Vedanta Philosophy

Professor Howison, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before discussing the subject of this evening, allow me to thank Professdr Howison, through whose kindness I have been honoured with this privilege of addressing the talented audience that has assembled here tonight.

I have been requested to give an outline of Vedanta philosophy, which is the most ancient of all the philosophical systems of India. I suppose there are a very few amongst those present, who are familiar with this ancient philosophy that has helped mankind in solving the most difficult problems of life and death, and has led the truth-seeking minds of all ages and of all climes to the threshold of that abode of eternal Truth which is the end and aim of our life.

The student of Vedanta philosophy, after studying the ancient philosophical systems of Greece and the modern philosophies of Germany, finds that the ultimate conclusions of the modern philosophers are like faint echoes of the thundering expressions of what the ancient vedic seers of Truth realized, at least two thousand years before the Christian era. The monistic systems of Professor Le Conte, of John Fiske, of Hegel, and other philosophers of Western countries and modern times, find their prototype in the utterances of those ancient philosophers of India. The first conception of this idea of monism that was ever expressed before the world we find in the Rig Veda, the most ancient of all scriptures of the world: ‘That which exists is One; men call it by various names’.^[1] That One is not far from us. It is in us and outside of us.

Truth-seeking minds of these ancient philosophers did not stop at their researches until they could unify the diverse phenomena of this universe into that absolute oneness, and when they discovered the one source and goal of the phenomenal universe, they tried to explain the process by which this One appears as manifold. In their attempts they developed different systems of philosophy, of which the Sankhya system of Kapila and this Vedanta philosophy stand most prominent. The later philosophers took up the conclusions arrived at by the great thinkers of ancient times and developed systems of philosophy, and through logic and science explained the phenomena and mystery of the universe.

They discovered the doctrine, the law of evolution, that involve the phenomena of the world. It was Kapila who was recognized as the father of the theory of evolution in ancient India. He lived about fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. It was he who expounded the doctrine of evolution most scientifically and most logically. This fact was admitted by Professor [Thomas] Huxley when he said that this doctrine was known to the Hindu sages long before Paul of Tarsus was born. Well has it been said by Sir Monier Williams that the Hindus were Spinozites more than two thousand years before the existence of Spinoza; Darwinians many centuries before Darwin; and Spencerites many centuries before the doctrine of evolution had been accepted by the scientists of our time and before any word like evolution existed in any language of the world.

Standing on that firm rock of evolution, the ancient thinkers of India explained the cosmic process by which the phenomenal universe appears to our senses, by which we come to perceive the objects of sense. The Hindu philosophers, especially the philosophers of the vedantic school, do not believe in the theory of a special creation of the universe by some extra-cosmic being. In one of the writings of the ancient philosophers, we read that a great vedantic sage was teaching his own son, and he asked this question: ‘My beloved son, some^[2] tell us that this world was created out of nothing, but my dear child, how can something come out of nothing?’

This idea of the impossibility of something coming out of nothing, we find in Herbert Spencer’s philosophy and almost all the scientists of modern times accept it as a fact; but this was first taught in India about two thousand years before the Christian era. So the fundamental principle of the Vedanta philosophy is oneness, and that oneness is on the highest spiritual plane.

There is one Life which exists, one Spirit, one Truth, one Reality. Some people think that the Vedanta philosophy teaches that this world is an illusion, but Vedanta philosophy does not teach the phenomenal world is such. What is regarded as illusion in Vedanta philosophy, is the attribution of substantia and sentience to the phenomena, without recognizing the underlying unity, and that unity of Being, or Existence, or Light, or Spirit, is called by various names.

In Vedanta, it is called Brahman, which means literally a vast expanse—infinite expanse. It was called by Plato the Good, by Spinoza the Substantia, by Spencer the Unknown and Unknowable, by Kant the Transcendental Thing-in-itself. Schopenhauer called it Sufficient Reason, and Emerson the Oversoul. But Vedanta philosophy differs from these system of Western philosophy, by unifying the subject and the object in Brahman or the absolute Reality.

When we study the Kantian system, we find the mention of that Thing-in-itself, but if we study a little more critically we find that it is only an assumption on the part of Kant—that this Thing-in-itself is a pure assumption of Kant, a superfluity that cannot be supported by any data. In fact, Kant believed in that transcendental Thing-in-itself which cannot be brought into the realm of experience, and the great defect of Kant’s system lies in that unnatural separation of the Thing-in-itself from the plane of experience.

