VIHE-Personality-Development-Training-program-17/08/2025-21/09/2025 

                                                                   PersonalityDEVELOPMENT

                                         Swami Vivekananda

INTRODUCTION

What Is Personality?

A CCORDING TO THE Cambridge Inter-

national Dictionary of English, ‘your

personality is the type of person you are,

which is shown by the way you behave, feel

and think.’ Personality, according to the

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary

English, is the ’whole nature or character of

a person.’

How a person behaves, feels and thinks,

how he conducts himself in a given set of

circumstances is largely determined by the

state of his mind. Mere external appearance

or a person’s speech or mannerisms are only

fringes of one’s personality. They do not

8 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

reflect the real personality. Personality

development in the real sense refers to

deeper levels of a person. So a study of our

personality should start from a clear grasp

of the nature of our mind, and how it

functions.

Necessity to know our mind :

We intend to do many things—make

resolutions to cultivate good habits, to kick

certain bad habits, to study with concen-

tration, to do something with a con-

centrated mind. Very often our mind rebels,

forcing us to beat a retreat from our efforts

at implementing our resolutions. A book is

open before us, and our eyes are open. But

the mind has started wandering, thinking

about some past events or some future

plans. The same thing happens when we

sit for a few minutes trying to pray or think

of a divine name or form. Says Swami

Vivekananda: ’Free! We who cannot for a

moment govern our own minds, nay,

cannot hold our minds on a subject, focus

it on a point to the exclusion of everything

INTRODUCTION 9

else for a moment! Yet we call ourselves free.

Think of it!1

According to the Bhagavad Gita, the

undisciplined mind acts as our enemy,

whereas a trained mind acts as our friend.2

So we need to have a clear idea of the

mechanism of our mind. Can we train it to

obey us, to cooperate with us? How can it

contribute to the development of our

personality?

The fourfold functions of the mind:

The human mind has four basic fun-

ctions. This can be illustrated by an example:

suppose I meet a person whom I had met

somewhere, say, about ten years before. I try

to recollect when and where I met him and

who is he. From the inner recesses of my mind

there begins a process of scanning, as it were,

to check if there are any events stored there

connected with the person. Suddenly I am

able to recognize the person as so and so and

finally say ’he is the same person I met in such

and such a place,’ etc. I now have a firm

knowledge about the person.

10 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Analysing the above example, we are

able to discern four functions of the mind:

Memory: The storehouse of memory

and impressions of our past experiences

presents various possibilities before the

mind. This storehouse is called chitta. It is in

this storehouse that the impressions of our

thoughts and actions—good and bad—are

stored. The sum total of these impressions

determine our character. This chitta, again,

is what is known as our subconscious mind.

Deliberation and Conceptualization:

Not yet sure, the mind examines the many

options presented before it. It deliberates on

several things. This faculty of the mind is

called manas. Imagination and formation of

concepts are also functions of the manas.

Determination and Decision-making:

Buddhi is the faculty responsible for decision-

making. It has the capacity to judge the pros

and cons of things and find what is more

desirable. It is also the discriminative faculty

in a person, which enables him to discriminate

INTRODUCTION 11

between the real and the unreal, between

what is to be done and what is to be avoided,

what is morally right and what is wrong. It is

also the seat of will-power so essential for

personality development and hence this

aspect of the mind concerns us the most.

’I’ Consciousness: Appropriating to

oneself all physical and mental activities eg,

‘I eat’, ‘I see’, ‘I talk’, ‘I hear’, ‘I think’, ‘I am

confused’, etc., is called ahamkara or ’I’

consciousness. As long as the ’I’ identifies

itself with the undisciplined body-mind

complex, human life is dictated by events

and circumstances of the world; we become

happy with pleasurable events, and mis-

erable with adverse circumstances. More the

mind gets refined and disciplined, more does

one get to know the real source of ’I’

consciousness. Correspondingly, a person

becomes more balanced and equipoised in

his daily life. Such a person is no longer

swayed by any event or circumstances of life.

These four aspects of the mind, viz

manas, buddhi, chitta and ahamkara, are not

12 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

watertight compartments. It is the same

mind called by different names based on its

functions.

More about the mind:

The Katha Upanishad3 describes human

personality with the help of a chariot allegory.

’Our ’I’ is represented by the master of the

chariot; the body is the chariot and the

buddhi the charioteer. The manas is repre-

sented by the reins to which are yoked the

horses representing the sense organs—ears,

skin, eyes, tongue and nose—which are the

five windows in a human being that give him

or her the knowledge of objects in the world.

The road on which the chariot travels is

represented by the sense objects. The human

being who identifies himself or herself with

this body-mind system is said to be the

enjoyer of objects or the fruits of actions.

If the horses are not broken and if the

charioteer is asleep, the chariot cannot reach

its destination. It can even overturn and spell

the death of the master. Similarly, if the sense

organs are not disciplined, and if the power

INTRODUCTION 13

of discrimination lies dormant, one cannot

reach the goal of human life.

On the other hand, if the horses are

broken and the charioteer is wide-awake, the

chariot reaches its destination. Even so, if the

buddhi is wide awake, and if the sensory system

together with the mind is disciplined and

controlled, a human being can reach the goal

of his life. What is that goal? We will come to it

shortly. Another important activity of the mind

that concerns personality development is our

emotions. More the emotions are under

control, healthier becomes one’s personality.

Emotions can be broadly classified into two

types, viz attraction and repulsion. Love,

admiration, aspiration, sympathy, joy, ven-

eration, pride and the like indicate attraction.

Hate, anger, fear, sorrow, jealousy, disgust,

shame, etc., are of the nature of repulsion. As

long as one is entangled with the undisciplined

mind, one’s personality does not really develop.

Buddhi, the charioteer, serves as an effective

instrument of self-development by controlling

the emotions and raising the higher self from

the hold of the lower mind.

14 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

What is character?

Every action and thought of ours leaves

an impression in our mind. These im-

pressions determine how we behave at a

given moment, how we respond to a given

situation. The sum total of all our im-

pressions is what determines our character.

The past has determined the present. Even

so the present—our present thoughts and

actions—will shape our future. This is a key

principle governing personality develop-

ment.

What activates the body-mind system?

This is an important question, the

answer to which will help us have better

knowledge of ourselves. This question

engaged the attention of ancient Indian seers

and sages. They experimented with them-

selves—their sensory and mental appar-

atus—and after a disciplined quest they

found out that there is a divine element in

human beings, which is the Mind of the

mind, Eye of the eyes, Ear of the ears and

INTRODUCTION 15

Speech of the speech.4 It is this divinity which

constitutes the real ’I’ and the eternal element

in our personality. This divinity survives

physical dissolution of the body. This divinity

remains latent in us as long as we identify

ourselves with our body-mind and the

sensory system. The goal of life, according

to the scriptures and the great ones, is to

manifest this hidden divinity.

What was the central message of Swami

Vivekananda?

Swami Vivekananda’s lectures, talks,

letters, poems—his life’s work—is published

in nine volumes entitled The Complete Works

of Swami Vivekananda. Is there any central

message of Swamiji that runs through the

pages of these nine volumes? Let us hear

Swamiji himself: ’My ideal indeed can be put

into a few words and that is: to preach unto

mankind their divinity, and how to make it

manifest in every movement of life.’5 Man’s

inherent divinity was Swamiji’s central

message. The following famous quotation of

Swamiji can be our mantra for personality

16 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

development: ’Each soul is potentially divine.

The goal is to manifest this Divinity within

by controlling nature, external and internal.’6

Swamiji was never tired of rousing

people to be conscious of their inherent

divinity and perfection. He wanted this

divinity to manifest in our day-to-day lives.

In fact, he held this manifestation of divinity

as the sole index of civilization of human-

kind:

”A nation may conquer the waves,

control the elements, develop the utilitarian

problems of life seemingly to the utmost limits,

and yet not realize that in the individual, the

highest type of civilization is found in him

who has learned to conquer self. 7

”This universe is simply a gymnasium

in which the soul is taking exercise; and after

these exercises we become gods. So the value

of everything is to be decided by how far it

is a manifestation of God. Civilization is the

manifestation of that divinity in man.”8

This divinity in us is the repository of

eternal existence, eternal knowledge and

eternal bliss. The more it manifests, the more

INTRODUCTION 17

we experience abiding happiness and get

supreme knowledge.

Strengthening of will-power, the essence of per-

sonality development:

The divine core of our personality is

covered, as it were, by five dimensions:

• Physical dimension consisting of our

body and senses.

• Energy dimension which performs

digestion of food, circulation of blood, res-

piration and other activities in the body.

• Mental dimension characterized by the

activities of the mind, like, thinking, feeling

and emotions, etc.

• Intellectual dimension characterized by

the determinative faculty in a person. This

is also the seat of discrimination and will-

power.

• Blissful dimension experienced as bliss

during deep sleep.

Each succeeding dimension is subtler

than the preceding one and pervades it.

2

18 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Personality development implies pro-

gressive identification with higher dim-

ensions of personality. Thus a person

identified only with the physical dimension

without exercising his higher mental

faculties, lives not far different from animals,

whose pleasure and pain are restricted to the

sensory system.

Development involves struggle with

one’s lower mind characterized by desires,

old habits, wrong tendencies, impulses and

bad impressions. The lesser we identify with

the lower mind, and the more we identify

with the higher mind, and exercise our buddhi

(discrimination), the more developed will

our personality be. This involves struggle to

grapple with one’s mind and its old habits,

to cultivate new and wholesome ones. But

this struggle is the greatest of all struggles in

that it makes us civilized in the real sense of

the term by manifesting our divinity and

thereby our hidden perfection.

INTRODUCTION 19

Some essential qualities for personality devel-

opment:

Faith in Oneself: Swamiji held faith in

one’s potential divinity as the sheet anchor

of personality development. Faith in God

came next only to faith in oneself. If one

believes that one’s real nature is the spirit—

not the body or the mind—one would be a

better individual with strong character.

Think Positive Thoughts: Swamiji

decried, in no uncertain terms, weakness in

human beings. Positive, wholesome thoughts

based on our inherent divinity are essential

for a strong character. ’Go on doing good,

thinking holy thoughts continuously, that is

the only way to suppress base impressions...

Character is repeated habits and repeated

habits alone can reform character.’9 Further,

according to Swamiji, the only sin is to think

of oneself and others as weak.

Attitude towards Failures and Mis-

takes: Swamiji advocated upholding the

ideal once again even if a person failed a

20 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

thousand times. He appreciated committing

mistakes and learning from them rather than

leading an inert existence like a wall, which

cannot even tell a lie.

