Liiiis, lunuing.stiaight oi crooked, at list come unto the ocean, so, () Siva, the dilleienl paths which men take ihiough dilterenl lendencies, vaiious though lliev ajipeai, ciookcd or sliaighl, all lead unto d'hce ” 'I'liough they may lake v.ii lolls loads, all are on the way. Some may lun a little ciuoked, others may iLin siMighi, but at last, they will all come unto the I.oid, the One. 'J'lieii iaiid ilien alone, is youi JJhakti and Siva com[)lele, when you not only see Hun m the I.ingam, but you see Him evciywheic. lie is tlie sage, he is the lovei ol llaii, who seesllaii in cveiytliiiig.ind in everyone. If you arc a leal lovei of Siva, you must see Him in c\eiylhing, aiul in eveiyonc. Vou must see that cveiy wor- slii[i is given unto Him, whatever may be the name oi the foim; that.ill knees bend- ing tow aids the Kaaba, oi kneeling in a Cbiisli.in C'huidgoi in a Huddlusl Temple, aie kneeling to Him, whether they know it or not, wliethei they aio conscious of it oi not, that in whalevei name oi toiin they aie olfeied, all those llow'ci's aie laid at His l'\‘et, foi He is the one Loid of all, the one Soul of all souls Ho know's inli- nitely belici wlial tins woild w'ants, than you oi I, It is impossible that all dilTeienco can (.ease, it nuisl e\ist; without vaiiation life must cease. It is this clash, the (lillVienlialioii ol ihoughl, that makes foi light, lor motion, foi eveiything. Dilfeicn- liiiion, iiifimlel) contiadictoiy, must lemain, but it is not uccessaiy Ih.it wo should hale c.icli oilici, theiefoie. It is not nciessary iheiefoie, that we should fight each other, d'herefoie, we have again to learn the one cenlial liuih that was only j)ieachcd heie, ill out rdulhcilaiid, and that once more has to be picached fiom Indi.i, Why?
Ilccaiise, not only is it in our books, but it iiiiis thiough every phase of our national liLei.iliiie, and is in the iialioiial life. Ilcie and heio.xlone, is it pi.iclised every day, and any man whose eyes arc open can sec that it is pi.ictised heie and here alone, ■I'hiis we have to teach religion. Theic aie oihei and higher lessons ih.ii India can jte.ich, hut they aie only foi the Icained, 'I’lie lessons of mildness, gentleness, for- ^eaiance, toleiation,.sy in[)athy, and brotheihood, eveiyonc ni.iy learn, whelbor fcian, vvoimiii or child, Icaiiied oi uiile, lined, without icspecl of lace, ca.sle (xr ciecd. 1“ riioy call 1 hce by vaiious names; 'i'Jiou ail One.”
B VEDANTISM.
The foiIo-AiriK Ackhcss of wcIcotoc from the Hindus of Jaffna was presented tc Swami Vivck.inand.i •— SRTMAT VIVTKANAXDA SWAMI.
Reverfd Sir.
We, the inhnbltints of Jaffna professing the Hindu r^'ligion, desire to offer you a most hearty xNelcome to oni Ituul, the chief ceiUie of Hinduism in Ceylon, and to cxpicss our thankfulnc::>s foi ) our kind acceptance of our imitation to visit this pait of Lanka.
Our anccsiois settled iieic fiom Sonthv rn India. moiv» than two thousand years ago. and biouelu with ihem tlnni leli^inn, which was patronised b) the Tamil kings of Jaffna, bul when then goxeinmciu was displatcd by tiiat of the Portuguese and the *Dutcli, the obscivance ol loligious nics was intcrfeicd wath, public icligions worship was pioinbilod. and the Satied 'I’empics including two of the most far-famed Shnnes, weie ra/ed to tlic giouiul by the ciucd hand of peiseciiiion. In spile of the persis- tent atlcmjits ol these nations to toice upon oni forcfuhcis the Chiistian leligion, they clung to their old faith firmly, ami ha\e transmitted u to us as the noblest of our hentages Now, under the rule ot Gieat ihiiam, not oni) ha’, iheie been a great and intelligent ic\tval, bul the.sacied edlhcc^ have been, and are being, restored.
We take this opportunity to exnicss oiir deep-hdt gratitude for your noble and disinteiested labouis in the cause of our icligion in canying the light of truth, as revealed in the Vedas, to the railiamcnt oi Keligimts, in disseminating the truths of the Divine Philosophy ot India in America.and luigland. and in making the Western ivoild acquainted w-iih the liiuh', of Hinduism ami thereby bringing the West in closer touch with the List, We also evpr.^ss our tb inkfulncss to you for initiating a movement for the levival of oiir ancient icligion in tins matciialistic age, when there is a decadence of failh and a disrcgaul foi seau h after spnilual tiuth.
We cannot adeijuateiv cxpiess oui indcbi-duoss to you for making the people of the West know the catholicity of our leligion, and for impiessing upon the minds of the sai'iinfs- of the West the truth, lluil iheic arc moio things lu the Philosophy of the Hindus than aie dtcMint ot hi the Philoso[)h) of the West We need Irard.l) assure von ilni w? leave been ca.ofuily watching the progress of vour Iilibsion in the West, and always hcarlii) lejon mg at voui devotednesb and suc- cessful labohrs in the field ot Kh'iou 'I he appicci.uive references made by the press, in the great centres of intclhwtual activity, moral growth, and religious inquiry in the We'^l, to vou and to your valuable conlnbutions to our religious litcialure, bear eloquent testimony to your noble and magnifuenl eft.^ts.
We Ix^g to expioss oui hcarUleli graldicalion at your visit to our land and to hope that we, wno, in common with you, look to the Vedas as ‘the foundation of all true spiritu.al knowledge, may have many mOiC occa:>ions of seeing you in our midst.
v/:i)AAr/SAf II May God, who has hitherto crowned your noble work with conspicuous success, spare you long, giving you vigour and bircngth to continue your noble Mission.
We remain, Rcveied Sir, Yours faitiirull), for and on behali of the Hindus of Jaffna.
An eloquent reply was given, and on the following evening, the Swami lectured on Vedanfism. A repoii of which is here appciKled The subject is veiy laige and the time l^ shoit, a full analysis of the religion of the Hindus is impossilile in one lecluie. I will, ihereloie, present befoic you the salient points of our religion in as s'mple language as I can The word flindu, by which It is the fashion now-a-da\s to style oui''elvcs, has lobt all its meaning, for this woid meiely meant those who lived on llie other side of the river Indus (in Sansknt Sindhu). This name was inuideicd into Hindu, liy llie ancient Pcisians, and all people living on the other side of die iivci ^'indlui weic called b) them Hindus. Thus this woid has come down to us, and dming the.Mohammedan lulc we took up the word ouisehes. I'hcie may not be any harm in using the woid, of coutse, but, as I have said, it has lost Us signiheaiH*-, foi, \ou may mark that all the people who live on this side of the Indus, in modern tunes do not follow the oume leligion as they did in ancient times. The woid, therefore, co\ers not only Hindus proper, but Mohammedans. Chii'iians, Jams, and other peo[)les w’ho live in India. I, iheie- fore, w'ould not use the wool Ilmdu. What wuid should we usC then? Tiie other woids which alone we cmu use, aie either iiie Vaidiks, followeis ol the Vedas, or better still, the Vedantisis, followeis of the Vediiua l\Iosi of the great leligions of the wxnld owe allegiance to ceitam i)Ook^, wlimh they believe aie the woids of God, or some othei siipenialuial beings, and wlm.h aic the ba^is of their religion. Now of all these hook'*, accoiding to the modem of the West, the oldest aie the Vedas of the Hindus A liuie undeisianJing, iherefoic, li uecessaiy about the Vedas.
