Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 35)

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Parts 1 to 34 were posted earlier. This is part 35. 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 35

 

 

2. The Renunciation of World-Weary Kings Gave Them New and Stronger Life to Replace the Decaying Priestly Power

According to the law of nature, whenever there is an awakening of a new and stronger life, there it tries to conquer and take the place of the old and decaying. Nature favors the dying out of the unfit and the survival of the fittest.....

That renunciation, self-control and asceticism of the priest which, during his ascendancy were devoted to the pursuit of earnest researches of truth, were on the eve of his decline employed anew and spent solely in the accumulation of objects of self-gratification and in the extension of privileged authority over others. That power, the centralization of which in himself gave him all honor and worship, had now been dragged down from its high, heavenly position to the lowest abyss of hell. Having lost sight of the goal, drifting aimless, the priestly power was entangled, like the spider, in the webs spun by itself. The chain that had been forged from generation to generation with the greatest care to be put on others' feet was now tightened round its own in a thousand coils, and was thwarting its own movement in hundreds of ways. Caught in the endless thread of the net of infinite rites, ceremonies, and customs, which it spread on all sides as external means for the purification of the body and mind, with a view to keeping society in the iron grasp of these innumerable bonds - the priestly power, thus hopelessly entangled from head to foot, was then asleep in despair! (13)

On the other side, the king was like the lion; in him were present both the good and the evil propensities of the lord of beasts. Never for a moment were his fierce nails held back from tearing to pieces the heart of innocent animals, living on herbs and grass, to allay his thirst for blood when occasion arises; again, the poet says, though himself stricken with old age and dying from hunger, the lion never kills the weakest fox that throws itself into his arms for protection.

If the subject classes, for a moment, stand as impediments in the way of the gratification of the senses of the royal lion, their death knell is inevitably tolled; if they humbly bow down to his commands, they are perfectly safe. Not only so. Not to speak of ancient days, even in modern times, no society can be found in any country where the effectiveness of individual self-sacrifice for the good of the many and of the oneness of purpose and endeavor actuating every member of the society for the common good of the whole have been fully realized. Hence the necessity of kings, who are the creations of society itself. They are the centers where all the forces of society, otherwise loosely scattered about, are made to converge, and from which they start and course through the body politic and animate society.

As during the brahminical supremacy, at the first stage is the awakening of the first impulse for search after knowledge and later the continual and later the careful fostering of the growth of that impulse, still in its infancy - so, during the kshatriya supremacy, a strong desire for pleasure pursuits made its appearance at the first stage and later have sprung up inventions and developments of arts and sciences as the means of gratification. Can the king, in the height of his glory, hide his proud head within the lowly cottages of the poor? Or can the common good of his subjects ever minister to his royal appetite with satisfaction?....

It was in India, again, that the kings, having enjoyed for some time earthly pleasures to their full satisfaction, were stricken at the latter part of their lives with heavy world-weariness, as is sure to follow on extreme sense-gratification; and thus being satiated with worldly pleasures, they retired in their old age into secluded forests and there began to contemplate the deep problems of life. The results of such renunciation and deep meditation were marked by a strong dislike for cumbrous rites and ceremonials and an extreme devotion to the highest spiritual truths which we find embodied in the Upanishads, Gita, and the Jain and Buddhist scriptures. Here also was a great conflict between the priestly and the royal powers. Disappearance of the elaborate rites and ceremonials meant a death-blow to the priests' profession. Therefore, naturally, at all times and in every country, the priests gird up their loins and try their best to preserve the ancient customs and usages, while on the other side stand in opposition kings like Janaka, backed by kshatriya prowess as well as spiritual power….

As the priest is busy about centralizing all knowledge and learning at a common center - to wit, himself - so the king is ever up and doing in collecting all the earthly powers and focusing them in a central point, i.e. his own self. Of course, both are beneficial to society. At one time they are both needed for the common good of society, but that is only at its infant stage. But if attempts be made, when society has passed its infant stage and reached its vigorous youthful condition, to clothe it by force with the dress which suited it in its infancy and keep it bound within narrow limits, then either it bursts the bonds by virtue of its own strength and tries to advance; or, where it fails to do so, it retraces its footsteps and by slow degrees returns to its primitive, uncivilized condition. (14)

 

 

3. The Kings Were More Universal in Their Teachings, While the Priests Were Exclusive

On the one hand, the majority of the priests, impelled by economic considerations, were bound to defend that form of religion which made their existence a necessity of society and assigned them the highest place in the scale of caste; on the other hand, the king-caste, whose strong right hand guarded and guided the nation and who now found itself as leading the higher thoughts also, were loath to give up the first place to men who only knew how to conduct a ceremonial. (15)

