Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 44)

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Parts 1 to 43 were posted earlier. This is part 44. 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 44

c) The Vyasa Sutras: The Philosophy of the Vyasa Sutras Is Par Excellence That of the Upanishads

All schools of philosophy in India, although they claim to have been based on the Vedas, took different names for their systems. The last one, the system of Vyasa, took its stand upon the doctrines of the Vedas more than did the previous systems and made an attempt to harmonize the preceding philosophies, such as the Sankhya and the Nyaya, with the doctrines of the Vedanta. So it is especially called the Vedanta philosophy; and the Sutras or aphorisms of Vyasa are, in modern India, the basis of the Vedanta philosophy. (25)

Vyasa' s philosophy is par excellence that of the Upanishads. (26)

Following the Upanishads there come other philosophies of India, but every one of them failed to get that hold on India which the philosophy of Vyasa has got, although the philosophy of Vyasa is a development out of an older one, the Sankhya; and every philosophy and every system in India - I mean, throughout the world - owes much to Kapila [the founder of Sankhya], perhaps the greatest name in the history of India in psychological and philosophical lines.... The philosophy of Vyasa, the Vyasa Sutras, is firm-seated and has attained the permanence of that which it intended to present to humanity, the Brahman of the Vedantic side of philosophy. Reason was entirely subordinated to the Shrutis; and, as Shankara declares, Vyasa did not care to reason at all. His idea in writing the Sutras was just to bring together, and with one thread to make a garland of the flowers of Vedantic texts. His Sutras are admitted so far as they are subordinate to the authority of the Upanishads, and no further.

And, as I have said, all the sects of India now hold these Vyasa Sutras to be the great authority, and every new sect in India starts with a fresh commentary on the Vyasa Sutras according to its light.... The Vyasa Sutras have got the place of authority, and no one can expect to found a sect in India until he or she can write a fresh commentary on them. (27)

If one be asked to point out the system of thought towards which as a center all the ancient and modern Indian thought have converged, if one wants to see the real backbone of Hinduism in all its various manifestations, the Sutras of Vyasa will unquestionably be pointed out as constituting all that.

Either one hears the Advaita keshari (lion of Vedanta) roaring in peals of thunder - the asti, bhati, priya (It exists, shines, and is beloved) - amid the heart-stopping solemnities of the Himalayan forests, mixing with the solemn cadence of the river of heaven; or listens to the cooing of the piya, pitam in the beautiful bowers of the grove of Vrinda; whether one mingles with the sedate meditations of the monasteries of Varanasi or the ecstatic dances of the followers of the Prophet of Nadia (Sri Chaitanya); whether one sits at the feet of the teacher of the Vishishtadvaita system with its Vadakale, Tenkale (two divisions of the Ramanuja sect) and all the other subdivisions; or listens with reverence to the acharyas of the Madhva school; whether one hears the martial Wa guruki fateh of the secular Sikhs or the sermons on the Grantha Sahib of the Udasis and Nirmalas; whether he salutes the sannyasin disciples of Kabir with Sat sahib and listens with joy to the sakhis (bhajans); whether he pores upon the wonderful lore of that reformer of Rajputana, Dadu, or the works of his royal disciple, Sundaradasa, down to the great Nischaladasa, the celebrated author of the Vichara Sagara, which book has more influence on India than any that has been written in any language within the last three centuries; if one even asks the Bhangi Mehtar of Northern India to sit down and give an account of the teachings of his Lalguru - one will find that all these various teachers and schools have as their basis that system whose authority is the Shruti, the Gita its divine commentary, the Shariraka [Vyasa] Sutras its organized system, and all the different sects in India, from the Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharyas to the poor despised Mehtar disciples of Lalguru are different manifestations. (28)