SELF AND HAPPINESS IN THE WORDS OF RK MUTT LECTURES
The individual self represents finite, small consciousness. Every human
being is individualized Universal Consciousness, the Self of the universe.
All individual minds are parts of a Cosmic mind. Just as the microcosm is
held, sustained, and controlled by the individual self, so is the macrocosm
by the Universal Self. One Supreme Self is individualized or particularized
by each finite mind, just as one sun reflected in the ocean appears as
millions of suns. When the transcendental entity appears through the screen
of matter in a particular way, we call it the individualized expression of
the Infinite Being. It is something like a solar light or the sky. The
light or the sky is infinite in its own being, but when we open the door of
a room and look at the infinite sky or the light beyond through the door,
they appear in the shape of the door. Various golden ornaments such as
bangles, rings, and so on, though outwardly different, partake in essence
of the same substance; that is, gold. We may number the various waves in
the sea as separate lines of force, but they all actually represent
unfolding of the same tidal wave. Maya or ignorance obliges us to see
things as separate rather than as unified in a single field. The individual
is a creature, not a creator. The soul is being and God is the Supreme
Being.
Vedanta holds that Self is beyond the intellect, mind, and ego.
Life and nature are very limited expressions of Self and dependent on it.
>From the aforesaid study it can be concluded that (1) The Self is eternal,
immortal, infinite Consciousness, one and non-dual. It is transcendental as
well as immanent Entity; (2) It is Self-evident. Its existence and its
unchanging continuity are fact; (3) It is identical with the Absolute
Reality; (4) Pure Consciousness is ever the subject and hence the Absolute
Reality is never objective; (5) The objective world is a projection of the
Self and hence is only apparently real; (6) It is the datum of all
experience and knowledge; and (7) It is Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss
Absolute.
The Greek religion was, essentially, worldly and pragmatic.
Though Socrates raised the religious attitude above the positivistic level,
it was never pursued by the Greeks beyond the social level. Protagoras,
most famous among the Sophists, formulated the dictum, "Man is the measure
of all things." The well-known historian Stace, explains: "By man he did
not mean mankind at large. He meant the individual man . . . Each
individual man is the standard of what is true to himself" (Stace, Critical
History of Greek Philosophy, 113). Protagoras lived nearly five centuries
before Christ. Socrates, who is known by the scholars as the finest flower
of Sophistic culture, gave the world a new dictum—"Know Thyself." In that
statement, "Know Thyself," he gave special emphasis to the first word,
"Know," and dedicated his entire life in the dissemination of knowledge. To
him, "knowledge is virtue." He thought that right knowledge will easily
help people to get an insight about right conduct. Western scholars never
bothered about the real concept of the Self.
Plato only said that there were three kinds of Soul, the plant,
the animal and the rational, without making the attempt Aristotle made to
explain that this difference ultimately referred to a difference in the
degree of consciousness. {KR: The idea of comparison will show,
why Indian ancient thoughts are so powerful; whereas right from Greek till
date the west, cannot understand the concept of micro to Macro, but
thoughts were given inappropriately, abstract thoughts were presented , so
logically here)} But he too finally upheld the contradictory notion that
these different degrees of consciousness constituted the different kinds of
Souls.
A vast body of scholarship has been produced through the untiring
efforts of many Western scholars during the last two and a half millennia.
But the result is disappointing. In his lecture, "Origin of the Vedanta,"
Max Müller quotes the remarks of the German philosopher, Frederick
Schlegel: " . . . 'It cannot be denied that the early Indians possessed a
knowledge of the true God; all their writings are replete with sentiments
and expressions, noble, clear, and severely grand, as deeply conceived and
reverentially expressed as in any human language in which men have spoken
of their God. Even the loftiest philosophy of the Europeans, the idealism
of reason, as it is set forth by the Greek philosophers, appears, in
comparison with the abundant light and vigour of Oriental idealism, like a
feeble Promethean spark in the full flood of heavenly glory of the noonday
sun—faltering and feeble, and ever ready to be extinguished.' And with
regard more especially to the Vedanta Philosophy, he says: 'The divine
origin of man is continually inculcated to stimulate his efforts to return,
to animate him in the struggle, and incite him to consider a reunion and
reincorporation with divinity as the one primary object of every action and
exertion.' . . . " (Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy, 10-11).
Western thought cannot give us a concept like the Vedantic Self,
which is self-luminous Atman, the sole spiritual entity. Change cannot be
cognized unless there is an unchanging observer to relate the succeeding
with the preceding condition. According to Vedanta, the mind is subtle
matter, the finest of all material substances, and it is basically pure. It
is distinct from the physical body and the knowing Self as well. It is
intermediate between the two. It has been the prevailing tendency in the
West to identify mind either with the soul or with the body. There is a
good deal of vagueness in the writings of Western philosophers and
psychologists. From Plato onward, philosophers in the West have held that
the mind has three faculties—the cognitive (knowing), the conative
(willing), and the affective (feeling). Will being only a special function
of the mind and the mind, itself being influenced by thoughts and
desires—how can the will ever be free? The sense of freedom in our life is
due to the presence of the higher Self in us. (Western scholars, denying
the existence of Soul, consider human personality to be an offshoot of
matter. The concept of Soul in the West is something like the concept of
the subtle body in Vedanta.) Swami Vivekananda says, "The West never had
the idea of soul until they got it through Sanskrit philosophy, some twenty
years ago" (C. W., III, 126).
