VEDANTA AS A FACTOR IN CIVILISATION - Swami Vivekananda
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Sunday 31, Mar 2024 05:30.
(Extract from an address delivered at Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens, England)
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People who are capable of seeing only the gross external aspect of things can perceive in the Indian nation only a conquered and suffering people, a race of dreamers and philosophers. They seem to be incapable of perceiving that in the spiritual realm India conquers the world. No doubt it is true that just as the too active Western mind would profit by an admixture of Eastern introspect ion and the meditative habit, so the Eastern would benefit by a somewhat greater activity and energy. Still we must ask: What may be that force which causes this afflicted and suffering people, the Hindu, and the Jewish too (the two races from which have originated all the great religions of the world) to survive, when other nations perish? The cause can only be their spiritual force. The Hindus are still living though silent, the Jews are more numerous today than when they lived in Palestine. The philosophy of India percolates throughout the whole civilised world, modifying and permeating as it goes. So also in ancient times, her trade reached the shores of Africa before Europe was known, and opened communication with the rest of the world, thus disproving the belief that Indians never went outside of their own country.
It is remarkable also that the possession of India by a foreign power has always been a turning-point in the history of that power, bringing to it wealth, prosperity, dominion, and spiritual ideas. While the Western man tries to measure how much it is possible for him to possess and to enjoy, the Eastern seems to take the opposite course, and to measure how little of material possessions he can do with. In the Vedas we trace the endeavour of that ancient people to find God. In their search for Him they came upon different strata; beginning with ancestor worship, they passed on to the worship of Agni, the fire-god, of Indra, the god of thunder, and of Varuna, the God of gods. We find the growth of this idea of God, from many gods to one God, in all religions; its real meaning is that He is the chief of the tribal gods, who creates the world, rules it, and sees into every heart; the stages of growth lead up from a multiplicity of gods to monotheism. This anthropomorphic conception, however, did not satisfy the Hindus, it was too human for them who were seeking the Divine. Therefore they finally gave up searching for God in the outer world of sense and matter, and turned their attention to the inner world. Is there an inner world? And what is it? It is Âtman. It is the Self, it is the only thing an individual can be sure of. If he knows himself, he can know the universe, and not otherwise. The same question was asked in the beginning of time, even in the Rig-Veda, in another form: "Who or what existed from the beginning?" That question was gradually solved by the Vedanta philosophy. The Atman existed. That is to say, what we call the Absolute, the Universal Soul, the Self, is the force by which from the beginning all things have been and are and will be manifested.
While the Vedanta philosophers solved that question, they at the same time discovered the basis of ethics. Though all religions have taught ethical precepts, such as, "Do not kill, do not injure; love your neighbour as yourself," etc., yet none of these has given the reason. Why should I not injure my neighbour? To this question there was no satisfactory or conclusive answer forthcoming, until it was evolved by the metaphysical speculations of the Hindus who could not rest satisfied with mere dogmas. So the Hindus say that this Atman is absolute and all-pervading, therefore infinite. There cannot be two infinites, for they would limit each other and would become finite. Also each individual soul is a part and parcel of that Universal Soul, which is infinite. Therefore in injuring his neighbour, the individual actually injures himself. This is the basic metaphysical truth underlying all ethical codes. It is too often believed that a person in his progress towards perfection passes from error to truth; that when he passes on from one thought to another, he must necessarily reject the first. But no error can lead to truth. The soul passing through its different stages goes from truth to truth, and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth. This point may be illustrated in the following way. A man is journeying towards the sun and takes a photograph at each step. How different would be the first photograph from the second and still more from the third or the last, when he reaches the real sun! But all these, though differing so widely from each other, are true, only they are made to appear different by the changing conditions of time and space. It is the recognition of this truth, which has enabled the Hindus to perceive the universal truth of all religions, from the lowest to the highest; it has made of them the only people who never had religious persecutions. The shrine of a Mohammedan saint which is at the present day neglected and forgotten by Mohammedans, is worshipped by Hindus! Many instances may be quoted, illustrating the same spirit of tolerance.
The Eastern mind could not rest satisfied till it had found that goal, which is the end sought by all humanity, namely, Unity. The Western scientist seeks for unity in the atom or the molecule. When he finds it, there is nothing further for him to discover, and so when we find that Unity of Soul or Self, which is called Atman, we can go no further. It becomes clear that everything in the sense world is a manifestation of that One Substance. Further, the scientist is brought to the necessity of recognising metaphysics, when he supposes that atoms having neither breadth nor length yet become, when combined, the cause of extension, length, and breadth. When one atom acts upon another, some medium is necessary. What is that medium? It will be a third atom. If so, then the question still remains unanswered, for how do these two act on the third? A manifest reductio ad absurdum. This contradiction in terms is also found in the hypothesis necessary to all physical science that a point is that which has neither parts nor magnitude, and a line has length without breadth. These cannot be either seen or conceived. Why? Because they do not come within the range of the senses. They are metaphysical conceptions. So we see, it is finally the mind which gives the form to all perception. When I see a chair, it is not the real chair external to my eye which I perceive, but an external something plus the mental image formed. Thus even the materialist is driven to metaphysics in the last extremity.
