Swami Vivekananda’s Practical Vedanta
/Via Swami Sarvapriyananda’s book - What is Vedanta
Now let us ask this question one more time - What is Vedanta? Let us put this question to Swami Vivekananda. We have narrowed it down, drilling deeper and deeper, and we have reached the core idea of Vedanta. What we have been saying so far sounds rather abstract. Now let us back up, expand outwards, reconnecting with whatever we have left behind.
Swami Vivekananda taught Vedanta as a philosophy of life for all, and called it practical Vedanta. Vedanta has always been practical, and only then a philosophy. It is meant not just for a few monks or pandits, but for everyone who aspires to a high, noble and fulfilling life. The way to enlightenment is not only through philosophical inquiry, but also through meditation, love, and selfless service. Karma, bhakti and yoga, all of which we had left by the wayside, we now accept them back in. Swami Vivekananda says, using one or more of these - meditation, selfless service, devotion and knowledge, realize the divinity within and be free.
Swamiji actually uses the word philosophy for Vedantic enquiry. Philosophy has got a bad name as if it is some kind of intellectual game. But the deepest meaning of philosophy is Jnana Yoga, the inquiry into reality.
By philosophy, meditation, love or work - the four yogas, by practising one or more or all of these, be free. That is the whole of religion. Books, temples, doctrines, churches are secondary details.
In traditional Vedanta, be it Advaita Vedanta, Vishishta Advaita or Dvaita, all these yogas have been accepted. Shankaracharya teaches, Jnanad eva kaivalyam, by knowledge alone one gets enlightenment - but karma is required. It is the first step in spiritual life. Bhakti is also very helpful to the Advaitin. Ramanujacharya too accepts all the yogas. He agrees Jnana or knowledge is important. But first comes karma or action, then Jnana and ultimately Bhakti is central. According to him, devotion is what takes one to liberation. All the ancient masters included all the four yogas. They did not discard any of them, but they did put them in some hierarchical order. Either they put Bhakti as the highest or Jnana as the highest - that which ultimately leads to freedom. Swami Vivekananda flattens this hierarchy and holds that any one of them, or a combination of all of them, can lead you to enlightenment.
For Swamiji, Vedanta has two aspects - the divinity within us and the oneness of existence.
Consider once again the statement, ‘That thou art’. When you inquire into the ‘thou’, or the individual, you come to the divinity within yourself. You are not the body and not the mind, but are beyond body and mind. Chidananda Roopah Shivoham Shivoham, I am the witness consciousness, I am Bliss, I am Shiva, I am Shiva. That is the divinity within each one of us.
But it is not that there are millions of divinities. According to Advaita Vedanta, it is one divinity. Sankhya says we are all separate selves, but Vedanta says the Self which is beyond body and mind, is one. So, there is not only divinity within each of us, but that divinity within each of us is one reality. This is what he means by the oneness of existence.
Swami Vivekananda says that this oneness of all existence and the divinity within each one of us is the surest foundation of morality. There is a wonderful essay by Swami Bhajanananda, a very senior monk of our monastic order with a luminous mind. The essay is titled, “Swami Vivekananda’s Contribution to Moral Philosophy - Ontological Ethics”. In this article, he surveys the entire field of morality and ethics drawing upon different theories from the East and the West. He shows the deficiencies of utilitarian and deontological theories of ethics, how they fail to provide a satisfactory account and foundation of ethics. He then analyses how Swami Vivekananda uses Advaita Vedanta as a foundation for morality. Swami Vivekananda held that, because we are one reality, if I hurt someone or cheat someone, I am injuring myself in a profound sense. Just as we take very good care of ourselves, we should take equally good care, if not more, of everyone else. The golden rule is - treat others as you would have them treat you. Variations of this phrase are found in every religion in the world. If you go to the United Nations Headquarters in New York, you will see this golden rule inscribed there. But now we know why is it that we should treat others the way we want them to treat us. Vedanta shows us how I and the other are not separate. This oneness of all beings is the foundation of morality.
Based on this idea of oneness and divinity within, Swami Vivekananda laid out certain principles. He said, ‘that which strengthens you is true. Reject as poison, that which weakens you’. Vedanta gives strength. What unites all of us is true, what divides us, reject it as false, because of the oneness of existence. What makes us more unselfish, that is the truth. What makes us more selfish, reject it as false.
Vedanta has important implications for inter-religious relations. What does oneness mean, in the context of so many religions whose teachings are different and sometimes contrary? It is very easy to say we are one, but when we look at the world, we see many. How do you deal with multiple religious viewpoints? You cannot practise oneness because you cannot force all the religions together into one religion. That will not work. Oneness at the core is expressed as plurality, as the many. What we have to practise is the harmony of the many. Living together, learning and assimilating from one another is the way to harmony. This great teaching of the harmony of religions, which Swami Vivekananda derived from his master Sri Ramakrishna, is also based on Vedanta.
In many of the talks given by Swami Vivekananda on Advaita, he makes sure to mention how Advaita preserves the preceding steps in religion. Advaita does not discard anything, it does not claim to be superior, and it does not condemn other religions as primitive. That, which has been use ful for one, will be useful for many who come later on. Vedanta does not claim exclusive possession of the truth. It is not a movement from falsity to truth, but rather a movement from a lower truth to a higher truth. So, the harmony of religions follows directly from Vedanta.
Finally, Swami Vivekananda teaches service as spirituality. A great teaching of Sri Ramakrishna was Shiva jnaney jeeva seva - “serve all sentient beings, knowing them to be none other than God”. Notice the phrase ‘knowing them’. He did not say worshipping them as none other than Shiva, believing them to be none other than Shiva, not even meditating upon them as none other than Shiva. Shiva alone is appearing in all these forms. So what should be my attitude to Shiva in the form of all sentient beings? The answer is worship. And what is worship in day-to-day life? It is the actions that we perform. It is whatever we can do for others.
I will end with this teaching from Swami Ranganathananda, the thirteenth President of the Ramakrishna Order. He defined spirituality thus, “when I close my eyes, I find peace within and when I open my eyes, my attitude is ‘what can I do for you? This is spirituality.” The whole idea of ‘‘tat tvam asi’ as the oneness of the universe and the divinity within, is expressed in this statement. When I close my eyes, I feel the divinity within and I find peace, when I open my eyes, the same divinity exists outside, so of course I want to serve.
So, finally, what is Vedanta? We have now asked this question seven times and here are the seven answers -
Vedanta is the core philosophy of the various sects of Hinduism.
It is the highest teachings of the Vedas, it is the cutting edge of knowledge.
Vedanta is Upanishad pramanam. It is the texts called the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras and all the schools that follow from these.
Vedanta is not a journey in space or time or an object - it is a journey from ignorance to knowledge.
Vedanta is distinct from rituals, devotion and meditation - karma, or bhakti and dhyana.
Vedanta is Tat tvam asi ‘that thou art’, and all that follows from it.
Finally in its most broad and magnificent declaration in the world today, Vedanta is Swami Vivekananda’s conception of oneness of existence and the divinity within, expressed as practical Vedanta.