Brahmadarsanam; or, Intuition of the absolute

Front matter

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Preface

These lectures were delivered in Christiania during the early spring of 1915. My aim was to present Hindu ways of looking at the eternal verities of life in simple language before the mind of the Norwegian public, with whose points of view, however, I was as utterly unfamiliar as they were with mine. In this rather venturesome undertaking, I was encouraged to persevere through an inner conviction of the uniformity, amidst a diversity of forms, of the philosophical experiences of humanity all the world over. At the same time I am persuaded, through a constant watching of the growth of the deeper life of students of many nationalities, both in the East and in the West, that the most efficient way of helping the student of soul-philosophy is not to give him any so-called academic philosophy at all, but to confer upon him the privilege of a free hand, and allow him, as it were in his own right, to bring out to his own introspection, and shape and mould, all the hidden forces of logic and light that lie dormant in his own higher nature, needing no

vii viii BRAHMADARSANAM

interference or compulsion from without, but only a favourable spiritual and ethical stimulus, in the shape of affinity or real friendship with the impersonal individuality of a living, historical, and rational culture.

To require of the student that he should swallow the pills of metaphysical theory and theological dogma, without protest, were no better than to pour concentrated carbolic or sulphuric acid on the skin and then to expect the unfortunate victim to keep quiet !

These lectures were given under the inspiration of such beliefs, formed partly from personal experience in teaching, and partly derived from the wisdom of our Hindu Rishis and Gurus. Intended especially for beginners, and delivered ex tempore, they do not claim to be a systematic treatise; they will serve their purpose if they succeed in persuading the reader that he and I are of one blood and one life.

Let me add that my sincere thanks are due to Miss Hermione Ramsden, without whose whole-hearted assistance these lectures would never have been written down.

ANANDA.

Norway, July 9, 1916.

CONTENTS FIRST LECTURE

PAGE

General View-Points of Ancient Indian Philosophers 1

The meaning of the word Darsana — The six systems of Indian philosophy — The Buddha's teaching regarding Nirvana — European chronology — Contrast between Indian and European philosophers.

SECOND LECTURE

Dualism: Matter and Spirit 21

Kapila's early training — His philosophy and ethics — Three sources of knowledge — Evolution of the universe — Nature of the soul : its bondage and salvation.

third lecture

Theism: God and Man 40

Controversy between science and religion — Truth is one — Arguments in favour of theism by Gotama, Patanjali, Narada and Sankara — The trend of science towards monism — Hymn from the Rig Veda — Agreement between modern science and the Vedas.

ix x BRAHMADARSANAM

FOURTH LECTURE

PAGH

Monism: Man as Aspect of the Divine ... 70

Aspects of consciousness — Religious systems without a God — Philosophy of relation — Ramanuja's qualified monism.

FIFTH LECTURE

Monism: The Absolute and the Cosmos . . . 104

Psychological foundation of Advaita philosophy of Sankara — State of subconsciousness — Progressive Yoga life — Turiya and Samvit — Avidya, the doctrine of error — Discipleship.

SIXTH LECTURE

Monism : Realisation of the Absolute Truth of Life 135

The constituents of the universe — Composition of the spirit, the soul, and the body — The six circles — The meaning of Maya — Man's freedom — Samkhya versus Vedanta — Consciousness identical with reality.

General Bibliography 193

FRONTISPIECE

KAPILA'S THEORY OF THE COSMIC EVOLUTION

Free Souls. (Purushas).

The Unmanifested (A"vyakta)

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The Five Pranas (Vital centres)

The great Manifestation

Evolution of the Ego

Radicle or Subtile Elements

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Elements

Ether

Heat

Gas

Liquid

Solid

The Mind and Body of aS Living Creatures.

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XI

KAPHA'S THEORY OF THE COSMIC EVOLU- TION ACCORDING TO VYASA'S COM- MENTARY

The Unknowable.

Cosmic substance.

I

Subject series.

Mind, brain, perceptive and active functional centres.

i

Object series.

Atoms, electrons, molecules.

i

Individual substances subject to the law of evolution.

