Guest guest Posted June 25, 2001 Report Share Posted June 25, 2001 Parts 1 to 58 were posted earlier. This is part 59. 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 59 3. Infinite Power Is Latent in the Atman of Individual Beings; Differences Are Only in Manifestation Let us remember for a moment that, whereas in every other religion and in every other country, the power of the soul is entirely ignored - the soul is thought of as almost powerless and weak and inert - we in India consider the soul to be eternal and hold that it will remain perfect through all eternity. We should always bear in mind the teaching of the Upanishads. (27) There is no inspiration; but, properly speaking, expiration. All powers and all purity and all greatness - everything - is in the soul. (28) All sects in India are at one in this respect: that infinite power is latent in the jivatman (individualized soul); from the ant to the perfect human being there is the same Atman in all, the differences being only in manifestation. (29) Innumerable have been the manifestations of power of the Spirit in the realm of matter, of the force of the Infinite in the domain of the finite; but the infinite Spirit itself is self-existent, eternal, and unchangeable. (30) Cross reference to: Ait. Up., 3.1.3 f) The World Will Be Revolutionized Only by the Great Thought of the Atman [The Aryans] took the old idea of God, the governor of the universe, who is external to the universe, and first put Him or Her inside the universe. [To the Aryans, God] is not a God outside, but inside; and they took Him of Her from there into their own hearts. Here He or She is, in the heart of humanity, the Soul of our souls, the Reality in us. (31) The character of the Hindu religion [as found in the Vedas]: to find God we must search our own heart. (32) The God of Vedanta is not a monarch sitting on a throne, entirely apart. There are those who like their God that way - a God to be feared and propitiated. They burn candles and crawl in the dust before Him. They want a king to rule over them - they believe in a king in heaven to rule over them all. The king is gone - from the USA, at least. Where is the king of heaven now? Just where the earthly king is. In the USA, the king has entered every one of you. You are all kings in this country. You are all the gods. One God is not sufficient. You are all Gods, says the Vedanta. (33) The idea of the glory of the soul you get alone in Vedanta, and there alone. It has ideas of love and worship and other things which we have in other religions, and more besides; but this idea of the soul is the life-giving thought, the most wonderful. There and there alone is the great thought that is going to revolutionize the world and reconcile the knowledge of the material world with religion. (34) Cross reference to: Brih. Up., 1.4.10 Taitt. Up., 2.7.1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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