Self-reliance: Man is the maker of his

own destiny, said Swamiji: ’We are res-

ponsible for what we are, and whatever we

wish ourselves to be, we have the power to

make ourselves.’10

Renunciation and Service: Swamiji

held selfless service as a paramount means

to character development. This, coupled

with renunciation of selfishness and desire

for the fruits of action, was considered by

Swamiji as the twin ideal of our nation.

’Intensify her in those channels,’ said he, ’and

the rest will take care of itself.’11

This booklet:

This booklet is a humble attempt to

present Swamiji’s ideas on personality

development spread over the nine volumes

of his Complete Works. We hope that a perusal

of this booklet inspires our youth to make a

INTRODUCTION 21

deep study of Swamiji and his works, and

awakens in them a desire to mould their

character and develop their personality. A

noble character and developed personality

will ensure excellence in one’s chosen field,

and contribute to individual and national

development. Says Swamiji: ’Teach your-

selves, teach every one his real nature, call

upon the sleeping soul and see how it

awakes. Power will come, glory will come,

goodness will come, purity will come, and

everything that is excellent will come when

this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious

activity.’12

It Is Personality That Matters

WHAT WE WANT IS to see the man who is

harmoniously developed . . . great in

heart, great in mind, [great in deed] . . .. We

want the man whose heart feels intensely the

miseries and sorrows of the world . . .. And

[we want] the man who not only can feel

but can find the meaning of things, who

delves deeply into the heart of nature and

understanding. [We want] the man who will

not even stop there, [but] who wants to work

out [the feeling and meaning by actual

deeds]. Such a combination of head, heart,

and hand is what we want.1

You see what is happening all around

us. The world is one of influence. Part of our

IT IS PERSONALITY THAT MATTERS 23

energy is used up in the preservation of our

own bodies. Beyond that, every particle of

our energy is day and night being used in

influencing others. Our bodies, our virtues,

our intellect, and our spirituality, all these

are continuously influencing others; and so,

conversely, we are being influenced by them.

This is going on all around us. Now, to take

a concrete example. A man comes; you know

he is very learned, his language is beautiful,

and he speaks to you by the hour; but he

does not make any impression. Another man

comes, and he speaks a few words, not well

arranged, ungrammatical perhaps; all the

same, he makes an immense impression.

Many of you have seen that. So it is evident

that words alone cannot always produce an

impression. Words, even thoughts, con-

tribute only one-third of the influence in

making an impression, the man, two-thirds.

What you call the personal magnetism of the

man—that is what goes out and impresses

you.

In our families there are the heads; some

of them are successful, others are not. Why?

24 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

We complain of others in our failures. The

moment I am unsuccessful, I say, so-and-so

is the cause of the failure. In failure, one does

not like to confess one’s own faults and

weaknesses. Each person tries to hold

himself faultless and lay the blame upon

somebody or something else, or even on bad

luck. When heads of families fail, they should

ask themselves, why it is that some persons

manage a family so well and others do not.

Then you will find that the difference is

owing to the man—his presence, his per-

sonality.

Coming to great leaders of mankind, we

always find that it was the personality of the

man that counted. Now, take all the great

authors of the past, the great thinkers. Really

speaking, how many thoughts have they

thought? Take all the writings that have been

left to us by the past leaders of mankind; take

each one of their books and appraise them.

The real thoughts, new and genuine, that

have been thought in this world up to this

time, amount to only a handful. Read in their

books the thoughts they have left to us. The

IT IS PERSONALITY THAT MATTERS 25

authors do not appear to be giants to us, and

yet we know that they were great giants in

their days. What made them so? Not simply

the thoughts they thought, neither the books

they wrote, nor the speeches they made, it

was something else that is now gone, that is

their personality. As I have already remarked,

the personality of the man is two-thirds, and

his intellect, his words, are but one-third. It

is the real man, the personality of the man,

that runs through us. Our actions are but

effects. Actions must come when the man is

there; the effect is bound to follow the cause.

The ideal of all education, all training,

should be this man-making. But, instead of

that, we are always trying to polish up the

outside. What use in polishing up the outside

when there is no inside? The end and aim of

all training is to make the man grow. The

man who influences, who throws his magic,

as it were, upon his fellow-beings, is a

dynamo of power, and when that man is

ready, he can do anything and everything

he likes; that personality put upon anything

will make it work.2

Laws of Personality

Development

THE SCIENCE OF YOGA claims that it has

discovered the laws which develop this

personality, and by proper attention to those

laws and methods, each one can grow and

strengthen his personality. This is one of the

great practical things, and this is the secret

of all education. This has a universal

application. In the life of a householder, in

the life of the poor, the rich, the man of

business, the spiritual man, in every one’s

life, it is a great thing, the strengthening of

this personality. There are laws, very fine,

which are behind the physical laws, as we

know. That is to say, there are no such

LAWS OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT 27

realities as a physical world, a mental world,

a spiritual world. Whatever is, is one. Let us

say, it is a sort of tapering existence; the

thickest part is here, it tapers and becomes

finer and finer. The finest is what we call

spirit; the grossest, the body. And just as it is

here in microcosm, it is exactly the same in

the macrocosm. The universe of ours is

exactly like that; it is the gross external

thickness, and it tapers into something finer

and finer until it becomes God.

We also know that the greatest power

is lodged in the fine, not the coarse. We see

a man take up a huge weight, we see his

muscles swell, and all over his body we see

signs of exertion, and we think the muscles

are powerful things. But it is the thin thread-

like things, the nerves, which bring power

to the muscles; the moment one of these

threads is cut off from reaching the muscles,

they are not able to work at all. These tiny

nerves bring the power from something still

finer, and that again in its turn brings it from

something finer still—thought, and so on.

So, it is the fine that is really the seat of power.

28 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Of course we can see the movements in the

gross; but when fine movements take place,

we cannot see them. When a gross thing

moves, we catch it, and thus, we naturally

identify movement with things which are

gross. But all the power is really in the fine.

We do not see any movement in the fine,

perhaps, because the movement is so intense

that we cannot perceive it. But if by any

science, any investigation, we are helped to

get hold of these finer forces which are the

cause of the expression, the expression itself

will be under control. There is a little bubble

coming from the bottom of a lake; we do not

see it coming all the time, we see it only

when it bursts on the surface; so, we can

perceive thoughts only after they develop a

great deal, or after they become actions. We

constantly complain that we have no control

over our actions, over our thoughts. But how

can we have it? If we can get control over

the fine movements, if we can get hold of

thought at the root, before it has become

thought, before it has become action, then it

would be possible for us to control the

LAWS OF PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT 29

whole. Now, if there is a method by which

we can analyse, investigate, understand, and

finally grapple with those finer powers, the

finer causes, then alone is it possible to have

control over ourselves, and the man who has

control over his own mind assuredly will

have control over every other mind. That is

why purity and morality have been always

the object of religion; a pure, moral man has

control of himself. And all minds are the

same, different parts of one Mind. He who

knows one lump of clay has known all the

clay in the universe. He who knows and

controls his own mind knows the secret of

every mind and has power over every mind.

Now, a good deal of our physical evil

we can get rid of, if we have control over the

fine parts; a good many worries we can throw

off, if we have control over the fine move-

ments; a good many failures can be averted,

if we have control over these fine powers.1

Different Layers of Personality

THIS GROSS PART OF MAN, this body, in

which are the external instruments, is

called in Sanskrit, Sthula Sharira, the gross

body; behind it comes the series, beginning

with the organs, the mind, the intellect, the

egoism. These and the vital forces form a

compound which is called the fine body,

the Sukshma Sharira. These forces are

composed of very fine elements, so fine that

no amount of injury to this body can

destroy them; they survive all the shocks

given to this body. The gross body we see is

composed of gross material, and as such it

is always being renewed and changing

continuously. But the internal organs, the

DIFFERENT LAYERS OF PERSONALITY 31

mind, the intellect, and the egoism are

composed of the finest material, so fine that

they will endure for aeons and aeons. They

are so fine that they cannot be resisted by

anything; they can get through any obstruc-

tion. The gross body is non-intelligent, so

is the fine, being composed of fine matter.

Although one part is called mind, another

the intellect, and the third egoism, yet we

see at a glance that no one of them can be

the “Knower ”. None of them can be the

perceiver, the witness, the one for whom

action is made, and who is the seer of the

action. All these movements in the mind,

or the faculty of intellection, or egoism,

must be for some one else. These being

composed of fine matter cannot be self-

effulgent. Their luminosity cannot be in

themselves. This manifestation of the table,

for instance, cannot be due to any material

thing. Therefore there must be some one

behind them all, who is the real manifester,

the real seer, the real enjoyer and He in

Sanskrit is called the Atman, the Soul of

man, the real Self of man.1

32 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

The body is dying every minute. The

mind is constantly changing. The body is a

combination, and so is the mind, and as such

can never reach to a state beyond all change.

But beyond this momentary sheathing of

gross matter, beyond even the finer covering

of the mind is the Atman, the true Self of

man, the permanent, the ever free. It is his

freedom that is percolating through layers

of thought and matter, and, in spite of the

colourings of name and form, is ever

asserting its unshackled existence. It is his

deathlessness, his bliss, his peace, his divinity

that shines out and makes itself felt in spite

of the thickest layers of ignorance. He is the

real man, the fearless one, the deathless one,

the free.

Now freedom is only possible when no

external power can exert any influence,

produce any change. Freedom is only

possible to the being who is beyond all

conditions, all laws, all bondages of cause

and effect. In other words, the unchangeable

alone can be free and, therefore, immortal.

This Being, this Atman, this real Self of man,

DIFFERENT LAYERS OF PERSONALITY 33

the free, the unchangeable is beyond all

conditions, and as such, it has neither birth

nor death.2

Every human personality may be com-

pared to a glass globe. There is the same pure

white light—an emission of the divine

Being—in the centre of each, but the glass

being of different colours and thickness, the

rays assume diverse aspects in the trans-

mission. The equality and beauty of each

central flame is the same, and the apparent

inequality is only in the imperfection of the

temporal instrument of its expression. As we

rise higher and higher in the scale of being,

the medium becomes more and more

translucent.3

3

Man Is Divine

C HILDREN OF IMMORTAL BLISS—what a

sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me

to call you, brethren, by that sweet name—

heirs of immortal bliss—yea, the Hindu refuses

to call you sinners. Ye are the Children of God,

the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect

beings. Ye divinities on earth—sinners! It is a

sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on

human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake

off the delusion that you are sheep; you are

souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal;

ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is

your servant, not you the servant of matter.1

Even this world, this body and mind are

superstitions; what infinite souls you are!

