Fundamental Principles of Vedanta
Written By Swami Tathagatananda
“Consciousness of the Beyond is the raw material of all religion.” Religion is singular in essence and diverse in manifestation. Every religion may be likened to one pearl strung with others on a necklace whose common cord is the universal soul of each of those religions. Vedanta is concerned with timeless truth and upholds the view that no religion has a monopoly on truth or revelation. Its fundamental teachings include: (1) the impersonality and universality of Supreme Truth; (2) the divinity of the soul; (3) the unity of existence, or the oneness of matter and energy, or the ultimate oneness of God, man and nature; (4) the harmony of religions; (5) the immanence and transcendence of God who is both the material and the efficient cause of the universe; and (6) Mukti or total freedom from bondage, i.e., spiritual union with the divine during one’s lifetime. Because these are the eternal teachings of Vedanta, Vedanta is also referred to as the “Eternal Religion” or Sanatana Dharma.
(1) IMPERSONALITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF SUPREME TRUTH
BRAHMAN
The Reality in Hindu tradition is known as Brahman, an entity whose greatness, power and expansion none can measure. Shankara says:
That omniscient and omnipotent source must be Brahman from which occur the birth, continuance and dissolution of this universe that is manifested through name and form, that is associated with diverse agents and experiences, that provides the support for actions and results, having well-regulated space, time and causation, and that deifies all thoughts about the real nature of its creation. (Brahma Sutra, I. 1 2)
Brahman is characterized by Satchidananda—sat, chit, and ananda, self-Existence, self Awareness, and intrinsic Bliss. In the world we find these three properties of existence (asti), visibility (bhati) and joy (priyam):
The Vedantic formulation of the ultimate Reality as Satchidananda satisfies both the philosophic (or intellectual) and religious (or emotional) instincts in man. Our intellect requires that the ultimately Real, the Absolute, must be the permanent among changes (sat), and self-luminous and spiritual among the material objects (chit)—otherwise the intellect refuses to recognize it as the ultimately Real. On the other hand, our heart demands that ultimate Reality must be a God of Love, of ananda, and not a cold and callous being. And, all these diverse demands—philosophic and religious—are admirably met with in the single designation of the ultimately Real as Satchidananda, in which the voices of both reason and heart find satisfaction. Herein lies the greatness of the ancient seers and prophets of old, as well as the great utility of the study of the Vedanta as a key to the nature of the ultimately Real, to grasp which, in the best possible way, has been the aim of mankind all along, generation after generation. (Dr. Roma Chaudhuri, “The Vedantic Conception of Brahman,” The Bases of Indian Culture: Commemoration Volume of Swami Abhedananda, p. 176)
Brahman is undifferentiated: Brahman is neither self-conscious nor self-thinking, nor conscious of any objects. That is, there is no distinction between Brahman and its states —Brahman is undistinguishable from its attributes. Brahman is Supreme Consciousness itself:
. . . the fact is that Brahman is consciousness, and not that it has consciousness. It is pure, undifferentiated consciousness or mere awareness, the supreme principle in which there is no differentiation of knower, knowledge, and known. It is absolute intelligence whose essential nature is self-luminosity. As Shankara says, “The Atman is throughout nothing but intelligence. Intelligence is its essential nature, as the salt-taste is of the lump of salt.” (Ibid, p. 166)
Nirguna Brahman is experienced in deep Samadhi, when subject and object coalesce. The same non-dual Brahman, projecting the cosmos through maya-shakti, is known as Saguna Brahman. The Absolute appears as the Personal God, as souls, and as the world. The individual soul (jiva), the world of experience (jagat), and their Supreme Ruler (Isvara) are the three main categories of the universe. Hinduism recognizes the simultaneous existence of God, the universe and creatures. Not one of these can exist without the other two. This is a most valuable understanding.
