Part 3

You must remember that the first manifestation of this Prakriti in the cosmos is what the Sânkhyas called Mahat. We may call it universal intelligence, the great principle; that is the literal meaning. The first manifestation of Prakriti is this intelligence; I would not translate it by self-consciousness, because that would be wrong. Consciousness is only a part of this intelligence, which is universal. It covers all the grounds of consciousness, sub-consciousness and super-consciousness. In Nature, for instance, certain changes are going on before your eyes which you see and understand, but there are other changes so much finer that no human perception can catch them. They are from the same cause, the same Mahat is making these changes. There are other changes, beyond the reach of our mind or reasoning, all this series of changes is in this Mahat. You will understand it better when I come to the individual. Out of this Mahat comes the universal egoism, and these are both material. There is no difference between matter and mind save in degree. It is the same substance in finer or grosser form; one changes into the other, and this will exactly coincide with the modern physiological research, and it will save you from a great deal of fighting and struggling to believe that you have a mind separate from the brain, and all such impossible things. This substance called Mahat changes into the material egoism, the fine state of matter, and that egoism changes into two varieties. In one variety it changes into the organs. Organs are of two kinds--organs of sensation and organs of reaction. They are not the eyes or nose, but something finer, what you call brain centres, and nerve centres. This egoism becomes changed, and out of this material are manufactured these centres and these nerves. Out of the same substance, the egoism, is manufactured a yet finer form, the tanmâtras, fine particles of matter, those for instance which strike your nose and cause you to smell. You cannot perceive these fine particles, you can only know that they are there. These tanmâtras are manufactured out of that egoism, and out of these tanmâtras, or subtle matter, is manufactured the gross matter, air, water, earth, and all the things that we see and feel. I want to impress this on your mind. It is very hard to grasp it, because, in Western countries, the ideas are so queer about mind and matter. It is hard to take these impressions out of our brains. I myself had a tremendous difficulty, being educated in Western philosophy in my childhood. These are all cosmic things. Think of this universal extension of matter, unbroken, one substance, undifferentiated, which is the first state of everything, and which begins to change just as milk becomes curd, and it is changed into another substance called Mahat, which in one state manifests as intelligence and in another state as egoism. It is the same substance, and it changes into the grosser matter called egoism; thus is the whole universe itself built, as it were, layer after layer; first undifferentiated Nature (Avyaktam), and that changes into universal intelligence (Mahat), and that again is changed into universal egoism (Ahamkâra), and that changes into universal sensible matter. That matter changes into universal sense-organs, again changes into universal fine particles, and these in turn combine and become this gross universe. This is the cosmic plan, according to the Sânkhyas, and what is in the cosmos or macrocosm, must be in the individual or microcosm.

Take an individual man. He has first a part of undifferentiated nature in him, and that material nature in him becomes changed into mahat, a small particle of the universal intelligence, and that small particle of the universal intelligence in him becomes changed into egoism--a particle of the universal egoism. This egoism in turn becomes changed into the sense-organs, and out of these sense-organs come the tanmâtras, and out of them he combines and manufactures his world, as a body. I want this to be clear, because it is the first stepping stone to Vedânta, and it is absolutely necessary for you to know, because this is the philosophy of the whole world. There is no philosophy in the world that is not indebted to Kapila, the founder of this Sânkhya system. Pythagoras came to India and studied his philosophy and carried some of these ideas to the Greeks. Later it formed the Alexandrian school, and still later formed the basis of Gnostic philosophy. It became divided into two parts; one went to Europe and Alexandria, and the other remained in India, and became the basis of all Hindu philosophy, for out of it the system of Vyâsa was developed. This was the first rational system that the world saw, this system of Kapila. Every metaphysician in the world must pay homage to him. I want to impress on your mind that as the great father of philosophy, we are bound to listen to him, and respect what he said. This wonderful man, most ancient of philosophers, is mentioned even in the Vedas. How wonderful his perceptions were! If there is any proof required of the power of the Yogis to perceive things beyond the range of the ordinary senses, such men are the proofs. How could they perceive them? They had no microscopes, or telescopes. How fine their perception was, how perfect their analysis and how wonderful!

To revert again to the microcosm, man. As we have seen, he is built on exactly the same plan. First the nature is “indiscrete” or perfectly balanced, then it becomes disturbed, and action sets in and the first change produced by that action is what is called mahat,--intelligence. Now you see this intelligence in man is just a particle of the cosmic intelligence,--the Mahat. Out of it comes self-consciousness, and from this the sensory and the motor nerves, and the finer particles out of which the gross body is manufactured. I will here remark that there is one difference between Schopenhauer and Vedânta. Schopenhauer says the desire, or will, is the cause of everything. It is the will to exist that makes us manifest, but the Advaitists deny this. They say it is the intelligence. There cannot be a single particle of will which is not a reaction. So many things are beyond will. It is only a manufactured something out of the ego, and the ego is a product of something still higher, the intelligence, and that is a modification of “indiscrete” Nature, or Prakriti.

It is very important to understand this mahat in man,--the intelligence. This intelligence itself is modified into what we call egoism, and this intelligence is the cause of all these motions in the body. This covers all the grounds of sub-consciousness, consciousness and super-consciousness. What are these three states? The sub-conscious state we find in animals, what we call instinct. This is nearly infallible, but very limited. Instinct almost never fails. An animal instinctively knows a poisonous herb from an edible one, but its instinct is limited to one or two things; it works like a machine. Then comes the higher state of knowledge, which is fallible, makes mistakes often, but has a larger scope, although it is slow, and this you call reason. It is much larger than instinct, but there are more dangers of mistake in reasoning than in instinct. There is a still higher state of the mind, the super-conscious, which belongs only to the Yogis, men who have cultivated it. This is as infallible as instinct, and still more unlimited than reason. It is the highest state. We must remember that in man this mahat is the real cause of all that is here, that which is manifesting itself in various ways, covers the whole ground of sub-conscious, conscious and super-conscious states, the three states in which knowledge exists. So in the Cosmos, this universal Intelligence, Mahat, exists as instinct, as reason, and as super-reason.

Now comes a delicate question, which is always being asked. If a perfect God created the universe, why is there imperfection in it? What we call the universe is what we see, and that is only this little plane of consciousness or reason, and beyond that we do not see at all. Now the very question is an impossible one. If I take up only a bit out of a mass and look at it, it seems to be imperfect. Naturally. The universe seems imperfect because we make it so. How? What is reason? What is knowledge? Knowledge is finding associations. You go into the street and see a man, and know it is a man. You have seen many men, and each one has made an impression on your mind, and when you now see this man, you calmly refer to your store of impressions, see many pictures of men there, and you put this new one with the rest, pigeon-hole it and are satisfied. When a new impression comes and it has associations in your mind, you are satisfied, and this state of association is called knowledge. Knowledge is, therefore, pigeon-holing one experience with the already existing fund of experience, and this is one of the great proofs that you cannot have any knowledge until you have already a fund in existence. If you are without experience, or if, as some European philosophers think, the mind is a tabula rasa, it cannot get any knowledge, because the very fact of knowledge is the recognition of the new by comparison with already existing impressions. There must be a store ready to which to refer a new impression. Suppose a child is born into this world without such a fund, it would be impossible for him to get any knowledge. Therefore the child must have been in a state in which he had a fund, and so knowledge is eternally going on. Show me any way of getting out of this. It is mathematical experience. This is very much like the Spencerian and other philosophies. They have seen so far that there cannot be any knowledge without a fund of past knowledge. They have drawn out the idea that the child is born with knowledge. They say that the cause has entered the effect. It comes in a subtle form in order to be developed. These philosophers say that these impressions with which the child comes, are not from the child’s own past, but were in his forefathers’; that it is hereditary transmission. Very soon they are going to find this theory untenable, and some of them are now giving hard blows to these ideas of heredity. Heredity is very good, but incomplete. It only explains the physical side. How do you explain the influence of environment? Many causes produce one effect. Environment is one of the modifying causes. On the other hand we in turn make our own environment, because as our past was, so we find our present. In other words, we are what we are here and now, because of what we have been in the past.

You understand what is meant by knowledge. Knowledge is pigeon-holing a new impression with old impressions--recognizing a new impression. What is meant by recognition? Finding its association with the similar impressions that we already have. Nothing further is meant by knowledge. If that be the case, it must be that we have to see the whole series of similars. Is it not? Suppose you take a pebble; to find the association, you have to see the whole series of pebbles similar to it. But with the universe we cannot do that, because in our reasoning we can only go after one perception of our universe, and neither see on this side nor on that side, and we cannot refer it to its association. Therefore the universe seems unintelligible, because knowledge and reason are always finding associations. This bit of the universe cut off by our consciousness is a startling new thing, and we have not been able to find its associations. Therefore we are struggling with it, and thinking it is so horrible, so wicked, and bad;--sometimes we think it is good, but generally we think it is imperfect. The universe will be known only when we find the associations. We shall recognize them when we go beyond the universe and consciousness, and then the universe will stand explained. Until we do that all our fruitless striving will never explain the universe, because knowledge is the finding of similars, and this conscious plane gives us only a partial view. So with our idea of the universal Mahat, or what in our ordinary everyday language we call God. All that we have of God is only one perception, just as of the universe we see only one portion, and all the rest is cut off and covered by our human limitation. “I, the Universal, so great am I that even this universe is a part of me.” That is why we see God as imperfect, and we can never understand Him, because it is impossible. The only way to understand is to go beyond reason, beyond consciousness. “When thou goest beyond the heard and hearing, the thought and thinking, then alone wilt thou come to truth.” (Bhagavad Gita II. 52.) “Go thou beyond the Scriptures, because they teach only up to Nature, up to the three qualities.” (Gita II. 45.) When we go beyond them we find the harmony, not before.

So far it is clear that this macrocosm and microcosm are built on exactly the same plan, and in this microcosm we know only one very small part. We know neither the sub-conscious, nor the super-conscious. We know only the conscious. If a man says “I am a sinner,” he is foolish, because he does not know himself. He is the most ignorant of men about himself; one part only he knows, because the fact of knowledge covers only one part of the “mind-ground” he is in. So with this universe; it is possible to know only one part through reasoning, but Nature comprises the whole of it, the sub-conscious, the conscious and the super-conscious, the individual mahat and the universal Mahat with all their subsequent modifications, and these lie beyond reason.

What makes nature change? We see that Up to this point everything, all Prakriti, is jadâ (insentient). It is working under law; it is all compound and insentient. Mind, intelligence, and will, all are insentient. But they are all reflecting the sentiency, the Chit (Intelligence) of some Being who is beyond all this, and whom the Sânkhya philosophers call Purusha. This Purusha is the unwitting cause of all these changes in Nature--in the universe. That is to say, this Purusha, taking Him in the universal sense, is the God of the universe. It is claimed that the will of the Lord created the universe. This is very good as a common daily expression, but that is all. How could it be will? Will is the third or fourth manifestation in Nature. Many things exist before it, and what created them? Will is a compound, and everything that is a compound is a production out of Nature. Will itself cannot create Nature. It is not a simple. So to say that the will of the Lord created the universe is illogical. Our will only covers a little portion of self-consciousness, and moves our brain, they say. If it did you could stop the action of the brain, but you cannot. It is not the will. Who moves the heart? It is not the will, because if it were you could stop it or not at your will. It is neither will that is working your body, nor that is working the universe. But it is something of which will itself is one of the manifestations. This body is being moved by the power of which will is only a manifestation in one part. So in the universe there is will, but that is only one part of the universe. The whole of the universe is not guided by will, that is why we do not find the explanation in will. Suppose I take it for granted that the will is moving the body, and then I begin to fret and fume. It is my fault, because I had no right to take it for granted that it was will. In the same way, if I take the universe and think it is will that moves it and then find things that do not coincide, it is my fault. This Purusha is not will, neither can it be intelligence, because intelligence itself is a compound. There cannot be any intelligence without some sort of matter. In man, this matter takes the form which we call brain. Wherever there is intelligence there must be matter in some form or other. But that intelligence itself is a compound. What then is this Purusha? It is neither intelligence nor buddhi (will), but yet it is the cause of both these; it is His presence that sets them all vibrating and combining. Purusha may be likened to some of these substances which by their mere presence promote chemical reaction, as in the case of cyanide of potassium which is added when gold is being smelted. The cyanide of potassium remains separate and unaffected, but its presence is absolutely necessary to the success of the process. So with the Purusha. It does not mix with Nature: it is not Intelligence, or Mahat, or any one of these, but the Self, the Pure, the Perfect. “I am the Witness, and through My witnessing, Nature is producing all that is sentient and all that is insentient.” (Gita IX. 10.)

