The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Jnana-Yoga/Unity in Diversity
CHAPTER IX
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
( Delivered in London, 3rd November 1896 )
"The Self-existent One projected the senses outwards and, therefore, a man
looks outward, not within himself. A certain wise one, desiring immortality,
with inverted senses, perceived the Self within." As I have already said,
the first inquiry that we find in the Vedas was concerning outward things,
and then a new idea came that the reality of things is not to be found in
the external world; not by looking outwards, but by turning the eyes, as it
is literally expressed, inwards. And the word used for the Soul is very
significant: it is He who has gone inward, the innermost reality of our
being, the heart centre, the core, from which, as it were, everything comes
out; the central sun of which the mind, the body, the sense-organs, and
everything else we have are but rays going outwards. "Men of childish
intellect, ignorant persons, run after desires which are external, and enter
the trap of far-reaching death, but the wise, understanding immortality,
never seek for the Eternal in this life of finite things." The same idea is
here made clear that in this external world, which is full of finite things,
it is impossible to see and find the Infinite. The Infinite must be sought
in that alone which is infinite, and the only thing infinite about us is
that which is within us, our own soul. Neither the body, nor the mind, not
even our thoughts, nor the world we see around us, are infinite. The Seer,
He to whom they all belong, the Soul of man, He who is awake in the internal
man, alone is infinite, and to seek for the Infinite Cause of this whole
universe we must go there. In the Infinite Soul alone we can find it. "What
is here is there too, and what is there is here also. He who sees the
manifold goes from death to death." We have seen how at first there was the
desire to go to heaven. When these ancient Aryans became dissatisfied with
the world around them, they naturally thought that after death they would go
to some place where there would be all happiness without any misery; these
places they multiplied and called Svargas — the word may be translated as
heavens — where there would be joy for ever, the body would become perfect,
and also the mind, and there they would live with their forefathers. But as
soon as philosophy came, men found that this was impossible and absurd. The
very idea of an infinite in place would be a contradiction in terms, as a
place must begin and continue in time. Therefore they had to give up that
idea. They found out that the gods who lived in these heavens had once been
human beings on earth, who through their good works had become gods, and the
godhoods, as they call them, were different states, different positions;
none of the gods spoken of in the Vedas are permanent individuals.
For instance, Indra and Varuna are not the names of certain persons, but the
names of positions as governors and so on. The Indra who had lived before is
not the same person as the Indra of the present day; he has passed away, and
another man from earth has filled his place. So with all the other gods
These are certain positions, which are filled successively by human souls
who have raised themselves to the condition of gods, and yet even they die.
In the old Rig-Veda we find the word "immortality" used with regard to these
gods, but later on it is dropped entirely, for they found that immortality
which is beyond time and space cannot be spoken of with regard to any
physical form, however subtle it may be. However fine it may be, it must
have a beginning in time and space, for the necessary factors that enter
into the make-up of form are in space. Try to think of a form without
space: it is impossible. Space is one of the materials, as it were, which
make up the form, and this is continually changing Space and time are in
Maya, and this idea is expressed in the line — "What is hole, that is there
too." If there are these gods, they must be bound by the same laws that
apply here, and all laws involve destruction and renewal again and again.
These laws are moulding matter into different forms, and crushing them out
again. Everything born must die; and so, if there are heavens, the same laws
must hold good there.
In this world we find that all happiness is followed by misery as its
shadow. Life has its shadow, death. They must go together, because they are
not contradictory, not two separate existences, but different manifestations
of the same unit, life and death, sorrow and happiness, good and evil. The
dualistic conception that good and evil are two separate entities, and that
they are both going on eternally is absurd on the face of it. They are the
diverse manifestations of one and the same fact, one time appearing as bad,
and at another time as good. The difference does not exist in kind, but only
in degree. They differ from each other in degree of intensity. We find as a
fact that the same nerve systems carry good and bad sensations alike, and
when the nerves are injured, neither sensation comes to us. If a certain
nerve is paralysed, we do not get the pleasurable feelings that used to come
along that wires and at the same time we do not get the painful feelings
either. They are never two, but the same. Again. the same thing produces
pleasure and pain at different times of life. The same phenomenon will
produce pleasure in one, and pain in another. The eating of meat produces
pleasure to a man, but pain to the animal which is eaten. There has never
been anything which gives pleasure to all alike. Some are pleased, others
displeased. So on it will go. Therefore, this duality of existence is
denied. And what follows? I told you in my last lecture that we can never
have ultimately everything good on this earth and nothing bad. It may have
disappointed and frightened some of you, but I cannot help it, and I am open
to conviction when I am shown to the contrary; but until that can be proved
to me, and I can find that it is true, cannot say so.
