The Inner Consciousness: How to Awaken and Direct ItPrakashananda, Swami
Religion
The Inner Consciousness: How to Awaken and Direct It
Prakashananda, Swami
Consciousness -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism; Vedanta
Many things there are which must be taken into our lives necessarily.
Unhappily we delude ourselves; we forget ourselves; we lose our heads;
we lose our judgment; and we are carried away by the currents of life,
not knowing whither we are going. When we are caught up in the whirl of
conditions, when we are lost in the labyrinthian maze of circumstances,
then we wake up for a while. Again we forget. So that is the outer
consciousness, which has separations everywhere. You cannot depend upon
anything. As soon as you depend upon anything--lean on anything--it is
taken away from you, and what is to be done? That is why we must try to
search for something which is more internal, which is not so changeable,
on whom, or on which you can depend to a greater extent, because
everything is relative until we get to the Absolute. We must find
something which is better, which is greater. And that is our
search--that should be our search. So, while living a life of outer
consciousness you will analyse and you will see how all your complex
conditions regarding which you complain, all the entanglements which we
notice in different lives, all the confusion and friction which we see
at home or abroad, all the heart-burnings, disillusionment and suffering
which we notice amongst individuals--all these can be traced to that
outer consciousness, that slavery, that dependence upon the material
things of life. That is why we have to open up our inner consciousness.
That is why we want to know if there is anything beyond the veil of the
senses. That is why we must know whether there is anything back of this
changeable condition of the senses and this changeable condition of the
body.
Now, you may ask the question, how do we know that there is such a thing
as soul-energy, or that there are inner forces? How do we know? We know
as we know everything in life. We have to follow the same methods. How
do you know the different details of a machine? You study that machine.
You follow three processes--that is, three steps you must take in
everything. First of all, you get hold of a book, or you go to a person
who knows about the machine and you ask him questions. You look over
different descriptions of the details of the machine, then you think for
yourself; you judge for yourself. You revolve all these details within
your mind. You analyse, and gradually you begin to handle the machine
yourself--practical experience you must acquire.
For instance, if you want to know about electricity, what do you do? You
get hold of a book on the subject of electricity. Then you go to a
professor and receive instruction. Then you go to the laboratory and
handle different machines and study them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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