Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 86)

January 7, 2002

Parts 1 to 85 were posted earlier. This is part 86. 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 86

f) Human Beings,, the Maker of Mistakes, Can Attain Liberty through Conscious Effort

1. Evil Is Limitation of the Unlimited, for Which the Cause Is in Ourselves

Let us now pass on to things which do not possibly belong to dualism. I cannot stay longer with the dualists, I am afraid. My idea is to show that the highest ideal of morality and unselfishness go hand in had with the highest metaphysical conception, and that you need not lower your conception to get ethics and morality but, on the contrary, to reach a real basis of morality and ethics you must have the highest philosophical and scientific conceptions. Human knowledge is not antagonistic to human well-being. On the contrary, it is knowledge alone that will save us in every department of life - in knowledge and worship. The more we know the better for us. The Vedantist says the cause of all that is apparently evil is the limitation of the unlimited. The love which gets limited into little channels and seems to be evil eventually comes out at the other end and manifests itself as God. The Vedanta also says that the cause of all this apparent evil is in ourselves. Do not blame any supernatural being; neither be hopeless and despondent, nor think we are in a place from which we can never escape unless someone comes and lends us a helping hand. That cannot be, says the Vedanta. We are like silkworms; we make the thread our of our own substance and spin the cocoon, and in course of time are imprisoned inside. But this is not for ever. In that cocoon we shall develop spiritual realization, and like the butterfly, come out free. This network of karma we have woven around ourselves; and in our ignorance we feel as if we are bound and weep and wail for help. But help does not come from without; it comes from within ourselves. Cry to all the gods in the universe. I cried for years, and in the end I found I was helped. But help came from within. And I had to undo what I had done by mistake. That is the only way. I had to cut through the net which I had thrown around myself, and the power to do this is within. Of this I am certain: that not one aspiration in my life, well-guided or ill-guided, has been in vain; but that I am the resultant of all my past, both good and evil. I have committed many mistakes in my life; but, mark you, I am sure of this - that without every one of those mistakes I should not be what I am today, and so am quite satisfied to have made them. I do not mean that you are to go home and willfully commit mistakes; do not misunderstand me in that way. But do not mope because of the mistakes you have committed; know that in the end all will come out straight. It cannot be otherwise, because goodness is our nature, purity is our nature, and that nature can never be destroyed. Our essential nature always remains the same. (50)

Q: How can you reconcile your optimistic views with the existence of evil, with the universal prevalence of sorrow and pain?

Swami Vivekananda: I can only answer the question if the existence of evil be first proved; but this the Vedantic religion does not admit. Eternal pain unmixed with pleasure would be a positive evil; but temporal pain and sorrow, if they have contributed an element of tenderness and nobility tending towards eternal bliss, are not evils: on the contrary, they may be supreme good. We cannot assert that anything is evil until we have traced its sequence into the realm of eternity. (51)

Nowhere in the Vedanta is it said that human beings are born sinners. To say so it a great libel on human nature. (52)