Story:The delusion of Duryodhana

After the end of Rajsuya Yajna (The Royal Festival of charity) and the farewell of all the other guests, Pandavas affectionately detained Duryodhana for some time more at Indraprasth and entertained him lavishly. One day, they showed him their beautiful palace, designed and constructed by skilful and experienced engineers. At a place the mosaic floor was so beautifully made out of precious and transparent quartz that it looked like running water. Duryodhana was, therefore, deluded by this deceptive flooring. He began undressing himself to cross it by swimming. Seeing this, Bhima, Draupadi and others laughed heartily.

So, too, dear readers! This world is made of Maya, the illusion. It looks different from what it actually is. It has been very beautifully decorated, so as to appear charming and attractive. There are also mirage-like circumstances which bewilder you. You think that you are drowned and start raising hue and cry, due to extreme nervousness. But when your ignorance is gone, you find yourself absolutely safe, as if nothing had happened.

My dear! Do not forget that all the things in this world are for your own good, though they may appear to you to be harmful, damaging or unnerving. Why should you be afraid of them? It is your own ignorance which is deluding you; otherwise there is none to harm you.

http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/parables-of-rama/d/doc59203.html

Story:Krishna's Oneness with Radha - True Feeling of Oneness

Krishna was to give a feast. All the ministers were invited, but he had not invited his sweet-heart, Radha. The prime minister urged him to send her invitation, but he would not listen to him and said, "No." However, the prime minister did not heed him and went to Radha to inform her of the feast which Krishna was to give.

She said to him, "When you have a feast, you send invitations to your friends, but you do not send an invitation to yourself, do you? I know that Krishna is to have feast. We are one."

MORAL: True feeling of oneness needs no outer show of love.

http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/parables-of-rama/d/doc59011.html

Story:Tulsi Das and his Wife - Transformation of Sensual Love

In India, there was a saint Tulsi Das by name, an ancestor of Swami Rama, who was very fond of his wife; he loved his wife as no man ever loved before. At one time it happened that his wife had to go here father's house which was located in another village, some seven or eight miles distant from the village in which the saint lived. The saint could not bear the separation, and so he left his house and went in search of his wife. It was about eleven o'clock at night when he learnt of her departure, and in his desperation he ran from his own house like a mad man. A river separated the two villages and at the time at night, it was very difficult to cross owing to the very rapid current of the river, and besides, there was nobody available at that hour of the night. On the bank of the river he found a rotten corpse and through his mad love, through his desperation to reach his wife he clasped the corpse tightly and swam across the river, safely reaching the other side. He ran on and on and when he reached the house where his wife was, he found all the doors closed, he could not gain entrance, neither could he arouse any of the servants, nor inmates, for they were all sleeping in some of the innermost rooms. Now what was he to do? You know they say if a river is in the way, love crosses it; if mountains are in the way, love climbs them. So, on the wings of love he had to reach his wife. While puzzling his brain, he found something dangling alongside the house and he thought it was a rope; he thought his wife loved him so dearly that she had placed this rope alongside the house for him to climb up. He was overjoyed. Now, this rope was not a rope but a long snake. He caught hold of the snake and it did not bite him, and by that means he climbed to the upper storey of the house and gained entrance to the room in which his wife was lying. The wife got up and was astonished, and exclaimed, "How did you get here, it is very strange." He shed tears of joy and said, "It was you yourself, O blessed one, who made my passage here so easy. Did you not place a kind of canoe by river for me to cross over, and did you not place that rope upon the wall for me to climb up? He was crazy, love had made him mad. The wife began to shed tears of pity and joy. She was a learned woman, she was a goddess of Divine wisdom, and she then said, "O Divine one! Sweet one! had you really entertained the same intense love for the Reality, the Divinity, which keeps up and supports and is embodied in this apparent self, in this physique of mine, you would have been God; you would have been the greatest prophet in the world, you would have been the grandest sage on the earth; you would have been the worshipped sire of the whole universe."

When the wife was inculcating the idea of Divinity in him, and was teaching him that she was one with the Divinity, she said, "O dear husband, you love this body of mine; this body is only transitory; it left your house and came to this house; in the same way, body may leave this earth today or tomorrow; this body may become sick to-day and all its beauty be gone in a second. Now see, what is it that gives bloom to my cheeks, what is it that lends lustre to my eyes, what is it that lends glory to my person, what is it that shines through my eyes, what is it that gives this golden colour to my hair, what is it that lends life, light and activity to my senses and my physique? See, that which has fascinated you is not this skin, is not this body of mine. Mark please, see please, what is it? It is the true Self, the Atman which charms and fascinates and bewitches you.

It is the Divinity in me and nothing, else; it is God, nothing else; it is that Divinity, that God within me, nothing else. Feel that Divinity, see that Divinity everywhere. That same Divinity, God, is it not present in the stars, does is not look you in the face, in the moon?"

This saint rose above sensuality, rose above carnal desires, and worldly attachments. This saint as he was originally extraordinarily in love with one wife, he realized that Beloved one, that Divinity everywhere in the world; so much so that this saint, a lover of God, this holy man drunk in Divinity, this pious man was one day walking through the woods, and he approached a man who held hatchet in his hand, and who was about to cut down a beautiful cypress tree. When the blows of the hatchet fell upon the roots of the beautiful cypress tree, there was the saint about to faint away. He ran up to the man and cried. 'These blows of yours hurt me, they are piercing my bosom; please refrain from doing this." "How is that, saint," asked the man. The saint said, "O sir, this cypress, this beautiful tree is my beloved one; in it I see my true Divinity, in it I see God."

Now, Divinity, God became his bird, his wife, his husband, his child, his father, his mother, his sister, and everything to him. All his energy, all his love was thrown at the feet of Divinity, was given to Divinity, the Truth, and thus the saint said to the man, "I see my beloved one there, I cannot bear blows on my beloved Divinity,"

One day a man was about to kill a stag or deer, and the holy saint was observing this. He came up and threw his body at the feet of the man who was about to kill the stag. "How is this saint," asked man. He exclaimed, "O, please spare the deer, behold my beloved one penetrating those beautiful eyes. Oh! Kill this body of mine, sacrifice this body in the name of Divinity, in the name of God, sacrifice my body I perish not, but spare, O, spare the beloved one."

All the attractiveness you see in this world is nothing else but the true Divinity; the same which appears to you in the body of a beloved one, puts on a different dress in trees, in mountains and hills. Realize this please, this is how you can rise above all worldly passions and desires. This is the way to make spiritual use of worldly desires and make use of them for their own sake. You are making spiritual wrecks of yourself, you are becoming sinners. But if you are raising these worldly desires, by using them properly then these same acts become virtuous.

