Vedanta - The Journey From Truth To Truth

Een artikel geschreven door Brahmacharini Prabha Ma in het Engelstalige tijdschrift 'Satyasya Pantha' van International Vedanta Society.

Vedanta- the journey from truth to Truth

First steps on the spiritual path

Bhagavan once said that learning Vedanta is like learning the alphabet. Before you are able to understand a word, you have to attain the knowledge of the alphabet. As soon as you start to go to school it is about the first thing you learn. First letters, than words, than sentences… And, slowly but steadily, there comes a day that you can even read books containing the most complicated topics. The knowledge within the books was already there but it will only reveal itself to you when you have mastered the alphabet.

It is the same in the spiritual world: Bhagavan took the example of Ma Durga to explain this. To people who just started their spiritual journey, Ma Durga is just an image of a Hindu Goddess. She has 10 arms and in each hand she is holding a certain relic with a certain power. She is riding a tiger and you often see her depicted while fighting an Asura, a demon. She is something outside yourself and if you need courage or protection against evil you worship Her. You are giving Her the responsibility to solve your problems in this visible world. According to Bhagavan this is a very childish way of looking at Ma Durga and spirituality. It is just like you have been taught the word ‘Ma Durga’ but you are not able yet to read the whole book about Her to reveal the deep Knowledge which She represents.

Inner reflection

When you proceed on the spiritual path you slowly start to understand the sentences written in the book ‘Ma Durga’ and at a certain moment She will reveal Herself to you as an inner reality. She becomes alive within yourself as being that Light, that Truth, that Strength which enables you to fight your inner dark demons of ignorance. You will recognize the whole story about Ma Durga fighting the demon as the spiritual proces, which is happening within yourself on the path to Self-realisation. And at the end it is inevitable and sure that Ma Durga wins. Because you are bound to realise Who you really are. No doubt about it! God will recognize Himself again one day or the other! That is the moment that all darkness or ignorance has been conquered and you will dissolve in the Absolute Existence, Brahman. Just like a wave of the ocean dissolves in the water as soon as the wind stops blowing.

Be open to new insights

This spiritual proces towards Self-realisation is indeed a continuous struggle. A struggle which is not finished within a day. It takes time and it needs Purity, Perseverance and endless Patience to keep on fighting the darkness of ignorance. There will be small victories on the way, which enables you for a moment to see some Light of the Ultimate Truth. On this you rebuild your ideas and convictions. You attain to a higher truth than before. It brings you new insights and inspiration. Therefore it is important to build on this new obtained truth. But it should not blind you for even higher possible truths! Vedanta shows this clearly in the story of the five blindfolded men standing around an elephant. The five men were put at different parts of the elephant. One at the tail, one at the foot, one at the trunk and so on.. They were asked to describe the elephant. Of course they all had completely different descriptions. One was describing the trunk, the other the foot… So they started quarelling and became very angry with eachother. They were all right in their own way. They all had a part of the truth, but because they were blindfolded they couldn’t see the whole picture of the elephant.

The unchangeable Reality

Swami Pavritananda, the Guru of Bhagavan, explained to Bhagavan that the Ultimate, Absolute Truth or Brahman never changes. Like the elephant is always the complete elephant. Brahman is the source of all creation. It is all-pervading, limitless, beyond words; the One without a second, which was never born and will never die. It is constant, permanent reality. The only thing that is changing is you yourself. You are blinded by the veils of Maya or illusion. Sometimes, while proceeding on the spiritual path, some truth is revealed but as long as the blindfold of ignorance is not completely removed, you can’t see the whole Truth or the Ultimate Truth. As long as you are not permanently immersed in the ocean of Oneness or Brahman, you still can attain to higher truths. Therefore your perception of truth is always changing.

Cherish your attained, beautiful new insights of truth. Let them inspire you, but do not fix them. Always stay open and curious to higher truths, which will reveal themselves to you in time. Until you can see the whole picture. When the blindfold is removed from the eyes of the five persons, they all can see the complete elephant. That moment they realise that they all were right from their own perspective and the peace between them will be restored.

