Silent Thunder

CHAPTER SIX.

FORMLESS VOICE OF SWAMY VIVEKANANDA

.  .  .

“Srnvantu visve amrtasya putra  A ye dhamani divyani tasthuh”

“Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! Even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One, who is beyond all darkness, all delusion: knowing him alone you shall be saved from death over again”

Thus Swami Vivekananda thundered at the Parliament of Religions at Chicago city of United states of America in the year 1893. Even after more than a century and half, his words reverberate through the length and breadth of the whole Universe. He is a MAHATMA, not confined to one Nation, or religion, or creed. He addressed the whole Humanity! Nay he addressed even those that reside in higher spheres.

*1 “Children of immortal bliss”-what a sweet, what a hopeful name! Allow me to call you, brethren, by those sweet name-heirs of immortal bliss-yea, the Hindu refuses to call you sinners. Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect Beings. Ye divinities on earth-sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are the souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; you are not the matter, you are not bodies; matter is your servant ,not you the servant of matter”.

The poem (sloka,/ stanza) quoted in the beginning of the chapter is from “SVETASVATARA UPANISAD” (5th stanza) of second chapter) The Svetasvatara Upanishad is found in the Krsna Yajur Veda . Svetasvatara is the name of the sage who compiled this Upanishad. Svetasvatara literally means ‘white mule’, a white horse like animal. Meaning here is a pure (Sveta) master who controls his sense organs. (Asvatara refers to sense organs.). In Kathopanishad, the body is compared to a chariot and the ‘Self’ ( The same Self about which the entire discussion is going on right from the beginning of the book.) is the master sitting inside the chariot, controlling sense organs, since sense organs are compared with horses in Philosophical language. We all know how difficult horses are to control. If you can control them, they are your friends, and they will take you any where you like. If you can not control them, they will take you any where they like. The entire spiritual Sadhana, like Yoga, and Tapascharya, are meant for controlling sense organs. Svetasvatara Upanishad opens with questions like “what is the cause of this universe? Who created us? Where do we come from, and where shall we go in the end? Who is controlling us?”. The Upanishad says it is the Brahman that is the cause of the Universe. Brahman is the ultimate Reality. Brahman is also called the ‘Cosmic Self’, because it is the Self of all that exists. The individual selves (like us) appear separate from Brahman or Paramatman, due to their separate names and forms.

In continuation of the above Sloka, Swami Vivekananda narrated from 8th Sloka of chapter third of the same Upanishad. The Sloka is given below for clear understanding of our enlightened readers. (For detailed reading readers may refer Svetasvatara Upanishad itself.)

Vedahametam purusam mahantam- Aadityavarnam tamasah parastat;

Tameva Viditva’timrtyumeti  Nanyah pantha vidyate’yanaya.

The sage Svetasvatara said “I have known that Great Being (That Cosmic Self). It is beyond ignorance, and is self- luminous like Sun. If the spiritual seeker knows that Self, he (automatically) goes beyond death. There is no other way of reaching the goal.”

Learned readers might have heard this sloka number of times on auspicious occasions. During house warming (Entering into new homes) function this sloka is often repeated. During other religious functions also this is loudly pronounced. But the monotonous way the paid Pundits make the sounds, you loose the meaning and spiritual value of the same.

*2“The Supreme Being is described as Adityavarnam, bright, effulgent, and shining like Sun,because it is pure. Knowledge is always bright, and the opposite of knowledge-that is ignorance- is described as darkness. Just as when the Sun shines it dispels all the —darkness, so also when there is knowledge, there is no more ignorance.” Sri Ramakrishna used to say:“A room may have been dark for thousand years, but if you enter the room and light a lamp, at once the darkness disappears.”

“If you know that Supreme Being, you go beyond death. That is to say, you have no fear of death. You know who you are. If there is death, it is death of the body. It is not your death. It no longer matters to you what happens to the body. It is in that sense that you overcome death. You are then liberated. To know your identity with Brahman is the supreme goal. There is no other path to liberation”.

It will be  a grave mistake if we say that Swami Vivekananda quoted from Svetasvatara Upanishad while delivering the lecture at Chicago in the year 1893. This is an eternal truth and it has come through the vocal organs of Swami Vivekananda at Chicago for the benefit and enlightenment of those who were attending the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Swami Vivekananda did not go to USA with a prepared note, or with I pod and Power point presentation. He just went there with a divine mission on divine direction. He was given only a few minutes of time just to speak about Hindu Religion. But He electrified the whole audience while addressing them as “Sisters and Brothers of America” One goes into ecstasy if one reads Life of swami Vivekananda. When he addressed the gathering second time, he addressed them as “Viswe” and “Amrtasya putra”His address is for the whole of humanity, not confined to one particular nation or region or religion. His vision is infinite. He has grown to the highest heights, higher than Himalayas; nay no words can describe him. He has become one with Brahman. When you say that ‘Jesus Christ’ received the divine message, it does not mean that some divine personalities appeared in the skies above and delivered the lecture. It is only for the convenience of those who are not evolved to understand the intricacies of spiritual intuition; the scriptures have condescended to objectify the subject. Thus swami Vivekananda spoke:

*1 “I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my childhood days, which is repeated everyday by millions of human beings. “As the different streams having their sources in different places, all mingle their water in the Sea, so, O Lord, the  different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee”.