But Vedanta philosophy, accepting the transcendental Thing in-itself as Reality, brings it into the realm of experience, and connects it with everything that can be perceived by the senses of human beings. The one Brahman, when appears as pure existence of all things that exist in the universe, is called sat, pure existence. The same Brahman appears as pure intelligence, when it becomes the subject or knower of the object. It is then chit. The same Brahman or absolute Truth, when qualified by the cosmic self-consciousness, omniscience, and omnipotence, appears as the ruler of the universe—the antaryamin, the inner ruler of the universe.

He is called Isvara, which means the ruler and preserver of the universe. There is no such title as the Creator of the universe in Vedanta, because a creator is impossible when we admit the doctrine of evolution. When we see that all the various manifestations of the universe are nothing but the expressions or the result of the evolution of one eternal Energy, railed in Sanskrit Prakriti and in Latin Procreatrix, we do not need any being whom we can call the Creator of the universe.

But there is room for a personal God. There is room also for an impersonal One, and also for the absolute Truth, the absolute Reality, the absolute One, which is the highest ideal of all the philosophies of the world. When the same Brahman is qualified with limited self-consciousness and partial knowledge, it becomes the soul or appears as the individual soul of man; and when the same Brahman is qualified by the absence of self-consciousness it appears as matter. So the nature of these three things is discussed in the Vedanta philosophy—the nature of God, of the soul, and of the material universe. But all these three are different expressions of one.

The dualistic thinkers believe in a personal God who is outside of this universe, and who is outside of us, but they are afraid to discuss the nature of that personal God. What kind of personality does that personal God have? If you ask this question of the dualistic believers, they shrink from answering. They say: ‘We do not know’.

But Vedanta philosophy is not afraid of discussing the nature of God. Most of the conceptions of God which we find as common amongst the masses, as taught in the different schools and temples, are anthropomorphic conceptions. We.project our own thought and ideas, magnify them, and create our own ideals according to our thoughts, and then we worship them. As, in ancient time the Jews believed in a Jehovah, who was cruel, and who had some qualities, which perhaps we would not like to give him. But all this can be explained clearly by this anthropomorphic conception of God.

So all the ideas of personal God are more or less anthropomorphic. We are human beings. We like to think of the Creator of the universe as a human being. He is sitting somewhere, as we sit. He has two hands as we have, though he may not have two hands in reality. We find a beautiful description of that impersonal Being, appearing as personal to the devotee in one of the ancient writings of the Vedas: ‘He has infinite heads, and infinite number of eyes, an infinite number of hands. He works through all hands of all living creatures. He thinks through all brains of all living creatures and at the same time he is beyond all thought. He is beyond all work, yet the whole universe is his body. The sum total of our minds is his mind’. The sum total of the intelligence that is manifested in this universe is the intelligence of God. We live and move and have our being in God. He is immanent and resident in nature.

Last Friday evening when I was listening to Professor Howison’s remarks on John Fiske’s Through Nature to God, I was surprised when he said that God cannot be immanent and resident in Nature; the indwelling God would make Him responsible for all the evil deeds of human beings. Of course, he used different language. I cannot recall his words.

That difficulty does not arise in Vedanta philosophy, although it believes that God is dwelling in each of our souls. He is dwelling within us, yet remains unaffected by our deeds, good or evil. On one side, Vedanta philosophy gives expression to the highest ideal of all philosophy, and on the other, it gives a foundation to a system of religion which is the most rationalistic of all systems, and harmonizes with the ultimate conclusions of modern science and philosophy.

Vedanta philosophy says that this Absolute cannot be worshipped, but when that Being is qualified with the eternal Energy, when He appears as the omniscient and omnipotent Being and ruler of the universe. He can be worshipped as Isvara. He can be loved, and He loves human beings. But we do not understand the meaning of the word ‘love’. It is used very frequently, and has a very deep meaning.

We must not forget the expression: ‘God is love’, and when we think of love, we should remember that it is divine. It is not like the love which we see manifested in our ordinary everyday life. It is something deeper—something higher, and in that sense the term can be applied to the word love which can be used for God. Vedanta says, love means expression of oneness. And wherever there is love, there is unity. Love means the attraction between soul and soul. The same attraction is manifested in the physical world in the form of gravitation or chemical affinity or molecular attraction. When it is manifested on the soul plane, or two souls are attracted, it is called love and is divine.

