THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 
 ANITA D. S. BLAKE 
 
SWAMI Alilll'DANANDA. 
 
VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Divine Heritage of Man 
 
 BY 
 
 swAmi abhedAnanda 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE VEDANTA SOCIETY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1903, 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 Gwr 
 
Bl33 
 
 Dedicated 
 
 to the 
 
 Beloved and Revered Memory 
 
 of the 
 
 BLESSED SWAM I k'lyEKANANDA 
 
 My Spiritual Brother and 
 
 Fellow Disciple of 
 
 BHAGAl^AN SRI RAMAKRISHNA 
 
 '95 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 I. ExisTBNCB o? God 9 
 
 II. Attributes of God 39 
 
 III. Has God Any Form? 6i 
 
 IV. Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. . 83 
 V. The Relation of Soui^ to God 121 
 
 VI. What is an Incarnation of God? 145 
 
 VII. Son op God 167 
 
 VIII. DrviNB Principi,e in Man 193 
 
 5 
 
Existence of God. 
 
' "That which exists is one: men coil it by various 
 names" — Rig veda, I, 164, 46. 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 Human minds seem to have almost ex- 
 hausted their reasoning powers in producing 
 all kinds of arguments that can be given both 
 for and against the existence of God. For 
 hundreds of years philosophers, scientists, and 
 theologians among all nations have been bring- 
 ing forward proofs either to show that there is 
 such a Being as God or to deny His existence 
 entirely. Of course most of the arguments 
 and proofs in favor of the existence of God are 
 convincing to those who already have some 
 sort of belief in the Creator or some concep- 
 tion of the Supreme Being. If we have been 
 brought up in an atmosphere where there pre- 
 vails a beHef in God as the Creator and Ruler 
 of the universe or as an extra-mundane Being 
 
 who, dwelling outside of nature, commands 
 9 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 everything and directs the movements of the 
 world, then unconsciously we breathe in and 
 imbibe that belief from our childhood, and as 
 we grow older we accept all the arguments 
 and evidences that we can find in support of 
 this preconceived idea. 
 
 If we have already a conception of God as 
 the First Cause, then all the inductions and 
 inferences which maintain that idea will 
 naturally appeal to us and we shall take them 
 for granted. But those whose minds are not 
 biased or influenced by any such idea, beHef , or 
 conception, those who are able to examine 
 these proofs critically in the light of modern 
 science, applying logic and reason, and those 
 who freely investigate nature, searching for an 
 extra- cosmic creator and ruler of the universe, 
 may fail to find any convincing proof, and may 
 therefore deny the existence of God, as such, 
 or as the First Cause of all. 
 
 We all know how the theory of evolution has 
 revolutionized the old idea of the special crea- 
 tion of the world out of nothing at some definite 
 10 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 period of time. Those who found consolation 
 in the design theory and held it to be the most 
 unassailable ground in favor of the existence of 
 an Omnipotent Designer, are now hopelessly 
 discouraged by the introduction of the Dar- 
 winian theories of natural selection and sexual 
 selection. By these theories we can explain 
 almost all the so-called designs of the Creator. 
 Moreover, the design argument cannot make 
 clear why under the government of a just, 
 omnipotent, and omniscient Ruler should 
 happen such disorders as the volcanic erup- 
 tions on the Island of Martinique, or as the 
 plagues, famines, and other disasters which 
 devastate different countries, destroying hun- 
 dreds of thousands of innocent Hving creatures. 
 The design theory cannot trace the causes of 
 such disasters; for if there were a Designer, 
 His design should be perfect and there should 
 be harmony instead of discord. 
 
 The monotheistic rehgions have tried to 
 explain the cause of all the disorders that occur 
 
 in the universe by a theory of a Creator of evil 
 11 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 as distinct and separate from the Designer of 
 good. This method of explanation, however, 
 does not help us much in proving the existence 
 of a perfect, all-powerful and infinite God, for 
 we shall then have to admit two beings, one 
 the creator of good and the other the creator of 
 evil, which will make each limited by the other 
 and will take away all idea of the omnipotency 
 and infinity of the Supreme Being. 
 
 Those who beheve that God is the First 
 Cause of the universe, must determine the 
 nature of that first cause — whether He is the 
 efficient or the material cause. We know that 
 these two causes are essential for the production 
 of a thing, as, in the case of a pot, the potter is 
 the efficient and the earth is the material cause. 
 Now if we say that God is the efficient or 
 instrumental cause of the universe, like the 
 maker of a pot, then it would have been im- 
 possible for Him to create without the help of 
 the material cause, which must have co- 
 existed with the Creator. Here we are con- 
 fronted with the same difficulty— that God 
 12 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 who stands outside the material cause, is lim- 
 ited by matter, therefore He cannot be un- 
 limited in the proper sense of the term. If, on 
 the contrary, the material cause be meant by 
 First Cause, then He must have gone through 
 all the changes of evolution, which would make 
 Him Hke a changeable, phenomenal object of 
 the universe, a conclusion which we cannot 
 accept. 
 
 The moral argument that the moral laws 
 presuppose a law-giver cannot prove the exist- 
 ence of God, since we know that natural laws 
 do not presuppose a law-giver. In the first 
 place we should understand what "law" 
 means. The forces of nature are operating in 
 the universe in certain modes, and when the 
 regularity and uniformity of these modes are 
 obser^^ed and interpreted by the human mind, 
 they are called "laws"; consequently these 
 laws are to be found neither in nature nor out- 
 side of it, but in the human mind. Secondly, 
 as in external nature the natural forces acting 
 under regular modes do not presuppose a law- 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 giver, so it can be shown that the moral laws 
 are but modes in which natural forces operate 
 on the moral plane; that they do not need a 
 moral law-giver, but their process is the same as 
 the evolutionary process of the physical world. 
 Furthermore, all such conceptions of God as 
 the natural law-giver or the moral law-giver 
 are rejected by advanced thinkers as the 
 anthropomorphic ideas of uncultured minds. 
 All these proofs and many other arguments 
 like these which were considered to be sufficient 
 to establish the existence of an extra- cosmic 
 creator, ruler, or law-giver of the universe, are 
 now thrown aside as imperfect and fallacious. 
 In these days of science and reason when we 
 try to prove the existence of God, we do not 
 search for a creator or fashioner of the world, 
 for a designer or first cause of the phenomenal 
 universe; neither do we look for a moral law- 
 giver; our conception of God has outgrown 
 those stages of evolution and has become as 
 large as the infinity of the universe. We no 
 
 longer think that this earth is the stationary 
 14 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 centre around which the sun, moon and other 
 luminaries of the heavens revolve, moved by 
 the supernatural power of angels, who, accord- 
 ing to the old-fashioned behef, dwelt above the 
 blue dome of the sky overhead and moved 
 these planets according to their whims and 
 fancies. We are just beginning to understand 
 the vastness of the universe. Modem astron- 
 omy has opened our eyes to the fact that this 
 earth which we inhabit is to be considered as 
 an infinitesimal point when compared with the 
 immensity of space and with the innumerable 
 cosmic bodies that exist above the horizon. We 
 have learned that there are heavenly bodies 
 beyond our solar system, the nearest one of 
 which is so distant from us that its light, travel- 
 ling at the rate of one hundred and eighty- six 
 thousand miles per second, requires three and 
 a half years to reach our earth. There are other 
 stars so remote that thousands of years are 
 needed for their light, travelling at the same 
 rate, to arrive at our planet. We are assured 
 
 that more than one thousand million stars have 
 15 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 been discovered by the telescope and that there 
 may be millions and millions of suns which are 
 yet beyond the reach of our best instruments. 
 
 Thus, as far as we can get by stretching our 
 imagination we do not find any limit or bound- 
 ary to the universe; we still have the feeHng 
 that there is something beyond. This sense 
 of something existing beyond what we know 
 and perceive is always with us; we cannot get 
 rid of it. Even when we try to perceive a 
 finite object, that sense of beyond is most 
 intimately connected with our perception and 
 conception of it. There is a feeling of the 
 infinite very closely associated with all our 
 ideas and concepts. Take, for instance, the 
 geometrical figure, a square; when we try to 
 perceive that square, we can only perceive it 
 by perceiving the space beyond it. We see it 
 as a figure enclosed by four straight Hnes, but 
 at the same time there is a feeling of the space 
 beyond, otherwise we could not perceive the 
 square. 
 
 Again when we look at the space which is cir- 
 16 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 cumscribed by the horizon we do not lose the 
 
 sense that there is something beyond that 
 
 Hmit, that infinite space extends beyond the 
 
 visible horizon. The same perception of Hmit- 
 
 lessness or of the infinite is closely associated 
 
 with the idea of time. We cannot conceive 
 
 either its beginning or its end. There always 
 
 remains the sense of the eternal beyond both 
 
 before and after our conception of time. In 
 
 this way we get the perception of eternity. 
 
 The human mind is so peculiarly constituted 
 
 that it is incapable of finding the absolutely 
 
 defined limit of any thing of the world. Trees, 
 
 mountains, rivers, earth, sun, moon, and all 
 
 other objects of the senses are tangible, but do 
 
 we find any definite Hmit when we carefully 
 
 analyze our perceptions of these objects ? No, 
 
 we do not. We may try our best, but we are 
 
 sure to discover, sooner or later, that there is a 
 
 sense of beyond constantly attached to them. 
 
 Let us take an illustration: suppose that we 
 
 stand under a big oak tree; \yq may look at 
 
 it, touch it, or smell it, but can we perceive the 
 17 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 absolute limit of that tree? Do our senses 
 take in the whole tree at one time? No, our 
 senses cannot reach its deepest roots or its 
 highest branches, nor do we know what is 
 going on under the bark or in the leaves. It is 
 impossible for any one to take in the whole tree 
 at one time ; we may take it in by parts, but at 
 the same time the perception of each part will 
 under all circumstances leave in our minds the 
 sense of beyond. Again when we think of the 
 innumerable atoms and molecules that make 
 up the body of that tree, its finite form vanishes, 
 leaving an impression that what we call *'tree" 
 is indeed an expression of the infinite ; for when 
 the form is gone, that which is left of the tree 
 is inseparable from the infinite ocean of some 
 substance imperceptible to the senses. More- 
 over, when we try to know the power or force 
 that gives form to that tree and makes it living, 
 which cannot be separated from it, then in one 
 sense we must say that the tree has in it some- 
 thing intangible, mysterious and unknowable; 
 
 we cannot help it. 
 
 18 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 In the same manner it can be shown that 
 every finite perception or conception of an 
 object brings with it a sense of beyond, a per- 
 ception of the infinite, or something that is 
 unknown and unknowable, of something that 
 is eternal. Take a drop of water which is 
 finite; put it under the microscope and you 
 will see infinitesimal atoms moving about, some 
 clearly visible, some so minute that they are 
 hardly perceptible with the help of the most 
 powerful microscope. Yet modern chemistry 
 tells us that we can ascertain the relative 
 position of these atoms so minute that millions 
 upon milhons of them could stand upon the 
 point of a needle. Is not the infinitude of this 
 small drop of water as wonderful as the in- 
 finity of space? Indeed the drop of water is 
 finite and infinite at the same time. When we 
 see a flower, or touch it, we cannot help realiz- 
 ing in the same way that it is the finite appear- 
 ance of that something which we cannot know, 
 which is infinite and eternal. It is like a 
 
 beautiful painting upon the canvas of that 
 19 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 eternal invisible substance of the universe which 
 the senses cannot perceive, which the mind 
 cannot grasp or comprehend; it is the expres- 
 sion of that infinite matter which fills all space. 
 No one can deny the existence of this substance 
 which appears to our senses in an infinite 
 variety of forms and shapes. 
 
 Modern science tells us that this all-pervad- 
 ing substance of the universe has neither be- 
 ginning nor end, because we cannot know its 
 limit either in space or in time. As far back 
 as we can go in our conception of time, we find 
 that the sense of beyond is present ; it is there- 
 fore eternal, that is, beginningless and endless. 
 It is neither increased nor diminished by any- 
 thing ; we cannot add one iota to this sub- 
 stance, nor can we subtract anything from it; 
 it is consequently unchangeable in quantity as 
 well as in quality. It is all-powerful because 
 all the forces manifested in the perceptible 
 world proceed from and rest upon that un- 
 limited substance. We may call it by what- 
 ever name we like; it is the real essence of all 
 20 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 phenomena. It is like the ocean upon which 
 the waves of phenomenal forms are rising and, 
 after playing their parts, are disappearing again 
 and again. All these forms of sun, or moon, 
 or stars, of human beings or animals, are 
 nothing but waves in that infinite ocean. As 
 the waves cannot exist without the ocean, so 
 finite objects cannot exist without the infinite 
 substance which is behind and beyond all 
 phenomena. That infinite substance is the 
 support of the universe; it is one because it is 
 infinite ; if the infinite were many, it would lose 
 its limitless nature and become finite. 
 
 Ever since the dawn of intellect upon the 
 horizon of the human mind there has been a 
 constant struggle for a definite knowledge of 
 this something w^hich is beyond all finite exist- 
 ence and yet is not finite. The human mind 
 cannot rest contented with the mere play of 
 appearances, but always yearns to know" w^hat 
 it is that appears. From ancient times those 
 who have had some kind of perception of this 
 infinite as related to the phenomenal universe 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 have also tried to express their ideas by giving 
 different names to it. Thus have arisen the 
 various names by which human minds have 
 designated this infinite substance; but each of 
 these names now stands Hke a landmark in the 
 path of the evolution of the conception of God. 
 Whether we call that infinite substance God, 
 or Creator, or Designer, or First Cause, or the 
 Father, or Jehovah, or Allah, or Brahman, we 
 mean the same infinite, eternal, all-powerful 
 and unchangeable Substance. Every individual 
 has a vague perception of this infinite around 
 him or her; some are more conscious of it 
 than others. The more that we are dissatisfied 
 and discontented with finite things, the stronger 
 grows in us the desire to know more about 
 this infinite, to understand more about that 
 something which is not finite, which is beyond 
 finite time and beyond limited space. When 
 we find no pleasure, no satisfaction, no happi- 
 ness in objects Hmited by time and space, and 
 when we reahze the transitoriness of all that is 
 
 finite, our inner nature longs for that which is 
 22 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 absolutely unlimited, and we wish to know 
 where it is and how it is. We seek it here and 
 there, not knowing exactly what we want; we 
 struggle for knowledge; and this struggle, this 
 search for that Infinite Being, grows stronger 
 and stronger until the reahzation of the true 
 nature of the infinite is obtained. 
 
 To a materiaHst who studies the objective 
 side of the universe, this infinite substance 
 appears as material and insentient; he calls 
 it matter, and tries to deduce this phenomenal 
 world from this infinite unintelligent matter. 
 The matter of the materiaHst, however, is as 
 infinite, as eternal, as all-powerful as the God 
 or the Supreme Being of the religionists. A 
 materialist simply studies the objective world 
 and does not recognize or study the subjective 
 universe; therefore he is satisfied with his con- 
 clusions; but as the objective side is only one- 
 half of the universe, his conclusions are one- 
 sided. Those who, on the contrary, study 
 subjective nature, discover the same infinite 
 
 behind their Hmited minds, beyond every idea, 
 23 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 thought, feehng, or sensation. The finite mind 
 is that which takes the forms of thoughts, ideas, 
 feehngs, sensations, and which is Hmited by the 
 sense of "I." When, however, we try to think 
 of the definite boundary of the sense of '^I " or 
 of the finite mind, we cannot find it ; we fail to 
 trace the beginning or end of that which thinks, 
 or feels, or perceives, or conceives, or imagines. 
 We reahze that as physical forms are like the 
 waves in the infinite ocean of eternal space 
 filled with substance, so thoughts, ideas, feel- 
 ings, sensations are but so many waves in the 
 infinite ocean of mental space filled with finer 
 substance. As we cannot attach the sense of 
 "I" to our physical form, so we cannot call 
 these mental forms our own. Thus after care- 
 ful study the students of the subjective world 
 come to the conclusion that the subjective 
 infinite is the Reality of the universe, and that 
 external phenomena are but the representa- 
 tions or projections of the subjective infinite, 
 or mind. According to them time and space do 
 
 not exist outside the mind, consequently every- 
 24 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 thing in space and time is Hke a picture of the 
 
 subjective idea. They deny the existence of 
 
 matter and trace the origin of all quahties or 
 
 powers of the finite mind to that infinite mind. 
 
 They give the attribute of intelligence to it and 
 
 call it the eternal, intelHgent, cosmic mind. 
 
 The existence of infinite mind is as undeniable 
 
 as that of infinite matter. But this substance, 
 
 whether we call it mind or matter, subject or 
 
 object, is the one unknowable Being of the 
 
 universe. All mental as well as all physical 
 
 forms are but its appearances. It is called 
 
 in Sanskrit Brahman. From this infinite and 
 
 eternal Brahman we have come into existence; 
 
 in It we live and into It w^e return at the end of 
 
 phenomenal existence. 
 
 In ancient India the question was asked, 
 
 *'What is God?" The answer we find in 
 
 Vedanta : " That from which all animate and 
 
 inanimate objects have come into existence, in 
 
 which they live and play like waves in the sea, 
 
 and into which they return ultimately at the 
 
 time of dissolution, know that to be Brahman, 
 25 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 or the infinite Substance, or God." Who can 
 hve without being sustained by this Infinite 
 One ? As a painting cannot stand without the 
 background, so phenomena cannot exist with- 
 out being supported by the infinite Substance 
 or Brahman. It pervades the universe, inter- 
 penetrating atoms and molecules, yet it lies 
 beyond all the mental and physical phenomena 
 of the manifested universe. It is not confined 
 by the limitations of sex or gender; we may 
 call this Being he, she, or it. This infinite 
 substance or Brahman is incomprehensible 
 and unknowable to finite minds. That to 
 which the modern agnostics refer when they use 
 the term "Unknowable" is the same Infinite 
 Being. 
 
 Here we must not forget the meaning of the 
 verb "to know." In its ordinary sense "to 
 know" means first to perceive through the 
 senses and then to form a concept of the object 
 perceived. Consequently, all our knowledge 
 is limited by the power of perception as well 
 
 as by the mind. To know God or the Infinite 
 26 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 Being by the same kind of knowledge as that 
 by which we know a stone or a tree or a dog 
 would be tantamount to annihilating God. 
 Because a known God in this sense would 
 cease to be God; He would become a phenom- 
 enal object, an idol, and not the Infinite Being, 
 for in trying to know God, we would be bringing 
 that Infinite Being within the limits of our finite 
 mind. In this sense, therefore, God, or the In- 
 finite Being, is always unknown and unknow- 
 able. Shall we then join the agnostics and be 
 contented with our ignorance and powerless- 
 ness to know the Infinite ? Shall we cease from 
 all our attempts and struggles to understand 
 the nature of the Infinite or to know the exist- 
 ence of God when He is unknowable? No. 
 Here is a great fact to learn, that although the 
 Infinite Being is unknown and unknowable 
 according to the point of view of modern 
 agnosticism. He is more than known, more than 
 knowable from the standpoint of the Vedanta. 
 He is the essence of our being, the essence of our 
 
 Self. He is the source of our knowledge. All 
 
 27 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 knowledge proceeds from that infinite Wisdom; 
 
 when we know a thing, we know it in and 
 
 through Him. When, for instance, we know 
 
 a table, we say that the table is known, but can 
 
 we trace the source of this knowledge? Do 
 
 we know from where it comes? It is not 
 
 created by us. It is eternal; it exists in the 
 
 infinite mind or that something behind the 
 
 finite mind, and through that knowledge we 
 
 say that the table is known. When we say 
 
 that ether is unknown and unknowable, we use 
 
 this same knowledge as our guide. That by 
 
 which we are able to cognize a thing and to 
 
 call it known or unknown is Divinity itself. 
 
 Therefore whether we know a thing or do not 
 
 know it, knowledge in either case is possible 
 
 only through the one source of all wisdom and 
 
 consciousness. 
 
 It is for this reason that God is more than 
 
 anything known and knowable or anything 
 
 unknown and unknowable. He is infinitely 
 
 higher than either. He is the essence of the 
 
 ego or "I" J no one can live without being sus- 
 28 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 talned by that infinite source of existence, 
 knowledge, and consciousness. It is not that 
 God dwells somewhere outside of the universe 
 and from there is making my blood circulate 
 or my heart beat, but He is in every cell of my 
 body. He fills the space of my form. I owe my 
 existence to Him. He is the Soul of my soul 
 as well as the Soul of the universe. He is in 
 you, in me, in the chair, in the wall and every- 
 where, yet we do not see or know Him. It 
 would be a great degradation of God if He 
 could be known by our ordinary knowledge. 
 He would then be like a changeable, limited, 
 phenomenal something such as we perceive 
 with our senses; whereas He is in fact the 
 Knower of the universe, the Eternal Subject 
 who knows everything in each of us. The 
 Knower or the Subject in us is unchangeable, 
 eternal and one. 
 
 When we understand that by knowledge is 
 meant objectification, we reahze that all our 
 attempts to express that infinite Subject in 
 language — to call Him Father, Brother, or dear- 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 est Friend — are nothing but so many efforts of 
 the human mind to objectify the infinite, un- 
 limited Subject of the universe. We cannot, 
 however, remain satisfied with this imperfect 
 knowledge of Divinity; we desire to know 
 more about the Infinite Being. Gradually we 
 may come to reahze that He is the Creator of 
 the world, the Governor of all, or the First 
 Cause of the universe. But here again we 
 shall not rest content; we shall still wish to 
 know more about Him. Then we shall find 
 that the same Infinite Substance or Being 
 which is beyond every finite object, beyond 
 space and time, above mind and body, is in 
 reality not very far from us; wherefore it is 
 said in the Vedanta : 
 
 "He is far from us, yet He is nearer than 
 the nearest; He dwells in everything, yet He 
 is outside the phenomenal universe; He is 
 infinitely smaller than the atom of an atom, 
 yet He is infinitely larger than the largest 
 solar system, than the space which covers the 
 
 perceptible universe." 
 
 30 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 When we see the sun, moon, or stars, we 
 
 see that part of the Infinite which is visible to 
 
 our eyes; when we hear a sound, we perceive 
 
 that part of the Infinite which is audible to 
 
 our ears; but God is in reaHty beyond light, 
 
 sound, odor, taste or touch. He is the same 
 
 Infinite Substance which transcends time and 
 
 space, mind and sense powers. By knowing 
 
 so much of the Infinite, however, we are yet 
 
 unsatisfied, we still desire to know more. Our 
 
 souls still long for a deeper knowledge of that 
 
 all-pervading Substance. The more we study 
 
 phenomenal objects the less are we content 
 
 with the knowledge that we can gather from this 
 
 study. We may devote the whole of our lives 
 
 and spend all the energy we possess in trying 
 
 to satisfy this craving for knowledge of the 
 
 Infinite by studying the phenomenal world, 
 
 but this thirst for knowledge will not be 
 
 quenched; it will remain, as it does in all the 
 
 great thinkers of the world. We may read 
 
 books, philosophies, sciences, and Scriptures, 
 
 but the longing of the soul will never be fulfilled 
 31 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 by reading books. There is only one way to 
 
 quench this thirst and that is by reahzing the 
 
 Infinite. 
 
 The word "realize" means something more 
 
 than ordinary knowing. By "realizing" we 
 
 mean being and becoming one with the 
 
 Infinite. If we can know that the all-pervading 
 
 Being is the Essence of our lives and the Soul 
 
 of our souls, we become more and more 
 
 acquainted with that Infinite and understand 
 
 its whole nature — not the objective side alone, 
 
 not merely as the material substance, but as 
 
 the infinite mind substance, and also as that 
 
 which transcends this substance of mental 
 
 phenomena. I mean when we have realized 
 
 the Infinite Spirit, when we have found that It 
 
 is the source of all powers and forces as well as 
 
 the basis of our consciousness, the foundation 
 
 of our existence, the life and the reality of the 
 
 universe, then the thirst for knowledge is 
 
 quenched, then all questions regarding the 
 
 existence of God are answered, all doubts 
 
 cease forever. 
 
 32 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 But it may be asked : How can we know the 
 Supreme Being as the Soul of our souls? By 
 rising above the plane of consciousness of the 
 finite. This plane of consciousness will never 
 reveal the true nature of the Infinite Being 
 because it functions within the Hmitations of 
 the senses, consequently it cannot reach the 
 infinite which is above all limits. We may 
 have a vague perception of it or we may think 
 of it as the subject or object, as mind or 
 matter; but that is not the same as the realiza- 
 tion of the Absolute One. If we can rise above 
 time and space, shutting out all sense objects, 
 making the mind impervious to all sensations 
 of external objects, if we can then direct the 
 whole energy of mind and soul towards the 
 Infinite within us, then we shall be able to 
 realize the Soul of our souls, then the truth of 
 the existence of God will be revealed to us. 
 
 If we wish to know God, we shall have to 
 
 enter into the state of superconsciousness. 
 
