Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
So far it is clear that this macrocosm and microcosm are built on
exactly the same plan, and in this microcosm we know only one very
small part. We know neither the sub-conscious, nor the super-conscious.
We know only the conscious. If a man says “I am a sinner,” he is
foolish, because he does not know himself. He is the most ignorant
of men about himself; one part only he knows, because the fact of
knowledge covers only one part of the “mind-ground” he is in. So with
this universe; it is possible to know only one part through reasoning,
but Nature comprises the whole of it, the sub-conscious, the conscious
and the super-conscious, the individual _mahat_ and the universal
_Mahat_ with all their subsequent modifications, and these lie beyond
reason.
What makes nature change? We see that Up to this point everything,
all _Prakriti_, is _jadâ_ (insentient). It is working under law; it
is all compound and insentient. Mind, intelligence, and will, all are
insentient. But they are all reflecting the sentiency, the _Chit_
(Intelligence) of some Being who is beyond all this, and whom the
Sânkhya philosophers call _Purusha_. This _Purusha_ is the unwitting
cause of all these changes in Nature--in the universe. That is to
say, this _Purusha_, taking Him in the universal sense, is the God
of the universe. It is claimed that the will of the Lord created the
universe. This is very good as a common daily expression, but that is
all. How could it be will? Will is the third or fourth manifestation
in Nature. Many things exist before it, and what created _them_? Will
is a compound, and everything that is a compound is a production out
of Nature. Will itself cannot create Nature. It is not a simple. So
to say that the will of the Lord created the universe is illogical.
Our will only covers a little portion of self-consciousness, and moves
our brain, they say. If it did you could stop the action of the brain,
but you cannot. It is not the will. Who moves the heart? It is not
the will, because if it were you could stop it or not at your will.
It is neither will that is working your body, nor that is working
the universe. But it is something of which will itself is one of the
manifestations. This body is being moved by the power of which will is
only a manifestation in one part. So in the universe there is will,
but that is only one part of the universe. The whole of the universe
is not guided by will, that is why we do not find the explanation in
will. Suppose I take it for granted that the will is moving the body,
and then I begin to fret and fume. It is my fault, because I had no
right to take it for granted that it was will. In the same way, if I
take the universe and think it is will that moves it and then find
things that do not coincide, it is my fault. This _Purusha_ is not
will, neither can it be intelligence, because intelligence itself is a
compound. There cannot be any intelligence without some sort of matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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