The Vedanta Way to Peace and Happiness

Contents

Introduction

  1.  The Relevance of Vedanta to the World Today

  2.  Life and Its Meaning: The Vedanta View

  3.  The Human Condition

Sufferings of Life

Fear of Old Age

Fear of Death

  4.  Awakening of Spiritual Consciousness

  5.  Faith or Reason?

  6.  Mastering the Restless Mind

  7.  Self-Expression or Self-Control?

  8.  Grasping the Essentials

  9.  Four Steps toward the Goal

10.  The Mood for Meditation

11.  The Quest for Peace and Happiness

12.  Liberation of the Soul

Notes

Glossary

Credits

List of Searchable Terms

About the Author

Copyright

Also Available

About SkyLight Paths

Introduction

Vedanta is the wisdom of the Vedic sages. For thousands of years it has inspired people to find solutions to the problems of life and thus reach the highest fulfillment. As a philosophy of living, Vedanta has been tested and verified in the lives of countless seekers, saints, and prophets of India. The Vedanta way is decisive, and its practices are based upon science and reason.

For centuries the Vedanta philosophy was kept carefully guarded by saints and ascetics living in forests and mountains, and never made public. They thought that the teachings would be diluted and misunderstood by the masses, who were prone to believe not in truth but in myths and miracles. In matters of spirituality and religion, truth is often sacrificed to fiction and make-believe. A rational and realistic approach is rare. Religious texts are filled with eulogy, exaggeration, doubtful myths, and loving legends. The average person regards scriptures as infallible, forgetting that the scriptures are in fact remembered words and experiences written down by human beings.

Swami Vivekananda was the first to bring the teachings of Vedanta from the forest to the general public. He thought that because of the developments of science, the time had come to deliver the message of Vedanta to all. According to the swami, the teachings of Vedanta are worth nothing if they are not problem solving. They are useless unless they enrich our lives and lead us to peace and happiness.

Vedanta reminds us that the course of life is mysterious. It is plagued by ceaseless changes and uncertainties. Pain, suffering, illness, old age, and death are harsh realities that cannot be ignored or avoided. Vedanta maintains that problems and solutions go together; one cannot exist without the other. If nature presents a problem, it also points toward a solution. In suggesting solutions, Vedanta does not deal with the occult or the miraculous and does not cater to fads, whims, or pious imaginations. According to Vedanta, our happiness depends upon peace of mind, peace of mind on self-control, and self-control on awareness of our true Self.

This book does not compromise the orthodox views of Vedanta. It deals with such subjects as life and its meaning, mastering the restless mind, the spiritual quest, the practice of meditation, the controversy between faith and reason, and facing the problems of life. Vedanta assures us that we are not living in the final days of our destiny, that every problem has a solution, and that the human soul is not a prisoner of karma or sin. The merciless and inexorable laws of life can be countered and overcome. The book presents both the facts and the fictions of human life and assures us that regardless of background, culture, training, or religious belief, all can follow the Vedanta way to resolve the problems of life and reach the supreme goal.

Competent editors have gone through this book, and I am grateful to them for their valuable contributions. It is my fervent hope that this book will be of help to the readers in their quest for peace, happiness, and spiritual fulfillment.

Swami Adiswarananda

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York

1

The Relevance of Vedanta to the World Today

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Science and technology have shaken the very foundation of life’s traditional values, beliefs, and thoughts and changed the spiritual landscape of humanity. Economic interest has become the prime concern of life and acquisition of wealth the only measure of success. The sense of duty has been replaced by the rules of doing business. Spiritual values extolled by the prophets have been rejected in favor of material values that are meant to make the world an earthly paradise. Practice of any self-restraint is looked upon as inhibitive and life negating. Holy days have given way to holidays, prayers to psychotherapy, and sacraments to workshops, counseling, and consultations. Contemplation and meditation are practiced not for spiritual enlightenment but for improvement of health, efficiency in action, and management of stress.

The scientific-minded question the infallibility of the scriptures and the belief that creation began at a certain point in time. They find difficulty in accepting anything that cannot be verified by objective evidence. The scientific spirit has led to critical studies of the sacred texts and traditions of different faiths; scholars now point out that many religious beliefs have no sound historical basis.

