Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 217)

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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 217

4) " Being " of Vedanta and " Matter " of Modern Science Are Both One

 

[Now, Vedanta alone rests upon generalized principle], and its second claim upon

the attention of the world is that, of all the scriptures of the world, it is

the one scripture the teachings of which is in entire accord with the results

that have been attained by modern scientific investigations of external nature.

Two minds in the dim past of history, cognate to each other in form and kinship

and sympathy, started, being placed in different routes. The one was the ancient

Hindu and the other the ancient Greek mind. The former started by analyzing the

internal world. The latter started in search of that goal beyond by analyzing

the external world. And even through the various vicissitudes of their history,

it is easy to make out these two vibrations of thought as tending to produce

similar echoes of the goal beyond. It seems clear that the conclusions of modern

materialistic science can be acceptable harmoniously with their religion only to

the Vedantins, or Hindus, as they are called. It seems clear that modern

materialism can hold its own and at the same time approach spirituality by

taking up the conclusions of the Vedanta. It seems to us, and to all who care to

know, that the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the

Vedanta reached ages ago; only, in modern science they are written in the

language of matter. This, then, is another claim of the Vedanta upon Western

minds: its rationality, the wonderful rationalism of the Vedanta. I myself have

been told by some of the best Western scientific minds of the day how

wonderfully rational the conclusions of the Vedanta are. I know one of them

[Nikolai Tesla] who scarcely has time to eat his meal or go out of his

laboratory, but who would yet stand by the hour to attend my lectures on the

Vedanta; for, as he expresses it, they are so scientific, they so exactly

harmonize with the aspirations of the age and with the conclusions to which

modern science is coming at the present time.(45)

 

All science is bound to come to the conclusion [of ultimate unity in diversity]

in the long run. Manifestation, and not creation, is the word of science today;

and the Hindus are only glad that what they have been cherishing in their bosoms

for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language and with further light

from the latest conclusions of science. (46)

 

Real religion, the highest, rises above dry mythology; it can never rest upon

that. Modern science has really made the foundations of religion strong. That

the whole universe is one is scientifically demonstrable. What the

metaphysicians call Being the physicist calls matter, but there is no real fight

between the two, for both are one. Though an atom is invisible, unthinkable, yet

in it are the whole power and potency of the universe. That is exactly what the

Vedantist says of the Atman. (47)