VEDA-VANI

OR

REVELATIONS
(Comprise gleanings from letters written by·
Sri Sri Ram Thakur to His numerous disciples) •.

PART II

Translated into English by

PRINciP.AL ABANI MOHAN .BANERJI, M.A.

from the Bengali edition

Edited by
Late Dr. INDUBHUSHAN BANERJI, M.A., P.R.s., Ph. n •

..-;.
.#'
1964
KAIBALYADEAM
JADAVPUR.: OALCUTTA..SZ
Published by Srimat Brojendra Nath B:1ndopadhya, Mohanta M aaaraj
from Sri Sri Kaibalyadham,
Jadavpur, Calcutta-32 .

First Edition, November 1964.

By arran~ement Pratima Pustak

139-D-1, Ananda Palit Road, Ca1-14
......Y ., '
:Printed oy P. P.. Sahoo at Deshbani Mudranika,
14/C, D. L. Roy Street, Calcutta-5. ~
 ,
AN HUMBLE PREFACE :
For writing Preface or anything whatsoever in re~11tion to
:Sri Sri Ram Thakur, I am an utter miscast. With my very
little experience with Sri Sri Thakur and with my magna-
mimous ignorance of His Ideals, Teachings and Philosophy and
~lastly with my very little advancement both in general and
religious education, I ought to have prima facie discard'eu':l.the
idea of writing any word at all. But my executive position
.as Secretary of Sri Sri Kaibalyadham, Jadavpur, Calcutta-32
and a Trustee thereof from the very beginning demands
amendment of my above views and I was rather compelled to
-h old my pen for only to be excused. I however cherish that
·my treatise should be precise and at the same time concise and
the same may be treated affectionately by my innumerable
-brethren sisters and readers.
Our Sri Sri Ram Thakur appeared in human form very
-recently in the middle of 19th Century, I feel it my duty to
place before the readers who had not or might not have the
<Opportunity to know a short sketch of wordly life of this mighty
God-incarnate in the translated words of Sri Abani Mohan
Banerjee, M. A., Ex-Principal of a Government College and
.a former Member of the Bihar Education Service and who
had been throughout earlier a Professor of English Literature
.and an erudite Scholar. He very kindly translated the passages
of great import contained, in letters written by Sri Sri Ram I~

Thakur to His various disciples from time to time and were

~
.subsequently compiled into a work of three volumes styled
"Veda-Vani" under the Editorship of Dr. Indu Bhusan
_Banerj ~. A., P.R. S., Ph. D. one-time Head of the Depart-
! men!J.41-Iistory, University of Calcutta. In fact this book is
~4<:_cond volume of the translation ~f those valuable extracts
of letters by Sri Sri Thakur written to various devotees and
lt:i
.co,J lected as aforesaid. We are de~ply ~teful and indebted
~ those two erudite scholars viz. Dr~ Indu Bhusan Banerjee for
 11

his persevering collection of letters of Sri Sri Thakur and'

dev-.:>ted service for the same years after years and Sri Abani
Monan Banerjee for his tremendous task of faithfully translating·
those extracts of letters. I should say in brief th.at without these
two strong pillars of wisdom who donated so much for us, we
would not have been benefited of all these valuable WORDS
of Sri "Sri Ram Thakur in one place in these three volumes.
I should however fail in my duty if we do not pay our deep·
respect and admiration to late lamented Sri Manindra Nath
Bar.:erjee, M.A., Retired IncomewTax Commissioner, Trustee·
of our Asram and a devotee of Sri Sri Thakur for whose
untiring zeal and candour, we obtained the said revered
translator and enlightment of many other obscure facts.

SHORT LIFE SKETCH:

The sacred life of Sri Sri Thakur falls, J oughly into three·
divisions. The first period extends from birth to His meeting
with His spiritual Guide at Kamakhya ; the second, from
initiation to return home and habitual stay there till about
1907/8; the third from 1907 /8 to His passing away on the
third day of New Moon of Vaishakha, 1355 (B. S.).
Sri Sri Thakur was born at Dingamanik, Faridpur (District)
in the month of Magha, 1266 (B.S.) Thursday the lOth of the
New Moon with Rohini (Aldebaran) in the ascendant. His-
father (late) Radhamadhab Chakravarty was a real seeker,
devoted to penance and divine recollectedness. His mother
(late) Kamala Devi had a frank, simple nature, reputed for her-
dishes and hospitality. So Sri Sri Thakur used to tell us.
The miracle about His birth with His twin brother Lakshman
Thakur has a wide currency. All the associates ~ ri Sri
Thakur know how He ,took His meals as a mere apol~Y..£or 1

them. His comment : ''The money-lender is satisfied with cali~

of interest paid. Why give more ?'• He was like this from His
• ~ w ~
early years-would ~t take any food unless pressed to, and hr.d
in consequence no end of bickerings with His mother insp'i~
 111

of His devotion to her being incomparably deep. Such

unpleasantnesses occurred during the middle period too~ on
occasions when He came back home from His wanderings. As
mother, she wanted to feed Him with various dishes and enjoy
watching Him relish thereof with satiety. Sri Sri Thakur on
the other hand insisted up_oiJ. eating of a dish of boiled herbs
and creepers collected by Him from the forest. With reference
to this matter He once observed : ''I do not remember to have
caused pain to any except to my mother over taking meals".
He was from His early years so different from 6thenr.
lnspite of His unwillingness to talk much of Himself, the
occasional scraps of information that fell from his lips convinced
many that He was born with memory of His previous lives ;
indeed, His talks and conduct often caused not a little surprise.
He was since boyhood disposed to being alone with Himself,
and His pastimes were to worship the Godess Kali, the God
Hari, and similar devotional practice~. His schooling at the
Primary Institution was brief ; he could not proceed because
He had little need for mundane knowledge. As a boy He felt
strongly attached to, and was deeply loved by; His father's
spiritual guide (late) Mrityunjoy Nyayapanchanan-a devotee
given to severe askesis and profound mediation. Sri Sri
Thakur expressed that when His father was in the death-b ed
His guide came to their place all the way from Kachhar and
as soon as He touched His (father's) body with His foot
He (father) expired. A year after, Sri Sri Thakur heard of the
Guide having fallen ill at J apsa, a Village in the District of
\
Faridpur, and proceeded there with His mother to pay their
respects to Him. The Guide passed away about this time.
Sri Sri Thakur was theTl 8 years old. Soon after, on the third
day of the New Moon ofVaish~kha, He was initiated by the
Guide ~ a subtle and mysterious way. This day, a few years
afte~(here is· no record of how old !fe was at the time. He
__ _rr.Cf the Guide in embodied form at Kamakhya.
The second period of Sri Sri Thakur's life is shrouded in
mystery. From Kamakhya He di~agpea~ with His Guide to
# turn honfe after 8j l0 years, Soon after He went probably
p
 iv

to Noakhali and spent a few years there and at Feni, The poet
( ~ate ) Nabinchandra Sen says that he met Him at Feni when
He was 26;27 years old, and puts on record (in "My Life",
Part IV-a Preacher or a Fraud) some incidents that happened
at the time in Feni and Noakhali. Immediately after, He
faded out again to reappear in ~he Calcutta area about
1902/3. Quite a few things as to where He had been and
what He had been doing during these two periods of disappea-
rence have been vouchsafed by Sri Sri Thakur in scattered bits,
b1..-t as their chronology is not known to many no connected
account is possible.
Accompanied by His Guide and three brother-initiates; Sri
Sri Thakur had travelled for long in different parts of the
Himalayas the spot-lights thereof being, among others, the
following : visit to Kaushikashrama ; meeting with some
saints of mighty stature and service unto them for about three
months ; visit to Vashisthashrama ; coming across the God
Shiva and the Goddess Parvati in · the form of a boy and a
girl and bivouac in their cave for the night ; straying away
from His Guide and religious brothers ; being shown the way
next morning by an old man, tall of stature, dyed in red
sandal paste and decked with a garland of crimson 'Jaba'
(China rose) and return to Vashisthashrama in the twinkle of
an eye; performance of sacrificial rites there with an assembly
<>f Holy Ministers ......... In a forest near Ghaziabad He was for
a long time engaged in the practice of austerities. More than
a year He also stayed with a house-holder devotee at
•
R aJputanaII
........... .
As already pointed out, Sri Sri Thakur came to the Calcutta
-area about 1902/3. His mother died in 1903. He was atthe
time in Kalighat and did not go home. He next spent a few
years in the well-known Village of Uttarpara in tRe Suburbs
of Calcutta. One day, of a sudden, He left, almo~:"l loin-
cloth. For more t h an a ~year H e was on wa lk'mg tours ..,m...,t"
~h e
South, and returned home Q
towards the end of 1907 or
beginning of 1908. ~rom~this time on until His passing a'l{..ay
(Vaishakha 18, 1356 B.S.) He lived His life amo"i:!gst fell&
 v )

men and of His own free-will went about from door to door
granting mercy upon people and making their life full "-o f
blessedness. Nobody knows how many have been blessed by
having their trust in Him, but there are reasons to suppose that
their number runs to more than 10,0000. It is not saying
too much to say that He was known to ali people in Chitta-
gong, Feni, Noakhali, Commilla, etc., etc. He was adored and
revered by Hindus and Moslems, irrespective of their faith,
thro~ghout undivided India. As already mentioned, His
Manifest play divine came to a termination at 13 hrs. 30 ;;rras.
on the holy third day of New Moon of the month ofVaishakh<t
(18th Solar day), of 1356 B.S. His mortal remains were
buried at Chaumuhini, where a hermitage has been established.
Three hermitages had earlier been set up during His life-time
at Pahartali in Chittagong, at His holy birth-place Dinga-
manik, and at Jadavpur in the Suburbs of Calcutta." Those
hermitages ( '!>\t~ ) are named as "SRI SRI KAIBALY A-
DHAM ( ~~~<q~<W!J"'~ )".
Instances are not rare to show that India is the only
country which had or has been blessed with many incarnations
and with many powerful and lofty Saints, Sires and Religious
Teachers who left not only deep impression on the people,
country and its diverse Societies but also emancipated countle5s
dissipated persons. As a result of various Hindu Religious
Teachers, many schools of Philosophy came into being in
India and every Religious Scholar attempted sometimes
successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully to preach an~ push
His doctrine of Philosophy or religion. In fact, this happened
from the dawn of our country's History. Let me describe
here a brief account of different schools of those Philosophers
or Religious Preachers whose doctrines left deep impression on
the SocietwJf our country,

~ SCHOOLS OF HINDU PHILOSOPHY:

1t is not ~possible to ascertain definitely the first beginning

/ this universe. Due to that Indian Philosophers and
/
 ( Vl

thinkers look upon the universe as beginningless ( '!iTrltrT· ), In

view of the above, it seems that there can be nothing like an
ABSOLUTE FIRST in a series of beginningless. The
creation of Human being is decidedly the best amongst of all
creations. This creation can be utilized for full realisation
of the immortal spirit. In my younger days, I heard a song
from a way-farer whose first line I remember to be as
follows:-
"~ 0 ~?;"<( 011 "!t'l<! iSf01"!'
~'7"CG'f ~01"! "fi<!TI;~ I"

The Great Saint Ramprosad also sang :-

,,~~, ~~ ~ft<f.tiS! ~ 011,
<il~ ~<! ~01 ~~ <if~\!!,
'¢!t<!tlf "<!'~CO'! ~ ~ I"
There are broadly Ten Schools ofPhilosophy viz : -
1. The Vedas.
2. The Charbaka.
3, The J aina.
4. The Buddha.
5. The Nyaya.
6. The Baishesika.
7. The Sankhya.
8. The Yoga.
9. The Mimamsa.
10. The Vedanta,

1. The Vedas are earliest records of Aryan culture. In

Vedic period, there was no temples for worship of idols. "The
religion of the Vedas knows of no idol•' says Prof. Maxmuller.
There .are four Vedas viz :-(a) Rigveda, (b) l!l &hamveda,
(c) Yajurveda and (d) _ Atharbaveda. These cover 'l'-l
bran-
ches of Theology, Socilogy, Politics and Astrology. _
The Vedic period of 1itcrat\}re can be conveniently divided
into three stages. 'The f.rst ~as the period of Samhitas ,.,or
collection of hymns ip poetry dealing with pra~ers. Th~
 vii

hymns. are addressed to Sun, Air, Earth, Sky, Dawn etc.

Being benevolent and radiant powers of nature, Those
-were looked upon as Gods. The Vedic Schools relies o:r ~n
Infinite Power behind the said finite forces and they realised
the existence of one among many. The different Gods are
·different aspects of the same identity which "transcends all the
manifestations of nature but yet lies immanent in them all."
In view of the above, there is a difference of opinion whether
the Vedic religion is monotheistic or pol ytheistio.
The second stage of Vedic literature was of Brahmanas
which are treatises in prose dealing with ceremonials and 8i:her
.religiou:5 matters. Thereafter in the final stage, Suttra litera-
ture appeared which consisted of aphoristic compositions
·dealing with rituals, customary laws and domestic duties. The
Vedic Griha Suttras regulated the life of man prescribing four
Asramas for Brahmins (twice-born caste) (a) Brahmacharyya
·(life of student with austerity) (b) Garhastha (life of house-
holder) (c) Banaprastha (life ofrecluse) and (d) Jati (life of
.ascetic ). These are well-known to all al'ld I desist from
giving definitions in details. It has been said in Hansabati
Rikh "As light He dwells in the luminous sky, as Vasu (air)
He dwells in the mid-space, as Hotri (fire) He exists on the
sacrificial alter, as a guest He exists in the house, as life He
·exists in man, as Rita (truth) He exists everywhere ; as
supreme entity He exists. He shines in sacrifice, in the sky,
in water, in light, in mountains and in truth". These ideas
jn fact developed into the philosophical monism in
Upanishadas. That is of One Reality and One Brahman~
They say that all is God and the Soul is God. ( ~?.. ~~'f' 3f'lfi ;
~~ 3f'ijf ). Sankaracharyya discovered four greatest sayings
from four branches of Veda viz : -
from Rikhveda "<2t~R' 3Plfi"
from Yajurveda "~' ~'"
from Samveda "~'Q'ifP!''
And from Atharbaveda "~~ 3Plfi"
Cl
2. The Charbakas are oul: anci" out---..cnaterialists. They do
/...-,not believ~ anything which canno t be perceived through senses.
 viii

They naturally do not rely on inference or indirect source of

kno~ledge and discard them totally. Even they discard that
the ""material world is composed of five BHUTAS or matters-
viz. Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. ( f?.'ffu-, ~9(, C\!i'gf,,
~~ \8 ~nr ).
They hold that the world is composed of four BHUTAS
Viz :-Earth, Water, Fire and Air because those elements of
matter are perceptitle while Ether is not such, They also
hold that there is no immortal soul in a man who is composed
who~ly _of matter. "The soul is nothing but the living body
with the quality of consciousness." They also say that there is
no God and neither there is any necessity for the same. Nor
there is proof of the existence of God. They are atheists.
Pleasure is the ideal of life and human goal should be to attain
maximum amount of pleasure in this life. This is Hedonism.
Heaven Dharma and Liberation ( ":i''>f, lf~ \8 <:"It?.'!' ) are all
myth and had bee'n invented by priestly classes for their own
professional interest. Rituals pursuant to Veda are useless~
There is also no life after death. Therefore :'
"m<; ~~<r<:, ~~~ ~~.
'lill1~ W~i ~~~ ~<;I
~~\!!'$ ~~ ~t5i"l'l ~~~ II"
3. It is difficult to trace the origin of Jaina faith. Some
say it might exists before Vedic period. There are twentyfour
TJRTHANKARS or teachers of that faith. Mahabira is the
last of them and a contemporary of Lord Buddha. The J ainas
donot agree with 1 Charbakas and they say that if you' cannot
rely on inference, you cannbt also rely upon perception since
that might also be illusory. They 'believe in perception, infe-·
renee and testimony as source of true knowledge. The J ainas
donot believe in God but they worship Tirthankars as God
because they are treated as liberated souls. The Jainas hold
that soul is immortal and t~ansmigration of soul happens ;~ But
the soul is victim to changes according to Karmas. ! t is
different from body and it can be proved by its consciousness.
The souls have power~n at~ain "' liberation but are prevented,
by Karmas which create obstacles. Unless those obs1acles are
 lX

removed, soul cannot attain highest perfection. The Jainas.

have sympathy for all creatures. Realism is one of the \'V:-J.tch-
words of J aina Philosophy. It is both pluralism and atheism.
TheJainas are .divided into two sects known as Digambaras
(Nude) and Swetambara (white-robed). The Digambaras are
more puritanic than Swetambara. The Digambars give up all.
earthly possessions including clothes. They discard even food,_
They hold that women cannot obtain liberation. The
Swetambaras do not accept the above views of Digambaras.
4. Gautama Buddha is the founder of his Philosophy.~ He
felt overwhelmed by the sight of untold sufferings and diseases.
of human beings. He therefore devoted himself to discover
ways and means by which such sufferings and diseases and
sorrows might be won. He found out after long years of"
meditation the presence of misery, its' cause, end of misery anct
its' means. The Buddhist Philosophy holds that everything is-
subject to change and nothing is unconditional and self--
existent. Every effect has its cause. Suffering is dependent
on birth and birth is the cause of desire for worldy objects. If
desire can be annihilated totally, birth will cease and conse-
quently misery will end. The Buddhists hold that there is no
soul nor God but they rely upon life before and after death
according to Karma and continuity <>f this life. Four important
schools of Buddhist Philosophy grew up subsequently viz.;-
a) Sunnybad ( ~'lJ;qtlf )-they say the whole world is
unreal-they are Nihilists.
b) Bigyanbada ( ~~<ltff )-They say that the mind is
real but the external objects are all unreal. They are
subjective Idealists.
c) Sautrantika ( c~1t!itfu<f )-This School holds that both
mind and external objects are real. Such external
objects are to be inferred through mind. They are
Representationists.
_(d) Baibhasika ( C<J;\St~<f )-They rely also that both
mind and external objects are.,rea.d 9ut external objects cannot
be inferreg but to be perceived dir~ctly. M '-No indirect inference-
will help. They are Direct Realists.
 ( X

The Buddhist Philosophy lays great stress on Nirbana.

'0nea School says that Nirban is for ending misery of an indivi-
dual but another School says that Nirban is for ending misery
of all. Those are two divisions of Buddhists namely, Hinayan
and Mahayan.
5. The Nyaya School of Philosophy is based on logical
·datas or science of reasoning. This school holds that perception
( ~~~ ) inference ('<>T~t#!), comparison ( \5<i"Ti ) and testimony
·( • t<lf ) . are the sources of knowledge.
Tney say that the body is made of matter and mind is
:separate from it and is eternal. The soul is again distinct from
mind and body and is eternal. They believe in God who is the
:r eal cause of creation (~ffl'), Maintenance (f~\!5) and Destruction
·( ~"'f.[ ) of this world. The created beings are to enjoy pleasure
or suffer pain in accordance with their past deeds and actions
( ~h!"h 1>~ ). God is All-powerful and AU-Benevolent. If a
created being act in the right path, it can no doubt free it's
)
:selffrom bondage and suffering. Liberation~ 'If~ itself is no
pleasure, it is redemption from both pain and pleasure. They
.are Logical Realists.
6. Maharshi Kanad is the founder of Baishesika School of
.p hilosophy. This School is also founded on logical grounds.
The soul is eternal and All-pervading. God is the creator of
;this universe. The Will of God is the highest decree based on
the actions ( <f~) of created beings. Differentiation between
the ultimate and matter by means of particularisation (fl.~)
.is the main system of this philosophy. The theory of God and
.liberation in this school are same as that of Nyaya School of
Philosophy.
7. The Sage Kapila is the founder of the Sankhya School
·of philosophy. \fhis School does not believe the existence of
God. They on the otherhand rely on Purusa and Prakriti as
<Ultimate relations. Both tl]ese are independent of each other
with regard to their existence. "The Purusa is an intelligent
principle, of which consciousn~ss ( C5~ ) is not an attribute,
but the very essence,'~:~ It is 1 he self which is quite dis! inct fro
the body, the senses and the mind ( ~t#l'!} ". The Purusa is
 Xl

· beyond the worldly objects and is the eternal witness { C!'f~i ) of

the changes and activities of the world. Purusa is the Cnjoyer
( C\5t~ ). Whereas Prakriti is not conciousness ( CW'lf ). It
-is unconciousness (~ ). Purusa has no change but is permanent
while Prakriti is ever-changing and is for enjoyment ( C\5t'>t ) of
Purusa. There are three Gunas ( ~9 ) of Prakriti viz : Satwa
· ( '!~) Raja ( ~) and Tama ( ~ ). These three Gunas
. are inter-woven into one to become Prakriti. The Purusa or
"~the self is however neither cause nor the effect of anything.

