Among the Swami's more intimate friends and disciples during this period of his ministry in California were some who were to remain life-long followers of his teachings and supporters of his work. Notable among them were Mrs. Carrie Mead Wyckoff (of Los Angeles), Mrs. Alice Mead Hansbrough, Ida Ansell, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Allan, Mrs. Benjamin Aspinall, Dr. M. H. Logan, Mr. Carl F. Petersen, and Mr. Albert S. Wollberg, the last three of whom were respectively the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of the Vedanta Society of San Francisco.

Towards the latter part of Swami Vivekananda's stay in California, he received a pressing invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Francis Leggett, then in London, to join them in Paris in July. He had also been invited by M. Gerald Nobel and the Foreign Delegates' Committee of the Congress of the History of Religions, which was to be held in September in conjunction with the Paris Exposition of 1900, to lecture before that distinguished assembly. He accepted those invitations. but he thought it best to spend several weeks in New York before sailing to Europe.

They took the Turk Street cable car to Market Street and there, at the foot of Powell, transferred to the larger Market Street car that rattled down to the Ferry Building. (This transfer point, incidentally, was a noisy, bustling spot in San Francisco where Swamiji must have often stood, waiting for a streetcar on his way to the East Bay. In a lecture some seven weeks later, he gave what one can, I think, take to be a picture of himself at that precise point. Speaking of the attainment of yoga, he said, "This is the question: With every sense and every organ active, have you that tremendous peace [in which] nothing can disturb you? Standing on Market Street, waiting for the car with all the rush going on around you, are you in meditation-calm and peaceful? In the cave, are you intensely active there with all quiet about you? If you are, you are a yogi, otherwise not. The ferry to Alameda (a half hour's ride) connected at the Alameda mole with a railway that made a nine-mile run to a station in the heart of town. From there the three passengers could easily walk to their destination-the Alameda Home of Truth.

In the second week of April, the Swami closed his classes at the Turk Street flat, and on Wednesday, April I 1, moved from San Francisco to Alameda, a small town near Oakland. Here he stayed until May 2 at the Alameda Home of Truth, which occupied a large Victorian house, surrounded by luxurious gardens and orchards. Before moving to Alameda, the Swami had already lectured several times there; thus the town was not new to him, nor was he unknown to its inhabitants.

Swamiji had been invited to stay at the Home by Mr. and Mrs. George Roorbach and Miss Lucy Beckham, its directors. Although he had not found the Home of Truth in Los Angeles particularly congenial and had felt crowded at the Home on Pine Street, he was not averse to Homes of Truth in general. "He once told me," Mrs. Allan recalled, "that he thought the work of the Home of Truth was the best then available in the West, and he appreciated the fact that the workers there did not charge for spiritual assistance, as some others did. Swamiji seems to have particularly liked the Alameda Home. "He begged to come after we invited him," Mrs. Roorbach related in later years. "He said he `smelled' over the house and saw that we were pure and said we were worthy of a little help.

Alameda, California_x000d_ 12th April, 1900_x000d_ {To an American friend},_x000d_ Mother is becoming propitious once more. Things are looking up. They must._x000d_ Work always brings evil with it. I have paid for the accumulated evil with bad health. I am glad. My mind is all the better for it. There is a mellowness and a calmness in life now, which was never there before. I am learning now how to be detached as well as attached, and mentally becoming my own master. . . . _x000d_ Mother is doing Her own work; I do not worry much now. Moths like me die by the thousand every instant. Her work goes on all the same. Glory unto Mother! . . . Alone and drifting about in the will-current of the Mother has been my whole life. The moment I have tried to break this, that moment I have been hurt. Her will be done! . . . _x000d_ I am happy, at peace with myself, and more of the Sannyasin than I ever was before. The love for my own kith and kin is growing less every day, and that for Mother increasing. Memories of long nights of vigil with Shri Ramakrishna under the Dakshineswar Banyan are waking up once more. And work? What is work? Whose work? Whom shall I work for?_x000d_ I am free. I am Mother's child. She works, She plays. Why should I plan? What should I plan? Things came and went, just as She liked, without my planning. We are Her automata. She is the wirepuller.

Swamiji's faith in Mrs. Bull, whom he had earlier placed in charge of his work on the East Coast, was unwavering. "Mother will do Her work-I need not worry," he had written to her on April 12. (I quote from an early copy, which differs somewhat from that in the Complete Works.) "For me-alone and drifting about in the will current of the Mother, has been my life. The moment I had tried to a break it, that moment I was hurt. Her will be done. Her power is on you," he reassured her. "I am sure She will lead you to what is right. . ._x000d_ "I am happy, at peace with myself," he continued, "and more of the Sannyasin than I ever was. The love for my own kith and kin is growing less every day-for Mother increasing; memories of long nights of vigils, with Sri Ramakrishna under the Dakshineswar Banyan are waking up once more-and work? What is work? Whose work? Whom to work for? I am free. I am Mother's child. She works, She plays-Why shall I plan? What shall I plan? Things came and went, just as She liked, without my planning, in spite of my planning. We are Her automatons. She is the wire puller.

The old Sanskrit word Yoga is defined as [Chittavrittinirodha]. It means that Yoga is the science that teaches us to bring the Chitta under control from the state of change. The Chitta is the stuff from which our minds are made and which is being constantly churned into waves by external and internal influences. Yoga teaches us how to control the mind so that it is not thrown out of balance into wave forms. . . ._x000d_ What does this mean? To the student of religion almost ninety-nine per cent of the books and thoughts of religion are mere speculations. One man thinks religion is this and another, that. If one man is more clever than the others, he overthrows their speculations and starts a new one. Men have been studying new religious systems for the last two thousand, four thousand, years--how long exactly nobody knows. . . . When they could not reason them out, they said, "Believe!" If they were powerful, they forced their beliefs. This is going on even now._x000d_ But there are a set of people who are not entirely satisfied with this sort of thing. "Is there no way out?" they ask. You do not speculate that way in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Why cannot the science of religion be like any other science? They proposed this way: If such a thing as the soul of man really exists, if it is immortal, if God really exists as the ruler of this universe--He must be [known] here; and all that must be [realised] in [your own] consciousness._x000d_ The mind cannot be analysed by any external machine. Supposing you could look into my brain while I am thinking, you would only see certain molecules interchanged. You could not see thought, consciousness, ideas, images. You would simply see the mass of vibrations--chemical and physical changes. From this example we see that this sort of analysis would not do._x000d_ Is there any other method by which the mind can be analysed as mind? If there is, then the real science of religion is possible. The science of Raja-Yoga claims there is such a possibility. We can all attempt it and succeed to a certain degree. There is this great difficulty: In external sciences the object is [comparatively easy to observe]. The instruments of analysis are rigid; and both are external. But in the analysis of the mind the object and the instruments of analysis are the same thing. . . . The subject and the object become one. . . . _x000d_ External analysis will go to the brain and find physical and chemical changes. It would never succeed [in answering the questions]: What is the consciousness? What is your imagination? Where does this vast mass of ideas you have come from, and where do they go? We cannot deny them. They are facts. I never saw my own brain. I have to take for granted I have one. But man can never deny his own conscious imagination. . . . _x000d_ The great problem is ourselves. Am I the long chain I do not see--one piece following the other in rapid succession but quite unconnected? Am I such a state of consciousness [for ever in a flux]? Or am I something more than that--a substance, an entity, what we call the soul? In other words, has man a soul or not? Is he a bundle of states of consciousness without any connection, or is he a unified substance? That is the great controversy. If we are merely bundles of consciousness, . . . Such a question as immortality would be merely delusion. . . . On the other hand, if there is something in me which is a unit, a substance, then of course I am immortal. The unit cannot be destroyed or broken into pieces. Only compounds can be broken up. . . . _x000d_ All religions except Buddhism believe and struggle in some way or other to reach such a substance. Buddhism denies the substance and is quite satisfied with that. It says, this business about God, the soul, immortality, and all that--do not vex yourselves with such questions. But all the other religions of the world cling to this substance. They all believe that the soul is the substance in man in spite of all the changes, that God is the substance which is in the universe. They all believe in the immortality of the soul. These are speculations. Who is to decide the controversy between the Buddhists and the Christians? Christianity says there is a substance that will live for ever. The Christian says, "My Bible says so." The Buddhist says, "I do not believe in your book." . . . _x000d_ The question is: Are we the substance [the soul] or this subtle matter, the changing, billowing mind? . . . Our minds are constantly changing. Where is the substance within? We do not find it. I am now this and now that. I will believe in the substance if for a moment you can stop these changes. . . . _x000d_ Of course all the beliefs in God and heaven are little beliefs of organised religions. Any scientific religion never proposes such things._x000d_ Yoga is the science that teaches us to stop the Chitta [the mind-stuff] from getting into these changes. Suppose you succeed in leading the mind to a perfect state of Yoga. That moment you have solved the problem. You have known what you are. You have mastered all the changes. After that you may let the mind run about, but it is not the same mind any more. It is perfectly under your control. No more like wild horses that dash you down. . . . You have seen God. This is no longer a matter of speculation. There is no more Mr. So-and-So, . . . No more books or Vedas, or controversy of preachers, or anything. You have been yourself: I am the substance beyond all these changes. I am not the changes; if I were, I could not stop them. I can stop the changes, and therefore I can never be the changes. This is the proposition of the science of Yoga. . . . _x000d_ We do not like these changes. We do not like changes at all. Every change is being forced upon us. . . . In our country bullocks carry a yoke on their shoulders [which is connected by a pole with an oil press]. From the yoke projects a piece of wood [to which is tied a bundle of grass] just far enough to tempt the bullock, but he cannot reach it. He wants to eat the grass and goes a little farther [thereby turning the oil press]. . . . We are like these bullocks, always trying to eat the grass and stretching our necks to reach it. We go round and round this way. Nobody likes these changes. Certainly not! . . . All these changes are forced upon us. . . . We cannot help it. Once we have put ourselves in the machine, we must go on and on. The moment we stop, there is greater evil than if we continued forward. . . ._x000d_ Of course misery comes to us. It is all misery because it is all unwilling. It is all forced. Nature orders us and we obey, but there is not much love lost between us and nature. All our work is an attempt to escape nature. We say we are enjoying nature. If we analyse ourselves, we find that we are trying to escape everything and invent ways to enjoy this and that. . . . [Nature is] like the Frenchman who had invited an English friend and told him of his old wines in the cellar. He called for a bottle of old wine. It was so beautiful, and the light sparkled inside like a piece of gold. His butler poured out a glass, and the Englishman quietly drank it. The butler had brought in a bottle of castor oil! We are drinking castor oil all the time; we cannot help it. . . . _x000d_ [People in general] . . . Are so reduced to machinery they do not . . . Even think. Just like cats, dogs and other animals, they are also driven with the whip by nature. They never disobey, never think of it. But even they have some experience of life. . . ._x000d_ [Some, however,] begin to question: What is this? What are all these experiences for? What is the Self? Is there any escape? Any meaning to life? . . ._x000d_ The good will die. The wicked will die. Kings will die, and beggars will die. The great misery is death. . . ._x000d_ All the time we are trying to avoid it. And if we die in a comfortable religion, we think we will see Johns and Jacks afterwards and have a good time._x000d_ In your country they bring Johns and Jacks down to show you [in Seances]. I saw such people numbers of times and shook hands with them. Many of you may have seen them. They bang the piano and sing "Beulah Land": America is a vast land. My home is on the other side of the world. I do not know where Beulah Land is. You will not find it in any geography. See our good comfortable religion! The old, old moth-eaten belief!_x000d_ Those people cannot think. What can be done for them? They have been eaten up by the world. There is nothing in them to think. Their bones have become hollow, their brains are like cheese. . . . I sympathise with them. Let them have their comfort! Some people are evidently very much comforted by seeing their ancestors from Beulah Land._x000d_ One of these mediums offered to bring my ancestors down to me. I said, "Stop there. Do anything you like, but if you bring my ancestors, I don't know if I can restrain myself." The medium was very kind and stopped._x000d_ In our country, when we begin to get worried by things, we pay something to the priests and make a bargain with God. . . . For the time being we feel comforted, otherwise we will not pay the priests. A little comfort comes, but [it turns] into reaction shortly. . . . So again misery comes. The same misery is here all the time. Your people in our country says, "If you believe in our doctrine you are safe." Our people among the lower classes believe in your doctrines. The only change is that they become beggars. . . . But is that religion? It is politics--not religion. You may call it religion, dragging the word religion down to that sense. But it is not spiritual._x000d_ Among thousands of men and women a few are inclined to something higher than this life. The others are like sheep. . . . Some among thousands try to understand things, to find a way out. The question is: Is there a way out? If there is a way out, it is in the soul and nowhere else. The ways out from other sources have been tried enough, and all [have been found wanting]. People do not find satisfaction. The very fact that those myriads of theories and sects exist show that people do not find satisfaction._x000d_ The science of Yoga proposes this, that the one way out is through ourselves. We have to individualise ourselves. If there is any truth, we can [realise it as our very essence]. . . . We will cease being driven about by nature from place to place. . . ._x000d_ The phenomenal world is always changing: [to reach the Changeless] that is our goal. We want to be That, to realise that Absolute, the [changeless] Reality. What is preventing us from realising that Reality? It is the fact of creation. The creative mind is creating all the time and gets mixed up with its own creation. [But we must also remember that] it is creation that discovered God. It is creation that discovered the Absolute in every individual soul. . . ._x000d_ Going back to our definition: Yoga is stopping the Chitta, the mind-stuff, from getting into these changes. When all this creation has been stopped--if it is possible to stop it--then we shall see for ourselves what we are in reality. . . . The Uncreated, the One that creates, manifests itself._x000d_ The methods of Yoga are various. Some of them are very difficult; it takes long training to succeed. Some are easy. Those who have the perseverance and strength to follow it through attain to great results. Those who do not may take a simpler method and get some benefit out of it. _x000d_ As to the proper analysis of the mind, we see at once how difficult it is to grapple with the mind itself. We have become bodies. That we are souls we have forgotten entirely. When we think of ourselves, it is the body that comes into our imagination. We behave as bodies. We talk as bodies. We are all body. From this body we have to separate the soul. Therefore the training begins with the body itself, [until ultimately] the spirit manifests itself. . . . The central idea in all this training is to attain to that power of concentration, the power of meditation.

Often during his leisure hours he also spoke informally at the Home to small, intimate groups of students, sometimes entertaining them with jokes and stories. But though he was generally full of mirth and childlike sweetness and freedom, there was always the undertone of serious states of mind, which could be called forth in a moment by some chance remark or question. Then he would talk with glowing words on spiritual matters or give counsel that would afford lasting peace to a troubled heart or permanently alter the direction of a life. Sometimes he would give a sudden shaking to a solidified habit of thought or a complacement outlook.

With the Swami's series on Bhakti-Yoga in Washington Hall of the Red Men's Building, his public lectures in San Francisco came to a close. One finds, however, that on April 14, he gave an additional, semi-public lecture in a small hall of the same building, also on the subject of Bhakti-Yoga. After the lecture was over, a meeting was held in an adjoining room to inaugurate the Vedanta Society of San Francisco.

The main difference between men and the animals is the difference in their power of concentration. All success in any line of work is the result of this. Everybody knows something about concentration. We see its results every day. High achievements in art, music, etc. are the results of concentration. An animal has very little power of concentration. Those who have trained animals find much difficulty in the fact that the animal is constantly forgetting what is told him. He cannot concentrate his mind long upon anything at a time. Herein is the difference between man and the animals--man has the greater power of concentration. The difference in their power of concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man. Compare the lowest with the highest man. The difference is in the degree of concentration. This is the only difference. _x000d_ Everybody's mind becomes concentrated at times. We all concentrate upon those things we love, and we love those things upon which we concentrate our minds. What mother is there that does not love the face of her homeliest child? That face is to her the most beautiful in the world. She loves it because she concentrates her mind upon it; and if every one could concentrate his mind on that same face, everyone would love it. It would be to all the most beautiful face. We all concentrate our minds upon those things we love. When we hear beautiful music, our minds become fastened upon it, and we cannot take them away. Those who concentrate their minds upon what you call classical music do not like common music, and vice versa. Music in which the notes follow each other in rapid succession holds the mind readily. A child loves lively music, because the rapidity of the notes gives the mind no chance to wander. A man who likes common music dislikes classical music, because it is more complicated and requires a greater degree of concentration to follow it. _x000d_ The great trouble with such concentrations is that we do not control the mind; it controls us. Something outside of ourselves, as it were, draws the mind into it and holds it as long as it chooses. We hear melodious tones or see a beautiful painting, and the mind is held fast; we cannot take it away._x000d_ If I speak to you well upon a subject you like, your mind becomes concentrated upon what I am saying. I draw your mind away from yourself and hold it upon the subject in spite of yourself. Thus our attention is held, our minds are concentrated upon various things, in spite of ourselves. We cannot help it._x000d_ Now the question is: Can this concentration be developed, and can we become masters of it? The Yogis say, yes. The Yogis say that we can get perfect control of the mind. On the ethical side there is danger in the development of the power of concentration--the danger of concentrating the mind upon an object and then being unable to detach at will. This state causes great suffering. Almost all of our suffering is caused by our not having the power of detachment. So along with the development of concentration we must develop the power of detachment. We must learn not only to attach the mind to one thing exclusively, but also to detach it at a moment's notice and place it on something else. These two should be developed together to make it safe._x000d_ This is the systematic development of the mind. To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will. Side by side, in the child, should be developed the power of concentration and detachment._x000d_ My development has been one-sided all along. I developed concentration without the power of detaching my mind at will; and the most intense suffering of my life has been due to this. Now I have the power of detachment, but I had to learn it in later life._x000d_ We should put our minds on things; they should not draw our minds to them. We are usually forced to concentrate. Our minds are forced to become fixed upon different things by an attraction in them which we cannot resist. To control the mind, to place it just where we want it, requires special training. It cannot be done in any other way. In the study of religion the control of the mind is absolutely necessary. We have to turn the mind back upon itself in this study._x000d_ In training the mind the first step is to begin with breathing. Regular breathing puts the body in a harmonious condition; and it is then easier to reach the mind. In practicing breathing, the first thing to consider is Asana or posture. Any posture in which a person can sit easily is his proper position. The spine should be kept free, and the weight of the body should be supported by the ribs. Do not try by contrivances to control the mind; simple breathing is all that is necessary in that line. All austerities to gain concentration of the mind are a mistake. Do not practise them._x000d_ The mind acts on the body, and the body in its turn acts upon the mind. They act and react upon each other. Every mental state creates a corresponding state in the body, and every action in the body has its corresponding effect on the mind. It makes no difference whether you think the body and mind are two different entities, or whether you think they are both but one body--the physical body being the gross part and the mind the fine part. They act and react upon each other. The mind is constantly becoming the body. In the training of the mind, it is easier to reach it through the body. The body is easier to grapple with than the mind. _x000d_ The finer the instrument, the greater the power. The mind is much finer and more powerful than the body. For this reason it is easier to begin with the body._x000d_ The science of breathing is the working through the body to reach the mind. In this way we get control of the body, and then we begin to feel the finer working of the body, the finer and more interior, and so on till we reach the mind. As we feel the finer workings of the body, they come under our control. After a while you will be able to feel the operation of the mind on the body. You will also feel the working of one half of the mind upon the other half, and also feel the mind recruiting the nerve centres; for the mind controls and governs the nervous system. You will feel the mind operating along the different nerve currents._x000d_ Thus the mind is brought under control--by regular systematic breathing, by governing the gross body first and then the fine body. _x000d_ The first breathing exercise is perfectly safe and very healthful. It will give you good health, and better your condition generally at least. The other practices should be taken up slowly and carefully.

17th April, 1900_x000d_ My Dear Mr. Leggett,_x000d_ Herewith I send the executed Will to you. It has been executed as desired by her, and of course, as usual, I am requesting you for the trouble of taking charge of it._x000d_ You and yours have been so uniformly kind to me. But you know, dear friend, it is human nature to ask for more favours (now that they have come) where it gets from._x000d_ I am only a man, your child._x000d_ I am so sorry A__ has made disturbances. He does that now and then, at least used to. I do not venture to meddle, for fear of creating more trouble. You know how to manage him best. By the time you receive this letter, I will be off from San Francisco. Will you kindly send my Indian mail C/o Mrs. Hale, 10 Aster Street, Chicago, and to Margot in the same place? Margot writes very thankfully of your gift of a thousand dollars for her school._x000d_ May all blessings ever follow you and yours for your uniform kindness to me and mine, is the constant prayer of_x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda_x000d_ PS. I am so glad to learn that Mrs. Leggett has already recovered._x000d_ V.

We read many books, many scriptures. We get various ideas from our childhood, and change them every now and then. We understand what is meant by theoretical religion. We think we understand what is meant by practical religion. Now I am going to present to you my idea of practical religion._x000d_ We hear all around us about practical religion, and analysing all that, we find that it can be brought down to one conception--charity to our fellow beings. Is that all of religion? Every day we hear in this country about practical Christianity--that a man has done some good to his fellow beings. Is that all?_x000d_ What is the goal of life? Is this world the goal of life? Nothing more? Are we to be just what we are, nothing more? Is man to be a machine which runs smoothly without a hitch anywhere? Are all the sufferings he experiences today all he can have, and doesn't he want anything more?_x000d_ The highest dream of many religions is the world. . . . The vast majority of people are dreaming of the time when there will be no more disease, sickness, poverty, or misery of any kind. They will have a good time all around. Practical religion, therefore, simply means: "Clean the streets! Make it nice!" We see how all enjoy it._x000d_ Is enjoyment the goal of life? Were it so, it would be a tremendous mistake to become a man at all. What man can enjoy a meal with more gusto than the dog or the cat? Go to a menagerie and see the [wild animals] tearing the flesh from the bone. Go back and become a bird! . . . What a mistake then to become a man! Vain have been my years--hundreds of years--of struggle only to become the man of sense-enjoyments._x000d_ Mark, therefore, the ordinary theory of practical religion, what it leads to. Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism. It is not religion. It is no better than atheism--a little less. . . . You Christians, have you found nothing else in the Bible than working for fellow creatures, building . . . Hospitals? . . . Here stands a shopkeeper and says how Jesus would have kept the shop! Jesus would neither have kept a saloon, nor a shop, nor have edited a newspaper. That sort of practical religion is good, not bad; but it is just kindergarten religion. It leads nowhere. . . . If you believe in God, if you are Christians and repeat everyday, "Thy will be done", just think what it means! You say every moment, "Thy will be done", really meaning, "My will be done by Thee, O God." The Infinite is working His own plans out. Even He has made mistakes, and you and I are going to remedy that! The Architect of the universe is going to be taught by the carpenters! He has left the world a dirty hole, and you are going to make it a beautiful place!_x000d_ What is the goal of it all? Can senses ever be the goal? Can enjoyment of pleasure ever be the goal? Can this life ever be the goal of the soul? If it is, better die this moment; do not want this life! If that is the fate of man, that he is going to be only the perfected machine, it would just mean that we go back to being trees and stones and things like that. Did you ever hear a cow tell a lie or see a tree steal? They are perfect machines. They do not make mistakes. They live in a world where everything is finished. . . . _x000d_ What is the ideal of religion, then, if this cannot be practical [religion]? And it certainly cannot be. What are we here for? We are here for freedom, for knowledge. _x000d_ We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universal cry for freedom. What is the reason the . . . Plant grows from the seed, overturning the ground and raising itself up to the skies? What is the offering for the earth from the sun? What is your life? The same struggle for freedom. Nature is trying all around to suppress us, and the soul wants to express itself. The struggle with nature is going on. Many things will be crushed and broken in this struggle for freedom. That is your real misery. Large masses of dust and dirt must be raised on the battlefield. Nature says, "I will conquer." The soul says, "I must be the conqueror." Nature says, "Wait! I will give you a little enjoyment to keep you quiet." The soul enjoys a little, becomes deluded a moment, but the next moment it [cries for freedom again]. Have you marked the eternal cry going on through the ages in every breast? We are deceived by poverty. We become wealthy and are deceived with wealth. We are ignorant. We read and learn and are deceived with knowledge. No man is ever satisfied. That is the cause of misery, but it is also the cause of all blessing. That is the sure sign. How can you be satisfied with this world? . . . If tomorrow this world becomes heaven, we will say, "Take this away. Give us something else."_x000d_ The infinite human soul can never be satisfied but by the Infinite itself. . . . Infinite desire can only be satisfied by infinite knowledge--nothing short of that. Worlds will come and go. What of that? The soul lives and for ever expands. Worlds must come into the soul. Worlds must disappear in the soul like drops in the ocean. And this world to become the goal of the soul! If we have common sense, we cannot be satisfied, though this has been the theme of the poets in all the ages, always telling us to be satisfied. And nobody has been satisfied yet! Millions of prophets have told us, "Be satisfied with your lot"; poets sing. We have told ourselves to be quiet and satisfied, yet we are not. It is the design of the Eternal that there is nothing in this world to satisfy my soul, nothing in the heavens above, and nothing beneath. Before the desire of my soul, the stars and the worlds, upper and lower, the whole universe, is but a hateful disease, nothing but that. That is the meaning. Everything is an evil unless that is the meaning. Every desire is evil unless that is the meaning, unless you understand its true importance, its goal. All nature is crying through all the atoms for one thing--its perfect freedom._x000d_ What is practical religion, then? To get to that state--freedom, the attainment of freedom. And this world, if it helps us on to that goal, [is] all right; if not--if it begins to bind one more layer on the thousands already there, it becomes an evil. Possessions, learning, beauty, everything else--as long as they help us to that goal, they are of practical value. When they have ceased helping us on to that goal of freedom, they are a positive danger. What is practical religion, then? Utilise the things of this world and the next just for one goal--the attainment of freedom. Every enjoyment, every ounce of pleasure is to be bought by the expenditure of the infinite heart and mind combined._x000d_ Look at the sum total of good and evil in this world. Has it changed? Ages have passed, and practical religion has worked for ages. The world thought that each time the problem would be solved. It is always the same problem. At best it changes its form. . . . It trades consumption and nerve-disease for twenty thousand shops. . . . It is like old rheumatism: Drive it from one place, it goes to another. A hundred years ago man walked on foot or bought horses. Now he is happy because he rides the railroad; but he is unhappy because he has to work more and earn more. Every machine that saves labour puts more stress upon labour._x000d_ This universe, nature, or whatever you call it, must be limited; it can never be unlimited. The Absolute, to become nature, must be limited by time, space, and causation. The energy [at our disposal] is limited. You can spend it in one place, losing it in another. The sum total is always the same. Wherever there is a wave in one place, there is a hollow in another. If one nation becomes rich, others become poor. Good balances evil. The person for the moment on top of the wave thinks all is good; the person at the bottom says the world is [all evil]. But the man who stands aside sees the divine play going on. Some weep and others laugh. The latter will weep in their turn and the others laugh. What can we do? We know we cannot do anything. . . ._x000d_ Which of us do anything because we want to do good? How few! They can be counted on the fingers. The rest of us also do good, but because we are forced to do so. . . . We cannot stop. Onward we go, knocked about from place to place. What can we do? The world will be the same world, the earth the same. It will be changed from blue to brown and from brown to blue. One language translated into another, one set of evils changed into another set of evils--that is what is going on. . . . Six of one, half a dozen of the other. The American Indian in the forest cannot attend a lecture on metaphysics as you can, but he can digest his meal. You cut him to pieces, and the next moment he is all right. You and I, if we get scratched, we have to go to the hospital for six months. . . . _x000d_ The lower the organism, the greater is its pleasure in the senses. Think of the lowest animals and the power of touch. Everything is touch. . . . When you come to man, you will see that the lower the civilisation of the man, the greater is the power of the senses. . . . The higher the organism, the lesser is the pleasure of the senses. A dog can eat a meal, but cannot understand _x000d_ the exquisite pleasure of thinking about metaphysics. He is deprived of the wonderful pleasure which you get through the intellect. The pleasures of the senses are great. Greater than those is the pleasure of the intellect. When you attend the fine fifty-course dinner in Paris, that is pleasure indeed. But in the observatory, looking at the stars, seeing . . . Worlds coming and developing--think of that! It must be greater, for I know you forget all about eating. That pleasure must be greater than what you get from worldly things. You forget all about wives, children, husbands, and everything; you forget all about the sense-plane. That is intellectual pleasure. It is common sense that it must be greater than sense-pleasure. It is always for greater joy that you give up the lesser. This is practical religion--the attainment of freedom, renunciation. Renounce!_x000d_ Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher. What is the foundation of society? Morality, ethics, laws. Renounce. Renounce all temptation to take your neighbour's property, to put hands upon your neighbour, all the pleasure of tyrannising over the weak, all the pleasure of cheating others by telling lies. Is not morality the foundation of society? What is marriage but the renunciation of unchastity? The savage does not marry. Man marries because he renounces. So on and on. Renounce! Renounce! Sacrifice! Give up! Not for zero. Not for nothing. But to get the higher. But who can do this? You cannot, until you have got the higher. You may talk. You may struggle. You may try to do many things. But renunciation comes by itself when you have got the higher. Then the lesser falls away by itself._x000d_ This is practical religion. What else? Cleaning streets and building hospitals? Their value consists only in this renunciation. And there is no end to renunciation. The difficulty is they try to put a limit to it--thus far and no farther. But there is no limit to this renunciation._x000d_ Where God is, there is no other. Where the world is, there is no God. These two will never unite. [Like] light and darkness. That is what I have understood from Christianity and the life of the Teacher. Is not that Buddhism? Is not that Hinduism? Is not that Mohammedanism? Is not that the teaching of all the great sages and teachers? What is the world that is to be given up? It is here. I am carrying it all with me. My own body. It is all for this body that I put my hand voluntarily upon my fellow man, just to keep it nice and give it a little pleasure; [all for this body] that I injure others and make mistakes. . . ._x000d_ Great men have died. Weak men have died. Gods have died. Death--death everywhere. This world is a graveyard of the infinite past, yet we cling to this [body]: "I am never going to die". Knowing for sure [that the body must die] and yet clinging to it. There is meaning in that too [because in a sense we do not die]. The mistake is that we cling to the body when it is the spirit that is really immortal._x000d_ You are all materialists, because you believe that you are the body. If a man give me a hard punch, I would say I am punched. If he strikes me, I would say I am struck. If I am not the body, why should I say so? It makes no difference if I say I am the spirit. I am the body just now. I have converted myself into matter. That is why I am to renounce the body, to go back to what I really am. I am the spirit--the soul no instrument can pierce, no sword can cut asunder, no fire can burn, no air can dry. Unborn and uncreated, without beginning and without end, deathless, birthless and omnipresent--that is what I am; and all misery comes just because I think this little lump of clay is myself. I am identifying myself with matter and taking all the consequences. _x000d_ Practical religion is identifying myself with my Self. Stop this wrong identification! How far are you advanced in that? You may have built two thousand hospitals, built fifty thousand roads, and yet what of that, if you have not realised that you are the spirit? You die a dog's death, with the same feelings that the dog does. The dog howls and weeps because he knows that he is only matter and he is going to be dissolved._x000d_ There is death, you know, inevitable death, in water, in air, in the palace, in the prison--death everywhere. What makes you fearless? When you have realised what you are--that infinite spirit, deathless, birthless. Him no fire can burn, no instrument kill, no poison hurt. Not theory, mind you. Not reading books. . . . [Not parroting.] My old Master used to say, "It is all very good to teach the parrot to say, `Lord, Lord, Lord' all the time; but let the cat come and take hold of its neck, it forgets all about it." [You may] pray all the time, read all the scriptures in the world, and worship all the gods there are, [but] unless you realise the soul there is no freedom. Not talking, theorising, argumentation, but realisation. That I call practical religion._x000d_ This truth about the soul is first to be heard. If you have heard it, think about it. Once you have done that, meditate upon it. No more vain arguments! Satisfy yourself once that you are the infinite spirit. If that is true, it must be nonsense that you are the body. You are the Self, and that must be realised. Spirit must see itself as spirit. Now the spirit is seeing itself as body. That must stop. The moment you begin to realise that, you are released._x000d_ You see this glass, and you know it is simply an illusion. Some scientists tell you it is light and vibration. . . . Seeing the spirit must be infinitely more real than that, must be the only true state, the only true sensation, the only true vision. All these [objects you see] are but dreams. You know that now. Not the old idealists alone, but modern physicists also tell you that light is there. A little more vibration makes all the difference. . . ._x000d_ You must see God. The spirit must be realised, and that is practical religion. It is not what Christ preached that you call practical religion: "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Was it a joke? What is the practical religion you are thinking of? Lord help us! "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." That means street-cleaning, hospital-building, and all that? Good works, when you do them with a pure mind. Don't give the man twenty dollars and buy all the papers in San Francisco to see your name! Don't you read in your own books how no man will help you? Serve as worship of the Lord Himself in the poor, the miserable, the weak. That done, the result is secondary. That sort of work, done without any thought of gain, benefits the soul. And even of such is the Kingdom of Heaven._x000d_ The Kingdom of Heaven is within us. He is there. He is the soul of all souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedom. Let us ask each other how much we are advanced in that: how much we are worshippers of the body, or real believers in God, the spirit; how much we believe ourselves to be spirit. That is selfless. That is freedom. That is real worship. Realise yourself. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you are--infinite spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is impractical, for everything else will vanish. That alone will never vanish. It is eternal. Hospitals will tumble down. Railroad givers will all die. This earth will be blown to pieces, suns wiped out. The soul endureth for ever._x000d_ Which is higher, running after these things which perish or . . . Worshipping that which never changes? Which is more practical, spending all the energies of life in getting things, and before you have got them death comes and you have to leave them all?--like the great [ruler] who conquered all, [who when] death came, said, "Spread out all the jars of things before me." He said, "Bring me that big diamond." And he placed it on his breast and wept. Thus weeping, he died, the same as the dog dies._x000d_ Man says, "I live." He knows not that it is [the fear of] death that makes him cling slavishly to life. He says, "I enjoy." He never dreams that nature has enslaved him._x000d_ Nature grinds all of us. Keep count of the ounce of pleasure you get. In the long run, nature did her work through you, and when you die your body will make other plants grow. Yet we think all the time that we are getting pleasure ourselves. Thus the wheel goes round._x000d_ Therefore to realise the spirit as spirit is practical religion. Everything else is good so far as it leads to this one grand idea. That [realisation] is to be attained by renunciation, by meditation--renunciation of all the senses, cutting the knots, the chains that bind us down to matter. "I do not want to get material life, do not want the sense-life, but something higher." That is renunciation. Then, by the power of meditation, undo the mischief that has been done._x000d_ We are at the beck and call of nature. If there is sound outside, I have to hear it. If something is going on, I have to see it. Like monkeys. We are two thousand monkeys concentrated, each one of us. Monkeys are very curious. So we cannot help ourselves, and call this "enjoying". Wonderful this language! We are enjoying the world! We cannot help enjoying it. Nature wants us to do it. A beautiful sound: I am hearing it. As if I could choose to hear it or not! Nature says, "Go down to the depths of misery." I become miserable in a moment. . . . We talk about pleasures [of the senses] and possessions. One man thinks me very learned. Another thinks, "He is a fool." This degradation, this slavery, without knowing anything! In a dark room we are knocking our heads against each other. . . ._x000d_ What is meditation? Meditation is the power which enables us to resist all this. Nature may call us, "Look, there is a beautiful thing!" I do not look. Now she says, "There is a beautiful smell; smell it!" I say to my nose, "Do not smell it", and the nose doesn't. "Eyes, do not see!" Nature does such an awful thing--kills one of my children, and says, "Now, rascal, sit down and weep! Go to the depths!" I say, "I don't have to." I jump up. I must be free. Try it sometimes. . . . [In meditation], for a moment, you can change this nature. Now, if you had that power in yourself, would not that be heaven, freedom? That is the power of meditation._x000d_ How is it to be attained? In a dozen different ways. Each temperament has its own way. But this is the general principle: get hold of the mind. The mind is like a lake, and every stone that drops into it raises waves. These waves do not let us see what we are. The full moon is reflected in the water of the lake, but the surface is so disturbed that we do not see the reflection clearly. Let it be calm. Do not let nature raise the wave. Keep quiet, and then after a little while she will give you up. Then we know what we are. God is there already, but the mind is so agitated, always running after the senses. You close the senses and [yet] you whirl and whirl about. Just this moment I think I am all right and I will meditate upon God, and then my mind goes to London in one minute. And if I pull it away from there, it goes to New York to think about the things I have done there in the past. These [waves] are to be stopped by the power of meditation._x000d_ Slowly and gradually we are to train ourselves. It is no joke--not a question of a day, or years, or maybe of births. Never mind! The pull must go on. Knowingly, voluntarily, the pull must go on. Inch by inch we will gain ground. We will begin to feel and get real possessions, which no one can take away from us--the wealth that no man can take, the wealth that nobody can destroy, the joy that no misery can hurt any more. . . ._x000d_ All these years we have depended upon others. If I have a little pleasure and that person goes away, my pleasure is gone. . . . See the folly of man: he depends for happiness upon men! All separations are misery. Naturally. Depending upon wealth for happiness? There is fluctuation of wealth. Depending upon health or upon anything except the unchangeable spirit must bring misery today or tomorrow._x000d_ Excepting the infinite spirit, everything else is changing. There is the whirl of change. Permanence is nowhere except in yourself. There is the infinite joy, unchanging. Meditation is the gate that opens that to us. Prayers, ceremonials, and all the other forms of worship are simply kindergartens of meditation. You pray, you offer something. A certain theory existed that everything raised one's spiritual power. The use of certain words, flowers, images, temples, ceremonials like the waving of lights brings the mind to that attitude, but that attitude is always in the human soul, nowhere else. [People] are all doing it; but what they do without knowing it, do knowingly. That is the power of meditation. All knowledge you have--how did it come? From the power of meditation. The soul churned the knowledge out of its own depths. What knowledge was there ever outside of it? In the long run this power of meditation separates ourselves from the body, and then the soul knows itself as it is--the unborn, the deathless, and birthless being. No more is there any misery, no more births upon this earth, no more evolution. [The soul knows itself as having] ever been perfect and free.

