Recorded By Miss S. E. Waldo,

Wednesday, June 19, 1895.

(This day marks the beginning of the regular teaching given daily by Swami Vivekananda to his disciples at Thousand Island Park. We had not yet all assembled there, but the Master's heart was always in his work, so he commenced at once to teach the three or four who were with him. He came on this first morning with the Bible in his hand and opened to the Book of John, saying that since we were all Christians, it was proper that he should begin with the Christian scriptures.) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Hindu calls this Mâyâ, the manifestation of God, because it is the power of God. The absolute reflecting through the universe is what we call nature.

Recorded By Miss S. E. Waldo,

Wednesday, June 19, 1895.

(This day marks the beginning of the regular teaching given daily by Swami Vivekananda to his disciples at Thousand Island Park. We had not yet all assembled there, but the Master's heart was always in his work, so he commenced at once to teach the three or four who were with him. He came on this first morning with the Bible in his hand and opened to the Book of John, saying that since we were all Christians, it was proper that he should begin with the Christian scriptures.) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Hindu calls this Mâyâ, the manifestation of God, because it is the power of God. The absolute reflecting through the universe is what we call nature.

DEVOTION

Blessed are those who have devotion in their hearts. It is the only reality in this world, other things are false. Live a pure, holy life; be bold and fearless. Never mind if thousands fall before you; still stand firmly and never give up. Truly what a great thing it is to have love and devotion! Devotion is the only thing that can make one happy.
True devotion has wonderful power. Through it a devotee can bring out divinity even from a stone. It is a living force and can give life to a dead body. They are indeed very happy who have naturally this devotion for the Lord. You know what Sri Ramakrishna says, - that the goal can be attained very easily through the power of faith and devotion, and never through the power of reasoning.

Karma in its effect on Character 

The word Karma is derived from the Sanskrit Kri, to do; all action is Karma. Technically, this word also means the effects of actions. In connection with metaphysics, it sometimes means the effects, of which our past actions were the causes. But in Karma-Yoga we have simply to do with the word Karma as meaning work. The goal of mankind is knowledge. That is the one ideal placed before us by Eastern philosophy. Pleasure is not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time, man finds that it is not happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that he learns as much from evil as from good. As pleasure and pain pass before his soul they have upon its different pictures, and the result of these combined impressions is what is called man's "character". If you take the character of any man, it really is but the aggregate of tendencies, the sum total of the bent of his mind; you will find that misery and happiness are equal factors in the formation of that character. Good and evil have an equal share in molding character, and in some instances, misery is a greater teacher than happiness.

NAG MAHASHAY

Nag Mahashay - that was the name by which Durga Charan Nag was popularly known - was, according to Swami Vivekananda, ‘one of the greatest of the works of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.’ He would say, ‘I have travelled in different parts of the globe, but nowhere could I meet a great soul like Nag Mahashay.’
The life of Nag Mahashay reads like a fairy tale, like legendary stories. His humility, his hospitality, his kindness to all including lower animals, his asceticism and renunciation, above all, his devotion to God and to his guru, were so wonderful that if we hear the incidents, we become awestruck and ask ourselves if they could be really true. Such stories can be found narrated in the Puranas - and the modern mind does not know whether they were facts or simply imaginary illustrations of moral precepts - but the happenings in the life of Nag Mahashay were witnessed by persons who lived till recently and stood as a living testimony to their authenticity.

SWAMI SHIVANANDA

Swami Shivananda, more popularly known as Mahapurush Maharaj, was personality of great force, rich in distinctive color and individual quality. His leonine statue and dauntless vigor, his stolid indifference to praise or blame, his spontaneous mood and his profound serenity in times of storm and stress, invested with a singular appropriateness his monastic name which recalls the classical attributes of the great God Shiva.

He was born sometime in the fifties of the nineteenth century on the eleventh day of the dark fortnight in the Indian month of Agrahayan (November-December). The exact year of his birth is obscure. (It is inferred that he was born on 16 November 1854) The Swami himself with his characteristic indifference to such matter never remembered it. His father had indeed prepared an elaborate horoscope for his son, but the latter threw it away into the Ganga when he chose the life of renunciation.

EARLY DAYS 

Swami Vivekananda, or Narendranath Datta, or simply Narendra or Naren as he was known during his pre-monastic days, was born to Viswanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi on Monday, 12 January 1863, at Calcutta. The Datta family was rich, respectable, and renowned for charity, learning, and a strong sprit of independence. Narendranath’s grandfather, Durgacharan Datta, was well-versed in Persian and Sanskrit and was skilled in law. But after the birth of his son Vishwanath, he renounced the world and became a monk. He was then only twenty-five. Vishwanath Datta was an attorney-at-law in the High Court of Calcutta. He was proficient in English and Persian, and took great delight in reciting to his family the poems of the Persian poet Hafiz. He also enjoyed the study f the Bible which he thought contained the highest wisdom.

The Mystery of Life and God-Consciousness

Mother: ‘The world is the Lord’s. He created it for His own play. We are mere pawns in His game. Wherever He keeps us and in whatever way He does so, we have to abide by it contentedly. We suffer as a result of our own actions; it is unfair to blame anybody for it. We have to surrender ourselves completely to the Lord with faith and devotion in Him, serve others to the best of our capacity, and never be a source of sorrow to anybody,’

Disciple: ‘If there is a God, why is there so much misery in this world? Does He not see? Or hasn’t He the power to remove these evils?’

Mother: ‘The creation itself is full of griefs. How can one understand joy if there is no sorrow? And how can everyone be happy at the same time? There is a story that once Sita said to Rama, ‘Why do you not remove everybody’s miseries? Make everyone in your kingdom-all your subjects-happy. You can do it if you like.’ Rama answered, ‘Can everyone be happy at the same time?’ ‘Well. They can, if you so desire.

The World

THIS IS INDEED THE WORLD

Once Hriday brought a bull-calf here. I saw, one day, that he had tied it with a rope in the garden, so that it might graze there. I asked him, “Hriday, why do you tie the calf there every day?” “Uncle” he said, “I am going to send the calf to our village. When it grows strong, I shall yoke it to the plough?” As soon as I heard these words I was stunned to think: “How inscrutable is the play of the Divine Maya! Kamarpukur and Sihore are so far away from Calcutta! This poor calf must go all that way. Then it will grow, and length it will be yoked to the plough. This is indeed the world! This is indeed maya!” I fell unconscious. Only after a long time did I regain consciousness.  

Overcoming Obstacles in Spiritual Life

Part 1

Swami Yatiswarananda (1889 - 1966) was a disciple of Swami Brahmananda. He spent seven years teaching Vedanta in Europe, where he founded an ashram in Switzerland, though he lectured on Vedanta from Madrid to Warsaw. He left Europe as the Second World War forced a closure to the European Vedanta work. The swami then spent ten years teaching Vedanta in the United States, returning to India to head several Centres, eventually becoming Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Swami Yatiswarananda was famed for his meditative life and spiritual attainment. His book, Meditation and Spiritual Life, a compilation of his class talks, is considered one of the finest compendiums on spiritual life. The article below was taken from the Jan-Feb 1959 Vedanta in the West.