SOURCE OF YEARNING
Always when Sri Ramakrishna was asked, "What is the way to find God?" he answered, "Yearn for Him with a longing heart." Or he would say, "People shed streams of tears because sons are not born to them. Others eat away their hearts in sorrow because they cannot get rich. But how many weep for not having seen God? Very few indeed! Verily, he who seeks the Lord, who weeps for Him, attains Him."
In order to find God, in Vedanta's view, the following three conditions must be met: human birth, longing for God, and the society of the holy, i.e. a guru. When the first two conditions are met, the third fulfils itself. It is the desire for God, though, that is lacking in us and which we must develop. The question is, however, where is this desire supposed to come from? Who is supposed to do the desiring? Not the egoic self, surely, for it could never sustain it for long.
No, the yearning for God, at the end of the day, comes from within us, deep down, comes from the Atman, in its inevitable attraction to Brahman. It's simply a matter of not letting our egos get in the way of it.
A further view comes from Shankara in his Crest Jewel of Discrimination. He states that it is Divine grace that affords us the chance at liberation, but that some of us foolishly waste the opportunity.
In his words: "Only through God's grace may we obtain those three rarest advantages--human birth, the longing for liberation, and discipleship to an illumined teacher.
"Nevertheless, there are those who somehow manage to obtain this rare human birth, together with bodily and mental strength, and an understanding of the scriptures, and yet are so deluded that they do not struggle for liberation. Such men are suicides. They clutch at the unreal and destroy themselves.
"For what greater fool can there be than the man who has obtained this rare human birth together with bodily and mental strength and yet fails, through delusion, to realize his own highest good?"
In order to find God, in Vedanta's view, the following three conditions must be met: human birth, longing for God, and the society of the holy, i.e. a guru. When the first two conditions are met, the third fulfils itself. It is the desire for God, though, that is lacking in us and which we must develop. The question is, however, where is this desire supposed to come from? Who is supposed to do the desiring? Not the egoic self, surely, for it could never sustain it for long.
No, the yearning for God, at the end of the day, comes from within us, deep down, comes from the Atman, in its inevitable attraction to Brahman. It's simply a matter of not letting our egos get in the way of it.
A further view comes from Shankara in his Crest Jewel of Discrimination. He states that it is Divine grace that affords us the chance at liberation, but that some of us foolishly waste the opportunity.
In his words: "Only through God's grace may we obtain those three rarest advantages--human birth, the longing for liberation, and discipleship to an illumined teacher.
"Nevertheless, there are those who somehow manage to obtain this rare human birth, together with bodily and mental strength, and an understanding of the scriptures, and yet are so deluded that they do not struggle for liberation. Such men are suicides. They clutch at the unreal and destroy themselves.
"For what greater fool can there be than the man who has obtained this rare human birth together with bodily and mental strength and yet fails, through delusion, to realize his own highest good?"
posted by Donald L. Simons at
1:24 PM
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