MORAL: Intense love, even though it be sensual if diverted into proper channel, can be transformed into Love for Divinity and thus be a means of Realization.

http://hinduebooks.blogspot.in/2009/09/in-woods-of-god-realization-swami-rama.html

Story:The story of a selfish and greedy man

A saint gave one of his disciples a magic item which could fulfill all his desires. The only snag was that his neighbour would automatically get double the amount. That man got all that he wanted-money, elephants, horses, cows, buffaloes etc. but his neighbours got all that too, doubled. He was jealous of his neighbours on that account. He was always thinking of desiring something that would harm his neighbours. At long last, an idea struck him and he wished that he might lose one of his eyes. Then he got one arm and leg broken, and the neighbours lost both their arms and legs. He at this stage happened to have an attack of paralysis which completely immobilized him. Even his normal eye, the leg and the hand were rendered unless. He requested the magic article to restore his normalcy but this was rejected, because the neighbours had to get the double the amount and they couldn't possibly get four eyes, legs, arms etc. In desperation he asked for just one eye, leg and arm and this time his request was granted. And lo! The neighbours were also as hale and hearty as ever. He remained deformed for the whole of his life, while his neighbours enjoyed normal health. This is what happens if you wish others ill.

Note: Selfishness must be purged in practical life in order to obtain peace and bliss

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Human Suffering - Boon in disguise

You might have marked that an elephant is controlled and directed with a small iron prick-hook (Ankush). The troubles and miseries of the human being are also a sort of prick-hook to guide him and to keep him on the proper path of progress and evolution.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Vain Search (A Lost Needle)

There was a woman, who lost her needle in the house. She was too poor to afford a light in her house, so she went out of the house and was searching in the streets. Somebody asked her what she was searching for in the streets. She said that she was searching for her needle. The gentleman asked, "Where did you lose the needle?" She said, "In the house." He said," "How unreasonable it is to search in the street for a thing which was lost in the house!" She said that she could riot afford a light in the house and there was a lantern in the street. She could not hunt in the house; she had to do something, so she must hunt in the street. This is exactly the way with people. You have the Heaven within you, the paradise; the home of bliss within you; and yet you are searching for pleasure in the objects, in the streets, searching for that thing outside, outside, in the objects of the senses. How strange!

MORAL: Searching for pleasure in the worldly objects is vain. The Home of Bliss is within you.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Bhishma Pitamaha

They say that Bhishma Pitamaha had conquered his death, which was said to be under his control. Why?

Because of the purity of his heart, due to his disciplined mind. He could not be tempted or attracted by the alluring charms of this world. It may be assured again that a man cannot have real peace and pleasure in the external sense objects. These can only deceive you but can never give you lasting comfort, peace or happiness which is within you and which can be enjoyed only with a pure heart i.e«, unattached heart and disciplined mind.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Levitation

There was a man who walked on the waters. A real saint laughed and asked him how long it took him to acquire this power. He replied that it took him seventeen years. The saint replied, "In seventeen years you have acquired a power worth two annas, we give two annas to a boatman and he ferries us across the river."

All personal power is limited, it binds you just as much as any possession or property binds you. Chains are chains whether of iron or gold; they enslave you all the same.

If these powers make a man so very holy, then dogs must be holy. Dogs smell out where the stag is. The dogs have the power of smell that man has not; hence they must be holy.

MORAL: Levitation or any other personal power does not make a man happy, holy or free; on the other hand, it limits and binds him, just as any other possession does.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Realizing Everything as God

It is said in the Hindu Puranas that king Harankasyap wanted to turn his son Prahlad away from religious life. He desired him to remain a worldling like himself, but the remonstrances and admonitions of the parent did not prevail upon the child - they were all lost on him. In order to prevent the child from, his intention, the father cast him into fire but it burnt him not. The king then threw his child into running water but it bore the child up. To him the fire, the water, and other elements had ceased to be harmful - they were realized in their true state. The boy had dehypnotized himself into this real state. Everything unto him was God, all Love. The threats, frowns, and brow beating, sword and flame were nothing else than sweet Heaven. How could he be injured?

MORAL: Nothing can harm him who realizes everything as God, as all Love.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:The Cause of Bondage (How a Monkey is caught?)

A monkey is caught in India in a very queer manner. A narrow-necked basin is fixed in the ground, and in that basin are put some nuts and other eatables which the monkeys like. The monkeys come up and thrust their hands into the narrow-necked basin and fill their hands with the nuts. The fist becomes thick and it cannot be taken out, There the monkey is  caught; he cannot come out. Queerly, strangely is the monkey caught.

We ask what it is that binds you first. You yourself have brought under thralldom and bondage. Here is the whole wide world; a grand magnificent forest; and in this grand magnificent wood of the whole universe, there is a narrow necked vessel found. What is that narrow-necked vessel? It is your brain, this little brain, narrow-necked. Herein are some nuts, and people have got hold of these nuts, and all that is done through the agency of the brain or through the medium of this intellect, is owned as one's own, "I am the mind," is that everybody says; everybody has practically identified himself with the mind, "I am the mind," "I am the intellect," and he takes a strong grip of these nuts of the narrow-necked vessel. That is what makes you slaves, that is what makes you slaves to anxieties, slaves to fear, slaves to temptations, slaves to all sorts of troubles. That is what binds you; that is the cause of all the suffering in this world. 

If you want salvation, if you want freedom, only let go the hold, free your hand. The whole forest is yours, you can jump from tree to tree and eat all the nuts and eat all the walnuts and all the fruits in the woods, all being yours. The whole world is yours; just rid of this selfish ignorance, and you are free, you are your own savior. 

MORAL: Identification with the mind is the cause of bondage. Get rid of it and your are free.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Universal Love (A Woman's loss of her Child)

A woman complained about the loss of her only child. Rama asked, "Could you adopt Negro baby and caress it as your own? Are you ready for it?" She said, "No." "Then that is why you lost your child." Inclusive love, not exclusive attachment, is the unfoldment of Heaven.

MORAL: Universal Love, not personal attachment, is the door to Heaven.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Lord Indra & his piggish thoughts

In an allegorical story, it is said that once Lord Indra, became a pig in his dream and he miserably suffered from itch and other troublesome diseases. Other gods were deeply concerned at this condition of their king. They entered his dreaming state and reminded him, "How is it Sir! Have you forgotten the nymphs of the heaven? Do not you remember the taste of nectar? Have you no idea of your own golden throne studded with precious stones?" But Indra in his piggish tone said, 'No, no, no. Your nymphs, nectar and golden throne are no match to my she-pig, excreta and cushion like mud in the ditch. I enjoy greater pleasure in rolling in this mud than in sleeping in the bed of roses.

You might be laughing at the foolish reply of Indra. But please reflect what are you at present? Are you any better than Indra in his dream? You, also in this worldly dream, are taking death as a physician and the disease as its remedy, i. e., you take everything in a perverted way. Is it the correct state of affairs? No, never. You will continue to suffer, unless you know your Self. You are the Lord Indra of Indras.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

Story:Two servants of a king

Take, for example, the case of two servants of a King. One of them only flatters the King and does not work, while the other discharges his duties faithfully, but has nothing to do by way of flattery. Whom will the king like more? It is clear that he will be pleased with the one who discharges his duties faithfully, because work is of primary importance. 

