9 CALIFORNIA LECTURES    

Chap. 41   
The one cause of depression is we are attached. We want!     

WORK AND ITS SECRET.

 Payne’s Hall, Broadway, LA.

 5 January 1900. (CW – vol 2).

1- Failure – because we did not pay attention to the means. 2- Attention to the means is the great secret of life. 3- At the same time we must not be attached. 4- We are caught, though we came to catch. 5- We came to enjoy the pleasures of life but it is they who eat into our vitals. 6- The one cause of the depression is we are attached. 7- The weak have no place here, or in any other life. 8- Strength is life. Weakness is death. 9- We have to detach ourselves in order to earn joy. 10- The person who never loves escapes the miseries but also escapes the joys. 11- Letting ourselves be annihilated for other Souls. 12- They who can put their whole Soul upon that one point of love, yet are still detached. 13- We are all beggars, whatever we do we want a return. 14- We get caught, not by what we give but by what we expect. 15- There is no depression where there is no want. 16- We know that His unselfishness is the reason (that He was crucified). 17- Learn that the whole of life is giving. 18- Compelled, in the long-run, to give up everything. 19- It requires a super-divine power to be detached. 20- A new determination, ‘From now on I will be master of myself’. 21- Never was depression undeserved [One’s Karma at work]. 22- We curse others and say, ‘What infatuated fools!’ 23- It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good.  24- Be strong, clear, stand up, lay the blame on yourself. 25- The fact that you complain, want to lay the blame elsewhere. 26- For the world can be good and pure only if our lives are good and pure.

Chap. 42   
It is Life! It cannot be taught in lectures.
There should be this edification of the heart.
THE POWERS OF THE MIND.

Payne’s Hall, Broadway, LA.

8 January 1900. (CW – vol 2).

1- Each mind is in communication with the whole world. It is part of the Universal Mind. 2- Your mind, my mind, all these little minds, little waves in The Ocean. 3- Every particle of our energy, thought, intellect, good deeds, spirituality is influencing others – and they us. 4- Words only make ¹/₃ of the impression, the person’s personality, charisma, make ²/₃ of the impression. 5- The result follows the cause. All their actions have made their ‘personality’, their charisma. 6- The ideal of all education should be this edification of the heart. 7- That presence, that personality, that magnetism used for anything, will make it work. 8- Then their thoughts, books, works are but traces. 9- In one, it is a faint chemical process, in the other it is a torch spreading a flame everywhere. 10- This practice, this science, claims to strengthen your personality, your magnetism – the secret of all education. 11- In everyone’s life, this strengthening is a great thing. 12- So it is the finer, that is the seat of power – thought. 13- We complain we have no control over our actions. 14- If we can control the thought at the root, we control the whole. 15- A pure moral person has control over themselves. 16- Some men and women are born, who in a few short years, they achieve perfection. 17- It follows that we will grow, we will become perfect in this life. 18- The practicality of this science is to bring out the perfect person in this life. 19- This science deals with the mind which moves all the time. 20- It took me thirty years to learn this science, the little I know. 21- I have barely touched the hem of the garment. 22- It cannot be taught in lectures, for It is Life!

Chap. 43  
All the mischief to women is because men have shaped their destiny.
[Swamiji read J. S. Mill, reformer].
MY LIFE AND MISSION.

Shakespeare Club, Lincoln Ave, Pasadena.

27 January 1900. (CW – vol 8).

1- The stronger the current, the more the whirlpools. 2- Now I shall sit down under this tree and meditate. 3- The tyranny of the educted, the intellectual, is much more harmful. 4- To get ready for the great event – death. 5- An attempt to echo his Teacher’s voice. 6- The monk befriends the prince today and the beggar tomorrow. 7- What suffering is behind every deed of success in every life. 8- We had to beg from door to door for our food. 9- We will never give up on you. 10- He has not much time to be suave and polite. 11- When Mother says it is so, it must be so. 12- I’ve tried India, it’s time for another country. 13- Death is of no importance to them – to the Indian soldiers in the British army. 14- Leave us in liberty to worship our Gods. 15- Poverty does not mean indecency, vice, in India. 16- There will be no more India if they change their religion. 17- My mind, my powers, my everything, I give. 18- The Law of Karma [what you sow, you will reap] can never be hoodwinked. 19- Why should not education go from door to door. 20- The prophets are always preaching against the priests. 21- All the mischief done to women is because men have shaped their destiny.

