Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 128)

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Parts 1 to 127 were posted earlier. This is part 128. 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 128

Our great commentators, Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharaya and Madhvacharya… committed mistakes. Each one believed that the Upanishads are the sole authority, but thought that they preached one thing, one path only. Thus Shankaracharya committed the mistake of supposing that the whole of the Upanishads taught one thing, which was Advaitism and nothing else; and wherever a passage bearing distinctly the Dvaita idea occurred, he twisted and tortured the meaning to make it support his own theory. So with Ramanuja and Madhvacharya when a pure Advaitic text occurred. It was perfectly true that the Upanishads had one thing to teach, but that was taught as a going up from one step to another.(41)

I am bound to tell you that [thinking that the three systems are contradictory] has been a mistake committed by not a few. We find that an Advaitist teacher keeps intact those texts which especially teach Advaitism and tries to interpret the dualistic or qualified non-dualistic texts into his own meaning. Similarly, we find dualistic teachers trying to read their dualistic meaning into Advaitic texts. Our gurus were great men and women; yet there is a saying, "Even the faults of a guru must be told." I am of the opinion that in this only they were mistaken. We need not go into text-torturing, we need not go into any sort of religious dishonesty, we need not go into any sort of grammatical twaddle, we not go about trying to put our own ideas into texts that were never meant for them; but the work is plain and becomes easier once you understand the marvelous doctrine of adhikarabheda…. The old idea of arundhati nyaya applies. To show someone the fine star arundhati, one takes the big and brilliant star nearest to it, upon which he or she is asked to fix his or her eyes first, and then it becomes quite easy to direct his or her sight to arundhati. This is the task before us; and to prove my idea I will have simply to show you the Upanishads, and you will see it.(42)