Similarly, an atheist may not be using the beads of rosary to repeat the name of God or rubbing his forehead on the ground to flatter God, but, inspite of this, God will be pleased with him, if he has a charitable disposition and does good deeds. Their continued devotion to good deeds is their rosary and their repeated unselfish actions for the good of all are, so to say, the beads. They may not be making a show of worshipping God in temples, churches or mosques, but in practice they do worship God by their good deeds in life.

http://hinduonline.co/DigitalLibrary/SmallBooks/ParablesOfRamaBySwamiRamaTirthaEng.pdf

SWAMI RAMA TIRTHA QUOTES

I am the lowest; I am the highest. There is no lowest, no highest with Me. Wherever human eyes fall, there I am. In Jesus I appeared. In Mohammad I revealed myself. The most famous people in the world I am, and the most disreputable, ignominious, the most fallen I am, I am the All, the All.

The Infinite is bliss. There is no bliss in anything finite. So long as you are finite, there is no bliss, no happiness for you. The Infinite is bliss, the Infinite only is bliss.

Within you is the real happiness, within you is the mighty ocean of Nectar Divine. Seek It within you, feel It, feel It, It is here, the Self. It is not the body, the mind, the intellect, the brain; it is not the desires or the desiring; it is not the objects of desire; above all these you are. All these are simply manifestations. You appear as the smiling flower, as the twinkling stars. What is there in the world which can make you desire anything?

The millionth descendant of the original seed has got the same infinite capability and potentiality which the original seed had.

The infinite potentiality, the Infinite Power latent in the finite form or figure, and the real meaning of the word 'seed', is the infinite within and not its outside or outward form, not that.

Blessed is he who is dead drunk in Divine madness.

Happy is he who is drowned in heavenly intoxication.

A man of liberation, a free man, is one who lives in Divinity, in Godhead, in such a way that his body was never born.

Be not astonished or afraid of the Truth and speak from the depth of your heart, "I am God."

The whole universe serves one as his body, when he feels the Universal Soul as his very Self.

It is through realisation of One's Infinity, conquering all sense of difference, feeling our oneness with all, realising the stars, landscapes, rivers, and all as my own, and through love owning all, that temptations lose their power over us.

When viewed from the standpoint of God-Self, the whole world becomes an effusion of beauty, an expression of joy, outpouring of bliss.

Heaven is within you; the paradise, the home of bliss within you, and yet you are searching for pleasures in the objects in the streets, searching for that thing outside, outside, in the objects of the senses. How strange!

The one aim and goal of life is not in wasting energy and accumulating riches, but in cultivating the inner powers, in educating yourself, to free yourself, to become God.

I fret not when fever would pay a visit. I receive it as a friend and spiritual truths flash which could never otherwise be disclosed.

Renounce your desires, rise above them and you find double peace, immediate rest and eventual fruition of desires. Remember that your desires will be realised only when you rise above them into the Supreme Reality. When you consciously or unconsciously lose yourself in the Divinity, then and then only will the time be ripe for the fulfilment of desires.

I am That
I have no scruple of change, nor fear of death,
Nor was I ever born,
Nor had I parents.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I cause no misery, nor am I miserable;
I have no enemy, nor am I enemy.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without form, without limit,
Beyond space, beyond time,
I am in everything, everything is in me.
I am the bliss of the universe,
Everywhere am I.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without body or change of the body,
I am neither senses, nor object of the senses,
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am neither sin, nor virtue,
Nor temple, nor worship
Nor pilgrimage, nor books.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That.

Practical renunciation means throwing off and casting overboard all anxiety, fear, worry, hurry, trouble of mind by continually keeping before your mental vision the Allness of your real Self.

Renunciation simply enhances your powers, multiplies your energies, strengthens your force, and makes a God of you. It takes away all your anxiety and fear. You become fearless and happy.

Renunciation is giving up egoistic life. Verily, verily, everlasting life lies in losing the congested life of personality.

The only way to escape from all sins, to stand above all temptations, is to realise the true Self.

Assert your Godhead, fling into utter oblivion the little self, as if it had never existed. When the little bubble bursts, it finds itself the whole ocean. You are the Whole, the Infinite, the All.

According to Vedanta, the material world as well as the astral worlds are unreal. You must rise above both, because rest, true peace, happiness can be had only when the Reality – the hard cash – behind the scenes is realised.

There is in fact only the one Self which we are, nothing besides It; and since there is nothing besides the Self, you cannot consistently say that you are apart. But it must follow that you are the entire Self. There is no division in Truth. You are the Truth now.

According to Vedanta, the self-evident Truth is that you are already God, nothing else but God; your Godhead is not to be effected, it is simply to be known and realised or felt.

What is jealousy, what is hatred? It is inverted attachment. When we hate somebody, it is because we are attached to something else.

If the body is sick, you say -O, I am undone, I am sick,‖ just because you identify yourself with the body pr the mind. Vedanta says give up this false identification and you will be alright. Anything wrong with the body or the mind should not disturb you. It is only this false sentimentalism due to this false self which causes all your suffering.

Rama suggests to you the most natural breath control [pranayama]. Breathe, breathe, breathe. In deep breathing the air will fill the lower part of the stomach and will also pass through the entire canal within. This way you will be at once released of depression, and your energies will be put to the best advantage.

Chant OM; and while doing it, begin that search within the lake of your mind. Search out the poisonous snake with its many tongues. These heads, tongues, and fangs of the poisonous snake are the innumerable wants, the worldly tendencies, and the selfish propensities. Crush them one by one, trample them under your feet, single them out, overcome them and destroy them while singing the syllable OM.

The child has no motives, yet it is one of the most active beings on the earth.

"Having nothing to do, be always doing" sums up Vedanta teaching.

When you rise to that height of Divine love; when you rise to such a degree that in your father, in your mother, in everybody, you see nothing but God; when you see, in the wife no wife, but the beloved One, God; then, indeed you do become God, then, indeed are you in the presence of God.

All the attractiveness you see in this world is nothing else but the true Divinity, the same which appears to you in the body of a beloved one, puts on a different dress in trees, in mountains and hills. Realise this, for this is how you can rise above all worldly passions and desires. This is the way to make spiritual use of worldly desires and to make use of them for their own sake.

A man who has never loved can never realize God; that is a fact.

The secret of perfect health and vigorous activity lies in keeping your mind always buoyant and cheerful, never worried, never hurried, never borne down by any fear, thought or anxiety.

Through ignorance you call yourself the body; the body you are not. You are the infinite Power; the Divinity; the constant, immutable, unchangeable One. That you are; know that and you find yourself inhabiting the whole world, inhabiting the whole universe.

