vivekananda on the Vedas (part 36)

[Guest guest]

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 36

 

Parts 1 to 35 were posted earlier. This is part 36. Your comments are

welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at

http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

 

2. Philosophy and Renunciation

 

The Upanishads believe in [getting things right according to the Vedas, but

they have a higher standard, too]. On the one hand they do not want to

overthrow the Vedas, but on the other, they see these animal sacrifices and

the priests stealing everybody's money. But in the psychology, they are all

alike All the differences have been in the philosophy [regarding] the nature

of the soul. Has it a body and a mind? And is the mind only a bundle of

nerves? Psychology, they all take for granted, is a perfect science. There

cannot be any difference there. All the fight has been regarding

philosophy - the nature of the soul, and God, and so on. (26)

 

The germs of all the ideas that were developed in the Upanishads had been

taught already in the Karma Kanda. The idea of the cosmos which all sects of

Vedantists had to take for granted, the psychology of which has formed the

common basis of all the Indian schools of thought, had been worked out

already and presented before the world [sankhyan cosmology and psychology].

(27)

 

You remember that the Vedas have two parts, the ceremonial and the knowledge

portions. In time ceremonials had multiplied and become so intricate that it

was almost hopeless to disentangle them, and so in the Upanishads we find

that the ceremonials were almost done away with, but gently, by explaining

them. We see that in olden times they had these oblations and sacrifices;

then the philosophers came and, instead of snatching away the symbols from

the hands of the ignorant, instead of taking the negative position, which we

unfortunately find so general in modern reforms, they gave them something to

take their place. "Here is the symbol of fire", they said. "Very good! But

here is another symbol, the earth. What a grand, great symbol! Here is this

little temple, but the whole universe is a temple; a man can worship

anywhere. There are the peculiar figures that men draw on the earth, and

there are the altars, but here is the greatest of altars, the living,

conscious human body; and to worship at this altar is far higher than the

worship of any dead symbols." (28)

 

Then another great difference between the priests and the Upanishads: the

Upanishads say renounce. That is the test of everything. Renounce

everything. It is the creative faculty that brings us into all this

entanglement. The mind is in its own nature when it is calm. The moment you

can calm it, that [very] moment you will know the truth. What is it that is

whirling the mind? Imagination, creative activity. Stop creation and you

know the truth. All power of creation must stop and then you know the truth

at once. (29)

 

On the other hand, the priests are all for [creation]. Imagine a species of

life [in which there is no creative activity. It is unthinkable]. The people

had to have a plan [of evolving a stable society. A system of rigid

selection was adopted. For instance,] no people who are blind and halt can

be marred. [As a result], you will find so much less deformity [in India]

than in any other country in the world. Epileptics and insane [people] are

very rare [there]. That is owing to direct selection. The priests say, " Let

them become sannyasins." On the other hand, the Upanishads say, " Oh no,

[the] earth's best and finest and freshest flowers should be laid upon the

altar." (30)

 

If the performance of yajnas is the cornerstone of the work portion of the

Vedas, as surely is brahmacharya the foundation of the knowledge portion.

(31)

 

The spiritual portion of the Vedas is specially studied by monks. (32)

 

 

Cross reference to:

 

Taitt. Up., 2.8.1

 

 

3. The Highest Is the Knowledge of Brahman

 

The Upanishads point out that the goal of man is neither misery nor

happiness; we have to be the master of that out of which these are

manufactured. We must be masters of the situation at the very root, as it

were. (33)

 

The philosophical portion denounced all work, however good, and all pleasure

such as loving and kissing wife, husband or children, as useless. According

to this doctrine, all good works and pleasures are nothing but foolishness

and, in their very nature, impermanent. "All this must come to an end

sometime, so end it now; it is vain" - so say the philosophical portion of

the Upanishads. It claims that all the pain in the world is caused by

ignorance; therefore the cure is knowledge. This idea of one being held down

fast by past karma or work, is all nonsense. No matter how dense one may be,

or how bad, one ray of light will dissipate it all. A bale of cotton,

however Large, will be utterly destroyed by one spark. If a room has been

dark for untold ages, a lamp will end it all. So with each soul, however

benighted it may be, it is not absolutely bound down by its part karma to

work for ages to come. "One ray of light will reveal to him his true

nature." (34)

 

The knowledge portion deals with the knowledge of Brahman and discusses

religion. The Vedas in this part teach of the Self; and because they do,

their knowledge is approaching real knowledge. Knowledge of the Absolute

depends upon no book, nor upon anything; it is absolute in itself. (35)

 

 

Cross reference to:

 

Mund. Up., 1.1.5

 

 

4. Denial of the Ultimate Authority of Any Book

 

The farthest that any religion can see is the existence of a spiritual

entity. So no religion can teach beyond that point. In every religion there

is the essential truth and the non-essential casket in which this jewel

lies. Believing in the Jewish book or the Hindu book is non-essential.

