Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, July 2003

Once a General approached Lord Buddha and addressed Him thus: 'There is one doubt which still lingers in my mind, O Blessed One, and that is concerning duty. I am a soldier. I am appointed by the king to enforce his laws and wage his wars. The Blessed One who teaches kindness and compassion to all living beings, does He permit the punishment of the criminal?' To this Buddha replied: 'He who deserves punishment must be punished, and he who is worthy of reward must be rewarded; yet at the same time the teaching is that non-injury, love and kindness to all living beings must be observed. These injunctions are not contradictory. One should be loving and kind; yet one should recognize that the criminal must be punished for the crimes he has committed. His suffering comes not through the ill-will of the judge, but on account of his evil doing....'

He who is victorious should remember that all earthly things are fleeting and transitory. Whatever his success, however great it may be, the wheel of life may turn again and bring him down to the dust. If, however, he is moderate--if, extinguishing all hatred from his heart, he lifts up his down-trodden enemy and says: 'Come now, let us have peace and be brothers!'--he will gain not mere transitory success, but a true victory, the fruit of which will remain forever. Great is a successful General, but he who has conquered self is a greater victor. The conquest which any human being seeks in the external world is insignificant in comparison with that which lies within his own self; and until he has conquered his inner kingdom, all outer conquests must be fleeting and uncertain, for his own unwise actions may at any moment cause his ruin.

Take, for example, the life of Alexander the Great. The world has rarely seen such a conqueror, yet within him there remained something unconquered and this often tormented him when there was no outward cause for unhappiness. Such is the universal experience. The man who desires to rule must begin by ruling himself. He must prove that he is the master in his own dwelling-house. Instead of allowing his physical organism to dictate his course of action, he must make every part of his body subordinate to his will. We all have power within us; but when this power is dissipated or ungoverned, it brings an unhealthy condition of mind and body. Disease more often comes from misdirection of the life-force than from lack of it. We allow ourselves to fall into a negative state and gradually hypnotize ourselves into the belief that we are without power or will. No one can ever attain the supreme goal until he has become conscious of his higher Self. The surface being, who constantly identifies himself with physical conditions and makes himself believe that he has no power to conquer, no power to overcome obstacles--that man must be put aside. Nor does this mean self-torture or self-annihilation, it means rising above limitations. It is not that the physical man must be destroyed--not so--but the causes of those lower impulses in us, which lead us to hate or strike in anger or do any unworthy act, must be rooted out. This is not achieved by destroying our eyes, ears, or any organ by which we may perform evil deeds. We must go behind the sense organs to find the real cause of evil in us. The senses are merely instruments, and when properly controlled, they become powerful aids towards our spiritual advancement. This is how we must begin the conquest of self. We must watch over our bodily activities and strive to avoid all unnecessary expenditure of energy. Needless talking is one of the most usual forms of this waste and often results in nervous exhaustion. Uneven and impulsive use of our forces, leading to extremes of activity and inactivity, is another. This must be overcome by steadfast practice of moderation or balance in all our bodily habits, even the most insignificant ones. We must exercise conscious control in our eating, drinking, talking, walking, sleeping, in our work and recreation.

Next, our mental forces, which at present run hither and thither unrestrained, must be brought into subjection. As the first step in this task we must try to cultivate the faculty of discrimination. We must not follow blindly every impulse that rises in our mind, but we must learn to reflect and to distinguish between what is fleeting and what is lasting, what is essential and what is non-essential, between what is pleasing to our bodily appetites and what is wholesome for our soul. The next step is to keep our mind fixed on the path chosen by our discriminative faculty. Thus firmly holding our thought develops in us the power of concentration, without which we can never hope to gain victory over the lower nature.

From the very outset of our spiritual life we must root out the negative thought that we cannot do anything. Once for all we must shake off this notion and learn to believe that we can do even what seems impossible--not in any spirit of arrogance, however, thinking that we possess individual power, but because we are part of God, because God dwells within us and all things are possible unto Him. The power of resistance is good, but the power of non-resistance is greater. As long as we have the feeling that some one is attacking us, we must protect our interest. But there may come a time when in the life of a Yogi, through the expansion of our nature, such feelings will disappear and we shall know that nothing can touch us. And this is called non-resistance. When our lower nature no longer asserts itself in us, whatever may be the provocation, then self-conquest is complete.