Explaining further Swami Vivekananda said “From the high spiritual flights of Vedanta philosophy, of which the latest discoveries of Science seem like echoes, to the low ideas of idolatry, with its multifarious mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists, and the atheism of Jains, each and all have a place in the Hindu religion. The Hindus have received their Religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. But by Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis. The Vedas teach us that creation is without beginning or end. Science is said to have proved that the sum total of cosmic energy is always the same. The sun, and the moon, the Lord created like the suns and moons of previous cycles. And this agrees with modern science.”

Swamiji adds “Here I stand and if I shut my eyes, and try to conceive my existence, “I”, “I”, “I”, what is the idea before me? The idea of a body? Am I, then, nothing but a combination of Material substances? The Vedas declare, “No”. I am a spirit living in the in a body: I am not the body. The body will die, but I shall not die. Here I am in the body; it will fall, but I shall go on living. I had also a past. The soul was not created, for creation means a combination, which means a certain future dissolution. If the soul was created, it must die. Some are born happy; enjoy perfect health and all wants supplied. Others are born miserable, others again are idiots. Why, if they are all created, why does a just and merciful God create one happy, and another unhappy, why is He so partial? …… There must have been causes, then, before his birth, to make a man miserable or happy and those were his past actions”.

“We can not deny that bodies acquire certain tendencies from heredity, but those tendencies mean only physical configuration, through which a peculiar mind alone can act in a peculiar way.   A soul with a certain tendency would by the law of affinity take birth in a body which is the fittest instrument for the display of that tendency. This is in accord with science, for science wants to explain everything by habit, and habit is got through repetitions. (This is done through mutations as per biological terminology.)”

“So then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him the sword can not pierce- him the fire cannot burn- him the water can not melt-him the air can not dry.( Bhagavad-Gita ch2 sloka 23)The Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body. In its very essence it is free, unbounded, holy, pure and perfect. But somehow or other (due to Maya, i.e. ignorance, not knowing the real nature of Self) it finds itself tied down to matter, and thinks of itself as matter. The human soul is eternal and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a change of centre from one body to another. The present is determined by the past actions and the future by the present. Then, is man a tiny boat in a tempest, raised one moment on the foamy crest of a billow and dashed down into a yawning chasm the next, – a powerless, helpless wreck in an ever –raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect; a little moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on crushing everything in its way and waits not for the widow’s tears or the orphan’s cry? The heart sinks at the idea, yet this is the law of Nature. Is there no hope? Is there no escape?-was the cry that went up from the bottom of the heart of despair.  It reached the throne of mercy, and words of hope and consolation came down and inspired a Vedic sage, and he stood up before the world and in a trumpet voice proclaimed the good tidings: Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! Even ye that reside in higher spheres! I have found the Ancient One who is beyond all darkness, all delusion; knowing Him alone you shall be saved from death over again.

The Vedas proclaim not a dreadful combination of unforgiving laws, not an endless prison of cause and effect, but at the head of all these laws, in and through every particle of matter and force, stands One, “by whose command the wind blows, the fire burns, the clouds rain, and death stalks upon the earth.”

Continuing Swami Vivekananda said “He (The Purusam mahamtam) is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and All-merciful.   Thou art our father, though art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life”. Swami Vivekananda said “The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realizing-not in believing, but in being and becoming.”

“Srnnvantu Visve”; the tiny little word ‘Visve’, encompases an infinite meaning. You remember our detailed studies of Mandukya Upanishad in the second chapter describes ‘Ayam atman’ i.e. this Atman as having four quarters. The first quarter, or part is ‘Vaiswanarah’. Vaiswanara and Visve, come from the same root ‘Vis’ means the entire Universe, extending beyond Milky Way and into the infinitely extending and expanding Universe. The Hubble telescope has beyond doubt proved that the Universe is expanding and expanding at a rate speedier than the speed of Light. In the third sloka of Mandukya Upanishad, Vaiswanarah has been described to be possessing seven parts. (Saptanga, meaning seven limbs, or parts in common parlor) This expression is the description of the macro cosmic structure of the Ego (Virat). To indicate this cosmic ego, the Sastra explains thus “Of that Vaiswanara Self, the effulgent region is his head, the sun his eyes, the air his vital breath, the space the middle part of the body, the water his kidney, the earth his feet and Ahavania fire is his mouth.” The Universe of Rushis is not Just India or America or the earth itself. Their vision encompasses the whole infinite Universe with earth as its feet and the effulgent region as head!

