The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 5/Epistles - First Series/LVII Blessed and Beloved
LVII
13th February, 1896.
Blessed And Beloved,[1]
About the Sannyâsin coming over from India, I am sure he will help you in
the translation work, also in other work. Later on, when I come, I may send
him over to America. Today another Sannyasin has been added to the list.
This time it is a man who is a genuine American and a religious teacher of
some standing in the country. He was Dr. Street. He is now Yogananda, as his
leaning is all towards Yoga.
I have been sending regular reports to the Brahmavâdin from here. They will
be published soon. It takes such a long time for things to reach India!
Things are growing nobly in India. As there was no hocus-pocus from the
beginning, the Vedanta is drawing the attention of the highest classes in
American society. Sarah Bernhardt, the French actress, has been playing
"Iziel" here. It is a sort of Frenchified life of Buddha, where a courtesan
"Iziel" wants to seduce the Buddha, under the banyan - and the Buddha
preaches to her the vanity of the world, whilst she is sitting all the time
in Buddha's lap. However, all is well that ends well — the courtesan fails.
Madame Bernhardt acts the courtesan. I went to see the Buddha business — and
Madame spying me in the audience wanted to have an interview with me. A
swell family of my acquaintance arranged the affair. There were besides
Madame M. Morrel, the celebrated singer, also the great electrician Tesla.
Madame is a very scholarly lady and has studied up the metaphysics a good
deal. M. Morrel was being interested, but Mr. Tesla was charmed to hear
about the Vedantic Prâna and Âkâsha and the Kalpas, which according to him
are the only theories modern science can entertain. Now both Akasha and
Prana again are produced from the cosmic Mahat, the Universal Mind, the
Brahmâ or Ishvara. Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that
force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him
next week, to get this new mathematical demonstration.
In that case, the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of
foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology
[2] of the
Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect unison with modern science, and the
elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other. I intend to
write a book later on in the form of questions and answers.[3] The first chapter will be on
cosmology, showing the harmony between Vedantic theories and modern science.
The eschatology will be explained from the Advaitic standpoint only. That is to say, the dualist claims that the soul after death passes on to the Solar sphere, thence to the Lunar sphere, thence to the Electric sphere. Thence he is accompanied by a Purusha to Brahmaloka. (Thence, says the Advaitist, he goes to Nirvâna.)
Now on the Advaitic side, it is held that the soul neither comes nor goes,
and that all these spheres or layers of the universe are only so many
varying products of Akasha and Prana. That is to say, the lowest or most
condensed is the Solar sphere, consisting of the visible universe, in which
Prana appears as physical force, and Akasha as sensible matter. The next is
called the Lunar sphere, which surrounds the Solar sphere. This is not the
moon at all, but the habitation of the gods, that is to say, Prana appears
in it as psychic forces, and Akasha as Tanmâtras or fine particles. Beyond
this is the Electric sphere, that is to say, a condition in which the Prana
is almost inseparable from Akasha, and you can hardly tell whether
Electricity is force or matter. Next is the Brahmaloka, where there is
neither Prana nor Akasha, but both are merged in the mind stuff, the primal
energy. And here — there big neither Prana nor Akasha — the Jiva
contemplates the whole universe as Samashti or the sum total of Mahat or
mind. This appears as a Purusha, an abstract universal soul, yet not the
Absolute, for still there is multiplicity. From this the Jiva finds at last
that Unity which is the end. Advaitism says that these are the visions which
rise in succession before the Jiva, who himself neither goes nor comes, and
that in the same way this present vision has been projected. The projection
(Srishti) and dissolution must take place in the same order, only one means
going backward, and the other coming out.
Now as each individual can only see his own universe, that universe is
created with his bondage and goes away with his liberation, although it
remains for others who are in bondage. Now name and form constitute the
universe. A wave in the ocean is a wave, only in so far as it is bound by
name and form. If the wave subsides, it is the ocean, but those name and
form have immediately vanished for ever. So though the name and form of wave
could never be without water that was fashioned into the wave by them, yet
the name and form themselves were not the wave. They die as soon as ever it
returns to water. But other names and forms live in relation to other waves.
This name-and-form is called Mâyâ, and the water is Brahman. The wave was
nothing but water all the time, yet as a wave it had the name and form.
Again this name and form cannot remain for one moment separated from the
wave, although the wave as water can remain eternally separate from name and
form. But because the name and form can never he separated, they can never
be said to exist. Yet they are not zero. This is called Maya.
I want to work; all this out carefully, but you will see at a glance that I
am on the right track. It will take more study in physiology, on the
relations between the higher and lower centres, to fill out the psychology
of mind Chitta (mind-stuff), and Buddhi (intellect), and so on. But I have
clear light now, free of all hocus-pocus. I want to give them dry, hard
reason, softened in tile sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense
work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily
digest it.
Yours etc.,
Vivekananda.
- Notes
- ↑ E. T. Sturdy
- ↑ That is, doctrine of the last things — death, judgement, etc.
- ↑ This was never done. But from his lectures in London in 1896, it is easy to see that his mind was still working on these ideas. (See also Vol. VIII Sayings and Utterances ).