English
In endless grada- tions, endless combinations of subtle and gross, end- less varieties of consciousness, all things come forth. Nature is divine in principle, i. e.. Nature is Brahman, but Brahman is not Nature, as is errone- ously supposed by the uninitiated in the VedS^nta philosophy. God is the substratum, the essence of Nature, and Nature is but the visible form, the exteriority, of the invisible Substance. Some, like inanimate insentient matter or mineral bodies, merely exist ; some have what is called life, sentient soul, consciousness, or intelligence, as well as exist- ence; and some feel a shadow of happiness along with existence and intelligence. The Vedanta demonstrates that the existence or reality appearing in the universe is simply a trans- ference of the Sat, the Existence of the Highest Self. The whole creation, invisible and visible, with all minerals and living bodies, derives its real being from the One Sat. The Sat is the root or the highest essence of the universe. It is the Self of all and everything in it. It is the higher reality underly- ing all appearances. Similarly, wherever intelligence is presented in the universe, it is owing to or brought by ( the Chit, the Knowledge or Intelligence of the Highest Self. In the same manner, wherever happiness is ex- perienced, it is on account of a reflection of ( ) the Ananda, the Joy of the Highest Self. The Vedanta Unity. Harmony between Egoism and Altrnism. In shoi't, the real and eternal substance of the universe, appearing under innumerable names and forms, is of the One Highest Self. This fact leaves man, when he is enlightened, no choice but to con- sider all the universe ) including himselfi as a portion eventually of Idvara, the Lord, the One Highest Self reflected in M^ya, and consequently to love and treat all not only as his brothers but as himsdf, all being emanated from and sustained in the same one fundamental Substance, the Highest Self. The idea of difference must be demolished. All live and move and have their being in Him, and He lives in all and beyond all. He is the All in All. Manu glorifies the seeing of one highest Self in everything thus: — I 'He who equally sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self, he as a sacrificer to the Self, attains self-luminousness, i. e. becomes Brahman.* The venerable Vy4sa avers in the MahOhh^rata : — 5r jufi; li” 'There is one universal Self. He is the internal Self of me, of thee, and of all other embodied beings, the internal witness of all not to be apprehended by any one.’ 127 But this ennobling knowledge can only be gained by right thinking. The Vedinta declares that; — f^srr ^rni i TOT snRF^ ^sn ‘Knowledge is not produced by any means other than ( ) right thinking, reflection ; just as objects are never perceived but by the help of light^ The AparohJidmibhiiti.^ The peculiar characteristic of reflection is liberty. It illuminates every pre-existing thing which is obscure, or developes that which is enve- loped. Like the microscope and the telescope, it is an instrument to discover to us the true character and law of the object of thought. It destroys mis- leading illusions and forms mixed with truth, and makes it luminous. "Philosophy*’ says M. V. Cousin, "is nothing else than reflection on a great scale, reflection in itself and for itself, with no other design than that of un- derstanding”. It shows the connection of the parts which constitutes the whole unity, or the relations which bind the parts together. Reflection searches for and finds unity, oneness, because it comprehends the whole. The Vedanta utilizes both the methods of analysis or decomposition, and synthesis, collecting again, re- composition of parts. It asks us to analyse the uni- verse into ( 31^ ) Spiritual and physical, Intel- ligent and non-intelligent, parts. This substitutes for obscure varieties a whole that has the greatest 1. See Prof. N, DvivMfs SSjairYoga^ 128 possible clearness; and then to synthesise or re- compose, as it were, the one spiritual hidden behind the physical. The Veddnta thus unites and em- braces the system of ( entity, and in doing so it reflects the Reality. It raises the mind from the particular to the general, from the known phenome- nal visible universe to the unknown invisible Sub- stratum, the Lord, the hidden Entity, the universal Self. This brings the universe, including all animated creatures therein, under the Unity, oneness. This combination of both methods — analytic and synthetic —is considered as best suited in the present case. The Ved&ntin thus commands a vast horizon and sees ( SHrYTT ) the Self, everywhere and in every being, and exhorts us to love all, not only for them- selves as they appear, but for the Self ( God ) that is in them, for their eternal Self, for that universal Self in which we all share. Thus we have to love all creatures on higher grounds, — rather than mere phenomenal ones, — for the divine Self in all of them. For in loving all creatures we really love God, and in loving God ( who is also within us ) we love ourselves. The Vedanta discloses to us and in us a gracious, benevolent, and all-pervading Being, who asks no more from us than that we should prove our love of Him Whom we have not seen, by love of our brothers and ourselves whom we have seen. This might be translated by the more familiar words of Vasistha to Rd.ma. The venerable Vasistha avers: — 129 “ ^ ?rpr i II ” . ‘0 R^ma 1 by any means whatever, one must cause satisfaction to any embodied soul whatever. This is the worship of the Lord.* Or, to use an European expression for the same: — “ He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small ; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. ” — Coleridge. Dean Stanley, in his book on Christian Institu- tions, gives the following statement of the general teaching of Christ: — " The whole point of the description of the last Judgment is, that even the good heathens having never heard His name yet have seen Him and served Him; and when they ask Him, 'When saw we Thee I’ He answers without hesitation or reserve, 'In-as- much as ye did it to the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me. It was I who was hungry, and ye gave Me food. It was I who was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink. It was I who was shut up in prison, and ye visited Me.*’ In his work entitled ‘ The Ascent of Man ’ Mr. Henry Drummond says : — The path of progress and the path of Altruism are one. Evolution is no- thing but the Involution of Love, the revelation of Infinite Spirit, the Eternal Life returning to Itself.** p. 46. What a deep, instructive, important and effective ethical truth is hidden in thisl It provides a complete harmony between egoism (^cirSr) and 130 altruism ), between the pursuit of the highest happiness for one’s self, and that for other beings. The all-embracing Vedanta can exclude nothing from its precinct. Of whatever the verb-'to exist’ or ‘to be’ could be predicated, it is ultimately within the limit of the Vedanta. There is nothing in the world, especially no i*eligion in the world, which the Vedanta regards as foreign. It affords a common ground to all good religions and philosophies, on which they could best meet one another and join hands in carrying out the high object at which they are aiming, viz., to satisfy all the wants both of the human heart and of the human head. It is well observed that if you look at the great religions of the world from the outside, you see mere- ly discord, but penetrate them and seek the inner doctrine, and harmony will come to light. Penetrate into the arcana even of one of the religions, and you will unveil them all. Then a strange pheno- menon is revealed. Little by little, but by ever Avidening sweep, we see the hidden doctrine shining in the centre of the religions, like a sun dispersing mist. Each religion appears like a different planet. With each of them we change our atmosphere and our plane of orbit, but it is always one and the same sun that gives the light. The Vedanta shows that it is but his own shir) Nescience, false knowledge, or ignorance, a part, as it were, of M^y&, which veils the intel- ligence of man and makes him impute something in that which is not that thing; creates differences where they ought not to exist, and then leads him astray. 131 and inflicts all the consequences resulting therefrom. Man thereby becomes most interested in and devoted to fleeting worldly objects, to which he erroneously imputes, and in which he yearns to find, happiness which is never to be found therein, and grows indif- ferent to the immortalizing knowledge of God — the fountain of happiness. The Vedanta gives us light to remove this Nescience, May^, and guides us to the most blissful knowledge of ( ) the real Universal Sat-Chit-Anarvda which is in all things, and enables us to drop ( ) the phenomenal Name and Form; when Brahman alone remains. It is truly remarked that being is the object of knowledge, and not-heing of ignorance. Knowledge must be of something which is, as ignorance is of something which is not. If we test the foregoing by this rule the true knowledge can be but that of Brahman which alone really is, and the so-called knowledge of phenomenal name and form, — M^yii, which really is not, is ignorance. Right knowledge is a system of ideas leading up- wards by regular stages to the idea of God. The light of the Vedilnta knowledge removes the darkness of Mkyh, and moulds man to the divine image until there is a perfect harmony or fusion of the divine and the human. Many notions in relation to M4ya seem paradoxi- cal.