Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 21)

November 14, 2000

We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Parts 1 to 20 were posted earlier. This is part 21. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 21

3. The Vedas Sprang, Like the Breath of God, Out of the Hearts of the Sages

All... Vedantists also believe the Vedas to be the revealed word of God, not exactly in the same sense, perhaps, as the Christians or Muslims believe, but in a very peculiar sense. Their idea is that the Vedas are an expression of the knowledge of God; and as God is eternal, His knowledge is eternally with Him, and so are the Vedas eternal. (9)

Whatever might be the idea of modern scholars, the Hindus are not ready to admit that parts of the Vedas were written at one time and parts written at another time. They, of course, still hold to their belief that the Vedas as a whole were produced at the same time - rather, if I may say so, that they were never produced, but that they always existed in the mind of the Lord. (10)

The Hindus believe that the Vedas are not mere books composed by men in some remote age. They hold them to be an accumulated mass of endless wisdom, which is sometimes manifested and at other times remain unmanifested. (11)

To the Western [mind], their religious books have been inspired, while with us our books have been expired; breath-like they came, the breath of God out of the hearts of the sages they sprang, the mantra-drashtas [brih.Up., 2.4.10]. (12)

Is God's book finished? Or is it still a continuous revelation going on? It is a marvelous book - these spiritual revelations of the world. The Bible, the Vedas, the Koran, and all other sacred books are but so many pages; and an infinite number of pages remain yet to be unfolded. I would leave it open for all of them. We stand in the present, but open ourselves to the infinite future. We take in all that has been in the past, enjoy the light of the present, and open every window of the heart for all that will come in the future. (13)

b) The Vedas Are Impersonal

1. The Vedas Deal Almost Entirely with Philosophy

None knows by whom the Vedas were written, they are so ancient. (14)

The mass of writings called the Vedas is not the utterance of persons. (15)

The Upanishads do not reveal the life of any teacher, but simply teach principles. (16)

The Upanishads contain very little history of the doings of any man, but nearly all other scriptures are largely personal histories. The Vedas deal almost entirely with philosophy. Religion without philosophy runs into superstition; philosophy without religion becomes dry atheism. (17)

The Vedanta philosophy is very, very ancient; it is the outcome of that mass of Aryan literature known by the name of the Vedas. It is, as it were, the very flower of all the speculations and experiences and analyses embodied in that mass of literature, collected and culled through centuries. This Vedanta philosophy has certain peculiarities. In the first place, it is perfectly impersonal; it does not owe its origin to any persons or prophet; it does not build itself around one man as it center. Yet it has nothing to say against philosophies which do build themselves around certain persons. In later days in India other philosophies and systems arose, built around certain persons, such as Buddhism, or many of our present sects. They each have a certain leader to whom they owe their allegiance, just as the Christians and Muslims have. But the Vedanta philosophy stands at the background of all these various sects, and there is no fight and no antagonism between the Vedanta and any other system in the world. (18)

I want you to remember... the perfectly impersonal character of the Upanishads. Although we find many names and many speakers and many teachers in the Upanishads, not one of them stands as an authority of the Upanishads, not one verse is based on the life of any one of them. These are simply figures like shadows moving in the background, unfelt, unseen, unrealized; but the real force is in the marvelous, the brilliant, the effulgent texts of the Upanishads, perfectly impersonal. If twenty Yajnavalkyas came and lived and died, it does not matter; the texts are there. And yet it against no personality; it is broad and expansive enough to embrace all the personalities that the world has yet produced and all that are yet to come. It has nothing to say against the worship of persons or avatars or sages. On the contrary, it is always upholding it. At the same time, it is perfectly impersonal. It is a most marvelous idea, like the God it preaches, the impersonal idea of the Upanishads. For the sage, the thinker, the philosopher, for the rationalist, it is as much impersonal as any modern scientist can wish. And these are our scriptures. (19)

to be continued.....