MAN IS DIVINE 35

And to be tricked by twinkling stars! It is a

shameful condition. You are divinities; the

twinkling stars owe their existence to you.2

Everything that is strong, and good, and

powerful in human nature is the outcome of

that divinity, and though potential in many,

there is no difference between man and man

essentially, all being alike divine. There is, as

it were, an infinite ocean behind, and you and

I are so many waves, coming out of that

infinite ocean; and each one of us is trying

his best to manifest that infinite outside. So,

potentially, each one of us has that infinite

ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss as

our birthright, our real nature; and the

difference between us is caused by the greater

or lesser power to manifest that divine.3

This infinite power of the spirit, brought

to bear upon matter evolves material

development, made to act upon thought

evolves intellectuality, and made to act upon

itself makes of man a God.

Manifest the divinity within you, and

everything will be harmoniously arranged

around it.4

Pleasure Is Not the Goal

PLEASURE IS NOT THE GOAL of man, but

knowledge. Pleasure and happiness

come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose

that pleasure is the goal. The cause of all the

miseries we have in the world is that men

foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to

strive for. After a time man finds that it is

not happiness, but knowledge, towards

which he is going, and that both pleasure

and pain are great teachers, and that he

learns as much from evil as from good.

...Good and evil have an equal share in

moulding character, and in some instances

misery is a greater teacher than happiness.

In studying the great characters the world

PLEASURE IS NOT THE GOAL 37

has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority

of cases, it would be found that it was misery

that taught more than happiness, it was

poverty that taught more than wealth, it was

blows that brought out their inner fire more

than praise.1

Sense-happiness is not the goal of hu-

manity. Wisdom (Jnana) is the goal of all life.

We find that man enjoys his intellect more

than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see

that man enjoys his spiritual nature even

more than this rational nature. So the highest

wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge.

With this knowledge will come bliss. All

these things of this world are but the

shadows, the manifestations in the third or

fourth degree of the real Knowledge and

Bliss.2

Only the fools rush after sense-enjoy-

ments. It is easy to live in the senses. It is easier

to run in the old groove, eating and drinking;

but what these modern philosophers want to

tell you is to take these comfortable ideas and

put the stamp of religion on them. Such a

doctrine is dangerous. Death lies in the senses.

38 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Life on the plane of the Spirit is the only life,

life on any other plane is mere death; the

whole of this life can be only described as a

gymnasium. We must go beyond it to enjoy

real life.3

How to Change Our Character?

E VERY WORK THAT WE DO, every

movement of the body, every thought

that we think, leaves such an impression

on the mind-stuff, and even when such

impressions are not obvious on the surface,

they are sufficiently strong to work beneath

the surface, subconsciously. What we are

every moment is determined by the sum

total of these impressions on the mind. What

I am just at this moment is the effect of the

sum total of all the impressions of my past

life. This is really what is meant by character;

each man’s character is determined by the

sum total of these impressions. If good

impressions prevail, the character becomes

40 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

good; if bad, it becomes bad. If a man

continuously hears bad words, thinks bad

thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will

be full of bad impressions; and they will

influence his thought and work without his

being conscious of the fact. In fact, these

bad impressions are always working, and

their resultant must be evil, and that man

will be a bad man; he cannot help it. The

sum total of these impressions in him will

create the strong motive power for doing

bad actions. He will be like a machine in

the hands of his impressions, and they will

force him to do evil. Similarly, if a man

thinks good thoughts and does good works,

the sum total of these impressions will be

good; and they, in a similar manner, will

force him to do good even in spite of

himself. When a man has done so much

good work and thought so many good

thoughts that there is an irresistible

tendency in him to do good, in spite of

himself and even if he wishes to do evil, his

mind, as the sum total of his tendencies,

will not allow him to do so; the tendencies

HOW TO CHANGE OUR CHARACTER? 41

will turn him back; he is completely under

the influence of the good tendencies. When

such is the case, a man’s good character is

said to be established.1

If you really want to judge of the

character of a man, look not at his great

performances. Every fool may become a hero

at one time or another. Watch a man do his

most common actions; those are indeed the

things which will tell you the real character

of a great man. Great occasions rouse even

the lowest of human beings to some kind of

greatness, but he alone is the really great man

whose character is great always, the same

wherever he be.2

All the actions that we see in the world,

all the movements in human society, all the

works that we have around us, are simply

the display of thought, the manifestation of

the will of man. Machines or instruments,

cities, ships, or men-of-war, all these are

simply the manifestation of the will of man;

and this will is caused by character, and

character is manufactured by Karma. As is

Karma, so is the manifestation of the will.

42 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

The men of mighty will the world has

produced have all been tremendous work-

ers—gigantic souls, with wills powerful

enough to overturn worlds, wills they got

by persistent work, through ages, and ages.3

We are what our thoughts have made

us; so take care of what you think. Words

are secondary. Thoughts live, they travel far.

Each thought we think is tinged with our

own character, so that for the pure and holy

man, even his jests or abuse will have the

twist of his own love and purity and do

good.4

Great work requires great and persistent

effort for a long time. Neither need we trouble

ourselves if a few fail. It is in the nature of

things that many should fall, that troubles

should come, that tremendous difficulties

should arise, that selfishness and all the other

devils in the human heart should struggle

hard when they are about to be driven out

by the fire of spirituality. The road to the Good

is the roughest and steepest in the universe.

It is a wonder that so many succeed, no

HOW TO CHANGE OUR CHARACTER? 43

wonder that so many fall. Character has to

be established through a thousand stumbles.5

The mind, to have non-attachment,

must be clear, good, and rational. Why

should we practise? Because each action is

like the pulsations quivering over the surface

of the lake. The vibration dies out, and what

is left? The samskaras, the impressions. When

a large number of these impressions are left

on the mind, they coalesce and become a

habit. It is said, “Habit is second nature”, it

is first nature also, and the whole nature of

man; everything that we are is the result of

habit. That gives us consolation, because, if

it is only habit, we can make and unmake it

at any time. The samskaras are left by these

vibrations passing out of our mind, each one

of them leaving its result. Our character is

the sum-total of these marks, and according

as some particular wave prevails one takes

that tone. If good prevails, one becomes

good; if wickedness, one becomes wicked; if

joyfulness, one becomes happy. The only

remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all

the bad habits that have left their impressions

44 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

are to be controlled by good habits. Go on

doing good, thinking holy thoughts con-

tinuously; that is the only way to suppress

base impressions. Never say any man is

hopeless, because he only represents a

character, a bundle of habits, which can be

checked by new and better ones. Character

is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone

can reform character.6

Give up, renounce the world. Now we

are like dogs strayed into a kitchen and eating

a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest at

any moment some one may come and drive

them out. Instead of that, be a king and know

you own the world. This never comes until

you give it up and it ceases to bind. Give up

mentally, if you do not physically. Give up

from the heart of your hearts. Have vairagya

(renunciation). This is the real sacrifice, and

without it, it is impossible to attain spirit-

uality. Do not desire, for what you desire

you get, and with it comes terrible bondage.7

Influence of Thought

J

UST AS EVERY ACTION that emanates from

us comes back to us as reaction, even so

our actions may act on other people and

theirs on us. Perhaps all of you have observed

it as a fact that when persons do evil actions,

they become more and more evil, and when

they begin to do good, they become stronger

and stronger and learn to do good at all

times. This intensification of the influence

of action cannot be explained on any other

ground than that we can act and react upon

each other. To take an illustration from

physical science, when I am doing a certain

action, my mind may be said to be in a

certain state of vibration; all minds which

46 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

are in similar circumstances will have the

tendency to be affected by my mind. If there

are different musical instruments tuned alike

in one room, all of you may have noticed

that when one is struck, the others have the

tendency to vibrate so as to give the same

note. So all minds that have the same tension,

so to say, will be equally affected by the same

thought. Of course, this influence of thought

on mind will vary according to distance and

other causes, but the mind is always open to

affection. Suppose I am doing an evil act,

my mind is in a certain state of vibration,

and all minds in the universe, which are in a

similar state, have the possibility of being

affected by the vibration of my mind. So,

when I am doing a good action, my mind is

in another state of vibration; and all minds

similarly strung have the possibility of being

affected by my mind; and this power of mind

upon mind is more or less according as the

force of the tension is greater or less.1

Following this simile further, it is quite

possible that, just as light waves may travel

for millions of years before they reach any

INFLUENCE OF THOUGHT 47

object, so thought waves may also travel

hundreds of years before they meet an object

with which they vibrate in unison. It is quite

possible, therefore, that this atmosphere of

ours is full of such thought pulsations, both

good and evil. Every thought projected from

every brain goes on pulsating, as it were,

until it meets a fit object that will receive it.

Any mind which is open to receive some of

these impulses will take them immediately.

So, when a man is doing evil actions, he has

brought his mind to a certain state of tension

and all the waves which correspond to that

state of tension, and which may be said to

be already in the atmosphere, will struggle

to enter into his mind. That is why an evil-

doer generally goes on doing more and more

evil. His actions become intensified. Such

also will be the case with the doer of good;

he will open himself to all the good waves

that are in the atmosphere, and his good

actions also will become intensified. We run,

therefore, a twofold danger in doing evil:

first, we open ourselves to all the evil

influences surrounding us; secondly, we

48 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

create evil which affects others, may be

hundreds of years hence. In doing evil we

injure ourselves and others also. In doing

good we do good to ourselves and to others

as well; and, like all other forces in man, these

forces of good and evil also gather strength

from outside.2

Fill yourselves with the idea; whatever

you do, think well on it. All your actions will

be magnified, transformed, deified, by the

very power of the thought. If matter is

powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this

thought to bear upon your life, fill yourselves

with the thought of your almightiness, your

majesty, and your glory. Would to God no

superstitions had been put into your head!

Would to God we had not been surrounded

from our birth by all these superstitious

influences and paralysing ideas of our

weakness and vileness! Would to God that

mankind had had an easier path through

which to attain to the noblest and highest

truths! But man had to pass through all this;

do not make the path more difficult for those

who are coming after you.3

Control Your Negative

Emotions

WE MUST HAVE THESE four sorts of ideas.