Alameda, California_x000d_ 18th April, 1900_x000d_ My dear Joe,_x000d_ Just now I received yours and Mrs. Bull's welcome letter. I direct this to London. I am so glad Mrs. Leggett is on the sure way to recovery._x000d_ I am so sorry Mr. Leggett resigned the presidentship._x000d_ Well, I keep quiet for fear of making further trouble._x000d_ You know my methods are extremely harsh and once roused I may rattle A__ too much for his peace of mind._x000d_ I wrote to him only to tell him that his notions about Mrs. Bull are entirely wrong._x000d_ Work is always difficult; pray for me Joe that my works stop for ever, and my whole soul be absorbed in Mother. Her works, She knows._x000d_ You must be glad to be in London once more--the old friends, give them all my love and gratitude._x000d_ I am well, very well mentally. I feel the rest of the soul more than that of the body. The battles are lost and won. I have bundled my things and am waiting for the great deliverer._x000d_ "Shiva, O Shiva, carry my boat to the other shore."_x000d_ After all, Joe, I am only the boy who used to listen with rapt wonderment to the wonderful words of Ramakrishna under the Banyan at Dakshineswar. That is my true nature; works and activities, doing good and so forth are all superimpositions. Now I again hear his voice; the same old voice thrilling my soul. Bonds are breaking--love dying, work becoming tasteless--the glamour is off life. Only the voice of the Master calling.--"I come Lord, I come." "Let the dead bury the dead, follow thou Me."--"I come, my beloved Lord, I come."_x000d_ Yes, I come. Nirvana is before me. I feel it at times--the same infinite ocean of peace, without a ripple, a breath._x000d_ I am glad I was born, glad I suffered so, glad I did make big blunders, glad to enter peace. I leave none bound, I take no bonds. Whether this body will fall and release me or I enter into freedom in the body, the old man is gone, gone for ever, never to come back again! The guide, the Guru, the leader, the teacher has passed away; the boy, the student, the servant is left behind._x000d_ You understand why I do not want to meddle with A__. Who am I to meddle with anyone, Joe? I have long given up my place as a leader--I have no right to raise my voice. Since the beginning of this year I have not dictated anything in India. You know that. Many thanks for what you and Mrs. Bull have been to me in the past. All blessings follow you ever! The sweetest moments of my life have been when I was drifting: I am drifting again--with the bright warm sun ahead and masses of vegetation around--and in the heat everything is so still, so calm--and I am drifting languidly--in the warm heart of the river! I dare not make a splash with my hands or feet--for fear of breaking the marvellous stillness, stillness that makes you feel sure it is an illusion!_x000d_ Behind my work was ambition, behind my love was personality, behind my purity was fear, behind my guidance the thirst of power! Now they are vanishing, and I drift. I come! Mother, I come! In Thy warm bosom, floating wheresoever Thou takest me, in the voiceless, in the strange, in the wonderland, I come--a spectator, no more an actor. _x000d_ Oh, it is so calm! My thoughts seem to come from a great, great distance in the interior of my own heart. They seem like faint, distant whispers, and peace is upon everything, sweet, sweet peace--like that one feels for a few moments just before falling into sleep, when things are seen and felt like shadows--without fear, without love, without emotion. Peace that one feels alone, surrounded with statues and pictures--I come! Lord, I come!_x000d_ The world is, but not beautiful nor ugly, but as sensations without exciting any emotion. Oh, Joe, the blessedness of it! Everything is good and beautiful; for things are all losing their relative proportions to me--my body among the first. Om That Existence!_x000d_ I hope great things to come to you all in London and Paris. Fresh joy--fresh benefits to mind and body._x000d_ With love as ever to you and Mrs. Bull,_x000d_ Yours faithfully,_x000d_ Vivekananda

