Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 54)

May 30, 2001

Parts 1 to 53 were posted earlier. This is part 54. 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 54

PART II, SECTION 4: THE EVOLUTION OF THE VEDANTIC TEACHINGS ON GOD

Chapter 11: The Atman

a) The Aryan Was Always Seeking Divinity inside His or Her Own Self

The Aryans first began with the soul. Their ideas of God were hazy, indistinguishable, not very clear; but, as their idea of the human soul began to be clearer, their idea of God began to be clearer in the same proportion. So the inquiry in the Vedas was always through the soul. All the knowledge the Aryans got of God was through the human soul; and, as such, the peculiar stamp that has been left upon their whole cycle of philosophy is that introspective search after divinity. The Aryan was always seeking divinity inside his or her own self. It became, in course of time natural, characteristic. It is remarkable in their art and in their commonest dealings. Even at the present time, if we take a European picture of someone in a religious attitude, the painter always makes the subject point his or her eyes upwards, looking outside of nature for God, looking up into the skies. In India, on the other hand, the religious attitude is always represented by making the subject close his or her eyes. He or she is, as it were, looking inwards. (1)

The Vedas say that the whole world is a mixture of independence and dependence, of freedom and slavery, but through it all shines the Soul - independent, immortal, pure, perfect, holy. For if it is independent, it cannot perish, as death is but a change and depends upon conditions; if independent, it must be perfect, for imperfection is again but a condition, and therefore dependent. (2)

That humanity and God are one is the constant teaching of the Vedas, but few are able to penetrate behind the veil and reach the realization of this truth. (3)

Cross reference to:

Rig Veda, 10.129.1

Brihad. Up., 1.4.10a

Ka. Up.,1.2.18 and 2.1.1

Mand. Up., 2

b) The Higher and Higher Ideas of the Soul Found by the Aryans

1. The First Conception of the Soul Was as an Independent, Bright Body

The earliest idea is that when someone dies, he or she is not annihilated. Something lives and goes on living even after the person is dead. Perhaps it would be better to compare the three most ancient nations - the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the ancient Hindus - and take this idea from all of them. With the Egyptians and Babylonians, we find a sort of soul-idea - that of a double. Inside this body, according to them, there is another body which is moving and working here; and when the outer body dies, the double gets out and lives on for a certain length of time; but the life of the double is limited by the preservation of the outer body. If the body which the double has left is injured in any part the double is sure to be injured in that part. That is why we find among the ancient Egyptians such solicitude to preserve the dead body by embalming, building pyramids, etc. We find both with the Babylonians and the ancient Egyptians that this double cannot live on through eternity; it can, at best, live on for a certain time only; that is, just so long as the body it has left can be preserved.

The next peculiarity is that there is an element of fear connected with this double. It is always unhappy and miserable; its state of existence is one of extreme pain. It is again and again coming back to those who are living, asking for food and drink and enjoyments that it can no more have. It is wanting to drink of the waters of the Nile, the fresh waters which it can no more drink. It wants to get back those foods it used to enjoy while in this life; and, when it finds it cannot get them, the double becomes fierce, sometimes threatening the living with death and disaster if it is not supplied with such food.

Coming to Aryan thought, we at once find a very wide departure. There is still the double idea there, but it has become a sort of spiritual body; and one great difference is that the life of this spiritual body - the soul, or whatever you may call it - is not limited by the body it has left. On the contrary, is has obtained freedom from this body; and hence the peculiar Aryan custom of burning the dead. They want to get rid of the body which the person has left, while the Egyptian wants to preserve it by burying, embalming, and building pyramids. Apart from the most primitive system of doing away with the dead, amongst the nations advanced to a certain extent, the method of doing away with the bodies of the dead is a great indication of their idea of the soul. Wherever we find the idea of a departed soul closely connected with the idea of the dead body, we always find the tendency to preserve the body, and we also find burying in some form or other. On the other hand, with those in whom the idea has developed that the soul is a separate entity from the body and will not be hurt if the dead body is even destroyed, burning is always the process resorted to. Thus we find among all ancient Aryan races burning of the dead, although the Parsees changed it to exposing the body on a tower. But the very name of the tower - dakhma - means a burning-place, showing that in ancient times they also used to burn their bodies. The other peculiarity is that among the Aryans there was no element of fear with these doubles. They are not coming down to ask for food or help; and when denied that help, they do not become ferocious or try to destroy those that are living. They are rather joyful, are glad at getting free. The fire of the funeral pyre is the symbol of disintegration.....

Of these two ideas we see at once that they are of a similar nature, the one optimistic, and the other pessimistic, being the elementary. The one is the evolution of the other. It is quite possible that the Aryans themselves had, or may have had, in very ancient times, exactly the same idea as the Egyptians. In studying their most ancient records we find the possibility of this very idea. But it is quite a bright thing, something bright. When someone dies his or her soul goes to live with the fathers and lives there enjoying their happiness. These fathers receive it with great kindness; this is the most ancient idea in India of a soul. (4)

Cross reference to:

Rig Veda, 9.13 and 10.6