We must have friendship for all; we

must be merciful towards those that are in

misery; when people are happy, we ought to

be happy; and to the wicked we must be

indifferent. So with all subjects that come

before us. If the subject is a good one, we shall

feel friendly towards it; if the subject of

thought is one that is miserable, we must be

merciful towards it. If it is good, we must be

glad; if it is evil, we must be indifferent. These

attitudes of the mind towards the different

subjects that come before it will make the mind

4

50 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

peaceful. Most of our difficulties in our daily

lives come from being unable to hold our

minds in this way. For instance, if a man does

evil to us, instantly we want to react evil, and

every reaction of evil shows that we are not

able to hold the chitta down; it comes out in

waves towards the object, and we lose our

power. Every reaction in the form of hatred

or evil is so much loss to the mind; and every

evil thought or deed of 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. Each time we suppress

hatred, or a feeling of anger, it is so much good

energy stored up in our favour; that piece of

energy will be converted into the higher

powers.1

Every vicious thought will rebound,

every thought of hatred which you may have

thought, in a cave even, is stored up, and

will one day come back to you with tre-

mendous power in the form of some misery

here. If you project hatred and jealousy, they

will rebound on you with compound

CONTROL YOUR NEGATIVE EMOTIONS 51

interest. No power can avert them; when

once you have put them in motion, you will

have to bear them. Remembering this will

prevent you from doing wicked things.2

I may remark that this idea explains the

ethical theory that you must not hate, and

must love. Because, just as in the case of

electricity the modern theory is that the

power leaves the dynamo and completes the

circle back to the dynamo, so with hate and

love; they must come back to the source.

Therefore do not hate anybody, because that

hatred which comes out from you, must, in

the long run, come back to you. If you love,

that love will come back to you, completing

the circle. It is as certain as can be, that every

bit of hatred that goes out of the heart of a

man comes back to him in full force, nothing

can stop it; similarly every impulse of love

comes back to him.3

The great secret is—absence of jealousy.

Be always ready to concede to the opinions

of your brethren, and try always to conciliate.

That is the whole secret. Fight on bravely! Life

is short! Give it up to a great cause.4

Change Yourself First

WE HAVE SEEN THAT it is the subjective

world that rules the objective. Change

the subject, and the object is bound to

change; purify yourself, and the world is

bound to be purified. This one thing requires

to be taught now more than ever before. We

are becoming more and more busy about our

neighbours, and less and less about our-

selves. The world will change if we change;

if we are pure, the world will become pure.

The question is why I should see evil in

others. I cannot see evil unless I be evil. I

cannot be miserable unless I am weak. Things

that used to make me miserable when I was

a child, do not do so now. The subject

CHANGE YOURSELF FIRST 53

changed, so the object was bound to change;

so says the Vedanta.1

Thus the man that has practised control

over himself cannot be acted upon by

anything outside; there is no more slavery

for him. His mind has become free. Such a

man alone is fit to live well in the world. We

generally find men holding two opinions

regarding the world. Some are pessimists and

say, “How horrible this world is, how

wicked!” Some others are optimists and say,

“How beautiful this world is, how won-

derful!” To those who have not controlled

their own minds, the world is either full of

evil or at best a mixture of good and evil.

This very world will become to us an

optimistic world when we become masters

of our own minds. Nothing will then work

upon us as good or evil; we shall find

everything to be in its proper place, to be

harmonious.2

The more we grow in love and virtue

and holiness, the more we see love and virtue

and holiness outside. All condemnation of

others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the

54 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

microcosm (which is in your power to do)

and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you.

It is like the hydrostatic paradox, one drop of

water can balance the universe. We cannot

see outside what we are not inside. The

universe is to us what the huge engine is to

the miniature engine; and indication of any

error in the tiny engine leads us to imagine

trouble in the huge one.

Every step that has been really gained

in the world has been gained by love;

criticising can never do any good, it has been

tried for thousands of years. Condemnation

accomplishes nothing.3

Take the Whole Responsibility

on Yourself

WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR what we are;

and whatever we wish ourselves to be,

we have the power to make ourselves. If

what we are now has been the result of our

own past actions, it certainly follows that

whatever we wish to be in future can be

produced by our present actions; so we have

to know how to act.1

We get only that for which we are fitted.

Let us give up our pride and understand this,

that never is misery undeserved. There never

has been a blow undeserved; there never has

been an evil for which I did not pave the

56 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

way with my own hands. We ought to know

that. Analyse yourselves and you will find

that every blow you have received, came to

you because you prepared yourselves for it.

You did half, and the external world did the

other half; that is how the blow came. That

will sober us down. At the same time, from

this very analysis will come a note of hope,

and the note of hope is: “I have no control

of the external world, but that which is in

me and nearer unto me, my own world, is

in my control. If the two together are

required to make a failure, if the two together

are necessary to give me a blow, I will not

contribute the one which is in my keeping;

and how then can the blow come? If I get

real control of myself, the blow will never

come.”2

Nothing makes us work so well at our

best and highest as when all responsibility is

thrown upon ourselves. I challenge everyone

of you. How will you behave if I put a little

baby in your hands? Your whole life will be

changed for the moment; whatever you may

be, you must become selfless for the time

TAKE THE WHOLE RESPONSIBILITY ON YOURSELF 57

being. You will give up all your criminal ideas

as soon as responsibility is thrown upon

you—your whole character will change. So

if the whole responsibility is thrown upon

our own shoulders, we shall be at our highest

and best; when we have nobody to grope

towards, no devil to lay our blame upon, no

Personal God to carry our burdens, when

we are alone responsible, then we shall rise

to our highest and best. I am responsible for

my fate, I am the bringer of good unto myself,

I am the bringer of evil.3

This life is a hard fact; work your way

through it boldly, though it may be adaman-

tine; no matter, the soul is stronger. It lays

no responsibility on little gods; for you are

the makers of your own fortunes. You make

yourselves suffer, you make good and evil,

and it is you who put your hands before your

eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away

and see the light; you are effulgent, you are

perfect already, from the very beginning.4

This is the only solution of the problem.

Those that blame others—and, alas! the

number of them is increasing every day—

58 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

are generally miserable with helpless brains;

they have brought themselves to that pass

through their own mistakes and blame

others, but this does not alter their position.

It does not serve them in any way. This

attempt to throw the blame upon others only

weakens them the more. Therefore, blame

none for your own faults, stand upon your

own feet, and take the whole responsibility

upon yourselves. Say, “This misery that I am

suffering is of my own doing, and that very

thing proves that it will have to be undone

by me alone.” That which I created, I can

demolish; that which is created by some one

else I shall never be able to destroy. Therefore,

stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole

responsibility on your own shoulders, and

know that you are the creator of your own

destiny. All the strength and succour you

want is within yourselves. Therefore, make

your own future. “Let the dead past bury its

dead.” The infinite future is before you, and

you must always remember that each word,

thought, and deed, lays up a store for you

and that as the bad thoughts and bad works

TAKE THE WHOLE RESPONSIBILITY ON YOURSELF 59

are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so

also there is the inspiring hope that the good

thoughts and good deeds are ready with the

power of a hundred thousand angels to

defend you always and for ever.5

How to Work?

WORK FOR WORK’S SAKE. There are some

who are really the salt of the earth in

every country and who work for work’s

sake, who do not care for name, or fame, or

even to go to heaven. They work just because

good will come of it. There are others who

do good to the poor and help mankind from

still higher motives, because they believe in

doing good and love good. The motive for

name and fame seldom brings immediate

results, as a rule; they come to us when we

are old and have almost done with life.

If a man works without any selfish

motive in view, does he not gain anything?

Yes, he gains the highest. Unselfishness is

HOW TO WORK? 61

more paying, only people have not the

patience to practise it. It is more paying from

the point of view of health also. Love, truth

and unselfishness are not merely moral

figures of speech, but they form our highest

ideal, because in them lies such a mani-

festation of power.1

Real activity, which is the goal of

Vedanta, is combined with eternal calmness,

the calmness which cannot be ruffled, the

balance of mind which is never disturbed,

whatever happens. And we all know from

our experience in life that that is the best

attitude for work.

I have been asked many times how we

can work if we do not have the passion which

we generally feel for work. I also thought in

that way years ago, but as I am growing older,

getting more experience, I find it is not true.

The less passion there is, the better we work.

The calmer we are, the better for us, and the

more the amount of work we can do. When

we let loose our feelings, we waste so much

energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds,

and accomplish very little work. The energy

62 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

which ought to have gone out as work is spent

as mere feeling, which counts for nothing. It

is only when the mind is very calm and

collected that the whole of its energy is spent

in doing good work. And if you read the lives

of the great workers which the world has

produced, you will find that they were

wonderfully calm men. Nothing, as it were,

could throw them off their balance. That is

why the man who becomes angry never does

a great amount of work, and the man whom

nothing can make angry accomplishes so

much. The man who gives way to anger, or

hatred, or any other passion, cannot work;

he only breaks himself to pieces, and does

nothing practical. It is the calm, forgiving,

equable, well-balanced mind that does the

greatest amount of work.2

You will say, “What is the use of learning

how to work? Everyone works in some way

or other in this world.” But there is such a

thing as frittering away our energies. With

regard to Karma-Yoga, the Gita says that it is

doing work with cleverness and as a science;

by knowing how to work, one can obtain

HOW TO WORK? 63

the greatest results. You must remember that

all work is simply to bring out the power of

the mind which is already there, to wake up

the soul. The power is inside every man, so

is knowing; the different works are like

blows to bring them out, to cause these giants

to wake up.3

Inactivity should be avoided by all

means. Activity always means resistance.

Resist all evils, mental and physical; and

when you have succeeded in resisting, then

will calmness come. It is very easy to say,

“Hate nobody, resist not evil,” but we know

what that kind of thing generally means in

practice. When the eyes of society are

turned towards us, we may make a show

of non-resistance, but in our hearts it is

canker all the time. We feel the utter want

of the calm of non-resistance; we feel that

it would be better for us to resist. If you

desire wealth, and know at the same time

that the whole world regards him who aims

at wealth as a very wicked man, you,

perhaps, will not dare to plunge into the

struggle for wealth, yet your mind will be

64 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

running day and night after money. This is

hypocrisy and will serve no purpose. Plunge

into the world, and then, after a time, when

you have suffered and enjoyed all that is in

it, will renunciation come; then will

calmness come.4

He who always speculates as to what

awaits him in future, accomplishes nothing

whatsoever. What you have understood as

true and good, just do that at once. What’s

the good of calculating what may or may

not befall in future? The span of life is so,

so short—and can anything be accom-

plished in it if you go on forecasting and

computing results. God is the only dis-

penser of results; leave it to Him to do all

that. What have you got to do with it? Don’t

look that way, but go on working.5

It is the worker who is attached to

results that grumbles about the nature of

the duty which has fallen to his lot; to the

unattached worker all duties are equally

good, and form efficient instruments with

which selfishness and sensuality may be

killed, and the freedom of the soul secured.

