Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 103)

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Parts 1 to 102 were posted earlier. This is part 103. 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 103

 

iv) Purification of the Mind in Order to Attain Knowledge of the Absolute and Love of God

The Vedantic and philosophers of the other Indian schools hold that knowledge is not to be acquired from without. It is the innate nature of the human soul and the essential birthright of every one. The human soul is the repository of infinite wisdom; what external agency can illuminate it? (37)

By the power of meditation we have got to control, step by step, all these [external] things. We have seen philosophically that all these differentiations - Spirit, matter, mind, etc. - [have no real existence].... Whatever exists is one. There cannot be many. That is what is meant by science and knowledge. Ignorance sees manifold. Knowledge realizes one.... Reducing the many into one is science.... The whole of the universe has been demonstrated into one. The whole universe is one. The one runs through all this seeming variety. (38)

Repeating the Vedas and other mantras [purifies] the sattwa material in the body. (39)

How did the ancient One come down to earth? There is but one answer to that in our scriptures: ignorance is the cause of all this bondage. It is through ignorance that we have become bound; knowledge will cure it by taking us to the other side. How will that knowledge come? Through love, bhakti; by the worship of God, by loving all beings as the temples of God. He or She resides within them. Thus, with that intense love will come knowledge, and ignorance will disappear, the bonds will break, and the soul will be free. (40)

 

Cross reference to:

Isha Up. peace chant

Brih. Up., 1.2.6

2.4.14

Taitt. Up., 2.6.11

Cha. Up., 6.8.7

Mund. Up., 1.1.8-9

2.2.8-9