Emerson on Vedanta

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Comparative Study Series \o. 2

Emerson and Vedanta


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BY SWAMI PARAMANANDAThe Vigil. Poems. Portrait of author. Fleziblobinding $2.00; cloth $1.50. Postage 10 cts.Soul's Secret Door. Poems. Flexible binding'$2.00; cloth $1.50. Postage 10 cts.The Path of Devotion. (6th Edition.) Cloth $1.25.Postage I cts.La Voie De La Devotion. French translation ofThe Path of Devotion. Cloth $1.25. Postage10 cts.The Way of Peace and Blessedness. (3d Edition.)Cloth $1.25. Postage 10 cts.Vedanta In Practice. (3d Eldition.) Cloth $1.00;Paper, 85 cts. Postage 10 cts.Reincarnation and Immortality. (New.) Cloth

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Cmcrfion anti^ebantaBY

SWAM I PARAMANANDAAtTiioK or "ioul'i tEcarr Dooa," "thk vigil.""rLATO AKD VCOIC IDEALISM," "THE rATH Of Dr-VOTIOH," "fAITH A A COIttTUCTIVt EOECE." ETC.

Second EditionRevised avd Evlarcfd

Publiihed byTHE VEDANTA CENTRE. BOSTON, MASS.ANANRA ASIIRAMA

I_i Crfccnta. I^>i Angfirs Co.. C^lif.


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Reprinted from the Vedanta Monthly"The Message of the East"Copyright by Swami Paramananda

1918

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

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PREFACEThe lectures contained in these pages

were deHvered at The \ edanta Centre ofBoston and later published in its mag-azine, "The Message of the East." Thekeen interest which they aroused has ledus to reprint them in more convenientform. A new chapter on. "Kmerson andHindu Classics" has been added whichwill prove valuable to the scholar and stu-dent of comparative philosophy.The purpose of the lectures was to set

forth the striking similarity between thewritings of Emerson and the sacred teach-ings of the Eastpre-eminently those ofIndia. Deep students of Vedic ideals have


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long regarded Emerson as an inspired in-terpreter of these ideals to the West; andthere can be no doubt that as one turnsthe pages of his numerous essays and fol-lows the exalted trend of his words, onecan almost imagine that they fall upon theears from some far Himalayan height.

It has always been one of the chief aimsof the present author to show the funda-mental harmony underlying all phasesof higher thought, and this volume is onemore effort towards the same end.

EDITOR.


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CONTENTSI. EMERSON AND VEDANTA ... - 11

II. KARMA AND COMPENSATION - - - - 28III. ATMAN AND OVER-SOUL . . - - 46IV. EMERSON AND HINDU CLASSICS - - - 67


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"It is not to Israel alone that God has spokenand revealed His it/ill; nor ezen only to recog-nized prophets, zvhethcr in Israel or among thenations. But to all who have his work to do Hespeaks, much or little, clearly or in parables andinsions, according to their needs and accordingto their fitness to hear and understand."Wisdom of Israel.


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LET HIM SPEAK*Let him speak whose spirit flows like the river in

flood-time, full and strong;Let others keep silent.The tongue that speaketh soulless wordsBut scattereth pebbles before hungry mouths.I keep still; do Thou speak.For Thou alone canst speak to my soul.

This is one of the author's latest poems.


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IEMERSON AND VEDANTA

4 4 T V what philosophers say of the kin-X ship between Cjod and man be true,what lias any one to do but, likeSocrates, when he is asked what country-man he is, never to saj' that he is a citizenof Athens or Corinth, but of the world?. . . Why may not he who under-stands the administration of the world andhas learned that the greatest and mostprincipal and comprehensive of all thingsis this system composed of men and Godand that from Him the seeds of being aredescended, not only to my father andgrandfather, but to all things that are pro-duced and born on earth, and especially


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12 Emerson and Vedanta

to rational natures, as they alone are quali-fied to partake of communion with theDeity, being connected with Him by un-derstanding : why may not such a one callhimself a citizen of the world? Why nota son of God?" These words of the Ro-man philosopher Epictetus show how alltruly great men possess a universal phil-osophy of life; and how natural it is forthem to transcend the limitations of lo-cality, race and creed, and break down allbarriers of apparent difference.

This is essentially true of Emerson. Youmay go to the Far Eastto India, Persiaor Chinaand you will find a volume ortwo of his essays there where you wouldleast expect to find them; and you willmeet people who accept Emerson's writ-ings, not only with sympathy, but as theirown, because they recognize in them a realkinship of thought and ideals. There canbe no doubt that Emerson was deeply in-


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Emerson and Vedanta 13

terested in Eastern philosophy. In hiswritings we find many direct and indirectreferences to Oriental teachings. He wasa devout student of the Bhagavad-Gitaand the L'panishads, and often quoted orused stories from them.Yet this does not mean that Kmerson

borrowed. I believe that there cannot beany borrowing in the higher realms ofknowledge. There we cannot take whatdoes not belong to us. We can borrowrelative knowledge, but true knowledgecan never be borrowed. It must rise upfrom the innermost recesses of our being.We must possess the power to recognizeand assimilate it. Fmerson was by nomeans the only one of his generation tostudy Oriental literature. Others read it,but they were unable to find in it what hedid, because their prejudices and their lackof understanding made it impossible forthem to grasp its true import. A gentle-


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14 ETnerson and Vedanta

man once said to Emerson that he hadstudied all the different philosophies andreligions of the world, and he was now con-vinced that Christianity was the only oneto which Emerson replied: "That onlyshows, my friend, how narrowly you haveread them." Unless we have openness ofmind and a certain depth of spiritual con-sciousness, we may come in contact withmany lofty ideals, but they will make nodefinite impression on us. We may tryto borrow them, but we cannot retain themor use them intelligently until we havemade them our own. When the higherlight of understanding comes, we find thatthere is no need tq borrow, because allmen have equal access to what is cosmic.As Emerson has said:"There is one mind common to all in-

dividual men. Every man is an inlet tothe same and to all the same. He that isonce admitted to the right of reason is


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made a freeman of the whole estate. WhatPlato has thought, he may think; what asaint has felt, he may feel ; what at anytime has befallen any man, he can under-stand. Who hath access to this universalmind is a party to all that is or can bedone, for this is the only and sovereignagent." "Of the universal mind each in-dividual is one more incarnation. All itsproperties consist in him." "So all that issaid of the wise man by Stoic or Orientalor modern essayist, describes to each read-er his own idea, describes his unattainedbut attainable self." "How easily theseold worships of Moses, of Zoroaster, ofManu, of Socrates, domesticate themselvesin the mind. I cannot find any antiquityin them : they are mine as much as theirs."This idea of the universal mind brings

before us forcibly the great fundamentaltruth of the Vedas, Ekam-fva-dvityam,"Spirit is one without a second." Out of


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he lacks true spirituality. But Emersonwas not merely a popular preacher or ascholar, he was a spiritual genius. He hada wider vision. He struck a note that wasboth spiritual and universal. He writes inhis essay on Circles: "I thought as Iwalked in the woods and mused on myfriends, why should I play with them thisgame of idolatry? I know and see toowell, when not voluntarily blind, thespeedy limits of persons called high andworthy. O blessed Spirit, whom I for-sake for these, they are not thou. Everypersonal consideration that we allow costsus heavenly state. We sell the thrones ofangels for a short and turbulent pleasure."

This passage shows clearly his attitudeof mind, how unwilling he was to give upwhat he believed to be true and what wasthe result of his long and deep reflection."What I must do is all that concerns me,not what the people think," he exclaims.


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"This rule, equally arduous in actual andin intellectual life, may serve for the wholedistinction between greatness and mean-ness. It is the harder because you willalways find those who think they knowwhat is your duty better than you knowit. It is easy in the world to live after theworld's opinion; it is easy in solitude tolive after our own; but the great man ishe who in the midst of the crowd keepswith perfect sweetness the independenceof solitude."

Great souls sometimes seem very un-compromising because they are unwillingto sacrifice that which they believe to bevital. They necessarily have a diff^erentstandard, and they cannot be untrue tothat standard even though the whole worldturn against them. As Emerson says:"The angels are so enamored of the lan-guage that is spoken in heaven that theywill not distort their lips with the hissing


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and unmusical dialects of men, but speaktheir own, whether there be any who un-derstand it or not." Those who possesssuch courage of conviction are the onlyones who really contribute towards thewell-being of mankind.Emerson more than once speaks of his

debt to the Hindu Scriptures, and therecan be no doubt that in his long study ofthem he found much to inspire him. Inhis essay on Quotations and Originality hesays : "What divines had assumed as thedistinctive revelations of Christianity, the-ologic criticism has matched by exactparallelisms from the Stoics and poets ofGreece and Rome. Later when Confuciusand the Indian Scriptures were madeknown, no claim to monopoly of ethicalwisdom could be thought of." "It is onlywithin this century that England andAmerica discovered that their nursery-tales were old German and Scandinavian


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stories ; and now it appears that they camefrom India, and are the property of allthe nations descended from the Aryanrace, and have been warbled and babbledbetween nurses and children for unknownthousands of years." Once more in Per-sian Poetry he writes: "The favor of theclimate, making subsistence easy and en-couraging an outdoor life, allows to theEastern nations a highly intellectual or-ganization,leaving out of view at presentthe genius of the Hindoos (more Orientalin every sense), whom no people have sur-passed in the grandeur of their ethicalstatement."

After reading these passages we cannotdoubt that Emerson fully recognized theloftiness and beauty of the Eastern teach-ing. He also possessed an unusual graspof Indian Philosophy and picked out hereand there its fairest thoughts to minglewith his own. To-day it is easy to find


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many translations of Oriental writings;but in his time the translations were fewand imperfect; yet because he possessedthe same quality of mind, he was able todraw out from them the essence. He waslike the mythical Indian swan, which whenit is given milk mixed with water, is ableto separate the milk from the water andtake only the milk.Whenever we study in a superficial way,

we do not touch the essence and the es-sence does not touch us. We all have theopportunity of coming in contact withgreat writings or great men, but they donot reach us. Sri Ramakrishna to illus-trate this gives a parable of three dolls,one of salt, one of cloth and one of stone.When the salt doll went into the ocean,it at once became one with it; the clothdoll was wet through, but retained itsown form; while the stone doll remainedunchanged. So some people have such a


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stony nature, nothing seems to make animpression on them. But we can all over-come this and make ourselves susceptibleto higher ideals if we wish.Vedanta insistently proclaims that there

can be no boundary lines in the realm ofthought ; and above all it teaches that un-less we can put aside our narrow preju-dices and superstitions, we can never hopeto attain the highest Truth. I use theword "superstition" because whenever wecling to a fixed idea or to certain formsand rituals merely because our forefathersbelieved in them or because they have be-come a habit with us, that is superstition.The central aim of Vedanta is to bringall to one unifying understanding, yetto let each one follow his own particularform of faith. When we try to force same-ness of thought, it bars spiritual progressbut when we admit the possibility of per-fect unity in variety, then each one is able


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to advance in his own way. Vedanta real-izes that as long as there are such differ-ences in human temperament and mind,we cannot expect all to worship in the samemanner. To destroy diversity in lifewould be to destroy much of its beautyand sublimity. Therefore Vedanta in-cludes in its scope all forms of thought.It sees that even the crudest aspect of re-ligious faith has its value, since it wouldnot be possible for the ignorant man andthe philosopher to have the same concep-tion of Truth. Their aspiration may beequal, but their modes of expression mustinevitably differ.

