Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
We are now undertaking basic technical
discourse on Vedanta. The text
forming the basis of these posts is 'Kindle Life'. Please do reread previous posts using the labels 'Workings-days' or
'Kindle Life'.
Ch.
25; VEDANTA - LIFE AND ART OF LIVING, continued.
The
exhaustive treatment as it is available for us in the literature of the Hindu
scriptures, seems to consider the entire problem of man and successfully serves
in pursuing all his possibilities.
Therefore, [the philosophy of] Hinduism can serve all people at all
times. However, the scientific method
should be, in its application to new problems, related from time to time to
suit the spirit of the current age and society.
It is merely a question of shifting the emphasis from one aspect to
another, which is determined by the weakness in the mental and intellectual
life of the people. This is the secret of the survival of Hindu philosophy from
its many dark ages and in spite of repeated, unsympathetic governments in its
native land.
[Gurudev,
here, gives a paragraph directed specifically at those of Hindu birth, which
bemoans a tendency for modern Hindus to forget the purpose of the multi-tiered
approach contained in the philosophy and complain about it; in the same way a
beggar complains, when being offered a chance to reside in the raja's palace,
that there are too many rooms… then continues…]
In
order to serve the four different types mentioned prior, the Rsis, desirous of
helping all to gain complete integration of the individual personality,
prescribed four distinct methods, which have come down to us as the four yoga
traditions; karma - selfless work, bhakti - devotion, jnaana - knowledge and
hatha - mysticism. Of these four, bhakti
is the path that can serve majority people the world over and at all times. Man
is essentially a creature of emotions, sentiments, impulses and attachments.
For this reason, we find that in almost all religions, the emphasis is on the
path of devotion. Rarely is the path of self-less work alone seen as being a
path to the divine, but it too exists everywhere. The importance, relevance and
indeed the freedom of each individual to follow the yogas of knowledge and mysticism have
developed almost exclusively in Eastern tradition.
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Bhakti
is most appealing to the generality of mankind; particularly to those who feel
strongly the storms of life (lack of love, sense of being unappreciated,
unrequited sympathies and such like). The emotional creature requires to hear
the echo of emotion in return. Such an individual finds an ample field for
loving the Lord, who Himself has Love inexhaustible, infinite kindness and
endless sympathy. When a devotee thus directs his entire mental energies
towards this infinite ocean of Love, all the love that he can gain is but a
drop of what the Lord offers. The individual comes to depend upon that well of
Love, returning to it again and again, throughout life's sorrow, bereavement,
disappointment, rejection and despair.
To
the man of the 'head', this method can hardly have any appeal. To him emotion has no secret meaning. He can enjoy emotion only when it is
sanctioned and acknowledged by his reason.
He demands satisfaction for the 'head' and views and evaluates things
from the crown of his intellect. The
soft silk-clad, bejewelled Flute-player [Sri Krishna] or the rag-clad, bearded
cross-bearer [Sri Yeshu] is, to the intellectual, a mere mortal who might have
achieved perfection in his day, yet is but a finite specimen as much limited in space and time as any one of us. To an individual
who entertains such an idea, the path of devotion is no inspiring avenue to
gain any amount of self-integration. Perhaps, if he is forced to walk the path
through social pressure or through fear of unhealthy criticism, he only wrecks
himself and ends by becoming a much more disintegrated brute than he was when
first he walked into the temple or church.
To
cater to such men, nowhere in the world can we find a satisfactory philosophy
or even a sufficiently subtle method except in Vedanta.
...conclusion of this chapter next week...
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