The Eastern Vision of the Universe - Part 1

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Dear All,

 

Here is Part 1 of the " Eastern Vision of the Universe " by Bede Griffiths.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

The Eastern Vision of the Universe

 

(Part 1)

 

 

(P.57} Having considered the nature of the physical world and the psychological

universe according to Western science and Western psychology, the next stage is

to examine the oriential vision of the universe. I take the Hindu vision because

it is best known to me, although the Buddhist or Islamic understanding would be

equally revealing.

 

We begin with the pre-Vedic period, before the Aryan invasion which is believed

to have taken place in the second millennium BC. In India from about 4000 BC

there was a culture akin to that of Egypt and Mesopotamia, which were both

matriarchal and worshipped the Mother Goddess. At Mohenjo-Daro there are relics

of that culture amongst which is an interesting figure generally believed to be

a representation of Shiva, or of the god who was later to become Shiva in the

Hindu tradition. He is called 'Pasupati', the Lord of animals, and he is seated

in the lotus posture with animals in front of him and with some sign of a

'lingam', the symbol of Shiva in later times. So the probability is that

Shaivism, the worship of Shiva, which is one of the main schools of Hinduism,

derived from the pre-Aryan culture. This is supported by the fact that Shiva is

a dark god; he dwells in the mountains and deserts and graveyards. At first

outside the civilised world of the Aryans, he was later taken in and became one

of the principal forms of God.

 

With the Aryan invasion in the second millennium, there arose the beginnings of

a patriarchal culture. It is believed that the Aryan invasion started from what

is now South Russia and spread both East and West, (P.58) involving in the West

the Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic peoples, and in the East, the people of

Persia and India. This was historically the beginning of a new mental culture

which was considered in the last chapter. Signifying as it did the awakening of

the mind, this was one of the supreme moments in human history. From the world

of imagination and of myth there began the great passage into the world of

reason and understanding, the world of the mind. In the Vedas this transition is

evident; both stages are represented and the new development is seen to emerge

out of its mythological background.

 

The Vedas are generally considered to be the most ancient form of poetry in the

world, and are concerned with the whole range of the gods and their worship.

These gods are the cosmic powers of St. Paul referred to in the previous

chapter. It is important to notice, however, that although there were many gods,

representing all the powers present in the cosmos, there was always the tendency

to relate these powers to one another and to see them as one. The human mind has

always this urge to unify, to see the one behind the many. In the first book of

the Rig Veda in fact the gods are recognised to be the names and forms of the

one Being (ekam sat), who has no name and no form. That is basic Hindu doctrine.

 

In the Vedic vision there is the understanding that there are three worlds, the

physical, the psychological and the spiritual. It is very significant that the

people of the ancient world of the Vedas never separated these aspects. The

whole universe was seen to be one, but manifesting at three levels. Nothing,

therefore, in the physical world was considered to be merely material. As was

shown in chapter one, a major outcome of the development of Western science was

the separation of the material from the psychological and the spiritual.

Material phenomena came to be observed in isolation and apart from the

psychological world, (P.50} so that science came to concentrate on the merely

quantitative aspects of matter. This was valid in its way but it limited the

investigator to a very narrow sphere of reality, and when that narrow sphere was

taken for the whole of reality the result was a tragic illusion. This is what is

known in Hindu tradition as 'avidya' (ignorance) and 'maya'. This is exactly

what took place in the Western world.

 

In the thinking of the ancients the three worlds of the Vedas were always seen

to be interwoven. A good example of this, in terms of which it can be explained,

is the god Agni, the god of fire. Fire, of course, is physical. In the Vedas it

is quite clear that Agni at one level is the physical fire, the fire which was

lit at the sacrifice. This fire also has a wider physical aspect, for it is the

energy which works through the universe and manifests as fire. But at the same

time it has a psychological aspect, being the fire of life and the fire of the

mind. Agni is said to know everything. We would never think of fire as

" knowing " , but to these ancients the fire had a psychological aspect; it is the

all-knower. As the fire of the mind, it is the energy which rises up within us

and manifests itself in thought. Thirdly, as there was the physical aspect of

Agni and the psychological aspect, so there was also a spiritual aspect. Both

the physical and the psychological were understood as manifestations of the one

supreme Spirit, which is manifesting at all levels of the universe.

 

The Vedic understanding of the three integrated worlds, physical, psychological

and spiritual, is typical of the whole ancient world which had emerged out of

the mythological world of more ancient times. The vision of an integrated

universe, was lost at the Renaissance; today we are trying to recover it. In our

Western style of thinking we have separated matter from mind, and have separated

both matter and mind from the Supreme Reality, from God, or whatever name is

given to it. In the ancient vision (P.60} there could be no separation of matter

from mind or of matter and mind from the Supreme Spirit, which in India came to

be known as Brahman, that which holds everything together.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs.57-60