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Prabuddha Bharata 2 THE ROAD TO WISDOM Swami Vivekananda on Steps to Enlightenment he task before us is vast; and first and Tforemost, we must seek to control the vast mass of sunken thoughts which have become automatic with us. The evil deed is, no doubt, on the conscious plane; but the cause which produced the evil deed was far beyond in the realms of the unconscious, unseen, and therefore more potent. Practical psychology directs conscious. Just as unconscious work is first of all its energies in controlling the beneath consciousness, so there is another unconscious, and we know that we can work which is above consciousness. When do it. Why? Because we know the cause this superconscious state is reached, man of the unconscious is the conscious; the becomes free and divine; death becomes unconscious thoughts are the submerged immortality, weakness becomes infinite millions of our old conscious thoughts, old power, and iron bondage becomes liberty. conscious actions become petrified—we That is the goal, the infinite realm of do not look at them, do not know them, the superconscious. So, therefore, we have forgotten them. But mind you, if the see now that there must be a twofold power of evil is in the unconscious, so work. First, by the proper working of the also is the power of good. We have many Ida and the Pingala, which are the two things stored in us as in a pocket. We existing ordinary currents, to control the have forgotten them, do not even think subconscious action; and secondly, to go of them, and there are many of them, beyond even consciousness. The books rotting, becoming positively dangerous; say that he alone is the Yogi who, after they come forth, the unconscious causes long practice in self-concentration, has which kill humanity. True psychology attained to this truth. The Sushumna would, therefore, try to bring them under now opens and a current which never the control of the conscious. The great before entered into this new passage will task is to revive the whole man, as it find its way into it, and gradually ascend were, in order to make him the complete to (what we call in figurative language) master of himself. Even what we call the the different lotus centres, till at last it automatic action of the organs within reaches the brain. Then the Yogi becomes our bodies, such as the liver etc., can be conscious of what he really is, God made to obey our commands. This is the Himself. first part of the study, the control of the rom The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, unconscious. The next is to go beyond the F(Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2016), 2.34-5. Vol. 125, No. 5 RABUDDHA 3 May 2020 P HARATA B or AWAKENED INDIA Managing Editor A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896 Swami Shuddhidananda Editor Swami Narasimhananda Contents Associate Editor and Design Swami Shantachittananda Traditional Wisdom 439 Production Editor Swami Chidekananda This Month 440 Cover Design Editorial: Rooted in the Truth 441 Subhabrata Chandra An Afternoon with Artists on Copley Square 443 Internet Edition Coordination Diane Marshall Swami Jnanishananda Circulation The Pot is God: Sri Ramakrishna’s Vijnana Vedanta 448 Indrajit Sinha and the Art of Paul Cézanne Tapas Jana Steven F Walker Editorial Office Religion and Worldly Duties 452 Prabuddha Bharata Advaita Ashrama Swami Pavitrananda PO Mayavati, Via Lohaghat The Psychology of the Gita 458 Dt Champawat · 262 524 Uttarakhand, India Swami Narasimhananda Tel: 91 · 96909 98179 Advaita Vedanta: Swami Vivekananda 465 [email protected] [email protected] and the Global Context Swami Satyapriyananda Printed and Published by Swami Vedavratananda Young Eyes: Please Stop Being Mobile 471 Publication Office on Mobile Always Advaita Ashrama Balabodha: Papa 473 5 Dehi Entally Road Kolkata · 700 014 Traditional Tales: The Floating Stone 474 West Bengal, India Tel: 91 · 33 · 2289 0898 / 2286 6450 Reviews 476 [email protected] Manana 480 Internet Edition www.advaitaashrama.org Reports 482 —No bleed here— 4 Subscribe to Prabuddha Bharata 5 Become a Patron Subscriber and support the rich legacy left to all of us by Swami Vivekananda; patrons’ names are published in Prabuddha Bharata. 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