 All the great spiritual leaders of the world, 
 
 Jesus the Christ, Buddha, Ramakrishna, and 
 33 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 others, who preached the existence of God, 
 first reahzed Him by entering into the state of 
 superconsciousness. Those who have studied 
 Raja Yoga* and have practised it will under- 
 stand what superconsciousness means. All 
 revelation and inspiration come in that state. 
 The longing for more knowledge has led the 
 river of the soul into the ocean of Infinite 
 Wisdom. In that state the individual soul 
 realizes the bhssfulness which is beyond the 
 reach of ordinary mortals, which cannot be 
 obtained by wealth, property, or worldly pros- 
 perity. Friends and relatives cannot help us 
 in rising to that bHssful condition. It is a 
 state attaining which nothing remains unattain- 
 able, realizing which the true nature of every- 
 thing is revealed. It is a state in which no 
 desire remains unfulfilled, in which the indi- 
 vidual soul, transcending all limitations, be- 
 comes one with the Infinite and enjoys un- 
 
 * " Raja Yoga," by Swami Vivekananda. Published 
 under the auspices of the Vedanta Society of New 
 York. 
 
 34 
 
The Existence of God. 
 
 bounded happiness both here and hereafter. 
 Such a knower of the Infinite says : 
 
 ''I have attained everything that is to be 
 attained, I have reaHzed all that can be real- 
 ized. I have known that Infinite Being that 
 is worshipped under different names by dif- 
 ferent nations as God, or Father in heaven, 
 or Allah, or Buddha, or Christ, or Divine 
 
 Mother, or Brahman.'^ 
 35 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
** The Supreme Spirit is devoid of the defining attributes 
 of form, color, etc. He is unchangeable ^ unborn, eternal, 
 indestructible, imperishable and is always of one nature. 
 He is pure and the repository of all blessed qualities." 
 — ^Vishnu Purana. 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 God is described in the different Scriptures 
 as a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, true 
 and one ; the omnipotent and omniscient 
 creator and governor of the universe, and the 
 repository of all blessed quahties, such as jus- 
 tice, goodness, mercy, and love. If we ask a 
 Christian, a Jew, a Mahometan, a Parsee, a 
 Hindu, or a follower of any other sect or creed 
 what is his conception of God, each one of them 
 will quote passages from his Scriptures giving 
 the same attributes to the Divine Being, whom 
 they worship under various names— such as 
 Father in heaven, Jehovah, Allah, Ahura 
 Mazda, or Brahman. The names may vary 
 but the attributes of God are with each exactly 
 
 the same. 
 
 A catholic priest who bows down before the 
 39 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 image of Jesus the Christ and prays to Him, 
 who burns incense and Hghts candles; a 
 protestant clergyman who does not believe in 
 bowing down before any image; a Mahometan 
 priest who is a fanatical iconoclast and denies 
 all forms of God; or a Hindu priest who wor- 
 ships an idol in a temple, invariably agree with 
 one another in describing the attributes of the 
 God they worship. There is no difference be- 
 tween the God of a Christian or a Mahometan 
 of a Parsee or a Hindu, because each of them 
 believes that God is infinite and one. 
 
 How can there be many Gods when their 
 attributes are the same and identical every- 
 where? Yet a Christian calls the Hindu a 
 heathen, and a Mahometan calls a Christian 
 an imbeHever, and each in turn quarrels with 
 the other. Why is there so much persecution 
 if God is one ? Because of the ignorance of His 
 behevers. They do not even try to understand 
 the true meaning of any of the attributes which 
 they give to God; their eyes are blinded by 
 
 ignorance, fanaticism and bigotry. Stimu- 
 40 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 lated by false belief and superstition, they 
 maintain that their God is the only true God, 
 while the God of other nations is untrue, and 
 they cannot see that every one worships the 
 same Infinite Being. Fanatical Christians 
 preach: "Beware of the God of the heathen. 
 He cannot give salvation to His worshippers"; 
 as if there were two Gods. 
 
 Ignorance is the mother of fanaticism, 
 bigotry, superstition, and of all that springs 
 from them. Fanatics cannot realize that 
 God is the common property of all, that 
 whether He be worshipped by a Christian 
 or by a Hindu, He is one, because His attri- 
 butes are identical. Among those who are 
 not so fanatical there are many who give 
 the same attributes to God without, how- 
 ever, understanding their true meaning. 
 Ninety per cent, of monotheists all over 
 the world say: ''God is infinite and one," 
 but at the same time they think of some 
 being with a human form sitting somewhere 
 
 outside of the universe. If we ask them 
 41 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 the meaning of the word "infinite," their 
 answers are often full of illogical nonsense. 
 They will make God as finite as possible 
 and bring forward all sorts of fallacious 
 arguments to support their position. 
 
 Those who believe in a personal God, 
 give Him a human form, human attributes 
 and a human personality without realizing 
 that they are making their Lord Hmited in 
 power, personality and attributes. Of course 
 it is not their fault; it is quite natural that 
 they should think of the Ruler of the uni- 
 verse as a human being, because we are aU 
 human and the Hmit of our conception is a 
 human being. Our world is a human world, 
 our God must be a human God, and our ex- 
 planation of the universe must also be human. 
 Having seen the governor of a country, who 
 is a human being with certain powers, we 
 form a concept and keep it in our minds 
 when we conceive the Supreme Being as the 
 governor of the universe. Naturally we give 
 
 Him a human form and a human personality, 
 42 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 only with this difference — that the governor 
 of the country is hmited in power, size, and 
 quaHfications, while the Ruler of the universe 
 is unlimited in power and immensely magni- 
 fied in size and qualifications; yet however 
 great He may be, He must still appear more 
 or less like a human being. In this way our 
 explanation of the universe has become 
 hmnan, and our God has acquired a human 
 form and personahty. If a cow became a 
 philosopher and had a reHgion, her concep- 
 tion of God would be in cow form, her ex- 
 planation of the universe would be through 
 that cow God. She would not be able to 
 comprehend our Lord at all. Similarly if 
 a tiger had a God, his conception would be 
 of a tiger form. If there be a being with a 
 form different from ours, with a nature higher 
 than ours, his God will be like himself. As 
 we do not know what conception of God 
 the people of Mars have, we cannot know 
 their God; if they are not like human beings, 
 
 their conception will differ from ours. So 
 43 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 none of these pictures of God and none ot 
 these explanations of the universe can be 
 complete in itself. It may be a partial truth, 
 but not the whole truth. Therefore all 
 those conceptions of God which we so often 
 hear — that He is like a human being sitting 
 on a throne outside the universe and from 
 there governing the universe by His powers, 
 are incomplete and imperfect. 
 
 But ordinary people do not see this. Each 
 is sure that his conception and explanation 
 are the best. They cannot realize how there 
 can be anything higher or greater than what 
 they already believe. Yet when they are 
 asked, what are the attributes of such a 
 human God, they will say: "He is a spirit, 
 infinite, eternal, unchangeable, true and one; 
 He is the omniscient and omnipotent creator 
 and the repository of all blessed qualities." 
 Thus they unconsciously make God finite 
 and infinite at the same time. Can there 
 be anything more absurd and self-contra- 
 dictory than a finite infinite God! If He 
 44 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 is finite, He is limited by time, space and 
 causation, must have a beginning and end, 
 and cannot be unchangeable. A finite God 
 must be changeable and must perish like all 
 mortal things. Are we ready to beheve in 
 such a perishable God? Not for a moment. 
 We cannot give any form to God because 
 form means limitation in space by time. 
 By giving a form to God, we make Him 
 subject to time, space and the law of causa- 
 tion, consequently we make Him mortal 
 like any other object of the phenomenal 
 universe which has form. God with a form 
 cannot be immortal and eternal, He must die. 
 Therefore we cannot say that God is finite 
 or that He has any form. 
 
 He is infinite. But let us have a clear 
 understanding of the meaning of this word 
 *' infinite," and use it in its proper sense. 
 That which is not limited by time and space 
 and not subject to the law of causation, which 
 is above time, space, and beyond all laws 
 
 is infinite. God is not limited by time or 
 45 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 space, neither has He any cause. He is 
 absolute. The infinite again must be one, 
 otherwise it is finite. If there be any other 
 thing beside that infinite then it is no longer 
 infinite; it is Hmited by that object, conse- 
 quently it has become finite. Thus if we 
 admit that God is infinite, we deny the exist- 
 ence of any other thing besides God; other- 
 wise He would be limited by that thing, and 
 be subject to time, space and the law of causa- 
 tion. 
 
 If we say that matter exists separate from 
 and outside of God, we have made Him 
 limited by matter, we have made Him 
 finite and perishable. If we think of our- 
 selves as separate from God, as independent 
 of His Being, then in our thought we have 
 denied His illimitable nature. There is for 
 the same reason, not a single particle of matter 
 in the universe that can exist independent 
 of God's existence or outside of God; if He 
 is infinite and one, our bodies and every 
 
 thing of the universe from the minutest atom 
 46 
 
Attributes of" God. 
 
 to the largest planetary system, from the 
 lowest animalcule to the highest Being, 
 exists in and through that Infinite Existence. 
 This may be startHng to many, but the fact 
 cannot be denied. If we wish to be logical, 
 if the word "infinite" conveys any meaning 
 at all, we cannot avoid the logical conclusion 
 which must inevitably follow. If, on the con- 
 trary, we use the word "infinite" meaning 
 something finite, how foolish and illogical 
 shall we be! The conclusion is this: If 
 God is infinite and one, then mind and mat- 
 ter, subject and object, creator and creation, 
 and all relative dual existences are within 
 that Being, and not outside of it. The whole 
 universe is in God and God is in it; it is 
 inseparable from God. I am in Him and 
 He is in me; each one of us is inseparable 
 from His being; if one atom of my body 
 exists, that existence cannot be separated 
 from His existence. 
 
 We have now understood the meaning of 
 
 the two attributes infinite and one. Let us 
 47 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 examine the meaning of other attributes. 
 God is unchangeable, that is, He is always 
 the same and never subject to any change 
 whatsoever, because He is eternal, without 
 beginning or end,. That which has a be- 
 ginning must have an end and go through 
 all the changes of birth, growth, decay and 
 death; everything that has a beginning must 
 grow, decay and die. That which is limited 
 by time and space must go through all these 
 changes, which, on the contrary, never aflFect 
 the infinite Being. 
 
 God is a spirit. What is to be understood 
 by spirit? It does not mean a shadowy form 
 or an apparition. By this term is meant 
 pure, self-luminous intelligence, the source 
 of all consciousness, the basis and foundation 
 of all knowledge, the background of mind 
 and matter, of subject and object. Again 
 He is true. That which is not God is untrue 
 or unreal; or, in other words, that which 
 is finite, manifold, changeable, non-eternal, 
 
 transitory, is untrue and unreal. Further- 
 48 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 more, God is omnipresent and omniscient, 
 and upon Him depends the existence of mind 
 and matter, of subject and object. Let us 
 understand this a little more clearly. What- 
 ever exists in the universe, whether mental 
 or physical, subjective or objective, can 
 exist only as related to a self-conscious intelli- 
 gence. When we analyze our perceptions, 
 we find that that which is not related to any 
 state of our consciousness does not exist in 
 relation to us, because we do not know any- 
 thing about it. Existence and knowledge 
 or consciousness are inseparable. 
 
 As our small worlds of which we are con- 
 scious, exist in relation to our conscious 
 being, so the phenomenal universe can only 
 exist as being related to the knowledge of the 
 cosmic knower or the universal Being; other- 
 wise there cannot be any existence, because 
 existence and knowledge, existence and con- 
 sciousness are inseparable; therefore God is 
 called omniscient or all-knowing. Nothing 
 exists without being related directly to the 
 
 49 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 intelligence and knowledge of the infinite 
 Being. As this infinite Being pervades the 
 universe and interpenetrates every particle 
 of matter, giving existence to everything, 
 so the light of His knowledge pervades the 
 universe; therefore He is omnipresent and 
 omniscient. If these various conceptions, 
 obtained by analyzing the attributes of God, 
 be summed up, we shall learn that God is the 
 Absolute Being, eternal, true and everlasting, 
 the one infinite ocean of self-existent, self- 
 luminous intelligence which is the source 
 of all consciousness. Nothing can exist out- 
 side of or independent of that one omnipresent 
 and omniscient Being of the universe. 
 
 Here a question arises, — if there be no 
 other being beside God, what will become of 
 the diverse phenomena of the universe, which 
 we perceive with our senses? Do they not 
 exist? Yes, they do, but their existence 
 depends upon God. They have no separate 
 and independent existence; they are like 
 
 froth, bubbles and waves on that infinite ocean 
 50 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 of intelligence. As a wave cannot exist for 
 a moment independent of the ocean, so the 
 phenomena of the world depend for their 
 existence upon the Absolute Being. 
 
 This ocean of pure self-luminous intelli- 
 gence and existence is described in Vedanta 
 by the word BraJiman, which means absolute 
 existence and intelligence, the unlimited source 
 of knowledge and of consciousness; while 
 the power which produces these waves of 
 phenomena is called Maya. This inscruta- 
 ble power of Maya dwells in the infinite ocean 
 of ReaHty or Brahman from eternity to eter- 
 nity. It is as inseparable from the Divine 
 Being as the power of burning is inseparable 
 from fire. Sometimes this power remains 
 latent as undifferentiated cosmic energy and 
 sometimes it manifests itself as the various 
 forces of nature. When that pow^r is latent, 
 all phenomena disappear, and dissolution or 
 involution takes place; but when it begins 
 to express itself as natural forces, it produces 
 
 the waves and bubbles of phenomena in the 
 ol 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 ocean of Brahman. Then the Absolute Being 
 seen through the active or manifesting power 
 of Maya or cosmic energy, appears as the 
 creator and governor of the universe. 
 
 He is called in Sanskrit "Iswara/' which 
 means also the creator and ruler of the uni- 
 verse. He is the first-born lord, or the cosmic 
 ego. This cosmic ego, the Iswara or lord, 
 is called the creator of the universe. Here 
 let us understand clearly in what sense God 
 can be properly called the creator of the world. 
 Does He create it out of nothing as described 
 in the monotheistic and duaHstic Scriptures 
 of the Christians, Jews, Mahometans, and 
 Parsees? No, He does not create anything 
 out of nothing; He is not the creator in that 
 sense. In the first place we must not forget 
 the truth, discovered and established by ancient 
 and modern science, that something cannot 
 come out of nothing, consequently to a sci- 
 entific mind creation out of nothing has no 
 meaning. The theory of a special creation 
 
 of the world as we read in Genesis has been 
 52 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 proved to be an unscientific myth. Secondly, 
 the doctrine of evolution is now so unques- 
 tionably established that we can safely accept 
 it in the place of the mythical story of special 
 creation. Therefore when we speak of God 
 as the creator of the universe, we do not mean 
 one who brought the world into existence out 
 of nothing as our forefathers understood by 
 this expression; but applying the Hght of 
 science and being guided by the reasoning of 
 the Vedanta philosophy, we must understand 
 that Iswara is called the creator because He 
 projects out of His own being the powers 
 existing there potentially and makes them 
 active. Thus the word creator means the 
 projector of all forces and of all phenomenal 
 forms which potentially existed as eternal 
 energy in Iswara. That projection from 
 the potential into the kinetic or active state 
 takes place gradually through the process of 
 the evolution of the Maya or the cosmic energy 
 which dwells in the Iswara of Vedanta. Ve- 
 danta teaches that although Brahman or the 
 53 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Absolute Being or Godhead is above all 
 activity, still the Iswara is full of power and 
 action. He starts the evolution of the cosmic 
 energy which before the beginning of the 
 cycHc evolution held all phenomenal names 
 and forms in its bosom. Iswara, according 
 to Vedanta, is both the material and the effi- 
 cient cause of the universe. He does not 
 create matter, but matter is only a certain 
 state or mode of motion of the universal Divine 
 energy. When the dormant power of Maya 
 begins to manifest, all material forms com- 
 mence to appear. 
 
 The next attribute of Iswara is that of 
 ruler or governor of the universe. How 
 does He govern? Does He govern the world 
 from outside, as it is said in the Christian 
 Scriptures ? No, He governs from within and 
 never from without. He is the Anlar-ydmiftj 
 the internal ruler of the universe. As the 
 soul is the internal ruler of the body, so Iswara, 
 being the soul of the universe, governs it 
 
 from within and not from outside. 
 54 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 He is the repository of all blessed qualities, 
 that isj all that is good, all that is great, all 
 that is subhme, is but the expression of the 
 Divine power. But God Himself is above 
 good and evil, beyond virtue and vice, above 
 all relativity and beyond all conditions. He 
 loves all beings equally and impartially; He 
 does not love one nation for certain qualifica- 
 tions and hate other nations, but He loves 
 every Hving soul, whether human or animal, 
 equally. Just as the sun shines alike upon 
 the heads of sages and sinners, so the love 
 of that Divine Being touches the souls of all. 
 Why does He love all beings equally? Be- 
 cause each individual soul is related to God 
 as a part is related to the whole. As a part 
 cannot exist independently, so our souls can- 
 not exist independent of the Soul of the uni- 
 verse. Therefore we live and move and exist 
 in and through the whole, or Iswara. God 
 loves His parts because He cannot help it. 
 How can it be otherwise? How is it possible 
 
 for a whole not to love its own parts? Love 
 55 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 means the expression of oneness. At the 
 
 bottom of all earthly love exists this idea of 
 
 oneness; the lover and the beloved must be 
 
 one, one in spirit, in thoughts, in ideas, in 
 
 everything, otherwise there is no real love. 
 
 Therefore God is all-loving. Thus if we try 
 
 with the aid of the hght of science and 
 
 reason to understand the true significance 
 
 of the attributes of God, we are forcibly 
 
 driven to the conclusions of Vedanta. With 
 
 the help of Vedanta we can realize the true 
 
 relation which the universe bears to God, 
 
 which the individual soul bears to the infinite 
 
 Being. 
 
 If we once understand that God is the source 
 
 of all existence and power and is the one 
 
 Reahty, that outside of God no existence is 
 
 possible, then we begin to feel the presence 
 
 of divinity everywhere. In every action of 
 
 our lives we realize that the divine power is 
 
 working through us, and at every moment of 
 
 our earthly existence we feel ourselves to 
 
 be like so many instruments through which 
 56 
 
Attributes of God. 
 
 the Divine will is manifesting itself and doing 
 whatever He ordains. All the actions of our 
 lives are then turned into acts of worship of 
 the Supreme Deity. Being dead to selfish- 
 ness, we are then able to say from the bottom 
 of our hearts, '' O Lord, Thy will, not mine, 
 be done." 
 
 All fear then vanishes, all sins are redeemed, 
 and the individual soul becomes free from 
 the bondage of ignorance and selfishness. 
 This reahzation leads to a still higher and 
 closer union with the Divine. The soul 
 gradually realizes spiritual oneness with the 
 universal Spirit or Brahman. Thus having 
 attained to God-consciousness, which is the 
 highest ideal of all religions, the individual 
 soul becomes like Christ and declares "I and 
 
 my Father are one." 
 
 57 
 
Has God any Form? 
 
" The all-pervading, omnipotent and formless Spirit 
 manifests Him,self in various forms under different 
 names to fulfil the desires of His worshippers.** — Vishnu 
 Purana. 
 
Has God any Form? 
 
 Students of the Old Testament are fa- 
 miliar with the fact that the ancient Israelites 
 conceived their God Elohim or Yahveh, 
 the Lord God, as possessing human attributes 
 and a human form. There are many passages 
 which testify that God walked with Adam 
 and Eve and spoke to them; He ate and 
 drank with the elders of Israel; and the Lord 
 said to Moses: "I will cover thee with my 
 hand while I pass by, and I will take my hand 
 away and thou shalt see my back parts; but 
 my face shalt not be seen." (Ex. xxxiii, 22, 
 23.) Yahveh was the Lord of the House of 
 Israel. He was, moreover, not only the God 
 of Abraham and of Moses, but He became 
 the Supreme Being and the only God, above 
 
 all gods. Upon this conception of the Supreme 
 61 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Being with a human form and human per- 
 sonaHty have been built the structures of the 
 two great monotheistic or duahstic reUgions, 
 Judaism and Christianity. 
 
 The same Elohim or Yahveh, the Lord 
 of the house of Israel, the God of Abraham, 
 of Isaac and Jacob, and of Moses, is the al- 
 mighty Creator, Ruler, and Father in heaven 
 of the Jews and Christians of the present day. 
 He sits on a throne outside the universe, hav- 
 ing a right hand and a left hand, and accord- 
 ing to the Christian belief, Jesus sits at His 
 right hand. Neither Christ nor Moses nor 
 any of the prophets had to introduce a new 
 God among the Jews. All of them accepted 
 and worshipped the same Elohim or Yahveh, 
 who was at first only the tribal god of the house 
 of Israel. Here we must not forget the original 
 meaning of the word "Elohim," which, al- 
 though translated into EngHsh in the Old 
 Testament as God, at first meant "that which 
 is feared" and was sometimes used vaguely 
 
 to describe unseen powers or "objects of 
 62 
 
Has God any Form *? 
 
 man's fear" or superhuman beings not prop- 
 erly regarded as divine in their nature. It 
 was also applied to a disembodied soul, 
 which was conceived as the image of the 
 body in which it once dwelt, as, for example, 
 we read in First Samuel (ch. ^S, v. 13), the 
 witch of Endor saw ''Elohim ascending out 
 of the earth," meaning thereby some being 
 or disembodied spirit of an unearthly, super- 
 human character. 
 
 This word "Elohim" was the plural form 
 of "Eloah" and was also used to denote the 
 gods of the heathen. It was a generic name 
 given to supernatural characters of all kinds 
 having quasicorporeal forms, as well as to 
 the gods of different tribes. Chemosh, Dagon, 
 Baal, Yahveh were all known as Elohim and 
 each of them had a human form. But in 
 spite of its plural meaning the Hebrew prophets 
 used it especially for Yahveh the God of Israel. 
 The Israelites, however, believed Yahveh to 
 be immeasurably superior to the Elohim of 
 
 other tribes; while the inscription on the 
 63 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held 
 Chemosh to be as unquestionably the superior 
 of Yahveh. It is said: ''So now Yahveh 
 the Elohim of Israel hath dispossessed the 
 Amorites from before His people Israel, and 
 shouldst thou possess it? Wilt not thou pos- 
 sess that which Chemosh thy Elohim giveth 
 thee to possess?" (Judges xi, 23, 24.) The 
 Israelites of those days considered the differ- 
 ence between one Elohim and another to be one 
 of degree and not of kind. The same word 
 was likewise applied to Teraphim, the images 
 of family gods which were only deceased ances- 
 tors. Laban asks his son-in-law most indig- 
 nantly, "Wherefore hast thou stolen my 
 Elohim?" 
 
 From a careful study of the Old Testa- 
 ment we see that, although the IsraeHtes 
 beheved in many kinds of Elohim and used 
 the word indiscriminately, Yahveh was the 
 God of their tribe, while other tribes had 
 Elohim of their own. When the house of 
 
 Israel conquered any other tribe, their tribal 
 64 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 God Yahveh stood at the head of the gods of 
 the conquered tribe, as we know from history. 
 When the Babylonians and Chaldeans were 
 conquered by the Israehtes, Yahveh was 
 placed above Bel, Baal, Merodoch, Moloch, 
 and the other Elohim or gods of the conquered 
 tribes. Thus by the gradual process of evolu- 
 tion Elohim or Yahveh became the king or 
 Lord of all gods. We can now easily under- 
 stand what the Hebrew Psalmist meant when 
 he said: ''Among the gods there is none hke 
 unto thee, the king above all gods." But 
 although Yahveh became the supreme Lord 
 of all gods, hence of all tribes and nations, he 
 still did not lose his human form, human attri- 
 butes and human personahty. Even when 
 he became the creator and ruler of the universe, 
 he had the same human form, the same attri- 
 butes and personahty as were ascribed to 
 him by the ancient Israelites. A belief in 
 many gods was at the foundation of the Jud 
 conception of one Supreme Being, and i.. 
 
 veh, the tribal god originally worshippe 
 65 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 under the form of a bull, gradually evolved 
 into "god of gods" and finally into the one 
 and only God of the universe. 
 
 In like manner it can be shown that among 
 the ancient Greeks and other Aryan nations 
 the idea of a personal God with a human 
 form gradually developed from a beHef in 
 many tribal gods or nature gods. All mono- 
 theistic conceptions can be traced back to 
 polytheistic beHefs. The ancient Greeks, Hke 
 all other primitive peoples, worshipped many 
 nature gods. They perceived the forces of 
 nature and gave to them human powers and 
 attributes. We know that Zeus, Apollo, Athene 
 were all personified powers of nature. Zeus 
 originally meant sky, hence god of the sky, 
 the god of rain or rainer. The old prayer 
 of the Athenians was "Rain, rain, O dear 
 Zeus, on the land of the Athenians and on 
 the fields." Here "O dear Zeus" or dear 
 sky at once brings in the personal element. 
 "Dear sky" refers to the god of the sky, 
 
 the governor of rain. Apollo again was the 
 66 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 sun god; Athene, the dawn-goddess. Each 
 of these mythological deities was, further- 
 more, originally the god of some family or 
 clan, and afterward when one family became 
 stronger than others, its family god stood at 
 the head of the other gods; thus in course of 
 time the ancient God Zeus-pitar or in Latin 
 Jupiter, meaning in English Father in heaven, 
 became the God of all gods and was supposed 
 to be the God of all nations. 
 
 So it was in ancient India during the Vedic 
 period. The Vedic poets at first personified 
 the forces of nature and gave them human 
 attributes and intelHgence. They were called 
 in Sanskrit *'Devas" or ''Bright Ones," 
 such as Indra the rainer or thunderer, Agni 
 the god of fire, Vayu the god of storm or 
 wind, Varuna the god of the sky, and so on. 
 Eventually Varuna, lord of the sky, became 
 Deva Deva, the God of all gods, and thus 
 gradually arose in India the monotheistic 
 conception of the Supreme personal God 
 
 with human attributes. It can in the same 
 67 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 way be shown that the tribal gods among the 
 Semitic tribes were at first nothing but nature 
 gods. 
 
 It may be asked here : Why were the forces 
 of nature personified? Because primitive 
 man could not help it. Wherever he saw 
 any activity or motion, he compared it to 
 the conscious activity of his own body or to 
 the voluntary movements of his Umbs, and 
 explained this natural activity by imagining 
 it to be the conscious act of some superhuman 
 being, possessing will-power and intelligence, 
 and who was called the mover. From this 
 we can easily understand the reason for the 
 ancient beHef that all material objects like 
 the sun, moon and stars, were moved by 
 angels. Now we say "it rains" or "it thun- 
 ders," but the primitive man used to say "he 
 rains," "he thunders." In this manner the 
 unscientific minds of ancient times came to 
 a belief in natural agencies. These agents 
 were like human beings, only more powerful 
 
 than any mortal agent. Hence was developed 
 
 68 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 the idea of superhuman beings who became 
 tribal gods, who were invoked in time of need. 
 The Lord of the universe and the king above 
 all gods w^as necessarily infinitely more power- 
 ful than these superhuman agents of nature, 
 but still he had a human form infinitely mag- 
 nified in size, because it is extremely difficult 
 for the human mind to go beyond the idea 
 of a human God. 
 
 From ancient times, however, strong pro- 
 tests have been made by great thinkers against 
 this human idea of God with human form 
 and human attributes; but again and again 
 these objections have been brushed aside by 
 the vast majority of people. Xenophanes, 
 the Greek philosopher, about the sixth cen- 
 tury before Christ tried to overthrow this 
 anthropomorphic conception of God. He 
 said: ''The Godhead is all eyes, all ears, all 
 understanding, unmoved, undi\dded, calmly 
 ruling everything by his thought, Hke men 
 neither in form nor in understanding." The 
 
 early Christians who were brought up in the 
 69 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 schools of Plato and Aristotle also deprecated 
 
 the idea of a human God. To them the 
 
 Supreme Being was no longer simply Elohim 
 
 or Yahveh, the Lord of the house of Israel; 
 
 not merely the God of Abraham, Isaac and 
 
 Jacob, the God who walked in the garden of 
 
 Eden in the cool of the day and ate and drank; 
 
 He was no longer even the God "who maketh 
 
 the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon the 
 
 wings of the wind," but a Supreme Being who 
 
 was infinite, indescribable, unutterable, and 
 
 whose form could not be seen with fleshly 
 
 eyes, whose voice could not be heard with 
 
 mortal ear, whose size was incomprehensible. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria says: "There is no 
 
 name that can properly be named of Him; 
 
 neither the one, nor the good, nor mind, nor 
 
 absolute being, nor Father, nor creator, nor 
 
 Lord can be the appropriate name for Him." 
 
 And Cardinal Newman declares: "God is 
 
 incommunicable in all His attributes.'* 
 
 Not very long ago the Bishop of London 
 
 also protested against the human God, say- 
 70 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 ing: "There is a sense in which we cannot 
 ascribe personality to the unknown, absolute 
 Being; for our sense of personahty is of neces- 
 sity compassed with limitations, and from 
 these limitations we find it impossible to 
 separate our conception of a person." When, 
 indeed, we speak of human personaHty, we 
 include not only age, but sex, character, 
 outward appearance, the expression of the 
 face and so on. 
 
 Those who believe in a personal God with 
 a human form and human attributes do not 
 consider these limitations. They do not think 
 for a moment: How is it possible for the 
 infinite eternal Being to be confined within 
 the limits of a human form, however magnified 
 it may be? How is it possible for the Abso- 
 lute Being to come under the hmitations of 
 time and space? Physical form is nothing 
 but limitation in space and time and if the 
 eternal and infinite God be above time and 
 space, how can He have a physical form? 
 
 Yet most of the dualistic religions teach that 
 71 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 God has a form, and ask us to believe in it 
 and to worship Him as one with form. How 
 are we going to reconcile this self- contradic- 
 tory statement that God is the infinite, eternal 
 Being with a finite form? We do not find 
 any solution of the difficulty in any of the 
 Scriptures of the three great Semitic religions — 
 Judaism, Christianity and Mahometanism. 
 Of these Christianity conceives God under a 
 triune form, while Judaism and Mahometan- 
 ism insist on the absolute unity of the Supreme 
 Being. Where is then the solution of the 
 problem? If God be infinite and all-pervad- 
 ing, how can He have form? 
 
 The duaUsts or monotheists beheve in the 
 Supreme Being with a human form, but 
 they say that that form is not material or 
 physical but spiritual. It cannot be seen 
 by the physical eye, but it can be seen by 
 the spiritual eye of an enhghtened soul. 
 According to the dualistic system of religion 
 in India, the infinite, eternal, unknowable 
 
 Being or substance of the universe, which is 
 72 
 
Has God any Form? 
 
 called in Sanskrit Brahman^ is the source of 
 
 all powers and all forms. Although it is 
 
 formless Hke the infinite ocean of reality or 
 
 of absolute existence, intelhgence and bhss, 
 
 it nevertheless contains in a potential state 
 
 all the forms of the waves that can arise in 
 
 that eternal ocean. The water of the ocean 
 
 has no particular form or shape; we can say 
 
 that it is formless in one sense, but at the 
 
 same time it can take any form when frozen 
 
 into ice. A block of ice, for instance, can 
 
 appear in the form of a triangle, a sphere, a 
 
 circle, an animal or a human being. The 
 
 same water without losing its nature can 
 
 appear in a sohdified form; and as in this 
 
 case we are justified in saying that water, 
 
 although formless, contains in a potential 
 
 state all imaginable forms within itself, so 
 
 the water of the ocean of that absolute ReaHty 
 
 possesses in a potential state all the physical, 
 
 material, mental and spiritual forms that ever 
 
 existed, or ever will exist in future. 
 
 The infinite, eternal Brahman does, indeed; 
 73 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 appear and manifest itself with a spiritual 
 form, in order to satisfy the desire of the 
 devotee or worshipper. Wherever there is 
 intense longing to see God, wherever there is 
 unflinching devotion and unselfish love with 
 the whole heart and soul, there is the mani- 
 festation of the formless One to fulfil the 
 desire of the devotee. It is then that the 
 invisible Brahman, or the Supreme Being, 
 or the ReaUty, manifests itself and becomes 
 visible to the spiritual eye of the worshipper. 
 Intense longing, unswerving devotion and 
 whole-hearted love of the soul draw out from 
 the infinite source any particular form which 
 the devotee wishes to see and worship; they 
 have the power, as it were, to condense and 
 soHdify the water of the ocean of Reality 
 into the various forms. The spiritual form 
 of the Divinity rises in the ocean of formless 
 Brahman or of the absolute Godhead, floats 
 there for some time, and after satisfying the 
 desires of the true Bhakta or worshipper, 
 
 merges into that ocean again. 
 74 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 These forms vary in accordance with the ideal 
 of the worshipper. If a worshipper has a long- 
 ing to see God in the form to which he is de- 
 voted, of Jehovah or of Christ for instance, he 
 must draw that out of the infinite ocean. The 
 Divinity will appear in that form to satisfy 
 the desire of that devotee. If he be devoted 
 to the form of Buddha, or Krishna, or R^ma- 
 krishna, or any other human or imaginary form, 
 he will see such an one with his spiritual eye 
 through intense longing and love. The per- 
 sonal God with a spiritual form is the objecti- 
 fication, projection, manifestation of the im- 
 personal ocean of Divinity. The highest of all 
 such manifestations is the Iswara of Vedanta. 
 He is worshipped under various names as 
 Vishnu, Jehovah, Shiva, Father in heaven, or 
 Allah. As all-pervading heat is imperceptible 
 but becomes perceptible through friction, so 
 wherever there is the intense friction of devo- 
 tion and love in the soul of the worshipper, 
 there is the manifestation of that infinite 
 
 Being either in human or superhuman form. 
 75 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 There have been many such instances where 
 the absolute omnipresent Being manifested 
 itself in various forms among all nations and 
 in all countries. 
 
 In ancient times there lived a boy saint 
 who was the son of a ruling monarch. His 
 name was Prahlada. His father was abso- 
 lutely materialistic and atheistic in his belief, 
 and could not bear the idea of a ruler greater 
 and more powerful than himself. He be- 
 lieved in no other ruler of the world and through 
 vanity and egotism thought that he was the lord 
 of all. His son Prahlada, however, was a 
 born saint. From his childhood his heart 
 and soul were filled with extreme faith, devo- 
 tion and love for the almighty Ruler and Lord 
 of the universe. He cared nothing for the 
 world and found no pleasure in the luxuries 
 and comforts of a princely life. They did not 
 attract his mind. He always preferred to 
 stay alone and had a tendency to renounce 
 everything. So deeply absorbed was his 
 
 mind in his Divine Ideal that he could not 
 76 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 listen to other things, and it was impossible 
 for him to obey the commands of his godless 
 father. The king grew angr}^ at his behavior, 
 and one day, caUing the prince to him, he asked 
 him the reason of his disobedience. He 
 inquired under whose instigation he was 
 behaving in that way and acting rebeUiously 
 against him who was the lord of all. The boy 
 saint repHed: ''The ruler of the universe, 
 the lord of all nations, who is greater and 
 more powerful than your majesty, has cap- 
 tured my heart and soul and has inspired me 
 to behave in this way." At this reply the 
 king, furious with rage and anger, w^as ready 
 to punish his son by killing him instantly. 
 Drawing his sword, he cried: "How dost thou 
 dare to say that thou hast a lord more powerful 
 or stronger than I ? Where is thy lord ? Show 
 him to me!" The boy answered: "He is 
 everywhere." The king demanded, "Is he 
 in that pillar?" Prahlada, praying to his 
 Divine Ideal from the bottom of his heart and 
 
 soul and with firm faith, rejoined: "Yes, He 
 77 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 is there in that pillar." The king answered: 
 ''Now ask thy lord to save thee from being 
 beheaded." Thus saying, he struck the pillar 
 with a giant's might and knocked it down. 
 In the midst of the thundering noise of the 
 crash appeared the divine figure, radiant 
 with celestial glory, to protect the devotee 
 of the Almighty Lord. The eyes of the 
 wicked monarch were dazzled by the extraor- 
 dinary brightness and celestial lustre of 
 the divine form, but he could not bear the 
 sight of another lord beside himself. He 
 attacked the Divine manifestation and in his 
 attempt to conquer the Supreme Ruler he 
 fell breathless on the spot. Such was the 
 power of true faith. Can any one question 
 the power of true faith when Jesus said: ''for 
 verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain 
 of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain 
 * remove hence from yonder place,' it shall 
 remove; and nothing shall be impossible to 
 you." (Matt, xvii, 20.) That faith brought 
 
 out the manifestation of the omnipresent Lord 
 78 
 
Has God any Form ? 
 
 from the pillar. At the sight of this wonderful 
 Divine power and glory of the Almighty the 
 soul of the boy saint was filled with unbounded 
 joy and ecstatic happiness. He approached 
 the mighty figure with awe, reverence and de- 
 votion, and prostrating himself at His feet, he 
 poured forth all prayers before Him to his 
 heart's content, saying: "O Lord, the Al- 
 mighty Ruler of the universe. Thou art indeed 
 all-pervading and almighty. Thy power is 
 inscrutable. To save Thy child from immi- 
 nent death, to fulfil the desire of Thy true 
 devotee and to punish this vain and egotistical 
 earthly monarch. Thou hast shown Thy 
 power and glory to all by making this Thy 
 superhuman manifestation. What words are 
 adequate to describe Thy majesty and Thy 
 loving-kindness ? All words that we can utter 
 are Thine! I am Thy child and Thy servant; 
 keep me in Thy service forever and ever, 
 O Lord and Father of all animate and inani- 
 mate beings of the universe." 
 
 *' O Lord, Thou art the goal of all religions, 
 79 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and the sustainer, the master, the witness, the 
 habitation, the refuge and the friend of all 
 living creatures; Thou art the origin, disso- 
 lution, support, end and the inexhaustible seed 
 of the whole manifested universe. Thou art 
 one, yet Thou takest many forms through 
 Thy unspeakable power of Maya. I bow 
 down and salute Thee. Whosoever knows 
 Thee as formless and with form knows the 
 
 eternal Truth." 
 
 80 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood 
 of God. 
 
*'/ am the Father and Mother of the universe." — Bha- 
 gavad Gita, ix, 17. 
 
 " Why does the God-lover find such pleasure in address- 
 ing the Deity as Mother? Because the child is more free 
 with its Mother, and consequently she is dearer to the 
 child than any one else." — Life and Sajdngs of R^ma- 
 krishna, by F. Max MuUer, p. 118. 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood 
 of God. 
 
 The religious history of the world shows 
 that the conception of God as the Father 
 of the universe first arose among the Aryan 
 nations, and not among any of the Semitic 
 tribes. It was in ancient India that the 
 Aryans first worshipped the Supreme Being 
 by addressing Him as the Father in Heaven. 
 The origin of the English word ''father" 
 can be traced back through Latin "Pater" 
 and Greek *'Pitar" to Sanskrit "Pitar" 
 meaning father. The Christians, however, 
 beheve that before the advent of Jesus the 
 Christ, the fatherhood of the Almighty Being 
 was unknown to the world. 
 
 Not very long ago the famous Rt. Rev. 
 
 Bishop Potter of New York said in one of his 
 83 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 lectures: "Go to India, to Burma, to China, 
 to Greece; or to Egypt or Rome and see if 
 anywhere among them all you will find a 
 religion with any other idea of man than 
 that he is the mere creature of his governor, 
 his Pharaoh, his Sultan, his Rajah, his pro- 
 consul, or by whatever name you choose to 
 call it." He also said: "It was Christ who 
 brought an entirely new conception of the 
 relation of God to men." Such statements, 
 however, are neither founded upon truth nor 
 supported by any historical evidence. On 
 the contrary, it is a well-known fact that in 
 India, from prehistoric times, the Hindu 
 rehgion has given to man a position much 
 higher than the Christian conception of his 
 relation to his Maker. The ancient Vedic 
 sages were the first to declare before the 
 world that the human soul is not only the 
 child of God but that it is essentially divine 
 and in its true nature is one with the Supreme 
 Being. 
 
 According to the Hebrew religion the 
 84 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 relation of God to man was like that of an 
 absolute monarch to his subject, or like that 
 of a master to his slave; while the reHgious 
 history of the ancient Arysm nations testifies 
 that they had risen to a much higher con- 
 ception of God than as a despotic Ruler 
 long before the Christian era. The Chris- 
 tian missionaries and preachers have been 
 trumpeting before the world for several cen- 
 turies that no rehgion outside of Christianity 
 has ever inculcated the idea of the Fatherhood 
 of God and that it was Christ alone who 
 brought it to men from his celestial abode. 
 Moreover, they are especially eager to impress 
 upon the minds of their co-religionists that 
 the Hindus in particular had no conception 
 of a Heavenly Father, that they never knew 
 the fatherly relation of God to man. But 
 those who have studied carefully the history 
 of the growth of Christianity are familiar with 
 the fact that the idea of the Fatherhood of 
 God did not originate with Jesus the Christ 
 
 as modern Christians beheve, but existed in 
 85 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 the religious atmosphere of northern Pales- 
 tine from the second century B.C. as a result 
 of the Hellenic influence upon Judaism of 
 the worship of Jupiter. Jesus took up this 
 grand Aryan idea of the Fatherhood of God 
 and emphasized it in his teachings more strongly 
 than any of his predecessors had done in Pal- 
 estine.* It was Yahveh that Christ worshipped 
 as his Heavenly Father, it was Yahveh to 
 whom he prayed as the Father of the universe ; 
 consequently, those who follow Christ and 
 his teachings, worship their God through the 
 same relation as was established by their 
 Master. The worship of God is impossible 
 without having some kind of relation between 
 the worshipper and the object of worship. 
 
 The relation between father and son is 
 much higher than that between the creator 
 and his creatures as it had existed in Judaism. 
 The transition from the Judaic relation be- 
 tween God and man to that of father and 
 son was therefore a great step toward the 
 
 *Seep. 173: Son of God, 
 86 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 realization of the spiritual unity of the indi- 
 vidual soul and the universal Spirit. It was 
 no longer an external relation to power and 
 strength, but had become a kind of kinship, 
 of internal blood relation such as exists between 
 an earthly father and his son. There is a tie 
 of love that binds a son to his father, and 
 such a tie brings the individual soul nearer to 
 the Creator of the universe. As the earthly 
 father of an individual is ordinarily considered 
 to be his creator because of his begetting him 
 and bringing him into existence out of an 
 invisible germ, so when the undeveloped mind 
 began to think of the creation of the universe, 
 it imagined that the creator was one who 
 brought the world into existence and produced 
 it out of nothing. Gradually the conception 
 of the creator evolved into that of the father 
 of the universe. 
 
 All our conceptions of God begin with 
 anthropomorphism, that is, with giving to 
 God human attributes in a greatly magnified 
 
 degree, and end in de-anthropomorphism, or 
 
 87 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 making Him free from human attributes. At 
 the first stage the human mind conceives 
 of the creator as a great Being who dwells 
 outside of the world which he creates, just as 
 the father is separate from the son whom he 
 begets. The Hebrew conception of Yahveh 
 was purely anthropomorphic. Yahveh pos- 
 sessed all human attributes and, dwelling in a 
 heaven outside of the universe, created the 
 world out of nothing, fashioned it, and after- 
 ward became its governor. The same Yahveh, 
 when addressed by Jesus the Christ as the 
 Father in heaven, did not lose his Yahvehic 
 nature; but was simply endowed with the 
 fatherly aspect of Jupiter or the Greek Zeus- 
 pitar. The sweet, loving and fatherly attri- 
 butes of Jupiter were superadded to the stern, 
 extra- cosmic Yahveh, the despotic ruler of 
 the world. 
 
 The word Jupiter, or Zeus-pitar, has a 
 long history behind it, with which ordinary 
 readers are not famihar, but which is known 
 
 to a few Vedic scholars. It meant " father 
 88 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of G(h1. 
 
 in heaven" and is a transmuted form of tlit 
 Sanskrit Dyus-Pitar or Dyaus-Pitar, which 
 very often occurs in the Rig Veda, the oldest 
 of the revealed Scriptures of the v^^orld. The 
 term ''Dyaus" or ''Dyus" originally signified 
 ''shining space" or ''heavens," but after- 
 wards it was used for the self-effulgent Spirit 
 dwelhng in the heavens; and "Pitar" was 
 the father and the protector. In the second 
 book of the Rig Veda (ch. iii, ver. 20) we 
 read, ^^Dyaus me pita janitd ndbhi ratra.''^ 
 Here the word "Dyaus" is used, not in the 
 sense of "shining heavens" as some of the 
 Oriental scholars have imagined, but it refers 
 to the Spiritual Source of all Hght as well as 
 of heavens. "Pita," literally "father," here 
 means "protector." The meaning of this 
 verse therefore is "That shining or self-efful- 
 gent Spirit w^ho dwells in the heavens, is my 
 father and protector, my progenitor or pro- 
 ducer, and in him hes the source of all things." 
 This was the earliest conception of the fatherly 
 aspect of the Supreme Being which we find in 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 studying the Vedas. Again, in the tenth 
 book of the Rig Veda, Prajapati, the Lord 
 of all creatures, is addressed as "Pitar," the 
 Father and the Protector (ch. v, ver. 6, 7). 
 
 The one Supreme personal God was called 
 in the Vedas "Prajapati," the Lord and 
 Father of all creatures. He is most beauti- 
 fully described in the one hundred and twenty- 
 first hymn of the tenth book of the Rig Veda. 
 The conception of a personal God which we 
 find in this hymn has not been surpassed by 
 the idea of a personal God among any other 
 nation during the last five thousand years. 
 When an ancient Vedic Seer was asked "To 
 whom shall we offer our prayers and sacri- 
 fices?" he replied: 
 
 1. "In the beginning there arose the Praja- 
 pati, the first-born Lord of all that exists. 
 He holds by his power the heavens and the 
 earth. To Him we should offer our prayers 
 and sacrifices." 
 
 2. "Prajipati, the Lord of all creatures, 
 
 who gives Hfe and strength to all that exists, 
 90 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 from whose body emanate the individual souls 
 like sparks from fire; who is the purifier of 
 all souls ; whose commands all creatures revere 
 and obey; whose shadow is immortahty and 
 mortahty; to Him we should offer our prayers 
 and sacrifices." 
 
 3. ''Who by His power and glory became 
 the one King (without a second) of all men, 
 of beasts, nay, of all animate and inanimate 
 objects; to Him we should offer our prayers 
 and sacrifices. 
 
 4. "Whose greatness is manifested in the 
 snow-capped ranges of mountains and in 
 the waters of the rivers and the oceans ; whose 
 arms are spread on all sides; to Him should 
 we offer our prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 5. ''Who made the sky strong and the 
 earth firm, who estabfished heavens in their 
 places, nay, the highest heaven; who measured 
 the Hght in the air; to Him we should offer 
 our prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 6. "To whom heaven and earth, standing 
 
 firm by His help, look up, trembling in their 
 91 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 minds; and by whose support the rising sun 
 shines forth. To Him we should offer our 
 prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 7. "When the great waters went every- 
 where, holding the germ and generating fire, 
 thence He arose who is the sole Hfe of the 
 bright spirits (Devas). To Him we should 
 offer our prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 8. "Who is the one Lord of all living beings 
 and God above all gods; who by His might 
 looked over the causal waters at the time of 
 dissolution. To Him we should offer our 
 prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 9. "May He not injure us, He who is the 
 Creator of the earth, heavens, and bright 
 and mighty waters, who is the foundation of 
 truth, righteousness and justice. To Him 
 we should offer our prayers and sacrifices. 
 
 10. "O Praj^pati, no other but Thou has 
 
 held together all these phenomena; whatever 
 
 we desire in sacrificing to Thee, may that be 
 
 ours; may we be the lords of all wealth." 
 
 The same Prajapati, the true, just and 
 92 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 righteous Lord of the universe and God of all 
 
 gods, was addressed by the Vedic Sage as 
 
 " Dyaus-Pitar " or the Father in heaven and 
 
 the Protector of all. He is described in 
 
 another hymn of the Rig Veda as Aditij the 
 
 unflinching and immutable support of the 
 
 phenomenal universe. The word "Aditi'^ 
 
 signified the motherly aspect of the Divine 
 
 Being. "Aditi is in the heavens and in the 
 
 illumined space that pervades between heaven 
 
 and earth, the Mother of all Devas or gods 
 
 as well as the Creator of all animate and 
 
 inanimate objects. She is also the Father 
 
 and Protector of all; She is the Son and 
 
 the Creator; by Her grace She saves from 
 
 sin the souls of those who worship Her. She 
 
 gives unto Her children everything that is 
 
 worth giving. She dwells in the forms of 
 
 all Devas or bright spirits; She is all that is 
 
 bom and all that will be born. She is all in 
 
 all." (Rig Veda, Book 2, ch. vi, verse 17.) 
 
 Thus we see that in ancient India God 
 
 was conceived as both the Father and the 
 93 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Mother of the universe centuries before 
 Jesus was born. In Greece, however, the 
 idea of the Fatherhood of Zeus-pitar pre- 
 vailed, but his motherly aspect was denied, 
 because Zeus-pitar or Jupiter was only an 
 extra-cosmic personal God. As long as the 
 conception of God is extra-cosmic, or as 
 dwelHng outside of nature, so long He appears 
 to His worshippers as father alone and as 
 mascuhne. The God of Jesus the Christ 
 was the same extra-cosmic creator who was 
 called Yahveh or Jehovah in Judaism and 
 who was always described as masculine. 
 
 According to the Hebrews the mascuhne 
 element of nature possessed all activity, 
 strength and power; the male principle was 
 recognized as the generator, and the female 
 principle of nature was thought to be lower, 
 insignificant, powerless and passive. The 
 female principle of nature was the producer 
 and bearer of what the male principle created; 
 consequently everything that represented the 
 
 female principle was considered as unim- 
 94 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 portant. This explains why womanhood was 
 estimated so low by the writers of the Old 
 and New Testaments, especially by the great 
 apostle to the Gentiles. Even the very 
 appearance and existence of woman on earth 
 depended upon a man's rib, according to 
 Genesis. Although the Creator was repre- 
 sented by the Hebrews as masculine and all- 
 powerful, when they explained the genesis 
 of the world they could not deny the presence 
 of the feminine element which helped the Cre- 
 ator in bringing life into existence. In the 
 Mosaic account of Genesis we read "And the 
 spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
 waters " (Gen. i, 2), which Hterally means 
 that the Creator impregnated the waters or 
 the female element of nature. And, as God, 
 that is, the male element, was extra-cosmic, 
 outside of nature, and possessed all activity 
 and power, He became the object of worship; 
 and the female element or nature was entirely 
 ignored. Every Christian admits the existence 
 
 of nature, the female principle; but she has 
 95 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 never been worshipped or adored. The idea 
 of Father grew stronger and stronger and the 
 mother nature was left aside as passive and 
 powerless, and was ultimately ignored. As 
 long as the conception of God remains as 
 extra-cosmic, separate from nature which is 
 passive, so long will He appear as Father 
 alone. The more we comprehend God as 
 immanent and resident in nature, the more 
 clearly we understand that God is our Mother 
 as well as our Father. When we see that 
 nature or the feminine principle is inseparable 
 from the Supreme Being or the masculine 
 element, when we reaUze that nature is not 
 passive and powerless but the Divine Energy, 
 then we understand that God is one stupendous 
 Whole, in whom exist both the mascuhne and 
 feminine principles. Then we no longer sepa- 
 rate nature from God, but we recognize 
 nature as a part of the manifested Divine 
 Energy. 
 