“Visve” comprises all that constitutes the entire Universe. But in the present context, we can take all the humanity since the second sentence qualifies ‘You Devas also’ When Swami Vivekananda addressed a small gathering of a few hundreds sitting in the hall of Parliament of religions at Chicago, “Hear, ye children of immortal bliss! Even ye that reside in higher spheres!” He did not intend it to be for the few seated before him in that hall, but He addressed the entire Humanity. Even after One hundred and fifty years after he first uttered, nay thundered that divine message, “The Silent Thunder” his formless voice must have passed through the vocal chords of  millions of seekers of Truth and will pass through millions in future for time immemorial.

The words swami Vivekananda chose to express the meaning to be conveyed, i.e. “Hear, ye children of immortal bliss!” are equally significant and carry the whole weight of the Universe. Each and every word is loaded with infinite meaning.. ‘Bliss’ simply means happiness, and this is the goal towards which every human being, whether he is a child of six months, or  Sr. George Bush,  running through nervous nineties who enjoyed everything  that can be thought of in this world of today. When we sip a cup of Coffee in the morning, we enjoy the aroma and taste of it and feel that we are in heaven. We immediately remember Bhagavan SriKrishna’s words in Srimad Bhagavad Geetha, “Rasoham apsu Kaunteya” ; “I am the taste in the water”. Rather, in a broader sense, He is the cause, causing happiness, or Bliss, in any substratum, or material entity that can be grasped through senses. We all know that we derive happiness, or unhappiness, when our senses encounter any external entity that can cause ripples in our mental lake. When the experience is conducive to our liking, we feel happy and otherwise when otherwise. A beautiful verse, explaining how all animate objects are attracted towards various   stimuli through various sense organs is given in “Viveka Chudamani”, one of the greatest scriptural text books written by Adi Shankara.

“ Shabdadibhih panchabhireva pancha  Panchatvamapuh   swagunena

baddhah Kuranga mathanga pathanga meena bhrungah.

Narah panchabhiranjithah kim?”

*3 “ The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish and the honey bee- these five are annihilated because of their slavery to one or other of the senses such as sound etc., through their own attachment. What then is the condition of man who is attached to all these five?

The deer is always fascinated by melodious sound and the deer hunter sings to charm the deer. .Attracted by the melody of the sound, the deer has no awareness of the danger it is in, and turns in the direction of music: the hunter soon makes it his target. The elephant, especially in the mating season, becomes extremely attached to the sense of touch; rubbing against each other and walking without caution, they fall into the pits got ready to catch them. The moth is enchanted by form and attracted by the brilliance of the flame. It flutters towards it and gets burnt. The fish, ravenously hungry at all times, swallows the bait, is caught and thus meets its end in the stomach of fish eaters. The poor honey bee, attracted by the fragrant smell of flowers, pursues its industrious vocation, collects honey from the flowers and hoards it in its hive, until at last; heartless man sets fire to the hive in order to loot the honey-wealth of the bee.

When a man of ignorance, having neither discrimination nor detachment, vulgarly runs after sense objects for his temporary nerve-tickling, he becomes a sad victim of his delusion and meets a calamitous end for he has allowed himself to be bound by the five strong ropes.”  (Poor fellow Rajeev Gandhi, our ex-Prime minister and son of smt. Indira Gandhi, lost his life for the attachment for the smell and taste of filter coffee!)

Swami Vivekananda qualified the term ‘Bliss’ as immortal bliss! Please pause and think. Bliss can be mortal or immortal. Swamji is speaking about immortal bliss only, not the fleeting joys associated with sense organs that form the mortal body. Body is always mortal. Have you seen any body which is immortal? Even Mummies in the Egyptian Pyramids are dead, not immortal. Even Trilinga swami who lived for more than three hundred years on the banks of Ganges in Varanasi about a century back also lived for a limited period of three hundred years and odd. So any bliss or happiness associated with the body, which itself is mortal can not be immortal. Bhagavad Gita says:

“Matrasparsasthu Kaunteya, seethoshna sukha dukhadah;

Agama payino anitya, thithikshasya  Bharatha!”(Sloka14 of Ch.II)

Cold and heat, Happiness (Bliss) and worries (unhappiness); result due to the contact of the senses with outer objects/environment. They are absolutely temporary and they come and go. So have patience and forbearance, Bharatha.( Bhagavan Sri Krishna addressing Arjuna)

Those who want to verify the veracity of this statement (and the statements given above) may please try an experiment .Jot down sincerely all your experiences which result in bliss/happiness; or otherwise, cause and effect of the same experience and the intensity and duration of bliss or otherwise. The experience which gives maximum bliss obtained through sense objects with maximum intensity, remains for the least time.

Then what is the immortal bliss, that swamiji promised that “by knowing him (Purushoththama, that ancient one!), you reach a state of immortality, the state beyond death!?

In Kathopanishad, the sage Katha, describes the answer to the most difficult and most commonly asked question as to what happens to human beings after death. Members of our modern scientific community, brought up in the mould of Newtonian classical physics bounded by cause and effect, and most ancient Rishis of Vedic culture nurtured by fresh and pure Ganges water and  fragrant and free Himalayan air, have one thing in common. They believe in the ultimate truth when they experience it only. No amount of scriptural studies, cultural doctrines and dogmas could make them accept the reality.  While Scientists directed their attention to the study of Nature through experiments and external observations, the Great ancient Rushis- the Scientists of life-without quarrelling with the material sciences, delved themselves into the very stuff called Life, focused their search light inwards to understand the glorious nature. Most of the Rishis obtained their initial knowledge through Master- Student relationship. Most of the Upanishads follow this tradition of dialogue between student and master, the student asking the questions and master replying the same. The term ‘Upanishad’, means sitting near master and learning. But Kathopanishad dealt with the subject of Ultimate Reality, the ‘Self’ as a dialogue between Nachiketa, son of Gautama, and Yama, the lord of death or dissolution.

Katha Upanishad speaks in very figurative language. There was, in ancient times, a very rich man, who made a certain sacrifice which required that he should give away everything that he had. Now this man is not sincere. He wanted to get the fame and glory of having made the sacrifice,  (like our present day politicians!)but he was giving only things which were of no further use to him-old cows, barren, blind, and lame. He had a boy called Nachiketa. This boy saw that his father was not doing what was right, that he was breaking his vow; but he did not know what to say to him. The boy approached with the greatest respect and humbly inquired of him,“ Father, to whom you are giving me? For your sacrifice requires that everything shall be given away”. Father was very much vexed at this question. The boy asked the question a second and third time, and then the angry father answered, “Thee I give unto Death (Yama)” And the story goes on to say that the boy went to Yama and had to wait there for three days. After the third day Yama returned and said to the boy “O learned one, you have been waiting here for three days without food, and you are a guest worthy of respect. Salutation to thee. I am very sorry that I was not at home. But for that I will make amends. Ask three boons, one for each day.” And the boy asked “My first boon is that my father’s anger against me may pass away”. Yama granted this fully. The next boon was that he wanted to know about a certain sacrifice which took people to heaven. Yama granted this boon also readily and promised that this sacrifice should henceforth be named after Nachikethas. In response to the third boon offered by Yama, Nachikethas asks “There is that doubt when a man is dead-some say he is and some say he is not-this I should like to know, taught by thee.” Yama replied that even the Gods of olden times have doubted, verily it is not easy to understand it, and asked the boy to choose another boon, including  sons and grand sons, gold and horses including the wide abode of earth, wealth and longevity. When Nachiketha refused all that was offered and insisted on the knowledge of ultimate Truth about Self, Yama started giving reply thus:

“Sreyas ca preyas ca manusyam etah-Stau samparitaya vivinakthi dhirah;Sreyo hi dhiro (abhi )preyaso vrnite   Preyo mando yoga kshemad vrnite.”                                                      (Sloka 2 of section II)

*4“Good and the pleasant approach the mortal; the intelligent man examines and distinguishes them; for the intelligent man prefers the good to the pleasant, the ignorant man chooses the pleasant for the sake of his body.”

The wise and discriminating man at each moment intelligently judges the various phases of the challenge he is in, and solidly determines ever to stick to the path of Good. The ignorant one lives like a mule following the herd and leads the path of least resistance motivated mainly by the animal urges of his body- consciousness.

Students of modern education may feel that the entire theme is un-natural as they can not grasp as to how a mortal can approach ‘Yama’ Lord of death. In our childhood days we must have heard a number of tales where in, a particular subject is tried to be explained as a story bringing in animated discussions. Thus when they say “The Lion spoke” it does not literally mean that the Lion spoke. Only for the easy comprehension of the student, master takes the help of animals and other fictitious characters. Here the ancient Rishi, in order to experience the ultimate reality, goes into deep meditation and penance, and obtains the knowledge of the Self through intuition. The knowledge they gained is explained as a revelation to them by some super- human divine being appearing in the skies above. To quote Einstein, the greatest scientist of our millennium “Pure intuition can grasp the reality as the ancients dreamt of” (Oxford lectures.) For physicists especially working at quantum mechanical level, intuition is a must and a kind of higher imagination is a must and that will help us to go deeper into this almost abstract area of quantum mechanics.”

Now Yama answers the question: “What becomes of a man when the body dies?” “This Wise one never dies and is never born. It arises from nothing, and nothing arises from It. Unborn, Eternal, Everlasting, this Ancient One can never be destroyed with the destruction of the body. If the slayer thinks that he can slay, or if the slain thinks that he is slain, they both do not know the truth, for the Self neither slays nor is slain.”

This ancient one; ‘Purusam mahantam’ by knowing whom you can go beyond death (Swetavatara Up. III.8), (that is to say that you have no fear of death,) is the same He or It, or wise one, unborn, everlasting and Eternal. It is the Atman, the divine spark of life in men and animals; in the saint and the sinner, in the happy and the miserable, in the beautiful and ugly, it is the same throughout. “Sa Atma! Sa vijnyeya.” (Mandukya Upanishad. Seventh mantra.)

