Complete works of Swami Abhedananda

by Swami Prajnanananda | 1967 | 318,120 words

Swami Abhedananda was one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and a spiritual brother of Swami Vivekananda. He deals with the subject of spiritual unfoldment purely from the yogic standpoint. These discourses represent a study of the Social, Religious, Cultural, Educational and Political aspects of India. Swami Abhedananda says t...

Chapter 2 - Worship of Truth

All religions unanimously declare that God is Truth, and Truth is God. Therefore, we may say that whosoever worships the supreme Being under whatsoever name and form, believes that the Truth is the object of his worship. The man who stands before a cross or an image or an idol which he believes to be the symbolic representation of his divine ideal and offers flowers and other sacrifices, burns incense, and prays for help by addressing him as Friends, Father, Lord, or Mother of the universe or by some other name, knows that the object of his worship is the eternal truth; or, in other words, he believes that his God sees everything which is done before His image, that He accepts everything which is offered before Him, and that He hears all the prayers that are uttered in His presence. In short, he believes that, by worshipping the image, he worships the supreme Being who is the Absolute truth and Reality of the universe.

Another man, who condemns him as an idolator, may worship his ideal of the universal truth by fixing his eyes upon the sky overhead and by pouring forth the supplications of his heart in the form of prayers, asking forgiveness and pardon for his sins, and seeking His grace, which alone would deliver him from eternal perdition. He believes that his God, dwelling above the blue dome of the heavens, hears the prayers of His worshipper and sends His help and blessings to him, and delivers him from all evils and sufferings.

One may worship God or the Absolute truth, through some divine manifestation in a human form like Christ, Buddha, Krishna, or Ramakrishna. He believes that his ideal is the incarnation of Divinity in a human form, a perfect embodiment of the blessed qualities of the supreme spirit, mysteriously manifested by the creative power of the divine energy (Prakriti). Each of these incarnations showed the most wonderful self-mastery, disinterested love for humanity, extraordinary self-abnegation, peerless renunciation of the attachment to the things and pleasures of the world, divine wisdom, uncommon spirituality, and superhuman powers which are exemplary ideals, rarely to be discovered among ordinary mortals. The same eternal truth can be worshipped either through Christ or Krishna, or through Buddha or Ramakrishna, or any other manifestation like these. As to an orthodox Christian the life of Jesus the Christ appeals as the highest ideal of truth, so Buddha would appeal to a Buddhist; similarly, to others Krishna or Ramakrishna would appeal as the greatest manifestaion of the absolute truth.

Each one of these divine incarnations is great and glorious. Each one of them is like the open gate through which ordinary mortals can enter the abode of truth. Each one is like a river which carries on its breast the rafts of the struggling souls to the infinite ocean of Divinity. The followers and devotees of such a divine incarnation believe in him as the truth, and worship and pray to him, as though they are worshipping the almighty Lord who pervades the univere. For instance, the orthodox Christians believe that Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of the Heavenly Father came to preach the truth, whatever he said was truth, and his life or whole being was the embodiment of truth. By worshipping him, they would worship the eternal truth; having faith in him, they would have faith in God; being devoted to him, they would be devoted to the supreme Being, who is the ultimate Reality of the universe. They say: If we appreciate Christ and know him, we have known the truth, and have fulfilled his saying: ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’[1] There is no other way of attaining freedom, that is, salvation from eternal perdition.

The followers of Buddha would declare: ‘The truth is Buddha’s essence, and the truth will remain the ultimate standard by which we can discern false and true doctrines. Let us, then, revere the truth; let us enquire into the truth and state it, and let us obey the truth. For, the truth is Buddha, our Master, our Teacher, our Lord.’ Thus, the standard of truth among the Buddhists is the life and sayings of Buddha, just as the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ are with the orthodox Christians. Like the orthodox Christians, the Buddhists do not accept or honour anything as truth which exists outside the boundary line of their creed or doctrines taught by their Master. As Christ is regarded as the second person of the Christian Trinity, so Krishna is regarded as the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Buddha lived about five hundred years before Christ and Krishna appeared about fourteen hundred years before the Christian era.

