Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantafaculty, Buddhi, which reacts. Behind Buddhi is Ahamkâra, egoism, the selfconsciousnesswhich says, "I am". Behind Ahamkara is Mahat, intelligence, thehighest form of nature's existence. Each one is the effect of the succeeding one. Inthe case of the lake, every blow that comes to it is from the external world, whilein the case of the mind, the blow may come either from the external or the internalworld. Behind the intelligence is the Self of man, the Purusha, the Atman, thepure, the perfect, who alone is the seer, and for whom is all this change.Man looks on all these changes; he himself is never impure; but through what theVedantists call Adhyâsa, by reflection, by implication, he seems to be impure. It islike the appearance of a crystal when a red or a blue flower is brought before it:the colour is reflected on it, but the crystal itself is pure. We shall take it forgranted that there are many selves, and each self is pure and perfect; various kindsof gross and fine matter superimpose themselves on the self and make itmulticoloured. Why does nature do all this? Nature is undergoing all thesechanges for the development of the soul; all this creation is for the benefit of thesoul, so that it may be free. This immense book which we call the universe isstretched out before man so that he may read; and he discovers eventually that heis an omniscient and omnipotent being. I must here tell you that some of our bestpsychologists do not believe in God in the sense in which you believe in Him. Thefather of our psychology, Kapila, denies the existence of God. His idea is that aPersonal God is quite unnecessary; nature itself is sufficient to work out the wholeof creation. What is called the Design Theory, he knocked on the head, and saidthat a more childish theory was never advanced. But he admits a peculiar kind ofGod. He says we are all struggling to get free; and when we become free, we can,as it were, melt away into nature, only to come out at the beginning of the nextcycle and be its ruler. We come out omniscient and omnipotent beings. In thatsense we can be called Gods; you and I and the humblest beings can be Gods indifferent cycles. He says such a God will be temporal; but an eternal God,eternally omnipotent and ruler of the universe cannot be. If there was such a God,there would be this difficulty: He must be either a bound spirit or a free one. AGod who is perfectly free would not create: there is no necessity for it. If He werebound, He would not create, because He could not: He would be powerless. Ineither case, there cannot be any omniscient or omnipotent eternal ruler. In ourscriptures, wherever the word God is mentioned, he says, it means those humanbeings who have become free.Kapila does not believe in the unity of all souls. His analysis, so far as it goes, issimply marvellous. He is the father of Indian thinkers; Buddhism and othersystems are the outcome of his thought.According to his psychology, all souls can regain their freedom and their naturalrights, which are omnipotence and omniscience. But the question arises: Where isthis bondage? Kapila says it is without beginning. But if it is without beginning, itmust be without end, and we shall never be free. He says that though bondage iswithout beginning, it is not of that constant uniform character as the soul is. Infile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (87 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:34 AM