Inorganic and organic substances : Vegetable and animal organisms.

The Twenty-Five Principles of Samkhya.

1. Purushas 2. Prakriti (the unmanifested) .

(souls). 3. Mahat (the great reason).

4. Ahamkar (the ego). 5-9. The Tanmatras (the subtile elements). 10-14. The Buddhindriyas (the faculties of knowledge). 15-19. The Karmendriyas (the faculties of action),

20. Mind. 21-25. The Maha-Bhutas (the gross elements).

Tanmatras. Buddhindriyas.

1. Sound medium Hearing (in the ear)

2. Touch

3. Colour

4. Savour

5. Odour

Touching (in the skin) Seeing (in the eye) Tasting (in tongue) Smelling (in the nose)

Maha-Bhutas.

Ether.

Gas (air).

Heat — light.

Liquid (water).

Solid (earth), xii

Karmendriyas.

Speaking (in the

tongue).

Grasping (in hands).

Moving (in feet).

Secretion.

Generation.

GENERAL VIEW-POINTS OF ANCIENT INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS

The meaning of the word Darsana — The six systems of Indian philosophy — The Buddha's teaching regarding Nirvana — European chronology — Contrast between Indian and European philosophers.

India has been justly regarded as the home of philosophy and religion. From the earliest times Indian thinkers have felt the necessity of basing religion upon philosophy, and of building society upon religion. In order to illustrate the fact that philosophy has been the dominant factor in the history of India, I will begin by telling you a little fairy tale.

There was once an Indian prince who was wandering among the mountains when he met a great sage, who told him that he would have to pass through many misfortunes and would suffer much trouble in the future. The prince asked the sage if he could not help him so that he might be spared these terrible misfortunes, whereupon the sage gave him three things : a milk-white leaf, a silver-white bee, and a bee of golden hue, and told him that as long as he kept these three together in a safe place, he would be preserved from all danger. The prince took the three gifts to his mother and explained to her their magic properties, whereupon she caused a room to be built of stone under a lake, and there in a steel box she placed the three treasures.

In the course of time the sage's words were fulfilled, and although the prince passed through many dangers, his life was preserved.

It is in the same way that the life of the Hindus is preserved through the possession of three things : philosophy, morality, and religion. The milk-white leaf represents morality, the silver-white bee stands for religion, and the bee of golden hue symbolises philosophy. All through the history of India we find that these three have been regarded as sacred and treasured as the precious talisman that was to preserve the nation through all the vicissitudes of its history.

As you all know, India has passed through many changes during the last few centuries, but there are probably no people in the world who had been subjected to so much pressure from outside, and have yet managed to escape from the degenerate influence which is usually the result of contact with less civilised races. 1 Thus we see that the ideals of a holy life have been preserved in spite of the absence of a national government to safeguard the essentials of Hindu life and religion.

Far away from the sun-baked plains, the busy towns, and quiet villages, there lived a brotherhood of teachers who matured their philosophy in the solitude of the mountains and in the depths of the forests for the purpose of guiding humanity. These teachers, who were known by the name of Sannyasins, were, and still are, the real legislators, governors, and guides of the Indian people. These Sannyasins, trained in the science of self-knowledge and self-control, and renouncing the ordinary pursuits of life, wander all over the country, live among the people, and teach them to live the life of righteousness.

It would take too long to give an exhaustive account of the influence exerted by Indian philosophy on Indian life ; I will only touch on a few points. To begin with, it is extremely important that I should explain the meaning of some technical terms of philosophy for which there are no English words which exactly correspond.

The word "Darsana" is generally used as synonymous with "philosophy," and is derived from the Sanscrit root dris which means "to see." If we trace the origin of the word, we find that the first and most ancient meaning is "seeing with the eyes." The second meaning is "perceiving with the different senses," perceiving, that is, with the sense of seeing, sense of hearing, sense of smelling, sense of feeling, and sense of tasting. Darsana, therefore, includes all that we feel and all that we perceive with the external senses through our minds. The third development of the word is "seeing with the Divine eye," that is, the eye which is opened through meditation and purity of life, by which means the soul is brought into touch with the Highest. Thus the three meanings of the word Darsana are : seeing with the senses, seeing with the mind, and seeing with the Divine eye, which last you may call intuition.

