Chapter 5.1a - The First Lecture (on Practical Vedanta)

The first lecture on Practical Vedanta was delivered on the 10th November in 1896 in London. In this lecture he says that the fictitious differentiation between religion and the life of the world must vanish. It is because the Vedanta teaches oneness, one life throughout. The ideals of religion must cover the whole field of life. They must enter into all our thoughts and more and more into practice. Before going to the practical side of Vedanta, Vivekananda first considered the theories of Vedanta. It is to indicate this extreme practicality of Vedanta, that many of the Upanishadic discourses are put in the mouths of really very busy peoples like ruling monarchs. These discourses were not put in the mouths of priests or recluses dwelling away from the company of men or in restricted and cloistered surroundings. This is evident from the fact that the great Vedantic text, the Bhagavad Gita, was delivered in the field of battle by Sri Krishna to Arjuna, the generalissimo of the Pandava army. Vedanta is therefore meant to be not a concern of mere armchair philosophers or of recluses interested only in the life hereafter. He explains this point with the help of the following example. There was a sage in India whose name was Shvetaketu. He was brought up in the forest. But later on he went to the city of the Panchalas and appeared at the court of the king, Pravahana Jaivali. In the court the king asked him some questions which were not answered by Shvetaketu. Some of the questions were like this- ‘Do you know how beings depart hence at death?’, ‘Do you know how they return hither?’, ‘Do you know the way of the fathers and the way of the gods?’ But Shvetaketu could not give answer of any of these questions. Then the king told him that he knew nothing. The boy came back to his father and asked him the same questions. The father himself could not answer these questions. So the boy went back to the king and asked to give the answer of these questions. The king said that these things had been hither to known only among kings. The priests never knew them. The king however proceeded to teach Shetaketu. In this way Vivekananda showed us that Vedanta philosophy is not the outcome of meditation in the forests only, but that the very best parts of it were thought out and expressed by brains which were busiest in the everyday affairs of life, namely, the ruling monarchs. We cannot conceive any man busier than an absolute monarch, a man who is ruling over millions of people.

Here the question arises, ‘What is practical?’ In Vivekananda’s view.that is the most impractical ideal or theory which asks us to give up our selfishness to follow the ideal. The practical ideal reconciles our self-interest with the ideal that we have to follow. He says “what I think is practical, is to me the only practicality in the world. If I am a shopkeeper, I think shop-keeping is the only practical pursuit in the world. If I am a thief, I think stealing is the best means of being practical; others are not practical.”^[1] Thus, that is the most practical way which includes our self-interest. The ideal of Vedanta is ‘Thou art that’, this means ‘you are divine’. Vedanta preaches this high ideal, but this is intensely practical. We can actualize it in our life. It is because this is already within us. We are already divine. Vivekananda here distinguishes the human life into two. One is our present life i.e. our day-to-day life. Another is the eternal life. This eternal life is the realization of oneness in everything. This life is the actual life. The present life should be made to coincide with the life eternal, not vice versa.

The divinity of men implies also the principle of immortality of the soul. Eternal life is different from survival or death which is given to every living being. It is the transcendence of life and death. Birth and death, and all other such things are entire nonsense when spoken of in connection with the soul. Vedanta says that the soul was never born and will never die, and all these ideas that we are going to die and are afraid to die are mere superstitions. And all such ideas as that we can do this or cannot do that are superstitions. According to Vedanta we can do everything. The Vedanta first teaches men to have faith in themselves. As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist, so not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism. To many common people this is a terrible idea and most of them think that this ideal can never be reached. But the Vedanta insists that it can be realized by everyone. There is nothing that stands as a bar to the realization of the ideal, because that it is realized already, it is already there. The positive teaching of Vedanta is on the inherent power and purity of the spirit. Vedanta has shown that there is but one soul throughout the universe. This infinite oneness of the soul is the eternal sanction for all morality. Through that only the brotherhood of all living beings can -be established. Besides, understanding that we are part and parcel of that one divine spirit is necessary for generating faith in oneself.

According to Vivekananda, the teaching of Vedanta philosophy is that all the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark. Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. Since we are non-different from the Absolute reality, hence we must also be powerful like him. Thus Vedanta not only insists that the ideal is practical, but that it has been so all the time, and this ideal, this Reality, is our own self. If we think ourselves as ‘little mortal being', we become weaker, hypnotizing ourselves. We have to think ourselves as eternal, ever-pure, ever blessing immortal, then all our action, thought and dream can touch the height of sky. So Vedanta asks us to start with positive thought to win the world. Vedanta recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error. And the greatest error for one is to think that we are weak. That he is a sinner and he has no power to do this or that. Therefore Vedanta states whoever thinks he is weak is wrong. And he is throwing a bad thought into the world. In Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the present life, this false life which we have assumed with the ideal. But this false life must vanish, and the real life which always exists must manifest itself.

