Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 117)

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Parts 1 to 116 were posted earlier. This is part 117. 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 117

 

 

d) Humanity Can Be Ever-Free While Living

The question is: is it necessary to pass through all the lower stages to reach the highest, or can a plunge be taken at once? The modern American boy takes twenty-five years to attain that which his forefathers took hundreds of years to do. The present-day Hindu gets in twenty years to the heights reached in eight thousand years by his or her ancestors. On the physical side, the embryo goes from the ameba to the human being in the womb. These are the teachings of modern science. Vedanta goes further and tells us that we not only have to live the life of all past humanity, but also the future life. Whoever does the first is the educated person, the second is the jivanmukta, forever free (even while living). (37)

The Vedanta teaches that nirvana can be attained here and now, that we do not have to wait for death to reach it. Nirvana is the realization of the Self; and after having once known that, if only for an instant, never again can one be deluded by the mirage of personality. Having eyes, we must see the apparent, but all the time we know what it is; we have found out its true nature. It is the screen that hides the Self, which is unchanging. The screen opens and we find the Self behind it. All change is in the screen. In the saint the screen is thin and the reality can almost shine through. In the sinner the screen is thick, and we are liable to lose sight of the truth that the Atman is there, as well as behind the saint's screen. When the screen is wholly removed we find it never existed - that we were the Atman and nothing else. Even the screen is forgotten. (38)

 

Cross-reference to:

Shve. Up., 4.3

Gita 5.19

Ntp. Up., 1.6