The followers of Krishna regard him as the greatest incarnation of Divinity and believe that Krishna is the manifestation of the truth and Reality of the universe. He is the personification, as it were, of the eternal truth, and the Saviour of the world. Whosoever worships him, worships the embodiment of truth. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘I am the Father of this universe, the Mother, and the Dispenser.’[2] ‘I am the goal, the sustainer, the Lord, the Witness, the abode, the shelter, and the friend. I am the origin, the end, and the inexhaustible seed of all phenomena’.[3] ‘By Me all this world is pervaded. My form is the unmanifested Truth. All beings dwell in Me.’[4] ‘Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of all’.[5] ‘I do give heat, withhold the rain and send it forth. I am immortality as well as death’.[6] ‘I am alike to all beings; hateful or beloved, there is none to Me. They who worship Me with a wholehearted love are in Me and I am in them.’[7] ‘I accept the offerings of flower, fruit, and prayer, when they are made through love and devotion by the pure-hearted devotees.’[8] Again, Krishna says: ‘What thou dost, what thou eatest, what thou offerest as oblation, what thou givest, and the austerities that thou performest, do that as an offering unto Me. Thus thou shalt be liberated from the bonds of selfishness and evil and shalt attain to perfect freedom, peace, and everlasting happiness.’[9] Furthermore, he says to his followers: ‘Giving up all the formalities of religion come unto Me, take refuge with Me, fix thy mind on Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me and adore me. I shall make thee free from all sins, grieve not.’[10]

The spirit of these sayings is to be found in the sayings of Jesus the Christ. The followers of Christ believe that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. He is the Creator of all visible and invisible objects; all this universe came into being through him, the eternal Maker. Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’[11] ‘I am the light of the world.’ Like Krishna, Jesus the Christ said: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’[12] Thus, we see that as the orthodox Christians worship the eternal truth by worshipping Christ, the Buddhists by worshipping Buddha, so the followers of Krishna worship the same truth and reach the same goal of salvation through the worship of Krishna, the Saviour of the world.

This form of worship consists in being devoted to any of these divine manifestations, in obeying their commands, and in following the path trodden by them. Like the followers of Christ the worshippers of Krishna find in him the expression of all the divine qualities and love him as their Lord and Master. The one peculiarity, however, among the devotees of Krishna is that they worship their divine ideal, not through fear, but through intense love. Where there is fear of punishment, there cannot be true love in the heart of the devotee. When the fire of divine love is once kindled in the soul, it destroys all fear and instantly bums up all sins of the worst sinner. The followers of Christ worship their Lord through fear of punishment, while the followers of Krishna worship him through love and say that fear and true love cannot remain in the same heart at the same time.

Another thing should be noticed here that all forms of worship are based upon some kind of relationship between the worshipper and the object of worship. The relation of a servant to his master or that of a creature to his Creator is to be found among the Jews, Christians, Mohammedans, as well as among many of the dualists in India. Jesus the Christ introduced among the Jews a closer and more intimate relation—that of a son to his father. But among the worshippers of Krishna we find many who regard him not only as their Father, but as their most intimate friend. Just as in ordinary life, we open our hearts to our dearest friends, knowing that they will never chide us for our faults, but will try to help us and sympathize with us, so there are devotees who regard their divine ideal as their nearest and dearest friend, to whom they open the innermost secret of their hearts without any fear, and whose advice they follow, and whom they love, revere, and worship as the dearest friend in the whole universe. Through this worship they become one with the Absolute Truth.

There are some, again, who worship the eternal Truth as manifested in the incarnation of Krishna, through the most intense motherly love, which a true mother can feel for her most beloved child. As a mother forgets herself and everything of the world, when she fondles her child, so there are women in India who think of themselves as the mothers of baby Krishna and love and worship the Lord as their blessed child. Through that motherly love and devotion, they become absolutely unselfish and gradually reach perfection. This may be shocking to some, but for the Christian women, it would be the easiest path, if they can think of themselves as the mothers of baby Jesus and love him as their child.

There is another and the most sacred relation that is cultivated by some of the followers of Krishna. It is the love of a bride for her lover. According to these devotees, God is the eternal Lover of all mankind. They say: Let all our passions and emotions go up unto Him; they are meant for Him. If they go toward any other mortal object, they would miss their mark. All passions and desires must go to God. Who in this universe is more fitted to become the perfect lover than the eternal Truth symbolized in the form of Krishna? Thus, by giving all passions and directing all emotions to God, these devotees become free from their sting and from all earthly attachment and ultimately reach perfection. This would be the easiest method for those who follow the path of love. In Krishna-worship, all human relations can be established with the Lord and each of them becomes the means of the realization of the Absolute Truth.