From the Vedic period, shakti has been regarded as the Divine Mother, as all creation owes its existence to a mother. Shri Ramakrishna worshipped maya as the Divine Mother with deep reverence. He also exhorted his devotees to regard the inscrutable manifesting power of maya as the Divine Mother. This universe has emerged from and is sustained by shakti. Shakti was contemplated as Divine Mother by Shri Ramakrishna. He saw the Mother in every woman. Swami Vivekanda says:
Shri Ramakrishna meant by worshipping woman, that to him every woman’s face was that of the Blissful Mother, and nothing but that. I myself have seen this man standing before those women whom society would not touch, and falling at their feet bathed in
tears, saying, “Mother in one form Thou art in the street, and in another form Thou art the universe. I salute Thee, Mother, I salute Thee.” Think of the blessedness of that life from which all carnality has vanished, which can look upon every woman with that love and reverence when every woman’s face becomes transfigured, and only the face of the Divine Mother, the Blissful One, the Protectress of the human race, shines upon it! That is what we want. Do you mean to say that the divinity back of a woman can ever be cheated? It never was and never will be. It always asserts itself. Unfailingly it detects fraud, it detects hypocrisy, unerringly it feels the warmth of truth, the light of spirituality, the holiness of purity. Such purity is absolutely necessary if real spirituality is to be attained. (C. W., IV: 176)
MAYA, LIMITING ADJUNCT OF BRAHMAN
No one can ever understand maya, the inscrutable creative power of Brahman. Maya is part of the essence of Brahman—Brahman and Its creative power are one.Brahman without Its power of maya is static; Brahman with Its power of maya is dynamic. Both aspects constitute the totality of Brahman. Brahman as pure intelligence is the efficient cause of the universe; Its maya is the material cause. Brahman alone is real; the world is empirical. Professor M. Hiriyanna expresses it beautifully:
. . . the unity of the Absolute of Brahman may be compared to the unity of a painting, say, of a landscape. Looked at as a landscape, it is a plurality: hill, valley, lake and streams. But its ground, the substance of which it is constituted is one, viz., the canvas. It is rarely that analogies in philosophy admit of extension, but this one does, in one particular. The canvas appears not only as hill, a valley and a stream but also as the garment of the shepherd that may be figured upon it. Similarly, the Absolute which is of the essence of sentience, manifests itself not only as insentient objects but also as sentient subjects. (Quote from Intro. to Vedanta, p. 129)
The Absolute appears as the relative through its inherent power of maya (devatma shakti). The devatma-shakti of Brahman is the cause of the universe and is not independent of Brahman—it is of the divine nature of Brahman.
Even Western scholars are extremely puzzled by this mysterious element of life. Alfred North Whitehead observed, “All effort of human thought only dimly perceives, misdescribes [sic] and wrongly associates things.” Bertrand Russell concluded his book, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Its Limits with a similar idea: “All human knowledge is uncertain, inexact and partial. To this doctrine we have not found any limitation whatever. It is only an examined life that leaves no wonder to us. A completely rational explanation of the world is not within the scope of man’s intellect.” Whitehead additionally observed, “It is no doubt true that curiosity is the craving of reason that the facts discriminated in experience be understood. It means the refusal to be satisfied with the bare welter of facts.”
We are all bound by maya. This is due to ignorance: the inability to see the One behind the many (avidya-maya). Through the power of maya, the phenomenal universe is made up of the three gunas: sattva (wisdom), rajas (restless activity), and tamas (inertia). These in turn give rise to likes and dislikes. Confused by our unsteady involvement in the three gunas, we are deluded into thinking that the apparent world is real and desirable and that it will bring us happiness. We cannot perceive the substratum behind the three gunas, behind the illusion, behind the many names and forms. That substratum is Brahman or God. One who sincerely remembers and worships God with a pure heart and mind—in thought, word and deed in the past, present and future, one who constantly practices seeing God everywhere (vidya-maya), one who meditates upon God—that person finally escapes from the clutches of maya by His Grace. Knowledge of God is rooted in self knowledge. “Verily this divine illusion of Mine, made up of the gunas, is hard to surmount; but those who take refuge in Me alone, they cross over this illusion” (B. Gita, VI: 14). This way of life of constant remembrance of the Lord is called (dhruvanusmriti). This is the meaning of Christ’s teaching on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Formless Brahman conditioned by maya assumes various forms. These forms are like different garments under which Brahman, commonly called God, is always the same. Ramakrishna says, “All these forms are of one God, for God is multiform. He is formless and with form and many are His forms which no one knows” (The Sayings of Ramakrishna, Edited and Compiled by Swami Abhedananda, p. 18). Though the Hindu pantheon teems with millions of deities, God is One without a second. One God is adored in many gods. God and His glories are Infinite; therefore, innumerable approaches to Him exist.
