Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
Before going into the practical part, we will take up one more
intellectual question. So far the logic is tremendously rigorous. If
man reasons, there is no place for him to stand until he comes to this,
that there is but One Existence, that everything else is nothing.
There is no other way left for rational mankind but to take this view.
But how is it that what is infinite, ever perfect, ever blessed,
Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute has come under these delusions? It
is the same question that has been asked all the world over. In the
vulgar form the question becomes “How did sin come into this world?”
This is the most vulgar and sensuous form of the question, and the
other is the more philosophic form, but the answer is the same. The
same question has been asked in various grades and fashions, but in
its lower forms it finds no solution, because the stories of apples
and serpents and women do not give the explanation. In that state,
the question is childish and so is the answer. But the question has
assumed very high proportions now. “How this illusion came?” And the
answer is as fine. The answer is that we cannot expect any answer to an
impossible question. The very question is impossible in terms. You have
no right to ask that question. Why? What is perfection? That which is
beyond time, space and causation. That is perfect. Then you ask how the
perfect became imperfect. In logical language the question may be put
in this form--“How did that which is beyond causation become caused?”
You contradict yourself. You first admit it is beyond causation, and
then ask what causes it. This question can only be asked within the
limits of causation. As far as time and space and causation extend, so
far can this question be asked. But beyond that it will be nonsense
to ask it, because the question is illogical. Within time, space and
causation it can never be answered, and what answer may lie beyond
these limits can only be known when we have transcended them, therefore
the wise will let this question rest. When a man is ill, he devotes
himself to curing his disease, without insisting that he must first
learn how he came to have it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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