There is another way of worshipping the eternal truth or.the infinite and supreme Lord of the universe, who dwells in all beings and who is the life and soul of all animate and inanimate objects of the world. He is not outside of nature, but immanent and resident in nature. He is the one stupendous Whole (virat or purna) of which the manifested phenomena are but parts. The gross material universe is His physical body. He sees through all eyes, hears through all ears, eats through all mouths, feels through all hearts, thinks through all minds and reasons through all intellects. His will is the cosmic will of which our individual will is but a fractional part. He is called in Vedanta, Isvara, which means the Creator, i.e. projector of the phenomenal universe and the governor of all. According to this conception, Isvara is the first-born Lord of the universe or the first manifestation of the unmanifested Absolute Truth. In other words, He is the highest possible reading of the unknowable eternal Reality by the human mind.

All divine incarnations like Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Ramakrishna are but the particularized or individualized manifestations of this one universal Whole. The worship of this Whole or Isvara includes the worship of all Divine incarnations, as well as the worship of the personal God of the various sects of the dualistic or monotheistic religions. By loving the Whole, we love all parts, however great or small they may be. In fact, to love the whole universe, which is the highest ideal of all religions, is possible only by way of loving Isvara in whose body dwell all animate and inanimate objects of the universe.

Isvara, again, is not only the Father, but also the Mother of the universe. Some worship the fatherly aspect and call Him, the Father in heaven, while others worship the motherly aspect or the creative Energy of the same stupendous Whole and call it, the Mother of the universe, and according to them, it is appropriate to call that divine energy, the Mother, rather than the Father. They say: ‘Thou art the creative Energy of the absolute truth. Of Thee is born everything of this world. Therefore, Thou art the Mother of the universe.’ ‘O Mother of all! Thou art the infinite source of all powers and forces of nature. Thou art the cause of creation, evolution, and dissolution of the world; from Thee we have come, in Thee we live, and into Thee we return in the end. Therefore, O Mother Divine, have mercy upon us, Thy children, and protect us with Thy compassionate face.’ Such is the prayer of the worshippers of the Mother of the universe. They consider the absolute truth and the eternal energy as inseparable and worship the two in the form of the Divine Mother. They regard womanhood as the representation of the Divine Motherhood, and, like devoted children, they love and adore the Mother of all. A devotee of the Isvara or of the Divine Mother worships his ideal through whole-hearted love and devotion, and resigns his individual will to the almighty Will of the Isvara or the Divine Mother. He realizes that all living creatures are the children of God, they are parts of His body, and, consequently, they are inseparable from Him. As he loves the Whole, he cannot help loving the parts also. For this reason, he loves all human beings, nay, lower animals also equally, and cannot hurt or injure any one, whether physically or mentally. He feels for everybody. From the minutest insect to the highest man, all beings are his friends, because they are parts of the Whole. Therefore, he has no enemy.

Such a devotee alone can really love one’s enemies. Even the most venomous snakes and ferocious tigers are not excluded from his all-embracing love. He is ready to sacrifice his body for the good of humanity. He works for the good of all without thinking of reward or any other return. Love is the chief motive power in all the actions of his body and mind. Having become dead to the lower self, he lives in the world as a free soul, ever ready to lift the burden of, and thereby, relieve the suffering humanity, and to carry it upon his own shoulders. His strength is unlimited. His powers are extraordinary. His whole body and mind are but the instruments through which the divine powers manifest themselves on the phenomenal plane. No one can be compared with such a true devotee of the Isvara or the Divine Mother. Thus, he becomes perfect even in this life.

Lastly, there are devotees who worship the absolute truth in its purely unmanifested aspect. Their worship does not consist in symbols, ceremonies, rituals, prayers, nor in the emotions and feelings of the heart; but they worship the truth through the path of knowledge. Their worship is not limited by belief of any kind. They choose the path of right discrimination and knowledge. They understand by Truth the unchangeable Reality which forms the back-ground or the noumenon behind all phenomena. It is the pure Existence which never changes. It is called in Sanskrit Satya [Satyam]—‘that which is’, or, ‘that which exists at all times and under all circumstances, without being subject to any change whatsoever.

The seekers after truth, carefully studying the phenomena of the universe, learn (1) that every object thereof is subject to constant changes, (2) that these changes are caused by the natural process of evolution and they are governed by natural laws, and (3) that the laws of the persistence of force and the indestructibility of matter have proved that, in the midst of the constant changes of the universe, there is no such thing as creation of new matter or absolute annihilation of a particle of what once existed. That which exists today, existed before and shall exist in future in some form or other. For example, when we bum a piece of wood, apparently it is destroyed. But a closer observation will show that though burning destroys both wood and air, it produces at the same time other things, such as, ashes, water, carbonic acid gas, nitrogen, exactly equal in amount, though different in properties. So, of all the existing things of the world, appearances or forms can be changed, but the quantitative amount of substance that was in the thing can neither be increased nor diminished by any power which a human being has learnt to wield. Thus we understand that the substance of the universe is indestructible. Again, the total amount of the cosmic force or energy is a constant quantity. Both the substance and energy of the universe are beginningless, endless, eternal, and infinite. Therefore, the underlying truth of the phenomenal appearances of the objective world is one eternal, indestructible, all-pervading substance which contains the potentiality of all forces and powers that are manifested in the universe. It is beyond comprehension or cognition of human minds.