Actual power was in the hands of the second caste, the kingly caste. Not only so - they have produced all of our great thinkers, and not the brahmins. It is curious. All our great prophets, almost without one exception, belong to the kingly caste. The great man Krishna was also of that caste; Rama - he also, and all our great philosophers, almost all sat on the throne; thence came all the great philosophers of renunciation. From the throne came the voice that always cried, "Renounce". These military people were their kings; and they also were their philosophers; they were the speakers in the Upanishads. In their brains and their thought, they were greater than the priests, they were more powerful, they were the kings - and yet the priests got all the power and tried to tyrannize over them. And so that was going on - political competition between the two castes, the priests and the kings. (16)

In various Upanishads we find that the Vedanta philosophy was not the outcome of meditation in the forests only, but that the very best parts of it were thought out and expressed by brains which were busiest in the everyday affairs of life. We cannot conceive of any man busier than an absolute monarch, a man who is ruling over millions of people; and yet, somehow, some of these rulers were deep thinkers. (17)

Brahmins and kshatriyas have always been our teachers, and most of the Upanishads were written by kshatriyas, while the ritualistic portions of the Vedas came from the brahmins. Most of our great teachers throughout India have been kshatriyas, and were always universal in their teachings, whilst the brahmin prophets, with two exceptions, were very exclusive - Rama, Krishna, Buddha - worshipped as incarnations of God - were kshatriyas. (18)

They speak of the meat-eating kshatriya. Meat or no meat, it is they who are the fathers of all that is noble and beautiful in Hinduism. Who wrote the Upanishads? Who was Rama? Who was Krishna? Who was Buddha? Who were the Tirthankaras of the Jains? Whenever kshatriyas have preached religion, they have given it to everybody; and whenever the brahmins wrote anything, they would deny all right to others. (19)

 

 

c) The Ideal of Enjoyment Is Subject to Change, but the Spiritual Ideal Is the Goal of the Vedas

In the latter part of the Vedas you see the highest, the spiritual. In the early portions there is the crude part. (20)

The ideal of the first part of the Vedas is entirely different from the ideal of the other part, the Upanishads. The ideal of the first part coincides with [that of] all other religions of the world except Vedanta. The ideal is enjoyment here and hereafter - man and wife, husband and children. Pay your dollar, and the priest will give you a certificate, and you will have a happy time afterwards in heaven. You will find all your people there and have this merry-go-round without end. No tears, no weeping - only laughing. No stomach-ache, but yet eating. No headache, but yet [parties]. That, considered the priests, was the highest goal of humanity. (21)

Therefore, in the second portion - the Jnana Kanda - we find there is an altogether different procedure. the first search was in external nature for the truths of the universe; it was an attempt to get the solution of the deep problems of life from the material world. (22)

The knowledge portion came after the work portion and was promulgated exclusively by kings. It was called the knowledge of kings. The great kings had no use for the work portion with all its frauds and superstitions and did all in their power to destroy it. This knowledge consisted of a knowledge of God, the soul, the universe, etc. These kings had no use for the ceremonials of the priests, their magical works, etc. They pronounced it all humbug; and when the priests came to them for gifts, they questioned them about God, the soul, etc.; and as the priests could not answer such questions, they were sent away. The priests went back to their fathers to inquire about the things the kings had asked them, but could learn nothing about them, so they came back again to the kings and became their disciples. [Cha. Up., 5.3.17] Very little of the ceremonials are followed today. They have been mostly done away with, and only a few of the more simple ones are followed today. (23)

The ceremonies and the fruits of the Karma Kanda are confined within the limits of the world of maya, and therefore they have been undergoing and will undergo transformation according to the law of change which operates through time, space and personality. Social laws and customs likewise, being based on this Karma Kanda, have been changing and will continue to change hereafter. (24)

The spiritual portion of our [Vedantic] religion is in the... Jnana Kanda, the Vedanta - the end of the Vedas - the gist, the goal of the Vedas. (25)

 

d) The Upanishads Are Diametrically Opposite to the Karma-Kanda in all Their Conclusions

The Upanishads are diametrically opposite [to the Karma Kanda] in all their conclusions:

1. God, Karma and Sacrifice

First of all, the Upanishads believe in God, the creator of the universe, its ruler. You find later on [the idea of a benign Providence]. It is an entirely opposite [conception]. Now, although we hear the priest, the ideal is much more subtle. Instead of many gods, they made one God.

The second idea, that you are all bound by the law of karma the Upanishads admit, but they declare the way out. The goal of man is to go beyond law. And enjoyment can never be the goal, because enjoyment can only be in nature.

In the third place, the Upanishads condemn all the sacrifices and say that that is mummery. That may give you all you want, but it is not desirable, for the more you get, the more you [want], and you run round and round in a circle eternally, never getting to the end - enjoying and weeping. Such a thing as eternal happiness is impossible anywhere. It is only a child's dream. The same energy becomes joy and sorrow.... Eternal happiness and misery are a child's dream..... The other point of divergence is: the Upanishads condemn all rituals, especially those that involve the killing of animals. They declare those all nonsense….