According to ancient Indian philosophy this universe is composed of two principal elements. One is called Âkâsha, an all-pervading primordial substance, imperceptible to the senses, but manifested in the basic elements--earth, water, air, fire and ether--out of which all bodies come into existence. The other, which holds together these material forms, is known as Prâna or the vital force, the force by which man lives and without which he can do nothing. At present there are very few who know the use or even the existence of this Prâna, for we cannot see it. Most of us live here unconsciously, doing everything automatically through habit. We utilize our energies without thinking what they are or what they should bring us; still less does it occur to us that it is our duty to conserve and direct them to definite ends. Yet we shall not know what true health or happiness or illumination is until we have learned to gather up these vital forces of our organism and command them at our will.

But how is this to be accomplished? Some may think hastily that by not doing anything we may store up our energies. It has been found, however, that the energy of a man who does nothing, instead of increasing, fades away. On the other hand, if we imagine that by constant use of our faculties we can gain greater power, that is also a mistake; for we know that through overwork a man often breaks down. Neither of these methods therefore can help us to conserve and increase our energy. But there is a way by which it can be done,--not by overworking, not by stopping work, but by finding balance in all our activity. When this balance is manifested in the physical body, the result is good health; when it is manifested on the mental plane, we have intellectual power; when it is manifested on the spiritual plane, the result is super-consciousness or illumination. But the energy is one. It is always the same life-force which the Indian Sages called Prâna--the vital cause of our existence, of all our thinking and doing. As thought guides all our bodily activities, sages found that thought was the best medium for directing this life-force.

We must begin with the grossest of all instruments, the physical body. And the first question which arises is: Have we this body under perfect control? Do our hands and feet, our senses and other organs obey us? Can we govern and direct them as our higher instincts prompt us? When we analyze, we find that very few of us have any power of control over what we call the body. The energies which manifest through it have become dissipated and because of this dissipation our eyes cannot bring us perfect vision, our ears and all our senses can give us only partial knowledge; that is why our perceptions are never free from error.

If man tries to upbuild his body, not for selfish ends, but in order that he may acquire greater wisdom, there is nothing wrong in his devoting himself to the care of his physical being; but he cannot gain either health or strength until he has proper control over that part of his nature through which all his power comes. As long as man strives madly for pleasure, without using his faculty of discrimination, he merely exhausts himself and makes himself miserable. Nor should he go to the other extreme and practise self torture. That man alone enjoys real blessings who observes moderation in all his activities. We must neither destroy any of our propensities nor become slaves to them; but we must take a masterly attitude towards them. And this is a great lesson that everyone needs to learn. A single thread is easily broken, but when a number of threads are put together and twisted into twine, what power of resistance they have! Similarly all our small dissipated forces can be gathered together and through the power of concentration twisted into one strong whole; then we shall be able to resist anything. It is through such positive thoughts that the sages have taught us--not that we are sinners, but that each one can save himself; that the only saving grace for each one of us is in his own higher spiritual nature; until we have awakened that, none can save us.

We should therefore form the habit of having certain hours when we relax and withdraw from all bodily activities. We find in all religions times set apart for prayer and meditation. Why? Because so long as we constantly move outward and do not look within, forgetting the vital factor in our life, there is nothing to sustain or nourish us. We must always try to keep ourselves connected with the Storehouse of our life-force; and the more we can do this, the more irresistible shall we become. The man who has command over his vital energy or Prâna will always accomplish greater things in less time and with less exertion. Also the more quickly we can achieve victory over our lower self, the sooner shall we gain spiritual illumination.

Physical concentration is necessary to gain health of body; mental concentration is necessary to sharpen our intellect; and when we have practised these two well and with discrimination, there will come a time when we can direct all our forces towards spiritual regeneration. All the imperfection and limitation which we feel in our body and mind we can remove by not constantly thinking of this immediate, apparent, physical existence, but by joining our thoughts with the Higher Source, the Fountainhead of life and energy. When we can remain focused there, we shall be able to go on doing our duties without feeling any reaction. That is one of the great secrets of the Indian Teachers. Through the ages they have taught that man can make his work a recreation; and that if he will connect himself with the Highest and keep his motive lofty, his work instead of exhausting him will bring him even greater strength.