The Swami was, indeed, living in a higher sphere during his stay in Alameda, and it would seem that the more he worked, the more exalted he became. Throughout his Western experience one notices — in his letters, in his words from the platform, or in his private conversation — the longing for the Absolute. But at Alameda, when his work probably weighed heaviest on him physically, and his mind was tired from the strain, one finds him writing a letter to Miss MacLeod that is a very passion of longing to break all bonds, an intense desire for the Supreme Isolation, a yearning for that ecstasy which he had so often known in Dakshineswar in days long past. This letter, dated April 18, 1900, reads:

Alameda, California_x000d_ 20th April, 1900_x000d_ My Dear Joe {MacLeod},_x000d_ Received your note today. I wrote you one yesterday but directed it to England thinking you will be there._x000d_ I have given your message to Mrs. Betts. I am so sorry this little quarrel came with A__. I got also his letter you sent. He is correct so far as he says, "Swami wrote me 'Mr. Leggett is not interested in Vedanta and will not help any more. You stand on your own feet.'" It was as you and Mrs. Leggett desired me to write him from Los Angeles about New York--in reply to his asking me what to do for funds._x000d_ Well, things will take their own shape, but it seems in Mrs. Bull's and your mind there is some idea that I ought to do something. But in the first place I do not know anything about the difficulties. None of you write me anything about what that is for, and I am no thought-reader. You simply wrote me a general idea that A__ wanted to keep things in his hands. What can I understand from it? What are the difficulties? Regarding what the differences are about, I am as much in the dark as about the exact date of the Day of Destruction! And yet Mrs. Bull's and your letters show quite an amount of vexation! These things get complicated sometimes, in spite of ourselves. Let them take their shape._x000d_ I have executed and sent the will to Mr. Leggett as desired by Mrs. Bull._x000d_ I am going on, sometimes well and at other times ill. I cannot say, on my conscience, that I have been the least benefited by Mrs. Milton. She has been good to me, I am very thankful. My love to her. Hope she will benefit others._x000d_ For writing to Mrs. Bull this fact, I got a four page sermon, as to how I ought to be grateful and thankful, etc., etc. All that is, sure, the outcome of this A__ business! Sturdy and Mrs. Johnson got disturbed by Margot, and they fell upon me. Now A__ disturbs Mrs. Bull and, of course, I have to bear the brunt of it. Such is life!_x000d_ You and Mrs. Leggett wanted me to write him to be free and independent and that Mr. Leggett was not going to help them. I wrote it--now what can I do? If John or Jack does not obey you, am I to be hanged for it? What do I know about this Vedanta Society? Did I start it? Had I any hand in it? Then again, nobody condescends to write me anything about what the affair is! Well, this world is a great fun._x000d_ I am glad Mrs. Leggett is recovering fast. I pray every moment for her complete recovery. I start for Chicago on Monday. A kind lady has given me a pass up to New York to be used within three months. The Mother will take care of me. She is not going to strand me now after guarding me all my life._x000d_ Ever yours gratefully,_x000d_ Vivekananda

