Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals - 17.3

29/11/2018
17 - The Awakening Message : 3.

There is a very subtle, silken thread which connects our perception of values with the reality of things. The cause of the very observation of the material values of life cannot itself be material. To state the whole position simply and precisely, matter cannot know matter. If the whole world is only material, then the very knowledge of the existence and operation of material forces will itself be a work of matter. It would be a self-contradiction of the whole position to argue that matter can be conscious of matter. As you know, the constitution of matter is not inclusive of that principle we call awareness. There must be someone to know that the world is.

And who knows that the world exists?

Does the world itself know it?

Is it the world that knows that the world exists?

What do we mean by the world?

Our definitions have to be polished a little more. We have to become a little more subtle. And we should not follow the logic of the man of straw or the man in the street who takes for granted whatever is presented before his senses. We have to become very courageous in this matter. Today, the time has come for us when we have to meet materialist doctrines with the very logic of materialism. The argument of materialism has to be combated by the very same argument, because it is based and built on quicksand. It has no moral courage. It appears gaudy, picturesque, magnificent to the unwary senses of man. But it has no inner toughness or moral strength. It can be blown by a wisp of wind. This truth is not known to us.

You must have heard of the magnificence of a person called Ravana in ancient times. He shook the whole earth. He terrified even the gods, as they say. But his glamour was materialist glamour. It was the glory of the senses which had mistaken falsehood for truth. And the austere, barefooted, single person called Rama could face this immensity of material power called Ravana. Ravana had no moral strength. He had only the material force with him, the power of quantity. He had no qualitative worth in his personality.

There was no substance. It was essenceless. That was the life that Ravana lived, Hiranyakasipu lived, and the materialists live. They appear to be powerful, but they have no strength. So, in the name of God and in the hallowed name of Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, may I call upon you all to develop this inner strength in you which is not material but which is the controller of material forces. It is the discoverer of the element of matter. And you are superior to the entire quantitative power of the material world. The single spark that shines and glories within your heart is more strong, more powerful and capable of working greater wonders than the magic of science that is today blindfolding your eyes.

To be continued ..