Chap. 44  
It is selfishness to think you are different from me.

BUDDHA’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD.

Union Square Hall, South Post St, SF.

18 March 1900. (CW – vol 8). 

1- As the Buddhist monks spread out, so superstition, priest-craft, vanished like mist before the sun. 2- The Jewish Pharisees keeping the people in ignorance and grinding superstition into them. 3- The prophets challenged the superstition of the priests. 4- He must pierce through the mass of superstition encrusting his mind, in order to reach ‘The Pure Truth’, ‘Their Inmost Self’. 5- This great prophet killed the dragon of priestly selfishness. 6- All Hindu men, at some point, have to prepare for death and become a monk. 7- So these poet-prophets threw out the ways of the priest. 8- They are simplicity itself – the sermon on the Mount, the Gita. So direct. 9- Bring Truth out! 10- The masses were debarred from all knowledge. 11- He wanted to break the mental and spiritual bonds [superstitions] of the people. 12- He found the way out of suffering. 13- This was the man Buddha. 14- The triumph in the struggle between the priests and the prophets. 15- Buddha was the great teacher of equality. 16- His doctrine was this: ‘Why is there misery in our life? Because we are selfish.’ 17- The self, therefore, is a delusion. 18- God is only a superstition invented by the priests. 19- Buddha said, ‘These ceremonials are all wrong’. 20- Work: Not to please any God, not for any reward but for your own Release. 21- Devotion and God, these the Hindus must cling to. 22- For the Self is a delusion [in Buddhism]. 23- That enormous love to find a way of release for all beings. 24- It is the Human that is to be loved. 25- He rejected all scriptures, all forms of practice. 26- This ‘Truth’ – looking at it the Hindu way. 27- The ego, this Delusion – make us see it as different. 28- There is one Self, not many. 29- That one Self shines in many forms. 30- Hurting any part of the Universe, I only hurt myself. 31- Nearer to you than your very Self. He is The Soul. 32- It is selfishness to think you are different from me. 33- The person has Infinite Power within themselves, they can Realise It. 34- All have to reach the heights of that Infinite Energy. 35- Better is Silent Prayer. 36- An element of danger in Buddhism, it was a reforming religion. 37- Buddha taught kindness to all lower beings. 38- Believe not an old manuscript. Think for yourself! 39- One has to have a crystal clear mind. 40- The Buddha is not a person. He is a Realisation. 41- Freed from the bondage of our ‘false selves’ – [false set values – delusions].

Chap. 45  
Time began when you began to think!

You are the King and you are playing the beggar.

THE GOAL.

Washington Hall, Red Men’s Bldg. SF.

27 March 1900. (CW – vol 2).

1- As one appearing to the senses – that is not what they really are. 2- Dualism vs. Monism. 3- The question is nonsense. 4- It is common for human nature to make projections. 5- They have become the whole race with God within themselves. 6- Do things putting others first. 7- The sun, the moon, the stars, you and I, are just mere whirlpools. 8- Everywhere we are One! 9- Time began when you began to think! 10- We are all acting our parts in this play. 11- The Jew [Jesus] never struggled to protect His individuality. 12- The less they have thought of themselves, the more they have sacrificed. 13- You have anger no more, when you are all love, bliss, Infinite Existence. 14- On the higher planes much pleasure is to be sought. 15- All desire is contained in the self. 16- The less of this Ego, the nearer am I to what I really am. 17- I am in everybody. What an ecstasy of joy! To Realise this. 18- To become One with The Infinite. That is the goal. 19- Free, you already are! 20- You are Infinite! God is Infinite! 21- Those who say they will go to heaven – they go to heaven. 22- It is God Almighty playing. 23- You are the King and you are playing the beggar! 24- No Lord except your own Self! 25- Do not repent! 26- Heavens and hells and incarnations – all nonsense! 27- I am That Infinite! 28- They Know they are Free, that they are Free. 29- ‘I worship myself’. 30- I have no want, no aim, no purpose. 31- I am in the sun, the moon, the stars. 32- Lastly this Truth is to be meditated upon. 33- You will actually find you are without bodies. 34- Who lights a candle to see the sun? 35- Books and bibles and scriptures are of no use. 36- To say, ‘I have seen him with my own eyes’. 37- Be out of it! 38- Unto them belong Eternal Peace!

Chap. 46   
You and I, the Cat, the Rat, the Devil and the Ghost are all God!

IS VEDANTA THE FUTURE RELIGION?

Union Square Hall, South Post St. SF.

8 April 1900. (CW – vol 8).      

1- The religions are still alive because they have a book. 2- Liberalism dies because it is dry. 3- The moment we acquire money and power we become very conservative. 4- My conclusion is things will continue as they are. 5- Vedanta does believe any of this. 6- The veneration of some person is difficult to uphold. 7- I am exactly the same as the lowest worm. 8- You are all Gods, you are all Kings in this country. 9- Vedanta cannot become the religion of India. 10- Forget the body and all is Spirit. 11- The only sin is to think you or another are a sinner. 12- If your present state is good, it has been caused by all the past mistakes and successes. 13- Vedanta proposes no sin or sinner. No God to be afraid of. God is one’s very Self. 14- The senses must go. 15- Suppose my senses grow finer – you will appear changed. 16- All minds are mine. 17- Immortality is gained by giving up this piggish individuality. 18- The pig-body is hard to give up. 19- How can a miserable creature be God? We are sinners. 20- Whatever you think, that you become. 21- They like the darkness better. 22- Vedanta’s one great question – Why are people so afraid? 23-  You cannot learn spiritual Truths from my lectures. 24– A Christian once told me I was a terrible sinner! 25– I will say grace to you Madame! My grace and thanks are to you. 26– You and I, the Cat, the Rat, the Devil and the Ghost are all God! 27– Wash yourself until your are cleansed of all superstitions. 28– The more we know of ‘That’, the more the depression vanishes. 29– You pray for something, thereby you prevent someone else from having it. 30– We must become thinkers. 31– But if it is service, then it is worship. 32– This is the great Delusion. 33– Always look within, never without. 34– The purists in India do not like me to teach the Truths of the Vedas to the people of the West. 35– Every atom is rushing towards that goal. 36– The discovery of that Innate Divinity. 37– What is human love? An affirmation of That Unity. 38– Where is it? In that Eternal Temple – The Infinite Compulsion to go back to The Unity. 39– If it spreads, all will become Spiritual. But is it possible? Not within thousands of years. 40– An English couple are in charge of my place in the Himalayas [Mayavati Retreat Centre. The Seviers]. 41– Sometimes I agree that there is some good in the Dualist’s method. 42– Since eternity, millions have been taught that they are helpless, miserable creatures, by the priests. 43– There some strong Souls who will get over that illusion.

Chap. 47   
Every cell in your body has a Soul conscious of that cell. [Along with that cell’s Soul is its DNA memory which replicates – has done from your parents and will do to your children – you are your parents and you carry their energies through this DNA memory/Soul]

WORSHIPPER AND WORSHIPPED.

Washington Hall, Red Men’s Bldg, SF.

9 April 1900. (CW – vol 6).

1- A bird cannot fly with only one wing. 2- Such a combination of head, heart and hand we need. 3- The veil of Delusion breaks. 4- They worshipped ‘That’ behind the stone. 5- Through the many we reach the One. 6- You are personal and impersonal in one. 7- God cannot be a judge. 8- Every cell in your body has a Soul conscious of that cell. 9- We always see this Triune Being: God, nature and Soul. 10- My Soul itself is part of God. 11- In all systems you can have the Personal God. 12- It is not the fault of God. 13- Wants are being multiplied. Your great-grandfathers did not need as much as you do. They had no electric cars. 14- That is why your grandfather had to work less. 15- You shall begin to weep and I shall laugh. 16- How can such a God be worshipped? 17- Each atom is weighed and fulfils its designed purpose. 18- Was God taking a good nap? 19- The Soul is Infinite, Eternal. It changes bodies. No Soul was ever created. 20- This body falls. The Soul just works through another body. 21- That shows we are not what we should be. 22- And all these bodies! 23- We cannot get rid of depression by work. Work will only produce more work. 24- The Vedanta ideal is not to go to heaven. 25- The Soul attains to God, becomes omniscient.

Chap. 48 
Education is learning to concentrate.

CONCENTRATION AND BREATHING.

Tucker Hall, Alameda, SF Bay Area.

16 April 1900. (CW – vol 6)

1- The difference between people is the level of their power of concentration. 2- She loves it because she concentrates her mind on it. 3- Here, we do not control the mind, it controls us. 4- Can this concentration be developed so we are the masters? 5- We can achieve perfect control of the mind. 6- This is the systematic development of the mind. 7- The very essence of education is the ability to concentrate. 8- We should learn to put our mind on things, not to have things pulling our mind. 9- We have to turn the mind back on itself in this study. 10- Simple breathing is all that is necessary. 11- The body is easier to grapple with than the mind. 12- Begin to feel the finer working of the body until we reach the mind. 13- You will feel the mind operating along the different nerve currents.

25 Classes at 1000 Islands

‘I was at my best at 1000 Islands’

New York State, on St. Lawrence river (CW – vol 7)

Swamiji stays for 7 weeks in the summer cottage of his New York student, Libbie Dutcher. These are classes, not lectures, to a group of 6-12 students who wanted to learn. In these classes his approach was totally different. Here, two took their nun’s vows and one took his monk’s vows.   

Swamiji would pace up and down, giving his free translation holding the Sanskrit book (his lectures were always without notes), weaving his own commentary into the running flow – for hours. The energies streaming forth must have been electric. What fragrance in the air! Those there, the ‘Fortunate Few’, stated time stood still. This was the first time the highest thoughts of Ancient India were taught by a brilliant English speaker, who understood their deepest meaning and understood western logic.

Chapters 49-73.
The summer of 1895.
I ‘See’ and you too can ‘See’!

Chap. 49  
30 June. 

1- We are that own Self. We are God. 2- No impatient one can ever succeed. 3- But we must have idols. 4- Women are a power – she will become a lioness.

Chap. 50   
1 July.  Ramakrishna.

1- A temple dedicated to The Divine Mother. All to him was Mother. 3- I ‘See’ and you too can ‘See’! 4- Harmony is within the reach of all. 5- Ramakrishna was married but the marriage was not consumated. His wife became his first disciple. 6- Such as repeating AUMM all day, incessantly.

Chap. 51   
2 July.  The Divine Mother.

1- She is the sum total of the energy of the Universe. 2- She quickly answers prayer. 3- Each Soul is like one cell and the sum of them is God.

Chap. 52   
3 July.  Love and look no further.     

1- All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. 2- Every step gained has been gained by love. 3- Monism, absolute oneness, is the very Soul of Vedanta. 4- Love and look for nothing further. 5- When we know the Self, we understand. 6- A Persian Sufi poem – Rabia. 7- Thus the books were not to be depended upon. 8- When we rise to the Absolute we are no longer in this world.

Chap. 53   
5 July.  Rapture is when the Divine and the human are One.

Chap. 54   
6 July.  Heaven is a desire, a superstition, ever a yoke. 

1- We see Reality but distorted by the medium through which we see It. 2- Thus we mistake the object for the subject. 3- The Soul never becomes the object. 4- The limitations of ‘relative knowledge’. 5- No amount of study will give this Knowledge. 6- In a flash you Know. 7- We take the rope for the snake. 8- Take him by the hand and tell the murderer the Truth. 9- The Soul never changes, neither comes nor goes. 10- Heaven is a desire, a superstition, ever a yoke. 11- The highest Vedanta is the philosophy of ‘The Beyond’. 12- We are the daughters and sons of The King, not beggars.

Chap. 55   
7 July. am. Only imperfection can enjoy.

1- Only imperfection can enjoy. 2- Seek It through ardent practices.

Chap. 56   
7 July. pm. Some great teachers.

1- He claims that even women can study the Vedas!

Chap. 57   
8 July. Cogitating, constantly thinking of this Knowledge.

1- Through this, the follower rises to the Infinite. 2- It is not necessary to go through all these ceremonials. 3- Cogitating, reasoning with this Knowledge.

Chap. 58   
9 July. We give more weight to science than to the spiritual.

1- With a Harmonious approach only, will come Wisdom. 2- We give more importance to science over the spiritual. 3- And still a bit of the vulture remained in them.

Chap. 59   
10 July.  Shankarya – Obedience to the ceremonial is not Knowledge.

1- He loved for Love’s sake. 2- A farmer looks for his lost cow in the Vedas! 3- Obedience to the ceremonial is not Knowledge.  4- Neither reasoning nor books can show us God. 5- This Knowledge comes not from sacrifice, but by seeking. 6- The essential is that by which we reach the Absolute. 7- Meditation is the arrow, the Soul is the bow. 8- Once we know this, we will argue with no one.

Chap. 60   
11 July.  Religion; the great milch-cow.

1- This was while the Anglo-Saxons were painting their bodies and living in caves. 2- How wonderful that the children of such a gentle Soul should kill so much! 3- The Buddhists were intellectually ‘all-destroyers’. 4- We must rise to a state entirely beyond sense-perception. 5- Religion; the great milch-cow. 6- Having no money, no brains to learn, no time to practice Yoga, To Thee, Oh Sweet One, I give myself. 7- Rabbia.

Chap. 61   
12 July.  A new desire is like putting a stick into a hornets’ nest.

1- ‘Dis-identify’ yourself with the body, all pain will cease. 2- A state where your very breathing is a prayer. 3- Experience is the only teacher. 4- A new desire is like putting a stick into a hornets’ nest. 5- Religion is not of this world. 6- Thought is the power of the word.

Chap. 62   
13 July.  The happiest moments are when we forget ouselves.

1- The more you read books, the more muddled you become. 2- The search is to find and restore the balance. 3- The happiest moments are when we forget ourselves.

Chap. 63   
14 July.  Schopenhauer stands on reason alone.

1- In an atom is the whole power and potency of the Universe. 2- Kant said that time, space, and causation are modes of thought, but Vedanta knew this ages ago. 3- Angels are machines of light.

Chap. 64   
15 July.  The women were placed higher than the men.

1- Many women who spoke good Sanskrit. 2- The women were placed higher than the men.

Chap. 65   
16 July.  Work and worship are necessary.

1- As long as there is a body, there must be pleasure and pain. 2- Work and worship are necessary to remove the veil. 3- So long as you have a creed, you have no God. 4- It is we who have forged the chain. We alone can break it.

Chap. 66   
17 July. The idea of the many is a creation of the mind, a projection.

1- The idea of the many is a creation of the mind. 2- All else is in the mind through projection. 3- The idea of the world obstructs the idea of God and is to be removed. 4- Perception is self-luminoscity – you cannot perceive it and be unconscious of it.

Chap. 67   

18 July.  Only by worshipping the Self can Freedom be won.

1- The One is without traits, even Knowledge, and is not the cause of the universe. 2- You are God and whatever else you may think is wrong. 3- Only by worshipping the Self can Freedom be won.

Chap. 68  
19 July.  Physics proves the utter Delusion of the senses.

1- Physics proves the utter Delusion of the senses. 2- All is merged in the Self. 2- God creates us. We create God. This is Delusion. 3- Buddha never bowed to anything, not  caste, nor priest, nor custom, nor Veda book.

Chap. 69   
20 July.  Teachers only bring the food. We must eat and digest it.

1- Teachers only bring the food. We must eat and digest it. 2- If you know one Soul (your own), then you know all Souls. 3- You will know it to be higher because it will not jar your reason. 4- All religion is going beyond reasoning. 5- Do not spend energy in talking – learn silence. 6- Say this unceasingly!

Chap. 70   
21 July.  Repeating AU-MM continually is the only true worship.

1- Birth is re-composition. Death is de-composition. 2- When the mind is active, the Soul is mixed into it. 3- Repeating AU-MM continually is the only true worship. 4- If you have once known your Soul, never after can Depression touch you. 4- The Spirit must be passed on by Teacher to Student.

Chap. 71  
23 July. am.  Not until we have got rid of the bondage of the nerves can we progress.

1- A blind man cannot see colour, so how can we see evil unless it is in us. 2- Do not desire. What you desire, you get. 3- Seek the science of The Maker, not the made. 4- Not until we have got rid of the bondage of the nerves, can we progress. 5- Philosophy is guesswork about the mind.

Chap. 72   
23 July. pm. Let go of the rope that drags you on. Rope of delusion.

Chap. 73   
24 July.  We have to reject jumping blindly in with the others.

1- To love anyone personally is bondage. 2- We have to reject  jumping blindly in with the others.

Chap. 74  
Mary Funke reminisces on her experiences at 1000 Islands. 1925.

1- In the very house with Vivekananda. 2- Find God! Nothing else matters. 3- To eat Swamiji’s cooking if it strangled me. 4- How he can tell a story. You see it. They become real. 5- You are a householder. Find God in your husband and family. 6- Mrs. Funke, tell me a funny story. 7- It’s just 31 years to the very hour when I first heard Swamiji at the Unitarian Hall, in Detroit. 8- Those blessed, halcyon days at 1000 Islands Park!

The 2 Lectures on Delusion in London, 1896

Chap. 75
And this is Delusion – 1.
MAYA AND ILLUSION.
Those who progress increase their happiness, so the potential of unhappiness has increased – they have that much more to lose.
39 Victoria St. London. 15 Oct-1896 (CW – vol 2).
[Here, Delusion has two aspects:  our projections of what we see and know and our poor judgements, false values].
1- We cover the Reality with a mist. 2- Know nature to be Delusion. 3- Delusion: it is a statement of the facts, what we are and what we see around us. 4- All life is but an expression of the ‘Life-Energy’ [Prana]. 5- That the mind is limited, it cannot go beyond certain limits. 6- This world exists only in your mind – by the five senses. 7- They know everything they possibly can, but they still find an adamantine wall, impassable. 8- They cannot solve it because they cannot go beyond their intellect. 9- The young one has to be an optimist, but with old age, life has become a mass of ruins. 10- Our lives are floating down the river continually changing with no stop, no rest – what to do? 11- They who live safely and they who are cold and hungry – thus it goes backward and forward. 12- All our progress, our knowledge, our vanities, our luxuries, our wealth will meet that one end – death. 13- When her reason awakes, she covers it with an excuse of love. 14- Every day there are people dying, yet people think they will never die. 15- These contradictions in life face us on all sides. 16- The smallest amount of material prosperity we enjoy here, causes a similar amount of misery elsewhere – this is the law. 17- We tend to be the ostrich and bury our heads in the sand. 18- The prosperity of a Christian nation is at the expense of a non-Christian nation. 19- Worst of all, people are living upon one another – the strong upon the weak. 20- Why must there be all this suffering now? 21- It panders to the vanity of those who have enough, who have not to endure the hard, daily struggle. 22- The common herd may suffer, the comfortable do not care, let the herd die. 23- Machines are making things cheap. While one becomes rich, thousands become poorer, millions are crushed. 24- Those who progress, they increase their happiness, but the potential of unhappiness has increased as they have that much more to lose. 25- Their depression has increased because of the emotional pull to achieve happiness. 26- The more we progress, the more avenues are opened to pain, and the more there is to lose. 27- Wherever we can produce a smile, there lurks the chance of a tear. 28- The same nerves that carry the feeling of depression will also carry that feeling of happiness. 29- We must work for lessening depression. 30- Until we awake from our dream of building mudpies. 31- Everything through the senses, mind, intellect is limited. 32- He said that I came from a land that was dead and buried for 5000 years, and talked about renunciation. 33- It is all Delusion [Maya]! That is the best and only explanation. 34- What an amount of depression there is in the world! 35- Because chastity is the life of a nation. 36- It is the level-headed, calm, practical one, who works. 37- It is certain that all must reach The Infinite Ocean of Perfection, The Free. 38- All evil and good are bound together and one balances the other, they are of equal value. 39- I am sure there is no one here present whose life is only in the senses. 40- The agnostic says this life is all that exists. 41- All religions are struggling towards that Freedom. 42- ‘That’ is a Being beyond the limits of nature. 43- Yet we have to work through it – ‘This Delusion’. 44- There too, is the struggle between animal-man and Spiritual-man, light and darkness. 45- There is, beyond, something that is not bound by Delusion. 46- The idea grows until the follower finds that they are not standing outside, they are within: The Reality, The Free.