"Truth is one, men call it by variousnames and comprehend it in differentways !" Such was the profound discoveryof Indo-Aryan sages as far back as in theRig-Veda, several thousand years beforethe Christian era; and it has been thebasis ever since for all the ethical and


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spiritual ideals of India. These Seers real-ized that dualism, qualified non-dualismand monism did not represent rival phasesof belief, but different degrees of spiritualdevelopment, each having special appealfor certain types of mind. It would bejust as absurd to expect a person of rudi-mentary understanding to grasp the lofti-est ideals of monism,that there is butone Life, one Cosmic Principle, one Con-sciousness permeating the whole universeas it would be to expect a child in theprimary school to grasp the highest prob-lems of astronomy. Yet in time we knowthat the child wi'l grow to comprehendthem if he perseveres.Emerson makes this plain in his essay

' on Immortality when he writes : "Will youoffer empires to such as cannot set a houseor private affairs in order ? Here are peo-ple who cannot dispose of a day ; an hourhangs heavy on their hands ; and will you


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Emerson and Fedafita 25

offer them rolling ages without end? Butthis is the way to rise. Within every man'sthought is a higher thought,within thecharacter he exhibits today, a highercharacter. The youth puts off the illu-sions of the child, the man puts off the ig-norance and tumultuous passions ofyouth ; proceeding thence puts off the ego-tism of manhood, and becomes at last apublic and universal soul. He is rising togreater heights, but also rising to realitiesthe outer relations and circumstancesdying out, he entering deeper into God,God into him, until the last garment ofegotism falls, and he is with God andshares the will and immensity of the FirstCause.

"It is curious to find the selfsame feel-ing, that it is not immortality, but eternity,not duration, but abandonment to theHighest, and so the sharing of His per-fectionappearing in the farthest East


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and West. The human mind takes no ac-count of geography, language, or legends,j but in all utters the same instinct."

Emerson's great openness, fairness andlove of Truth enabled him to understandthe teachings of all nations ; and when-ever he came across great truths, he recog-nized and absorbed them. When a mancan thus perceive the highest in other men,it deals a death-blow to all littleness. Incomparing Emerson's philosophy with theVedic teaching there is no intention to be-little the genius of Emerson. The uni-versal facts of life are the same in Eastand West, in the remotest past and thepresent. It was because Emerson had dis-covered certain profound truths in his ownsoul, that he was able to accept with de-light the same truths when he discoveredthem elsewhere. Only a man who is anexpert in the higher realms of knowledge,can analyze and appreciate the value of


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ideas of rare quality when he finds themand Emerson was able to do this. We aredestined more and more to be thrown to-gether, and I hope and pray that it may bethe will of the Cosmic Being to destroythe fictitious barriers which exist betweenEast and West, North and South ; and en-able us to meet in the one universal Truth.All great minds do this. They cannot besatisfied to live in little narrow holes oftheir own. They must expand; and asthey expand, they leave behind them allsense of difference. Those who are ableto abide in this unbroken unity becomefree souls and enjoy the supreme cosmicBliss and Infinitude.


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II

KARMA AND COMPENSATIONTHOU canst not gather what thou

dost not sow ; as thou dost plant thetrees, so will it grow . . . Whateverthe act a man commits, whatever his stateof mind, of that the recompense must hereceive in corresponding body." Theseprofound and dynamic words of wisdomspoken by Manu the great ancient law-giver of India, not only express the basicprinciple of the Vedic idea of Karma (lawof compensation), but they contain thesimple but irrevocable law of human des-tiny. For even in Nature we find con-stant proof of the truth and fairness ofthis law in every turn of life. For only


