Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
qualified non-dualists (_Visishtadvaitins_).
The last and highest theory is pure monism, or as it is known in
India, _Advaita_. It also teaches that God must be both the material
and the efficient cause of this universe. As such, God has become the
whole of this universe. This theory denies that God is the soul, and
the universe is the body, and the body is changing. In that case what
is the use of calling God the material cause of this universe? The
material cause is the cause become effect; the effect is nothing but
the cause in another form. Wherever you see effect, it is the cause
reproduced. If the universe is the effect, and God the cause, this
must be the reproduction of God. If it be claimed that the universe
is the body of God and that that body becomes contracted and fine and
becomes the cause, and out of that the universe is evolved, then the
_advaitist_ says it is God Himself who has become this universe. Now
comes a very fine question. If God has become this universe, then
everything is God. Certainly; everything is God. My body is God, and my
mind is God, and my soul is God. Then why are there so many _jivas_?
Has God become divided into millions and millions of _jivas_? How can
that infinite power and substance, the one Being of the universe
become divided? It is impossible to divide infinity. How can the pure
Being become this universe? If He has become the universe, He is
changeful, and if He is changeful, He is in Nature, and whatever is in
Nature is born and dies. If God is changeful, He must die some day.
Remember that. Again, how much of God has become this universe? If you
say “X,” the algebraical unknown quantity, then God is God minus “X”
now, and therefore not the same God as before this creation, because
so much of Him has become this universe. The answer of the non-dualist
is that this universe has no real existence, it exists in appearance
only. These _devas_ and gods and angels and being born and dying, and
all this infinite number of souls coming up and going down, all these
things are mere dreams. All is the one Infinite. The one sun reflected
on various drops of water appears to be many, millions of globules of
water reflect so many millions of suns and in each globule will be
a perfect image of the sun, yet there is only one sun, and so it is
with all these _jivas_, they are but reflections of the one infinite
Being. A dream cannot be without a reality, and that reality is the one
infinite Existence. You, as body, mind, or soul, are a dream, but what
you really are is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Thus says the
_Advaitist_. All these births and rebirths, this coming and going are
but parts of the dream. You are infinite. Where can you go? The sun,
moon, and the whole universe are but a drop in your nature. How can you
be born or die? The Self was never born, never will be born, never had
father or mother, friends or foes, for it is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss
Absolute.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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