HOW TO WORK? 65

We are all apt to think too highly of

ourselves. Our duties are determined by our

deserts to a much larger extent than we are

willing to grant. Competition rouses envy,

and it kills the kindliness of the heart. To

the grumbler all duties are distasteful;

nothing will ever satisfy him, and his whole

life is doomed to prove a failure. Let us work

on, doing as we go whatever happens to be

our duty, and being ever ready to put our

shoulders to the wheel. Then surely shall

we see the Light!6

So work, says the Vedanta, putting God

in everything, and knowing Him to be in

everything. Work incessantly, holding life as

something deified, as God Himself, and

knowing that this is all we have to do, this is

all we should ask for. God is in everything,

where else shall we go to find Him? He is

already in every work, in every thought, in

every feeling. Thus knowing, we must

work—this is the only way, there is no other.

Thus the effects of work will not bind us.

We have seen how false desires are the cause

of all the misery and evil we suffer, but when

66 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

they are thus deified, purified, through God,

they bring no evil, they bring no misery.

Those who have not learnt this secret will

have to live in a demoniacal world until they

discover it. Many do not know what an

infinite mine of bliss is in them, around them,

everywhere; they have not yet discovered

it. What is a demoniacal world? The Vedanta

says, ignorance.7

Even the greatest fool can accomplish a

task if it be after his heart. But the intelligent

man is he who can convert every work into

one that suits his taste. No work is petty.

Everything in this world is like a banyan-

seed, which, though appearing tiny as a

mustard-seed, has yet the gigantic banyan

tree latent within it. He indeed is intelligent

who notices this and succeeds in making all

work truly great.8

Duty of any kind is not to be slighted.

A man who does the lower work is not, for

that reason only, a lower man than he who

does the higher work; a man should not be

judged by the nature of his duties, but by

the manner in which he does them. His

5

HOW TO WORK? 67

manner of doing them and his power to do

them are indeed the test of a man. A

shoemaker who can turn out a strong, nice

pair of shoes in the shortest possible time is

a better man, according to his profession and

his work, than a professor who talks

nonsense every day of his life.

Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty

is the highest form of the worship of God; it

is certainly a source of great help in

enlightening and emancipating the deluded

and ignorance-encumbered souls of the

Baddhas—the bound ones.

By doing well the duty which is nearest

to us, the duty which is in our hands now,

we make ourselves stronger; and improving

our strength in this manner step by step, we

may even reach a state in which it shall be

our privilege to do the most coveted and

honoured duties in life and in society.9

Work Like a Master

THE WHOLE GIST OF THIS teaching is that

you should work like a master and not

as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do

slave’s work. Do you not see how everybody

works? Nobody can be altogether at rest;

ninety-nine per cent of mankind work like

slaves, and the result is misery; it is all selfish

work. Work through freedom! Work throu-

gh love! The word “love” is very difficult to

understand; love never comes until there is

freedom. There is no true love possible in

the slave. If you buy a slave and tie him down

in chains and make him work for you, he

will work like a drudge, but there will be no

love in him. So when we ourselves work for

WORK LIKE A MASTER 69

the things of the world as slaves, there can

be no love in us, and our work is not true

work. This is true of work done for relatives

and friends, and is true of work done for

our own selves. Selfish work is slave’s work;

and here is a test. Every act of love brings

happiness; there is no act of love which does

not bring peace and blessedness as its

reaction.1

The man who works through freedom

and love cares nothing for results. But the

slave wants his whipping; the servant wants

his pay. So with all life; take for instance the

public life. The public speaker wants a little

applause or a little hissing and hooting. If

you keep him in a corner without it, you kill

him, for he requires it. This is working

through slavery. To expect something in

return, under such conditions, becomes

second nature. Next comes the work of the

servant, who requires some pay; I give this,

and you give me that. Nothing is easier to

say, “I work for work’s sake”, but nothing is

so difficult to attain.2

70 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

We must work. Ordinary mankind,

driven everywhere by false desire, what do

they know of work? The man propelled by

his own feelings and his own senses, what

does he know about work? He works, who

is not propelled by his own desires, by any

selfishness whatsoever. He works, who has

no ulterior motive in view. He works, who

has nothing to gain from work.3

Doing Good to This World

OUR DUTY TO OTHERS means helping

others; doing good to the world. Why

should we do good to the world? Apparently

to help the world, but really to help

ourselves. We should always try to help the

world, that should be the highest motive in

us; but if we consider well, we find that the

world does not require our help at all. This

world was not made that you or I should

come and help it. I once read a sermon in

which it was said, “All this beautiful world is

very good, because it gives us time and

opportunity to help others.” Apparently, this

is a very beautiful sentiment, but is it not a

blasphemy to say that the world needs our

72 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

help? We cannot deny that there is much

misery in it; to go out and help others is,

therefore, the best thing we can do, although

in the long run, we shall find that helping

others is only helping ourselves.1

Yet we must do good; the desire to do

good is the highest motive power we have,

if we know all the time that it is a privilege

to help others. Do not stand on a high

pedestal and take five cents in your hand

and say, “Here, my poor man,” but be grateful

that the poor man is there, so that by making

a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It

is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is

the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed

to exercise your power of benevolence and

mercy in the world, and thus become pure

and perfect.2

We become forgetful of the ego when

we think of the body as dedicated to the

service of others—the body with which most

complacently we identify the ego. And in the

long run comes the consciousness of

disembodiedness. The more intently you

think of the well-being of others, the more

DOING GOOD TO THIS WORLD 73

oblivious of self you become. In this way, as

gradually your heart gets purified by work,

you will come to feel the truth that your own

Self is pervading all beings and all things.

Thus it is that doing good to others con-

stitutes a way, a means of revealing one’s

own Self or Atman. Know this also to be one

of the spiritual practices, a discipline for

God-realisation. Its aim also is Self-rea-

lisation.3

When you give something to a man and

expect nothing—do not even expect the man

to be grateful—his ingratitude will not tell

upon you, because you never expected

anything, never thought you had any right

to anything in the way of a return. You gave

him what he deserved; his own Karma got it

for him; your Karma made you the carrier

thereof. Why should you be proud of having

given away something? You are the porter

that carried the money or other kind of gift,

and the world deserved it by its own Karma.

Where is then the reason for pride in you?

There is nothing very great in what you give

to the world.4

74 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Ask nothing; want nothing in return.

Give what you have to give; it will come back

to you—but do not think of that now, it will

come back multiplied a thousandfold—but

the attention must not be on that. Yet have

the power to give; give, and there it ends.

Learn that the whole of life is giving, that

nature will force you to give. So, give

willingly. Sooner or later you will have to

give up. You come into life to accumulate.

With clenched hands, you want to take. But

nature puts a hand on your throat and makes

your hands open. Whether you will it or not,

you have to give. The moment you say, “I

will not”, the blow comes; you are hurt.

None is there but will be compelled, in the

long run, to give up everything. And the

more one struggles against this law, the more

miserable one feels. It is because we dare not

give, because we are not resigned enough to

accede to this grand demand of nature, that

we are miserable. The forest is gone, but we

get heat in return. The sun is taking up water

from the ocean, to return it in showers. You

are a machine for taking and giving: you take,

DOING GOOD TO THIS WORLD 75

in order to give. Ask, therefore, nothing in

return; but the more you give, the more will

come to you. The quicker you can empty the

air out of this room, the quicker it will be

filled up by the external air; and if you close

all the doors and every aperture, that which

is within will remain, but that which is

outside will never come in, and that which

is within will stagnate, degenerate, and

become poisoned. A river is continually

emptying itself into the ocean and is

continually filling up again. Bar not the exit

into the ocean. The moment you do that,

death seizes you.5

Wisdom, knowledge, wealth, men,

strength, prowess, and whatever else nature

gathers and provides us with, are all only

for diffusion, when the moment of need is

at hand. We often forget this fact, put the

stamp of “mine only” upon the entrusted

deposits, and pari passu, we sow the seed of

our own ruin!6

Unselfishness Will Bring

Success

ALL OUTGOING ENERGY following a selfish

motive is frittered away; it will not cause

power to return to you; but if restrained, it

will result in development of power. This

self-control will tend to produce a mighty

will, a character which makes a Christ or a

Buddha. Foolish men do not know this

secret; they nevertheless want to rule

mankind. Even a fool may rule the whole

world if he works and waits. Let him wait a

few years, restrain that foolish idea of

governing; and when that idea is wholly

gone, he will be a power in the world. The

UNSELFISHNESS WILL BRING SUCCESS 77

majority of us cannot see beyond a few

years.... Just a little narrow circle—that is

our world. We have not the patience to look

beyond, and thus become immoral and

wicked. This is our weakness, our power-

lessness.1

Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of

ourselves first. He who thinks, “I will eat first,

I will have more money than others, and I

will possess everything”, he who thinks, “I

will get to heaven before others, I will get

Mukti before others” is the selfish man. The

unselfish man says, “I will be last, I do not

care to go to heaven, I will even go to hell if

by doing so I can help my brothers.” This

unselfishness is the test of religion. He who

has more of this unselfishness is more

spiritual and nearer to God. Whether he is

learned or ignorant, he is nearer to God than

anybody else, whether he knows it or not.

And if a man is selfish, even though he has

visited all the temples, seen all the places of

pilgrimage, and painted himself like a

leopard, he is still further off from God.2

78 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Every successful man must have behind

him somewhere tremendous integrity, tre-

mendous sincerity, and that is the cause of

his signal success in life. He may not have

been perfectly unselfish; yet he was tending

towards it. If he had been perfectly unselfish,

his would have been as great a success as

that of the Buddha or of the Christ. The

degree of unselfishness marks the degree of

success everywhere.3

Life is ever expanding, contraction is

death. The self-seeking man who is looking

after his personal comforts and leading a lazy

life—there is no room for him even in hell.4

It Is Love That Pays

NOTHING ELSE IS NECESSARY but these—

love, sincerity, and patience. What is

life but growth, i.e. expansion, i.e. love?

