The Eastern Vision of the Universe - Part 2

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Dear All,

 

Part 1 of The Eastern Vision of the Universe ended with:

 

" 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. "

 

Here is Part 2 of the " Eastern Vision of the Universe " by Bede Griffiths.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

The Eastern Vision of the Universe

 

(Part 2)

 

 

(P.60} The Vedic concept that fire is the origin of the universe is particularly

interesting because first of all, from the point of view of modern science, it

is held that when the universe originally exploded into being it was as a burst

of energy at an extremely high temperature in which nothing separate could

exist; it was pure fire. Only gradually did the heat diminish, allowing matter

to be formed out of that fire. The ancient Eastern world had this view that fire

was the origin of all things. In the same way the Greek philosopher Heraclitus

said that fire is the origin of all things and is working through all things.

Fire is obviously a form of energy, and thus the ancient world arrived at the

concept of energy working through both the physical and the psychological world

and having its source in the transcendent world beyond. So fire is the source of

all. There is a beautiful verse in the Vedas which says, " The fire which is the

sun, the fire which is the earth, that fire is in my own heart " . (Maitri

Upanishad 6:17) There we have the precise doctrine: the fire in the sun above,

the fire in the earth beneath and the fire in our own heart constitute the three

worlds. It is expressed in terms of images where heaven is the spiritual world,

earth is the material world and the human being is the psychological world which

stands between the two.

 

The Vedic religion centred on the fire of sacrifice, the 'yajna'. A very

elaborate altar was built according to specific rules. Fuel was put on the altar

and lit and then sacrifices were offered in the fire. The idea behind the ritual

was that fire comes down from heaven; fire is in heaven above and it is centred

in the sun. Coming down from heaven, the fire is buried in the earth. It is

underneath the earth, as we know today it is, within the earth's crust. When the

sticks or stones were rubbed together or struck, the fire burst forth and (P.61}

Agni carried these gifts back to heaven. Because of this Agni was known as the

mediator between heaven and earth, the priest who took the sacrifice and offered

it to the gods above. This, then, is the eternal living fire which exists in

heaven and comes down to earth, and the sacrifice is the returning of all things

to their source in heaven. This returning of all things to their source is

called turning the wheel of the law, the 'dharma chakra'.

 

In the Vedic view, if we live constantly returning things to their source, then

we are living in the harmony of the universe, the rhythm, 'rita' of the

universe. Conversely, if we do not turn the wheel of the law, if we appropriate

things to ourselves, then we are committing sin. Sin is separating oneself from

the order of the universe, making oneself an isolated person. To separate

oneself in isolation is to go against the law of the universe, while sacrifice

puts one in harmony with the universe and with the sacred fire, or energy, which

is working in the heaven above and in the earth beneath, and which is working in

one's own body. There is a familiar verse in the Bhagavad Gita which says, " I,

the Lord, become the fire of life and seated in the body I consume the four

kinds of food. " (Bhagavad Gita 15:14) That fire, which is in the heaven above

and in the earth beneath, is in our own bodies; we offer our food in sacrifice

in that inner fire and it is consumed in the fire and surrendered to God again.

So a meal is a sacrifice. The Bhagavad Gita says that anyone taking a meal

without sacrificing is a thief; this is to take the gifts of God and appropriate

them to oneself instead of receiving them as gifts and returning thanks.

(Bhagavad Gita 3:12)

 

The name given to the transcendent reality which is manifesting through the

whole universe was 'brahman'. The root of the word 'brahman' means to swell, to

grow, and it is thought today that the original meaning was that it was the word

which grew or swelled up in one. When offering the sacrifice one felt something

welling up within, (Page 62} and when one uttered the word it was something very

powerful. Language was seen as the means by which human beings related

themselves to the universe and words were sacred. To utter a word was to put

forth power. Even to name somebody was to have power over him. People did not

like one to know their name, for knowing a person's name gave one power over

him. That is also why, in the book of Exodus, when Moses asks, " What is your

name? " the response of God is, " Why do you ask me what is my name? " The name is

power. So the word uttered in the sacrifice, expressing the meaning of the

sacrifice, was 'brahman'. This was probably the original meaning of the term.

