Vivekananda's Highest Teaching

These are my favorite excerpts from Swami Vivekananda's highest teachings, from classes and letters which were written just before he died. Most of these can be found in a book called "Inspired Talks" based on teachings given to his closest disciples at Thousand Island Park, in New York. Other statements can be found in Volumes 8 and 9 of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

Why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything for ourselves. We want a Personal God, a savior or a prophet to do everything for us. 

There is none to help you — never was. To think that there is, is sweet delusion. It does no good. If you take my advice, you will never enter any church. Come out and go and wash off. Wash yourself again and again until you are cleansed of all the superstitions that have clung to you through the ages.

The infinite truth is never to be acquired. It is here all the time, undying and unborn. 

There is neither existence nor non-existence. Shake off all ideas of relativity; shake off all superstitions. Let caste, and birth, and devas, and all else, vanish. No book, no person, no Personal God. All these must go. 

Why talk of being and becoming? Give up talking of dualism and non-dualism. Talk not of yoga to make you pure; you are pure by your very nature. None can teach you.

Say: 'I am the infinite One. No bondage ever came near me. I am the changeless sky: clouds of belief may pass over me, but they do not touch me.'"

The universe is my body. All minds are mine. With all feet I walk. Through all mouths I speak. In everybody I AM.

Most people think that God is not here, that they will become immortal by going to heaven. They imagine that they will see God after death. But if they do not see Him here and now, they will not see Him after death. Though they all believe in immortality, they do not know that immortality is not gained by dying and going to heaven, but by giving up this piggish individuality, by not tying ourselves down to one little body. Immortality is knowing ourselves as one with all, living in all bodies, perceiving through all minds. 

Burn virtue; burn vice. Freedom is baby-talk. No one was ever bound; none was ever set free. There is none but the Infinite One, the Ever Free. 

What can change you, the essence of Knowledge? Who can teach? Who can be taught? Throw philosophical arguments into the ditch. Only a slave sees slaves; the deluded, delusion; the impure, impurity.

Space, time, causation are all delusions. It is your disease that you think you are bound, and that later you will be free. 

Talk not. Sit down and let all things melt away; they are but dreams. There is no differentiation, no distinction; it is all superstition. Therefore be silent and know what you are.

Be at peace. Do not disturb yourself. You never were in bondage; you never were virtuous or sinful. Get rid of all these delusions and be at peace. 

Who is there to worship? Who worships? All is the All. To speak or to think of anything else is superstition. Follow no ideal: you are all there is.

We must not pin our faith upon any man, however great. We must become Christs and Buddhas. Until then, Gods & Goddesses are simply occasions upon which to objectify our own inner powers. We really answer our own prayers. Bow down to nothing but your own higher self. Until you know that YOU are the very GOD of gods, there will never be any freedom for you.

Churches, doctrines, and forms, are the hedges to protect the tender young plant, but they must later be broken down so that the plant may become a tree. The various religions, Bibles, Vedas, temples, and dogmas, all are just pots for baby plants; but to thrive they must get out of their containers.

Tell this truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. If Truth is too much even for the intelligent and it sweeps them away, let them go. The sooner, the better. Childish ideas are for babies and savages.

It is bad to stay in the church after you have grown up spiritually. Come out and die in the open air of real freedom.

What is the gain? The pig body is hard to give up; we are sorry to lose the enjoyment of our one little pig body! Yet there is no need of asceticism — better would be the enjoyment of two bodies, better three, living in more bodies than one! When I can enjoy through the whole universe, the whole universe is my body.

God is all blissfulness. He is the reality behind all that exists, He is the goodness, the truth in everything. All of you are His incarnations. The more we know of Him, the more misery vanishes. 

If one who lives in the Lord becomes miserable, what is the use of living in Him? What is the use of such a God? Throw Him overboard into the Pacific Ocean! 

God is the infinite, impersonal being — ever existent, unchanging, immortal, fearless; and you are all His incarnations, His embodiments. His heaven is everywhere. In this heaven dwell all the Personal Gods there are - you yourselves. So stop praying and laying flowers in the temples!

All the various practices and gradual trainings, Bibles and Gods, are but the kindergartens of religion. You may not like what I am saying. You may curse me today, but tomorrow you will bless me.

You are already free, only you do not know it. Worship everything as God. Every form is His temple. All else is delusion.