This book brings together the Christian and Indian
perspectives of spirituality and the general goals of humankind; it shows how
they can enrich and complement each other, and that in spite of the great
differences that time and space may forge between dissimilar cultures, when we
come to the spiritual dimension and the higher values of life these differences
begin to lead to a common point that ends on the immutable principles of Love
and Truth.
It is the very first time that any author ventures to write a commentary on this classic Christian best seller from a Vedantic perspective.
This is a short preview of the book.
CONTENTS
Book I
Practical advice about the spiritual life
Book II
Considerations inviting us to live an interior life
Book III
On inward consolation
Book IV
About the blessed Sacrament
A devout encouragement to receive holy Communion
Book one
PRACTICAL ADVICE ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
CHAPTER I
WE MUST TAKE CHRIST FOR OUR MODEL AND DESPISE THE SHAMS OF
EARTH
1. He who follows me
can never walk in darkness,
our Lord says. Here are words of Christ, words of warning; if we want to see
our way truly, never a trace of blindness left in our hearts, it is his life,
his character, we must take for our model. Clearly, then, we must make it our
chief business to train our thoughts upon the life of Jesus Christ.
True to the very
title of his book, Kempis begins by telling us that it is Christ whom we must
follow, that it is Christ we must imitate in order to become Christ-like.
One of the most
important characteristics of our mind is that it can, consciously and
unconsciously, absorb the nature and qualities of any object on which it thinks
with real intensity. We see this working in our daily lives. When a man and a
woman fall in love, for instance, they gradually begin to absorb the good and even
the bad qualities of the partner. This constant engrossment in each other tends
to transform each one of them into the other. Such is the power of thought! And
when the object of our meditation is a divine personage, or even a holy symbol,
the result is a transformation of our life and character from the human to the
divine.
“He who follows
me can never walk in darkness.” Those are not only words of warning, as Kempis
says, they are also words of great comfort and hope, because they assure us
that if we follow the spirit of Christ’s teachings and make a sincere effort to
emulate his life - however small that effort may be in the beginning - a
gradual transformation is sure to come into our lives.
2. Christ’s teaching – how it overshadows all the Saints
have to teach us! Could we but master its spirit, what a store of hidden manna
we should find there! How is it that so many of us can hear the Gospel read out
again and again, with so little emotion? Because they haven’t got the spirit of
Christ; that is why. If a man wants to understand Christ’s words fully, and
relish the flavour of them, he must be one who is trying to fashion his whole
life on Christ’s model.
When we study
the history of mankind, we find that the life and teachings of certain
characters, like Buddha, Jesus and Ramakrishna, have made a tremendous impact
on the course of human life, altering the thought current of millions with an
impulse that lasts for thousands of years. In the Vedantic tradition, these
luminaries are called Avataras, special manifestations of the Divine, the
purest manifestations of God on earth.
The life and
teachings of these Avataras are the models that humanity has followed for ages.
They give the message that is fit for that particular place and time, and also
for humanity at large; they make religion simple and accessible to all.
Yet, even though
they come to make religion easily available to all, we won’t be able to derive
much benefit from merely reading their teachings unless we are, as Kempis tells
us, “one who is trying to fashion his whole life on Christ’s model.”
3. Talk as learnedly as you will about the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity, it will get you no thanks from the holy Trinity if you aren’t
humble about it. After all, it isn’t learned talk that saves a man or makes a
saint of him; only a life well lived can claim God’s friendship. For myself, I
would sooner know what contrition feels like, than how to define it. Why, if
you had the whole of Scripture and all the maxims of the philosophers at your
finger-tips, what would be the use of it all, without God’s love and God’s
grace? A shadow’s shadow, a world of
shadows
- nothing matters except loving God and giving him all your loyalty. And the
height of wisdom is to set your face towards heaven by despising the world.
“Religion is
realization,” said Swami Vivekananda. Theories are good to begin with, but they
can never give us lasting satisfaction, nor the knowledge of God or the
ultimate Reality. It is only when we have experienced at least a glimpse of God
that we can claim to be truly religious. Before that we only speak about it.
Sri Ramakrishna
used to say that an ounce of practice is better than tons of theory. In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (hence GSR) we
read the following story:
“Once several
men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of
them, a pundit, was making a great display of his erudition, saying that he had
studied various books - the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the six systems of
philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, ‘Do you know the Vedanta?’ ‘No,
revered sir.’ ‘The Samkhya and the Patanjala?’ ‘No, revered sir.’ ‘Have you
read no philosophy whatsoever?’ ‘No, revered sir.’ The pundit was talking in
this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence, when a great storm arose
and the boat was about to sink. The passenger said to the pundit, ‘Sir, can you
swim?’ ‘No,’ replied the pundit. The passenger said, ‘I don’t know the Samkhya
or the Patanjala, but I can swim.’”
