Sadhana | Page 7

through external conduct,
but his rights extend only so far as he is real, and his reality is measured by the scope of
his consciousness.
We have, however, to pay a price for this attainment of the freedom of consciousness.
What is the price? It is to give one's self away. Our soul can realise itself truly only by
denying itself. The Upanishad says, Thou shalt gain by giving away [Footnote: Tyaktena
bhunjithah], _Thou shalt not covet._ [Footnote: Ma gridhah]
In Gita we are advised to work disinterestedly, abandoning all lust for the result. Many
outsiders conclude from this teaching that the conception of the world as something
unreal lies at the root of the so-called disinterestedness preached in India. But the reverse
is true.
The man who aims at his own aggrandisement underrates everything else. Compared to
his ego the rest of the world is unreal. Thus in order to be fully conscious of the reality of
all, one has to be free himself from the bonds of personal desires. This discipline we have
to go through to prepare ourselves for our social duties--for sharing the burdens of our
fellow-beings. Every endeavour to attain a larger life requires of man "to gain by giving
away, and not to be greedy." And thus to expand gradually the consciousness of one's
unity with all is the striving of humanity.
The Infinite in India was not a thin nonentity, void of all content. The Rishis of India
asserted emphatically, "To know him in this life is to be true; not to know him in this life
is the desolation of death." [Footnote: Iha chet avedit atha satyamasti, nachet iha avedit
mahati vinashtih.] How to know him then? "By realising him in each and all." [Footnote:
Bhuteshu bhuteshu vichintva.] Not only in nature but in the family, in society, and in the
state, the more we realise the World- conscious in all, the better for us. Failing to realise
it, we turn our faces to destruction.
It fills me with great joy and a high hope for the future of humanity when I realise that
there was a time in the remote past when our poet-prophets stood under the lavish
sunshine of an Indian sky and greeted the world with the glad recognition of kindred. It
was not an anthropomorphic hallucination. It was not seeing man reflected everywhere in
grotesquely exaggerated images, and witnessing the human drama acted on a gigantic
scale in nature's arena of flitting lights and shadows. On the contrary, it meant crossing
the limiting barriers of the individual, to become more than man, to become one with the
All. It was not a mere play of the imagination, but it was the liberation of consciousness
from all the mystifications and exaggerations of the self. These ancient seers felt in the
serene depth of their mind that the same energy which vibrates and passes into the
endless forms of the world manifests itself in our inner being as consciousness; and there
is no break in unity. For these seers there was no gap in their luminous vision of
perfection. They never acknowledged even death itself as creating a chasm in the field of

reality. They said, _His reflection is death as well as immortality._ [Footnote: Yasya
chhayamritam yasya mrityuh.] They did not recognise any essential opposition between
life and death, and they said with absolute assurance, "It is life that is death." [Footnote:
Prano mrityuh.] They saluted with the same serenity of gladness "life in its aspect of
appearing and in its aspect of departure"-- _That which is past is hidden in life, and that
which is to come._ [Footnote: Namo astu ayate namo astu parayate. Prane ha bhutam
bhavyancha.] They knew that mere appearance and disappearance are on the surface like
waves on the sea, but life which is permanent knows no decay or diminution.
_Everything has sprung from immortal life and is vibrating with life_, [Footnote:
Yadidan kincha prana ejati nihsritam.] _for life is immense._ [Footnote: Prano virat.]
This is the noble heritage from our forefathers waiting to be claimed by us as our own,
this ideal of the supreme freedom of consciousness. It is not merely intellectual or
emotional, it has an ethical basis, and it must be translated into action. In the Upanishad it
is said, _The supreme being is all-pervading, therefore he is the innate good in all._
[Footnote: Sarvavyapi sa bhagavan tasmat sarvagatah civah.] To be truly united in
knowledge, love, and service with all beings, and thus to realise one's self in the
all-pervading God is the essence of goodness, and this is the keynote of the teachings of
the Upanishads: _Life is immense!_ [Footnote: Prano virat.]

II
SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS
We have seen that it was the aspiration of ancient India to live