Unity in diversity
Hymns (riks) arose on various deities and
divine forces because the sages (rishis)
knew that each person can cognize “One alone is” only from their own viewpoint
and that it is different for different persons, depending on the stage reached
in clarifying and purifying the vision.
The sages
announced through that statement their discovery that the One is the subject
that all the sages and saints, seers and poets, hymnists and composers adored
and praised in various languages, during various moods, through various styles
of expression.
Thus,
consequences of the highest value to the world emerged from the declaration
quoted above, “One alone is; the wise speak of It as many.”
For example,
many are surprised that India is the one country where religious fanaticism is
absent, and no one hinders or harms the religious observances of another. This
country has theists, atheists, dualists, non-dualists, monotheists, and others;
they live together in peace and harmony, without causing or suffering injury.
Materialists
stood on the steps of temples (held sacred by brahmins and used by them for
worship) and defamed and denied God. They called upon all to follow them. They
declared that the idea of God is but an insane fancy.
They
condemned God, scriptures, codes of morality, righteousness, and guiding
principles and said that they were all superstitions designed and developed for
selfish aggrandizement by the brahmins. They roamed the land and propagated
these conclusions. No one hindered them.
Buddhism,
which systematically slighted Hindu rites and religious beliefs, was allowed to
coexist in an atmosphere of respect. The Jains too did not accept the Vedas and
the Vedic Gods. They asked in derision how such Gods could exist and be
believed in. Examples of the spirit of tolerance rooted in the revelatory
statement quoted above are innumerable.
Until the
ravaging Muslims sprang on this country, no one in this land of India (Bharath) knew what violence meant. Only
when foreign hordes fell upon them and resorted to violence did the people come
to know how intolerant humanity can be.
They believe
that when anyone talks lightly of any one of the names of god or any of the
forms of God whom others adore, they are insulting the one God. This was the
message held forth by the Indian way of spiritual life. Those who have learned
this truth and adhere to it are the real sons and daughters of India.
This truth
is beyond the grasp of all; not all can achieve this knowledge: Who is the
ruler of the Universe? Who is it that stands outside it and guides it? What is
the cause of the existence of this cosmos? Whence did this originate? How did
it happen? What caused this existence? The Vedas have many hymns (riks) dealing with these mysteries.
Indians have probed them.
Differences due to past actions
Creation
involves putting substances together; what is put together must come apart in
course of time and get liberated. The individual is created, so disintegration
and death will happen. Now, some are born happy; some enjoy healthy, happy
lives. Some are born miserable; others are born without hands or legs. Some are
born feeble minded or as defectives. Who hurt them or injured them?
God is
proclaimed as just and kind. How can such a God be so partial and prejudiced!
How can such differential treatment come into the realm ruled by God? Such
doubts are natural.
But the
vision of the sages of India who molded the thought of this land revealed to
them that God is not the cause of these differences; they are the consequences
of the acts indulged in by the individual in lives before the present one. They
result in happiness and misery, health, and handicaps.
Good and bad
are self-made, the effects of what was done in previous lives. Can the bodies
of people and their conditions, the ups and downs people meet in life, can they
not be the accumulated result of hereditary impacts and tendencies?
When an item
of work is done again and again, it becomes a habit, a skill; doesn’t it?
Therefore, the skill or habit that a newborn exhibit must be due to constant
repetition indulged in long ago.
Of course,
such practice must have taken place in a previous life or many lives. So, it is
necessary to posit the validity of the belief in past and future lives, for all
living beings. This is a basic belief in Indian spiritual thought.
Introspection-Summary
1) Buddhism, Jainism- all these did not accept
vedas. They asked in derision how such Gods could exist and be believed in.
2) Materialists/Atheists denied existence of
God, condemned worship of God.
3) However, everyone existed in this great land
of Bharath in peace, until the
Muslims invaded our country. Swami writes, in this context, “Only when foreign
hordes fell upon them and resorted to violence did the people come to know how
intolerant humanity can be.”
4) Who is the ruler of the Universe? Who is it
that stands outside it and guides it? What is the cause of the existence of
this cosmos? Whence did this originate. How did it happen? What caused this
existence?
For all
these questions, Vedas probed and
concluded- “consequences of the highest value to the world emerged from
the declaration, “One alone is, the wise speak of It as many.”
This “one
alone” is Brahman, beyond manifest and unmanifest, as concluded in the previous
post as well.
5) Swami touches upon the theory of Karma
towards the end of today’s part from the 3rd chapter and says, God can never be
unkind to punish any one or cause misery to anyone. All sufferings/ happiness
is on account of one’s own past action.
Swami
writes, “Good and bad are self-made, the effects of what was done in previous
lives.”
Love.
