Karma Yoga Bhakti Yoga

Author(s): Swami Vivekanand
Publisher: Ramkrishna Vivekananda Center of New York INC

Page 49

THE SECRET OF WORK
39
tendencies 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.
As the tortoise tucks its feet and head inside the shell, and you may kill it and break it into pieces, and yet it will not come out, even so the character of that man who has control over his motives and organs is unchangeably established. He controls his own inner forces, and nothing can draw them out against his will. By this continuous reflex of good thoughts, good impressions moving over the surface of the mind, the tendency for doing good becomes strong, and as the result we feel able to control the Indriyas (the sense-organs, the nerve centres). Thus alone will character be established; then alone a man gets to truth; such a man is safe for ever; he cannot do any evil; you may place him in any company; there will be no danger for him. There is a still higher state than having this good tendency, and that is the desire for liberation. You must remember that freedom of the soul is the goal of all Yogas, and each one equally leads to the same result. By work alone men may get to where Buddha got largely by meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a working Jnâni; Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by boti of them. The difficulty is here. Liberation mean. entire freedom-freedom from the bondage of good as well as from the bondage of evil. A golden chair