Frustrated by a sense of crisis, many are seeking solace in new movements, such as fanaticism, atheism, pursuit of art or intellectual reflection, agnosticism, humanism, prophetism, supernaturalism, drug mysticism, occultism, universalism, new-ageism, and nature mysticism.

Fanaticism. Unable to meet the challenges of science, many are taking refuge in fanaticism. They are extremely narrow and dogmatic in their views and intolerant of all honest doubts or intelligent questions. Insecure in their faith, the fanatics seek compensation in dogmatic affirmation of what they want to believe. They often indulge in group hysteria and sentimentalism and reject all rational thinking and scientific inquiry. Out of touch with the world of reality and the march of events, they choose to remain isolated in their religious ghettos. Religious fanatics have even put men and women to death in the name of religion. Fanaticism has been the cause of endless dissension and discord, untold suffering, and bitter hatred, war, and persecution.

Atheism. The atheists reject all notions of spirituality and spiritual quest. For them, this world is all there is. All ideas of God, soul, and spirit are nothing but fanciful imagination. According to them, it is more honest to believe in the visible world than to believe in something unknown, unseen, and unproven. If what the atheists profess is true, then life would have no purpose and no meaning. Atheism is a reaction to traditional religious beliefs and it promotes hopelessness, pessimism, and loss of faith in life.

Pursuit of art or intellectual reflection. The pursuit of art or intellectual reflection as a substitute for spirituality is essentially an escape from the realities of life. Such a pursuit may lead to intellectual enjoyment but not to the peace of soul that comes from within. Followers of this way of life remain satisfied with the symbol of truth and do not seek truth itself.

Agnosticism. Agnosticism neither accepts the mysteries of God nor denies them. It holds the view that what we do not know and cannot know, we need not know. The agnostics are ambivalent and vacillating. They take delight in not being committed to any teaching. Agnosticism is a pseudo-religion of egotistic satisfaction.

Humanism. Humanists advocate doing good and being human, without telling us what is meant by the word human. Humanists forget that the word human is a counterpart of the word divine. Humanism wants us to remain an animal, but a well-dressed one. But a monkey trained to ride a bicycle, smoke a cigar, drink from a glass, and use sign language is, after all, still a monkey. Hence, humanistic endeavors are often a cover-up for the anguish of the soul. Humanists tend to identify religion with the service of humanity and equate God with the moral ideal. They believe in the self-sufficiency of the material person, and the only values that matter for them are human values. Humanism is secularized religion. It often becomes a rival to the spiritual quest, the essence of which is God-realization, not social reform.

Prophetism. Prophetism believes in the establishment of heaven on earth by a prophet. But the hopes of the prophetists are never fulfilled. While meaningful living calls for acting in the present, prophetists live in dreams of the future.

Supernaturalism. Supernaturalism believes in the existence of other worlds inhabited by supernatural beings who, when propitiated, fulfill our desires and aspirations. Supernaturalists look for miraculous solutions for our earthly problems. But solutions never come.

Drug mysticism. The view of drug mysticism is that drug intoxication frees a person from the worries of worldly life and brings spiritual exaltation. Followers of this doctrine equate psychological void and emotional frenzy with spiritual ecstasy. They believe in drugs that can bring about spiritual exaltation or states of mystic joy. Drug mysticism is false mysticism clothed in spiritual symbolism. This pseudomysticism results only in morbidity and depression, not illumination.

Occultism. Occultism, which dwells on magic and miracles, has become the spiritual preoccupation of many seekers. The followers of occultism hold that through the use of mantras, charms, spells, and the like, they can attain mastery over nature and develop powers usually regarded as superhuman. They talk in terms of clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought reading, and levitation but not about devotion, Self-realization, and longing for the Divine.

Universalism. Universalism is an anthology of teachings of different systems. Although intellectually stimulating, the teachings of universalism lack root and transforming power, both of which come from the life and message of a prophet. For this reason, universalism ends up being nothing more than a loosely knit philosophical system of many heterogeneous thoughts.

New-ageism. An offshoot of universalism, new-ageism is a mixture of occultism, music, art, diet control, health maintenance, astrology, and psychology. It is a revolt against the dogmatic and authoritarian thinking of organized religion. New-ageism advocates unlimited freedom and uncharted spiritual adventure. But freedom is not an easy thing to digest. An adventure without a goal leads nowhere.

Nature mysticism. The nature mystics seek solace in going back to nature. They call it Mother Nature and feel the presence of God manifested in natural beauty and tranquillity. They consider the developments of science and technology unnatural, unfriendly, and harmful and want to follow a lifestyle of the prescientific ages. But to turn the clock backward is impossible.

THE MESSAGE OF VEDANTA

The spiritual crisis of our age has highlighted the importance of the message of Vedanta. Once looked upon as life-negating speculations of the stargazers of the East, Vedanta is now regarded by many thinkers as the teaching that gives us hope for the future.

Vedanta, the final teaching of the Vedas, is based on a set of universal principles. The crown jewel of Hinduism, Vedanta is reflected in the traditions of Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and other Eastern spiritual paths. Vedanta is the message of the Upanishads, the voice of the Bhagavad Gita, and the song of the prophets and Godmen, past and present.

The principles of Vedanta are scientific because they are verifiable and repeatable, democratic because they foster individual freedom, universal because they apply to all people of all time, pragmatic because they focus on human problems and development, and psychological because they relate to human experience. Vedanta maintains the following:

Ultimate Reality. The Ultimate Reality, according to Vedanta, is all-pervading Pure Consciousness, one without a second, beyond all name, form, and epithet. The various names, forms, and epithets used by the different religions to describe the Ultimate Reality are merely attempts to name the nameless and attribute form and epithet to that which defies all names, forms, and epithets. Vedanta asserts that Truth is one: sages call it by various names (Rig Veda 10.114.5).

The human individual. Human individuals are not civilized animals, as some maintain, but are fallen angels. Their innate nature is divine. Their master urge is freedom of the soul and not sense gratification or pleasure or power, as psychologists would have us believe. Humans are more than libido-driven creatures or a result of the combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements. They are layered beings whose soul remains covered by five material sheaths: physical body, vital air, mind, intellect, and bliss. Consciously or unconsciously, human individuals are in search of their Self.

The creation. Creation is not an act by an extracosmic God or a random process of blind nature but is the evolution and involution of Pure Consciousness. The creation is beginningless.

Good and evil. There is no such thing as absolute good or absolute evil. That which is good for one may be evil for another, and vice versa. Good and evil are a pair of opposites, one of which cannot exist without the other. The view that someday evil will be eliminated and only good will prevail is absurd.

Sufferings of life. The sufferings of life are not due to the retribution of God; to luck, chance, hostile stars or planets; or to any other external agency. According to Vedanta, the causes of the sufferings of life are ignorance that separates us from the center of our being, ego, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. All the maladies of life have their root in this separation from our true Self.

The validity of spiritual truth. The validity of spiritual truth depends upon direct perception, which is more than belief in scriptures, reasoning, or emotional exaltation. Believing in scriptures is accepting the belief of another person. Reasoning by itself can never give us direct perception of Truth, and emotional exaltation usually is short-lived and deceptive. In contrast, direct perception is perceiving not through the mind but through the soul; it alone can silence doubt and give certainty of faith. Attainment of direct perception calls for purification of the mind, which is the goal of all prayer, meditation, and performance of sacraments and ceremonies. The proof of direct perception is permanent transformation of character.

Human destiny. The soul has no rest and no peace until it realizes through Self-knowledge that it is a focus of the all-pervading, immortal Self. Self-knowledge is the goal of all goals and value of all values. Self-knowledge is not just for the chosen few—it is the destiny of all. It is true immortality; heaven and hell are mere experiences of the mind. Vedanta maintains that immortality through Self-knowledge is to be attained while living, so that it may be verifiable and believable.

The values of life. Vedanta speaks of four human values: righteous conduct, acquisition of wealth, fulfillment of legitimate desires, and freedom of the soul. Righteous conduct emphasizes moral sensitivity and unselfishness, without which a person remains an animal in human form. Acquisition of wealth brings material fulfillment, a step toward spiritual fulfillment. Fulfillment of legitimate desires is a psychological necessity. Nonfulfillment of legitimate desires creates impediments to spiritual awakening. Freedom of the soul, attained through Self-knowledge, gives meaning and purpose to the other three values.