So unless we are
ready to be practical and follow the teachings of a particular religion and
verify by direct experience its validity, we have no right to say whether they
are true or false.
4. What folly, to hunt for riches that will not last, and
put your trust in them! What folly, to set your heart on worldly honours, and
scheme for your own advancement! What folly, to obey the promptings of sense,
and covet the prizes that will soon cost you dear! What folly, to pray for a
long life, without caring whether it is lived well or badly; to think only of
your present existence, instead of making provision for the world to come; to
fall in love with what passes in a moment, instead of hurrying on to the goal
where eternal happiness awaits you!
We are what we are inside. This life, which can be a
wonderful opportunity for our spiritual development, would be simply wasted if
we make money, fame, etc., the goal of our existence. This does not mean that
they are evil things to be avoided at all cost. What we do need to understand
is that they only provide a momentary comfort or thrill that has no chance to
make us truly happy and bring us durable peace.
For those who
have mastered their minds, for those who have learned to live consciously,
these worldly goods can be wonderful tools that they can use for the good of
society and for their own advancement in spiritual life, or, if they so wish
it, they can live a perfectly contented life without them.
It is said that
when Alexander the Great returned to Greece after one of his conquering
campaigns, the whole city went to receive him and render him honour. Everyone
but one was present. There was an old philosopher living on a nearby hill who
didn’t bother to attend the celebration. When Alexander heard of this he was
enraged, and went with a small retinue of soldiers to meet the old philosopher
who dared to ignore him. When they reached his house, they found him outside,
lying on a couch and enjoying the sunlight. Alexander approached him and asked
why he had not gone to receive him, but the old man remained silent without
even opening his eyes to look at him. The emperor became angry and threatened
him in many ways, but got no response. Then changing his tactic Alexander told
him, “I can give you anything you want, ask me anything.” Then the old man
opened his eyes for the first time and told him, “Can you move aside, please?
You are obstructing the sunlight.” Such is the difference between a life
well-lived and one that is devoted to the search for power and fame.
Swami Brahmananda, a monastic disciple
of Sri Ramakrishna, said to a young monk, “Give your body and mind to worldly
enjoyments, and the world will destroy them both. Devote them to God and his
service, and you will enjoy bodily health, peace of mind, and spiritual joy.”
5. There is one proverb of which we cannot remind
ourselves too often, Eye looks on
unsatisfied; ear listens, ill content.
Make up your mind to detach your thoughts from the love of things seen, and
let them find their centre in things invisible. Those who follow the call of
sense only soil their consciences, and lose the help of God’s grace.
The mind is
constantly searching for happiness, but permanent happiness cannot be found in
the pleasures of the senses. When the enjoyment of the sensory world is
experienced as a mere reaction, as a mere response to an impulse, we find that
after a brief period of satisfaction the desire to enjoy returns, and only
frustration remains.
So we must live
our lives in such a way that it will make it possible for us to use the
tendencies of our mind in our favour. And the easiest way to do that is by
associating all our actions and enjoyments with God, or our spiritual ideal,
whatever this might be. By offering, for instance, the fruit of our actions and
pleasures to God, by feeling that all the things we enjoy are enjoyed by the
Divine within us, we gradually sublimate the selfish and sensual tendencies of
the mind, and our actions become a way to constantly keep in mind the presence
of God in us and in all around us.
CHAPTER 2
ON TAKING A LOW VIEW OF ONESELF
1. As for knowledge, it comes natural to all of us to want
it; but what can knowledge do for us, without the fear of God? Give me a plain,
unpretentious farm-hand, content to serve God; there is more to be made of him
than of some conceited University professor who forgets that he has a soul to
save, because he is so busy watching the stars. To know yourself – that means
feeling your own worthlessness, losing all taste for human praise. If my
knowledge embraced the whole of creation, yet left me lacking in the love of
God, what good would it do me in God’s sight? It is by my actions that he will
judge me.
Sri Ramakrishna
used to say:
“Vultures soar
very high in the sky, but their eyes are fixed on rotten carrion on the ground.
The book-learned are reputed to be wise, but they are attached to ‘woman and
gold.’ Like the vultures, they
are in search of carrion. They are attached to the world of ignorance.
Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are the glories of true knowledge.”
