“Somebody’s asking Vivekananada, ‘Vivekananda, Swamiji, what is the need…”

Somebody’s asking Vivekananada, ‘Vivekananda, Swamiji, what is the need to believe in bible? Should I believe always, hell, heaven and similar?’ Vivekananda says, ‘It is good to be born in church, but not to die there.’ It is good to born, to start with; when you start naturallywith a little fear, greed, nothing wrong. No other way to understand.

But, for children, for a child you cannot make him understand that very good itself is joy, that not doing wrong itself is bliss. All these things you cannot make him understand. So for him you need to say, “Ay, don’t do; how much He will kill you, how much he will take your eyes.’ That is what you all tell, huh? God will come and threaten you. God will kill you. All these things you can tell for kids.

But now it is enough; you all become grown up. Let us analyze it consciously. Vivekananda says beautifully, ‘Let you flood your whole religion and spirituality with your logic and reason; let you flood your religion with logic and reason. Whatever stands logic and reason, let it stand. All other things let them be washed away. The earlier they are washed, the better for the humanity. So let them be washed away; enough. We live it, Manusmriti. Of course, it’s good he’s done a great service. Surely he’s done a great service. But you need to go beyond smriti to reach shruti.

There’s two scriptures in eastern mysticism: smriti is moral, day to day life, social laws. Shruti is the inner spiritual quality; the techniques to improve the consciousness. Upanishads are shrutis, Puranas are smritis. Manu is a smriti, means everyday social law. Sanatana Dharma is the only religion which is courageous enough to say smriti’s can be changed. Sanatana Dharma declares, ‘My scripture can be updated.’ All other guys are afraid. No other fellow says, no other person accepts my words can be updated by my disciples. Rishis’ are telling smritis can be updated, it can be changed when the society changes. But shruti is the techniques towards consciousness. Let us go to the shruti techniques to consciousness leaving the smriti, just the social laws.

The deep inside devotion, if you feel the Lord is inside your being and if you meditate on Him; if you intensely do japa or relate with Him that is going to help. But the physical actitivies are not going to anyway help. I’ve seen many people they will come and boast in front of me, ‘Swamiji, for last thirty years I’m going around Arunachala hill.’ ‘What for your came?’ ‘I have knee pain, please heal me Swamiji.’ What you got? Only knee pain, Swamiji! So doing anything in the outer world is in no way going to help. Growing your consciousness, that’s what I tell you, only one thing: meditation. Working to improve your consciousness, working in the line of awareness is the one and only thing.

Now, when I tell all these things it hurts. It feels, ‘Oh, what is this?’ Only when you leave the first layer you will understand all these things become just two-color and these ultimate truths become four-color. I have seen many people when I tell all these things blankly, clearly, they leave me and go away. There are many people if I say, ‘Drop smoking’ they will drop me! No, actually, they instead of dropping the smoking they will drop me. I’ve seen, when I say these type of things blankly and the straight truth they will leave and go away. And I feel sometime deeply, ‘Oh, now they won’t understand because the whole world looks very four-color, shining, catching, calling.’ Now I look in a two-color superficial way, I have to know, today he will be here tomorrow he will go away, forget about him. And, the whole thing looks in a very two-color way.

Many people come and tell me, ‘No, no Swamiji you’re having camp on the weekends why don’t you have it on the weekdays? If you have it on weekdays, you are having on weekdays, I am having on weekdays I have an office, you have to have it on weekend.’ Many people are asking because all these outer worldly things look like four-color, so this looks like a two-color. The moment you leave the body, I have seen many people, the moment they leave the body immediately that becomes totally two-color; and this becomes sharp, four-color. Deep guilt will raised in them, ‘Hari, I had this chance to meet this Paramahamsa but I missed.’ What you missed only at that time you will understand.