AVATARA, THE DIVINE INCARNATION
Through maya, God is born on earth as the Avatara to fulfill a cosmic need. Whenever unrighteousness prevails over righteousness, God out of His mercy and love appears as the Avatara solely to redeem mankind and to re-establish spiritual order in the world and thus preserves and ensures the continuance of life in the universe.
The Avatara or incarnation of God is a unique manifestation of the conditioned Brahman. The Avatara is the living tangible form of universal Supreme Truth—God in human form. Although Christianity and Hinduism both recognize the Avatara, in Christianity the Avatara is limited to the historical Christ. In Hinduism, the incarnation appears whenever a cosmic need requires its redeeming appearance in the world. Lord Krishna says:
Though I am unborn and eternal by nature, and though I am the Lord of all beings, yet, subjugating My Prakriti, I accept birth through my own Maya. Wherever there is a decline of dharma, O Bharata, and a rise of adharma, I incarnate Myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of dharma, I am born in every age. (B. Gita (IV: 6-8)
Although God is immortal, infinite, immutable, nameless and formless, still, out of love for suffering humanity, the Infinite and Absolute Being is born as a human being and accepts suffering in order to establish religion among the masses. Shri Ramakrishna says:
It is God alone who incarnates Himself as man to teach people the ways of love and knowledge. (Gospel, p. 359)
And we see God Himself if we but see His Incarnation. . . . If you seek God, then seek Him in man; He manifests Himself more in man than in any other thing. If you see a man endowed with ecstatic love, overflowing with prema, mad after God, intoxicated with His love, then know for certain that God has incarnated Himself through that man.
There is no doubt that God exists in all things; but the manifestations of His power are different in different beings. The greatest manifestation of His Power is through an Incarnation . . . It is the Sakti, the Power of God, that is born as an Incarnation. (Gospel, p. 726)
(2) DIVINITY OF THE SOUL
The four great Vedic utterances or Mahavakyas express the oneness of Brahman and the Atman as declared in the Rg-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda and the Atharva-Veda respectively: Prajnanam Brahma, “Brahman is Pure Consciousness” (Ai. Up., III. 3), Aham Brahma asmi, “I am Brahman” (Br. Up., I: 4. 10), Tat tvam asi, “That thou art” (Ch. Up., VI: 8. 7), and Ayam Atma Brahma, “This Atman is Brahman” (Mand. Up., II). This Atman and Brahman, the Universal Self, are one in reality. This may be realized through experience, according to the sages of India.
In his lecture, “True Immortality,” Müller developed the theme, which is found in the Upanishads, of the identity of the Soul with Brahman:
Brahman [is] neuter, the essence of all things; and the soul, knowing that it is no longer separated from that essence, learns the highest lesson of the whole Vedanta doctrine, Tat Twam Asi, “Thou art That,” that is to say, “Thou, who for a time didst seem to be something by thyself, art that, art really nothing apart from the divine essence.” (Müller, C. W., IV, p. 279)
Secondly, as Brahman has to be conceived as perfect, and therefore as unchangeable, the soul cannot be conceived as a real modification or deterioration of Brahman. (Ibid, p. 280)
Thirdly, as Brahman has neither beginning nor end, neither can it have any parts; therefore, the soul cannot be a part of Brahman, but the whole of Brahman must be present in every individual soul. (Ibid, p. 280)
From a purely logical point of view, Shankara’s position seems to me impregnable, and when so rigorous a logician as Schopenhauer declares his complete submission to Shankara’s arguments, there is no fear of their being upset by other logicians. (Ibid, p. 281)
Müller completely understood the identity of Brahman and the Atman and appreciated the fact that the supreme knowledge is inseparable from the everyday affairs of men and women:
And this is the feeling which I cannot resist in examining the ancient Vedanta. Other philosophers have denied the reality of the world as perceived by us, but no one has ventured to deny at the same time the reality of what we call the Ego, the senses and the mind, and their inherent forms. And yet after lifting the Self above body and soul, after uniting heaven and earth, God and man, Brahman and Atman, these Vedanta philosophers have destroyed nothing in the life of the phenomenal beings who have to act and to fulfill their duties in this phenomenal world. On the contrary, they have shown that there can be nothing phenomenal without something that is real, and that goodness and virtue, faith and works, are necessary as a preparation, nay as a sine qua non, for the attainment of that highest knowledge which brings the soul back to its source and to its home, and restores it to its true nature, to its true Selfhood in Brahman. (Müller, C. W., XIX, p. 183)
