Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 210)

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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 210

 

2. Only the Metaphysics of Non-Dual Philosophy Can Have a Hold on the

Intellectual, Scientific West

 

The Eastern mind could not rest satisfied till it had found that goal which is

the end sought by all humanity, namely Unity. The Western scientist seeks for

unity in the atom or the molecule. When he or she finds it, there is nothing

further for him or her to discover; and so when we find that unity of Soul or

Self which is called Atman, we can go no further. It becomes clear that

everything in the sense-world is a manifestation of that one Substance. The

scientist is brought to the necessity of recognizing metaphysics when he or she

supposes that the atoms, having neither breadth nor length yet become, when

combined, the cause of extension, length, and breadth. When one atom acts upon

another, some medium is necessary. What is that medium? It will be a third atom.

If so, then the question still remains unanswered, for how do these two act on

the third? - a manifest reductio ad absurdum. This contradiction in terms is

also found in the hypothesis necessary to all physical science that a point is

that which has neither parts nor magnitude and a line has length without

breadth. These cannot be seen nor conceived. Why? Because they do not come

within the range of the senses. They are metaphysical conceptions. So we see it

is finally the mind which gives the form to all perception. When I see a chair,

it is not the real chair external to my eye which I perceive, but an external

something plus the mental image formed. Thus even the materialist is driven to

metaphysics in the last extremity. (30)

 

Materialism prevails in Europe today. You may pray for the salvation of the

modern skeptics, but they do not yield - they want reason. The salvation of

Europe depends on a rationalistic religion, and Advaita - the non-duality, the

Oneness, the idea of the impersonal God - is the only religion that can have any

hold on any intellectual people. It comes whenever religion seems to disappear

and irreligion seems to prevail [Gita, 4.7]; and that is why it has taken ground

in Europe and in America. (31)

 

 

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