The self is immortal but it confuses with body fl1rough

i gnorance and pride or ego becomes predominan·t. The self
'Will not be affected either by pleasure or by pain or by any
favourable or unfavourable happenings of worldly life if once
we could realise the distinction between self and not-self. The
self is neutral observer of all events in the world witoout being
involved thereto. This is liberation ( 'If'€> ) or Kaibalya. This
is even possible while alive ( ~;q~ .) or after death (f<!r;~~).
This School does not rely upon the existel'lCe of God. In any
event, they say that God is not necessary for explaining the
· world when we are bound to suffer or enjoy according to
our Karma.
8. Yoga philosophy was founded by the great Sage
Patanjali. This school accepts the theories of Sankhya. In
addition, they admit the existence of God. The Sage Patanjali
particularly stressed on the practice of yoga for attaining
liberation. The mental region ( f5'G~Pf ) has been divided into
.five levels viz ,:
(a) Dissipated ( Rf-~ ), (b) Stupefied ( lJ1' ), (c) Com-
-paratively quiet ( f<!~~ ), (d) Concentration ( <ii~Qt ), (e) End
·of concentration (. f;v,"Qt<f ). By constance practice of Yoga
which consists of-eight steps ( '5\~t~ C<lt'>t ) viz : <J"!, f;!~, '5\t'R,
· ~tffift~, ~~"Q, <ftQ"fi, <fJi~ '8 '!~~. we can attain liberation.
This school holds that God is the highest object of self-realisa-
. tion. He is eternal and All-perfect, The Sage Patanjali's
philosophy is known as theistic.Sankhya while the sage Kapila's
- :philosophy is known as ath~istic S ankhya. In short, the . former
:is ( c~"Q ) and the latter is ( f;r~·'IRT ).
0
 Xll

9. The great Sage Jaimini founded the philosophy o!

jlfimal[lsa. It is also called Purva Mimamsa. This school
advises to observe and perform all rituals according to Vedas
and they defend and justify the said rituals being conducive to-
liberation. They say that Vedas were not written by any
human being but they are eternal and self-existing. The soul is
imrr.ortal. This school is again divided into two sub-schools-one
is founded by Pravakar and the other is by Kumaril Bhatta.
The Mimamsa philosophy relies on the reality of material
world -0P,;. the basis of perception. This School however does
not admit that there is God who created this world. They say
that the world has neither a beginning nor an end. Karma is
the king who rules the world.
10. The Vedanta School of philosophy sprang out from
Upanisadas. The name itself signifies the culmination of all
war of words and arguments being the end of Vedas. The form
of worship according to Vedas is quite different from the form
of worship prescribed by Furnas or Agamas. As I told earlier·
the form of worship described by Rigvedas consist of offerings,
prayers and praises in honour of God. The first period of Vedic
literature was period of Samhitas or collection of hymns in.
poetry dealing with prayers. The second period is followed by
Brahmanas which are written in prose dealing with ceremonials-
and the third stage was of Suttra literature dealing with rituals.
The last one was developed between 500 to 200 B. C. In.
upanisadas, the unity of all diverse existence is found
developed into the conception of One Soul, One Reality and.
One Brahman, All is God ~ '!~Z ~'Mrrz ~'>fi ) • The Soul is God.
(~i ~'>fi).

In the 8th Century A.D., there was born in South India, of'
Brahmin parents, a person named Sankaracharyya, one of the
world's greatest Philosophers. His theory was of absolute
monism ( '5l~~<!t'f ) interpreted through Upanisadas. He says
that except God, there is nothing and he denies any form..of
plurality.
Thereafter came Riimanujam, one of such great I?hiloso--
phers. He was the founder of the religious sect known as
 xiii

'-''Vaishnab". His theory of philosophy is qualified non-

-dualism ( ~M~~lf) or quilified monism as distinguished
from pure non-dualism or absolute monism from Sankar.
According to Sankar, as we have seen, there is no other
reality except God and the creation of world is only an
illusion ( ~ ). Ramanujam on the otherhand says that God
and His creation together constitute one integral whole and
as such creation is not different from creator. . Ramanujam
advocated the worship of Vishnu or Narayan as the only
.symbol of God.
Then we find Ramananda, another great philosopher. He
founded another school of Vaishnabism known as "Ramaiths".
'They worship Ramchandra as an incarnation of Vishnu.
Madhwacharyya was another great Religious Teacher
.and he is the founder of the school named after him. This
school holds pure dualism ( C~\!i'ltlf) which admits an eternal
.distinction between man and God or the creation and creator.
Then came Nimbarkacharyya and Ballavacharyya, two
great Religious Teachers. The Nimbarka sect is also known
.as Sanakadi Sampradaya while the sect of Ballavacharyya is
Rudra Sampradaya. There are two classes in Nimbark sect
namely :-(1) Ascetics ( f<IQ'B') (2) Householders ( ?J~ ).
The Philosophy of Nimbarka relies on identity-in-difference
{ Ci5lft~'5if ). Sri Srinibas Acharyya was the disciple of
Nimbarka and wrote the famous treatise on Vedanta namely
"Vedanta Kaustubh".
The followers of Ballavacharyya do not attach any value to
.elibacy or austerity of ascetic life. They marry and enjoy
pleasures of life. Their followers worship Radha and Krishna in
.twin form (~'>t"'!,M). His philosophy is known as (~~~t~).
Then came Sri Sri Chaitnaya Mahaprabhu at Nabadwip
(Bengal) one of the greatest Saints and Philosophers. The
:school of Vaishnabism founded by )lim is very popular. Some
say _ that this school is a branch of Madhawa school but there
.are important differences bet-w:een the two both as regards
--philosophical doctrines as well ~ as rifuals and ceremonies.
·Chaitany'i school holds no caste distinctions and all are equally

~
 XIV

admitted to its order. The theory of Lord Chaitanya is in

allian; e with theistic school of dualism. But it holds that the
relation between self and God is an inconceivable kind of ·
identity-in-difference and is incapable of any further analysis_
( ~f~ c~tc\5'1 ).
Lord Chaitanya is believed to be God incarnate. Sri Sri
Ram Thakur was one of His greatest admirers as I could
understand.
In conclusion, we find from above that the philosophy of
Rama>::~t~a relies on identity-in-difference but he holds that
Monism or non-difference an Absolute one is although
principal but the same is qualified by difference or dualism .
which is subordinate to principal. Where as Nimbarka holds
both difference and non-difference co-exist on the same level.
Lord Chaitanya has rather compromised the differences of -
all earlier philoso-phers by His inconceivable adjustment
between old and new, between one and many and between
difference and non-difference.

TEACHINGS
•
In this context I should like to quote few words written
from the pen of the said Sri Abani Mohan Banerjee in respect
of the teachings of Sri Sri Ram Thakur.
"Sri Sri Thakur was not after building a system oC
philosophy. H e saw and spoke like the ancient Vedic Seers ..
A metaphysical disquisition would therefore be out of place,
besides being alien to the tone of the letters. A ten-points or·
twenty-point summary? Not very helpful. Who cares for a
digest wheri the plentitude of the revelations is there ? No.
one should ; It would be dry as dust, inane, inconsequential.
If however, I could hint at the core of the instructions in such
a manner and within such a framework that they feel into their ·
. places and formed an organic whole, it would be an introduction
in the real sense of the te,rm. But how could 1 accomplish'
this task ? Sri Sri Thakur helped me out, for I had my cue
from letter No. 326 (Veda-Van}-Part I) where He has mapped ~
out the whole spiritua'! histofy of man". The said letter No,..., \
r ~

326 is set out below for the convenience of the readers :

~
 XV

I. ''The world is a wilderness of becomings where man in

his preoccupation with the desires loses the power of disc:t:imi-
nation, assumes selfne3s, and is entangled in the meshes of
endless discontent- the lotus-eating soul.
2. Then comes a spontaneous urge for freedom, and he
falls to musing as to how this can be effected, through what
devices or resources, and in which circumstances. The result
is ennui when he becomes a perplexed seeker.
3. Though assailed by endless wants and harassments, he
gradually learns how to defy them, pays heed to the \7o>ds of
the Guide, and tries devoutly to grasp their significance and
realise their truth. This is the stage of the aspirant seeker.
4. At the founh stage the cravings cease to be a hindrance,
because he is always in quest, renounces all other activities,
and keeps himself firmly and resolutely engaged in constant
meditation and contemplation. As glimmerings of Truth are
vouchsafed to him he is now on 'the threshold of wisdom.
5. When this practice is deepened and intensified the
desires and volitions lose their occupation for he has no
need wha tsoever for them. Then follows realisation when he
becomes a Seer by the knowledge of his Self as one with
Consciousness-in-Itself, or, in other words, with the God that
dwells in his heart.
This is the scheme of Life Divine, which is unfolded by
devotion to God, the Lord who resides in the core of the heart
as Guide.
6. · God the Lord, God the Friend, God the Father, and
God the Lover are cosmic poises of Truth in the process of Its
unfolding. When devotion deepens into integrality, it reaches
its completion and fullness in Love Divine. Seek It through
the involutes and you abjure Peace, for they add p oison to
manna and sorrw to Bliss. He that would dwell in the City
of God must cross the portals of rites and ceremonies and
cherish the one aim and one pursuit~ If you have unswervin g
fait~ in the Guide and carry out his. instructions with indiffe-
rence to the result thereof, the spirit of reverence will gradually
rossess yo_? till in due course ot$ er t6nes of godliness are
added unto you.
 xvi

Devotedness to the Guide is a rare acquisition. He that

unce::lsingly contemplates his spiritual relationship with the
:Guide sheds his corporeality and becomes one with the
Godhead. The path of duty that leads to emancipation has in
a similar way been propounded and established by the Geeta.
The fruit-bearing tree that the Magician grows in a trice is
enly a delusory magic show,-pleasing for the moment and
amusing, but it obscures knowledge and ends like time-bubles
-miles away it is from the love of God. Heed not this ; have
trust ; n~the words of the Guide, and all this show will gradu-
ally disappear and you will gain your freedom from corporea-
-lity. Rest assured, the Guide will liberate you, suffuse your
.b eing with the rhythms of the Divine, usher you to the presence
of the Lord, dower you with Love Divine, and bestow upon
you the rights of eternal service unto the Lord. Of a verity.
you will thus be united with God.
For the present, do your destined duties with evenness of
mind and keen following, as well as you can, the instr~ctions
.of the Guide. In the ripeness of time all your wishes will be
fulfilled. The Guide, and the Guide alone, will see to your
salvation."
* * * * *· * * *
As Sri A bani Mohan Banerjee M.A. is disinclined to translate
and include in this book the Bengali Preface contained in
Part II of Veda V ani, the same does not appear in this book.
I have already taken a longtime and I beg to be excused
for encroaching upon the patience of my noble readers. ·I am
extremely grateful to the readers and I extend my heartythanks
.to all of them including Sri Bimalendu Chakraborty, B.A.;
Sahitya-Varati of Pratima Pustak who helped me in proof-
reading as also in the matter of arrangement of getting this
book printed.
JAI RAM:
51A, Palm Avenue, Nripendra Narayan Bhattacharjee.
Calcutta-19 Attorney-at-Law. ~
The 3rd November, Secretary.
1964, Sri Sri Kaibalyadham.
Jadavpur : Calcutt a-32.

~
 VEDA-VANI
OR

REVELATIONS.

"The torch of Truth is the word~ of tpe Guide

Aught else, the forest of the night."

,..::
I'IVHXVON : INVHOWnVHD
: 'HIONVW·IHQVWVS
 1

The varying natural instincts as determined by individual

destiny lure men to the transient objects of this waste-land,
offer them pleasure and pain in and through body, home,
society, learning, knowledge etc., and goad them on with
affective urges. This is called the destined fruits of a:::tbn.
Deny them and you will win the right to peace. Loyalty to
the Lord is man's essential nature and consequently the only
potent remedy against all human ills. Have nothing to do
with the mind, for, pleasure and pain come of it. The one self
of all that be is Truth. There is no many-ness, though the
diverse physical formations seem to be many owing to their
apartness.

2 •
The Name of God is Truth, the Name is peace and bliss.
Have trust in the Name and all your wishes will be fulfilled,
for you shall then have ·crossed the pleasure-pain bounds of
scriptural injunctions and the need for pilgrim9ges. If you
cultivate self-less devotion to the Lord you will have joy
evermore and repose in the Name All the joys and miseries
derived from self-willed action are impermanent-they lead you
not to God. Wherefore always recite the Name. The Name
alone will save you from the fluxes of worldly pleasures and
pains.

3
All creatures that be roam about within the meshes of
desires owing to elusory infatuation, t~.Irn their back to right
knowlecfge, create naught but fleeting wants, and act on sheer
imp).llse. The result is loss of discriminati;:m, entanglement
with the desi&s, endless becomings, arid the recurring need of
birth and death.
 2 VEDA·VANI

( 4
Fate is the arbiter here, there, and everywhere. In all the
three worlds it is fate, and naught else, that can make us reap
the harvest. The destined assets and liabilities do appear in
due time but affect not him that has firm faith in the Lord.
The world is a shadow-play on a screen which, because it
supports the mind, can in no way be destroyed. The screen
is ~T;·uth ; ncne can slash, tear, or obsecure it. As the Gita
says:-
It interpenetrates all ; it is eternal, moveless, calm, ever-
existent, and can be severed, or burned, or defiled, or dried up,
by none. It is always with you ; and, rest assured, It never
does desert you- here or beyond.

5
Be not a slave to the mind ; instead, submit to God by
having trust in His N arne. As the mind and the intellect are
modifications of Nature they generate the pleasure-pain effects,
transient, unstable, harrowing. If one knows not how to end the
term of Destiny, one nurtures likes and dislikes, invokes endless
discords, assumes countless limitations, and consequently
suffers from all the maladies of flesh. Do you therefore submit
to the Holy Name by constant recollectedness, and the Name
will save you in good time even as It saved the Panda vas from
the onslaught of the Kaura vas, Pralhad from the persecutions
of Hiranya Kashipu, and the godly Seeta from the illusory dear
and the control of Ravana. The Name and God are one.
The momentum of Nature does not operate for him that
lives in divine presence. The innate urges act on the body
through the clamps of !he mind and the intellect but cannot
cross their frontier on to the abode of the Name ...... All that a
man earns, spends, gains, or loses in this world, all "'that he
0 a
comes by or misses, are ~the awards of Destiny. Always :r:,ecite
the Name, and live by It. And try to bear \i ith what fate
has in store for you.
 VEDA·VANI 3

( 6 )
Everywhere the reaping is as the sowing has been. Fate
determines birth and death ; so people in all the three worlds
have to undergo the triple visitations of pleasure and pain,
which should cause neither elation nor depression. Suffer
them instead by patient rejection with a view to serving the
God of Truth. Try therefore in all circumstances to live in
submission to Truth. _
The God of Truth is the Whole, and cannot, therefore,
be worshipped except hy the liquidation of the parts (sinni).
The fragmentation of the whole into good and evil, joy and
sorrow, birth and death, smiles and tears, and similar pairs
of opposites is done by self-will, and should be surrendered
to the Whole as oblation unto Truth. There are exemplars
of this ritual :-the loyal Gouri, the consort of the Lord
Shiva ; Savitri who was united with her eternal Lord, Truth,
by the merging of the "broken arcs" in the "perfect round"
and thus saved her father's line by moral excellence, husband's
line by service and dutifulness, and her scion by purification.
All ' objects of world experience cause pleasure and pain,
pass away, and die. All are subject to, and are penalised by,
the laws of Death, Life and the Universe. Man puts on the
necessary uniform for the game of smiles and tears, enters the
debtors' prison . of world becomings, and forsakes Truth.
One can release oneself from this fallen state only by pure
.devotion. In o~her words, to live by truth and to submit
to the Pure Being is the he-all and end-all of life. So affirm
the sages. Pledge yourself therefore to the God of Truth and
win your freedom from all bondage.

7
Wholly have trust in the Name of God, for His Name
a nd Forr..1 are one ; if you do so He will see to your salvation
>"
~lways recite the Name : notlfing exists but in the
Name. Self-v."i.lled joys and sorrows stay not, they are ever-
.changing. Be not lured by them ; try instead to wean your-
 4 VEDA·VANI

self always from them with the lulling Name. The Name is
Truth. The control of Destiny lasts as long as the three-
sheathed body is, but becomes inoperative as soon as you
enter, disembodied, into the bosom of God.

( 8 )
All corporeal beings have joys and sorrows owing to their
de~tired bondage to the body, and are freed from them by
being freed from it. Worries and misgivings are but the
oscillations of the mind, which ceases to function when b y
living in the Name you end your corporeality. Only by
persistent efforts can the mind be controlled. Do you therefore
practise living in the Name ; if you keep reciting the Name
at all hours and in all circumstances, mediating on 1t as more
sanctifying and tranquilising then anything else in the world,
you will develop loving devotion too, and consequently have
unbroken union with, the Name.

9
Where the N arne is always chanted there does the Lord
dwell. His abode is His playfield, the holy grove where He
unfolds His divine poises of pure Bliss-a realm out of bounds
to creaturely selfness. Hence have trust in the Name and you
will be in the city of God. To live in God is immortality.
The desires are a mirage ; renounce them and always recite
the Name. To know that nothing but the Name exists is to be
in the eternal presence of God.

10
The destined birth-and-death series with its coefficients of
assets and liabilities is · responsible for the pleasure-pain fluxes
amidst which man adopts_various devices for differei1t modes
of satisfaction, ~tting;however, in spite of all his efforts,_ not
J: ,.
an iota in excess of what is in store for him. 'So, instead of
fussing over the fated events you keep yourself always engaged
 VEDA-VAN! 5

in reciting the Name. The Name is one with God : cling to

It .and you will have bliss . .' .... Whatever is one's portionc in
life is certain good ; accept it so, exerting yourself to discharge
all your duties in the world. Submit unconditionally to what
God wills for you, and always dwell in the Name, for the name
will undoubtdely release you from the clouds of circumstances.
Whatever is posited by the mind is fleeting and limited-
comes not to stay, ; but the Name of God is eternal Existence.
It is therefore your duty to dwell in the N arne, whatever be
the joys and sorrows in consequence. Naught but the ~N~me
exists. Conditions of security or helplessness are one's lot
and should be suffered to work themselves out. Persistent
efforts will gradually unfold the eternal entity. Degrees of
repletion, depletion, and effectiveness accrue to man, accor-
ding to, but never in excess of, his fated portion. The Name
signifies what is true, or pure and undefiled. The Name is
Truth. To cling to the Name is to abide in the Self. •

11 •
Fate rules everywhere, but can be overruled by him alone
who reposes in the Almighty Lord; He dwells in and with
all creatures as the living God and is never away from them.
But people forsake Him owing to their subjection to the mind,
go round and round the meshes of desires, seek but find not
Truth, get instead entangled in false impermanent appearances,
and fail to 'realise that Truth forsakes them never. Where-
fore, try to submit yourself to the living God Who alone is the
abode of peace. The mind is but the house of discontent.