Therefore all love is life, it is the only law

of life; all selfishness is death, and this is

true here or hereafter. It is life to do good,

it is death not to do good to others. Ninety

per cent of human brutes you see are dead,

are ghosts—for none lives, my boys, but

he who loves. Feel, my children, feel; feel

for the poor, the ignorant, the down-

trodden; feel till the heart stops and the

brain reels and you think you will go

mad—then pour the soul out at the feet of

the Lord, and then will come power, help,

80 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

and indomitable energy...Be not afraid, my

children. Look not up in that attitude of

fear towards that infinite starry vault as if

it would crush you. Wait! In a few hours

more, the whole of it will be under your

feet. Wait, money does not pay, nor name;

fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love

that pays; it is character that cleaves its way

through adamantine walls of difficulties.1

Those who are men and yet have no

feeling in the heart for man, well, are such

to be counted as men at all?2

Duty is seldom sweet. It is only when

love greases its wheels that it runs smoothly;

it is a continuous friction otherwise. How

else could parents do their duties to their

children, husbands to their wives, and vice

versa? Do we not meet with cases of friction

every day in our lives? Duty is sweet only

through love, and love shines in freedom

alone. Yet is it freedom to be a slave to the

senses, to anger, to jealousies and a hundred

other petty things that must occur every day

in human life? In all these little roughnesses

that we meet with in life, the highest

IT IS LOVE THAT PAYS 81

expression of freedom is to forbear. Women,

slaves to their own irritable, jealous tempers,

are apt to blame their husbands, and assert

their own “freedom”, as they think, not

knowing that thereby they only prove that

they are slaves. So it is with husbands who

eternally find fault with their wives.3

Love never fails, my son; today or to-

morrow or ages after, truth will conquer.

Love shall win the victory. Do you love your

fellow-men? Where should you go to seek

for God—are not all the poor, the miserable,

the weak, Gods? Why not worship them

first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of

the Ganga? Believe in the omnipotent power

of love. Who cares for these tinsel puffs of

name? I never keep watch of what the

newspapers are saying. Have you love?—

You are omnipotent. Are you perfectly un-

selfish? If so, you are irresistible. It is

character that pays everywhere. It is the

Lord who protects His children in the depths

of the sea.4

The individual’s life is in the life of the

whole, the individual’s happiness is in the

82 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

happiness of the whole; apart from the

whole, the individual’s existence is in-

conceivable—this is an eternal truth and is

the bed-rock on which the universe is built.

To move slowly towards the infinite whole,

bearing a constant feeling of intense sym-

pathy and sameness with it, being happy

with its happiness and being distressed in

its affliction, is the individual’s sole duty. Not

only is it his duty, but in its transgression is

his death, while compliance with this great

truth leads to life immortal.5

If in this hell of a world one can bring a

little joy and peace even for a day into the

heart of a single person, that much alone is

true; this I have learnt after suffering all my

life; all else is mere moonshine....6

6

Weakness Is Death

THE WEAK HAVE NO place here, in this life

or in any other life. Weakness leads to

slavery. Weakness leads to all kinds of

misery, physical and mental. Weakness is

death. There are hundreds of thousands

of microbes surrounding us, but they

cannot harm us unless we become weak,

until the body is ready and predisposed to

receive them. There may be a million

microbes of misery, floating about us.

Never mind! They dare not approach us,

they have no power to get a hold on us,

until the mind is weakened. This is the

great fact: strength is life, weakness is

death. Strength is felicity, life eternal,

84 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

immortal; weakness is constant strain and

misery; weakness is death.1

See how we are flying like hunted hares

from all that is terrible, and like them, hiding

our heads and thinking we are safe. See how

the whole world is flying from everything

terrible. Once when I was in Varanasi, I was

passing through a place where there was a

large tank of water on one side and a high

wall on the other. It was in the grounds

where there were many monkeys. The

monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are

sometimes surly. They now took it into their

heads not to allow me to pass through their

street, so they howled and shrieked and

clutched at my feet as I passed. As they

pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster

I ran, the faster came the monkeys and they

began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to

escape, but just then I met a stranger who

called out to me, “Face the brutes.” I turned

and faced the monkeys, and they fell back

and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life—

face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the

monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when

WEAKNESS IS DEATH 85

we cease to flee before them. If we are ever

to gain freedom, it must be by conquering

nature, never by running away. Cowards

never win victories. We have to fight fear

and troubles and ignorance if we expect

them to flee before us.2

Strength, strength it is that we want so

much in this life, for what we call sin and

sorrow have all one cause, and that is our

weakness. With weakness comes ignorance,

and with ignorance comes misery. It will

make us strong. Then miseries will be

laughed at, then the violence of the vile will

be smiled at, and the ferocious tiger will

reveal, behind its tiger’s nature, my own

Self.3

Be strong, my young friends; that is my

advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven

through football than through the study of

the Gita. These are bold words; but I have to

say them, for I love you. I know where the

shoe pinches. I have gained a little ex-

perience. You will understand the Gita better

with your biceps, your muscles, a little

stronger. You will understand the mighty

86 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

genius and the mighty strength of Krishna

better with a little of strong blood in you.

You will understand the Upanishads better

and the glory of the Atman when your body

stands firm upon your feet, and you feel

yourselves as men.4

Do not talk of the wickedness of the

world and all its sins. Weep that you are

bound to see wickedness yet. Weep that you

are bound to see sin everywhere, and if you

want to help the world, do not condemn it.

Do not weaken it more. For what is sin and

what is misery, and what are all these, but

the results of weakness? The world is made

weaker and weaker every day by such

teachings. Men are taught from childhood

that they are weak and sinners. Teach them

that they are all glorious children of

immortality, even those who are the weakest

in manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful

thought enter into their brains from very

childhood. Lay yourselves open to these

thoughts, and not to weakening and para-

lysing ones. Say to your own minds, “I am

He. I am He.” Let it ring day and night in

WEAKNESS IS DEATH 87

your minds like a song, and at the point of

death declare, “I am He.” That is the Truth;

the infinite strength of the world is yours.

Drive out the superstition that has covered

your minds. Let us be brave. Know the Truth

and practise the Truth. The goal may be

distant, but awake, arise, and stop not till

the goal is reached.5

Weak men, when they lose everything

and feel themselves weak, try all sorts of

uncanny methods of making money, and

come to astrology and all these things. “It is

the coward and the fool who says, ‘This is

fate’”—so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it

is the strong man who stands up and says,

“I will make my fate.” It is people who are

getting old who talk of fate. Young men

generally do not come to astrology. We may

be under planetary influence, but it should

not matter much to us....

Let stars come, what harm is there? If a

star disturbs my life, it would not be worth

a cent. You will find that astrology and all

these mystical things are generally signs of a

weak mind; therefore as soon as they are

88 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

becoming prominent in our minds, we

should see a physician, take good food and

rest.6

This I lay down as the first essential in

all I teach: anything that brings spiritual,

mental, or physical weakness, touch it not

with the toes of your feet. Religion is the

manifestation of the natural strength that is

in man. A spring of infinite power is coiled

up and is inside this little body, and that

spring is spreading itself. And as it goes on

spreading, body after body is found in-

sufficient; it throws them off and takes

higher bodies. This is the history of man, of

religion, civilisation, or progress. That giant

Prometheus, who is bound, is getting himself

unbound. It is always a manifestation of

strength, and all these ideas such as astro-

logy, although there may be a grain of truth

in them, should be avoided.7

Be Brave

I

ONCE READ A STORY about some ships that

were caught in a cyclone in the South Sea

Islands, and there was a picture of it in the

Illustrated London News. All of them were

wrecked except one English vessel, which

weathered the storm. The picture showed

the men who were going to be drowned,

standing on the decks and cheering the

people who were sailing through the storm.

Be brave and generous like that.1

Whenever darkness comes, assert the

reality and everything adverse must vanish.

For, after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-

high though the difficulties appear, terrible

and gloomy though all things seem, they are

90 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

but delusions. Fear not—it is banished. Crush

it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies.

Be not afraid. Think not how many times

you fail. Never mind. Time is infinite. Go

forward; assert yourself again and again, and

light must come. You may pray to everyone

that was ever born, but who will come to

help you? And what of the way of death from

which none knows escape? Help thyself out

by thyself. None else can help thee, friend.

For thou alone art thy greatest enemy, thou

alone art thy greatest friend. Get hold of the

Self, then. Stand up. Don’t be afraid.2

Go on bravely. Do not expect success in

a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest.

Be steady. Avoid jealousy and selfishness. Be

obedient and eternally faithful to the cause

of truth, humanity, and your country, and

you will move the world. Remember it is the

person, the life, which is the secret of

power—nothing else....Jealousy is the bane

of all slaves. It is the bane of our nation.

Avoid that always. All blessings attend you

and all success.3

Heroism

BE A MAN FIRST, my friend, and you will

see how all those things and the rest will

follow of themselves after you. Give up that

hateful malice, that dog-like bickering and

barking at one another, and take your stand

on good purpose, right means, righteous

courage, and be brave. When you are born a

man, leave some indelible mark behind you.

“When you first came to this world, O Tulsi,1

the world rejoiced and you cried; now live

1 A poet and a devotee—the author of the Ram-

charitmanasa. Here the poet is addressing himself.

92 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

your life in doing such acts that when you

will leave this world, the world will cry for

you and you will leave it laughing.” If you

can do that, then you are a man; otherwise,

what good are you?1

Let the world say what it chooses, I shall

tread the path of duty—know this to be the

line of action for a hero. Otherwise, if one

has to attend day and night to what this man

says or that man writes, no great work is

achieved in this world. Do you know this

Sanskrit Shloka: “Let those who are versed

in the ethical codes praise or blame, let

Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, come or

go wherever she wisheth, let death overtake

him today or after a century, the wise man

never swerves from the path of rectitude.”

Let people praise you or blame you, let

fortune smile or frown upon you, let your

body fall today or after a Yuga, see that you

do not deviate from the path of Truth. How

much of tempest and waves one has to

weather, before one reaches the haven of

Peace! The greater a man has become, the

fiercer ordeal he has had to pass through.

HEROISM 93

Their lives have been tested true by the

touchstone of practical life, and only then

have they been acknowledged great by the

world. Those who are faint-hearted and co-

wardly sink their barks near the shore,

frightened by the raging of waves on the sea.

He who is a hero never casts a glance at

these. Come what may, I must attain my ideal

first—this is Purushakara, manly endeavour;

without such manly endeavour no amount

of Divine help will be of any avail to banish

your inertia.2

Those who are always down-hearted

and dispirited in this life can do no work;

from life to life they come and go wailing

and moaning. “The earth is enjoyed by

heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a

hero. Always say, “I have no fear.” Tell this

to everybody—”Have no fear ”. Fear is

death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is

unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the

negative thoughts and ideas that are in this

world have proceeded from this evil spirit

of fear. This fear alone has kept the sun,

air and death in their respective places and

94 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

functions, allowing none to escape from

their bounds....