The Vedanta also says that this can be realized by men in all possible conditions of life. One need not go to forest or caves to realize this. We have seen that the people who discovered these truths were neither living in caves nor in forests, nor following the ordinary vocations of life. But men who, led the busiest of lives, men who has to command armies, to sit on thrones and look to the welfare of millions. They could find time to think out all these thoughts, to realize them, and to teach them to humanity.

Now a question arises ‘How much more then should it be practical for us whose lives, compared with theirs, are lives of leisure?’ Vivekananda says that we cannot realize this is a shame to us, seeing that we are comparatively free all the time having very little to do. He says that we surely ought to be able to do as much in this life of ours-comparatively free, easy and comfortable. It is a fact that most of us have more time than we think if we really want to use it for good. With the amount of freedom we have we can attain to two hundred ideals in this life, only if we will, but we must not degrade the ideal to the actual.

The central idea of Vedanta is oneness. We are all going to the same goal. Therefore we must not look down with the contempt on others. The difference between weakness and strength is one of degree, the difference between heaven and hell is one of degree, because oneness in the secret of everything. According to Vedanta, there is but one life, one world and one Existence. Everything is that one, the difference is in degree and not in kind. The difference between our lives is not in kind. The Vedanta entirely denies such ideal as that animals are separate from men, and that they were made and created by God to be used for our food. Oneness includes all animals. If man’s life is immortal, so also is the animal’s. The amoeba and a man are the same; the difference is only in degree; and from the standpoint of the highest life, all these differences Vanish. A man may see a great deal of difference between grass and a little tree, but if the man mounts very high, the grass and the biggest tree will appear much the same. So, from the standpoint of the highest ideal, the lowest animal and the highest man are the same. Vedanta says that if we believe there is a God, the animals and the highest creatures must be the same. So Vivekananda says “A God who is Partial to his children called men, and cruel to his children called brute beasts, is worse than a demon. I would rather die a hundred times than worship such a God. My whole life would be a fight with such a God.”^[2] As such, we have no right to look down with contempt upon those who are not developed exactly in the same degree as we are. We should help them to look forward, to evoke their latent divinity. But strength does not come by thinking of weakness all the time. We have to keep in mind the teaching of Vedanta, that remedy for weakness is not brooding over one’s weakness. Just as, thinking about the problem does not lead us to its solution, to solve that problem we need to find out its remedy, similarly, negative thinking always weakens us, we need to think positively.

Vivekananda hold that religion, to help mankind, must be ready and able to help men in every condition of his life. If religion to be potent force of man’s life, it should provide strength and inspiration in all situations of his life. The Vedantic teaching of faith in oneself is the best means for generating this strength and inspiration. As Vivekananda said, the Vedantic ideal, ‘Faith in ourselves’ is of the greatest help to all man. If this ideal had been more extensively taught and practiced a very large Portion of the evils and misery which we have, would have vanished. All the difference between man and man arises from the degree of faith have in themselves. Vivekananda says “Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in them. Born with the consciousness that they were to be great, they became great. Let a man go down as low as possible; there must come a time when out of sheer desperation he will take an upward curve and will learn to have faith in himself.”^[3] But it is not the selfish faith which assumes, ‘Only myself as divine’, because Vedantic oneness never permits us to do so. It means faith in all, because we are all. Love ourself means love for all, love for animals, love for everything. It is the great faith which makes the world better. He is the highest man who can say with truth, ‘I know all about myself.’ We don’t know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces are still lurking behind that frame of ours. The scientists have not known all that is in man. Millions of years have passed since man first came to the world, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, we must not say that we are weak. According to Vedanta behind us is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

One of the most practical implications of Vedanta is that, Vedanta preaches a practical God. For Vedanta God is not someone who dwells up above and by offering sacrifice and gifts we can satisfy him to fulfil our needs. Rather Vedanta presents a practical living God. According to Vedanta, God dwells in every creature. The same’Reality’, which is regarded as ‘God’ from religious point of view, dwells in all of us.

Vivekananda in his lectures on practical Vedanta raised a very important aspect of Vedantic morality. Vedanta teaches us that we all are prophet or all must be prophets. The great man of the past spoke only a few words. They feel good and so do good accordingly. There is no inborn great soul with great potentiality. We all are equally divine and potential. It also bears a practical equality. So Vedanta gives immense practical ground to be a prophet, at least to be a good man for the good of the world.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vivekananda, Swami, Practical Vedanta, p-9-10.

[2]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda] VOL. 2, p-297-298.

[3]:

Ibid, p-301. 10. Ibid, p-318.