12

In the three worlds of being there is none that can bypass

his lot. Fate is the arbiter, and awards the body, house, family,
society, homeland, friend and foe, uisease and bereavement,
and sl!ch other acquired benefits. So bear with the forces of
D/estiny with trust in Truth, for "'th~ God of Truth alone can
a~d does lo'Jsen the bonds of your b'ecomings and corporeality,
 6 VEDA·VANI

and transmute you into a disembodied spirit, and sanctify you

for ,.,c itizenship in the Abode of Holiness, the Garden of Bliss,
where naught exists but cosmic rhythms of joyance. This is
the status of Truth-beyond the frontiers of the senses and
the mind.

13

It is fate that bears fruit all the time. Live in its control
by acquiescence so as to transform all its dispensations into
spiritual good.

14
Man forsakes Truth by assuming self-will, subjects himself
to the defiling fragmentations of corporeality and, environment
presented by the false and fleeting differentiae of nature and
preoccu~es himself with his destined, portion of learning,
intelligence, wealth, .relativ~s, and powers. Acted on by the
three modes of Nature, the human intellect passes into
changing formations of content and discontent so that it
becomes impossible for man to escape births and deaths.
Hence the need for reciting the Holy Name, for you can enter
Its abode only by waking up to your spiritual tie with it.
The fact is, subjection to self-will and egoism ensnares man
with false, transient values, creates oblivion of the Name, and
obscures the vision of Truth.

15
Transcend Fate by sufferance so as to reach the uncondi-
tioned and blissful abode of the God of Truth ........... .
Marriages are made in Heaven and are beyond the control
of man.
•
16
The physical co?Upone':lt~ formed by individual variatio!ls
of nature, are a field for thi self-assertive experiences""of man.
 VEDA-VAN! 7

17
The living God in man functions as the Name undisturiJed
during deep sleep, obscurely in the waking state where it is
variously split up and modified into alluring forms and tonalities.
The result is ignorance of the everduring functional presence
of the Name, mental and intellectual disharmonies as condi-
tioned by the instinctive urges, and imprisonment in the cell of
endless desires. Hence the assumption of various alien adjuncts
which weave the web of Fate, offer pleasure and pain, and
.prevent escape from birth and death. Wherefore dwell ~pcrse­
veringly in the living God within you so as to realise His
presence as the N arne.

18 )
The Name is alleluia. The eightfold division of time and
life, and day and night, are so many octaves of bondage,
which all are sundered by the Name; "Cogito ergo sum"
applies to all men, for the word "man" signifies one who
cogitates. No man as such is to blame ; it is Fate that
unleashes the urges of Nature and the apprehensions thereof of
good and evil, true and false. Restrictions regarding robes
and other accessories are wholly irrelevant to the constant
recitation of the Name. You can attain your status as the
servant of the Name only by realising your spiritual relation-
ship to It. The Name is Truth; he that serves It attains
Truth. The Name alone saves. The mind has no relevancy
to that purpose, for it knows but content and discontent, being
a formation of the modes of Nature. Naught but the Name,
your Self, exists when you are in deep sleep.

19
The Name inheres uninterruptedly the cosmic process of
ever-joyous life beats. Be Its companion by drinking there-
from deathless honey-dew. Egoi~ti-<; action is a self-laudatory
rite. The ;iving God within you is ~ruth & Power an!f has no
 8 VEDA•VANI

decay-He is immortality. Man knows Him not owing to the

fluJes of natural instincts, assumes egoistic involutes for
transient objects, swells his account of assets and liabilities,
experiences various kinds of joys and sorrows, and so cannot
escape birth and death.

20
Fate is the arbiter ; unless one accepts it as a matter of
cou:r:_se ~ one cannot quit birth, old age, and de(l.th. The God
of Truth has no parts ; and his dedicated servants have no
wants. People get enmeshed by cultivating egoism and hence
become subject to the mind, with the result that they fail to
realise Truth. Discharge from the three worlds is purchased
by self-naughting. Know this for a truth that all events are
destined and none is to blame.

21
As is fated so man reaps the assorted harvest of life. Do
you therefore make determined efforts to remember Truth and
live therein.

22
People in all the three worlds have their ups and downs as
determined by individual fate and innate tendencies, according
to the will of God, the sole Arbiter Whose dispensations
nobody can interfere with. If the tide of affairs is against you
so will the world be-nobody is to blame on this account. God
alone can save you from the control of the diversities of life.
So always try to have trust in Truth.

23
A true devotee of God is called Vidur (meaning proxi;nity)
because he lives near the L!_?re, strays not away, earns spiritual
merit by following his guiding star, and becomes im~mune frotil
. ~
the humiliating sense of apartness from Him. As the guiding
 VEDA-VANI 9

star is subject to the law of sowing and reaping, the fluxes of

pleasure and pain that come from it cannot be smoothed gown
Lo
.even by the free will of man. The learned read, but know
not, of the sea of divine bliss, for the guidi~g star controls their
fate and permits them not to throw off the burden of delusory
infatuation ........... The Lord takes joy of the humble pittance
offered by Vidur but rejects the ·rich delicacies shown off by the
self-opinionated proud ..........•........ Single-mindedness means
freedom from the discursive intellect ; mystic union means
non-aliena1ion from Truth, all cognitions being d~~ ~o the
sense of alienation. Who is a seer ? He that lives in the
Self-luminosity of Truth, all other acts being aberrations there-
from. The seer is free from the dichotomy of knowledge,
renounces all actions, ends sowing and reaping, and wins
.discharge from assets and liabilities-for him the many do not
exist ip view of his having realised God in all and all in God.
As he is never away 'from God he has neither joys nor sorrows.
Such a man is verily the seer-one with God in hisinmostbeing
and therefore superior to all other mystics. ~ His is a suprasen-
suous world that dures everlastingly.
It is people addicated to creatureliness who must needs
have discursive knowledge and various affective ties thereto.
Lust means lusting within the limits ofignorance ; it is, in
other words, desire-an intoxicant which the seer has for good
discarded, for he lives in Truth, and knows naught but Truth.
The Gita . says :-Those who contemplate God with single-
minded devotion and always live in Him are protected by Him
in respect of their attainments that are and will be.
The God of Truth is the Immutable Being residing every-
where in the sameness of His integrality. People invite . perils
by forsaking Him with the assumption of self-will, but can
realise Him by discriminating between the Self a'n d the non-
Self with a view to eliminating the latter. All human efforts
not directed to this end are inaniti-es, from which accrue those
experiences that go by the name of fate or destiny. Knowledge
rpf Truth is right knowledge. fl:e , that ._comes by it wins his
discharg61 from all worldly assets a\ d liabilities, conquers death
10 VEDA•VANI

and enters the abode of Truth. Truth is Eternity the supreme

statu~ of the God-head whereto one ultimately goes, never to
come back again .•.•••...... The Name is the Light of thought,
the supreme object of contemplation. He that attains It is
never alienated therefrom.

( 24 )
~elf-help is the best help ; and Truth alone sustains, be~ng
of supreme power ••••••....•••.. It is so easy to get enmeshed in
action, itnd so difficult to get out. If you acquiesce in fate
you will in good time save yourself from it, as King Bhagiratha
saved his forbears with the holy waters of the down-pouring
Ganges.

( 25' )
People are drawn to Nature by their acquired instincts and
enjoy the destined fruits. Of these God alone is the sole dis-
penser, for nobody else has competency in this respect.
Wherefore shed selfness, and like Pralhad serve the God of
Truth by contemplating your one_ness with Him. As a result
you will succeed in breaking the bonds of dualism and realise
the immutable Truth, even as Savitri (=aspirant soul) released
her Lord Satyavana (=Truth) from the clutches of Yama
(=Death or Time) and was united with Him for ever.

( 26 )
Truth is eternal, immutable ; all that is impermanent and
mutable is untruth. Man becomes subject to the dichotomy of
the mental involutes of Nature, accepts bondage to birth,
disease, death, and forsakes Truth-Truth, the unconditioned
and the Absolute, Transcending birth, disease, and death. So
pledge yourself constantly to- Truth, for Truth alone can secure
to you discharge from all sins and liabilities. Try at any ra te
to do your duties with complete thoroughness withollt laying
claims to your rights. ·
 VEDA-VANI ll

( 27
If you persevere in accepting your portion in life.;.with
resignation you will in due course attain the tranquillity of
infinitude and have uninterrupted repose there as all the
mental, intellectual, and egoistic perturbations melt into
nothingness. Hence, instead of standing by your rights wake
up to your duties-thus alone comes fitness for serving Truth.
The world of diversities is created by the mind which, being
variously conditioned by the urges of Nature, variously works
out the multiform bonds of passions like anger, greed .e tcc;, and
keeps on vexing the soul with repeated exits from and entrances
into the heterogeneous world of joys and sorrows. Serenity thus
goes by default. Corporeality is a complex of the "broken
arcs" and the "perfect round" ; the mind resides in the broken
arcs, the Self in the perfect round. The realisation of this truth
comes from destiny which it is that bears fruit everywhere.

( 28

Serve the God of Truth and you shall win your discharge
from all the three worlds of creditors. Thus freed, one accepts
no more gifts, strays no more from his true abode, and resides
for ever in eternal truth. Verily does the God of Truth reveal
Him-self in and through pure devotion.

29

The successes and failures in school and college examinations

are due to fate but are no aid to the quest for Truth. As the
year ends with the last month, so does the journey of life with
the last bridge. Cross this bridge and you will pass beyond
the control of the time-series of birth-and-death. If some are
happy and others not, it is their fate. The fact is, body,
homeland, learning, knowledge, virtue, vice, coming as they
do according to man's destiny, are like the rise and fall of waves
thafnever reach the shore. You can come to the journey's end
~nd reach the shore only by serviug the.p od of Truth : He is
fullness, Kas no parts, and transce.-1ds joys and sorrows.
12 VEDA-VANI

30
I: is Fate that bears fruit everywhere. The God of Truth
has no parts ; He is fullness of which the splendours cease not
nor wane. Service unto Him is not possible except by self-
naughting. As the Vedic injuction is : Let us contemplate the
Truth Absolute ............ He that is consecrated to Truth is out
of bounds to death.

31
Mar: can but do his duties, the fruits thereof being in the
hands of Fate, in which acquiescence is best. It is an error
to cajole Fate into doing things. Serve the God of Truth, for
He alone can release you from the bonds of birth, death and
decrepitude.

32
Within the limits of discussive Knowledge it is all wants ;
beyond is the abode of Fullness where all waqts cease for ever.

33
The wheel of time for ever moves and knows no rest; Truth
is moveless and eternally at rest. Integrality is nowhere near
the world of unreality, which, in the very nature of things
breeds the sense of exile from Truth, the sense of want, and
.countless other aberrations. You should therefore always
persist in your endeavour to live by Truth.

34 )
No body can escape the consequences of his actions as
.determined by Fate, which should therefore be accepted as a
matter of course. A man reaps as he has sown.

j 35
It is egoism in man that splits the unity of Being"into
kinsmen and strangers.. In t-ruth, no body in the world is other
than your Self.
 VEDA•VANI 13

36 )
As soon as man enters into this changing world of diver-
sities he abjures service unto Truth, asserts his will on the
fleeting fragmentations of life, and becomes enmeshed in the
desires under the penal awards of time, failing to secure even
an iota in excess of his destined portion. Know you therefore
that fate is the sole arbiter. According to the Vedas it is your
duty in this predicament to contemplate the Truth which
is the Ground and Substance of all Truths. He that is ,..,conse-
~

crated to Truth transcends all the bonds of birth, death, decay

and disease. Give no thought to Fate, but occupy yourself
in living by and under the control of truth.

37
Fate bears fruit everywhere, offering man his experiences
and the result thereof, and thus securing to him his body and
home, lineage and respectability, learning and knowledge,
wealth, relations and other possessions. It is therefore the
all-round duty of a hero to offer his life's meed as an oblation
unto the Lord_

38
As a man sows so does he reap. But if and when he reposes
in Truth all his world becomings, in spite of being released by
Destiny, become divinised. This is the spiritual significance··
of contemplating the holy formula (OM), as is practised by an
initiated Brahmin, morning, noon and evening ; and this is his-
entire breviary. He that practises this by pledging himself to,.
and exerting himself for, Truth becomes a true Brahmin by
realising Truth. Where the God_ of Truth resides there the
abode of Peace is. God is all splendours ; He dwells in His..
r integrality as Truth and n e thl ng but Truth. To people on
earth He is variously known as _'Life Divine, Plenum Content,. _
Luminous Fullness.
 14 VEDA-VANI

39
Self-will knows no victory ; nor does wane Plenum Content,
to which therefore, you should resign for the fullness of life.
ln the process of going through the destined joys and sorrows
people get entangled in this world by all sorts of snares like
friends, foes, good, evil and are harassed in consequence. In
Truth the weary cease from troubling ; have trust in Truth
,with a view to the fullness of your spiritual bliss. It is by
.disowning allegiance to Truth that people court the bondage
·Of joys, sorrows, good, evil and similar other terms, only to go
round and round with ups and downs. The only way out
from these gyratious i- the will to remain firmly pledged to
Truth, for only thus can you attain your status in the Plenum
Content where dwells the Lord of the worlds.

40
Desire is the cause of bondage, for it obscures the might of
Truth, forges the contacts of selfness with fleeting objects,
multiplies the affective urges, and causes oblivion of Truth.
Do you therefore release yourself from the annoying desires by
-ceaseless aspiration to the fullness of spiritual bliss.

( 41
God functioning in the time-scheme as law is Fate. Acting
the law you can sunder the bonds of becomings. Hence the
need for submission to His law. On the eastern shore is the
world of discursive knowledge ; on the western shore is the
abode of fullness where reside those who, like the Panda vas, are
·On the side of God, and shun the eastern shore which is peopled
by such as are ensnared by self-will. Have trust in Truth
.and you will attain Peace abounding in.

. ( "42

Plenum Content.
As man forsakes the God of.Truth he·gets imprisonec by the
:temporal diversities and overpowered by self-assertiveness,
 VEDA-VANI 15

with the result that the realm of truths is completely obscured.

The various instinctive urges upset him ·in different ".vays,
black out the power of discrimination and weave round him
a riet of bondage. Thus enmeshed, he fails to disengage himself
from his creaturely experiences, becomes fuddled by the taste
thereof, satisfying or not, and condemns himself to enslaved
comradeship with day to day birth-and-death. So creaturliness
does persist ...... Body, home, society, are all derived from Fate,
the sole agency that in due course brings salvation from world
experiences.

43
As the mother nourishes her children with food and cheer,
so are all beings in all the three worlds sustained by the Divine
Mother with ceaseless provisions of manna and joy. It is the
obduracy of the self-will which obscures man's vision of the
mother as Truth and Bliss. All self-willed experiences in this
world of diversities are fraught with dissipations, aberrations,
and disabilities.

44
Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute, for Truth is man's
ultimate destination.

( 45
It is destiny which releases the wants of life and should be
acquiesced in until supreme joy becomes yours by the payment
of all dues brought fonyard. As you invite bondage by seeking
more than your due you are in consequeuce prevented by • the
Mother from releasing the Lord oLthe Worlds dwelling in your
he'irt. You can terminate the process of Destiny by throwing
yourself astride it and thus bee:ome like King Bhagiratha who
releasedjlis forbears (=acquired i~stinct~) by adopting the same
process.
16 VEDA-VANI

( 46
Contemplate the Truth Absolute. Truth alone 1s perma-
nent ; the false appearances ·are fleeting.

( 47

The Divine Mother of Fullness sustains all the three worlds

even as a mother nurses her children. He that dedicates
himself to Her has no wants. In deep sleep you know neither
selfne: s t>r deprivations. Likewise he that consecrates himself
to Truth can have no wants whatsoever. The mind is created
by the assumption of selfness so that the intellect and other
accessories of the mind help it in splitting up the unity of
Being into the diversified will, with consequent harassments
and all sorts of contents and discontents.

48
The Divine Mother functions in the time-scheme as Fate·
which provides the experiences of life. Contemplate the Truth.
Absolute. Truth has no parts, and has therefore been defied in
the Puranas and other Scriptures as the Divine Mother offullness.
showering blessings upon all. Wherefore, know Fate to be the
Power of the Divine. Live in the lap of the Divine Mother of
Fullness for She pervades all, governs all, and directs all.

( 49
Forsake not the God of Truth. It is thro.ugh His Mercy
that man gets away from the waste-land of life. One comes
by one's body, home, society from Destiny. Man can but do·
his duty ; the result thereof is beyond his control, coming,
as it does, from the God of Truth.

50
As you sow so you reap. Forget not to serve the ..,God of
Truth ; He is man's friend and companion in all circum-
 VEDA•VANI 1'7
stances. By forsaking Him people get into troubles, assume
self-will, go gallivanting with the mind, and soil themselves
in sundry ways.
To serve Truth is religion ; devotion thereto is duty. Truth
alone is wealth,sustenance, wisdom, knowledge and peace.

51
From Fate man derives his portion in life and apprehends
it as healthful on baneful by means of the mind. Give no
thought to this, but try instead to live in submission Cto the
Divine Mother of Fullness.

52
It is Fate that bears fruit by releasing the experiences which
man take:s joy of and wallows in. The Ground and Substance
of all this is the God of Truth ; to abide, there is complete well-
being. To be pledged to Truth is the soul of all religions.
The unreal too cannot exist except on the basis."Of Truth.

( 53
A Bramhmin who morning, noon and evening worships
the Truth which sustains the three worlds of becomings is true
to the pledge of loyalty to the Lord (like Savitri who so won
her Lord from death). Man's real duty consists in sacrifice,
charity, and penances. The result thereof binds not but
terminates the need for all rituals, unfolds the true knowledge
of God, and sunders the world-bondage. The pledge of Truth
means the attainment of this state of liberation.

54 )
As a man sows so does he reap ; and naught besides Fate
is the arbiter anywhere.

55
Accept Fate by riding it, so as to enter the abode of
Eternity, wl:l<!re births and deaths are1 no more and the weary
Part Two-2
f:;
 18 VEDA·VANI

rest for ever. On earth one gets nothing in excess of one's

.pmtion. Fate is the arbiter here. Work out your destiny
by holding the reins of its chariot and you will in
good time emancipate yourself from the time-series of days
and nights.

56
He that accepts Fate by getting astride of it can be its
co~tr?ller, and so end the beginningless series of becomings,
and attain freedom.

57
Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute. Dragged by the
lure of sacrifial rites and the merits thereof, man. entangles
himself with fleeting and limited joys, and is thus debarred
from realising Truth. Nature is basically composed of three
tonalities which, by the varying of proportions, split up the
One into many, such that each subject cognises innumerable
objects and is tied thereto by the ahections. The sages have
classified these affections into the ungodly that pass away and
the godly that endure. You are fortunate in so far as you feel
the conflict of the two series, in which victory certainly belongs
to the godly. It is therefore your duty to persevere in earning
the wealth that contributes to the well-being of the soul. Rest
assured, God will bless your efforts. As long as you shall not
have paid off your debts to this waste-land of diversities you
are not permitted to leave its scenes of births and deaths.
Hence it is that your spiritual instincts are at present having
their playful sway. As soon as you win your discharge, the
game stops and you attain your true spiritual state that dures
for ever ...... Truth is Fullness ; the false are fragmentary,
misbegotten, transient, always in a state of flux. Nobody
either in the three worldG here or in the fourteen beyond can
make himself in any way effective except on the Ground
of Truth. Be pa,.~ient to -keep yourself pledged to Twth
wherein is your abode of Peace. He that con'Jtantly lives
 VEDA· VAN! 19

in divine recollectedness with unfailing single-mindcdness

of devotion does attain to the realisation of God and
thereby wins absolution. God takes joy in and has love for
such as are thus absolved, for they become one with the
Integral Truth by the sundering of all their worldly bonds.