There are two
types of knowledge: the knowledge of the world – the external knowledge, which
allows us to understand and improve our physical, material life; and spiritual
knowledge, which enables us to discern and manifest our real nature, our divine
dimension, or as Jesus Christ explained it: the Kingdom of Heaven
in us. This latter knowledge is the highest, for the former is the knowledge
that relates to our perishable psychophysical personality; whereas the latter
is the knowledge of our immortal, real Self.
2. Why not take a rest from this exaggerated craving for
mere knowledge which only has the effect of distracting and deluding us! People
are so fond of passing for learned men, and being congratulated on their wisdom
– yes, but what a lot of knowledge there is that contributes nothing to our
souls’ welfare! And there can be no wisdom in spending yourself on pursuits which
are not going to promote your chances of salvation. All the talk in the world
won’t satisfy the soul’s needs; nothing but a good conscience will help you to
face God unashamed.
Similarly, Sri
Ramakrishna said:
“Can one find
God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may feel at the most
that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man unless he himself
dives deep. Only after such a plunge, after the revelation of God through His
grace, is one’s doubt destroyed. You may read scriptures by the thousands and
recite thousands of texts; but unless you plunge into God with yearning of
heart, you will not comprehend Him. By mere scholarship you may fool man, but
not God.”
Real knowledge,
spiritual knowledge, depends upon no book; after all, books are only an attempt
to explain that knowledge. Intellectual knowledge is no proof of spirituality;
no amount of theoretical knowledge can give us peace and happiness. When we are
hungry, what we need is food, and no amount of conversation about food can
satisfy our hunger. Religion is not in theories: it is realization, direct
experience. Intellectual knowledge gives
only intellectual pleasure of short duration. When we experience that we are
divine, that we are not limited by anything, then lasting peace and happiness
are ours.
3. The wider, the more exact your learning, the more
severe will be your judgement, if it has not taught you to live holily. No art,
no science should make a man proud of possessing it; such gifts are a
terrifying responsibility. Meanwhile, however well satisfied you are with your
own skill or intelligence, never forget how much there is that remains unknown
to you. Let us have no airs of learning; own up to your ignorance; what is the
use of crowing over some rival, when you can point to any number of Doctors and
Masters who can beat you at your own game? If you want to learn an art worth
knowing, you must set out to be unknown, and to count for nothing.
Once yudhisthira
and Duryodhana were asked to judge four men that had commited murder. Duryodhana
immediately said that they should all be sentenced to death, but Yudhisthira,
who was much wiser, asked the men to what cast they belonged. He learned that
all were of different casts: sudra (servant), vaishya (merchant), kshatriya
(warrior) and brahmin (one who makes spirituality the goal of life). So he gave
to each a different sentence, according to their degree of knowledge and
responsibility. To the sudra he gave four years of prison, for he was
illiterate and ignorant; to the vaishya eight years, for he had some education
and understood better what he was doing; to the kshatriya he gave 15 years, for
he was a warrior and his duty is to protect the people, not to murder them; and
to the brahmin he gave the death sentence, for he was a learned man whose duty
was to dedicate his life to God, and he knew fully well the sacredness of life.
There
is no doubt that the greater our knowledge, the greater is our responsibility,
and the harder will be the account we must submit for its use. This does not
mean that learning is bad in itself; it can be an asset to the spiritual
aspirant who uses it to serve others unselfishly. Learning becomes a hindrance
if it makes us proud and arrogant. If we are truly learned, it should make us
humble.
4. There is no lesson so profound or so useful as this
lesson of self-knowledge and of self-contempt. Claim nothing for yourself,
think of others kindly and with admiration; that is the height of wisdom, and
its masterpiece. Never think yourself better than the next man, however glaring
his faults, however grievous his offences; you are in good disposition now, but
how long will they last? Tell yourself, “We are frail, all of us, but none so
frail as I.”
We should always
remember that if we see faults in others it is because we have those faults in
us. The person who has no evil inside, cannot see it outside. A child three
years old cannot see wickedness in others, for his mind is still free from it.
It is later, when he begins to develop the concept of wickedness within, that
he starts to see it outside. So before judging our neighbour, we would do well
to understand that we have ourselves that very fault we are about to judge.
In her last
moments of life Sarada Devi gave this advice to one of her disciples: “If you
want peace of mind, do not find fault with others. Rather see your own faults.
Learn to make the whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; the
whole world is your own.”
CHAPTER 3
HOW TRUTH IS TO BE LEARNT
1. Oh to be one of those to whom truth communicates itself
directly – not by means of symbols and words, whose meaning changes with time,
but in its very nature! Our own estimate, our own way of looking at things, is
always putting us in the wrong, by taking the short view. And here are we,
splitting hairs about all sorts of mysterious problems which do not concern us
– we shall not be blamed, at our judgement, for having failed to solve them.