The third meaning is the most important one to be remembered, as it marks off Indian philosophy from the philosophies of the rest of the world by presupposing that the soul is the ultimate Reality, and that its substance as well as its form is to be described by the word intuition (Sakshi Svarupa). Some philosophers appear to think that consciousness is an attribute or faculty of the soul which is independent of the senses ; others again think that consciousness is independent of the senses as well as of the reasoning powers, and is the intermediate link between soul and thought activity; but the Vedanta teaches that soul is pure intuition.

There are at least sixteen different schools of philosophy in India, 1 but of these only the six principal systems are generally recognised. The first and oldest of them is the Samkhya, the founder of which was Kapila. Kapila is regarded as the father of Indian philosophy because, although philosophy in the sense of Darsana was known to the Rishis even before his time, he was the first to place it on a rational basis.

Now let us turn to the meaning of the word Samkhya. Samkhya means that which can be numbered, classified, grouped. Kapila called his system the numbering system, but of course it had nothing to do with arithmetic. It was so called because he classified material phenomena under twenty-four heads, or principles. The other meaning of the word Samkhya is Atmanatmaviveka, which means the discrimination of soul from nature, spirit from matter. The reason for separating or differentiating the soul from matter is that we are conscious within ourselves of a principle, i.e. self-consciousness, which is quite different from the rest of the universe. You are aware within yourself of your own existence; I am conscious within myself of my own existence, and, going deeper still, I find that I am conscious of my own existence as the witness or seer of the thoughts and feelings that pass within the mind and body, within which the soul appears to dwell. As the thoughts and feelings of each one of us differ from the thoughts and feelings of others, Kapila assumed the existence of a plurality of independent souls, each of which is fundamentally different from every other. He also assumed the existence of a world of matter independent of the world of souls.

The object of the Samkhya is to realise the distinction between matter and spirit, so that the latter can emancipate itself from the bondage of the former; thus Samkhya teaches us how to see the spirit which lies encased in matter, therefore it is called a Darsana because it invites us to see the glory of the spirit as it is in itself.

The second system of Indian philosophy was founded by Patanjali and is called the Yoga. The Yoga Darsana is not an independent Darsana, but has arisen out of the Samkhya and may be said to supplement it. The word Yoga means " self -concentration with a view to see the soul as it looks when it is abstracted from mind and matter."

Patanjali says in his Yoga Sastra that when the soul is freed from distraction, ignorance, and doubt, it stands face to face with God and is blessed with the vision of the All-holy. Thus it is quite clear that the object of the Yoga Darsana is to teach us how the eye of the soul may be opened so that we can see our God, through whose grace we are able to escape the miseries that are due to ignorance. The fruit of God- vision is perfection. Man can only be saved by Yoga, that is by the conscious union of finite souls with the Infinite through the clear recognition on the part of the former of the essential kinship of both. This recognition may be obtained in various ways, either by dedicating all the fruits of our work to God — this way is called the Karma Yoga — or by the absolute surrender of all our hopes and aspirations, and our self also, to God, in the belief that His grace is our highest good. This is called Bhakti Yoga, or the realisation of God through love and devotion. The highest form of Yoga is called Jnana Yoga, in which the finite soul does not see itself except as infilled by, and identical with, the Absolute God.

The third system of Indian philosophy is called the Nyaya which was delivered by Gotama. He taught that the highest aim of human life was to attain to a right understanding of God, soul, and nature. The word Nyaya means standard, or universal principle. This Gotama lived long before Gautama the Buddha and was the inventor of Hindu logic, physics, and metaphysics.

The fourth system is called the Vaishesika and is also based upon Gotama's Nyaya ; it is, in fact, one of the great divisions of the latter. It teaches that Liberation is the reward of Divine knowledge.

The last two, the fifth and sixth systems of Indian philosophy, are called the Mimamsa and the Vedanta, taught respectively by Jaimini and Vyasa. Mimamsa means profound thought, reflection, and is concerned chiefly with the correct interpretation of Vedic ritual and text, while the Vedanta deals with the inquiry into the nature of the Absolute Spirit. The object of the Vedanta is to discern the highest truth that is revealed in the consciousness of humanity, and thereby to attain the Highest Goal of existence.

Now I will briefly refer to some of the subjects treated of in the different Darsanas, and this will enable you to form an idea of the scope and object of Hindu philosophy. They are as follows :

The origin and constitution of the universe.

The nature of knowledge and its instruments (such as mind, etc.).

The discrimination of the soul and its immortality.

The future state of the soul and its wanderings.

The cause of our embodied existence.

The cause of pleasure and pain.

Moral law (Karma).

Bondage and Liberation.

Personal God and the Absolute, or the Impersonal God.

One aim inspires the whole body of Hindu Darsanas, and that is Liberation — Mukti.

"As the waters of the ocean have only one taste, which is salt, so the Darsanas have only one aim, which is Liberation."

Man wants to be liberated, to be free — free from the imperfections of his own nature — physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual. This aspiration is seated deep down in the very nature of our spiritual consciousness, and finds eloquent expression in the songs of the Upanishads and in the aphorisms of the Darsanas.

To attain to freedom means to be holy and wise and perfect, as God is perfect, wise, and holy. Different philosophers have interpreted freedom in different ways ; for instance, Kapila says that freedom means the realisation of the independence of the spirit from the material principle in which it finds itself entangled. This state of perfection means complete freedom from the vicissitudes of terrestrial existence, but this may be taken in two ways : first, that the soul may be completely extinguished, just as the flame of a candle is extinguished; or that the soul may return to God from Whom it arose.

The former teaching has been attributed to the Buddha, while the latter emanates from the Vedanta. I cannot enter into a discussion as to whether the Buddha meant by Nirvana the complete extinction of the soul, for the Buddha preferred to be silent on questions relating to the finality of things, and, as often happens, his followers interpreted the sayings of the master according to their own favourite views. 1 I can only say that my personal opinion on the subject of the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana is that the Buddha meant, not the extinction of the immortal spirit, but of the lower ego which is the seat of all selfishness and imperfection. That this is so seems probable from what he said on one occasion when he took some dry leaves into the_ hollow of his hand, and asked his disciple Ananda to tell him whether there were any other leaves besides these, to which Ananda replied :

"The leaves of autumn are falling on all sides, and there are more of them than can be numbered."

Then the Buddha said: "In like manner I have given you a handful of truths, but besides these there are many thousands of other truths, more than can be numbered."

The Buddha was of opinion that man must be taught to be moral first, then he will see the greater truths for himself. 1

The Vedantic conception of the soul is based upon the essential unity of the soul and Brahman. The Vedantin holds that the idea of an individual soul existing apart from the Absolute is mistaken logic. Man thinks that he is cut off from the Infinite because of his ignorance. Liberation means the passing away for ever of this illusory sense of finiteness, and realising the eternal nature of the Soul.

All philosophical speculation can be traced in the Rig Veda, which is the oldest of all the Vedas; there we find such passages as the following :

"The poets and prophets discover God in their hearts. Beyond light and darkness, there He shines in His wonderful Majesty."

The entire Vedic literature is filled fwith references to the existence of a God, and man's need to realise Him. The Upanishads, of which at the present time there are only 108 in number, are full of the loftiest poetry with regard to the immortality of the soul, the Creator of this universe, and the final liberation of man through the knowledge of "the God who dwells in the cavity of the heart." All the philosophical speculations of the world can be traced to the Upanishads, which are an inexhaustible storehouse of scientific and philosophic ideas.

The next body of literature are the Sutras, or aphorisms : all the Darsanas are written in this form, and it is quite impossible to understand them without commentaries. These were written much later. The interpretation is in the hands of Brahmanas and Sannyasins; the Brahmanas teach the lay pupils, and the Sannyasins teach those who renounce the pursuits of mundane life and devote themselves exclusively to the realisation of the Absolute Brahman.

