English
The disorders of the mind though more secret, are not perhaps less dismal and vexatious. Remorse, shame, anguish, rage, disappointment, anxiety, fear, dejection, despair, who has ever passed through life without cruel inroads from these tormentors ? ” It is quite true that the things of this world will not bear a scrutinizing examination. They are the effects of and so must have the nature of the cause in them. Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so. If one wants to be really happy and contented he must guide himself by the light of such knowledge as that of the Vedanta. It teaches us the true na- ture of ourselves, and asks us first to cultivate the passive susceptibilities and the active capacities and to maintain a due balance. It also teaches us that we are what we made our- selves by our own ( ) Karman ( acts ), we suffer what we have done, we reap what we have sown, and that now it is our interest to sow good seeds to reap good harvests. “ New life reaps what the old life did sow ; Holding the gain and answering for the loss. In each life good begets more good. Evil fresh evil” The true inward nature of man is known by the 13 146 kind of knowledge he seeks. A desire for knowledge is natural to the mind of man. The particular kind of knowledge it is fond of discovers its true quality and disposition. Little minds are delighted with the knowledge of trifles, as in the case of children ; worldly minds are pleased with the knowledge of the world ; but a pi’operly educated and wise mind pre- fers the knowledge of his own Self and of God. It is declared by Pythagoras that “ The know- ledge of things divine and most honourable, is principle, cause, and rule of human felicity.” Another philosopher says: — “ He who has not even a knowledge of common things is a brute among men. He who has an ac- curate knowledge of human concerns alone is a man among brutes. But he who knows all that can be known by intellectual energy is a god among men.’^ Self-knowledge is the most important and bene- ficial of all. It is a true guide to duty and happi- ness, By it, as in a glass, we may survey ourselves, and know what manner of persons we are. "Know Thyself” i. e. Self-knowledge is considered one of the most useful and comprehensive precepts in the whole moral system of Europe as well as of Asia — ancient and modern. It is held in great veneration. Such emi- nent names as those of Thales, Chylon, Socrates, Plato, Zeno, &c., are connected with it. Pliny says it has been consecrated at Delphos in golden letters. It was afterwards greatly admired and used by wise men, till at length it acquired the authority of a divine music, and was supposed to have been given 147 originally by Apollo himself; because, Cicero says, ‘ it hath such a weight of sense and wisdom in it as appears too great to be attributed to any man.' Self-knowledge is said to be that acquaintance with ourselves which shows us what we are, and do, and ought to do, in order to our living comfortably and usefully here and happily hereafter. The means of it is self-examination, the end of it is self govern- ment and self-fruition. Pope concludes his Essay on Man by these telling lines : — “ That Virtue only makes our Bliss below ; And all our Knowledge is, Ourselves to Know.” The wise believe that the knowledge of the Self ought to be man’s highest end and aim. Nothing is more strange and injurious than negligence of it. It is well declared in the Sicldhdnta-Miiktdvali : — “ ^ i ^ li ” li ‘ That which is the'Self of all things; for the sake of which the whole world is ; that ocean of bliss, independent of aught else ; — pray declare how this Self is to be rejected (neglected) as the aim of man'. The knowledge of Self expands our view, and eventually leads us to the Higher Pantheism, which identifies us with the Highest Self. The Higher Pantheism. “ The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains — Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns ? 148 Is not the Vision He ? tho* He be not that which He seems ? Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams ? Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, Are they not sign and sjmibol of thy division from him ? Dark is the world to thee : thyself art the reason why ; For is He not all but thou, thou hast power to feel * I am I * ? Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom. Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet — Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. God is law, say the wise ; O Soul, and let us rejoice, For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice. Law is God, say some : no God at all, says the fool ; For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool ; And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see ; But if we could see and hear, this Vision — were it not He ? ” — Tennyson. The first step to this knowledge is to examine ourselves, and find as far as we can what manner of persons we are. The Divine and Demoniac (Asuric) Natures. In the Bhagvad-GitQr mankind is classified under two main heads of Asurisam'pat and Daivisampat. In the greater number of men are found what are called ( dsuri-sampat, demoniac proper- 149 ties or endowments) namely, — Hypocrisy, arrogance and conceit, wrath and also harshness and unwisdom... ( 4 ) Men of Asuric properties know not either right energy or right abstinence ; nor purity, nor even propriety, nor truth is in them ( 7 ), 'The universe is without truth, without moral basis,’ they say, ‘ without a God ( Is' vara ), brought about by mutual union and caused by lust and nothing else’ ( 8 ). Holding this view, these ruined selves of small Buddhi ( intellect ), of fierce deeds, come forth as enemies for the destruction of the world ( 9 ). Sur- rendering themselves to insatiable desires, possessed with vanity, conceit and arrogance, holding evil ideas through delusion, ( they ) engage in action with impure resolves ( 10 ). Giving themselves over to unmeasured thought whose end is death, regarding the gratification of desires as the highest, feeling sure that this is all (11 ), held in bondage by a hundred ties of expectation, given over to lust and anger, they strive to obtain by unlawful means hoards of wealth for sensual enjoyments ( 12 ). Be- wildered by numerous thoughts, enmeshed in the web of delusion, addicted to the gratification of desire, they fall downwards (16). These mali- cious ones hate me ( the Lord who am ) in the bodies of others and in their own ( Chap. XVI. 18 ). There is also a very small minority of men in whom are found what are called ( Daivi- sampat. Divine properties or endowments. They are: — Fearlessness, cleanness of life (or purity of 150 heart ), steadfastness in the Yoga^ of wisdom, alms- giving, self-restraint and sacrifice and study of the bistros, austerity and straightforwardness ( 1 ), harmlessness, truth, absence of wrath, renunciation, peacefulness, absence of crookedness, compassion to living beings, uncovetousness, mildness, modesty, absence of fickleness ( 2 ), vigour, forgiveness, forti- tude, purity, absence of envy and pride ( 3 ).* The former class of mankind, trusting only to the false shows of sense-perception ( ) vainly conceive that they are one with bodies, and that the whole assemblage of things from the substrate, ^ )> to the gross body are the Self ( Atman ). Some hold that the Self is distinct from the body, for the dead body is seen in this world after the living self has departed. Others hold that the sense-organs are Self; some others that the vital breath (sTPir) is Self; others again that the common sensory (tr) is Self; others that the consciousness is Self ; others that an original blank is Self, and the whole world of cognitions and cognita ( ) is imagined 1. 2-50. ‘Yoga’ = skill in action. Mr. K. T. 'Telang renders it by ‘Devotion in ( all ) actions is wisdom.’ Mr. Mfidi&deva S&stri, by ‘ in actions devotion is power,’ i. Devotion consisting in the equanimity of mind in success and failure on the part of him who is engaged in the performance of his proper •duties, while his mind rests on Is^vara, the Lord. — S^ankara Bhfts'ya. 2. See the Sha^vad-OUd, XVI. Mrs. Annie Besant’s translsr tion is the ! 151 through error; some say the Self has intelligence, others say it has not. So many and various are the opinions of mankind with reference to the Self-hood of man. The knowledge of Jiva, Jagat, Paramktman. The Vedanta disproves these, and establishes that { ) a special complete knowledge of the whole — Jiva, Jagat, Parmdtman, ( the soul, the Uni- verse and God ) — is the only means to learn the truth. The nature of (srflraT) ignorance and (f^) such special knowledge is described in the Pancha- das'V- as follows: — The misapprehension that ( ) this world of phenomena is x’eal and attaches to the ( impersonal ) Self, must be regarded as (srfIrEIT) Nescience. It is destroyed by (f^) knowledge. (f^) Knowledge is this: — the phenomenal world ( ) is relative to ( ) the personal ( transmigrating ) sentiency, which is an appearance ( reflexion ) of the Self ( ) •’ it does not per- tain to the Self, the (one real) .substance ( This knowledge is obtained through deliberation. li One should therefore ever ponder these: — Emanation, the world of appearance, Jiva ) the transmigrating sentiency, and ( TCHRW PotTwAimA ) the highest Self. When the 1. See the Pans/tac^'t, Chitra-Dtpa VI. 10-17.