English
exposition of it, I may be allowed to pass on to the second view of Brahman, the lower or the Saguna, e., qualified Brah- man. Here the question arises why is this view of Brahman presented before us ? To understand this, we should know that by the side of this sublime view of Brahman, the impersonal and absolute Being, which is the only truth with the ireflective portion- of men, there is the popular concept of Brahman as the per- sonal God, the Creator arid Buler of the universe. This concept is the outcome of Avidya or ISTescience, but it is not en- tirely to be disregarded as meaninglesso It is practically and phenomenally -true, and not utterly false, i, e,, nofc like the concept of a mirage, or the horn of a hare. The phenomenal and the false are dijfferent. The phenomenal is not ac- tually a non-entity, but is practically real. Here lies the peculiar merit of the Vedanta. Thus we can take the absolute, or Nirguna Brahman, to satisfy our reasoning and . meditative faculties, or we may think of this qualified or Saguna Brahman to satisfy ■ our cravings for worship, and call it by any name suitable to our purposes of de- * votion; Thus it is said that ^ ■ THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 7S crsitf 5rfH% ^^^^\^ triiqftrfh fe^r^TTSTTtrsf^qt (Though, the ways of devotional life of men, taking to various systems of .worship, are ever so different, though some ways are straight-forward and others round- about according to their different tastes, following either the Vedic doctrine, or the Sankhya method, or the Yoga system, or ,the Shaiva School, or the Vaishnava faith; yet thou art, O Lord ! the only resting- place of all, as the ocean is the ultir mate destination of all the running waters on the surface of the globe.) Thus the second concept of Brahman is that of the Saguna or qualified Brahman — a personal being, eternally associated with the world-fiction, or the creative principle, i, e.,Maya or Nescience. In this'view.he becomes the Creator, the Omnipotent^ the Omniscient', the Omnipresent, <Kc. . Cha- racterless absolute Brahman cannot pro- duce the world, because, it is characterless, as the sun reflected in the. water cannot produce tke reflection, if there .be no * *,•**, • ^ ^ 7B A LECTURE O^T •water. The linage of the sun on a sheet of water expands with the expansion, and ■contracts with the contraction of the rip- ples on the surface, moves by their motion, and is broken by their breaking. So the reflection varies, and not the sun in the sky. In the same way, the real Self, the absolute Brahman,is only reflected on its counterfeits, the bodies of living beings, and appears in diflerent forms,- Apart from these phenomenal forms, the Brahman is changeless and unvaried. Here it maybe asked, why go we so far as to conceive fictitious limitations of Brahman ? Will it not be sufficient to think that Brahman is the only truth, and the world a non-entity ? The ^ answer would be, yes, it is so, only this_ non- entity is not like the non-entity which is in the horn of a hare, but it has a pheno- menal existence, i, e., a practical truth, which must be accounted for. Thus the concept of Iswara is equally valid as that 'of our own individuality. Thus the Saguna, or qualified Brahman, is the absolute or Nirguna Brahman when looked upon^ as associated with Maya, or world-fiction. That Brahman is eternally connected with ithe world-fiction we cannot gainsay, when .THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, 77 we know that we cannot conceive a total destruction, — a perfect annihilation of matter. Thus the world must exist phe- nomenally for all time, only changing in shape, because what we cannot conceive cannot be possible. Thus, being associated with Maya, comes Iswara, the world-pro- jecting Deity, the lower Brahman, who is only phenomenal to the enlightened Ve- dantist. But to the unenlightened he is re- latively real. Thus he is the first manifesta-r tion proceeding from the absolute Brahman associated with Maya. He is the sum of all ' individual Souls in the state of dreamless sleep, and his body, the principle of emanation, is the sum of bodies of living- beings in that state. He is one, and the individual Souls are many, as a sheet of water is one, and the drops of water are many, as the forest is one, and the trees in it are many. In this phenomenal form he is called the Omniscient, &c. &c., the ruler of the universe, administering justice, giving rewards, inflicting punishments, set- ting all Souls in mo tion, and dwelling in the heart of every sentient being. Thus it will be seen that this Iswara is not like the God of other religions, standing in . one corner of the universe, bidding the A-LEOTURE ON 7a world to grow, and existing apart from tlie universe as the