The general argument against my statement, and apparently a very convincing
one, is this that in the course of evolution, all that is evil in what we
see around us is gradually being eliminated, and the result is that if this
elimination continues for millions of years, a time will come when all the
evil will have been extirpated, and the good alone will remain. This is
apparently a very sound argument. Would to God it were true! But there is a
fallacy in it, and it is this that it takes for granted that both good and
evil are things that are eternally fixed. It takes for granted that there is
a definite mass of evil, which may be represented by a hundred, and likewise
of good, and that this mass of evil is being diminished every day, leaving
only the good. But is it so? The history of the world shows that evil is a
continuously increasing quantity, as well as good. Take the lowest man; he
lives in the forest. His sense of enjoyment is very small, and so also is
his power to suffer. His misery is entirely on the sense-plane. If he does
not get plenty of food, he is miserable; but give him plenty of food and
freedom to rove and to hunt, and he is perfectly happy. His happiness
consists only in the senses, and so does his misery also. But if that man
increases in knowledge, his happiness will increase, the intellect will open
to him, and his sense-enjoyment will evolve into intellectual enjoyment. He
will feel pleasure in reading a beautiful poem, and a mathematical problem
will be of absorbing interest to him. But, with these, the inner nerves will
become more and more susceptible to miseries of mental pain, of which the
savage does not think. Take a very simple illustration. In Tibet there is no
marriage, and there is no jealousy, yet we know that marriage is a much
higher state. The Tibetans have not known the wonderful enjoyment, the
blessing of chastity, the happiness of having a chaste, virtuous wife, or a
chaste, virtuous husband. These people cannot feel that. And similarly they
do not feel the intense jealousy of the chaste wife or husband, or the
misery caused by unfaithfulness on either side, with all the heart-burnings
and sorrows which believers in chastity experience. On one side, the latter
gain happiness, but on the other, they suffer misery too.
Take your country which is the richest in the world, and which is more
luxurious than any other, and see how intense is the misery, how many more
lunatics you have, compared with other races, only because the desires are
so keen. A man must keep up a high standard of living, and the amount of
money he spends in one year would be a fortune to a man in India. You cannot
preach to him of simple living because society demands so much of him. The
wheel of society is rolling on; it stops not for the widow's tears or the
orphans' wails. This is the state of things everywhere. Your sense of
enjoyment is developed, your society is very much more beautiful than some
others. You have so many more things to enjoy. But those who have fewer have
much less misery. You can argue thus throughout, the higher the ideal you
have in the brain, the greater is your enjoyment, and the more profound your
misery. One is like the shadow of the other. That the evils are being
eliminated may be true, but if so, the good also must be dying out. But are
not evils multiplying fast, and good diminishing, if I may so put it? If
good increases in arithmetical progression, evil increase in geometrical
progression. And this is Maya. This is neither optimism nor pessimism.
Vedanta does not take he position that this world is only a miserable one.
That would be untrue. At the same time, it is a mistake to say that this
world is full of happiness and blessings. So it is useless to tell children
that this world is all good, all flowers, all milk and honey. That is what
we have all dreamt. At the same time it is erroneous to think, because one
man has suffered more than another, that all is evil. It is this duality,
this play of good and evil that makes our world of experiences. At the same
time the Vedanta says, "Do not think that good and evil are two, are two
separate essences, for they are one and the same thing, appearing in
different degrees and in different guises and producing differences of
feeling in the same mind." So, the first thought of the Vedanta is the
finding of unity in the external; the One Existence manifesting Itself,
however different It may appear in manifestation. Think of the old crude
theory of the Persians — two gods creating this world, the good god doing
everything that is good, and the bad one, everything bad. On the very face
of it, you see the absurdity, for if it be carried out, every law of nature
must have two parts, one of which is manipulated by one god, and then he
goes away and the other god manipulates the other part. There the difficulty
comes that both are working in the same world, and these two gods keep
themselves in harmony by injuring one portion and doing good to another.