The same eternal substance which manifests itself as the objects of the phenomenal world like the sun, moon, stars, earth and other planets, as well as the organic and inorganic bodies, appears also as the eternal subject or the soul of the subjective universe. It is beyond sense perception, beyond mind and its functions, and above thought. It is the source of consciousness, the basis of intelligence and the foundation of knowledge. It does not change with the changes of body and mind. It is the one unchangeable Truth in the midst of all subjective changes. It is birthless and deathless. It is the one Absolute Being dwelling in all things, yet hidden by the veil of time, space, and causation. It is called in Vedanta, Brahman. The worshipper of this Brahman or the unchangeable Truth of the objective and the subjective universe, going through the path of right discrimination, rejects all the phenomenal names and forms, whether physical or mental, by saying, neti, neti—‘not this, not this’. Subjugating the senses he gains perfect control over his mind and concentrates upon the Brahman. Ultimately, he enters into, the state of superconsciousness and realizes that the eternal truth, which is worshipped by various individuals under different names and forms, is not very far, from him; it is rather inseparable from his own being, nay, it is one with it. Having acquired this knowledge of oneness, he devotes his whole heart and soul to that eternal truth and worships it in and through all the actions of his body and mind by constantly remembering that it is the essence of his phenomenal being, the Life of his life and the Soul of his soul. It is the only Reality. Everything outside of it is unreal in the truest sense of the word. His knowledge of Brahman is the highest kind of the worship of Truth.’ In the fire of Brahman he pours the whole phenomenal world as an oblation and watches how it vanishes into nothingness. In his worship he needs nothing but constant remembrance or meditation. Through ceaseless devotion to truth he crosses the ocean of death, attains to immortality and perfect freedom and becomes one with the absolute Brahman.

Thus we see that there are various ways of worshipping the eternal truth. Many are the paths by sincere and earnest souls can reach the ultimate goal of all religions. Each of the revealed scriptures describes a method of worshipping the truth, gives a particular form and a particular name to it, and asks its votaries to denounce all other forms of worship. But Vedanta embraces all the scriptures of the world, accepts the different ideals and methods of worship given in them, and teaches that all worships eventually go to the same truth, which is one and universal, and that all religions are but so many paths which end in the realization of the same all-pervading Being, whether it is called Jehovah, Father in heaven, Christ, Buddha, or Krishna, Allah, or Brahman.

rucīnāṃ vaicitryādṛjukuṭilanānāpathajuṣāṃ
nṛṇāmeko gamyastvamasi payasāmarṇava iva || 7 ||
     —Shiva-mahimna-stotra. (Cf. also Bhagavata, X. 40.10)

As rivers rising from different mountains run crooked or straight into one ocean, so all forms of worship rising from different points of view, run crooked or straight into the one absolute eternal ocean of truth, which is the goal of all religions.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

St. John, VIII, 82.

[2]:

Bhagavad Gita. IX, 17.

[3]:

Ibid., IX, 18.

[4]:

Ibid. IX, 4.

[5]:

Ibid. IX, 17.

[6]:

Ibid. IX, 19.

[7]:

Ibid. IX, 29.

[8]:

Ibid. IX, 26.

[9]:

Ibid. IX, 27-28.

[10]:

Bhagavad Gita, XVIII, 65-66.

[11]:

St. John. XIV, 6.

[12]:

Ibid, XI, 28.

FAQ (frequently asked questions):

Which keywords occur in this article of Volume 1?

The most relevant definitions are: Krishna, Buddha, soul, Isvara, Brahman, Ramakrishna; since these occur the most in “worship of truth” of volume 1. There are a total of 21 unique keywords found in this section mentioned 83 times.

Can I buy a print edition of this article as contained in Volume 1?

Yes! The print edition of the Complete works of Swami Abhedananda contains the English discourse “Worship of Truth” of Volume 1 and can be bought on the main page. The author is Swami Prajnanananda and the latest edition is from 1994.

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