Freedom of the soul

[Guest guest]

Then came the philosophers. The work of the Upanishads seems to have

ended at that point; the next was taken up by the philosophers. The

framework was given them by the Upanishads, and they had to fill in

the details. So, many questions would naturally arise. Taking for

granted that there is but One Impersonal Principle which is

manifesting Itself in all these manifold forms, how is it that the

One becomes many? It is another way of putting the same old question

which in its crude form comes into the human heart as the inquiry

into the cause of evil and so forth. Why does evil exist in the

world, and what is its cause? But the same question has now become

refined, abstracted. No more is it asked from the platform of the

senses why we are unhappy, but from the platform of philosophy. How

is it that this One Principle becomes manifold? And the answer, as we

have seen, the best answer that India has produced is the theory of

Maya which says that It really has not become manifold, that It

really has not lost any of Its real nature. Manifoldness is only

apparent. Man is only apparently a person, but in reality he is the

Impersonal Being. God is a person only apparently, but really He is

the Impersonal Being.

 

Even in this answer there have been succeeding stages, and

philosophers have varied in their opinions. All Indian philosophers

did not admit this theory of Maya. Possibly most of them did not.

There are dualists, with a crude sort of dualism, who would not allow

the question to be asked, but stifled it at its very birth. They

said, " You have no right to ask such a question, you have no right to

ask for an explanation; it is simply the will of God, and we have to

submit to it quietly. There is no liberty for the human soul.

Everything is predestined--what we shall do, have, enjoy, and suffer;

and when suffering comes, it is our duty to endure it patiently; if

we do not, we shall be punished all the more. How do we know that?

Because the Vedas say so. " And thus they have their texts and their

meanings and they want to enforce them.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued