toward more and more exposure and fame. It did take a little while to realize I didn't want to go there. After awhile I just did drugs all the time but it got in the way of drinking too much on occasion. In the end I just went with drugs. I'd convinced myself that I would find God; get God's attention, if I just made a lot of noise in my head, if I stormed the Gates of Heaven. Since I knew that God was lurking in my head, this seemed (at the time) to be a good idea and it did work finally ...but it also resulted in my having to give up drugs... drinking had already gone by that time. I didn't mind. Having God is a lot like being on really good drugs all the time and that is why it is called 'divine intoxication'. I can't explain what it is like. You have to be there. Be relentlessly persistent and you will be there. Quite simply I wanted it more than anything else and that is why I often mention this; like the I-Ching says, “persistence furthers”.
Don't do it the way I did. You need a special dispensation to do that. If you don't have this dispensation you can wind up permanently disabled, or dead, in which case the latter would be preferable.
Once you have the company of the divine on a regular basis, nothing else and... I really mean NOTHING ELSE has any importance whatsoever, besides service. This is because service is the immediate and permanent offspring of meeting God and having God stick around. God will not stick around otherwise. This is best explained in the song, “Magic is Afoot”.
You simply substitute the word, 'God' for the word 'magic'.
Whenever we find an argument going on in our minds, or with another person concerning the existence of divinity. it is ALWAYS because of religion. Rather than go into why Religion (as it is generally understood- and not as another word for spirituality, as Vivekanada sometimes uses it, having come from another century) is a stumbling block, let me say with all brevity... just toss it to the side and forget about it. I'm not going to go on and on about this because that is just what 'it' does on its own. It goes on and on, like that terrible song by Stephen Bishop.
There is no such thing as forever. There is only eternity. There is no time. Time is within you, not outside of you and the same with God. Gee... that makes a whole lot of sense, Visible. That is the point of it, it does not make sense. Here, makes sense here, according to here. Outside of here, past the realm of the senses, here makes no sense. Here makes sense to itself. There... makes sense to itself and you do or do not make sense to yourself. The real question that should be asked is “do you make sense?”
Why do you insist on punishing yourself?
Because we do not comprehend or recognize the indwelling divinity, we are subject to the punishments of fate. Because we are attached to the results of our actions, we suffer under the lash of cause and effect. He who is not concerned with results is free of all that nonsense. Of course he/she was free to begin with. It was only thinking that made it seem otherwise. You have always been free... but then you talked yourself out of it, or got talked out of it. This is one of the jobs that The World does. It works to diminish you in your true being, by encouraging you to seek to amplify your false being. Don't do that. You are the Crown of Creation! Simply go about your days, in all of your thoughts and speech and acts, as if the divine being were resident within. It just so happens that this is true and the reason so many of us are unaware of that is that we prefer to go about as the poorly constructed and imaginary self we like to think of ourselves as.
Going about your life as if God were resident within does not mean strutting about with your chest puffed out, or gazing at people with a far away and distant look of manufactured wisdom in your eyes. All I can say is that you will know it when it happens. It isn't like anything else. It is unique. It possesses a startling sense of self assurance, while forever giving way before others. You don't have to declare it or adopt any particular posture. It has a way of making it felt in a peripheral manner, just as the truth is at right angles to everything else.
We are living in an age of full blown and cultivated crazy. What happens when crazy proliferates through larger environments is visible in all manner of ways. Crazy generates its own environments. Crazy has a form of complexity to it that might not seem obvious when you see it in action. Sometimes Crazy takes over an entire neighborhood or even a city.
How do you fix something like that? It will continue to get worse and urban environments everywhere are going to be exemplifying this sort of thing because when you jam people up against each other, strange and undesirable things happen. I suggest reading the article by Tom Wolfe titled, “Oh Rotten Gotham, Sliding Down the Behavioral Sink." It contemplates experiments with rats and then transposes it to city life; New York City is the model used. One point I will reference, the mature male rats lose all interest in the females and begin buggering the younger male rats. Interesting? Ironic? It was an extended and involved experiment.
When people are pressed up against each other, certain behaviors begin to occur and whether it is Babylon or San Francisco, some things don't change.
I sincerely and deeply wish I possessed the words... the talent... something... to transmit how incredible and astounding and joy drenched it is to have the ineffable interactive within. It is freely available. Anyone with the requisite Faith, Certitude and Determination can have this. Think of it like muscle development. If you exercise something over the course of a certain length of time, you WILL get certain results. Certain laws are present in the universe. We experience the results of them every day such as; cause and effect, gravity, the law of reciprocity etc. There are a great many rules and laws in operation than are generally known.
When you want certain food items, you go to a grocery store or a supermarket. If it is an unusual item you might go to a specialty shop. Online you can order just about anything that is in common use and a lot of things in uncommon use. There are stores, both brick and mortar and virtual, where countless things are available. If you are looking for God then you must look within. Keep in mind that you would not be alive if God were not present because you are a part of God. You are a specific expression of God; 'in development'. You don't have to believe me on this matter. Many souls both here and gone elsewhere attest to what I have just said. Some of them are of the highest repute and of unimpeachable character.
Of course, if you want to argue about it you can find people to do that with. If you want to make excuses for not seeking God there are plenty of those too. If you are determined and persistent you WILL make contact. I am a person with a checkered history and someone who has made some number of errors of judgment in my life. Not being determined and persistent about searching for God is not one of them. It doesn't matter what mistakes you have made, or whether you consider yourself unworthy. We are all unworthy. Hard as it is to believe, God desires our company more than we desire the company of God. However... it is without question that God will test your sincerity and the nature of your intentions. We are talking about the most priceless and desirable thing that has been or ever will be. Of course, it is not the same as wanting to meet someone else in this life but, once again, if you are persistent and determined you will have success.
I don't know how much simpler or direct I can say this. For some, it just doesn't seem that important; at the moment anyway. Some will scoff and mock the effort, or insist that no such creature exists. As a matter of first hand experience, I can state unequivocally that a divine being does exist. I can also state that this being is incomprehensible and indefinable but that is of no matter at all. The divine is a well spring of immeasurable joy and bliss. How could anyone not want this? Uh huh. That is something to think about. This is a personal matter and something to be considered and carried out in an internal manner. You will or you won't. It is not my affair. I have taken care of my end of it and I will continue to.
End Transmission.......
I have included here at the end, a discourse by Swami Vivekananda. It is taken from Book One of his complete works. It is in the section, “Letters and Discourses” and is titled, “The Soul and God”. I give you this link and the information, if you should wish to read it online instead of here in this posting and that is because it did not transfer as well as one might have wished. It is still readable but if you want it as it was you can find it there. The few before this one are quite amazing and you might want to read those too. I cut and pasted this because people are lazy and this makes it easy. You will find he is not like anyone else you have ever read. I think he wrote this when he was quite young. He only stayed till he was 40 years old anyway.
He was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna. He was given ALL of Ramakrishna's siddhis (spiritual powers. I think he had ALL of them that are available). Ramakrishna never used his. I don't know about Vivekanada, except that I really enjoy his work. I hope you do too.
Whether it was fear or mere inquisitiveness which first led man to think of powers superior to himself, we need not discuss. ... These raised in the mind peculiar worship tendencies, and so on. There never have been [times in the history of mankind] without [some ideal] of worship. Why? What makes us all think beyond what we see — whether it be a beautiful morning or a fear of dead spirits? ... We need not go back into prehistoric times, for it is a fact present today as it was two thousand years ago. We do not find satisfaction here. Whatever our station in life— [even if we are] powerful and wealthy we cannot find satisfaction. Desire is infinite. Its fulfilment is very limited.. There is no end to our desires; but when we go to fulfil them, the difficulty comes. It has been so with the most primitive minds, when their desires were [few]. Even [these] could not be accomplished. Now, with our arts and sciences improved and multiplied, our desires cannot be fulfilled [either]. On the other hand, we are struggling to perfect means for the fulfilment of desires, and the desires are increasing. ... The most primitive man naturally wanted help from outside for things which he could not accomplish. He desired something, and it could not be obtained. He wanted help from other powers. The most ignorant primitive man and the most cultivated man today, appealing to God and asking for the fulfilment of some desire, are exactly the same. What difference? [Some people] find a great deal of difference.
We are always finding much difference in things when there is no difference at all. Both [the primitive man and the cultivated man] plead to the same [power]. You may call it God or Allah or Jehovah. Human beings want something and cannot get it by their own powers, and are after someone who will help them. This is primitive, and it is still present with us. ... all born savages and gradually civilise ourselves. ... All of us here, if we search, will find the same fact. Even now this fear does not leave us. We may talk big, become philosophers and all that; but when the blow comes, we find that we must beg for help. We believe in all the superstitions that ever existed. [But] there is no superstition in the world [that does not have some basis of truth]. If I cover my face and only the tip of my [nose] is showing, still it is a bit of my face. So [with] the superstitions — the little bits are true. You see, the lowest sort of manifestation of religion came with the burial of the departed. ... First they wrapped them up and put them in mounds, and the spirits of the departed came and lived in the [mounds, at night]. ... Then they began to bury them. ... At the gate stands a terrible goddess with a thousand teeth. ... Then [came] the burning of the body and the flames bore the spirit up. ... The Egyptians brought food and water for the departed. The next great idea was that of the tribal gods. This tribe had one god and that tribe another. The Jews had their God Jehovah, who was their own tribal god and fought against all the other gods and tribes. That god would do anything to please his own people. If he killed a whole tribe not protected by him, that was all right, quite good. A little love was given, but that love was confined to a small section. Gradually, higher ideals came. The chief of the conquering tribe was the Chief of chiefs, God of gods. ... So with the Persians when they conquered Egypt. The Persian emperor was the Lord of [lords], and before the emperor nobody could stand. Death was the penalty for anyone who looked at the Persian emperor. Then came the ideal of God Almighty and All-powerful, the omnipotent, omniscient Ruler of the universe: He lives in heaven, and man pays special tribute to his Most Beloved, who creates everything for man. The whole world is for man. The sun and moon and stars are [for him]. All who have those ideas are primitive men, not civilised and not cultivated at all. All the superior religions had their growth between the Ganga and the Euphrates. ... Outside of India we will find no further development [of religion beyond this idea of God in heaven]. That was the highest knowledge ever obtained outside of India.
There is the local heaven where he is and [where] the faithful shall go when they die. ... As far as I have seen, we should call it a very primitive idea. ... Mumbo jumbo in, Africa [and] God in heaven — the same. He moves the world, and of course his will is being done everywhere. ... The old Hebrew people did not care for any heaven. That is one of the reasons they [opposed] Jesus of Nazareth — because he taught life after death.
Paradise in Sanskrit means land beyond this life. So the paradise was to make up for all this evil. The primitive man does not care [about] evil. ... He never questions why there should be any. ... ... The word devil is a Persian word. ... The Persians and Hindus [share the Aryan ancestry] upon religious grounds, and ... they spoke the same language, only the words one sect uses for good the other uses for bad. The word Deva is an old Sanskrit word for God, the same word in the Aryan languages. Here the word means the devil. ... Later on, when man developed [his inner life], he began to question, and to say that God is good. The Persians said that there were two gods — one was bad and one was good. [Their idea was that] everything in this life was good: beautiful country, where there was spring almost the whole year round and nobody died; there was no disease, everything was fine. Then came this Wicked One, and he touched the land, and then came death and disease and mosquitoes and tigers and lions. Then the Aryans left their fatherland and migrated southward. The old Aryans must have lived way to the north. The Jews learnt it [the idea of the devil] from the Persians. The Persians also taught that there will come a day when this wicked god will be killed, and it is our duty to stay with the good god and add our force to him in this eternal struggle between him and the wicked one. ... The whole world will be burnt out and everyone will get a new body. The Persian idea was that even the wicked will be purified and not be bad any more. The nature of the Aryan was love and poetry. They cannot think of their being burnt [for eternity]. They will all receive new bodies. Then no more death. So that is the best about [religious] ideas outside of India. ...