In this embodied existence, you will be

tossed again and again on the waves of

happiness and misery, prosperity and ad-

versity—but know them all to be of momen-

tary duration. Never care for them.3

Faith in Oneself

THE IDEAL OF FAITH IN ourselves is of the

greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves

had been more extensively taught and

practised, I am sure a very large portion of

the evils and miseries that we have would

have vanished. Throughout the history of

mankind, if any motive power has been

more potent than another in the lives of all

great men and women, it is that of faith in

themselves. Born with the consciousness

that they were to be great, they became

great. Let a man go down as low as possible;

there must come a time when out of sheer

desperation he will take an upward curve

and will learn to have faith in himself. But

96 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

it is better for us that we should know it

from the very first.1

To the man who has begun to hate

himself the gate to degeneration has already

opened; and the same is true of a nation.

Our first duty is not to hate ourselves,

because to advance we must have faith in

ourselves first and then in God. He who has

no faith in himself can never have faith in

God.2

Whatever you think, that you will be. If

you think yourselves weak, weak you will

be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you

will be; if you think yourselves impure,

impure you will be; if you think yourselves

pure, pure you will be. This teaches us not

to think ourselves as weak, but as strong,

omnipotent, omniscient. No matter that I

have not expressed it yet, it is in me. All

knowledge is in me, all power, all purity, and

all freedom. Why cannot I express this

knowledge? Because I do not believe in it.

Let me believe in it, and it must and will

come out.3

FAITH IN ONESELF 97

The history of the world is the history

of a few men who had faith in themselves.

That faith calls out the divinity within. You

can do anything. You fail only when you do

not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite

power. As soon as a man or a nation loses

faith, death comes.4

Imitation Is Bad

NEXT, YOU MUST understand this, my

friend, that we have many things to

learn from other nations. The man who says

he has nothing more to learn is already at

his last grasp. The nation that says it knows

everything is on the very brink of des-

truction! “As long as I live, so long do I learn.”

But one point to note here is that when we

take anything from others, we must mould

it after our own way. We shall add to our

stock what others have to teach, but we must

always be careful to keep intact what is

essentially our own.1

None can teach another. You have to

realise truth and work it out for yourself

IMITATION IS BAD 99

according to your own nature.... All must

struggle to be individuals—strong, standing

on your own feet, thinking your own

thoughts, realising your own Self. No use

swallowing doctrines others pass on—

standing up together like soldiers in jail,

sitting down together, all eating the same

food, all nodding their heads at the same

time. Variation is the sign of life. Sameness

is the sign of death.2

Another great lesson we have to rem-

ember; imitation is not civilisation... Imita-

tion, cowardly imitation, never makes for

progress. It is verily the sign of awful

degradation in a man... We have indeed

many things to learn from others, yea, that

man who refuses to learn is already dead...

Learn everything that is good from others,

but bring it in, and in your own way absorb

it; do not become others. Do not be dragged

away out of this Indian life; do not for a

moment think that it would be better for

India if all the Indians dressed, ate, and

behaved like another race.3

100 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

The seed is put in the ground, and earth

and air and water are placed around it. Does

the seed become the earth, or the air, or the

water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops

after the law of its own growth, assimilates

the air, the earth, and the water, converts

them into plant substance, and grows into a

plant...[Similarly] each must assimilate the

spirit of the others and yet preserve his

individuality and grow according to his own

law of growth.4

7

What Is Ethics?

ONE IDEA STANDS OUT AS the centre of all

ethical systems, expressed in various

forms, namely, doing good to others. The

guiding motive of mankind should be charity

towards men, charity towards all animals. But

these are all various expressions of that eternal

truth that, “I am the universe; this universe

is one.” Or else, where is the reason? Why

should I do good to my fellowmen? Why

should I do good to others? What compels

me? It is sympathy, the feeling of sameness

everywhere. The hardest hearts feel sympathy

for beings sometimes. Even the man who gets

frightened if he is told that this assumed

individuality is really a delusion, that it is

102 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

ignoble to try to cling to this apparent

individuality, that very man will tell you that

extreme self-abnegation is the centre of all

morality. And what is perfect self-abnegation?

It means the abnegation of this apparent self,

the abnegation of all selfishness. This idea of

“me and mine”—Ahamkara and Mamata—is

the result of past superstition, and the more

this present self passes away, the more the

real Self becomes manifest. This is true self-

abnegation, the centre, the basis, the gist of

all moral teaching; and whether man knows

it or not, the whole world is slowly going

towards it, practising it more or less. Only,

the vast majority of mankind are doing it un-

consciously. Let them do it consciously. Let

them make the sacrifice, knowing that this

“me and mine” is not the real Self, but only a

limitation. But one glimpse of that infinite

reality which is behind—but one spark of that

infinite fire that is the All—represents the

present man; the Infinite is his true nature.1

Doing good to others is virtue (Dharma);

injuring others is sin. Strength and manliness

are virtue; weakness and cowardice are sin.

WHAT IS ETHICS? 103

Independence is virtue; dependence is sin.

Loving others is virtue; hating others is sin.

Faith in God and in one’s own Self is virtue;

doubt is sin. Knowledge of oneness is virtue;

seeing diversity is sin. The different scrip-

tures only show the means of attaining

virtue.2

It is the quintessence of all ethics,

preached in any language, or in any religion,

or by any prophet in the world. “Be thou

unselfish”, “Not ‘I’, but ‘thou’”—that is the

background of all ethical codes. And what is

meant by this is the recognition of non-

individuality—that you are a part of me, and

I of you; the recognition that in hurting you

I hurt myself, and in helping you I help

myself; the recognition that there cannot

possibly be death for me when you live.

When one worm lives in this universe, how

can I die? For my life is in the life of that

worm. At the same time it will teach us that

we cannot leave one of our fellow-beings

without helping him, that in his good

consists my good.3

Hold On to the Ideal

THAT IS THE ONE GREAT FIRST STEP—the real

desire for the ideal. Everything comes

easy after that.... The struggle is the great

lesson. Mind you, the great benefit in this

life is struggle. It is through that we pass. If

there is any road to Heaven, it is through

Hell. Through Hell to Heaven is always the

way. When the soul has wrestled with

circumstances and has met death, a thou-

sand times death on the way, but nothing

daunted has struggled forward again and

again and yet again, then the soul comes out

as a giant and laughs at the ideal he has been

struggling for, because he finds how much

greater is he than the ideal. I am the end,

HOLD ON TO THE IDEAL 105

my own Self, and nothing else, for what is

there to compare to my own Self? Can a bag

of gold be the ideal of my Soul? Certainly

not! My Soul is the highest ideal that I can

have. Realising my own real nature is the

one goal of my life.

There is nothing that is absolutely evil.

The devil has a place here as well as God,

else he would not be here. Just as I told you,

it is through Hell that we pass to Heaven.

Our mistakes have places here. Go on! Do

not look back if you think you have done

something that is not right. Now, do you

believe you could be what you are today, had

you not made those mistakes before? Bless

your mistakes, then. They have been angels

unawares. Blessed be torture! Blessed be

happiness! Do not care what be your lot.

Hold on to the ideal. March on! Do not look

back upon little mistakes and things. In this

battlefield of ours, the dust of mistakes must

be raised. Those who are so thin-skinned

that they cannot bear the dust, let them get

out of the ranks.1

106 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

If a man with an ideal makes a thousand

mistakes, I am sure that the man without an

ideal makes fifty thousand. Therefore, it is

better to have an ideal. And this ideal we

must hear about as much as we can, till it

enters into our hearts, into our brains, into

our very veins, until it tingles in every drop

of our blood and permeates every pore in

our body. We must meditate upon it. “Out

of the fullness of the heart the mouth

speaketh,” and out of the fullness of the heart

the hand works too.

It is thought which is the propelling

force in us. Fill the mind with the highest

thoughts, hear them day after day, think

them month after month. Never mind

failures; they are quite natural, they are the

beauty of life, these failures. What would life

be without them? It would not be worth

having if it were not for struggles. Where

would be the poetry of life? Never mind the

struggles, the mistakes. I never heard a cow

tell a lie, but it is only a cow—never a man.

So never mind these failures, these little back-

slidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and

HOLD ON TO THE IDEAL 107

if you fail a thousand times, make the

attempt once more. The ideal of man is to

see God in everything. But if you cannot see

Him in everything, see Him in one thing, in

that thing which you like best, and then see

Him in another. So on you can go. There is

infinite life before the soul. Take your time

and you will achieve your end.2

Take up one idea. Make that one idea

your life—think of it, dream of it, live on that

idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every

part of your body, be full of that idea, and

just leave every other idea alone. This is the

way to success, and this is the way great

spiritual giants are produced. Others are

mere talking machines.3

The life of the practical is in the ideal. It

is the ideal that has penetrated the whole of

our lives, whether we philosophise, or

perform the hard, everyday duties of life.

The rays of the ideal, reflected and refracted

in various straight or tortuous lines, are

pouring in through every aperture and

windhole, and consciously or unconsciously,

every function has to be performed in its

108 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

light, every object has to be seen trans-

formed, heightened, or deformed by it. It is

the ideal that has made us what we are, and

will make us what we are going to be. It is

the power of the ideal that has enshrouded

us, and is felt in our joys or sorrows, in our

great acts or mean doings, in our virtues and

vices.4

The Power of Concentration

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 con-

centration. 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.

110 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

The difference in their power of con-

centration 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.

Everybody’s mind becomes concen-

trated 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.

The great trouble with such concen-

trations is that we do not control the mind;

it controls us. Something outside of our-

selves, 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,

THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION 111

and the mind is held fast; we cannot take it

away.

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.

Now the question is: Can this concen-

tration 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 concen-

tration—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

112 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

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.

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 detach-

ment.1

How has all the knowledge in the world

been gained but by the concentration of the

powers of the mind? The world is ready to

give up its secrets if we only know how to

knock, how to give it the necessary blow. The

strength and force of the blow come through

concentration. There is no limit to the power

of the human mind. The more concentrated

it is, the more power is brought to bear on

one point; that is the secret.2

THE POWER OF CONCENTRATION 113

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.3

Develop the Sense of Equality

DO NOT PITY ANYONE. LOOK upon all as

your equal, cleanse yourself of the

primal sin of inequality. We are all equal and

must not think, “I am good and you are bad,

and I am trying to reclaim you”. Equality is

the sign of the free....

Only sinners see sin. See not man, see

only the Lord. We manufacture our own

heaven and can make a heaven even in hell.

