A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"244 UNITY IN DIVERSITY.speak of this mortal fire. He shining, everything else shines.It is His light that they have borrowed, and He is shiningthem."through Here is another beautiful sentence. Thoseof you who have been in India and have heard of theBanyan tree, how it comes from one root, and spreads fararound, will understand. He is that Banyan tree ;His root is above, and has branched out until it hasbecome this Universe, and however far it extends everyone of these fangs and branches is connected. He isthe root.Various heavens are spokenof in the Brahmanaportion of the Yedas, and the idea of the Upanishads impliesgiving up the idea of going to heaven. All the work isnot in this heaven, or that heaven, it is here in the soul ;places do not signify anything. Here is another passagewhich shows these different states. In the heaven of theforefathers, as a man sees things in a dream, so the realtruth is seen." As in dreams we see things hazy and notso distinct, so we see things there. There is another heavencalled the Gandharva ;there it is still less distinct ;as aman sees his own reflection in the water, so is the realityseen there. The highest heaven that the Hindus conceiveis called the Brahmaloka, and in this the truth is seen muchmore clearly but not quite distinctly, like light and shade ;but as a man sees his own face in a mirror, perfect, distinct,and clear, so is the truth shining in the soul of man. Thehighest heaven, therefore, is here in our own souls, thegreatest temple of worship is the human soul, greater thanall heavens, says the Yedanta, for in no heaven anywherecan we understand the reality as distinctly and clearly ashere in this life, in our own soul. You may change places,justas we have seen. I have thought while in India thatthe cave would give clearer vision. Then I found it was