The Search After Reality: Thoughts on Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and Christianity

i. Before the creation of animate and inanimate things there was space, and, if the whole universe should be destroyed, space would always remain; but it is unthinkable that the universe should be destroyed and that space should remain void. It is not possible that matter came into existence in space by its own creative power, or that living organisms should spring from lifeless matter. Consequently, when we find order and design in the universe, it is a* prqpf of the existence of an Almighty and All-knowing Being, Who, being Infinite and Eternal, created and filled space with existing things, both seen and unseen.

^^here is nothing eternal save God. So we have to face the question that if the Universe is not eternal then it must have been created, and if so, when God created existing things a change must have occurred in Him. But this is impossible, for He is unchangeable. The truth is to be found in this, that before the universe came into being it existed in the knowledge of God. To exist outwardly (objectively), or in His knowledge (subjectively), is the same thing to Him.

On the other hand, if we consider the universe as eternal then God is not the Creator; and if He is not the Creator, He is not Almighty; and if not Almighty He is not God. Such a God is like a strong man, who is the owner of his property and can make use of his possessions, but, being limited in power and knowledge, does not know the real nature of..things he uses. In God such a limitation is contrary to His nature'and attributes. But we need say no more. The universe was in His knowledge, and came into being by His creative power. This universe is not commingled in Him,' as pantheists hold, but is separate from Him, although it is from Him, and in Him, and!, will remain in Him for ever.,

3. “ The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ”, and countless kinds of created things came into being before Him; and the Spirit of the Lord still broods over human souls in the limitless ocean of space. He alone knows the great and glorious beings who will be manifested, and, becoming perfect like their Creator, will enjoy His presence for ever.

4. In the world there are wholesome things, but bitter poisonous things are also to be found. God is indeed the Creator of these things. But their evil essence is created by the powers of evil. So also God is the Creator of all souls, but the depraved nature that is in men results from their free will. God did not create sin and evil, n or did He incline men towards it, but He left them -altogether free to choose their way for themselves. But.God, Who is love, can create such a holy and health-giving change in human souls that their evil nature and 411 their spiritual diseases are removed for ever.

When the root of sin is removed, then its evil effects will disappear from the whole creation, except that the lessons of that sad experience will always remind men of the need for greater watchfulness against sin in their future lives.

It is impossible that anything contrary to God’s nature and attributes should remain eternally in the realm within which He is Sovereign.

5. People usually hail with great delight the beauties of nature, such as are seen in fruits and flowers, rivers and lakes, mountains and landscape scenery; but their attention and affections are so engrossed by the natural beauty, of fhings that they fail to get behind them to the Creator, Who, hidden behind the works of His hands, exists screened by His creation.

When the universe is so beautiful, then how glorious must be the Creator Himself! JY£.en the gifts of His hands are so sweet, how much more will be His presence Who created all 1 this sweetness!

The pity of it is that senseless man is satisfied with the created things, and remains ignorant of his Lord’s life-giving and soulsatisfying presence.

6. Animals know their masters, but man, who is more noble than the rest of creation, has sunk lower than the animals, and does not know his Creator. For, blinded by his sinful nature, he fails to recognise his real self. Should he come to know himself or his real nature, then by the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit he will recognise Him also in Whose image he has been created.

i. While the waves are running over the surface of the water we cannot see our faces in it. * In the same way, until the waves of the world’s storm Jhave been stilled in the heart s? f man, he cannot see his real state of spiritual need. When in the calm of meditation the state is recognised, then in his helplessness he clearly perceives, his need of God for help and salvation, and, bowing in prayer, yields himself to Him.

2. If the heart is not deceived and is free from the entanglements and seductions of the world, then as the needle of the compass is attracted towards the Pole star, so the heart itself responds to the attraction of God, and turns towards Him. For it is not possible for human nature to be wholly unaffected by the attraction of Infinite Love and Holiness. “ No really great man was ever without God ” (Seneca).

3. Where people have not reached to a correct knowledge of God, their religion is based on fear and selfishness. I once asked some people of the Lepcha tribe in Sikkim why they had forsaken the true God, and worshipped evil spirits. They replied, “ We always live in fear of the harm that evil spirits may do us, so we try to- please them. But what use is there in praying to God, or good spirits, or in worshipping them, when there is no danger of their harming us? ” They did not know that through our connection with God we can overcome evil spirits, and that God will always protect us from every kind of attack that would bring us harm.