Strange creatures that we are, we forget the questions which really matter to
us, matter vitally, and concentrate, of set purpose, on what is mere curiosity
and waste of time. So clear-sighted we are, and so blind!
“To see once, is better than to hear a hundred
times,” says the Chinese popular wisdom. And how true it is! There is a big
difference between reading and hearing about spiritual truths in books and sermons,
and actually seeing them and experiencing them directly through spiritual
intuition. When we read or hear about spirituality, it makes us feel nice and
it may move us for a while to try to live a better life; but a direct
perception of these truths, a real spiritual experience, is a life-transforming
event. A complete revolution takes place in the inner life and understanding of
that individual. Externally he or she may look just the same to others, but
internally a rebirth has taken place, a lifelong transformation that no
learning, however great, can achieve.
Sri Ramakrishna
said:
“One should
learn the contents of the scriptures and then act according to their
injunctions. A man lost a letter. He couldn’t remember where he had left it. He
began to search for it with a lamp. After two or three people had searched, the
letter was at last found. The message in the letter was: ‘Please send us five
seers of sandesh and a piece of wearing-cloth.’ The man read it and then threw
the letter away. There was no further need of it; now all he had to do was to
buy the five seers of sandesh and the piece of cloth.”
When St. Thomas
Aquinas was writing his greatest work, the Summa
Theologica, he had a profound spiritual experience that totally changed his
understanding, opening an altogether new reality previously unknown to him. The
result was so impressive that he stopped writing. When others complained about
it, telling him that he should continue, that it was a marvellous work he was doing,
he simply said that during that experience that he had, what he saw and felt
was something so superior to anything he previously knew, that whatever he had
written seemed irrelevant prattle to him.
2. Why should we be concerned to divide up things into
“classes” and “families?” We get away from all this tangle of guess-work, when
once the Eternal Word speaks to us. From him alone all creation takes its
origin, and therefore all creation has but one voice for us; he, who is its
origin, is also its interpreter. Without him, nobody can understand it, or form
a true judgement about it. Until all things become One for you, traced to One
source and seen in One act of vision, you cannot find anchorage for the heart,
or rest calmly in God. O God, you are the truth; unite me to yourself by an act
of unfailing love! I am so tired of reading about this and that, being lectured
to about this and that, when all that I want, all that I long for, is to be
found in you. If only they would hold their tongues, these learned folk! If
only the whole of creation would be silent in your presence, and you, and you
alone, speak to me!
In the Chandogya
Upanishad
we read the story of a boy named Satyakama,
who was sent by his guru to the forest to look after 400 lean and weak
cattle with the instruction not to return till they became 1000. After some
years of devoted service, Satyakama heard the bull telling him that they were
already 1000 and it was time to return to the guru. The bull further gave him
instructions about Brahman (God, the Self, the Absolute).
Then the fire, a swan, and a diver-bird gave him further instructions about
Brahman, till Satyakama realized that the whole universe is but a manifestation
of God. That God is the One reality that we are experiencing all the time,
though to our eyes it appears as the material universe.
Kempis,
like all the great mystics, is giving us a hint of that oneness of existence,
that one truth, which we call God and by many other names. And God, being the
omnipresent existence of the universe, can choose to teach us in any way he
wants. As Jesus Christ said, when some Pharisees asked him to stop his
disciples because they were praising him as the envoy of God, “I tell you that,
if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Too
much talk distracts the mind, hence Kempis longs for that silence that calms
the mind and fills the heart with God’s presence. Before the utterance of any
word, there is silence, and after the word is spoken, there is still silence.
Silence is the ever present voice of God from which divine revelations are
heard, and in which the soul rejoices in God’s presence.
3. Once a man is integrated, once his inner life becomes
simplified, all of a piece, he begins to attain a richer and deeper knowledge –
quite effortlessly, because the intellectual light he receives comes from
above. Freedom of heart is his, and simplicity of intention, and fixity of
resolve, and he finds that he is no longer distracted by a variety of
occupations; he acts, now only for God’s glory, and does his best to get rid of
all self-seeking. There is no worse enemy to your freedom and your peace of
mind than the undisciplined affections of your own heart. Really good and holy
people plan out beforehand in their minds how they are to behave in given
circumstances; the course of their lives does not sweep them away into
following their lower instincts, they shape it for themselves, according to the
dictates of right season. To be sure, the conquest of self demands the hardest
struggle of all; but this has got to be our real business in life, the conquest
of self – no day passed without beating our own record, without gaining fresh
ground.
This integration
of the personality is a vital step in the life of a spiritual aspirant. In
order to attain this it is necessary to unite all our actions, that is to say,
what we think, what we speak and what we do must be the same. If we think one
way but speak and act in different ways, that shows an immature and
disintegrated personality.
When
the individual becomes integrated, concentration takes place; our inner and
outer forces join together in a single purpose, and that leads to quick
progress. Once this degree of sincerity is finally achieved, when there is no
more hypocrisy in our effort, then the obstacles of self-seeking and
self-assertion that were barring our way begin to crumble and spiritual
progress becomes natural. A process of spontaneous growth starts to take place,
and the personality finally surrenders to change; it embraces willingly the
manifestations and promptings of the Divine.
Meister
Eckhart said that:
“Self-free is
self-controlled, and self-controlled is self-possessed, and self-possessed is
God-possession and possession of everything God ever made. This is known as
self-mastery. He who for one instant wholly resigns self, unshaken and
motionless in himself – that man is free.”
4. We find no absolute perfection in this world; always
there is a background of imperfection behind our achievement; and so it is that
our guesses at the truth can never be more than light obscured by shadow. The
humble man’s knowledge of himself is a surer way to God than any deep
researches into truth. No reason why we should quarrel with learning, or with
any straightforward pursuit of knowledge; it is all good as far as it goes, and
part of God’s plan. But always what we should prize most is a clear conscience,
and holiness of life. How is it that there are so many people who put knowledge
first, instead of conduct? It means that they are constantly at fault, and
achieve little – sometimes next to nothing. If only these people would take as
much trouble to weed out their imperfections, and to cultivate good qualities,
as they take over the learned theses they propound, we should hear less about
sins and scandals, less about lax behaviour in religious houses. After all,
when the day of judgement comes we shall be examined about what we have done,
not about what we have read; whether we have lived conscientiously, not whether
we have turned fine phrases. Where are they now, Doctor This and Professor
That, whom you used to hear so much about when they were alive, and at the
height of their reputation? They have handed over their chairs to other men,
who probably never waste a thought on them; while they lived, they counted for
something, now they are never mentioned.
We must keep in
mind that Kempis is talking mainly to monks and to very sincere spiritual
aspirants. So it should be understood that this advice, though it seems a bit
radical at times and incompatible with practical daily life, it is meant for
those who have made God-realization the goal of their lives.
Sri Ramakrishna
also said:
“The one thing
you need is to realize God. Why do you bother so much about the world,
creation, science, and all that? Your business is to eat mangoes. What need
have you to know how many hundreds of trees there are in the orchard, how many
thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? You have come to the
garden to eat mangoes. Go and eat them. Man is born in this world to realize
God; it is not good to forget that and divert the mind to other things. You
have come to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes and be happy.”
This can be
practised not only in the monastery, but anywhere we are. It is not the place
we live in that matters, or to what order of life we belong; it is our attitude
to life that makes all the difference. As Jesus Christ said, “Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also.” We could be living in a
monastery and be full of selfish desires and attachments, or we could live in
the world without feeling that we belong to it, making use of all the things
the world provides, but knowing fully well that they do not belong to us, that
they are God’s. If our heart is attached to God, we can make spiritual progress
anywhere.
When Meister
Eckhart was asked, “What is needful to attain love of God?” He answered, “Four
things: first, a real dispassion toward creatures; second, the right sort of
active life; third, the right sort of contemplative life; fourth, an aspiring
heart.”
5. So soon it passes, our earthly renown. Well for them,
if they had practised what they taught; then indeed they would have studied to
good purpose. How often the worldly pursuit of useless knowledge brings men to
ruin, by distracting their attention from God’s service! They must play the
great man, they will not be content with a humble part, and it only leads to
frustration. True greatness can only be reckoned in terms of charity; the
really great man is one who doesn’t think much of himself, and doesn’t think
much of rank or precedence either. The only clear-sighted man is one who treats
all earthly achievements as dirt, because he wants to win Christ; the only
educated man is one who has learned to abandon his own will and do God’s will
instead.
Once a wandering
monk went to see King Janaka. While they were walking
outside the palace, they saw from a distance that the palace had caught fire
and was burning fiercely. The monk immediately started lamenting, for he had
left his only extra loin-cloth inside the palace. But the king, who had no
attachment to anything in this world, was simply watching calmly, knowing full
well that nothing of his was burning. His heart was at rest; his interest was wholly
centred in the spirit. His treasure was not of this world.