*4 “This Atman, has neither form nor shape, and that which has neither form nor shape must be omnipresent. Time begins with mind; space also is in the mind. Causation can not stand without time. Without the idea of succession there can not be any idea of causation. Time, space and causation, therefore are in the mind, and as this Atman is beyond the mind and formless, it must be beyond time, beyond space, and beyond causation. Now, if it is beyond time, space and causation, it must be infinite. The infinite can not be two. The Real Man, therefore, is one and infinite, the omnipresent Spirit. And the apparent man is only a limitation of that Real man. In that sense the mythologies are true that the apparent man, however great he may be, is only a dim reflection of the Real Man who is beyond. Every soul is Infinite; therefore there is no question of birth and death.”

Continuing   his speech at the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in the year 1893, Swami Vivekananda said “My brethren, we can no more think about any thing without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By the law of association, the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa. This is why the Hindu uses an external symbol when he worships. Further he adds “External worship, material worship, say the scriptures, is the lowest stage, struggling to raise high, mental prayer is the next stage, but the highest stage is when the Lord has been realized. The earnest man kneeling before the idol tells you, ‘Him the sun cannot express, nor the moon, nor the stars, the lightning can not express Him, nor what we speak of fire; through Him they shine’”

If there is any single greatest and most common trait of human beings that distinguishes them from lower evolved animals and plants, it is ‘Imagination’, the image making capacity. It is this capacity, or trait that made man control the nature to some extent and control the lower evolved species to a maximum extent. Swami Ranganadhananda of Ramakrishna Math has asked as to what would have happened if Tiger or Lion had the capacity of imagination and he replied that the entire humanity would have been wiped off. Just imagine. A child of six months develops imagination and when he/she sees her mother giving her milk and the satisfaction he derives thereby, he develops a mental picture of his mother, which gets imprinted on his mental diaphragm, called Chitta, in Sanskrit literature. Whenever his mother approaches him, he recollects his experience of getting satisfaction after his mother feeds him and automatically smiles or cries in recognition of his mother. This would not have happened, had he not got the capacity of making an image of his mother. Every experience of human beings gets imprinted in the mental lake of the individual as an image. You must have seen M.F. Hussein drawing a few lines on the canvas and explaining the theme which he has imagined. Every artist, musician, or writer, first makes a mental imagination of what they wanted to convey. Now I think you can understand clearly why a Hindu worships an idol. Idol represents the ideal.

Swami Vivekananda explained the entire gamut of vedanthic philosophy in the most rational and scientific manner, so that a little sincere attention to his teaching in Jnana Yoga, can make a man perfect and live happily forever. The following verses are from“Jnana yoga” by Swami Vivekananda. Those who are desirous of further knowledge and understanding, May kindly refer ‘Jnana Yoga by Swami Vivekananda published by Advaita Ashrama.

“The theory of the all pervading life principle, (the Atman, the divine spark), of which all life in this universe is but a differing manifestation, was understood in Vedic times. ……. As we increase our power to be happy, we also increase our power to suffer. We who are progressing know that the more we progress, the more avenues are opened to pain as well as pleasure. And this is Maya. Maya is not a theory for the explanation of the world: it is simply a statement of facts as they exist, that the very basis of our being contradiction. Everywhere we have to move through this tremendous contradiction, that wherever there is good, there must also be evil, and wherever there is evil, there must be some good. Wherever there is life, death must follow as its shadow, and every one who smiles will have to weep, and vice versa. This Maya is every where. It is terrible. Yet we have to work through it.”

“The senses drag the human soul out. Man is seeking for pleasure and happiness where it can never be found. For countless ages we are all taught that this is futile and vain, there is no happiness here. But we do not learn. … In our desire to solve the mysteries of the universe, we can not stop our questioning, a few steps and there arises the wall of beginning less and endless time which we can not surmount. A few steps, and there appears a wall of boundless space which can not be surmounted, and the whole is irrevocably bound in by the walls of cause and effect. We can not go beyond them, yet we struggle and this is Maya. With every breath, with every pulsation of heart, with every one of our movements, we think we are free, and the very same moment we are shown that we are bound slaves, nature’s bonded labor, in body, in all our thoughts, in all our feelings. And this is Maya.”

Here Vedanta begins. Vedanta philosophy says that there is a ‘Being’ beyond all these manifestations of Maya, who is superior to and independent of Maya, and who is attracting us towards Himself, and that we are all going towards Him. Behind everything, as the substance of everything, He is standing, and He is the one real Self.