This is a crude case, of course, the crudest way of expressing the duality
of existence. But, take the more advanced, the more abstract theory that
this world is partly good and partly bad. This also is absurd, arguing from
the same standpoint. It is the law of unity that gives us our food, and it
is the same law that kills many through accidents or misadventure.
We find, then, that this world is neither optimistic nor pessimistic; it is
a mixture of both, and as we go on we shall find that the whole blame is
taken away from nature and put upon our own shoulders. At the same time the
Vedanta shows the way out, but not by denial of evil, because it analyses
boldly the fact as it is and does not seek to conceal anything. It is not
hopeless; it is not agnostic. It finds out a remedy, but it wants to place
that remedy on adamantine foundations: not by shutting the child's mouth and
blinding its eyes with something which is untrue, and which the child will
find out in a few days. I remember when I was young, a young man's father
died and left him poorly off, with a large family to support, and he found
that his father's friends were unwilling to help him. He had a conversation
with a clergyman who offered this consolation, "Oh, it is all good, all is
sent for our good." That is the old method of trying to put a piece of gold
leaf on an old sore. It is a confession of weakness, of absurdity. The young
man went away, and six months afterwards a son was born to the clergyman,
and he gave a thanksgiving party to which the young man was invited. The
clergyman prayed, "Thank God for His mercies." And the young man stood up
and said, "Stop, this is all misery." The clergyman asked, "Why?" "Because
when my father died you said it was good, though apparently evil; so now,
this is apparently good, but really evil." Is this the way to cure the
misery of the world? Be good and have mercy on those who suffer. Do not try
to patch it up, nothing will cure this world; go beyond it.
This is a world of good and evil. Wherever there is good, evil follows, but
beyond and behind all these manifestations, all these contradictions, the
Vedanta finds out that Unity. It says, "Give up what is evil and give up
what is good." What remains then? Behind good and evil stands something
which is yours, the real you, beyond every evil, and beyond every good too,
and it is that which is manifesting itself as good and bad. Know that first,
and then and then alone you will be a true optimist, and not before; for
then you will be able to control everything. Control these manifestations
and you will be at liberty to manifest the real "you". First be master of
yourself, stand up and be free, go beyond the pale of these laws, for these
laws do not absolutely govern you, they are only part of your being. First
find out that you are not the slave of nature, never were and never will be;
that this nature, infinite as you may think it, is only finite, a drop in
the ocean, and your Soul is the ocean; you are beyond the stars, the sun,
and the moon. They are like mere bubbles compared with your infinite being. Know
that, and you will control both good and evil. Then alone the whole vision
will change and you will stand up and say, "How beautiful is good and how
wonderful is evil!"
That is what the Vedanta teaches. It does not propose any slipshod remedy by
covering wounds with gold leaf and the more the wound festers, putting on
more gold leaf. This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly,
though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger. It lays no
responsibility on little gods; for you are the makers of your own fortunes.
You make yourselves suffer, you make good and evil, and it is you who put
your hands before your eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away and see
the light; you are effulgent, you are perfect already, from the very
beginning. We now understand the verse: "He goes from death to death who
sees the many here." See that One and be free.
How are we to see it? This mind, so deluded, so weak, so easily led, even
this mind can be strong and may catch a glimpse of that knowledge, that
Oneness, which saves us from dying again and again. As rain falling upon a
mountain flows in various streams down the sides of the mountain, so all the
energies which you see here are from that one Unit. It has become manifold
falling upon Maya. Do not run after the manifold; go towards the One. "He is
in all that moves; He is in all that is pure; He fills the universe; He is
in the sacrifice; He is the guest in the house; He is in man, in water, in
animals, in truth; He is the Great One. As fire coming into this world is
manifesting itself in various forms, even so, that one Soul of the universe
is manifesting Himself in all these various forms. As air coming into this
universe manifests itself in various forms, even so, the One Soul of all
souls, of all beings, is manifesting Himself in all forms." This is true for
you when you have understood this Unity, and not before Then is all
optimism, because He is seen everywhere. The question is that if all this be
true that that Pure One — the Self, the Infinite — has entered all this, how
is it that He suffers, how is it that He becomes miserable, impure? He does
not, says the Upanishad. "As the sun is the cause of the eyesight of every
being, yet is not made defective by the defect in any eye, even so the Self
of all is not affected by the miseries of the body, or by any misery that is
around you." I may have some disease and see everything yellow, but the sun
is not affected by it. "He is the One, the Creator of all, the Ruler of all,
the Internal Soul of every being — He who makes His Oneness manifold. Thus
sages who realise Him as the Soul of their souls, unto them belongs eternal
peace; unto none else, unto none else. He who in this world of evanescence
finds Him who never changes, he who in this universe of death finds that One
Life, he who in this manifold finds that Oneness, and all those who realise
Him as the Soul of their souls, to them belongs eternal peace; unto none
else, unto none else. Where to find Him in the external world, where to find
Him in the suns, and moons, and stars? There the sun cannot illumine, nor
the moon, nor the stars, the flash of lightning cannot illumine the place;
what to speak of this mortal fire? He shining, everything else shines. It is
His light that they have borrowed, and He is shining through them." Here is
another beautiful simile. Those of you who have been in India and have seen
how the banyan tree comes from one root and spreads itself far around, will
understand this. He is that banyan tree; He is the root of all and has
branched out until He has become this universe, and however far He extends,
every one of these trunks and branches is connected.
Various heavens are spoken of in the Brâhmana portions of the Vedas, but the
philosophical teaching of the Upanishads gives up the idea of going to
heaven. Happiness is not in this heaven or in that heaven, it is in the
soul; places do not signify anything. Here is another passage which shows
the different states of realisation "In the heaven of the forefathers, as a
man sees things in a dream, so the Real Truth is seen." As in dreams we see
things hazy and not so distinct, so we see the Reality there. There is
another heaven called the Gandharva, in which it is still less clear; as a
man sees his own reflection in the water, so is the Reality seen there. The
highest heaven, of which the Hindus conceive is called the Brahmaloka; and
in this, the Truth is seen much more clearly, like light and shade, but not
yet quite distinctly. But as a man sees his own face in a mirror, perfect,
distinct, and clear, so is the Truth shining in the soul of man. The highest
heaven, therefore, is in our own souls; the greatest temple of worship is
the human soul, greater than all heavens, says the Vedanta; for in no heaven
anywhere, can we understand the reality as distinctly and clearly as in this
life, in our own soul. Changing places does not help one much. I thought
while I was in India that the cave would give me clearer vision. I found it
was not so. Then I thought the forest would do so, then, Varanasi. But the
same difficulty existed everywhere, because we make our own worlds. If I am
evil, the whole world is evil to me. That is what the Upanishad says. And
the same thing applies to all worlds. If I die and go to heaven, I should
find the same, for until I am pure it is no use going to caves, or forests,
or to Varanasi, or to heaven, and if I have polished my mirror, it does not
matter where I live, I get the Reality just as It is. So it is useless,
running hither and thither, and spending energy in vain, which should be
spent only in polishing the mirror. The same idea is expressed again: "None
sees Him, none sees His form with the eyes. It is in the mind, in the pure
mind, that He is seen, and this immortality is gained."
Those who were at the summer lectures on Râja-Yoga will be interested to
know that what was taught then was a different kind of Yoga. The Yoga which
we are now considering consists chiefly in controlling the senses. When the
senses are held as slaves by the human soul, when they can no longer disturb
the mind, then the Yogi has reached the goal. "When all vain desires of the
heart have been given up, then this very mortal becomes immortal, then he
becomes one with God even here. When all the knots of the heart are cut
asunder, then the mortal becomes immortal, and he enjoys Brahman here."
Here, on this earth, nowhere else.
A few words ought to be said here. You will generally hear that this
Vedanta, this philosophy and other Eastern systems, look only to something
beyond, letting go the enjoyments and struggle of this life. This idea is
entirely wrong. It is only ignorant people who do not know anything of
Eastern thought, and never had brain enough to understand anything of its
real teaching, that tell you so. On the contrary, we read in our scriptures
that our philosophers do not want to go to other worlds, but depreciate them
as places where people weep and laugh for a little while only and then die.
