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Cornell University Library 
 B 133.A62B8 
 
 Brahmadarsanam or, Intuition of the abs 
 
 3 1924 022 908 606 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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BR AH M AD ARSANAM 
 
•The?)<^o 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
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 KBLBOUSNB 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
SRI ANANDA ACHARYA 
 
BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 OR 
 
 INTUITION OF THE ABSOLUTE 
 
 BEING AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 STUDY OF HINDU PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 f A — , 
 
 SRI ANANDA^HARYA 
 
 Wein gotfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 
 All ri^tt rturmi 
 
COPVSIGHT, 19x7, 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 Set up and dectiotyped. Published September, 1917. 
 
 Noibjooti ]|teee 
 
 J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick ifc Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, MsBB., 0.S.A. 
 
Dedicated 
 
 to mt pbiends and pupiiib 
 in norway. 
 
 Ananda. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 These lectures were delivered in Christiania 
 during the early spring of 1915. My aim was 
 to present Hindu ways of looking at the eternal 
 verities of life in simple language before the 
 mind of the Norwegian public, with whose 
 points of view, however, I was as utterly un- 
 familiar as they were with mine. In this rather 
 venturesome undertaking, I was encouraged to 
 persevere through an inner conviction of the 
 uniformity, amidst a diversity of forms, of the 
 philosophical experiences of humanity all the 
 world over. At the same time I am persuaded, 
 through a constant watching of the growth of 
 the deeper life of students of many nationalities, 
 both in the East and in the West, that the 
 most efficient way of helping the student of 
 soul-philosophy is not to give him any so-called 
 academic philosophy at all, but to confer upon 
 him the privilege of a free hand, and allow him, 
 as it were in his own right, to bring out to his 
 own introspection, and shape and mould, all 
 the hidden forces of logic and light that lie 
 dormant in his own higher nature, needing no 
 
viii BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 interference or compulsion from without, but 
 only a favourable spiritual and ethical stimulus, 
 in the shape of affinity or real friendship with 
 the impersonal individuahty of a living, histori- 
 cal, and rational cultmre. 
 
 To require of the student that he should 
 swallow the pills of metaphysical theory and 
 theological dogma, without protest, werg no 
 better than to pour concentrated carbolic or 
 sulphuric acid on the skin and then to expect 
 the unfortunate victim to keep quiet ! 
 
 These lectures were given under the inspira- 
 tion of such beliefs, formed partly from personal 
 experience in teaching, and partly derived from 
 the wisdom of om- Hindu Rishis and Gurus. 
 Intended especially for beginners, and delivered 
 ex tempore, they do not claim to be a systematic 
 treatise; they will serve their purpose if they 
 succeed in persuading the reader that he and I 
 are of one blood and one life. 
 
 Let me add that my sincere thanks are due 
 to Miss Hermione Ramsden, without whose 
 whole-hearted assistance these lectures would 
 never have been written down. 
 
 ANANDA. 
 
 Norway, Jvly 9, 1916. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FIRST LECTURE 
 
 rAoa 
 GisoaiAL View-Points of Ancient Indian Fhilosofhers 1 
 
 The meaning of the word Darsana — The six systems 
 of Indian philosophy — The Buddha's teaching re- 
 garding Nirvana — European chronology — Contrast 
 between Indian and European philosophers. 
 
 SECOND LECTURE 
 
 Duausm: Matteb and Spirii 21 
 
 Kapila's early training — His philosophy and ethics — 
 Three sources of knowledge — Evolution of the 
 universe — Nature of the soul : its bondage and sal- 
 vation. 
 
 THIRD LECTURE 
 
 Theism: God and Man 40 
 
 Controversy between science and religion — Truth is 
 one — Arguments in favour of theism by Gotama, 
 Patanjali, Narada and Sankara — The trend of 
 science towards monism — Hymn from the Rig Veda 
 — Agreement between modem science and the 
 Vedas. 
 
X BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 FOURTH LECTURE 
 
 PAG> 
 
 Monism: Man as Aspect of the Divine ... 70 
 
 Aspects of consdousness — Religious systems without 
 a God — Philosophy of relation — Ramanuja's qualified 
 momsm. 
 
 FIFTH LECTURE 
 
 Monism: The Absolute and the Cosmos . . . 104 
 
 Fsyeholo^cal foundation of Advaita philosophy of 
 Sankara — State of subconsciousness — Progressive 
 Yoga life — Turiya and Samvit — AvidyS, the doc- 
 trine of error — Discipleship. 
 
 SIXTH LECTURE 
 
 Monism : Reausation of the Absolute Tbuth of Life 1S9 
 
 The constituents of the universe — Composition of 
 the spirit, the soul, and the body — The six circles — 
 The meaning of Mayfi — Man's freedom — Samkhya 
 tersvs VedSnta — Consciousness identical with reality. 
 
 Appendix 173 
 
 General Biblioobapht 193 
 
 Index of Sanbcbit Tebmb 197 
 
 FRONTISPIECE 
 
 Pobtbait of Sbi Ananda Achabta 
 
 From an oil painting by Miss Adele Fairholme 
 
KAPILA'S THEORY OF THE COSMIC 
 EVOLUTION 
 
 Ptee Soul*. (PorushMK 
 
 
 
 The Unmaiiifested (ftvyakta) 
 
 The Mind and Bod; of all 
 Living Cceaturei> 
 
KAPILA'S THEORY OF THE COSMIC EVOLU- 
 TION ACCORDING TO VYASA'S COM- 
 MENTARY 
 
 The Unknowable. 
 
 Cosmic substance. 
 
 I 
 
 Subject series. 
 
 Mind, brain, peiceptive and 
 active functional centres. 
 
 Object series. 
 
 a, ele 
 
 Atoms, electrons, 
 molecules. 
 
 Individual substances subject to the law of evolution. 
 
 Inorganic and organic substances : 
 Vegetable and animal organisms. 
 
 The Twenty-Five Peinciples of Samkhta. 
 
 FuTUshas 2. Frakriti (the unmanifested). 
 
 (souls). 3. Mahat (the great reason). 
 
 4. Ahamkar (the ego). 
 5-9. The Tanm^tras (tiie subtile elements). 
 10-14. The Buddhindriyas (the faculties of know- 
 ledge). 
 15-19. The Karmendriyas (the faculties of action). 
 
 20. Mind. 
 21-25. The Maha-Bhutas (the gross elements) . 
 
 Tanuatbab. 
 
 1. Sound medium 
 
 2. Touch 
 
 3. Colour „ 
 
 4. Savour „ 
 
 5. Odotur „ 
 
 BT7DDHINDBITA8. 
 
 Hearing (in the ear) 
 
 Touching (in the skin) 
 Seeing (in the eye) 
 Tasting (in tongue) 
 Smelling (in the nose) 
 
 Maha-Bhutas. 
 
 Ether. 
 Gas (air). 
 Heat — light. 
 Liquid (water). 
 Solid (earth). 
 
 Kabmendbitab. 
 
 Speaking (in the 
 
 tongue). 
 Grasping (in hands). 
 Moving (in feet). 
 Secretion. 
 Greneration. 
 
GENERAL VIEW-POINTS OF ANCIENT 
 INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 
 
 The meaning of the word Darsana — The six systems of Indian 
 philosophy — The Buddha's teaching regarding Nirvana — 
 European chronology — Contrast between Indian and 
 European philosophers. 
 
 India has been justly regarded as the home 
 of philosophy and religion. From the earliest 
 times Indian thinkers have felt the necessity 
 of basing religion upon philosophy, and of 
 building society upon religion. In order to 
 illustrate the fact that philosophy has been the 
 dominant factor in the history of India, I will 
 begin by telling you a little fairy tale. 
 
 There was once an Indian prince who was 
 wandering among the mountains when he met 
 a great sage, who told him that he would have 
 to pass through many misfortunes and would 
 sufiFer much trouble in the future. The prince 
 asked the sage if he could not help him so that 
 he might be spared these terrible misfortunes, 
 whereupon the sage gave him three things: a 
 milk-white leaf, a silver-white bee, and a bee 
 
2 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 of golden hue, and told him that as long as he 
 kept these three together in a safe place, he 
 would be preserved from all danger. The prince 
 took the three gifts to his mother and explained 
 to her their magic properties, whereupon she 
 caused a room to be built of stone under a lake, 
 and there in a steel box she placed the three 
 treasures. 
 
 In the course of time the sage's words were 
 fulfilled, and although the prince passed through 
 many dangers, his life was preserved. 
 
 It is in the same way that the life of the 
 Hindus is preserved through the possession of 
 three things : philosophy, morality, and religion. 
 The milk-white leaf represents morality, the 
 silver-white bee stands for religion, and the 
 bee of golden hue symbolises philosophy. All 
 through the history of India we find that these 
 three have beten regarded as sacred and treas- 
 ured as the precious talisman that was to pre- 
 serve the nation through all the vicissitudes of 
 its history. 
 
 As you all know, India has passed through 
 many changes during the last few centuries, 
 but there are probably no people in the world 
 who had been subjected to so much pressure 
 from outside, and have yet managed to escape 
 from the degenerate influence which is usually 
 the result of contact with less civilised races.^ 
 Thus we see that the ideals of a holy life have 
 been preserved in spite of the absence of a 
 
 '■ See Appendix. 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 3 
 
 national government to safeguard the essentials 
 of Hindu life and religion. 
 
 Far away from the sun-baked plains, the 
 busy towns, and quiet villages, there lived a 
 brotherhood of teachers who matiu-ed their 
 philosophy in the solitude of the mountains and 
 in the depths of the forests for the purpose of 
 guiding humanity. These teachers, who were 
 known by the name of Sannyasins, were, and 
 still are, the real legislators, governors, and 
 guides of the Indian people. These Sannyasins, 
 trained in the science of self-knowledge and self- 
 control, and renouncing the ordinary pursuits 
 of life, wander all over the country, live among 
 the people, and teach them to live the life of 
 righteousness. 
 
 It would take too long to give an exhaustive 
 account of the influence exerted by Indian 
 philosophy on Indian life ; I will only touch on 
 a few points. To begin with, it is extremely 
 important that I should explain the meaning 
 of some technical terms of philosophy for which 
 there are no English words which exactly corre- 
 spond. 
 
 The word "Darsana" is generally used as 
 synonymous with "philosophy," and is derived 
 from the Sanscrit root dris which means "to 
 see." If we trace the origin of the word, we 
 find that the first and most ancient meaning is 
 "seeing with the eyes." The second meaning 
 is "perceiving with the different senses," per- 
 ceiving, that is, with the sense of seeing, sense 
 
4 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 of hearing, sense of smelling, sense of feeling, 
 and sense of tasting. Darsana, therefore, in- 
 cludes all that we feel and all that we perceive 
 with the external senses through our minds. The 
 third development of the word is "seeing with 
 the Divine eye," that is, the eye which is opened 
 through meditation and purity of life, by which 
 means the soul is brought into touch with the 
 Highest. Thus the three meanings of the word 
 Darsana are : seeing with the senses, seeing 
 with the mind, and seeing with the Divine eye, 
 which last you may call intuition. 
 
 The third meaning is the most important one 
 to be remembered, as it marks ofif Indian philos- 
 ophy from the philosophies of the rest of the 
 world by presupposing that the soul is the 
 ultimate Reality, and that its substance as well 
 as its form is to be described by the word intui- 
 tion (Sakshi Svarupa). Some philosophers 
 appear to think that consciousness is an attri- 
 bute or faculty of the soul which is independent 
 of the senses ; others again think that conscious- 
 ness is independent of the senses as well as of 
 the reasoning powers, and is the intermediate 
 link between soul and thought activity; but 
 the Vedanta teaches that soul is pure intuition. 
 
 There are at least sixteen different schools of 
 philosophy in India,^ but of these only the six 
 principal systems are generally recognised. The 
 first and oldest of them is the Samkhya, the 
 founder of which was Kapila. Kapila is regarded 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 5 
 
 as the father of Indian philosophy because, 
 although philosophy in the sense of Darsana 
 was known to the Rishis even before his time, 
 he was the first to place it on a rational basis. 
 
 Now let us turn to the meaniag of the word 
 Samkhya. Samkhya means that which can be 
 numbered, classified, grouped. Kapila called 
 his system the numbering system, but of course 
 it had nothing to do with arithmetic. It was 
 so called because he classified material phenom- 
 ena under twenty-four heads, or principles. 
 The other meaning of the word Samkhya is 
 Atmanatmaviveka, which means the discrimina- 
 tion of soul from nature, spirit from matter. 
 The reason for separating or differentiating the 
 soul from matter is that we are conscious within 
 ourselves of a principle, i.e. self-consciousness, 
 which is quite different from the rest of the 
 universe. You are aware within yourself of 
 your own existence; I am conscious within 
 myself of my own existence, and, going deeper 
 still, I find that I am conscious of my own exist- 
 ence as the witness or seer of the thoughts and 
 feelings that pass within the mind and body, 
 within which the soul appears to dwell. As the 
 thoughts and feelings of each one of us differ 
 from the thoughts and feelings of others, Kapila 
 assumed the existence of a plurality of inde- 
 pendent souls, each of which is fundamentally 
 different from every other. He also assumed 
 the existence of a world' of matter independent 
 of the world of souls. 
 
6 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 The object of the Samkhya Is to realise the 
 distinction between matter and spirit, so that 
 the latter can emancipate itself from the bond- 
 age of the former; thus Samkhya teaches us 
 how to see the spirit which lies encased in 
 matter, therefore it is called a Darsana because 
 it invites us to see the glory of the spirit as it is 
 in itself. 
 
 The second system of Indian philosophy was 
 founded by Patanjali and is called the Yoga. 
 The Yoga Darsana is not an independent 
 Darsana, but has arisen out of the Samkhya 
 and may be said to supplement it. The word 
 Yoga means "self -concentration with a view 
 to see the soul as it looks when it is abstracted 
 from mind and matter." 
 
 Patanjali says in his Yoga Sastra that when 
 the soul is freed from distraction, ignorance, and 
 doubt, it stands face to face with God and is 
 blessed with the vision of the All-holy. Thus 
 it is quite clear that the object of the Yoga 
 Darsana is to teach us how the eye of the soul 
 may be opened so that we can see our God, 
 through whose grace we are able to escape the 
 miseries that are due to ignorance. The fruit 
 of God-vision is perfection. Man can only be 
 saved by Yoga, that is by the conscious union 
 of finite souls with the Infinite through the clear 
 recognition on the part of the former of the 
 essential kinship of both. This recognition may 
 be obtained in various ways, either by dedicating 
 all the fruits of our work to God — this way is 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 7 
 
 called the Karma Yoga — or by the absolute 
 surrender of all our hopes and aspirations, and 
 our self also, to God, in the belief that His grace 
 is our highest good. This is called Bhakti Yoga, 
 or the realisation of God through love and 
 devotion. The highest form of Yoga is called 
 Jnana Yoga, in which the finite soul does not 
 see itself except as infilled by, and identical 
 with, the Absolute God. 
 
 The third system of Indian philosophy is 
 called the Nyaya which was delivered by 
 Gotama. He taught that the highest aim of 
 human life was to attain to a right imderstand- 
 ing of God, soul, and nature. The word Nyaya 
 means standard, or universal principle. This 
 Gotama lived long before Gautama the Buddha 
 and was the inventor of Hindu logic, physics, 
 and metaphysics. 
 
 The fourth system is called the Vaishesika 
 and is also based upon Gotama's Nyaya ; it is, 
 in fact, one of the great divisions of the latter. 
 It teaches that Liberation is the reward of 
 Divine knowledge. 
 
 The last two, the fifth and sixth systems of 
 Indian philosophy, are called the Mimamsa 
 and the Vedanta, taught respectively by Jai- 
 mini and Vyasa. Mimamsa means profound 
 thought, reflection, and is concerned chiefly 
 with the correct interpretation of Vedic ritual 
 and text, while the Vedanta deals with the 
 inquiry into the nature of the Absolute Spirit. 
 The object of the Vedanta is to discern the 
 
8 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 highest truth that is revealed in the conscious- 
 ness of humanity, and thereby to attain the 
 Highest Goal of existence. 
 
 Now I will briefly refer to some of the subjects 
 treated of in the different Darsanas, and this 
 will enable you to form an idea of the scope 
 and object of Hindu philosophy. They are as 
 follows : 
 
 The origin and constitution of the universe. 
 
 The nature of knowledge and its instruments 
 (such as mind, etc.). 
 
 The discrimination of the soul and its im- 
 mortality. 
 
 The future state of the soul and its wanderings. 
 
 The cause of our -embodied existence. 
 
 The cause of pleasure and pain. 
 
 Moral law (Karma). 
 
 Bondage and Liberation. 
 
 Personal God and the Absolute, or the Im- 
 personal God. 
 
 One aim inspires the whole body of Hindu 
 Darsanas, and that is Liberation — Mukti. 
 
 "As the waters of the ocean have only one 
 taste, which is salt, so the Darsanas have only 
 one aim, which is Liberation." 
 
 Man wants to be liberated, to be free — free 
 from the imperfections of his own nature — 
 physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual. This 
 aspiration is seated deep down in the very 
 nature of our spiritual consciousness, and finds 
 eloquent expression in the songs of the Upani- 
 shads and in the aphorisms of the Darsanas. 
 
r VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 9 
 
 To attain to freedom means to be holy and wise 
 and perfect, as God is perfect, wise, and holy. 
 Different philosophers have interpreted freedom 
 in different ways ; for instance, Kapila says that 
 freedom means the realisation of the indepen- 
 dence of the spirit from the material principle 
 in which it finds itself entangled. This state 
 of perfection means complete freedom from the 
 vicissitudes of terrestrial existence, but this 
 may be taken in two ways : first, that the soul 
 may be completely extinguished, just as the 
 flame of a candle is extinguished; or that the 
 soul may return to God from Whom it arose. 
 
 The former teaching has been attributed to 
 the Buddha, while the latter emanates from the 
 Vedanta. I cannot enter into a discussion as 
 to whether the Buddha meant by Nirvana the 
 complete extinction of the soul, for the Buddha 
 preferred to be silent on questions relating to 
 the finality of things, and, as often happens, his 
 followers interpreted the sayings of the master 
 according to their own favourite views.^ I can 
 only say that my personal opinion on the subject 
 of the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana is that the 
 Buddha meant, not the extinction of the im- 
 mortal spirit, but of the lower ego which is the 
 seat of all selfishness and imperfection. That 
 this is so seems probable from what he said 
 on one occasion when he took some dry leaves 
 into the_ hollow of his hand, and asked his 
 disciple Ananda to tell him whether there were 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
10 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 any other leaves besides these, to which Ananda 
 replied : 
 
 "The leaves of autumn are falling on all 
 sides, and there are more of them than can be 
 numbered." 
 
 Then the Buddha said: "In like manner I 
 have given you a handful of truths, but besides 
 these there are many thousands of other truths, 
 more than can be numbered." 
 
 The Buddha was of opinion that man must 
 be taught to be moral first, then he will see the 
 greater truths for himself.^ 
 
 The Vedantic conception of the soul is based 
 upon the essential unity of the soul and Brah- 
 man. The Vedantin holds that the idea of an 
 individual soul existing apart from the Absolute 
 is mistaken logic. Man thinks that he is cut 
 ofiE froni the Infinite because of his ignorance. 
 Liberation means the passing away for ever of 
 this illusory sense of finiteness, and realising the 
 eternal nature of the Soul. 
 
 All philosophical speculation can be traced 
 in the Rig Veda, which is the oldest of all the 
 Vedas; there we find such passages as the 
 following : 
 
 "The poets and prophets discover God in 
 their hearts. Beyond light and darkness, there 
 He shines in His wonderful Majesty," 
 
 The entire Vedic literature is filled fwith 
 references to the existence of a God, and man's 
 need to realise Him. The Upanishads, of 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 11 
 
 which at the present time there are only 108 
 in number, are full of the loftiest poetry with 
 regard to the immortality of the soul, the 
 Creator of this universe, and the final liberation 
 of man through the knowledge of "the God 
 who dwells in the cavity of the heart." All 
 the philosophical speculations of the world can 
 be traced to the Upanishads, which are an in- 
 exhaustible storehouse of scientific and philo- 
 sophic ideas. 
 
 The next body of literature are the Sutras, 
 or aphorisms : all the Darsanas are written in 
 this form, and it is quite impossible to under- 
 stand them without commentaries. These were 
 written much later. The interpretation is in 
 the' hands of Brahmanas and Sannyasins ; the 
 Brahmanas teach the lay pupils, aijd the 
 Sannyasins teach those who renounce the 
 pursuits of mundane life and devote them- 
 selves exclusively to the realisation of the 
 Absolute Brahman. 
 
 It is exceedingly diflScult, if not impossible, 
 to settle the chronological order in which these 
 different systems were given to the world. 
 European scholars have a tendency to fix the 
 age of Sanscrit literature at a much later date 
 than we do in India, basing their conclusions on 
 very superficial evidence. For instance, Wilson 
 based his conclusions concerning the date of 
 the Mudra-Rakhasa from a passage which runs 
 as follows : "... being troubled by the 
 barbarians"; he said that this drama was 
 
12 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 composed between the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries a.d., for no other reason than that 
 India was invaded by the Mahomedans at that 
 time ; but the word Mlechchha refers to all non- 
 Indians, and we know that Alexander the Great 
 invaded India in the fourth century B.C., and 
 that after Alexander's time India was repeatedly 
 invaded by Bactrian Greeks and Scythians. 
 But Wilson gives no reason why Mudra-Rakhasa 
 should not belong to the Alexandrian period. 
 Again, Max Muller thinks that the Vedas were 
 composed between 1500 and 1000 B.C., and he 
 refers the Sutra literature to a period extending 
 from 600 to 200 B.C., although there is hardly 
 a single scrap of evidence to substantiate this 
 view.* 
 
 We shall therefore leave the question of dates 
 alone. It is certain that in very ancient times 
 the real authors of the Vedas taught them to 
 their pupils, by whom they were afterwards 
 handed down to successive generations, when 
 the teachings contained in them came to be 
 widely diffused. In later ages, these were 
 reduced to writing and divided into different 
 systems according to the subject matter, each 
 being ascribed to the celebrated Rishi through 
 whom it was believed to have been revealed. 
 
 With regard to Indian philosophy, it is im- 
 possible to apply what is known as the ideal 
 method, or for the matter of that the chrono- 
 logical method either, in tracing the develop- 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 13 
 
 ment of the Darsanas. It is tolerably certain 
 that none of the six teachers whom I mentioned 
 actually wrote the Sutras which pass under 
 their name. Kapila, Kanada, Gotama, Jaimini, 
 Patanjali, and Vyasa taught these Darsanas to 
 their pupils in systematic form, and many 
 centuries after their death the Sutras were 
 written; but these great Rishis were not the 
 originators, they were the conveyers of the 
 Darsanas. It will be seen, therefore, that these 
 Darsanas passed through two stages in the 
 coiu-^e of their development, viz. the oral and 
 the written stage, the former being of course 
 the more ancient. 
 
 European historians and antiquarians firmly 
 believe that their ancestors were savages and 
 that they are far more enlightened than their 
 forefathers, but we in India believe exactly the 
 opposite. We think that our ancestors were 
 gods and Rishis, endowed with superhuman 
 wisdom and holiness, and that we Indians of 
 the present day are their unworthy descendants. 
 The illusion of European historians consists in 
 judging our history from a knowledge of their 
 own past. I should like to remind them that 
 the law which they deduce from a study of 
 the history of Europe after the fall of the 
 Roman Empire cannot be held to account for the 
 civilisations of ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia, 
 India, and China. In those countries civilisa- 
 tion, instead of developing, has degenerated, 
 while in Europe civilisation has progressed from 
 
14 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 very unpromising beginnings. India looks 
 back, while Europe looks forward to the Golden 
 Age. 
 
 It is not every one who is called to the study 
 of the Darsanas; there are certain mental, 
 moral, and spiritual qualifications that are 
 necessary, the first and most important being 
 that the student should have fulfilled all his 
 duties towards the world, among which are 
 included, not only civic and household duties, 
 but all the observances required of him towards 
 the manes of his forefathers, as well as the 
 offering of sacrifices to the deities who preside 
 over nature. Next, he must be able to control 
 his senses, his mind and intellect. He must 
 cultivate what is called one-pointedness, not 
 allowing his mind to wander ; he must be ready 
 to forgive every injury that may be inflicted on 
 him; and he must be able to see God in all. 
 When a man possesses all these qualifications, 
 then he is allowed to study philosophy. Yet 
 it must not be supposed that the mass of the 
 people are kept in ignorance, for as in Europe 
 there are only a few experts who devote them- 
 selves to the higher branches of science, such 
 as mechanics, chemistry, medicine, etc., so in 
 India it is only the few who may devote them- 
 selves to the study of the Darsanas, while to 
 the populace philosophy is taught through the 
 medium of religion, mythology, and parables. 
 The drama, art, and poetry of India are all 
 pervaded by this teaching. 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHER^ 15 
 
 The circle of students who are privileged to 
 study the Darsanas under qualified teachers is 
 very wide in one direction, and very narrow in 
 the other; for instance, it is wide because it 
 includes all the Devas ^ and the Pitris,^ and the 
 three twice-born castes. It is narrow because 
 it excludes the Sudras, or fourth caste, and 
 women, unless they give ujp their worldly attach- 
 ments and devote themselves completely to the 
 unfoldment of the spiritual side of their nature. 
 The sine qua non of the privilege of study in all 
 cases is a real thirst for truth.^ 
 
 In, India the ideal of education is very high, 
 and consequently its realisation implies a process 
 coeval with the progress of the soul through 
 infinite time. As the summit of human per- 
 fection cannot be attained within the brief span 
 of a single life, and as society is composed of 
 individuals, each differing from the other in 
 taste, inclination, capacity, and attainment, 
 education was arranged in such a way that 
 all classes of men and women, from the best 
 and brightest minds to the most commonplace, 
 should be afforded opportunities for receiving 
 instruction. 
 
 The Rishis recognised that a fundamental 
 contradiction exists between the requirements 
 of our spiritual and our earthly life, and that 
 
 ^The Devas are the personal deities who preside over the 
 various forces of nature. The Fitris are the spirits of the dead, 
 ancestral spirits. 
 
 'See Appendix. 
 
16 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 this can only be overcome liy making the latter 
 subservient to the former. From this originated 
 the institution of Asrams and castes. The 
 Asrams are the stages of life for receiving the 
 education suited to each ; for instance, the first 
 period of a man's life ought to be devoted to 
 the acquirement of knowledge ; the next should 
 be devoted to the performance of the duties 
 incidental to social life ; the third period should 
 be devoted to the acquisition of truths which 
 lie at the root of all things, such as the nature 
 of God, the state of the soul after death, etc., 
 and the fourth period should be devoted to the 
 realisation of the Highest ; but during this last 
 period of life men who have passed through this 
 training are expected to give the fruits of their 
 experience to the rising generation. 
 
 So also with the caste system. It is based 
 upon the fact that our capacities are to a great 
 extent inborn, and that the ends of a complex 
 society can be" best served by utilising the 
 principles of heredity. Each caste has a particu- 
 lar profession as well as duties and obligations 
 of its own. For this reason the education of 
 one caste diflfered from the education of the 
 others, and this difference is explained by the 
 desire of social legislators to produce the most 
 efficient citizen. But while paying attention to 
 the development of the practical faculties of 
 citizens, they never lost sight of their spiritual 
 needs. The idea was that whatever may be the 
 intellectual or moral character of a citizen, each 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 17 
 
 one is to be taken by the hand and led step by 
 step to the Highest Goal. , 
 
 In Europe, philosophy is the favourite study 
 of those who are of a contemplative turn of 
 mind, it has never been the common property 
 of the public; whereas in India, philosophy is 
 as vital a need to all as the air we breathe or 
 the food we eat, it is not in the hands of ama- 
 teurs or academical professors. 
 
 European philosophy does not concern itself 
 either with the foundation of religion or that of 
 morality. The people, no less than the Church, 
 never expected guidance from the philosopher 
 in matters relating to the supersensuous. But 
 in India the teachers of the six systems of 
 philosophy are also the teachers of religion 
 and morality. Religious life was never divorced 
 from philosophical contemplation, nor was the 
 culture of the Darsanas viewed with suspicion 
 by religious people. The secret of the harmony 
 between Darsanikas and Dharmikas (philoso- 
 phers and religious men) is that the former 
 started with the assumption that the Vedas 
 were revealed to man by God. No Darsanika 
 every questioned this supreme fact, hence the 
 happy blending of faith with reason, which is 
 conspicuously absent in the history of the 
 development of European philosophy. 
 
 The Indian Darsanika starts his inquiry 
 with a searching examination of the position 
 of man, including both his psychology and his 
 surroundings; he finds that although man is 
 
18 BRAHMADARSANAM I 
 
 hiappy to a certain degree, he is not supremely 
 so, that his lot is a mixed one, while he continually 
 longs for an unmixed state of blessedness. The 
 investigation into the cause of suffering leads 
 the Indian philosopher to the conclusion that 
 all pain is due to our confusion of the immaterial 
 spirit with the material body, and his final 
 teaching is that man can — by means of know- 
 ledge, and knowledge alone (Jnana) — become, 
 not only the master of his fate, but that he can 
 isolate himself completely from the onslaught 
 of all evils, including death, even in this life. 
 
 Hindu philosophers teach that the soul is 
 a spiritual, conscious substance, perfect and 
 universal, neither liable to birth, death, or pain, 
 but that, owing to the power of a mysterious 
 agency, sometimes called Avidya, ignorance, 
 and sometimes Aviveka, non-discrimination, or 
 Mithya Jnana, false knowledge, souls are tied 
 to subtile bodies and are made to pass through 
 pain and pleasure, birth and death. Souls suffer 
 Samsara, or repeated births, owing to non- 
 discrimination of the real from the unreal, i.e. 
 the confudon of the Immortal Soul with the 
 perishable aspects of personality. All works 
 born out of this primitive non-discrimination, 
 whether mental or physical, moral or immoral, 
 are reproductive, i.e. they go on multiplying 
 until they are counteracted and destroyed by 
 true knowledge. Therefore the highest aim of 
 man is to attain to perfection and freedom 
 through the destruction of all Karma (works). 
 
I VIEWS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS 19 
 
 Earma can only be destroyed by the complete 
 annihilation of ignorance, non-discrimination, 
 and false knowledge. 
 
 It is extremely diflBcult to picture in the 
 mind's eye the state of freedom which the 
 Indian philosopher has in view. It must be 
 remembered that he believes that all that we 
 call suffering, disease, and death, is, in the 
 last analysis, a state of feeling which does not 
 correspond with reality. When Jnana ^ arises, 
 all the apparitions which are called up by our 
 imagination and feeling will vanish away and 
 nothing will remain except the Absolute I AM. 
 This is called the highest stage, from the summit 
 of which body, mind, and the whole universe 
 will appear as mere shadows. 
 
 Although this idea of Mukti, or liberation of 
 the finite spirit through the knowledge of its 
 infinite nature, is foreign to European philoso- 
 phers, it must be said that, both in the Bible 
 and in the writings of early Christian mystics, 
 the belief in the attainment of one-ness with 
 God through love is frequently to be met with. 
 Again, although the idea of the infinite move- 
 ment of the finite spirit in accordance with the 
 law of moral retribution has not found any place 
 in the discussions of European philosophers, it 
 does not seem to have been unfamiliar to the 
 author of the Gospel according to St. John. 
 
 i Jnana is the intuition which arises through the development 
 of the cognitive faculties. 
 
20 BRAHMADARSANAM i 
 
 BIBnOGRAPHY 
 
 Sarvadarsana Samgrahai p. 85. 
 Buddha, by H. Oldenberg, pp. 263-285. 
 Dhammapada, pp. 427-445. 
 Samyuttaka Nikaya. 
 Malinda Fanha. 
 Rig Veda. 
 
 Mr. Dhruva's paper, "On the Age of the Veda." 
 Mr. TUak's "Arctic Home of the Aryas" and "The 
 Orion." 
 
II 
 
 DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 
 
 Kapila's early tTaining — His philosophy and ethics — Three 
 sources of knowledge — Evolution of the universe — Nature 
 of the soul : its bondage and salvation. 
 
 In my last lecture I explained that the first 
 object of Hindu philosophers was to investigate 
 the cause of life and nature, and then to discover 
 the best means of becoming one with that cause ; 
 that is to say, it is a search into the eternal 
 nature of the human soul and an inquiry as to 
 its ultimate destiny. 
 
 To-night I propose to take up the subject of 
 the most ancient and most honoured of Indian 
 philosophies, the Samkhya. This word has two 
 meanings, of which one is the enumeration of 
 first principles, and the other, the discrimination 
 of spirit from matter. The real founder of the 
 system is absolutely unknown, but the germ of 
 its teaching is to be found in verse 5, chapter iv. 
 of the Svetdsvetara Upanishad of the Krishna 
 Yajur Veda, where several references to the 
 Samkhya doctrine occur; but the Samkhya 
 
 21 
 
22 BRAHMADARSANAM ii 
 
 philosophy was first taught in a systematic form 
 by Eapila, and for this reason he is regarded 
 as its founder. It was Kapila who systematised 
 it and placed it upon a rational basis ; he was 
 the first to collect the different ideas that were 
 taught under the Samkhya system, and it was 
 he who delivered it to the world.^ 
 
 Very little is known regarding the facts of 
 the founder's life. His father was a Rishi called 
 Kardama, and his mother's name was Devahuti. 
 It was from her that he leamt the rudiments of 
 philosophy and all the varied teachings about 
 the soul, the life hereafter, and the Eternal God. 
 
 Gradually the teachings of the mother pro- 
 duced their results in him and he took to a life 
 of contemplation; tradition says that in later 
 life he destroyed the wicked sons of Sagara, the 
 then-reigning king, by means of his occult power. 
 A likeness of Kapila has recently been found, 
 sculptured in the rock, in a cave temple which 
 still exists in the district of Anuradhapura in 
 Ceylon. It shows him sitting in his cave in an 
 attitude of contemplation. He is said to have 
 passed the remainder of his days on an island 
 called Sagara which is situated at the mouth 
 of the river Ganges, about ninety miles from 
 Calcutta, and every year, on the last day of the 
 Sanscrit month Magha, at the time when the 
 sun begins its northerly course and passes from 
 Sagittarius into Capricornus, thousands of men 
 and women visit the place where he meditated 
 
 ^ See Appendix. 
 
11 DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 23 
 
 and gave the fruits of his meditation to Asuri, 
 his disciple. Thus the tradition of his life is 
 still kept up at the present day, and air Indians, 
 especially the Hindus, worship his memory as 
 a great saint and philosopher.^ 
 
 As regards the date when he lived, according 
 to Hindu tradition he flourished about five 
 thousand years from now, that is more than 
 two thousand years before the birth of Buddha.^ 
 Mention of him has been found in many 
 Sanscrit books, and even those writers who are 
 opposed to his doctrines allude to him with the 
 greatest reverence, which proves how great his 
 influence must have been in ancient India. 
 
 The method followed in the Samkhya Sutra 
 is pre-eminently logical. Kapila recognises three 
 modes of gaining knowledge : perception, in- 
 ference, and revelation (Sabda). The existence 
 of the world is proved by the testimony of the 
 senses, and the existence of the caiise of the world 
 can be proved by inf ereiice. The existence of the 
 soul is also proved by inference. Kapila regards 
 the Vedas as revealed, and cites Vedic texts as 
 an infallible authority in support of all his theses 
 — which are proved by perception and inference. 
 
 By perception is meant the knowledge pro- 
 duced through the contact of the understanding 
 and senses with objects. Our intellect assumes 
 the form of the object which is presented before 
 the mind by the senses, I see the ink-pot 
 because — 
 
 ' See Appendix. ^ See Appendix. 
 
24 BRAHMADARSANAM n 
 
 (1) The ink-pot is within the range of my 
 vision, and 
 
 (2) My intellect spontaneously assumes the 
 form of the ink-pot. 
 
 The soul becomes aware of the existence of the 
 ink-pot owing to the contribution of the form 
 of the ink-pot by the intellect and the contribu- 
 tion of the matter (colour, etc.) of the ink-pot 
 by the organ of sight. This is Kapila's theory 
 qI perception (see Sutra 89, ch. viii.). Inference 
 is preceded by perception. The knowledge by 
 inference is due to the unconditional and 
 universal association between two observed 
 facts; for instance, when we see smoke at a 
 distance we infer the existence of fire. Why? 
 Because we know from experience that fire is 
 always present where there is smoke. Thus 
 whenever we see an effect, we infer a cause, 
 because, as Kapila says, out of nothing some- 
 thing cannot arise. All perceptions are not 
 logically valid. A perception can be vitiated 
 in many ways, and as no inference is of any 
 weight unless drawn from correct perceptions, 
 it is useful to be acquainted with those condi- 
 tions which tend to invalidate perceptions. 
 
 For instance, the observer must not be very 
 far away from the object to be observed, and his 
 senses must be in the normal state. Neither 
 can he obtain a correct picture of an object if 
 he be too near it. The observer's mind must be 
 scientifically trained and free from prejudices 
 and undue leanings. Without a judicious 
 
II DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 25 
 
 balance of the mental faculties no observer can 
 draw truly scientific conclusions. Then, again, 
 we sometimes fail to see a thing even with the 
 most powerful microscope when the size of the 
 object is too small. It is for this reason that 
 the atom is impossible of being observed. The 
 interval of time is one of the most important 
 factors in observation, and if the interval be 
 too long it is most probable that we shall not 
 have any knowledge of the object. For this 
 reason people hesitate to accept the theory of 
 the origin of the nebular system or that of the 
 origin of species. Lastly, a certain amount of 
 what may be called pre-scientific intuition is 
 necessary in order that facts may be collected 
 and arranged with a view to bring them under 
 a general principle. All great discoveries in 
 science have been made by those who started 
 their scientific career with a kind of intuition. 
 Intuition creates the truths which the mind 
 understands. Newton had the intuition of 
 universal attraction, and his mind brought forth 
 the mathematical laws of the falling bodies in 
 order to confirm his intuitive conviction. 
 