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Karma and Compensation 29the rose will produce a rose and an apple-seed, an apple-tree. With same precisionand exactness pure thought and kind deedswill produce unfailing happiness and theiropposite will bring man misery. This isnot an arbitrary law; it is a true, gentle,but firm and just principle of life. Whenwe learn to abide by its beneficence ourlife produces in abundance the richness ofhuman experience.The idea of Karma is not regarded

in India as a theological doctrineor as an intellectual speculation; it isconsidered to off"er the only rational,logical and satisfactory explanation of allthe perplexities and problems of humanlife. The word Karma, from the Sanskrit,literally means "action," that is, all thatwe think, all that we do, and also what-ever is produced as the result of ourthought and deed. It is not limited, how-ever, to what we think and do in this lifeonly; its scope extends to all the past


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and all the future. The law must operatein both directions ; because if what we aredoing now is to determine our future con-dition, then there must have been somecause in the past for our present condition.There are many who believe in a futurelife, but who are unwilling to accept theidea of pre-existence ; yet it requires littlelogic to see that if we exist in the future,then our present life must become pre-existence to that future life.In India the idea of Karma is not a mere

dogmatic belief; it is a fundamental lawand corresponds to what modern sciencecalls the law of cause and effect. It showsthat there is no such thing as chance orinjustice in human affairs; that all theseinequalities which we see in the world arenot ordained by an arbitrary Ruler, butare the inevitable results of our own modeof life and thought. This life, in IndianScriptures, is called Karma-hhumi, the


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Karma and Compensation 31harvest field of action; and according tothe seeds we sow in it do we reap. It isevident that we cannot reap what we donot sow ; hence what comes to us must beof our own planting. For the same reasonpeople have no cause to be frightened bycircumstances; for however overpoweringand unalterable our present condition mayseem, it can always be undone by thethoughts and actions which we sow to-day.Emerson gives a clear expression of this inhis essay on Compensation."Ever since I was a boy," he says, "I

have wished to write a discourse on Com-pensation ; for it seemed to me when veryyoung that on this subject life was aheadof theology and the people knew morethan the preachers taught. ... It seemedto me also that in it might be shown aray of divinity, the present action of thesoul of this world, clean from all vestigeof tradition: and so the heart of man


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might be bathed by an inundation ofeternal love, conversing with that whichhe knows was always and always must be,because it really is now. It appeared, more-over, that if this doctrine could be statedin terms with any resemblance to thosebright instructions in which this truth issometimes revealed to us, it would be astar in many dark hours and crooked pass-ages in our journey, that would not sufferus to lose our way.

"I was lately confirmed in these desiresby hearing a sermon at church. Thepreacher, a man esteemed for his ortho-doxy, unfolded in the ordinary manner thedoctrine of the Last Judgment. He as-sumed that judgment is not executed inthis world ; that the wicked are successfulthat the good are miserable; and thenurged from reason and from Scripture acompensation to be made to both partiesin the next life. . . . What did the


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34 Emerson and Vedanta' justice is not done now. The blindness ofthe preacher consisted in deferring to thebase estimate of the market of what con-stitutes a manly success, instead of con-fronting and convicting the world from thetruth; announcing the presence of thesoul ; the omnipotence of the will, and soestablishing the standard of good and ill,of success and falsehood."

This is what we see in the world of or-dinary consciousness, the world whereeverything is looked at and judged fromthe surface. When we analyze properly,however, we find that the whole standardhere rests on a physical basis ; but a com-plete explanation of life can never befound if we limit our vision to the surfaceonly. So long as we merely perceive theeffect and judge from that, we shall alwayssee injustice and feel resentful. Emersonwrites: "Every act rewards itself, or inother words, integrates itself, in a two-


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Karma and Compensation 35fold manner; first, in the thing, or in realnature, and secondly in the circumstance,or in apparent nature. Men call the cir-cumstance the retribution. The causalretribution is in the thing and is seen bythe soul. The retribution in the circum-stance is seen by the understanding; it isinseparable from the thing, but is oftenspread over a long time and so does notbecome distinct until after many years.The specific stripes may follow late afterthe offense, but they follow because theyaccompany it. Crime and punishmentgrow out of one stem. Punishment is afruit that unsuspected ripens within theflower of the pleasure which concealed it.Cause and effect, means and ends, seedand fruit, cannot be severeii ; for the effectalready blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed."This is absolutely in accordance with

the Indian conception of Karma. The ef-


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feet we see is nothing but the fruition of aseed of action. Whether or not any onekeeps record of what we think or do, evenin the dark, the seed we sow must bearfruit; just as a seed grows even when thegardener drops it unconsciously on thesoil. It is not that an arbitrary will de-crees that we be happy or unhappy. Theworld is governed by law and man can-not escape from that law. As soon as heunderstands this, he tries to put himselfin harmony with it. "All things aredouble, one against another," Emersonwrites. "Tit for tat; an eye for an eye;a tooth for a tooth ; blood for blood ; meas-ure for measure ; love for love. Give andit shall be given you. He that waterethshall be watered himself. Thou shalt bepaid exactly for what thou hast done, nomore, no less. Who doth not work shallnot eat. Curses always recoil on the headof him who imprecates them. If you put


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The only way we can be freed from thechain of action and reaction is by notcaring for the result. But how can wework without thought of some result?What impetus shall we have? Actually ifwe put a price on our action, we limit theresult by our own limitation and we de-prive ourselves. If on the contrary we putno price whatever, but are willing to workfor the sake of the work, the One whoknows all things will bestow on us thegreatest result. When a person gives toanother or does for another with the lin-gering thought of gratitude or applause,this thought destroys the merit of the ac-tion. But when we can free our mindfrom the desire for personal gratification,we gain everything, yet we avoid the re-action.The compensation must come. We do

not have to ask for it. If our labor isworthy of any recompense, the law will


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Karma and Compensation 39

bring it to us. We cannot lose it. We arebound to get it. As Emerson puts it : "Hu- /man labor, through all its forms, from thesharpening of a stake to the constructionof a city or an epic, is one immense illus-tration of the perfect compensation of theuniverse. The absolute balance of Giveand Take, the doctrine that everything hasits price, and if that price is not paid, notthat thing but something else is obtained,and that it is impossible to get anythingwithout its price, is not less sublime in thecolumns of a ledger than in the budgetsof states, in the laws of light and darkness,in all the action and reaction of nature."

Sometimes this does not seem to be true,because we see people who reap resultswithout apparent labor. Take, for example,a man of genius. He has not worked forhis gift, he is born with it, he has it. Butwhen we extend our vision back into thepast, we find that his genius is not an ac-


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cident. He has earned it, he has paid theprice. He has worked for it at some time,and as the result of that labor the flowerof genius has blossomed in this life. Sowith the child who is born miserable or un-fortunate. That child has a soul, and thatsoul did not begin with this body. It hasa past full of experiences which havemoulded its present conditions. The manwho blinds himself to these deeper facts, tohim the whole universe is a mystery ; andthe more he tries to find an explanation,the more he becomes confused and relent-less in his judgment."There is a deeper fact in the soul than

compensation, to wit, its own nature. Thesoul is not a compensation, but a life. Thesoul is. Under all this running sea of cir-cumstance, whose waters ebb and flowwith perfect balance, lies the aboriginalabyss of Being. Essence, or God, is not arelation or a part, but the whole." "In


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Karma and Compensation 41the nature of the soul is the compensationfor the irregularities of condition. Theradical tragedy of nature seems to be thedistinction of More or Less. How canLess not feel the pain; how not feel in-dignation or malevolence towards More?Look at those who have less faculty andone feels sad and knows not well what tomake of it. He almost shuns their eye;he fears they will upbraid God. Whatshould they do.? It seems a great injus-tice. But see the facts nearly and thesemountainous inequalities vanish. Lovereduces them as the sun melts the icebergin the sea. The heart and soul of all menbeing one, this bitterness of His and Mineceases. His is mine. I am my brother andmy brother is me."These words of Emerson remind us ofa beautiful passage in the Isa-Upanishad"He who beholds all beings in the GreatSelf and the Self in all beings, he never