According to Advaita Vedanta, propagated by great seers like, Gaudapada, Yajnyavalkya,  Shankara Bhagavadpada and all Upanishads, and  preached by Sri Krishna Paramatma in Bhagavad-Gita, the Self, the Atman, in you, in me, in every one, is omnipresent. There is only one thing Real, in the Universe, which is called as Brahman, everything else is unreal manifested and manufactured out of Brahman by the power of Maya. How has the Infinite, the Absolute, Brahman become the finite, mortal? Swami Vivekananda explains this in simple language, while delivering a lecture in London in 1896. “Here is the Absolute, and the Universe. This Absolute has become the Universe by coming through the prism of, time, space and causation, is the central idea of Advaita. He, (the God,) is the essence of our souls; we can not project Him outside ourselves. Here is one of the profoundest passages in Vedanta: “He that is the essence of your soul, He is the Truth, He is the Self, and thou art That, O Shvetaketu.” (Chandogya Upanishad.). This is what is meant by “Thou art God”. You can not describe Him by any other language, calling Him father, or brother, or our dearest friend, is an attempt to objectify God, which can not be done. He is the Eternal Subject of everything. Knowledge is objectification. God is neither knowable, nor unknowable, but something infinitely higher than either. He is one with us; and that which is one with us is neither knowable nor unknowable as our own Self. You can not know your own self; you can not move it out and make it an object to look at, because you are that and can not separate yourself from it. Neither it is unknowable, for what is better known than you? It is the centre of our knowledge. In exactly the same sense, God is neither unknowable nor known, but infinitely higher than both; for He is our real Self. Absolute is that ocean, while you and I, and suns and stars, and everything else are various waves of that ocean. Only the form makes the waves different. That form is time, space and causation, all entirely dependent on waves. As soon as the wave goes, they vanish. As soon as the individual gives up this Maya, it vanishes for him and he becomes free.  Science today is telling us that all things are but the manifestation of one Energy which is the sum total of everything which exists, and the trend of humanity is towards freedom, and not towards bondage.”

Swami Vivekananda   treading in the footsteps of his master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa extols every human being to see God in children. “So, in everything. In life, and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present. The whole world is full of God. Open your eyes and see him, this is what Vedanta teaches.Give up the world you have conjured, because your conjecture was based upon a very partial experience, upon very poor reasoning, and upon your own weakness. The world we have been thinking of so long, the world to which we have been clinging so long, is a false world of our own creation. What existed was the Lord himself. It is He who is in the child, in the wife, and in the husband; it is He who is in the good and in the bad. He is in the sin and in the sinner. He is in life and in death.”

“The kingdom of heaven is within you” says Jesus: So says Vedanta, and every great teacher. See God in everything and everywhere. “Swaprakasha Sarva Sampoornam Bhavathi” that is what Sri Kamili baba preached the entire humanity. The self is first to be heard, then to be thought upon, and then meditated upon. “That which shines in thee; the Truth in thee I see and That which is within thee is within me, and I am That“  Aham Brahma asmi!”

“Infinitely smaller than the smallest, infinitely larger than the largest, this lord of all is present in the depths of every human heart. Infinite, Omnipresent: knowing such to be soul, the sages never are miserable.” (Kathopanishad 2-20) This Atman is not to be realized by the power of speech, nor by the vast intellect, or, by the study of Vedas. In Kathopanishad, the body is pictured as chariot, the intellect to be the charioteer, mind the reins, and the senses the horses, and the Self to be the rider. He whose horses are well broken, and whose reins are strong and kept well in the hands of charioteer, reaches the goal which is the state of Him, the Omnipresent.

“The self –existent One projected the senses outwards and, therefore, a man looks outward, not within himself. A certain wise one, desiring immortality, with inverted senses, perceived the Self within” (Kathopanishad Ch.II.section IV-1) No religion in the world is without the conception of an all powerful controller and Director in all forms of life, who is himself the Creator, Brahman in Hinduism, Jehovah or Jesus in Christianity, Allah of Muslim Religion, and other different names in all religions of the world. In the first sloka, (verse) of Ch.II, section IV of Kathopanishad, Katha Rishi, gives a beautiful explanation for the sorrows and limitations of the world, which every human being, nay, even the plants and animals to speak in a broader sense, experience. Shankara in ‘Bhajagovindam’ says “Lokam shokahatam cha samastham” The entire world is blessed with sorrow. God, the Creator, has created the sense organs with a powerful tendency to go outward into the lustful fields of their own individual sense objects. Our ears can hear whispering songs of some distant bird, but never they can be turned inward to listen, see, smell, taste or touch what is happening within the body! Yet there are a rare few, who control their sense organs, (By means of Yoga, or devotion or through achieving the ultimate knowledge ‘Jnana’) and thus turn their complete attention into their own within, to discover the source- of-all-life, the Self. Ramana Maharshi advises that our attention should be turned to find out the source from where the idea of   Self, ‘Aham’ has come.