============================================================================###OPINION: PEOPLE OF BHARATHAM POSITIVE:
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1. SANATANA DHARMA, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS HINDUISM IS ETERNAL, WHOLE UNIVERSE IS EXISTING IN THIS TRUTH
2. EVER EXISTING
3. THERE IS NO SPACE FOR ADHARMA
4. ALL DEMONIC ELEMENTS DEMOLISHED BY DHARMA
5. SO NO QUESTION EVIL ASURIC DEMONIC FRAGMENT'S BARKING, THEY WILL BE ULTIMATELY BURNED AND DESTROYED BY NATURE.
6. PURE CONSCIOUSNESS IS DIVINE AND SUPREME, ALL OTHERS MEANINGLESS
7. NATURE IS ABOVE ALL, EVER EXISTING, ALL OTHERS MEANINGLESS.
8. THE CONTENT OF SO-CALLED HOLY BOOK IS NO HOLY AT ALL, AS IT PREACHES HATRED AND DESTRUCTION OF OTHER MANKIND, RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS AND LIES OF UNCIVILIZED MATERIALS
9. CHRISTIANITY IS EQUALLY DEMONSTRATED CRUELTY, THE SO CALLED HOLY BOOK FULL OF LIES
10. BOTH ARE NOT RELIGIONS BUT SAMPRADAYA (ILLITERATE MAN MADE, NOT BASED ON DHARMA
11. THE CULTURE OF BHARATHAM BASED ON UPANISHADS AND FULL OF REALISATION TEXTS ARE PRODUCED BY GREAT RISHIS OF BHARATHAM
12. IN THIS MATERIALISTIC DESTRUCTIVE MINDED UNIVERSE, NO RELIGIONS COMPARABLE OR ABOVE SANATANA DHARMA OF BHARATHAM.
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Opinion :
1.( i.n.d.i.a.)all stupid "GHAMMANDY"union of idiots, dynasty rascals, feudalists, congress, communists, latest announcement the caste census, is dangerous and divisive Hindus politics, and Muslim Christians vote bank politics, people of Bharat awake and stop this attempt by kick these parties out of politics.( nehru of congress used this Adharma since independence followed by dynasty politics indira,rajiv,italian bahu, and now her stupid son and daughter)
1.1. Congress, a donkey party, its so called daydreaming stupid leader Rahul Vinci, Rahul Gandi, frequent visit to foreign countries, to abuse PM of this Nation, and Sanatana Dharma -exceeded all limits this time, his party and his family to be "condemned" and kicked away from politics, people should awake and realize the danger.
2. Congress & Communists destroyed this holy Nation Sanatana Dharama; the imported stupid secularism degenerated this Nation Ancient Culture and Civilization
3. Till 2014 nation was ruled by corrupt idiots,and all regions too, Dynasty rule dominated than Nation interests.
4. Brushing away mainstream population sides and Muslims and Christians become political parties vote banks.
5. Communists openly abused our ancient culture, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavtham and daites.
6. The communists next donkey group, latest stunt of America visit and the comedy programmed namely Kerala sabha!? these buggers destroyed Kerala in all and joining with radical Islam soon they will be eliminated, people of Kerala get up from donkey thoughts, otherwise Kerala shrink to extinct in all way.
7. Communists are danger to our civilization, their lunatic theories disappeared throughout the world, Time has come crush them, and eliminate them from our nation, they are danger to this holy nation.
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NOTE:
1. POLITICIANS (THOSE IGNORANT AND DEMONIC NATURED) ARE NOT THE AUTHORITY TO OPEN THEIR UGLY FOUL MOUTH AND UTTER NONSENSE UPON SANATHANA DHARMAM.
2. THE NONSENSE COMMENDY ALLIANCE ARE NOT THE AUTHORITY ON SANATHA DHARMAM.
3. DK, DMK. AIADMKA AND ALL NONSENSE POLITICIANS BEWARE YOU WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY WASHED OUT SOON.
4. COMMUNISTS AND CONGRESS ARE THE ENEMY TO MANKIND DESTROY THEM.
5.ALL SANATHANA DHARMAM FOLLOWERS (WHICH EVER YOUR POLITICAL INTEREST BE: YOUR POLITICAL MINDSET) TAKE AN OATH THAT YOU STAND AGAINST ALL EVIL MINDSET AGAINST SANATHANA DHARMAM!!!
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######6. CRUSH THE ANTI NATIONAL ELEMENTS SUCH AS CONGRESS, COMMUNISTS, LEFT LIBERALS, URBAN NAXALS, TAMILNADU REGIONAL ANTI NATIONAL CUM ANTI SOCIAL POLITICAL PARTIES (DK, DMK, AIADMK, ALL SILLY SELF-APPOINTED CASTE GROUPS), NEVER ALLOW THESE BUGGERS RAISE THER VOICE/HEADS. CRUSH THEM UNDER YOUR FEET.
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JAI HIND
JAI BHARATHAM
VANDHE MADHARAM
BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.
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