59
The acquired instincts of man involve him in the modes
of Nature, which present a complex of body, hoihestead,
society,: learning, knowledge, etc, wherefrom he derives his
self-assertive urge. Conditioned by Nature's principle of
ignorance this self-will binds him with egoism, shuts out
Truth from his Ken, charges him with pride of corporeality
and learning, fills him with self-sufficiency, goads him with
the impulses, and throws him into the arms of birth and
d eath in this world. Tmth is thus completely lost sight of.
The saints however bear witt the forces .of Nature with a view
to ending the time-series of life and devote themselves to Truth
by surrounding all the acquir:ed instincts and persisting in their
endeavour to live in submission thereto.

60
As fated, man forsake Truth, assume self-will, masquerade
in strange diverse ways and toss in the fair-foul game of life.
They know not t bat they are bound and imprisoned and dupe
themselves into believing that they are happy. None but the
God of Truth can offer the blissful drought. So you can
release yourself from the time-scheme of birth, death, agonies
and distress if only you get out of the meshes of acquired debts
by surrendering yourself to Truth.

61
All one's learning is fraught with Ignorance, and pride
therecf with defilement. Truth is purity bare of all blemishes.
W hatever is got through self-will i~ f"'ted te'l be defective and
unsatisfying~

N. B. There is no 58 in the Bengali Original.

 ,20 VEDA•VANI

'Fne God of Truth is out of bounds to Fate and to attain-

ments or frustrations. He is benison-man's eternal possession
inhering the senses each and every moment and yet transcending
them. To crave is to lose Him: craving in the very nature
of things blacks Him out. Know God to be Fate, the One
existing in His fullness in and through the many. As you split
yourself into many you lose yourself in the involutes.

62
If you recite the Name without shedding selfness, you would
have no end of troubles on account of the acquired instincts,
which prick people with the thorny senses and rule them with
the chief involute cf Nature, namely the mind. Give no
thought whatsoever to them. Instead hold fast to Truth as the
be all and end all of life ; this is devotion, reverence, and love,
and this is to live in holy recollectedness.

63 •
The more one learns to bear with the forces of Nature like
the sensibilities and similar other urges, the more they loosen
their grip, unfolding eternal joy. If, therefore, you remain firm
against the mental, intellectual, and physical pressures and
thus withstand the impulsions of life, you can, God willing,
succeed in having repose in the heart centre till by continued
practice you are established in the eternal abode of Bliss. The
deployment of these forces for one's sense-pleasures is ungodly
because of the resultant involvement in their thric "-strung
clashes. Hence try always to cultivate patience and fortitude in
all your activities so as to have peace and happiness of the mind.

64 )
It is not that he who shouts the loudest recites the Name
of God best. Better it is to :o;emember Him in silence. N aught
but the Name ca~ sav{you from the world., To hold fasO.to
'"'
this faith is to recite the Name best. To live ,in submission to
the Name is divine recollectedness.
 VEDA·VANI 21

65
Man is ruled by the instinctive urges coming from D~hiny.
God is beyond the modes of Nature though seemingly shrouded
by them. Selfness lives in a poor world of becomings where
the material involutes of Nature breed and dance in constant
opposition to one another and refuse to stay.put. This is
man's destined misadventure-to take on the shroud of
Nature and wander aimlessly about. Destiny presents to you
the fruits of your actions. You cannot foresee the fruits but
their enjoyment is always fraught with conflicting -pulls.
Anyway, what is the purpose of marriage ? Not certainly to
waste the seminal substance that contributes to physical
well-being, nor for sense-gratification. It is law for the son to
maintain his parents through his destined experiences, whatever
they be and however tended. Not to break this line of "natural
piety" is right conduct for son and his sacred duty too.
To recite the holy N arne is to make it shine in upon you.
It shines when it is in its abode of glory. The holy Name is
properly recited only when unity with the One is established.
The N arne signifies recollectedness and means nothing but
meditation. Make your choice of any ~spect of Truth,
contemplate it again and again, round and about, never
wandering away from its precincts. That is Name, re-collected-
ness, meditation, and the Truth sought after.
God is one with His N.ame, for He dwells there for ever.
Pevote yourself to this truth with unwavering faith. You can
end your sense of remoteness from Him if, fate willing, you
can shed your selfness. When you come to the end of your
world experiences by seeing them through without revolt ( and
therefore by self-naughting) your joyous interest in the N arne
will sponteneously be unfolded. What is lotted cannot be
blotted by anybody. The destined fruits of action come
a ccording to the divine law of god a nd cannot therefore be
annulled by him, but can be transcended by man if by self-
naughting he goes beyond theg1 by reposing in the N ame.
G'he Name is Truth. But the frui t's a re ·a ry · and sere for him
t hat recitg the Name without shed ding selfness.
22 VEDA-VAN!

66
"The Name is Truth, the Name is Freedom. The Name
is the soul of Religion, there is naught but the Name to live
by in this world." The Lord and His Name are one. The
Name is God. By means of Nescience the Name creates the
world of diversities, causes the delusory formations of the
mind, sets up the conflicts of the self with the nonself, and
thus whets the keenness for deliverance. The Name alone is
the Thing-in-Itself. Your duty is to rid yourself of the
hunt for~ devices, settle down in peace, and constantly cherish
the Name in the depths of the heart. The Name alone, and
naught else, is ever wakeful,

( 67
Life is a field for work ; to do your duty here is the essence
of religious practices, Pre-occupation with scriptural sanctions
interferes with the love of the Lord. God is constantly with
your essential Self. It is His illusory scheme that goes with
your non-self (which in delusion you suppose to be your-Self).

68
The mind shuts out Truth by creating limitations. When
you are in deep sleep the mind is not, but Truth reigns
supreme knowing no adding to or taking away from. This is
Peace. If you always try to seek Truth, Truth will save you
from this wasteland of births and deaths.

69
Be content with your portion in 1ife as meted out by
Nature. Thiswise can you release yourself from destiny and
attain eternal Truth.

70
Man's need of joys and sorrows as apprehended by th't1
dichotomising mind can be transcended by the p~inciple of
 VEDA•VANI 23

divinisation which, when perfected, ends all debts and secures

to him the abode of Truth-a state of .fullness that knows no
fragmentation. To be free of the destined fruits of action is
to be releaseJ from births and deaths. Always dwell in the
Name and the Name will grant you emancipation.

71
The mind is so made that in the whirlpool of Na.,tu.re's
modes it •must needs gyrate into creatureliness. Try therefore
to live in submission to Truth, shunning all contacts with
the mind ; this is called being pledged to Truth ( Savitri
V rata ) which will release you from the time-scheme and
make you a dweller in Life Divine, enjoying Holy Communion
everlastingly. Here the mind dies to become an immortal
bloom, the intellect dies to become pure consciousness, craving
dies to become joyance. This is the realm of the Ground of
all becomings where naught but the holy communion prevails
uninterruptedly.

72
As a man sows so does he reap. None can write off what
is willed by God. Try to live detached from the fated goods
of life, as shaped by the wheel of time, through devotion to
Truth and submission to the God of Truth. The true servants
of God are out of bounds to time and attain by contemplation
what the Ut>anisads call the Abode of Truth.

73
The fated fruits of one's actions, called Destiny by the
wise seers, cannot be shaken off except by devotion to Truth.
The innate tendencies make man cor. tact Nature by turning
him ir.to a creaturely composite and providing him with
hoiJ'I.estead, society, father-land, l~arning, ,;Knowledge, intelli-
gence, rich6:;, respectability and a span of life. Guided by
the tonal modifications of Nature he becomes in due course
24 VEDA·VANI

subject to fears, misgivings, and sundry other harassing

circumstances, but, owing to the intellect having been thus
clouded, fails to get his release therefrom. The body is prone
to decay. All combinations like beauty, lovliness and other
sensory perceptions shall be decomposed and yet people court
ensnarement by them only to revolve in Time with no r est
whatsoever. The aggregate of physical components is the
cause of man's birth-and-death series, but He that indwells
all !h~se aggregates is immortal and undecaying. His will it is
that provides all the flesh-bound creatures with such powers as
they are lotted for. Everybody is empowered to the extent of
hili destiny, never in excess thereof.

74 )
What you aspire to be by contemplation you are divinised
into at the destination. As a man yearns for here (alive) so
does he come by beyond (after death)~

75
The Name and God are one. The Name is Light of thought
and the Substance of all ,that be. Devotion means constant
abidance in the Name; to recite the Name is to practise
patience against the forces that are obstructive to the Name.
Devotion to the Name in the manner indicated leads to th e
realisation of the Name.

76
Man's acquisitions and deprivations are determined by fa te.
Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute. The mind commits
the sins and is smeared by their sinfulness.
The mind is the cc,use of joys and sorrows, births a nd
deaths, and involves gods and demons too in the fated f.;uits of
their actions, The mind is ~not in deep sleep. He that e~ists
in that state is God. So the seers have ascertair ed. He it is
who holds and sustains the universe.
 VEDA•VANI 25

77
It is not given to man to make his wishes effective by self-
will. Nobody is to blame : everybody is guided by his destiny
.as conditioned by Nature. The events are all released by the
scroll of Time.

78
A man's due in this world is his fated portion. All crea-
tures that be are one with God. Enmeshed by the desires one
i s a creature. Freed therefrom one is eternally tthe Divine.
Pure consciousness supervenes when the cause-and-effect
relation is transcended. In no circumstance should you forsake
the God of Truth.

79

When . the lower self is naughted man attains his higher

Self which is Freedom. The world is a passing delusory show ;
man in his creatureliness must needs live in its control. To
get your release therefrom the one thing needful is surrender to
the Lord God of beings.

80
Fate bears fruit everywhere ; you should not try to by-pass
it ; instead, be content with what is offered unto you. What
God wills is all for your good, for, God is good. If you hold
fast to serving the Lord as your ultimate duty you shall come
.t o the end of all involutes.

81

Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute. Always recite the

_N_ame. The Name does always- provide the devotee with
unwavering strength. The Name is Truth. No worship is
fruitful .-unless
... based on the Name-the most wonder-working
:sacred formula. Naught but the Name exists.
26 VEVA•VANI

82
You can get rid of the shroud of life only by pledging your-
self to Truth. This is loyalty to the Lord ; repose therein is to
be delivered from the world process. The words of the Guide
are the basis of contemplation-this is the one sacred lesson of
all the scriptures. The Name is concentrated contemplation-
the one is the other, not different.
With absolute trust in the words of the Guide Prahlad
attained love divine by means of pure devotion-naught stood
in his way. This is to be loyal to the Lord. There is no harm
in diversionary talks if only you see that you cannot exist
except in God. Hence you serve God best by always having
trust in the Guide. As creatureliness, in the very nature of
things, is drawn to needless frivolities and witticisms, you
should keep on purging the passions of your fated term in this
world with a will to abide by the words of the Guide. To have
trust in the Name is devotion. The Name is the Light of
Thought, or, in other words, the only restful abode of the mind.
The glory of the Name shines not in as along as selfness persists.

83
:Nothing can get you away from the hands of Fate-the
agency that feeds you with joys and sorrows, gains and losses,
good and evil. Do not upset yourself over what comes there-
from ...... As there is no way out from the penal term acquired
from Destiny, it is an error to get worried on that account.
Have trust in the Name devoting yourself to It with singleness
of purpose. God dwells in the Name and is one with It.
Nothing can be realised as enduring but the Name. It is your
duty to live by the Name and to be wholly devoted to It,
for the Name alone will dure for ever.

( ' 84

Always recite the Name. When the time is due your

fortune will turn and dod will confer upon you the ~ate of
blessedness. Men are fated to suffer endlessly from all sorts of
r--.:
 VEDA·VANI Z7

harassments and humiliations. The reaping is as the sowing

has been. But God in His mercy has established the o:-er-
lordship of the Name for the deliverance of man from the
destined fruits of actions which exhaust themselves as .you persist
in living under Its control. Keep on reciting the Name and
cease not from the practice even if mental satisfaction be lack-
ing. There is nothing to save you but the Name. All thoughts
and efforts necessary for the practice will come of themselves -
from Destiny, so that your duty consists in cultivating patience
against all contrary forces.

85
The Name and God are one. To recite the Name is to
remain in uninterrupted recollection of It. The name alone
gives you freedom from limitations and the boon of alL blissful
Divine Grace. Recitation of the Name cannot be interfered
with by mental ease or discontent. The Name verily is Truth
and Peace.

86
Souls dedicated to God do also acquiesce in the destined
fruits of action, as illustrated in the Purana, by the life stories
of Rama and other noble characters, none of whom sought
escape from their fated experiences ; for, as long as they persist
the bonds also do persist, but as soon as their term is over the
Self shines in its eternal glory. So always try to recite and
live by the. Name, for the Name alone will liquidiate all
your debts and confer upon you the Freedom of the City
of God. Have no doubt in this regard. The- world is a
delusion and the lure of the acquired instincts a haze
that obscures the Sacred Beauty and Glory of God. Hence
the devotees of the Lord use Destiny as a screen and
ignore the physical and mental i!,Ilages projected thereon.

.
Alwa..ys recite the Name. All conditions of life are due to
the pull of the instincts. The d·e3tined fruits of action come
~

with the b0 y and disappear with its disintegration. Know this

to be the only truth that the Name is never to be forsaken.
28 VEDA-VAN!

87
As the world becomings roll, the affections and obsessions
produce dullness of soul, so that the joy of spiritual knowledge
remains shrouded and the mind is defiled by the dichotomy
of fleeting oppressive discords. Hence joying in the Name
goes by default. The more you recite the Name the more
will the heart be purified till you are able to win your
discharge from destiny by blissful service unto the Lord.
Th!! name and God are one. If you live by the Name you
will in due course enter into the company of the Lord's play-
mates, who have their share of natural joys and sorrows b ut
make no distinction between them, accepting them both as
gifts from the Lord. This is called belonging to the Lord's
team. Self-lauding rites cannot transmute joys and sorrows into
spiritual good but only swell their number . by associative dis-
content. Hence recite the Name, be the practice s:1.tisfying
or not. Man is a bond-slave to corporeality.

( 88
If you recite the Name egotistically the .Jestined order of
joys and sorrows will inevitably persist, such practice being
a self-lauding ritual. As long as corporeality does not dis-
appear it is your duty to live by the Name with disregard to
content or discontent therefrom. Man is not the agent of
action, but only an instrument. This is borne out by the
Gita : "The Lord creates not either man's will to do or his
deeds or his contacts with their consequences". If you see facts
in the face y~m can easily understand that man's will is no
where effective. For, if it had been so and if man had been
perfectly able to fashion his ends according to the heart's
d esires there should not have been any cause for disatisfaction
with any event of life. Which obviously is not the case. Be
that as it may, the fact reiuains that man's only duty is to live
by the Name. All getting and spending in this world ar~ due
to Fate. One does reap, however he might, as on~ has sown.
Acquiesce in what fate has in store for you. Covet not
 VEDA·VANI 29

another's portion. Since you have to earn your livelihood

do so with good grace, acting according to your lights "and
leaving the rest to Fate. Recite the Name with disregard to·
the lure ·of joys and sorrows. For the N arne is . beyond joys
and sorrows and the fluctuations of the mind, shining unobs-
cured in selfluminosity. Much like the process of respiration
does the Name function, undisturbed by mental dichotomy,.
spontaneously and everlastingly.

89
Noue but God can save you from this cavern of corporea-
lity, where, nourished by Nescience and deluded by egoism
and pride, man is assailed by thirst for fleeting joys-an
unquenchable thirst which with the mind and the intellect
forms a viciou:; circle of cause and effect. When a man dwells
in God the mind and the intellect disappear. The Name and
God are one. Live by the Name and the knowledge of God
will be added unto you. The natural instincts create the delusion
of wants which seek satisfaction by contacts with the pleasant-
unpleasant situations and thus forge your fellowship with the
unreal. Since the Name has revealed Itself unto you, how-
ever, circumstanced you might be, your entry, after this corpo-
real frame drops, into the abode of Eternity is assured. The
City of God is all bliss-out of bounds to the powers and the
splendours, unknown to the modes of j oy-and-sorrow, and
un travelled by the mind and the intellect. Have your sole
trust in the Name. Envy not the h appiness of others. Instead ~
m ake efforts to joy in the Name.

90
To try to live always by the Name with patience is to
serve and worship God. The Nam~ and God are one ; hence
that place is the playground of God where goes on the chanting
of His Name. He who dwells i11;; the City of God need act no
more acc~rding to the scriptural injunctions ; he does with
all wants because he lives in the Lord. Of delusion comes
30 VEDA·VANI

selfness, which estranges man from God with a s~roud ofunsatis-

fyir>g desires and consequent involutes ; the result is that now
he is content and happy and again discontented and unhappy.
You should, therefore, do your duties as best as you can with
your trust always in the Name, be the mind restful or restless.
Even if happiness fails you, you should never fail to recite the
Holy Name.

91
In ;pite of all the wisdom of the world that might be in
your possession, your mind and intellect are swept away by
the pull of the deluding world. As long as you are in the
house of delusion you should persist in bearing with the forces
·of destined events, whatever they be and in whichever circu-
mstances they present themselves. Wife and children that
come in the process of becomings bind man with infatuation,
.egoism, and obscuration of self-knowledge. Not before one is
.released therefrom one can begin whole-heartedly to take joy
in the Name of the Lord, which, once started, makes one
i ndifferent to all the vicissitudes of life. Thus then man gains
repose in the Name or in other words, becomes emancipated
from Nescience. If you persevere in contemplating the Name
as one with God, you will be granted absolution here and now
·by the All-Blissful Lord and Being of all becomings. So,
however and whenever you are faced with the formations of
Nescience, bear with them like Prahlad by naughting the self.
Live constantly \in submission to the Name with an unaggrieved
heart, whether or not you have joy in the N arne or happiness
by your lot. Service unto God should be accompanied with
repose in the Name, like that of a child who, gentle or unruly,
never gets away from the arms of the mother. The idea is that
you shouldbe bound to the Name,~feeling exalted at being Its
servant. Wants will cease from troubling you as soon as you
are thus saved by the Name. The Name of God alon::! is
Truth.
The Name is th~ only means of deliverance ,~ from the
~shrouding bondage of Time and the only goal to be reached
 VEDA-VAN! 31

by human efforts. None else is there in the world to help you

out. The Lord God removes all obstacles. Have tr:Jst in
Him and you will be released from all bonds and vicissitudes.
Hence always recite the Name. The Name is one with God.
Indeed, the Name and the Entity that the Name stands for are
identical. God the Almighty removes all fears. Eternal peace
comes of havingtrust in. him. "The bodies are all impermanent;
He that indwells is the only permanent Reality".

92
People all the world over are under a deluding infatuation.
As a result theroof, they seek the fleeting and unreal pleasures
from a notion of permanency with regard to what are transient
life-supports, dissociate themselves from the Oneness of Bliss,
go round and round the wheel of Nescience, and so are led to
repeated births and deaths. Persist in reciting the Name,
forsake It not even ifthe acquired instincts detract from your
interest therein. Loyalty to the Lord is the only sustaining truth
in life. The name and the.Absolute are one. Conduct is right
or wrong according as it leads you to or away from the
Absolute. You should live by the Name not for mundane
joys but as a course of penance, braving all the sorrows of life.
Persistent efforts to live by the Name break the bonds of sorrow,
till joy in the Name unfolds itself as immortal and unbroken
Bliss. Recite the Name with detachment to results thereof.
To live by the Name for Its own sake is right conduct.

