Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 57)

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Parts 1 to 56 were posted earlier. This is part 56. 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 57

 

 

d) The Nature of the Atman

1. All Our Impressions and Ideas Are Unified in the Atman

In olden times questions were asked about this Atman, about its nature. What is this Atman, this soul of humanity, which is neither the body nor the mind? Great discussions followed. Speculations were made, various shades of philosophic inquiry came into existence; and I shall try to place before you some of the conclusions that have been reached about this Atman. (20)

[The Hindus] believe that there must be an identity which does not change - something which is to humanity as banks are to a river - banks which do not change and without whose immobility we would not be conscious of the constantly moving stream. Behind the body, behind the mind, there must be something, viz. the soul, which unifies human beings. Mind is merely the fine instrument through which the soul - the master - acts on the body. (21)

[The Vedantic philosophers] all have a common psychology. Whatever their philosophy may have been, their psychology is the same in India, the old Sankhya psychology. According to this, perception occurs by the transmission of vibrations which first come to the external sense-organs, from the external sense-organs to the mind, from the mind to the buddhi, from the buddhi to the intellect, or something which is a unit, which they call the Atman. Coming to modern physiology, we know that it has found centers for all the different sensations. First it finds the lower centers; then the higher grade of centers, and these two centers correspond exactly to the internal organs and the mind, but no one center has been found which controls all the other centers. So, physiology cannot tell what unifies all these centers. Where do the centers get united? The centers in the brain are all different, and there is no one center which controls all the other centers; therefore, as far as it goes, Indian psychology stands unchallenged upon this point. We must have this unification, something upon which the sensations will be reflected to form a complete whole. Until there is that something, I cannot have any idea of you, or a picture, or anything else. If we had not that unifying something we would only see, then after a while breathe, then hear, and so on; and when I heard someone talking I would not see him or her at all, because all the centers are different. (22)

According to the Sankhya psychology which was universally accepted [at the time of the Vedas], in perception - in the case of vision, for instance - there are, first of all, the instruments of vision, the eyes. Behind the instruments - the eyes - is the organ of vision, or indriya - the optic nerve and its centers, which is not the external instrument, but without which the eyes will not see. More still is needed for perception. The mind or manas must come and attach itself to the organ. And besides this, the sensation must be carried to the intellect or buddhi, the determinative, reactive state of the mind. When the reaction comes from the buddhi, along with it flashes the external world and egoism. Here, then, is the will; but everything is not complete. Just as every picture, being composed of successive impulses of light, must be united on something stationary to form a whole, so all the ideas in the mind must be gathered and projected on something that is stationary (relatively to the body and mind) - that is, on what is called the Soul, the Purusha, or Atman. (23)

 

Cross reference to:

Gita 2.18