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Bertrand Russell
A Free Man's Worship
Introduction
As mankind drew nearer the twentieth century, we find an atmosphere that called for
total freedom of the mind and spirit. The age of religion seemed to be drawing to a
close. Even the morality derived from religion seemed to be receding into the
background. The achievements of modern science, that confirmed the validity of the
methods of free inquiry and verification through experience, provided the needed,
leverage for securing a freedom undreamt of when religion reigned supreme among
men and society.
In fact, the spirit of freedom had begun in the early seventeenth century to
assert i
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Kireet Joshi/English/The Aim of Life/The Sermon on the Mount.htm
Sermon on the Mount
Introduction
Jesus Christ's1 personality is indescribable. One cannot but be deeply attracted to
this enigmatic, gentle, yet powerful figure. In the past, questions were raised as to
whether his life is not mainly a fiction, a legend constructed around a much lesser
personality. But today there seems to be a consensus that Jesus not only existed, but
that he was truly as great as the accounts of his life portray him. Jesus has been
described variously as a "true man of God", as the "Son of God", and even as what
in India is called an Avatar. Whether or not Christ was quite similar to the person
represented in the Gospels is perh
The Aim of Life
An Overview
In the course of the history of human endeavour, there have emerged four
main theories of the aim of life in accordance with four different
conceptions of truth of existence. These may be called the supracosmic,
the cosmic and terrestrial, the supraterrestrial or other-worldly, and the
integral or synthetic or composite. Human tendencies are complex and
move often in various directions simultaneously. This explains why different aims of life are frequently pursued in some kind of ordered or
disordered combination. Genuine integration or synthesis is rather rare.
I
The supracosmic view
Swami Vivekananda
Have You seen God ?
Introduction
Described as "the soul of puissance if ever there was one, a very lion among men"
he who came to be known the world over as Swami Vivekananda lived for only 39
years. He was born on January 12, 1863, and named Narendra Nath. His father
Vishwanath Datta, was a well-known Calcutta attorney, and his mother,
Bhuvaneshwari, was known as a highly intelligent woman. Narendra Nath' s early
years were spent in a home characterised by purity and truthfulness. In his boyhood
Narendra showed remarkable capacities of intellect, powers of concentration and
qualities of courage, self-confidence and resourcefulne
PREFACE
There are states and states of consciousness; there are profundities and
Widenesses; there are heights over heights. To discover them one has to
enlarge and explore ever-widening possibilities of psychological experience.
In the depths of the being we may begin to integrate the threads and complexities of
what we are and can become. It is there, perhaps, rather than in books or preachings,
that we may begin to perceive and live what precisely is our aim of life. Free from
dogmas and fixed beliefs, in the purity of experience, we may hope to discover the
answer to the all-important questions: what am I to do? What role do I have to play
in the vast and mysterious universe?
The Mother
The Ascent to Truth
Introduction
The Mother was born in Paris on February 21,
1878, in a very materialistic, upper middle class family. She completed a
thorough education of music, painting and higher mathematics. A student of the
French painter Gustave Moreau, she befriended the great Impressionist artists of
the time. She later became acquainted with Max Theon, an enigmatic character
with extraordinary occult powers who, for the first time, gave her a coherent
explanation of the spontaneous experiences occurring since her childhood, and
who taught her occultism during two long visits to his estate in Algeria.
In 1914 she
HOME
The World as I see It
Introduction
The man who became a world-famous scientist during his own lifetime did not do
well at school. Albert Einstein's teacher wrote that he "could not be expected to
make a success of anything. "1 In fact, he was late in learning to walk and did not
speak fluently until he was nine. He later wrote that at the age of five he had been
stirred by the mystery of a compass and he said:
At the age of twelve I experienced a second wonder of a totally different nature in a
little book dealing with Euclidean plane geometry... Here were assertions, as for
example, the intersection of the three altitudes of a triangle in
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Kireet Joshi/English/The Aim of Life/Submission to the Will of the Supreme.htm
One of the first surah, or chapters, of the Koran in a
manuscript produced in the 16th century
Submission to the Will
of the Supreme
Introduction
The Koran is a transcript of the messages revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the
Angel Gabriel. These revelations were supernaturally received, in states of trance,
over a considerable number of years intermittently, the first dating from about AD
610, and the last shortly before Muhammad's passing away in AD 632.
The quintessence of Muhammad's teaching is that there is one God, who transcends
the world, and that the aim of life is to commit oneself to Him and to submit
t
Resource name: /E-Library/Disciples/Kireet Joshi/English/The Aim of Life/Proofs of the Existence of God and of the Human Soul.htm
Rene Descartes
Proofs of the Existence of God
and of the Human Soul
Introduction
Pursuit of truth is easily acknowledged
to be an ideal for every thinking and living
being. But what is truth and how can it be pursued? This has been debated
through
the centuries. What is claimed to be true by some is opposed by others. Some
believe
that truth is what our physical senses perceive; some others believe that truth
is what
our reasoning mind comes to conceive as real; some others believe that truth can
be
known neither by the senses nor by the reasoning intellect; according to them,
truth
is given to us through