Q: May we have some general rules for psychic success?

Vivekandanda's Answer: These are the stages through which we have to pass, and all those who persevere will succeed. Give up all argumentation and other distractions. Is there anything in this dry intellectual jargon? It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. These things have to be realized. Will talking do that? So give up all vain talk. Read only those books which have been written by persons who have had realization.

Q: We are so unaware of ourselves! I appreciate the encouragement offered by these principles, for there is certainly nothing encouraging in the offerings of the exterior world.

A: A few golden apples are rolled, and the world scrambles after them. You were never bound by laws. Nature never had a bond for you . . .We have placed ourselves in this net, and will have to get out . . . Never forget this is only a momentary state, and that we have to pass through it.

Q: How is a higher truth communicated to receptive minds?

A: The pure man . . . has the power of bringing it into a certain state of vibration, which can be conveyed to others, arousing in them a similar vibration. You see that in everyday actions. I am talking to you. What am I trying to do? I am, so to say, bringing my mind to a certain state of vibration, and the more I succeed in bringing it to that state, the more you will be affected by what I say. All of you know that the day I am more enthusiastic the more you enjoy the lecture.

Q: Please start us towards exploring this country of mental powers.

A: The first lesson, then, is to sit for some time and let the mind run on. The mind is bubbling up all the time. It is like that monkey jumping about. Let the monkey jump as much as he can, you simply watch and wait. Knowledge is power says the proverb, and that is true. Until you know what the mind is doing you cannot control it. Give it the full length of the reins; many most hideous thoughts may come into it; you will be astonished that it was possible for you to think such thoughts. But you will find that each day the mind's vagaries are becoming less and less violent, that each day it is becoming calmer . . until at last it will be under perfect control, but we must patiently practice every day.

Q: People usually attribute their unhappiness to superficial causes, like lack of money. Will you supply us with a deep and real reason?

A: The cause of misery is the clash between the different forces of nature, one dragging one way, and another dragging another, rendering permanent happiness impossible.

Q: A previous point of yours has given me unusual encouragement, so I would like it repeated. You said that only when our world falls apart do we have incentive for finding a new and real world.

A: It is only when everything, even love, fails, that, with a flash, man finds out how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he catches a glimpse . . . of the beyond. It is only by giving up this world that the other comes; never through holding on to this one.

Q: The mystics teach the existence of great power within each man. Why, then, do we not see it?

A: It is true that all knowledge is within ourselves, but this has to be called forth by another knowledge. Although the capacity to know is inside us, it must be called out.

Q: What do we need to know about the nature of true self-strength?

A: It is the greatest manifestation of power to be calm. It is easy to be active. Let the reins go, and the horses will drag you down. Any one can do that, but he who can stop the plunging horses is the strong man. Which requires the greater strength, letting go, or restraining? The calm man is not the man who is dull . . . Activity is the manifestation of the lower strength, calmness of the superior strength.

Q: What is the major turning point in our upward climb?

A: While we are aware of thirsting after knowledge, we begin to seek here and there, wherever we think we can get some truth, and, failing to find it we become dissatisfied and seek in a fresh direction. All search is vain, until we begin to perceive that knowledge is within ourselves . . . that we must help ourselves . . . Then we may know that the sun is rising, that the morning is breaking for us, and, taking courage, we must persevere until the goal is reached.

Q: How do we lose our natural power to solve problems and how can we regain it?

A: Every reaction in the form of hatred or evil is so much loss to the mind, and every evil thought or deed or hatred, or any thought of reaction, if it is controlled, will be laid in our favour. It is not that we lose by thus restraining ourselves, we are gaining infinitely more than we suspect . . . it is so much good energy stored up in our favour; that piece of energy will be converted into the higher powers.

Q: Please comment in general on freedom from anger.

A: When I am angry my whole mind has become a huge wave of anger. I feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it, but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get down below. A man says something very harsh to me, and I begin to feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on till I am perfectly angry, and forget myself, identify myself with anger. When he first began to abuse me I still thought, 'I am going to be angry.' Anger was one thing and I was another, but when I became angry, I was anger. These feeling have to be controlled in the germ, the root, in their fine forms, before even we have become conscious that they are acting on us.

Q: My class is making progress with several elementary lessons on self-liberty, but may we also have a more difficult one for study?

A: The internal nature is much higher than the external. And much more difficult to grapple with, much more difficult to control; therefore he who has conquered the internal nature controls the whole universe; it becomes his servant.

Q: Please review an area where we have gone wrong, but which we can make right.

A: We are all taking that which is bad for that which is good, and that which is a dream for that which is real. Soul is the only reality, and we have forgotten it.

Q: Please explain how self-command provides freedom from exterior pressures and conflicts.

A: This external world is but the gross form of the internal, or subtle. The finer is always the cause, and the grosser the effect. So the external world is the effect, and the internal the cause. In the same way external forces are simply the grosser parts, of which the internal forces are the finer. One who has discovered and learned how to manipulate the internal forces will get the whole of nature under his control . . . He will be master of the whole of nature, internal and external.

Q: What has carried us to the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves, and how can we change and elevate everything?

Vivekandanda's Answer: Whatever we are now, is the result of our acts and thoughts in the past; and whatever we shall be in the future, will be the result of what we think and do now . . . When it comes, the higher powers and possibilities of the soul are quickened, spiritual life is awakened, growth is animated.

Q: What is a method for winning the self-control necessary for creating exterior betterment?

A: It is necessary to study the mind itself, mind studying mind. We know that there is the power of the mind called reflective. I am talking to you; at the same time I am standing aside, as it were, a second person, and knowing and hearing what I am talking. You work and think at the same time, another portion of your mind stands by and sees what you are talking. The powers of the mind should be concentrated and turned back upon itself, and as the darkest places reveal their secrets before the penetrating rays of the sun, so will the concentrated mind penetrate its own innermost secrets . . . It will all be revealed to us.

Q: These are the truths I have been searching for all my life. Now I need preliminary guidance.

A: If you want to be an astronomer you must go to the observatory, take a telescope, study the stars and planets, and then you will become an astronomer. Each science must have its own methods. I could preach you thouands of sermons but they would not make you religious, until you first practiced the method.

Q: A friend of mine is becoming more and more interested in higher truth, but has trouble understanding why his progress is so slow. What might I tell him?

A: When a farmer is irrigating his field the water is already in the canals, only there are gates which keep the water in. The farmer opens these gates, and the water flows in by itself, by the law of gravitation. So, all human progress and power are already in everything; this perfection is every man's nature, only it is barred in and prevented from taking its proper course. If anyone can take the bar off, in rushes nature. Then the man attains the powers which are his already.

Q: Please explain the difference between a receptive mind and a gullible mind.

Vivekandanda's Answer: There is an old simile in India that if you place a cup of mild before a Raja Hamsa (swan) with plenty of water in it, he will take all the milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is of value in knowledge, and leave the dross.

Q: We are afraid because we seem so small when compared to the mighty universe.

A: What frightens you? Stand then and be free. If the sun come down, the moons crumble into dust, systems after systems are hurled into annihilation, that is that to you? Stand as a rock; you are indestructible . . . so break this chain and be free for ever. What frightens you, what holds you down? It is only ignorance and delusion; nothing else can bind you . . . Therefore, if you dare, stand on that.

Q: Please comment upon the winning of spiritual insight.

A: As to the thirst after knowledge, it is an old law that we all get whatever we want. None of us can get anything other than what we fix our hearts upon . . . The success sometimes may come immediately, but we must be ready to wait patiently even for what may look like an infinite length of time. The student who sets out with such a spirit of perseverance will surely find success and realization at last.

Q: There must be a wisely efficient way to achieve the maximum benefit from these ideas in minimum time.

A: Ramakrishna used to tell a story of some men who went into a mango orchard and busied themselves in counting the leaves, the twigs, and the branches, examining their colour, comparing their size, and noting down everything most carefully, and then got up a learned discussion on each of these topics . . .But one of them, more sensible than the others, did not care for all these things, and instead thereof, began to eat the mango fruit. And was he not wise? So leave this counting of leaves and twigs and this notetaking to others . . . You can never once see a strong spiritual man among these 'leaf-counters'.

Q: Can we conclude that a spirit of authentic love will attract all that we truly need in life?

A: Those who come to seek truth with such a spirit of love and veneration, to them the Lord of Truth reveals the most wonderful things regarding Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Q: A group of us are now aware of how we were led down false spiritual paths, but also realize that our gullibility was our own fault. We want to be right, not seem right.

A: One ounce of the practice of righteousness and of spiritual self-realization outweighs tons and tons of frothy talk and nonsensical sentiments. Show us one, but one, gigantic spiritual genius growing out of all this dry dust of ignorance and fanaticism . . . open the windows of your hearts to the clear light of truth, and sit like children at the feet of those who know what they are talking about . . . Let us then listen attentively to what they say.