ruler of it. This is to a Vedantist a Fetishism, and he cannot reconcile it to his reason and common sense. This Vedantic Iswara is the sum of all Souls, and is resolved into the high- est truth, the absolute Brahman, at the end of the world, and issues forth with the world from eternity. In this form He is worshipped as Iswara, Parusha, and many other names. He is i, e,, the world is born out of him, it is absorbed in him, and it breathes in him. He remains in .the heart of men. In this view he is measured as the thumb, which is the fanciful measure of the human heart But, gentlemen, we are not to understand that there are two Brahmans, the one uncondi- tioned and the other conditioned. With us, indeed, who are concerned with names and forms, — the product of Nescience, — there are two. But in reality the two are one and the same. The one is conceivable and the other is inconceivable, the one is pheno- menal and the other is absolutely real. A description of Purusha will not . be out of place here. Rikveda X. ? THE VEDANrA PHILOSOPHY. 79 ^ f^asTcft ??WTf2lffreiStIT^^Tr II tr^Tsi ^5wa WTO I ^rTmrif^rwsii^ ii TirTT^r^T^ ^rFror i ®v f^siTTwrift f^F^ ii (Parasha, the Creator, has a thousand heads, a thoasand eyes, a thousand feet. He compasses the world on every side, and, moreover, remains ten finger’s breadth beybnd, i. e., pervades space, if there be any, beyond the unijerse. Purusha is all this ; He is that which has been, and that which will come into existence.’ He is the Lord also of immortality, i, e,, of gods, and he is the Lord of all which grow with food. Such is His greatness, and this Purusha is greater than His greatness. One quarter of Him i. e., apart of Him only, is all existing things, the remaining three quarters, i. e., the greater portion of Him, is eternally present in the luminous sky, i, e,, in space illuminated by His light.) tf 5^ fsrfMw’it: I 80 A LECTURE ON ■ fern: A ?T^ ^St.’^ST I ^ ># o- qsR^qsqV HaqHfTi?f?:r??rr q: qrftfir i cTfiTfm^T Sigqscqf^fr ?Bqf sinqrr^fiTqrff U (The Spirit that is awake in those who are asleep, fashioning one enjoyment after another. This is the pure Self, this is the immortal : all worlds are contained in it : beyond this none can pass. As one and the same fire pervades a place, and shapes itself according to the shapes of every thing (in which it is seen ) ; so the one Self, that I’emains in all living beings, shapes itself according to their dif- ferent shapes. The wise see within their own hearts the one and only Lord, the Self that is in all living beings, that makes its one form to become many: everlasting bliss is for them and not for others.) THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. !N^ow, gentlemen, we come to the^ ethical teaching of the Vedanta. Many charges have been brought against th& Vedanta as regards ifcs morality by thoughtless readers, and interested sec- tarians. Some of these are quoted as follpws : — (L) That the Vedanta inculcates a hedo- nistic code- of ethics, and that it is highly selfish, inasmuch as it makes people utter- ly apathetic and indifferent as regards the- miseries and sufferings of others, who are considered as only illusions, and because it , enjoins a man to concern himself with his own Moksha, or salvation, without minding the world at large, which with him is only a myth. (2) That the V endanta makes a man per- fectly irresponsible for his actions, for the senses find their objects and act with them, whereas the Ego, the Self, which is pure bliss, is never affected in any way by those actions. The idea of duty towards others is utterly absent in the Vedanta (3) ^ That the Vedanta is deficient, be- cause it cannot supply a solid foundation of morality. (4) ^ That the system of the Vedanta has no object for worship, or indeed anything 82 ’ A LECTURE OIT to elicit and sustain religious life. So it was^ compelled to crave the help of poly- theism. Besides these, we,often meet with many other flimsy and clumsy reflections against this high system of philosophy, and these we pass by in silence, knowing that truth will ultimately prevail. Now, Gentlemen, the sole origin of all these worthless charges and thought- less remarks lies in not thorough- ly^ comprehending the doctrine of Ne- science, 2. e., of Avidya. To the care- ful reader, it is clear as day-light that the* “ Vedanta, in calling the external world an illusion, does not mean illusion in the ordinary sense of the term. It clearly distinguishes two classes of illusions, one altogether unreal and thus, like the mirage, only an apparition behind which there is no reality ; the other only phenomenal, and behind which there is a substantial reality. So what the Vedanta calls Maya is not an unreality in our sense of the term. It is reality behind the pheno- menal.