The whole mass of existence which we call Nature, has been acting on the human mind since time immemorial. Where from it has come? Some say this world did not exist. “Our mother earth with the seas and oceans, the rivers and mountains, cities and villages, human races, animals, plants, birds and planets and luminaries, all this infinite variety of creation, had no existence!” Swami Vivekananda explains this phenomenon of creation in simple and scientific manner. “Take a little plant. It comes out of the seed, becomes the tree, and ends in the seed again. Everything in Nature begins, as it were, from certain seeds, certain rudiments, certain fine forms, and becomes grosser and grosser, and develops going on that way for certain time, and then again goes back to that fine form, and subsides. The rain drop was drawn in the form of   vapour from the ocean, went far away into the air, (as clouds), and reached a region where it changed into water, and dropped down as rain, or snow. From sand rise the mountains and unto sand they go. If it would be true that nature is uniform throughout, if it would be true, and so far no human experience has contradicted it, that the same method under which a small grain of sand is created, works in creating the gigantic suns and stars and all this universe, if it would be true that the whole of this universe is built on exactly the same plan as the atom, the same law prevails throughout the universe, and by studying life of little plant, we understand the secret of  the whole universe. Everything is almost similar at the beginning and at the end. The mountain comes from the sand and goes back to sand, the river comes out of vapour, and goes back to vapour; plant life comes from the seed and goes back to the seed; human life comes out of human germs, and goes back to human germs. The universe with its stars and planets has come out of a nebulous state and must go back to it. Thousands of years ago, (Even before Plato), our great Rishi Kapila, demonstrated that destruction means going back to the cause. Therefore we learn that effect is the same as the cause. All forms like plants, animals, or men are being repeated ad infinitum, rising and falling.”

This process of fine becoming gross by changing simply the arrangements of its parts is called evolution. Every evolution is preceded by an involution. The seed is the father of the tree, but another tree itself was the father of the seed. Everything exists through eternity, and will exist through eternity. The whole evolutionary series, from the protoplasm at one end to the perfect man at the other end is one life. “The perfect man, the free man, the God- man, who has gone beyond the laws of nature, and transcended everything, who has no more to go through the process of evolution, through birth and death, that man called the ‘Christ-man’ by the Christians, the ‘Buddha-man’ by the Buddhists, and the ‘Free’ by the yogis- that perfect man who is at one end of the chain of evolution was involved in the cell of the protoplasm, which is at the other end of the same chain.”  Swami Vivekananda calls the Lord of creation, the cause, as intelligence. This universal intelligence is what we call God as per Swami Vivekananda.“Call it by any other name, it is absolutely certain that in the beginning there is that Infinite cosmic intelligence.” Cosmic intelligence is what the theologians call God, because it is the best word for our purpose, since the word God has been used from time immemorial. Everything that you see, feel, or hear, the whole universe, is His creation, His projection and He is the Lord Himself. “Thou art the man, Thou art the woman, Thou art the strong man walking in the pride of youth, Thou art the old man tottering on the crutches, and Thou art in everything, O Lord.” In one word, we are born of Him, we live in Him, and unto Him we return.

When you want to see something, you need eyes, the instrument of vision. Ear is the instrument for carrying vibrations of sound inward to the centre. The third thing necessary is mind. First the external instruments, then the organ to which the external instrument will carry the sensation, and lastly the organ itself must be joined to the mind. The mind too is only the carrier. It has to carry the sensation still forward, and present it to the intellect. The intellect in turn presents the whole thing before human soul, the ruler of the body. From him comes the order, what to do or what not to do. It is the intelligence that illumines all matter. It is self-luminous, it is luminosity itself. “Swaprakasa” verily means self-luminous.

Through our everyday experience we know that birth, growth, development, and decay following each other with mathematical precision. Inside of this vast mass of life, from the lowest atom to the highest spiritualized man, we find a certain unity existing. Modern science has recognized the fact that one substance manifests in different ways and in various forms. All the possibilities of future tree are in the seed; all the possibilities of future man are in the little baby; all the possibilities of future life are in the germ. Ancient philosophers of India called it involution. Every evolution presupposes involution. According to the law of Conservation of energy, the sum total of energy is the same throughout. From the lowest protoplasm to the most perfect human being there is but really one life, the protoplasm developing into baby, the child, the young man, the old man, one continuous life. “You and I must be part of the cosmic consciousness, cosmic life, cosmic mind, which got involved and we must complete the circle and go back to this cosmic intelligence which is God. This cosmic intelligence is what people call Lord, or God, or Christ, or Buddha, or Brahman, what the materialists perceive as Force, and the agnostics as that infinite, inexpressible beyond; and we are all part of that.”

First is the body, second is the mind; or the instrument of thought, and third behind this mind is the self of man. The Sanskrit word is Atman, the divine spark within. The self is the illuminator, and the mind is the instrument under its control and through that instrument, it gets hold of instruments, of perception. Now we know that the Self of man is not the body, nor it is thought. That which we can not imagine or perceive which we can not bind together is not force or matter, cause or effect, and can not be a compound. (These are the arguments which Sri Kamilibabaji has put forward while defining self and we discussed about the same in our very first chapter.)  The self of man, being beyond the law of causation, is not a compound. It is ever free and is the ruler of everything; that is within Law. It will never die, because death means going back to the component parts. You are never born, and you will never die. Birth and death belongs to the body only and you are not the body and the soul is omnipresent. You are everywhere in the universe. Talk of birth and death is due to ignorance, hallucination of the brain.  You are neither born, nor will you die.