The Law is that a man should be at rest, at peace, undisturbed, and the body should always be in motion; the mind to be subjected to the laws of statics, and the body subjected to the laws of dynamics; the body at work and the internal Self always at rest. That is the Law. Be free.

Love is no crying, begging, negative condition. It is an indescribable sense of equality, beaming sweetness and Divine recklessness. It is the seeing of All in all we see. It is seeing your own Self in where your eyes fall. It is to realise that All is beauty, and I am That. Tat Tvam Asi, or That Thou Art.

I am simply the witness of the phenomena, never entangled in them, always above them. All these phenomena are simply harmonic vibrations, the upward and downward motion of the wheel, the raising and bringing down of the step.

In order that you may reach the Truth, that you may realise Divinity, your dearest wants and desires will be pricked through and through, your wants and dearest attachments will have to be severed, all your favourite superstitions will have to be wiped out, to be torn aside – torn off from your body.

If you want to realise an object, if you want to get anything, do not hunt after the shadow. Touch your own head. Go within you. Realise this and you will see that the stars are your handiwork; you will see that all objects of love, all the bewitching and fascinating things are simply your own reflection or shadow.

Everything you meet in this world should be a stepping stone instead of a stumbling block. Convert your stumbling block into a stepping stone.

Where is the sword that can kill me? Where is the weapon that can wound me? Where is the calamity that can mar my cheerfulness? Where is the sorrow that can tamper with my happiness? Everlasting, the same yesterday, today, and forever, pure, and holy of holies, the Master of the universe, That I am, That I am.

Truth is Your Birth Right. Assert it and Be Master of Universe. Truth is "Tattva-Masi" - "That Thou Art"

The Path of Truth

Simply undo what you have done in the way of making your prison house, and there you are God already.

To realize the Truth is to become the master of the Universe, and to entertain desires is to acknowledge bondage, thraldom and slavery of the things of this world, flesh objects.

If you enjoy the Truth, you will no longer be able to enjoy worldly pleasures. Enjoy worldly pleasures and Truth will elude your grasp, get ahead of you.

Do your work, enjoy your work, because your work by itself is pleasure, because work is the other name of realization.

If your father stands in the way of your realizing the Truth, tread over him, go Beyond him, just as Prahlad, a hero in India, forsook his father, because the latter stood in the way of his realizing the Truth. 
If your mother stands in the way of your realizing the Truth, forsake her. This is what the New Testament says. The Hindu Bible also says the same. Love Truth for the sake of your parents. Love and honour your parents as far as they do not retard your progress toward the Truth.
If your brother stands in the way of your realizing the Truth, shake him off just as Bibhishan did. 
If your wife stands in the way of your realizing the Truth, cast her aside just as Bhartrihari did. 
If your husband stands in the way of your realizing the truth, throw him off just as Mira did. 
If your preceptor, your religious guide, stands in the way of your realizing the Truth, shake him off, cast him overboard just as Bhishma did because, your real relative, your truest friend is Truth and Truth alone. 
All other relations and companions are only fleeting, for a day only, but Truth is with you always. Truth is your real self; Truth is nearer to you than our parents. Truth is nearer to you than your wife, children, friends, etc. Respect Truth more than kings, parents, children, father, mother, any one

Thus, Make your friends on the principle of favouring your righteousness, select no friend on the principle of favouring your evil nature.

If your eyes stand in the way of your realizing the Truth, poke them out. If your ears tempt you and keep you backward, cut them out. If your wife, money, property, wealth, or anything stands in the way, away with it. 

Act as if you were always in the presence of the Great Master, ever face to face with the Divinity, all the time in the sight of the Beloved.

http://hinduebooks.blogspot.in/2009/08/in-woods-of-god-realisation-swami.html

The Secret of Success

1-Work
If you wish to succeed, follow the line of action, the constant motion of a river. There is no hope for a man who would waste his wick and oil by preserving it from consumption. Follow the policy of a river, ever progressing, ever assimilating, ever adapting itself to the environments and ever performing work, ever performing work is the first principle of success.

2-Self-Sacrifice
The way to receive it to give. A seed in order that it may bud forth into a tree must perish itself. Fruition is thus the final result of complete self-sacrifice. 

3-Self-Forgetfulness
Forget your little self in work and entirely throw yourself into it, you will succeed. If you are thinking, become thought itself, you shall succeed. If you are working, become work itself, and thus alone you shall succeed.

4-Universal Love
Cooperation is nothing but superficial manifestation of love. A merchant who does not look upon his customers’ interests as his own, cannot succeed. In order to prosper he must love his customers. He is to observe them with his whole heart.

5-Cheerfulness
The very unrest for the future causes failure. The moment you turn your back upon success, the moment you cease to think of the consequences, the moment you concentrate your energy in your present duty, the same instant success is with you, nay, dogging you.

6-Fearlessness
The whole strength comes from fearlessness.

7-Self-Reliance
Hear, O man! Know thyself. True, literally true it is, when you help yourself, God must help you. Heaven is bound to help you. It can be proved, it can be realized that your very Self is God—the Infinite, the Omnipotent. 

http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/successjapan.htm

Prognosis And Diagnosis Of Sin

1. Flattery
Vedanta explains it by saying that in every individual, in every person, in everybody, there is the real Self, the real Atman, which is, as a matter of fact, the greatest of the great, the highest of the high. There is in reality something in you which is the highest of the high and that makes its existence felt. When the flatterer comes, and begins to admire us and pay us compliments, we feel elated, we feel cheered. Why? The cause is not that these statements are true, but Vedanta says that the real cause lies in our real Self. There is something behind the scenes, some potent force, something stern and indestructible, the greatest of the great, the highest of the high, which is your real Self and deserves all flattery, all compliments; and no compliments, no flattery, no aggrandizement can be unworthy of the real Self.

2. Vanity
There is in you the Greatest of the great, that is your real Self. You will have to realize that and know that; and when you realize and know the true Self, the Atman, you will no longer stoop down to seek praise for this little body...The true Atman within, the true Self being the Greatest of the great, the Highest of the high, the God of gods, how can it give up its nature? How can this Atman degrade itself, believe itself to be poor, wretched, vermin or worm? How can it degrade itself to that depth of ignorance? It cannot give up its nature; it cannot give up its nature. 

3. Avarice
Vedanta explains it by saying that "there is in you, O man, the reality, the true Self, the real Atman asserting itself; it cannot be crushed." They say that no energy can be destroyed, no force can be annihilated...Through the error, through the ignorance of attributing the glory of the Atman to the body and the worthlessness of the body to the Atman, by this mistake you fall a victim to greed. Eradicate this error, and you are God immortal. Redeem the real Self in you, take a firm stand in the true Self, and realize yourself to be the God of gods, the Holy Of holies, the Master of universe, the Lord of lords, and it becomes impossible for you to seek these outside things and accumulate them round this body."