What is this sentiency in Nature? The basis of sentiency is in the Purusha, is the nature of the Purusha. It is that which cannot be spoken, but which is the material of all that we call knowledge. This Purusha is not consciousness, because consciousness is a compound, but whatever is light and goodness in this consciousness belongs to It. Sentiency is in the Purusha, but the Purusha is not intelligent, not knowing, it is knowledge itself. The Chit in the Purusha, plus Prakriti, is what is known to us as intelligence and consciousness. Whatever is pleasure and happiness and light in the universe belongs to the Purusha, but it is a compound because it is that Purusha plus Nature. “Wherever there is any happiness, wherever there is any bliss, there is one spark of that immortality, which is Purusha.” This Purusha is the great attraction of the universe, untouched by, and unconnected with the universe, yet it attracts the whole universe. You see a man going after gold, because therein is a spark of the Purusha, even though he knows it not. When a man desires children, or a woman a husband, what is the attracting power? That spark of Purusha behind the child or wife, behind everything. It is there, only overlaid with matter. Nothing else can attract. “In this world of insentiency that Purusha alone is sentient.” This is the Purusha of the Sânkhyas. As such it necessarily follows that this Purusha must be omnipresent. That which is not omnipresent must be limited. All limitations are caused; that which is caused must have beginning and end. If the Purusha is limited it will die, will not be final, will not be free, but will have been caused. Therefore if not limited, it is omnipresent. According to Kapila there are many Purushas, not one. An infinite number of them, you are one, I am one, each is one; an infinite number of circles, each one infinite, running through this universe. The Purusha is neither born nor dies. It is neither mind nor matter, and the reflex from it is all that we know. We are sure if it be omnipresent it knows neither death nor birth. Nature is casting her shadow upon it, the shadow of birth and death, but it is by its own nature eternal. So far we have found the theory of Kapila wonderful.

Next we will have to take up the proofs against it. So far the analysis is perfect, the psychology cannot be controverted. There is no objection to it. We will ask of Kapila the question: Who created Nature? and his answer will be that Nature (Prakriti) is uncreate. He also says that the Purusha is omnipresent and that of these Purushas there is an infinite number. We shall have to controvert this last proposition, and find a better solution, and by so doing we shall come to the ground taken by Vedânta. Our first doubt will be how there can be these two infinites. Then our argument will be that it is not a perfect generalization, and that therefore we have not found a perfect solution. And then we shall see how the Vedantists find their way out of all these difficulties and reach a perfect solution. Yet all the glory really belongs to Kapila. It is very easy to give a finish to a building that is nearly complete.

III

SÂNKHYA AND ADVAITA

I will give you first a resumé of the Sânkhya philosophy, through which we have been going, because in this lecture we want to find where its defects are, and where Vedânta comes in as supplementary to these defects. You must remember that according to the Sânkhya philosophy, Nature is causing all these manifestations which we call thought and intellect, reason, love, hatred, touch, taste; that everything is from Nature. This Nature consists of three sorts of elements, one called Sattva, another Rajas, and the third Tamas. These are not qualities, but the materials out of which the whole universe is being evolved, and at the beginning of a cycle they remain in equilibrium. When creation comes this equilibrium is disturbed and these elements begin to combine and recombine, and manifest as the universe. The first manifestation of this is what the Sânkhya calls the Mahat (universal Intelligence), and out of that comes consciousness. And out of consciousness is evolved Manas (universal Mind). Out of this consciousness are also evolved the organs of the senses, and the tanmâtras,--sound particles, touch particles, taste particles, and so forth. All fine particles are evolved from this consciousness, and out of these fine particles come the gross particles which we call matter. After the tanmâtras (those particles which cannot be seen, or measured) come the gross particles which we can feel and sense. The chitta (“mind-stuff”) in its three-fold functions of intellect, consciousness and mind, is working and manufacturing the forces called prânas. These prânas have nothing to do with breath, you must at once get rid of that idea. Breath is one effect of the Prâna (universal Energy). By these prânas are meant the nervous forces that are governing and moving the whole body, which are manifesting themselves as thought, and as the various functions of the body. The foremost and the most obvious manifestation of these prânas is the breathing motion. If it were caused by air, a dead man would breathe. The prâna acts upon the air, and not air upon it. These prânas are the vital forces which manipulate the whole body, and they in turn are manipulated by the mind and the indriyas (the two kinds of organs). So far so good. The psychology is very clear and most precise, and just think of the age of it, the oldest rational thought in the world! Wherever there is any philosophy or rational thought, it owes something to Kapila. Wherever there is any attempt at psychology, or philosophy, there is some indebtedness to the great father of this thought, to this man Kapila.

