Introduction

    Sri Ramakrishna is my Ship. I sail in him. Where and when he goes, who knows? We are carried along, thinking we are at the helm. Of course we are not; blessed be the day when we discover it. "Thou art the ship that carries us across the sea of life."
    This book is a record of some of the places I was carried to, on the journey. Here too are discourses given in those places. From the time in 1970 when Revered Swami Ghananandaji, Ramakrishna-Vedanta Center, London, requested me to speak publicly, until today, 2007, much water has been gone over in this ship of life. As the boat now nears the farther shore, let its hold be emptied: let me now cast this cargo to the winds.
   The first chapter of this book has the title Hinduism. It was given as a lecture in London in 1971. When monks of the Ramakrishna Order discourse on Hinduism, they speak primarily of the Vedanta philosophy and religion, from which the forms of "Hinduism" have arisen.
   Swami Vivekananda, our primary authority, wrote: "To put the Hindu ideas into English and then make out of dry philosophy and intricate mythology and queer startling psychology a religion which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the same time meet the requirements of the highest minds—is a task only those can understand who have attempted it."
   I have been attempting to do this, over the last thirty-some years, and here are some of the results, though they surely are nowhere near Swamiji's expectations. Reading those words of the Swami, one might suppose that a degree of adaptation to modern times and terms would be in order, to make this ancient wisdom intelligible and applicable today. But here we need to be careful; for he said this as well: "Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die." That would seem to rule out most forms of "political correctness." Swami Vivekananda tells us what to expect from a messenger of Vedanta, namely purity of character—and also a love for all beings. Such love, he said, "makes no distinction between man and man, between an [Indian] Aryan and a Mlechchha [foreigner], between a Brahmin and a Pariah, nor even between a man and a woman. Love makes the whole universe as one's own home." We may say , then, that these are the measure to which modern exponents of spirituality are to be held.

   If Truth pays no homage to modern society, likewise it pays none to any ancient one, which means that the seekers and practitioners of Truth also must not be held to pronouncements and conventions framed for a bygone era. Each age must find the Truth which never changes through names and forms which are ever changing. That is the common thread or theme of the chapters which follow.

   Hinduism was defined by Vivekananda in this way: "The Vedanta, applied to the various ethnic customs and creeds of India is Hinduism." He then went on to describe the three stages of Vedanta. I, not having been born or raised in India, nor by Indians, amidst those ethnic customs and creeds, do not consider myself a Hindu. Much as I may aspire to be the Universal Man, tainted with no label and victim of no prejudice, the fact remains that, speaking of the relative plane, I am now an American, and that will be clear to all who read these pages. We in the West who may feel diffident about attempting to expound Vedanta must take refuge in that letter of the Swami's in which he wrote to Miss Ellen Waldo:
   "Why do you not begin to teach? Begin boldly. Mother will give you all power—thousands will come to you. Plunge in. No clinging to this fellow or that. Wherever Ramakrishna's children boldly come out, He is with them....There is nothing in Vedanta which you do not know....I will be a thousand times more pleased to see one of you start than any number of Hindus scoring success in America, even be he one of my brethren." The names of two of the Order's journals, "Vedanta and the West" and "Vedanta for East and West," are evidence of the need for a specially designed presentation.

   Some have asked if this is a sequel to the book Six Lighted Windows. A sequel it certainly is not. I wish it could be, but what I had, to give, of those great lives and teachings, was given there. This is a sequel only in the sense that it shows the effect on my life and thought, of associating with those great souls. May it be an offering to Sri Ramakrishna and to them.

S. Y.