4. Attachment
What is the cause of attachment, which means that the person subject to this evil wants that the things around him should not change? A man is filled with sorrow and anxiety at the death of a loved one. What does his sorrow or anxiety show? What does it prove? Can we expect conditions to remain as they are; can we expect to keep our loved ones always with us, when we know intellectually that everything in this world is changeful, is in a state of flux? And yet we wish that there should be no change, how is it? Vedanta says, "O man, in you there is something which is really unchangeable, which is the same yesterday, today and for ever, but by mistake, by ignorance, the unchangeable nature of the true Self is ascribed to the circumstances of the body. That is the cause of it. Eradicate ignorance and you stand above worldly attachments."

5. Sloth
According to Vedanta, the cause of the universality of sloth or indolence is that the real Self within each and all is perfect rest, is peace, and the real Self being infinity cannot move, the infinite cannot move. It is the finite only that can move... In the infinity there must be no change. The Atman, the true Self within is infinite; it is all rest; it is all peace. There is no motion there. That being the case, the infinity, the Atman’s peacefulness is through ignorance carried to the body and the body suffers from sloth and has indolence in it. That is the cause of indolence or sloth being universal in the whole world.

6. Rivalry
Vedanta says, "The real cause is that in you, O man, is the true Atman which is one without a second, which is rivalless, matchless; and by ignorance, by mistake, is the oneness and the glory of the Atman being attributed to the body, and there is the tendency to have no rivals of the body."

7. Sensuality
"We are all beauty, the unchangeable Self is all beauty now and for ever" and the realization of this will show us that what we are trying to get for the physical body belongs to, or is the real Self.

8. Anger
It is because of our real Self which is free now and for ever, that we are not satisfied to be limited in any way. It was never born, will never die, remains the same for ever. Free it must be. If it were true that you were bound, you never could be free. 

A man was suffering from two diseases. He had a disease of the eyes and a disease of the stomach. He came to a doctor and asked him to treat him. The doctor gave to this patient two kinds of medicines, two kinds of powders. One of the powders was to be applied to the eyes. It contained antimony or lead sulphide, and if taken internally, it is a poison. It can be applied externally to the eyes and the people in India use this powder for the eyes. So the doctor gave him the powder for the eyes containing antimony or lead sulphide. Another powder he gave him to be taken orally. This powder contained pepper and chillies; chillies which have a very cold name, but which are very hot. He gave him one powder containing chillies to be taken. This man being in a state of confusion just interchanged the two powders. The powder which was to be taken orally he applied to the eyes, and the antimony and other things, which were poisons, he ate. Here were the eyes blinded and the stomach worsted.

That is what is being done by the people, and that is the cause of all the so-called sins in this world. Here is the Atman, the Light of lights within you and here is the body, the stomach, so to say. What is to be done to the body is being done to the Atman, and the respect and honour and glory of the Atman are being paid unto the body; everything mixed up; everything put into a state of confusion. That causes this phenomenon of so-called sins in this world. Get things right and right you are, you prosper materially, you are God of gods spiritually.

"In the beginning was the word; the word was with God". Realize it, realize it. The Heaven of heavens is within you. 
 - Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/prognosis.htm

The Real Self

Once upon a time, the son of an Indian king came to Rama in the mountains, and put this question, "Swami, Swami, What is God?" This is a deep question, a very difficult problem. This is the one subject which all the theologies and all the religions propose to investigate, and you want to know all about "it in a short time". He said, "Yes, sir yes, Swami. Where shall I go to have it explained? Explain it to me." The boy was asked, "Dear prince, you want to know what God is, you want to make acquaintance with God, but do you not know that the rule is, when a man wants to see a great personage, he will have to send his own card first, he will have to send to the chief his own address and name? Now you want to see God. You had better send to God your card; you had better let God know what you are. Give Him your card. Rama will place it in the hands of God directly and God will come to you, and you will see what God is." "Well", the boy said, "It is all right, it is reasonable. I will directly let you know what I am. I am the son of king so and so, living on the Himalayas in Northern India. This is my name." He wrote it out on a piece of paper. It was taken up by Rama and read. It was not put into the hands of God directly, but was given back to that prince and the prince was told, "O prince, you do not know what you are. You are like the illiterate, ignorant person who wants to see your father, the king and cannot write his own name. Will your father, the king receive him? Prince, you cannot write your name. How will God receive you? First tell us correctly what you are, and then will God come to you and receive you with open arms."

The boy reflected. He began to think and think over the subject. He said, "Swami, Swami, now I see, now I see. I made a mistake in writing my own name. I have given you the address of the body only, and I have not put upon the paper what I am."

There was an attendant of that prince standing by. The attendant could not understand it. Now the prince was asked to make his meaning clear to this attendant, and so the prince asked the attendant this question, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this card belong?" The man said, "To me." and taking up a stick from the hands of the attendant the prince asked him, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this stick belong?" The man said "To me." "Well, to whom does this turban of yours belong?" The man said, "To me." The prince said, "All right. If the turban belongs to you, there is a relation between the turban and you; the turban is your property, and you are the owner. Then you are not the turban, the turban is yours." He said, "Indeed, that is so plain." "Well, the pencil belongs to you, the pencil is yours, and you are not the pencil." He said, "I am not the pencil because the pencil is mine; that is my property, I am the owner." All right. Then the prince asked that attendant, taking hold of the ears of that attendant, "Whom do these ears belong to?" The attendant said, "To me." The prince said, "All right, the ears belong to you, the ears are yours. As such you are not the ears. Similarly the nose belongs to you. As the nose is yours, you are not the nose. Then, whose body is that?" (Just beckoning to the body of the attendant.) The attendant said, "The body is mine; this body is mine." "If the body is yours, Mr. attendant, then you are not the body; you cannot be the body because you say that the body is yours; you cannot be the body. The very statement—my body, my ears, my head, my hand proves that you are something else and the body together with the ears and hands and eyes, etc., is something else. This is your property, you are the owner, the master; the body is like your garment and you are the owner. The body is like your horse and you are the owner. Now, what are you?" The attendant understood it so far, and also concurred with the prince in saying that when the prince had put down on paper the address of the body and had meant that this address stood for himself, the prince had made a mistake. "You are not the body, not the ears, not the nose, not the eyes, nothing of the kind. What are you then?" Now the prince began to reflect, and said, "Well, well, I am the mind, I am the mind, I must be the mind."

"Is that so indeed?" The question was put to that prince. "Now, can you tell me how many bones you have got in your body? Can you tell where the food lies in your body that you took this morning?" The prince could make no answer, and these words escaped his lips, "Well, my intellect does not reach that. I have not read that. I have not yet read anything of physiology or anatomy. My brain does not catch it, my mind cannot comprehend it."

