Topical Musings

fourth stage Turiya. Whatever may be the fact, this Upanishad is the smallest having only 12 mantras which are albeit very important in their content. Taittiriya Upanishad: This is a widely studied Upanishad; many of the mantras used in rituals are taken from this. This Upanishad is divided into three parts Shikshavalli that talks about education, Anandavalli that talks about the real bliss – Brahmananda, and Bhrigu Valli which Varuna taught his son Bhrigu. It is said that Bhrigu did penance and realised that beyond the different layers of the human body called Annamaya, Praanamaya, Manomaya and Vijnanamaya, lies sheer bliss called the anandamaya. But what is interesting is that after the ultimate realisation, the Upanishad proclaims, ‘Do not regard food with contempt; do not waste food’ – some practical wisdom! Aitareya: This Upanishad came through a Rishi called Itareya. The subject matter of this Upanishad concentrates on the birth of a human according to sins and merits earned by him. Chhandogya: It is one of the two big U p a n i s h a d s , t h e o t h e r b e i n g t h e

‘These conceptions of the Vedanta must come out, must remain not only in the forest, not only in the cave, but they must come out to work at the bar and the bench, in the pulpit, and in the cottage of the poor man, with the fishermen that are catching fish, and with the students that are studying... How can the fishermen and all these carry out the ideals of the Upanishads? The way has been shown. . . If the fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks he is the Spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better lawyer, and so on...’ —Swami Vivekananda

Brihadaranyaka. This Upanishad is a part of Sama Veda. Chhandoga means one who sings the Sama Gana. Just as the essence of the Kathopanishad can be found in the Bhagavad Gita, one can find the Brahma Sutra of Vyasa drawing upon the Chhandogya Upanishad mantras. The famous story of Satyakama Jabala is found here. Brihadaranyaka: As its name brihat indicates, this Upanishad is indeed big. The Upanishad starts with the famous mantra that is a school prayer for many today, असतो मा सद्गमय, तमसो मा ज्योतिर्ग मय, मृत्योर्मा मृतं गमय ‘From evil lead me to good. From darkness lead me to light. From death lead me to immortality.’ This Upanishad also gives the definition of Atma as neti, neti meaning, ‘not this’, ‘not this.’

This is a very concise account of the subject matter of the Upanishads. However, the Upanishads and the Vedas as a whole not merely talk about abstract philosophy. Their hymns are addressed to various Gods. Who is the God described as the greatest by the Vedas? We will find out about this in the next episode. (To be continued. . .)

What is Religion?

‘The pleasure of the Self is what the world calls religion.’ 1

In January, we saw Swami Vivekananda define religion as ‘realization’. In February we saw him define the same term as ‘the idea that progressively raises a brute to man, and man to God.’ In March, he defined that very term as ‘the natural strength in us’.

This month, he is taking us along a totally new path: Pleasure of the Self is Religion! This is fairly straight-forward. We all understand pleasure. We all experience pleasure from various sources: Good food, healthy body, luxurious homes, deep, and meaningful relations, better and better vehicles, more and more money in the bank, loving wife and kids, the fine arts, etc., etc., etc. So many sources of pleasure we have open before us. But, pleasure of the Self? What is that? When man finds that all search for happiness in matter is nonsense, then religion begins. Only bliss beyond the material world can be had without loss to any. Material happiness is but a transformation of material sorrow. ‘Can religion really accomplish anything? It can. It brings to man eternal life. It has made man what he is, and will make of this human animal a god. That is what religion can do. Take religion from human society and what will remain? Nothing but a forest of brutes. Sensehappiness is not the goal of humanity. Jnana is the goal of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature even more than his rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this spiritual knowledge. With this knowledge will come bliss. All these things of this world are but the shadows, the manifestations in the third or fourth degree of the real Knowledge and Bliss.’ 2 And that real Knowledge and Bliss is the real Self of man. ‘Selfish work is slave’s work; and here is a test. Every act of love brings happiness; there is no act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction. Real existence, real knowledge, and real love are eternally connected with one another, the three in one: where one of them is, the others also must be; they are the three aspects of the One without a second – Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. When that existence becomes relative, we see it as the world; that knowledge becomes in its turn modified into the knowledge of the things of the world; and that bliss forms the foundation of all true love known to the heart of man. Therefore true love can never react so as to cause pain either to the lover or to the beloved. Suppose a man loves a woman; he wishes to have her all to himself and feels extremely jealous about her every movement; he wants her to sit near him, to stand near him, and to eat and move at his bidding. He is a slave to her and wishes to have her as his slave. That is not love; it is a kind of morbid affection of the slave, insinuating itself as love. It cannot be love, because it is painful; if she does not do what he wants, it brings him pain. With love there is no painful reaction; love only brings a reaction of bliss; if it does not, it is not love; it is mistaking something else for love. When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe, in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached.’ 3 (Continued on page 51...)

What Are We Now?

In the last three issues of Topical Musings, we saw how an innocuous essay by Elbert Hubbard on industriousness, self-effort, c o m m o n - s e n s e , a n d S h ra d d h a wa s instrumental in shaping the modern world. This month, let us listen to Swami Vivekananda paint a true pen-picture of what we actually are at present. Although he said all these things about 100 years ago, it is still very accurate. 1 We are self-seeking men who are looking after their personal comforts and leading a lazy life – there is no room for such even in hell! 2 We are lazy, hard-hearted, cruel and selfish men. 3 Quarrelling and abusing each other are our national traits. Lazy, useless, vulgar, jealous, cowardly, and quarrelsome, that is what we are. 4 We are disproportionate in figure, lazy, worthless idiots, with no backbone of our own. 5 We are physically weak, which is the cause of at least one-third of our miseries. We are lazy, we cannot work; we cannot combine, we do not love each other; we are intensely selfish, not three of us can come together without hating each other, without being jealous of each other. That is the state in which we are – hopelessly disorganized mobs, immensely selfish, fighting each other for centuries for the most ridiculous of reasons! And are we not ashamed of ourselves? Ay, sometimes we are; but though we think these things frivolous, we cannot give them up. We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do

them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness! This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything. 6 We are always afraid. Why? Because we have made ourselves helpless and dependent on others. We are so lazy; we do not want to do anything for ourselves. We want a Personal God, a saviour or a prophet to do everything for us. If everything is done for a man by another, he will lose the use of his own limbs. Anything we do ourselves, that is the only thing we do. Anything that is done for us by another never can be ours. You cannot learn spiritual truths from my lectures. If you have learnt anything, I was only the spark that brought it out, made it flash. That is all the prophets and teachers can do. All this running after help is foolishness. 7 We lack an enterprising spirit. Nothing is done by leading idle lives. We are a lazy set, enamored of child marriage and nothing else. 8 We do not have any faculty for business. 9 We have not yet developed strict business principles, nor do we possess business integrity. 10 We have lost faith. Do you ask why? You know too well; you are wiser than is good for you; that is your difficulty! Simply because your blood is only like water, your brain is sloughing, your body is weak! You must change the body. Physical weakness is the cause and nothing else. You have talked of reforms, of ideals, and all these things for the past hundred years; but when it comes to practice, you are not to be found anywhere – till you have disgusted the whole world, and the very name of reform is a thing of ridicule! And what is the cause? Do you not know? You know too well. The only cause is that you are weak, weak, weak; your body is weak, your mind is weak, you have no faith in yourselves! Centuries and centuries, a thousand

years of crushing tyranny of castes, kings, foreigners, and your own people have taken out all your strength, my brethren. Your backbone is broken, you are like downtrodden worms. 11 We talk here, we quarrel with each other, we laugh at and we ridicule everything sacred, till it has become almost a national vice to ridicule everything holy. 12 Give up the awful disease that is creeping into our national blood, that idea of ridiculing everything, that loss of seriousness. 13 Give these up. 14 (To be continued. . .)