As long as we are weak we shall have to go through these experiences; but
whatever is true, is here, and that is the human soul. And this also is
insisted upon, that by committing suicide, we cannot escape the inevitable;
we cannot evade it. But the right path is hard to find. The Hindu is just as
practical as the Western, only we differ in our views of life. The one says,
build a good house, let us have good clothes and food, intellectual culture,
and so on, for this is the whole of life; and in that he is immensely
practical. But the Hindu says, true knowledge of the world means knowledge
of the soul, metaphysics; and he wants to enjoy that life. In America there
was a great agnostic, a very noble man, a very good man, and a very fine
speaker. He lectured on religion, which he said was of no use; why bother
our heads about other worlds? He employed this simile; we have an orange
here, and we want to squeeze all the juice out of it. I met him once and
said, "I agree with you entirely. I have some fruit, and I too want to
squeeze out the juice. Our difference lies in the choice of the fruit. You
want an orange, and I prefer a mango. You think it is enough to live here
and eat and drink and have a little scientific knowledge; but you have no
right to say that that will suit all tastes. Such a conception is nothing to
me. If I had only to learn how an apple falls to the ground, or how an
electric current shakes my nerves, I would commit suicide. I want to
understand the heart of things, the very kernel itself. Your study is the
manifestation of life, mine is the life itself. My philosophy says you must
know that and drive out from your mind all thoughts of heaven and hell and
all other superstitions, even though they exist in the same sense that this
world exists. I must know the heart of this life, its very essence, what it
is, not only how it works and what are its manifestations. I want the why of
everything, I leave the how to children. As one of your countrymen said,
'While I am smoking a cigarette, if I were to write a book, it would be the
science of the cigarette.' It is good and great to be scientific, God bless
them in their search; but when a man says that is all, he is talking
foolishly, not caring to know the raison d'être of life, never studying
existence itself. I may argue that all your knowledge is nonsense, without a
basis. You are studying the manifestations of life, and when I ask you what
life is, you say you do not know. You are welcome to your study, but leave
me to mine."
I am practical, very practical, in my own way. So your idea that only the
West is practical is nonsense. You are practical in one way, and I in
another. There are different types of men and minds. If in the East a man is
told that he will find out the truth by standing on one leg all his life, he
will pursue that method. If in the West men hear that there is a gold mine
somewhere in an uncivilised country, thousands will face the dangers there,
in the hope of getting the gold; and, perhaps, only one succeeds. The same
men have heard that they have souls but are content to leave the care of
them to the church. The first man will not go near the savages, he says it
may be dangerous. But if we tell him that on the top of a high mountain
lives a wonderful sage who can give him knowledge of the soul, he tries to
climb up to him, even if he be killed in the attempt. Both types of men are
practical, but the mistake lies in regarding this world as the whole of
life. Yours is the vanishing point of enjoyment of the senses — there is
nothing permanent in it, it only brings more and more misery — while mine
brings eternal peace.
I do not say your view is wrong, you are welcome to it. Great good and
blessing come out of it, but do not, therefore, condemn my view. Mine also
is practical in its own way. Let us all work on our own plans. Would to God
all of us were equally practical on both sides. I have seen some scientists
who were equally practical, both as scientists and as spiritual men, and it
is my great hope that in course of time the whole of humanity will be
efficient in the same manner. When a kettle of water is coming to the boil,
if you watch the phenomenon, you find first one bubble rising, and then
another and so on, until at last they all join, and a tremendous commotion
takes place. This world is very similar. Each individual is like a bubble,
and the nations, resemble many bubbles. Gradually these nations are joining,
and I am sure the day will come when separation will vanish and that Oneness
to which we are all going will become manifest. A time must come when every
man will be as intensely practical in the scientific world as in the
spiritual, and then that Oneness, the harmony of Oneness, will pervade the
whole world. The whole of mankind will become Jivanmuktas — free whilst
living. We are all struggling towards that one end through our jealousies
and hatreds, through our love and co-operation. A tremendous stream is
flowing towards the ocean carrying us all along with it; and though like
straws and scraps of paper we may at times float aimlessly about, in the
long run we are sure to join the Ocean of Life and Bliss.