So far we see that this psychology is wonderful, but we shall have to differ with it on some points, as we go on. We find that the principal idea on which Kapila works is evolution. He makes one thing evolve out of another, because his very definition of causation is “the effect is the cause reproduced in another form,” and because the whole universe, so far as we see it, is progressive and evolving. This whole universe must have evolved out of some material, out of Prakriti or Nature. Therefore this Nature cannot be essentially different from its cause, only when it takes form it becomes limited. The material itself is without form. But according to Kapila, from undifferentiated nature down to the last stage of differentiation, none of these is the same as Purusha, the “Enjoyer,” or “Enlightener.” Just as a lump of clay, so is a mass of mind, or the whole universe. By itself it has no light, but we find reason and intelligence in it, therefore there must be some Existence behind it, behind the whole of Nature, whose light is percolating through it and appearing as Mahat and consciousness and all these various things, and this Existence is what Kapila calls the Purusha, the Âtman or Self of the Vedantist. According to Kapila, the Purusha is a simple factor, not a compound. It is immaterial, the only one that is immaterial, whereas all the various manifestations are material. The Purusha alone knows. Suppose I see a blackboard, first the external instruments will bring that sensation to the organ (to the indriya according to Kapila), from the organ it will go to the mind and make an impression; the mind will cover it up with another factor,--consciousness, and will present it to the buddhi (intelligence), but buddhi cannot act; it is the Purusha behind that acts. These are all its servants, bringing the sensation to It, and It gives the orders, and the buddhi reacts. The Purusha is the Enjoyer, the Perceiver, the real One, the King on his throne, the Self of man, and It is immaterial. Because It is immaterial, it necessarily follows that It must be infinite, It cannot have any limitation whatever. So each one of these purushas is omnipresent, each is all-pervading, but can act only through fine and gross manifestations of matter. The mind, the self-consciousness, the organs and the vital forces compose what is called the fine body, or what in Christian philosophy is called the “spiritual body” of man. It is this body that comes to reward or punishment, that goes to the different heavens; that incarnates and reincarnates; because we see from the very beginning that the going and coming of the soul (Purusha) is impossible. Motion means going and coming, and that which goes from one place to another cannot be omnipresent. It is this linga-sarira (subtle body) which comes and goes. Thus far we see from Kapila’s psychology that the soul is infinite, and that the soul is the only principle that is not an evolution of Nature. It is the only one that is outside of Nature, but It has apparently got bound by Nature. This Nature is around the Purusha and It has identified Itself with Nature. It thinks “I am the linga-sarira,” It thinks “I am the gross matter, the gross body,” and as such is enjoying pleasure and pain; but these do not really belong to the soul, they belong to this linga-sarira, and to the gross body. When certain nerves are hurt we feel pain. We recognize that immediately. If the nerves in our fingers were dead we could cut the fingers and not feel it. So pleasure and pain belong to the nerve-centres. Suppose my organ of sight is destroyed, I do not feel pleasure or pain from color, although my eyes are there. So it is obvious that pleasure and pain do not belong to the soul. They belong to the mind and the body.

The soul has neither pleasure nor pain; it is the Witness of everything, the eternal Witness of things that are going on, but it takes no fruits from any work. “As the sun is the cause of sight in every eye, yet is not itself affected by the defects in any eye; as a piece of crystal appears red when red flowers are placed before it, so this Purusha appears to be affected by pleasure or pain from the reflection cast upon It by Nature, but it remains ever unchanged.” The nearest way to describe Its state is that it is meditation. This meditative state is that in which you approach nearest to the Purusha. Thus we see why the meditative state is always called the highest state by the Yogi, neither a passive nor an active state, but the meditative state. This is the Sânkhya philosophy.

Next, the Sânkhyas say that this manifestation of Nature is for the soul, all the combinations are for something outside of Nature. So these combinations which we call Nature, these constant changes are going on for the enjoyment of the soul, for its liberation, that it may gain all this experience from the lowest to the highest, and when it has gained it, the soul finds that it never was in Nature. It was entirely separate, and it finds that it is indestructible, that it neither goes nor comes, that going to heaven and being born again were in Nature and not in the soul. So the soul becomes free. All of Nature is working for the enjoyment and experience of the soul. It is getting this experience in order to reach the goal, and that goal is freedom. These souls are many, according to the Sânkhya philosophy. There is an infinite number of souls. And the other conclusion is that there is no God, as the Creator of the universe. Nature herself is sufficient to produce all these forms. God is not necessary, say the Sânkhyas.

Now we shall have to contest these three positions of the Sânkhyas. First that intelligence or anything of that sort does not belong to the soul, but that it belongs entirely to Nature; the soul being simply qualitiless, colorless. The second point is that there is no God, but Vedânta will show that without a God there cannot be any explanation whatever. Thirdly, we shall have to contend that there cannot be many souls, that there cannot be an infinite number, that there is only One Soul in the universe, and that One is appearing as many.

We will take the first proposition, that intelligence and reason belong entirely to Nature, and not to the soul. The Vedânta says that the soul is in its essence Existence-Knowledge-Bliss; but we agree with the Sânkhyas that all that they call intelligence is a compound. For instance, let us look at our perceptions. We remember that the chitta (or the “mind-stuff”) is what is combining all these things, and upon which all these impressions are made, and from which reactions come. Suppose there is something outside. I see the blackboard. How does the knowledge come? The blackboard itself is unknown, I can never know it. It is what the German philosophers call the “thing in itself.” That blackboard, that “X,” is acting on my mind, and the chitta reacts. The chitta is like a lake; throw a stone upon it, and as soon as the stone strikes it a reactionary wave comes towards the stone. This wave is what you really know. And this wave is not like the stone at all, it is a wave. So that blackboard, “X,” is the stone which strikes the mind and the mind throws up a wave towards that object which strikes it, and this wave which is thrown towards it is what we call the blackboard. I see you. You as reality are unknown and unknowable. You are “X” and you act upon my mind, and the mind throws a wave towards the point from which the action came, and that wave is what I call Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So.

There are two elements in this, one from inside and the other from outside, and the combination of these two, “X” plus mind, is our external universe. All knowledge is by reaction. In the case of a whale it has been determined by calculation how long after its tail is struck, its mind reacts upon the tail and the tail feels the pain. Take the case of the pearl oyster, in which the pearl is formed by the oyster throwing its own juice around the grain of sand that enters the shell and irritates him. There are two things which cause the pearl. First the oyster’s own juice, and second the blow from outside. So this table is “X” plus my mind. The very attempt to know it will be made by the mind; therefore the mind will give some of its own substance to enable it to understand, and when we understand it, it has become a compound thing,--“X” plus the mind. Similarly in internal perception; when we want to know ourselves. The real Self, which is within us, is also unknown and unknowable. Let us call it “Y.” When I want to know myself as Mr. So-and-So it is “Y” plus the mind. That “Y” strikes a blow on the mind, and when I want to know myself I must throw a blow upon the mind also. So our whole world is “X” plus mind (the external world), and “Y” plus mind (the internal world). We shall see later how this Advaitist idea can be demonstrated mathematically.

“X” and “Y” are simply the algebraic unknown quantities. We have seen that all knowledge is a combination, and this world, the universe, is a combination, and intelligence is similarly a combination. If it is internal intelligence it is “Y” plus the mind, if an external object, it is “X” plus the mind. Knowledge is a combination of “Y” plus the mind and matter is a combination of “X” plus the mind. We first take the internal group. Intelligence which we see in Nature cannot be wholly in Nature, because intelligence itself is a compound of “Y” plus the mind. “Y” comes from the Self. So the intelligence that we know is a compound of the power of the light of the soul plus nature. Similarly, the existence which we know must be a compound of “X” plus the mind. We find therefore that in these three factors, I exist, I know and I am blessed, the idea that I have no want, which comes from time to time, is the central idea, the grand basic idea of our life, and when it becomes limited, and becomes a compound, we think it happiness and misery. These factors manifest as existence phenomenal, knowledge phenomenal, and love phenomenal. Every man exists, and every man must know, and every man is made for bliss. He cannot help it. So through all existence; animals and plants, from the lowest to the highest existence, all must love. You may not call it love; but they must all exist, must all know and must all love. So this existence which we know is a compound of “X” and the mind, and knowledge also is a compound of that “Y” inside plus mind, and that love also is a compound of that “Y” and mind. Therefore these three factors which come from inside and are combining themselves with the external things to manufacture phenomenal existence, knowledge and love, are called by the Vedantists “Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute.”

That Absolute Existence which is limitless, which is unmixed, uncombined, which knows no change, is the free soul, and that Real Existence, when it gets mixed up, muddled up, as it were, with the elements of Nature is what we call human existence. It is limited and manifests as plant life, animal life, human life, just as infinite space is apparently limited by the walls of this room, or by any other enclosure. That Knowledge Absolute means not the knowledge we know, not intelligence, not reason, not instinct, but that which when it becomes manifested we call by these names. When that Knowledge Absolute becomes limited we call it intuition, and when it becomes still more limited we call it reason, instinct, etc. That Knowledge Absolute is Vijnâna. The nearest translation of it is “all-knowingness.” There is no combination in it. It is the nature of the soul. That Bliss Absolute when it becomes limited we call love, attraction for the gross body, or the fine bodies, or for ideas. These are but distorted manifestations of this blessedness which is not a quality of the soul, but the essence, the inherent nature of the soul. Absolute Existence, Absolute Knowledge, and Absolute Blessedness are not qualities of the soul, but its essence; there is no difference between them and the soul. And the three are one; we see the one thing in three different lights. They are beyond all knowledge and by their reflection Nature appears to be intelligent.

It is that eternal Knowledge Absolute of the Self percolating through the mind of man that becomes our reason and intelligence. It varies according to the medium through which it is shining. There is no difference as soul between me and the lowest animal, only his brain is a poorer medium through which the knowledge shines, and we call it instinct. In man the brain is much finer, so the manifestation is much clearer, and in the highest man it has become entirely clear, like a piece of glass. So with existence; this existence which we know, this limited bit of existence is simply a reflection of that Existence Absolute which is the nature of the soul. So with bliss; that which we call love or attraction is but the reflection of the eternal blessedness of the Self, because with these manifestations come limitations, but the unmanifested, the natural, essential existence of the soul is unlimited, to that blessedness there can be no limit. But in human love there are limitations. I may love you one day, I may cease to love you the next. My love increases one day, decreases the next, because it is only a limited manifestation. The first thing therefore that we find against Kapila is that he conceives the soul to be a mere qualitiless, colorless, inactive something. Vedânta teaches that it is the essence of all Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss; infinitely higher than all knowledge that we know, infinitely more blessed than any human love that we can think of, infinitely existing. The soul never dies. Death and birth are simply unthinkable in connection with the Self, because it is Existence Absolute.

The second point where we will contend with Kapila is with regard to his idea of God. Just as this series of limited manifestations of Nature, beginning with the individual intellect and ending with the individual body, requires the Self behind as the ruler and governor on the throne, so in the Cosmos, we must enquire what the universal Intelligence, the universal Mind, the universal fine and gross materials have as their ruler and governor? How will that series become complete without one universal Self behind it as its ruler and governor? If we deny that there is a universal governor, we must deny there is a soul behind the lesser series, because the whole universe is a repetition of the same plan. When we know one lump of clay we know the nature of all clay. If we can analyze one human being, we shall have analyzed the whole universe, because it is all built on the same plan. Therefore if it be true that behind this individual series there stands one who is beyond all nature, who is not composed of materials, the purusha, the very same logic will apply to this universe, and this universe too will require such a Soul. The Universal Soul which is behind the modifications of Nature is called by Vedânta Isvara, the Supreme Ruler, God.

Now comes the more difficult point to fight. There can be but one Soul. To begin with, we can give the Sânkhyas a good blow by taking up their theories and proving that each soul must be omnipresent, because it is not composed of anything. Everything that is limited must be limited by something else. Here is the existence of the table. Its existence is circumscribed by many things, and we find that every limitation presupposes some limiting thing. If we think of space, we have to think of it as a little circle, but beyond that is more space. We cannot imagine a limited space in any other way. It can only be understood and perceived through the infinite. To perceive the finite, in every case we must apprehend the infinite; both stand or fall together. When you think of time, you have also to think of time beyond any particular period of time. The latter is limited time and the larger is unlimited time. Wherever you endeavor to perceive the finite, you will find it impossible to separate it from the infinite. If this be the case, we shall prove thereby that this Self must be infinite, omnipresent. Then comes a fine question. Can the omnipresent, the infinite be two? Suppose there are two infinites, one will limit the other. Suppose there are two infinites,--A and B; the infinite “A” limits the infinite “B,” because the infinite “B” you can say is not the infinite “A,” and the infinite “A” it can be said is not the infinite “B.” Therefore there can be but one infinite. Secondly, the infinite cannot be divided. Infinity divided into any number of parts must still be infinity, for it cannot be separated from itself. Suppose there is an infinite ocean of water, could you take up one drop from there? If you could, that ocean would no longer be infinite, that drop would limit it. The infinite cannot be divided by any means.

But there are stronger proofs that the Self is One. Not only so, but that the whole universe is one. We will once more take up our “X” and “Y”. We have shown how what we call the external world is “X” plus mind, and the internal world “Y” plus mind. “X” and “Y” are both unknown quantities, unknown and unknowable. What is the mind? The mind is the “time, space and causation.” This idea is the nature of the mind. You can never think without time, you can never conceive of anything without space, and you can never imagine anything without causation. These three are the forms in which both “X” and “Y” are caught, and which become the mind. Beyond that there is nothing to the mind. Take off these three forms which of themselves do not exist,--what remains? It is all one; “X” and “Y” are one. It is only this mind, this form, that has limited them apparently, and made them differ as internal and external world. “X” and “Y” are both unknown and unknowable. We cannot attribute any quality to them. As such they are both the same. That which is qualitiless and attributeless and absolute must be one. There cannot be two absolutes. When there are no qualities there can be only One. “X” and “Y” are both without qualities because they take qualities only in the mind, therefore this “X” and “Y” are one.

The whole universe is One. There is only One Self in the universe, only One Existence, and that One Existence, when it is passing through the forms of time, space and causation, is called buddhi, fine matter, gross matter, etc. All physical and mental forms, everything in the universe is that One, appearing in various ways. When a little bit of it gets into this network of time, space and causation, it apparently takes forms; remove the network and it is all One. This whole universe is all one, and is called in the Advaitist philosophy Brahman. Brahman appearing behind the universe is called God; appearing behind the little universe--the microcosm, is the soul. This very “Self” or Âtman therefore is God in man. There is only one Purusha, and He is called God, and when God and man are analyzed they are one. The universe is you yourself, the unbroken you; you are throughout this universe. “In all hands you work, through all mouths you eat, through all nostrils you breathe, through all minds you think.” The whole universe is you; this universe is your body; you are the universe, both formed and unformed. You are the soul of the universe, its body also. You are God, you are the angels, you are man, you are the animals, you are the plants, you are the minerals, you are everything; all manifestation is you. Whatever exists is you--the real “You”--the one undivided Self--not the little, limited personality that you have been regarding as yourself.

The question now arises,--how have you, that Infinite Being, broken into parts, become Mr. So-and-So, and the animals and so on? The answer is that all this division is only apparent. We know that the infinite cannot be divided, therefore this idea that you are a part has no reality, and never will have: and this idea that you are Mr. So-and-So was never true at any time; it is but a dream. Know this and be free. That is the Advaitist conclusion. “I am neither the mind, nor the body, nor am I the organs; I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute; I am He, I am He,” This is knowledge, and everything besides this is ignorance. Everything that is, is but ignorance, the result of ignorance. Where is knowledge for me, for I am knowledge itself! Where is life for me, for I am life itself! Life is a secondary manifestation of my nature. I am sure I live, for I am life, the one Being, and nothing exists except through me, and in me, and as me. I am manifested through elements, but I am the one free. Who seeks freedom? Nobody seeks freedom. If you think that you are bound, you remain bound; you make your own bondage. If you realize that you are free, you are free this moment. This is knowledge, knowledge of freedom. Freedom is the goal of all Nature.

THE FREE SOUL