4. An ancient philosopher, feeling dimly the need of God and religion, said:

“ In the primeval age of disorder and violence, laws might strike crimes committed in the open day but could not touch secret sins hidden in the gloomy depths of conscience. A sage advised that to make men moral they must be made afraid. Let them invent gods who could see and hear all things, cognisant not only of all human actions, but also of men’s inmost thoughts and purposes.”

Though this philosopher was ignorant of the existence of God, yet hidden away in his nature is clearly seen the reflection of God’s being; and behind his thought about inventing a god, God Himself is seen to be actively present. In short, “every race, in every age, has 1 ifi some form or other shown its deep craving for God.

I shaH now attempt to writ? something about the four great religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammadanism and Christianity, with a view to finding out which of these religions is sufficiently universal to satisfy the cravings and needs of the human race, and to what extent it can offer peace to the individual soul, burdened by the sense of its separation from the Eternal God.

The word Hindu is not found in any of the Vedas, or Shastaras (religious books), and its real meaning is unknown. It is possible that the Aryans, who lived in the neighbourhood of the river Sindh, were called Sindhu, and that this name was corrupted into Hindu.

The Sacred Books of the Hindus comprise four Vedas: Upanishads, of which twelve are important; six Darsanas; Bhdgavad Gita; and many other Shastaras and Puranas.

A Hindu leader has written the following about Hinduism:

“ There are no dogmas in Hinduism. You may believe in any doctrine you choose, even atheism, without ceasing to be a Hindu.

YSu as a Hindu must in theory accept the Vedas as revealed religion, but you may put your own interpretation on the Vedic texts. This leases a loophole for you to»escape from the thraldom of dogmatism.”

Hinduism embraces totally different systems of doctrine, and that man is a Hindu who, having been born of Hindu parents, accepts any of these systems. Hinduism had no single founder. In widely separated ages, different religious teachers wrote what seemed right and true, and passed on their teaching to others. Hence there are to be found within Hinduism teachings not only varied, but even contradictory. Among its teachers were many real seekers after truth, and bhaktas, or devotees, who had received some measure of light from that God Who “ left not Himself without witness ” among the nations (Acts xiv. 16-17). Also, some of these devotees, in becoming Sddhus and Sanydsis, renounced not only the world and its luxuries, but even their kingdoms as well, and spent their time in meditation. In the world to-day it would be difficult to find a people more engrossed in religious observances than the Hindus.

I will now give a brief account ofithe chief doctrines of Hinduism.

i. Vedanta means the end iantd) of the Vedas, or the end of knowledge. It is mainly based on the teaching of the Upanishads, which comprise the philosophy of the Vedas with their commentaries; but the teaching of the Vedanta philosophy is found in the Darsanas and Bhagavad Gita and in other Shastaras.

The chief doctrine of the Vedanta is that all is Maya, or Illusion, except Brahma or God. If this is truej then it is useless to practice Toga or Bhakti -» (devotion), or to seek the merit of good works, because He who brought M&y& into existence will Himself destroy it. If this is beyond His power, then Mdyd must be more powerful thsvn §ven Brahma himself. For Maya can bring into its control all those physical manifestations the total of whose material forms is® held to be the Brahma. Besides this, what proof has the Vedantist that those who accept the Maya teaching, or those who through meditation gain enlightenment (yogi), or even Brahma himself are not Maya?

• The truth is that there is one True, Almighty and Eternal God, and that this world is His creation. This material world is not Maya or Illusion, as the Ved&ntists and Sophists believe, but is real existence. The creation is neither God Himself, nor is the creation separate from Him. His lifegiving presence is present in all creatures, because “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts xvii. 28).

2. The Vedanta philosophy teaches that as the particles of snow melt into their original element, and flowing down join the river, which passes on into the ocean; so men, like separate particles of snow, are melted by the fire of knowledge, and losing their individual existence, return to.mingle in the ocean that is Brahma.

If we accept this teaching, then we must* admit that, there is another power besides Brahma. For as the cold freezes the water, and keeps the particles of snow in discrete individual existence, so this power keeps in separate existence all different forms of being, and restrains them from reabsorption into Brahma.

If we accept Shankaracharya’s dogma that Maya is the creative power of Brahma, then the whole responsibility for man’s state rests on Brahma, who created both man and ignorance ( 'avidyd). Hence man cannot be held responsible for his sin, for his very existence as a separate being depends on ‘ Ignorance which is the root and cause of sin.