93
Deluded as all beings are, they hanker after only ~orldly
joys ; seeking out fleeting impermanent satisfactions, they
abjure Divine Love-and-Bliss, the which being permanent rises
not nor sets. Primordial Ignorance is responsible for this
delusion. Consider this body as a tenement not your own but
derived from Destiny. The miQ_d and the intellect come of the
restless dynamism of Nat!J.re and pertairf not to the God who
dwells in your heart ...... Keep yourself always aloof from the
 32 VEDA-VANI

destined events of life emerging as worldly joys, sorrows, good'

and evil ; they all belong to and are felt by the mind and
exist not outside of the mind. The objects of the mind are the
sensibles which must needs appear with their limitations.
\Vhatever of pleasure, pain, happiness, or sorrbw is felt comes.
from the mind and is of the nature of a drug-addicts delirious
dre~m. To have fallen from one's essential nature is the
primal illusion-mere dream-stuff. To revert to one's real Self
one has patiently to resist the illusory lures till the acquired
instincts - work themsel~es out and the bonds of actions are
sundered in consequence. You are free as soon as the meshes
of actions can no more weave themselves round you. Then
you enter the City of God as a desembodied spirit and as such
you are empowered to serve the Lord with loyalty divine,
attaining in consequence the supramental status of Love Divine.
\Vhen you are thus blessed, you realise that the Name is Bliss,
Charity is universal love and service is serving the Lord God of
all beings. Practise self-naughting with a view to attaining this.
state of consummation. Adore the Name at all hours all the
days of your life.

( 94
Fate works out to fruition everywhere. People in ignorance·
are duped by endless mental formations, involved in liabilities,
and punished in consequence thereof. So always cultivate
patience and pledge yourself to the God of Truth. He will
release you from all the debts incurred and confer upon you
the estate where you are at peace with all. Shed all worries and
offer all the pleasing and unpleasing urges of this life unto the
God of Truth Who alone will save you from getting tossed in
'the endless sea of becomings. None else but God has the power
to emancipate you from the series of sowings and rea pings.

( 95

Girt with self-will you have been since ages strutting aboul
in pride only to be balked at every step. Why then these
 "'-'-

VEDA-VANI 33
vanities? None can deprive you of your portion in life,~ for
Fate bears fruit everywhere without fail. Forsake not the God
of Truth. Truth is totality in all phases of life and has no
parts. Try always to adore Truth and you will be graced
with divine mercy.
l
96 )
Adore the God of Truth. He will always sustaip and
protect you. As fate wills it so are people encumbered by the
experiences of life, which now give satisfaction, now
discontent.

97
Birth, death, and marriage are the three predestined events
that cannot be interfered with by anybody and must be
acquiesced in at the time and in the spirit as previously deter· .
mined by Fate. Suffering is due to selfness attaching itself to
gains and losses, so that to be free from all worries and
misgivings you should have always complete trust in Truth by
the naughting of the self.........•.. The conative urges take form
as dissipating thoughts. Get rid of the modes of Nature by
living in the citadel of patience till you attain the unqualified
.status of the Absolute. Then you will win your discharge from
corporeality and its delusory bonds-but not before you have
done with all assets and liabilities.

( 98 )
People would flout Fate, instead of riding it, with the
result that they become endlessly encumbered. It is due to
Fate that they become entangled by the various mental forma-
tion and dragged through pleasing, unpleasing, laudatory, and
humiliating circumstances. When you are in deep sleep all
satisfa~tions and discontents become·extinct, for they rise from
and are controlled by egoism ( which disappears in the state of
dreamless sleep), Shed selfness, and surrender your life's
. portion to Truth. Thus shall you realise Truth.
Part Two-3
34 VEDA-VANI

( " 99
Peop,le in all the three worlds are tied to the body,
homestead, relatives, friends, and aquaintances, according to
their individual destiny which in the process of time causes
meetings and separations. Give no thought to these, h ave
complete trust in Truth, , deny yourself all the destined fruits
of actions, and strive for the attainment of Truth.
It ~s Fate that shapes the events like marriages, arranging
circumstances with a view to bringing about the marital union.
You are harrowing yourself endlessly by exercising your will
with regard to it. It is Fate that intervenes when a desired
union falls through.

100
Cultivate patience at all hours and in all circumstances.
The fated events, elevating or degrading, are all a delusion-
fleeting and impermanent. Renounce them, act not under
their control, try instead to have your trust in the God of
Truth. Persist in this practice and He will dower you with
enduring peace. Self-lauding rites are essentially infructuous
and help not subserve Truth. By exercising self-}'Vill all these
many years have you been able to bring any single thing to
fruition ? Think clearly and you will see that you have come,
by what was allotted for you -naught besides..... .... na ught
besides. Why then this headache over your son's marriage
when the fact remains that human will is utterly ineffective.
As it is fated so will a person meet his mate for marital
union. Neither gods, nor demons, nor men can alter the
course of destiny. If you can surrender your selfness to the
God of Truth and live under His protecting eye you will
succeed not only in winning your discharge from all life's debts
but also in having that peace which passeth understanding.

r 101
Self-will does but add to your dest,ined" meed and
swells indebtedness instead of wiping it out ; and so the
 VEDA·VANI 35
brith-and-death series persists ........ pleasure and pain come
from Fate.
Know it for a fact you cannot get rid of the meed of life
., .
except by devotwn to father, to whom you should offer your
respectful services by patiently curbing the impulses of the mind.
Father's blessings bring peace and happiness unto children.

102 ) '
Consider this scriptural saying : "Father is Heaven" ; to
serve him is the son 's duty and to seek his satisfaction the
greatest penance. As one is lured into this wasteland of life
one gets, as a result of one's previous actions, one's father
and mother to be nourished by them. You should always
adore your father-that is your duty as a son. To respect his
wishes as long as he is alive and to perform the last rites
after he is dead-these are the son's obligatory duties. Not
to do one's duty but to seek one's pleasure and strut with
self-will are a purely self-lauding ritual which never comes to
an end, and can neither terminate births and deaths nor secure
deliverance from the bonds of passion. Know this to be the truth.

103
Don't you worry ; success comes in the fullness of time.
Doing one's duty with singleness of purpose conduces to
deliverance from the ~orld. The world is a delusory process,
functioning as a conflict between time and the Timeless. It is
God's will that people be released from the fleeting and
dissatisfying world gyrations of joys and sorrows. Adore the
Lord-your only duty here on earth.

104 )
God as mercy inter-penetrates all life.

105 ) '
To be pledged to Truth is the ultimate religion of man.
Siu"gle-mind~d devotion brings complete ~atisfaction, leaving
nothing to be desired.
36 VEDA·VANI

106 )
Always bear with what fate offers you in the right spirit.
So will you have God's mercy. •

107
According to the laws of Destiny, joys and sorrows,
diseases and bereavements inhere this body and should not
be w':?rried over if divine blessedness is desired. You should,
therefore, gladly submit your body to such experiences as. it
is heir to, so that your essential nature as the servant of the
Lord might reveal itself through the discipline. It is egoism
and its subsidiaries which make people transgress the laws of
spiritual life, hanker after the goods of the world, and get into
the shell of birth, death, pleasure, and pain. Man's deli-
verance lies in merging himself in divine recollectedness. The
more you sing the Name of God the more will Peace supervene
till you attain the state of undying Bliss.

108
Don't you worry. Always try to live in submission to God. ·
The world is a delusion which disappears as soon as the
destined time.series terminates. It is wrong to destress your-
seliover what fate has in store for you.

109
It is the nature of the mind to cause pleasure and pain by
the perception of what it is focussed upon. All actions (of the
mind) lead to Heaven or to Hell. To adore the Lord is the end
and aim of life. Thiswise alone is man saved from dualism.
All devotion and religious practices consist in submitting your-
self to the will of God by the cultivation of patience. To live
in the supra-sensuous by transcending the sensuous in Bliss. To
abide by the wor:_ds of the Guide is duty-the only mode of
performing self-immolation and maintaining divine recollected-
ness. It is also true adoration of God-an ultimate status of the
38 VEDA• VAN!

112
Always recite the Name ; to do so is singleminded devotion .
The acquired dispositions become a spent force only through
patience : everything in its time. The Name alone is Truth ;
naught else but the Name endures in this world.

113
Th~Name is Thought-in-Itself. "The name is the Light of
thought. God the Lover is incarnate Consciousness-Bliss-
eternally pure, eternally free, and one with His Name".
In other words, one has nothing to gain in this world except
the ceaseless flow into his heart ofName-that.is-Truth, wherein
themind, the will, and the other faculties should forever seek
satisfaction. To repose in the Name is to be free from all
aberrations caused by lures and troubles. From the fluxes of
primordial Nature is born the delusion of the mind which in
consequence apprehends the objects of the world in their I(
apartness and designate them by diverse names. In all your
thoughts and musings, in adverse circumstances orin prosperity,
dwell constantly in the Name, with disregard to its objectified-
formations .and faith in the truth that God and His Name are
identical, and all other names are erroneous, delusory imposi-
tions on It. The Name will be a living Reality when you feel
Its presence in all circumstances-in all your articulations and
the operations of the mind and the intellect. Whatever be
the state you are in, to recite the Name is, therefore, your
sole duty.

114
Truth is one, and the path thereto straight and clear. The
endless views about It as- expounded in the pseudo-scriptures
(of the Shaivas, Shaktas, T ::ntrics, etc.) are sought only-by the
misguid~d people. ·
To ignorant people the static Being seems to have lost Itself
in dynamic Nature. In reality the One sees, the other acts.
~
 VEDA-VANI 37

soul which ushers in the Grace that saves. Heaven and condi-
tional freedom are both purgatorial because, after the pleasu-
rable experiences resulting therefrom have run their course,
one returns to the painfulness of having been deprived of
them. What is purgatory but suffering ? As soon as one's term
there expires one is again born into this world for working out
one's destiny. Night and day you should, therefore, attend to the
•
immediate needs and duties of life, trying the while to mould
yourself according to the words of the Guide as best as you can.

110

This world is a delusion wherefrom one can deliver oneself

if by abiding in Truth one conserves one's energies and deploys
their gathered might to undo the world-ties of debts and hectic
fevers. Thus released, one goes beyond the involutes and lives
in everlasting wake-fulness, immersed wh,olly and interminably
in the supreme peace and bliss of Love Divine. Singleminded
devotion leads to this unique status. Resolved firmly to do or
die and disengaged from all lures and worldly controls, you
should wholeheartedly devote yourself to your religious practi-
ces with singleness of purpose ; if you do so an efficient power
within you will lead you to that status without fail. Be not
udmindful of your daily routine ; pursue it by all means with
indifference to whether or not you profit thereby or the profit
be mickle or little. Cultivate the company of the saints the
while you do your duties. The one all-time pledge of life is
right conduct.

Ill

Remember that Patience is the only means for a way out

from the inherited liabilities of life. All worldly joys . and
sorrows come from destiny-an unseerf force which functions
througn the various mental formati9ns. Individual effort may
sligl:ltly mitigate but can never terminate its' penal term. You
can win your discharge only by means of patience. When
.- fortune favours, all your wishes will be fulfilled .
 VEDA·VANI 39
At the line of conjunction the solid (material) world melts into
the etherial twilight of evening. Pure devotion unfolds itself
to one who reaches this junction where breath remains susY>en-
ded and faith comes into being.
"The Name is the Light of thought. God the Lover is
incarnate Consciousness-Bliss-eternally pure, eternally free, and
one with His Name." The Name is one with Its Form and
tabernacle So the tabernacle where it is established is called
Its temple. One-pointed thought is contemplation, which, as it
shines, destroys all veils and impediments and leads to repose in
10
the GC>d of Truth. Patience consists in untiring fortitude against
all contrary forces, as of the senses, the mind, and the intellect,
or, in other words against whatever is cognised as joyous or
painful, good or evil, gainful or luck-less, affecting self or
others. For, they cause the distempers of life and lure men
to bondage in diverse ways. Penance thus continued makes
the heart pure for the Name to shine ·in upon it. With the
conslodidation of this experience the veiling desires disappear
and the soul rests in peace. This is called 'dwelling in God.
As the world is und'er the spell of Ignorance, the three-formed
urges of life take form as flesh-bound lusts and cravings which
make people mad for their gratification, warped judgement;
and tempt the mind to endless gratificatory devices. As a result
of these lures they are ensnared by the1disturbing forces of
egoism, self-will, arrogance, pride, anger, superciliousness. Try,
therefore, to bear with the cognitive-conative-affective impulses,
reciting the holy Name with the mind concentrated on the act of
respiration. Successfully to have done so is to attain that
moveless state of recollectedness which gradually leads to self-
realisation, or, in other words, to the revelation of the Name.
The Name is Thought-in-Itself. It is Immortality, Freedom,
Love, and cosmic Power. To realise this state is to be one with
the God of Truth-So sayg the Bhavisya Purana in the
Krishna-Jodhisthira narrative in tht;, Reba-Chapter .
.God is the Light of all thoughts, the Being of all becomings,
t~e Freedom of the free, and "the ultimate destination of
life's jou::"ney-also called in the scriptures the liberating Word
in the realm of truths, the Word that is God. This is the
.....,
 "
40 VEDA-VANI

spiritual meaniug of respiration~the breath that is out is

universal dissolution ; the breath that is in is universal
creation, the breath that is still, neither in nor out, is Truth.
To dwell in submission to this Truth, called the God ofTruth
in the scriptures, is spiritual excursion. Devotion to this God
of Truth, if persisted in, leads by stages to the realisation of
of Truth. If you dedicate yourself to It with perseverance in
your efforts to fix the mind thereto, you will attain the state
when the mind no more wanders. Then will pure devotion
unfold itself never to disappear again. This is the state of
self-realisation. Let us, therefore, contemplate the Absolute
Truth. Keep reciting the Name with the mind held between
inspiraqon and expiration, and in due course supreme joy in
the practice will supervene, annihilating all desires and
drowning you in eternal Bliss-and-Peace.

115

The gates of Heaven open only to devotional practices. The

Name and Its Substance are not distinct from each other.
The Name and God are one. Have trust in the N arne and
you shall be a dweller in the city of God. For, as the N ame
is identical with God, so is His City with Him. That God
never steps out of His city is borne out by the experience of the
saints. Wherefore, if you live by the Name, you may not
leave His City, being an approved citizen thereof, nor will you
ever be conscious of His absence from you. The pleasant and
unpleasant experiences emanating from the clouds ofcorporeality
are but a prison-term which, along with the disappearance of
pleasure, pain, content and discontent, completely disappears in
the state of deep sleep. All things pass away except the Name.
Live by the Name whether or not you have rest therein or joy
thereof; for, thus may you win absolution and enter the abode
of Eternity. Remember that God is always overseeing you.
As long as you remain embodied for your world-interest~ so
long must you suffer from yoJlr innate dispositions ; beyonQ.
is endless peace. Contact with and separation from ,. _ brothers,
sisters, wife, and children, of this life, time-woven as they
 VEDA·VANI 41

are by destiny, are all on estrangement from God, a wrong

affective formation, a cloud of unknowing-sheer bondage. ~Try
to surrender yourself only to the Name. Access to more than
your portion in life is not given to you in any circumstances.

116
The word "Hamsa" means "swan", its esoteric significance
being -self-revelation, a process by means of which the world
rests on God. As the bird Gadura (=aspiration) is the carrier
of God Vishnu (=Immanent Reality), and the Bull ( = i'tascent
spiritual power) of Lord Shiva (=supernal reality), so is the
Swan of God Brahma (=creative Reality). Manifest reality is
thus three-formed and multiplex, as seen in the three ways of
-o f knowing, the three tonalities of Nature, the three poises of
Reality, the radiant Three, the three-powered Deity, the
triple Fire, the Trinity. Beyond the tri-morphous reality is
.the formless transcendent Godhead, revealing Itself a~ "I am
He" (=Hamsa), this sacred formula being the true Name of
·God. The dynamic poise of Hamsa expressess itself through
the process of respiratio~ which is one with the Name and
which in the course of chanting the Name becomes suspended,
with the result that selfness disappears, the intellect is
becalmed, and the truth of the Name as identical with the
Life of lives is flashed forth in consciousness. This is self-
realisa~ion of the truth ''I am He" ( =Hamsa).
The eight benign Names of God are-the Moveless One,
the Lord of Joy, - the lmmanen t Lord, the Dispiller of
Ignorance, Truth, the Ruler of beings, the Self of selves, the
•Goal of the becomings.
Ham sa (=I am He ) is a Name of God and as such the
Light of thought and the soul of becomings. To realise God
is to be firmly established in this truth. To stay in between
things is detachment, which, with submission to and recolle-
-ctedness of the living God within you, leads to such a loving
re-lationship_ with Him as makes odious a.ll attractions to the
lures of' t'J.e senses. Sudden and forcible repression of the
senses should be avoided lest the nagging subsidiaries should
42 VEDA-VAN!

interfere with the recital of the N arne. When you realise by

righ~-mindedness that none is yours but the living God and
that it is the Will 0' the Wisp of the luring senses that has
kept you spell-bound in the house of passing shows, then
fortitude against the snares of the senses will be established
of itself. A little of patience is essential to making the senses
quiet. Quietened, they turn into friends and behave peaceably
too, but not before the living God is realised. To the impious
the living God means worldly misfortune ; for the pious He
alone i~ well-being.

117

This world is a prison-house of delusion where people

have to undergo their destined term, sampling their individual
portion of good and evil, pleasure and pain, satisfaction and
discontent, by means of the mind. All associations with the
mind, pleasurable or painful, are delusory, for they disappear
in deep sleep and during periods of forgetfulness'. So dissociate
yourself from these tempting companions, and, however circums.
I '
tanced you might be, keep reciting the Holy Name. Patience
is the only sustaining virtue by means of which all dues are
cleared off, the Ignorance born world-delusion of corporeality
is dispelled. and the incorporeal, spiritual status is gained,
whereby one obtains eternal companionship 'with God; One
cannot attain this state except by patience ; impatience does
but pull one to the lures of life and punishes one with unto-
ward visitations. You should, therefore, persist in reciting the
Holy Name with evenness of mind to joys and sorrows. When
corporeality goes, all attractions cease to operate owing to the
debts and dues having been done with. If you want to live in the
Lord you must needs patiently bear with the destined harrass-
ments oflife. You may not otherwise enter into the City of God.

(
0
J 18
Man tosses on the multitudinous waves of the tl:'imorphous
Nature, discerns not good from evil, <!,nd has endless cravings.
 VEDA·VANI 43

all owing to the Name having been forsaken by him. Seek

not pleasure ; heed not what· the mind grasps as cove~able
or undesirable. As Dhruba, Prahlad and other devotees of
the Lord found the path by determined efforts, so do you
resolutely keep dwelling in the Name : the Name alone will
remove all your wants, save you from the estranging tonalities
of Nature, and lead you on to the Goal. What the mind
presents as good and evil are but the eddyings of Nature's
modes. If you shed your selfness with regard to the
pleasures of the mind, the intellect and the senses and bear
patiently with their contrary forces, supreme Bliss will be
yours in the ripenses . of time. Then the mind, the intellect,
and the senses will of themselves be stilled and saturated
with steady, unbroken joy and transmitted into friendly
companions in all the activities of life. Thiswise is supreme
peace attained, when one becomes the "steady gnostic" seeing
naught but God. "Steady gnosis" is godliness. Anyway, keep
well as reciting the Name as you can, with singleness of devo-
tion. Be not duped by the clingings and cravings set in motion
by the intellectual, mental, and sensuous lures. Make persistent
efforts to dwell in the Name and the Name alone. Rest
assured, the Name will save you from all world becomings.