In describing the nature of the individual soul, Vedanta philosophy teaches that the soul is immortal and divine. It is birthless and deathless; it has no beginning, it has no end. It is eternal. Ordinarily we think that the souls of human beings were created at a certain period by some being, and those souls, will continue to exist until eternity. But there is a fallacy in that statement which we do not consider ordinary.

We must remember that which has birth, must die. If the souls were created, they cannot be eternal and immortal,, because birth is followed by death and death by birth. There is no absolute destruction or annihilation of anything. By studying modern science we have learned that even matter is indestructible, force is indestructible, and if there be such a thing as the source of consciousness, how can that be destructible? If matter has no beginning, if force has no beginning, how can the souls have beginning? These souls existed before these bodies were born, and will exist after the dissolution of the bodies. Death means only change of form.

As we throw away old garments and put on new ones, so the soul, after throwing away the old garment of body when it has fulfilled its purpose, puts on a new one^[3] and fulfils other purposes and desires that are still unfulfilled. The doctrine of evolution when pushed a little farther, gives foundation to the doctrine of reincarnation.

Of course Western philosophers do not admit the continuity and identity of that germ of life, which is going through the different stages of evolution. The moment they admit it, they would accept the doctrine of reincarnation. The doctrine of reincarnation is supported by the Vedanta philosophy. As the soul is indestructible and as all the desires cannot be fulfilled during three scores of years, what would become of those desires still unfulfilled? They cannot be crushed out and destroyed. They need future manifestation for their fulfilment. So the souls will reappear and take other forms and they take these forms in harmony with their thoughts.

We mould our own future, and we create our own destiny, by the fruits of our works. We are responsible for all we have today and all we shall have in the future. No one else is responsible. Vedanta does not say that the soul is born a sinner, but on the contrary it teaches that the soul is a child of immortal bliss. One of the most ancient seers of truth in India, proclaimed, in a trumpet voice, before the world: ‘Oh ye children of immortal bliss, listen to me. I have discovered the eternal Truth, and by knowing that alone, one may cross the ocean of life’.^[4]

What a sweet and heart-consoling expression like children of immortal bliss is! We are all children of God. There is no such thing as devil or Satan who is tempting us all the time. What we ordinarily call sin, according to Vedanta, is nothing but selfishness and that is the result of the ignorance of our true divine nature. The moment we realize that divinity in full within us, that very moment we are divine and free from all sins.

Vedanta does not require any mediator for the absolution of sins. Vedanta philosophy teaches that the highest ideal of our life is to fulfil the purpose of life. There is also a purpose behind the process of evolution. We have come into existence, not as a mere freak of nature, not accidentally, but are bound by certain laws and are governed by the law of causation. We are the result of our past, and our future will be the result of our present.

Parents are not responsible for our faults. We should not blame our ancestors. Parents are nothing but the principal channels, through which the soul finds proper environments for manifestation of the powers, latent within it. So Vedanta philosophy does not blame the parents. It does neither blame God, nor Satan. It believes that each one of us is responsible.

You can undo what you have done today, if you know that you are the doer. You can make your future better, by living the right kind of lite. There comes the necessity of religion. Religion does not mean, according to Vedanta, the belief in a certain dogma or a creed, or in following the doctrines of a certain denomination or church, but it is the science of the soul.

That which teaches us what we are, who we are, what we were before, what we shall be in the future, and what our relation is to the universe and to that supreme Being which is absolute eternal, is called ‘religion’. Morality and ethics have their foundation on religion. We find, in Western philosophy, a great discussion about the true basis of morality, but we find the answer very clear and simple in Vedanta. For instance, we often hear the answer that Jesus the Christ taught the highest ethical law: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’. The question is generally asked: ‘Why should we love our neighbour as ourselves? What for? Why should we not kill him?’ From the utilitarian standpoint we ought to kill him for our benefit, if we can get any good out of it. But morality which is based upon utilitarian principles, cannot explain this difficulty. The answer to the question we find in the Vedas, as Professor Paul Deussen of Kiel University has said in his Elements of Metaphysics: ‘Why should we love our neighbours as ourselves? The answer is ‘tat tvam asi’—That thou art! Because we are one with our neighbour in Spirit.