Now the prince was asked, "Dear prince, O good boy, you say your mind cannot comprehend it, your intellect cannot reach up to that, your brain cannot understand this. By making these remarks you confess and admit that the brain is yours, the mind is yours, the intellect is yours. Well, if the intellect is yours, you are not the intellect. If the mind is yours, you are not the mind. If the brain is yours, you are not the brain. These very words of yours show that you are the master of the intellect, the owner of the brain and the ruler of the mind. You are not the mind, the intellect or the brain. What are you? Think, think, please. Be more careful and let us know correctly what you are. Then will God be just brought to you, and you will see God, you will be introduced directly into the presence of God. Please tell us what you are."

The boy began to think, and thought and thought but could not go further. The body said, "My intellect, my mind cannot, reach further."

Oh, how true are these words! Indeed the mind or the intellect cannot reach the true Divinity or God within.

The real Atman, the true God is beyond the reach of words and minds.

The boy was asked to sit down for a while and meditate upon what his intellect had reached so far. "I am not the body; I am not the mind." If so, feel it, put it into practice, repeat it in the language of feeling, in the language of action; realize that you are not the body. If you live this thought only, if you work into practice even so much of the truth, if you are above the body and the mind, you become free from all anxiety, all fear. Fear leaves you when you raise yourself above the level of the body or the mind. All anxiety ceases, all sorrow is gone, when you realize even so much of the Truth that you are something beyond the body, beyond the mind.

After that, the boy was helped on a little to realize what he himself is, and he was asked, "Brother, prince, what have you done today? Will you please let us know the works or deeds that you have performed this morning?"

He began to relate, "I woke up early in the morning, took bath, and did this thing and that thing, took my breakfast, read a great deal, wrote some letters, visited some friends, received some friends, and came here to pay my respects to the Swami."

Now the prince was asked, "Is that all? Have you not done a great deal more? Is that all? Just see." He thought and thought; and then mentioned a few other things of the same sort. "That is not all; you have done thousands of things more; you have done hundreds, thousands, nay, millions of things more. Innumerable deeds you have done, and you refuse to make mention of them. This is not becoming. Please let us know what you have done. Tell us everything that you have done this morning."

The prince, hearing such strange words that he had done thousands of things besides the few that he had named, was startled. "I have not done anything more than what I have told you, sir, I have not done anything." "No, you have done millions, trillions, quadrillions of things more." How is that?

The boy was asked, "Who is looking at the Swami at this time?" He said, "I". "Are you seeing this face, this river Ganga that flows beside us?" He said, "Yes, indeed." "Well, you see the river and you see the face of the Swami, but who makes the six muscles in the eyes move? You know the six muscles in the eyes move, but who makes the muscles move? It cannot be anybody else; it cannot be anything extra. It must be your own Self that makes the muscles in the eyes move in the act of seeing."

The boy said, "Oh, indeed, it must be I; it cannot be anything else."

"Well, who is seeing just now, who is attending to this discourse?" The boy said, "I, it is I." "Well, if you are seeing, if you are attending to this discourse, who is making the oratory nerves vibrate? It must be you, it must be you. Nobody else. Who took the meals this morning." The boy said, "I, I." "Well, if you took the meals this morning and it is you that will go to the toilet and vacate, who is it that assimilates and digests the food? Who is it, please? Tell us if you eat and you throw it out, it must be you who digests, it must be yourself that assimilates, it cannot be anybody else. Those days are gone when outside causes were sought after to explain the phenomena in nature. If a man fell down, the cause of his fall was said to be some outside ghost. Science does not admit such solutions of the problem. Science and philosophy require you to seek the cause of a phenomenon in the phenomenon itself."

"Here you take the food, go into the toilet and throw it off. When it is digested, it must be digested by yourself, no outside power comes and digests it; it must be your own Self. The cause of digestion also must be sought within you and not without you."

Well, the boy admitted so far. Now he was asked, "Dear Prince, just reflect, just think for a while. The process of digestion implies hundreds of kinds of movements. In the process of digestion, in mastication, saliva is emitted from the glands in the mouth. Here is again the next process of oxidation going on. Here is blood being formed. There is the blood coursing through the veins, there is the same food being converted into carnatic muscles, bones, and hair; here is the process of growth going on in the body. Here are a great many processes going on, and all these processes in the body are connected with the process of assimilation and digestion."

"If you take the food, it is you yourself who are the cause of respiration; you yourself make the blood course through your veins; you yourself make the hair grow; you yourself make the body develop, and here mark how many processes there are; how many acts, how many deeds there are that you are performing every moment."

The boy began to think and said, "Indeed, indeed, sir, in my body, in this body, there are thousands of processes that the intellect does not know, about which the mind is unconscious, and still they are being performed, and it must be I that am the cause of all that, it must be I that am performing all that; and indeed it was a mistake I made when I said that I had done a few things, a few things only, and nothing more, a few things that were done through the agency of the intellect or mind."

It must be made further clear. In this body of yours there are two kinds of functions being discharged; there are two kinds of work being done, involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary acts are those that are performed through the agency of the intellect or mind; for instance, reading, writing, walking, talking and drinking. These are acts done through the agency of the intellect or mind. Besides these, there are thousands of acts or processes being performed directly, so to say, without the agency, or without the medium of mind or intellect, for instance, respiration, the coursing of blood through the veins, the growth of hair, etc.

People make this mistake, this glaring blunder that they admit only those acts to be performed by them which are performed through the agency of mind or intellect. All the other deeds, all the other acts which are being performed directly without the agency of intellect or mind, are disclaimed entirely. They are entirely cast aside, they are entirely neglected, and by this neglect and by this mistake, by this imprisoning the real Self in the little mind, identifying the Infinity with the small brain, people are making themselves miserable and wretched. People say, "Oh, God is within me." All right, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, God is within you, but that kernel which is within you, that kernel is yourself and not the shell. Please think over it seriously. Reflect whether you are the kernel or the shell, whether you are He that is within you, or you are the shell that is without.

Some people say, "O sir, I eat and nature digests; O sir, I see but nature makes the muscles move; O sir, I hear but it is nature that makes the nerves vibrate." Mark, in the name of justice, in the name of truth, in the name of freedom, just mark, whether you are that nature or whether you are the mere body. Mark, you are that nature. You are the infinite God. If throwing aside all prejudice, waiving all preconceptions and casting off all superstitions, you reflect over the matter, discuss it, sift it, investigate it, examine it, you will become of the same mind as what you call Rama standing for. You will see that you are the kernel, the nature, the whole nature you are.

Most of you may have understood the drift of the argument; but that boy, that Indian prince, did not understand it thoroughly. "Well," he said, "Indeed, I have understood it so far that I am something beyond the intellect." At this time the attendant of the prince asked, "Sir, make it more clear to me, I have not quite comprehended it yet." Well, that attendant was asked, "Mr. so and so, when you go to bed, do you die or live?" The attendant said, "I live; I do not die." "And what about the intellect?" He said, "I go on dreaming, the intellect is still there." "And when you are in the deep sleep state (you know there is a state called the deep sleep state, in that state even no dreams are seen), where is the intellect, where is the mind?"

