Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 68)

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Parts 1 to 67 were posted earlier. This is part 68. 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 68

 

 

3. The Struggle to Find Oneness Ends in Finding the God Within

One basic idea of the Vedanta [is] that everything which has name and form is transient. This earth is transient because it has name and form, and so must the heavens be transient, because there also name and form remain. A heaven which is eternal will be contradictory in terms, because everything that has name and form must begin in time, exist in time, and end in time. These are settled doctrines of the Vedanta, and as such, the heavens are given up. (21)

In reality there is One, but in maya it is appearing as many. In maya there is this variation. Yet even in maya there is always the tendency to get back to the One, as expressed in all ethics and all morality of every nation, because it is the constitutional necessity of the soul. It is finding its oneness; and this struggle to find this oneness is what we call ethics and morality. Therefore, we must always practice them.

Q: Is not the greater part of ethics taken up with the relation between individuals?

A: That is all it is. The Absolute does not come within maya.

Q: You say the individual is the Absolute; I was going to ask you whether the individual has knowledge.

A: The state of manifestation is individuality, and the light in that state is what we call knowledge. To use, therefore, this term knowledge for the light of the Absolute is not precise, as the Absolute state transcends relative knowledge.

Q: Does it include it?

A: Yes, in this sense: just as a piece of gold can be changed into all sorts of coins, so with this. The state can be broken up into all sorts of knowledge. It is the state of superconsciousness and includes both consciousness and unconsciousness. The person who attains that state has what we call knowledge. When someone wants to realize that consciousness of knowledge, he or she has to go a step lower. Knowledge is a lower state; it is only in maya that we can have knowledge. (22)

Beyond this maya the Vedantic philosophers find something which is not bound by maya; and if we can get there, we shall not be bound by maya. This idea, in some form or other, is the common property of all religions. But, with the Vedanta, it is only the beginning of religion, and not the end. The idea of a personal God, the ruler and creator of this universe or, as He or She has been styled, the ruler of maya or nature, is not the end of these Vedantic ideas; it is only the beginning. The idea grows and grows until the Vedantist finds that what he or she thought was standing outside is him or herself and is in reality within. He or She is the One who is free, but who through limitation thought he or she was bound. (23)