Remarks following the first Peace Concert in this series
Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhataKsurasya dhara nisita duratyaya
//Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti_ 41
“Arise! Awake!” — this was Vivekananda’s choice motto.
“Arise! Awake!” — _Uttisthata jagrata. Each human being must needs have this message supreme imprinted on the tablet of his aspiring heart. “Arise! Awake!” If you want to follow the path of spirituality, then you must realise that this is a difficult path to walk along. “It is as sharp as the edge of a razor.” Hard, extremely hard it is to walk along this path, but again, we have learned from the sages of the hoary past that the Knowledge supreme that we are going to attain is not for the weakling; it is for the inner hero supreme. Even the soul that is our God-representative on earth cannot be won by the weakling. Nayam atma bala hinena labhya — “The soul cannot be won by the weakling.” What do we mean by this? To win the soul means to listen to the dictates of the soul. Only he who is brave can abide by the dictates of his soul. The soul is the only reality that we have and that we are. Each time we ignore the dictates of our soul either consciously or unconsciously, we indefinitely delay our spiritual progress. You may ask, “How can we know the dictates of our soul?” You can! There is a very simple way, an easier than the easiest way: It is by virtue of your heart’s cry. If you cry and pray to your Inner Pilot, the Lord Supreme, to illumine you, to liberate you from your ignorance-cherishing mind, then the heart can easily convey the message of your soul to you. There are many truth-seekers and God-lovers who believe in God, but who find it difficult to believe in their souls. But if you believe in the ocean, which is God, then how can you fail to believe in the countless drops, waves and surges of the ocean, which are our souls? Unfortunately, there are some seekers who do not want to believe in the existence of their souls because they are afraid of their soul’s operation in and through them. They feel so often they are committing Himalayan blunders. If the soul does exist, then perhaps the soul is extremely displeased with them and the soul, like the human mother, the physical mother, can reprimand the naughty children. But little do the children care to know that it is the supreme task of the mother to make her children perfect. It is the bounden duty of the soul to make our body, vital, mind and heart perfect. The soul is our inner tutor. This tutor is all eagerness to help us learn the inner language, study the inner subject and grow into the infinite effulgence of Light and Delight. We must not only believe in the existence of the soul, but we must and must abide by the dictates of the soul and most ardently aspire to please the soul. The soul is the guide. We definitely need the guide to lead us, guide us and take us to our Goal supreme. I am making a fervent request to all of you to dive deep within every day in order to feel the presence of your soul. To please your soul is infinitely more difficult than to please the Absolute Supreme. The Absolute Supreme has His infinite Compassion and He can wait throughout Eternity for you if you are delaying your progress. But your soul, the real reality within you, knows that the sooner you reach your Goal the better, for a new beginning, a new, illumining, more illumining and most illumining beginning is awaiting your arrival. As I always say, today’s goal is tomorrow’s starting point. We are all seekers — God-seekers and God-lovers. Let us have implicit faith in our soul, the God-representative within us. Let us try to abide by the dictates of our soul, for if we cannot please our primary school teacher, then we will never be able to proceed to high school, college and university. <html>
<hr /> <p id="fn40"> VK 40. 19 May 1993, Public School 86, Queens, New York.<a href="#fnref40">↩</a></p> <p id="fn40"> VK 40. <em>Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata…</em> A Sanskrit mantra from the Upanishads. The translation is: “Arise, awake, realise and achieve the Highest with the help of the illumining, guiding and fulfilling Masters. The path is as sharp as the edge of a razor, difficult to cross, hard to tread — so declare the wise sages.”<a href="#fnref40">↩</a></p>
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<a class="source-title" href="vk" title="" >Sri Chinmoy, Vivekananda: Divinity's Soul-Rainbow and humanity's heart-blossom, </a>Agni Press, 1993
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