References: 1) We have liberally paraphrased these words from various sources of Swamiji’s lectures and letters, without changing the original narrative intended by Swamiji. We have mentioned the references for each paragraph. All references are from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Mayavati Edition. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama. 2) Vol-6: Epistles, 1894. To the brother-disciples at Alambazar monastery 3) Vol-7: Epistles, XXVI, 1894. To Swami Brahmananda 4) Swami Brahmananda: 20 December 1896 5) Vol-5: The East and The West-III: ‘Food and Cooking’ 6) Vol-3: ‘Vedanta in Its Application to Indian Life’ 7) Vol-8: ‘Is Vedanta the Future Religion?’ 8) Vol6: Epistles, 17 Jan 1895, To Swami Trigunatitananda 9) Vol-5: Epistles, XI: 11 July 1894, To Alasinga Perumal 10) Vol-5: Epistles, LXVI: 1896, To Dr. Nanjunda Rao 11) Vol-3: ‘Vedanta in Its application to Indian Life’ 12) Vol-3: ‘Reply to Address of Welcome Presented at Calcutta’ 13) Ibid 14) Ibid

What is Religion?

(Continued from page 49...)

‘The Vedantist boldly says that the enjoyments in this life, even the most degraded joys, are but manifestations of that One Divine Bliss, the Essence of the Soul.’ 4 ‘When the Vedantist has realized his own nature, the whole world has vanished for him. It will come back again, but no more the same world of misery. The prison of misery has become changed into Sat-Chit-Ananda – ExistenceAbsolute-Knowledge Absolute - Bliss Absolute.’ 5 It is this One Divine Bliss, the Essence of the Soul, that is worshipped as the God of Love by the devotee. ‘Are there then two Gods – the ‘Not this, not this,’ the Sat-Chit-Ananda, the ExistenceKnowledge-Bliss of the philosopher, and this God of Love of the Bhakta? No, it is the same Sat-Chit-Ananda who is also the God of Love, the impersonal and personal in one. It has always to be understood that the Personal God worshipped by the Bhakta is not separate or different from the Brahman. All is Brahman, the One without a second; only the Brahman, as unity or absolute, is too much of an abstraction to be loved and worshipped; so the Bhakta chooses the relative aspect of Brahman, that is, Ishvara, the Supreme Ruler.’ 6 ‘What we want is the harmony of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss Infinite. For that is our goal. We want harmony, not onesided development. … I hope we shall all struggle to attain to that blessed combination.’ 7 ‘Many want pleasure as the goal. For that pleasure they seek only the senses. On the higher planes much pleasure is to be sought; then on spiritual planes; then in himself – God within him. The man whose pleasure is outside of himself becomes unhappy when that outside thing goes. You cannot depend for this pleasure upon anything in this universe. If all my pleasures are in myself, I must have pleasure there all the time because I can never lose my Self. Mother, father, child, wife, body, wealth – everything I can lose, except my self. Bliss in the Self; all desire is contained in the Self. This is individuality which never changes, and this is perfect.’ 8

References: 1) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. [hereafter CW] Vol-7. Inspired Talks: Entry on Tuesday, June 25 th , 1895 2) CW. Vol-3: Unity, The Goal of Religion 3) CW. Vol-1: Karma Yoga: ‘The Secret of Work’ 4) CW. Vol-2: Jnana Yoga: ‘The Freedom of the Soul’ 5) CW. Vol-1: ‘The Vedanta Philosophy’ 6) CW. Vol-3: Bhakti Yoga: ‘The Philosophy of Ishvara’ 7) CW. Vol-2: Jnana Yoga: ‘The Absolute and Manifestation’ 8) CW. Vol-2: ‘The Goal’