Any age or country that produces a Plato, Aristotle, Kant or Hegel
may be justified in its pride of their exceptional perception and
scholarship. Despite their deep erudition, however, their view of life was
not a universal view. Though they were notable philosophers, they never
achieved a universal philosophy of life that can be accepted by all.
European philosophers, in general, excepting a few, take an objective
attitude to comprehend the Self. They labor hard to explain the subjective
in terms of the object, the inner in terms of the outer. This inherent and
predominant bias for objectivity is at the root of all the failures that
spoil the Western theories of Self. Yet despite their objectivism, they
naturally recognize, almost invariably, that the Self is unique—that the
Self cannot be interpreted or understood through objectivity, regardless of
their desire to do so. This objective attitude of the West fails to explain
the important problem of human experience—the relation of the one and the
many, changelessness and change, unity and plurality. The objective
attitude of the western philosophers failed to give a satisfactory solution
to the perennial problem of Self.
The tragedy of human life stems squarely from our metaphysical
ignorance about —our divinity. "A more serious source of resistance," says
Rollo May, "is one that runs through the whole of modern western
society—namely, the psychological need to avoid and, in some ways, repress,
the whole concern with 'being'." In contrast to other cultures, which may
be very concerned with being—particularly the Indian and Oriental—the
characteristic of our period in the West, as Marcel rightly phrases it, is
precisely that awareness of "the sense of the ontological—the sense of
being—is lacking. Generally speaking, modern man is in this condition; if
ontological demands worry him at all, it is only dully, as an obscure
impulse" (Gabriel Marcel, The Philosophy of Existence [1949], 1).
In the Western view, man consists of body and soul. Here soul is
synonymous with mind, ego, and consciousness. In the West, generally, no
distinction is made between mind and soul. Soul refers only to the
different forms of experience of a normal human being. This is the general
idea in all non-Hindu spiritual traditions. The Self as a real entity
distinct from body, mind, and ego has never been satisfactorily
established. In Vedanta, Atman or Self is beyond body and mind, ego,
intellect, and all physical appearances. It transcends everything. The Self
is Self-existent, pure and immortal. In the West, each soul is created by
God individually. In Vedanta, the human being consists of Atman, mind, and
body; in the West the human being consists of body and mind which are
created by God. Western scholars study only what the Vedantins call
attribute consciousness, not existential consciousness.
According to Vedanta, the human being is divine, as the Pure
Self is the inmost essence of man. God is not extra-cosmic or distant, He
is immediate, direct and the nearest. Two concepts—the non-divine nature of
man and the distance of God—are not accepted in Vedanta. In the Western
view, God being the Creator, is therefore the subject, while the created
soul is the object; the two can never be the same. God is not only ultimate
but also intimate, according to Vedanta. God is nearer than our arteries,
our inmost being. God, in Vedanta, is not only the Creator but also the
created.
In summing up, the transcendent character of the ever-pure and
immortal Self is never tainted by the impurities of mind, nor is it saved
by the grace of a saviour. When impurity is removed, the bliss of the Self
is spontaneously experienced. In the West, soul is not a transcendent
entity, it is created. Hence the impurities of the mind taint the soul,
which is mind, and hence it requires the grace of a saviour. The Self of
Vedanta is not a created entity; soul in the West is created. The doctrine
of the eternal, pure, self-luminous and infinite Self was developed in
Vedanta alone. Dr. James B. Pratt writes in The Religious Consciousness
that:
In the Christian view, the soul’s survival of death is essentially
miraculous. The soul is conceived as coming into existence with the birth
of the body, and the thing to be expected is that it should perish when the
body perishes. This is prevented through the intervention of God who steps
in to receive the soul and confer upon it an immortality which, left to
itself, it could never attain. In India all this is changed. The soul’s
immortality has never been thought there to be dependent upon any
supernatural interference or miraculous event, nor even upon God. There are
atheistic philosophers in India, but they are as thoroughly convinced of
the eternal life of the soul as are the monists or theists. For in India
the soul is essentially immortal. Eternity is in its very nature (Swami
Yatiswarananda, “Through Death to Immortality,” PB March 1981, 99).
The pressing need for the real conception of human life is the main
key not only to right living but also to right knowledge of the universe.
Practical points are that (1) The microcosm and macrocosm (the individual
and universal) are built on exactly the same plan. The infinite is the
support of the finite. Behind the world of multiplicity there is essential
unity and interconnectedness; (2) The wisdom of the unity of existence
provides a holistic view of life and the universe. This insight can make
our life contemplative, spiritual, and dynamic; (3) The infinite glory of
the human personality can be experienced by those who are really convinced
of the divinity within. "Religion is the manifestation of the divinity
already in man." This idea of Swami Vivekananda will be more appealing to
humanity in the future. It is the expression of divine qualities in our
life and not the subscription to a creed or a dogma. Religion essentially
unites us with God; and (4) Swami Vivekananda's idea that in the future the
thought of immanent God —God manifest in human beings, will impel us to
serve them as God. This future vision of Vivekananda will be immensely
fulfilled.
K RAJARAM IRS 22624 23624
On Sat, 22 Jun 2024 at 17:55, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]>
wrote:
> “Those who realize the self are always satisfied. Having found the source
> of joy and fulfillment, they no longer seek happiness from the external
> world. Happiness can only be found within the self.”
>
> N Jambunathan Rengarajapuram-Kodambakkam-Chennai-Mob:9176159004
>
> *" What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you
> become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to
> a goal, not to people or things "*
>
>
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