Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 111)

July 12, 2002

Parts 1 to 110 were posted earlier. This is part 111. 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 111

2. The Aryans Approached God with Faith Devoid of Fear, Which Later Developed into Full- Grown Love

Q: Some of our philosophers in Germany have thought that the whole doctrine of bhakti ( love of the divine) in India was very likely the result of occidental influence.

Swami Vivekananda: I do not take any stock in that. The assumption is ephemeral. The bhakti of India is not like Western bhakti. The central idea of ours is that there is no thought of fear. It is always, love God. There is no worship through fear, but always through love, from beginning to end. In the second place, the assumption is quite unnecessary. Bhakti is spoken of in the oldest of the Upanishads, which is much older than the Christian Bible. The terms of bhakti are even in the Samhita (the Vedic hymns). The word bhakti is not a Western word. It was suggested by the word shraddha (faith). (13)

In the Semitic type of religion there was tribulation and fear; it was thought that if someone saw God, he or she would die. But, according to the Rig Veda, when someone saw God face to face, then began his or her real life.

(14)

One supreme Being, supreme by being infinitely more powerful than the rest, is the common conception in the two great sources of all religions, the Aryan and the Semitic races. But here the Aryans take a new start, a grand deviation. Their God was not only a supreme Being, but He was the dyaus pitar, the Father in Heaven. This is the beginning of love. The Semitic God was only a thunderer, only the terrible One, the mighty Lord of Hosts. To all these the Aryan added a new idea, that of a Father. And the divergence becomes more and more obvious all through further progress, which in fact stopped at this place in the Semitic branch of the human race. The God of the Semitic is not to be seen - nay, it is death to see Him; the God of the Aryan cannot only be seen, but He or She is the goal of being; the one aim of life is to see Him or Her. The Semitic obeys his or her King of kings for fear of punishment and keeps His commandments. The Aryan loves his or her Father; and further on adds Mother and Friend. And, "Love me, love my dog", they say; so each one of His or Her creatures should be loved, because they are His or Her’s. To the Semitic, this life is an outpost where we are posted to test our fidelity; to the Aryan, this life is on the way to the goal. To the Semitic, if we do our duty well, we shall have an ever-joyful home in heaven. To the Aryan, this home is God Him or Herself. To the Semitic; to the Aryan race, serving God is a means to an end, namely the pay, which is joy and enjoyment. To the Aryan, enjoyment, misery - everything - is a means and the end is God. The Semitic worships God to go to heaven, the Aryan rejects heaven to go to God. In short, this is the main difference. The aim and end of the Aryan life is to see God, to see the face of the Beloved, because without Him or Her we cannot live. (15)

The one great [Vedantic] ideal of oneness had developed and become shaped into universal love. We ought to study [how the ideas grow up from very low ideals] in order to avoid dangers. The world cannot find time to work [the idea] up from the lowest steps. But what is the use of our standing on higher steps if we cannot give the truth to others coming afterwards? Therefore, it is better to study it in all its workings; and first, it is absolutely necessary to clear the intellectual portion; although we know that intellectuality is almost nothing; for it is the heart that is of the most importance. (16)

That the Atman is the one object to be loved is known from Shruti, Smriti, and direct perception.(17)

Cross reference to:

Brih. Up., 1.4.8

Taitt. Up., 2.8

Brih. Up., 2.4.5