 Kapila teaches that in its phenomenal aspects 
 a thing changes, but in its causal aspect it is 
 indestructible and eternal. The cause of the 
 phenomenal world is indestructible, but the 
 world as seen by us is liable to the law of change. 
 Kapila was the first philosopher who taught 
 that the universe was evolved out of primal, 
 undiflFerenced matter. 
 
26 BRAHMADARSANAM ii 
 
 Kapila's philosophy is characterised by a deep 
 moral sentiment. Perfection is the aim of life, 
 and perfection is to be obtained through the 
 knowledge of the soul as distinct from matter. 
 Virtue is the road to perfection ; happiness and 
 peace are the rewards of a virtuous life; dis- 
 content and misery are the result of a vicious 
 life. No act is mortal, no thought perishes. 
 The progress of the individual is determined by 
 his actions : man becomes angel by noble deeds, 
 and beast by ignoble ones, for otu- deeds accom- 
 pany us to the world beyond after physical 
 death. Forgiveness is Divine; there is no 
 happiness higher than that which arises from 
 forgiving others. Dispassion is worthy of the 
 highest praise, and passion is to be condemned 
 because the offspring of attachment to the 
 things of the not-self is evil, while great good 
 arises from the philosophic virtues of dispassion, 
 serenity, and contemplation. 
 
 The transcendental grounds of Kapila's ethics 
 are : (1) eternity of the soul ; (2) imperishabil- 
 ity of human feelings, thoughts, and actions; 
 
 (3) rebirth according to the law of Karma ; and 
 
 (4) Liberation as the ultimate goal of man. In 
 proportion as man shuns evil and chooses good, 
 as he knows his true self and renounces his false 
 self, as he realises freedom and ignores the 
 shadowy pleasures of the senses, he approaches 
 nearer and nearer to Mukti or Liberation. 
 
 Though Kapila accepted the authority of 
 the Vedas as truths revealed to the Rishis (see 
 
II DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 27 
 
 Sutra 46, ch. v., and 147, ch. i.), he strongly 
 protested against the authority of the priests. 
 His great humanity led him to raise his voice 
 against animal sacrifices, and he also taught 
 that no sensible man should perform sacrifices 
 with a view to entering into heaven after death, 
 because, by the law of rotation, those who go 
 to heaven must retm-n to earth (see Sutra 6, 
 ch. i.). The state of perfection cannot be 
 attained by sacrifices, by offspring, or by char- 
 ity, but only by renouncing that which by its 
 natm"e is not eternal. 
 
 I believe that Kapila also instituted the 
 Sannyas, or monastic system. Certainly the 
 trend of thought in the fourth chapter of the 
 Sutras inclines towards the renunciation of the 
 world with a view to discovering the truths of 
 spiritual life in the solitude of mountain and 
 desert. He says that the Yogi ought not to 
 associate with many people, as such association 
 may prove an obstacle to concentration. He 
 next goes so far as to say that the Sannyasin 
 (one who has renounced) ought to live absolutely 
 alone. Even living with one companion only 
 is regarded as injurious to the interests of the 
 soul (ch. iv. 10). All knowledge and all power 
 is contained in the soul, and its glory is revealed 
 in silence and solitude. You are your own 
 friend, your own guide, your own teacher, and 
 your own saviour. Comfort yourself by your- 
 self, raise yourself by yourself, educate yourself 
 by yourself, and liberate yourself by yourself. 
 
28 BRAHMADARSANAM n 
 
 I will now try to explain Kapila's teaching 
 about the origin and development of the Universe. 
 Nothing is more difficult than to present old 
 ideas in modern language, for, as Max MuUer 
 somewhere says, ancient words are square and 
 modern words are round. The subject will appear 
 very complicated to you because the philosophi- 
 cal technicalities of the Sanscrit language are 
 quite different from the philosophical terms of 
 English, French, German, or Norwegian. Even 
 such words as mind, perception, inamortality, 
 and salvation have quite a different meaning 
 in Sanscrit ; yet in order that you should under- 
 stand the spirit of the Sanscrit Darsanas, it is 
 absolutely necessary that you should under- 
 stand what each term connotes. The worth of 
 a philosophy depends upon the meaning at- 
 tached to the words used by the philosopher. 
 
 Kapila's philosophy is called the Samkhya 
 because it attempts to comprehend the Universe 
 as a sum total of 25 Tattvas, principles, cate- 
 gories, substances. If you refer to the chart 
 you will understand how the world of phenom- 
 ena has evolved out of the primal undifferenced 
 Matter (Prakriti) . Eapila starts with the exist- 
 ence of free spirits (Purusha), and an original, 
 unmanifested substance called Prakriti, or 
 Nature, which was anterior to creation. Prior 
 to evolution, the three Gunas (forces, substances, 
 or entities) called sattva, raja, and tama (mind, 
 energy, and matter) were in Prakriti in a state 
 of perfect equilibrium ; evolution begins as soon 
 
n DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 29 
 
 as spirits come in touch with Prakriti. Both 
 spirit and nature are inactive but omnipresent, 
 ubiquitous, and eternal — only the former is 
 conscious, the latter unconscious. The creative 
 activity of Prakriti is not its own, but is due to 
 the approach of the spirit; just as a piece of 
 white glass appears red if a rose is placed near 
 it, so the very presence of Purusha is the sine 
 qua non of creation by Prakriti. Hence there 
 is no active will on the part of Purusha, neither 
 is there any conscious desire on the part of 
 Prakriti, to create the world. Action follows as 
 the result of the meeting of two eternal entities. 
 
 Prakriti in its transcendental aspect is called 
 Avyakta (the Unmanifested), in its empirical 
 aspect Mahat, or the first Great Mind. Mahat 
 is the evolution of the determinate from the in- 
 determinate, the coming forth of the Idea, the 
 Psyche, from the womb of its eternal ground, 
 the manifestation of the cosmic reason from a 
 disturbance in the equilibrium of the everlasting 
 Gunas. At this distance of time it is difficult 
 to understand what Kapila really meant by 
 Mahat, the first development of Prakriti. 
 
 A doubt arises as to whether Mahat is to be 
 taken in the sense of a phase in the cosmic growth 
 containing within it the potentialities of life, 
 will, body, as well as of the material world, or 
 only pure mind and reason. Indian com- 
 mentators incline to the latter view, pointing 
 to the logical priority of conception over that 
 which is conceived, of thought over that which 
 
30 BRAHMADARSANAM ii 
 
 is the object of thought, and of will — before it 
 became dynamic. Mahat is thought in which 
 the form of thought and the movement of thought 
 are held in equilibrium, just as Prakriti is sub- 
 stance in which power is locked up in idea, so 
 that neither power nor idea can be said to have 
 actual existence in the Avyakta. The problem 
 as to how Avyakta is transformed into Mahat 
 is inexplicable, unless we suppose that Avyakta 
 was pregnant with productivity, which is what 
 Kapila says. 
 
 In Mahat, says Kapila, sattva (goodness, 
 light) predominates, while raja (energy) and 
 tama (inertia, darkness, evil) are inactive and 
 almost non-existent. 
 
 Out of Mahat, the Great Mind, arises Aham- 
 kara (the subject, ego, "I"), or consciousness 
 of self as a real power, or doer, opposed to not- 
 self. The diflFerence between Mahat and Aham- 
 kara is the difference between consciousness and 
 self-consciousness, the former being the tran- 
 scendental ground and logical presupposition of 
 the latter. Out of Ahamkara arise the five 
 Tanmatras, or ethereal counterparts of the 
 elements, which are, (1) subtile sound, (2) subtile 
 touch, (3) subtile light, (4) subtile taste, and 
 (5) subtile smell, and the eleven senses, viz. the 
 five centres of perception : sight, hearing, touch, 
 taste, and smell; the five centres of action: 
 grasping, walking, secretion, speech, and genera- 
 tion ; also the mind, i.e. the inner sense which 
 directs the ten senses. 
 
n DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 31 
 
 These motor and sensitive centres are not 
 to be confounded with the organs of sight, etc., 
 and the organs of action, such as the hands, 
 legs, etc. They are functions of mind con- 
 joined to the nervous system. They are psycho- 
 nervous senses. Kapila says that these centres 
 are invisible, they are situated inside the brain. 
 Mind is regarded as the central power or faculty, 
 for receiving messages from the senses and for 
 directing them to their respective objects. Out 
 of the Tanmatras arise the gross elements : 
 ether, gas, heat, liquid and solid. These gross 
 elements (Mahabhutas) appear to us as sky, 
 atmosphere, light and heat, water and air. The 
 Tanmatras are the media between senses and 
 objects, and their function is to act as excitants 
 of nerve centres, hence each Tanmatra diflPers 
 in quality from every other Tanmatra; for 
 instance, the Tanmatra which excites the eye 
 to see the colour of an object is quite different 
 from the Tanmatra which excites the auditory 
 centre to perceive the distinction between con- 
 tralto and soprano. The Mahabhutas (elements) 
 have an extra-mental and extra-organic exist- 
 ence, but the Tanmatras are like nerve and ether 
 vibrations, interpenetrating matter and mind 
 alike. This is Kapila's theory of the evolution 
 of the world. 
 
 Kapila's account of the development of the 
 Universe is neither idealistic nor materialistic, 
 nor a compound of both. His theory is not 
 idealistic, because he does not believe in the 
 
32 BRAHMADARSANAM n 
 
 evolution of matter and energy out of the soul. 
 His theory is not materialistic, because he does 
 not evolve soul out of matter. His philosophy 
 is not a compromise between idealism and 
 materialism, because he does not teach that 
 souls and nature have come out of a common 
 substance, call it God or universal Mind. He 
 does not consider that it is philosophically right 
 to assume the existence of a God to account for 
 the creation of the world. Just as milk flows 
 from the udder of a cow at the sight of her calf, 
 and just as the spider weaves the cobweb out 
 of its own body, so does Nature create. Thus 
 Xapila's philosophy is known to Indian scholars 
 as atheistic; but if you consider the matter 
 well, you will not be able to class Kapila with 
 ordinary atheists. Kapila recognises the possi- 
 bility of a personal God, along with the im- 
 possibility of proving His existence according 
 to the canons of perceptive and inferential logic. 
 If God were perfect, says Kapila, He would not 
 feel the need of creating a world ; if He were 
 imperfect — an imperfect being cannot be called 
 God, neither would He have the power or in- 
 telligence to create a world. Hence it follows 
 that Kapila's philosophy cannot be called 
 theistic. But Kapila believes in the eternity 
 of the soul, in the supremacy of Jnana (Divine 
 Wisdom) , in the greatness of our moral sentiment, 
 and in Nature as working for man's highest good. 
 It is not just to label his system pessimistic, for 
 in that case all philosophy which starts with 
 
II DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 33 
 
 the assumption of the dimness of our religious 
 vision, the narrowness of oiu* sympathies, the 
 weakness of our reasoning faculty, and, above 
 all, of our liability to sickness, pain, and death, 
 must be stigmatised as pessimistic. 
 
 All philosophers, whether theistic or atheistic, 
 are in search of a wisdom which, by its all- 
 mightiness and by its saving quahty, shall 
 raise humanity from the depths of sin, folly, 
 and ignorance, to a level that is equal with 
 the perfection and freedom of God Himself. 
 It is a part of wisdom to recognise the imper- 
 fection of our human state; it is also a part 
 of wisdom to hope for final liberation from all 
 our limitations. Man is in reality Divine, 
 though apparently human. 
 
 Kapila teaches that although our terrestrial 
 life appears to be full of sorrow, yet it is not 
 our true destiny to suffer. We are, in essence, 
 eternally free, eternally wise, eternally living, and 
 eternally holy. All this suflFering, this sickness, 
 old age and death have come upon us as the re- 
 sult of our Aviveka, or unwisdom, oiu" Avairagya 
 or habitual attachment to sensual pleasures. 
 We are the unwilling slaves of our phantom 
 selves — the self of ignorance and the self of 
 passion — those selves which are associated with 
 a wrong notion of personality. Are we not quite 
 contented with our silly opinions, silly comforts, 
 silly conduct, and silly mode of life? Be wise 
 and learn to entertain true opinions, to enjoy 
 true comforts, and to lead a noble life. That 
 
34 BRAHMADARSANAM n 
 
 which you call yourself is a ghost; your true 
 self is far more beautiful, far more Divine. 
 Realise your power and holiness, your inborn 
 grandeur and your perfect wisdom. Your body 
 should be your slave, not you the slave of your 
 body ; your mind is an instrument of the soul, 
 let it not get the better of the soul. 
 
 By ignorance is meant the belief that the 
 soul shares the fate of the body and is incapable 
 of being independent of Karma (deeds), Daiva 
 (natural forces), and Adrista (mysterious power) . 
 This ignorance flows like a perpetual stream 
 down the ages, dragging the soul to an unknown 
 ocean of mixed experiences. It is this ignorance 
 which is responsible for our birth, old age, death, 
 and rebirth ; it existed primarily as a formless 
 idea in Prakriti,and secondarily as a force acting 
 through the various manifestations of nature. 
 The association of soul with matter is the oppor- 
 tunity for the unloosing of this strange demon of 
 ignorance by tying the soul to the body, thereby 
 causing it to undergo the pangs of rebirth. 
 
 The soul, according to, Kapila, is the King of 
 Nature. Your feelings, your siu-roundings, the 
 world, and all the powers of the universe must 
 oJBfer up their homage, their secrets, to your 
 highest spiritual need. Your real self has not 
 only the knowledge but also the power to 
 separate itself from the false self and to rise 
 above the reach of the compelling force of 
 universal gravitation, thereby returning to its 
 home of peace and light and love. The law of 
 
II DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 35 
 
 Karma, by which every thought, word, and 
 deed, like a seed thrown on fertile soil, produces 
 its fruit in life after life, determining the quality 
 of the brain, affections, and impulses, is not half 
 as potent as the potency of self-knowledge. 
 Ignorance is the mother of all our sorrows. Sin 
 is ignorance, cruelty is ignorance, selfishness is 
 ignorance. Be not selfish, but be a knower of 
 the self. A selfish man is he who is ignorant 
 of his true self, but he who knows the self has 
 realised the difference between the Eternal and 
 the temporal self, the real Self and the unreal. 
 Self-knowledge is the source of blessedness; 
 self-government gives supremacy; self-control 
 confers contentment, and the vision of the Self 
 reveals the absolute "I am." 
 
 After its evolution from Avyakta (the un- 
 differenced primal matter), Prakriti becomes 
 Mahat (the great monad, or intelligence) . Mahat 
 is a substance which has eight attributes : 
 (1) righteousness, and its opposite (2) unright- 
 eousness; (3) knowledge, and its opposite 
 (4) ignorance ; (5) dispassion, and its opposite 
 (6) passion; (7) supernormal power, and its 
 opposite (8) powerlessness. 
 
 Mahat may be taken to mean the transcen- 
 dental ground, or impersonal source, the meta- 
 physical hypothesis, or inconceivable substratum 
 of our personal mind. Mahat is the first deter- 
 mination of the indeterminate substance con- 
 taining the qualities of goodness, power, wisdom, 
 and temperance. 
 
36 BRAHMADARSANAM n 
 
 Ahamkara is the second determination of the 
 Primal Indeterminate. The diffused rays of the 
 universal mind become concentrated and are 
 narrowed down to the limits of self-conscious- 
 ness. As the Hindus teach that God becomes 
 man to save the world, so Kapila teaches 
 that Mahat becomes Ahamkara — the universal 
 becomes individualised. Ahamkara is the 
 belief that / am the conscious subject who is 
 experiencing the sensations of sound, light, 
 heat, smell, etc. 
 
 In order to understand the nature of Aham- 
 kara, we must first understand the psychology 
 of perception. The ego is the centre to which 
 all perception is referred. All feelings of happi- 
 ness or unhappiness, success or failure, are 
 claimed by the ego. Not only the pleasmres 
 and pains of my own body, but also those of 
 other bodies, are superimposed upon the ego. 
 A man becomes unhappy when his wife or 
 children are ill. The ego claims all experience, 
 whether spiritual or social, whether physical 
 or mental, as its own. The distinction between 
 subjective and objective experience is due to 
 Ahamkara. The ego is this which I feel within 
 myself, the non-ego is tLat which is outside 
 myself; everything has an individuality of its 
 own in this world. Water has an individuaUty 
 of its own, fire hkewise, and virtue and 
 vice. We see the individuality in things be- 
 cause we are conscious of our own individu- 
 ality. Mental individuality manifests itself in 
 
n DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 37 
 
 good, bad, or indifferent deeds; but this ego 
 is phenomenal and unreal, it is not our true and 
 abiding self. 
 
 The five Tanmatras arise out of the Aham- 
 kara. What are these Tanmatras ? They are the 
 essences, radicles, atoms, and fine forces which 
 are the causes of the grosser elements as well as 
 the causes of our perception of the external 
 world. Hence the Tanmatras are the psycho- 
 physical or neuro-physical waves which carry 
 messages from the sense centres to the mind. 
 They are the intermediate links which connect 
 the ego with the non-ego, the subject with the 
 presentation. They are five in number because 
 there are five senses : sight, hearing, smell, 
 taste, and touch. Each Tanmatra differs in 
 quahty from the other ; the Tanmatra of sound 
 is different from that of hght, and so on ; but 
 one Tanmatra is enough to account for the 
 diversity within it, e.g. one Tanmatra of sound 
 carries all varieties of sound, such as the differ- 
 ent musical notes : do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si ; so 
 with light, heat, smell, etc. 
 
 The Tanmatras are followed by the sixteen 
 Mikaras, or modifications, consisting of the five 
 organs of perception: the ears, skin, eyes, ~ 
 tongue, and nose, and the five organs of action : 
 the voice, hands, feet, the organ of excretion, 
 and the organ of generation. 
 
 The mind is the eleventh organ whose function 
 it is to direct and control the organs of percep- 
 tion and action. The mind receives messages 
 
38 BRA.HMADARSANAM n 
 
 and sends them, the mind ascertains facts, and 
 the mind doubts. 
 
 The five Mahabhutas, or gross elements, are : 
 solid, liquid, heat, gas, and ether. They are also 
 named : earth, water, light, air, and ether. Earth 
 has five qualities : sound, touch, colour, taste, 
 and smell. Water has four : sound, touch, 
 colour, and taste. Light has three : sound, 
 touch, and coloiu". Air has two : sound and 
 touch. Ether has one : sound. 
 
 These are the 24 Tattvas, or principles, 
 enumerated by Kapila to explain the evolution 
 of the universe. Purusha, or soul, is the 25th 
 principle, and possesses the following character- 
 istics : the soul is eternal, without end or 
 beginning, subtile and indivisible, uncreated; 
 the soul is a seer, because it sees the evolution 
 of nature; it is transcendental, because it is 
 above space, time, and causality ; it is unaffected 
 by goodness and evil; it is unproductive, be- 
 cause immaterial, and many, because infinite 
 in number. 
 
 The highest aim of life is to isolate the soul 
 from nature, to raise it above the perception of 
 time and space, and to liberate it from the false 
 self. This aim can be realised by training the 
 soul by means of the discipUne of dispassion, 
 righteousness, superhuman power, and know- 
 ledge. Nature is not a hindrance but a help to 
 its progress. When the soul achieves Mukti, or 
 Liberation, it rests in its own glory, wisdom, 
 freedom, and peace. 
 
II DUALISM: MATTER AND SPIRIT 39 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Tattva Samasa. 
 
 Samkhyatattvaloka. 
 
 Samkhyakaumudi. 
 
 Pravachana Sutra with Vedanti Madhab's, Ardniddha's, 
 
 and Vijnana Bhikshu's Tikas. 
 Vyasa Bhasya on Yoga Sutra. 
 Vachaspati Misra's Tattva Kaumudi. 
 Srimad Bhagavata. 
 Svetasvetara Upanishad. 
 The Samhita of Astavakra. 
 
Ill 
 
 THEISM: GOD AND MAN 
 
 Controversy between science and religion — Truth is one — 
 Arguments in favour of theism by Gotama, Fatanjali, 
 Narada and Sankara — The trend of science towards 
 monism — Hymn from the Rig Veda — Agreement between 
 modem science and the Vedas. 
 
 There is a sadness in the air, a sadness born of 
 doubt. The present age is one of scepticism. 
 Two mighty currents of opinion are sweeping 
 over the plain of human thought; the first is 
 the current of faith, of sacerdotal authority, of 
 the claims of revealed religion and of experiences 
 labelled spiritual. This river of rehgious belief 
 is fed by many tributary streams and rivulets 
 which are known to the public through the 
 medium of the press, the pulpit, and the plat- 
 form, known by such names as Theosophy, Oc- 
 cultism, Higher Thought, New Thought, Chris- 
 tian Science, Bahaism, Spiritism. The aim of all 
 these is to establish man's faith in the Invisible. 
 I use the word "invisible" to cover a mass 
 of heterogeneous facts and phenomena, rang- 
 ing from table-rapping, thought-transference, 
 
 40 
 
Ill THEISM: GOD AND MAN 41 
 
 mediumship, belief in "astral planes," "subtile 
 bodies," Karmaloka,^ reincarnation, magnetic 
 healing, and many such facts supposed to exert 
 a direct influence upon our faith in the existence 
 of another order of experience and of a life 
 beyond death, and an indirect influence towards 
 the development of our sense of the Infinite. 
 These many forms of thought are leading some 
 to the fold of the Mother Church of Europe, 
 while enabling others to read a new meaning into 
 the words of the Scriptures, and thus, in a sense, 
 to re-estabUsh the traditions of the Christian 
 Church on a new foundation. It would be pre- 
 mature at present to pronounce an opinion on 
 the ultimate issue of this first-named current 
 of thought. 
 
 The second current of opinion is that of 
 positive thought — of science, both theoretical 
 and applied. The light of science has dazzled 
 the eyes of her votaries to such an extent that, 
 like persons blinded by the sun, they can see 
 nothing but mist and gloom outside their 
 laboratories and observatories. The scientist 
 declares, and there is an undeniable ring of 
 truthfulness in his tone, that he had dissected 
 the body of man, that he has examined every 
 muscle and bone, every nerve and sinew, but 
 has not found the soul, that he has swept the 
 entire heavens with his telescope, but has not 
 found God. To him, physical death is the last 
 of our life's drama, and the "Hereafter" is a 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
42 BRAHMADARSANAM m 
 
 dream, a fantasy arising from the fumes of an 
 ill-digested dinner. God is the hallucination of 
 disorganized brains and insane minds ; nothing 
 which is not visible is counted worthy of our 
 credence. 
 
 The confession of the scientist of a generation 
 ago shook religion to its very foundation. 
 Positive science was, and to a certain extent 
 still is, in a statejof declared warfare with religion. 
 Martin Luther (1483-1546) made man's faith 
 independent of the authority of the CathoKc 
 Church, and Galileo (1564-1642) made man's 
 reason independent of his faith. In cases where 
 faith conflicts with reason, we are told by the 
 scientist to give preference to the verdicts of 
 reason. To the scientist, the claims of the 
 natural sciences based upon inductive and 
 mathematical reasoning are paramount. 
 
 This controversy between religion and science 
 began in Europe in the sixteenth century. In 
 England, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) began the 
 reformation of science and philosophy. Gior- 
 dano Bruno (1548-1600) was tried and sentenced 
 to be burnt alive by the Inquisition at Rome in 
 1600 for believing in the Copemican theory of 
 the heavens, and in 1633 Galileo was forced 
 by the Church to retract his doctrine about the 
 earth's motion on its axis. Ever since that day 
 science has established her sovereignty over 
 man's brain, and every day she is consolidating 
 her empire by fresh conquests. Science has 
 captured the outer forts of the brain, but she 
 
in THEISM: GOD AND MAN 43 
 
 has not succeeded in reducing the inner sanc- 
 tuary of faith. 
 
 This controversy between faith and reason is 
 not new in the history of philosophy; it was 
 started on the banks of the Ganges and the 
 Indus many thousands of years before the birth 
 of Christ. When the true history of the philo- 
 sophies of India comes to be written by her own 
 sons it will open up a new horizon of thought 
 before the wondering gaze of Western humanity, 
 and in that fairyland of metaphysics the student 
 will discover fresh landscapes whose existence 
 was hitherto unguessed. An immense amount 
 of pioneering work has already been done by a 
 little band of Indian and European savants who 
 have cut a path through the jungle, bridged over 
 crevasses, and made the way smooth for yet 
 unborn travellers. 
 
 Still the road which leads through the forest 
 of Sanscrit literature is overhung with a dense 
 gloom and requires to be illumined. This work 
 of illumination has to be done by none other 
 than the children of ancient Ind, in whose veins 
 flows the blood of the Rishis, and who have 
 been nursed on the breast of the Mother of all 
 religions. None but the Yogis of India under- 
 stand the Indian Darsanas, for they are the 
 perpetual guardians of the Wisdom of the East. 
 
 These Yogis, Rishis, and Sannyasins are men 
 who are free from all narrowness of religious 
 fanaticism and national prejudices; they are 
 God's companions — citizens of no state or 
 
44 BRAHMADARSANAM m 
 
 empire, but of the universe. They stand out- 
 side time and are the guides of humanity. 
 
 Truth is one. We approach it through di- 
 verse ways. Rehgion and science both acknow- 
 ledge the unity of truth in the abstract; their 
 difference consists, first in the enunciation of 
 it, and secondly in the recognition of the instru- 
 ments of knowledge. The enunciation of truth, 
 given by scientists, religious mystics, and philo- 
 sophers, differs according as their attention is 
 fixed on (1) the visible phenomena, (2) the 
 invisible cause of visible phenomena, or, again, 
 (3) upon that which is unrelated either to the 
 visible effect or the invisible cause. 
 
 In the first case, Haeckel (1), whom I take to 
 be the representative of modern scientific mon- 
 ism, assumes the existence of a "soul-cell" to ac- 
 count for the complex phenomena of intelligence 
 and the physical organism. As an illustration 
 of (2) take Sir Oliver Lodge, who assumes the 
 existence of a Mind guiding the visible universe 
 without either expending energy or coming into 
 contact with the mechanical order of the uni- 
 verse ; (3) Hegel, who conceived of a pure Being 
 transcendently unrelated to Becoming. 
 
 Thus the man of science is impressed with 
 the perceptible order of phenomena, and to him 
 truth means the co-ordination of either one phe- 
 nomenon with another, or of a group of them 
 with a higher generalisation. To arrive at this 
 generalisation, he only needs induction, which 
 in his hands has become the most powerful 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 45 
 
 instrument of knowledge. Induction aims at 
 perceiving similarity in the midst of the diverse 
 phenomena of nature, and this aim is realised 
 by a means of observation and experiment, 
 guided by a kind of guessing at the conclusion 
 which is called hypothesis. This method of 
 investigation has proved so successful in the 
 physical sciences that induction has come to 
 be regarded as the magic key to Nature's secrets. 
 At the same time the scientists accept nothing 
 as truth unless it is verified, therefore they draw 
 a line between verified and unverified hypoth- 
 eses. For instance, the proposition, oxygen 
 supports animal life, is a verified hypothesis. 
 In fact, all the minor truths of chemistry and 
 physics may be regarded as verified hypotheses, 
 while all the grander conceptions of science may 
 be regarded as unverified hypotheses. For in- 
 stance, the nature of atoms, the existence and 
 constitution of the ether, the nature of energy 
 and the mystery of its transformation into heat, 
 light, and motion, the origin of life and organism, 
 — these are but a few among many examples of 
 unverified hypotheses. 
 
 The attitude of the scientific mind towards 
 the foundations of scientific thought is one of 
 indiflFerence. The scientist is concerned with 
 the relations of phenomena, not with the deter- 
 mination of the value of that upon which such 
 relations rest ; thus he does not think that the 
 superstructure of science will fall to pieces if the 
 ground under it is taken away. To him it 
 
46 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 matters not if ether, matter, force, life, and mind 
 remain undefined ; for science will progress, he 
 says, as long as scientific propositions are actu- 
 ally verified to our satisfaction. He Clings to 
 perception and mathematical reasoning, i.e. a 
 coSrdination of these two, continually checking 
 the one by the other, a method which forms 
 the essence of induction. 
 
 Here we see the limitation of scientific reason- 
 ing, which consists in giving preference to a 
 part over the whole of human experience; why 
 one part of experience should be favoured at 
 the cost of all others is never explained. The 
 scientist only believes in perception ; his belief 
 in inference is only very partial. He has 
 supreme faith in facts which can be demon- 
 strated on the lecture table, but he never waxes 
 enthusiastic over subjects which are inferred. 
 A strict scientist does not really believe in ether, 
 in atoms, or mind, or life ; and why ? Because 
 he is not able to produce them by artificial means 
 in his laboratory, and so he dismisses the ether 
 with the remark that it is a suitable idea to 
 work with ! What is most annoying is that the 
 scientist denotes as "real" the cofttents of per- 
 ception, and as "imaginary" the contents of 
 other parts of experience. Viewed in this light, 
 not only the fundamental conception of science 
 itself, but also the root idea of religion and 
 philosophy must be labelled as "imaginary." 
 For according to this method of reasoning, not 
 only are our conceptions of God and the im- 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 47 
 
 mortality of the soul imaginary, but also time, 
 space, causality, as well as matter, force, and 
 the ether. 
 
 It is clearly evident that no sane person will 
 go so far as to deny everything that is not 
 supported by the testimony of the senses ; for 
 sensations cannot be explained unless we assume 
 the existence of time, space, and causality, neither 
 can these be explained unless we assume a con- 
 scious soul ; after which the assumption of the 
 relation of soul to an eternal duration and an 
 eternal ground becomes a logical necessity. 
 
 It is not my desire to belittle Western science, 
 but what I do assert is that the scientist cannot 
 claim that perception is the only source of 
 knowledge, for that doctrine has been exploded 
 by many philosophers, both in ancient and 
 modern times. If universal truth be the aim 
 of science, it follows that perception cannot be 
 the sole source of knowledge, for the idea of 
 the Universal is the contribution of reason. 
 Science seeks to arrange facts in such a way as 
 to conform to the universal standard, and so 
 far as its efforts are turned in this direction, it 
 cannot but confess that the universal comes from 
 some other sphere than that of the senses, and 
 if it is not in the senses it must be in the mind. 
 If, on the other hand, the reality of theimiversal 
 — of which the scientist is conscious within him- 
 self — is denied, then by what instrument is it 
 possible to test the truth of the results achieved 
 by his investigations? Unless there is the 
 
48 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 assumption of a universal standard of truth in 
 the mind of the professor of science as well as 
 in that of his pupils, all science will be a chaos, 
 the fantasy of a dream.^ 
 
 This then gives us a clue as to how we should 
 start in judging the contents of oiu" experience. 
 It shows that we have to accept the revelations 
 of human consciousness in their entirety, or not 
 at all. This consciousness is comprehensive 
 enough to include our knowledge of the sensible 
 as well as of the supersensible ; it includes the 
 scientific, religious, and philosophical experi- 
 ences of man. All these varied experiences can 
 be fitted into each other and harmonized with 
 the universal in the human, for if "that which 
 is " be really one and indivisible, there cannot be 
 any contradiction between one order of experi- 
 ence and another ; all that happens must yield 
 to a rational interpretation — this is the great 
 teaching of the Vedanta. 
 
 To the conscious soul all is experience, 
 whether sensuous or supersensuous, positive or 
 mystic, philosophic or logic. It is from this high 
 altitude of the soul, as conscious and absolute, 
 that we have to look upon the variety of experi- 
 ences like different parts of a great palace in 
 which each apartment bears some relation to 
 the whole, and the plan of the whole cannot be 
 properly understood without taking into con- 
 sideration each separate room. 
 
 The trend of modern scientific speculation is 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
in THEISM: GOD AND MAN 49 
 
 towards monism. (1) It has been said that 
 ether is the source of all power, that matter and 
 energy are only diflPerent vibrations of that im- 
 ponderable and ubiquitous substance, and that 
 heat, light, and electricity are manifestations of 
 the same. (2) It has also been said that "life" 
 is the source of all — the life that circulates in 
 animal and vegetable organisms, and which, 
 although diflPerent in quality from other forms 
 of motion such as heat and light, etc., also 
 possesses magnetic and electrical properties. 
 Life may therefore be regarded as primal sub- 
 stance, and motion as a secondary transforma- 
 tion of it. (3) Mind has also been looked upon 
 as the original substance, life as secondary, and 
 force as a tertiary development of mind, for 
 without mind it is not possible to conceive of 
 either life or force. Will is prior to the muscular 
 expenditure of energy. Mind is superior to life, 
 because mind controls life and, through life, 
 energy. It is, in fact, impossible to conceive 
 of a primal, fundamental substance without the 
 attributes of mind, life, and energy. 
 
 This is what Kapila taught when he said that 
 Mahat (Intelligence) is the first evolution of the 
 Unmanifested, and that in Mahat, sattva pre- 
 dominates over raja and raja over tama. This 
 is scientific monism ; it is also the teaching of 
 Herbert Spencer. 
 
 All great philosophical scientists have recog- 
 nised the existence of an original, universal sub- 
 stance, out of which the universe has evolved. 
 
50 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 but the existence of this substance cannot be 
 proved by perception, it can only be imagined. 
 Without imagination, which in this sense is 
 closely allied to intuition, or reason, it would not 
 be possible to conjecture the existence of some- 
 thing which is prior to all experience, and which 
 is the soul of experience. It is this imagination 
 — call it what you like — which gives to the 
 religious man his God, to the philosopher his 
 Absolute, and to the scientist his Substance, 
 Energy, or Ether. In the Scriptures of all 
 religions, intuition (i.e. imagination, reason) 
 goes by the name of revelation ; in philosophy 
 it appears as the synthetic activity of the soul, 
 while in science it is called generalisation ; but 
 in each case it is a vision — a faculty of the soul. 
 When the soul moves on the plane of the In- 
 driyas (senses), it sees the play of the cosmic law. 
 As the soul rises higher, above the universe of 
 change and motion, it sees the One whose name 
 is Love, to dwell in Whom is to enjoy rest and 
 peace. The religious experience of humanity 
 is full of lessons to the students of psychology. 
 The revelation that comes to us through the 
 gateway of worship is much more substantial, 
 much more real than that which comes through 
 the avenue of the senses. 
 
 This idea, that the same Reality is known 
 to poets and philosophers, to theologians and 
 scientists, under different names, was vividly 
 realized by our ancient Rishis. In their yearn- 
 ing to catch a glimpse of the One Eternal, they 
 
ni THEISM: GOD AND MAN 61 
 
 realised that the truth of inner perception cannot 
 be uttered in words, hence each one in the 
 endeavour to express Him will use the word 
 which to his mind is the most closely associated 
 with all transcending attributes : 
 
 Ekam sat Viprah Bahudha Vadanti. Agnim 
 Yamam Matarisvanam ahuh. 
 
 That which exists is One. Sages call it variously 
 the Fire Substance, Providence, the breathing in 
 Space.* ' 
 
 This is the earliest utterance of the unity of 
 the Godhead in the history of mankind. All 
 monotheistic religions and all monistic philo- 
 sophies are mere ramifications of this central 
 thought of the Rishis of the Vedas. This idea 
 of One Truth was revealed to the mind of the 
 ancient seers of India. 
 
 It must be understood that the revelation of 
 One God was anterior to the period of philo- 
 sophical, theological, or scientific speculation. 
 In those early days man's intuition was clearer 
 than it is now; God breathed the Truth into 
 the soul of the Rishis, as it has been beauti- 
 fully expressed in the Rig Veda : 
 
 Anit avatam svadhya tat ekam, tasmat ha anyat 
 na parah kim chana asa. 
 
 That One breathed breathlessly by Itself, other 
 than It there nothing since has been.* 
 
 A true devotee does not require arguments 
 for the existence of God, he trusts his intuition. 
 
 ^ Big Veda, i. 164i. 4>6. ^ Ibid. x. IS^. i. 
 
52 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 To him the knowledge of God is the breath of 
 God. The reality of life consists in its loving 
 dependence on God. How can the glory of the 
 Beatific Vision be communicated to others 
 through the medium of a string of words? 
 Words yield meaning, but not Reality. 
 
 The Vedic Age is the age of God-intuition. 
 The many aspects of the one God, seen through 
 the medium of many moods of many minds, are 
 to be found in the hymns of the Sama and Rig 
 Vedas. He has been called Prajapati, the Lord 
 of all created beings ; Visva-Karman, the Maker 
 of all ; Visvadeva, the God of all. The mono- 
 theistic religion of the Vedic Rishis was followed 
 by the monistic philosophy of the Rishis of the 
 Upanishads. The early Vedic Rishis saw a 
 personal God who is all-good and all-wise and 
 all-powerful — "Who established the earth and 
 the sky, who gives life and strength, Whose 
 shadow is immortality and mortality, Who is 
 the sole King of this breathing, slumbering 
 world. Whose greatness is reflected in the snowy 
 mountains and the seas. Who concealed the 
 generating fire in the sap of the great waters. 
 Who created heaven and earth, to Whom all 
 men bow with trembling minds, over Whom the 
 rising sun casts a mellow radiance, and Who is 
 the life of bright gods and righteous men." 
 To this God the Rishis offered their homage 
 and adoration. 
 
 But philosophical inquiry into the nature of 
 the One God — which appears to have taken 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 53 
 
 place in the age succeeding that of monotheistic 
 rehgion — led the Rishis of that time to what is 
 called philosophical monism. In their search 
 for God they travelled far into the regions 
 of metaphysical thought; and they doubted 
 whether the instrument of search was competent 
 to .yield any result. Nature is silent, she 
 never speaks of her Lord. The human mind is 
 dumb, it cannot tell us what makes it think. 
 Where, then, is there any hope of knowing God ? 
 Yet even while we doubt, hope spontaneously 
 whispers in our ears, bringing a message, as it 
 were, from an Unknown Friend in the space 
 beyond. 
 
 I cannot resist the temptation of translating 
 a hymn, in order to show how the soul of the 
 Rishi struggled to catch a glimpse of the Being 
 who is beyond all thought and all expression. 
 Many scholars have confessed their inability to 
 comprehend this sublime hymn to the Absolute 
 Being, for in it the Rishi tries to conceive of 
 God as He is — apart from creation and apart 
 from our conception of Him : 
 
 In the beginning there was neither the Unreal nor the 
 Real. 
 
 Were there these spheres of light? Or the heavens 
 beyond ? 
 
 What? and by what enveloped? Where? and for 
 whose enjoyment? 
 
 Was there the primal Ether, the source and end of all 
 that is — deep, infinite, immeasurable ? 
 
 There was neither death nor aught deathless, nor dark- 
 ness separate from light. 
 
54 BRAHMADARSANAM m 
 
 That One alone, unbreathing, lived ; with It the shadowy 
 
 veil subsisted (not Being nor non-Being) ; other 
 
 than It there nothing was. 
 Before the birth of all things this world lay sleeping in 
 
 the womb of the Prime Cause, like gloom in darkness 
 
 hidden. 
 Each in the other merged, inseparate as sea from sea ; 
 When by the potent majesty of Thought, pulsing with 
 
 creative purpose. 
 This single, self-poised Whole from out its shroud of 
 
 nothingness broke forth. 
 Ere yet all This arose, together with the One was 
 
 Love; 
 And there lay floating an inchoate mass — the seed of 
 
 life and matter — 
 Remnant of bygone creations, of hopes deferred and 
 
 ends unrealised. 
 (In the light of their wisdom, musing in their hearts, 
 
 thus have the poets seen — loosing the Real from 
 
 its bond, the Unreal.) 
 Out from them all shot scintillating lines of rays, all- 
 spreading, swift, Uke doud-bom fiery flashes ; 
 Whither flamed they forth ? Athwart, above, below ? 
 Some were enjoyers, seed-showerers and reapers of the 
 
 harvest ; 
 Some, of vast power and magnitude, fields of enjoyment; 
 While some again the substance were of sustenance, 
 
 nourishing the fathers and the gods. 
 In order first evolved, and higher, — those — these later 
 
 formed and lower. 
 Who then knows in truth ? Who here may utter it ? 
 Whence streams This forth? This manifold of life and 
 
 mind, of what composed ? and whither moving ? 
 The Devas, by the Word made manifest, after this 
 
 Bursting-forth shone into being; 
 Who then shall know whence This arose ? 
 Where had creation birth ? Whether or no upheld ? 
 If He uphold it not — what mortal or immortal can ? 
 
ra THEISM: GOD AND MAN 55 
 
 He who is its highest Seer, in the supreme space beyond 
 
 as in the inmost heart of all, 
 — Self-luminous, its perfect Life and Joy and Essence — 
 He surely knows the whence and whither of it aU ; 
 If He know not — what mortal or immortal knows ? ' 
 
 If we study this hymn, which must have 
 been, I will not say composed, but revealed to 
 the Rishi many thousands of years ago, we 
 shall discover that it contains all the funda- 
 mental elements of the religious, philosophic, 
 and scientific consciousness of humanity. In the 
 first place, it hints at the Absolute of philosophy, 
 which, although beyond human thought, must 
 be retained as a symbol of speech to denote 
 the Highest, in order that the experience of 
 the relative may be intelligible. In the second 
 place, it assumes the existence, prior to creation, 
 of a subtle substance (called by the Rishi 
 "tamasa," darkness), which carried within itself 
 the seed of living and inorganic matter. Lastly, 
 the poet shows the right attitude towards a 
 conception of the Cause of the universe, viz. the 
 attitude of an open mind, when he says that 
 philosophers can explain the process of evolu- 
 tion, but not the origin of the universe. 
 
 Apart from these considerations, this hymn 
 strikes me as pointing to one supreme fact, viz. 
 that within the soul there is a faculty which 
 you may call intuition, or reason, or imagination 
 (it is Pratisya in the original), which sees the 
 universe as a whole, which sees the root cause 
 
 1 Big Veda. x. 11, 129. 
 
56 BRAHMADARSANAM m 
 
 of the universe, and the Impersonal God. All 
 the Darsanas have testified to the existence of 
 this faculty, and the arguments which Indian 
 philosophers have used — to prove the existence 
 of God — appeal to us so forcibly because of the 
 self-revelation of this faculty within ourselves. 
 These argimients, which I am about to pass in 
 review, only serve to confirm the information 
 which we have already received from the light 
 of our own souls. 
 
 Kapila acknowledged the existence of two 
 kinds of "free souls": the great and small; 
 but he denied that the great souls would care 
 to create a world ; he also denied the possibility 
 of proving the existence of a creator of the 
 universe. This defect in Kapila's philosophy 
 was supplemented by Patanjali who taught a 
 theistic philosophy also called Yoga, in which 
 he says that there are different grades of souls, 
 one class higher in majesty than the other. 
 There is a class of souls called the Devas (bright 
 ones) who are endowed with greater power and 
 goodness than human beings. Above the Devas 
 there are still higher beings, and the highest of 
 all in power, goodness, knowledge, and holiness 
 is God, who is the Teacher of all superhuman 
 and human beings. Patanjali claims that this 
 Divine Teacher can be seen in the light of our in- 
 ward-turned thought, provided that all the 
 impediments which stand betwixt God and man 
 are removed. 
 
 The idea of God as a Teacher has found an 
 
Ill THEISM: GOD AND MAN 57 
 
 echo in the heart of every great thinker, from 
 Plato downwards. Who is it who solves our 
 doubts and perplexities ? Are we not conscious 
 of an inner Monitor who chides us gently for 
 our wayward thoughts and leads us to light and 
 truth? Every great poet, philosopher, and 
 scientist would confess that the truth which 
 they teach they found within, in some way not 
 known to themselves. 
 
 Patanjali's argument for the existence of God 
 is not inferential but introspective. It is based 
 upon the fact of our inner development in the 
 knowledge of the Divine. The Oversoul speaks 
 to the soul, and those who seek for truth find 
 the answer in their hearts. There is also another 
 and more objective ground upon which this 
 argument rests : Whence do the prophets and 
 sages derive their knowledge, and where do they 
 go after passing away from this life ? We must 
 assume that after learning all that could be 
 learnt on this earth, these great souls are still 
 progressing in virtue and wisdom in a higher 
 sphere of existence. They are there, sitting at 
 the feet of masters who are greater than they, 
 imbibing knowledge, the nature of which we 
 are not able to conceive. Finally, the most 
 chosen spirits, the super-archangels, those 
 Kumaras, mind-born offspring of the Highest, 
 are enjoying the glory of direct communion with 
 God. Thus, according to Patanjali, God is the 
 ne plus ultra, the highest height of perfection, 
 the most glorious light of wisdom. 
 
58 BRAHMADARSANAM iii 
 
 Patanjali's idea of God is not that of a world- 
 builder, nor yet a ruler, but rather an omniscient 
 Spirit who is in touch with all grades of spirits. 
 
 Next to Patanjali I should mention Narada, 
 whose argument in favour of belief in the supreme 
 God is drawn from man's love for Him, and His 
 love for man. Patanjali also says that man 
 attains God through love. Narada taught that 
 the God-vision comes through complete self- 
 surrender; man cannot but love God, because 
 He is the personification of love. He is also 
 Rasa, the soul of delight ; He is Satyam Sivam 
 Sundaram, the True, the Good, and the Beauti- 
 ful ; it is the infinite beauty of God which at- 
 tracts the soul of man. Narada defines Love as 
 devotion to God, and he adds that Love is im- 
 mortal. In order to understand the logic and 
 the psychology of this argument, we must turn 
 to the great philosopher Bharati Tirtha, author 
 of the Panchadasi. 
 
 It is a fact, he says, that we love ourselves. 
 Nobody hates himself or herself; we all take 
 care to preserve the health of our minds and 
 bodies, and although there are people who wish 
 to die, and some who commit suicide, that only 
 proves that they are dissatisfied with their 
 present condition, not that they do not love 
 their own selves. They want to die because 
 they think that by dying they can escape from 
 misery or shame, and thereby save their souls 
 from sufifering. Self-love is the motive of all 
 our actions. Why do we love ourselves? Or 
 
in THEISM: GOD AND MAN 59 
 
 rather, what is it that we really love ? We love 
 the beautiful; in the depths of our hearts we 
 long to escape from ugliness and to be with the 
 beautiful. This is true of the inner as of the 
 outer life. We love the self because it is beauti- 
 ful. A man's mind may be ugly, his body may 
 be deformed, but still he loves the self which is 
 hidden behind the ego. Now we have to con- 
 sider why it is that we love the self ; we have 
 just said that we love it because it is beautiful, 
 but what does this beauty signify? It is not 
 the beauty of colour, the beauty of harmony, 
 for that is not the property of the soul. It is 
 perfection, it is goodness, it is glory, it is Eternity. 
 These are the qualities of the Self, and Love is 
 immortal when it is given to this immortal Self. 
 For, if you consider rightly, you will find that 
 this self is the reflection of the Supreme Self, 
 and in Yoga the reflection lapses to its original 
 — to God; it goes back to the palace of the 
 Father, and is lighted up by His radiance. 
 
 Such love is equal to knowledge of the Divine, 
 for love tells of the object upon which it bestows 
 its wealth. God is immeasurable, because my 
 love for Him is immeasurable. The Vedantins 
 say that love for God is God's love for Himself, 
 because in true love there are no longer two, but 
 only One, lost in Its own light. 
 
 This is the philosophy upon which Narada's 
 argument is based, and he concludes by saying : 
 "Being loved, He soon manifests Himself and 
 makes Himself felt by His worshippers." Love 
 
60 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 God through duty, through worship, love Him 
 as His servant, as friend, as lover, as child, love 
 Him through self-sacrifice and through identifi- 
 cation. Let us not be separated from Him even 
 for so short a time as the twinkling of an eye. 
 
 The Rishis used to address God as "the Poet 
 of the Beautiful" and "the Fountain of De- 
 light," and this is the experience of all devotees, 
 of all worshippers, and of all mystics. This is 
 the universal testimony of religious conscious- 
 ness, and is as valid as the generalisations of 
 science, or the highest synthesis of philosophy. 
 
 Narada says that God can be seen by man 
 as an actual Presence when all thoughts, all 
 words, and all deeds are given up unto Him, 
 and when the least forgetfulness of Him makes 
 one intensely miserable — for then love has 
 begun. 
 
 Gotama was the father of Indian logic. It 
 is not known when he lived, but there is no doubt 
 that he flourished thousands of years before 
 Gautama the Buddha. His argument is well 
 known among Indian thinkers: he said that 
 it was impossible to prove the existence of the 
 Deity by means of arguments based on percep- 
 tion, inference, and revelation. Perception is 
 useless, because God is without form and is 
 therefore beyond the reach of the senses. In- 
 ference cannot prove Him, because there is no 
 universal middle term which can serve to link 
 up the conclusion with the data of perception ; 
 nor can revelation prove Him, because, accord- 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 61 
 
 ing to Gotama, the Scriptures are not co-eternal 
 with God. 
 
 But if the three instruments of knowledge, 
 viz. perception, inference, and revelation, are of 
 no use, how then can we assert His existence? 
 To this he replies that the world is an effect and 
 must therefore have a cause, for nothing can be 
 produced from nothing. God, in Whose Person 
 are combined omnipotence and omniscience, is 
 the cause of the world. There cannot be any 
 question as to the cause of God, because He is 
 Self -caused and Eternal. Why does God create ? 
 Because of His compassion. Gotama has used 
 another argument. Every act of man, he says, 
 produces its result, not by itself but through 
 the superintendence of God. For instance, how 
 can the virtuous deeds of a man be rewarded, 
 and the vicious ones punished, unless God con- 
 joins the former with reward and the latter with 
 punishment ? The effect of moral and immoral 
 action must be guided by an All-holy and im- 
 partial Judge. 
 
 A law is made by a law-giver and enforced 
 by a judge — so the moral law of retribution is 
 enforced by the Divine Governor of the world. 
 Gotama points out that all mankind agree in 
 making a distinction between things real and 
 eternal and things unreal and non-eternal. If 
 this distinction were not observed there would 
 be an end of truth and untruth. Gotama 
 teaches that as God only is real and eternal, the 
 eternal truth of all our thought and being, so 
 
62 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 we must please Him by doing our duty, and then 
 through His mercy we shall attain the salvation 
 of our souls. 
 
 There is reason to believe that Aristotle 
 derived his idea of God as the Unmoved Mover 
 of the Universe from Gotama. Like Gotama, 
 he believes that God is not so much the builder 
 as the governor of the world, because, according 
 to both Gotama and Aristotle, atoms are eternal. 
 Gotama's argument arises from an inner necessity 
 of thought which compels him to see in Nature 
 the working of an all-knowing Mind and Will. 
 
 I will now conclude this lecture by explaining 
 Sankara's arguments for the existence of God. 
 Sankara is an uncompromising monist, for whom 
 there exists but One Truth, One Reality. The 
 world has no existence at all by the side of 
 Brahman; but for all practical purposes we 
 seemingly believe that it exists, and for creating 
 the world a Creator is necessary. What is 
 God's motive in creating the world ? We can- 
 not ascribe any motive to God, for that would 
 limit His self -completeness ; neither can we say 
 that He had no motive, for then creation would 
 be impossible. What can we say, then, about 
 His motive in creation? Sankara's answer is 
 that God created the world without any motive, 
 purely for sport, just as a prince, or some rich 
 man, who has all that he requires, undertakes 
 to do something purely for sport and pastime. 
 This is called lild, or the sport theory of creation. 
 
 To the objection that God, as Creator of the 
 
Ill THEISM: GOD AND MAN 63 
 
 world, is responsible for all the evil in it, Sankara 
 answers that God does not act arbitrarily. He 
 acts with a view to bring about the fulfilment of 
 what each man has done in a previous birth; 
 the world is a place where the soul passes through 
 experiences according to its merits or demerits 
 in a previous life. The body is a plant which 
 grows up from the seed and dies — but not com- 
 pletely, something is left behind, and the seed 
 which is strewn in the soil of nescience brings 
 forth another plant. This seed is the soul's 
 Karma (works). The new birth varies according 
 to the quality of the seed ; happiness and misery 
 depend upon the form of birth. In the growth 
 of the plant from the seed, God's influence may 
 be compared to the influence of raia which causes 
 the plant to shoot, while the outward growth 
 depends upon atmospheric conditions, such as 
 heat, light, moisture, etc.; but the future of 
 plants depends, not upon outward conditions, 
 but upon the natiu-e of the seed itself — the 
 seed of wheat brings forth wheat, the seed of 
 mustard brings forth mustard, and so on. 
 
 This idea of God's relation to the world pre- 
 supposes the assumption that the world, and 
 the souls in it, are beginningless and endless. 
 But the whole of this argument applies only to 
 the world of Maya, i.e. the world of form and 
 movement which only exists in what is called 
 Avidya, ignorance. With the passing away of 
 Avidya, nothing remains but true God. 
 
 It is not possible to understand these argu- 
 
64 BRAHMADARSANAM iii 
 
 ments of Patan jali, Gotama, Narada, and Sankara 
 unless they are studied and compared with their 
 teachings on all other subjects. I do not think 
 they would have appealed to the minds of the 
 last generation of men and women, whose under- 
 standings were perverted by the philosophy of 
 positivism, whose moral senses were blunted by 
 the utilitarian school, and whose tastes were 
 corrupted by the doctrine of realism in art, 
 poetry, and literature. But at present there are 
 signs of a new age, the heralding of another 
 dawn, when we may hope to see the renaissance 
 of Idealism in a return to faith and knowledge 
 in religion, to self-renunciation and fraternity in 
 morals, and to symbolism in art and literature. 
 Already there are signs of these on the horizon 
 of the West. Let us hope for great, noble, and 
 mighty things of the soul. 
 
 The Darsanas are eyes through which we see 
 the Truth. All the arguments which have been 
 advanced to prove the existence of the Deity 
 are but so many attempts to express in words 
 that which we all feel within to be the only 
 Truth. One aspect of the One is expressed in 
 science, while the other is embodied in the psalms 
 and hymns of religion. In the Gitd we find the 
 highest synthesis of religion and science ; in it 
 Sri Krishna teaches that the Presence of the 
 Divine, of which the worshipper becomes con- 
 scious in prayer, is none other than what is 
 known as the Ultimate, or the Absolute, or the 
 Unmanifested, in philosophy and science. 
 
Ill THEISM: GOD AND MAN 65 
 
 Some men by meditation, using contemplation 
 upon the Self, behold the Spirit within, others 
 attain to that end by scientific and philosophical 
 speculation, and others, again, by the practice of 
 virtue and service of humanity. 
 
 In the case of those who are not learned but 
 have heard about Him from others, who cleave 
 unto Him and worship Him; even these, if assidu- 
 ous only upon tradition and attentive to hearing 
 the Scriptiu"es, — even these pass beyond the gulf of 
 death.' 
 
 I think that the aim of science is to become 
 'philosophy, the aim of philosophy is to become 
 religion, the aim of religion is to seek God, and 
 thus the aim of humanity is to become Divine. 
 The mind of man is endeavouring to find its 
 source through many-sided activities and specula- 
 tions — all of which are different ways of worship. 
 
 The progress of the soul has been beautifully 
 illustrated by Bhagavan Ramakrishna in a 
 parable. A poor man once met a Sannyasin and 
 asked him where he could get some wood. The 
 Sannyasin replied," Go ahead !" The man acted 
 accordingly, and found some dry wood which he 
 gathered together, sold in the market, and got 
 some money. After some time he remembered 
 the Sannyasin's advice and went out again, but 
 this time a little farther into the depths of the 
 forest, and there he discovered an iron mine: 
 he soon became very rich by selling iron ore. 
 After a little while he thought he would go a 
 
 1 Bhagavad Gitd, xiii. 24, 25. 
 
66 BRAHMADARSANAM m 
 
 little farther on the other side of the hill and 
 see what he could find there. The result of this 
 expedition was the discovery of a gold mine. 
 After the lapse of many years he thought that 
 he would try again and discover something yet 
 more precious. He did so; the result was a 
 diamond mine, and he became a millionaire. 
 
 This is also the case with the soul. Man's 
 first curiosity is to know the secrets of nature, 
 and the result of this investigation is science. 
 Then he begins to wonder about his own mind — 
 the knowing power which he has within himself 
 — and he discovers philosophy. Very soon he 
 becomes dissatisfied, both with science and with 
 philosophy, which appear to his advanced mind 
 as mere toys. Then it is that he longs to dis- 
 cover his soul. Religion is knowledge of the 
 soul ; and here he rests, for the real soul is the 
 real God. Nothing but the true Reality can 
 give us rest and peace. 
 
 This God-knowledge is man's salvation. 
 Every day science is progressing towards God- 
 knowledge. The visions of the ancient Rishis — 
 the prophets of India — have been re-echoed in 
 the works of Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, 
 Whitman, and Edward Carpenter. The Akasa 
 and Agni of the Vedas have risen again from the 
 ashes of time and have been made familiar to 
 us as Ether and Electricity by Thompson and 
 Crookes. The recent utterances of Sir Oliver 
 Lodge on "Life as a guiding principle" carry us 
 back to the ancient Indian conception of Prana. 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 67 
 
 The animating principle or the vital spark 
 within the physiology of animals possesses so 
 many wonderful characteristics that we can in 
 no way understand its function in terms of 
 matter and force. The central idea of life is 
 forethought, which Lodge happily calls "guid- 
 ance." By its very nature life seeks to guide 
 and control, not 6nly its immediate envelope, 
 the body, but also its greater environment, 
 the powers of nature. It can by its own nature 
 produce as much change on matter (and this 
 for its own sake) as sunlight on a photographic 
 plate, or radium emanation on gas. 
 
 This conception of life as a guiding principle 
 and not as a physical force was understood many 
 centuries ago by the Rishis, as will be seen from 
 the following passage : 
 
 Sa yatha prayogya acharane yukta ebam eba 
 yam asmin sarire prano yuktah. 
 
 As an agent behaves for him who appoints him, 
 so life guides the psycho-physical organism.' 
 
 Life in this passage is not considered as a 
 physical force, but as a directing agency guiding 
 the material forces of the body, as will be seen 
 from Sankara's commentary, where he remarks 
 "that as a car is drawn by horses or by oxen, or 
 as a superintendent, appointed by a king, leads 
 the various servants of the state, so life controls 
 the functions of the senses and organs, and 
 guides them to enjoy the results of an action." 
 1 Vpanishad, Chhdndogya, viii. 12, 3. 
 
68 BRAHMADARSANAM in 
 
 The new world is coming round to the wisdom 
 of the old. Science is no longer atheistic as it is 
 popularly believed to be by those who have not 
 kept themselves in touch with the changed out- 
 look of modern scientific thought. No one 
 realises more the immensity of the Power behind 
 nature, or feels more the inadequacy of thought 
 and language to express it, than does the true 
 scientist. No one feels the humiliation of the 
 pride of intellect more than did that greatest 
 representative of science in our era, Sir Isaac 
 Newton, when he said : "I have been but as a 
 child playing on the seashore ; now finding some 
 pebble rather more polished, and now some shell 
 rather more agreeably variegated than another, 
 while the immense ocean of truth extended it- 
 self unexplored before me." 
 
 The real scientist does not deny God although 
 he is silent about Him. 
 
 Once a philosopher went to see a mystic. 
 They sat side by side without speaking, and 
 when they parted the mystic said to the philo- 
 sopher, "I feel all you think," and the philo- 
 sopher replied, "I cannot even think all that 
 you feel." 
 
 It is recorded that on one occasion Ruskin 
 paid a visit to Carlyle, and they spent the whole 
 afternoon together without exchanging a single 
 word, yet on parting the two friends shook one 
 another warmly by the hand, saying, "What 
 a glorious afternoon we have spent together ! " 
 
 We can listen to God in silence. One of His 
 
m THEISM: GOD AND MAN 69 
 
 names in Sanscrit is Nirab, the Silent. And it 
 sometimes seems to me, when I watch the 
 heavens in the silence of the night, as if the stars, 
 in the profound silence of space, were listening 
 to the eternal music of the Divine. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Narada Bhakti Sutra. 
 
 Panchadasi, i. 8-13, xii. 23-30. 
 
 Tarkasamgraha, xvii. 
 
 Nyaya Sutra. 
 
 Brahma Sutra, i. 4, 23-27. 
 
 Sariraka, p. 490. 
 
 Ramkrishna Kathamrta (translated as "The Gospel of 
 
 Sri Ramakrishna"). 
 Chhandogya Upanishad. 
 Sir Oliver Lodge's Works, especially "Life and Matter," 
 
 p. 134. 
 Atharva Veda, ii. 2-24, 1-16. 
 SandUya Sutra. 
 Rig Veda, x. 82, 3 ; x. 129, 1 ; i. 59, 1 ; iii. 53, 8 ; i. 168, 
 
 20 ; X. 72, 5 ; v. 62, 8 ; i. 89, 10 ; x. 90, 6 ; iii. 17, 4 ; 
 
 vi. 7, 4 ; vii. 4, 6 ; i. 31, 7; vi. 9, 5-6; vi. 8, 3 ; vi. 
 
 7,7; iii. 20,4. 
 
IV 
 
 MONISM: MAN AS ASPECT OF THE 
 DIVINE 
 
 Aspects of consciousness — Beli^ous systems without a God — 
 Philosophy of relation — Ramanuja's qualified monism. 
 
 The function of philosophy, strictly speaking, 
 is the formulation of the relation between con- 
 sciousness and the object presented to it. What 
 consciousness is in itself is indescribable, for 
 the subject of consciousness cannot know itself 
 without objectification. In the Upanishads 
 the personal aspect of consciousness has been 
 named Jnata, or the knower, one who knows ; 
 while the non-personal aspect is called Jneya, 
 the object known ; and the middle term — that 
 which connects Jnata (subject) with Jneya 
 (object) — is termed Jnana, knowledge. The 
 field of consciousness is trisected into (1) the 
 knowing mind, (2) the presentatibn, and (3) the 
 process of knowing. To use an illustration from 
 the physical universe : the picture on the wall is 
 the Jneya (presentation), the light in the room 
 is the Jnana (knowledge), and my eyes are the 
 
 70 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 71 
 
 counterpart of Jnata (knower). Of these three, 
 the eyes can see the picture and the light, but 
 the eyes cannot see themselves. Similarly, if 
 you apply this imagery to the mind, you will 
 understand that consciousness can comprehend 
 the presentation (Jneya) as well as the middle 
 term (Jnana), but not the Jnata (subject). As 
 Yajnavalkya says, "How can you see the seer 
 of seeing, how can you hear the hearer of hearing, 
 how can you understand the understander of 
 understanding.?" The nature of the knower 
 is imintelKgible. At the same time we can 
 predicate two attributes : first, that it exists, 
 and secondly, that its nature is knowledge. The 
 most mysterious point about the subject is that, 
 as Sankara says, it can know other things, but 
 it cannot make itself the object of its own know- 
 ledge. I, who know, can never be my object, 
 for in that case it ceases to be of the nature of 
 the subject. Hence the Rishis used to say, 
 "It is different from what is known. It is also 
 beyond what is not known." This principle of 
 consciousness, this knower, this seer, is also 
 called Aksharam, the Imperishable. 
 
 "This Imperishable is seeing, not seen; 
 hearing, not heard ; understanding, not under- 
 stood; knowing, not known; for outside It, 
 there is no seer ; outside It, there is no hearer ; 
 outside It, there is none with understanding; 
 outside It, there is none with knowledge. He 
 who knows not this Imperishable, O Gargi, is 
 miserable." This was taught to Gargi, the 
 
72 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 daughter of Vacaknu, by Yajnavalkya. This is 
 Aksharam ; this Imperishable is the alpha and 
 omega of the Upanishads. Let us call it the 
 consciousness of the Absolute. 
 
 In the language of the Chhandogya Upani- 
 shad, this is to be sought in the Dahar Akasa — 
 in the inner space within the lotus chamber of 
 the heart. Like a man standing on a piece of 
 ground under which a treasure Kes buried, but 
 ignorant of what is hidden there, so the intellect 
 is unconscious of this Imperishable upon which 
 it stands. 
 
 Descartes had a faint glimpse of this Aksha- 
 ram when he uttered the profound philosophical 
 principle, Cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore 
 I exist." This is also what Spinoza meant by 
 Being — single, infinite, and beyond which there 
 is no being — something eternal and infinite — 
 love which would fill the mind with joy and joy 
 alone. This is also the Neo-Platonic conception 
 of God as the Absolute One, Unity beyond all 
 difiference, to which no predicates can be at- 
 tached, of which nothing can be affirmed or ex- 
 pressed. He is neither consciousness nor uncon- 
 sciousness, neither freedom nor unfreedom, for 
 all such opposites pertain to the realm of finite 
 things. He gives life, yet Himself lives not. He 
 is all and the negation of all. 
 
 Even when we name Him "the One" we 
 must exclude any thought of numerical unity, 
 for that contains the idea of multiplicity. Only 
 by negation can we define Him. He is in- 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 73 
 
 expressible, for all speech names some definite 
 thing. He is incomprehensible, for all thought 
 distinguishes between itself and its objects. If 
 we would grasp Him, it is only by an act of 
 intuition in which the mind rises above thought 
 and becomes one with its object. This is the 
 teaching of Plotinus. 
 
 This consciousness of the Absolute is beyond 
 the sphere of psychology, cosmology, and episte- 
 mology, though it is the common ground of them 
 all as well as that of religion, ethics, and the 
 natural sciences ; for the Absolute cannot be 
 proved, as it is the basis (Asraya) of the act of 
 proving. Consequently it is self-evident and 
 true beyond all proof. Neither can it be denied : 
 that which is foreign to our nature can be denied, 
 but that which is our own being cannot be 
 denied. As Sankara says: "When it is said, 
 it is I who now know what at present exists, it 
 is I who knew the past, it is I who will know the 
 future, it is implied in these words that even 
 when the object of knowledge alters, the knower 
 does not alter — for he is in the past, present, 
 and future, for his essence is eternally present" 
 (sarvada vartamana svabhavatvad) . Or, as the 
 Taittiriya Upanishad says : 
 
 He is but non-existent who knows Brahman as non- 
 existent. 
 
 He who knows Brahman as Existent becomes himself 
 by this Existent. 
 
 The Absolute becomes the Personal God of 
 religion. Our religious experience is not original. 
 
74 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 but is derived from the Self-evident Absolute. 
 God, as the expression is understood by the 
 worshipper, is a Presence which is objective to 
 him. The word prayer implies a presentation 
 of love or petition to another who is higher and 
 greater. Just as without self-cognition there 
 cannot be the cognition of the world, so without 
 the consciousness of the Absolute Brahman 
 there cannot be any knowledge of the Isvara, or 
 Personal God. 
 
 As Kapila derives Mahat (the great Under- 
 standing) from Avyakta (the Unmanifested) by 
 a process of metaphysical dialectic, so the Rishis 
 of the Vedas got the knowledge of Isvara from 
 their intuition of Brahman. It shows the transi- 
 tion of the mind from the Universal to the 
 Individual, from Being to Becoming, from that 
 which is to that which does, and from theoretical 
 knowledge to practical worship. In the Upani- 
 shads, the Absolute Brahman is described as 
 without diflPerences (visesha), attributes (guna), 
 limitations (upadhi), and forms (akara). This 
 Absolute stands opposed to the demands of our 
 empirical knowledge as well as of exoteric 
 theology. Empirical knowledge concerns itself 
 with the phenomenal universe, and exoteric 
 theology busies itself with worship (upasana), 
 and the relation of God to the act of creation, 
 by bringing the Godhead under an intelligible 
 form. From this you must not conclude that 
 the Rishis teach the existence of two Gods — one 
 Absolute and the other relative, one attribute- 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 75 
 
 less and the other with attributes, one im- 
 personal and the other personal. No, far from 
 it, they are never tired of emphasising the 
 existence of the one and only God, so much so 
 that they say that God is the only true Reality, 
 and that beside Him there is nothing else to 
 which reality can be ascribed, not even man or 
 nature. 
 
 For what reason, then, do they make a dis- 
 tinction ? The distinction is inevitable for three 
 reasons : (1) owing to the construction .of human 
 intelligence ; (2) owing to the dififerent levels of 
 spiritual perception in different persons; and 
 (3) on account of the nature of human language 
 through which thought and experience are forced 
 to express themselves. 
 
 In a community of perfect beings, endowed 
 with perfect understanding, God, who is the 
 perfection of truth, would appear to be the 
 same. To the free beings (Mukta purushas) 
 who are sometimes called the impersonal souls 
 (Amanava purushas) who do not require the aid 
 of language to express their feelings — to them 
 the distinction between the Absolute and the 
 relative would be meaningless. But on our 
 plane, so long as there exists diversity of thought, 
 and diversity of inclination and action, the Ideal, 
 revealed in our experiences, will emerge shaped 
 and coloured by the idiosyncrasies of our speech, 
 our brains, our standpoints, and the culture of 
 the age in which we live. Thus we find that 
 the philosophic-minded Yajnavalkya expressed 
 
76 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 his intuition by Aksharam (the negation of all 
 that changes), by Amritam (the negation of 
 all that dies), and the worshipping heart of 
 Ranmnuja- called Him the embodiment of all 
 good and perfect quaUties (kalyangunakara, 
 niravadya), and the scientific brain of Kapila 
 conceived Him as the Avyakta (Unmanifested 
 source of Nature). Consciousness, when it is in 
 itself, perceives its identity with the Absolute. 
 There is then no distinction between subject and 
 object ; but when it is individualised, it becomes 
 trisected into subject, knowledge, and object. 
 In its state of individuality it stands confronted 
 by Creator and creation, the latter dependent 
 on the former. Religious experience is essenti- 
 ally triangidar — perfect God, imperfect man, 
 and the offerings of worship. 
 
 What are the contents of religious conscious- 
 ness? In order to examine the contents of 
 religious consciousness, we must analyse the 
 condition of our minds when we are in a worship- 
 ping mood. In order to draw a scientific con- 
 clusion we must examine all varieties of religious 
 experience among the worshippers of all nations. 
 For this purpose it will be convenient to examine 
 three classes of minds : 
 
 (1) Those who meditate on the essential iden- 
 tity of the Eternal Spirit with the finite soul. 
 
 (2) Those who recognise the similarity in 
 essence of God and man, at the same time 
 noticing a difference between the two in quality, 
 in power and holiness ; and 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 77 
 
 (3) Those who believe that there is no point 
 of similarity between God and man, and who pray 
 to God for protection, worldly prosperity, etc. 
 
 These three classes are known in India as the 
 Advaitins, the Visistadva,itins, and the Dvaitins. 
 The experience of the Advaitins, at the time of 
 worship, is expressed by such words as profound 
 qmet, surpassing peace, and eternal joy. They 
 come out from the sanctuary of the soul with 
 faces shining with the light of peace. The 
 experience of the Visistadvaitins is of the 
 emotional character of those who have met 
 their Beloved, to whom worship implies the 
 exchange of loving greetings. The experience 
 of the Dvaitins is like that, of a child when he 
 gets the toy he wants from his mother; their 
 worship is purely egoistic, prompted by the 
 wants of their mortal nature, and they are 
 satisfied when these are fulfilled. In the case 
 of the first, God appears as an intuitive flash of 
 Truth ; in the second, as a lovable Personality ; 
 and in the third, as a benefactor, or provider. 
 But nowhere does He emerge in the religious 
 consciousness of man in the r6le of creator. 
 
 The idea of God as the creator of the universe 
 finds no support either from the religious ex- 
 perience of seers, saints, or mystics, nor yet from 
 philosophy and science. Meister Eckhart says 
 the Godhead does not work, neither does it 
 create. It is evident that we cannot regard 
 "Nature, red in tooth and claw," as the handi- 
 work of God, for Nature is full of blemishes. 
 
78 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 neither would the supposition explain the 
 entrance of pain and evil into the world. The 
 idea of God as creator belongs, properly speak- 
 ing, not to actual worship and communion 
 (upasana), but to exoteric theology, popular 
 mythology, and pictorial cosmology. We see 
 God only in spirit, never in nature ; ' those who 
 try to approach Him by way of Nature fail to 
 find Him and turn agnostic. This is the psycho- 
 logy of modern agnosticism. To us, God is a 
 Presence, an influence, an intuition, and so far 
 religious experience is valid. The experience of 
 Upakosala, who realised Him in worship, con- 
 firms this : 
 
 "Brahman is Life, Brahman is joy, Brahman 
 is amplitude. He is love's treasure, for He is a 
 treasure of what is dear, who know this. He is 
 the Prince of Love, the Herald of Love ; He is 
 a Prince of Radiance." 
 
 These words point to "that mind of mind," 
 "the iapple of the eye," to "that Immense, a 
 Unity high above space, unchanging, great, and 
 the Immortal." 
 
 If thou art in search of Life's wisdom meditate upon 
 
 Him: 
 Use not many words, they are but weariness of mind.* 
 
 The effect of such God-vision on the life and 
 conduct is marvellous. No man who has not 
 seen God in his self is moral. Spiritual ex- 
 perience stamps its glory on character. He who 
 
 ' Upanishads. 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 79 
 
 has seen God is "calm, subdued, resigned, 
 patient, and collected; in his own Self only he 
 beholds God — he beholds all as God ; evil doth 
 not overcome him, he burns all evil ; free from 
 evil, free from passion and free from doubt, he 
 becomes a Brahmana — he whose world is the 
 Brahman." 
 
 Brahman, God, and Moral Ideal are the 
 different names, aspects, modes of the same 
 Truthi the reality of which is felt in different 
 states of the mind. The Self of man is the 
 Whole — resembling concentric circles — the 
 outermost of which is the Brahma-conscious- 
 ness (Absolute), while the innermost is the con- 
 sciousness of the Moral Ideal, and between the 
 two the consciousness of the Personal God. 
 
 The Self is an ever-widening circle containing 
 layers of consciousness — space within space — 
 the difference between one space and another 
 being only a matter of conventional thought. 
 These spaces are sometimes described as super- 
 
80 BRAHMADARSANAM rv 
 
 consciousness, normal consciousness, and sub- 
 consciousness, but these terms are misleading 
 because they imply physical and spatial ideas of 
 above and below, inner and outer, which do not 
 exist in the case of the spirit. In the super- 
 conscious state, the Self sees the identity of its 
 Being with Perfection, of Truth with Reality, 
 and of Intelligence with Joy. But in the state 
 of God-consciousness, one self is in a special 
 attitude towards another Self — i.e. God. The 
 attitude is one of humility, of love, of adoration. 
 Moral consciousness is an active state of the will, 
 guided by the inner light of conscience. 
 
