Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
Here are two words, the microcosm and the macrocosm, the internal and
the external. We get truths from both of these by means of experience;
there is internal experience and external experience. The truths
gathered from internal experience are psychology, metaphysics and
religion; from external experience the physical sciences. Now a perfect
truth should be in harmony with experience in both these worlds. The
microcosm must bear testimony to the macrocosm, and the macrocosm
to the microcosm; physical truth must have its counterpart in the
internal world, and the internal world must have its verification in
the outside. Yet as a rule we find that many of these truths are
constantly conflicting. At one period of the world’s history the
“internals” became supreme, and they began to fight the “externals;”
at the present time the “externals,” the physicists, have become
supreme, and they have put down many claims of the psychologists and
metaphysicians. So far as my little knowledge goes, I find that the
really essential parts of psychology are in perfect accordance with the
essential parts of modern physical knowledge.
It is not given to every individual to be great in every respect; it
is not given to the same race, or nation, to be equally strong in the
research of all the fields of knowledge. The modern European nations
are very strong in their researches into external physical knowledge,
but the ancient Europeans were weak in their researches into the
internal part of man. On the other hand, the Orientals have not been
very strong in their researches in the external physical world, but
have excelled in their researches into the internal, and therefore
we find that some of the Oriental theories are not in accordance with
Occidental physics, neither is Occidental psychology in harmony with
Oriental teachings on this subject. The Oriental physicists have been
criticised by Occidental scientists. At the same time each rests on
truth, and, as we stated before, real truth in any field of knowledge
will not contradict itself, the truths internal are in harmony with the
truths external.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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