Then, because that word and the accompanying sacrifice sustains the universe the

word 'brahman' came to mean that power or energy, originally conceived as fire,

which pervades the whole universe, the heaven above, the earth beneath and our

own bodies and minds, and expresses itself in the word ('vac') which contains

within itself the power of life. In this way OM came to be conceived as the

great word, the 'pranava', which expresses the whole meaning of reality. [break

Quote]

 

NOTE: [The word 'AMEN' is really the Christian equivalent of the Hindu 'AUM' or

'OM'].

 

[Resume Quote]:

 

After the Rig Veda came the 'Brahmanas', treatises on the sacrifice. The Rig

Veda is generally dated at about 1500 BC and the Brahmanas about 1200 BC. The

sacrifice was the most sacred act and the ritual came to be very elaborate.

Eventually it became almost a kind of magic. Magic is typical of an early stage

of religion in the ancient world and always tends to survive in later stages of

religion. Something is magical when the people using it feel that it has power

in itself. And so with sacrifice, instead of being conceived as something coming

from above and being the means of a person's surrendering to that which is

above, it came to be regarded as having power in itself such that if the right

ritual was performed then the right effect would be achieved. Magic always

depends on doing certain rituals and believing that those rituals will have an

inevitable effect. There is then a certain magical character in the 'Brahmanas'.

 

The third stage was that of the 'Aranyakas', the Forest Books, perhaps about 800

BC. This was the turning point, certainly in the

history of India and to some extent in the history of the world. Here there took

place the great breakthrough from the ancient, mythological, ritualistic

religion to the discovery of the inner self. This happened when the 'rishis', or

seers, instead of offering sacrifices in an external fire retired to the forest

to meditate and began to build up the fire within. The idea grew that instead of

building a fire outside and offering objects symbolically outside the body, they

could build the fire within, offering sacrifice in the inner fire of the body.

Now everything had to be offered in that inner fire, sins, thoughts, fears,

desires, life itself. This was the point where, out of the external religion,

the interior religion which had always been there began to be realised. For this

reason it was a crucial period for it was here that a new psychology emerged,

along with a new understanding of man and the universe. This emergence occurred

in the Upanishads but it took place also at almost the same time in Sakyamuni

Buddha, who made the same breakthrough beyond the physical world and beyond the

psychological world to the reality beyond.

 

At the same time Greek philosophers, Heraclitus and others, were discovering the

mind or 'logos' as the basis of the universe, and the Hebrew prophets, Isaiah,

Jeremiah and Ezekiel, were simultaneously discovering the reality of the

transcendent God. This was a key period in human history, and practically all

religion today stems from this great experience of the fifth and sixth centuries

before Christ.

 

In this way then the seers of the Upanishads began to meditate and they made the

great discovery that this 'brahman', this power in the universe, (P.64} this

power which was believed to be in the sacrifice which sustained the universe,

this power is within each person. The 'mahavakya', the great saying of the

Upanishads, is 'prajnanam brahman', " Brahman is consciousness " . That was a

tremendous step, for it was a movement beyond the physical world. 'Brahman' was

understood previously to be manifesting in all the universe, in the heaven and

the earth, and in man; 'brahman' is everywhere. But now came the discovery that

'brahman', that reality without, is one with one's own inner consciousness. This

is the awakening of the inner self for the first time. Previously man had been

living in the outer universe and experiencing God, brahman, the reality, in that

outside universe but not in himself. Now man discovered himself. The word for

self is 'atman', so now it is said, 'ayam atman brahmanasti', " That self is

Brahman " , meaning that this self which I discern within me, is one with brahman,

one with the reality of the universe outside me. The third great saying or

mahavakya is, 'aham brahmasmi', " I am Brahman " . This means that if I go to the

depths of my being, beyond my body, beyond my thoughts and my feelings, I

discover the " I " , the atman, and come to know that brahman in myself, as my true

being. The fourth mahavakya is, 'Tat Tvam asi', " Thou art that " . It occurs in

the Chandogya Upanishad where the guru tells the disciple to take a fruit from a

tree, break it open and then take a seed and break it open, and he asks the

disciple what he can see. The disciple says, " I see nothing, " to which the guru

replies, " In that nothing, that hidden essence which you cannot see, the power

of the growth of the whole tree consists. " So also there is a secret essence in

all creation, in everything which exists, which is the source of all being; and

" Thou, Svetaketu, art that. " (Chandogya Upanishad 6:12) In other words, the

source of the universe around us is the source of our own being. This was the

great breakthrough of the Upanishads, and still today in India these four

mahavakyas are considered the supreme wisdom of the Vedas.

 

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

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs 60-64