 So long as God is supposed to dwell out- 
 side of nature and as father alone, He remains 
 96 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 as the efficient cause of the universe, while 
 nature appears to be the material cause. 
 But when we realize that nature or the ma- 
 terial cause is nothing but a part of the mani- 
 fested Divine Energy, we then understand 
 that God does not, hke a carpenter or a potter, 
 create or fashion the phenomena out of the 
 materials which exist outside of Himself, but 
 that He projects by the process of evolution 
 everything out of His own body wherein 
 dwell all matter and forces of the world. 
 
 In no other Scriptures than the Vedas, in 
 no other rehgion than that of Vcdanta, is the 
 personal God described as the Father and the 
 Mother, the efficient and the material cause 
 of the universe. Now-a-days liberal-minded 
 Christians are trying to introduce the idea 
 that God is both Father and Mother of the 
 universe; but they do not realize that by so 
 doing they are entirely upsetting the Christian 
 conception of God, w'ho dwells outside of 
 nature and of the universe. The God of 
 
 Christianity can never become both Father 
 97 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and Mother at the same time. If we address 
 Him as the Mother of the universe, we have 
 outgrown that conception of God which is 
 taught in the Bible and in Christian theology. 
 In the whole Scriptures of the Christians there 
 is not one passage where Jehovah is addressed 
 as the Mother. In Isaiah (ch. Ixvi, 13) the 
 Lord says: "As one whom his mother com- 
 forteth so will I comfort you." From this 
 passage, however, no fair-minded person can 
 deduce that Jehovah was the mother of the 
 universe. 
 
 The Vedantic idea that God is the Mother 
 as well as the Father of all harmonizes with 
 the modern scientific conception of God. 
 Modern science traces the whole phenomenal 
 universe back to the state of eternal energy. 
 The doctrine of evolution, correlation of 
 forces, persistence of energy, all these clearly 
 prove that the phenomena of the whole uni- 
 verse and the various forces of tbe external 
 and internal world are but the expressions of 
 one eternal energy. The theory of evolution 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 explains only the mode in which that eternal 
 energy produces this phenomenal universe. 
 Science has disproved the old theory of crea- 
 tion out of nothing through the fiat of an extra- 
 cosmic God, and has show^n that something 
 can never come out of nothing. Science 
 teaches that the universe existed in a potential 
 state in that energy, and gradually through 
 the process of evolution the whole potentiality 
 has become kinetic or actual. That eternal 
 energy is not an unintelHgent energy, but is 
 intelHgent. Wherever we cast our eyes, either 
 in the external or internal world, we find 
 the expression, not of a fortuitous or acci- 
 dental combination of matter and mechan- 
 ical forces, but of regular laws guided by 
 definite purpose. This universe is not a 
 chaos but a cosmos, one harmonious whole. 
 It is not an aimless chain of changes which 
 we call evolution, but there is an orderly 
 hidden purpose at every step of evolution. 
 Therefore, that energy is intelHgent. We 
 
 may call this self-existing, intelligent, eternal 
 99 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 cosmic energy the Mother of the universe. 
 She is the source of infinite forces and in- 
 finite phenomena. This eternal energy is 
 called in Sanskrit Prakriti (Latin procreatrix) , 
 the creative power of the universe. 
 
 *'Thou art the Para Prakriti or the divine 
 energy of the Supreme Being. Of Thee is 
 born everything of the universe, therefore 
 Thou art the Mother of the universe." As 
 all the forces of nature are but the manifesta- 
 tions of this Divine Energy, She is called all- 
 powerful. Wherever there is the expression 
 of any force or power in the universe, there 
 is the manifestation of the eternal Prakriti or 
 the Divine Mother. It is more appropriate 
 to call that Energy mother than father, because 
 hke a mother, that Energy holds within her 
 the germ of the phenomenal universe before 
 evolution, develops and sustains it, projects 
 it on space and preserves it when it is born. 
 She is the Mother of the Trinity, Creator, 
 Preserver and Destroyer. She is the source 
 
 of all activity. She is the Saktij force in action. 
 100 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 A creator, when deprived of his creative 
 power, is no longer the creator. As the crea- 
 tive power is one of the expressions of that 
 eternal Energy, the Creator or Brahma is 
 looked upon by the Hindus as the child of 
 the universal Divine ^Mother, so, too, is the 
 Preserver Vishnu and the Destroyer Siva. 
 The Hindus have understood this Eternal 
 Energy as the Mother of the universe and have 
 worshipped Her from the prehistoric times 
 of the Vedic period. Here we should remem- 
 ber that this Divine Energy is not the same 
 as the powerless and passive nature which 
 was rejected and ignored by the Jews and 
 the Christians. We must not mistake this 
 worship of the Divine Mother for Nature- 
 worship. In the Rig Veda we read: ''The 
 Mother Divine says, * I am the Queen of the 
 universe, the giver of all wealth and fruits of 
 works. I am intelhgent and omniscient. 
 Although I am one, by My powers I appear 
 as manifold. I cause war for protecting 
 
 men, I kill the enemy and bring peace on earth. 
 101 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 I stretch out heaven and earth. I have pro- 
 duced the Father. As the wind blows by it- 
 self, so I produce all phenomena by My own 
 will. I am independent and responsible to 
 none. I am beyond the sky, beyond this 
 earth. My glory is the phenomenal universe; 
 such am I by My power.' " * 
 
 Thus the Divine Mother is described as all 
 in all. We live and move and have our exist- 
 ence in that Divine Mother. Who can live 
 for a moment if that Eternal Energy cease 
 to manifest? All our mental and physical 
 activity depends on Her. She is doing what- 
 ever She chooses to do. She is independent. 
 She obeys none. She is the producer of 
 every event that occurs in the universe. She 
 makes one appear good, spiritual and divine, 
 while it is She who makes another appear as 
 wicked and sinful; since it is through Her 
 power one performs virtuous deeds or com- 
 mits sinful acts. But She is beyond good and 
 evil, beyond virtue and vice. Her forces are 
 
 * Rig Veda, x, hymn, 125. 
 102 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 neither good nor evil, although they appear 
 so to us when we look at them from different 
 standpoints and compare them with one an- 
 other. 
 
 When that all-pervading divine energy 
 manifests, it expresses itself in two sets of 
 opposite forces. The one set has the ten- 
 dency towards God and is called Vidyd in 
 Sanskrit. The other tends towards worldH- 
 ness and is called Avidyd. The one leads 
 to freedom and happiness, and the other to 
 bondage and suffering. The one is knowledge, 
 the other is ignorance. The one is Hght, the 
 other is darkness. Each individual soul is a 
 center where these opposite forces are con- 
 stantly working and fighting with one another. 
 When Vidyd or the powers which lead Godward 
 predominate, we advance towards God and 
 become rehgious, spiritual and unselfish; but 
 when its opposite, the Avidyd power prevails, 
 we become worldly, selfish and wicked. When 
 the former is predominant the latter is over- 
 come, and vice versa. These powers exist in 
 103 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 each individual, though they vary in the degree 
 of intensity in each. The man or woman, in 
 whom the former, that is, the Godward- 
 leading- powers prevail, is called devotional, 
 prayerful, righteous, pure in heart, unselfish. 
 These quaHties are but expressions of the 
 Vidyd powers within us. Such higher powers 
 are latent in all, even in those who do not show 
 virtuous quaHties. All persons can rouse 
 those latent spiritual forces by practising 
 devotion, prayer, righteousness, purity, unsel- 
 fishness. The easiest way to attain them is 
 by the worship of the Vidyd Sakti, or that 
 aspect of the Divine Mother or Divine Energy 
 which represents all the powers that lead to 
 spiritual perfection. 
 
 By worship or devotion is meant constant 
 remembrance of that aspect. If we con- 
 stantly think of the source of all spirituaHty 
 and of all the higher powers which make 
 one spiritual, surely those powers will be 
 aroused in us, and we shall become spir- 
 itual, righteous and unselfish. Therefore the 
 104 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 Hindus worship this Vidyd Sakti. When they 
 worship that aspect, they do not, however, 
 deny, or ignore its opposite nature which 
 leads to worldhness, but they make it subor- 
 dinate to the higher Vidya aspect. Some- 
 times they think of these opposite forces 
 separately, personify them and make them 
 the female attendants of the Divine Mother. 
 The Divine Mother has many attendants. 
 All the evil forces of nature are Her attend- 
 ants. She stands in the center of the universe 
 radiant in Her own glory, like the sun when 
 surrounded on all sides by thick, dark clouds. 
 Wherever there is any expression of extraor- 
 dinary righteousness and spirituaKty, it is a 
 special manifestation of the Divine Mother, 
 there is Her incarnation. The Divine Mother 
 incarnates sometimes in the form of a man, 
 and sometimes in the form of a woman, to 
 establish order and righteousness. All men 
 and women are Her children. But there is 
 something more in woman. As woman rep- 
 resents motherhood on earth, so all women, 
 105 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 whether married or unmarried, are representa- 
 tives of that Almighty Divine Mother of the 
 universe. It is for this reason that women 
 are so highly revered and honored by the 
 Hindus. There is no country in the world 
 except India where God the Supreme Being 
 has been worshipped from time immemorial 
 as the Divine Mother of the universe. India 
 is the only country where the earthly mother 
 is looked upon as the Hving Deity, and where 
 a man learns in his childhood "One mother 
 is greater than a thousand fathers." 
 
 You have heard many stories regarding the 
 condition of women in India. Most of these, 
 however, are grossly exaggerated, some are 
 utterly false and some are partially true. 
 The famiUar American story of Hindu mothers 
 throv^ring their babes into the Ganges to 
 become food for crocodiles, is unknown 
 among the Hindus. In the first place, croco- 
 diles cannot live in a strong current hke that 
 of the Ganges. I have travelled the length 
 
 of this mighty river from its mouth to its source, 
 106 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 some fifteen hundred miles, but never found 
 a single instance of such an inhuman act. 
 Hindu mothers, Hke their Christian sisters, 
 may sometimes destroy their children, but 
 such action is as strongly condemned in India 
 as in America. These statements were heard 
 by me for the first time after coming to Amer- 
 ica, though tales and pictures to this effect 
 have been quite common in this country in 
 books for the young.* There is no , other 
 country "Where every living mother '^ — as 
 Sir Monier Monier WilHams says — "is ven- 
 erated as a kind of deity by her children, 
 where every village or city has its special 
 guardian mother, called (in Sanskrit) Mata.^' * 
 It is extremely difficult for a Western mind 
 to grasp exactly what the Hindus mean when 
 they say that every woman is a representative 
 of the Di\dne Mother. A very simple illustra- 
 tion will give you an idea of the respect the 
 Hindus have for women. In Sanskrit when 
 two names are used together, the rule of 
 
 * " Hinduism and Brahmanism," p. 222. 
 107 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 grammar is that the more honorable should 
 stand first. In Sanskrit we say women and 
 men, not men and women; instead of father 
 and mother, we say mother and father; instead 
 of husband and wife, wife and husband, 
 because a woman is always more honorable 
 than a man. In India wives do not adopt 
 their husbands' names, they do not merge 
 their individuahty into that of their husbands 
 as women do in the West, but they keep 
 their own name separate. If a wife's name 
 be Radha, and her husband's name be Krishna, 
 and if we say them together, we would say 
 Radha-Krishna and never Krishna-Radha. 
 The wife's name must be said first. So we 
 say Sita-Rama; Sita is the wife and Rama 
 is the husband. Again, when God incar- 
 nates in a man form, as in Krishna or Rama, 
 the wife of such an incarnation will be 
 worshipped as the incarnation of the 
 Mother. The wife will be worshipped first 
 and then the husband. A Western mind 
 
 does not easily appreciate the wonderful 
 108 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 reverence for womanhood which the Hindus 
 have. 
 
 The Divine Mother is the personal God, 
 the same as Iswara in Sanskrit; and Brahman 
 or the Absolute Substance or the Universal 
 Spirit is the impersonal Being. Brahman is 
 formless, nameless and without any attributes. 
 It is the ocean of absolute inteUigence, exist- 
 ence and bHss. It has no activity. It is the 
 Godhead of Fichte, the Substantia of Spinoza. 
 It transcends all phenomena. Before phe- 
 nomenal manifestation Divine Energy rested 
 on the bosom of that ocean of Absolute Being 
 in a potential state. It is the dormant state 
 of activity somewhat Hke our deep sleep 
 state when all activity is latent. As in deep 
 sleep all the mental and physical powers 
 exist in us in an unmanifested condition and 
 nothing is lost, so, before the beginning of 
 the cosmic evolution, all the phenomenal 
 forces of the universe remained dormant in 
 that Energy. There were no phenomena, 
 
 no manifestation of any powers whatever. 
 109 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Again, as in our waking state all the latent 
 powers manifest and we are able to walk, 
 move, talk and are tremendously active, so, 
 when a portion of that Impersonal Being 
 wakes up, as it were, and manifests the latent 
 cosmic powers of the sleeping Energy, the 
 evolution of the cosmic Energy begins and 
 the Impersonal Being appears as the Creator 
 of the universe and its Preserver. 
 
 The Impersonal Being is then called per- 
 sonal, on account of that manifested energy. 
 According to the Hindus the impersonal Brah- 
 man is neither mascuHne nor feminine. But 
 the personal God is mascuHne and feminine 
 both in one. Energy and Being are insepa- 
 rable in the personal God. As pure Being 
 without energy cannot produce any phenom- 
 ena and as Energy possesses all activity and 
 is the mother of all forces and phenomena, 
 the personal God is most appropriately called 
 the Mother of the universe. As fire and its 
 burning power or heat are inseparable, so 
 
 Being and Energy are inseparable and one. 
 110 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 Those who worship the mascuhne aspect of 
 God, in reaHty worship the male child born 
 of that Divine Mother. Because the activity, 
 strength and power which make one mascu- 
 hne, owe their origin to that Divine Energy. 
 But those who worship the Divine Mother 
 worship the Whole — all gods, all angels and 
 all spirits that exist in the universe. 
 
 The wonderful effect of this conception of 
 the Motherhood of God is to be found in the 
 daily life of almost every Hindu woman and 
 man. A Hindu woman thinks that she is a 
 part of the Divine Mother, nay one with Her. 
 She looks upon all men and women of the world 
 as her own children. She thinks of herself 
 as the blessed Mother of the world. How 
 can such a woman be unkind to anybody? 
 Her pure motherly love flows towards all men 
 and women equally. There is no room for 
 any impure thought or feeHng or passion in 
 such a heart. That perfect motherly feehng 
 makes her ultimately Hve hke the Divine 
 
 Mother on earth. Her ideal God in human 
 111 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 form is her own child. She worships the in- 
 carnation of God as her most beloved child. 
 Just as Mary was the Mother of Jesus, so 
 the Hindu women in India often look upon 
 themselves as the mother of Krishna, the 
 Hindu Christ, or of Rama, another incarna- 
 tion. Christian mothers, perhaps, will be 
 able to appreciate this to a certain extent. 
 If a Christian mother thinks that she is Christ's 
 mother and loves Him as she loves her own 
 child, the effect will be wonderful. She will 
 then understand what Divine Motherhood 
 is. The Hindus think this the easiest way 
 for women to attain to that love which makes 
 them unselfish and divine. A mother can 
 sacrifice everything for her child ; she naturally 
 loves the child without seeking any return, 
 though there are mothers who do not possess 
 pure, unselfish motherly love. A true mother, 
 however, loves her child above everything. 
 If such a child be an incarnation of God Him- 
 self, how easy it will be for the mother to 
 
 attain to the highest goal of reHgion. I know 
 112 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of (rod. 
 
 a lady in India who became a widow when she 
 was young. She did not marry again. She 
 was not hke the ordinary woman of the world 
 who thinks that a husband is essential to her 
 happiness and that marriage is the highest 
 ideal of Hfe. She lived the pure life of a nun 
 and worshipped Krishna as her own child. 
 She became so advanced in spirituality that 
 now hundreds of educated men and women 
 of high rank in Calcutta come to see her, to re- 
 ceive spiritual instruction from her. They kiss 
 the dust of her feet as devout Roman Catho- 
 lics kiss the feet of the statue of Mary, they 
 revere her and call her the Mother of God, 
 Mother of Krishna, the Shepherd. She is still 
 living near Calcutta. She feels in herself the 
 presence of the blessed Mother of the universe. 
 Another wonderful result of this concep- 
 tion of God as the Mother of the universe, is 
 that when a man worships God as his mother, 
 he always thinks of himself as a child in its 
 Mother's arms. As a child does not fear any- 
 thing when it is near its mother, so the wor- 
 113 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 shipper of the Divine Mother is never afraid 
 of anything. He sees the Blessed Mother 
 everywhere. In every woman he sees the 
 manifestation of his Eternal Mother. Con- 
 sequently, every woman on earth is his mother. 
 He conquers all lust and sense desires. He 
 sees woman in a different light. He worships 
 every woman mentally. 
 
 I have seen a man who Hved on this earth like 
 a Hving child of the Divine Mother, always pro- 
 tected and taken care of by Her. He worshipped 
 God as the Mother of the universe. Through 
 that worship he became pure, righteous and 
 spiritual. He used to say "O, my Mother, 
 Thou art all in all. Thou art my Guide, 
 my Leader and Strength. ' ' His Divine Mother 
 showed him the true nature of man and woman. 
 He bowed down before all women, young, 
 mature and old, and said to them — "You are 
 the living representatives of my Divine Mother 
 on earth." How can a child have any other 
 relation to one who is the same as its real 
 
 mother? By this kind of devotion he con- 
 114 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 quered all lust and worldliness. His child- like, 
 whole-souled and rapturous self-consecration 
 to the Divine Mother is a landmark in the 
 rehgious history of India. His whole Hfe, 
 which was the personification of purity, self- 
 control, self-resignation and filial love to the 
 Divine Mother, stands as a mighty testimony 
 to the reality and effectiveness of the worship 
 of God as the Mother of the universe. When 
 he sang the praises of the Divine Mother, 
 he gave life to every word he uttered, and 
 no soul could hear him without being moved 
 to tears by deep devotional feelings, without 
 reahzing that this wonderful child was in direct 
 communion with his Divine Mother. His 
 Divine Mother showed him that each woman 
 was Her incarnation, so he worshipped and 
 honored all women as a son might worship 
 his own mother. Some Western people may 
 laugh at such reverence, but a Hindu is ex- 
 tremely proud of it. He knows how to honor 
 a woman. Professor Max Muller was much 
 
 impressed with the wonderful Hfe of this 
 115 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 great sage, and recently published his Hfe and 
 sayings.* He was once asked: '*If we are 
 the children of your Divine Mother, why does 
 She not take care of us? Why does She not 
 come to us and take us up in Her arms?" 
 The sage rephed: ''A mother has several 
 children. To one she has given a doll, to 
 another some candy, to the third a music 
 box, according as each one Hkes. Thus when 
 they begin to play and are absorbed, they 
 forget their mother; she in the meanwhile 
 looks after her household work. But the 
 moment any one of them gets tired of the play, 
 and, throwing aside the plaything, cries for 
 the mother, ' Mamma, mamma dear ! ' she 
 runs quickly to him, takes him up in her arms, 
 kisses him often and often and caresses him. 
 So, oh man! being absorbed with the play- 
 things of the world you have forgotten your 
 Divine Mother; when you get tired of your 
 play, and, throwing aside the toys, you cry 
 
 * " Life and Sayings of Ramakrishna," by F. 
 Max Miiller. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 
 116 
 
Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 
 
 for Her sincerely and with the simplicity of a 
 child, She will come at once and take you up 
 in Her arms. Now you want to play and 
 She has given you all that you need at pres- 
 ent." Each one of us will see the Divine 
 Mother sooner or later. The Mother is 
 always taking care of us and protecting us 
 whether we feel it or not, whether we reahze 
 it or not. 
 
 The Vedanta philosophy recognizes both 
 the fatherhood and motherhood of the personal 
 God and teaches us that through the worship 
 of either of these aspects the highest ideal of 
 reUgion can be reached. The Prajapati or 
 the Lord of all creatures of the Vedas is 
 called "Isw^ara" in Vedanta. Some worship 
 Him as the Father, while others call Him 
 Divine Mother. But He is sexless and 
 therefore both Father and ISIother of all. 
 Those who address Him as the Father say: 
 
 "O Lord, Thou art the Father of the uni- 
 verse, of all animate and inanimate objects. 
 
 Thou art worshipped by all. Thou art 
 117 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 greater than the greatest; O Thou of incom- 
 parable power, none in the heavens and 
 earth is equal to Thee, how can any one be 
 greater? O Lord, as a father forgiveth his 
 son, a friend his dear friend, a lover his be- 
 loved, even so do Thou forgive me.'' 
 
 Those who worship His motherly aspect 
 pray to Her, saying: 
 
 "O Mother Divine, Thou art the eternal 
 energy, the infinite source of the universe. 
 Thy powers manifest in the infinite variety 
 of names and forms. Being deluded by the 
 power of ignorance we forget Thee and take 
 pleasure in the playthings of the world. But 
 when we come to Thee, take Thy refuge and 
 worship Thee, Thou makest us free from igno- 
 rance and worldliness, and givest us eternal 
 happiness by keeping us, Thine own children, 
 
 on Thy bosom." 
 
 118 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
"The soul enchained is * man* and jree from chain 
 is *God*" — Life and Sayings of R&makrishna, by 
 F. Max Miiller, p. 145. 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 A CLEAR understanding of man's relation 
 to God is a matter of momentous importance 
 to students of philosophy and religion and to 
 all seekers of Truth. From very ancient times 
 all the best thinkers, prophets and the great 
 rehgious leaders of the world, whether of the 
 East or of the West, have endeavored to explain 
 our relation to God and to the universe. Out 
 of those explanations have arisen various 
 schools of philosophy and different systems 
 of rehgious behefs among the different nations 
 of the world. 
 
 Every philosophy and every rehgion, ancient 
 or modem, has arrived at certain conclusions 
 in its attempt to describe the relation which 
 each individual bears to God. All such con- 
 clusions, of course, presuppose the existence 
 121 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of God, and depend upon the nature of our 
 conception of God as well as of the human 
 soul. Those who deny the existence of God 
 and hold that we are but mere accidental 
 appearances in the mechanical process of the 
 blind forces of nature which are acting aim- 
 lessly upon dead matter, think that it is loss 
 of time and waste of energy to discuss such 
 useless and absurd topics. They would rather 
 devote their energy to obtaining the best 
 things of the Godless world for the comforts 
 of the soulless body. They do not beheve 
 in the existence of any such thing as soul, 
 mind or spirit apart from the functions of the 
 body. When the body dies everything comes 
 to an end. As with the body, so it is with 
 the material universe. 
 
 Such thinkers are not the products of the 
 Twentieth Century alone, but they are as old 
 as the appearance of man upon earth. In 
 ancient India this class of thinkers existed 
 side by side with the behevers in the individual 
 
 soul of man and in God, as numerously as we 
 122 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 find them to-day among the most cultivated 
 minds of the West. Those ancient material- 
 ists, Hke the modern agnostics and atheists, 
 making sense perception the standard of 
 their knowledge of things, denied the exist- 
 ence of that which they could not perceive by 
 their senses. But the other class of thinkers, 
 who went below the surface of sense percep- 
 tions into the realm of the invisible, weighed 
 these materiahstic arguments, pointed out 
 their fallacies, and ultimately established 
 through logical and scientific reasoning, the 
 existence of the individual soul of man as 
 well as of the soul of the universe, or God, 
 and described their mutual relation. 
 
 These thinkers can be divided into three 
 classes: First, theduaHsts; secondly, the qual- 
 ified non-dualists, and thirdly, the non-dualists, 
 or monists. The Western dualists beheve in 
 an extra-cosmic personal God, who creates 
 the universe out of nothing, fashions it, gives 
 names to the phenomena, and afterwards 
 
 governs it. According to them, God, the 
 123 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 creator and governor of the universe, is eter- 
 nally separate from the world and from all 
 living creatures, just as a potter is separate 
 from the pot which he makes or as a carpenter 
 who stands always outside of the table or 
 chair which he makes. The dualists beheve 
 in a God who has human attributes infinitely 
 magnified. He is all-wise, merciful, just 
 and all-powerful. Some of the dualists go 
 so far as to give human form to God, as v/e 
 find in the conception of Jehovah among 
 the Hebrews and the orthodox Christians. 
 In the Old Testament, Jehovah is described 
 as walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden. 
 It is said: "And they heard the voice of the 
 Lord God walking in the garden in the cool 
 of the day, and Adam and his wife hid them- 
 selves from the presence of the Lord God 
 amongst the trees of the garden. " (Genesis iii, 
 8.) Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, 
 and seventy of the elders of Israel saw Him. 
 The nobles not only saw but they did eat and 
 
 drink with Him. (Exodus xxiv, 9, 11.) Moses 
 124 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 saw Jehovah's back. Jehovah ate with Abra- 
 ham under the oaks at Mamre. (Genesis xviii, 
 I, 8.) God was pleased with the sweet savor 
 of Noah's sacrifice. He possessed human 
 appetites. He walked with Noah. 
 
 The same Jehovah with a human form and 
 human qualities and with a human personality 
 is the ideal God of the orthodox Christian 
 monotheists of to-day. They beHeve in Je- 
 hovah as sitting on a throne somewhere in 
 the heavens, with eyes red with anger and 
 revenge, and holding a rod, ever ready to 
 punish the wicked with eternal fire. From 
 many of the orthodox pulpits the same God is 
 preached to-day, as He was in the days of the 
 past. The relation of man to such a personal, 
 or rather human God, with human attri- 
 butes, is like that of a creature to his creator, 
 of a subject to his king, or of a slave to his 
 master. As the duty of a subject is to obey 
 impHcitly the commands of his king, or ruler, 
 or governor, so every man's duty is to obey 
 
 the commands of the Governor of the uni- 
 125 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 verse, otherwise he will be punished. Similar 
 
 relation of man to the extra-cosmic personal 
 
 Ruler of the universe is to be found in most 
 
 of the dualistic or monotheistic religions of 
 
 the world. All the religions of Europe and 
 
 Asia which are dualistic or monotheistic 
 
 teach that our relation to God is that of a 
 
 creature to his creator, or of the governed 
 
 to the governor. 
 
 Although man is said to be created in 
 
 God's image in Genesis, yet it is generally 
 
 understood that he cannot have any relation 
 
 higher than that of a creature to his creator. 
 
 It simply means that the first man, being 
 
 the image of God, possessed at first some 
 
 of the divine quaHties before he was tempted 
 
 by Satan. Although the Christians beHeve 
 
 that Jesus the Christ was the son of God, 
 
 and that God is the father of the universe, 
 
 yet according to them, an ordinary mortal 
 
 cannot be called the son of God in the same 
 
 sense as Jesus of Nazareth was, because he 
 
 was an exception to the general rule. Whether 
 126 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 Jesus ever meant that he was the only begotten 
 son of God exclusive of any other mortal, is 
 a problem yet to be solved. If every individual 
 be a true image or the son of God, then the 
 question arises, why should He punish His own 
 son so mercilessly with eternal fire as is de- 
 scribed in the parable of the marriage of the 
 king's son: "Then said the king to the serv- 
 ants, bind him hand and foot and take him 
 away and cast him into outer darkness; 
 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; 
 for many are called but few are chosen." 
 (Matt, xxii, 13, 14.) Again, in the saying: 
 *'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how 
 can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt, 
 xxiii, 33.) Thus, according to popular Chris- 
 tianity, as it is understood and preached in 
 the orthodox churches, man's relation to God 
 is not like that of His image, nor Hke that of a 
 son to his loving Father, but Hke that of a 
 subject to his despotic monarch, Christ being 
 the only begotten son of God. The Christians 
 
 believe that God creates the soul out of nothing 
 127 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and implants it in the human form at the time 
 of its birth. As long as there is preached 
 the idea of the creation of the universe and 
 of man out of nothing by an extra-cosmic 
 personal God with human attributes, so long 
 will our relation to God remain hke that of 
 a creature to his creator or of the governed 
 to his governor. 
 
 In India too there are dualists. They 
 beheve in an extra-mundane personal God 
 who is the repository of all blessed quaUties, 
 who is omnipotent, omniscient, and all- 
 loving; who creates the universe, not out of 
 nothing, but out of the material of nature, 
 which is eternal. God is the efficient cause 
 of the universe and nature is the material 
 cause. They do not believe that the human 
 soul comes into existence all of a sudden and 
 has a beginning, as the Christians do, but 
 that it existed in the past and will exist in 
 future from eternity to eternity. They say 
 that as nature is eternal so are the individual 
 
 souls. Each soul after remaining potentially 
 128 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 in nature for some time, comes out of the causal 
 state at the beginning of a new cycle of crea- 
 tion or evolution, and manifests in gross forms, 
 one after another, going through the different 
 grades of evolution according to its desires 
 and tendencies, until it reaches perfection. 
 After reading the New Testament one cannot 
 get any definite conception of the nature of 
 the human soul, nor of its destiny, but in the 
 duahstic system of India one learns that the 
 human soul is Hke an infinitesimal particle of 
 nature containing the divine light of intelli- 
 gence and divine power in an infinitely small 
 degree, whose duty is to serve God through 
 prayers, good deeds, good thoughts and love. 
 God loves all, and He can be loved in return. 
 Those who worship Him through unswerving 
 devotion and unselfish love obtain freedom 
 from the dark side of nature; that is, from 
 the bondages of ignorance, selfishness, suffering, 
 misery and all other imperfections; and after 
 death they hve a life of bliss and perfection 
 
 forever in the presence of the eternal personal 
 129 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 God. This is salvation according to the dual- 
 ists in India. They do not mean by salvation 
 going to heaven, but on the contrary, hold 
 that heaven is a realm where one goes to 
 enjoy the results of one's good deeds, and at 
 the end of such a period of celestial enjoyment 
 one comes back to earth and is born again. 
 Each soul is bound to attain this salva- 
 tion, sooner or later. Those who do wicked 
 deeds reap the results of their actions 
 and thoughts, not by going to any place 
 of eternal fire and punishment, but by being 
 born again and again until they reach the 
 state of spirituality, devotion and righteous- 
 ness. The monotheists in India do not be- 
 lieve that God punishes any one, as He is the 
 embodiment of Divine love. Nor do they 
 believe in eternal suffering, nor in any Satan 
 or creator of evil. But they do believe in a 
 temporary suffering of the wicked, which is 
 the reaction of their own wicked acts. They 
 do not blame God or charge Him with par- 
 
 tiaHty, they do not blame Satan, but they 
 130 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 take upon their own shoulders the whole 
 burden of responsibility. These dualists be- 
 lieve that wherever there is life there is the 
 manifestation of the divine hght of intelH- 
 gence, however small it may be, however 
 imperfect the expression of intelligence may 
 be. From the minutest insect up to the high- 
 est gods (Devas) or angels, or bright spirits, 
 each individual Hfe is filled with a ray of that 
 Divine Sun. They sometimes compare God 
 with a gigantic magnet and the individual 
 soul with the point of a needle, and say as a 
 magnet attracts a needle so the great God 
 attracts the individual souls toward Him 
 through love, and magnetizes them as it were 
 by His divine grace and power. Although 
 they believe that each soul is separate from 
 God and from other souls, yet its relation to 
 God is like that of a ray to the sun or of a 
 spark to fire. Their conception of the human 
 soul is with attributes, with quaUties and char- 
 acter, with mind, intellect, sense-powers, and 
 
 the finer particles of ethereal matter which 
 131 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 give foundation to grosser physical forms. 
 In short, it is the same as the individual ego, 
 as we call it, or the spiritual body as it is called 
 in the New Testament. According to these 
 duahsts, God can be worshipped by man 
 through various relations, such as by calling 
 Him master, or father, or mother, or brother, 
 or friend, or son, or husband. These relations 
 depend upon the nature and characteristics 
 of the worshipper. Some hke to think of 
 themselves as servants of God, others as 
 friends, or brothers, or sons. They say, as 
 the same man in a household can be the master 
 in relation to his servants, the father in relation 
 to his children, a friend, a brother, or a hus- 
 band in relation to his wife, so the same God 
 can appear in all those various relations to 
 different devotees according to their modes 
 of thinking. Such is the conception of the 
 individual soul and its relation to God accord- 
 ing to the dualistic thinkers of India. 
 
 Next to the dualistic conception of God 
 
 comes that of the quahfied non-duaHsts, 
 133 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 These thinkers go a little deeper than the dual- 
 ists. Starting from the dualistic standpoint 
 they go a step further toward the realiza- 
 tion of Truth and of man's relation to God. 
 According to them, God is no longer extra- 
 cosmic, no more outside of and separate from 
 the universe, but He is intra-cosmic. He is 
 no longer governor from the outside, but 
 Aniarydmirij inter- ruler. He is immanent 
 and resident in nature. He interpenetrates 
 every particle of the universe. The physical 
 universe is His gross physical body. He has 
 infinite eyes, infinite ears, and infinite organs 
 of other senses. He sees through the eyes of 
 all living creatures of the universe. He hears 
 through all the ears that exist in the universe. 
 He has infinite heads. The wind is His breath. 
 His mind is the sum total of individual minds, 
 or in other words, the Cosmic Mind. His 
 intellect is the Cosmic intellect. His soul is 
 the Cosmic Ego, or the soul of the universe. 
 He is no longer the creator of the universe, 
 
 or one w^ho fashions the materials of nature 
 133 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and gives names and forms to the phenomena 
 from outside Hke a potter or a carpenter. 
 He is not the efficient cause alone, as the 
 dualists maintain, but He is both efficient 
 and material cause of the universe. He cre- 
 ates, that is, He projects into the physical 
 space the phenomenal forms out of nature or 
 divine energy v^hich is in His body. He is 
 the one living Being in the universe. He is 
 the one stupendous Whole, and we are but 
 parts. 
 
 In that process of projection or evolution 
 of nature, infinite numbers of individual souls 
 which existed in His body from the begin- 
 ningless past, come out on the physical plane, 
 take forms, play their parts according to their 
 desires, and fulfil the purpose of Hfe by going 
 through the process of evolution. Each indi- 
 vidual soul is like a spark which emanates 
 from the huge bonfire of God, and Hves in and 
 through God, but it cannot be called God. 
 God dwells everywhere. He pervades the 
 
 universe and nature, and yet He transcends 
 134 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 them both. He is infinite but personal, with- 
 out any human form. The quaHfied non- 
 duahsts say that God cannot be confined to 
 any form, because every form is a Hmitation 
 in space by time, while God is unHmited by 
 space or time. He is beyond space and time. 
 Still, He can appear in various forms to 
 satisfy the desires of His worshippers. Our 
 body is a part of God's body, our mind is a 
 part of the divine or universal mind, our will is 
 a part of the universal or cosmic will. This 
 is called the quahfied non-duaHstic concep- 
 tion of God, because it looks at unity as quaH- 
 fied by variety. That is, God is one, the uni- 
 verse and human souls are one in God, yet 
 each retains its own separate individuahty. 
 God is Hke a tree and we are like branches 
 thereof. It reminds me of the simile of the 
 vine and its branches which Jesus the Christ 
 gave to show man's relation to God. The 
 same idea underUes His saying, ''My Father 
 is greater than I." According to this class 
 
 of thinkers the individual soul possesses all 
 135 
 
^^edanta Philosophy. 
 
 the quabties of the ^uman ego. As our ego 
 has mind, intellect, sense-power, memory, 
 and is hmited by other egos, so is the soul. 
 After the death of the body the soul contracts 
 its quahties within itself, and at the time of 
 its birth it expands those latent powers. Our 
 ego or soul is a part of the cosmic ego, or the 
 soul of the universe, or God. 
 
 Next to these comes the class of monistic 
 or non-duahstic thinkers. They do not stop 
 where the quahfied non-duahsts have stopped, 
 but they push their investigations still further, 
 and analyze the nature of the individual soul 
 or ego, and ultimately discover the unchange- 
 able essence of the ego. They are the seekers 
 of the unchangeable reality of the universe. 
 In their search they will not stop until they 
 have reached that Truth which is immutable, 
 eternal and one. They adopt the scientific 
 methods of analysis, observation and experi- 
 ment, and apply them to solve the subtlest 
 and most abstract problems. Analyzing the 
 
 nature of the ego, they find that it cannot be 
 X36 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 the unchangeable reahty or immutable Truth, 
 because the mind, with its various modifications, 
 such as intellect, memor>', etc., is constantly 
 changing. After patient research and con- 
 tinuous struggle to know the ultimate Truth, 
 these great monistic sages reahzed that the 
 ego, or the individual soul, is nothing but a 
 changeful receptacle of a still subtler sub- 
 stance, which is unchangeable and eternal. 
 They called it the Atman in Sanskrit. 
 
 There is no word in the Enghsh language 
 which conveys the meaning of this Atman. 
 It is much finer than ego or the Hving soul 
 of the individual. Atman is the uncondi- 
 tioned reahty in man; and the hving soul or 
 the individual ego is the subtle covering of 
 the Atman, hke the globe that covers the 
 hght of a lamp. That Atman is not a part 
 of the universal ego, but it is one with the un- 
 conditioned Reahty of the universe, which 
 is called in Sanskrit Brahman, or the All- 
 pervading Spirit, or the Absolute. Some- 
 times it is caUed Paramatman, which was 
 137 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson as 
 Over-Soul. It is finer than the Cosmic Ego 
 or God. It is sexless, neither masculine nor 
 feminine. It is sometimes translated by the 
 Oriental scholars as the Self. But Self is a 
 confusing word. Some people mistake it 
 for the Anglo-Saxon self, which acts and 
 progresses, and which is another name for 
 the ego. 
 
 According to the non-duahstic conception 
 of the true nature of man, the Atman or the 
 Self, or the spiritual essence of man, is the 
 same as the Brahman, the spiritual or divine 
 essence of the universe. The relation of the 
 true nature of man to God is no longer like 
 that of a creature to the Creator, nor like 
 that of a son to his father, nor like that of a 
 part to the whole, but it is absolute oneness 
 on the highest spiritual plane. The Atman, 
 or the divine nature of man, is the same as 
 the absolute divinity of the Cosmos. On 
 that highest spiritual plane there is no dis- 
 tinction, no idea of separation, no idea of 
 X38 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 creation. All ideas of separatencss, all differ- 
 entiations of phenomenal names and forms, 
 merge into the absolute ocean of reality which 
 is unchangeable, eternal and one. The essence 
 of the Creator is infinite, and it interpenetrates 
 the phenomenal forms as the external space 
 pervades every particle of atoms of the phe- 
 nomenal world. That essence is Hke the all- 
 pervading background of the phenomenal 
 appearances. Phenomena are Hke the waves 
 in the ocean of Infinite ReaHty. Individual 
 souls are like so many bubbles in that ocean 
 of Absolute Existence. As a bubble rises 
 on the surface of the ocean, takes a form, 
 lives there, comes near other bubbles, hvesin 
 a group for some time, moves in the company 
 of others, changes its size, perhaps, and goes 
 down again; so the individual soul rises in 
 that ocean of infinite existence, appears in 
 various forms, passes through the different 
 stages of evolution, and lives there for ever 
 and ever, sometimes as manifested and at 
 
 other times as unmanifested. The light of 
 139 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 intelligence in the soul or ego is due to the 
 reflection of the Atman or Divine Spirit on 
 the mirror of the heart of the ego or soul. 
 Therefore the soul is called the image or 
 reflection of the Atman or Divine Spirit. 
 
 This idea is beautifully expressed in one 
 of the Upanishads: "In the cave of our 
 heart have entered the two — the Atman or 
 the Divine Spirit, and the individual ego or 
 soul. Dwelling on the highest summit, or the 
 ether of the heart, the one witnesses the other, 
 while the soul drinks the rewards of its own 
 works. The vdse men and sages describe 
 the one as the light, and the other as the 
 reflection, image or shadow." (Katha Upani- 
 shad, ch. iii, verse i.) You will notice here 
 what a deep meaning lies at the back of the 
 expression, ''Man is the image of God." 
 The ancient Vedic sages used the same expres- 
 sion in a sense which many of the best philoso- 
 phers of the Western world have failed to 
 grasp or comprehend. Thus the most ancient 
 Monistic sages explained the highest relation 
 
 140 
 
The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 of the individual soul to Atman or Divine 
 Spirit, by calling it the reflection or image of 
 the Self-elTulgent Light of God. But as a 
 reflection cannot exist independent of the 
 light whose reflection it is, so the soul of man 
 cannot exist independent of Atman. There- 
 fore the true nature of the soul is Atman, 
 the divine and real spirit which cannot be 
 divided into parts and is One Absolute Source 
 of existence, intelHgence and bliss. Such is 
 the monistic or non-duahstic explanation of 
 the relation of the soul to God. 
 
 Vedanta philosophy recognizes these three 
 explanations. It says that the relation of 
 the soul to God varies as the conception of 
 the individual soul and of God becomes finer 
 and higher. Starting from the gross form of 
 body, when a real and earnest seeker after 
 Truth marches onward toward the Absolute, 
 he passes through all the intermediate stages 
 until he reaches that state of di\'ine communion 
 where he realizes the oneness of the Atman, 
 
 or the true nature of man with Brahman, the 
 141 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 cosmic Divine essence, or the Absolute Real- 
 ity of the universe. Then he declares, I am 
 Brahman, I am He, I am in the sun, in the 
 moon, in stars; I am one with the All-per- 
 vading Reality; or as Jesus the Christ said, 
 "I and my Father are one." He does not 
 use the word *'I" in its ordinary sense of ego 
 or human personaUty, but in the sense of 
 Atman, or Divine essence. Jesus was a dual- 
 ist when He prayed to His Father in heaven, 
 and he was a monist when He said, "I and 
 my Father are one," ''The kingdom of heaven 
 is within you." A Vedanta philosopher or 
 sage after reaHzing that absolute oneness on 
 the highest spiritual plane of the Atman, says, 
 when he returns to the plane of relativity and 
 phenomena: 
 
 "O Lord, when I think of my body, I am 
 Thy servant and Thou art my Master; when 
 I look at my soul, I am Thy part and Thou 
 art the one stupendous Whole; but when I 
 realize my true nature, I am divine and one 
 with Thee, the Absolute Spirit. Such is my 
 
 conception of my relation to Thee." 
 142 
 
what is an Incarnation of God? 
 
"The Lord says: 'Whenever religion declines and 
 irreligion prevails I manifest myself to protect the right- 
 eous, to destroy evil and to establish true religion*" — 
 Bhagavad Gita iv, 7, 8. 
 
what is an Incarnation of God? 
 
 Two great religions of the world advocate 
 the belief that God, the supreme Ruler of 
 the universe, incarnates in human form to 
 help mankind— the one is Christianity, the 
 other is the rehgion of Vedanta which pre- 
 vails in India. 
 
 Christianity, believing in the existence of 
 one personal God who is the creator, governor 
 and Father of the universe, teaches that this 
 heavenly Father incarnated Himself in human 
 form as Jesus the Christ to show His love. 
 His mercy and kindness for His suffering chil- 
 dren as well as to save the world from eternal 
 perdition. It may be interesting to many 
 to know how this doctrine of divine incarna- 
 tion, unknown to the earhest Christians of 
 
 the first centur>^ after Christ, graduaUy grew 
 145 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and developed into its present fonn. Readers 
 of ecclesiastical history are well aware of 
 the fact that no problem troubled the 
 minds of the founders of the Christian church 
 and of Christian theology so much as this 
 one of the divine incarnation of Jesus the 
 Christ. During the early periods of church 
 history, indeed, no other question was con- 
 sidered to be of such vital importance as that 
 of the heavenly Father's incarnation in the 
 form of Jesus of Nazareth. Although for 
 many of the uneducated masses this problem 
 appears to have been satisfactorily solved by 
 the wonderfully subtle and apparently logical 
 arguments of certain priests and theologians, 
 still it is not unknown to the educated classes 
 that the acceptance of their solution depended 
 largely upon priestly power, upon anathema 
 and upon the persecution of those who refused 
 to receive these arguments as the only correct 
 solution of the problem. 
 
 Let us go back for a moment to that time 
 when Constantine the Great settled the 
 
 146 
 
What Is an Incarnation of God ? 
 
 disputes of the bishops regarding the incarna- 
 tion of the Supreme Being in the form of the 
 Son of Man. In the first place we should 
 remember that the modern Christian idea of 
 divine incarnation is founded upon the belief 
 in the Trinitarian doctrine of the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost in the memorable text 
 of the First Epistle of John: ''For there are 
 three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
 the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these 
 three are one " (ch. v. 7). Before the doc- 
 trine of the divine incarnation of Jesus the 
 Christ was estabhshed and accepted by the 
 church, the early Christians beheved in the 
 Trinity and constantly discussed the most 
 subtle and profound questions concerning 
 the nature, generation, distinction and quaUties 
 of the three divine persons of the mysterious 
 triad. At that time the majority of Chris- 
 tian thinkers beheved in Jesus of Nazareth 
 as the son of God, but they did not dare de- 
 clare that he was "God himself in human 
 
 form," the second principle of the blessed 
 147 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 Trinity. It was Justin Martyr, a Christian 
 convert of the Platonic school and a believer 
 in the Platonic doctrine of the Trinity, who 
 about the middle of the second century for the 
 first time promulgated the idea that Jesus 
 the Christ, the son of God, was the second 
 person in the Triune Deity and the creator 
 of the universe. He is the earHest writer to 
 whom the origin of this idea can be traced, 
 and he did not ascribe his opinion to the 
 Scriptures but to the special favor of God. 
 
 The Trinitarian controversies which first 
 broke out in the Christian schools of Alexan- 
 dria in Egypt, the land of Trinities, took a 
 new form during the time of Constantine the 
 Great, the chief point of debate being to define 
 the relation of the son to the Father. The 
 church of Alexandria was the most powerful 
 of all the churches at this period, and it was 
 ruled by Trinitarian bishops who took part 
 in all these discussions. One of the most 
 prominent candidates for the office of bishop 
 
 was Arius, the celebrated originator of the 
 148 
 
What is an Incarnation of God ? 
 
 Arian doctrines and a Trcsbytcr of the Alexan- 
 drian church. He and his followers main- 
 tained, in opposition to the other bishops, 
 that the son of God was merely a creature or 
 a created being, that there was a time when 
 he did not exist. He said: "If the Father 
 begat the Son, he that was begotten had a 
 beginning in existence; from this it is e\i- 
 dent that there was a time when the Son was 
 not in being, it therefore follows that he had 
 his existence from nothing." This argument 
 was the strongest of all the blows which were 
 given to the Trinitarian doctrine, as well as 
 the most potent against the divinity of Jesus 
 the Christ, because it evidently denied the 
 co-eternity of the Father and the Son by 
 proving the subordination of the Son to the 
 Father, and, in consequence, inequality be- 
 tween them. It also indirectly implied that 
 there was a time when the blessed Trinity did 
 not exist. 
 The question was vehemently discussed 
 
 again and again in public debates by bishops 
 li9 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 and Christians, and gradually the strife 
 spread so far that the Jews and pagans amused 
 themselves by giving theatrical representa- 
 tions of the contest on the stage, the point 
 of their burlesques being the equality of the 
 age of the father and son. The violence of 
 the controversy at last reached the point 
 where imperial force was needed for the deci- 
 sion. Emperor Constantine, 1 eing referred 
 to, summoned the council of Nicca in 327 a.d. 
 and settled the dispute of the bishops by 
 formulating the famous Nicean creed and at- 
 taching to it the anathema: "The holy CathoHc 
 and Apostolic Church anathematizes those 
 who say that there was a time when the Son 
 of God was not, that before he was begotten, 
 he was not, and that he was made out of 
 nothing or out of another substance or essence 
 and is created or changeable or alterable." 
 
 In this manner the so-called satisfactory 
 solution of that most bewildering problem 
 of the divine incarnation of Jesus was arrived 
 
 at, and it was accepted, not because of the 
 150 
 
What is an Incarnation of God ? 
 
 unanimous opinion of all the members of the 
 council, but simply because the majority of 
 the bishops were in favor of it. After this 
 decision Arius was excommunicated for his 
 heretical ideas, while his followers, who were 
 quite numerous, were cruelly persecuted and 
 their writings destroyed. Since that time 
 the bishops and clergy have been forced to 
 accept the doctrine of the Trinity as also that 
 of the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Although the question of the incarnation 
 of the omnipresent, omnipotent and omnis- 
 cient heavenly Father in human form was 
 thus apparently solved by the church and 
 theologians, still it has not ceased to rise 
 again and again in the thoughtful minds of 
 different people in different countries, dis- 
 turbing their peace and frequently driving 
 them into agnostic and atheistic behefs. 
 Many a soul has often cried aloud in despair: 
 "What a revolting absurdity it is to think 
 that the infinite and almighty Creator and 
 Ruler of the infinite universe should be born 
 
 151 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 in a manger, should suffer from hunger and 
 thirst, should be tempted by the devil, chas- 
 tised and scourged by ordinary mortals and 
 forced to ignominious death upon the cross!" 
 Devout Christians do not dare to see this 
 absurdity or to express their opinion for fear 
 of blasphemy and punishment; but truth- 
 seeking, rational minds cannot rest content 
 with mere doctrines and dogmas based upon 
 the quicksand of the authority of some book 
 or person. 
 
 The question presents itself: "Is there 
 any other way of understanding what is 
 meant by an incarnation of God?" Outside 
 of the Christian reHgion, there is one other 
 rehgion or rehgious philosophy — that of Ve- 
 danta — which explains through reason and 
 logic the problem of divine incarnation in 
 human form upon this earth. India is the 
 only country where the origin of this idea can 
 be traced back and where the behef has pre- 
 vailed from prehistoric times. Long before 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth was recognized as the incar- 
 152 
 
What Is an Incarnation of God? 
 
 nation of divinity, the Hindus had a clear 
 conception of this idea. Volumes upon vol- 
 umes have been written in Sanskrit describing 
 why and how the Supreme Being manifests 
 Itself in human form at different times among 
 different nations. 
 
 One of the principal points in which the 
 Hindus differ from the Christians is in main- 
 taining that, if God incarnates or expresses 
 His divinity in human form, His incarnation 
 cannot be hmited by time, place or nationahty. 
 The Hindus beheve that there were many incar- 
 nations before and have been many since the 
 advent of Christ, and that all these incarna- 
 tions of God are equal in greatness, majesty, 
 wisdom and divine powers, especially in the 
 power of saving mankind by setting forth the 
 highest ideal of life and by leading men from 
 the path of unrighteousness to the uUimate 
 goal of all religions. Who could have under- 
 stood and reahzed the highest aim and pur- 
 pose of human existence, who could have 
 
 solved the most bewildering questions and 
 153 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 problems concerning the true nature and des- 
 tiny of human souls, if God himself had not 
 revealed these things to mankind from time 
 immemorial? Could ordinary human beings 
 with their short-sighted intellect and imper- 
 fect understanding, hving constantly on the 
 animal plane of the senses, deluded by the 
 phantoms of phenomenal appearances and 
 always mistaking the unreal for the real, have 
 ever discovered the ultimate purpose of life 
 and the true nature and destiny of human 
 souls? Think of the innumerable opinions 
 of atheists and agnostics, materialists and 
 thinkers of different capacities which have 
 bewildered the intellect and understanding 
 of the vast majority of people! 
 
 All true knowledge is but the expression 
 of divine wisdom. All the powers that make 
 one great, spiritual, righteous and wise, are 
 only the divine powers manifesting through 
 human forms. Therefore it is said in Ve- 
 danta: ''AH that is glorious, grand, extremely 
 
 righteous or spiritual, is the outcome of the 
 154 
 
What is an Incarnation of God ? 
 
 powers which proceed from the infinite source 
 of all forces and of all energy in nature. Wher- 
 ever there is anything that is extraordinary or 
 unusually uphfting to the soul, there is a 
 special expression of the divine power." 
 
 According to the religion of Vedanta, the 
 incarnation of God means the embodiment 
 of divine qualities and divine powers. It takes 
 place whenever and wherever such a mani- 
 festation is necessary. The blessed Lord 
 Krishna, one of the great incarnations of di- 
 vinity, who appeared about fourteen hundred 
 years before the birth of Christ, in speaking 
 of divine incarnations, said : 
 
 "Wherever true reHgion declines and irre- 
 ligion prevails and whenever the vast majority 
 of mankind, forgetting the highest ideal of 
 life, travel on the path of unrighteousness 
 which leads to the bottomless abyss of igno- 
 rance, miseiy and sorrow, the Supreme Being 
 manifests His divine powers to estabHsh 
 righteousness and true spirituahty by assum- 
 ing a human form and living in our midst, but 
 155 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 at the same time showing to all that He is 
 the real master of nature and absolutely free 
 from all the bondages of the world and its 
 laws." 
 
 Such embodiments may take place at any 
 time in any country. The Hindus beHeve 
 that there have been many such incarnations 
 of divinity in the past and that there will be 
 many in the future. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus 
 the Christ, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, each 
 one of these has been considered to be the 
 embodiment of divine qualities and divine 
 powers. The hves and deeds of all of them 
 were superhuman, consequently divine. They 
 were full of the manifestations of such powers 
 as ordinary mortals do not possess. 
 
 A divine incarnation is one who shows 
 
 from childhood that he is a born master of 
 
 mind, body and senses, and the real Lord 
 
 of nature, yet who never forgets even for a 
 
 moment that he has come to the world to help 
 
 mankind. He is always conscious of his 
 
 divine power and he manifests divine glory 
 156 
 
What IS an Incarnation of God? 
 
 through every action of his daily life. He 
 never loses consciousness of his oneness with 
 the eternal Truth, or the Father of the uni- 
 verse, the infinite source of wisdom and intelli- 
 gence. He lives in the world like an embodied 
 soul, possessing perfect peace, tranquillity, 
 happiness and blissfulness, without depend- 
 ing upon the conditions and environments 
 which apparently bind the souls of ordinary 
 mortals. 
 
 The difference between an ordinary human 
 being and an incarnation of God Hes in the 
 fact that the individual soul of a common 
 man takes birth subject to the laws of Karma j 
 or the laws of causation and of action and 
 reaction, in order to reap the results of the 
 works of his previous births and to fulfil the 
 desires that are latent in him; while a di\dne 
 incarnation is the embodiment of his own 
 free mil, which alone governs him. Being 
 absolutely free he is not forced by the law of 
 Karma or any other law to take a human 
 
 body, nor does he wish to fulfil any of those 
 157 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 desires that proceed from the selfish nature 
 of ordinary mortals. His soul is not subject 
 to the law of evolution like that of any other 
 being. He is absolutely perfect from the very 
 moment that he assumes human form through 
 the inscrutable power of his own omnipotent, 
 supreme will or Maya. Although such an 
 incarnation of God is beyond birth and 
 death, he still apparently submits, for the time 
 being, to the conditions of the human plane, 
 and obeys the laws that govern that plane; 
 yet at the same time he makes people realize 
 that he is the master of nature, not its slave, 
 and that in reaHty he does not obey its laws 
 but that the laws of nature obey his om- 
 nipotent will. Ordinary people, whose spir- 
 itual eyes are not open, may not see the differ- 
 ence that exists between his actions and those 
 of a common mortal and may treat him Hke 
 an ordinary man; but those who are highly 
 advanced in spirituality, who understand 
 the true nature of the individual soul and of 
 
 God and of their mutual relation, see the 
 158 
 
What is an Incarnation of God"? 
 
 difference at once, recognize his divinity 
 and worship him as the ideal embodiment 
 of divine powers and divine quahties. 
 
 It is for this reason that the blessed Lord 
 Krishna, the Hindu Christ, says in the Bha- 
 gavad Gita: "People who are deluded by my 
 mysterious power of Maya, do not know Me 
 as unborn and unchanging; I am not manifest 
 to them. The unintelligent regard Me in 
 the light of an ordinary being with a material 
 form which is the result of past actions, and 
 know not that I assume at will glorious and 
 holy forms for the protection of the world." 
 
 The rehgion of Vedanta teaches that such 
 
 incarnations of Divinity are not Hmited by 
 
 distinctions of sex; they may appear in mas- 
 
 cuUne or in feminine form according to the 
 
 needs of the time and place. To the sexless 
 
 Supreme Being who is both the Father and 
 
 Mother of the Universe, the masculine and 
 
 the feminine form are of equal value and 
 
 importance. It is for this reason that amongst 
 
 the Hindus in India are to be found many 
 159 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 incarnations of Divinity in the form of 
 woman. 
 
 The latest divine incarnation was one who 
 appeared in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century. He Hved near Calcutta and his 
 name was Ramakrishna. He is to-day wor- 
 shipped by thousands of educated Hindus 
 just in the same way as Jesus the Christ 
 is adored and worshipped in Christendom. 
 From his childhood he showed his divine 
 power and set an example of absolute purity 
 and divine spirituality, like an embodiment 
 of those blessed quahties which adorned the 
 characters of previous incarnations, such as 
 Krishna, Buddha, or Jesus the Christ. Those 
 who had the good fortune to see and be with 
 him even for a short time, had their eyes 
 opened to the truth that he was absolutely 
 superhuman. Although he had received no 
 school education, his wisdom was vast. He 
 was the storehouse, as it were, of unHmited 
 knowledge, and he showed at every moment 
 
 of his Hfe that he was the absolute master of 
 160 
 
What is an Incarnation of God ? 
 
 his mind, body and senses, that he was entirely 
 free from all the conditions that make an 
 ordinary mortal a slave to passions and desires. 
 He was Hke the personification of the Sermon 
 on the Mount. No one could ever find the 
 slightest flaw in his noble and divine char- 
 acter.* 
 
 At one time he was asked: "What is the 
 difference between a holy sage and an incarna- 
 tion of God who is called the Saviour of man- 
 kind?" He answered: "A holy sage is one 
 who has realized God through great pain, 
 long prayers and severe penances and after 
 much trouble has saved himself from the 
 attractions of the world, but he has not the 
 power to save others; while a Saviour is one 
 who can easily save hundreds without losing 
 his own spirituality. A holy sage may be 
 compared to a reed floating in the ocean of 
 
 * Those who wish to know more about thr li' 
 i- divine man and why he is worshippe ' 
 • J 1 ar of mankind, may read Swami Viv 
 nanda's lecture on "My Master," or" Lue ani, 
 Sayings of Ramakrishna, " by Prof. Max Miiller 
 161 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 life, which cannot bear the weight of even a 
 crow, but when a Saviour descends He 
 easily carries thousands across the ocean 
 like a large, powerful steamer which moves 
 swiftly over the waters towing rafts and 
 barges in its wake. The Saviour, like the 
 most powerful locomotive, not only reaches 
 the destination himself, but at the same time 
 draws with him loads of passengers eager 
 to go to the abode eternal of Truth." 
 
 Such is the power and strength of an in- 
 carnation of God. An ordinary person may 
 strive and after a long struggle may attain to 
 the reaHzation of truth which is salvation, 
 but with a Saviour, this is not the way; he 
 comes to help and save others. Whosoever 
 worships and is devoted to any of these Sa- 
 viours will, through that power of devotion 
 alone, reach the ultimate goal of all religions. 
 As Jesus the Christ said: ''Come unto me 
 all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest," so the other incarnations 
 
 of Divinity Hke Ramakrishna, Buddha and 
 162 
 
What is an Incarnation of God? 
 
 Krishna spoke to their followers, saying in 
 
 the words of Krishna: 
 
 "Giving up all the formaHties of religion, 
 
 come unto me, take refuge in me and I will 
 
 give thee rest and make thee free from sins; 
 
 grieve not, I will also give thee eternal peace 
 
 and everlasting happiness." 
 163 
 
Son of God. 
 
"The Divine Lord says: M portion of Myself hath 
 become the living Soul in the -world of life from time with- 
 out beginning,* " — Bhagavad Gita, 5cv, 7. 
 
Son of God. 
 
 It is a general belief among Christians 
 
 that nearly two thousand years ago the only 
 
 begotten Son of God descended upon this 
 
 earth to save the souls of sinners from eternal 
 
 perdition. Thoughtful people, however, may 
 
 wish to enquire into the true significance of 
 
 this expression "Son of God." Again and 
 
 again are asked the questions: ''Why should 
 
 Jesus the Christ alone be called the only 
 
 begotten son of God?" "In what sense was 
 
 he the son of the heavenly Father?" "Is 
 
 not every individual a child of the heavenly 
 
 Father when it is said in the 14th chapter 
 
 of Deuteronomy, 'Ye are the children of the 
 
 Lord your God;' or when Moses said, 'Is 
 
 not he thy father that hath bought thee, hath 
 
 he not made thee and established thee?'" 
 167 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 (Deut. xxxii, 6.) And the Hindu asks: 
 "Why should we not recognize the divine 
 sonship in Krishna, Buddha, Ramakrishna 
 and in other Saviours of the world?" 
 
 All these and similar questions disturb 
 the minds of those who are not satisfied with 
 the sectarian explanations regarding the son- 
 ship of Jesus the Christ which they have been 
 hearing over and over again from their child- 
 hood. Of course we have nothing to say 
 to those whose minds are contented with such 
 explanations, or who beheve in the Hteral 
 meaning of the passages descriptive of the 
 supernatural birth and miraculous deeds of 
 the only begotten son of God. But there 
 are many who do not believe in miracles, 
 who do not accept anything upon hearsay 
 or because it has been written in a certain 
 book or been declared by a certain great 
 personage. They wish to go to the very 
 bottom of things before they accept them 
 as true; they want to know in what sense the 
 
 divine sonship of the heavenly Father was 
 168 
 
Son of God. 
 
 understood by Jesus of Nazareth and his 
 direct disciples. 
 
 It is extremely difficult for any one to know 
 exactly what Jesus meant by his sonship since 
 he has left no writings of his own. We can only 
 gather some idea from the interpretations of 
 his followers and from the writers of the four 
 authentic gospels. After studying carefully 
 the synoptic gospels we learn that there were 
 among the authors of these books two concep- 
 tions of the son of God. Matthew and Luke 
 accepted Jesus the Christ as the only begotten 
 son of God because of his supernatural birth, 
 which was caused by the inscrutable power 
 of the heavenly Father. According to these 
 two Gospels it was a miracle; and upon 
 this miraculous conception of Mary and the 
 supernatural birth of Jesus depends the 
 popular meaning of the divine sonship of Jesus 
 the Christ. All the orthodox sects and denom- 
 inations of Christianity, accepting the mira- 
 cles described in :Matthew and Luke as lit- 
 erally true, give this miraculous birth as the 
 169 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 reason why Jesus alone should be called the 
 
 only begotten son of God. They do not 
 
 recognize that other Saviours of the world, 
 
 like Buddha and Krishna, had a similar 
 
 supernatural birth and that their deeds were 
 
 as miraculous as those of Jesus the Christ. 
 
 If we ignore them, it will be quite easy for 
 
 us to accept Jesus the Christ as the only 
 
 begotten son of God. 
 
 The other conception of the son of God 
 
 which we find in the fourth gospel, has a 
 
 very deep philosophical significance. Before 
 
 we discuss this point, let us understand clearly 
 
 what conception of God the Jews had both 
 
 before and after the time of Jesus the Christ. 
 
 We know that the Jewish idea of God was 
 
 at that time purely monotheistic. The God 
 
 of Judaism was the creator and governor of 
 
 the universe; He dwelt in a heaven far above 
 
 mundane existence; He was so high and 
 
 separate from the world, so extra- cosmic, so 
 
 great, so majestic and so transcendent, that 
 
 no one could approach Him, no one could 
 170 
 
Son of God. 
 
 live after seeing Him face to face. Conse- 
 quently there was a wide gulf of separation 
 between God and man, between the creator 
 in heaven and the creature on earth. The 
 idea of di\dnity in man was unknown to the 
 Jews; such an idea would have been consid- 
 ered blasphemous by them. The Jews could 
 never believe that Yahveh would stoop so 
 low as to come down on the human plane 
 or to live in a human form. The same spirit 
 prevails among the Jews of to-day, and it 
 has also been inherited by the Mahometans. 
 According to them God is far above man, 
 no human being can ever represent His divin- 
 ity, and there can be no other relation be- 
 tween man and God, between the creature 
 and his creator, than that of a servant to the 
 all-powerful master, or that of a subject to 
 the most tyrannical monarch. The passages 
 that have been quoted from the Old Testa- 
 ment like, *'Ye are the children of God," 
 meant nothing more than the fatherly good- 
 ness of the Creator and the impHcit obedience 
 171 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of the creature, as that of a dutiful son to his 
 father. They were never meant in the sense 
 in which the Christians understand the divine 
 sonship of Jesus the Christ. Through the 
 paternal goodness of Yahveh, Abraham be- 
 came the friend of God and Adam became 
 the son of God, as described in the thirty- 
 eighth verse of the third chapter of Luke. 
 
 Nearly two centuries before the advent of 
 Jesus the Christ, when the Jews came in con- 
 tact with the Greeks, they found in Greek 
 mythology a beHef in Zeus-pitar or Jupiter, 
 who was conceived as the Supreme Deity 
 and the creator of the universe. He was not 
 only the father of the gods and of the whole 
 world, but also the father of the most power- 
 ful kings and heroes, who were called the 
 children or the "offspring of Zeus" in the 
 literal sense of these terms. We all know 
 that the gods of Greek mythology could 
 marry mortal women of virtuous character 
 and could beget children, while mortal men 
 
 were allowed to marry goddesses, ^acus. 
 172 
 
Son of God. 
 
 for instance, was born of .^gina but his 
 father was Zeus the Supreme Deity; while 
 Achilles was the son of the goddess Thetis 
 by a mortal father named Peleus. 
 
 These ideas, however, were not acceptable 
 to the Jews; on the contrary^ they were con- 
 sidered as blasphemous and were rejected 
 by the orthodox Hebrews. History never- 
 theless tells us that the worship of Zeus-pitar 
 or Jupiter was introduced into Babylon and 
 Northern Palestine by Antiochus Epiphanes 
 between 175 and 163 B.C. The orthodox 
 Jews revoked against this innovation; still 
 there were many Hberal-minded Jews among 
 the Pharisees who hked the idea, accepted it 
 and preached it. Among these was Rabbi 
 Hillel, one of the most prominent of Jewish 
 priests of that epoch, who Hved a few years 
 before Christ and died when Jesus was ten 
 years of age. He was considered by many 
 scholars as the true master and predecessor 
 of Jesus and was held in great esteem by the 
 
 Pharisaic sect of the Jews. He inculcated 
 173 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 the belief in the merciful and fatherly char- 
 acter of Yahveh like that of Zeus-pitar, and 
 it was he also who introduced the golden rule 
 for the first time. At the same moment Philo 
 and the Neo-Platonist Jews in Alexandria 
 were teaching the fatherly character of Yahveh 
 and the only begotten sonship of the Greek 
 Logos or the Word. Philo was a contem- 
 porary of Jesus, but he never even mentioned 
 his name. Many of the Oriental scholars 
 and higher critics of the New Testament say 
 that the writer of the Fourth Gospel must 
 have been a follower of Philo, because in this 
 gospel alone Jesus the Christ is identified with 
 the Greek Logos, which was explained by 
 Philo as the only begotten Son of the Almighty 
 Heavenly Father. 
 
 Some people claim that the Messianic hope 
 of the Jewish prophets was fulfilled in the 
 personality and character of Jesus and that 
 for this reason he was called the Son of God; 
 but critical readers of Jewish history know 
 
 perfectly well that the Jewish conception of a 
 174 
 
Son of God. 
 
 Messiah had nothing to do with the Christian 
 idea of the divine sonship of Jesus the Christ. 
 History explains to us the social and poHtical 
 conditions of those days which gave rise to the 
 Messianic conception of a dehverer from the sea 
 of misfortune in which the Jewish nation was 
 well-nigh drowned. For centuries the Jews had 
 been conquered and subdued by the Persians, 
 Greeks and other stronger powers around them. 
 Social intrigues, pohtical insurrections, rebel- 
 lions, and constant wars raged in almost every 
 community and kept the people busy for many 
 years before, during, and after the time of the 
 Babylonian captivity. Such a period naturally 
 kindles the fire of patriotism in the hearts of a 
 nation and forces its members to be active in 
 every possible way. The misfortunes and ca- 
 lamities which befell the descendants of Israel 
 made them remember the promises of Yahveh, 
 which had been handed down to them through 
 the writings of the prophets, and compelled 
 them to seek supernatural aid for the fulfill- 
 ment of those promises. 
 175 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 The unconquerable pride of the sons of 
 Israel which made them feel that they were 
 the chosen people of Yahveh, the only true 
 God, who was their director and governor, 
 stimulated their minds with the hope that 
 through the supernatural power of Yahveh 
 the kingdom of their ancestors would be re- 
 stored, that a member of David's house would 
 appear as the Messiah (the Anointed), and 
 sit on their throne, unite the twelve tribes of 
 Israel under his sceptre and govern them in 
 peace and prosperity. This was the first 
 conception of a Messiah that ever arose in 
 the minds of the Jews. It was the principal 
 theme of the Jewish poets and prophets who 
 Hved during the Babylonian exile. The glory 
 of the house of Israel and the earthly prosperity 
 of the worshippers of Yahveh were the highest 
 ideals of the Jews. They did not mean by 
 Messiah a spiritual saviour of sinners from 
 eternal perdition, for they did not believe in 
 eternal Hfe of any kind. 
 
 The Christian idea of a Messiah as the Sa- 
 176 
 
Son of God. 
 
 viour of the world and a deliverer from sin 
 and evil does not owe its origin to the Messianic 
 hope of the Jews but to the Persian conception 
 of the coming of Sosiosh, who, according to 
 the promise of Ahura Mazda, would appear 
 in the heavens on the Day of Judgment, 
 destroy the evil influence of Ahriman and 
 renovate the world. Some of the Pharisees 
 accepted this idea. Most probably Jesus of 
 Nazareth was familiar with this Persian con- 
 ception of the Messiah, but at the same time 
 he tried to spiritualize the Jewish ideal by 
 preaching a reign of righteousness and justice, 
 instead of a reign of war and strife between 
 nations, a kingdom of peace and love instead 
 of a dominion of earthly power and prosperity. 
 Thus we see why the Messianic hope of 
 the Jewish prophets was not Hterally fulfilled 
 in Jesus the Christ, and why the conception 
 of a Messiah does not explain the true mean- 
 ing of the Christian idea of the divine son- 
 ship of Christ. We have already seen how 
 
 the Judaic conception of God made Yahveh 
 177 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 extra-cosmic and unapproachable by human 
 beings, and how a vast gulf of separation was 
 thus created between God and man, between 
 the Creator and his creatures. Many of the 
 prophets felt it strongly, especially when 
 Judaism came in touch with the Hellenic 
 religion which made God so near and approach- 
 able to mortals. Various attempts were made 
 to bridge over this gulf of separation between 
 man and God, between the visible and the 
 invisible; and these attempts eventually re- 
 sulted in the acceptance of the Logos theory 
 of the Greek philosophers by the Alexandrian 
 Jews, who, as I have already said, Hved about 
 the time of Jesus the Christ. The foremost 
 of them was Philo. It was he who first suc- 
 ceeded in showing the connection between 
 the visible world and the invisible creator 
 through the Logos of the Stoics and Neo- 
 Platonists; but at the same time he gave a 
 new interpretation to this word. 
 
 "Logos" is a Greek term meaning orig- 
 inally "word," not in the sense of mere sound, 
 178 
 
Son of God. 
 
 but also of thought embodied in sound— as 
 when we utter a word, the meaning is in- 
 cluded in the sound, since words are nothing 
 but the outward expressions of thoughts which 
 are imperceptible. From the time of HeracH- 
 tus, the most ancient Greek philosopher, down 
 to the time of the Neo-Platonists this term 
 was used by different thinkers in various senses. 
 According to Heraclitus, Logos meant fire, 
 which was conceived as the all-pervading 
 essence of the universe out of which emanated 
 the individual soul of man. Anaxagoras 
 understood by Logos the cosmic mind, a 
 portion of which was manifested in the human 
 soul; but the Stoic philosophers who came 
 later, meant by it reason or supreme intelK- 
 gence. Logos pervaded all matter, and reason 
 or intelligence in man was considered to be a 
 part of the universal reason or inteUigence 
 or Logos, through which was established 
 the connection between man and the Divine 
 Mind. In fact Logos always signified the nexus 
 
 between the manifested world and its Cause. 
 179 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 As has aheady been said, Philo, being 
 brought up in the Neo- Platonic school, 
 adopted this Stoic theory of Logos to explain 
 the relation between Yahveh, the Supreme 
 Creator of the Semitic religion, and the visible 
 mortal man of this world. But he meant by 
 Logos the ideal creation which existed in the 
 Divine Mind before the actual creation. For 
 instance, before the creation of light God 
 said, "Let there be Hght." These words, 
 however, were merely an audible expression 
 of the thought or idea of Hght that existed 
 in the Divine Mind: the creation of the 
 external light was therefore nothing but the 
 projection or expression of the idea or thought 
 of light in the Divine Mind. As this ideal 
 light may be called the connecting link between 
 the gross visible light and the invisible Divine 
 Mind, so the ideal creation becomes the 
 bridge that spans the gulf of separation be- 
 tween the invisible creator and the gross 
 phenomenal creation, and this idea or thought 
 
 ol the Divine Mind was the Logos of Philo; 
 ISO 
 
Son of God. 
 
 it signified the universal thought of the world 
 or the ideal world in the mind of the Divine 
 Being before anything came into existence. 
 Like a dream, the world of ideas appeared 
 in the Divine Mind and was afterwards pro- 
 jected in physical space, just as a carpenter, 
 before he makes a chair, forms a mental image 
 of it and then projects it outside. Since this 
 Logos or the ideal world was the first emana- 
 tion or expression of the cosmic mind, it was 
 called the ''first born," "the only begotten 
 son," "the unique son;" all these terms, 
 however, were used by Philo and his followers 
 in their poetical or metaphorical sense. Ac- 
 cording to this theor\% the universal Logos 
 included all the ideas and thoughts, or rather 
 the perfect types of all created things that 
 exist in the universe. Before a horse was 
 created, there was a perfect idea or type of 
 horse in the Divine Mind. We do not see 
 this perfect type in the world; we may see a 
 red or a black horse, a large or a small horse, 
 
 but we cannot see the ideal horse. What 
 181 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 we call a perfect horse is nothing but the 
 
 nearest approach to the perfect ideal horse 
 
 that exists eternally in the Divine Mind. So 
 
 it is with every created species, thing or being. 
 
 Before man came into existence there was an 
 
 ideal man or a perfect type of man in the 
 
 thought of God, and its projection or physical 
 
 manifestation became something hke that 
 
 ideal type, because the gross manifestation, 
 
 being Hmited by time, space, and causation, 
 
 cannot be exactly the same as the ideal type 
 
 which is perfect. 
 