This mass of writing called the Vedas is not the utterance of peisons. Its date has never been ficed, can never be fixed, and, accoiding to us, the Vedas aie eternal. Theie is one salient point whicli I want you to lemcmber, that all the other religions of the woild claim ihcir autiiorily as beung delivered by a peisonal God or a number of pcisoial beings, angels, or special messengers of God, unto ceitain peisons; while the claim of the Iliadns is, that the Vedas do not owe iheii authority to auvbodv, they aio themsehes the antlioiity, being eternal — the knowledge o£ God. 'rhev w'eie nevci wiilten, ne\oi ciea'.eil, they h.ive i.xMed thi.»ughout tune; just as crea-inn u infmile and etciinl, without begmnme and without end, so is the knowledge of God, w'lthonl b. gi.mmg and without end. Am! this knowledge is what is meant bv the Veda-> ( I'zc/ to knoa). The ma^s oi knowled.go called the Vedanta was disco\eied by pei son ages callml Rishis. and the Rishi is defined ^as a Alantta Drcnhlti, a scci of ilioughi, not ih.at the thought was his own. Whenever you hear that a eeitaiii jiassago of the Vedas came fiom.i ceitim Ri.In, mvei think that he wiote It, oi cioated it out of his mind, he v.?s the s<-Ci (zf the ihonglu wh'ch alieady existed, it existed in the univeise elOinall). This s.ige was the discovcei, the Rishis W'ere spiiitual discuvereis.
This mass of writing, the Ved.as, is divided piincipally into two parts, the Karma Kanda and the Juana Akz/zz/u— the avuik poUion and the knowledge pen lion, the LF.CTURES—FROM COLOMBO TO ALMORA ceiemoninl anrl tlic spiritual. The work portion consists of various sacrifices; most of tliLun of late have been f^iven up as not piacticable under present circum- slances; hut others remain to the piesent day in some shape or other. 1 he main ideas of the Karma Kau<Ja, which consist of the duties of man, the duties of the student, of the householder, of the recluse, and the various duties of the diffeient stations of life, are followed, more or less, down to the present day. Hut the spiiitual poiiion of our leli^ion is in the second pail, the the \edanta, the end of the Vedas, the.t?ist, the goal of the Vedas. The essence of the knowledge of the Vedas was called liy the name of V’^edanta, which comprises the Upanishads, and all the seels of India, whether Dualists, (lualified Dualists, IMonists, or the Siviles. Vaisnavites,.Saklas,.Souras, (lanapaltyas — if there is any sect in India which dares to come within the fold of Hinduism, it must acknowledge the Upanishails of the Vedas. 'I'hey can ha\e their own interpretations, and can inlerpict them in theii own way, but the) must obey the authoiity. That is why w’c w’ant to use the woid Vcdaiitist instead of Hindu. All the philosophcis of India who are orthodox have to acknowledge the authority of the Vedanta, and all our present-day religions, ho\y- cver crude some of them may appear to be, howevei incxjihcable some of their puiposes may seem, one who undeistands them, and studies them, can trace them back to the ideas of the Upanishads. So deeply ha\e these Upanishads sunk into our race, that those of }ou who study the symbology of the ciudesi lehgion of the Hindus, will be astonished to find sometimes figuiati\e expressions of the Upanishads —the Upanishads liecome symbolised after a tune into figuies and so foith. (beat spiritual and philosophical ideas in the Upanish.tds aic to-<Iay with us, coineited into household woi.ship in the foim of symbols. Thus the vaiioiis symbols now used by us. all come fiom the Vedanta, because in the \edanta they aie used as figures,.and these ideas sjnead among the nation and iieimeated it thioughout, until they became part of thcii evci)day life, as symbols.
Next to the Vedanta come the Smiilis. These also are books written by sages, but the authority of the Smritis is subordinate to that of the Vedanta, because they stand in the same lelaliou with us, as the.Scriptures of the other leligions stand with regard to them. We admit that the Smiitis hate been wiittcn by p.ailiculai sagos, in that sense they are the.same as the.Scriptures of other religions, but these Smiitis are not final authoiity. If there is anything in a Smriti w-hich contiadicts the \ ed.inla, the Smiiti is to be rejected; its authority is gone. These.Smiitis, wa^ see again have varied from lime to time. We ic.ad that such and such Smriti should have authoiity in the Saiva Vu-a, such and such in the TreUi some in the Dnuipara } u-a, and some in Kah and so on. As es.scntial conditions changed as various circumstances came to have their intliience on the race, manners anc u be changed, and these.Smnlis, as mainly legulating the manners and customs of the nation, had also to be changed from time to time. This is a point I speciahy ask you to remember. The principles of religion that are in the Vedanta are unchange- able. Why f because they are all built upon the eternal principles that are m man and nature; they can never change, bleas about the soul, going to heaven, and so on, can never change; they w'ere the same thousands of yeais ago, the} aie t c same to-dav, they will be the same millions of years to come. But those religious practices which arc based entirely upon our social position and correlation, must change with the changes in.society. Such an older, therefore, would be good and true at a cer- tain peiiod and not at another. Wc find accordingly, that certain food should be VEDA XT ISM ^3 allowed at one time and not at another, because the food \\as suitable foi (hat lime; hut climatic and other things change, \<uious other circumstances reqiiiic to he met. so the Srniili changed the food and other things. Thus it naturally follows, that if in nuKlein times our society reqiiiies changes to be made, they must be met, and sages will come and show us the way how to meet them; but not one jot of the luinciples of our religion will be changed; they will remain intact.
Then there are the Puranas. Purthiam Ponchahihhanam, which means, the Puranas are of five characteristics, —that which treats of histoiy, of cosmologv. with various.symbological illustration of philosophical piinciples and so foilh. 'riiesc weie wiillen to populaiise the religion of the Vedas. The language m which the W-das are written is very ancient, and even among scholars very few- can trace the dale of these books. The Puranas weie written in the language of the people of thal lime, what we call modern Sanskiit. They w'cre then meant, not foi schol.us, Init for the ordinary people; and ordinary people cannot understand philosoph}’. Such things were given unto them in concrete foi m, by means of the lives of saints and kings and great men, and historical events that happened to the race, ttc. The sages made use of these things, to illustrate the eternal piiiiciiilcs of religion.
There are still other books, the These aie vei\ much like Puraua^ in some respects, and in some of them there is an attempt to revive the old saciificial ideas of the Karma Katufa.
All those books consiiiule the Scriptures of the Hindus. When there is such a mass of sacied books in a nation and in a r.icc, which has devoted the greatest pail of its energies to the thought of philosoph} and spiiitualily, (foi nobody knows loi how many thousands of yeais), it is quite n.alural that theic should be so many seels; indeed it is a w’onder that theie aie not thousands more. I'hcsc sects dillei very much fiom each othei in ^eilam jiomts We shall not have time to uiideisland the diffei- ences between these sects, and all the spiiilual details about them; thcicfore, T shall lake up the common ground, the jirinciples of all these sects, w'hich every Hindu must believe.
The first, is the question of the creation, that this Nature, /Vr/;<v ///, d/'.nv/, is infinite, w'lthoiU beginning. It is not thal this w'orUl was created the other da\, not that a (lod came and cicaled the woild, and since that lime has hetm sleejiing; for that cannot be. The ci call ve enm'gy is still going on. Hod is eleinally creating - is never at rest. Remember the passage in the (iila vvheie Knshna says: “If I remain at rest for one moment this umveise will bo desiioyed.” If lint ciealive energy which is vvoiking all around us, day and night, slojis for a second, the whole thing falls to the ground. There never was a time when that energy did not work throughout the universe, hut there is the law of cycles, Pra/ava. Our.Sanskrit vvoid for creation properly translates!, should be projection^ and not n cation. For the vvoid creation in the Knglish language has unhappily got that feaiful, that most ciude idea of soraething coming out of nothing, creation out of non-enlily, and non-existence becoming existence, which, of couise, I w'ould not insult }ou by asking you to believe. Our word, therefore, is projection. The whole of this Naluie exists, it becomes finer, subsides, and then after a peiiod of rest, as it wore, the vvliolc thing is again projected forward, and the same combination, the same evolution, the same manfestations appear, and remain playing, as it were, for a certain time, only again to break into pieces, to become finer and finer, until the whole thing subsides, and again comes out. Thus it goes on backwards and foi wards, with a vvavc-Iike 14 Ll'rri'RE.'s FRuM COLOMBO TO ALMORA motion thi(jr!>,t)<iut eiornuy Time, f^p.^ce and causation are all within this Nature. 'I'o -sa), tlicKfoic, that It had a hrginnni;^, is iiUci nonsense No such question can ocun as to Us hcginniiifr, oi its end. 'I’hendoic, uheiever in our Scriptures the wuids licyiniiinq and end.tie tisod, von must rcMiieinhcr that it means the beginning Hiid tile end ol one paiiiciil.n c\(lc, no moie llian ihal.
Whal makes ihii ci cation (iod, Wijat do T mean by the use of the Engli' word, God? C'eiiainly not the word as ordinal ilv use<l in English, a good deal 0. dilTeieiice Tiieie is lUi otliei suitable woid in English. I would lathei confine my- self to the San do It wold. Ihuhnutu, He is the general cause of all these mani- fesiaiions. \\ luil is this Bialinuiti'i He is eternal, cteinally puie, eternally awake, the almight), the all-knowmg the all-mciciful, the omnipresent, the foimless, the paiiless He cieitc'' tins iiuheise. It He is always creating and holding up this univeisc, two ddliculiies arise Wc see that tlieie is partialuv in the univeise. One person is bom happy, and anoihei nnhapjiy, one is i ich and anoUiei is poor; this shows pailiahtv. 'I hen, llieie is <. i mdiy also, loi heie the veiy condition of life is death. One animal teais another to pieces, and evciy man tiies to get the better of his own brolhei 'rius comjieiuion, cincity, hoiioi, and.sighs rending heaits day and night, is tlie slate of thing-, in this soiiti of outs. If this be the creation of a God, that God is woise than ciiid. woisc than an\ devil that man e\er imagined. Ay! savs the Vedanta, it is not the latilt of God that tins paitiality exists, tiiat this competition exists Wliu makes it \Vc omseb.es Tiieie is a cloud shedding its lain on all fields alike. Ikil ii is only the field that is well-culiivaled, which gels the atUantage of the showci, anothei held, which has not been tilled oi taken care of, cannot get that ad\ aiiiage It is not the lauli of ihc cloud The mercy of God is eternal and unchangeable, It Is wc that make the diiTeientiatiun But how can this diffeience of some being bom happy and some uuhapjiy be explained? They do noihingtoin.ikcthaidilEici.ee' Not in this life, hut rhev did in then last birth, and ihi?. dilTerence is explained by the action in the punions life We now- CO, lie to 'he secoinl piinciple on which we all agree, not only all Hindus, but all Buddhists, and all Jams. We all agree that life is eieinal. It is not that it has spuing out of nothing, foi that cannot be. Such a life would not be w’ortli having Even iluug that h.xs a beginmng in time must end in time, if life began but )esterday, it must end to-niouow. and aumhil.Uion is tlic result. Life must have been cxisliag It does not now requiie much acumeu to see that, for all the sciences of modem times have lieeii coining round to our help illusUating fiom the material vYOild the piMcIples omliodicd in oni Scnpiuies. You know it already, that each one of In Is the cdic.r oi liie rn'mite pisi, the child is usheied into the woild, not as something (lidiiii-- fiom th'*;l-••ids of nature, as poets deliglit.so much to depict, but he Ikis the bui leu ot.in ’ulmite pis:, yood oi evil be comes to woik out liis own past dec'll s rii.'l in dvcs ihe ililli i Million This is the law of Kamta Each one of Us Is the niakoi of hu own tal<. ddiis k’ •. kiiOLks on tlie In'ad at cjnce all iJoctiines of picdc 'moioii^ ae I late,.'ud gi.c- iis ilio on'y means o! i cconciliaLion between God and man. We, we,.lud no.." d-e..ue i.'-j)on,Ible Em what we sulfei. We aie the cffeels, and wc.ue the ciuses. We aie lice thciefoie. If I am unhappy, it has beem of mv own nrikiiit. iiul Ural \ lliint sho'vs that 1 « an be hajipy if I will. ]f I am impuic, that is al-o of mv can miking, and that veiv thing shows that I can be puie it I will '1 he human w ill ' iiuG b -vond all ciicumslance. Before it, the strong, gigantic, in.luUe will and fieedom in man, all the powers, even of nature, VEDA NTT SM 15 rr.ust bo'v do^:^n, siiccnnih, an<l hecoinp its sen ants. This Is the result of the law of Karma.
