When the gross body falls, the organs of speech enter the mind. You cannot think without words; wherever there are words there must be thought. The mind is resolved into the prâna, and the prâna resolves into the jiva. Then the jiva leaves the body and goes to that condition of reward or punishment which he has earned by his past life. Devaloka is the “place (or abode) of the gods.” The word deva (god) means bright or shining one, and corresponds to what the Christians and Mohammedans call “angels.” According to this teaching there are various heavenly spheres somewhat analogous to the various heavens described by Dante in the Divine Comedy. There are the heaven of the fathers (or pitris), devaloka, the lunar sphere, the electric sphere and highest of all the Brahmaloka, the heaven of Brahma. From all the lower heavens the jiva returns again to human birth, but he who attains to Brahmaloka lives there through all eternity. These are the highest men who have become perfectly unselfish, perfectly purified, who have given up all desires, do not want to do anything except to worship and love God. There is a second class, who do good works, but want some reward, want to go to heaven in return. When they die the jiva goes to the lunar sphere, where it enjoys and becomes a deva (god or angel). The gods, the devas, are not eternal, they have to die. In heaven they will all die. The only deathless place is Brahmaloka, where alone there is no birth and no death. In our mythology it is said there are also the demons, who sometimes give the gods chase. In all mythologies you read of these fights between the demons, or wicked angels, and the gods and sometimes the demons conquer the gods. In all mythologies also, you find that the devas were fond of the beautiful daughters of men. As a deva, the jiva only reaps results of past actions, but makes no new Karma. Only man makes Karma. Karma means actions that will produce effects, also those effects, or results of action. When a man dies and becomes a deva he has a period of pleasure, and during that time makes no fresh Karma; he simply enjoys the reward of his past good works. But when the good Karma is worked out then the other Karma begins to take effect.
In the Vedas there is no mention of hell. But afterwards the Purânas, the later books in our Scriptures, thought that no religion could become complete without a proper attachment of hells, and so they invented all sorts of hells, with as many, if not more, varieties of punishment than Dante saw in his Inferno, but our books are merciful enough to say that it is only for a period. Bad Karma is worked out in that state and then the souls come back to earth and get another chance. This human form is the great chance. It is called the karmic body, in which we decide our fate. We are running in a huge circle, and this is the point in the circle which determines the future. So a human body is considered the greatest body there is; man is greater than the gods. Even they return to human birth. So far with dualistic Vedânta.
Next comes a higher conception of Vedânta philosophy, which says that these ideas are crude. If you say there is a God who is an infinite Being, and a soul which is also infinite, and Nature which is also infinite, you can go on multiplying infinites indefinitely, but that is illogical, because each would limit the other and there would be no real infinite. God is both the material and the efficient cause of the universe; He projects this universe out of Himself. Does that mean that God has become these walls, and this table, that God has become the animal, the murderer and all the evils in the world? God is pure, how can He become all these degenerate things? He has not. God is unchangeable, all these changes are in Nature; just as I am a soul and have a body, this body is not different from me in a sense, yet I, the real “I,” in fact am not this body. For instance, I am a child, I become a young man, an old man, but my soul has not changed. It remains the same soul. Similarly the whole universe comprises all Nature, and an infinite number of souls, or, as it were, the infinite body of God. He is interpenetrating the whole of it. He alone is unchangeable, but Nature changes and soul changes. In what way does Nature change? In its forms; it takes fresh forms. But the soul cannot change that way. The soul contracts and expands in knowledge. It contracts by evil deeds; those deeds which contract the natural knowledge and purity of the soul are called evil deeds. Those deeds, again, which bring out the natural glory of the soul, are called good deeds. All these souls were pure, but they have become contracted by their own acts. Still, through the mercy of God, and by doing good deeds, they will expand and become pure again. Every soul has the same chance, and, in the long run, must become pure and free itself from Nature. But this universe will not cease, because it is infinite. This is the second theory. The first is called dualistic Vedânta; the second teaches that there is God, soul, and Nature, that soul and Nature form the body of God, and that these three form one unit. Believers in this second theory are called qualified non-dualists (Visishtadvaitins).