 This ideal, or the perfect type of man, 
 
 which existed in the Divine Mind, is eternal 
 
 and a part of the universal Logos. All 
 
 human beings, therefore, are more or less 
 
 imperfect expressions of that ideal man or 
 
 Logos or the first begotten son of the Divine 
 
 Mind. It does not refer to the human form 
 
 alone, but also to the perfect character or the 
 
 soul. The individual souls, however perfect 
 
 or imperfect they may be in the actions of 
 
 their daily Hfe, are potentially the same as 
 182 
 
Son of God. 
 
 the Logos, or the universal ideal man that 
 existed in God's mind before creation. Every 
 one of us is trying to express as perfectly as 
 possible that ideal type of man in whose cast 
 we have been moulded by the divine hand. 
 Each one of us, therefore, is one with that 
 first begotten son of God — such was the orig- 
 inal meaning of the ''Son of God" according 
 to Philo and his disciples. We must not 
 forget, however, that Philo did not know 
 Jesus the Christ, although he Hved at the 
 same time. The writer of the Fourth Gospel, 
 whoever he may have been, was an advocate 
 of the Logos theory of Philo as well as a be- 
 liever in Christ as the perfect type of man or 
 the incarnate word of God on earth in the 
 truest sense of the term. It was for this 
 reason that he began the gospel with that 
 famous verse, which has created so much 
 confusion in the minds of Christian theolo- 
 gians: ''In the beginning was the Word 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word 
 
 was God." The meaning of this passage 
 183 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 will be clear if we remember that the author 
 
 of the fourth gospel identified the Word or 
 
 Logos of Philo with Christ — but not with 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary — and 
 
 that since then this Christ has become the 
 
 only begotten Son of God. 
 
 Furthermore, it should be understood that 
 
 the word ''Christ," like the word "Logos" 
 
 of Philo, did not at first mean any particular 
 
 individual or personality, but it referred to the 
 
 universal ideal type of man, or the perfect man 
 
 who dwells in the Divine Mind from eternity 
 
 to eternity. In this sense the word Christ is 
 
 as universal as the Logos. It is not confined 
 
 to any particular person or nationality. We 
 
 must not confound this ideal impersonal 
 
 Christ or the only begotten Son of God with 
 
 the historical personality of Jesus of Nazareth^ 
 
 the son of Mary; but we must take it in 
 
 its true spiritual sense, we must understand 
 
 that each individual soul, being the expression 
 
 of the first born Son of God, is potentially 
 
 the same as the only begotten Son of God, 
 184 
 
Son of God. 
 
 or the child of Immortal Bliss as it is said in 
 Vedanta. When we have realized this imper- 
 sonal ideal Christ in our spuls, from that very 
 moment we have become Christ-like; and 
 it is then that the impersonal Christ, the 
 only begotten son, will be born within us. 
 
 Very few of the true Christians can fully 
 understand this most sublime universal mean- 
 ing of the divine sonship of Christ and conse- 
 quently of every Uving soul. It is extremely 
 difficult for them to extricate their minds 
 from the maze of the traditional personality 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. Students of Vedanta, 
 on the contrar)', can comprehend this universal 
 meaning very easily, because in Vedanta the 
 question of the historical personality of an 
 indi^'idual, however great and spiritual he 
 may be, is not the principal point to be dis- 
 cussed; its sole aim is to lift us above all 
 limitations of personahty and to lead us to 
 the reahzation of the universal Tnith or the 
 Divine sonship of each individual soul. We 
 are all children of Immortal BUss, of the 
 
 185 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 omnipotent and omniscient Divine Being. 
 We are not children of some other being, 
 nor are we children of earthly fathers. Par- 
 ents have not created our souls, but on the con- 
 trary our souls existed even before the creation 
 of the world. By our birthright, as it were, 
 we possess the claim of divine sonship. No 
 one can deprive us of this right. We may 
 think of ourselves at present as mortals sub- 
 ject to birth and death, to grief, sorrow, and 
 misery ; we may call ourselves sons and daugh- 
 ters of men, but the time is sure to come 
 when our spiritual eyes will be opened to 
 the truth of our being as sons of the Heavenly 
 Father. 
 
 The expression " Son of God " shows in a 
 metaphorical way the extrinsic variety and 
 the intrinsic unity that exist between the 
 soul of man and the Supreme Spirit. Out- 
 wardly the child is different from the father, 
 but his whole soul is one with the father. 
 If we can leave out the external and go to 
 
 the innermost depth of our souls, there we 
 186 
 
Son of God. 
 
 shall see and realize our divine relation, and 
 eventually we shall become one with the 
 Supreme Spirit and say, as did Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, "I and my Father are one." We must 
 learn that becoming means knowing and 
 knowing is becoming. When we know our- 
 selves as children of earthly fathers, we have 
 become so; and when we know that we are 
 children of God, we become such. This we 
 shall be able to understand better from the 
 parable of the King's son and the shepherd. 
 
 There was a very powerful king in ancient 
 India. By his conquests he became emperor, 
 but unfortunately in the prime of life he sud- 
 denly died and within a few months his queen 
 passed away giving birth to his only child, 
 the heir to the throne. The other members 
 of the royal family, in order to usurp the throne, 
 took the babe away, left him in a distant for- 
 est, and spread the news that the child was 
 dead. Fortunately he w^as discovered by a 
 shepherd who went into the forest for hunting. 
 
 This man had no children of his own and out 
 187 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of compassion he took the child, brought it 
 home, and gave it to his wife, asking her to 
 take care of it as her own babe. The child 
 was brought up as a shepherd boy; he did 
 not know anything of the secret, he called the 
 shepherd his father, played with other shep- 
 herd boys and tried his best to help his father 
 in his work and to earn a share of his Hving. 
 He felt sometimes very miserable and unhappy, 
 but he did not know anything better. 
 
 After a few years, when he grew older, he 
 happened to meet the old prime minister of 
 the deceased emperor. The minister, who 
 knew the whole secret, at once saw in the 
 face of that young shepherd a resemblance 
 to the emperor and, instantly recognizing 
 him, addressed and honored him as the 
 prince and heir to the throne. The shep- 
 herd youth looked at the minister in great 
 amazement and could not believe his state- 
 ments ; but the minister persuaded him to come 
 to the palace, made him sit on his father's 
 
 throne and asked him to take care of the 
 188 
 
Son of God. 
 
 property and govern the empire. Gradually 
 the mind of the young shepherd woke up, 
 as it were, from a dream and he reahzed 
 that he was the only son of the emperor, 
 governed his empire, and became the emperor. 
 Even so it is with us, being children of the 
 Emperor of the universe; we have forgotten 
 our birthright and are acting Hke the shepherd 
 boy. The moment that we know who we 
 are and what we are, that very moment we 
 shall become conscious of our divine heritage 
 and shall understand that in reahty we are 
 not children of earthly parents but of the 
 Father of the universe. No one can deprive 
 us of this divine birthright. 
 
 All the great Saviours of the worid, like 
 Krishna, Buddha, Christ, were conscious 
 of their divine sonship from their childhood 
 and never forgot it. They were Uke the 
 prime minister; they came to the shepherd 
 boy of the human soul to give the message 
 of truth, that it is not the son of the earthly 
 shepherd father but of the Emperor of the 
 
 189 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 universe. Let us enter into our divine heritage 
 and rule our heavenly empire. Let us become 
 like the emperor of the universe. Let us fol- 
 low the paths of the great Saviours of the 
 world, each one of whom manifested in his Hfe 
 the perfect type of man, the ideal man, the 
 Word or Logos. Let us obey their instructions 
 and, by manifesting divinity through humanity, 
 let us become perfect even as the Father in 
 heaven is perfect; then we shall be happy 
 both here and hereafter and shall attain to 
 that everlasting bliss, which is the goal of all 
 
 religions. 
 
 190 
 
. " ■ (* 
 
 Divine Principle in Man. 
 
"There is in this body a higher Soul, the Looker-on 
 and the Sanctioner, the Sustainer and the Experiencer, 
 the Mighty Lord, who is also designated the Supreme 
 Spirit." — Bhagavad Gita xiii, 22. 
 
 "He who is the Omniscient Knower of all, whose glory is 
 manifested in the universe, dwells in the heart and assum- 
 ing the nature of the mind, becomes the guide of the body 
 and of the senses. The wise who understand this, realize 
 the Self -effulgent. Immortal, and Blissful One." — Mun- 
 daka Upanishad ii, 2 Kh. 7, 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 The study of human nature is the most 
 interesting and the most benefcial of all 
 studies. The more we study ourselves, the 
 better we can understand the universe, its 
 laws, and the Truth that underhes its phe- 
 nomena. It is said, " man is the epitome of 
 the universe; whatever exists in the world is 
 to be found in the body of man." As, on 
 the one hand, we find in man all those tend- 
 encies and propensities which characterize 
 the lower animals, so on the other, w^e see him 
 manifesting through the actions of his life all 
 those noble quaHties that adorn the character 
 of one whom we honor, respect and worship 
 as the Divine Being. Human nature seems 
 
 to be a most wonderful blending of that which 
 193 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 is animal with that which is called divine. 
 It is like the twilight before daybreak, through 
 which the darkness of the night of the animal 
 nature passes into the glorious sunshine of 
 the supreme wisdom. Human nature may 
 be called the state of transition from the ani- 
 mal into the divine. The animal nature 
 includes the love of self or the attachment of 
 one's self to one's body and to everything 
 related to the body and the senses, desire for 
 sense pleasures and sense enjoyments, the 
 clinging to earthly life, fear of death and the 
 struggle for existence. Each of these quaH- 
 ties or tendencies is to be found in the lower 
 animals as well as in human beings, the dif- 
 ference being only in degree and not in 
 kind. 
 
 The savage man who lives like a wild beast 
 in a cave or under trees and does not know 
 how to build a house or cultivate the ground, 
 but who sustains life by depending entirely 
 upon fruits, roots, wild berries, or upon the 
 
 birds and beasts that he can trap, expresses 
 194 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 in all the actions of his life nothing more than 
 what we have described as animal tendencies 
 and animal propensities. If the Darwinian 
 theory be true, then we can easily explain why 
 there should be so Httle difference between 
 primitive man and his distant ancestor, the 
 chimpanzee, or some other member of the 
 anthropoid species. When, however, the same 
 wild man becomes partially civilized by learn- 
 ing to cultivate the land, to raise food and 
 cook it, to build houses and Hve in communi- 
 ties, he no longer manifests these animal tend- 
 encies in their simpler and more savage 
 forms. He gradually adopts more artful 
 methods to accomphsh his purposes. For 
 instance, the struggle for existence depends 
 chiefly upon physical force among savage 
 tribes as well as among animals, while among 
 civilized people in ci\iHzed countries a similar 
 result in the form of the survival of the fittest is 
 obtained, not by the display of brute force, 
 but by art, skill, diplomacy, pohcy, lying, 
 
 strategy, and hypocrisy. These are the offen- 
 195 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 sive and defensive weapons of the so-called 
 *' civilized man." 
 
 All the vicious qualities and wicked deeds, 
 such as murder, theft, robbery and other crimes 
 which are to be found in civiUzed communities, 
 are nothing but the expressions of the animal 
 tendencies of man working under the heavy 
 pressure of the rigid laws of society, state and 
 government. They proceed from love of self 
 or extreme attachment to the animal nature. 
 Being guided by these lower tendencies, man 
 becomes extremely selfish, and does not recog- 
 nize the rights or comforts of his fellow-beings. 
 On the contrary, he does everything to satisfy 
 the cravings of his body and senses at the ex- 
 pense of his neighbors. But the moment 
 that this savage man, or the man who lives 
 Hke a lower animal, begins to see the rights 
 of others, learns to love and care for his fellow- 
 beings in the same way that he loves his own 
 dear self and cares for his own belongings, 
 from that time he rises a step higher than the 
 
 absolutely animal plane; he becomes truly 
 196 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 human and gradually manifests the other 
 quahties and tendencies that accompany this 
 fundamental moral principle — to love one's 
 neighbor as one's self. 
 
 Upon this foundation has been built the 
 whole structure of ethics among all nations. 
 The \drtuous quaHties such as disinterested 
 love for humanity, mercy, justice, kindness 
 towards others, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, all 
 these help the animal man to expand the 
 range of his love of self and to subdue all 
 that proceeds from purely selfish attachment 
 to his own body and senses. The higher we 
 rise above the animal plane, the wider becomes 
 the circle of self-love, and instead of being 
 confined to the body and senses of the indi- 
 vidual, it becomes general, covering the selves 
 not merely of dearest relatives and nearest 
 friends, but of neighbors, countrymen, and 
 at last, of all humanity. Thus, the more 
 universal our love of self becomes, the nearer 
 we approach the Divinity, because the Divine 
 
 Principle is the universal Being whose love 
 197 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 flows equally towards all living creatures, as 
 the sun shines equally upon the heads of the 
 virtuous and the wicked. 
 
 Anything that is done, not with a motive 
 confined to some particular person, community 
 or nation, but through love for all humanity, 
 nay with a feeling that seeks the benefit of 
 all living creatures, is unselfish; consequently 
 it is guided by the universal or Divine Prin- 
 ciple, The tendency of the individual self 
 of each man is not to remain confined within 
 one narrow circle, but to go beyond the bound- 
 ary of the circle of the animal nature, beyond 
 human nature, and ultimately to become 
 universal. All charitable acts and philan- 
 thropic deeds are but steps toward that one 
 goal. Well has it been said by Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson that ''the Hfe of man is a self-evolv- 
 ing circle, which from a ring imperceptibly 
 small rushes on all sides outwards to new 
 and larger circles, and that without end." 
 
 Indeed the self of man has the constant 
 
 tendency to break down all limitations, to 
 198 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 transcend all boundaries, and to become one 
 with the Self of the universe. A human 
 being cannot rest contented, cannot remain 
 perfectly satisfied while living within the 
 limitations of his animal nature. He may 
 appear to be contented for a time, or he may 
 delude himself by thinking that he is perfectly 
 happy and satisfied under these conditions, 
 but the moment is sure to come when, being 
 forced from within, he will give vent to the 
 natural tendency to expand by struggHng 
 hard to reach out from the animal self and be 
 united with the universal Self. This tend- 
 ency is inherent in the very nature of man 
 and its expression will force him to control 
 the lower animal desires and propensities, to 
 become the absolute master of them, and 
 will gradually lead him to live a moral and 
 spiritual life. 
 
 The awakening may come at any time and 
 under any circumstances. One may be sud- 
 denly awakened in the midst of all the com- 
 forts, luxuries and pleasures of the earthly 
 199 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 life. No one can tell when or how such an 
 awakening will come to the individual soul. 
 There have been many instances in India 
 and in other countries of this sudden awakening 
 of the higher tendency of the soul. Buddha 
 was suddenly awakened when he was enjoy- 
 ing all the pleasures and luxuries of a princely 
 life, when his mind was deeply absorbed in 
 every enjoyment that a human being can pos- 
 sibly have. This awakening, which made 
 Buddha one of the Saviours of the world and 
 which has made others live on this earth like 
 embodiments of Divinity, is not the result of 
 some animal force or some lower tendency to 
 be found in lower animals or in those who 
 live like slaves of passion and desire, but it is 
 the expression of a higher power. It is not 
 love of the body or desire of the senses, not 
 attachment to the pleasures and comforts of 
 the animal self; it is just the opposite. It is 
 love for humanity which makes one forget 
 one's self. It is not a desire to gain some- 
 thing for one's own comfort, but it is a desire 
 200 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 to help mankind, to remove their grievances, 
 their sorrows and sufferings and to make 
 them happy. It is not a clinging to earthly 
 existence, but on the contrary, it is the expres- 
 sion of the desire to sacrifice one's own Hfe 
 for the sake of others \\dthout having the 
 slightest fear of death. It is not a struggle 
 for existence or the survival of the fittest at 
 the expense of others, but it is the cessation 
 of all gladiatorial fights, struggles and com- 
 petitions, and the attainment of peace, tran- 
 quillity and happiness. It is making the 
 weak to survive and the strong to be kind 
 and merciful toward those who are about to 
 be crushed by social competition. Are not 
 these powers and tendencies diametrically 
 opposed to those which characterize the 
 animal man? 
 
 These higher powers and tendencies have 
 been manifested again and again by differ- 
 ent individuals at different times in different 
 countries. The rehgious histor}^ of the world 
 
 stands as a Uving witness of this fact. But 
 201 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 the question arises, how do we happen to 
 possess these higher tendencies and higher 
 powers? Did we inherit them from our 
 anthropoid ancestors? No indeed, because 
 animal nature cannot produce anything that 
 is not entirely animal. The beUevers in the 
 Darwinian theory cannot explain the origin 
 of these super-animal or rather superhuman 
 tendencies. Have they been super-added to 
 our animal nature from outside by the grace 
 of some extra- cosmic Being, as it is supposed 
 by the duaHstic and monotheistic believers 
 of Christianity and other religions? No, 
 such a statement cannot be supported either 
 by reason or by scientific investigation. No 
 one has ever succeeded in proving when and 
 how these powers and higher tendencies 
 were super-added to the human soul. The 
 most rational explanation lies in the state- 
 ment in the book of Genesis: "So God created 
 man in his own image, in the image of God 
 created He him." 
 
 Let us understand clearly the meamng of 
 202 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 this passage. We are familiar with the popu- 
 lar meaning which seems absurd when we 
 examine it in the Hght of modern scientific 
 knowledge. In the first place the creation 
 of man out of nothing six thousand years ago 
 does not bear the test of modern geological 
 research and discoveries. On the contrary, 
 we are aware of the fact that man existed in 
 the Tertiary period, several thousand years 
 before this Bibhcal creation of man was sup- 
 posed to have taken place. Secondly, we 
 know that this word "image" does not mean 
 the physical form of man, nor does it refer 
 to the first man Adam, who was supposed 
 to have been the perfect image of God before 
 the Satanic temptation, and who after the 
 fall lost that image and became imperfect, 
 because of which it is said that all human 
 beings have since been born in sin. We can- 
 not beUeve that all of us were born in sin and 
 iniquity, and, having lost the Divdne image 
 within us, thus became the sons of Satan or 
 the Devil. If man was created in the image 
 203 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 of God, it could not possibly mean that one 
 particular man of a particular nation at a 
 special time possessed His image, but it was 
 meant for all human beings, irrespective of 
 their caste, creed or nationality. 
 
 We must remember that there are no ex- 
 ceptions in the laws of nature. That which 
 we take for an exception refers to some hidden 
 universal law or truth, whether we see or 
 understand it or not; and that explanation 
 is correct which harmonizes with universal 
 law and points out universal truth. If we 
 admit the existence of the Divine image in 
 one man, we shall have to admit it in all human 
 beings; otherwise it will be an exceptional 
 case, which cannot be true. As by discover- 
 ing the cause of the fall of one apple from one 
 tree, we learn the universal law of gravitation, 
 which explains that all apples under those 
 circumstances will fall, so by knowing that 
 one man was made in God's image, we under- 
 stand the universal truth that all men, women 
 
 and children of all countries and of all times 
 204 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 have been made in the Divine image, whether 
 or not they have feU it, reaUzed it, or mani- 
 fested it in their actions. 
 
 If, on the other hand, it were true that all 
 of us were born in sin and iniquity or under 
 Satanic influence, it would have been abso- 
 lutely impossible for any man at any time to 
 manifest any of those tendencies and powers 
 which we call di\dne, and we should be unable 
 to explain why the great sages and spiritual 
 leaders of mankind, who flourished in India 
 and in other countries both before and after 
 the Christian era, could show all the Divine 
 powers and quahties that characterized the 
 only begotten Son of God. Their Hves show 
 that every one of them manifested dignity 
 in the actions of their daily Hfe. Therefore 
 we must lay aside the mythical meaning of 
 that scriptural passage and understand it in 
 its universal sense. Furthermore, this uni- 
 versal meaning of the Divine image in man 
 was most strongly emphasized by the great 
 
 seers of Tri-ith in India from ver>^ ancient 
 205 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 times and centuries before the book of Genesis 
 was written or thought of. The same uni- 
 versal idea is the foundation of the philosophy 
 and rehgion of Vedanta. 
 
 Vedanta teaches that when we speak of a 
 man or woman as the image of God, we do 
 not mean his or her physical form, but we 
 mean the individual ego or the soul. If the 
 Divine Being or God be this universal spirit 
 then His image cannot be the physical form 
 of man; this does not convey any idea or 
 meaning at all. The ego or the soul of each 
 individual man or woman is the image of 
 Divinity. This idea has been beautifully 
 expressed in Vedanta: "In the cave of the 
 heart have entered the two, the one is the 
 eternal, absolute, real, perfect and self- efful- 
 gent Hke the sun, and the other, the individual 
 ego or soul, is Hke its reflection, or shadow, 
 or image. The one is Hke the fountain-head 
 of the blessed qualities and the infinite source 
 of all divine powers, while the other contains the 
 
 partial reflection of those qualities and powers." 
 208 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 Thus according to Vedanta every individual 
 soul, whether it be more or less animal in its 
 thoughts and actions, possesses the Divine 
 image and is no other than the image of the 
 Divine Principle or Being. The Divine Being 
 is one and universal but its reflections or 
 images are many. As the image of the sun, 
 falling upon the dull and unpohshed surface 
 of a piece of metal, does not properly reflect 
 the grandeur and power of that self-luminous 
 body, but appears dull and imperfect, so the 
 Divine image, faUing upon the dull surface 
 of the animal nature cannot reflect all the 
 blessed quahties, cannot manifest all the 
 divine powers, but, on the contrary, appears 
 animal in its tendencies and propensities. 
 As the same image of the sun will shine forth 
 brighter and more effulgent when the sur- 
 face of the metal is pohshed, so the individual 
 soul will show its brighter and more effulgent 
 aspect and will more fully reflect the divine 
 qualities when the heart which contains the 
 
 image is poHshed and made free from the dirt 
 207 
 
Vedanta Philosbphy, 
 
 of animal desires and animal tendencies; 
 then and then alone, this same individual soul 
 will begin to manifest all the blessed qualities 
 like justice, mercy, kindness, and disinter- 
 ested love for all humanity. These powers 
 are latent in all individuals, but they will be 
 expressed when the heart is purified. " Blessed 
 are the pure in heart for they shall see God," 
 said Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 The perfect manifestation of these divine 
 powers depends entirely upon the removal of 
 all obstructions like desire for earthly pleas- 
 ures, for the enjoyments and comforts of 
 earthly Hfe, attachment to the gross physical 
 body and to the senses, which force the indi- 
 vidual soul to remain on the animal plane. 
 Yet however animal the expression of the 
 nature of an ordinary man of the world may 
 be, his soul is still the image of the Divinity 
 which holds potentially in its bosom all divine 
 powers and all blessed qualities. Nay, even 
 the souls of lower animals are potentially 
 
 divine, according to Vedanta. The evolution 
 
 208 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 of nature is required to bring out tlicse po- 
 tential tendencies, powers and qualities into 
 their actual or real manifestations. Climbing 
 the ladder of the evolution of nature, each 
 individual soul or germ of life expresses its 
 latent powers, first through the limitations 
 of the animal nature as animal tendencies 
 and animal desires, and lastly as spiritual 
 powers by rising above all limitations, by tran- 
 scending the boundaries of the various circles 
 of animal, moral and spiritual nature, and 
 approaching the abode of the infinite Divine 
 Principle. At that time the individual soul 
 becomes absolutely free from the bondage of 
 nature, enjoys the supreme Bliss which is 
 divine, and manifests all the blessed quaUties. 
 In passing through these various stages the 
 individual ego studies its own powers, gains 
 experience and reahzes all the powers that 
 are lying dormant within the soul. 
 
 Many people ask the question, "Why is it 
 necessary for the individual soul to gain 
 
 experience when it is potentially divine?" 
 209 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 The very fact that creation, or projection, 
 
 means the manifestation of the potential 
 
 energy as kinetic or as actual reaUty, forces 
 
 the soul to objectify and project the dormant 
 
 activities on to the plane of consciousness; 
 
 otherwise how can the soul learn its own 
 
 powers when they are on the subconscious 
 
 plane? Take as illustration the deep sleep 
 
 state: when all the sense-powers, such as the 
 
 power of walking, moving, talking, and all the 
 
 mental and intellectual functions become 
 
 unmanifested, do we know in that state what 
 
 powers we possess? No, certainly not. We 
 
 can only know their existence when they are 
 
 brought out on the conscious plane, when 
 
 they are awakened. Is not this awakening 
 
 of the dormant powers that He buried on 
 
 the subconscious plane, the same thing as 
 
 the gaining of experience? 
 
 If for a moment all the individual souls 
 
 that exist in the universe should cease to 
 
 manifest their dormant powers, instantly 
 
 the relative existence of phenomenal activity 
 210 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 would vanish and the whole world would go 
 back to its primordial, undifferentiated con- 
 dition of nescience, wliich is almost similar 
 to the unmanifested state of deep sleep when 
 we do not dream. Therefore each individual 
 soul is bound to gain experience after experi- 
 ence in the process of this manifestation of its 
 latent powers and potential energy. Ha\ing 
 experienced the powers and actions of the 
 animal nature with their results, the soul 
 longs for higher manifestations, tries to rise 
 above that plane, and after realizing the 
 effects of the moral and spiritual nature, it 
 reaches perfection. In this state the soul 
 becomes absolutely happy and contented, 
 and, transcending the limitations of sense- 
 powers, self-love and selfishness, it mani- 
 fests the blessed qualities in the actions of 
 its every-day life. 
 
 This idea was illustrated by an ancient 
 sage in India thus: ''Two birds of the most 
 beautiful plumage dwell upon the tree of 
 
 Ufe, they are bound together by the tie of 
 211 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 closest friendship. The one sits calm, serene, 
 contented, peaceful and happy, and constantly 
 watches the movements of his friend like a 
 witness; while the other bird flies and hops 
 from branch to branch, being attracted by 
 the sight of the sweet and inviting fruits 
 which the tree of Hfe bears. When he is 
 drawn toward a fruit, he tastes it and enjoys 
 the sensation; then he tries another which 
 appears more attractive, but unfortunately 
 when he tastes it, he finds it extremely bitter 
 and does not like it. (We must remember 
 here that the tree of life is not like an ordinary 
 tree; it bears all kinds of fruits from the sweet- 
 est to the bitterest.) Having tried the various 
 fruits according to his desires, the bird happens 
 to come to one that is exceedingly bitter, and 
 having tasted it, he suffers intensely, and 
 unhappy and distressed, he remembers his 
 friend, whom he had forgotten for the time 
 being. He looks for him and at last finds 
 him seated on the top of the tree, calm, peace- 
 ful and perfectly contented. He envies his 
 212 
 
Divine Prirxiple in Man. 
 
 peace, happiness and contentment and slowly 
 approaches him. As he comes nearer and 
 nearer, lo! he is forcibly drawn into the per- 
 fect being of that witness-like friend, for he 
 was his reflection or image." 
 
 The bird which flies from branch to branch, 
 which enjoys and suffers, is the individual 
 ego or the living soul of man. The fruits of 
 this tree of Hfe are nothing but the results of 
 all the good and bad acts which the ego per- 
 forms; and the witness-like friend is the 
 perfect Divine Being, whose image the indi- 
 vidual soul is. Thus having experienced all 
 the fruits of our good and bad deeds, when 
 we become discontented and unhappy, we 
 seek our true, eternal friend, admire him, 
 aspire to attain to his peace and happiness, 
 go nearer and nearer, and ultimately become 
 one with him. It is then that we feel happy 
 and contented, it is then that true peace and 
 happiness come. 
 
 As the image or reflection of the sun cannot 
 
 exist for a second independent of that self- 
 213 
 
Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 luminous heavenly body, so the individual 
 soul, being the image of God, cannot exist 
 even for a moment without depending upon 
 the Divine Principle. The individual ego 
 owes its Hfe, its intelligence, its intellect, 
 mind and all other mental and physical 
 powers to that infinite source of all powers, 
 all knowledge, all love, and everlasting happi- 
 ness. In fact the individual soul does not 
 possess anything. All these powers and forces 
 that we are expressing in our daily life, whether 
 animal, moral or spiritual, do not belong to 
 us, but proceed from that one inexhaustible 
 source. Nor is the Divine Principle far from 
 us; He is the soul of our soul, the life of our 
 life, and the omnipotent essence of our 
 being. 
 
 "The Divine Principle is smaller than the 
 smallest and larger than the largest; it per- 
 vades the infinite space and also dwells in 
 the minutest atom of atoms; it resides in 
 the innermost sanctuary of the soul of every 
 
 man and woman; whosoever reaHzes that 
 214 
 
Divine Principle in Man. 
 
 omnipresent Divinity, whose image the indi- 
 vidual soul is, unto him come eternal peace 
 and perpetual bliss, unto none else, unto 
 
 none else." 
 
 215 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 The Gospel of Ramakrishna. 
 
 Authorized Edition. 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 448 pages; with two pictures, maginal notes, and index. 
 
 Flexible silk cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net. Postage, 7 cents. 
 
 Full leather binding, flexible cover, circuit edge with red 
 
 and gold in the style of " Teachers' Bible," 
 
 $3.00 net. Postage, 8 cents. 
 
 "The sayings of a mystic who has much influence in India 
 and who has been made known to the Western world by various 
 missionary ' Swamis ' will be found in ' The Gospel of Rama- 
 krishna.' They have been translated into excellent English." 
 — The Sun, New York. 
 
 H ( 
 
 The Gospel of Ramakrishna' contains the religious 
 teachings of this modern Hindu saint whose life contained so 
 many good deeds that his followers thought him little short of 
 ^sin'i.''*— The Boston Globe, Boston, Mass, 
 
 « During his lifetime his career and personality attracted 
 much attention from English and German scholars of the nine- 
 teenth century." — The Chicago Inter-Ocean, Chicago, IH. 
 
 <<The book is filled with beautiful thoughts and beauti- 
 ful teachings, which, if followed, would lead to a perfect life. 
 One cannot marvel that the sayings of Ramakrishna made a 
 deep impress on modern Hindu thought. He was at least a 
 great and wise scholar, and gave goodly advice to his followers." 
 — The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 <<It is a remarkable book and it should be a rare privilege 
 to read it." — The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society 
 
 India and Her People 
 
 {Lectures delivered before the Brooklyn Institute 
 
 of Arts and Sciences during the season 
 
 of igo5-igo6.) 
 
 BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 
 
 Cloth, ;^i.25. Postage, lo Cents 
 
 Contents 
 I. Philosophy of India To-day. 
 II. Religions of India. 
 
 III. Social Status of India: Their System of Caste. 
 
 IV. Political Institutions oi India. 
 V. Education in India. 
 
 VI. The Influence of India on Western Civilization and the 
 Influence of Western Civilization on India. 
 
 "Tbis book has more than usual interest as coming from one -who 
 knows the Occident and both knows and loves the Orient. ... It 
 is decidedly interesting. . . . The book has two admirable qualities: 
 breadth in scope and suggestiveiiess in material." — Bulletin of the 
 American Geographical Society^ Sept, 1906. 
 
 "This volume, written in an attractive style and dealing with the 
 life, philosophy and religion of India, should prove a useful addition to 
 the literature of a fascinating and as yet largely unknown subject. It 
 is designt-d for popular reading, the metaphysical portions being so 
 handled that the reader runs little risk of getting beyond his depth." 
 — Literary Digest, Feb. 16, 1907. 
 
 " The Swami possesses the exceptional advantage of being able to 
 look upon his own country almost from the standpoint of an outsider 
 and to handle his subject free from both foreign and native prejudice." 
 
 — New York lVor/il,A.ug. 4, i9;.6. 
 
 " It is a valuable contribution to Western kno\sledge of India, con- 
 taining precisely whac the American wants 1,0 know about that region.' 
 
 — iVushiHgion Eveni ng Star., Aug. 4, 1906. 
 
 " It is impossible to quarrel with his bonk. He (Swami) v>frites too 
 interestingly and he is a man with a mission." — The Srimiay Oregonian, 
 Aug. 26, 1906. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 PRESS NOTICES OF "INDIA AND HER PEOPLE." 
 
 "The views set forth in this work by Swam! Abhedananda . . , are 
 interestingr, as beingf those of a native of India who has devoted much 
 lime and attention to the study of those questions which affect the 
 government and general administration of the country. The author 
 has selected a wide range of subjects for treatment, embracing the 
 social, political, educational, and religious conditionsas they now exist, 
 and, speaking generally, has invariably exercised sound tact and judg- 
 ment in discussing the many different questions embraced under those 
 headings." — Journal of the Royal Colonial Institute^ Aprils 1907, 
 London, England. 
 
 "An excellent contribution to the very scanty literature on India. 
 . . . All chapters are instructive to any one aspiring to a knowledge 
 of this vast country. ... It is a book which every non-Indian visit- 
 ing India or making a temporary or permanent stay therein, and also 
 every son of the soil, should have by his side." — The Arya^ February, 
 1907, Madras, India. 
 
 Reincarnation. 
 
 (New and Enlarged Edition.) 
 I. Reincarnation. 
 II. Heredity and Reincarnation. 
 
 III. Evolution and Reincarnation. 
 
 IV. Which is Scientific, Resurrection or Reincarnation? 
 V. Theory of Transmigration. 
 
 Paper, 45 cents. Cloth, 60 cents. Postage, 5 and 7 cents. 
 
 " In these discourses the Swami Abhedananda considers the questions 
 of evolution and the resurrection in their bearing upon the ancient 
 teaching of rebirth, the truth, logic and justice of wnicn are rapidly 
 permeating the best thought of the Western world. For the preserva- 
 tion of this doctrine mankind is indebted to the literary stort^houses of 
 India, the racial and geographical source of much of the vital knowledge 
 of Occidental peoples. Reincarnation is shown in the present volume 
 to be a universal solvent of life's mysteries. It answers those questions 
 of children that have staggered the wisest minds who seek to reconcile 
 the law of evolution and the existence of an intelligent and just Creator, 
 with the proposition that man has but a single lifetime in which to de- 
 velop spiritual self-consciousness. It is commended to every thinker." 
 '' — Mind, February, 1900. 
 
 " It is a work which will appeal to the novice for its simplicity and 
 definite quality, and to the student for its wealth of knowledge and 
 suggestion." — Vedanta Monthly Bulletin, Sept., IQ07. 
 
 "The book should prove a valuable acquisition." — The Evening 
 Sun, N. v., December 21, 1907. 
 
 "This is the work of a man of fine education and of fine intellect. 
 . . . (Reincarnation) as expounded by Swami Abhedananda is very 
 plausible, quite scientific, and far from uncomforting. The exposition 
 contained in this little bok is well worth reading by ail students of 
 metaphysics. There is not the slightest danger of its converting or 
 perverting any one to a new and strange religion. Reincarnation is 
 not religion, it is science. Science was never known to hurt anybody 
 but scientists.'' — Brooklyn Eag!e, December /j, 1907. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 WORKS BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 Philosophy of Work. 
 
 I. Philosophy of Work. 
 II. Secret of Work. 
 III. Duty or Motive in Work, 
 
 Paper, 35 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 2 and 6 cents. 
 
 " In this volume the Vedanta Society presents three lectures by the 
 leader of the Hindu religious movement that is making much head- 
 way among philosophic minds throughout the United States. The 
 book is an excellent antidote to the gospel of selfism now popular 
 in many quarters, and a copy should be in the hands especially of 
 every ambitious seeker after the loaves and fishes of material desire. 
 It shows the folly of slavery to sense and the means of escape from 
 the thraldom of egoism, while elucidating the Hindu concept of 
 many things that are ' race problems' because of individual igno» 
 ranee of spiritual principles. These discourses merit a wide circula)> 
 tion among unprejudiced minds." — Mind, February, 2903. 
 
 Single Lectures. 
 
 The Way to the Blessed Life. 
 
 Scientific Basis of Religion. 
 
 Cosmic Evolution and its Purpose. 
 
 The Philosophy of Good and Evil. 
 
 Does the Soul Exist after Death? 
 
 Spiritualism and Vedanta. 
 
 The Word and the Cross in Ancient India. 
 
 Simple Living. 
 
 Why a Hindu is a ViiCETARiAN. 
 
 Religion of the Hindus. 
 
 Divine Communion. 
 
 Who is the Saviour of Souls? 
 
 Woman's Place in Hindu Religion. 
 
 V/hy a Hindu accepts Christ and Rejects Churchxanitv. 
 
 Christian Science and Vedanta. 
 
 The Motherhood of God. 
 
 The Relation of Soul to God. 
 
 10 cents each. Postage, i cent each. 
 
 Single Lectures Parts I & II Bound in cloth each $1.00 
 Postage 8 cents 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 NEW BOOK BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 Seif-Knowledge (Atma-Jnana). 
 
 Cloth, ;$l.oo. Postage, 8 cents. Portrait of author, 
 frontispiece. 
 
 Contents. 
 I. Spirit and Matter. IV. Search after the Self. 
 
 II. Knowledge of the Self. V. Realization of the Self. 
 
 III. Prana and the Self. VI. Immortality and the Self. 
 
 •' So practically and exhaustively is each phase of the subject 
 treated that it may well serve as a text-book for anyone striving 
 for self-development and a deeper understanding of human nature." 
 — Toronto Saturday Night, Dec. 1905. 
 
 •' It will also be welcomed by students of the Vedic Scriptures, 
 since each chapter is based upon some one of the ancient Vedas 
 known as the Upanishads, and many passages are quoted."— 
 Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 1906. 
 
 " The book, from the gifted pen of the head of the Vedanta 
 Society of New York, presents in a clear manner, calculated to 
 arrest the attention of those not yet famihar with Vedic literature, 
 the principles of self-knowledge as taught by the leaders of that 
 philosophy. . . . The many passages quoted prove the profound 
 wisdom and practical teaching contained in the early Hindu Scrip- 
 tures." — Washingto7i Evening Star, Dec. 1905. 
 
 *' A new book which will be welcome to students of Truth, 
 whether it be found in the Eastern religions, in modem thought 
 or elsewhere." — Unity, Nov. 1905. 
 
 "The book is very well written." — San Francisco Chronicle^ 
 Dec. 1905. 
 
 "In forcefulness and clearness of style it is in every way'equal 
 to the other works by the Swami Abhedananda, who has always 
 shown himself in his writings a remarkable master of the English 
 language." — Mexican Herald, Dec. 1905. 
 
 " The volume is forcefully written, as are all of this author's 
 ■wrorks, and cannot fail to be of great interest to all who have entered 
 this fiel 1 of thought. A fine portrait of the Swami forms the 
 frontispiece." — Toledo Blade, Nov. 1905. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 How to be a Yogi. (Third Edition.) 
 
 I. Introductory. III. Science of Breathing. 
 
 II. What is Yoga? IV. Was Christ a Yogi? 
 
 I2mo, i88 pages. Portrait of author, frontispiece. 
 Cloth, $i.oo. Postage, 8 cents. 
 
 ** For Christians interested in foreign missions this book is of 
 moment, as showing the method of reasoning which they must be 
 prepared to meet if they are to influence the educated Hindu. To 
 the OrientaHst, and the philosopher also, the book is not without 
 interest. . . . Swarni Abhedananda preaches no mushroom creed 
 and no Eurasian hybrid ' theosophy.* He aims to give us a com- 
 pendious account of Yoga. Clearly and admirably he performs his 
 task. In form the little book is excellent, and its English style is 
 good." — New York Times Saturday Review o/Books^ Dec. 6, 1902, 
 
 " ♦ How to be a Yogi ' is a little volume that makes very interest- 
 ing reading. The book contains the directions that must be fol- 
 lowed in physical as well as in mental training by one who wishes 
 to have full and perfect control of all his powers." — Record" 
 Herald^ Chicago, Feb. 28, 1903. 
 
 " The Swimi writes in a clear, direct manner. His chapter on 
 Breath will elicit more than ordinary attention, as there is much in 
 it that will prove helpful. The book makes a valuable addition to 
 Vedanta Philosophy." — Mind, June, 1903. 
 
 ••The book is calculated to interest the student of Oriental 
 thought and familiarize the unread with one of the greatest philo- 
 sophical systems of the world." — Buffalo Courier, Nov. 23, 1902, 
 
 •• • How to be a Yogi ' practically sums up the whole science of 
 Vedanta Philosophy. The term Yogi is lucidly defined and a full 
 analysis is gfiven of the science of breathing and its bearing on the 
 highest spiritual development. The methods and practices of Yoga 
 are interestingly set forth, and not the least important teaching of 
 the book is the assertion of how great a Yogi was Jesus of Naz- 
 areth." — The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer, Jan. 15, 1903. 
 
 " This book is well worth a careful reading. Condensed, yet 
 dear and concise, it fills one with tlie desire to en^uiate these Yogis 
 IB attaining spiritual perfection." — Unity, Kansas City, Dec, 1903. 
 
 Religion of Vedanta. 
 
 Pamphlet printed for free distribution. l2mo, 8 pages. 
 $1.00 for 150. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 WORKS BY SWAMI ABHEDMANDA. 
 
 Spiritual Unfoldment, 
 
 I. Self-control. 
 
 II. Concentration and Meditation. 
 
 III. God-consciousness. 
 
 Paper, 35 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 2 and 6 cents. 
 
 " This attractive Httle volume comprises three lectures on the 
 Vedanta Philosophy. The discourses will be found vitally helpful even 
 by those who know little and care less about the spiritual and ethical 
 teachings of which the Swami is an able and popular exponent. As 
 the Vedanta itself is largely a doctrine of universals and ultimates, so 
 also is this book of common utility and significance among all races of 
 believers. Its precepts are susceptible of application by any rational 
 thinker, regardless of religious predilection and inherited prejudices. 
 The principles set forth by this teacher are an excellent corrective of 
 spiritual bias or narrowness, and as such the present work is to be com- 
 mended. It has already awakened an interest in Oriental literature that 
 augurs well for the cause of human brotherhood, and it merits a wide 
 circulation among all who cherish advanced ideals."— iJ/:»<^, Aprils 
 1902. _ 
 
 The Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 SWAMI ABHEDANANDA. 
 
 234 pages. Flexible cloth, gilt top, 75c. net. Postage, 4e. 
 
 RSmakrishna was a great Hindu saint of the nineteenth century 
 who has already had an influence on the religious thought of 
 America and England through the teachings of his disciples, 
 Swami Vivekfinanda, Swami Abhedananda, and others. His Say- 
 ings are full of broad, practical, non-sectarian instructions concern- 
 ing the spiritual life which cannot but give help and inspiration 
 to the followers of all creeds. The present volume contains a 
 larger number of Sayings than has yet appeared in any one English 
 collection. For the first time also they have been classified into 
 chapters and arranged in logical sequence under marginal head- 
 ings, such as "All creeds paths to God," " Power of Mind and 
 Thought," "Meditation," "Perseverance." As an exposition of 
 the universal truths of Religion and their application to the daily 
 life'this book taJ^es its place among; the great scriptures of th« 
 worl<l. 
 
Works on The Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. 
 
 Raja Yoga. 
 
 376 pages. Cloth, $1.50. Postage, 11 cents. Portrait of author, 
 
 frontispiece. 
 
 Besides lectures on Rija Yoga the book contains Patanjali's Yoga 
 Aphorisms with Commentary, a copious Sanskrit Glossary, a lec- 
 ture on Immortality, and the Sw^mi's lectures on Bhakti Yoga. 
 
 " The whole spirit of the book is candid in the extreme. It 
 appeals to what is best and noblest in man. It makes no foolish 
 mysteries and demands no blind belief. It puts forth its system in 
 a plain and simple manner. It is able to present its own method 
 without in any way attacking the method of others. It manifests 
 a charity that it is usual to call Christian, but which Vivekinanda 
 proves is equally the property of the Hindu. If this little book 
 had nothing to teach but the beautiful toleration it advocates, it 
 would be well worth reading; but many will find in it valuable 
 suggestions to aid in reaching the higher life." — Arena, March, 1897, 
 
 •♦A large part of the book is occupied with that method of 
 attaining perfection known as Raja Yoga, and there are also trans- 
 lations of a number of aphorisms and an excellent glossary." — 
 Living Age, August 5th, 1899. 
 
 ** A valuable portion of the volume to students is the glossary of 
 Sanskrit technical terms. This includes not only such terms as are 
 employed in the book, but also those frequently employed in works 
 on the Vedanta philosophy in general." — New York Times, July 
 22nd, 1899. 
 
 •' A new edition with'"enlarged glossary, which will be welcomed 
 by students of comparative religion, who are already familiar with 
 the author's lectures in this country." — Review 0/ Reviews, Oct., 
 1899. 
 
 " The methods of practical realization of the divine within the 
 human are applicable to all religions, and all peoples, and onh 
 vary in their details to suit the idiosyncrasy of race and indivii^' 
 uals." — Post, Washington, D. C, June 12th, 1899. 
 
 ' Sent on receipt of price and postage by tbe 
 
 VEDANTA PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 
 
 135 West 80th Street, New York. 
 
 Agents for Europe— Messrs. LUZAC & CO., London, W. C, 
 
 46 Great Russell Street 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 WORK BY SWAmI VIVEKANANDA. 
 
 Jnana Yoga. part i. 
 
 l2mo. 356 pages. Cloth, $ 1.5a Postage, II cents. 
 
 *• One of the great thouf^ht challengers of the day is this work 
 by the SwSmi VivekSnanda. The book goes deep and treats of 
 startling things, but when analyzed and viewed from the author's 
 standpoint, they are found to he links in the great chain of truth. 
 He alone will deny who is out of sympathy or limited in vision." — 
 Transcript ^ Boston, Sept. 24, 1902. 
 
 " Students of religion will find much of interest in it ; those who 
 care for India in any way will be glad to receive an indication of 
 high Hindu thought in one of the most striking religious move- 
 ments of the day ; while the orthodox Christian will derive some 
 information from the work regarding the attftude of cultured 
 Hindus toward Christianity and its Founder. After reading the 
 book one is inexcusable if his ideas concerning Vedanta are 
 hazy." — Nevo York Saturday Revieiv of Books ^ July 12, 1902. 
 
 " The lectures show a wonderful insight into great truths which 
 underlie all religious aspiration.-" — Courier-Journal ^ Louisville, 
 July 5, 1902. 
 
 *' The altruism with which his preaching is permeated attracts 
 and inspires. The lovo of humanity which he inculcates harmonizes 
 with the spirit of the age. His English is good, his style easy to 
 read^ his sincerity unquestionable. Merely as an intelligent pre- 
 sentation of what is best in the ancient Hindu Scriptures, the 
 Sw^i Vivektnanda's book is deserving of attention at the hands 
 of religious students." — Record-Herald^ Chicago, Aug. 19, 1902. 
 
 *' The lectures are all extremely interesting, the style brilliant, 
 the reasoning often subtle. Whether the philosophy advanced is 
 satisfactory or not to those whose theories are the outgrowth of a 
 different system of thought, his method of presenting it affords an 
 intellectual pleasure."— y^^wrwa/, Indianapolis, Oct. 13, 1902. 
 
 ** It is a book which appeals to the intellectual, and no one could 
 be the worse for reading it, since it contains much of truth even as 
 Christians measure truth." — Milwaukee Sentinel^ Aug. 15, 1902. 
 
 "The Vedanta Philosophy as explained by Vivek^nanda is 
 interesting. ... As given by him and his followers, no more lofty 
 teachings can be found. The work is a valuable addition to ths 
 litorature of religions." — Toledo Blade^ Oct. ix, 190a. 
 
 J 
 
 nana Yoga. part ii. 
 
 l2mo. Cloth, $1.00. Postage, 7 cents. 
 
 " Its simplicity of language, its exemption from pedantry, and its 
 forceful and convincing style all contribute to make it a very valuable 
 work." — Oregon Journal, Oct. ij, igoj. 
 
Works on The Vedanta Philosophy. 
 BY SWAMI VIYEKANMD^ 
 
 Karma Yoga 
 
 X2mo. New and revised edition. Cloth, $i.oo. Postage, 7 cents. 
 Portrait of author, frontispiece. 
 
 Eight lectures on the practical appHcation of the Vedanta Phi- 
 losophy to the affairs of daily hfe, showing in a clear and forcible 
 manner how it is possible to lead the highest life without abandon- 
 ing the duties and avocations of one's station in the world, and 
 proving conclusively that the loftiest aspiration and attainment are 
 entirely compatible with the humblest occupation, and are open t9 
 every human being. 
 
 My Master. 
 
 BY SWAMI VIVEKAnANDA. 
 
 Iimo, 90 pages. Cloth, 50 cents. Postage, 6 cents. 
 
 *' This httle book gives an account of the character and career of 
 the remarkable man known in India as Paramahamsa Srimat 
 Ramakrishna, who is regarded by a great number of his country- 
 men as a divine incarnation. It is not more remarkable for the story 
 it tells of a holy man than for the clear English in which it is told, 
 and the expressions of elevated thought in its pages."— y<?«r«a/, 
 Indianapolis, May 13th, 1901. 
 
 '* The book, besides telling the life of Sri Ramakrishna, gives an 
 insight into some of the religious ideas of the Hindus and sets 
 forth the more important ideals that vitally influence India's teem- 
 ing millions. If we are willing to sympathetically study the relig- 
 ious views of our Aryan brethren of the Orient, we shall find them 
 governed by spiritual concepts in no way inferior to the highest 
 known to ourselves, concepts which were thought out and prac- 
 tically applied by those ancient philosophers in ages %o remote as 
 to antedate histoiy,*'— /*<m/, Washington Majr j3tE, 190X. 
 
 What is Vedanta? 
 
 Pamphlet printed fot free distribution contafning' a short 
 exposition of the fundamental teachings of the Vedanta Philos- 
 ophy. i2mo, 8 pp. $1.00 for 150. 
 
Publications of The Vedanta Society. 
 
 The Vedanta Philosophy. 
 
 An Address before the Graduate Philosophical Society of 
 Harvard College, with Introduction by Prof. C. C, 
 Everett. 15 cents. Postage, 2 cents. 
 
 The Ideal of a Universal Religion. 
 
 The Cosmos. 
 
 The Atman. 
 
 The Real and Apparent Man. 
 
 Bhakti Yoga. 
 
 World's Fair Addresses. 
 
 10 cents each. Postage, i cent each. 
 
 Influence of the East on Religion 
 
 By Rev. R. HEBER NEWTON, D.D. 
 
 (Honorary Member of the Vedanta Society.) 
 »20 pages. 5 cents. Postage, i cent. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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