The beauty of Vedanta is that it doesn’t speak of falsehood. You are not wrong if you have realised a part of truth. It is necessary to keep you going on the spiritual path. Vedanta encourages you in these realisations and therefore declares that every being is moving from truth to truth. From a lower truth to a higher truth till you realise the Ultimate Truth about Brahman or the Absolute. That you are Brahman and One with all manifestations around you. You are God!

The three views of Vedanta

To help you on this path from truth to truth Vedanta describes three views. The first is described in the Dvaita Vedanta. This is the dual path of approaching the Divine. Vedanta offers this path in the beginning for the mind to grasp unto a form outside yourself. This can be a God(ess), Jesus, your Guru…. Any form with saintly characteristics which you can love and worship. This is called Bhakti yoga. According to Sri Ramakrishna the easiest path to attain to the Absolute in these times of deep darkness and ignorance. Through love for the object of your worship the ego will be put aside and becomes smaller. Therefore you slowly start recognizing the perfect characteristics of Love and Knowledge of your idol within your own self! The more your love grows the more you will be able to realise this fact.

This evolves into the second view of Vedanta, which is called Vishishta Advaita Vedanta. Now you start seeing that your object of worship is not something far away and outside you. You start feeling that you and your idol are connected with eachother. You are a part of Him or Her. The Vedanta gives the example of the spider and her web to visualize this view. The spider and the web are connected. The web is created out of the body of the spider. Still there is a difference between the spider and the web.

In the third view, when spiritual practice is continuing, the Ultimate or Absolute Truth is described and realised. This is called the Advaita Vedanta and it is taught in Jnana yoga, the path of Knowledge. It is the non-dual path where you merge into the Divine and everything becomes One and the same. This state is called Samadhi. Here there is no you observing anything outside. You and the object of worship are One. This is called Self-realisation in Vedanta and the ultimate goal to be attained according to the scriptures.

Bhakti and Jnana yoga hand in hand

These three views and how they are intertwined with eachother is beautifully illustrated by the following story about Hanuman: One day Sri Ram asked His ardent devotee Hanuman: ”How do you see Me?” Hanuman replied: “When I am doing my day tot day activities I see you as my Lord, my God, whom I worship with all my Love and Devotion. When I am meditating I feel myself as a part of you and when I am going deeper into Samadhi, you and me are one and the same.”

By this beautiful explanation you can see that all the views can exist within one person. It is depending on which state you are in at a certain moment. Sri Ramakrishna always said that God in Person (as your chosen idol) or the Impersonal God are both true. As soon as He came out of Samadhi He started to call upon the Mother in the form of Ma Kali. He could see Her as you can see your neighbour. But when He merged in Samadhi nothing was there and He became God Himself.

Also Bhagavan is emphasizing upon these two paths of Bhakti yoga (path of Devotion) and Jnana yoga (path of Knowledge). It seems contradictory but actually it helps the aspirant a lot to proceed on the spiritual path. Jnana yoga alone can make spirituality dry and tends to too much thinking. As where only Bhakti yoga can create too much emotion and superstition. You need the reasoning of the mind combined with the feelings of Love and Devotion of the heart. It is like a slice of bread covered with sweet jam. The bread is the substantial Jnana yoga and the jam the sweet, joyfull Bhakti yoga. Often is said that Bhakti yoga ends in Jnana and Jnana yoga ends in Bhakti. If you start realising this it makes your spiritual path towards the Ultimate Truth easier.

Vedanta- a philosophy for all!

The strength of Vedanta lies within this different views and possibilities to attain Self-realisation. It includes everything and doesn’t exclude anything. This makes it a spiritual filosophy where every human being, with their innumerous different tendencies, can find his own spiritual path. Like Swami Vivekananda once said: “Let there be as much sects as there are people!” He acknowledged the fact that each person has his own character. And since he was very staunch in his believe of Freedom for every human being, everybody has to find his own way that befits him. Vedanta gives this freedom and this makes it a spiritual philosophy for all!