It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to settle the chronological order in which these different systems were given to the world. European scholars have a tendency to fix the age of Sanscrit literature at a much later date than we do in India, basing their conclusions on very superficial evidence. For instance, Wilson based his conclusions concerning the date of the Mudra-Rakhasa from a passage which runs as follows : " . . . being troubled by the barbarians"; he said that this drama was composed between the eleventh and twelfth centuries a.d., for no other reason than that India was invaded by the Mahomedans at that time ; but the word Mlechchha refers to all non- Indians, and we know that Alexander the Great invaded India in the fourth century B.C., and that after Alexander's time India was repeatedly invaded by Bactrian Greeks and Scythians. But Wilson gives no reason why Mudra-Rakhasa should not belong to the Alexandrian period. Again, Max Miiller thinks that the Vedas were composed between 1500 and 1000 B.C., and he refers the Sutra literature to a period extending from 600 to 200 B.C., although there is hardly a single scrap of evidence to substantiate this view. 1

We shall therefore leave the question of dates alone. It is certain that in very ancient times the real authors of the Vedas taught them to their pupils, by whom they were afterwards handed down to successive generations, when the teachings contained in them came to be widely diffused. In later ages, these were reduced to writing and divided into different systems according to the subject matter, each being ascribed to the celebrated Rishi through whom it was believed to have been revealed.

With regard to Indian philosophy, it is impossible to apply what is known as the ideal method, or for the matter of that the chronological method either, in tracing the development of the Darsanas. It is tolerably certain that none of the six teachers whom I mentioned actually wrote the Sutras which pass under their name. Kapila, Kanada, Gotama, Jaimini, Patanjali, and Vyasa taught these Darsanas to their pupils in systematic form, and many centuries after their death the Sutras were written; but these great Rishis were not the originators, they were the conveyers of the Darsanas. It will be seen, therefore, that these Darsanas passed through two stages in the course of their development, viz. the oral and the written stage, the former being of course the more ancient.

European historians and antiquarians firmly believe that their ancestors were savages and that they are far more enlightened than their forefathers, but we in India believe exactly the opposite. We think that our ancestors were gods and Rishis, endowed with superhuman wisdom and holiness, and that we Indians of the present day are their unworthy descendants. The illusion of European historians consists in judging our history from a knowledge of their own past. I should like to remind them that the law which they deduce from a study of the history of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire cannot be held to account for the civilisations of ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia, India, and China. In those countries civilisation, instead of developing, has degenerated, while in Europe civilisation has progressed from very unpromising beginnings, India looks back, while Europe looks forward to the Golden Age. ^

It is not every one who is called to the study of the Darsanas; there are certain mental, moral, and spiritual qualifications that are necessary, the first and most important being that the student should have fulfilled all his duties towards the worlds among which are included, not only civic and household duties, but all the observances required of him towards the manes of his forefathers, as well as the offering of sacrifices to the deities who preside over nature. Next, he must be able to control his senses, his mind and intellect. He must cultivate what is called one-pointedness, not allowing his mind to wander ; he must be ready to forgive every injury that may be inflicted on him; and he must be able to see God in all. When a man possesses all these qualifications, then he is allowed to study philosophy. Yet it must not be supposed that the mass of the people are kept in ignorance, for as in Europe there are only a few experts who devote themselves to the higher branches of science, such as mechanics, chemistry, medicine, etc., so in India it is only the few who may devote themselves to the study of the Darsanas, while to the populace philosophy is taught through the medium of religion, mythology, and parables. The drama, art, and poetry of India are all pervaded by this teaching.

