We get joy by eating and drinking and other sense contacts; such joys have an external source. This is perfectly valid. We cannot expect a child to get joy from within itself. The child gets all its joy from external contacts all the time, bahya-sparsa as the Gita puts it. But when the child grows and matures, it learns, it must learn, for that is the sign of maturity, to find joy, not always from external contacts and stimuli, but sometimes from within itself; he must learn to sustain himself from within and not from external appreciation and applause, which is what children seek and need for their development. This is, the education that humanity must steadily get, in order to achieve maximum fulfillment. These human developmental possibilities are hidden in the womb of this amazing modern period of human history not just of Indian history only; for today, all national histories become intertwined into a great texture of mankind-awareness and international human development.; During the last 5,000 years, our national history was intertwined with Central Asian history. In the modern period, our history has become intertwined with the whole world. This modern period of Indian history, and the modern period of world history, have this tremendous spiritual possibility hidden within it.

It is the mission of Vedanta to help to unfold that possibility worldwide. When people all over the world begin to understand this great Vedantic truth of the divine nature of man and his organic capacity to realise it, and move even one inch forward, what a tremendous spiritual energy resource will become available to every human being! That is why I am hopeful of the future of mankind, and that hopefulness is based on facts, and on the spiritual richness of the human heritage, much of it unknown and untapped. There are serious maladies afflicting all contemporary societies, and there are also effective remedies. Apply the remedies, and the maladies go. When a child is sick at home with high fever, the family members are all depressed; that is not the time for being optimistic. But when the doctor comes and gives the appropriate medicine or -- injection and the fever goes and the child smiles, the family becomes optimistic.

Similarly, the human maladies are there today, serious and widespread. With much pettiness and meanness all around us, with much poverty, exploitation, violence, and crime, it is not the time for being optimistic; but when you realise that the appropriate remedies are available, remedies that are rational and sensible, not magical and,misty, and that are relevant to man everywhere, there comes the sense of joy and hope. This sense is heightened when we realise also that people everywhere, in increasing numbers, are seeking these very remedies, and are expectant. In, fact, all people respond to this Vedantic message of the inherent divinity within themselves, and many are experimenting with the varied techniques for its realisation. What is the meaning of meditation? Ask that one question. This is a technique which has become universal today. Fifty years ago, most people in the West used to look down upon a man sitting in meditation. They used to treat him as crazy and abnormal. But, today, nobody does so; even the New York multi-millionaire, the down-to-earth worldly man, treats, it as a wonderful art and technique, This universal appreciation of this wonderful discipline of meditation emphasises the great Vedantic truth of man going beyond his sensory and psychic dimension in search of a profound mystery within himself, with the conviction that unfolding that alone is the only way to total fulfillment. When you swim on the surface, Sri Ramakrishna, used to say, you get cheap shells; when, you dive deep, you get pearls. He used to love, to sing a song with this very, theme: Dive deep, dive deep, dive deep,O my mind, in the ocean of beauty; great gems lie deep in that ocean.

Therefore, when speaking on the subject of Vedanta and the Future of Mankind, I can strike a note of hope, a note of cheer, in spite of knowing fully that contemporary human conditions are murky and depressing . . . It is very dark at midnight; then, a few hours later, the sky becomes rosy with the approach of dawn and soon the sun rises on the horizon, dispelling all darkness. So, the silent prayer that goes out from the hearts of millions of men and women today is voiced in the ancient Vedic prayer of the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, composed a few thousand years ago:

Asato ma sad gamaya!
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya!
Mrtyor ma amrtam gamaya!

Lead us from the unreal to the real!
Lead us from darkness to Light!
Lead us from death to immortality!

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1. Universal Message of the Bhagavad-Gita -- Vols. 1-3
2. Vedanta and the Future of Mankind
3. Science and Religion
4. Swami Vivekananda: His Humanism
5. Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence
6. The Essence of Indian Culture
7. Christ We Adore
8. An Introduction to the Study of the Gita
9. The Message of Upanisads
10. Eternal Values for a Changing Society -- Vols. 1-4, and many others. . .

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