 The Rishis gave the name of Rita (Right) to 
 the notion of eternal righteousness. The moral 
 law regulates the destiny of souls on their 
 journey through the world of name and form. 
 Man's activity in the moral sphere is guided by 
 the idea of freedom. In the sphere of God there 
 is no activity; in meditation we only listen to 
 the voice of God; in Samadhi, all is silent. 
 Worship exalts the soul above activity, and 
 Samadhi exalts her above both activity and 
 passivity. 
 
 You can understand what I mean by Samadhi 
 or Absolute Consciousness, in the light of the 
 teaching of St. Dionysius who said, "God is 
 nothing," when these words are placed by the 
 side of those of St. Augustine when he said, 
 "God is everything." The words of Dionysius 
 signify that in the Absolute Consciousness the 
 soul becomes God and sees nothing in her 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 81 
 
 presence. The words of Augustine mean that 
 the only Reality is God, and nothing else that 
 man imagines belongs to God. So that it 
 amounts to this : that what we, in our ignorance, 
 think of as the trinity of Absolute, God, and 
 Ideal, is but one, in which the three merge and 
 disappear. This is the state of Mukti, Libera- 
 tion, or Perfection, in which we can say with 
 David : 
 
 For with thee is the fountain of life : 
 In thy Kght shall we see light.* 
 
 Anti-theistic systems of philosophy have not 
 been successful in destroying man's instinctive 
 desire to worship. Many teachers, both ancient 
 and modern, have attempted to construct re- 
 ligion without God, but what was the result? 
 The followers of these Godless religions have 
 ended by worshipping heroes, saints, reformers, 
 generals, kings, authors, poets, and the ghosts 
 of their ancestors. I would ask you to read the 
 history of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Positiv- 
 ism, and observe the effect they produced upon 
 their votaries. Buddha (557-477 B.C.) taught 
 his disciples not to believe in the existence of 
 God, of the soul, and of eternity. It is a fact 
 that those who did so believe were regarded as 
 heretics by his followers. Buddhism knows 
 neither metaphysics nor theology; Buddha 
 taught that man can be perfect by practising 
 virtue. But I must say that if there ever was 
 
 1 Fsalm xxxvi. 9. 
 
82 BRAHMA.DARSANAM iv 
 
 a religion which can be said to be perfect without 
 God, it is Buddhism — as it was taught by Lord 
 Buddha. Never were such words of wisdom 
 uttered comparable to those which Buddha, on 
 his last day, addressed to Ananda : 
 
 Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto your- 
 selves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake your- 
 selves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the 
 truth as your lamp. Hold fast to the truth as a 
 refuge. Look not for refuge in any other except 
 yourselves; and whoever, Ananda, either now, or 
 after I am gone, shall act thus, it is they only among 
 my recluses who shall reach the very highest height, 
 and even they must be willing to leam. 
 
 In these words no reference is made to God, 
 or to the need for worship, and what was the 
 result ? After Buddha attained Nirvana he was 
 deified. Not only that, but the later Buddhists 
 formed a theory about Arahats and Bodhisats 
 who were held up to the mass of the people as 
 objects of worship. Some of these Arahats were 
 taken from the legends of early Buddhism, but 
 the vast majority were the offspring of the 
 imagination of later Buddhist writers. 
 
 In many countries the people remained 
 Buddhists in name only, their actual mode of 
 living being as far removed from the Four Truths 
 or the Noble Eightfold Path as heaven is from 
 hell. To-day we know that the Buddhism of 
 Tibet is the very opposite of Buddha's Buddhism. 
 
 Jainism affords another example of religion 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 83 
 
 without God. The founder of the Jain religion 
 was Mahavir, who, according to Jaina tradition, 
 was born 599 and died 527 B.C. 
 
 The Jains believe in the final liberation of 
 the soul, but they worship the Tirthankars, who 
 are believed to be perfected souls. Jainism 
 resembles Buddhism in being a highly ethical 
 religion ; the Jains surpassed even the Buddhists 
 in their humane treatment of animals, including 
 insects. Yet in spite of all that is universally 
 regarded as beautiful and noble in their religion, 
 the Jains fail to believe in God. 
 
 In China, Confucius (550 B.C.) taught a form 
 of religion which is much less humanitarian 
 than Jainism, and certainly infinitely inferior to 
 Buddhism in regard to metaphysics. It became 
 the state religion. Confucius is the Kautillya 
 of China. His eye was fixed upon a sound 
 political organisation of the country upon a 
 foundation of utilitarian moral maxims. His 
 train of thought is positivisticand ultra-practical. 
 It is recorded in the Book of Changes that we 
 mortals have only to understand the knowable 
 phenomena and to leave alone the unknowable 
 noumena. It is, however, not true, as many 
 suppose, that Confucius himself was an atheist. 
 He taught faith in one God, but the monotheism 
 of Confucius has unfortunately been grossly 
 ignored by his followers. Confucius speaks 
 of "T'ien" or "Heaven," of "Ming" or 
 "Heavenly Destiny," and of "Taichi" or the 
 "Great Ultimate," but he never enters very 
 
84 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 deeply into the metaphysics of the invisible and 
 the mysterious. Dualism of the physical and 
 moral order is the keynote of the Li Chang 
 (Book of Changes). Man's highest duty is to 
 conform to these two contrasting principles of 
 nature. Life, according to Confucius, attains 
 its perfection by keeping time with the music 
 of the moral and the physical spheres. Man 
 need not seek to penetrate into the mysteries of 
 the transcendental order which apparently has 
 no influence upon the details of his daily life. 
 Man is more than enough for himself and need 
 not indulge in vain, imaginary philosophy. 
 
 European civilisation of to-day is moving on 
 the lines laid down by Confucius more than 
 twenty-foiu" centuries ago, but this reflection is 
 by way of digression. What I want to point 
 out is that the purely utilitarian teaching of 
 Confucius left a gap in the minds of his followers 
 which, in the course of ages, came to be filled up 
 by the ancestor-worship of primitive Chinese 
 mythology; while the more philosophically 
 minded took to the imiversalism of Buddha and 
 the idealism of Laotze. 
 
 Now to cite a European parallel. Auguste 
 Comte taught what is called Positivism, or the 
 religion of humanity, a cult which is also opposed 
 to Theism. You doubtless know Comte's theory 
 of the three stages through which human thought 
 has passed : the theological stage of primitive 
 times, the metaphysical stage of the Middle 
 Ages, and the positive or scientific stage of 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 85 
 
 modern times. This, according to Comte, is a 
 true account of the progress of human society. 
 These stages of progress are successive, so that 
 we may expect to see throughout history the 
 disappearance of one stage followed by the re- 
 appearance of another; but is this the case? 
 Is it true that our age, which Comte calls 
 scientific, is devoid of philosophy and religion ? 
 
 On the contrary, we find that religion, meta- 
 physics, and science are flourishing side by side, 
 each being rectified and enriched and revitalised 
 by the other. These three instruments of 
 progress have been present more or less in all 
 periods of history; they are the three most 
 vital needs of the soul, because knowledge is the 
 essence of the soul, and the soul's craving for 
 knowledge is satisfied through religion, meta- 
 physics, and science, while Comte's famous pre- 
 diction about the extinction of the religious 
 sentiment was falsified by himself, when in the 
 last period of his life he actually founded a new 
 religion, which, to say the least, is no improve- 
 ment upon the ecclesiastical government and 
 Chiu*ch practices of the Roman Catholics. The 
 Positivists can produce a calendar of saints 
 with sacred relics and annual festivals, with 
 a catechism for their chiu-ch use and a High 
 Priest no less authoritative than the Pope of 
 Rome. 
 
 I was once invited by a Positivist High Priest 
 to attend his church in London. There I saw 
 the images of many historical persons, such as 
 
86 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and others. A 
 prayer was addressed to humanity. The bust 
 of Comte was garlanded. In fact, I found a 
 lady kneeling down at the feet of Comte's statue, 
 just as a Catholic would kneel at the feet of 
 Jesus. Even a military captain, like Caesar, has 
 his worshippers among the gentle sheep of 
 Comte's fold ! I do not want to condemn the 
 worship of ancestral shades or of the great men 
 of history; far be it from me to belittle the 
 gentle humanity of Buddha and Mahavir, the 
 stern common-sense of Confucius, and the pro- 
 found love of truth which characterised every- 
 thing that Comte wrote. But I certainly will 
 say that the soul of man is not so one-sided or 
 so narrow as these philosophers would have us 
 believe. The soul of man is vast enough to 
 embrace all that is great and beautiful and 
 noble. The capacity of the soul is infinite, and 
 "as in one sky the silver stars all sit" (Al Koran) 
 so philosophy, religion, and science may all be 
 included within it. The best religion assimi- 
 lates, and does not destroy. Like a symphony 
 that is composed of many notes blended together 
 in the bond of harmony, so the man who aspires 
 after perfection assimilates — turns into the very 
 substance of his inner nature — all the most 
 sublime elements which are present in the head 
 and the heart and the soul of man. One-sided- 
 ness is the bane of some minds, and also of some 
 periods of history. As you cannot suppress the 
 functioning of the bodily organs without making 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 87 
 
 yourself ill, so it is impossible to suppress one 
 part of consciousness without bringing disaster 
 upon your soul. Our age is vitiated by an 
 unbelief which is the plague of the soul; this 
 unbelief in the Invisible is counterbalanced by a 
 belief in the powers of matter, and there are 
 quite a large number of men and women to be 
 found in every country who are more ready to 
 believe in the reality of a pin than in the reality 
 of God or of their own souls. This kind of 
 materialism has recently assumed another form. 
 I refer to Spiritism. The object of Spiritists is 
 to make sure of survival after bodily death. 
 There cannot be any question of survival, 
 because the soul is everlasting; it is mere 
 begging the question. I exist at this moment, 
 and this proves that I did exist a minute ago. 
 The fact of my existence now paves the way 
 to understanding that I am going to exist in 
 the minute to come. This minute flows into 
 the next minute as it arose out of the last. Time 
 is a flux of three moments — past, present, and 
 future. The expression "present moment" 
 has no sense unless it is linked up with a "past 
 moment" and a "future moment." The soul 
 which is aware of the flux of time at once co- 
 exists with, and transcends time. It co-exists 
 with tinie just as my finger co-exists with the 
 pen which it holds ; and it transcends time, just 
 as my finger can exist without the pen which 
 it holds. The soul watches the flow of time 
 so long as she is in the state of a wanderer 
 
88 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 (Samsara), but when she ceases to watch the 
 flow of time she exists within the circle of her 
 own eternity.^ 
 
 Spiritist seances can never prove either the 
 existence of or the nature of the soul, any more 
 than chemical analysis can prove the existence 
 of the ultimate atoms — which are by scientists 
 imagined to exist. As "life" eludes the grasp 
 of the physiologist, as "ether" escapes the 
 reach of all the instruments with which the 
 laboratory of the physicist is provided, so the 
 continuous existence of the spirit cannot be 
 satisfactorily established by seances and medi- 
 umship. As the Rishi said long ago : 
 
 Mind is beyond the comprehension of the senses, 
 the ego is beyond that of the mind, the understand- 
 ing (Mahat) is beyond that of the ego, the substance 
 of the Cosmos (Prakriti) is beyond that of the 
 understanding, and the soul (Purusha) is beyond 
 the comprehension of the substance of the Cosmos; 
 knowing this soul, men become immortal.* 
 
 The soul is not a shadow, neither is it a 
 bubble. It is at present in this body, and when 
 this body sleeps, it wakes up under another sky, 
 luminous with the glory of other suns and other 
 stars. There are other and surer ways of know- 
 ing the imperishability of the soul than the 
 prophets of our age would have us believe. 
 Theosophists, occultists, psychists, and spiritists 
 have long pursued the phantom mirage which 
 
 * See Appendix. ' Katha Upanishad. 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 89 
 
 has been surnamed "spirit," and is supposed to 
 perform the duty of the postman and the mail- 
 runner; but spirits are not postal messengers, 
 they have neither the inclination nor the instru- 
 ments to perform this duty. 
 
 It is a curious fact of history that whenever 
 people lose sight of the one true God, they invent 
 minor gods and fall at their feet; the present 
 age is no exception to this rule. Dame Europa 
 worships those who minister to her pleasures 
 and her comfort, and among her numerous gods 
 are numbered the cook, the tailor, the brewer, 
 the musician, the actress, the engineer, the 
 general, and the banker. The scientist is the 
 Jupiter of this beautiful Pantheon of modern 
 civilisation. 
 
 The Bible says, "I am the Lord thy God, 
 thou shalt have none other gods but me." How 
 can you consistently worship these many gods ? 
 The agnostic, according to popular fancy, leads 
 a life of constant God-denial, but let us try to 
 understand the psychology of his mind. In 
 order to do this, we must first understand the 
 workings of our own minds. The mind is con- 
 stantly relationing, i.e. placing itself in relation 
 to some object; this relation may be one of 
 agreement or of disagreement. When the mind 
 proceeds towards the object it is establishing 
 the relation of agreement ; but when it recedes 
 from its object, it is establishing a relation of 
 disagreement. Let me illustrate this. When 
 you think of a person as your friend, your mind 
 
90 BRAHMADARSANAM rv 
 
 is advancing towards him, and you are in a 
 relation of agreement with him ; but if you 
 think of a person as your enemy, your mind is 
 inclined to run away from him, and you are in 
 a relation of non-agreement with him. Whether 
 you are in agreement or non-agreement, you are 
 always related to the person. Similarly the 
 theist is in agreement and the agnostic in dis- 
 agreement with God ; but whether in agreement 
 or in disagreement, both of them are related to 
 God ; the former establishes by owning, the latter 
 by disowning. For disowning does not imply 
 denial of existence. Jtist as you may own or 
 disown a person for your friend, but cannot deny 
 his existence, so although a man may not believe 
 in God, yet he cannot deny His existence ; and 
 as the same person may be your friend at one 
 time and your enemy later, so we, in one period 
 of our evolution, may be theists, and at another 
 time agnostics. You can escape from your 
 enemy, but you cannot escape from the memory 
 of him. In the same way the agnostic cannot 
 escape from the memory of God, for does he not 
 delight in refuting the arguments of the theist ? ^ 
 In the course of their lives nearly all men and 
 women pass through the three stages of belief, 
 indifference, and non-belief. Some begin life 
 with belief in God, pass through a stage of in- 
 difference, and end with disbelief. Others begin 
 with indifference, pass through the bitterness of 
 unbelief, and end with a living faith in God. 
 
 ^ See Appendix. 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 91 
 
 It is said that Goethe lived as an agnostic for 
 many years of his life, but that he afterwards 
 found it impossible to exist without loving God. 
 Tolstoi is reported to have been tormented with 
 doubts in his youth, but he died a holy man. 
 The agnostic opposes, not God, but ignorance 
 of God, because many believe without knowing 
 Him. This ignorant faith is what the agnostic 
 does not understand. 
 
 The life of the spirit moves like a straight 
 line which starts from a point, passes through 
 infinite space, forming a completed curve, and 
 then returns to the starting-point. Thus : 
 
 When the line starts from A it appears to be 
 going in the same direction for ever, to return 
 no more, but after moving in a straight line 
 towards infinity it returns to the original start- 
 ing-point. The line may form an ellipse, or a 
 parabola, or a circle, but in all cases the moving 
 point is destined to return. 
 
 This illustrates the dynamic of a point in 
 space. But the empirical mind of man moves 
 
92 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 not on the plane of space, but on the plane of 
 time. Then it passes through the experience of 
 the manifold of Avidya, through pain and un- 
 truth to peace and truth. 
 
 So it is with men. Sooner or later we shall 
 all discover our Divine origin, Divine nature, 
 and Divine destiny. Never despise agnostics, or 
 those who are not of the same mind as yourself 
 in philosophical and religious matters. We are 
 all on the same tack; consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, each one of us is struggling to evolve 
 divinity out of nature just as worlds of symmetry 
 and harmony arise out of the strife of nebulous 
 vapours. A man may be fascinated for a time 
 by the siren of unbelief, but he can never drink 
 enough of the waters of Lethe to forget God. 
 Just as the serum of small-pox injected into the 
 body of a child renders him immune from the 
 disease, so a discipline of agnostic philosophy 
 prepares the heart for initiation into the wisdom 
 of theism. Just as a healthy young man re- 
 quires to take violent exercise, so the mind, on 
 account of the ignorance innate in it, requires 
 these incursions into the waste lands of athe- 
 ism and unbelief, but in the end, like the prodi- 
 gal son in the parable, it tm-ns instinctively to 
 God. It is better to be an honest agnostic 
 than a parrot-like theist. 
 
 Remember the lesson of history : the per- 
 secution of Christians by pagans strengthened 
 the foundations of the Christian Chruch in 
 Europe, and the persecution of scientists by the 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 93 
 
 Catholic Church in the Middle Ages gave fresh 
 impetus to the scientific movement ; in the same 
 way, the persecution of the Hindus by Mahome- 
 dans in India has resulted in the revival of 
 Hinduism. Persecution is as impotent an instru- 
 ment in the hands of a corrupt and decayed 
 Church as hatred and intolerance in the private 
 individual. We Hindus neither hate nor quarrel 
 nor seek to convert the people of other faiths, 
 and we regard this zeal for converting others as 
 a want of trust in God, whose aim it is to bring 
 all His children to a knowledge of Himself. In 
 India all the religions of the world are regarded 
 as sincere endeavours to aid the spirit in its 
 progress from lesser to higher conceptions of 
 truth. 
 
 We have discussed the question of man's 
 relation to God, and have come to the conclusion 
 that — 
 
 (1) This question arises from the nature of 
 man's memory which is absolutely independent, 
 not only of the mechanism of the brain, but also 
 of the empirical mind. 
 
 (2) This relation may be either one of agree- 
 ment or non-agreement, according as man turns 
 towards God or away from Him. 
 
 (3) I have shown that the relation of non- 
 agreement implies — not denial of God, but 
 opposition to Avidya, ignorance of Him. 
 
 We will now consider other questions, which 
 are of much deeper import to the student of 
 Vedanta : (1) Is man created by God ? (2) Is 
 
94 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 the soul of man composed of the same substance 
 as God? (3) Is man none other than, and 
 identical with God ? 
 
 The first question cannot be seriously enter- 
 tained. Anybody can stand up and ask, " Why 
 did He create at all? How, and out of what 
 was the soul created?" These questions can 
 be answered by the inventors of mythology, or 
 by dogmatic theology, but not by philosophy. 
 The word "creation" is so vague and so im- 
 philosophical that I believe it has been the cause 
 of much disagreement between science and 
 religion, between theists and agnostics. We 
 must not picture God as the architect of the 
 universe. As Sankara pointed out, the God of 
 creation is the root of exoteric theology and the 
 product of nescience. The assumption of God 
 as creator involves the assumption that He is 
 the source of evil, and that our sufferings were 
 invented by Him — apparently in a vindictive 
 spirit. I shall therefore dismiss the first alterna- 
 tive as unworthy of philosophic consideration; 
 but the second question deserves careful atten- 
 tion : Is the soul akin to God's nature ? And 
 are we a part of the Divine Substance ? 
 
 To this it may be replied that in so far as man 
 realises his universal nature and eternal destiny, 
 the individual is in essence inseparable from 
 God; but in so far as he is overcome by the 
 limitations of his personality, he is separate from 
 Him. 
 
 This conclusion is based upon the revelation 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 95 
 
 of our religious consciousness. In religious 
 ecstasy (sampratijnata samadhi) God reveals 
 Himself as Love and Wisdom, not as abstract 
 qualities, but as a Divine Person, endowed with 
 love and wisdom, who bestows these blessings 
 upon the worshipper. It is in such moments of 
 intensification and illumination that the know- 
 ledge breaks upon us that we are infinite and 
 immortal. We could never have realised our 
 infinity unless we were, in essence, the same as 
 God, of a piece with Him, a bit of Him. God 
 breathes into our souls in moments of prayer 
 when all fear of death is blown away like dry 
 grass before a tempest, and for the time being 
 our imperfections leave us like a serpent's worn- 
 out skin. The soul biecomes filled with harmony, 
 life, and joy when the touch of the Divine helps 
 it to regain its Divine nature; when man sees, 
 not himself, but his Self in the light which 
 streams from above; when he feels that he is 
 as inseparable from God as heat is from fire, 
 as word is from meaning. 
 
 Here we must consider whether the nature of 
 God is as we feel Him to be, or as He feels Him- 
 self. We derive from oiu* religious consciousness 
 the idea that God is good, merciful, omniscient. 
 We are aware of His attributes, viz. His po^er. 
 His majesty, His wisdom, but can we say that 
 God sees Himself in the same way that we see 
 Him.? It may be that God has a million of 
 attributes, and that we know only a few, or it 
 may be that His real nature is known to Himself 
 
96 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 only; to illustrate this point, it may be said 
 that an artist sees more colours, lights, and 
 shades, more symmetries, etc., in a picture 
 than a man who is ignorant of the technique of 
 art. God knows His whole nature, and man 
 only knows a bit of Him. Ramanuja makes a 
 distinction between God-as-He-sees-Himself and 
 God as seen by man. He is not two, but One 
 manifest in Himself in many ways, just as the 
 air passing through the flute produces the seven 
 fundamental musical notes. God is the Divine 
 Unity, the Transcendent One of Absolutist 
 philosophy, as well as the Lover and the Teacher 
 of each individual soul. 
 
 The great Indian poet Kabir expresses the 
 relation between God and man by the beautiful 
 imagery of the rhythmic swing. The human 
 soul and the worlds are held to God by cords 
 of love, and the motion of the cosmos is repre- 
 sented as an eternal swing of God. According 
 to this view, i.e. that of the qualified monists as 
 represented by Ramanuja and his school, nature 
 and the soul are the two ends of God's play- 
 ground ; but He Himself outstrips both nature 
 and humanity. In ancient times this doctrine 
 of God was taught by Bodhayana, in the Middle 
 Ages by Ramanuja and Sri Kanta, and in mod- 
 ern times by Chaitanya. It is called the Visista- 
 dvaita, or qualified monism. It spread over to 
 Persia, where it was known as Sufism, and in 
 Europe it was popularised by Saint Augustine, 
 Jacob Boehme, and Ruysbroeck. In the poems 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 97 
 
 of Kabir, which have recently been translated 
 into English by Rabindranath Tagore, and in 
 the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi, you will find a 
 poetical expression of this synthetic vision of 
 God. 
 
 There are four fundamental ideas which are 
 the indications of man's future destiny; these 
 are : perfection, immortality, eternity, and 
 benevolence. They are not mere ideas, but 
 ideals, and not mere abstract ideals, but living 
 forces. Ideals become real through knowledge. 
 He is mortal who does not know his immortality ; 
 he is a sinner who is not aware of his perfection ; 
 he is bound over to re-birth and re-death who 
 has not seen God as his eternal Soul ; and he has 
 not yet lived who has not opposed hatred by 
 love. These four ideas are in your soul like 
 seeds in the soil, and these seeds will become 
 trees, covered with foliage and blossoms, when 
 you become miikta purushas, or free souls. 
 
 God, as He appears to the mukta purusha, 
 must differ from the conception of those who are 
 in bondage. Those who still walk in the valley 
 of the shadow of death, whose eyes are blinded 
 by ignorance, whose hearts are full of the sores 
 of narrowness, — they can have no conception of 
 God save as One who is endowed with human 
 attributes, though many times magnified. For 
 this reason there must be two different pictures 
 of God, owing to the existence of two very 
 different standpoints. The free souls realise 
 God as One who is free from all phenomenal and 
 
98 BRAHMADARSANAM IV 
 
 anthropomorphic attributes, but for them who 
 see Him through the eyes of faith and devotion 
 He is still endowed with noumenal attributes or, 
 in the words of Ramanuja, "kalyana gunakar," 
 "endowed with innumerable auspicious quali- 
 ties," such as the boundless glory of illimitable 
 knowledge, dominion and majesty, power, 
 generation of all things at will, wisdom, mercy, 
 etc. 
 
 As a man's sins are washed away by incessant 
 worship, so his knowledge of God becomes purer 
 and wider, and thus, in the mystical language of 
 Pancharatra, the Lord who is the ocean of com- 
 passion takes five forms for the sake of His 
 worshipper, viz. adoration (Archa), emanation 
 (Vibhava), manifestation (Vyuha), the subtile 
 controller (Suksma), and the internal controller 
 (Antaryami). These five progressive representa- 
 tions of Godhead, as seen and understood by the 
 mind of the devotee, are expressed in very 
 mystical terms : Archa implies the pictorial or 
 symbolical representation of the Invisible, as 
 crystallised in religious institutions. In order 
 that the child worshipper may begin spiritual 
 life, he must be given some image, picture, or 
 symbol, so that he can form some representative 
 idea of God in his mind. Just as it is impossible 
 to teach a child to read without first teaching 
 him the alphabet, or to teach him mathematics 
 without first teaching him numerical figures, so 
 you cannot fix his attention upon God without 
 giving him some symbols to think of. In 
 
rv MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 99 
 
 Christian countries the cross is regarded as the 
 symbol of religious worship, just as the national 
 flag stands for the sentiment of patriotism. 
 With us, the idea of God is associated with 
 symbols carved in stone, or outlined on canvas. 
 We do not worship idols, as the missionaries 
 ignorantly assert, but the same psychology 
 which makes you think respectfully of your flag 
 and reverentially of your cross makes us Hindus 
 think lovingly of the images of the Divine 
 Mother and the statues of the Divine Chario- 
 teer. This symbolical representation of God 
 is the beginning of religious life; it precedes 
 and paves the way to mental worship, and 
 when man arrives at the higher stage of abstract 
 worship, he then by an inner necessity of 
 thought discards the symbols. 
 
 The next stage in the progress of the spirit 
 is indicated by the term Vibhava (emanation), 
 which means God-man. Just as you regard 
 Christ as God-man, or Son of God, so we believe 
 that God assumes human form out of love, to 
 guide man in the path of liberation. This 
 second stage of spiritual progress is marked by 
 the discovery of an intermediate soul who is both 
 human and Divine ; Vibhava is the actual spirit, 
 like Rama or Krishna, who came down on earth 
 to lead humanity. The worship of the Incarna- 
 tion of God is considered as good as the worship 
 of God Himself, and many such incarnations are 
 recorded in our history. They are also called 
 advents (Avataras). 
 
100 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 The third stage is called Vyuha, which is the 
 fourfold manifestation of the Supreme Spirit, 
 named respectively Vasudeva,^ or manifesta- 
 tion under the form of universal soul ; Samkar- 
 sana, manifestation under the form of Divine 
 attraction or love; Pradyumna, manifestation 
 under the form of pre-eminent might; Ani- 
 ruddha, manifestation imder the form of free- 
 dom. At an advanced stage of spiritual insight 
 we apprehend God as (1) Supreme Mind, (2) Su- 
 preme Love, (3) Supreme Power, and (4) Su- 
 preme Freedom. The fourth stage is called 
 Suksma, or the subtile. When the devotee rises 
 above the third stage, he perceives that these 
 fourfold manifestations are inherent in one Per- 
 son who is the centre of all that is good and 
 powerful and beautiful. The fifth, or last stage, 
 is Antaryami, when the devotee feels that his 
 soul is the throne or chariot of God. The ego is 
 now no longer self-willed, but is moved by God ; 
 He is the sure Friend, the faithful Lover, the 
 wise Teacher, and the All in All. This is the 
 highest height of religious consciousness.* 
 
 As a man progresses in the path of righteous- 
 ness and devotion, he becomes fit to worship 
 God under these different forms, beginning with 
 the first and ending with Antaryami, when his 
 soul is emancipated from all imperfections and 
 he enjoys the beatitudes in the company of the 
 Most High. "Cut is his heart's knot, solved 
 are all his doubts, and exhausted are all his 
 
 ' See Appendix. ^ gge Appendix. 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 101 
 
 works when he has seen the Highest and Lowest " 
 (Upanishads), because he is then for ever united 
 with God. This union does not lie in the power 
 of the individual soul, but in the choice of God, 
 for, as the Rishi says, "God is not attainable 
 by study, or wisdom, or learning; whom God 
 chooses, by him God may be attained, to him 
 He unfolds His own nature." 
 
 Ramanuja thinks that souls are the body of 
 God : these Jivas — as a collection of sentient 
 beings — are the eternal ideas of God, and just 
 as perfection, virtue, knowledge, etc., are the 
 ideas of superior reason, inextricably bornid 
 together with it, so all these countless souls are 
 present in the Divine Mind from all eternity. 
 In the same way, nature (Prakriti), time (Kala), 
 and the law of ethics (Karma) are the eternal 
 thoughts of God. So we may say that conscious 
 souls are the subjective ideas, while nature {i.e. 
 time, space, motion) is the objective idea of God. 
 
 Both these subjective and objective ideas are 
 liable to the law of evolution and devolution, 
 appearance and disappearance. Creation means 
 actualisation, and destruction means the poten- 
 tialisation of these ideas which are eternally 
 present in God's mind. Still it must be remem- 
 bered that God siu-passes even His subjective- 
 objective nature. "What He is like is beyond 
 the power of intellect to conceive, or the power 
 of language to express. 
 
 Those who are anxious to study this aspect 
 of Vedantic thought ought to be familiar 
 
102 BRAHMADARSANAM iv 
 
 with the writings of Ramanuja Acharya, 
 Sri Kantha Acharya, and Madhya Acharya. 
 They ought also to read Baladeva's Govinda 
 Bhasya and the works of the brothers Rupa 
 and Sanatana. Srimad Bhagavad is an ex- 
 cellent book on the subject. 
 
 Reality has its origin in the ideal order of 
 the universe. The truth of the ideal universe 
 lies in its capacity for being subjected to the 
 experience of a conscious soul. This conscious 
 soul is God, who is intuitively conscious of (1) 
 the finite experiencing soul, (2) the ideal uni- 
 verse, and (3) the real universe. Hence God, 
 soul, and universe are the three moments of an 
 eternally abiding interdependent series. These 
 are the three Nityas, or eternal reals of the 
 Visistadvaita school of the Vedanta philosophy. 
 
 Thus, to put it in pictorial language, we learn 
 that humanity is God's body and nature his 
 raiment. How beautiful it is to think that we 
 are all in His embrace ! 
 
 The highest object of religious aspiration is 
 to feel the Omnipresence of God. He is to be 
 sought and worshipped not only in Himself 
 (Isvara), but also in soul (Chit) and in matter 
 (Achit) . In the Gitd Sri Krishna teaches sat asat 
 aham, " I am the real as well as the unreal." To 
 come to a proper understanding of Isvara, Chit, 
 and Achit, three methods of realisation have 
 been taught in the Scriptures of the Hindus : 
 (1) Svadharmacharana, performance of your 
 duty ; (2) Atmanatmaviveka, discrimination of 
 
IV MONISM: MAN AS DIVINE 103 
 
 the real self from the unreal ego ; and (3) Vasu- 
 deva sarvam iti, to realise that everything which 
 exists, gross and subtile, movable and immovable, 
 visible and invisible, are nothing but God. These 
 three are called the three secrets of the micro- 
 cosmos — corresponding to the three secrets of 
 the macrocosmos, viz. Isvara, Chit, and Achit. 
 They are the three sacred truths of life, and 
 they form the essence of Vedanta, in fact of all 
 religions of the world. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. 
 
 Chhandogya Upanishad. 
 
 Plotinus' writings.] 
 
 Descartes' Works. 
 
 Spinoza's Works. 
 
 Sankara's Bhasyas. 
 
 Taittiriya Upanishad. 
 
 Ramanuja's Vedarthasamgraha, Vedantadipa, and 
 
 Bhasyas. 
 Meister Eckhart's Works. 
 Kabir's Poems. 
 
 Sri Kantha's Sivacharya BhEsya. 
 Baladeva Yidyabhusan's Siddhantaratna. 
 Vachaspati's Bhamati. 
 Madhvasiddhaatasara by Fadmanabhasuri. 
 
MONISM: THE ABSOLUTE AND THE 
 COSMOS 
 
 Psychological foundation of Advaita philosophy of Sankara — 
 State of subconsciousness — FrogiessiTe Yoga life — 
 Turiya and Samvit — AvidyS, the doctrine of error — 
 Discipleship. 
 
 Sri Sankara Acharta's exposition of the 
 Vedanta proceeds on strict Advaita, or monistic 
 lines ; it is an exposition which is unsurpassed 
 in the history of philosophy. No philosopher, 
 either in ancient or in modern times, has ever 
 risen to such high altitudes to survey pure 
 spirit; yet he cannot be called the founder of 
 Advaita Vedanta, for he only carried on the 
 glorious traditions of^ his master and. spiritual 
 father, Sri Govinda Acharya, who was^in turn 
 the spiritual son of Sri Gaudapada Acharya, 
 the writer of an excellent commentary on some 
 of the most abstruse of the Upanishads. The 
 age in which these three philosophers flourished 
 is not exactly known, but it can safely be 
 said to have been not later than the eighth 
 century a.d. 
 
 104 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 105 
 
 Sankara based his teaching on the ancient 
 texts of the Upanishads, and his interpretation 
 was guided by a transcendental sense of value 
 which was at once critical and constructive. 
 He mercilessly exposed the fallacies of Kapila's 
 realism and the nihilism of the Buddha's teach- 
 ing. The blemishes in the systems taught by 
 Patanjali and Gotama were also pointed out 
 by him; but although his tone was extremely 
 critical, Sankara's philosophy is far from being 
 destructive, for he established philosophical 
 thought on the surest of all foundations, viz. 
 on the transcendental identity of experience 
 with existence, chit and sat. 
 
 Hence arises the great difficulty of compre- 
 hending the logic of his dialectical procedure, 
 for a thorough familiarity with the Vedas and 
 the different Darsanas is a pre-requisite for the 
 student who aspires to the study of Sankara's 
 Advaita. Moreover, the abstruse nature of his 
 writings may be appreciated from the fact that 
 the superstructure of his metaphysics was built 
 upon the psychical experience of the fourth 
 degree (Turiya), and that the truths taught in 
 his work were meant for the instruction of those 
 who, being born in the fourth caste (Brahman), 
 had, by pure and holy living, made themselves 
 eligible for the fourth order (Yati) ; and lastly, 
 the ideal which he preached could only bear 
 fruit and become actual to those who had the 
 fourth purpose of life (Moksha) in view, and 
 who were on the threshold of realising the fourth 
 
106 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 and last perfection (nirvikalpa Samadhi). The 
 Advaita ideal is to be followed by those who 
 have renounced all desires for worldly prosperity, 
 who live only for truth, and whose one object 
 in life is liberation. 
 
 But let not this discourage any one from the 
 study of Sankara, for whatever may be your 
 position in the world of religion and philosophy, 
 you all desire to be emancipated from error and 
 saved by a knowledge of truth which can give 
 permanent peace and happiness. The seeds of 
 knowledge sown now will bear fruit in the fulness 
 of time. 
 
 Let us examine some of the salient features 
 of the Advaita philosophy of Sankara. The 
 promise of Advaita-knowledge lies embedded in 
 our nightly experience of deep sleep (Susupti), 
 and its fulfilment in the experience of uncondi- 
 tioned ecstasy (Samadhi). It would be impos- 
 sible to understand the Advaita philosophy unless 
 we were able to discover its psychological founda- 
 tion in the depths of our own nature. Consider 
 the changes that take place within the mind 
 every twenty-four hours : in the day-time we 
 are awake and active ; at night we go to sleep. 
 Sometimes we dream, at other times we enjoy 
 a dreamless sleep; thus it happens that every 
 day we pass through the three states of waking, 
 dreaming, and dreamlessness, yet we hardly stop 
 to think over these three states of our own 
 bodies and minds, although the entire range of 
 existence and experience lies confined within 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 107 
 
 the limits of the two parallel states of waking 
 and sleeping. What is life but waking ? What 
 is death but sleep? Yet we feel that our real 
 existence is beyond wakefulness and sleep, 
 beyond life and death. Why is this? In 
 waking we are conscious of the ego and of the 
 world; the ego remains unchanged while the 
 world changes. By the term "world" I mean 
 the sensations that come to the mind through 
 the senses, the eyes, ears, nose, taste, and touch. 
 These sensations are continually changing : first 
 we see light, then perhaps we hear sound, after 
 that we experience smell, etc. It is the ego 
 which perceives these changes ; the ego is also 
 acting. When we desire to talk or walk, it is 
 the ego which puts forth activity and thereby 
 moves the organs and limbs — hands, feet, 
 tongue, etc. 
 
 One of the functions of the ego is knowing, 
 while the other is acting. In waking life the 
 ego knows and does, therefore we may say that 
 self -consciousness is the central fact of waking 
 experience, in which the ego clearly distinguishes 
 its individuality from the individuality of other 
 egos. For instance, I am distinct and separate 
 from you ; you can never obliterate the distinc- 
 tive mark of your own individuality from that 
 of a friend, a son, or a neighbour. "I," "you," 
 "he" are personal pronouns which express this 
 ineffaceable distinction between different in- 
 dividuals. In the waking state self-conscious- 
 ness implies the consciousness of personahty and 
 
108 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 not that of the pure Self. This personality is 
 really a series or group of attributes; i.e. it 
 includes the mental attributes which you have 
 inherited from your ancestors, as well as those 
 which are acquired. You may be kind, energetic, 
 and temperate ; you may be a father in relation 
 to one individual, brother in relation to another, 
 and so on. Personality is a consciousness of 
 disposition, social position, etc., and all these 
 revolve around the centre called "I"; but 
 what this "I" is, apart from personality, is a 
 mystery. Another characteristic of the content 
 of the waking consciousness is the uniformity of 
 the outer world. In the waking state time is 
 measm-able, space is measurable, and there is a 
 nexus between one event and another, which 
 is called the causal tie ; for instance, there is a 
 relation between rain and harvest. This know- 
 ledge, which we derive from the measurableness 
 of time, space and causality, constitutes our 
 conception of the uniformity of nature; there- 
 fore we may sum up the contents of our wakeful 
 consciousness as follows : 
 
 (1) Knowledge of oiir own character, dis- 
 position, etc. 
 
 (2) Knowledge of the character, disposition, 
 etc., of others, e.g. men and animals. 
 
 (3) Knowledge of the uniformity of space, 
 time, and causality. Does the waking con- 
 sciousness give us the knowledge of the true 
 nature of this self? It is difficult to answer; 
 Ipt us say that it gives us direct knowledge of 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 109 
 
 our own character, etc., and of the character 
 and disposition of others, together with an in- 
 direct knowledge of the "1" or self. I say "in- 
 direct knowledge," because we really do not 
 know the exact nature of the "I," although we 
 have good reason for supposing that behind and 
 below my thoughts and feehngs there is "some- 
 thing" which forms, so to speak, the ground or 
 foundation of my character and disposition, 
 whether waking or dreaming. 
 
 Let us now analyse dream-consciousness. It 
 is very difficult to say what happens during the 
 interval between the beginning of sleep and the 
 beginning of dream. It may be that our dreams 
 begin in a more or less hazy way from the 
 moment when drowsiness first overcomes us. 
 In an advanced stage of sleep our dream-images 
 become sufficiently clear and distinct to impress 
 themselves on the memory so that on awaking 
 we are able to recall them. If we compare the 
 content of waking consciousness with that of 
 dream consciousness, we shall find that as a 
 general rule dream-consciousness contains all 
 the elements of waking consciousness, only vastly 
 transformed. For instance, in many cases there 
 is a marked change of personality ; the character, 
 age, rank, temperament, and disposition of the 
 dreamer changes in the wildest way. A poor 
 housemaid dreams that she has become the 
 Queen of Persia, a brave warrior dreams that 
 he runs away at the first sign of danger, and a 
 man dreams that he is an angel. Time, space. 
 
110 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 and causality take on a new r61e ; events appear 
 to take place in a few moments which would 
 in reality occupy many months, maybe years. 
 There is a case recorded of a man who dreamed 
 he was wandering about in the wilderness. After 
 walking for several days in the jungle, he found 
 his way out and entered a small village where 
 he lived in the house of a rich man, fell in love 
 with the daughter and married her. They Uved 
 happily together for many years, during which 
 time seven boys and seven girls were born to 
 them; then their happiness was marred by a 
 severe famine, in consequence of which food 
 became very scarce and the whole family had 
 to leave the village. While the man with his 
 wife and children were fording a stream, down 
 came a strong current of water from the moun- 
 tains and swept them all away, with the excep- 
 tion of the man himself, who with great difficulty 
 swam across and was thrown against the river 
 bank. He got up and dried himself in the sun, 
 but just when he was thinking of going on to 
 the nearest village, a huge tiger attacked him. 
 Frightened by the animal, he yelled for help, 
 and was awakened by the sound of his own 
 voice. All this took place in an inconceivably 
 short time. 
 
 In dream, time creeps like a snail or gallops 
 like a war-horse. In dream, we cannot measure 
 time in the same way as we do in waking, we 
 cannot divide it into hours, minutes, etc. Space 
 also undergoes a great transformation, and 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 111 
 
 distance is no longer the same in dream as in 
 the waking state ; similarly the idea of causality 
 changes. Dream-consciousness transforms all 
 our notions concerning nature's laws, and no 
 happenings, however grotesque, cause any 
 surprise to the dreamer. The world of dream 
 has laws and expectations of its own, quite 
 apart from those of the waking world. Thus 
 we see that the experience of dream is unverified 
 by the experience of waking. The images of 
 dream appear to the dreamer as real ; he only 
 believes them to be unreal on waking, but it 
 never occurs to the dreamer that the sights and 
 sounds which he experiences on waking are un- 
 real, for waking gives the lie to dream experience, 
 but not conversely. In one sense dream-life 
 is a narrowing down of consciousness, but in 
 another sense it reveals the vast possibilities 
 of a widening of the function and sphere of 
 consciousness. Dream shuts us within a sphere 
 in which the ego is unable to take part or influence 
 other egos, or the world of matter. The dreamer 
 is not an ethical personage, for he is not master 
 of his own will or conduct. Dream shows the 
 power of the ego to create time, space, and 
 causality. In waking we are the creatures of 
 time, but in dreaming we create a new time from 
 whose tyranny there is no escape except by 
 waking. Thus the ego destroys time and space, 
 and evolves a new time and a new space out of 
 its own Karma — only to become once more a 
 prisoner. Its newly acquired freedom from the 
 
112 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 meshes of the outer world is devoured by the 
 monster of the world within. 
 
 Advancing from the magic house of dream 
 to the field of dreamlessness, we find a complete 
 change of scene. Dreamlessness is a unique 
 experience; it is a state of intense passivity, 
 peace, and silence. We cannot say that the ego 
 did not exist in the dreamless state, for on 
 waking it recollects that it slept soundly and 
 peacefully; neither can it be said that the ego 
 was unconscious at that moment, because the 
 memory was actively recording the absence of 
 any phenomenal experience, and that is why 
 the dreamer says on waking, "I did not dream." 
 Dreamlessness is therefore the consciousness of 
 negation, but it cannot be said that the entire 
 field of consciousness was empty of all content, 
 because there was, at the moment, a conscious- 
 ness of rest, quiet, and delight. It is an experi- 
 ence in which the function of the ego changes. 
 It no longer feels the pressure from the world 
 of other egos or from the world of sights and 
 sounds. It fails to objectify itself, and thus for- 
 gets its relation to the world and society ; it is 
 no longer a subject, because the dreamless ego 
 is unconscious of its mental and moral attributes. 
 During deep sleep kings no longer remember 
 that they are kings, the sinner forgets his sin 
 and the saint his holiness. In one way only the 
 dreamless ego retains its subjective character, 
 viz. it is conscious of the experience of restful 
 joy due to the temporary cessation of all brain 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 113 
 
 activity. The light of consciousness is turned 
 back upon itself, and in its own light it sees the 
 surrounding gloom of nothingness. 
 
 It may seem to you that this third, or dream- 
 less state, is the last state of the ego ; but that 
 is not the case. Beyond this there is another 
 state, known to the Rishis by the name of 
 Turiya, which is called the fourth or last state of 
 the soul. There are no words to express the 
 idea of the Turiya state. It may be called the 
 transcendental state of the soul because it tran- 
 scends, or goes beyond the three states of wake- 
 fulness, dream, , and dreamlessness. It is, in 
 fact, not a state but the very ground, essence, 
 and substance of consciousness, upon which, as 
 I pointed out at the beginning of my lecture this 
 evening, rests the Advaita philosophy of San- 
 kara. It is exceedingly difficult to draw a line 
 of demarcation between the third and fourth 
 state of sound sleep. The Turiya is the point 
 where consciousness becomes identical with 
 existence and the circle of thought coincides 
 with the circle of reality; hence it would be 
 impossible to describe it by any symbol, quality, 
 or attribute. The soul sees itself, and its in- 
 dividuality ceases, it becomes universal, one 
 with God. Not personal God, determined by 
 the conditions of an evolutionary world system, 
 but the impersonal, absolute God, called in 
 Vedanta, Brahman. 
 
 Imagine for a moment the absolute non- 
 existence of this vast world of sight and sound. 
 
114 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 What remains after the starry universe is de- 
 stroyed ? A vast space. Then imagine this space 
 to be devoid of ether and of the subtile seeds 
 of creation. Perfect stillness reigns supreme 
 over the ocean of universal space, beginningless 
 and endless. What supports it? It is self- 
 supported, self-dependent, lifeless, motionless, 
 soundless, colourless. From this analogy you 
 can conceive the state of the soul in Turiya. 
 The soul in Turiya does not see, yet is not blind ; 
 does not hear, yet is not deaf ; does not reason, 
 yet is not irrational; does not exist, yet is not 
 non-existent; it goes beyond the bounds of 
 space, time, idea, feeling, thought, and reality. 
 The Rishi describes it in his mystical language 
 as "neither inwardly conscious nor outwardly 
 conscious, neither conscious both inwardly and 
 outwardly, nor is it massive consciousness, 
 neither conscious nor unconscious, what none 
 can see, nor apprehend, nor understand, without 
 mark, unthinkable, past definition, nought but 
 self-conscious alone that ends all evolution, 
 peaceful, good and non-dual. This is the Self, 
 this must be known." ^ 
 
 Every time that we enjoy deep sleep we touch 
 the sphere of our eternal glory. The rhythm 
 of nature throws us on to the timeless shores of 
 immortality. The soul plays with herself, free 
 and joyous, on the fields of her own glory, and 
 there the music of the spheres is hushed into the 
 beauty of silence. Leaving her harp, the muse 
 
 1 Mdndukya Upanishad, 7. 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 115 
 
 enters into the lotus-chamber of the heart of 
 contemplation. 
 
 This Turiya, or the absolute Self, of which 
 we half unconsciously obtain a glimpse in deep 
 sleep, driven thence by the necessity of the 
 body's mechanism, must be realised in Yoga, 
 or religious meditation and ecstasy. I say " un- 
 consciously," because we rise out of profound 
 sleep without knowing that we were blessed with 
 the beatific vision of the Self-Divine. Sleep is 
 an avenue of unconscious self-knowledge ; Yoga 
 is the avenue of intensely conscious self-know- 
 ledge. It is for this reason that I said the 
 promise of Advaita lies embedded in the psy- 
 chology of deep sleep and its fulfilment in the 
 experience of Samadhi. As Turiya is the fourth 
 state of the soul, so Samadhi is the fourth stage 
 of Sadhana, or religious aspiration and eflfort. 
 The first stage of religious life is dispassion 
 (Vairagya), or the conscious effort of the soul 
 to shake off the influence of matter and the 
 acquired disposition to delight in the pleasures 
 of the body. The second stage is discrimination 
 (Viveka), or the intellectual realisation that the 
 Self-Divine is the only Reality and the only 
 Truth, all else mere nothing. The third stage 
 is called Absorption (Dhyana), or the continuous 
 dwelling of the mind on the glory and substance 
 of the Self-Divine. The fourth and last stage 
 of religious life is Samadhi, or the realisation of 
 oneness with the Divine in pm-e consciousness 
 and perfect freedom. The four states of our 
 
116 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 psychic life, viz. (1) waking, in which we are 
 conscious of the outward universe; (2) dreaming, 
 in which we are conscious of the inward universe ; 
 (3) dreamlessness, in which we are unconscious 
 of the inward and outward universe; and (4) 
 Turiya, in which we are self-conscious in the 
 absolute sense, — these four states correspond to 
 the four stages of the Yoga life of the religious 
 aspirant, viz. (1) conquest of the objective world 
 of sense and emotion, (2) conquest of the sub- 
 jective world of intellect and reason, (3) conquest 
 of the subtile world in which the first two lie 
 in seed form, and (4) freedom in the identity of 
 Self with God. 
 
 In our analysis of the states of waking, dream, 
 and dreamlessness, we discovered that the self 
 does not know itself although it knows the other. 
 By "other" I mean the object or presentation 
 in consciousness. In waking, the self knows the 
 physical ; in dreaming, the mental world ; and in 
 dreamlessness, the absence of the presentation 
 itself. In all the three states it stands watching, 
 witnessing the play of fancies, desires, and images 
 in the mind. This watchful, witnessing self is 
 called Samvit. Whether we are ill or well, at 
 work or play, asleep or awake, this "inner 
 witness" never loses sight of our thoughts and 
 actions. This Samvit is quite wide awake when 
 the physical brain is stunned, or dm-ing what is 
 popularly known as unconsciousness, trance, or 
 fainting. From the moment of birth to the 
 moment of death, through the rough and smooth 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 117 
 
 experiences of life, Samvit remains the same — 
 self-luminous, self -active, self -regulating. Hence 
 it is reasonable to assume that it is independent 
 of brain and body, and therefore independent 
 of what we call life and death. The Samvit is 
 like the flame of a candle, burning and illumining 
 perpetually, its brightness undiminished by that 
 which envelops it. Try however hard you may, 
 you cannot put out the light of your own con- 
 sciousness. If you extinguish it in one sphere, 
 that same moment it is sure to shine in another 
 sphere, like the sun which sets in the western, 
 to rise again in the eastern sky, undiminished 
 in glory and effulgence. The scenes in the 
 theatre change, the actors come and go, but the 
 illuminating lamp burns all the while.^ 
 
 One of the most remarkable characteristics 
 of the first three psychical states is the unknow- 
 ability of the real "I." In waking we become 
 acquainted with the stream of consciousness — 
 not with the bed or the basin of the stream. 
 This stream of consciousness consists of a surface- 
 current and an under-current ; the former is the 
 sensation-continuum of auditory, visual, tactual, 
 olfactory, and gustatory sensations, while the 
 latter is the ideal continuum of motives, feelings, 
 and thoughts. The sensation-continuum, when 
 projected into the vacuum of space, produces 
 pictures of the fixed and stable world, and when 
 projected into time, produces the world of move- 
 ment. The mind creates this dual world by 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
118 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 projecting this sensation-continuum on to the 
 screen of time and space. The ideal-continuum 
 is also a superimposition of the ego of interests 
 and feelings relating to the preservation of our 
 bodily life. In a way we seem to be aware of 
 these two, the sensation-continuum and the 
 ideal-continuum, the surface-current and the 
 under-current of the stream of consciousness. 
 But we know nothing of the self on which and 
 within which our thoughts move and the space 
 in which the physical world hangs. To use a 
 familiar illustration : when you witness a play 
 in a cinema theatre, you cannot see the machine 
 or the man (while you sit among the audience), 
 neither can you see the background upon which 
 the images of men and women, railways and 
 steamships, are moving. Similarly, in waking 
 and in dreaming we are ignorant of the soul, i.e. 
 the subjective substratum, on which the mind 
 rests. What happens in the dreamless state? 
 Just what happens in the cinema theatre when 
 the machine stops and the lights in the audi- 
 torium are extinguished. You are surrounded 
 on all sides by darkness and feel that you only 
 are there, by yourself, alone. The ignorance 
 of the waking and dreaming states takes a 
 massive form and prevents the soul from know- 
 ing anything outside the knowledge of its own 
 identity. 
 
 This brings us to the consideration of the 
 doctrine of error (Avidya). Knowledge and 
 error are as inevitably combined as light and 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 119 
 
 darkness. If you ask me, What is error? I 
 will reply by asking a counter question, "What 
 is darkness ? It is only possible to define dark- 
 ness by negatives. Similarly error can only be 
 defined by saying that it is the want of knowledge. 
 In fact, the word knowledge has only a relative 
 sense, for it implies error; for this reason the 
 Vedanta says that Avidya is perpetual. This 
 doctrine of error, or nescience, is the keynote 
 to Vedanta epistemology, I will try to explain 
 it as clearly as I can. When you say, "I 
 know," you imply at the same time that "I 
 do not know." This sounds paradoxical, but 
 it is true. For instance, when you say, "This 
 is the sky," you mean that the blue vault over- 
 head is called sky and that it looks blue. This 
 is all you know ; but you do not know of what 
 the thing called "sky" is composed, nor how 
 old it is ; you do not know its length and breadth, 
 nor who made it, nor do you know the many 
 other qualities which it may possess. Similarly 
 with all the things of this earth ; there are always 
 certain attributes, or aspects, which remain 
 unknown to our intellects. This our body, so 
 near to us — do we profess to understand its 
 nature, its working, and the laws which govern 
 its origin, growth, and decay? The wisest 
 among our scientists is ignorant of the mystery 
 of life. We know a little, but there is a great 
 deal which we do not know. Avidya is not the 
 negation of knowledge, it is the negative element 
 present in knowledge. For instance, we some- 
 
120 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 times say we are certain that we do not know 
 such and such a thing ; just as in mathematics 
 one presupposes "zero," so in Vedanta, Vidya 
 (knowledge) presupposes Avidya (error). The 
 function of Avidya is to offer a perpetual opposi- 
 tion to Vidya, but such is the beautiful economy 
 of our inner nature that Vidya is continually 
 overcoming Avidya, and the reign of knowledge 
 is ever expanding. 
 
 If we inquire into the origin of error we shall 
 not arrive at any answer. "Whence this error 
 that accompanies us all our lives.'' Why this 
 error at all ? Will it ever end ? We cannot deny 
 that our intellects are at every step shadowed 
 by the fear of error; our forgetfulness, our 
 tendency to exaggerate, our liability to decep- 
 tion, all these come under the term Avidya. In 
 theology, Avidya appears as "sin," or "original 
 sin." In ethics, Avidya goes under the name of 
 "evil" or "immorality." In aesthetics, Avidya 
 is called "ugliness" or "the unbeautiful" ; in 
 logic, Avidya is fallacy ; in metaphysics, Avidya 
 is called phenomenon ; in practical life, Avidya 
 touches us in the guise of pain, disappointment, 
 sorrow, and misery. When a friend misunder- 
 stands ypur language, it is because his mind is 
 clouded by Avidya, or because Avidya prevents 
 you from using the right words. 
 
 Otir very notions of "life" and "death," of 
 "right" and "wrong," of "pleasant" and "un- 
 pleasant" are the products of Avidya. There 
 is no absolute standard in the world of Avidya ; 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 121 
 
 one Avidya makes man think that he is the lord 
 of creation, but wait and see how another 
 Avidya appears in the form of an infinitesimally 
 small insect, a microbe of typhus, which humili- 
 ates him to death. Great nations of warriors 
 who conquered the world have been blotted out 
 of existence by insects and microbes. What is 
 all this but the magic of Avidya? Who can 
 understand the growth of man from the proto- 
 plasm ? Waking is no less Avidya than dream- 
 ing. Man becomes a philosopher only when he 
 understands his inability to understand. 
 
 Is Avidya real or unreal.? In other words, 
 is an illusion real or unreal ? This question may 
 be illustrated by an example. We all say, " The 
 sky is blue," but we know it is an optical illusion ; 
 the sky has no colour. Again we say, " The sky 
 meets the earth at the horizon." This also is 
 an illusion; the sky appears like an arch but 
 is not so. These two attributes of the sky, viz. 
 blueness and curve, are not real and do not exist 
 at all, and yet we seem to think that they are 
 real. If we abstract or take away these two 
 seeming attributes from the sky, what remains ? 
 Nothing but the vast space signified by the name 
 "sky." This example shows the true function 
 of Avidya, viz. it makes the unreal appear as 
 real, the non-existent appear as existent ; blue- 
 ness and curve do not exist in the sky, but 
 Avidya conjures them up and holds them before 
 our vision. At the same time there can be no 
 illusion without a real substratum; the sub- 
 
122 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 stratum of sky is necessary in order to produce 
 the illusion of blue colour and curve; if there 
 were no sky, there could not have been the 
 appearance of blueness and curve. Just try to 
 think of these two attributes as existing without 
 a sky to support them ; you cannot think in that 
 way. Take another example. When ski-ing on 
 the snow-clad hills of Norway, I have often seen 
 a figure on the distant hill-top. My first impres- 
 sion suggested that it was a bear, but as I pro- 
 ceeded it seemed to resemble a man; when I 
 began ascending, I discovered that it was only 
 a tree. First the idea of a bear frightened me ; 
 next the idea of meeting a fellow-traveller con- 
 soled me ; and lastly, when I discovered that it 
 was a tree, I laughed at myself. These illusions 
 illustrate the nature of the working of Avidya ; 
 it makes the unreal appear as real and super- 
 imposes illusory images upon a real thing. In 
 the first example the blue colour rested upon 
 the sky, and in the second example the illusory 
 image of a man rested upon the tree. Many 
 other examples of illusory perception may be 
 cited, but this general rule wiU hold good in 
 each case. 
 
 The same Avidya is at work within oiu" minds, 
 but it is not so evident as in the case of sense 
 perception. But when we practise introspection, 
 we soon find that Avidya is lurking in our minds 
 also. For instance, our belief in oiu* own ego 
 is a belief in point. We all believe that each one 
 of us possesses a separate ego, each one imagines 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 123 
 
 that he is engaged in some work, that he is 
 enjoying or suffering. If I am asked where I 
 see the working of Avidya here, I reply that it 
 is Avidya which makes each one feel as though 
 he or she were an enjoyer of pleasures, a doer of 
 deeds, or a sufferer of pain. It is Avidya that 
 makes us feel awake, or asleep, or dreaming. 
 These illusory states are superimposed upon the 
 universal, unchangeable, eternal "I" which is 
 the real "Self," of which we have a glimpse in 
 Turiya. Illusion does not last long ; it vanishes 
 from the mind as soon as discovered, although 
 it may continue to have an objective existence 
 for others. One of the great tests of illusion 
 is that it changes : those who have studied 
 physical science see the. blueness of the sky just 
 as those do to whom the illusion has not been 
 pointed out, but for them it has no existential 
 value. The proof that the real eternal "I" is 
 quite distinct from the narrow individual "I" 
 consists in the constant change to which the 
 latter is liable. We know that sometimes we 
 feel very happy and say to oiu-selves, "I am 
 enjoying life !" Again, at other times, we feel 
 miserable, and say to ourselves, "I am unhappy." 
 Or again, at other moments, a feeling of peace 
 comes over us. Which of these is the real "I " ? 
 The happy "I," the unhappy "I," or the peace- 
 ful " I " ? Then, again, sometimes we are awake 
 and active, at other times we are asleep and 
 passive. Which is the real "I," the wakeful 
 "I," or the sleeping "I"? Sometimes we are 
 
124 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 clever, sometimes bright, and sometimes dull; 
 which is the real "I," the dull "I," the bright 
 "I," or the clever "I"? There is a clear line 
 of demarcation between the changeless "I" 
 which stands at the back, and the changing 
 "I" which acts, enjoys and suffers, wakes, 
 sleeps and dreams. This changing "I" is the 
 illusory offspring of Avidya, and the changeless 
 "I" is the eternal Self, the Atman, the Brahman. 
 
 Just as on pure space the two attributes of 
 colour and curve are superimposed by Avidya, 
 so on the pure consciousness of Brahman are 
 superimposed the attributes of enjoyment and 
 suffering, activity and passivity, thought and 
 will, life and death, by Avidya. And just as we 
 discover from our physical science that real 
 space is without colour and without form, so 
 from our knowledge derived from the Guru and 
 the Vedanta we discover that the real and true 
 Self is birthless and deathless and changeless, 
 neither enjoys nor suffers, but is One, identical 
 with Itself, universal and eternal. 
 
 Avidya makes us believe that we are many, 
 in reality the Self is One — one vast, indivisible, 
 limitless consciousness, appearing as separate 
 centres of consciousness in each individual. The 
 very idea that we are individuals is an illusion, 
 for what is the essence of individuality ? Con- 
 sciousness. How can consciousness be bounded 
 by space and time, body and mind ? The proof 
 of this is sought ia our experience of the Turiya, 
 when not a shadow of individuality lingers with- 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 125 
 
 in the field of consciousness. The belief that 
 you are embodied is only a habit of thought, 
 fostered by ignorance; the real self which re- 
 veals itself in Turiya has no body, is neither old 
 nor young, neither ill nor in health, neither poor 
 nor rich, but is the self identical with the Self. 
 
 The whole of experience extending from the 
 waking to the dreamless state is Avidya's field 
 of operation. At this point it may perhaps be 
 asked. Is the whole of life a mere illusion ? To 
 this question I shall not attempt to give a 
 definite answer. 
 
 There was once a King who devoted himself 
 to the study of the Vedanta, and being persuaded, 
 that this life had no real existence and was 
 therefore valueless, he spent all his time in medi- 
 tation and neglected his Queen and the affairs 
 of state. One day, noticing her royal husband's 
 indifference, the Queen inquired whether any- 
 thing had occurred to keep the King away from 
 those whom he loved so dearly. To this the 
 King repUed that nothing had occurred except 
 that all the world appeared to him a mere 
 nothing, an illusion. "The kingdom is a 
 phantom," he said. Then the Queen asked : 
 
 "Is all that we see an illusion.''" 
 
 "Yes," he replied. 
 
 "Are our children also an illusion?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Am I an illusion?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
126 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 "Then is not the King himself an illusion?" 
 
 At this he hesitated before ' replying, and 
 the Queen, perceiving his embarrassment, said, 
 "Are there not some illusions which are useful? 
 And if so, would it not be as well to act as though 
 they were real for the time being?" 
 
 Then the King, recognising his mistake, was 
 obliged to acknowledge that the Queen was 
 right. 
 
 By this it will be seen that all is not illusion, 
 for according to the Vedantic theory, error im- 
 plies truth, illusion implies reality. The unreal 
 life, which is true for all time, floats mysteriously 
 upon the real life, which is true for all eternity. 
 For the time being this unreal life of action is 
 to be taken for a fact — a sort of provisional 
 hypothesis having a pragmatical value. But all 
 the events of life are facts of illusion. Our 
 social endeavours, our government, our wars, 
 our peace, our morals, our literature and science, 
 are facts within Avidya. They are unreal — 
 when we rise above them and behold our own 
 reality. Just as in dream we see images and 
 for the moment believe them to be real, but 
 when we awake from sleep we realise that we 
 have been dreaming; similarly, as long as we 
 lead the life of ignorance we take all things to 
 be real, but when we awake in Yoga Samadhi 
 we realise that the things of sense are mere 
 shadows, and the pains that we suffer, the 
 crosses that we bear, appear as nothing when 
 the soul enters into the Kingdom of God. 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 127 
 
 If it is asked, "Is the soul unreal? For if 
 the three states of waking, dreaming, and dream- 
 lessness are illusory productions, then why does 
 it not follow that even the idea of a soul is 
 erroneous ? " I reply that if you think that the 
 soul is somewhere located in the body, or that it 
 is'conditioned by time, space, and mental modifi- 
 cations, then it is an erroneous belief. The idea 
 that souls are many, that they suffer or enjoy, 
 that they are born and die, or that they possess 
 bodies, is called in Sanscrit Jiva bhava. Avidya 
 is responsible for this Jiva bhava, or the notion 
 of being an individual. Avidya superimposes 
 this Jiva bhava upon Brahman — the eternal 
 consciousness of God. Avidya has the power 
 to make the eternal, imperishable Brahman look 
 as though he were mortal, having a body and 
 liable to the accidents of earthly life. Just as 
 the sky, though in reality without shape and 
 colour, appears to us as having a curved shape 
 and a blue colour, so the universal Brahman 
 appears to us, i.e. to our Avidya-tainted minds, 
 as Jiva. But as by studying science we learn 
 that the sky is a vast, illimitable space, without 
 shape or colour, so by studying the Vedas we 
 learn that Brahman is the One Eternal Truth 
 and Bliss of existence. 
 
 Our fundamental position is that existence 
 is knowledge. Avidya consists in thinking of 
 non-existence as existence. Reality co-exists 
 with eternity. All that we perceive exists in 
 time and space. Whenever we think that a 
 
128 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 thing exists, we think it has been caused by 
 something else ; in other words, we cannot think 
 of a thing as causeless. This kind of thinking 
 is Avidya-thinking, therefore our physical organ- 
 ism is the product of Avidya-thought. The 
 physical organism exists as long as our judgment 
 is fettered by Avidya. More than that : even 
 when ignorance is dispelled by Vedantic know- 
 ledge, the body of the Yogi continues to live, 
 just as when we are told by our professors that 
 the sky is without shape and colour we con- 
 tinue to see curved space and blue colour in the 
 sky, for the momentum of Avidya lasts f 6r some 
 time after disillusionment. We all know that 
 the physical body is ephemeral and that it will 
 die, yet we are still anxious to preserve it. But 
 even after the death of the physical body there 
 is no escape from Avidya ; as in sleep the ego 
 dreams nonsensical dreams, so after death the 
 ego goes on believing in its own individuality. 
 As the ego (Jiva) wanders helplessly from 
 waking to dreamland, and from dreamland to 
 the quiet valley of deep sleep, so the soul, over- 
 come by Avidya, wanders helplessly from exist- 
 ence to existence, from experience to experience. 
 The memories of pain and pleasure, experienced 
 in past lives, continue to unfold themselves in 
 the actuality of embodied existence. Can we 
 resist our inclination to work and our inclination 
 to rest ? No, we are quite helpless, we eat and 
 sleep because we cannot do otherwise. Similarly 
 we are born and we shall pass away, because 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 129 
 
 we have no control over the creative and de- 
 structive powers of Karma. We are the creatures 
 of our desires, the creatures of heredity, of the 
 civihsation of our age and environment. In a 
 word, we are the slaves of illusion. 
 
 This doctrine of Avidya sounds very hopeless. 
 It seems to rob us of our dignity, of our glory, 
 of our wisdom, and of our independence; yet 
 it cannot be denied that the doctrine exposes 
 rather ruthlessly the faulty structure of our 
 psychical being. Life is not as beautiful as it 
 looks. Open a book on medicine and observe 
 the number of diseases to which the body is 
 liable, it will then seem a miracle that we are 
 still alive. Read history and take note of the 
 woful mistakes committed by men. 
 
 It is not my object to preach pessimism, but 
 it cannot be denied that nature affords little 
 encouragement for optimism. The business of 
 philosophy is to interpret experience. Man 
 wants Truth, and where are we to find supreme 
 truth, that truth which alone can save us ? The 
 Vedanta says, "Look within." 
 
 Human experience is a mixture of good and 
 evil, light and shadow; beyond this lies the 
 true Self, identical with God, which is the " non- 
 imperceptible" (aparoksha) principle of con- 
 sciousness. The reason why the true Self is 
 called "non-imperceptible" is because it is 
 neither perceived not yet unperceived; pure 
 consciousness is the ground of perceiving the 
 ego and the non-ego, both of which are the twin 
 
130 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 ojBFspring of Avidya. We have to reach the Self, 
 the knowledge of which will free us from the 
 experiences of waking, dream, and dreamless- 
 ness. Knowledge alone can save. Not know- 
 ledge in the philosophic or scientific sense, but 
 the knowledge of our oneness with God which 
 is Mukti, or Liberation, 
 
 If the knowledge of the true Self brings libera- 
 tion from the net of cosmic error, it must be 
 proved that such knowledge is possible. How 
 can we know the Atman (the Self-Divine) who 
 is free from all subjective and objective attri- 
 butes? For knowledge implies a division of 
 the sphere of consciousness into subject, which 
 knows, and object, which is known. If we know 
 Brahman He will become an object for us. To 
 this objection it may be replied that in all know- 
 ing processes there is a third factor which is 
 neither the subject nor the object ; this is called 
 the Witness (Sakshi). This Sakshi is only an im- 
 personal presence, unconcerned in the cognitive 
 activity of the subject. What is called "subject" 
 is the determinate, or maker, of object. We 
 know that the subject is sometimes attentive 
 and sometimes inattentive, sometimes interested 
 and sometimes indifferent. Hence the subject 
 may be said to be in an inaUenable relation of 
 attention and interest with the object. But such 
 is not the case with what is called the Sakshi, or 
 the Witness, which is not a faculty nor a mode 
 of thought, but consciousness pure and simple. 
 Moreover the Sakshi is distinguished from the 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 131 
 
 subject by its non-individual character. The 
 Sakshi is identical with itself, whereas the sub- 
 ject, even in the same person, always changes. 
 Now the subject is a thinker of plans, at other 
 times the doer of deeds; but the Sakshi is 
 always the witness standing behind, existing by 
 its own reality and shining by its own brilliance. 
 In sorrow and joy, in work and play, the witness 
 stands within. There is another point which 
 it is necessary to emphasise. The Sakshi is 
 universal because it is common to all. I cannot 
 say that the Sakshi in me is different from the 
 Sakshi in you. My subjective character is 
 different from your subjective character, but 
 the Sakshi is the same in all. 
 
 The reality of the Sakshi revealed in intro- 
 spection supplies us with the keynote to libera- 
 tion. It may be that we are not all sufficiently 
 introspective to realise what is meant by Sakshi ; 
 but every one who has a desire to attain to the 
 highest truth of life and eternity may realise it 
 if he is willing to take the trouble (or "make 
 the Tapasya" or "Sadhana," as we say in India) 
 necessary to its realisation. The preparation 
 necessary for initiation into cosmic conscious- 
 ness involves the realisation of the nothingness 
 of all that we see. The lights and shadows of 
 existence are to be separated from pure existence 
 itself; for the mind is constantly weaving the 
 warp and woof of the cosmos. Each fancy that 
 flits across the horizon of the mind is the seed 
 of a future world. Desire, which rises like a 
 
132 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 perpetual spring from the unknown depths of 
 the ego, nourishes this seed and helps to germi- 
 nate it, and this seedling becomes the tree of life. 
 Our bodies contain some immortal elements 
 which scientists call cells,which are now acknow- 
 ledged to possess a germinal consciousness. 
 These cells have kept alive the species of all 
 vegetable and animal organisms. In the same 
 way, Avidya keeps alive the seeds of desire in the 
 store-room of the Karana-sarira (the soul in its 
 ultimate form). Hence issues the stream of 
 transmigratory life, and hence proceed all our 
 troubles and disappointments. We all want to 
 know what we are, but the knowledge of our true 
 being cannot come from outside, from philo- 
 sophy, from religion, or from science. It is 
 always with us, within our reach, within the 
 reach of thought. Every act of perception con- 
 tains within itself the eternity of Being. It is 
 the essence of our enjoyment of art, music, and 
 poetry. It is the root of our love for God and 
 pity for man. It is the fact of the existence of 
 God and humanity in one. It is consciousness, 
 it is existence, it is joy. We have a faint 
 experience of it in Turiya, and we have a vivid 
 experience of it in Samadhi. 
 
 In order to attain to the consciousness of the 
 Supreme Self, the disciple must approach a 
 teacher versed in Brahma-Wisdom. To be a 
 worthy disciple it is necessary to possess four 
 qualifications, viz. (1) a discriminative intellect, 
 (2) controlled will, (3) purified emotions, and (4) 
 
V MONISM: ABSOLUTE AND COSMOS 133 
 
 a longing for liberation. Without devotion to 
 Brahman, progress is not possible. 
 
 I will endeavour to explain in what these four 
 qualifications consist. 
 
 (1) The disciple should constantly meditate 
 on Brahman as the only Truth to be attained, 
 and all else as untruth. 
 
 (2) He is then to train his will. The will is 
 to be directed, not towards the appropriation of 
 what is agreeable to the senses and desires, but 
 towards the realisation of the highest knowledge. 
 He is to desire nought of earth or of heaven, 
 but the very soul of Brahman. This means the 
 renunciation of all work. 
 
 (3) Renunciation of work will conduce to the 
 quieting of the emotions. Thus he will cease 
 to desire name, fame, or worldly happiness ; he 
 will learn to uproot from his heart all passions ; 
 in a word, he will turn his eyes for ever from the 
 phenomenal and psychical world. This will 
 help him to practise forgiveness, equanimity, 
 and same-sightedness. 
 
 (4) He will then be able to uproot the very 
 idea of the ego ; for the notion of this "I," this 
 narrow, mean self, is the greatest stumbling- 
 block to the attainment of Divine Wisdom. 
 
 When the disciple becomes free from the pride 
 of rank, birth, and ego, he learns to value the 
 teachings of his Guru. Gradually his inner eye 
 opens and he gets an insight into the secret of 
 the eternal Consciousness, and then only he 
 obtains a foretaste of liberation. That is so 
 
134 BRAHMADARSANAM v 
 
 grand, so sublime, so wonderful an experience, 
 that the disciple cannot help longing to be 
 emancipated from the bondage of this Avidya 
 state. The consciousness of the Absolute is the 
 crown and glory of religious consciousness ; here 
 we are to seek for peace, for beauty, and for 
 truth. The dream of life ends and the soul 
 awakes to its eternity, conscious of a surpassing 
 restfulness, born of the very Being of Truth. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Advaita Braluna Siddhi, by SadSnandayati. 
 
 Svarajya Siddhi. 
 
 Suresvar Acharya's Vritti. 
 
 Nirvana Shathak of Sankara. 
 
 Vedantasara. 
 
 Pratyabijnadarsana. 
 
 Purusha Sukta (Rig Veda). 
 
 Apyaya Dikshita's Yedantakalpataru Parimal. 
 
 Vedanta Faribhasa. 
 
 Madhab Acharya's monograph on Sankara. 
 
VI 
 
 MONISM: REALISATION OF THE 
 ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF LIFE 
 
 The constituents of the universe — Composition of the spirit, 
 the soul, and the body — The six circles — The meaning of 
 Maya — Man's freedom — Samkhya verstis Vedanta — Con- 
 sciousness identical with reality. 
 
 The universe is the expression of the Divine. 
 The truth of life is also the truth of God. There 
 is a mind behind the stellar system. All this 
 is Brahman. 
 
 Why do we love to gaze on the blue canopy 
 of the summer sky, the many-coloured flowers 
 of the spring, the beautiful faces of innocent 
 children? Why do we love to listen to the 
 symphony of the orchestra, the music of the 
 mountain wind playing with the pine trees, the 
 mighty voice of lonely waterfalls.? Why does 
 injustice done to a primitive folk in some distant 
 corner of the earth rouse us to indignation and 
 nerve our arm to repair it ? Why ? — Because 
 the same Self which is in the colour of the sky 
 and the sea, in the odour of flowers and in the 
 
 135 
 
136 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 rhythm of poetry, is also in our hearts. There 
 are many things, many forms, many names — 
 but one Life. Verily all this is Brahman. 
 