He began to think. "Well, it passes into nothingness; it is no longer there, the intellect is not there, the mind is not there." "But are you there or not?" He said, "Oh, indeed I must be there; I cannot die, I remain there." Well, mark here, even in the deep sleep state, where the intellect ceases, where the intellect is, as it were, like a garment hoisted on a peg, hoisted on a post, like an overcoat, the intellect is taken off and placed upon the post, you are still there, you do not die out. The boy said, "The intellect is not there, and I do not die out. This I do not quite comprehend."

Well, the boy was asked, "When you wake up after enjoying this deep sleep, when you wake up, do you not make such statements, ‘I enjoyed profound sleep tonight, I had no dreams tonight.’ Do you not make remarks of that kind?" He said, "Yes." Well. This point is very subtle. All of you will have to listen closely. When after waking up from the deep sleep state, this remark is made, "I slept so soundly that I saw no dreams, I saw no rivers, no mountains, in that state there was no father, no mother, no house, no family, nothing of the kind; all was dead and gone; there was nothing, nothing, nothing there. I slept and there was nothing there." This statement is like the statement made by the man who bore witness to the desolation of a place, and said, "At the dead of night, at such and such a place, there was not a single human being present." That man was asked to write out this statement. He put it on paper. The magistrate asked him, "Well, is this statement true?" He said, "Yes, sir." "Well, is this statement made on hearsay or founded upon your own evidence, are you an eyewitness?" He said, "Yes, sir, I am an eyewitness. This is not based on hearsay." "You are an eyewitness that at the time mentioned on the paper and at the place mentioned on the paper, there was not a single human being present?" He said, "Yes." "What are you? Are you a human being or not?" He said, "Yes, I am a human being." "Well, then, if this statement is true according to you, it must be wrong according to us, because, as you were present and you are a human being, the statement that there was not a single human being present is not literally true. You were present there. In order that this statement may be true according to you, it must be false according to us, because in order that there might be nobody, there must be somebody, must be some body, must be at least yourself, present at the time."

So when you wake up after enjoying the deep sleep state and make this remark, "I did not see anything in the dream;" well, we may say that you must have been present; there was no father, no mother, no husband, no wife, no house, no river, no family present in that state, but you must have been present; the very evidence that you give, the very witness that you bear proves that you did not sleep, that you did not go to sleep, for had you been asleep, who would have told us about the nothingness of that? You are something beyond the intellect; the intellect was asleep, the brain was at rest in a way, but you were not asleep. If you had been asleep, who would have made the blood run through the blood-vessels, who would have continued the process of digestion in the stomach? Who would have continued the process of the growth of your body, if you had really fallen into the deep sleep state? So you are something which is never asleep. The intellect sleeps, but not you. "I am something beyond the intellect, mind and body."

Now the boy said, "Sir, sir, I have understood it so far, and have come to know that I am a power Divine, that I am the Infinite power which never sleeps, never changes. In my youth, the body is different, in my childhood the mind was not the same as I have now, the body was not the same as I have now. In my childhood, my intellect, brain, body and mind were entirely different from what they are now." Doctors tell us that after seven years, the whole system undergoes a thorough change; every moment the body is changing, and every second the mind is changing, and the mental thoughts, the mental ideas which you entertained in your childhood, where are they now? In the days of childhood you looked upon the Sun as a beautiful cake which was eaten by the angels, the Moon was a beautiful piece of silver; the stars were as big as diamonds. Where are these ideas gone? The mind of yours, the intellect of yours has undergone a thorough, a whole-sale change. But you still say, "When I was a child, when I was a boy, when I shall grow up to the age of seventy." You still make such remark which show that you are something which was the same in childhood, which was the same in boyhood, which will be the same at the age of seventy. When you say, "I went to sleep, I went into the deep sleep state, etc,"; when you make remarks of that kind, it shows that there is the true ‘I’ in you, the real Self in you, which remains the same in the dreamland, which remains the same in the deep sleep state, which remains the same in the wakeful state. There is something within you which remains the same when you are in a swoon, which remains the same when you are bathing, when you are writing. Just think, reflect, just mark, please. Are you not something which remains the same under all circumstances, unchanging in its being, the same yesterday, today and for ever? If so, just reflect a little more, think a little more and you will be immediately brought face to face with God. You know the promise was, know your-self, put down your right address on paper, and God will be introduced to you immediately.

Now the boy, the prince, expected that as he knew about himself, he had come to know that he was something unchanging, something constant, something which was never asleep; so he wanted to know what God is. The prince was asked; "Brother, mark, here are these trees growing. Is the power that makes this tree grow different from the power that makes that tree grow?" He said, "No, no, it must be the same power certainly." "Now, is the power which makes all these trees grow different from the power that makes the bodies of animals grow?" He said, "No, No, it cannot be different, it must be the same." Now is the power, the force which makes the stars move, different from the power which makes these rivers flow? He said, "It cannot be different, it must be the same."

Well, now the power that makes these trees grow cannot be different from the power which makes your body grow, it cannot be different from the power which makes your hair grow. The same universal power of nature, the same universal Divinity or the Unknowable, which makes the stars shine, makes your eyes twinkle, the same power which is the cause of the growth of that body’s hair which you call mine, the same power makes the blood course through the veins of each and all. Indeed, and then what are you? Are you not that power which makes your hair grow, which makes your blood flow through your veins, which makes your food get digested? Are you not that power? That power which is beyond the intellect, the mind, indeed you are. If so, you are the same power which is governing the force of the whole Universe, you are the same Divinity, you are the same God, the same Unknowable, the same energy, force, substance anything you may call it, the same Divinity, the All which is present everywhere. The same, the same you are.

The boy was astonished and he said, "Really, really, I wanted to know God. I put the question what God is, and I find my own Self, my true Atman is God. What was I asking, what did I ask, what a silly question did I put! I had to know myself. I had to know what I am, and God was known." Thus was God known.

The only difficulty in the way of realizing this truth is that people play the part of children. You know, children sometimes take a fancy to a particular kind of plate and do not want to eat anything except when it is served to them in the plates which have their fancy. They will say, "I will eat in my plate, I will eat in my dish, I won’t have anything in any other plate." O children! see, it is not this particular plate alone which is yours; all the plates in the house are yours; all the golden dishes are yours. This is a mistake. If the people in this world know themselves, they will find the true Self to be God Almighty, to be the Infinite Power, but they have taken a fancy for this particular plate, this head, this brain. "What is done through this brain only, that is done by me. What is done through this mind or intellect, that is mine, and all else I won’t have; all else I disclaim. I will have only that which is served to me in this particular plate." Herein comes selfishness. They want to get everything done through this plate and to take credit for this plate, they want to have everything accumulated around this little plate, which they call particularly theirs, that with which they have identified themselves. This is the cause of all selfishness, all anxiety and misery. Get rid of this false notion; realize your true Self to be the All; rise above this selfish egoism, you are happy this moment, one with the whole universe you are. This is a mistake of the same character as that which the prince made. The prince was put a catch question. "Where is your place?" And he named the metropolis of the state. "That is my place." O boy, that metropolis of the state is not the only place you have got. The whole state, the whole country is yours. You live in that metropolis, that capital of the state, while that capital is not the only place that is yours, the whole state is yours, this magnificent landscape, these fairy scenes, this grand Himalayan scenery, all this belongs to you, and not only that particular small town.

