The Absolute and Manifestation

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The one peculiar attribute we find in time, space, and causation is

that they cannot exist separate from other things. Try to think of

space without colour, or limits, or any connection with the things

around--just abstract space. You cannot; you have to think of it as

the space between two limits or between three objects. It has to be

connected with some object to have any existence. So with time; you

cannot have any idea of abstract time, but you have to take two

events, one preceding and the other succeeding, and join the two

events by the idea of succession. Time depends on two events, just as

space has to be related to outside objects. And the idea of causation

is inseparable from time and space. This is the peculiar thing about

them having no independent existence. They have not even the

existence which the chair or the wall has. They are as shadows around

everything which you cannot catch. They have no real existence; yet

they are not non-existent, seeing that through them all things are

manifesting as this universe. Thus we see, first, that the

combination of time, space, and causation has neither existence nor

non-existence. Secondly, it sometimes vanishes. To give an

illustration, there is a wave on the ocean. The wave is the same as

the ocean certainly, and yet we know it is a wave, and as such

different from the ocean. What makes this difference? The name and

the form; that is, the idea in the mind and the form. Now, can we

think of a wave-form as something separate from the ocean? Certainly

not. It is always associated with the ocean idea. If the wave

subsides, the form vanishes in a moment, and yet the form was not a

delusion. So long as the wave existed the form was there, and you

were bound to see the form. This is Maya.

 

The whole of the universe, therefore, is, as it were, a peculiar

form; the Absolute is that ocean while you and I, the suns and the

stars, and everything else are various waves of that ocean. And what

makes the waves different? Only the form, and that form is time,

space, and causation, all entirely dependent on the wave. As soon as

the individual gives up this Maya, it vanishes for him and he becomes

free. The whole struggle is to get rid of this clinging on to time,

space, and causation, which are always obstacles in our way. What is

the theory of evolution? What are the two factors? A tremendous

potential power which is trying to express itself, and circumstances

which are holding it down, the environments not allowing it to

express itself. So, in order to fight with these environments, the

power is taking new bodies again and again. An amoeba, in the

struggle, gets another body and conquers some obstacles, then gets

another body and so on, until it becomes man. Now, if you carry this

idea to its logical conclusion, there must come a time when that

power that was in the amoeba and which evolved as man will have

conquered all the obstructions that nature can bring before it and

will thus escape from all its environments. This idea expressed in

metaphysics will take this form; there are two components in every

action, the one the subject, the other the object, and the one aim of

life is to make the subject master of the object. For instance, I

feel unhappy because a man scolds me. My struggle will be to make

myself strong enough to conquer the environment, so that he may scold

and I shall not feel. That is how we are all trying to conquer. What

is meant by morality? Making the subject strong by attuning it to the

Absolute, so that finite nature ceases to have control over us. It is

a logical conclusion of our philosophy that there must come a time

when we shall have conquered all the environments, because nature is

finite.

 

Here is another thing to learn. How do you know that nature is

finite? You can only know this through metaphysics. Nature is that

Infinite under limitations. Therefore it is finite. So, there must

come a time when we shall have conquered all environments. And how

are we to conquer them? We cannot possible conquer all the objective

environments. We cannot. The little fish wants to fly from its

enemies in the water. How does it do so? By evolving wings and

becoming a bird. The fish did not change the water or the air; the

change was in itself. Change is always subjective. All through

evolution you find that the conquest of nature comes by change in the

subject. Apply this to religion and morality, and you will find that

the conquest of evil comes by the change in the subjective alone.

That is how the Advaita system gets it whole force, on the subjective

side of man. To talk of evil and misery is nonsense, because they do

not exist outside.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued