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It shows It to be i. e. by nature and essence. It is ( 1 ) Existence or Pure Entity, ( 2 ) Knowledge or Pure Thought, and ( 3 ) Joy, Pure Felicity or Perfect Bliss, which three? however, are only one, — ^The existence-thought-joy. Therein It is demonstrated to be ( M4.<lk44<) the Highest Self, the Supreme Ego, the Perfect Self of the Universe, and very much more ; the Supremely Divine Soul, Essence, or Spirit. The Vedanta establishes that It is the Absolute Reality underlying the phenomenal universe — visible and invisible ; that It is the Invisible behind the visible ; that it permeates the Universe within and without, abiding for ever in all, unchangeable ; that It is the Infinite within the finite ; that It is the root through May4, and the ultimate happy end through knowledge, of all created things, and yet independent of creation and above the act of ere- 70 ation ; and that It only is the substance, Universe ) is merely a modality or shadow. This position is beautifully illustrated by adopt- ing the i. e. the Doctrine of Manifestation, * In this Vivaria ( turning away, illusory emana- tion ) doctrine, there is always something on which Vivaria is at work. And that something is Brahman. According to the Vedanta the Universe (^) is not creation but Emanation and Evolution, or rather Vivaria that is to say. Brahman is not the material cause but only the substratum, the illusoi’y material cause of tlie universe, which is superimposed on It. Brahman, being unchangeable, remains al- ways the same, but through Nescience we cannot see It in Its true nature, but mistake It for the universe, just as one through dai’kness, mistakes a rope for a snake, but the rope remains all the time what it is. There would be no snake without the rope, and there would be no universe without Brahman ; and yet the rope does not become the snake, nor does Brahman, the Universe; they only appear so. It is only the darkness which makes us see the snake super- imposed on the rope, and frightens us and deter- mines our actions. Analogously, it is only our sub- jective Nescience ( arfsrfiT ) which makes us see the phenomenal Universe which is super-imposed on 1. “The Doctrine of Manifestation is exemplified by the appearance of the mirage in the refracted rays of the sun, or by the reflection of the sun itself in the waters, to show that the fundamental Substance remains unchanged, though it seems to wear a difierent aspect, which is unreal in itself, but evidences a reality sustaining it.” 71 Brahraan. But all along, the rope and the snake as well as Brahman and the Universe ai-e one. When the universe is said to he Brahman, it is meant that the reality of the universe is not its own, but Brahman’s, or in the language of European Monists ( who hold the doctrine of Absolute identi- ty,) ‘mind and matter are only phenomenal modifica- tions of the same common substance’ (Brahman). This ( ) doctrine is properly understood only by the advanced Vedantist, possessing deeper knowledge which enables him to reconcile seeming conti'adictions and explain paradoxes. Thus the Vediinta tries to describe the indescrib- able Brahman or Paramiltman, the Highest Self, by lavishing innumerable epithets— adopted and coined — exhausting the whole vocabulary of human speech, but remains unsatisfied at finding that no Avord could adequately express what It is. The most ardent desire which the Vediintins felt to adumbrate Brahman’s greatness made them try positive, constructive, affirmative, negative, interrog- ative and all sorts of methods. They find, however, that it is iinj)ossible for the finite human intellect to predicate anything worthy of the Infinite; that whatever attributes are con- ceivable can only be denied of It. They, therefore, .try the method of Neti, Neti,^ not so, not so. This negatives the cosmic plurality fictitiously super- imposed on Brahman, leaving It untouched, and implies that different from everything else there exists the ‘ non-negatived ’ Brahman. 1. See Brahma-SHtra, Adhy&ya III, 2, 22. 72 Thus they proceed by the method of n^ation leading to abstraction, and end in keeping silence and ' becoming quite still,’ thereby intimating that It being unshadowable in words could be apprehended, like necessary truths, but cannot be adequately expres- sed in words, as It transcends all speech and thought. They observe: — ‘Fi-om Brahman all speech with the mind turns away unable to reach It.’^ Or as a great theosophist expresses : — “The one, from which all pro- ceeds, in which all exists, and to which all must return. As to that, all words are idle, all thoughts impossible, all speculations useless; by us, the manifested and conditioned, the unmanifested, unconditioned, can- not be known.” Overpowering is Its grandness — so grand that it overwhelmed their powerful intellect and convinced them that the incomprehensible im- mense gi-andeur could not be even partially expressed, though internally understood and felt in happy moments by the learned, awakened, devoted, and enlightened. " He who knows Para-Brahman, the Highest Self, attains the highest beatitude,” proclaims Taittiriya Upanishad. But this highest aim cannot be achieved by all, as it requires the highest preparations and superior intelligence. A middle and more practical course is, therefore, devised for the benefit of the ma- jority. Two forms are attributed to Brahman for easy apprehension : — the unqualified Brahman, and the qualified Brahman. The first is in- finite and free from all conditions. It transcends all 1. See TaiUirtya Upanishad, 11, 4. 73 attributes, and is the object of knowledge for the enlightened few. ( f ) Is'vara, the Lord. Its infinitesimal part becomes the quali- fied Brahman, through Its association with the unreal principle of M^y^. It is then called Is'vara, the Lord. Being thus qualified through reflection into M4ya, the root of the multiformity of evolutions of name and form of the universe, the Lord is its Creator, Pi-eserver, and Ruler. He is then conceived to be omnipresent and om- niscient, eternal, greater than the sky, greater than the ether, &c. He provides for the creation, the subsistence and the absoi’ption of the world ; knows all the differences of place and time; and distri- butes the threefold fruits of action, viz., pain, pleasure, and a mixture of the two. Though He is the giver of the fruits ( ) He is not open to be taxed with partiality and cruelty, because He gives them according to the merit and demerit of the actions of the agents, the souls. ^ The circumstance of creation being unequal ( the in- equality of destiny ) is due to the merit and demerit of the living creatures created, and is not a fault for which the Lord is to blame. The position of the Lord is to be looked on as analogous to that of Parjanya, the Giver of rain. For as Parjanya is the common cause of the production of rice, barley, &c., while the difference between the various species is due to the various potentialities lying hidden in the respective seeds, so the Lord is the common cause of 1. Bee the BrahmorSHUras, 111,2, 39-41, and 11, 34. 7 74 the creation of gods, men &c., while the differences between these classes of beings are due to the differ- ent merit belonging to the individual souls. Hence, the Lord cannot be reproached with inequality of dis- pensation and cruelty. Or, in other words, the Lord of the universe is not the author of evil, but simply superintends the universal working of cause and effect. What rain is in the vegetable world, the A Lord, Is'mra is in the moral world and in the whole creation. Works, good or evil, done by man, grow and bear good or evil fruit under the discriminating influence of the omnipotent and omniscient Lord. But it must be remembered that the so-called Is'vara, the qualified Brahman, and Nirguna, the unqualified Brahman, is substantially the same. There is and there could be, in reality, one Brahman only, and not two. For all practical purposes, and specially for worship, the Is'vara or the qualified form of Brahman is allowed ; because in worship the ordinary human intellect requires a qualified and objective form of God. The above method was naturally suggested to the religio-philosophic teachers of India from the first. They thought that as the food of a child and that of a man, or as mathematical books for a beginner and for an advanced student, cannot be and ought not to be the same, so the religious ideas of the non-enlightened must differ from those of the enlightened. Those who, without the necessary training, try to uplift the veil of the highest truth through idle curio- sity, are unable to stand its glare, and mistake and 75 misunderstand it. This led. to the wise method of the two forms of the one Brahman. The very oiganisation of the human intellect— which is bound once for ever to its innate forms of perception, space ( ), time ( ), and causality ( ) — excludes unenlightened men from a know- ledge of the spaceless and timeless Brahman, God. But to the enlightened Its knowledge is attainable, for It is not far from us. Brahman is in ourselves,, as our own metaphysical entity, for it is part of It& nature as being omnipresent that It is present in every one. And on our withdrawing oui-selves from the outside apparent world and returning to the substratum of our own nature we come to Brahman, the Highest Self, by absorption into It when subject and object coincide in the Self of the soul. “ For more than once when I Sat all alone, revolving in myself The woid that is the symbol of myself, The mortal limit of the Self was loosed. And passed into the Nameless, as a cloud Melts into Heaven.