Chap. 76
And this is Delusion – 2.
MAYA AND FREEDOM.
Once you listen to and know your Inner Voice the whole scene changes.
You continue putting on patch after patch until you are a mass of patchwork.
39 Victoria St. London.  22 Oct-1896 (CW – vol 2).
1- Why should we praise the scientist when nature does much more? 2- A blow comes. Do we learn then? Not even then. 3- We cannot believe that we will not gain more knowledge. 4- Nature’s bonded slaves, in body, in mind, in thought. 5- Her whole Soul is in the child – a mother’s behaviour. 6- ‘Lord, show me Maya/Delusion’, Narada asked Krishna. 7- ‘Time’, the avenger of everything, comes, he swallows all. ‘Time’ leaves nothing. 8- We may cover our festering sore with a cloth of gold but the cloth of gold will be removed one day. 9- The old feel it most, they cannot be cheated by the lies of nature. 10- This ocean of my Delusion, is Divine and is so difficult to cross. 11- You continue putting on patch after patch until all is lost, and you are a mass of patchwork. 12- It is better to die on the battlefield than to live a vegetating, ignorant life. 13- That determination must be the first impulse towards a religious life. 14- The way is difficult, like walking on a razor’s edge. 15- The duty of Vedanta is to harmonise all the different religions. 16- One fact is that we are all journeying with certainty towards that Freedom. 17- Some ‘Inner Voice’ telling us, ”I am Free. I am Free”. 18- We are all following the music of that Inner Voice, whether we know it or not – we are born here on account of it. 19- The result of this mad struggle is to reach the Inner Voice. 20- Once you listen to and know your Inner Voice, the whole scene changes. 21- They hear their Inner Voice within. 22- This holds that there is Delusion and there is some ruler over this Delusion. 23- ‘Nearer my God unto Thee’, becomes, ‘Nearer my God unto me’, in Vedanta teaching. 24- Your mistake was to project It outside yourself. It was within you all the time. 25- To feel the release from fear more clearly than I see this world.

Chap. 77   

The Mantra. AUMM or OMM – Word and Wisdom

The Symbol of all possible sounds

(CW – vol 3). His book Bhakti-Yoga, Ch 7.

Chap. 78   
For Dog Lovers. The Mahabharata.

Excerpt. LA. 1 Feb 1900 (CW – vol 4).

Chap. 79  
Swamiji’s inaugural letter for the Mayavati Retreat Centre. March 1899.

Chap. 80   
Poems. Mary Hale and Swamiji exchange several poems.              

Chap. 81   
Alice Hansbrough, the Great Organiser

She continues her reminiscing on Swamiji.

Chap. 82   

The Ultimate Renouncer – Francis of Assisi.

1250-1316. Remove complex thinking.

He rejected all he had learnt to value.

Hardship is not hardship but endless joy.

1- He was to reject all he had learnt to value. 2- Five events change Francis. 3- He did not question the Voice. He knew he had to go home. 4- Found in the street standing fixed in a Rapture. 5- He came upon a leper. This was far lower than a beggar. 6- His fairer and richer bride was poverty. 7- His fight with his father. 8- Keep neither gold … nor make plans … nor two coats … nor shoes … clean the lepers … tend the sick. 9- And hate not his father, his mother, his wife, his children. 10- In Rapture till it became light. 11- My God and my All! His meditation. 12- Patched old tunic, sandals falling apart, dirty hands and nails; to impress the pope. 13- The ‘Rule’ of Francis was impossible. No man could stand it. 14- Hardship was not hardship to Francis, it was endless joy. 15- Possessing knowledge led to pride and complex thinking. 16- His mind control gave him total clarity. 17- Go home you carnal boy.