“Na nirodho na cha utpatti.” (Mandukya Upanishad II.32)

Where human thought attains its highest expression and even goes beyond the mystery which seems to be impenetrable, non-dualistic Vedanta, popularly known as Advaitism flourishes, although it is too abstruse, and too elevated to be the religion of masses.  It is most difficult for even the most thoughtful man and woman in any country to understand Advaitism. We have made ourselves so weak and low, we are like little weak plants, always wanting a support. Any new thought, especially of a high kind, creates a disturbance in the brain matter and that unhinges the system, throws men off their balance. Yet there are a few brave souls in the world, who dares to conceive the truth, and who dares to follow it to the end. Advaitism accepts God, but that God must be both material and efficient cause of the universe. Not only is He the creator, but He is also the created. He himself is this universe. There is but one existence, the infinite, the Ever blessed One, Sat-Chit-Ananda. It is Atman, beyond all, the infinite, beyond the known, beyond the knowable; in and through ‘that’ we see the universe. Every one and everything is the Atman- the Self. It is the name, the form, the body which is material, and they make all these differences. If you take away name, and form, the whole universe is one; there are no two, but one everywhere. Out of one Infinite Existence, through name and form, all these that constitute the whole universe are manufactured. The whole of this universe is one Unity, one Existence, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. What a grand concept!  Even if we can technically comprehend this, the entire universe will be more peaceful and joyous. Just think of various struggles and terrorism that is brewing the entire universe with cancerous separatism. The entire humanity is divided into various groups, east and west; north and south; blacks and whites; Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and various other religious groups. Again each and every religion is sub divided into various sub-sects, casts, rich and poor. Where is the end for division? If you remove the name, form, space and time, the entire humanity nay! The entire Universe comprise of  the same particles, electrons, neutrons protons and numerous other particles which have the same origin before Big Bang, the primordial soup consisting of undivided, un manifested  mass of energy. Even after dissolution it goes into a mass of energy. Even in the present it is only a uniform field of Energy, as per the Grand Unified field theory of Einstein.

Sri Shankara describes the same in Vivekachoodamani in a beautiful and emphatic language. (sl:255)

“Jathi neethi Kula gothra duragam   Nama roopa,Guna dosha varjitham

Desa kala vishayathi varthiyath Brahma thathvamasi Bhavayatmani.”

That which has no caste, creed, family or lineage, which is without name and form, merit and demerit,which is beyond space, time&  sense objects- “That Brahman Thou Art”.meditate on this in your mind.

*3 The Truth which is beyond caste, creed, family and

Lineage is Brahman. Whether an Indian or a foreigner, a Christian or a Muslim, a man or a woman, whether Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya or Sudra, the Self is beyond all such distinctions. Brahman is beyond all names and forms, merits and demerits, and is not a substance. Brahman is that which is not conditioned by time, space or objects.

Swami Chinmayananda advises the readers thus:

“The above verse (together with other ten verses given in Vivekachoodamani) is an inspiring guide for meditation; do not think that you are telling them to somebody. Your higher intellect is advising your lower intellect. Keep this bhavana always as a holy and divine attitude in your self.”

The Indian religious thought has began with the personal, extra cosmic God. It went from the external to the internal cosmic body, God immanent in the universe, and ended in identifying the soul itself with that God. It begins with dualism, goes through a qualified monism and ends in perfect non-dualism,(Advaita) and then the very man will becomeGod.

It may not be out of place to quote Charles Darwin, one of the greatest scientists, an inquisitor of rare quality who wrought a revolution in human thought, here. Darwin put together the evidence in favor of one species changing gradually into another. A process of natural selection, Darwin argued, worked on variations in characteristics displayed by progeny in every generation. In the struggle to survive and reproduce, the fittest were favored and succeeded in producing many more progeny, thereby spreading the characteristics that benefited them. Darwin explained all this in elegant, flowing prose, in the book, ‘On the origin of Species by means of Natural Selection’ published about 150 years ago. The book ends as “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into One; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”

Noble Laureate James Watson, co discoverer of the structure of DNA writes “The clearest evidence for the common ancestry of all living organisms comes from the universality of the genetic code” From One many came (Courtesy Hindu.February 2009)

Notes:

*1 Complete works of Swami Vivekananda.( Advaita Ashrama. Calcutta. 700 014.)

*2From Svetasvatara Upanisad translated by Swami Lokeswarananda.

The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. Gol park, Calcutta 700029.

*3 From Vivekachoodamani translated by Swami Chinmayananda

*4 From Jnana yoga by Swami Vivekananda.(Advaita Ashrama.)    .