23rd April, 1900_x000d_ My Dear Mary {Hale},_x000d_ I ought to have started today but circumstances so happened that I cannot forgo the temptation to be in a camp under the huge red-wood trees of California before I leave. Therefore I postpone it for three or four days. Again after the incessant work I require a breath of God's free air before I start on this bone-breaking journey of four days._x000d_ Margot insists in her letter that I must keep my promise to come to see Aunt Mary in fifteen days. It will be kept--only in twenty days instead of fifteen. By that I avoid the nasty snowstorm Chicago had lately and get a little strength too._x000d_ Margot is a great partisan of Aunt Mary it seems, and other people besides me have nieces and cousins and aunts._x000d_ I start tomorrow to the woods. Woof! Get my lungs full of ozone before getting into Chicago. In the meanwhile keep my mail for me when it comes to Chicago and don't send it off here like a good girl as you are._x000d_ I have finished work. Only a few days' rest, my friends insist--three or four--before facing the railway._x000d_ I have got a free pass for three months from here to New York; no expense except the sleeping car; so, you see, free, free!_x000d_ Yours affectionately,_x000d_ Vivekananda

"I ought to have started [for Chicago] today," he wrote to Mary Hale on April 23, "but circumstances so happened that 1. cannot forgo the temptation to be in a camp under the huge redwood trees of California before I leave.... I start tomorrow to the woods."

30th April, 1900_x000d_ My Dear Mary {Hale},_x000d_ Sudden indisposition and fever prevent my starting for Chicago yet. I will start as soon as I am strong for the journey. I had a letter from Margot the other day. Give her kindly my love, and know yourself my eternal love._x000d_ Where is Harriet? Still in Chicago? And the McKindley sisters? To all my love._x000d_ Vivekananda

By May of 1900 the Swami found his California work prospering. In the Vedanta Societies of Los Angeles and Pasadena, meetings were being held regularly by his students, and he had received many letters begging him to return, but this had been impossible as his work in the northern part of the state had absorbed all his, attention. Informal study groups had been formed in Oakland and Alameda, and, as has been seen earlier, on the evening of April 14, 1900, the Swami had founded a formal Vedanta Society in San Francisco.

Religion is the realisation of Spirit as Spirit; not Spirit as matter._x000d_ Religion is a growth. Each one must experience it himself. The Christians believe that Jesus Christ died to save man. With you it is belief in a doctrine, and this belief constitutes your salvation. With us doctrine has nothing whatever to do with salvation. Each one may believe in whatever doctrine he likes; or in no doctrine. _x000d_ What difference does it make to you whether Jesus Christ lived at a certain time or not? What has it to do with you that Moses saw God in the burning bush? The fact that Moses saw God in the burning bush does not constitute your seeing Him, does it? If it does, then the fact that Moses ate is enough for you; you ought to stop eating. One is just as sensible as the other. Records of great spiritual men of the past do us no good whatever except that they urge us onward to do the same, to experience religion ourselves. Whatever Christ or Moses or anybody else did does not help us in the least, except to urge us on._x000d_ Each one has a special nature peculiar to himself, which he must follow and through which he will find his way to freedom. Your teacher should be able to tell you what your particular path in nature is and to put you in it. He should know by your face where you belong and should be able to indicate it to you. You should never try to follow another's path, for that is his way, not yours. When that path is found, you have nothing to do but fold your arms, and the tide will carry you to freedom. Therefore when you find it, never swerve from it. You way is the best for you, but that is no sign that it is the best for others._x000d_ The truly spiritual see Spirit as Spirit, not as matter. It is Spirit that makes nature move; It is the reality in nature. So action is in nature; not in the Spirit. Spirit is always the same, changeless, eternal. Spirit and matter are in reality the same; but Spirit, as such, never becomes matter; and matter, as such, never becomes Spirit._x000d_ The Spirit never acts. Why should it? It merely is, and that is sufficient. It is pure existence absolute and has no need of action._x000d_ You are not bound by law. That is in your nature. The mind is in nature and is bound by law. All nature is bound by law, the law of its own action; and this law can never be broken. If you could break a law of nature, all nature would come to an end in an instant. There would be no more nature. He who attains freedom breaks the law of nature, and for him nature fades away and has no more power over him. Each one will break the law but once and for ever; and that will end his trouble with nature._x000d_ Governments, societies, etc. are comparative evils. All societies are based on bad generalisation. The moment you form yourselves into an organissation, you begin to hate everybody outside of that organisation. When you join an organisation, you are putting bounds upon yourself, you are limiting your own freedom. The greatest goodness is the highest freedom. Our aim should be to allow the individual to move towards this freedom. More of goodness, less of artificial laws. Such laws are not laws at all. If it were a law, it could not be broken. The fact that these so-called laws are broken, shows clearly that they are not laws. A law is that which cannot be broken._x000d_ Whenever you suppress a thought, it is simply pressed down out of sight, in a coil like a spring, only to spring out again at a moment's notice, with all the pent-up force resulting from the suppression, and do in a few moments what it would have done in a much longer period._x000d_ Every ounce of pleasure brings its pound of pain. It is the same energy that at one time manifests itself as pleasure, at another time as pain. As soon as one set of sensations stops, another begins. But in some cases, in more advanced persons, one may have two, yea, even a hundred different thoughts entering into active operation at the same time._x000d_ Mind is action of its own nature. Mind-activity means creation. The thought is followed by the word, and the word by the form. All of this creating will have to stop, both mental and physical, before the mind can reflect the soul.