Chap. 83   
Ah! Love! Fling me down!

Mechthild 1210-1297. Ah! Noble clarity!   You Cannot burn the Truth – (her book is threatened for heresy).

A Beguine. Beguines wanted to be free of the obligation of marriage and free of possessions.  A community of lay-sisters with no vows.

Chap. 84   
The Mirror of Simple Souls.

Marguerite Porete. Defiant. Fearless.

Burnt for heresy in 1310.

The amazing power of her book lasts 600 years. Authorless but always in demand.

An expelled Beguine.

 ‘As God is without beginning, so too always have I been’.

She writes Pure Vedanta!

The wily Meister Eckhart – ‘Porete-trained’ – takes key ideas from her book for his.

Chap. 85           

DEATH.

Understanding that it’s a release. 

‘I have just stepped next door’ –                      

Ramakrishna in a vision to his grieving wife.

Friedrich Rückert 1788-1866. 

‘However deep is the pain of sorrow, love is stronger’

He spoke 30 languages. He translated many of the great Arabian, Persian and Chinese classics. He was Professor of Oriental Languages at Berlin University. 

How has the English language missed this genius, this great poet? From what I read, it seems the Germans haven’t done him much justice either. There’s not even a comprehensive biography (Ms Schimmel’s came 2015). But William Hastie, Swamiji’s college teacher, had discovered Rückert and taught using his own translations. Hastie’s mother loved Rückert – as a 17 year old boy, on many evenings, Hastie read to her his free translations in English of the poems. He was fluent in German at 17, self-taught.

‘Songs on my Dead Children’ –                              

1- The day is fair. 2- Oh You! A father’s cell. 3- In my arms. 4- She is not dead. It is not true! 5- The feast days. 6- Tangled up in death. 7- My sweetly chattering life. 8- It was no dream!  

9- Now you bring me this bitter cup.

10- The world has abandoned me. I used to waste so much time. (The meditator’s song! Written well before the death of his 2 children).

‘The Festival of Spring’ –

Rumi > Rückert > Hastie, translated twice.

11- Oh Soul, be not far! 12- Why pray you to clay and stone? 13- Where is He? My Loved One. 14- Clean your heart … 14- Murmur not.

Chap. 86
FERNANDO PESSOA, 1888-1935. Poet.

Being a poet is my way of being alone.

Sexual desire hinders higher thinking.

Nothing is so spiritual as chocolates.                                   

We fabricate new realities.

He is unspiritual, yet his writings carry elements of Vedanta. He is pure Swamiji in places. However, in his own words, he is ‘splintered’ into many (far from The One) – these splinters are all his characters. Pessoa on waking – ‘Who shall I be today?!’

1- Sexual desire hinders higher thinking. 2- To be born a slave. 3- Nothing is so spiritual as chocolates (Swamiji loved chocolate ice cream). 4- We value what we think, not what we do. 5- The haven of being unreliable. 6- A learning to unlearn. 7- The assistant book-keeper. 8- What we love is our own idea of someone. 9- We fabricate new realities. 10- Pity him who is content.

Chap. 87
O Soul Come Back! 300BC.

Chap. 88   
Swamiji’s spiritual waves flowing today. How to stay calm, regardless.

Chap. 89   
MOUNTAIN YOGI.  A Renouncer.

Lama Govinda

‘The children are going to school now. That is why they don’t know so much’.    YouTube link. Incredible. His mind is not in this world. He doesn’t know his own mother.

Chap. 90   
The Mantra.

Chap. 91   

Sadly the schools don’t teach him.

John Ruskin, 1819-1900. Free-thinker.

Chap. 92  
Interpreting Indian word usage. Where they differ from European usage.

Glossary.       

Chap. 93  
Noor-un-Nisa Khan. Inayat Khan.

Chap. 94   
J.M.W. Turner. ‘Field of Waterloo’ or

‘More Beguines for the Beguinage’.

Chap. 95   
Bibliography & Audiography.

Chap. 96  
List of all California Lectures by date.