Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 69)

August 21, 2001

Parts 1 to 68 were posted earlier. This is part 69. 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 69

c) Different Viewpoints Depend Upon the Power of Perception

These are the two subjects for study for humanity, external and internal nature; and though at first these seem to be contradictory, yet external nature must, to the ordinary person, be entirely composed of internal nature, the world of thought. The majority of philosophies in every country, especially in the West, have started with the assumption that these two, matter and mind, are contradictory existences; but in the long run we shall find that they converge towards each other and in the end unite and form an infinite whole. So it is not that by this analysis I mean a higher or lower standpoint with regard to the subject. I do not mean that those who want to search after truth through external nature are wrong, nor that those who want to search after truth through internal nature are higher. These are the two modes of procedure. Both of them must live; both of them must be studied; and in the end we shall find that they meet. We shall see that neither is the body antagonistic to the mind, nor the mind to the body; although we find many persons who think that this body is nothing. In olden times every country was full of people who thought this body was a disease, a sin, or something of that kind. Later on, however, we see how, as it was taught in the Vedas, this body melts into mind and the mind into the body. (24)

In the ideas of the cosmos we find the ancient thinkers going higher and higher - from the fine elements they go to finer and more embracing elements, and from these particulars they come to one omnipresent ether; and from even that they go to an all-embracing force or prana; and through all this runs the principle that one is not separate from the others. It is the very ether that exists in the higher forms of prana, or the higher form of prana concretes, so to say, and becomes ether; and that ether becomes grosser, and so on. (25)

Clear comprehension, inward realization, is no small matter.... When the mind proceeds to self-absorption in Brahman it passes through all these stages one by one to reach the absolute (nirvikalpa) state at last. In the process of entering into samadhi, first the universe appears as one mass of ideas; then the whole thing loses itself in a profound Om. Then even that melts away, even that seems to be between being and non-being. That is the experience of the eternal nada. And then the mind becomes lost in the reality of Brahman, and then it is done! All is peace....

Great men and women, like avatars, in coming back from samadhi to the realm of "I" and "mine" first experience the unmanifest nada, which by degrees grows distinct and appears as Om; and then from Omkara, the subtle form of the universe as a mass of ideas becomes experienced and, at last, the material universe comes into perception. (26)

The perfect one knows that this world is maya. Life is called samsara - it is the result of the conflicting forces acting upon us. Materialism says, "The voice of freedom is a delusion." Vedanta says, "The voice that tells of bondage is but a dream." Vedanta says, "We are free and not free at the same time." That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side. (27)

Devotion to ceremonials, satisfaction in the senses, and forming various theories have drawn a veil between ourselves and the truth. This is another great landmark [in Vedic thought which] developed later on into that wonderful theory of maya of the Vedantists; this veil is the real explanation of the Vedanta, how the Truth was there all the time, it was only this veil that had covered it. (28)

The realist sees the phenomenon only, and the idealist looks to the noumenon. For the idealist, the truly genuine idealist, who has truly arrived at the power of perception, wherever he or she can get away from all idea of change, for him or her the changeful universe has vanished, and he or she has the right to say that it is all delusion, there is no change. The realist, at the same time, looks at the changeful. For him or her the unchangeable has vanished, and he or she has a right to say that this is all real. (29)

Cross reference to:

Rig Veda, 1.164.46

Brih. Up., 1.4.10

Cha. Up., 6.8.7

7.15.1

Npt. Up., 1.6