Existence. All existence is one. There is one life that pulsates in the universe; there is only one Soul that lives in all. Life is interdependent, not independent. Virtue is that which unites us with all, while vice is that which separates us from others. Oneness of existence is the basis of all ethics and morality.

Harmony of faiths. The various faiths are only different ways of reaching the same goal, the direct perception of the Ultimate. Direct perception is the very soul of every faith. Doctrines and dogmas, philosophy and myths, are secondary details. Harmony of faiths is not uniformity but unity in diversity. This harmony is to be discovered and realized by deepening our individual spiritual consciousness. Religious quarrels and hatred begin when the goal is forgotten, ignored, or neglected.

VEDANTA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO WORLD RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

Vedanta has made three primary contributions to world religious thought:

Spiritual democracy, which ensures freedom of worship. Devoid of democracy, religion becomes authoritative and oppressive. It is the spirit of democracy that repudiates proselytizing, which is psychologically destructive and morally reprehensible.

Spiritual humanism, which calls for serving all, seeing the divine presence in every being. Spiritual humanism is based on one of the cardinal teachings of Vedanta, the oneness of existence. By doing good to others, we only do good to ourselves.

Universal unity, which sees the presence of only one Soul in all. Science has brought about the physical unity of people but not the unity of their minds. Unity based on political considerations, economic interests, cultural ties, or humanitarian principles can never be enduring. Universal unity requires the perception of a Universal Soul that is the soul of all beings. Without this perception, social diversities and cultural pluralities are bound to be explosive and dangerous.

Vedanta’s contribution to humanity has been its catholicity of outlook; its spirit of tolerance, even to a fault; and its quest for inner freedom that defies imposition of any limit of race, color, creed, special claims, or economic or political affiliation.

THE CONTENTION OF THE CRITICS

Critics contend that the overall outlook of Vedanta is pessimistic, otherworldly, and self defeating; that Vedanta asks a person to sacrifice material and psychological well-being for the sake of spiritual salvation. Its view of the Ultimate is too abstract, too distant, and too impersonal. It is obsessed with finding a spiritual solution to every human problem, and its social concern is insufficient if not negligible. For Vedanta, knowledge is virtue, not a tool to improve the quality of life. For all these reasons, Vedanta has contributed in no small measure to India’s decay and defeat. It has exaggerated human weakness, human unworthiness, and human limitations. Too often, passivity has been its keynote and self-withdrawal its principal virtue. Inertia has passed for tranquillity and hopelessness for dispassion. Vedanta has encouraged self-isolation, selfish individualism, and cowardly retreat from the challenges of life.

The criticisms are not altogether unmerited. At some periods of India’s history, Vedanta lost its vision and vigor. The degeneration of the post-Buddhistic era and the subsequent centuries of foreign domination pushed Hindu society into self-withdrawal and isolation. The links between mysticism and humanism and between spiritual values and material values were broken. Vedanta was replaced by a pseudo-Vedanta that encouraged selfish individualism and fatalism. The world was described as a sinister illusion, not as a revelation of the Divine in nature. This is the reason, the critics say, that the Hindus, known for their wisdom of the soul, lag behind the West in developing science and technology.

Vedanta of old emphasized All this is verily Brahman (absolute Reality) but ignored its counterpart, That thou art. In quest of spiritual salvation, Vedanta ignored material salvation. In the worship of God in heaven, it forgot the living God dwelling in every soul. Swami Vivekananda made Vedanta alive and dynamic again, bridging the gulf between heaven and earth, material values and spiritual values, Self-knowledge and service of God in all. Swami Vivekananda’s Vedanta is a call for the soul to rise from slumber, face life, become whole, and manifest its greatness.

