Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 106)

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Parts 1 to 105 were posted earlier. This is part 106. 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 106

 

3. Transcending the Senses

I. Lust and Possession Are Devoid of Substance

That humanity can transcend the limits of the senses is the emphatic testimony of all past ages. The Upanishads told 5,000 years ago that the realization of God could never be had through the senses. So far, modern agnosticism agrees, but the Vedas go further than the negative side and assert in the plainest terms that humanity can and does transcend this sense-bound, frozen universe. It can, as it were, find a hole in the ice through which it can pass and reach the whole ocean of life. Only by so transcending the world of sense can it reach its true Self and realize what it really is. (48)

The voice of the ancient sages proclaim to us, "If you desire to attain God you will have to renounce kama-kanchana (lust and possession). Samsara is unreal, hollow, void of substance. Unless you give it up, you can never reach God, try however you may." (49)

[The Hindu] goal of life is moksha; how can that ever be attained without brahmacharya or absolute continence? Hence it is imposed upon our boys and youth as an indispensable condition during their studentship. The purpose of life in the West is bhoga or enjoyment; hence much attention to brahmacharya is not so indispensably necessary with them as it is with us. (50)