By hurting our neighbours, we hurt ourselves. By injuring them, we injure ourselves. That is the law. Therefore we should not hurt our neighbours. By loving them, we better ourselves, we unfold our higher nature, and live on a higher plane. We should love our neighbours not for their good deeds, not for their meritorious acts, not for their beauty, but for their souls—for that oneness in Spirit, which cannot be separated by anything of this phenomenal universe. There we find the foundation of ethics which cannot be shaken by agnostic or materialistic thinkers of the East or of the West.

Vedanta philosophy teaches that the highest ideal of life is attainment of freedom and emancipation from the bondages that have kept us down on this animal plane, the plane of sense, and that freedom or emancipation comes when we realize Divinity within us, when we feel that we are one with God, that God is the prime mover of the universe, and that we are nothing but instrument in the hands of that almighty power or will, which is working in nature. The moment we feel that, we cannot do anything wrong. How can you do anything wrong when you know that your will is not separate from the universal will? It is impossible. But the moment you forget that oneness, the moment you think of yourself as separate from the universal, you are ready to do any wicked thing, for your own selfish purpose. But when that selfishness disappears, you reach perfection, and that perfection is the goal of evolution.

Evolution ceases when perfection is reached. I mean, the evolution of that particular individual ceases when that individual reaches perfection, but it will continue to operate in relation to others who have not reached that state of perfection. What do we mean by perfection? It means the attainment of God-consciousness or perfect freedom. When we are not bound by anything that is within the realm of time, space, and causation, we are free.

In reality, we are always free, but we do not know it. If we are not free in reality, if that freedom does not exist in each soul potentially, we cannot reach freedom by any means. Apparently we are bound. We are bound by our own desires just as the silkworm makes the cocoon out of its own thread, and later on thinks itself bound. And we may try to explain the cause of that cocoon, existing outside of itself. Of course, it will be a mistake, but when the silkworm gets the power of cutting that cocoon, it comes out as a beautiful butterfly, and is free to go anywhere.

So the human soul is bound at present by the desires, by the tendencies, by the different ideas, imperfections, and all kinds of selfishness, but when that soul realizes Divinity within itself, it becomes free. It attains to God-consciousness and afterwards becomes perfect in itself. That emancipated soul is called by different names, such as Christ or Buddha.

The word ‘Christ’ means a state. It does not mean any particular individual. The real name of the person was Jesus. He attained to that state which is called Christ—the state of realization of Truth. So the title ‘Buddha’ means enlightenment. Shakymuni [Shakyamuni] Gautama attained to that oneness and became Buddha. So each one of us will become Christ, will become Buddha, when we reach that attainment of God-consciousness. Then we shall be able to say boldly before the world as Jesus the Christ said: “I and my Father are one’.

How many of you have the courage to say that boldly: ‘I and my Father are one?’ Who can say it? He alone can say it who has realized that oneness. The Hindu philosopher will say: ‘I am He. I am that absolute Being, who is in the sun, the moon, and the stars, who is the infinite source of

knowledge, existence, and the ultimate goal of the universe’, Vedanta philosophy teaches that that state is the ideal. We must have it. We must struggle to attain it in this life, and, therefore, we should live the life which is in harmony with the ideal and purpose of evolution, and thus we shall be able to attain it very quickly.

Vedanta philosophy is not separate from science, philosophy, logic or religion. There is one peculiarity of Vedanta philosophy that it takes in all that has been, all the truths that have been discovered by the different philosophers or thinkers -of the world, and by the different scientists of different countries. It tells us that which is illogical, unscientific, or unphilosophical, cannot be religion.

Religion must not be separated from philosophy, science, or logic. The goal of science is to find out truth, and the goal of philosophy is also to discover truth. By logic we try to express what we realize, so that we may not make mistakes in our expressions. Religion also deals with absolute Truth, and we must not forget that Truth is one. By knowing that Truth, one attains to freedom as Jesus the Christ said: ‘Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free’. That is the only way of attaining freedom.

Vedanta philosophy can be developed into dualistic, qualified non-dualistic, and absolutely non-dualistic systems. So those who believe in a personal God, are not discouraged by Vedanta philosophers. They say it (dualism) is one of the stages in the process of spiritual evolution. There is growth in spirituality and that growth is admitted in Vedanta philosophy.

