Class material
covered in Vedanta US Study Group
on Sept 3, 2018
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda- Vol 1 – Karma Yoga (Downloaded from internet)
Chapter 6:
Non-Attachment is Complete Self-Abnegation
…But
what follows from it? That, howsoever
we may try, there cannot be any action which is perfectly pure, or any which is
perfectly impure, taking purity and impurity in the sense of injury and
non-injury. We cannot breathe or live without injuring others, and every bit of
the food we eat is taken away from another’s mouth. Our very lives are crowding
out other lives. It may be men, or animals, or small microbes, but some, one or
other of these, we have to crowd out. That being the case, it naturally follows
that perfection can never
be attained by work. We may work through all eternity, but there will be
no way out of this intricate maze. You may work on, and on, and on; there will
be no end to this inevitable association of good and evil in the results of
work.
The
second point to consider is, what is the end of work? We find the vast majority
of people in every country believing that there will be a time when this world
will become perfect, when there will be no disease, nor death, nor unhappiness,
nor wickedness. That is a very good idea, a very good motive power to inspire
and uplift the ignorant; but if we think for a moment, we shall find on the
very face of it that it cannot be so. How can it be, seeing that good and evil
are the obverse and reverse of the same coin? How can you have good without evil
at the same time? What is meant by perfection? A perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Life
itself is a state of continuous struggle between ourselves and everything
outside. Every moment we are fighting actually with external nature, and if
we are defeated, our life has to go. It is, for instance, a continuous struggle
for food and air. If food or air fails, we die. Life is not a simple and
smoothly flowing thing, but it is a compound effect. This complex struggle between something inside and
the external world is what we call LIFE. So, it is clear that when this
struggle ceases, there will be an end of life.
Imitation
of Christ by Thomas Kempis (translated by Joseph Tylenda) :
(Photocopy of pages from personal copy of the book)
Ch: Meditation on Death
ATTENDEES: Nandini, Priti, Tara,
Neelam, Chandra, Alpana
© Nandini Mitra Banerjee Sept 3, 2018
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