Guest guest Posted June 10, 2002 Report Share Posted June 10, 2002 Parts 1 to 106 were posted earlier. This is part 107. 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 107 ii) Heaven and Hell Are Not Permanent In India the idea of the goal is this: there are heavens, there are hells, there are earths; but they are not permanent. If I am sent to hell it is not permanent. The same struggle goes on and on wherever I am. How to get beyond all this struggle is the problem. If I go to heaven, perhaps there will be a little bit of rest. If I get punished for my misdeeds, that cannot last [for ever, either].... The Indian ideal is not to go to heaven. Get out of this earth, get out of hell, and get out of heaven! What is the goal? It is freedom. You must all be free. The glory of the soul is covered up. It has to be uncovered again. (51) The object of the search of the Hindu is how to get rid of this birth and death, how not to go to heaven, but how one can stop going to heaven. (52) iii) Giving Up Our Individuality Centered in the Body and Living a Life of Bliss Infinite The Vedanta says there must come a time when we shall look back and laugh at the ideals which make us afraid of giving up our individuality. Each one of us wants to keep this body for an indefinite time, thinking we shall be very happy; but there will come a time when we shall laugh at this idea. Now, if such be the truth, we are in a state of hopeless contradiction - neither existence nor non-existence, neither misery nor happiness, but a mixture of them. What, then, is the use of Vedanta and all other philosophies and religions? And, above all, what is the use of doing good work? This is a question that comes to mind. If it is true that you cannot do good without doing evil and whenever you try to create happiness there will always be misery, people will ask you, "What is the use of doing good?" The answer is, in the first place, we must work to lessen misery, for that is the only way to make ourselves happy. Every one of us finds it out sooner or later in our lives. The bright ones find it out a little earlier, and the dull ones a little later. The dull ones pay very dearly for the discovery and the bright ones less dearly. In the second place, we must do out part, because it is the only way of getting out of this life of contradiction. Both the forces of good and evil will keep the universe alive for us, until we awake from our dreams and give up this building of mud pies. That lesson we shall have to learn, and it will take a long, long time to learn it. (53) The pig body is hard to give up; we are sorry to lose the enjoyment of our one little pig body! Vedanta does not say, "Give it up"; it says, "Transcend it." No need of asceticism - better would be the enjoyment of two bodies, better three, living in more bodies than one! When I can enjoy through the whole universe, the whole universe is my body. (54) The whole object of the [Vedanta] system is by constant struggle to become perfect, to become divine, to reach God and see God; and this reaching God, seeing God, becoming perfect even as the Father in Heaven is perfect [Matt.5.48] constitutes the religion of the Hindus. And what becomes of someone when he or she attains perfection? He or she lives a life of bliss infinite. He or she enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having obtained the only thing in which human beings ought to have pleasure, namely God, and enjoys bliss with God. (55) Cross reference to: Mund. Up., 3.1.5 Gita 13.13 Brih. Up., 2.5.1 Cha. Up., .3.14.1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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