Along with that is the ethical strain. All that man has to do is to take care of three things: good thought, good word, good deed. That is all. It is a practical, wise religion. Already there has come a little poetry in it. But there is higher poetry and higher thought. In India we see this Satan in the most ancient part of the Vedas. He just (appears) and immediately disappears. ... In the Vedas the bad god got a blow and disappeared. He is gone, and the Persians took him. We are trying to make him leave the world [al]together.
Taking the Persian idea, we are going to make a decent gentleman of him; give him a new body. There was the end of the Satan idea in India. But the idea of God went on; but mind you, here comes another fact. The idea of God grew side by side with the idea of [materialism] until you have traced it up to the emperor of Persia. But on the other hand comes in metaphysics, philosophy. There is another line of thought, the idea of [the non-dual Atman, man's] own soul. That also grows. So, outside of India ideas about God had to remain in that concrete form until India came to help them out a bit. ... The other nations stopped with that old concrete idea. In this country [America], there are millions who believe that God is [has?] a body. ... Whole sects say it. [They believe that] He rules the world, but there is a place where He has a body. He sits upon a throne. They light candles and sing songs just as they do in our temples. But in India they are sensible enough never to make [their God a physical being]. You never see in India a temple of Brahma. Why? Because the idea of the soul always existed. The Hebrew race never questioned about the soul. There is no soul idea in the Old Testament at all. The first is in the New Testament. The Persians, they became so practical — wonderfully practical people — a fighting, conquering race. They were the English people of the old time, always fighting and destroying their neighbours — too much engaged in that sort of thing to think about the soul. ... The oldest idea of [the] soul [was that of] a fine body inside this gross one. The gross one disappears and the fine one appears. In Egypt that fine one also dies, and as soon as the gross body disintegrates, the fine one also disintegrates. That is why they built those pyramids [and embalmed the dead bodies of their ancestors, thus hoping to secure immortality for the departed]. ... The Indian people have no regard for the dead body at all. [Their attitude is :] "Let us take it and burn it." The son has to set fire to his father's body. ... There are two sorts of races, the divine and the demonic. The divine think that they are soul and spirit. The demonic think that they are bodies. The old Indian philosophers tried to insist that the body is nothing. "As a man emits his old garment and takes a new one, even so the old body is [shed] and he takes a new one" (Gita, II. 22). In my case, all my surrounding and education were trying to [make me] the other way.
I was always associated with Mohammedans and Christians, who take more care of the body. ... It is only one step from [the body] to the spirit. ... [In India] they became insistent on this ideal of the soul. It became [synonymous with] the idea of God. ... If the idea of the soul begins to expand, [man must arrive at the conclusion that it is beyond name and form]. ... The Indian idea is that the soul is formless. Whatever is form must break some time or other. There cannot be any form unless it is the result of force and matter; and all combinations must dissolve. If such is the case, [if] your soul is [made of name and form, it disintegrates], and you die, and you are no more immortal. If it is double, it has form and it belongs to nature and it obeys nature's laws of birth and death. ... They find that this [soul] is not the mind ... neither a double. ... Thoughts can be guided and controlled. ... [The Yogis of India] practiced to see how far the thoughts can be guided and controlled.