 The Self enjoys and the Self is enjoyed. The 
 Self feels and the Self is felt. The Self acts and 
 the Self is acted upon. The One becomes many, 
 yet remains the same. I am speaking and you 
 are listening ; yet it is the same Atman who is 
 speaking in me and listening in you. In the 
 tree there are many very small cells, each one 
 of which is a universe in itself, having a diflferent 
 shape, a different sap, a different colour, yet all 
 these cells form one tree, having one life and 
 being subject to one sensitive system. Look at 
 the animal organism; it also is a multiplicity 
 of universes, an infinite number of what is called 
 cell-souls. All these cell-souls cohere, bound 
 together by a law and informed by a life which 
 is invisible. Let us turn our eyes on to the work- 
 ings of Nature. There the universal Prana (life) 
 moves on the surface of the universal Akasa, 
 the all-pervading space. 
 
 "This universe of life, mind, and matter are 
 modes of vibration of the Universal Reason" — 
 yat bhutam sthulam suksam cha tatsarva mana 
 parispandita mdtram, as Sankara says. This 
 Universal Reason is a substantive, quasi-ma- 
 terial Life principle and Mind, but different 
 from the all-mirroring Chaitanya (Intelligence) 
 which is immaterial and transcendent. 
 
 The circulation of Prana is the most wonder- 
 ful fact of Nature. All the bodies of living 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 137 
 
 animals are formed out of the Prana of ether. 
 The seaweeds called Algae, by using their chloro- 
 phyll, draw nourishment from sunbeams and 
 build up their bodies, which are eaten up by the 
 "copepod plankton," upon which the mackerel 
 feeds, and man eats the mackerel. It is the 
 same with vegetation on land. The entire 
 economy of marine as of land life depends upon 
 the power of photo-synthesis which vegetable 
 life is supposed to possess. Thus we see that 
 there is one never-ending substance which starts 
 in the form of original prana, builds up the ether 
 particles, becomes sun and transforms itself into 
 chlorophyll ; these transformations are followed 
 by a series of incarnations, viz. the minute Algae, 
 the seaweeds, the fishes, vegetation on land, proto- 
 plasm, animals, and man. The inorganic world 
 supports the organic, and the latter again returns 
 to the former. Plant and animal organisms die 
 and their remains go to augment the store of 
 inorganic matter. All forms of organisms live 
 through photo-synthesis, and their death means 
 photo-analysis. Creation, according to the 
 Vedanta,isthe evolution of latent energy (Anud- 
 bhuta Sakti) in a new collocation (Avayava 
 Sannivesa). The Prana becomes psychical, 
 vegetable, or animal organism, according as it 
 operates under the conditions of ether, air, 
 heat, or light, etc. One reality assumes the 
 dual form of cause and effect, the latter being 
 identical with the former, because they are 
 one in essence, for, as Ushasti says, "It is the 
 
138 BRAHMADAESANAM vi 
 
 Life (Prana) ; all these beings — organic and 
 inorganic, visible and invisible — enter into 
 Life and unto Life do they arise." 
 
 This Prana, which is the formative substance 
 of the universe, evolves under the will of Isvara 
 out of Akasa, or all-pervading space. We are 
 inclined to look upon space as blank and empty ; 
 this idea of Akasa as offering no resistance (e.g. 
 as when we move our hand) is purely negative. 
 It is very interesting to know what the ancient 
 Hindus thought about Akasa, for they delighted 
 to speculate upon its origin and structm-e. 
 
 As it is diflBcult to understand the Vedantic 
 cosmology without first comprehending the 
 doctrine of evolution from Akasa, I shall 
 briefly sketch Vijnana-Bhikshu's views on the 
 subject. 
 
 Akasa is the name given to a kind of primordial 
 matter which possesses neither the character- 
 istics of the Tanmatras nor the dynamic qualities 
 associated with the Paramanus. We cannot say 
 that it possesses impenetrability, which is gener- 
 ally supposed to be the primary quality ofmatter, 
 but it is ubiquitous. It is certain that Akasa is 
 vibratory, but then we have to consider Akasa 
 in its twofold aspect — original and derivative, 
 the first forming an undifferentiated mass in 
 nature, while the latter emanates, on the original' 
 equilibrium being disturbed at the beginning of 
 creation, as the three Gunas — sattva, raja, and 
 tama — in definite proportion, so as to build up 
 the universe through transformation of energy. 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 139 
 
 All the species of things arise through the action 
 of cosmic energy upon cosmic mass. 
 
 We will now consider the first product of the 
 action of cosmic energy upon cosmic mass. The 
 subtile Sabda is regarded as the first evolution. 
 There is a great reason for supposing that the 
 first product is subtile sound, because vibration 
 cannot tontinue long without producing sound. 
 This sound is not exactly what we perceive with 
 our ears, which is gross sound. This idea that 
 Akasa or space evolves Sabda, or sound, helps 
 us to understand how Akasa can be both a cause 
 and an effect. As cause it is the empty space, so 
 to speak ; as effect, it is the subtile sound. This 
 ancient theory receives great support from 
 modern investigations into X-rays and ether. 
 
 If we regard electricity as a vibratory form 
 of ether existing in vast space, we have no 
 difficulty in understanding this theory of Akasa. 
 
 The evolution of the Tanmatras as well as of 
 theMahabhutas can be imderstood in the follow- 
 ing way. It will help us to follow the process 
 if we remember three terms : (1) A Samavarana, 
 or a sm-rounding medium or "atmosphere" 
 within which the process takes place ; (2) Vikur- 
 van, by which is meant the process of (a) mass- 
 disintegration and (6) emanation ; and (3) Upas- 
 tambha, or transformation and redirection of 
 energy. Thus, mass being acted upon by energy, 
 disintegrates, and produces the Samavarana, the 
 Tanmatra called Sabda. From this Sabda, which 
 is, so to speak, a vibi;atory infra-atom, through 
 
140 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 condensation and collocation and accumulation 
 of mass evolves gross ether (gross Akasa) . From 
 this gross ether, by the same process of disintegra- 
 tion and emanation within the Sama varana, arises 
 Sparsa Tanmatra, or impact, which is felt by 
 touch. The Sparsa Tanmatra, moved by impact 
 and accumulating a new quantum of matter, 
 through condensation and collocation evolves the 
 Marut element, which is the ground of all gaseous 
 matter. From the Marut element, now charged 
 with energy, vibration, and impact, through dis- 
 integration and emanation under the influence 
 of energy evolves the Rupa Tanmatra, which 
 is the source of light, heat, and colour. 
 
 From Rupa Tanmatra, charged with light, etc., 
 and accumulating mass, through condensation 
 and collocation evolves the Tej element, which is 
 the source of electricity. From this Tej element, 
 by the same process, evolves the Rasa Tanmatra, 
 from which through condensation and collocation 
 arises the Ap element, which is the basis of all 
 liquids and of caste-stimulus. From the Ap ele- 
 ment through disintegration evolves the Gandha 
 Tanmatra, charged with four Tanmatras, and is 
 the source of the Elsiti element, the ground of 
 all solids and of smell stimulus. 
 
 Here we may notice that a gross element, or 
 Bhuta, is derived from a subtile element, or 
 Tanmatra, and that each successive Bhuta is 
 endowed with the attributes of all the preceding 
 ones in addition to its own specific qualities. 
 
 The universe, including the vital principle 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 141 
 
 which is associated with the psychical principle 
 through the intermediary of what is called the 
 Great Sympathetic, has evolved out of the same 
 Akasa under the guidance of Isvara, the Lord. 
 The human being is not a simple but a complex 
 organism, consisting of (1) a central, (2) an inner, 
 and (3) an outer body. The central body or 
 the spirit is the Karana, or noumenal self — 
 the first reflection of Brahman in the mirror of 
 Avidya, as intuited in the consciousness of 
 Susupti, or dreamless sleep. In the Karana body 
 the Self reveals Itself as an individual, devoid of 
 all Upadhi, i.e. imconditioned byname and form. 
 There the reflection of the Divine remains buried 
 within the gloom of nescience, like a diamond 
 within the bowels of the earth, or a seed inside 
 the soil. As consciousness and brain are associ- 
 ated together, so the central Karana self is 
 joined to the primal Avidya. The consciousness 
 which is lodged in the I^rana body remains in 
 a non-differenced form which may be compared 
 to the mind of a child before birth. It has not 
 yet diffused or expanded itself over the dual 
 field of "mine" and "thine." The reason why 
 it is said in the Vedanta that the reflection of 
 Brahman-consciousness remains surrounded by 
 nescience is that the Karana body, which is 
 formed of Prana-Akasa substance, does not 
 emerge before the consciousness in its true light. 
 When we are lost in the gloom of deep sleep we 
 are certainly unaware of the constitution of that 
 which covers our self -consciousness. But if you 
 
142 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 ask how we are to know the composition of the 
 Karana body after we awake, the answer is to 
 be found in the fact that the nature of the causal 
 Akasa is "emptiness" and "all-pervasiveness," 
 and the nature of Prana is to "guide." In 
 dreamless sleep we have the negative experience 
 of a "nothing," of "empty content," and of a 
 sudden expansion of the essence of self. Added 
 to this there is another experience of rest. The 
 life principle, or Prana, leaves the outer organ- 
 ism, the plane of sensation and the plane of will, 
 rises above the plane of higher thought, and ulti- 
 mately reaches the very haven of peace. Prana 
 guides itself to the inner sanctuary of bliss. Thus 
 it is evident that pure consciousness is encircled 
 by the ring of subtile Prana and subtile Akasa 
 which together form the Karana body. The 
 word Xarana means cause ; it is called Karana, 
 or causal body, because it is composed of the 
 substance of causal Akasa and causal Prana. 
 There is another reason why it is called the 
 Karana body, and that is because the entire 
 empirical history of man lies here in its potential 
 form ; just as causal space may be regarded as 
 the mother of the imiverse which imfolds itself 
 in time and ether as the stellar and solar systems, 
 so the seeds of life history, like designs on a 
 carpet, lie engraved within the Karana body, 
 which is therefore regarded as the first self- 
 alienation of Brahman, enduring as long as a 
 complete Kalpa (or cycle), and being in the end 
 absorbed into Brahman. 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 143 
 
 The Karana body is called Sakti-Atman (the 
 soul containing power or capacity), and Vija- 
 atman (the soul containing the seed of life and 
 the functions of mind) . Siurounding the Earana 
 body, and next in order to it, is the Suksma 
 body (soul), which is the seat of understanding 
 and volition. The five senses of perception, 
 the five senses of action, and the five vital Pranas 
 are located in Mana, or Mind, or, as it is some- 
 times called, the Antakarana, the "inner ruler." 
 There is also another faculty called the Buddhi, 
 which sometimes functions as the synthetic 
 activity in perception, and sometimes as mind 
 in general. Along with the last must be counted 
 the Ahamkar — the sense of "I," or self -con- 
 sciousness — whose object is the practical ego, but 
 which is in its turn observed in the intuitive way 
 by the eternal "I," the Samvit, or the Sakshi. 
 
 Surrounding the Suksma body, and next in 
 order to it, appears the Sthula, or gross body of 
 flesh and blood which is cast off at death. All 
 these three bodies are regarded as outer coatings, 
 sheaths, or affiliations (Upadhis) of the Self. 
 These Upadhis have, no less than the universe, 
 their constituent matter Prana. 
 
 Sarvam prdnamayam jag at, "all the universe 
 is filled with Prana." All creatures have arisen 
 out of Prana and dwell in Prana. The Sthula 
 body is the physiological system containing the 
 six principal centres, or great plexuses of the 
 sympathetic nerve system, which are called 
 (1) Muladhara, (2) Svadhisthana, (3) Manipura, 
 
144 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 (4) Anahata, (5) Vishuddha, (6) Sahasrara. 
 These plexuses are connected by three principal 
 nerves. All the faculties, powers, colours, sounds, 
 figures, names, have their seats in these centres. 
 This subject is very little understood in the West 
 and it is diflScult to find the proper technical 
 terms for translating this system of the six 
 circles into any European language, but this 
 much I can say, and that is that all our concep- 
 tions of life, love, art, religion, philosophy, and 
 liberation arise within the consciousness through 
 their co-ordination with the centre, or group of 
 centres, plexus, or group of plexuses, seated 
 within the brain and the great sympathetic 
 system of the human body. 
 
 The physiological centres contain the entire 
 experience of the race. The human body is in 
 one aspect the crystallisation of the hopes and 
 fears and achievements of the race, and in another 
 aspect the expression of God's mind. Man sees 
 God through the glasses of the higher physiologi- 
 cal centres, as he sees the cosmos through those 
 of the lower centres. Each of these Chakramas 
 (centres) contains many concentric spheres, and 
 each sphere has its Deva (spirit), Varna (light). 
 Mantra (sound), and its Sakti (power). The 
 first may be the seat of power, the second the 
 seat of love, the third the seat of knowledge, 
 the fourth the seat of renunciation, the fifth the 
 seat of liberation, and the sixth the seat of the 
 Absolute. We may call the Shatchakram, which 
 is situated within the physiology of man, the 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 145 
 
 Tree of Life, the root of which is in Brahman, 
 the Absolute. This Tree of Life can be per- 
 ceived by those in whom the Kundalini (the 
 serpentine power), which sleeps inside the last 
 circle, or Muladhar, is awakened. 
 
 The Yogi knows how to handle the Kundalini, 
 which is the lever of that consciousness in which 
 the individual realises his oneness with the 
 Absolute. The possibility of man's attaining to 
 perfect ethical consciousness, as well as to super- 
 human powers, lies in the Kundalini, which can 
 transform the quality and direction of the ac- 
 tivity of cell-life. There are millions of brain- 
 cells that are lying asleep. An absence of the 
 moral sense implies the paralysis of certain cells, 
 just as bodily ill-health denotes the inactivity 
 of some other cells. The body is the house of 
 Brahman; in fact, each cell holds within its 
 Akasa (ether) an image of Brahman. Moreover, 
 the Prana which each cell contains has the power 
 to realise the Absolute. In each cell there is 
 intellect, will and_ action corresppnding to Brah- 
 man (Absolute), Akasa (space), and Prana (life). 
 
 The world is a form of consciousness, and the 
 six Darsanas are forms of consciousness evoked 
 by the six circles within our physiology. With 
 the excitation of the centre of pity, we feel the 
 warmth of universal brotherhood and we realise 
 the truth of Buddha's teaching. When the 
 centre of good is stimulated, we feel "all is for 
 good," and thus learn the inestimable wisdom 
 of Siva's teaching. When the centre of power 
 
146 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 is awakened, we realise our own power and 
 appreciate the truth of Sakti's saying that God 
 is omnipotent. The stimulation of the centre 
 faith is followed by a consciousness of love 
 for, and trust in, God, and we are converted to 
 Vishnu's religion that God is love. To awaken 
 the consciousness of God as Light, which is 
 Surya's teaching, the centre of light has to be 
 excited. Lastly, to realise the oneness of man 
 with Brahman, which is Brahman's teaching, 
 the centre of identity is to be awakened. Thus 
 these centres are called respectively : Bauddha, 
 Saiva, Sakta, Vaisnava, Soura, and Brahma, 
 after the illustrious sages who discovered them. 
 The Shatchakram, situated within the Great 
 Sympathetic and the solar plexus, exercises an 
 architectural power by presiding over the forma- 
 tion of the life of the body and the senses. The 
 creative impetus, which emanates from the 
 Divine, is communicated to the Kundalini, or 
 serpentine power which is in Yoganidra, i.e. 
 "sleeping the sleep of trance." Religious con- 
 version cannot take place unless the Kimdalini 
 is awakened. We perceive all supersensible 
 truths through the awakening of the Kundalini. 
 The resurrection of the soul from the grave of 
 untruth becomes an actual fact as soon as the 
 Kundalini is awakened. The perception of 
 beauty, which is an attribute of the Self, fills 
 the heart with joy as soon as the Kundalini is 
 awakened. Health is also a gift of Kundalini ; 
 Kundalini is the mother of joy, of sweet rest, of 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 147 
 
 sleep, of health, of faith, and of wisdom. Medi- 
 tate on the Kundalini, and all the sweetness of 
 Heaven and the power of space will be yours; 
 Kundalini is the queen, the guide and the voice 
 of life. 
 
 The question will be asked as to how this 
 serpentine power is to be awakened. The re- 
 generation of mankind will come through the 
 right understanding and right manipulation of 
 this hidden power, and the reformation of the 
 criminal as well as the education of children 
 must proceed according to the method which 
 teaches the transformation of the animal into 
 the human, and the transfiguration of the human 
 into the Divine. 
 
 In order to awaken the Kundalini, we must, 
 in the first place, realise that the human soul is 
 essentially Divine and identical with God. Each 
 individual by himself or herself is illusory, but 
 in Itself is the whole, indivisible, infinite, all- 
 knowing, all-pervading, eternal, changeless, and 
 all-powerful Brahman ; as such, without limita- 
 tions, without organs, neither sinning nor suffer- 
 ing, neither an agent of action nor an enjoyer 
 of the fruits of action, but pure existence, pure 
 essence, pure being, pure consciousness. The soul 
 is an onlooker (Sakshi) — present as an eternal 
 element in all feelings, in all perceptions, and in 
 all conceptions. The disciple should remember 
 that this Sakshi, by its conjunction or associa- 
 tion with or transcendental influence upon the 
 phantom-mass or the shadow-substance of Maya, 
 
148 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 evolves a new power called Isvara, the creative 
 spirit. Isvara, by manipulating the substance of 
 Maya, creates the cosmos. All thoughts, all cells, 
 all powers are creative ; human will is reproduc- 
 tive; the cells of oiu- brains are reproductive. 
 The Sakshi expresses itself through Isvara and 
 Isvara through Maya. The Jiva (individual) is 
 an epitome of the Sakshi, Isvara, and Maya. 
 
 A word of explanation on Maya is necessary 
 here : Maya stands for the^ubstance or matter 
 of the imiverse, i.e. Prana, Akasa, life and ether. 
 It also stands for the power to realise the unreal, 
 to make the non-existent existent, to make evil 
 appear good, the untrue as true. This mysteri- 
 ous, incomprehensible, unbelievable element, 
 composed of the stuff our dreams, fears, and 
 illusions are made of, is the Maya out of which 
 Isvara fabricates these stellar and solar universes. 
 Maya is the matter of Bramanda — the universe 
 consisting of fourteen spheres — and Avidya is 
 the substance of the Jiva, the individual. Isvara 
 is the Lord of Maya, and Jiva is the creature of 
 Maya. But as Isvara has unlimited power over 
 Maya, the power, that is, of creation and destruc- 
 tion, so the Jiva has also some limited power of 
 direction over Maya. Jiva's intelligence is a 
 reflection of Brahman, and as such His power, 
 His wisdom and holiness are all present in a 
 diminutive form in Jiva. Isvara is untouched 
 by the evil of the world, whereas Jiva is over- 
 whelmed by evil, although through knowledge 
 of Vedanta he is able to neutralise the evil that 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 149 
 
 torments him ; that is to say that the Jiva can 
 become Brahman by liberating his soul from 
 error. The disciple must claim the creative and 
 destructive power of Isvara in thought and come 
 to a consciousness of his own directive power 
 with a view (1) to create wisdom, goodness, 
 power, and health ; (2) to destroy unwisdom, sin, 
 error, and weakness, and then (3) to direct his 
 newly acquired power and wisdom to effect his 
 perfection and liberation. 
 
 The perfect man sees the Sakshi, Isvara, Maya, 
 and Jiva as the moments of one Reality; but 
 to those who are still struggling all these are like 
 so many heterogeneous realities, unresolvable 
 into the One. These ideas which suggest that 
 the Jivas are all different, that the world is dif- 
 ferent from Isvara, that Isvara is different from 
 the Sakshi, and that Sakshi is different from 
 the Jiva, are all fabrications of Avidya. That 
 is to say that from the standpoint of Jnana 
 (perfect knowledge), nothing save Brahman is 
 true, while from the standpoint of Ajnana 
 (ignorance), nothing save the manifold of sense 
 is true. The former (knowledge) has its neural 
 counterpart in the highest Chakram in the brain, 
 while the latter (ignorance) has its neural coun- 
 terpart in the lowest Chakram situated within 
 the solar plexus. The disciple must meditate on 
 the solar plexus to see the content of Ajnana 
 when all the bad Samskars, which oppose our 
 progress through a power which has been accumu- 
 lated in countless past lives, have to be rubbed 
 
150 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 off, effaced, and obliterated; this process of 
 obliteration can be carried on by concentrating 
 the attention on this lowest Chakram, and the 
 result of such concentration will be that some 
 of the powers come under the control of the 
 will and are thus harnessed for the development 
 of the spiritual faculties. In this way the Yogis 
 say that all the principal and subordinate Chak- 
 rams are to be "pierced" and thus perfection 
 is to be attained. But the art of raising the 
 Eundalini should only be learned from a quali- 
 fied Guru. 
 
 The possibility of self-control and self -reforma- 
 tion lies in the fact of the freedom of the will. 
 The cosmic will, out of which the universe has 
 emanated, is identical with the human will. 
 Isvara's will moulds, shapes, and directs the 
 matter of the imiverse, and so the human will 
 can control the fancies, desires, and thoughts of 
 the heart. Hence it follows that man is respon- 
 sible for his thoughts and actions ; evil thoughts 
 and deeds are— through the unity of the human 
 and Divine will — punished by the degradation 
 of the brain-form, while good thoughts and 
 deeds are — through the operation of the unity 
 of wills — rewarded by an elevation of the brain- 
 form. 
 
 The truth of this statement is demonstrated 
 in our every-day experience of the objectification 
 and materialisation of the will. Criminal thoughts 
 and tendencies change the facial expression, the 
 tone of the voice, and the rhythm of muscular 
 
vi MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 151 
 
 movement, and they afterwards react upon the 
 psychical faculties with the result that human 
 affections become transformed into brutal in- 
 stincts. Such persons seek out lower forms of 
 organisms for their next incarnations. On the 
 other hand, good thoughts and good conduct 
 change the facial expression, the tone, looks, and 
 manners. The power of mental habit over the 
 body can be observed in the case of tragic or 
 comic actors who have been a long time on the 
 stage. The principle by which such changes 
 are brought about has a metaphysical value.^ 
 
 The Samkhya philosophers taught that mind 
 cannot be conceived of as separate from matter, 
 although there is a distinction between the two, 
 both mind and matter having evolved from a 
 substance which is neither mind nor matter. 
 How can we explain the growth of an elephant 
 from a single egg-cell? How does conscious- 
 ness come? To this Kapila would reply that 
 the mind of the elephant has evolved spontane- 
 ously out of the sattva of nature, for sattva is 
 consciousness subsisting in a latent form in 
 nature, and that this subconsciousness has 
 evolved 'pari passu with the development of 
 the organism, but (this is the peculiarity of 
 Kapila's philosophy) presided over by the soul 
 (Purusha). Without the presence of Purusha 
 the egg-cell would decompose (Sutra, Ix. ch. vi.). 
 
 But this theory of Kapila's leaves many 
 points unexplained : for if, as it is said, Purusha, 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
152 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 or soul, is inactive and free while Prakriti is 
 also inactive, how can the combination of two 
 inactive substances bring about the activity of 
 sentiency ? Kapila would answer that sentiency 
 is developed through the contact of soul with 
 matter. But why should soul come into contact 
 with matter at all ? The answer is Aviveka, the 
 want of self-knowledge on the part of Purusha 
 which deludes it (the soul) to look on the Mahat, 
 Ahamkar, and Indriyas as its own. Here it may 
 be questioned why, if, as Kapila says, Purusha is 
 eternally self-conscious, should it be conscious 
 of itself when touched by Prakriti? To this 
 the answer is that Purusha is really indifferent 
 and unconcerned, it simply looks on Prakriti as 
 a man looks on a pretty dancing girl and feels 
 enchanted, allowing himself to be overcome by 
 love. Prakriti is the whole theatre of nature, in- 
 cluding the processes of perception and emotion, 
 pain and pleasiu-e, volition and cognition. The 
 growth of individuality, i.e. of the sentiment of 
 love for life and of desire for achievement and 
 success, takes place while the soul is witnessing, 
 like the man watching the rhythmical move- 
 ments of the dancer. 
 
 No sooner does the Purusha close its eyes than 
 Prakriti ceases to work for it, though there are 
 hundreds of other souls who will come under its 
 influence. Liberation is the turning away of 
 the eye of the soul from the cosmic picture, but 
 Prakriti will never be destroyed, because there 
 will always be plenty of souls who are ready to 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 153 
 
 be enchanted. In Kapila's philosophy, Kaivalya, 
 or liberation (literally "aloofness"), is the gift 
 of Prakriti. Kaivalya is freedom from pain 
 and sorrow. 
 
 Vedanta has treated the same subject from 
 a very diflferent point of view. Unlike the Sam- 
 khya, Vedanta recognises one only Reality, the 
 nature of which is truth and joy. Brahman is 
 the truth of truth, the joy of joy. By the side 
 of Brahman there is no other existence, no 
 other bliss, and no other reality. Whenever 
 we say "yea," our voices echo the voice of that 
 Eternal Yea ; about Brahman we can only say 
 "OM" (Yea). 
 
 Brahman's truth is revealed in higher know- 
 ledge and reflected in lower knowledge; in 
 higher knowledge Brahman is the very freedom 
 of eternity. Brahman is complete and perfect 
 and blissful. Brahman cannot be understood, 
 because He is the understanding itself. He 
 cannot be enjoyed, because He is the essence of 
 joy, attributeless and impersonal, independent 
 and self-sufficient. Brahman is not to be 
 thought of as the cause of creation, for He is 
 without motive and there is nothing outside of 
 Him to create. He is all-embracing, all-con- 
 scious, and all-complete. He is only to be 
 indicated by the word OM (Yea). This Brah- 
 man is to be known in higher knowledge. 
 
 What then is this world, and what is man? 
 The question itself brings us into the sphere 
 of lower knowledge. In higher knowledge there 
 
154 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 is neither question nor answer, for there is no 
 one to question and none to answer; there is 
 nothing but the silence of Aparoksha (wisdom). 
 The lower knowledge indicates a state of 
 separateness from the Truth of Brahman, it 
 is the beginning of duality, which is Avidya. 
 
 The super-consciousness of Samadhi is sharply 
 distinguished from ordinary consciousness which 
 gives an individuality to every sensation, every 
 feeling, and every fancy. The Selfside of things, 
 which is identical with Brahman, is lost sight 
 of in the heterogeneity and multiplicity of pre- 
 sentative and representative objects. All objects 
 are illusive and unintelligible ; for example, here 
 is a flower : try to understand its nature. We 
 always understand a thing when we view it in 
 the light of its cause. The flower produces 
 certain sensations of colour, smell, etc., in the 
 mind, but these sensations only help us to 
 connect the name of the flower, e.g. rose, with 
 its peculiar colom* and smell, they do not help us 
 to understand what the flower is in itself. What 
 is the cause of the flower? The flower is on 
 the tree, the tree is the parent of the flower; 
 the leaves of the tree have, by a natural process, 
 been modified into the form of a rose. Do we 
 know the cause of the tree ? We observe that 
 the growth of its life is dependent upon the 
 atmosphere and terrestrial conditions, such as 
 moisture, heat, nitrogen, carbon, etc., and here 
 we may say that these elements of natiu-e have 
 by a natural law been modified into the form of 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 155 
 
 the tree, i.e. its life, its colour, its leaves, etc., 
 but have we yet understood the flower ? What 
 is this law which we are assuming at every step ? 
 We make a vague guess that there are forces 
 which are inherent in atoms and that these 
 forces operate according to a system ; but what 
 are these forces, and what are these atoms? 
 Some say they are electricity, others say ether. 
 Do these names help us to understand the 
 mystery of the flower and the still greater 
 mystery of our enjoyment of the beauty of the 
 flower ? One question lurks behind another, and 
 mystery envelops mystery; what we hear is 
 nothing but a series of endless names and names 
 and names. What we see is a series of shapes 
 and forms and movements. One name is ex- 
 plained by another name, and one shape is 
 explained by another shape. These names of 
 outer objects give rise to various feelings, such 
 as satisfaction, or pleasure, or pain, etc., which 
 are also names of inner objects or mental 
 shapes. These inner feelings give rise to move- 
 ments, such as when we stretch a hand to pluck 
 the rose, or when we turn our faces away at the 
 sight of some hideous object. 
 
 Thus we see that the universe is a mysterious 
 conglomeration of name, form, and movement, 
 as Sri Sankara says : " Kdrya-kdrana-ndma-rupa- 
 prapancha." Philosophers say that this mys- 
 terious world is begotten of another mysterious 
 pair called time and space. This mystery is 
 what the Vedantin calls Maya. The Lord is 
 
156 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 the Master of this show, and we are like dancing 
 girls in disguise. Man is only a name, woman 
 is only a name, yet these two names charm one 
 another. Civilisation is nothing but a dream 
 of agreeable shadows, as the mystic poet of 
 the East says : 
 
 We are no other than a moving row 
 Of visionary Shapes that come and go 
 
 Bound with this Sun-illumined lantern held 
 In midnight by the Master of the show.' 
 
 The greatest of all Maya is the thought that 
 some forms of Maya are worth more than others. 
 Thus life appears of more worth than death. 
 
 Man is playing about in the midnight of 
 Avidya. There is no knowledge possible of 
 Maya, the nature of which is non-knowledge; 
 therefore the wise say. Leave Maya alone. 
 
 But where is the Maya — the untruth that 
 captivates, the shadow that rules? Is it in 
 human society, in nature, or in Heaven ? Long 
 ago I was wandering in the beautiful forest of 
 Brindaban, and one morning as I sat under a 
 tree I was quite charmed with the freshness of 
 the spring landscape ; it was a perfect paradise 
 for song-birds, peacocks, and deer; the river 
 Jumna with her crystal waters was flowing by. 
 I sat thinking and wondering whether all the 
 birds and flowers and the music of the waters 
 was nothing but Maya, when suddenly my 
 reverie was broken by a voice saying: "There 
 is Maya within the family circle, Maya on the 
 
 ' Omar Khayyam, Izziii. 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 157 
 
 broad streets of the world, Maya in the clouds, 
 and Maya even in the Lord's Heaven ; there is 
 no time in which there is no Maya, and no place 
 where there is not Maya. Mind is Maya." 
 
 I opened my eyes and met the smiling gaze of 
 a Sannyasin who was standing before me. He 
 had read my thoughts and came to solve my 
 doubts. He continued: "You are young, and 
 yet you have left home and parents to don the 
 orange robe of the monk in search of truth and 
 peace. My child, the mind is the citadel of 
 Maya and the world its outworks. Conquer 
 the citadel, and the outworks will fall of them- 
 selves." After saying this he went his way, leaving 
 me to muse in the silence of my own meditation. 
 
 Brahman is truth, Maya is untruth ; Brahman 
 is Being, Maya is becoming ; Brahman is Eternity, 
 Maya is time; Brahman is existence, Maya is 
 the cosmos ; Brahman is consciousness, Maya is 
 mind; Brahman is Reality, Maya is power; 
 Brahman is everything, and Maya is nothing; 
 Brahman is intuition, Maya is intelligence; 
 Brahmanis Wisdom, Maya is knowledge ; Brah- 
 man is joy, and Maya is pleasure. Brahman is 
 the spectator, Maya is the phantasy of dream ; 
 Brahman is the Samvid of sound sleep, Maya is 
 the general torpor of sleep; Brahman is the 
 Prana (super-consciousness) of Turiya, and 
 Maya is non-existence. All Maya implies all 
 Brahman, but All Brahman implies no Maya. 
 
 Sri Ramakrishna used to say that in the 
 super-consciousness of higher Samadhi the truth 
 
158 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 of the saying "All is Brahman" becomes plain; 
 while in the sub-consciousness of lower Samadhi 
 the truth of the "personal God" can be felt, 
 and in the ordinary waking consciousness 
 Kapila's teaching about Prakriti appears to be 
 a fact. 
 
 Ramakrishna also said that the manifold of 
 name and form has evolved out of Brahma- 
 consciousness. As it is impossible to draw a 
 line between ocean and the waves, so it is im- 
 possible to differentiate Brahman from Creation. 
 To us as personal beings endowed with limited 
 consciousness God cannot but reveal Himself 
 as a Personal Being, for our intellect, being of 
 the nature of attributes, can only conceive of 
 a Divine Personality endowed with great attri- 
 butes. But men can, through Yoga, transcend 
 his individual attributes and personal limitations . 
 In the silence of Samadhi, when the mind does 
 not argue about existence in the abstract as 
 different from existence in the concrete, he 
 realises the Impersonal. In thinking of Monism 
 (Advaita), we cannot but assume Dualism 
 (Dvaitam), for the numerical integer is associ- 
 ated in our mind with other figures. It is idle 
 to speak of the "One Absolute" when you have 
 not got rid of such pairs of ideas as "personal" 
 as opposed to "the Impersonal," "changeable" 
 as opposed to "the Unchangeable," "One" as 
 opposed to "many," and "the Absolute" as 
 opposed to the "relative." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Brahman, as seen 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 159 
 
 through the glass of the intellect, appears as the 
 universe, and, when this process is reversed, 
 that is, when in Samadhi Brahman sees Him- 
 self, there is no longer any universe. 
 
 The relation of Maya to Brahman is difficult 
 to explain, because, first of all. Brahman is 
 Absolute Existence, while Maya is absolute non- 
 existence, therefore the question arises as to 
 how Absolute Reality can be related to absolute 
 unreality. Secondly, Brahman is eternal but 
 Maya is perpetual, i.e. active while time lasts. 
 How then can Brahman, who is eternally in- 
 active, induce Maya to create the world? In 
 answer to the first question, it may be said that 
 Brahman is real; all reality can belong to 
 Brahman only. If pure consciousness is identi- 
 cal with pure existence, then the latter cannot 
 be ascribed to any other than Brahman, for all 
 that'wemean by reality has its source in Brahman 
 and cannot be separated from Brahman. If we 
 ascribe existence to any other by the side of 
 Brahman, by doing so we limit and circumscribe 
 Brahman; and in that case completeness and 
 perfection cannot be ascribed to Brahman. As 
 Brahman is consciousness, and as we cannot, 
 in any way, qualify the conscious existence of 
 Brahman with the notion of cause and eflFect, 
 of persistence and change, of time and space, 
 of position and movement — without destroying 
 the self -same identity and independence of Brah- 
 man, there is no other language wherewith to 
 describe Brahman than by saying, "Brahman 
 
160 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 is." Even the word "existence" must not be 
 taken to be an attribute or quality or mode of 
 Brahman, for this word "existence" has to be 
 used simply for the sake of the pupils who have 
 not yet realised Brahman. From the stand- 
 point of the highest Samadhi, Brahman is un- 
 conditioned and attributeless, neither personal 
 nor impersonal, nor even unpersonal, still less 
 infra-personal ; yet Brahman is not an abstrac- 
 tion, but an actuality in whom perfection has 
 been still more perfected in the most blissful 
 way, the completeness of which is the very truth 
 of freedom. 
 
 In order to bring home this teaching about 
 Nirguna Brahman (the unconditioned Brahman), 
 Whom none can understand who has not entered 
 into the highest Samadhi, we may use a simile, 
 but it is a simile which must not be stretched 
 very far. If we say that all light — solar light, 
 lunar light, polar light, zodiac light, electric light 
 gas light, candle light, phosphorescence, nerve 
 light, radium light, petrol light, etc., originate 
 in ether, what is it that we really mean ? Perhaps 
 we mean that ether is the cause of all these 
 lights, or we may mean that ether transforms 
 itself into various lights ; or we may mean that 
 light is the same thing as ether, that light and 
 ether are two words which both denote the fact 
 of luminousness, that being not only inseparable 
 from ether but completely identical with it. 
 
 In the same way, following the analogy of the 
 last meaning, we may say that consciousness is 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 161 
 
 Brahman, i.e. all consciousness — consciousness 
 in the personal God, in the Devas, in man, in 
 animals, in plants, in minerals, in electrons — 
 all these imply the Brahman-existence. We may 
 say that consciousness and Brahman-existence 
 are two words, but they mean One Reality ; we 
 may say that consciousness is not only insepa- 
 rable from existence but that it is identical with 
 existence, and that there can be nothing else 
 except Brahman, One, universal, immanent, 
 transcendent, real, blissful, perfect, and true. 
 
 The second question may now be considered, 
 viz., How can Brahman be thought of in associa- 
 tion with the illusory Maya? We must start 
 omr discussion with the premise that no such 
 association or conjunction of Brahman with 
 Maya can take place from Brahman's point of 
 view, and that it is therefore only relatively 
 valid, i.e. it belongs not to true knowledge but 
 to Avidya. The world, so the teaching goes, is 
 neither real nor unreal, neither ideal nor material, 
 has neither beginning nor end, is neither moral 
 nor non-moral. It is incomprehensible and un- 
 definable ; it is as mysterious as the forms and 
 shapes conjured up by the art of the magician. 
 In Sam9;dhi the Yogi does not perceive its exist- 
 ence, just as we are not conscious of its existence 
 in deep slumber. In God-vision the world of 
 change does not appear in the field of conscious- 
 ness as in dream, when we only see images, but 
 not the objective world, which only exists for 
 us during our waking hours. When we say that 
 
162 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 the world is real, we mean no more than that 
 the contents of waking perception are real ; thus 
 it is, at best, only a part of consciousness which 
 gives rise to the sense of reality, and even that 
 part is not free from error. Can we say that 
 all the contents of waking consciousness are 
 real ? No. Our knowledge of the outer world 
 proceeds from the senses, and how easily the 
 mind can be deceived by the senses ! The senses 
 have their limitations; this becomes evident 
 when we consider how readily the mind is in- 
 fluenced by suggestion causing mere ideas to 
 assume the forms of reality. Goethe describes 
 in his Erlkbnig how a child dies of fright in his 
 father's arms while the latter is carrying him 
 on horseback through a stormy night ; the boy 
 imagines that the "Erlkonig" is trying to snatch 
 him away, and he thus becomes a prey to the 
 phantom of his own imagination. 
 
