children, look at the flowers at your feet; do not trample upon them. look at the love in your midst and do not repudiate it. krishna.
there is a higher reason which transcends all human minds. it is far and near. it permeates all the worlds and at the same time is infinitely higher than they.
a man who sees that all things are contained in the higher spirit cannot treat any being with contempt.
for him to whom all spiritual beings are equal to the highest there can be no room for deception or grief.
those who are ignorant and are devoted to the religious rites only, are in a deep gloom, but those who are given up to fruitless meditations are in a still greater darkness.
upanishads, from vedas.
yes, in our time all these things must be cleared away in order that mankind may escape from self-inflicted calamities that have reached an extreme intensity. whether an indian seeks liberation from subjection to the english, or anyone else struggles with an oppressor either of his own nationality or of another—whether it be a negro defending himself against the north americans; or persians, russians, or turks against the persian, russian, or turkish governments, or any man seeking the greatest welfare for himself and for everybody else—they do not need explanations and justifications of old religious superstitions such as have been formulated by your vivekanandas, baba bharatis, and others, or in the christian world by a number of similar interpreters and exponents of things that nobody needs; nor the innumerable scientific theories about matters not only unnecessary but for the most part harmful. (in the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.) what are wanted for the indian as for the englishman, the frenchman, the german, and the russian, are not constitutions and revolutions, nor all sorts of conferences and congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes; nor new schools and universities with innumerable faculties of science, nor an augmentation of papers and books, nor gramophones and cinematographs, nor those childish and for the most part corrupt stupidities termed art—but one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions—the truth that for our life one law is valid—the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind. free your minds from those overgrown, mountainous imbecilities which hinder your recognition of it, and at once the truth will emerge from amid the pseudo-religious nonsense that has been smothering it: the indubitable, eternal truth inherent in man, which is one and the same in all the great religions of the world. it will in due time emerge and make its way to general recognition, and the nonsense that has obscured it will disappear of itself, and with it will go the evil from which humanity now suffers.
children, look upwards with your beclouded eyes, and a world full of joy and love will disclose itself to you, a rational world made by my wisdom, the only real world. then you will know what love has done with you, what love has bestowed upon you, what love demands from you. krishna.
yasnaya polyana.
december 14th, 1908.