By dint of hard work, thoughts may be silenced altogether. If thoughts were [the real man], as soon as thought ceases, he ought to die. Thought ceases in meditation; even the mind's elements are quite quiet. Blood circulation stops. His breath stops, but he is not dead. If thought were he, the whole thing ought to go, but they find it does not go. That is practical [proof]. They came to the conclusion that even mind and thought were not the real man. Then speculation showed that it could not be. I come, I think and talk. In the midst of all [this activity is] this unity [of the Self]. My thought and action are varied, many [fold] ... but in and through them runs ... that one unchangeable One. It cannot be the body. That is changing every minute. It cannot be the mind; new and fresh thoughts [come] all the time. It is neither the body nor the mind. Both body and mind belong to nature and must obey nature's laws. A free mind never will. ... Now, therefore, this real man does not belong to nature. It is the person whose mind and body belong to nature. So much of nature we are using. Just as you come to use the pen and ink and chair, so he uses so much of nature in fine and in gross form; gross form, the body, and fine form, the mind. If it is simple, it must be formless. In nature alone are forms. That which is not of nature cannot have any forms, fine or gross. It must be formless. It must be omnipresent. Understand this. [Take] this glass on the table. The glass is form and the table is form. So much of the glass-ness goes off, so much of table-ness [when they break]. ... The soul ... is nameless because it is formless. It will neither go to heaven nor [to hell] any more than it will enter this glass. It takes the form of the vessel it fills. If it is not in space, either of two things is possible. Either the [soul permeates] space or space is in [it]. You are in space and must have a form. Space limits us, binds us, and makes a form of us. If you are not in space, space is in you. All the heavens and the world are in the person. ... So it must be with God. God is omnipresent. "Without hands [he grasps] everything; without feet he can move. ... " (Shvetâshvatara Upanishad, III. 19.) He [is] the formless, the deathless, the eternal. The idea of God came. ... He is the Lord of souls, just as my soul is the [lord] of my body. If my soul left the body, the body would not be for a moment. If He left my soul, the soul would not exist. He is the creator of the universe; of everything that dies He is the destroyer. His shadow is death; His shadow is life. [The ancient Indian philosophers] thought: ... This filthy world is not fit for man's attention. There is nothing in the universe that is [permanent — neither good nor evil]. ... I told you ... Satan ... did not have much chance [in India]. Why? Because they were very bold in religion. They were not babies. Have you seen that characteristic of children? They are always trying to throw the blame on someone else. Baby minds [are] trying, when they make a mistake, to throw the blame upon someone [else]. On the one hand, we say, "Give me this; give me that." On the other hand, we say, "I did not do this; the devil tempted me. The devil did it." That is the history of mankind, weak mankind. ...
Why is evil? Why is [the world] the filthy, dirty hole? We have made it. Nobody is to blame. We put our hand in the fire. The Lord bless us, [man gets] just what he deserves. Only He is merciful. If we pray to Him, He helps us. He gives Himself to us. That is their idea. They are [of a] poetic nature. They go crazy over poetry. Their philosophy is poetry. This philosophy is a poem. ... All [high thought] in the Sanskrit is written in poetry. Metaphysics, astronomy — all in poetry. We are responsible, and how do we come to mischief? [You may say], "I was born poor and miserable. I remember the hard struggle all my life." Philosophers say that you are to blame. You do not mean to say that all this sprang up without any cause whatever? You are a rational being. Your life is not without cause, and you are the cause. You manufacture your own life all the time. ... You make and mould your own life. You are responsible for yourself. Do not lay the blame upon anybody, any Satan. You will only get punished a little more. ... [A man] is brought up before God, and He says, "Thirty-one stripes for you," ... when comes another man. He says, "Thirty stripes: fifteen for that fellow, and fifteen for the teacher — that awful man who taught him." That is the awful thing in teaching. I do not know what I am going to get. I go all over the world. If I have to get fifteen for each one I have taught!... We have to come to this idea: "This My Mâyâ is divine." It is My activity [My] divinity. "[My Maya] is hard to cross, but those that take refuge in me [go beyond maya]." (Gita, VII. 14.) But you find out that it is very difficult to cross this ocean [of Maya by] yourself. You cannot. It is the old question - hen and egg.