Vedanta does subordinate material values to spiritual values and secular humanism to spiritual humanism. This is because Vedanta does not seek to have the kingdom of the world (Luke 4:5) or build its house upon the sand (Matt. 7:26); Vedanta has discovered that it does not profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul (Mark 8:36). Vedanta knows, as Aldous Huxley said, We cannot see the moon and stars so long as we choose to remain within the aura of street lamps and whisky advertisements. We cannot even hope to discover what is happening in the East, if we turn our faces and feet towards the West.¹ It also knows only too well that all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matt. 26:53) and that the pursuit of pleasure without peace of soul is suicidal.

Vedanta tells us that the greatness of a person is not measured by what the person does or has, but by what he or she is, and that so-called love of life is a cheap cliché of world intoxication. Man’s right to knowledge and free use thereof without the wisdom of the soul is a dangerous modern slogan. Vedanta maintains that civilizations perish because of their spiritual bankruptcy and that when a civilization triumphs, it is more by the strength of its spirit than by its physical power. This has been the merciless law of history, and history is bound to repeat itself if we fail to heed its lessons.

2

Life and Its Meaning: The Vedanta View

Vedanta is the teaching of the major Hindu scriptures. It derives its authority primarily from the four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Atharva Veda. Each Veda consists of four parts: the mantras, or hymns in praise of Vedic deities; the brahmanas, or the section dealing with rituals and ceremonies; the aranyakas, or philosophical interpretation of the rituals; and the Upanishads, or the concluding portions of the Vedas (known as Vedanta), which describe the profound spiritual truths.

THE ULTIMATE REALITY

Vedanta describes Ultimate Reality as Brahman. Brahman is nondual Pure Consciousness, indivisible, incorporeal, infinite, and all-pervading, like the sky. Brahman is of the nature of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, the ground of all existence, basis of all awareness, and source of all bliss. It is the Reality of all realities, the Soul of all souls, one without a second, the constant witness of the changing phenomena of the universe. From the absolute point of view, Brahman alone exists. Brahman has two aspects: transcendent and immanent. In its transcendent aspect, Brahman is devoid of name and form, sex and attributes. But in its immanent aspect, Brahman is endowed with them. The Upanishads designate the transcendent Brahman by the word it and the immanent Brahman by the word he. Through its inscrutable power, called maya, the transcendent Brahman appears to be conditioned by time and space and to manifest itself as personal God, the creator, preserver, and destroyer of the universe. The Upanishads describe God as the supreme person:

His hands and feet are everywhere; His eyes, heads, and faces are everywhere; His ears are everywhere; He exists compassing all.¹

The heavens are His head; the sun and moon, His eyes; the quarters, His ears; the revealed Vedas, His speech; the wind is His breath; the universe, His heart. From His feet is produced the earth. He is, indeed, the inner Self of all beings.²

The various godheads, such as Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Kali, and Durga, are but different facets of Brahman. The Supreme Brahman assumes various forms for the spiritual fulfillment of the individual seekers. All concepts and forms of God, according to Vedanta, are what we think of him and not what he is to himself. Again, various seekers of God, depending upon their advancement, perceive God differently. For example, to the beginner, God appears as an extracosmic creator; to the more advanced seeker as inner controller; and to the perfect knower of God as being everywhere and in everything. Still another manifestation of the conditioned Brahman is the incarnation of God—God’s taking human form. According to Vedanta, God incarnates himself to fulfill the needs of the universe, whenever and wherever the need arises. In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says:

Whenever there is a decline of dharma [righteousness], O Bharata, and a rise of adharma [unrighteousness], 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.³

Thus, according to Vedanta, the supreme Godhead is both formless and endowed with many forms.

THE UNIVERSE

This manifestation of Brahman as the manifold universe is not real but apparent. Through its inscrutable power of maya, Brahman appears as the world of matter and souls and as endowed with the activities of creation, preservation, and dissolution. Maya veils the Ultimate Reality and in its place projects various appearances. Maya is change and relativity. The question that naturally arises when considering the arguments of Vedanta is: If everything is all-pervading Consciousness, why do we see multiplicity? The answer is that it is due to ignorance (avidya). Avidya is darkness or the absence of the light of the Self. Avidya not only veils the Self from us but also projects something in its place, making the unreal appear to us as real. We experience the sky as blue and curved like a vault, but we know that this appearance is an optical illusion. When the two attributes are taken