Maya and the evolution of the conception of God

[Guest guest]

Let us go back a little to those early ideas of God and see what

became of them. We perceive at once that the idea of some Being who

is eternally loving us--eternally unselfish and almighty, ruling this

universe--could not satisfy. " Where is the just, merciful God? " asked

the philosopher. Does He not see millions and millions of His

children perish, in the form of men and animals; for who can live one

moment here without killing others? Can you draw a breath without

destroying thousands of lives? You live, because, millions die. Every

moment of your life, every breath that you breathe, is death to

thousands; every movement that you make is death to millions. Every

morsel that you eat is death to millions. Why should they die? There

is an old sophism that they are very low existences. Supposing they

are--which is questionable, for who knows whether the ant is greater

than the man, or the man than the ant--who can prove one way or the

other? Apart from that question, even taking it for granted that they

are very low beings, still why should they die? If they are low, they

have more reason to live. Why not? Because they live more in the

senses, they feel pleasure and pain a thousandfold more than you or I

can do. Which of us eats a dinner with the same gusto as a dog or

wolf? None, because our energies are not in the senses; they are in

the intellect, in the spirit. But in animals, their whole soul is in

the senses, and they become mad and enjoy things which we human

beings never dream of, and the pain is commensurate with the

pleasure. Pleasure and pain are meted out in equal measure. If the

pleasure felt by animals is so much keener than that felt by man, it

follows that the animals' sense of pain is as keen, if not keener

than man's. So the fact is, the pain and misery men feel in dying is

intensified a thousandfold in animals, and yet we kill them without

troubling ourselves about their misery. This is Maya. And if we

suppose there is a Personal God like a human being, who made

everything, these so-called explanations and theories which try to

prove that out of evil comes good are not sufficient. Let twenty

thousand good things come, but why should they come from evil? On

that principle, I might cut the throats of others because I want the

full pleasure of my senses. That is no reason. Why should good come

through evil? The question remains to be answered, and it cannot be

answered. The philosophy of India was compelled to admit this.

 

The Vedanta was (and is) the boldest system of religion. It stopped

nowhere, and it had one advantage. There was no body of priests who

sought to suppress every man who tried to tell the truth. There was

always absolute religious freedom. In India the bondage of

superstition is a social one; here in the West society is very free.

Social matters in India are very strict, but religious opinion is

free. In England a man may dress any way he likes, or eat what he

likes--no one objects; but if he misses attending church, then Mrs.

Grundy is down on him. He has to conform first to what society says

on religion, and then he may think of the truth. In India, on the

other hand, if a man dines with one who does not belong to his own

caste, down comes society with all its terrible powers and crushes

him then and there. If he wants to dress a little differently from

the way in which his ancestor dressed ages ago, he is done for. I

have heard of a man who was cast out by society because he went

several miles to see the first railway train. Well, we shall presume

that was not true! But in religion, we find atheists, materialists,

and Buddhists, creeds, opinions, and speculations of every phase and

variety, some of a most startling character, living side by side.

Preachers of all sects go about teaching and getting adherents, and

at the very gates of the temples of gods, the Brahmins--to their

credit be it said--allow even the materialists to give forth their

opinions.

 

Buddha died at a ripe old age. I remember a friend of mine, a great

American scientist, who was fond of reading his life. He did not like

the death of Buddha, because he was not crucified. What a false idea!

For a man to be great he must be murdered! Such ideas never prevailed

in India. This great Buddha travelled all over India, denouncing her

gods and even the God of the universe, and yet he lived to a good old

age. For eighty years he lived, and had converted half the country.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued