Complete works of Swami Abhedananda

by Swami Prajnanananda | 1967 | 318,120 words

Swami Abhedananda was one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and a spiritual brother of Swami Vivekananda. He deals with the subject of spiritual unfoldment purely from the yogic standpoint. These discourses represent a study of the Social, Religious, Cultural, Educational and Political aspects of India. Swami Abhedananda says t...

Swami Abhedananda (his wisdom)

Such were the ideas of Swami Abhedananda:

We must realize and manifest in our daily life the ideals which we have grasped through the study of books and from our parents and masters. We should recognize that God is all-pervading and dwells in the smallest of the small and the largest of the large.

As the image or reflection of the sun cannot exist for a second independently of the self-luminous heavenly body, so the individual soul, being the image of God, cannot exist even for a moment without depending upon the divine Principle. The individual ego owes its life, its intelligence, its intellect, mind, and all other mental and physical powers to the infinite source of all powers, all knowledge, all love and ever-lasting happiness. In fact, the individual soul does not possess anything. All these powers and forces... proceed from that one inexhaustible source. Nor is the divine Principle far from us; He is the soul of our soul, the life of our life and the omnipotent essence of our being.

The nature of the Self is all-knowing; its knowledge does not depend upon the relation between the knower and the object of knowledge, but it remains unchanged even when all the objects of knowledge have ceased to exist. The all-knowing Self may be compared to the self-effulgent sun. As the nature of the sun is to illumine itself as well as other objects, so the light of the Self illumines its own nature as also the phenomenal world.

There is only one knower and that knower is a part of the universal Knower, which is God. Your own true Self is by its birthright part and parcel of this infinite Being.

You can never lose your individuality, no matter where you go. When Christ realized his individuality as one with his Father in heaven, he did not lose his individuality, but he became conscious of his greater individuality in the Father as immortal Being. He became conscious of his infinite Individuality. He went to the source of all life.... We are marching onward to that goal, and we cannot stop until we have become one with that infinite Being.

No individual soul, whether virtuous or sinful, rich or poor, can ever become truly sinless and happy without coming into... (the) state of Godconsciousness. You may cry for help and pray for forgiveness day after day,... but rest assured that he who will forgive your sins is your own Self. You may call that divine nature God, Buddha or Christ; it is all the same; no other than the divine Self possesses the power of forgiving the sins of the individual ego.

If we once understand that God is the source of all existence and power and is the one Reality, that outside of God no existence is possible, then we begin to feel the presence of divinity everywhere. In our every action, we realize that the divine power is working through us, and at every moment of our earthly existence we feel ourselves to be like so many instruments through which the divine will manifests itself, and we do whatever He ordains. All our actions are then turned into acts of worship of the supreme Deity.... All fear then vanishes, all sins are redeemed, and the individual soul becomes free from the bondage of ignorance and selfishness.

The Absolute is the basis of the universe... it is the background of God which is nothing but the cosmic ego.... (These) are convertible terms. The personal God whom we worship is the cosmic ego, who secs through all eyes and hears through all ears. He is conscious of the whole Self.... Just as we are conscious of our little world, so God is conscious of the whole universe. As we govern and regulate our individual existence, so the cosmic existence is regulated and directed by the cosmic ego (or)... personal God.

The infinite eternal Brahman does, indeed, appear and manifest itself with a spiritual form to satisfy the desire of the devotee.... Wherever there is intense longing to see God. wherever there is unflinching devotion and unselfish love with the whole heart and soul, there is the manifestation of the formless One to fulfil the desire of the devotee.... Intense longing, unswerving devotion, and whole-hearted love of the soul draw out from the infinite source any particular form which the devotee wishes to see and worship; they have the power, as it were, to condense and solidify the water of the ocean of Reality into the various forms. The spiritual form of the Divinity arises in the ocean of formless Brahman... floats there for some time, and after satisfying the desire of the true devotee... merges into that ocean again.

FAQ (frequently asked questions):

Which keywords occur in Swami Abhedananda (his wisdom)?

The most relevant definitions are: soul, Brahman, Buddha; since these occur the most in swami abhedananda (his wisdom). There are a total of 3 unique keywords found in this section mentioned 11 times.

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