Sinners are only to be found in hell, and as

long as we see them around us, we are there

ourselves.1

Men must have education. They speak

of democracy, of the equality of all men,

these days. But how will a man know he is

DEVELOP THE SENSE OF EQUALITY 115

equal with all? He must have a strong brain,

a clear mind free of nonsensical ideas; he

must pierce through the mass of super-

stitions encrusting his mind to the pure truth

that is in his inmost Self. Then he will know

that all perfections, all powers are already

within himself, that these have not to be

given him by others. When he realises this,

he becomes free that moment, he achieves

equality. He also realises that every one else

is equally as perfect as he, and he does not

have to exercise any power, physical, mental

or moral, over his brother men. He abandons

the idea that there was ever any man who

was lower than himself. Then he can talk of

equality; not until then.2

Be Free

LEARN TO FEEL YOURSELF in other bodies,

to know that we are all one. Throw all

other nonsense to the winds. Spit out your

actions, good or bad, and never think of them

again. What is done is done. Throw off

superstition. Have no weakness even in the

face of death. Do not repent, do not brood

over past deeds, and do not remember your

good deeds; be azad (free). The weak, the

fearful, the ignorant will never reach Atman.

You cannot undo, the effect must come, face

it, but be careful never to do the same thing

again. Give up the burden of all deeds to the

Lord; give all, both good and bad. Do not

keep the good and give only the bad. God

BE FREE 117

helps those who do not help themselves.1

When you have acquired the feeling of

non-attachment, there will then be neither

good nor evil for you. It is only selfishness

that causes the difference between good and

evil. It is a very hard thing to understand,

but you will come to learn in time that

nothing in the universe has power over you

until you allow it to exercise such a power.

Nothing has power over the Self of man,

until the Self becomes a fool and loses

independence. So, by non-attachment you

overcome and deny the power of anything

to act upon you. It is very easy to say that

nothing has the right to act upon you until

you allow it to do so; but what is the true

sign of the man who...is neither happy nor

unhappy when acted upon by the external

world? The sign is that good or ill fortune

causes no change in his mind: in all con-

ditions he continues to remain the same.2

All these things which we call causes of

misery and evil, we shall laugh at when we

arrive at that wonderful state of equality, that

sameness. This is what is called in Vedanta

8

118 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

attaining to freedom. The sign of approa-

ching that freedom is more and more of this

sameness and equality. In misery and

happiness the same, in success and defeat

the same—such a mind is nearing that state

of freedom.3

He who has succeeded in attaching or

detaching his mind to or from the centres at

will has succeeded in Pratyahara, which

means, “gathering towards,” checking the

outgoing powers of the mind, freeing it from

the thraldom of the senses. When we can

do this, we shall really possess character;

then alone we shall have taken a long step

towards freedom; before that we are mere

machines.4

The sage wants liberty; he finds that

sense-objects are all vain and that there is

no end to pleasures and pains. How many

rich people in the world want to find fresh

pleasures! All pleasures are old, and they

want new ones. Do you not see how many

foolish things they are inventing every day,

just to titillate the nerves for a moment, and

that done, how there comes a reaction? The

BE FREE 119

majority of people are just like a flock of

sheep. If the leading sheep falls into a ditch,

all the rest follow and break their necks. In

the same way, what one leading member of

a society does, all the others do, without

thinking what they are doing. When a man

begins to see the vanity of worldly things,

he will feel he ought not to be thus played

upon or borne along by nature. That is

slavery. If a man has a few kind words said

to him, he begins to smile, and when he

hears a few harsh words, he begins to weep.

He is a slave to a bit of bread, to a breath of

air; a slave to dress, a slave to patriotism, to

country, to name, and to fame. He is thus in

the midst of slavery and the real man has

become buried within, through his bondage.

What you call man is a slave. When one

realises all this slavery, then comes the desire

to be free; an intense desire comes. If a piece

of burning charcoal be placed on a man’s

head, see how he struggles to throw it off.

Similar will be the struggle for freedom of a

man who really understands that he is a slave

of nature.5

120 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Be free, and then have any number of

personalities you like. Then we will play like

the actor who comes upon the stage and plays

the part of a beggar. Contrast him with the

actual beggar walking in the streets. The

scene is, perhaps, the same in both cases, the

words are, perhaps, the same, but yet what

difference! The one enjoys his beggary while

the other is suffering misery from it. And

what makes this difference? the one is free

and the other is bound. The actor knows his

beggary is not true, but that he has assumed

it for play, while the real beggar thinks that

it is his too familiar state and that he has to

bear it whether he wills it or not. This is the

law. So long as we have no knowledge of

our real nature, we are beggars, jostled about

by every force in nature; and made slaves of

by everything in nature; we cry all over the

world for help, but help never comes to us;

we cry to imaginary beings, and yet it never

comes. But still we hope help will come, and

thus in weeping, wailing, and hoping, one

life is passed, and the same play goes on and

on.6

March On!

NOW, IF THERE IS ANY ONE amongst you

who really wants to study this science,

he will have to start with that sort of

determination, the same as, nay even more

than, that which he puts into any business

of life.

And what an amount of attention does

business require, and what a rigorous task-

master it is! Even if the father, the mother,

the wife, or the child dies, business cannot

stop! Even if the heart is breaking, we still

have to go to our place of business, when

every hour of work is a pang. That is

business, and we think that it is just, that it

is right.

122 PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

This science calls for more application

than any business can ever require. Many

men can succeed in business; very few in

this. Because so much depends upon the

particular constitution of the person study-

ing it. As in business all may not make a

fortune, but everyone can make something,

so in the study of this science each one can

get a glimpse which will convince him of its

truth and of the fact that there have been

men who realised it fully.1

Even the least thing well done brings

marvellous results; therefore let everyone do

what little he can. If the fisherman thinks

that he is the Spirit, he will be a better

fisherman; if the student thinks he is the

Spirit, he will be a better student. If the

lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be

a better lawyer, and so on.2

Advance like a hero. Don’t be thwarted

by anything. How many days will this body

last, with its happiness and misery? When

you have got the human body, then rouse

the Atman within and say—I have reached

the state of fearlessness!...and then as long

MARCH ON 123

as the body endures, speak unto others this

message of fearlessness: “Thou art That”,

“Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is

reached!”3

REFERENCES

[CW below refers to The Complete Works of

Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata; Up

refers to Upanishad; the Roman numerals and the

Arabic numerals following CW refer to the volume

number and to the page numbers respectively.]

Introduction

1. CW, vi, 30. 2. Gita, 6. 5-6.

3. Katha Up, 1. 3. 3-4. 4. Kena Up, 1. 1-2.

5. CW, vii, 501. 6. CW, i, 124.

7. CW, iv, 200. 8. CW, v, 308.

9. CW, i, 208. 10. CW, i, 31.

11. CW, v, 228. 12. CW, iii, 193.

It Is Personality That Matters

1. CW, vi, 49. 2. CW, ii, 13-15

Laws of Personality Development

1. CW, ii, 16-17.

REFERENCES 125

Different Layers of Personality

1. CW, ii, 424-25. 2. CW, iv, 256.

3. CW, iv, 191.

Man Is Divine

1. CW, i, 11. 2. CW, viii, 186.

3. CW, i, 388. 4. CW, iv, 351.

Pleasure Is Not the Goal

1. CW, i, 27. 2. CW, iii, 4.

3. CW, v, 267.

How to Change Our Character

1. CW, i, 54-55. 2. CW, i, 29.

3. CW, i, 30. 4. CW, vii, 14.

5. CW, viii, 383. 6. CW, i, 207-08.

7. CW, vii, 90.

Influence of Thought

1. CW, i, 81. 2. CW, i, 81-82.

3. CW, ii, 302.

Control Your Negative Emotions

1. CW, i, 222-23. 2. CW, i, 262.

3. CW, i, 196. 4. CW, v, 37.

126 REFERENCES

Change Yourself First

1. CW, i, 426. 2. CW, i, 92.

3. CW, vii, 27-28.

Take the Whole Responsibility on Yourself

1. CW, i, 31. 2. CW, ii, 7.

3. CW, ii, 201-02. 4. CW, ii, 182.

5. CW, ii, 225.

How to Work?

1. CW, i, 32. 2. CW, ii, 292-93.

3. CW, i, 31. 4. CW, i, 40.

5. CW, vi, 455. 6. CW, i, 71.

7. CW, ii, 150. 8. CW, vii, 508.

9. CW, v, 239-40

Work Like a Master

1. CW, i, 57. 2. CW, v, 241.

3. CW, ii, 149.

Doing Good to This World

1. CW, i, 75. 2. CW, i, 76.

3. CW, vii, 111-12. 4. CW, i, 90.

5. CW, ii, 5-6 6. CW, iv, 464.

Unselfishness Will Bring Success

1. CW, i, 33. 2. CW, iii, 143.

3. CW, v, 240. 4. CW, vi, 294.

REFERENCES 127

It Is Love That Pays

1. CW, iv, 367. 2. CW, vi, 451.

3. CW, i, 67. 4. CW, v, 51.

5. CW, vi, 463. 6. CW, v, 177.

Weakness Is Death

1. CW, ii, 3. 2. CW, i, 338-39.

3. CW, i, 381. 4. CW, iii, 242.

5. CW, ii, 87. 6. CW, viii, 184.

7. CW, viii, 185.

Be Brave

1. CW, ii, 351. 2. CW, ii, 403.

3. CW, v, 108.

Heroism

1. CW, v, 462. 2. CW, vii, 126.

3. CW, vii, 136.

Faith in Oneself

1. CW, ii, 301. 2. CW, i, 38.

3. CW, iii, 130. 4. CW, viii, 228.

Imitation Is Bad

1. CW, v, 463. 2. CW, vi, 65.

3. CW, iii, 381-82. 4. CW, i, 24.

128 REFERENCES

What Is Ethics?

1. CW, ii, 82-83. 2. CW, v, 419.

3. CW, vi, 5-6. 4. CW, viii, 225.

Hold On to the Ideal

1. CW, v, 252-53. 2. CW, ii, 152-53.

3. CW, i, 177. 4. CW, iv, 285.

The Power of Concentration

1. CW, vi, 37-39. 2. CW, i, 130-31.

3. CW, vi, 39.

Develop the Sense of Equality

1. CW, viii, 18. 2. CW, viii, 94.

Be Free

1. CW, vii, 91. 2. CW, i, 90.

3. CW, i, 426. 4. CW, i. 173-74.

5. CW, i, 411. 6. CW, ii, 323-24.

March On

1. CW, ii, 22-23. 2. CW, iii, 245.