If you do any work, that work becomes the cause and produces the effect. That effect [again] becomes the cause and produces the effect. And so on. If you push this down, it never stops. Once you set a thing in motion, there is no more stopping. I do some work, good or bad, [and it sets up a chain reaction].... I cannot stop now. It is impossible for us to get out from this bondage [by ourselves]. It is only possible if there is someone more powerful than this law of causation, and if he takes mercy on us and drags us out. And we declare that there is such a one - God. There is such a being, all merciful.... If there is a God, then it is possible for me to be saved. How can you be saved by your own will? Do you see the philosophy of the doctrine of salvation by grace?
You Western people are wonderfully clever, but when you undertake to explain philosophy, you are so wonderfully complicated. How can you save yourself by work, if by salvation you mean that you will be taken out of all this nature? Salvation means just standing upon God, but if you understand what is meant by salvation, then you are the Self.... You are not nature. You are the only thing outside of souls and gods and nature. These are the external existences, and God [is] interpenetrating both nature and soul. Therefore, just as my soul is [to] my body, we? as it were, are the bodies of God. God-souls-nature — it is one. The One, because, as I say, I mean the body, soul, and mind. But, we have seen, the law of causation pervades every bit of nature, and once you have got caught you cannot get out. When once you get into the meshes of law, a possible way of escape is not [through work done] by you. You can build hospitals for every fly and flea that ever lived.... All this you may do, but it would never lead to salvation.... [Hospitals] go up and they come down again. [Salvation] is only possible if there is some being whom nature never caught, who is the Ruler of nature. He rules nature instead of being ruled by nature. He wills law instead of being downed by law. ... He exists and he is all merciful. The moment you seek Him [He will save you]. Why has He not taken us out? You do not want Him. You want everything but Him. The moment you want Him, that moment you get Him. We never want Him. We say, "Lord, give me a fine house." We want the house, not Him. "Give me health! Save me from this difficulty!" When a man wants nothing but Him, [he gets Him]. "The same love which wealthy men have for gold and silver and possessions, Lord, may I have the same love for Thee. I want neither earth nor heaven, nor beauty nor learning. I do not want salvation. Let me go to hell again and again. But one thing I want: to love Thee, and for love's sake — not even for heaven."
Whatever man desires, he gets. If you always dream of having a body, [you will get another body]. When this body goes away he wants another, and goes on begetting body after body. Love matter and you become matter. You first become animals. When I see a dog gnawing a bone, I say, "Lord help us!" Love body until you become dogs and cats! Still degenerate, until you become minerals — all body and nothing else.... There are other people, who would have no compromise. The road to salvation is through truth. That was another watchword. ... [Man began to progress spiritually] when he kicked the devil out. He stood up and took the responsibility of the misery of the world upon his own shoulders. But whenever he looked [at the] past and future and [at the] law of causation, he knelt down and said, "Lord, save me, [thou] who [art] our creator, our father, and dearest friend." That is poetry, but not very good poetry, I think. Why not? It is the painting of the Infinite [no doubt]. You have it in every language how they paint the Infinite. [But] it is the infinite of the senses, of the muscles. ... "[Him] the sun [does not illumine], nor the moon, nor the stars, [nor] the flash of lightning." (Katha Upanishad, II. ii. 15.) That is another painting of the Infinite, by negative language. ... And the last Infinite is painted in [the] spirituality of the Upanishads. Not only is Vedanta the highest philosophy in the world, but it is the greatest poem.... Mark today, this is the ... difference between the first part of the Vedas and the second. In the first, it is all in [the domain of] sense. But all religions are only [concerned with the] infinite of the external world — nature and nature's God.... [Not so Vedanta]. This is the first light that the human mind throws back [of] all that. No satisfaction [comes] of the infinite [in] space. "[The] Selfexisent [One] has [created] the [senses as turned] ... to the outer world.