119
The joys and sorrows which are apprehended by the mind
are all empty, transient, fleeting. Man clouds his vision of the
limitless. all-pervasive God by assuming the intellective bounds
of selfness. Hence come egoism and pride, which split the
One into diverse modes, make the soul apathetic to divine
aspiration, and stir up craving for such action as gratifies the
senses. Be that as it may, exert yourself according to instruc-
tions received Persevere and you will reach the abode of
Eternity ; only, heed not the temporary gains on the way.
Tfle Absolute knows no decay. 9nce you reach It there is no
' more straying away from It. - Do you. work in your specified
field with disregard to and dispassion for the results thereof.
Nor should you deviate from your own path from the weak-
44 VEDA·VANI

ness to please others or to yield to them. Be-fogged, people

see Z'.miss and say not aright. Hence ignore them, know what
your duty is, and do it according to your lights, without being
deluded into comparing one's own joys and sorrows with
another's.

120
It is the delusion of the mind that presents the events of
this world as pleasurable or painful, God alone is Truth.
All associative pleasure and pain are impermanent; they
rise to set. Absolute Truth cannot therefore be attained as
long as the lure of mental satisfaction persists. However dis-
posed the mind be, it is, therefore, your duty to adore the
living God within you by cultivating patience in all circum-
stances. Thus will the eternal status of the soul as indicated
by the immortal scriptures stabilise itself, releasing the mind
and the intellect from the ensnaring meshes and distempers.
Respiration is that process by which breath' is inhaled and
exhaled through the orifices of the nose and the mouth. When
breath is neither taken in nor given out but kept suspended,
it attains a neutral state which, if prolonged by conscious
efforts, leads to a neutral or detached state of the mind.
Absorb the world by inhalation and annul it by exhalation. It
is a sacrificial rite to cultivate this neutral state. Rightly
performed, it liberates man from the world bondage and
secures to him universal love and supreme Bliss.

121
The neutral ( suspended ) state of respiration is nothing
but the mystic heart-centre where dwells the Holy Name. "God
resides in the heart-centre of all beings, oh Arjuna, and by
His illusory scheme of a l}iche for each in the wheel of
becomings makes them go round and round through birt~s
and deaths.''
Try to realise the truth of this scriptural ( Gee'ta ) text
with the mind fixed - at the heart-centre, continuously reciting
 VEDA·VANI 45

the Holy Name. This practice will deepen your power

of apprehending the Truth. The more continuously you iecite
the Name the more will the breath be stilled, till_ you reach
the goal-the communion ofthe soul with God. Devote yourself
with steady conviction to the Name as one with God, to God
always dwelling in the Name. The Name will function sponta-
neously if you persist in the pratice provided that is not vitiated
by wishful thinking. For this reason : God is beyond thoughts,
even so is His Name as well as the soul's communion with
Him. Anyway, go on reciting the Name without brea-k till it
functions spontaneously and uninterruptedly. Then will joy
be unfolded. Work done egoistically does but ensnare man in
the meshes of affections and infatuations.

122
All becomings are delusory. As people cannot wean them-
selves from the lure of destined experiences they bartt:r their
deathless sanctity for transient joy and get enmeshed in desires.
The Holy Name has vouchsafed to man in order that he might
be delivered from the birth-and-death machinery, which is
worked out by Fate in this world ofnamesandforms. Resolutely
contemplate that the Name of God and His Being are one, for
God dwells in the Name.
"Verily the Name of God, and the Name alone, naught else
but the Name, is the Unconditioned One. The Name alone is
the path that leads the soul from time into the Timeless the
Name and naught but the Name.'· · If, therefore, you have but
trust in the Name you shall be delivered from the hither shore
of passion-fraught becomings. Dalliance in the sense-world
cannot reach you the realm of the super-sensuous.

123
Time shapes all events. Nothing, but the Name can save you
from this world. The name is Truth. Hence devote yourself
~lways · to the Name by turning fhe heart centre into a temple
for the N r:me so dwell there evermore. Persistent adoration of
the Name will in due course open your heart to Love Divine.
46 VEDA..· VAN!

124

The world is all ignorance, errors and infatuations, where

joys and sorrows, gains and losses, accuring from Destiny, are
apprehended in terms of love (for friends) and hatered (for
enemies) and wherefrom deliverance is not possible except by
devotion to the Lord. The Name and God are one. Constant
recollection of the Name is abidance in God and consequently
freedom from all wants; for God is Happiness and Bliss.

125

The world is a function of Ignorance and Errors and a

field for man to earn the need of Destiny ; wherefrom you can
win your salvation if only you have trust in Truth undefiled.
The essence of religion is to be pledged to Truth. Truth
reveals Itself as the Name, and the Name like a perennial
fountain showers · joyance for ever. Hence always recite the
Name with the faith that It alone is the Almighty Saviour.
The more uninterruptedly you can do so the better, for it
will then be the pleasure of the Almighty to bestow upon you
your spiritual dower and the merciful gifts of devotion and
love so as to make you enjoy the the peace of God

126 )

Devote yourself resolutely to the truth that God and His

Name are one. Recite the Name, for It is no other than God
Himself. If you dwell constantly in the Name, God in
His mercy will confer upon you absolution and receive you
into His bosom. As the Lord saved Prahlad and other
devotees from the turmoil of the godly and the ungodly forces,
even so will He release you from the bonds of becomings. Do
you, therefore, always live by the Name and the Name will
do the rest for you.

~ 127

Self-will, the which people assume in their ~;;,delusion,

degrades into egoism owing to the power of Ignorance and
 VEDA-VAN! 47

subsequently into various egoistic formations, which usher m

the innate desires in countless ways and shut from people the
true nature of God. However,. one can dispense with all work,
including religious practices and austerities, by being a wholly
dedicated servant of the Lord, like Joya and Vijoya who,
consecrated, were out of bounds to the fruits of action, or like
Sumantra, the charioteer of .the Lord, who had naught to do
but ddve the chariot by means whereof he lived beyond the
frontiers of Destiny, To recite the Name is to haVf~ complete
trust in It, and so to do nothing but as willed ty God.
Shed self-will which ties you to corporeality and keep doing
your duty-thus may you win your freedom from all wants,

128
This is a Vedic text : "Contemplete do we the Truth
Absolute". Nothing in this world is permanent but the Name.
You have acquired this body by your previous actions, and so
all destined events connected thereto must be experienced in
• and through it. Breath comes in and goes out ; be mindful
to . still it at the heart-centre, devoting yourself the while to
reciting the Name. If you recite the Name of the Lord as
you keep yourself engaged in the duties of life, He will confer
upon you peace and liberation. Birth, death, senility, disease
are all due to the operations of selfness. If you always try to
recite the Name with breath-c~mtrol you need fear no fall.

129 ).

If the Name of God is to rule one's life one must

practise patient indifference to wordly harassments. Live by
the Name alone, instead of wallowing in the sweets of the
world brought forward by Destiny. Accept your lot, _whatever
it be, with a smile ; look on patiently as the acquired impulses
of life wear themselves out. Remember that all changes in
Me's estate are brought about ~, by Destiny, As corporeality
is a time-;Jrocess it shapes man's assets and liabilities in the
· time-order . but disappears when time hath a stop. Don't
48 VEDA-VANI

invite duties nor reject them, but do what must be done with
a cl:ire-free mind. The meed of Destiny will come of itself.
Exert yourself as best as you can. With Truth enshrined in
your heart discharge all your duties without doing harm to
any. The Name is Truth; naught else does endure in the
world or ever will. Who be whose wife ! and who whose
children! all vanities of vanities. Know them to be delusory
names and forms and keep doing your essential duties.

130
Always recite the Name. The Name alone is Truth and
shall endure. The Name of God is the only ultimate object .
of contemplation ; all other activities of the mind are a self-
lauding ritual. Rituals must- needs go away, but the Name
endures. The Name is selLluminous bareness, the Name is
Freedom and the Path of deliverance

131 •
God and His name are one. Whether or not you fee1
disposed, keep reciting the Name and good will come thereof.
As nectar, sweet to the taste or not, does its work inevitably,
so does the Name, if you live by it, lead you to the abode of
Peace. The Name functions thiswise when all your conscious
thoughts are quickened by It. You are made fit to dwell in
God by your efforts to dwell in 't he name because the Name
and God are one a trut~ that remains unaffected by your
dispositions. If you dwell in God, the will to quicken your
joy in divine recollectedness would be an errof (for the fish in
water would not thirst for a drink). Worldly happiness is but
an apology for it ; in reality it is an ocean of sorrow. Pleasure
and pain as apprehended by the mind are delusory, for they
aro not during deep sleep. Keep adoring the Lord, no one
is nearer to you than He."' The Lord God is our Lord ~be­
cause He saves us -from all th!! ills of existence, and is ther<:;
fore known as the Lord of all beings. Never lend ocyour ears
to unbelievers and blashphemers. The Name that you have
 50 V.EDA-VANI

133
The world is all undulations of delusion and ignorance,.
wherefrom the only means of deliverance is divine recollected--
ness. There is no other way out. The Name is Truth. Lusts
and cravings are dream-stuff, being the disturbed ;modes ot
Nature, which one cannot get away from owing to one's thirst
for sense pleasures. All the attachments to the -sensibles are
but w':ves of disturbance breaking upon the heart. What is.
lotted cannot be blotted. For all one's learning one may
have to live on alms if it is so fated. All worldly gettings.
and spendings are pre-ordained. There is no sense in craving:
for or fretting at the awards of Fate.

134
Confirmed habits take time to change. Persist in your-
practices and you will in due course have joy-for-ever-joy that
passeth understanding, but comparable in terms of experience:
to the limitless unconditioned joy of deep sleep. Mental and
intellectual joy is derived from unregenerate Nature in the
shape of passion-fraught delusory lures, transient and phanta--
smal, biding for a moment the while the tentacles of the senses.
catch them. Pleasure following pain and pain following
pleasure are fluxes of primordial Ignorance and promote the:
process of creatureliness for those who are enamoured of them,_
Beyond them is Bliss-the calm tranquil Sea of the Self. Single-
minded devotion ushers in the union of the soul with the pure_:
blissful self, or in other words, the abidance of the soul in ever-
lasting Peace. "He that contemplates the Void and dwells therein_
is delivered in consequence from the world of virtue and vice."
So affirm the saints in the scriptures. As you contemplate-
Infinite Nothingness you"' will enter into Its all-pervasive self--
luminosity and fullness. .TJ:is is the state of supreme consum-
mation and the complete annulment of all affections ~and:
volitions. Hence devote all your available tim~ to shedding
selfness with a view w your absorption in the all-absorbing.
 VEDA·VA'\ 1' 51

-void. This disintegration of conglomerates is the true

sacrificial rite worthy of performance.

135
The one thing to abide by is Truth Eternal-the Ultimate
to be sustained by to meditate upon, to do penance for, and
to gain repose in. For, Truth is no other than the true Self~
the Substance that things rise from and merge in, the eternal ·
Entity that has neither beginning nor end, supreme Freedom,
and the ultimate Goal.

136

All worldly oLjects come and go, providing transie.nt joy

and barring out eternal bliss mere sensibles causing pleasure-
able and painful sensatious, which are cognised the moment
they are lit up by the senses but disappear immediately after.
Hence the soul of religious practice is to ignore the sense joys
and sorrows and make ceaseless efforts to remain immersed in
the limitless Sea of eternal Bliss. All pleasing and kindred
experiences of the senses are but fleeting phantoms of the mind.
You should therefore try to release yourself from the delectable
ties of Nature's momentary stimuli. To do so is the sum total
of duty and religious practices and wealth and the anchorage of
life. If you submit yourself to this discipline supra sensuous
powers will grow .within you till you are able to repose in the
blissful One. This is tf1e state of absolute freedom (where the
many disappear and the One abides). It is reached by three
different modes of meditation (a) God as Foe (b) God as
Friend & (c) God as the sole Refuge (by devotion). All three
lead to Freedom.
He that adopts the foeman's attitude does always seek God
as an antagonist, is ever alert to _9utwit Him and defea t His
purpose and would break rather than bend. M ahishasur,
B.iranyakashipa and other dem0riaic natures are examples of'
this antagC.nistic approach, which in the fullness of time leads
to fruition. He that wo1 ships God as Friend looks upon all
 52 VEDA·VANI

beings as interpenetrated by God, so fhat the joys and sorrows

felt i.;:; other corporeal fields are experienced by him as if they
were his own. This way does he cultivate the love ofGod and
strengthen his friendly tie with Him by devoting himself to
the service of others, This is Love Divine, which, when
firm and steady, unfolds the enduring realisation of God
as Friend.
God the Refuge is realised by the practice of non-action
and detachment in the manner of Prahlad, in other words, by
the annulment of self-will and belongingness and patient
fortitude against the contrary forces of life, so as not to be
touched, even as a dead body is not, by the joys and sorrows
of existence.
There is, besides, the Path of sacrifices, rituals, and other
questings and wanderings, resorted to by people ( of orthodox
persuasion ) for the realisation of God. There is this to say in
favour of this Path that its pursuants before long tire of it as
unsatisfying. Then comes the spirit of surrender, which
inevitably leads to the Goal.

137
The world is a ceasel~ss flux, to get beyond it into the
moveless state of the eternal One is truth-realisation. Divine
recollectedness consists in the constant awareness of being so
poised in the Void as to be free from all good and evil. If
you can rid the mind completely of . its thoughts and props,
clinging only to yourself as a point of radiating light, you
will be set free from the world-process and installed in the
timeless poise of the Word that is God, The Word ( =Om
or "pranava") is the origin of the Vedas, the primordial
Energy that projects the trimorphous Nature and causes the
surge and shine of all ,world phenomena. This truth is
contained in the holy text, of the Gayatri verse, which;:~ you
should repeat day and nig'ht so as to be one with the
cosmic poise, the poise of the Void (wherefrom e manate all
z-.. world phenomena).
 VEDA-VANI 53
138
The Lord Shiva told his Divine Consort that the disyllabic
word "Guru" (=Guide) is the ultimate Word that dwells
·with God and consequently saves the soul from all wordly
fears. He that lives in constant awareness of this sacred
Word crosses the frontiers of ignorance and preoccupation
with rites and scriptures. So, never be unmindful of your
devotional duties to tne Word. Slackness in the discharge
of one's duties should in all circumstances be avoided.

139
God is benison and bliss, which never fail for those that
have trust in Him. The ultimate Path therefore is constant
awareness of Truth that never fails. Have no worry ; surely
the Guide will always protect ) ou. The more you have trust
in the supramental Being, the more will meditation settle
down in its clarity till, with the annulment of the mind the
Absolute will reveal Itself in Its self-luminosity. Cling there-
fore to the Guide as long as the physical consciousness persists,
and in due course the mind will cease to be and the realisation
of God prevail. This, however, is not possible of attainment
within the narrow bounds of a sect, which operates in this
world merely as bondage. It is, therefore, advisable to abide
only in the transcendent-immanent Reality _that alone is
Freedom and Salvation.

140

As it is fated so are people dowered with homeland~

environment, riches, fame, learning, intelligence and other
gratificatory possessions by which earthly happiness and
unhappiness are conditioned. Cultivate patience to rise above
these destined experiences. If you do so Fate will do the rest.
What is lotted cannot be blotted cand should therefore not
be worried over. Engage yourself in seeking the God of
T f'u th andu He will do the needful for you. Nothing else in
this world advantageth thee.
54 VEDA-VANI

141
Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute : naught but
Truth wakes for ever. God is Truth and as material cause
pervades the universe. Limited knowledge can hardly grasp
the mystery of His illimitable Being. If you surrender your_.
self to Him you may through His grace attain bliss.

142
The events to be are determined by Providence. Your
reactions to them with regard to their time and circumstance
constitute your fate. If you must consult the scriptures you
should submit to their injunctions. If you can not do so the
case is different. Birth, death, and marriage are inalterably
·-
fixed by Destiny and cannot be averted by any in any of the
three world of beings.

143
Shun the mental urges with patience and you will attain
the blissful Truth. You will then be able to dispense with
love, devotion, and other pleasing and unpleasing aids to
sprituality, for they are but derivatives of the mind.
Naught exists with God but the Word. Consider, for _
example, the state of deep sleep where all tempo-spatial
things dissolve and God alone is. God and His Name are one.
In reciting the Name of God you need none of the instruments
of the mind. The living God within you is that Life-principle
which in all your misfortunes and calamities forsakes you never,
but sustains yDu always in the sameness of Its entity, a sameness
that is not to be affected by your purity or impurity, merit or
demerit.
The body decays. He that indwells it is imperishable.
Submit to Him and all your wishes will be fulfilled.

(" !44
Where a creature is there God is. Passion-bot:_nd, one is
a creature ; passsion-free, one is God.
 VEDA-VANI 55

Bemused by colourful Nature and her inanities, man is

impelled by Destiny t::~ forsake Truth only to get involved in
mortal limitations as of body, home, learning, knowledge,
-riches, respectability, friends, foes and to taste with his
natural prepensities the fated fruits of life. As long as this
destined term persists he . cannot get free from his mental
'Oscillations and corporeal bonds.
The mind commits the sins and the mind is smeared by
their sinfulness. It is, therefore, the mind which shapes an
11ppropriate body for sense experiences, and is swayed by
·endless conflicts, as of satisfaction-discontent. Even physical
wellbeing or ailment is apprehended by the mind. When a
man is in deep sleep the mind does not exist nor do exist the
body and other adjuncts ; that which exists then is the living
'God within you.
This living God that dwells in your heart is the Lord, the
Ruler, the immanent Being, the Origin of all beings, the
U pholer of the universe, the Reality that inter-penetrates all
existents
When deep sleep is the mind is not, but the living God is.
The body is a compound of instincts previously earned from
Destiny, whose awards should be acquiesced in and lived
through with patience, self.naughting, and complete submission
to Truth-the living God within you. If you do so the God of
Truth will make your life full of blessings. Physical welL
being or its absence comes from Fate. The body is nothing
but a field of experience, but "He that indwells the bodies of
all existents is eternal and immortal.'' So says Lord Krishna
to Arjuna. You will attain to incorporeal and deathless. Bliss
as soon as, fate willing, you are able to shed the three-sheathed
body of mortal existence.

145

In the canto of "powers divine" - of the Geeta the Lord says

that He manifests Himself as conquest in business deals, Wise
~en vers¢ in the ~criptures affifm that the Abode of Eternity
is poles apart from the House of Time. The Vyasa Kashi of
56 VEDA·YANI

the Eastern Shore, which is shunned by the cultured elect

(=the Panda vas) in as much as it is ruled by a million of
warrbg gods and unvisited by the fullness of soul's content.
The elect turn their backs to it and live on the other, We~tern
Shore where divine fullness of content reigns everlastingly.
Vyasa Kashi of the Eastern Shore is the world of bounded,.
diversified knowledge, whici;t must, of necessity disintegrate and
can, therefore, never attain integrality. It is in the very
n~ture of things perishable. The world of the Western Shore
is of unbounded fullness, knows no decay, and so has perma-
nency. This realm is therefore called by the seers the Seat of
Truth ; it is here that the God of Truth dwells in the fullness of
content, the Lord of the worlds unfolds Himself as the Garden
of Bliss, and the mortal begins attain immortality. Hence-
adore the God of Truth and wrest your victorious release from
all modes of waxing and waning.