This is the mistake made by the people. This intellect or brain may be called the metropolis or the capital of your real Self, the Atman. You have no right to claim this to yourself and deny everything else; this little metropolis of the brain, this metropolis of the mind or intellect is not the only place you have got. The wide world, the moons, the earths the planets, the milkyways, all these are yours. Realize that. Just regain your birthright; and all anxiety, all misery ceases.

People talk about freedom; people talk about salvation. What is it that has bound you first? If you want to be free, if you want to get salvation, you ought to know what is the cause of your bondage. It is just like a monkey in the fable. A monkey is caught in India in a very queer manner. A narrow-necked basin is fixed in the ground, and in that basin are put some nuts and other eatables which the monkeys like. The monkeys come up and thrust their hands into the narrow-necked basin and fill their hands with the nuts. The fist becomes thick, and it cannot be taken out. There the monkey is caught; he cannot come out. Queerly, strangely he is caught.

We ask what it is that binds you first. You yourself have brought you under thraldom and bondage. Here is the whole wide world, a grand magnificent forest; and in this grand magnificent wood of the whole universe, there is a narrow-necked vessel found. What is that narrow-necked vessel? It is your brain; this little brain, narrow-necked. Herein are some nuts and people have got hold of these nuts and all what is done through the agency of this brain or through the medium of this intellect, is owned as one’s own. "I am the mind," is what everybody says; everybody has practically identified himself with the mind, "I am the mind," "I am the intellect," and he takes a strong grip of these nuts of this narrow-necked vessel. That is what makes you slave, that is what makes you slave to anxiety, slave to fear, slave to temptations, slave to all sorts of troubles. That is what binds you; that is the cause of all the sufferings in this world. If you want salvation, if you want freedom only let go the hold, free your hand. The whole forest is yours, you can jump from tree to tree and eat all the nuts and eat all the walnuts and all the fruits in the wood, all being yours. The whole world is yours; just get rid of this selfish ignorance and you are free, you are your own saviour.

Making a famine where abundance lies,
(is it fair? No, it is not fair, it is not becoming.)
Making a famine where abundance lies,
This thy foe, to thy sweet self so cruel,
Should not be so, should not do this,
Within thine own but buriest thou content,
Thou makest waste and niggarding.
Be not niggardly, be not miserly.

It is niggardliness to give away all this property and confine thyself unto the few things in this little brain only.

You will see that this brain of yours will become of infinite power if you realize your oneness with the All. That is what puts you in perfect harmony with the whole world.

Sail on, march on to the real Self; get rid of all this superstition, this superstition of the body. Get rid of this hypnotism of this little body; you have hypnotized your-self into this brain or body. Get rid of that, sail on, march on to the eternity, the reality, the true Self; 

Rise above the body, and you become all these, you get a passage unto all these. All these you realize yourself to be.

-In Woods of God Realisation, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/realself.htm

Expansion of Self

The wide world is my Self: the universe is the Self of this man: the wide world, the lowest creature, minerals, vegetable, the Self of all these becomes the Self of this man.

To a man who had reached this state of perfect freedom, there came a disciple who sat at his feet for a year or so. When the disciple was going to leave the master, he began to bow down at his feet, to kneel down before him, to prostrate himself before him, as the custom in India is. The master, smiling, raised him and said, "Dear, you have not yet learnt all that you could learn. You lack a great many things yet; stay for some while more." A few days more he stayed in the holy presence of the master, and got more and more of inspiration. His heart was converted into God-consciousness. He was full of the Holy Ghost. He left the presence of the master, knowing not whether he was the disciple or the master himself. He went away looking upon the whole universe, the wide world, as his real Self, and the whole universe being his real Self, where could he, the Self, go? When the Self fills and permeates every atom, every molecule, where can it go? The idea of going and coming becomes meaningless to him. You can go from one place to another, if you are not already at the place where you want to go. Here he found himself, he found his true Self, God within, God everywhere, and how could he think of going and coming? The idea of going and coming became absent for him. He was in the state of Self-realization. The going of body was a sort of reflex action. He was in himself; no going or coming for him. Then was the master satisfied. Thus did the master test him and prove him of sterling worth. The disciple paid no respects or thanks to the master, and rested in unity to such a degree that he rose above all idea of gratitude. Then did the master know that he had really understood his teachings. Here is the master-state, where if you honour the man, he says you are belittling him. "I am not confined in this body; I am not this little body only—I am the wide world, I am you, and honour me in you." Here is the state of a man who sells not anything to you. Here is the state of a man to whom honour and disgrace for the body have become meaningless, both shame and fame are nothing.

There came a man, a prince, to a monk in India, and he prostrated himself before him. The monk asked him as to the cause of homage that the prince was paying him. The prince said, "O sir, O holy sir, you are a monk, and you have adopted this order by giving up your kingdom which you ruled at one time. You are a man of great renunciation, and so I look upon you as God, I worship you." You know, in India, people are not honoured so much for the riches they possess. In India they are honoured for the degree of renunciation they display, and the chief principle of honour is essentially different there from what it is here. More trust is placed in God than in the almighty Dollar. The prince was offering homage to the man of renunciation. The monk replied to the prince, "If that is the reason why you honour me, I must wash your feet, I must kneel down before you, because, O king, you are a man of greater renunciation than all the monks in this world put together." That is very strange. How could that be? Then the monk began to explain, "Suppose, here is a man who possesses a magnificent palace, and this man casts out the dust and dirt of the house; he throws out or renounces only the dust or dirt of the house. Is that man a man  of renunciation?" The prince said, "No, no; he is not." Then the monk continued, "Here is a man who treasures up the dirt and the dust of the house and gives away the whole house, the magnificent palace. What do you think of this man?" The prince said, "This man who keeps only the dirt and dust, and resigns the palace, is a man of renunciation." Then the monk said, "Brother prince, you are then the man of renunciation, because the real Self, God, the real Atman, that which is the magnificent palace, the real home, the paradise, the Heaven of heavens, you have renounced, and only the dust and dirt of that palace, which is this body, this little selfishness, you have retained. I have renounced nothing. I am myself the God of gods—the Lord of the Universe."

In Woods of God Realisation Vol 1, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/vol1.htm