The Absolute and Manifestation

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This idea is not clearly found in any other religious system. They

are all parts equally struggling to attain to the whole. The

existence of the part is only for this. So, from the very first,

Advaita had no antagonism with the various sects existing in India.

There are dualists existing today, and their number is by far the

largest in India, because dualism naturally appeals to less educated

minds. It is a very convenient, natural, common-sense explanation of

the universe. But with these dualists, Advaita has no quarrel. The

one thinks that God is outside the universe, somewhere in heaven, and

the other, that He is his own Soul, and that it will be a blasphemy

to call Him anything more distant. Any idea of separation would be

terrible. He is the nearest of the near. There is no word in any

language to express the nearness except the word Oneness. With any

other idea the Advaitist is not satisfied just as the dualist is

shocked with the concept of the Advaita, and thinks it blasphemous.

At the same time the Advaitist knows that these other ideas must be,

and so has no quarrel with the dualist who is on the right road. From

his standpoint, the dualist will have to see many.

 

It is a constitutional necessity of his standpoint. Let him have it.

The Advaitist knows that whatever may be his theories, he is going to

the same goal as he himself. There he differs entirely from the

dualist who is forced by his point of view to believe that all

differing views are wrong. The dualists all the world over naturally

believe in a Personal God who is purely anthropomorphic, who like a

great potentate in this world is pleased with some and displeased

with others. He is arbitrarily pleased with some peoples or races and

showers blessing upon them. Naturally the dualist comes to the

conclusion that God has favourites, and he hopes to be one of them.

You will find that in almost every religion is the idea: " We are the

favourites of our God, and only by believing as we do, can you be

taken into favour with Him. " Some dualists are so narrow as to insist

that only the few that have been predestined to the favour of God can

be saved; the rest may try ever so hard, but they cannot be accepted.

I challenge you to show me one dualistic religion which has not more

or less of this exclusiveness. And, therefore, in the nature of

things, dualistic religions are bound to fight and quarrel with each

other, and this they have ever been doing. Again, these dualists win

the popular favour by appealing to the vanity of the uneducated. They

like to feel that they enjoy exclusive privileges. The dualist thinks

you cannot be moral until you have a God with a rod in His hand,

ready to punish you. The unthinking masses are generally dualists,

and they, poor fellows, have been persecuted for thousands of years

in every country; and their idea of salvation is, therefore, freedom

from the fear of punishment. I was asked by a clergyman in

America, " What! you have no Devil in your religion? How can that be? "

But we find that the best and the greatest men that have been born in

the world have worked with that high impersonal idea. It is the Man

who said, " I and my Father are One " , whose power has descended unto

millions. For thousands of years it has worked for good. And we know

that the same Man, because he was a non-dualist, was merciful to

others. To the masses who could not conceive of anything higher than

a Personal God, he said, " Pray to your Father in heaven. " To others

who could grasp a higher idea, he said, " I am the vine, ye are the

branches, " but to his disciples to whom he revealed himself more

fully, he proclaimed the highest truth, " I and my Father are One. "

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued