THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

The Three PurushasTHE greatest of all the philosophical problemswhich human thought has struggled to solve is the exactnature and relation to us of the conscious Intelligence in the phenomenalexistence around. The idealist denies the phenomenalexistence, the materialist denies the conscious Intelligence. Tothe former, phenomenon is a passing shadow on the luminouscalm of the single universal Spirit: to the latter, Intelligence is atemporary result of the motions of Matter. The idealist can giveno satisfactory explanation of the existence of the shadow; headmits that it is inexplicable, a thing that is and yet is not: thematerialist can give no satisfactory explanation of the existenceof intelligence; he simply tries to trace the stages of its developmentand the methods of its workings, and covers over the wantof an explanation by the abundant minuteness of his observations.But the soul of Man, looking out and in, is satisfied neitherwith Shankara nor with Haeckel. It sees the universal existenceof phenomena, it sees the universal existence of Intelligence.It seeks a term which will admit both, cover both, identify both;it demands, not an elimination of either, but a reconcilement.The Upanishads do not deny the reality of the world, butthey identify it with Brahman who transcends it. He is theOne without a second; He is the All. If all is Brahman, thenthere can be nothing but Brahman, and therefore the existenceof the All, sarvam idam, does not contradict the unity ofBrahman, does not establish the reality of bheda, difference. Itis one Intelligence looking at itself from a hundred viewpoints,each point conscious of and enjoying the existence of the others.The shoreless stream of idea and thought, imagination andexperience, name and form, sensation and vibration sweepsonward for ever, without beginning, without end, rising into view,sinking out of sight; through it the one Intelligence with its millionself-expressions pours itself abroad, an ocean with innumerablewaves. One particular self-expression may disappear into its