The next question, of couiso. ivilmnlly would he. what is the soul? Wc cannot understand God in <'mr St nptiu wiihoui KuoAinq the ^^oul. 'Thorc have been attempts in India, ami oiilMdi ol Imhitoo, to catch a;',Iimj)se of the hcioiid by Studying external naluie, and we all knon wini an awin': lailnie li.is been the rc'^ult. Instead of giving us a gliinp‘>c of tiie liooud, the niiMC we study the malenal woild the more we tend to become inatenahsml The mo:e ne liandle the material world, even the liUle spuituahl) which ve ]>osSt.s^ed bcloieM.ini‘-h(‘s. Theiefoie, that IS not the w.iv to spmtuahty, to knowlcolge of the lli-liest. but it must come through the hcail, the human soul The extmnal woikiui^s do urtt tench us an) thing about the beyond, about the Infmite, it is onl) the intcinal tiuil can do mi. 'I hiough soul, therefore, the analysis of the human soul alone, can \\<' undei stand God. There aie dilTeicnces of opinion as to the ii.itme of the hmu.in soul anions the vaiious sects m India, but ihcio aie eoitam pomtN of agieomcnt We all agiee, that souls aie without beginning and without end, and immoil.il h\ their very natiiie; also, that all poue-.s. blessmg. pm ii\, ommpies.juc. ommscience.ue hui led in each soul. That IS a gland idea we ought to lemembcr In e\'*iv nnn and in every animal, howevei weik 01 wi(keci, gicat oi smill, lesuh's t!ie sum' omnipiescnt, oinni* scient soul, 'I'he dillereuce is not m the soul, but in the mai.iiest..iion. between me and the smallcbl animal, the dilYcrence is only in mnnib'stalion, but as a piinciplc he IS the same as I am, lie is 111} bi other lie has (he s.inie soul as I ha\c This is the greatest piinciple that India lias pieaclied. 1 he talc of the biiUiieiliood of man becomes in India the biotliei hoou of umveis.a! lile, of animals.,ind of all life doan to the little ants, -all these aic out bodies. I'hen as our.^ci ijiiurc sa) s,— “ Thus the sage, knowing that the same Loid mbabiis all liodics, will woislup c\ory body as such.” That is why in India then' have been siu Ii men ilul ideas about the poor, about animals, about ever) body and eveiy lHmg else 'I'liis is one of the common grounds about our ideas of the soul Xatuially we come to the idea of God. One thing more.about (he soul. Those who study the English language aio often deluded In the wools, soul and mind. Oui Aiman and soul arc enliicl) dilToient things. WInt wo call Mana^, the mind, the western people call soul. The West neiei had the idea of soul until they got it through Sanskrit Philosophy, some twenty yeais ago 'I’lic body is heie, bevond that IS the mind, )'ot the mind is not the Alniau; il is the line I.id), liiO SiikiJinia 5/za;v/'u,— made of fine paiuclcs, which goes fiom biith to death, and so on; but behind the mmd is the Alnan, the Soul, the Self of man It cannot be trans- lated bv the wmkI Soul 01.dind, s(> ’\e have to use the wool Afnuiti, 01, as Westcin philosophers have designated it by the v'Oid..Self. Wliaievci w'ord )0U use, you must keep it clear in )oui niiud, that the Aiman is scpaiate from the niiud, as w'cll as from the bodv, and that this Aiman goes fiom biilh and death, acccunpanied by the mind — the Sukshma -S/ni/ifa. And when the tunc conies that if has attained to all knowledge, and manifested itself to pcileclion, then this going fiom biith to death ceases for it. d’hen il is at liberty cither to keeji that iinnd, or the Snkshma