Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 22)

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We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Parts 1 to 21 were posted earlier. This is part 22. 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 22

 

 

2. The Authority of the Vedas Is the Eternal, Impersonal Truth

All the other religions of the world claim their authority as being delivered by a personal God or a number of personal beings, angels, or special messengers of God, unto certain persons; while the claim of the Hindus is that the Vedas do not owe their authority to anybody; they are themselves the authority, being eternal - the knowledge of God. They were never written, never created, they have existed throughout time; just as creation is infinite and eternal, without beginning or end, so is the knowledge of God without beginning and without end. (20)

The idea is that the Vedas were never written; the idea is they never came into existence. I was once told by a Christian missionary that their scriptures have a historical character and therefore are true, to which I replied, " Mine have no historical character and therefore they are true; yours being historical, they were evidently made by some man the other day. Yours are man-made and mine are not; their non-historicity is in their favor." Such is the relation of the Vedas with all the other scriptures at the present day. (21)

If you tell [the orthodox Hindus who defend the Vedas] that the Vedas must have been pronounced by man first, [they will simply laugh]. You never heard of any [man uttering them for the first time]. Take Buddha's words. [There is a tradition that he lived and spoke these words] many times before. If the Christian stands up and says, "My religion is a historical religion and therefore yours is wrong and ours is true", the mimamsaka [orthodox Hindu] replies, "Yours being historical, you confess that a man invented it nineteen hundred years ago. That which is true must be infinite and eternal. That is the one test of truth. It never decays, it is always the same. You confess your religion was created by such-and-such a man. The Vedas were not. By no prophets or anything.... Only infinite words; infinite by their very nature, from which the whole universe comes and goes." In the abstract, it is perfectly correct. (22)

Our religion preaches an impersonal personal God. It preaches any amount of impersonal laws plus any amount of personality, but the very fountainhead of our religion is the Shrutis, the Vedas, which are perfectly impersonal; the persons all come in the Smritis and Puranas - the great avataras, the incarnations of God, prophets, and so forth. And this ought also to be observed that, except our religion, every other religion in the world depends upon the life or lives of some personal founder or founders. Christianity is built upon the life of Jesus Christ, Islam upon Muhammad, Buddhism upon Buddha, Jainism upon the Jinas, and so on. It naturally follows that there must be in all these religions a good deal of fight about what they call the historical evidences of these great personalities. If at any time the historical evidences about the existence of these personages in ancient times becomes weak, the whole building of the religion tumbles down and is broken to pieces. We Hindus escaped this fate because our religion is not based upon persons, but upon principles. (23)

 

3. The Primary Allegiance of the Vedantist Is Always to Principles, Not Persons

Religions divide themselves equally into three parts. There is the first part, consisting of philosophy, the essence, the principles of every religion. These principles find expression in mythology - the lives of saints or heroes, demigods, or gods, or divine beings; and the whole idea of this mythology is that of power. And in the lower class of mythologies - the primitive - the expression of this power is in the muscles; their heroes are strong, gigantic. One hero conquers the whole world. As man advances, he must find expression for his energy higher than in the muscles; so his heroes also find expression in something higher. The higher mythologies have heroes who are gigantic moral men. Their strength is manifested in becoming moral and pure. They can stand alone, they can beat back the surging tide of selfishness and immorality. The third portion of all religions is symbolism, which you call ceremonials and forms. Even the expression through mythology, the lives of heroes, is not sufficient for all. There are minds still lower. Like children they must have their kindergarten of religion, and these symbologies are evolved - concrete examples which they can handle and grasp and understand, which they can see and feel as material somethings.

So, in every religion you find there are the three stages: philosophy, mythology, and ceremonial. There is one advantage that can be pleaded for the Vedanta: that, in India, fortunately, these three stages have been sharply defined. In other religions the principles are so interwoven with the mythology that it is very hard to distinguish one from the other. The mythology stands supreme, swallowing up the principles; and in the course of centuries the principles are lost sight of. The explanation, the illustration of the principle, swallows up the principle and the people see only the explanation, the prophet, the preacher, while the principles have gone out of existence almost - so much so that today, if a man dares to preach the principles of Christianity apart from Christ, they will try to attack him and think he is wrong and dealing blows at Christianity. In the same way, if a man wants to preach the principles of Islam, Muslims will think the same; because concrete ideas, the lives of great men and prophets, have entirely overshadowed the principles.

In Vedanta the chief advantage is that it was not the work of one single man; and therefore, naturally, unlike Buddhism, or Christianity, or Islam, the prophet or teacher did not entirely swallow up or overshadow the principles. The principles live; and the prophets, as it were, form a secondary group, unknown to Vedanta. The Upanishads speak of no particular prophet, but they speak of prophets and prophetesses. The old Hebrews had something of that idea; yet we find Moses occupying most of the space of the Hebrew literature. Of course, I do not mean that it is bad that these prophets should take hold of a nation; but it certainly is very injurious if the whole field of principles is lost sight of. (24)

Persons are but the embodiment, the illustrations of the principles. If the principles are there, the persons will come by the thousands and millions. If the principle is safe, persons like Buddha will be born by the hundreds and thousands. But if the principle is lost and forgotten and the whole of national life tries to cling round a so-called historical person, woe unto that religion, danger unto that religion! Ours is the only religion that does not depend on a person or persons; it is based upon principles. At the same time, there is room for millions of persons. There is ample ground for introducing persons; but each one of them must be an illustration of the principles. We must not forget that. These principles of our religion are all safe, and it should be the lifework of every one of us to keep them safe, to keep them free from the accumulating dirt and dust of ages. It is strange, that in spite of the degradation that seized upon the race again and again, these principles of Vedanta were never tarnished. No one, however wicked, ever dared to throw dirt upon them. Our scriptures are the best preserved in the world. Compared to other books, there have been no interpolations, no text-torturing, no destroying of the essence of thought in them. It is there just as it was at first, directing the human mind towards the ideal, the goal. (25)

to be continued......