Realisation

[Guest guest]

I will read to you from one of the Upanishads. It is called the Katha

Upanishad . Some of you, perhaps, have read the translation of Sir

Edwin Arnold, called the Secret of Death. In our last [i.e. a

previous] lecture we saw how the inquiry which started with the

origin of the world, and the creation of the universe, failed to

obtain a satisfactory answer from without, and how it then turned

inwards. This book psychologically takes up that suggestion,

questioning into the internal nature of man. It was first asked who

created the external world, and how it came into being. Now the

question is: What is that in man which makes him live and move, and

what becomes of that when he dies? The first philosophers studied the

material substance, and tried to reach the ultimate through that. At

the best, they found a personal governor of the universe, a human

being immensely magnified, but yet to all intents and purposes a

human being. But that could not be the whole of truth; at best, it

could be only partial truth. We see this universe as human beings,

and our God is our human explanation of the universe.

 

Suppose a cow were philosophical and had religion, it would have a

cow universe, and a cow solution of the problem, and it would not be

possible that it should see our God. Suppose cats became

philosophers, they would see a cat universe and have a cat solution

of the problem of the universe, and a cat ruling it. So we see from

this that our explanation of the universe is not the whole of the

solution. Neither does our conception cover the whole of the

universe. It would be a great mistake to accept that tremendously

selfish position which man is apt to take. Such a solution of the

universal problem as we can get from the outside labours under this

difficulty that in the first place the universe we see is our own

particular universe, our own view of the Reality. That Reality we

cannot see through the senses; we cannot comprehend It. We only know

the universe from the point of view of beings with five senses.

Suppose we obtain another sense, the whole universe must change for

us. Suppose we had a magnetic sense, it is quite possible that we

might then find millions and millions of forces in existence which we

do not now know, and for which we have no present sense or feeling.

Our senses are limited, very limited indeed; and within these

limitations exists what we call our universe; and our God is the

solution of that universe, but that cannot be the solution of the

whole problem. But man cannot stop there. He is a thinking being and

wants to find a solution which will comprehensively explain all the

universes. He wants to see a world which is at once the world of men,

and of gods, and of all possible beings, and to find a solution which

will explain all phenomena.

 

We see, we must first find the universe which includes all universes;

we must find something which, by itself, must be the material running

through all these various planes of existence, whether we apprehend

it through the senses or not. If we could possibly find something

which we could know as the common property of the lower as well as of

the higher worlds, then our problem would be solved. Even if by the

sheer force of logic alone we could understand that there must be one

basis of all existence, then our problem might approach to some sort

of solution; but this solution certainly cannot be obtained only

through the world we see and know, because it is only a partial view

of the whole.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued