Class material
covered in US Vedanta Study Group
on Aug 20, 2018
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda- Vol 1 – Karma Yoga (Downloaded from internet)
Chapter 6:
Non-Attachment is Complete Self-Abnegation
Just
as every action that emanates from us comes back to us as reaction, even so our actions may act on other
people and theirs on us. Perhaps all of you have observed it as a fact
that when persons do evil actions, they become more and more evil, and when
they begin to do good, they become stronger and stronger and learn to do good at all times.
This intensification of the influence of action cannot be explained on any
other ground than that we can act and react upon each other. To take an
illustration from physical science, when I am doing a certain action, my mind
may be said to be in a certain state of vibration; all minds which are in similar circumstances will
have the tendency to be affected by my mind. If there are different
musical instruments tuned alike in one room, all of you may have noticed that
when one is struck, the others have the tendency to vibrate so as to give the
same note. So, all minds that have the same tension, so to say, will be equally
affected by the same thought. Of course, this influence of thought on mind will
vary according to distance and other causes, but the mind is always open to affection. Suppose I
am doing an evil act, my mind is in a certain state of vibration, and all minds
in the universe, which are in a similar state, have the possibility of being
affected by the vibration of my mind. So, when I am doing a good action, my
mind is in another state of vibration; and all minds similarly strung have the
possibility of being affected by my mind; and this power of mind upon mind is
more or less according as the force of the tension is greater or less.
Following
this simile further, it is quite possible that, just as light waves may travel
for millions of years before they reach any object, so thought waves may also
travel hundreds of years before they meet an object with which they vibrate in
unison. It is quite possible, therefore, that this atmosphere of ours is full
of such thought pulsations, both good and evil. Every thought projected from
every brain goes on pulsating, as it were, until it meets a fit object that
will receive it. Any mind which is open to receive some of these impulses will
take them immediately. So, when a man is doing evil actions, he has brought his
mind to a certain state of tension and all the waves which correspond to that
state of tension, and which may be said to be already in the atmosphere, will
struggle to enter into his mind. That is why an evil-doer generally goes on doing more and more evil.
His actions become intensified. Such, also will be the case with the
doer of good; he will open himself to all the good waves that are in the
atmosphere, and his good actions also will become intensified. We run, therefore, a twofold
danger in doing evil: first, we open ourselves to all the evil influences
surrounding us; secondly, we create evil which affects others, may be hundreds
of years hence. In doing evil we injure ourselves and others also. In
doing good we do good to ourselves and to others as well; and, like all other
forces in man, these forces of good and evil also gather strength from outside.
ATTENDEES: Nandini, Bhama, Priti,
Chandra, Alpana
© Nandini Mitra Banerjee Aug 20, 2018
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