The last and highest theory is pure monism, or as it is known in India, Advaita. It also teaches that God must be both the material and the efficient cause of this universe. As such, God has become the whole of this universe. This theory denies that God is the soul, and the universe is the body, and the body is changing. In that case what is the use of calling God the material cause of this universe? The material cause is the cause become effect; the effect is nothing but the cause in another form. Wherever you see effect, it is the cause reproduced. If the universe is the effect, and God the cause, this must be the reproduction of God. If it be claimed that the universe is the body of God and that that body becomes contracted and fine and becomes the cause, and out of that the universe is evolved, then the advaitist says it is God Himself who has become this universe. Now comes a very fine question. If God has become this universe, then everything is God. Certainly; everything is God. My body is God, and my mind is God, and my soul is God. Then why are there so many jivas? Has God become divided into millions and millions of jivas? How can that infinite power and substance, the one Being of the universe become divided? It is impossible to divide infinity. How can the pure Being become this universe? If He has become the universe, He is changeful, and if He is changeful, He is in Nature, and whatever is in Nature is born and dies. If God is changeful, He must die some day. Remember that. Again, how much of God has become this universe? If you say “X,” the algebraical unknown quantity, then God is God minus “X” now, and therefore not the same God as before this creation, because so much of Him has become this universe. The answer of the non-dualist is that this universe has no real existence, it exists in appearance only. These devas and gods and angels and being born and dying, and all this infinite number of souls coming up and going down, all these things are mere dreams. All is the one Infinite. The one sun reflected on various drops of water appears to be many, millions of globules of water reflect so many millions of suns and in each globule will be a perfect image of the sun, yet there is only one sun, and so it is with all these jivas, they are but reflections of the one infinite Being. A dream cannot be without a reality, and that reality is the one infinite Existence. You, as body, mind, or soul, are a dream, but what you really are is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Thus says the Advaitist. All these births and rebirths, this coming and going are but parts of the dream. You are infinite. Where can you go? The sun, moon, and the whole universe are but a drop in your nature. How can you be born or die? The Self was never born, never will be born, never had father or mother, friends or foes, for it is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.
What is the goal, according to this philosophy? That those who receive this knowledge are one with the universe; for them all heavens, even Brahmaloka, are destroyed, the whole dream vanishes, and they find themselves the eternal God of the universe. They attain their real individuality, infinitely beyond these little selves which we now think of so much importance. No individuality will be lost; an infinite and eternal Individuality will be realized. Pleasures in little things will cease. We are finding pleasure in this little body, in this little individuality. How much greater the pleasure when this whole universe is in our one body? If there be pleasure in these separate bodies, how much more when all bodies are one? The man who has realized this has attained to freedom, has gone beyond the dream and known himself in his real nature. This is the teaching of Advaita, the non-dualistic Vedânta.
These are the three steps which Vedânta philosophy has taken, and we cannot go beyond, because we cannot go beyond unity. When any science reaches a unity it cannot possibly go any farther. You cannot go beyond this idea of the Absolute, the One Idea of the universe, out of which everything else has evolved. All people cannot take up this Advaita philosophy; it is too hard. First of all, it is very difficult to understand it intellectually. It requires the sharpest of intellects, a bold understanding. Secondly, it does not suit the vast majority of people.
It is better to begin with the first of these three steps. Then by thinking of that and understanding it, the second one will open of itself. Just as a race travels, so individuals have to travel. The steps which the human race has taken to come to the highest pinnacle of religious thought, every individual will have to take. Only, while the human race took millions of years to reach from one step to another, individuals may live the whole life of the human race in a few years, or they may be able to do it more quickly, perhaps in six months. But each one of us will have to go through these steps. Those of you who are non-dualists can, no doubt, look back to the period of your lives when you were strong dualists. As soon as you think you are a body and a mind, you will have to accept the whole of this dream. If you have one piece you must take the whole. The man who says, here is this world but there is no God, is a fool, because if there be a world there will have to be a cause of the world, and that is what is called God. You cannot have an effect without knowing that there is a cause. God will only vanish when this world vanishes. When you have realized your one-ness with God, this world will no longer be for you. As long as this dream exists, however, we are bound to see ourselves as being born and dying, but as soon as the dream that we are bodies vanishes, so will vanish this dream that we are being born and dying, and so will vanish the other dream that there is a universe. That very thing which we now see as this universe will appear to us as God, and that very God who was so long external, will appear as the very Self of our own selves. The last word of Advaita is, Tat tvam asi,—“That thou art.”
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BY SWÂMI VIVEKÂNANDA