146
As fate wills so are people variously eritang1ed in the three
worlds of becomings, where they pass through innumerable
ups and downs owing to their innate, natural instincts, which
express themselves by means of endless limitations with a view
to gr,asping the sense-objects of the world.

147
Man has no power to cross the bounds of destined experi-
ence ; he must needs acquiesce in them.

148 )

The God of Truth subjects people to His delusory scheme

and makes them go their round of multiform experiences, till
comes the toothless senilitY,_ of age when, overcome by hunger
and thirst and burning in the fire of repentance, they crawl ,- to,
decay, apprehending death ruund the corner day in day out.
This is the original sin that makes the control of:::,bondage:
 VEDA·VANI 57

persists. The way out is through the contemplation of Truth

Absolute.

149 )
As Fate bears fruit everywhere, it is your duty to disregard
it and cling to Truth. Forsake not Truth ; rest assured It
will release you from the false and fleeting greyness of life and
establish you in supreme Peace and Bliss. The shape of
things to come and the time of their appearance are
determined by individual destiny and cannot therefore be·
controlled by the subject's will : they occur according to the
inexorable Law of Fate. As King Vana, wounded and bleed-
ing, had been, on approaching Lord Shiva, elevated to the
rank of his devoted servants · and blessed with ceaseless
unalloyed joy (a son like Kartikeya), so will you be blessed if
you exert yourself whole-heartedly to dwell in Truth in spite
of all the untoward circumstances meted out to you by Fate~
The shape and time of the events in man's life are all pre-
destined. The God of Truth has neither parts nor pulsations.
Surrender to Him and you shall cross the bounds of wants and
frustrations. .. .Submit to Him and the process of Destiny will'
do the rest for you,

150 )

Forsake not the God of Truth. By clinging to Truth

Savitri was able to release Satyavana from the temporal wheel'
of diversities and win discharge from all world debts. So·
engage yourself in adoring the God of Truth without any
lapse in recol!etedness. Enlightenment and absolution result-
ing therefrom shall be yours if you can see the fated events,
whatever their time and shape, as they really are, perishable
and impermanent. Know that the false and fleeting appear-
ances have no reality except in their Ground, Truth, which is
imperishable. Thus may you have ,~ommunion with the God
of Truth, and consequently come to the end of births and
deaths. Do you, therefore, ilet er forsake Truth. Verily
would Trith release you from all bondage.
 -·

'58 VEDA-VANI

151
J:he Divine Mother of all the worlds of being exists as the
-moveless Ground of all existents, creating them from, sustaining
-them in, and withdrawing them unto, Herself.·

152
The involvements of life in all their diversities are due to
-Fate and should not be worried over. Rest assured that
you will have abidance in the eternal peace of Truth if you
have trust in the God of Truth and non-attachment to the
awards of Fate. The time and shape of the events of life are
all pre-destined. Instead of being upset by them try patiently
to liberate yourself from their yoke. To do so is to offer
-devoted services unto Truth.

153
It is Fate that brings fruition. Know that the God of
Truth sustains the three worlds in all possible circumstances
with His grace. If, therefore, you can ride the chariot of Fate
all your wishes will be fulfilled.

154 )
The reaping is as the sowing has been. So the time
-and shape of the things to come should be accepted without
fretting and fuming and with patient trust in Truth. Man has
no power whatsoever except such as comes from Truth.
Remember that Truth is all benign.

155
"He that is content with what comes of itself, lives at peace
with all that be, has shed all impulses of jealousy, and main-
1ains even-mindedness to attainments as well as bafflements,
such a man, in spite of being. engaged in actions, cannot b~
bound by the fruits thereof."
 VEDA-VANI 59

By resigned acceptance of one's portion in life one can pay

· off a 11 one's debts, and having thus earned one's discharge can
. eternally dwell in the Kingdom of Self. Truth is timeless.
Imperfection is in the core of the unreal- the world of bounded
· knowledge, the East Bourne of limitations into which one enters
by turning one 's back to the West Bourne of fullness and per-
-fection. People have various dispositions owing to the varia-
tions in the grouping of their instincts by Nature. Nobody
· should be found fault with for his actions, seeing that all people
are impelled by the tonalities of Nature over which they have
: no control.

156
Persevere wholeheartedly in devoting yourself to adoring the
' God ofTruth. None but He can save you from your involve-
ments in this wasteland. Man transfers his allegiance from
. Truth to untruth because of the mind which goads him to his
fated experiences and prevents his release from births and
· deaths. Wherefore, right endeavour consists not in asserting
·'one's right but in minding one's duties. Nobody is to blame,
for it is Fate th_at everywhere makes people thus and thus. The
· Gita says, "Renounce the fruits of and belongingness to actions
as well as all the cherished props of life, and be always content."
' The reason is that if you deny the fruits of actions and have
unfailing trust in Truth, Fate will deliver you from this waste-
-land and secure to you the Kingdom of God. Know this for
-a fact that the God of Truth is the only Goal of earthly exis-
t -
-' tance-naught else. None can cross the realm of death except by
willing acceptance and compl€te clearance of all the acquired
-obligations of life. Unless you conquer death in _this manner
you can neither Close your brought-forward account nor open
·your account with the Lord of Life for winning therefrom
·your spiritual interest in the shape of pure unquestioning
··4evotion. So pledge yourself }o Truth in thought, word,
~a'nd deed,.. ._. and Truth will save . you from all the afflictions
·of life.
60 VEDA·VANI

157
If it is so fated it shall be so. Worry not over that. Try
instead to live always by Truth. He that serves the God of"
Truth shall endure ; as all dispensations are under His control.
His servant is out of bounds to time and lives eternally in his
imperishable estate. The reaping is as the sowing has been.
None has, therefore, the right to order the shape of events for -
his own. Births, deaths, and marriages are predestined evt:nts.
The Time, place, and circumstances of life's events are unalte- -
rably fixed-what is to be shall be. Hence instead of giving
thought to these you should try to live in submisson to Truth-
a practice which is conducive to npthing but joy. Thus shall
you win your discharge from the liabilities of life and attain to·
the immortality of your essential Self.

158
Births, deaths, and marriages are determined by Fate. It
you try not to circumvent Fate you may in good time close
your account with life, get out of the eight-fold shroud ot
Time, and dwell unencumbered in the abode of your own Self.
None can escape the decrees of Fate. One gives and takes
according to one's fated portion in life. All earnest people do,
therefore, try not to worry over this but to shun self-will and'
live in submission to Truth. Naught but Truth can release-
man from the prison-house of the three worlds ; Truth is the -
only saviour-the how of salvation and the when rest with Fate.

159
Seek the grace of God so that you may ignore the fruits of"
action, and try always to engage yourself in devotional services -
unto the God of Truth and Fullness. He is the Lord of Fate-
and Nescience and controls !he magic shows of life. As willed~
by Fate people are drawn to their portion in life and reap t:he -
consequences thereof, which ' not even providence has th ~ ­
power to alter. So shed self-will, have always trust i'n God in.
 VEDA·VANI 61

all circumstances, live by Truth, and cultivate peace. Rest

assured, the Lord God will see to your well-being.
Births, deaths, and marriages are pre-destined by Fate and
cannot be subjected to your or any body's will. If a man
loses patience and falls into the limitations of the mind he is
in consequence deprived of all sense of values by his harassing
creatureliness. That which is to be shall be, inspite of all
human opposition. Know that one is controlled in all one's
actions by Destiny, submission to which stops all diminishing
returns. Peace abiding shall be yours if you deliver unto
Fate what Fate in the course of its wheelings demands of you.

160 )

If you do not in any circumstance lose heart but persevere

in having trust in Truth, surely Truth will do the needful
for you.
People are now lucky, now unlucky-this is all due to
the acquired fruits of action.
As you have sown so do and shall you reap. To worry
on that account is wholly fruitless. The sages do always and
in all circumstances cdtivate patience with a view to denying
the fruits of action unto themselves. Forsake not Truth.
Remember that Truth alone is your wealth, preferment, and
mainstay in life.

161

Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute. The God of Truth

has no parts ; what is transitory, fleeting, limited, fragmentary
is untruth, not Reality but Appearance, rolling for ever
without any stop. Those devotees who are able to discard
these fragmentations and worship the God of Truth are ful-
filled, for, dowered with God 's grace, they dwell everlastingly
in the supreme Bliss of the Abode "of Truth. As Fate must
h:::ve its way everywhere you shoulCl patiently follow the denial
policy witl:;: regard to its awards and exert yourself for the
realisation of Truth. The experiences of life in the different
 62 VEDA-VAN!

fields of activities are determined by one's individual destiny, .

whi-ch nobody in the world can put by. Forsake not the God _
of Truth. He alone in all circumstances of life is abode •
of Peace.

162
The sages enjoy the destined experiences of life the while ·
they keep meditating on Truth. Truth alone is moveless, .
calm, and sublime, beyond the false, fleeting, temporal flux.
Ae a man sows so does he reap. Enjoyment and suffering .
come from Fate and 1erminate in Truth.
"That person is loved by me who is devoted to me, has no
abode, maintains evenness to praise and blame. lives in suffi- ·
ciency with whatever little comes his way by chance, and
whose mind has been silenced and intellect wavers not.''
As infinite space is one to all space-formations, even so.
is Truth realised as one to all that be . .
•
163

It is time which ·not only makes the world go, setting up .

such reactions as heat, cold, pain etc. and thereby obscur-
ing man's vision, but also removes all obstacles to the clear- .
ness of vision. Patie~ce is the essence of all virtues. As the
mind splits up the totality of consciousness into parts, people.
of necessity impose upon themselves endless limitations which
form a moving flux that never stops-the flux of lust, anger,
greed, and other mental formations, that rush on forging the:
bondage of m~n ; they should, therefore, be repelled with
patience, till eternal bliss manifests itself. Forsake not Truth.
Truth alone endures. The unreal appears on the Ground of
Reality and, therefore, passes away.

, (_161,
"Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute." The ~awards of'
Destiny thin out in the cour<P 0f experience. The world
 VEDA-VANI 63·

revolves on the wheel of Fate. The physical components ol

this life's three score years and ten are a field of exper; ence-
for the soul and should not be fretted at. As nothing endures
but God, patience alone that leads you unto Him is conducive
to good. So always try to cultivate patience with an un--
troubled mind.

165

"Let us contemplate the Truth Absolute.'' The time and

shape of the destined experiences of life can in no way be
by-passed. As God is, eternally, Truth, His scheme of things.
is not liable to any change-so different from our world which
with its risings and settings, falsity and transience, offer unreal
experiences accuring from Destiny. When the tide turns,
against you, even friends and relatives change their front. But
all this comes to pass away,

166 )

If you consult the life of our ancestors, of Harishchandra,.

Nala, Srivatsa and others, you will realise that nothing but
Truth is one's very own, Hence Truth alone is sustenance,.
and to live by It is duty. People come and go as willed by
Fate. The destined fruits of action Take shape in and through
the mind. The more you bear with its impulsions the more
will your patient endurance exhaust the awards of Destiny,
till you come, by rights, to being established in the changeless
abode of Bliss. Nurture Truth with love and care in all
conditions of life, and Truth will dower you ~ith peace. The
apportionment of good and evil in one's life is all due to-
one's fate.•

167 ° )

,. . What is to be shall be according to the writ of Providence,

·wherefore man's only dut'-' is to cultivate patience with regard
to it. When the time for the exit comes no man on earth
~4 VEDA-VANI

·Can stay it. Time wears away all earthly things. Gods,
.dem-::Jm, yakshas, rakshasas, gandharvas, human beings, trees,
,p lants, creepers, indeed all things animate are under the
·COntrol of Life-Force. One dies when Time knocks at the
.door ; no exit or entrance is premature. The sober know
cthis and are therefore not duped by fond hopes. Hence
ctry to cultivate patience to get rid of the pangs of bereave-
.:ment. Moreover, with all your mourning you have failed,
.and would fail in future too, to call back the departed soul
>into your midst. In the sphere of your active life too luck
turns in the ripeness of time. Hence worry not over the
future, but keep doing your duty as well as you can.
Forsake not Truth, for Truth alone sustains the soul and
.saves it from worldly becomings. Contented or not, all are
.subject to Destiny as it operates in the time-scheme of this
life's wasteland. So try to compose yourself with patience.
You will be convinced by calm reflection that you have
naught but patience that you might call your own.

168 )
Fate is the arbiter ,for all and duly gives unto each what
Salls due to him. It is no good giving thought to that,
None can escape the concatination of the destined events of
.of his life,

169
The five elementary substances, namely earth, water, fire,
.air, space, the discursive mind, the affirming intellect, and
the empirical ego, constitute the creatureliness of beings-
conditioned and changeful for ever. It is only when you go
beyond these limitations that you can win· your absolution
from the three worlds and dwell in the abode of Truth.
Sensations of sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell construct
the sense-world w;th all theirgraded multiplicities and effectu",;
ate the diversity of events, pleasing ~nd unpleasing,~ affecting
.self or others; but they all disappear in the state of deep sleep
 VEDA-VANI 65

where by the .complete surrender of world values one m~rges

in the God of Truth. The multiplicity of mental events conti·
nues as long as the mind persists in its dichotomy, creating
passion, will, hatred,. jealousy and other tonalities, by which
people are enmeshed in endless liabilities; with the result that
they forsake the ever-blissful self-luminons, modeless God
·of Truth, dissociate themselves from the perennial joy of Life
Divine, and rise and fall again and again in the doleful sea
of becomings. Hence is man's bondage to the time-scheme of
birth, death, senility and disease. The harvest of life, welcome
-or not, is due to one's destiny. Manhood, however, consists
in fortitude.

170
Fate determines birth and death and the events in between .
.Accept them as your dower from the God of Truth. Men
·c ome and go, once and again, as bound by the law of action
and retribution-an inexorable process that is not to be
obstructed by any.

171
There is no escape from the fruits of action which one
,cannot choose but enjoy.

172
"Sharira'• ( = Body ) means that which wastes away ; its
conditions of health and ailment do also go the way of flesh.

173
O~wing to the variations in indivin ual nature as determined
by J<'ate, people come by their b odjr, homestead, caste, respe-
-ctability, tho proud possessions of learning and intelligence,
wealth and friends, and self-aggrandisement by means thereof.
, But the fact remains that none can bypass the bridge of fate. ·
Part Two-5
66 VEDA·VANJ

174 )
In the three worlds that be, there is none but Truth that
is your very own, Truth which is Providence as well as
Dispensation.

175 )
People are subject to birth and death owing to their
allegiance to Appearance and cannot get release .therefrom
except by being devoted to Reality. But then Fate bears,
fruit everywhere.

176
If like Bhagiratha you accept Fate to get astride of it you
can win your salvation from the fleeting flux of compounda-
bility.
•
177 )

Your body and home are refractory because they are not.
yours. Hence all your puny creaturely wishes 'go awry. It is.
not given to man to have any fulfilment by means of this,
intractable body.

178 )
People have joy of body, home, society, friends and
relatives ; they come from Fate but function according to the
divine law of the Almighty God ofTruth. Physical decay
causes a waxing-and-waning of the mental powers but touches.
not the living God within you. A physician should be consu-
lted for arresting the decay of the body.

' ( ' 179 )

If you want to serve the God of Truth you s hould do so-
by living in submission to Him, bearing patiently with tlie
 VEDA-VAN I 67

forces of the natural instincts which rule creaturely existence

with delusive egoism and cognate effects.

180
All that be in this wasteland emerge into consciousness \\-ith
their destined paraphernalia of such items as society, caste 1
nationality, body, homestead, learning, intelligence, wealtlrp
friends and relatives. In spite of all their efforts they c:anrrot,.
do or get any the least in excess of their allotted portio·n ,.
Births, deaths and marriages and all such events are rdeased
t'J them b'y Fate, which is their only patron owing to the fact
that they have turned their back to Truth. It is only by
having trust in Truth that you can release yourself from the
control of Fate.

181
Truth is an integral whole. Fragmented, It takes on
innumerable shrouds and colours to lure souls to corporeality,
which varies from person to person on account of the fact that
Nature diversely conditions the individuals. As a result they
get in touch with different social and friendly relations and
derive content and discontent therefrom, toeing the line always
for trimorphous Nature. Hence man's subjection to the joys
and sorrows of life. He can sunder the ties of Nature and
attain to his status in Truth if he keeps discharging his duty
unto his Self.

182
Fate fructifies in various ways. Try to cultivate patience
in all circumstances. All your contacts with body and family
obtaining in this world are as fleeting and unsubstantial as
a dream.
~

~he world of becomings rests C\n ~ the Word of God. It is,

therefore, ycr..tr duty to release yourself, unperplexed, from
the destined fruits of action-fail not in discharging it. All
 68 VEDA•VANI

our world perceptions are dream stuff-momentary phenomena

teat appear only to disappear. God alone endures. Always
recite the Holy Name ; the Name alone, and naught else, is
conducive to peace.

183
All people are ruled in this world by Destiny. Whatever
Fate offers you at whatever hours must needs be to your
good.

184
In this world none but God is your own, and your
strength and support. All becomings are a delusory dupe,
ever busy at nurturing you' on fleeting sensibles-precarious
provisions fit to offer pleasure and pain, never Bliss, So your
duty in life is always to bear with the forces of acquired
instincts and keep yourself engaged in seeking the Lord by
doing His pleasure.

185
As you know, one maintains a slow pace in muttering the
name of somebody dear to one ; even so should you recite the
Holy Name. If you constantly live in this practice Divine
Love will unfold Itself in your heart as a seedling which will
grow in time into a tree with all its glories of flowers and
fruit. You will thus enjoy not simply spiritual honey-dew but
also physical well-being. If you quicken your pace ( of
reciting the Name ) you will be out of breath and feel
exhausted so that your purpose will be defeated.

186
Slow-paced recitation of the Holy Name tires not, but
silences the mind and qui_s:kens devotion to It. Ther~ (,s no
harm if on account of your slow pace you fail ..to recite the
Name as many times as prescribed. The heart that constantly
 VEDA·VANI 69

remembers the Lord does receive the Guide's mercy, for whic~1
the one thing needful is slow but steady practice of spiritual
exercises, which, whatever they be, will surely lead you to your
destination. Wherefore, he that has embraced the way of
surrender does always try to follow the words of the Guide with
perfect evenness of mind. It is not given to man to be effective
in any other way. In other words, to worship the Guide is to
be a dedicated spirit.

187
Do not distress yourself: whatever God does must neces-
sarily contribute to your good.

188
He that adores the Lord with single-minded devotion
does verily make a clean sweep of all the accumulated debris
of life.

189
Consider the end and aim of your life with calm determina-
tion. So will God be pleased. Surrender and you will be
fulfilled. God creates not the self-will and destiny of man,
nor judges actions by their results, good or bad. The Lord of
beings oversees the heart and understands its solicitations ; He
is not to be moved by good deeds or misdeeds, but feels always
softened towards a warm-hearted devotee. Your failings or
virtues reach not the Lord, dowered as you are with the mercy
of the Guide. Hence shed all the needless and delusory
movements of thought.

190
Worldly preCccupations are responsible for the distractions
of the mind, which, nevertheless, should be controlled by the
_sincere practice of the spiritual exercises set for you by the
70 VEDA-VANI

Cuide. Try to do so whenever you can make'! time and the

occasion arises. If you are not in a position to do so, surrender
yoursdf completely to the Guide, trying to attend such duties
as come of themselves, with constant rejection of all thoughts
regarding pleasure and pain, passion and unease. If this
also is beyond you then act only thus : Always recite the
words "OH MY GUIDE''-"0H MY GUIDE" in a deep
resonant voice. Spiritual exercises, singing hymns and psalms,
recitation of the Holy Name, and other spiritual injunctions
(including meditation) necessary to spiritual progress may be
pursued in the event of your having the ability for them or
may be avoided in case of disability. No harm would attach
to you on that account. With your whole trust in the Guide
you need have no worry whatesoever.

