Part 23 (1/2)

Philosophy in India is, what it ought to be, not the denial, but the fulfilment of religion; it is the highest religion, and the oldest name of the oldest system of philosophy in India is V e d a n t a, that is, the end, the goal, the highest object of the Veda.

Let us return once more to that ancient theologian who lived in the fifth century B.C., and who told us that, even before his time, all the G.o.ds had been discovered to be but three G.o.ds, the G.o.ds of the _Earth_, the G.o.ds of the _Air_, and the G.o.ds of the _Sky_, invoked under various names. The same writer tells us that in reality there is but _one_ G.o.d, but he does not call him the Lord, or the Highest G.o.d, the Creator, Ruler, and Preserver of all things, but he calls him a t m a n, THE SELF. The one atman or Self, he says, is praised in many ways owing to the greatness of the G.o.dhead. And then he goes on to say: ”The other G.o.ds are but so many members of the one atman, Self, and thus it has been said that the poets compose their praises according to the multiplicity of the natures of the beings whom they praise.”

It is true, no doubt, that this is the language of a philosophical theologian, not of an ancient poet. Yet these philosophical reflections belong to the fifth century before our era, if not to an earlier date; and the first germs of such thoughts may be discovered in some of the Vedic hymns also. I have quoted already from the hymns such pa.s.sages as[338]--”They speak of Mitra, Varu_n_a, Agni; then he is the heavenly bird Garutmat; _that which is and is one_ the poets call in various ways; they speak of Yama, Agni, Matari_s_van.”

In another hymn, in which the sun is likened to a bird, we read: ”Wise poets represent by their words the bird who is one, in many ways.”[339]

All this is still tinged with mythology; but there are other pa.s.sages from which a purer light beams upon us, as when one poet asks:[340]

”Who saw him when he was first born, when he who has no bones bore him who has bones? Where was the breath, the blood, the Self of the world? Who went to ask this from any that knew it?”

Here, too, the expression is still helpless, but though the flesh is weak, the spirit is very willing. The expression, ”He who has bones”

is meant for that which has a.s.sumed consistency and form, the Visible, as opposed to that which has no bones, no body, no form, the Invisible, while ”breath, blood, and self of the world” are but so many attempts at finding names and concepts for what is by necessity inconceivable, and therefore unnamable.

In the second period of Vedic literature, in the so-called Brahma_n_as, and more particularly in what is called the Upanishads, or the Vedanta portion, these thoughts advance to perfect clearness and definiteness. Here the development of religious thought, which took its beginning in the hymns, attains to its fulfilment. The circle becomes complete. Instead of comprehending the One by many names, the many names are now comprehended to be the One. The old names are openly discarded; even such t.i.tles as Pra_g_apati, lord of creatures, Vi_s_vakarman, maker of all things, Dhat_ri_, creator, are put aside as inadequate. The name now used is an expression of nothing but the purest and highest subjectiveness--it is a t m a n, the Self, far more abstract than our E g o--the Self of all things, the Self of all the old mythological G.o.ds--for they were not _mere_ names, but names intended for something--lastly, the Self in which each individual self must find rest, must come to himself, must find his own true Self.

You may remember that I spoke to you in my first lecture of a boy who insisted on being sacrificed by his father, and who, when he came to Yama, the ruler of the departed, was granted three boons, and who then requested, as his third boon, that Yama should tell him what became of man after death. That dialogue forms part of one of the Upanishads, it belongs to the Vedanta, the end of the Veda, the highest aim of the Veda. I shall read you a few extracts from it.

Yama, the King of the Departed, says:

”Men who are fools, dwelling in ignorance, though wise in their own sight, and puffed up with vain knowledge, go round and round, staggering to and fro, like blind led by the blind.

”The future never rises before the eyes of the careless child, deluded by the delusions of wealth. _This_ is the world, he thinks; there is no other; thus he falls again and again under my sway (the sway of death).

”The wise, who by means of meditating on his _Self_, recognizes the Old (the old man within) who is difficult to see, who has entered into darkness, who is hidden in the cave, who dwells in the abyss, as G.o.d, he indeed leaves joy and sorrow far behind.

”That Self, the Knower, is not born, it dies not; it came from nothing, it never became anything. The Old man is unborn, from everlasting to everlasting; he is not killed, though the body be killed.

”That Self is smaller than small, greater than great; hidden in the heart of the creature. A man who has no more desires and no more griefs, sees the majesty of the Self by the grace of the creator.

”Though sitting still, he walks far; though lying down, he goes everywhere. Who save myself is able to know that G.o.d, who rejoices, and rejoices not?

”That Self cannot be gained by the Veda; nor by the understanding, nor by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him alone the Self can be gained.

”The Self chooses him as his own. But he who has not first turned away from his wickedness, who is not calm and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest, he can never obtain the Self, even by knowledge.

”No mortal lives by the breath that goes up and by the breath that goes down. We live by another, in whom both repose.

”Well then, I shall tell thee this mystery, the eternal word (Brahman), and what happens to the _Self_, after reaching death.

”Some are born again, as living beings, others enter into stocks and stones, according to their work, and according to their knowledge.

”But he, the Highest Person, who wakes in us while we are asleep, shaping one lovely sight after another, he indeed is called the Light, he is called Brahman, he alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are founded on it, and no one goes beyond. _This is that._

”As the one fire, after it has entered the world, though one, becomes different according to what it burns, thus the One Self within all things, becomes different, according to whatever it enters, but it exists also apart.

”As the sun, the eye of the world, is not contaminated by the external impurities seen by the eye, thus the One Self within all things is never contaminated by the sufferings of the world, being himself apart.

”There is one eternal thinker, thinking non-eternal thoughts; he, though one, fulfils the desires of many. The wise who perceive Him within their Self, to them belongs eternal life, eternal peace.[341]