Perhaps it was in flje light of this teaching that Swami Vivekananda, at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, said, “ It is a sin to call a man sinner.” If this is true, then all the teaching of the Vedas and Shastaras about Good and Evil works {karma)

is futile, for if the fact of sin is denied, then man’s good differs not from his evil.

3. If knowledge (Jndna), as well as Good works (k&rma) and Devotion ( Bhakti), is necessary for salvation ( [moksd), then what is the good of it if by receiving it we lose ourselves in the universal being, and our souls ( dtman) in the universal soul (yparam - atm an)} Here we have annihilation instead of salvation! and when we are ourselves absorbed into Brahma our knowledge (Jndna) will also be lost. Looked at in this way, ‘ knowledge ’ does not continue to be ‘ knowledge ’, but becomes everlasting ignorance (avidya) and dissolution. When we were in the state of ‘ ignorance ’ at least we had some knowledge of ourselves, but when we have gained salvation through * knowledge we have to part with eygn the little that we had before absorption into Brahma!

A tree is known by its fruits, so I would like to ask the Vedantists a question. Is it the fruit of ‘ knowledge ’ jndna) that in India (where this theory of ‘ knowledge ’

has been taught, and where its teacher was born), in spite of this teaching, millions»of its people have for centuries remained in a most? appalling state of ignorance?

If they say that this ‘ knowledge ’ is not for the common people, but for yogis and sages, that means that it is not for all, so all cannot be benefited by it. We may sum up: because it is not for all, it is not universal; and if it is not universal then it is not true, because truth is for all.

4. This example is- usually given by Vedantists to show that 'all we see is only an illusion and a dream. In the dark a rope appears to be a snake, but in the light we see its real nature, and the illusion is dispelled. But this does not prove that there are no snakes in the world, for if there were no snakes, then, when we; saw the rope, the idea of the snake would not have occurred to us, because the thing that does not exist is unthinkable. There is no need to say any more. The created things that we see around us are not a dream, nor an illusion, but are real.

5. Again, Shankardch&rya teaches this, “ The world in great periods is created and reabsorbed in Brahma ”. This means that Brahma ^created living beings, bound to ignorance,and pain. So foreign is this to our ideas of a just God, that Swami Sardanand has been forced to explain that “ It is a play of the Infinite ”. But if this is true, then such a Brahma is like those Roman tyrants who cast men among the wild beasts, that they might be entertained by the sight of human distress. Such an idea is absolutely contrary to the nature and attributes of God.

6.,; It is a principle of truth that we should love others as we love ourselves. This is the foundation of all joy, peace and progress. But the Vedanta teaches that, “ Whatever is, is nothing but Brahma ”. j Hence love of self and love of Brahma are parts of the same whole — and there is nothing wonderful or praiseworthy about it if Brahma loves himself, for cruel and selfish men do the same. The saltness of salt is not for the salt itself but for him who eats it, and the love of the lover is not for himself but /or his beloved — that both may be happy in the mutual enjoyment of their love. And in seeking close fellowship with God 1 man has this object only, that the craving, of his soul may be satisfied.

The influence of Christianity and modern thought has so permeated the life of India that even some Vedantists now believe that salvation is not the commingling or absorption of ourselves in God, but is our living in conscious communion with Him.

7. Ramanuja and his followers deny the M&yd teaching, and hold that the creation is as real as God Himself. If we exclude the views of this sect, the Vedanta philosophy may be put in a nutshell thus: ’ No human relationships are real, but all are Illusion ( Mdyd); therefore a. boy looks on himself as his father’s son. But* through Yoga or ‘ Knowledge ’ (Jnana) he is freed from this illusion, and having now perfect * knowledge ’, realises that l>e has no father at all, but is his own father! ( j Therefore the relation of father and son and their mutual fellowship is destroyed for ever when ‘ knowledge ’ is -.attained and illusion disappears.

Illusion ( Mdyd) is like an abscess in the being of Brahma. Through the surgical operation of * knowledge ’ ( jndna) it is removed, but again appears — that is it disappears in the periods of world annihilation, and again appears in the periods of world reconstruction. -

If this is so, then Vedanta, which is held to mean the end (atifd) of all knowledge, actually puts all real knowledge to an end\ It is useless to expect to reach a true knowledge of either the Creator, or of the Creation, by diving into such a whirlpool as this Vedantic teaching.