 I could cite many examples which prove how 
 powerful is the influence which the mind exerts 
 over the body. There was once a man who, 
 though by no means a coward, was terrified of 
 snakes. One evening a friend of his played a 
 practical joke which cost him his life. While 
 they were sitting with a party of four others by 
 the side of the river Ganges, this friend, who had 
 concealed in his coat pocket a rubber snake 
 which had the appearance of a cobra, suddenly 
 threw it on to the man's leg. He gave a loud 
 shriek and exclaimed, "A cobra has bitten 
 me!" and so saying, he fell senseless to the 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 163 
 
 ground, and before anything could be done to 
 revive him, Hfe was found to be extinct. 
 
 Hypnotists are able to cause an inflammation 
 on any part of the skin by simply touching the 
 spot with a finger ; thus, by means of suggestion, 
 burns and blisters can be produced. Todermal 
 (an Indian statesman) is said to have died within 
 a week after seeing the figure of a black devil in 
 a dream. The celebrated rope trick, performed 
 by Indian conjurers, is another instance of the 
 power of suggestion. A man throws a long rope 
 into the air, and to the eyes of the spectators 
 the rope appears to be hanging down from the 
 sky. Then a boy goes up it, like a sailor climbing 
 the rigging, only the boy disappears from view, 
 and after the lapse of a few minutes his arms 
 legs, trunk, etc., fall to the ground. The con- 
 jurer weeps over the fate of the poor boy, and 
 the spectators become greatly agitated. Pres- 
 ently he collects the limbs one by one, and places 
 them inside a wooden box ; then he touches the 
 box with his wand and opens it, whereupon the 
 same boy, with all his limbs whole, comes out 
 smiling, and the spectators heave a sigh of relief. 
 Many other wonderful tricks are done in India, 
 such as producing living animals and trees out 
 of nothing. 
 
 Greater wonders than those shown by pro- 
 fessional tricksters are demonstrated by Yogis, 
 such as the creation of many bodies of the Yogi 
 himself appearing simultaneously before many 
 persons or living for months and years under- 
 
164 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 ground without food ; or levitation, or the crea- 
 tion of phantom towns peopled with phantom 
 figures. All these things are illusion, but they 
 are facts of illusion. When we see them, they 
 carry with them the conviction of reality and 
 we cannot disbelieve them ; it is only afterwards 
 that we realise that they were illusions. It is 
 the same with this universe with its suns and 
 stars, its mountains and rivers, its loves and 
 hates, its peace and its wars. They are all real 
 as long as we are in ignorance and in the grip 
 of Avidya, but we realise them as illusions when 
 our souls are illuminated by knowledge. Then 
 we no longer feel interested in the affairs of this 
 Passing Show.^ 
 
 Thus we can understand the answer to the 
 second question. Brahman reflected in the 
 magic mirror of Maya appears to us as the 
 Creator of the Universe. In thought we link 
 the Absolute with the relative, the One with 
 the many, and thus we relate the world with an 
 all-mighty creative intellect, called Isvara, who 
 is the first self-alienation of Brahman. Isvara 
 is not the creator of Maya but only its director 
 and master. The same Brahman reflected in 
 Avidya is Jiva, or the individual. Out of the 
 illusory Maya, "the Lord of this all-show" has 
 made the world of time and space, cause and 
 effect, life and matter. Jiva is also making his 
 world of religion and philosophy, morality and 
 government, art, science and commerce out of 
 * See Appendix. 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 165 
 
 Avidya. There is about as much distinction 
 between Maya and Avidya as there is between 
 a ghost and a fairy; it may be that Maya is 
 objective (projected or thrown outwards), while 
 Avidya is subjective (injected or thrown in- 
 wards), but the substance of matter and motion, 
 of mind and nerve, has evolved out of such stuff 
 as magic show is made of. \ 
 
 Maya has been variously named by different 
 philosophers as Sakti (power) and Prakriti 
 (nature). Whenever we study the doctrine of 
 Maya, we must always remember the words of 
 Sri Sankara Acharya: "Belonging to the Self, 
 as it were, of the Omniscient Lord, there are 
 Nama-rupa, the Maya of name and form, of 
 substance and attributes, of cause and effect, 
 of universe and the man." 
 
 The doctrine of Maya must be read along 
 with the doctrine of Avidya, the former being 
 the complement to the latter. According to 
 the doctrine of Maya the reality of the Jiva 
 (individual), Jagat (universe), and Samsara are 
 denied, as according to the doctrine of Avidya 
 the reality of perception and conception is 
 denied; for nothing else is truly real except 
 the one Brahman. It is the mind which super- 
 imposes the outer world upon Brahma, who only 
 is real. This innate tendency of the mind, to 
 place the illusion of the inner and outer world 
 and the transmigration of the Jiva in relation 
 to the personality of a creative Spirit, is called 
 Maya. What remains (after name and form. 
 
166 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 which are productions of Maya and Avidya, 
 are deducted or annihilated) is pure conscious- 
 ness. This is Brahma, unto which all creatures 
 are progressing to be absorbed and compre- 
 hended in the embrace of Jnana. Thus a dis- 
 tinction is to be drawn between the universe of 
 Jnana (reality) and the universe of Ajnana 
 (non-reahty) — the former being Brahma and 
 the latter Maya. All our anthropomorphic 
 conceptions are Avidya-born. 
 
 It is the Self behind phenomena that seeks 
 to express Itself to our self, the former One with 
 the latter. 
 
 By a law of thought the self is the ground 
 of all our assumptions. We cannot understand 
 each other's language unless we tacitly attribute 
 a self to the speaker. This process of self- 
 endowment is not limited to human beings. 
 
 Whether it is clearly present to our thought 
 or not, we attribute some kind of self, not only 
 to the lower animals, but to each unit of the 
 inanimate creation. When we speak of earth 
 or water or matter, we do assume some kind of 
 substance containing the germ of self in it. The 
 only illusion from which human thought vainly 
 strives to escape is the disconcerting assumption 
 of many isolated selves. Metaphysical logic fails 
 to see any truth in this assumption of a plurality 
 of selves, each complete in itself without being 
 touched by its neighbours. For how can one 
 self be separated, either subjectively or object- 
 ively, from another self which is assumed to 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 167 
 
 be of homogeneous nature ? Can I separate in 
 thought my self from yours? It is our char- 
 acters that dififer, not the soul. As one sun 
 produces the seven colours of the rainbow, 
 so one self produces the many so-called 
 selves. 
 
 It is Brahman who is in the Turiya, in the 
 Susupti, in the dreaming and in the waking state. 
 It is Brahman who is Isvara, the Creator. It 
 is Brahman who is the Hiranyagarbha, i.e. the 
 unmanifested universe in its causal form, exist- 
 ing as a design in the mind of Isvara. It is 
 Brahman who is Virat, i.e. the manifested 
 universe of the solar and stellar systems, the 
 world of life, movement, and Karma. Thus 
 the Rishi says : "Perfect and whole is that 
 Brahman, and perfect and whole ^ also is this 
 Brahman." 
 
 To regard the person as separate from the 
 Impersonal is an instance of what is called the 
 "heresy of separateness." When the mind of 
 man is freed from Avidya, he sees nothing but 
 the presence of Brahman. 
 
 Walt Whitman speaks of the one-ness of soul 
 and matter. It appears so contrary to all ova 
 experience — how can the In^asible Self be re- 
 garded as the reverse side of visible nature? 
 Yet those who kno"w how to see have seen and 
 reahsed this one-ness with God (Paravidya). 
 Tennyson describes his experience of this higher 
 knowledge, when he "felt that his soul melted 
 away into heaven Hke a cloud in the sky. To 
 
168 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 him this did not appear as loss of self, but "gain 
 of such large life as matched with ours were sun 
 to spark." 
 
 Sri Krishna calls them children who see 
 nothing but contradiction between the unitary 
 revelations of Yoga and the positivistic teach- 
 ings of science on the manifoldness of nature. 
 He sees rightly who sees that the truth of the 
 one is not different from the truth of the 
 other. 
 
 This is Mukti, this is liberation from Maya, 
 from Avidya and from Upadhi. True religion 
 teaches man the art of self-expression. In self- 
 expression lies happiness; man's destiny is to 
 become God. 
 
 When the poet is able to express the harmony 
 of the self in the rhythm of words, he is happy ; 
 when the lover is able to express the fire of the 
 soul in the light of the eyes, he is happy ; when 
 a community expresses the ideal of the good 
 in art, in government;, and in manners, it has 
 achieved its object; mankind will realise its 
 mission on earth when all see Godhead in each, 
 and each one sees Godhead in all. 
 
 Self-preservation is the law of life. This is 
 not to be confounded with the preservation of 
 name and form, or of individuality, not even of 
 nationality, no, nor even of humanity. Self- 
 preservation implies the preservation of right- 
 eousness, of the longing for freedom, of the 
 aspiration for holiness. All evil, all sin, all 
 pain arises from the desire for the preservation 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 169 
 
 of the ego — the ego of passion, of power, of 
 lust, the ego which whispers, "Each for him- 
 self." That is a kind of self-preservation 
 which is nothing more than self-extinction. 
 
 The sense of an isolated ego within the body 
 of man, or in the body of a nation, which is a 
 collection of individuals, having its separate life 
 and separate interests, is an error. This error 
 is the parent of all strife between individual 
 and individual, between nation and nation. 
 Patriotism — the fetish of some minds — is but 
 another form of individualism which has its 
 origin in selfishness. This monster of race- 
 patriotism battens on the blood of other races 
 just as one set of bacilli feeds on another set. 
 Patriotism is the cause of immense good to the 
 members of the same race, but is also the cause 
 of countless evils to the members of other races. 
 All the horrors of war that we read of in history, 
 and of which we read in the papers to-day, have 
 been caused by race-consciousness. Ambitious 
 rulers, diplomatists, and capitalists call out for 
 a so-called peace which is no peace at all, a 
 peace born of idleness, of greed, of the muck of 
 decaying creeds, customs and ideals, of unbehef, 
 dishonesty and shame, and of false sympathy 
 of race for race. This so-called civilisation is a 
 compact between the strong, unscrupulous races 
 for trampling under foot the weaker races. 
 What is there to divide one race from another ? 
 We are all men, not mere geographical dolls. 
 
 Sister Nivedita records that while Swami 
 
170 BRAHMADAKSANAM vi 
 
 Vivekananda was on his way to the shrine of 
 Amarnath in Kashmir many Sannyasins used 
 to call on him, and when he drew their attention 
 to the condition of the world around them, they 
 said that even foreigners were men — why make 
 such a distinction between Svadesa (one's own 
 country) and Videsa (foreign country) ? 
 
 These Sannyasins on the banks of the Ganges 
 and the Indus have developed cosmic conscious- 
 ness to so great an extent that they no longer 
 live the petty life of race and clan, but that of 
 the universal. 
 
 When talking of the repeated invasions of 
 India by Asiatic and European races, the 
 Swami Vivekananda, who had an intense love 
 for India, said that all his patriotism was gone 
 — that it was now only "Mother, Mother!" 
 He told how "Mother" once appeared to him 
 and said, "Even if unbelievers enter My temples 
 and defile My images, what is that to you? 
 Do you protect Me? Or do I protect you?" 
 So there was no more patriotism for him. 
 
 I shall be sorry if you misunderstand me as 
 condemning either love of peace, or neighbourly 
 love, or love for one's country. All these feel- 
 ings are praiseworthy and help to evolve the 
 spiritual life of man ; at the same time we must 
 not forget that love means harmony, not con- 
 flict, expansion of sympathy, not its contraction 
 within geographical limits. The very fact of 
 loving one soul, by including all souls and God, 
 implies salvation. Universal love inspired by 
 
VI MONISM: THE TRUTH OF LIFE 171 
 
 the vision of the Universal may not bring us 
 worldly success or national prosperity, but it will 
 give us something more precious than all the suc- 
 cess and all the treasures of the world combined. 
 I see a new light on the distant horizon, 
 across the siu-ging waters. From beyond the 
 blue, the song of the gods is enchanting my soul. 
 I see a new humanity, God-vestured, dazzling 
 the sight like a fiery cloud of gold. There I 
 see, above the cloud, shining with the glory of 
 a thousand suns, a subhme figure more godlike 
 than man's conception of God. In the gloom 
 of the last watch of the night I see the shattered 
 remains of ruined towers and temples, and the 
 dead bodies of men and women and animals; 
 I hear the last groans and faint cries of a dying 
 world. All that is changed. Universal silence, 
 like that which prevailed before the creation of 
 our sun, when Isvara was lost in the meditation 
 of Brahman. Behold! out of the thought of 
 Isvara comes forth a universe of Right peopled 
 by beings who shall be called Truth-born ! 
 OM. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Kaushitaki TJpanishad, with Sankarananda's Dipika. 
 Nadbindu Upanishad, with Narayan's Vritti. 
 Atmaproboda Upanishad. 
 
 Nrisunhatapani Upanishad, with Sankara's Bhasya. 
 Shatchakra Upanishad, with Narayan's Dipika. 
 Shatchakra Nirupanam, with Visvanath's Vivriti. 
 
172 BRAHMADARSANAM vi 
 
 F9,dukapanchakam of Sankara. 
 
 Siddhanta Darasana, with Niranjan BhSsya. 
 
 Bhagavatgita. 
 
 Devi Bhagavata. 
 
 Yogavasistha Maharamaijan. _ 
 
 Sarirakbhasya of Sri Sankara Achftrya. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 NOTES 
 
 P. 2, I. 29. Invasion of India 
 
 India has suflFered foreign invasion within historical 
 times since the year 2034 B.C., when Semiramis of 
 Nineveh invaded the north-west of India. Rameses 
 II. of Egypt invaded her 981 b.c. Darius of Persia 
 invaded her 600 b.c. Alexander of Macedon in- 
 vaded her 327 b.c. Kasim of Arabia invaded her 
 711 A.D. The Sultan of Ghazni invaded her 986 a.d. 
 Muhammed invaded the Punjab 1021 a.d. Babar 
 the Mongol invaded her 1526 a.d. After this the 
 Afghans invaded her several times. Every school- 
 boy and schoolgirl is familiar with the story of 
 the invasions of India by the nations of Europe 
 since the discovery of the Cape route by the 
 Portuguese. 
 
 P. 4, 1. 28 
 
 The Charvvak school was founded by Vrihaspati. 
 The Charwaks are thorough-going materialists, and 
 bear great resemblance to La Mettre and others of 
 the French Illumination period. 
 
 Vrihaspati must have lived long before the 
 173 
 
174 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 Buddha, and he probably influenced the no-soul 
 theory of the Buddhists. The Charvvaks taught 
 that mLud is a product of matter, that there is no 
 soul, no God, and no future life. "Live merrily as 
 long as you are alive; borrow butter if you have 
 none" — such was the hedonic tone of their teach- 
 ings. This school has long ceased to exist as a 
 systematic philosophy in India ; it has changed its 
 habitation, and has come to dwell in Europe. 
 These diflFerent philosophic systems are classified 
 by Sri Madhava Acharya in his Sarvadarsana 
 Samgraha as follows : 
 
 1. Charvvaka Darsana. 
 
 2. Bauddhya 
 
 3. Aharat 
 
 4. Ramanuja " 
 
 5. Pumaprajna " 
 
 6. Nakulish F&supat Darsana. 
 
 7. Saiva 
 
 8. Pratabhijna 
 
 9. Rasesvara 
 
 10. Aulukya 
 
 11. Akshapada 
 
 12. Jaiminya 
 
 13. Paniniya 
 
 14. Samkhya 
 
 15. Patanjali 
 
 16. Sankara 
 
 P. 9, 1. 22. Buddha's Nirvana 
 
 There is some misunderstanding as to the mean- 
 ing of the word Nirvana as intended by the 
 
APPENDIX 175 
 
 Buddha. The root meaning of the word is certainly 
 different from its philosophical significance. Follow- 
 ing the radical meaning — "blowing out" — some 
 scholars have made the fatal mistake of thinking 
 that its metaphysical significance is "annihilation 
 of the soul." From what follows it will be seen 
 that Nirvana and Mukti are almost synonymous 
 terms and refer to the permanent ideal for the 
 attainment of which the human being is perpetually 
 striving. 
 
 The Buddhists say Nirvana is supreme happiness. 
 Hemchandra says Nirvana is perfect rest, while 
 Amara asserts that Nirvana is synonymous with 
 the ne plus ultra of perfection, deathlessness, the 
 highest good, liberation from limitation, transcen- 
 dental independence of spirit, and perpetual peace 
 that is the reward of wisdom. That NirvSna does 
 not mean "nothing," or "negation of existence," is 
 evident from the Buddha's own words. We shall 
 quote some of his utterances. 
 
 The Buddha said : 
 
 The mind is freed from the clutch of the enemy 
 of Nirvana through right views, right resolution, 
 right speech, right conduct, right exercise, right 
 recollection, and right absorption, or Samadhi. 
 The effect of right absorption, or Samadhi, is a 
 discriminative xmderstanding, unitative state of 
 the soul, indifference to illusory things of the world, 
 and the purification of memory. By the light of 
 Samadhi-born sight the soul discovers real truth, 
 and distinguishes it from the source of untruth. 
 That is to say, man realises the true meaning of 
 peace, emancipation, and Nirvana. The transcen- 
 dental knowledge derived from Samadhi discloses 
 
176 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 the highest truth of life and dispels all doubt. 
 These are the realisations during the first stage of 
 Samadhi. 
 
 In the second stage the mind rises from the 
 manifold of the cosmos to the imity of being. In 
 this stage the plurality of sense-perception does not 
 exist for the Yogi. One Supreme Being, identical 
 with its meditation, its knowledge, its understand- 
 ing, its longing and its love, fills the entire horizon 
 of the soul. 
 
 In the third stage of Samadhi the soul is freed 
 from the duality of knowledge and ignorance, 
 existence and non-existence, passion and dispassion, 
 happiness and misery, joy and joylessness, fortune 
 and misfortune, eternal and temporal. The soul 
 dwells in the middle sphere as the untouchable, the 
 indifiPerent, the unattached, the unacting and 
 thrill-less. Then the soul is unhampered, inde- 
 pendent, and unabstracted. 
 
 In the fourth stage the soul becomes absolutely 
 pure, through the disappearance of the sense of ego 
 — the ego which is identical with ignorance, passion, 
 and flesh. It feels as though it does not live because 
 vanity is gone for ever. It comes to the state of 
 righteousness through the death of sin and sorrow. 
 Thus through the ending of misery, peace together 
 with highest knowledge arises. This is the beginning 
 of the state of Nirvana — of perfect ecstasy, of bliss, 
 and of immortality. The soul is now for ever free, 
 enjoying in its own sphere of glory — free for ever 
 from birth and death, disease and ignorance, bondage 
 and relative liberation. It attains supreme happi- 
 ness, it comes to its own immortality. Compare 
 this teaching of the Buddha with the teachings 
 
APPENDIX 177 
 
 of the Upanishads and the Gita. The Buddha's 
 teaching about the ultimate state of the soul is 
 based upon the Vedanta. He verified to his satis- 
 faction the conclusions of the Upanishads in his 
 own life during the six years of meditation under 
 the Bodhi tree. 
 
 If it is still asked what really is this Nirvana, we 
 answer in the words of the Vedic Rishi : 
 
 "'Wherein, O Holy One, does the soul stand?' 
 'Ah, my dearest, the soul stands in her own 
 majesty.' " 
 
 P. 10, 1. 12 
 
 The Buddha has been much misunderstood, not 
 only by his enemies, but also by his followers. He 
 taught that speculations as to the origin and destiny 
 of souls and of the universe do not help us to lead 
 a noble and virtuous hfe. We cannot determine by 
 abstract reasoning the nature of God's relation to 
 man or the nature of the highest aim of Ufe. All 
 that is required of man is to be good : he ought to 
 love, all and hve for all. The Buddha taught the 
 middle way of avoiding two extremes, viz. self- 
 indulgence and self-mortification, and following a 
 path which opens the eye to truth, imfolds the 
 understanding, confers peace of mind, bestows 
 wisdom, and leads to enlightenment. To reaUse the 
 highest aim of hfe he taught his disciples to follow 
 the eightfold path : 
 
 Right views. 
 
 Right aspirations. 
 
 Right speech. 
 
 Right conduct. 
 
178 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 Right living (without hurting any living 
 
 thing). 
 Right effort (self-control). 
 Right watchfulness. 
 
 Right rapture (through contemplation of 
 the vanities of life). 
 As the Buddha did not accept the authority of 
 the Vedas, as he had no faith in a personal God, and 
 as he did not beheve in the soul as an everlasting 
 entity, he is regarded by the Hindus as a heterodox 
 teacher. 
 
 P. 12, 1. 16. Date of the Vedas 
 
 Nothing is more difficult than to discover the 
 actual dates of the Vedas and Upanishads, as well 
 as those of later Sanscrit teachers and poets. Hindu 
 Sanscrit scholars have not been able to accept the 
 dates given by European savants ; as a general rule 
 the latter have a tendency to choose the latest 
 possible dates. Personally, I believe that Buddha 
 lived at a much earlier date than 680 b.c, and in 
 this I am supported by the Tibetan and Chinese 
 records. As for the date of the Vedas and Upani- 
 shads, the Hindus believe that they exist perpetu- 
 ally, that is to say, that they are as imperishable as 
 the human soul. Not only the spirit but also its 
 medium has a self-revealing nature by virtue of 
 which they present themselves before the inner eye 
 of the Yogi in Samadhi. Max Miiller divides the 
 Vedic literature into four periods — the Chhandas, 
 Mantra, Brahamana, and Sutra ; and as each period 
 is prior, if not to the origin, at least to the spreading 
 and political ascendency of Buddhism in the fourth 
 
APPENDIX 179 
 
 century before Christ, he, by assigning two hundred 
 years to each period, arrives at about 1200 b.c. as 
 the latest date at which we may suppose the Vedic 
 hymns to have been composed. 
 
 Dr. Haug fixes the very commencement of the 
 Vedic hterature between 2400 and 2000 b.c. by 
 assigning about five hundred years to each 
 period. 
 
 Nothing positive is known as to the time when 
 the Vedas and Upanishads were reduced to writing ; 
 curiously enough all European scholars acknowledge 
 this, but of course they must cook some dates to 
 satisfy their scientific consciences. 
 
 P. 15, 1. 12. Study of Vedanta 
 
 To be able to practise Vedanta successfully, and 
 realise the content of our deeper self, it is absolutely 
 necessary to acquire those powers and develop those 
 faculties which contribute towards the perfection 
 of human nature. The Hindu teachers instruct 
 their pupils to acquire Dharma, i.e. that substance 
 or essence, the possession of which makes man 
 perfect as God, and without which man does not 
 even deserve to be called man. The nature of 
 Dharma can be understood from what follows : 
 
 1. The disciple must try to develop his (or her) 
 
 powers of remembrance, so that he (or she) 
 may not forget all the lessons he (or she) has 
 learnt. 
 
 2. He (or she) must practise forgiveness; even 
 
 the thought of revenge must be completely 
 annihilated. 
 
180 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 3. He (or she) must not let the mind be disturbed 
 
 by sorrow or misfortune. 
 
 4. He (or she) must never, even in thought, 
 
 desire to appropriate imlawfully another's 
 property. 
 
 5. He (or she) must keep the body clean and the 
 
 heart pure. 
 
 6. He (or she) must control the senses in such a 
 
 way that the activity of the senses, viz. of 
 sight, hearing, smell, speech, touch, hands, 
 feet, excretory and generative organs, and 
 lastly, the faculty of attention, be ever 
 directed rigorously to the side of moraUty, 
 decency, and health. 
 
 7. He (or she) must devote heart and soul to the 
 
 investigation of soul-truths and nature- 
 truths. The development of the powers of 
 intellect, understanding, and intuition is 
 the one thing needful. For this purpose 
 the disciple must have recourse to all those 
 methods, physical, mental, and yogic, which 
 are calculated to unfold his (or her) latent 
 powers. 
 
 8. He (or she) must be truthful in thought, speech, 
 
 and deed. He (or she) must be sincere, 
 helpful, and full of love for men and animals. 
 
 9. He (or she) must develop faith in and reverence 
 
 for God. Longing or activity for the ac- 
 quisition of temporal things is to be sup- 
 pressed. Indulgence in passion, anger, envy, 
 greed, and stupidity should be strictly 
 avoided. 
 These are the Ten Limbs of Dharma. Their 
 Sanscrit names are : 
 
APPENDIX 181 
 
 1. Dhriti. 6. Indriya-Nigraha. 
 
 2. Ksma. 7. Dhi. 
 S. Dama. 8. Vidya. 
 
 4. Asteya. 9. Satya. 
 
 5. Sancha. 10. Akrodha. 
 See Manu Sdmhita, vi. 91-94. 
 
 P. 22, 1. 7 
 
 Kapila's name occurs in all the six Darsanas, in 
 the Mahabharata, in the Bhagavata, in the Puranas, 
 and in Kalidasa's and Magh's poetical works. The 
 earliest reference to Kapila in the Vedas occurs in 
 the following verse : 
 
 "He who one alone superintends every source 
 of production — who endowed his son, the Rishi 
 Kapila, at the commencement of the creation, 
 with virtue, knowledge, renunciation of worldly 
 desires, and superhuman powers, and who looked 
 at him when he was bom" {Svetdsvatara Upanishad, 
 eh. V. 2). 
 
 Kapila must have lived before the Buddha, as the 
 latter appears to have borrowed many of his ideas 
 from him. 
 
 The following verse probably forms the founda- 
 tion of Kapila's Darsana : 
 
 "The one unborn (soul) for his enjoyment ap- 
 proaches the one unborn (nature) which is red, 
 white, and black, of one form and producing a 
 manifold oflfspring; the other who is unborn 
 abandons her (nature) whose enjoyment he has 
 enjoyed" {Svetdsvatara Upanishad of the Black 
 Yagur, Veda iv. 5). 
 
182 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 P, 23, 1. 5 
 
 The actual book which Kapila wrote, or the 
 literary or oral form in which he communicated his 
 philosophy to Asuri, his disciple, is lost. But his 
 teaching has been embodied in the Tattva Samasa, 
 in the Samkhya Sutras, in the Karika, in the 
 Samkhya-Pravachan Bhashya, and other works. 
 All these books were probably compiled between a 
 few centuries before and after the birth of Christ. 
 The best known commentaries on the Samkhya 
 Sutras are those of Aniruddha and Vijnana-Bhikshu. 
 Isvara Krishna's Karika is also a good handbook 
 on the subject. 
 
 P. 23, 1. 9. Kapila's Date 
 
 Three copper plates of great antiquity have 
 recently been unearthed in the district of Simoga, 
 Myspre. One of these plates bears the following 
 inscription : 
 
 "A gift of land given by King Janamenjaya, son 
 of King Parikshit, dated 89 of the era of King 
 Yudhisthir." 
 
 89 of the Yudhisthir era corresponds to 2359 b.c. 
 
 Sri Krishna, in his Gita, mentions Kapila: "I 
 am sage Kapila among the saints" (x. 26). Thus 
 showing that Kapila was well known as a philosopher 
 during Sri Krishna's lifetime. Hence Kapila must 
 have lived prior to Sri Krishna. 
 
 The Mahabharata tells us that Sri Krishna was 
 King Yudhisthir's contemporary. Now, according 
 to Kalhan, the historian of Kashmir, Yudhisthir's 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 reign begins 653 years after the commencement of 
 the Kaliyuga {Rdjtarangini, i. 56). 
 
 At the present moment 5017 years of the Kaliyuga 
 have passed away, according to the Hindu Calendar., 
 Hence deducting 653 from 5017 we get 4364 years; 
 and deducting 1916, the present year, from 4364, 
 we get 2448 B.C. Thus Yudhisthir's reign began in 
 2448 B.C. 
 
 The Vishnu Purana as well as the Bhagavata 
 Purana record that Sri Krishna left this earth for 
 heaven at the end of the first period of the KaUyuga 
 (see V. P. 4/24/35, 5/38/8, and 4/24/40, and B. P. 
 12/2/29 and 1/15/36, with Sridhar's tika). 
 
 Then again it is also recorded that the constella- 
 tion Ursa Major (Saptarshi) was in the Nakshatra 
 (asterism) Magha during King Parikshit's reign. 
 From this hint it has been shown, according to 
 astronomical calculation, that King Parikshit reigned 
 about 2084 b.c. It is certain that Yudhisthir was 
 Parikshit's predecessor. 
 
 Sri Krishna therefore lived at least 2448 B.C., 
 and Kapila's date must be reckoned a few centuries 
 prior to Sri Krishna's. I do not see any difficulty, 
 considering the weight of evidence, in placing Kapila 
 prior to 3000 B.C. 
 
 P. 41, 1. 2. Kabmaloea 
 
 The term Karmaloha signifies the plane of action. 
 The doctrine of Karma, or moral retribution, is 
 common to the Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain religions. 
 In one sense Karma stands for the Cosmic Law which 
 determines physical and spiritual evolution; in 
 another sense it is an abstract term which connotes 
 
184 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 such ideas as "moral ideal," "fate," "transmigra- 
 tion," "unseen force," "destiny." The Jiva is sup- 
 posed to possess an ethereal body called the Karma 
 body, and the plane on which this body plays its part 
 in this life, as well as in the life after death, is called 
 Karmaloka. The wheel of Karma revolves perpetu- 
 ally, and its rotation can only be stopped, according 
 to Sri Krishna, by disinterested action; according 
 to Ramanuja, by God's grace secured through loving 
 adoration ; and lastly, according to Sankara, by the 
 knowledge of the unity of the soul with God. 
 
 P. 48, 1. 4. On the Inconsistencies of Science 
 
 Science is no less fuU of inconsistencies than 
 theology. Let us examine some of the most fashion- 
 able scientific theories of our age. 
 
 What is the faith of the Atomists? An atom is 
 so very small that it cannot be smaller. Is it con- 
 sistent with any rational principle that a particle 
 or part of a thing can be only of such and such a 
 size, and cannot be less than such a size? Is not 
 this a contradiction? 
 
 Consider our belief in ether — a hypothetical sub- 
 stance invented to account for the action of bodies 
 upon each other at a distance. It is the most dense 
 as well as the most attenuated thing in our solar 
 system. Can we think of a thing possessing such 
 diametrically opposite ~ qualities ? And yet the 
 reality of ether is something the scientific mind is 
 forced to assume. 
 
 Take our ideas about motion. All lifeless things, 
 unless moved by an external force, are at rest. 
 Physical science says that molecules, atoms, and 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 electrons are self-energising, self-propelled, and are 
 moving for ever and ever. Thus self-movement, 
 which in the case of atoms is supposed to be the 
 rule, is denied to things into the composition of 
 which the atoms enter. Is this consistent ? Gravity 
 and friction are the causes of things remaining on 
 the earth, and yet electrons are characterised by the 
 absence of both. Again, the larger universes, such 
 as the solar and sidereal systems, are supposed to 
 be governed by the same laws as the smaller 
 universes, such as atoms, electrons, etc. ; perpetual 
 movement, absolute want of friction, unsteadiness, 
 destructions, and dissolutions; our ideas about 
 spatial position and resistance do not hold good; 
 our geometrical and arithmetical conceptions do 
 not help us to measure the vastly great and the 
 vastly little of solar physics and chemistry. Looked 
 at from our earth the sun is immobile, but in com- 
 parison with other suns it is moving. The earth has 
 weight, as have all things on its surface, but the 
 entire universe has no weight, neither at the terres- 
 trial centre can any body possess any weight. A 
 circle, we all know, is a straight line, yet at any given 
 point it is not so ; the globe is a plane, yet any given 
 section is not so. Walking over the globe, do we 
 ever come below the globe? Science is one huge 
 Maya! 
 
 P. 88, 1. 3 Pbe-Existencb 
 
 There are many people who readily believe in 
 future life, but are very doubtful as to the truth of 
 past life, or the pre-existence of the soul. They 
 forget that all the logic that holds good for future 
 life holds equally good for past life. No sense can 
 
186 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 be made out of the word "immortality" unless it is 
 taken to mean that it is co-extensive or parallel with 
 infinite time — if we are to measure the soul's dura- 
 tion by time. But if we consider the soul as spiritual, 
 and time as material, the former independent of the 
 latter, then the immortality of the soul would have 
 to be indicated by the word "eternal." In meta- 
 physics we have to reject all argument drawn from 
 what is called in the Vedanta the upadhi nature of 
 the soul, which means the anthropomorphic super- 
 imposition of the phenomenal attributes of cause, 
 time, and space upon Pure Spirit. Yet most people, 
 when they think of death and the hereafter, want 
 to be satisfied as to the survival of the phenomenal 
 identity of the self; and it is exactly these people 
 who are not equally curious to find out whether 
 their expectation of the phenomenal survival of self 
 has anything to do with the phenomenal pre- 
 existence of the self, prior to their physical birth. 
 Perhaps they satisfy themselves with the thought 
 that God creates anew the soul of the child as soon 
 as it sees the light of day. But they do not seem 
 to think that there is nothing to prevent God from 
 destroying the soul as soon as the body dies. 
 Perhaps they beUeve that it is inconsistent with 
 God's mercy to destroy. Philosophy, of course, 
 must remain silent when people make their wish 
 the father of their thought. 
 
 Without assuming the pre-existence of the soul 
 it is impossible on any other hypothesis, such as 
 heredity, to explain such facts as memory, different 
 levels of intellectuality, spirituality, and morahty 
 in different human beings. The doctrine of heredity 
 tacitly assumes the origin of mind or soul from body 
 
APPENDIX 187 
 
 or matter, and thereby makes the soul share the fate 
 of body or matter. Thus such doctrines lead to 
 belief in race-immortality, but not to belief in the 
 individual survival of spirit. Many of the joys and 
 sorrows, the friendships and enmities of our lives, 
 which appear to be uncaused by, or unconnected 
 with, events in this life, are explained by the assump- 
 tion of a prior life, or lives, in which death took 
 place before merit or virtue was conjoined with 
 reward or happiness, and demerit or vice was con- 
 joined with punishment or misery. Thus the work- 
 ing of an inexorable moral law, which no one seems 
 to call in question, can only be fulfilled provided the 
 soul's continuous existence remains imaflEected by 
 foreign influences. 
 
 This theory of an unchangeable moral law and 
 a continuous soul life cannot be shown to be in- 
 consistent with the moral will of a just God. The 
 grace of God is not like the capricious will of a king 
 towards his favourite, but is showered in abundance 
 as soon as the sinning soul abandons its old ways 
 and takes to the glorious road of virtue and wisdom. 
 And thus it is not at all difficult to reconcile God's 
 grace, moral law, continuous life, and self-exertion 
 — the whole result being, as Sri Krishna says, "By 
 many a new birth made pure, she treads at last the 
 Highest Path." 
 
 P. 90, 1. 24. Agnosticism 
 
 In India the word Nastika means those who do 
 not believe in the universality and efficacy of the 
 law of Karma, in the Veda as the revealed word of 
 God, in the existence and survival of the soul, in 
 the existence of a personal God, in the fruition of 
 
188 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 religious work, in the hereafter, and lastly, in the 
 existence of any reality beyond the perceptible 
 world. The followers of Vrihaspati, Charvvak, and 
 the Buddha are nicknamed Nastikas. 
 
 P. 100, 1. 3 
 
 Historically it is quite an established fact that 
 the religion of love preached by Krishna or Christa 
 is prior to the religion of love preached by Christ. 
 How far Krishna or Christa is the same person as 
 Kristos or Christ we do not know. Here we shall 
 mention one or two facts to show that Krishna-ity, 
 or Christ-aity, was known to the world — especially 
 to the Greeks — at least a few centuries prior to the 
 birth of Jesus of Nazareth; it was known to the 
 Greeks, as well as to the Indians, as the religion of 
 the worship of Vasudeva, which was one of the 
 names of Krishna. In ancient Indian literature it 
 is also known as the Ekanta, or the Unitarian 
 Church. 
 
 (i.) The first inscription which refers to Krishna 
 or Vasudeva was found at Ghosundi in Rajputana. 
 It refers to the construction of a hall of worship 
 dedicated to Samkarsana and Vasudeva — both 
 names refer to Krishna. The date, judging from 
 the characters in the inscription, must be at least 
 two hundred years before the birth of Christ. 
 
 (ii.) A second inscription found at Besnagar says : 
 "Heliodora, the Grecian ambassador from Amtali- 
 kita (Antialkidas), erects this column with the image 
 of Garuda at the top in honour of Vasudeva — the 
 God of Gods." This inscription was engraved in 
 the early part of the second century b.c. The 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 religion of Krishna or Kristos was adopted by the 
 Greeks before the second century b.c. 
 
