Talks by Sri Chinmoy
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachussetts
25 March 1969
The Vedanta Philosophy
Seventy-three long years ago, precisely on this date, the great
spiritual giant Swami Vivekananda dynamically blessed this university,
the university unparalleled in the whole of the United States of
America, with his august presence. He spoke on the Vedanta Philosophy.
Today I am invited to speak on the same lofty subject. Seventy-three
springs later, call it a mere stroke of fate, call it a destined,
divine dispensation, on this fruitfully significant day, I am at
once proud and blessed to associate my name with that of Swami Vivekananda,
a spiritual hero of Himalayan stature.
Thomas Jefferson, on replacing Benjamin Franklin as envoy to France,
remarked, "I succeed him; no one could replace him." With
all the sincerity at my command, I dare neither to replace nor to
succeed Swami Vivekananda, but, as a son of Bengal, I wish to bask
in the unprecedented glory of Sri Ramakrishna's dearest disciple,
a unique son of Mother Bengal.
O Harvard University, I tell you a sweet secret of mine. Perhaps
you have heard about the Royal Bengal Tigers. The fear of these
tigers ruthlessly tortured my infant heart. O Harvard, your very
name used to create almost the same fear in my mind in my adolescent
days. But today, to my extreme surprise, you have awakened enormous
joy in my heart.
Vedanta means "the end of the Vedas"; indeed, this is
purely a literal meaning. Otherwise, Vedanta has a reservoir of
countless meanings; religious, philosophical, moral, ethical, spiritual,
earthly human and heavenly divine. Vedanta reveals guideposts for
a spiritual pilgrimage - a pilgrimage toward the absolute Truth.
This pilgrimage welcomes all those who soulfully cry for the Transcendental
Brahman.
The earth-bound mind is too feeble to enter into the Truth Absolute.
"The words return with the mind fruitlessly endeavouring to
express what Truth is." This truth sublime we learn from the
Vedas.
Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma, "Verily all this is Brahman."
A true lover of Brahman needs must be a true lover of mankind. Never
can he see eye to eye with Samuel Johnson, who voiced forth: "I
am willing to love mankind, except an American." Needless to
say, the teachings of Vedanta are marked by a rare catholicity of
vision-always.
Vedanta welcomes not only the purest heart, but also the scoundrel
of the deepest dye. Vedanta invites all. Vedanta accepts all. Vedanta
includes all. Vedanta's inner door is open not only to the highest,
but also to the lowest in human society.
India's Shankaracharya is by far the greatest Vedantin that our
Mother-Earth has ever produced. At the dawn of his spiritual journey,
before he had attained to the Consciousness of the Absolute Brahman,
a certain feeling of differentiation plagued his mind. Hard was
it for him to believe that everything in the universe was Brahman.
One day as Shankara was returning home after having completed his
bath in the Ganges, he chanced to meet a butcher-an untouchable.
The butcher, who was carrying a load of meat, accidentally touched
Shankara in passing. Shankara flew into a rage. His eyes blazed
like two balls of fire. His piercing glance was about to turn the
butcher into a heap of ashes. The poor butcher, trembling from the
sole of his foot to the crown of his head, said, "Venerable
Sir, please tell me the reason of your anger. I am at your service.
I am at your command." Shankara blurted out, "How dare
you touch my body which has just been sanctified in the holiest
river? Am I to remind you that you are a butcher?"
"Venerable Sir," replied the butcher, "who has touched
whom? The Self is not the body. You are not the body. Neither am
I. You are the Self. So am I." The Knowledge of the One Absolute
dawned on poor Shankara. People nowadays in India claim that the
butcher was no other than Lord Shiva who wanted Shankara to practise
what he was preaching. But, according to many, Shankara himself
was an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
By no means should we neglect the body. The body is the temple.
The soul is the Deity therein. Have we not learned from Vedanta
that it is in the physical that the spiritual disciplines have to
be practised?
Lo and behold, Walt Whitman is powerfully knocking at our heart's
door: "If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred."
The five cardinal points of Vedanta are: the Oneness of Existence,
the Divinity in Man, the Divinity of Man, Man the Infinite and Man
the Absolute.
Vedanta expresses itself through three particular systems: Advaita
or Non-Dualism, Vishishtadvaita or Qualified Non-Dualism and Dvaita,
Dualism. These three ancient systems developed large sects in India
that were later shaken by the arrival of Buddhism. Buddhism shook
the Vedic-Upanishadic tree. India is eternally grateful, therefore,
to Shankara for the revival of the Non-Dualistic system, to Ramanuja
for the Qualified Non-Dualistic System and to Madhava for the Dualistic
System.Shankara's Advaita or Monism
According to Shankara, there is only one Reality, and this Reality
is Brahman. Brahman and Brahman alone is the Absolute Reality. Nothing
does or can exist without Brahman.
To our sorrow, the world has misunderstood Shankara. He is being
misrepresented. If one studies Shankara with one's inner light,
one immediately comes to realise that Shankara never did say that
the world is a cosmic illusion. What he wanted to say and what he
did say is this: the world is not and cannot be the Ultimate Reality.
Shankara saw the light of day in the eighth century A.D. In those
days, spirituality was on the wane in India. The Indian spirituality
or, should I say, the Hindu spirituality, was undergoing a serious
operation while a good many pseudo-religious sects were growing
like mushrooms. The Supreme commanded Shankara's appearance on Indian
soil to cast these unhealthy sects aside and reestablish one religion,
the religion of the Vedas, the sanatana dharma, the Eternal Religion.
Shankara advocated monism. This monism is the oneness absolute of
the universe, man and God.
The Buddha stole God's Heart and Compassion; Shankara, God's Mind
and Intellect; Chaitanya, God's Body and Love; Ramakrishna, God's
Soul and Vision; Vivekananda, God's Vital and Will.
India's champion philosopher, Shankara, founded modern philosophy
in India. Europe's champion philosopher, Spinoza, founded modern
philosophy in Europe. America's champion philosopher, Emerson, founded
modern philosophy in America.
Shankara's Kevala Advaita is above all dualism. In his monism, there
is no room for relative things, relative values, the pair of opposites,
for all these come and go, appear and disappear. What is eternal
is the Transcendental Brahman. Ekam eva advitiyam, "That is
one without a second."
Shankara's philosophy has dealt considerably with maya. Maya is
now taken to mean "illusion," but its literal meaning
is "measurement of extension." It refers to a way of conception.
When we want to conceive and express the Truth with our incapacities
or our very limited capacity, maya offers its help and comes to
our rescue. But Brahman, being Infinite, escapes both our conception
and our expression. Maya is the power that causes the world to be
really real, and at the same time distinct from God. Maya is a power,
a mysterious power, a power always inconceivable.
To quote Swami Bodhananda:
Shankara confesses his ignorance about this power, but he assumes
it as a fact. Just as we assume electricity as power, although we
don't know what electricity is, he accepted maya as a power, as
a fact. Centrifugally it is the becoming of the One, this Absolute
Spirit, into the many, and centripetally the re-becoming of the
many into that One. So, in this way maya is an eternal power. By
this power Brahman projects Himself in the forms of God, man and
universe. These are inseparable from maya, as well as from Brahman.
Shankara and Vedanta will always go together down the sweep of centuries.
They are like twin souls.
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita or Qualified Non-Dualism
According to Ramanuja, the world is real, absolutely real, but it
is wanting in perfection. At the same time, it does not care for
perfection. It has no destined goal. The world was created by God's
inspiration, is sustained by His Concern and will be dissolved by
His Will. The world is God's playground. He performs His lila, "drama,"
here. This eternal sport of His is His constant movement, His spontaneous
expression in endless repetition. Man is real. But he has to depend
on God. The world is real. But it has to depend on God. Without
God, both man and the world are meaningless futility. Man can be
released and will be released from the meshes of ignorance one day
and he is bound to realise God. But some difference between man
and God will always remain. Man will remain eternally below God,
hence he will always have to worship God. Ramanuja's path is mainly
the path of Devotion. He stands firm against the theory of Shankara's
undifferentiated Kevala Advaita. To him, Brahman is and can only
be personal. A true aspirant can realise the Highest Truth and achieve
the Knowledge infinite while he is still on earth.
Madhava's Dvaita or Dualism
Madhava's philosophy affirms the complete duality between the Brahman
and the self (the small self). God, man and the world have a permanent
existence. But man and the world have to depend solely on God for
their existence. God is at once above the universe and in the universe.
God has a divine body that transcends all our human imagination.
Nothing can be done on earth without God's immediate concern, direct
approval and express command from the inner planes. The Supreme
Will of the Supreme guides the world. It pilots the world to its
destined goal. Man can be free from the shackles of ignorance only
when it is the Will of the Supreme. Liberation is not only possible,
but inevitable. What is absolutely essential for liberation is man's
loving adoration of God.
Now I wish to tell you what I feel about Vedanta. Just once, soulfully
utter the word Vedanta. Immediately it will have the effect of a
magic spell on you. At once your heart is inspired, your consciousness
elevated and your life illumined.
To my sorrow, in the consciousness of the Western world the idea
of sin is extravagant. A Vedantin's dictionary does not house the
word sin. What he knows within and without is a series of obstacles-doubt,
fear and desire. He feels that he must not doubt the Divinity within
him. No earthly fear can he allow to take birth in him. No desire,
significant or insignificant, can ever blight the purest heart in
him. Very often we are inclined to see ignorance all around. A Vedantin
is justifiably apt to see the underlying Truth here, there and everywhere.
Religious people, especially the spiritual ones, cherish abundant
joy in their feeling that they live in God's world, in one undivided
world. Each individual is a true brother to them. The sense of brotherhood
reigns supreme in their all-loving hearts. A Vedantin's heart is
fully at one with them. He goes one step ahead. He sublimely declares,
Tat Twam Asi, "That Thou Art." He sees and feels each
human being as the embodiment of the Absolute Brahman.
Vedanta means freedom, freedom from limitations, freedom from bondage
and freedom from ignorance. America is the land of matchless freedom.
The American soil is exceptionally fertile for God to grow the Vedantic
truth in measureless measure. Vedanta's freedom is the inner freedom.
When the inner freedom comes to the fore and guides and directs
the outer freedom, the outer freedom unmistakably and gloriously
runs toward its destined Goal. This Goal is the manifestation of
God's infinite Truth, Peace, Light, Bliss and Power here on earth.
The inner freedom is the realisation of the Eternal. The outer freedom
is the manifestation of the Infinite.
When the inner freedom and the outer freedom soulfully and divinely
run abreast, today's man changes into tomorrow's God,
I would like to conclude my talk with a word about your universally
cherished student John F. Kennedy. I would like to offer today's
talk, our collective dedication, our unifying love and our united
achievements to his hallowed memory and soaring aspiration. |