Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 126)

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Parts 1 to 125 were posted earlier. This is part 126. 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 126

 

Now I will try to lay before you the ideas that are contained in the three sects, the dualistic, qualified no-dualistic and non-dualistic [which cover all six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy]…. All the Vedantists agree on three points. They believe in God, in the Vedas as revealed, and in cycles…. [We have already considered these]; but before going on, I will make one remark - that these different Vedanta systems have one common psychology, and that is the psychology of the Sankhya system. The Sankhya psychology is very much like the psychologies of the Nyaya and the Vaisheshika systems, differing only in minor particulars….

The Vedantists, [however], reject the Sankhya ideas of the soul and nature. They claim that between them there is a huge gulf to be bridged over. On the one hand, the Sankhya system comes to nature, and then at once it has to jump over to the other side and come to the soul, which is entirely separate from nature. How can these different colors, as the Sankhya calls them, be able to act on that soul which is by its nature colorless? So the Vedantists, from the very first, affirm that this soul and this nature are one…. They admit that what the Sankhya calls nature exists, but say that nature is God. It is this Being, the Sat, which has become converted into all this - the universe, humanity, soul, and everything that exists. Mind and Mahat are but the manifestations of that one Sat. But then the difficulty arises that that would be pantheism. How came that Sat, which is unchangeable, as they admit (for that which is absolute is unchangeable) to be changed into that which is changeable and perishable? The Advaitists here have a theory which they call vivarta vada or apparent manifestation.(36)

[Now], there are certain [Vedic] texts which are entirely dualistic, others are entirely monistic. The dualistic commentator, knowing no better, wishes to knock the monistic texts on the head. Preachers and priests want to explain them in the dualistic meaning. The monistic commentator serves the dualistic texts in a similar fashion. Now this is not the fault of the Vedas. It is foolish to attempt to prove that the whole of the Vedas is dualistic. It is equally foolish to attempt to prove that the whole of the Vedas is non-dualistic. They are dualistic and non-dualistic, both. We understand them better today in the light of newer ideas. These are but different conceptions leading to the final conclusion that both dualistic and monistic conceptions are necessary for the evolution of the mind, and therefore the Vedas preach them. In mercy to the human race the Vedas show the various steps to the higher goal. Not that they are contradictory, vain words used by the Vedas to delude children; they are necessary, not only for children, but for many a grownup person. So long as we have a body and so long as we are deluded by the idea of our identity with the body, so long as we have five senses and see the external world, we must have a personal God. For if we have all these ideas, we must take, as the great Ramanuja has proved, all the ideas about God and nature and the individualized soul; when you take the one you have to take the whole triangle - we cannot avoid it. Therefore, so long as you see the external world, to avoid a personal God and a personal soul is arrant lunacy.(37)