A child, in the spiritual life, cannot understand the highest ideal of nondualism. He will have to go through different stages. First he will think of God, as extracosmic. Then he will gradually come into a conception of God who is immanent and resident in nature or intracosmic. And when he can rise a little higher, he will realize that God is absolute Being, the Reality, the Soul of all souls.

There has never been religious persecution in India, on account of the belief in any certain doctrine. The Hindus would not molest anyone, on account of his belief, nor persecute him, because he does not believe as they do. They accept all these different systems and creeds as different paths that lead to the same goal.

As one coal cannot fit all bodies, each one will have a coat which fits ‘his or her body. If I go to the market and say: ‘Now my friend, I have a coat and you will have to put it on, and if it does not fit, you will have to go without’, then I must be a fool. So Vedanta philosophy recognizes that each individual must have his own ideals and beliefs, but all these ideals and beliefs have one goal and that goal is the attainment of God-consciousness, of perfection or freedom or emancipation of the soul. Therefore the Vedanta philosopher never persecutes.

Thousands of Mohammedans came to India and persecuted the Hindus by holding the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, just as the early Christians did, by holding a gun in one hand and the Bible in the other. But still the Hindus did not take revenge upon them. They said they (Mohammedans and Christians) were working out their own salvation in that way. Of course they resisted, but non-resistance is the ideal. Who can do it? Not the man who is struggling for bread and butter, or for name and fame and who is the slave of ambition, but he who has risen above all these things, can do it.

Vedanta philosophy teaches that all these different religions are like so many roads, which lead to the same goal, as there are many roads by which you can come to San Francisco. One can come from the north, another from the south, and so forth. So we may attain to the state, that highest ideal of life, by different paths, and all the different paths are but methods to the attainment of God-consciousness.

Each method is called a yoga (yuj—to join, to join the jivatman with the Paramatman). There is one, raja yoga, the method of concentration and meditation, one bhakti yoga, the method of devotion and worship, one jnana yoga, of discrimination and knowledge, and there is karma yoga, the method of work.

By doing work in a right way, by understanding the secret of work, we can attain to that goal very easily. The secret of work lies in working for work’s sake, without thinking of results. Those who have read the Bhagavad Gita, which has been translated by many of the Oriental scholars, under different names, such as Sir Edwin Arnold’s Song Celestial, will understand what I mean by the secret of work. The Gita states: ‘To work you have the right, but not to the fruits thereof’.^[5]

It is a very deep problem, but I cannot dwell long on it tonight, as our time will not permit us to discuss deeply. By making all our works of worship, we can make our life much better than it is at present. And in that way one can attain to the goal by the method for which he is best fitted.

One, who is of a meditative nature, should practise concentration and meditation. Concentration and meditation upon what? Upon that Spirit, that divine nature, which is dwelling in us. We must try to make our minds introspective, and think of what is going on within. We are constantly trying to know things outside of us and we neglect that which is nearest and dearest to us, and that which is within us.

Therefore Vedanta philosophy says: ‘If you wish to know Truth, do not seek it outside. Search within, there alone you will find Truth.’ It has been expressed beautifully by one of the vedic sages, who is known as a seer of Truth: ‘That eternal Being, that absolute Truth, is smaller than the smallest, is larger than the largest. It dwells in each atom as well as in the largest solar system. It dwells in the cave of our hearts. Whoever realizes it in the cave of his heart, obtains unbounded peace and eternal happiness, in this life’.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ekam sad vipra vahudha vadanti.—Rig Veda.

[2]:

By ‘some’ who dwell outside the universe.

[3]:

In the Bhagavat Gita (II. 22), it is said:

Vasamsi [?] jirnani yatha vihaya navani grihnati naro ‘parani
Tatha sharirani vihaya jirnanyanyani sanjati navani dehi

[4]:

Shrinvantu visve amritasya putra, aye dhamani divyani tasthuh.— Svetasvatara-Upanishad, II. 5.

[5]:

Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana
     —Bhagavad Gita, II. 47.

[6]:

Anoraniyan mahato mahiyan
atmasya jantornihitam guhayam.
Tamakratuh pashyati vitashoko
dhatu-prasadan mahimanamatmanah.
     —Katha-Upanishad, II, 20.