Those therefore who [seek] outside will never find that [which is within]. There are the few who, wanting to know the truth, turn their eyes inward and in their own souls behold the glory [of the Self]." (Katha Upanishad, II. i. 1.) It is not the infinite of space, but the real Infinite, beyond space, beyond time.... Such is the world missed by the Occident.... Their minds have been turned to external nature and nature's God. Look within yourself and find the truth that you had [forgotten]. Is it possible for mind to come out of this dream without the help of the gods? Once you start the action, there is no help unless the merciful Father takes us out. That would not be freedom, [even] at the hands of the merciful God. Slavery is slavery. The chain of gold is quite as bad as the chain of iron. Is there a way out? You are not bound. No one was ever bound. [The Self] is beyond. It is the all. You are the One; there are no two. God was your own reflection cast upon the screen of Maya. The real God [is the Self]. He [whom man] ignorantly worships is that reflection. [They say that] the Father in heaven is God. Why God? [It is because He is] your own reflection that [He] is God. Do you see how you are seeing God all the time? As you unfold yourself, the reflection grows [clearer]. "Two beautiful birds are there sitting upon the same tree. The one [is] calm, silent, majestic; the one below [the individual self], is eating the fruits, sweet and bitter, and becoming happy and sad. [But when the individual self beholds the worshipful Lord as his own true Self, he grieves no more.]" (Mundaka Upanishad, III. i. 1-2.) ... Do not say "God". Do not say "Thou". Say "I". The language of [dualism] says, "God, Thou, my Father." The language of [non-dualism] says, "Dearer unto me than I am myself. I would have no name for Thee. The nearest I can use is I.... "God is true".
The universe is a dream. Blessed am I that I know this moment that I [have been and] shall be free all eternity; ... that I know that I am worshipping only myself; that no nature, no delusion, had any hold on me. Vanish nature from me, vanish [these] gods; vanish worship; ... vanish superstitions, for I know myself. I am the Infinite. All these — Mrs. So-and-so, Mr. So-and-so, responsibility, happiness, misery — have vanished. I am the Infinite. How can there be death for me, or birth? Whom shall I fear? I am the One. Shall I be afraid of myself? Who is to be afraid of [whom]? I am the one Existence. Nothing else exists. I am everything." It is only the question of memory [of your true nature], not salvation by work. Do you get salvation? You are [already] free. Go on saying, "I am free". Never mind if the next moment delusion comes and says, "I am bound." Dehypnotise the whole thing. [This truth] is first to be heard. Hear it first. Think on it day and night. Fill the mind [with it] day and night: "I am It. I am the Lord of the universe. Never was there any delusion.... " Meditate upon it with all the strength of the mind till you actually see these walls, houses, everything, melt away — [until] body, everything, vanishes. "I will stand alone. I am the One." Struggle on! "Who cares! We want to be free; [we] do not want any powers. Worlds we renounce; heavens we renounce; hells we renounce. What do I care about all these powers, and this and that! What do I care if the mind is controlled or uncontrolled! Let it run on. What of that! I am not the mind, Let it go on!" The sun [shines on the just and on the unjust]. Is he touched by the defective [character] of anyone? "I am He. Whatever [my] mind does, I am not touched. The sun is not touched by shining on filthy places, I am Existence."
This is the religion of [non-dual] philosophy. [It is] difficult. Struggle on! Down with all superstitions! Neither teachers nor scriptures nor gods [exist]. Down with temples, with priests, with gods, with incarnations, with God himself! I am all the God that ever existed! There, stand up philosophers! No fear! Speak no more of God and [the] superstition of the world. Truth alone triumphs, and this is true. I am the Infinite. All religious superstitions are vain imaginations. ... This society, that I see you before me, and [that] I am talking to you — this is all superstition; all must be given up. Just see what it takes to become a philosopher! This is the [path] of [Jnâna-] Yoga, the way through knowledge. The other [paths] are easy, slow, ... but this is pure strength of mind. No weakling [can follow this path of knowledge. You must be able to say:] "I am the Soul, the ever free; [I] never was bound. Time is in me, not I in time. God was born in my mind. God the Father, Father of the universe — he is created by me in my own mind...." Do you call yourselves philosophers? Show it! Think of this, talk [of] this, and [help] each other in this path, and give up all superstition!