When The Pilgrim began this journey, one of the important decisions was not to have a destination. With time, that decision has evolved to something like this – not to have a desire of a destination or not to have a desire of no destination either. Sounds conflicting, but this is what Nisargadatta Maharaja taught as the core mindset of a non dualist.
I came across this amazing lecture from another spiritual giant & a non-dual philosopher from the east. It made me take a pause and wonder if a journey like that of the Pilgrims would have some measure of progress? While its probably easy to think of progress, a sincere aspirant is faced with a steep task of practicing the methods. I am presenting the transcript as-is.
This is a transcript of a lecture in 1957 on Spiritual Progress by Swami Vandanananda. Swami Vandanananda (1915-2007) from Bangalore India, was initiated in 1937 by Swami Vijnanananda & served at the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded by Swami Prabhavananda.
[Prayer]
Oh Salutations to Thee, Thou art the cause of all causes, the one great cause,
Thou art the one and only refuge of all hearts and minds,
Enlighten our minds and illumine our hearts and manifest therein in all thy glory
Peace Peace Peace
This morning the subject is Spiritual Progress. My theme will be mainly the relationship between the Teacher, the Guru and the Disciple. Because that’s how in the Vedanta we think of spiritual progress in any sense of the term. Take the three statements of the Vedanta to remind you once again – you know that man is divine essentially. And so human birth is so important that you don’t sit quiet after being a human being.
You begin to think of the problem of the divinity in you, in every one of us, so the first statement “Man is Divine by nature” – he is not human, he is not natural but he is God – Supreme and that is the core of each individual. Essentially his mind is bright and intelligent because of the divine within. The divine manifest through the mind and that mind becomes a great mind. So a man is not great because of a powerful mind or reasoning but because of the divine in man. So this statement it should set the man thinking about the purpose in life.
If i am Divine by nature then what is the first question that should occur? Then why do i behave in a non-divine manner? So many times non-divine activities thoughts and actions and speech. Also you know it is not so Divine, it’s not a characteristic of divinity to be strongly lustful or angry or make mistakes repeatedly knowing that you could have avoided them. So a man has to think the Vedanta sentence, Man is Divine. So “I am a Man, I am a human so I, whether man or woman, it means the same Divine by nature.