The circle of students who are privileged to study the Darsanas under qualified teachers is very wide in one direction, and very narrow in the other; for instance, it is wide because it includes all the Devas x and the Pitris, 1 and the three twice-born castes. It is narrow because it excludes the Sudras, or fourth caste, and women, unless they give up their worldly attachments and devote themselves completely to the unfoldment of the spiritual side of their nature. The sine qua non of the privilege of study in all cases is a real thirst for truth. 2

In India the ideal of education is very high, and consequently its realisation implies a process coeval with the progress of the soul through infinite time. As the summit of human perfection cannot be attained within the brief span of a single life, and as society is composed of individuals, each differing from the other in taste, inclination, capacity, and attainment, education was arranged in such a way that all classes of men and women, from the best and brightest minds to the most commonplace, should be afforded opportunities for receiving instruction.

The Rishis recognised that a fundamental contradiction exists between the requirements of our spiritual and our earthly life, and that

1 The Devas are the personal deities who preside over the various forces of nature. The Pitris are the spirits of the dead, ancestral spirits.

this can only be overcome by making the latter subservient to the former. From this originated the institution of Asrams and castes. The Asrams are the stages of life for receiving the education suited to each ; for instance, the first period of a man's life ought to be devoted to the acquirement of knowledge ; the next should be devoted to the performance of the duties incidental to social life ; the third period should be devoted to the acquisition of truths which lie at the root of all things, such as the nature of God, the state of the soul after death, etc., and the fourth period should be devoted to the realisation of the Highest ; but during this last period of life men who have passed through this training are expected to give the fruits of their experience to the rising generation.

So also with the caste system. It is based upon the fact that our capacities are to a great extent inborn, and that the ends of a complex society can be best served by utilising the principles of heredity. Each caste has a particular profession as well as duties and obligations of its own. For this reason the education of one caste differed from the education of the others, and this difference is explained by the desire of social legislators to produce the most efficient citizen. But while paying attention to the development of the practical faculties of citizens, they never lost sight of their spiritual needs. The idea was that whatever may be the intellectual or moral character of a citizen, each one is to be taken by the hand and led step by step to the Highest Goal.

In Europe, philosophy is the favourite study of those who are of a contemplative turn of mind, it has never been the common property of the public; whereas in India, philosophy is as vital a need to all as the air we breathe or the food we eat, it is not in the hands of amateurs or academical professors.

European philosophy does not concern itself either with the foundation of religion or that of morality. The people, no less than the Church, never expected guidance from the philosopher in matters relating to the supersensuous. But in India the teachers of the six systems of philosophy are also the teachers of religion and morality. Religious life was never divorced from philosophical contemplation, nor was the culture of the Darsanas viewed with suspicion by religious people. The secret of the harmony between Darsanikas and Dharmikas (philosophers and religious men) is that the former started with the assumption that the Vedas were revealed to man by God. No Darsanika every questioned this supreme fact, hence the happy blending of faith with reason, which is conspicuously absent in the history of the development of European philosophy.

The Indian Darsanika starts his inquiry with a searching examination of the position of man, including both his psychology and his surroundings; he finds that although man is happy to a certain degree, he is not supremely so, that his lot is a mixed one, while he continually longs for an unmixed state of blessedness. The investigation into the cause of suffering leads the Indian philosopher to the conclusion that all pain is due to our confusion of the immaterial spirit with the material body, and his final teaching is that man can — by means of knowledge, and knowledge alone (Jnana) — become, not only the master of his fate, but that he can isolate himself completely from the onslaught of all evils, including death, even in this life.

Hindu philosophers teach that the soul is a spiritual, conscious substance, perfect and universal, neither liable to birth, death, or pain, but that, owing to the power of a mysterious agency, sometimes called Avidya, ignorance, and sometimes Aviveka, non-discrimination, or Mithya Jnana, false knowledge, souls are tied to subtile bodies and are made to pass through pain and pleasure, birth and death. Souls suffer Samsara, or repeated births, owing to non-discrimination of the real from the unreal, i.e. the confusion of the Immortal Soul with the perishable aspects of personality. All works born out of this primitive non-discrimination, whether mental or physical, moral or immoral, are reproductive, i.e. they go on multiplying until they are counteracted and destroyed by true knowledge. Therefore the highest aim of man is to attain to perfection and freedom through the destruction of all Karma (works).