191 )
The Name 1'1hould be recited always with the mind tranquil-
lised in Truth. Raw haste in such efforts is exhausting,
interferes with rejoicing in the Name, and prevents the melting
of the heart. Lord Krishna says that a mind tranquillesed is
a mind unperturbed by sensory reflexes. Always recite the
Name with constant awareness of the Entity that the Name
stands for.

192 )
Keep always reciting the Name and you will be fulfilled.
He that night and day remembers the God that dwells in his
heart-centre attains the poise of the Absolute when (not
before) all his hankerings dissolve in the infinitude of joy.

193 ).

God saves all beings' from the diverse fluxes of world

becomings. Always recite the Name. The"'God of Truth
destroys all the impurities of the soul's temporal creatureliness
and steers it through the sea of wants on to fulfillment.
 VEDA·VANI 71

194
All life's pleasures and pains are an illusory drag1~et, a
transitory phenomenon that appears only to disappear, but
binds none the less. Hence you should try to give your whole
attention to securing freedom from all percepts, painful or
pleasing. To recite the Holy Name always with an eye to
progressively slowing down the tempo of respiration is a good
exercise worth practising. If you accept the experiences of
life with patience and fortitude they will in due course exhaust
themselves ; then you will be delivered from world
becomings. The truth of this spiritual law admits of no doubt
whatsoever.

195
Providence governs the affairs of the world.

196
Marriage takes place just when it must, according to the
decree of Providence, which cannot be interfered with.

( 197 )
The world is all a delusion. Self-help is the best help.
Relatives like uncles and others are but links in the chain of
one's life-experiences., Find fault with none ; consider instead
your own fate as responsible for what happens to .you.

198 )
Devotion to the Divine Bridegroom and the supreme peace
of the union with Him constitute the richest dowry of the ·
(aithful Bride.

/ 19~ )
If yo:) keep doing your immediate duties here on earth with
surrender to God and goodwill to all, He will forever be
~~ -
 72 VEDA·VANI

looking to your good by removing all your wants and granting:

you absolute repose in Him.

200 )
Nobody can escape the decrees of Fate.

201
Conjugal love is more satisfying when like mingles with
like than when unlikes mingle. The determining factor is,
however, Fat~ over which nobody has any control (but
God) ....•. As God wills so shall it be. You have nothing to
worry over on that account.

202
Surrender to God empowers the soul to secure its deliver-
ance from the worldly entanglements brought on by the revolv-
ing wheel of Fate. Whatever is your allotted portion in life in
terms of material gains and mental riches should be accepted
as God's merciful gift unto you. ·

( 203
All your activities that Destiny unrolls through the scheme
of your earthly existence are but differently conditioned modes
of Nature, emanating from the God of Truth, the Repository
Consciousness. If you have complete trust in Him all your
instinctive urges will wear away till you are transported into
the Kingdom of God.

. ( 204

It is Fate that brings about the intimacies and estrange-

ments in human relations. Au event takes place where it must,
Do not worry, therefore, on t:1aJ account. Association wit~
the blessed never goes in vain. All self-lauding actions must
needs be changed with merit and demerit. Always recite the ·
 VEDA-VAN! 73
Name. One can transmute physical consciousness into divine
consciousness by constant contemplation of the eternal
Being hidden in the heart-centre and hence can emancipate
oneself without the least shadow of doubt from corporeality and
modes and forms. Why then give way to despair.

205

The Void is the Life of lives, the Lord, the Ruler, the
Origin of beings, the all-pervasive Substance which upholds
and interpenetrates the universe.
The hither ( eastern ) shore of the mind is a realm of
bounded knowledge which tempts with a plentitude of beauty,
grace, delights and inanities eclipses the truth of the living God
in man, and dupes with fancies and musings, so that the
limited sky of the heart cannot merge. in the limitless Void.
The mind can but have transient joy of discrete sensibles and
hence must remain tagged to birth and death. The Void alone
is Almighty, the Plenum, whereof only the Plenum can be
abstract~d, the residuum remaining the Plenum all the same etc.
the same in all Its cosmic poises-comparable, therefore, to the
eternally phaseless fullness of the moon. The mind is always
phasic and cim never reach phaseless fullness. If, therefore,
you submit yourself to the Life of lives, namely the Void, you
will in due course reach the state of trance that transcends all
earthly lights, the mind and its distempers, the intellect etc.
the intellect and its ideations, and even the over-mental poises,
indeed all conditions of human existence summed up by the
waking-dreaming-sleeping trinity. Then you shall have
completed the holy ritual of sacrificing the self to god. The
Lord of the universe created the "emancipatio.n field" and
revealed the vedas and the sacrifies bJ:: means of which one can
realis.e the Plenum Content of the Absolute and become a true
Branmin. The mind dwells in 1he hither shore of limited
knowledge ; Plenum Content is beyond, and knows no phases.
or fragmentations.
74 VEDA· VAN!

206
ljoptemplation of the Void is the contemplation of the
Absolute (=Brahman). Detachment from the affections and
antipathies results when life is turned into a temple where to
worship God. Try in this way to get beyond good and evil.
God is your Self. He is Consciousness-Bliss, the Void,
the One, the Absolute. Your body, compounded of decaying
<:omponents, is nothing but a shroud of desires which dis-
appears in three stages. First, the study of the Vedas, which
leads to mediate knowledge of the Self, Next, the immediate
knowledge of the Self, which the seer attains by the
purificatory process of dialectical reasoning and contempla-
tion. And last, the proces3 of consolidating knowledge with a
view to sainthood, which admits of progressive realisations till
the control of cosmic dynamism and consequent victory over
the joyous powers of immanent Reality unfold Harmony and
Bliss, Hence, night and day practise unswerving loyalty to the
Lord, the Void. Thus will you be su~cessfql·in realising Truth
and thereby the Bliss of your essential Self. If you persist in
your loyalty to the Lord you will first belong to Truth, then
atain Truth, and at last, by the coaquest of all the life.forces,
become established in Truth. This is the three . tiered
communion of the soul with God, by virtue of which one is
released from temporal becomings and dowered with the
supreme satisfaction of dwelling in the ceaseless bliss of the
Self-that-is-Truth.
207
Fate bears fruit everywhere. Mother and the Father-land are
holier than Heaven.There is naught but Truth; if one is poised
therein one escapes the throes of fear and the pangs of
bereavement. All that be are tied to this wasteland of life.
Truth alone is free of it, So the spiritual duty of man is to
ding to and have trust in_Truth.

" ( i:l 208

Remember that whenever you lose your way irflife patience
1s the only sustaining virtue, discerning for you the right ·
 VEDA-VANI 75

path as different from the wrong. Self-willed, one . cannot

find one's way ; for, if one could why would one c remain
tied down to the limits of cr~atureliness.

209
Charmed by Illusi,on, people, all the world-over, move
<Dn toeing the line of acquired instincts and become happy
·Or miserable according to the gains or losses in the scheme . of
.becomings. Always it is Fate that brings fruition everywhere.

210
Life's experiences are derived from Destiny which unfolds
and withdraws them by the process of involution and
<evolution.

211
Destiny would not let any one be ; nor-is any to be praised
·or blamed for what he is. All people wander in the fated sea
·Of joys and sorrows, as steered by Destiny. So try to live
jn submission to Truth and you will be saved from all life's
perils. If you serve the God of Truth by delivering unto
Fate what belongs to Fate you will in the ripenes~ of time
have Peace abounding. Keep faith with your Self even if death
be the consequence ; which is preferable to the perilous
.chase of what is alien to your Self. Bear this truth in mind.

212
Try to live in submission to Truth, not as a slave to your
mind. The realisation of Truth consecrates the event of birth
and installs the soul in the Unconditioned, deathless ahd
eternal. This is celebrating one's anniversary in the true sense
of the term.
d
t "213
The mind commits the sins and is smeared by their sin-
fulness. Contemplate the Truth Absolute.
76 VEDA-VAN!

Min?, body, home, and all other involutes disappear in

deep sleep. As soon as a man wakes up he takes on the
rotating ego which entangles him with fissiparous formations.
and goads him to his rounds, blind-fold. He that adores Truth
is, nevertheless, able to see things as they are and so would
be exempted from doing his rounds.

214
Everywhere the reaping is as the sowing has been. One
gets but one's dues. Verily does he reach the Kingdom of
God who is fortunate enough to get beyond the clouds of
Destiny. This is called the conmmmation of the Pledge of
Truth, as a result whereof the pledged soul rescues Truth from
temporal bondage and salvages the triad of hereditament-
Virtue that sustains like father, Merit that protects like
husband, and Sanctity that like a child blossoms into a flower.
Hence cling to the boundless Truth, and It will save you
from Destiny according to Its Law Divine.

215
The body is an assemblage of desires. Cross its orb, and·
detach yourself from the mental and intellect idolas worked
by the strings of Nature. The discipline for the purpose is.
living in submission to Truth that is hidden in the cavern of
the heart. This Truth is eternal Existence and has no parts,
oscillations, or imperfections. It is Consciousness-Force, even
to all life movements, good or bad, and not to be denied in.
any circumstance. It transcends the world of realities as well
as its negation. It is called the Guide in respect of its self-
luminousity, the Guide that never fails (=Sat-guru). People
are unable to apprehend Truth owing to the modalities of"
Nature which, because of tht>:ir extreme density, entangle
them in good and evil by mean~ of their contacts therewith.
As a result they are in for egoi~tic judgments indicating.
preferences and antipathies, lose their sense of direction
and wander aimlessly about. When you are inside. ofl'
 VEDA.VANI 77

Truth the dichotomy of etc. of real-unreal disappears,

even as it does in deep sleep. By the realisation of Truth you
are able to go beyond good and evil into the abode of the
Guide-that-is-Truth. The seed-body of man is consti.
tuted of Nature frozen dense, of which the ingredients are
decaying stuff, persistently opaque and resistant to wash.
People count humiliations because they forsake Truth and
would make the unreal real. Persevere in your efforts to live
by Truth and you shall abide in Truth. The mind-formed joys
and sorrows pass away : they stay not in deep sleep. As you
wake ~p you enter the world of endless fragmentations. Here
is a wise counsel of the saints . -
~'FIND FAULT WITH NONE ; BE ANGRY WITH NONE
BEWARE OF YOUR OWN CONDUCT"

216
Self-help is the best help. To be earnest)s not enough, for
Fate grants fruition (and may withhold it) even to earnest
work. Exert yourself. It is unwise to depend upon others.
The world is all a delusion. As the trend of the times is at
'
present, one cannot reach the Goal except by having complete
trust in the Holy Name. '

217
It is the mind which sins and is defiled. Walk in life with
patience as your companion with a view to suppressing the
off-shoots of the disorganised mind whenever they put in an
appearance. This is the essence of all spiritual exercises, this
is devotion to Truth and the correct recitation of the Holy
Name. Perseverance alone can make the mind change its
habits. In the state of deep sleep that which exists is not the
mind, nor the body, but Truth, the Life of lives ; and Truth
alone. To be pledged to Truth " is to live by patience with
!:{difference to all things wordly: ;"'for, they are but disruptions
caused t::y the variable modes of Nature and the breeding
ground of conflicts and infatuations.
78 VEDA·VANI

218 )
"
The very fact that man is ineffectual in all his efforts proves·.
that he is essentially not the agent of action and yet is subjected
to such volitions and purposes as he is drawn to by his innate·
tendencies. To remain engrossed in self-will is therefore all a
delusion, born of primal Ignorance. However, as he has,.
essentially, neither operative will nor any field of operations, it
is his duty to be content with his destined meed and keep
mindfully doing such duties as automatically come therefrom
to his field of action. As a result he will in due course be
delivered from the activities of life and the eense of obligatori-
ness with respect to them, and transferred to the control of'
wise passivity which will dower him with absolution. Fate
makes people put on the shroud of belongingness and its vary-·
iug shades like progress and deterioration, gain and loss,
success and failure abilities and disabilities. Hence the duties.
which are presented to them by Destiny in this world should
be performed with complete etc with complete non-attachment
to the results thereof. As long as their fated work persists they
must needs remain entangled in desires. Do you, therefore,
discharge your duties in the world order of events to the best
of your ableness, with calm aloofness that remains undisturbed.
by doubts and misgivings.

( 219

Duped by the alluring and illusory shows of Nature people·

on earth are being ever drawn to transitory objects and remain·
preoccupied with fanciful reactions to them, some welcome, /
some repugnant. Deliverance therefrom is not possible except-
by the determined cultivation of self-control, patience, self-
naughting and cognate virtues. Good and evil, loss and gain,
and similar pairs, presented by Fate to one's field of activities,
a,re but imaginary forces-'"oear with them. The acquired.
instincts of life are a delusory-fleeting
... passion-fraught manti;
throw it aside. This way can you release yourselfQfrom the
illusion of good and evil and attain the immortal and supremely
 VEDA•VANI 7()!

blissful poise of your Self and consequently become the Servant

of the Lord, enjoying Life Divine.
Always cultivate patience so as to dwell in Truth by the
rejection of all obligations ~o Nature. Try your best to remain
engaged in adoring the Lord by discarding all thoughts
regarding the inequalities of life and impurities of the mind ... ....
Don't you-worry ; know that all considerations of good and
evil, projected by the illusory scheme of Nature's diverse
modes,' are unreal and impermanent. Forsake not the Lord
of beings : a perennial flow of Love's honey-dew emanates.
from Him to saturate the hearts of all that be. Man on earth
becomes oblivious of his essential self owing to his Transient
"I-nesses" and "My-nesses' ', assumes self.will, and gyrates
in illusory becomings. God is your only enduring possession ;
all other riches wax to wane, come to go, being posited by
erroneous fancies. Get not annoyed with the mind over
anything. Remember that the mind is your only companion
in life and must needs be redeemed, the means thereof being
indifference to the tawdry harvest of life and submission to
God for reposing in Him. The sensibles in all their manifold-
ness pollute the mind, causing ab errations. So you should
always patiently try to keep the mind to the na rrow path of
serving God and away from the broad path of fleeting
desires. The mind sins in the very act of craving and tastes
death as often as it craves. In no circumstance should you ·
therefore, seek the satisfaction of the mind. If you can thus
continue to restrain the mind's urges you will earn the
spiritual power to enter the abode of eternal bliss. Primal
desire functions as tri-morphous Nature to make the mind
restless and keep it away from the modeless, unconditioned
Truth-it is all the thorns and brambles in the path of
emancipation. Demolish it, and engage yourself in devotional
practices so as to be steeped in the bliss thereof. Shed selfness,.
~f-naughting, _ your only provisions on the way, is supreme
dvotion. As Lord Krishna sayS: "Repent not ; renounce all
duties ana have trust in God and in God alone : He will save
you from all the sinfulness of life." Thus can you deliver
 80 VEDA-VANI

yourself from all the harassment of desires so as to be installed

in your immortal estate. Don't you worry. Keep coolly
examining the destined events that come to the laboratory of
life without preferences for or antipathies ·against them. The
one thing needful in life is this equanimity.

( 220
People are drawn, each according to his fate, to the diverse
formations of Nature and compelled to go through their
apprortioned experiences in terms of wealth, respectability,
body, home, learning, intelligence, strength, abilities, friend
and foe. The seers and the sages have realised God as the
integral unity of life transcending birth and death. As people
forsake Him to assume self-will they drift from this unity and
get enmeshed in action and the destined result thereof under
the control of the causal chain. The law of Action and
retribution has its basis in Truth, which is not . possible of
realisation as long as one adheres to the fleeting and unreal
fragments thereof. You may in the fullness of time have
communion with the God of Truth if you persevere in devoting
yourself to Him by negating all the limitations imposed
thereon, for they are fleeting and unreal, as can be inferred
from the fact that they disappear in deep sleep. There is
naught but Truth that is enduring and immortal.

221
Buffeted by the desires and the cravings and lured by the
delusory flashes of fleeting perishable objects, people get tied to
the experiei;lces of life, are unable to win their discharge from
Death, and remain subject to the diversities of Nature. The
God of Truth dwells in the heart of man, who by forsaking Him
assume creatureliness only to be robbed of his spiritual estate.
That is how Fate scheme~ and works and binJs, wherefrom
the path of deliverance ha~. been shown by God in His m~y
through such manifestations as 9Gauranga-Nitai-Adyaita.I"'
These
divinety deputed souls proclaimed the glory of the Holy Name,
affirmed that naught but God exists, and emancipated people
 VEDA·VANI 81

from the control of Fate and received them back into their
spiritual estate.
The bounds of joys and sorrows can be crossed only by
means of the Name of God, for It has power to dry up the
sea of birth-and-death and the ceaseless billows of world
I· becomings. The will-to-be feeds on desire, swells the meed of
life, rules tyrannically, binds with attachments, clouds right
understanding and truth-seeking memory with the fitful winds
of birth, death, and graspings, and perpetuates the penal term
by turning ceaselessly the wheel of time; The Name alone
Ii can with absolution for you and consequent immersion in the
Joy of all the joys of life. Man has no power to get his
discharge from the manifold debts of life exept by submi-
ssion to God.
Live by the Name and you will be free from all involve-
ments in the sea of becomings, till you become one with the
Name in Its boundless Abode.
The enjoyments that in the stage of bondage accrue to
the fruits of action are released by Fate. How long do they
persist ? As long as you think they do. You can win your
freedom from them only by right understanding ( Reason
that they are not and they will cease to be). The Name is
Truth and boundless Freedom. All fragmentations are
unreal ; Freedom is far away from them.

222 )
People enjoy the fruits of action through three kinds of
barassments ( physical, mental and accidental ), so that, girt
with self-will and elated by its operative skill, they fail to cross;
the wasteland of life on to Truth-that Truth which alone
is beyond its borders. It is only by being pledged to Truth
that man can save himself from three forms of heterogenous
ailments that mortals are heir to apd so can be received into
t~ bosom of God. Ills touch no~ him that is so sheltered by
the God o£ Truth. Those whoc:; forsake Him are lured by the
fleeting and unreal sweets and delights of this waste-land, get
ensnared by its debts and dues, wander like a lost soul
Part Two-6
 32 VEDA-VAN!

suffering endlessly from fear, bereavement and alarm, and

thus lose their bearings in life.

223
People come by their home and environment according to
their individual fruits of action. Fate bears fruit everywhere,
but there is no reason why you should get worried. You should
rather occupy yourself in such efforts as establish Truth in your
life and thought. Naught but Truth exists-we come of, are
reared by, and do merge in, Truth. Owing to the delusion of
of self-will man forsakes God, goes out to control the wasting
objects of the world, and is tied thereto by his assets and
liabilities accruing therefrom. If you can release yourself from
this bondage you will attain peace that is real and true, and
Good that is perfect and harmonious.
If Fate so wills you will have a house of your own. To
worry on that account is only to co~rt entanglement in the
meshes of desire. That which exists in deep sleep is real, and
that which does not is unreal and impermanent. So always
give your thought to dwelling in the God of Truth. Rest
assured He will deliver you from the sea of becomings.

' ( 224 )
Fate brings fruition everywhere. A man can but do his
duty, the result there of rests with God. Hence distress not
your self over the result of action but try to complete your
immediate duties with your faith in God, the sole Arbiter. If
a man is able to untie his bonds of action he becomes free,
transcends births and deaths, and dwells in Truth. In other
words, he becomes a recipient of the Grace of God.
To cherish the unreal is a misdirection of efforts that causes
bondage.
Right endeavour _is devotion to TRUTH.
~
DEDICATED
UNTO
THE LORD RAMA.