English
Now, gentlemen, this creation cannot but be eternal. Iswara is eternal, and so His activity, which is His nature, must be eternal too. Owing to this eternal activity — Maya or N escience — which is His eternal body, consisting of names and forms only, receives force, as it ,were, and goes on developing itself. In the Upanishads, it is said that ‘‘He {I e., Iswara) desired : let me become many, let me pass into plurality.” And thus He projected out of Himself all this world. Here the wish to generate and look about moans only the activity of Brahman in the caipacity of Iswara or the Creator. This creative thought of Iswara manifest- ed itself in names and forms. Thought and language are inseparable, as every word expresses a concept, and not an individual precept. A tree is not this or that tree, but the general idea or concept of all trees. So every individual body is the realisation of its idea, or concept.- -This realisation 48 A LECTURE ON of the idea-, this manifestation of Iswara’s thought, is His Maya, His body or Ne- science developing in names and forms. Thus speech, or is represented in many places of the Upanishads as the creative principle. So Iswara*s activity means His thinking, and His thinking implies rea- lisation of jSis thought, and that utimately comes as manifestation in different forms and names. Thus, His activity being eternally present, the creation, that is, the manifestation of His thought in names and forms must necessarily be eternally present. When He suspends His activity for a time, or in other words, when He does not think about these ideas, this N escience, or the world, vanishes, its developments dis- appear, and His thought remains unrea- lised and unmanifested in the form of the world. When this state of things happens, it is said that the world is reabsorbed in Him at the time of or universal des- truction. Really it means nothing but the suspension of Iswara’s thinking. In con- nection with this, let me quote of the Rigveda. X. 129 : THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 49 sjwS %9 ^tsh: f*rr€l^re5i *rah3T n r *f afl SI ?Tm ^<ahi B%a: i .1 fl ' jrarraisu^: f^sxRW n ?nr sigs^j Tt%?i ^rs^rn s?ii i .^TO??TOf%5iT wraa^w II (It was not entity which was in the beginning, nor was it non-entity ; no air was then, and no sky above. Death was not then, nor immortality. There was no distinction of day or night. That one breathed without afflation, self- determined, other than and beyond itj there was nought. Darkness there was, wrapped in darkness. All this was un- differenced- water, viz., the principle of unreality. That one that was void, as it were, covered with nothingness, developed' itself by the power of self torture, AlECriTREON' coercing itself to a prevision of the world that is to be.) And further. I I (Desire first rose in it, the primal germ : This, sages seeking with the intellect, have found in the heart to be the tie of entity to non-entity.) The self in its earliest connection with this creative principle becomes Iswara, This principle means coercing itself to a prevision of the world to be, and this pre- vision is its desire to project the spheres of the world, and to part itself phenome- nally into all the innumerable forms that are to pass through them. Let us now pass on to the Doctrine of the Individual Soul. It is said that a man, as well as all the individual bodies of the world, consist of three departments, or bodies, (1) the or the causal body, (2) the or the subtle body, and (3) the or the gross body; and of five THE VEDANTA PHELDSOPHY. SI envelopes, or vestures, (1) the envelope of bliss (2) the envelope of vitality (3jtke envelope of shind (rrwtfTsrsRtq), (^) the envelope of intel- lect (fq^ROT^), and (5) the gross ©nvelope of the material body, These bodies and vestures are very often spoken of in the Vedantic language* Instead of going into details, I may inform' you that these bodies and vestures will not mislead us, if we only understand them to mean as follows: — 1. They are not like layers of the earth, arranged one upon the other, but are mixed up together. In the case of the inanimate world, the bodies express the three stages of develop- ment, and in the case of an individual liv-; , ing being, they express the three sides of. his nature,, corresponding to those of the inanimate world. According to the V edanta, the distinction between organic and inorganic forms is only phenomenal and therefore imaginary, and allbeings are- only developments from the same manifestations^ which • are called bodies and envelopes. The vestures are only our' different na- .tures viewed apart frqni one anotjc^^ ^ sjrhereas they remain with us, ming^^K1^0^'^^ f" A LEOTtTRBS OS’ ‘ S2 f ether in one form of existence. The odies and vestures are all develop- ments from thelSTesceince, which is the first manifestation. Erom Iswara down to the lowest form of existence, the Vedan- tist sees a difierence in development only, and the self, the Atma, is one and the same. Now, gentlemen, I should inform you that these details have very little to do with the broad outlines of the Vedanta system as a philosophy, for when the true knowledge is once acquired and the goal of the V edanta is reached, all individua- lities vanish, and the world ceases to exist. ^ Thus the individual Soul is a combina- tion of reality and unreality, or pheno- menal — of the constant and the variable— of the Soul which is Brahman, and the body which is the outcome of Nescience. It is owing to the presence of this cons- tant part, the Soul, which is the source of all activity, that the body can act. So the Soul of a man is not a mere word, but is really the most important part — the centre of all energy of our individual existence. Thus we see that the Soul, or Atma, as individualised in man, is only Brahman, the constant factor everywherepresent,the high- est development of Nescience, or objecti- THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHT. 53 fled ignorance. In order to understand fully the different positions of the Soul as Brahman, Iswara and the Jiva, &c. T pro- pose giving you a brief analysis of the different grades of development. Starting from Brahman, vre can say that this absolute reality is pure thought. When it thinks about itself it is only thought, as light self-illuminating. Un- accountably this is eternally connected ■with the principle of Maya, or N escience, the creative principle. Why it is so connected no body knows or can know. The question of causality goes only as far as Nescience, and not beyond it. Since causality itself is an outcome of Nescience, to ask the cause of Nescience, would be asking an . absurd question altogether. Now when this pure thought is connected with Nescience, it is called by the name of Iswara, the universal ruler. Again the thoughts of this Iswara are multiplied and manifested in various shapes and words. Being present everywhere with them, this Brahman (Iswara) appears in many shapes, as space enclosed in a jar appears as a limited space, and in many such jars as many different spaces, being named as such.- But space is really one A LECTtTRE 02^ U ' and not many. Very similarly the dif- ferent grades of manifestation go to define the individual Souls the (Prajna), the (Hiranyagarbha), the ftsfH (Tai- jasa), the (Vaishwanara), or (Virat),. and the fifs^ (Vishwa.) But Brah- man is the same and not many. • Starting from the individual Soul, I see that I know that I exist separately from the external world, or, in the language of Descartes, I think, therefore I exist. This phenomenal world is with me only an ideal representation, which being eli- minated, I. remain I, and am one with the true principle of existence, i. e.. Brahman. The active thoughts of Iswara, the Prajna, &c., are only the objectified causes of the external world, and they vanish after des- troying the idea of the external world. I think of Benares for instance. . Along with this thought comes in the idea of its people. If I cease to think of the city, the idea of its people Tnll also cease to be present with me;: In the same^ way the thinking activity' of the Soul, directed^ to- wards Nescience, or objectification, brings in the idea of the world and vanishing, des- troy sit, .The differentgrades of deyelopment THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 55 of Nescience being successively eliminated; the individual Jiva, gradually takes the position of Vaiswanara &c., to the? last of Iswara. Here, subtracting the idea . of Nescience altogether, we reach the abso- lute principle of existence, Brahman the highest Soul. We now come to the Doctrine ojf Molsha-p or salvation according to the Vedanta. The word Moksha literally means release, and hence release from bondage. Properly speaking, it is not a positive bliss, but rather a want of evil. It is a- complete cessation of individualised existence, and the act of merging into the very fontal essence, the very principle of existence and truth. It is the unification of the individual Soul with the highest Soul, It is rising above the world and its phenomenal surroundings. It is the cast- ing off of our Nescience, which is the origin of all evils. Thus Moksha, or salvation, is the realisation of the truth that “ I am Brahman.” Our Soul therefore as Brahman, is ever pure, and its nature is never affected by Nescience, and thus Moksha in regard to the Soul itself is mean-r ingless. In the Soul itself there cart be. no 56 A LECTURE ON bondage and release therefore is meaning- less. But, owing to its contact with Nes- cience, it only forgets itself and considers it dilferent from itself.