Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven LecturesVivekananda, Swami
Religion
Jnâna Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures
Vivekananda, Swami
Vedanta; Yoga, Jñana
We know the present theories of the Cosmos according to the modern
astronomers and physicists, and at the same time we know how wofully
they hurt the old school of theologians, and how every new scientific
discovery that is made is as a bomb thrown into their house, and how
they have attempted in every age to put down all these researches.
In the first place, let us go over the psychological and scientific
ideas of the Orientals as to cosmology and all that pertains to it,
and you will find how wonderfully it is in accordance with all the
latest discoveries of modern science, and when there is anything
lacking you will find that it is on the side of modern science. We
all use the word Nature, and the old Hindu philosophers called it
by two different names, _Prakriti_, which is almost the same as the
English word “nature,” and by the more scientific name, _Avyaktam_
(“undifferentiated”), from which everything proceeds, out of which come
atoms and molecules, matter and force, and mind and intellect. It is
startling to find that the philosophers and metaphysicians of India
ages ago stated that mind is but matter in a finer form, for what are
our present materialists striving to do but to show that mind is as
much a product of nature as the body? And so is thought; and we shall
find by and by that the intellect also comes from the same nature which
is called _avyaktam_, the undifferentiated.
The ancient teachers define _avyaktam_ as the “equilibrium of the
three forces,” one of which is called _Sattva_, the second _Rajas_ and
the third _Tamas_. _Tamas_, the lowest force, is that of attraction,
a little higher is _Rajas_, that of repulsion, and the highest is
the control of these two, _Sattva_, so that when the two forces,
attraction and repulsion, are held in perfect control, or balance, by
the _Sattva_, there is no creation, no movement; but as soon as this
equilibrium is lost, the balance is disturbed and one of these forces
gets stronger than the other. Then change and motion begin and all
this evolution goes on. This state of things is going on cyclically,
periodically; that is to say, there is a period of disturbance of the
balance, when all these forces begin to combine and recombine, and this
universe is projected; and there is also a period when everything has
a tendency to revert to the primal state of equilibrium, and the time
comes when a total absence of all manifestation is reached. Again,
after a period, the whole thing is disturbed, projected outward,
again it slowly comes out in the form of waves; for all motion in this
universe is in the form of waves, successive rise and fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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