 (iii.) The Niddesa gives a list of different religious 
 sects which prevailed in India before the fourth 
 century b.c, and in this list occurs the name of 
 Vasudeva or Krishna. The Niddesa is a Pali 
 Canonical Book. From this we gather that Krishna- 
 ity prevailed at least 400 years before the birth of 
 Christ. 
 
 (iv.) Panini's commentator, Patanjali, says Vasu- 
 deva is the name of the "worshipful," i.e. of one who 
 is the supreme object of worship. (See on Panini, 
 iv. 3. 98.) Panini lived at least 400 b.c. 
 
 (v.) In the fourth century b.c. Megasthenes, the 
 Grecian ambassador, came to the court of the Indian 
 Emperor Chandragupta, and in his diary he mentions 
 the prevalence in India of the worship of Vasudeva- 
 Krishna. He says that Herakles was specially 
 worshipped by the Sourasenvi, an Indian nation, 
 in whose land are two great cities, Methora and 
 Kleisobora, and through it flows the navigable river 
 Jobres. Of course Herakles is Krishna, Methora is 
 Mathura, Jobres is the river Jamuna, and the 
 Sourasenvi are the Surasenas, a race of Kshatriyas. 
 
 (For further evidence in support of this point see 
 Bhandarkar.) 
 
 P. 100, 1. 23 
 
 There are two ways of understanding the meta- 
 physical attributes of God. First, by starting with 
 the human intelligence as Umited, and therefore 
 largely illusory, and assuming that the human in- 
 telligence, by leading an ethical and religious life, by 
 
190 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 the practice of Yoga and Samadhi, can unfold its 
 hidden virtues and thereby gradually come to a 
 larger comprehension of the .metaphysical nature of 
 the Divine attributes. As man becomes wise, good, 
 and free, in the deeper sense, he realises that good- 
 ness, wisdom, and freedom are real virtues and 
 attributes existing in actuality and fulness in the 
 Divine personality of God. His spiritual illumina- 
 tion, or re-birth, is in his view a gift of the Lord 
 owing to His possessing these attributes in abun- 
 dance ; so that salvation, according to this view, does 
 not imply the loss of the illusion of individuahty, 
 but the gaining of a larger individuahty, a spiritual 
 re-birth through God's grace, through the possession 
 of such virtues, not in their full perfection, but only 
 in a degree removed from that of God. 
 
 There is another way of looking at the question. 
 
 Man's individuality has a dual aspect. In 
 essence his soul is of the same substance as God — 
 in fact, the soul is no other than God Himself, but 
 this soul is associated with a sheath of nescience or 
 illusion. By virtue of the Divine essence, man's 
 soul is continually struggling to come to a realisation 
 of his Divine destiny by throwing off this accidental 
 sheath of illusion. During this struggle for Divine 
 existence man passes through three stages of in- 
 tellectual life. In the first stage he has a dim vision 
 of his spiritual nature which is largely obscured by 
 the materialistic forces of his body. In this stage 
 there is a continuous conflict for mastery between 
 higher and lower sentiments, between his self- 
 regarding and his altruistic views. In the second 
 stage his intellect discovers permanent forms, 
 abiding laws, governing the flux of phenomena. 
 
APPENDIX 191 
 
 He feels that there are types of ideals which lead 
 the inner life to saner thinking, and to a moral way 
 of acting. Along with this his intellect perceives 
 the working of a deeper law in the outer cosmos; 
 he learns to view God as one making the outer cos- 
 mos more in rhythm with the pulsations of the inner 
 moral ideal. The last stage of his development is 
 one of indescribable peace, love, and happiness. In 
 this stage he intuitively sees that God, Man, and 
 Nature are like three tones emanating from the 
 vibration of one chord — all three distinct from each 
 other, yet without difference. The individuahty of 
 man becomes much more individual by losing its 
 transient character through the inflow of Divine 
 grace. Hence salvation, according to this view, is 
 the realisation of the universal which at first was 
 present only in a potential state. In the spiritual 
 sense it is not possible to draw a line between God 
 and Man when the latter reaches the level of the 
 former. 
 
 Cf. Caird's Spinoza, chap. xi. (Blackwood's 
 Philosophical Classics). 
 
 P. 117, 1. 16 
 
 Students of Greek philosophy may be reminded 
 of Aristotle's distinction between active and passive 
 intelligence. 
 
 By "active intelligence" is meant something 
 separable from matter, impassive, unmixed, being 
 in its essential nature an activity. It has no inter- 
 mission in its thinking, it is only in separation from 
 matter that it is itself, and it is immortal and ever- 
 lasting, while "passive intelligence" is perishable. 
 
192 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 and does not think at all apart from this. Of active 
 intelligence Aristotle's great commentator, Alexander 
 of Aphrodisias, said that it is numerically the same 
 in all thinking creatures, and that it is identical with 
 God. Again, Ibn Roschd explained Aristotle's 
 "active intelligence" by saying that there is only 
 one and the same intelligence in the universe, and 
 all that we claim as our thought is not really man's 
 but God's. A third meaning has been put upon 
 Aristotle's "active intelligence." According to this 
 interpretation active intelligence is neither God's 
 nor common to all thinking beings, but is the best 
 and the most transcendental part of the mortal soul 
 which has no physical appendage to it. 
 
 P. 164, 1. 15 
 
 I have illustrated the doctrine of Maya from well- 
 known facts of hypnotism, psychology of illusion, 
 magic, and yoga creation. All these examples tend 
 to show that we cannot draw any hard-and-fast line 
 between mind and matter; the subject of psycho- 
 nervous relation is extremely complicated, and as 
 yet the theory of parallelism has not satisfactorily 
 explained all the facts. 
 
 The doctrine of Maya neither refutes nor estab- 
 lishes any cosmic theory, it only sums up in one 
 word the mysterious, unintelligible nature of the 
 world of mind and matter ; it neither says that the 
 world has an ideal or a material origin — what it does 
 affirm is that the origin, substance, and law of life, 
 mind and energy are beyond our comprehension. 
 
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The following works are recommended to those who 
 wish to become thoroughly acquainted with the diflFerent 
 aspects of Vedanta: 
 
 Sri Ramanuja's Commentary on the Brahma Sutras, 
 translated by G. Thibaut (Sacred Books of the 
 East series). 
 
 The Upanishads, translated by Max Miiller, and other 
 books of the S.B.E. series, edited by Max MUller. 
 
 Max Mt^iiLER. Sri Ramakrishna : His Life and Sayings. 
 Longmans, London. 
 The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy. 
 Three Lectiu-es on the Vedanta Philosophy. 
 Lidia : What can it teach us ? 
 
 Deussen, p. The System of the Vedanta (Sri Sankara's 
 Philosophy). Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago 
 (translated from the German). 
 
 Abnold, Sie Edwin. The Sang Cielestial. TrUbner and 
 
 Co., London. 
 Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Translated by M. M. Dutt. 
 
 Translated by Swami Paraminanda. Vedanta 
 
 Centre, Boston, 1913. 
 Translated by Barnett. Barnett, Dent and Co., 
 London. 
 Narada Sutra. An Inquiry into Love. Translated from 
 the Sanscrit by E. T. Sturdy. John M. Watkins. 
 London (2nd edition). 
 o 193 
 
194 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 The Life of the Swami Vivekananda. By his Eastern 
 and Western disciples. 3 vols. Himalayan series. 
 
 Swami Vivekananda. Complete works. Mayavati 
 Memorial Edition. Himalayan series. 
 
 Inspired Talks. Recorded by an American disciple. 
 Ramakrishna Mission, Madras. 
 
 Jnana Yoga. 2 vols. Vedanta Society, New York. 
 
 Raja Yoga. Vedanta Society, New York. 
 
 Karma Yoga. Vedanta Society, New York. 
 
 Bhakti Yoga. Vedanta Society, New York. 
 
 My Master (Sri Ramakrishna). 
 Swami Pahamananda. The Path of Devotion. Vedanta 
 Society, New York. 
 
 Vedanta in Practice. 
 
 The Way of Peace and Blessedness. 
 
 SwAMi Ramakkishnananda. The Universe and the 
 Man. 
 The Soul of Man. 
 The Path to Perfection. 
 Sri Krishna, the Ejng-Maker. 
 
 Swami Abhedananda. How to be a Yogi. 
 
 Sister Nivbdita (Miss Noble). The Master as I saw 
 Him. Longmans, London and New York. 
 The Web of Indian Life. Heinemann, London. 
 Studies from an Eastern Home. Heinemann, London. 
 Kali the Mother. Swan Sonnenschein, London. 
 Footfalls of Indian History. Longmans, London. 
 Religion and Dharma. 
 
 Ananda Coomabaswamt. Myths of the Hindus and 
 Buddhists. George Harrap, London. 
 
 The Sayings of Sri ^ Ramakrishna, edited by Swami 
 Abhedananda. Vedanta Society, New York. 
 
 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, according to "M." 
 Shortened by Swami Abhedananda. Vedanta Society, 
 
 New York. 
 English edition. Madras. 
 
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 
 
 James, Professor William. The Varieties of Religious 
 Experience. 
 
 Carpenteh, Edward. A visit to a Gnani. George 
 Allen, London. And later works by the same 
 author. 
 
 Desai, S. a. The Vedanta of Sankara. A Study of the 
 Indian Philosophy. Luzac and Co., London. 
 
 Oldenbehg, H. Buddha, translated by W. Hoey. 
 WUliams and Norgate. 
 
 Discourses of Gautama the Buddha. Translated by 
 Silacara. Probsthain and Co. 
 
 Suzuki, D. T. A Brief History of Early Chinese Philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 Giles, L. Chinese Philosophy. _ _ 
 
 The Samhita. Translated by Sri Ananda Acharya. 
 Francis Griffiths, London. 
 
 Brajendra Nath Sil. Positive Sciences of the Ancient 
 Hindus. 
 
 Weber. History of Philosophy. 
 
 McTaggart, J. E. Human Immortality and Pre- 
 Existence. Published by Edward Arnold. 
 
 Sri Sankara's Commentary on the Vedanta Sutras. 
 Translated by G. Thibaut (S.B.E.S.). 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 
 
 Aeharya. Professor; spiritual guide and helper. 
 
 achit. Matter; object as opposed to subject, non conscious. 
 
 adrista. Invisible; the unseen cause which governs and shapes 
 
 man's destiny; the sum-total of Karma, of previous life, 
 
 which produces experience — pleasurable or painful — in 
 
 this life. 
 advaita. Non dual ; the monistic philosophy which teaches 
 
 that individual life cannot be other than universal life. 
 advaiiin. A follower of the School of Sri Sankar, who revived 
 
 the monistic philosophy of the Upanishads. 
 agni. Heat element; fire, both as potential and kinetic. 
 aham-kdra. Sense of individuality ; ego feeling which is the 
 
 dynamic of conduct. "I-sense" is to be distinguished 
 
 from "I-do" — the latter lies at the bottom of life, which 
 
 is aham-kara. 
 ajnana. Senselessness. Its philosophical meaning refers to 
 
 man's ignorance about God, who is inseparable from his 
 
 essential being. 
 akdra. The formal aspect of sense-experience, without which 
 
 the material aspect is unintelligible. Size, shape, colour, 
 
 etc., are the forms through which objects present them- 
 selves to our senses. 
 dhasa. The space which contains ether — the source of sound. 
 dkshara. The imperishable — refers to the immortal nature 
 
 of God. The eternal, abiding Brahman. 
 amrita. The goal of all our endeavours and inspirations, viz. 
 
 immortality. The liberated soul attains immortality 
 
 through true knowledge. 
 ananda. Joy; the beatitude which is to be realised through 
 
 prayer and meditation. 
 anirtiddha. Freedom, which is an attribute of God; hence 
 
 in God perfect freedom is supposed to be embodied. 
 197 
 
198 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 antaharana. The inner psychical machinery, the function of 
 which is to translate sense-images into motor ideas; 
 hence the intermediate link between psychosis and 
 neurosis. 
 
 arUarydmin. The cognitive power — both intuitive and ratioci- 
 native. The soul, as knowing or perceiving, is not 
 different from God. Hence antarydmin is God in man's 
 soul. 
 
 anudbhuta sahti. The potential energy in a state of equili- 
 brium; unmanifested, though waiting for manifestation, 
 either as heat, or mechanical motion, or light, or 
 attraction. 
 
 ap. The original of liquidity, moisture, viscosity, etc. One of 
 the fundamental constituents of the cosmos. 
 
 aparoksha. Not indirect perception. A kind of perception 
 in which the observer, the psychical process of observa- 
 tion, and the object observed remain undifferentiated 
 and undistinguished. Aparoksha is possible only in 
 Samadhi, in which state mind ceases to function 
 empirically. 
 
 archd. The symbolical representation of God, having for its 
 object the excitement of the sentiment of worship and 
 veneration. 
 
 arhat. The man who has attained perfection by following 
 the ethics taught by the Buddha. 
 
 aarama. The twice-born castes of India are expected to 
 follow four dsramas, viz. to acquire learning in the house 
 of the teacher during the first twenty-four years of life, 
 to lead the life of citizens till the age of forty, to renounce 
 the duties of a householder, and devote themselves to 
 the discovery of the greater truths of life from the age 
 of forty to sixty, and after sixty to give to the younger 
 generations the fruits of both their active and their con- 
 templative life. Each of these periods or stages is called 
 an d»rama, 
 
 dsraya. The container in relation to the contained ; the support 
 in relation to that which is supported. 
 
 Aauri. Name of Kapila's immediate disciple. 
 
 Siman. (1) The psychological ego; (2) the metaphysical 
 ground or basis of individuality; (3) the synthetic ground 
 whereon the Universe rests ; (4) God — personal and im- 
 personal; (5) the Absolute, unrelated to the Personal God 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 199 
 
 or the individual egos ; (6) the unity of all — man, nature, 
 and God. 
 
 Stmdndtmdviveka. The consciousness of difference between 
 self and not-self. The introspective method which re- 
 veals the distinction between the spheres of the personal 
 and the non-personal. 
 
 anairdgya. Attachment to the impermanent things of life 
 with the consequent degeneration of spiritual per- 
 ception. 
 
 avatdra. The descent of God on to the human plane. An 
 ttvatdra is an "advent" — one who comes through pity 
 for man to lead him to immortality. 
 
 avidyd. Psychologically, aeidyd is the incapacity of man to 
 know the "whence and what and whereunto" of his soul. 
 Hence the agnosis to which are to be ascribed the ex- 
 periences of his outer life, for all human action proceeds 
 on the asstmiption of man's ignorance about himself — 
 in the transcendental sense. 
 
 awoeka. The want of knowledge about the relative values 
 of the revelations of the transcendental and empirical 
 consciousnesses. This ignorance results in our preferring 
 the things of sense to the things of reason, thus causing 
 the mind to be victimised by matter, 
 
 avyakta. Physically — the homogeneous, undifferentiated, pri- 
 mary substance in which life, matter, and energy remained 
 in a state of equilibrium. 
 
 Psychologically — the incomprehensible and unformu- 
 lable in terms of science; the original condition of the 
 whole cosmos. 
 
 Baladeva. Author of Govinda Bhashya and many other tracts, 
 of the School of Chaitajana in Bengal; he lived about 400 
 years ago. 
 
 hhdkti. Love for and devotion to God. 
 
 hhakti yoga. The science which teaches that God is to be realised 
 through faith, love, and devotion, 
 
 Bhdrati Tirtha. A great teacher of the Advaita VedSnta 
 School, author of many books; he flourished about 600 
 years ago. Some scholars think that he is identical 
 with Sayan Acharya. His Panchadasi and Sivanmukti 
 Viveka are well known in India. 
 
 Bhuta. Physical and chemical elements. It also means 
 animals. 
 
200 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 bodhUattva. The perfect in wisdom and holiness. The 
 Bodliisattvas are the emancipated souls who are regarded 
 by the Buddhists as perfect beings. 
 
 Brahma. Adjective from Brahman. 
 
 Brahman. The Impersonal God who is identical with the 
 finite soul. Brahman stands for the One Absolute 
 Reality, Substance, Truth, Consciousness, Bliss, and Life. 
 
 Brdhmana. Bom of Brahma — the great Rishi, who is the 
 father of the Science of Self-realisation, and hence those 
 who follow the teachings of Brahma, i.e. reborn in tran- 
 scendental truth. 
 
 Brahmdnda. The universe — called after Rishi Brahma. 
 
 Buddha. The founder of the religion called Buddhism, bom 
 in Kapilabastu; Prince Siddhfirtha, otherwise called 
 Amitava. 
 
 buddhi. The understanding which creates the feeling of con- 
 viction of the truth of a conclusion — reached after wdgh- 
 ing the pros and cons of a subject. Hence buddhi is the 
 faculty of determination, and thus its function is always 
 the assertion of a position. 
 
 buddhi indriya. The sensory organs connected with the sensory 
 nerve centres — producing the knowledge of extra-mental 
 realities; also called Jndn indriyaa. 
 
 Caitanya. The pure consciousness identical with pure Being. 
 It is abo the name of a great teacher who flourished in 
 Bengal. Bom a.d. 148S, died 1S33. 
 
 ehdkra. The centres, situated in the nervous system, of 
 knowledge, life, activity, etc. 
 
 Chhandogya Vpaniahad. The name of a philosophical book. 
 
 chit. Intelligence. 
 
 dahara dkdsa. The iimer space of the heart, in which the monistic 
 knowledge arises — corresponding to the outer space in 
 which the first primary vowel sound ori^nates. 
 
 daita. Adjective of deva. 
 
 daraana. The philosophical, metaphysical, and sdentific books 
 of the Hindus are called the Daraanaa. 
 
 ddraanika. One versed in philosophy. 
 
 Devas. (1) The self-shining beings, (2) the knowledge-pro- 
 ducing senses, (3) the objects revealed by the knowledge- 
 producing senses. 
 
 dhdrmika. (1) A theologian, (2) a believer in Vedic and SmSrta 
 ritual and ceremony. 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 201 
 
 dna. Uninterrupted reflection on a subject — abstract or 
 concrete. 
 
 dvaita. (1) Dual; (2) the metapliysical systems which recog- 
 nise an eternal, unbridgeable distinction between God 
 and man, subject and object, matter and spirit. 
 
 dvaitin. A follower of dualistic metaphysics. 
 
 Oargi. A famous Brahmavadini mentioned in the Brihada- 
 ranyaka Upanishad. 
 
 Gautama Buddha. See Buddha. 
 
 GUd. The sacred sayings of Sri Krishna, known as Srimad 
 Bhagavata Gita. 
 
 Gotama. The father of the NySya philosophy. 
 
 guna. The seals or powers which are the causes of integration 
 and disintegration in nature. 
 
 guru. The teacher who opens the eye of the disciple to per- 
 ceive the divinity of his soul, thereby helping him to 
 effect his liberation. Hence guru is the saviour of the 
 soul. 
 
 Hiranyagarbha. The Absolute viewed in relation to the 
 categories of time, cause, and motion; becoming in relation 
 to being; the Cosmos in its primeval state in relation to 
 the mind of God. 
 
 indriya. The five senses of knowledge and the five senses of 
 action are the ten indriyas. To these is added the mind 
 — which directs or guides or controls the indriya. 
 
 jagat. The moving panorama of Nature. 
 
 Jaimini. The founder of the Minansa philosophy. 
 
 Jaina religion. The names Mahavir and Paresnath are 
 associated with the origin of Jainism. 
 
 jiva. That which lives and dies, viz. organic life. 
 
 jioa bhdva. The characteristics of a jita, viz. assimilation, 
 reproduction, adaptation, response, etc. llie psychical 
 characteristics are attachment to organic activity and a 
 clinging to the preservation of body. 
 
 jndna. The consciousness of the independence of the true 
 self of the psychical and material sheaths, shells, en- 
 velopes or coverings, together with the knowledge that 
 intelligence is one and infinite. Hence Jndna is the 
 essence of the soul and of God — the knowledge of which 
 is the cause of perfection. 
 
 Jnana yoga. The science which demonstrates that by self- 
 knowledge, self-control, and self-reverence man can attain 
 
202 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 V. 
 
 the highest end of life. It teaches a system of self-develop- 
 ment through the expansion of the understanding, with 
 a view to transcend the limitations of Nature and 
 mind. 
 
 Jndtri. The knower. The subject comprehending the object 
 is the knower of the object. 
 
 jneya. The object presented before the subject. 
 
 Kabir. Poet, devotee, the singer; bom a.d. 1398, died 1518. 
 His poems have been translated into EngUsh by Babin- 
 dranath Tagore. 
 
 Kaivalya. The state of perfection; almost synonymous with 
 Mukti. The perfect soul, freed from the limitations of 
 material nature, enjoys himself without the fear of being 
 reborn. Hence Kaivalya is the transcendental and ideal 
 state of bUss. 
 
 Kdla. Time. 
 
 Kalpa. A period of four thousand three hundred and twenty 
 millions of years of mortals, the measure of the duration 
 of the world. 
 
 kalyana gunakara. The mine or receptacle of all auspicious and 
 lovely qualities. 
 
 Sri Kantha. The founder of one of the Schools of Vedanta 
 philosophy, of the type of qualified spiritual monism; 
 he wrote a commentary on the Brahma Sutras. 
 
 kdrana. Cause. 
 
 karana sarira. The spirit or soul of man unconditioned by 
 the material body. The final spiritual substance which 
 remains after the mortal part has been removed. 
 
 karma yoga. The philosophy of conduct wUch teaches that 
 action finds its fulfilment when its fruit is dedicated to 
 God. 
 
 Karman. The law according to which the agent of action 
 enjoys the fruit of action. 
 
 karmendriya. The motor machinery through which the 
 active impulse of the ego produces change in the materi&l 
 world, viz. the hands, feet, organs of reproduction, and 
 organs of secretion. Indriya refers to the psycho-nervous 
 motor and sensory centres. 
 
 Kandda. The founder of the Vaishesika philosophy. 
 
 Kapila. The founder of Samkhya philosophy. 
 
 Kaiha Vpaniihad. Called also Kathka Upanishad — one of 
 the most important of the Upanishads. 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 203 
 
 Sri Krishna. Advent of God. The most prominent figute in 
 the Mahabharata. 
 
 Kumara. Name of a Frajapati. The Mind-born son of 
 Brahma. 
 
 Kundalini. The substratum of bodily and mental life, 
 situated within the nervous system; it very closely 
 resembles radio-activity. 
 
 lUd. The emanation of the cosmos out of, and absorption 
 into, the mind and will of God; understood, by analogy, 
 as Divine play. 
 
 Mddhya Adhdrya. Name of the founder of the Dvaita or 
 Dualistic School of Philosophy. He was a Kanarese 
 Brahman, otherwise called Ananda Tirtha. He lived 
 between 1199 and 1278 a.d. 
 
 Magha. Name of a poet, the author of Sisupalbad. 
 
 mahabhuta. The constituent elements of the universe. 
 
 mahat. The first great principle. It refers to the subjective 
 or psychic substance, through the guidance of which primal 
 matter took the form of the Cosmos. 
 
 mdna. The central faculty which directs and controls the sensory 
 and motor organs. 
 
 Mandukya Upanishad. Name of a well-known Upanishad. 
 
 mantra. A mantra is a hymn; also the formula of prayer, or 
 spell, or incantation. 
 
 mdyd. The cosmic magic which makes a shadow of substance, 
 and substance of a shadow. The philosophic view-point 
 which shows how the transcendentally unreal and non- 
 existent becomes (through the constitution of the 
 cognitive faculties of man) the empirically real and 
 existent. 
 
 Mimdnsd. The philosophical teachings of Jaimini. 
 
 Mithyd jndna. Refers to the problem of error. 
 
 ndechchha. Non-Aryans, those living outside the- boimdaries of 
 India. 
 
 mokaha. The ideal conceived by our understanding as the 
 highest, viz. perfection attained through the complete 
 eradication of all limitations — spiritual, moral, mental, 
 and physical — to which the human soul is subjected. 
 
 Mudrd-Rdkshasa. Name of a drama by Viaakha Datta. 
 
 mukli. Liberation from the unreal. 
 
 (1) Mulddhdra, (2) Svddhishtlidna, (3) ManipHra, (4) Andhata, 
 (5) Visiddha, (6) Sahasrdra. The six chakras, or centres. 
 
204 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 with which the radium-like vital substance, in its circula- 
 tion through the nervous system, comes in contact, thereby 
 ^ving rise to psycho-physical action and rest. A chakra 
 is a highly complicated nervous machinery for absorbing 
 and radiating life-waves to the whole system. 
 
 N&morrwpa. The presentative-representative universe. We 
 understand the world through symbols of sound, colour, 
 etc., without which we camiot think. We construct the 
 world by associating a word with an idea or image. 
 
 Nirava. The silent one. 
 
 Niravadya. The eternally pure. 
 
 Nirguna Brahman. The Eternal Consciousness viewed as un- 
 conditioned. The Impersonal God as It really is — not 
 as He or She is conceived by the worshipper or devotee. 
 
 Nirvana. The state of perfection in which the ideal becomes 
 the real, and the consciousness is filled through and through 
 by the agreement of life and Life. 
 
 NirvikalporSamddhi. The highest form of meditation, in which 
 the finite soul feels its identity with the Infinite. 
 
 Nivedita. ("The dedicated one.") Miss Margaret Noble, who 
 became the disciple of Swami Vivekananda, and devoted 
 her life to the service of India. 
 
 nitya. Eternal. 
 
 Nyaya. Norm. The philosophy founded by Gotama. 
 
 OM. The symbolic representation of the Eternal Mind. 
 
 Pancaratra. A system of philosophical religion which pre- 
 vailed in India about the third century b.c. It teaches 
 monotheism. The Pancaratra Samhita is the source of 
 this system, and Bhakti yoga is based upon it. Ramanuja 
 quotes some passages from this work. Modem Vaisnav- 
 bm owes its origin to the ancient Pancaratra system. 
 
 paramdnu. Atom. 
 
 paraxidyd. The transcendental philosophy. 
 
 Patanjali. Author of the Yoga Sfltras. 
 
 jntri. The manes of the forefathers. 
 
 Pradyumna. See Vyuha. 
 
 Prajdpaii. Lord of Creation. In the Vedas the term is ap- 
 plied to Soma, Agni, etc., and in later times to Vishnu, 
 Siva, etc. 
 
 prajna. Intuitional knowledge. 
 
 prakriti. Nature. 
 
 prdna. Life. 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 205 
 
 pralisya. Reflection. 
 
 purusha. Soul or spirit. 
 
 Raja. Energy. 
 
 Rama. The hero of Ramayana, advent of God. 
 
 Rdmdnuja. Bom 1016 or 1017; composed Vedjlntadipa, 
 Bhasya on the Brahma SQtras, and on the Bhagavadgitll; 
 fotmder of the Srisampradaya. 
 
 Raaa. The joy which is the life of poetry; the ecstasy due 
 to the meditation on God. 
 
 Big Veda. The Scripture of the Hindus. It is regarded as 
 revealed. 
 
 Rishi. Lit. "a seer." The word now means a philosopher, 
 saint, social legislator, and religious reformer. 
 
 Rita. Truth, moral law. 
 
 Rupa. The element of form, including attributes in our con- 
 ception, and physical qualities in our perception. 
 
 Sahda. The phonetic aspect of word. This term is often 
 used to express the psychic and metaphysical significance 
 of the, words of the Vedas. In this sense Vedic words have 
 creative potency inherent in them. 
 
 Sddhana. Perseverance. This word refers to the activity of in- 
 telligence and will to realise the highest end of human life. 
 
 Sagara. An ancient king of whom many legends are narrated 
 in the Puranas. 
 
 Saiva. A follower of the religion of Siva. Saiva is an adjectival 
 form of Siva. 
 
 Sdkshi Svarupa. Intuition-in-itself. The soul, being of the 
 nature of a witness, i.e. piue, cognitive faculty, is regarded 
 Eis a substance, identical with its fimction, or attribute. 
 
 Sakshin. The soul. God, as an Impersonal Being, cannot 
 be distinguished from the soul of man. This unitary 
 substance in which the Impersonal is inseparable from 
 the Personal has only one mark, technically called "the 
 witnessing intellect." 
 
 Sahti dtman. The power aspect of the soul; hence it refers 
 to the will side of the soul. 
 
 Samddhi. In the philosophy of Yoga, Samddhi stands for 
 that state of mind in which the soul is infilled with 
 Divine light, and the Yogi feels himself above time and 
 space. 
 
 SaTna Veda. The texts of the Sama Veda, with the exception 
 of only 75 stanzas, are taken entirely from the Rig Veda. 
 
206 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 Samkarsana. See Pancardtra. 
 
 Sdmkhya. The system of philosophy founded by Kapila. 
 
 Sampratijndta Samddhi. See Samadhi. Sampratijndta is one 
 kind of Samadhi, in which the Yogi, along with his 
 own individuality, is aware of the Divine as a. distinct 
 Personality. 
 
 Samsdra. Refers to everything that happens in this world. 
 Its special meaning is rebirth, i.e. pre-existence and 
 post-existence of the soul, the soul's elevation to a higher 
 or degradation to a lower state of embodied existence 
 being the result of the individual's own conduct. The 
 Hindu uses the word Samsdra to express the same 
 mental mood as the Englishman when he says "Such is 
 life" or "It is the way of the world," only the Hindu uses 
 Samsdra in a more comprehensive sense, which includes 
 the idea of "Providence." 
 
 Samskdra. Memory impressions. In Hindu thought, 
 memory is not passive, but each memory impression is 
 creative and formative. Thus memory is deeper than 
 intelligence or will. 
 
 Samvit. The Impersonal Consciousness standing at the back 
 of our empirical consciousness. Perhaps the nearest ex- 
 pression is the "subliminal consciousness" of Myers, or 
 the "intuition" of Bergson. It also refers to the contempla- 
 tive attitude of mind arising out of philosophical indifference 
 to the things of sense. 
 
 Sankara. The greatest name in the history of Yedanta 
 philosophy. Sankara wrote commentaries on the 
 Upanishads and the BrahmS, Sutras, and founded the 
 Advaita method of interpretation. The exact date of 
 his birth is not known, but he is supposed to have been 
 bom about 787 or 789 a.d. in the village of Kilapi, in 
 the district of Kerala in South India, and to have died 
 in K3.nchi. One writer says: "What shall we say then 
 of the Master Sankara? Is not he the guardian of the 
 sacred waters whom by his commentaries has hemmed 
 about, against all impurities and Time's jealousy, first 
 the mountain tarns of the Upanishads, then the serene 
 forest lake of the Bhagavad Gita, and lastly the deep reservoir 
 of the Sutras, adding from the generous riches of his wisdom 
 lovely fountains and lakelets of his own, the Crest-Jewel, 
 the Awakening, the Discernment?" 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 207 
 
 Sannyasa. Renunciation of the world for the development of 
 Spirit, knowledge, and higher wisdom. 
 
 Sannyasin. One who renounces. A Sannyasin is not a 
 monk, as is generally supposed here in Europe, he is a 
 philosopher and a saint, helping the people to wake up 
 in the spirit. The Sannyasins do not belong to any " closed 
 organisation," but are worid-teachers who wander freely over 
 the whole earth, spreading light and love. 
 
 Sdstra. The Vedas, the Smritis, and the Puranas come under 
 the term Sdstra; the word means lit. "that which teaches 
 the ruling or master principles of everything concerning 
 man as an individual and as a social being." 
 
 Sat. Eristence ; the eternal, unchangeable substance or principle 
 upon which the Universe is supposed to rest. 
 
 Sattva. The quality of existence. Its special meaning is that 
 quality which is the most fundamental in a thing, e.g. in 
 mind, intelligence is the most fundamental quality. 
 
 Satyam sivam STlndaram. The true, the good, and the beautiful — 
 qualities belon^ng to God. 
 
 Shaichakra. The six centres. 
 
 Siddhi. Success. Its special meaning is success in the 
 attainment of yoga and occult powers, which are six in 
 number. 
 
 Siva. Lit. "the good." The Cosmos reveals to us the fact 
 that good and evil are two aspects of one process tending 
 to the evolution of worlds and solar systems. This 
 destructive-constructive principle is symbolically repre- 
 sented as Siva — the God bringing good out of evil, creation 
 out of destruction. 
 
 Sri. Lit. "beautiful." Symbolically the deity of good luck and 
 prosperity. Ordinarily used as a title or form of 
 address. 
 
 Sthula and Sthidahhvta. "Gross" and "gross elements." 
 
 Sudras. The labourer, or the fourth class in the Hindu 
 social organisation. The word Sudra is supposed to be 
 derived from a root meaning "sorrow," "misery." Cf. 
 the Greek work for "wickedness" (irovripla) signifying 
 "labour" (ir6ms). Designations of moral value were 
 first applied to men, and at a much later period of social 
 life to actions. Cf. Arya = noble, iya66s = good, while 
 KaK6s = bad. 
 
 Sukama. "Subtile" or "fine." 
 
208 BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 Siirya. Sun ; also supposed to be the name of a Rishi. 
 
 nuupli. Dreamless sleep. 
 
 Sutra. Condensed sentences. Sanscrit philosophical works are 
 
 mostly written in aphoristic style. 
 Svadeaa. One's native land. 
 Svadharmdkarana. Following one's own natural bent; 
 
 practising the religious and moral precepts innate in 
 
 universal human nature. 
 Svdmin. Lord. Generally a title of address towards holy persons. 
 Taitiriya Upaniahad. One of the Upanishads. 
 Tamaa. Darkness. Also used in the sense of the indeterminate, 
 
 primal substance of the universe; one of the three gunas, 
 
 characterised by idleness or inertia. 
 tanmdlra. The super-subtile basis of gross elements — a term 
 
 first used in Kapila's philosophy. 
 tapasya- Penance. The word signifies that state of the will 
 
 in which it bears all the disturbances produced by the 
 
 heat of our psycho-physical organism and the outer 
 
 world without complaint — hence steadfastness in the- 
 
 pursuit of a moral or spiritual idea. 
 tattva. Principle. 
 tirthankara. A Jaina saint. The present age has ii tirthan- 
 
 karas. For fuller particulars see Dr. Burgess's Appendix 
 
 to Btthler's Indian Sect of the Jainaa. 
 turiga. The transcendental state of mind — a state of entire 
 
 freedom and perfect glory. 
 Vyadhi. Condition; the supposition or super-imposition of a 
 
 form of belief, mainly tmreal, upon a substance nominally 
 
 real, as in the psychology of illusion. 
 Upakoaala. A person mentioned in the Upanishads. 
 Upaniahad. lit. "science of self-realisation." Refers to the 
 
 philosophical portions of the Veda. 
 Updadna. That mental state of prayer in which man feels himself 
 
 nearer to God. 
 upaalambha. Transformation of energy. 
 Vairagya. Non-attachment to pleasure; that state of mind 
 
 in which no external object, however attractive, can fascinate 
 
 the mind. 
 Vaiaheaika. The system of philosophy founded by KanSda. 
 Vaiahnava. Follower of Vishnu. 
 Varna. Colour, also class, in the sense of social division, according 
 
 to division of labour. 
 
INDEX OF SANSCRIT TERMS 209 
 
 Vd3tideva. Another name of Krishna. 
 
 Veda. Refers to the four Vedas. 
 
 Veddnia. Refers to the philosophical portion of the Vedas — 
 called the Upanishads — as well as to the Brahma Sutras 
 and the Gita. 
 
 Vibhava. Divine emanation in the form of advents or incarna- 
 tions. See Pancaralra. 
 
 Videaa. Foreign land. 
 
 Vidyd. Science or systematic knowledge. 
 
 vija-dtman. The central self which, like a seed, gives rise to 
 the empirical life. 
 
 Vijndna Bhikau. A great expositor of Dualism. He wrote 
 considerably on Samkhya and Yoga philosophy. His 
 interpretation of Kapila's cosmology is considered as 
 authoritative. 
 
 Vikdra. Deviation from what a thing is in its original, normal 
 state. Yikara corresponds to Spinoza's "mode" and 
 Hegel's "becoming." 
 
 Vikurvdna. The process of mass-disintegration and emana- 
 tion. 
 
 Virdj. The Impersonal, in its aspect of cosmic intellect, 
 guiding the material universe is called Vaiavanara or 
 Virdj. 
 
 Vi3e$ha. Species under a genus. 
 
 Vishnu. Personal God. 
 
 Visishtddvaita. The philosophy of qualified Monism. 
 
 Viaiahtddvaitin. A follower of the School of qualified Monism. 
 
 Viavadeva. God as Universal Spirit. 
 
 ViavorKarman. God as maker of the Universe. 
 
 Viveka. True insight into the nature of soul. 
 
 Vydaa. The celebrated author of the Mahabharata and the 
 Bhagavata. . His name is Krishna Daipayan Vedaviyasa. 
 He classified the Vedas in the form we see them now. 
 
 VyHha. The manifestation of God as Vasudeva, Samkarasana, 
 Fradyumna and Aniruddha. 
 
 Yajnavalleya. The name of a Rishi mentioned in the Upani- 
 shads. His luminous discourse on the Self and Im- 
 mortality is to be found in the Chhandogya and Brihatfi- 
 ranyaka Upanishads. 
 
 YajuT Veda. One of the four Vedas. 
 
 Yati. One who has renounced worldly life in favour of godly 
 life. 
 
21Cr BRAHMADARSANAM 
 
 Yoga. Communion of the individual with the Universal Spirit 
 through prayer, love, self-surrender, and knowledge. 
 
 Yoganidra. A kind of trance in which soul knowledge is 
 obtained through the suppression of the physiological 
 functions. 
 
 Yogin. An adept in the art and science of self-conquest. 
 
 CHE END 
 
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