Circumstances may change, the receptacle is different, but the central truth

remains. The essentials being the same, the educated people of every

community retain the essentials. (36)

 

There is a place in the Vedas [even] for superstition, for ignorance. The

whole secret is to find out the proper place for everything. (37)

 

One peculiarity of the Vedas is that they are the only scriptures that again

and again declare that you must go beyond them. The Vedas say that they were

written just for the child-mind, and when you have grown, you must go beyond

them. (38)

 

The rest - all these talks and reasonings and philosophies and dualisms and

monisms, and even the Vedas themselves are but preparations, secondary

things. The other is primary. (39)

 

Books are useless to us until our own book opens; then all books are good so

far as they confirm our book. (40)

 

Our own realization is beyond the Vedas because even they depend upon that.

The highest Vedanta is the philosophy of the Beyond. (41)

 

In spite of [the idea that things exist because they are in the Vedas], look

at the boldness of these sages who proclaimed that the truth is not found by

much study of the Vedas. (42)

 

Do you find in any other scripture such a bold assertion as this: not even

by the study of the Vedas will you reach the Atman? (43)

 

The glory of the Vedic scriptures is unique in the history of religion, not

merely because of their great antiquity, but vastly more for the fact that

they alone amongst all the authoritative books of the world, warned man that

he must go beyond all books. (44)

 

 

Cross reference to:

 

Ka. Up., 1.2.23

 

Mund. Up., 1.1.5

 

Taitt. Up., 2.4, 9

 

 

5. Truth Is beyond All System and Is Based on the Nature of Humanity Itself

 

Personally, I take as much of the Vedas as agrees with reason. Parts of the

Vedas are apparently contradictory. They are not considered inspired in the

Western sense of the word, but as the sum total of the knowledge of God,

omniscience, which we possess. But to say that only those books which we

call the Vedas contain this knowledge is mere sophistry. We know it is

shared in varying degrees by the scriptures of all sects. Manu says that

only that part of the Vedas which agrees with reason is the Vedas; and many

of our philosophers have taken this view. (45)

 

There are truths that are true only in a certain line, in a certain

directions, under certain circumstances, and for certain times - those that

are founded on the institutions of the times. There are other truths which

are based on the nature of humanity itself and which must endure so long as

humanity itself endures. These are the truths that alone can be universal;

and in spite of all the changes that have come to India as to our social

surroundings, our methods of dress, our manner of eating, our mode of

worship - these universal truths of the Shrutis, the marvelous Vedantic

ideas, stand out in their own sublimity. (46)

 

It is true that we have created a system of religion in India which we

believe to be the only rational religious system extant; but our belief in

its rationality rests upon its all-inclusion of the searchers after God, it

absolute charity towards all forms of worship, and its eternal receptivity

of those ideas tending towards the evolution of God in the universe. We

admit the imperfections of our system, because the Reality must always be

beyond all system; and in this admission lies the portent and promise of an

eternal growth. Sects, ceremonies, and books, so far as they are the means

of man's realizing his own nature, are all right; when he has realized that,

he gives up everything. "I reject the Vedas!" is the last word of the

Vedanta philosophy. Ritual, hymns and scriptures through which he has

traveled to freedom vanish for him. (47)

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

What do you mean by Neo-vedanta? The Vedanta is

timeless and hence attributes such as Neo or Paleo are

of no significance. The very fact that you say

"Vivekananda and Neo Vedanta" itself brings about

confusion on the teachings of Vivekananda.

Can you explain that more ?

 

Regards,

Anand

 

 

--- Vivekananda Centre <vivekananda

wrote:

>

>

> SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

> By Sister Gayatriprana

> part 36

>

> Parts 1 to 35 were posted earlier. This is part

> 36. Your comments are

> welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

> Earlier postings can be seen at

> http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

>

>

 

 

 

 

Get personalized email addresses from Mail - only $35

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[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Vivekananda Centre" <vivekananda@b...> wrote:

>

>

> SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

> By Sister Gayatriprana

> part 36

> If a room has been dark for untold ages, a lamp will end it all. So

> with each soul, however

> benighted it may be, it is not absolutely bound down by its part

karma to

> work for ages to come. "One ray of light will reveal to him his true

> nature." (34)

>

 

Pranams to Sister Gayatriprana for compiling such a wonderful work.

 

In the above, it is stated that, "it is not absolutely bound down by

its part karma to work for ages to come."

 

I, with my most sincere respects, would like to know, if *part* is

actually a spelling mistake and whether it must be *past*, so that

the sentence would be,

"it is not absolutely bound down by its past karma to work for ages

to come."

 

With Love,

Raghava