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Karma and Compensation 43in vain. The voice of the Almighty saith,'Up and onward for evermore!' "Man must rise ; he must not grieve overhis dead actions. He must go onward andforward, if he wishes to attain the realmof perfection. He must not linger in theruins of the past. He must not cling tomaterial conditions, which are ever-shift-ing. He must not base his happiness onthis one little span of life. When the veilof death falls, he must not imagine thatall is over, that his last opportunity isgone. Opportunities are never lacking, butwe are not always ready to profit by them.The wisest thing for us is to make the bestpossible use of our present. We hamperour progress when we lay undue stress onthe past or the future. If the present iswell-lived, the future will take care of it-self. But we must have wisdom and wemust have strength. If we know the na-ture of the soul, and are imbued with these


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bigger ideas, then we cannot do anythingsmall.We may make thousands of laws, butthat will not check crime ; we must lift thecriminal by giving him understanding. Ifhe knows that when he commits a crime,he hurts himself more than the one hetries to injure, he will not do it. When aman realizes that he is the maker of hisown life, the maker of his own bondage;that he holds the key by which he can un-lock the door and enter into the realms oflasting happiness ; then it gives him a newimpetus to go on and he is not tempted todo things which create bondage. Vedantadoes not threaten the wrong-doer with therod of punishment; it does not tell himthat he is sinful or accursed. On the con-trary, it sounds the dynamic note: "Ochild of Immortal Bliss, it does not befitthee to do these things which are of theworld and unworthy."


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Karma and Compensation 45Whatever we sow, whether consciously

or unconsciously, must bear fruit; so wemust become conscious beings. We mustdo more than just live somehow or other.Eating, sleeping, feeling pleasure and pain,these we have in common with the brute.If we limit our consciousness and aspira-tion to that narrow sphere, we are no bet-ter than the lower animals. We must liftour standard* We must not do only whatbenefits us here and now ; we must benefitourselves eternally. We must not merelythink of this little self, we must work forour soul. When we can live with supremeunderstanding, as children of God; whenwe can lay all actions like flowers on thealtar of God; then we shall escape fromreactionary bondage, and all the actionswe perform will lead us towards freedomeven in this life.


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IllATMAN AND OVER-SOUL

WHETHER God and soul are mythsor facts is a question which has

been discussed in all ages by all the think-ing minds of the world; and althoughsages and mystics have proved it by theirown light, this cannot reveal it to otherswho have not the same light. "Every man'swords who speaks from that life mustsound vain to those who do not dwell inthe same thought on their own part," Em-erson writes. "I dare not speak for it.

My words do not carry its august sensethey fall short and cold. Only itself caninspire whom it will, and behold! theirspeech shall be lyrical and sweet, and uni-versal as the rising of the wind." In


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Atman and Over-Soul 47similar words Yama, the Lord of Death,speaks to Nachiketas in the Katha-Upa-nishad. "The Atman cannot be obtainedby mere study of the Scriptures, nor byintellectual perception, nor by frequenthearing of It; he whom the Self chooses,by him alone is It attained. To him theSelf reveals Its true nature. But he whohas not turned away from evil conduct,whose senses are uncontrolled, who is nottranquil, whose mind is not at rest, he cannever attain this Self even by knowledge."That is, unless a man lives the life and de-velops his higher spiritual faculties, mereintellectual knowledge cannot help himmuch. As Emerson says again:"The philosophy of six thousand years

has not searched the chambers and maga-zines of the soul. In its experiments therehas always remained, in the last analysis,a residuum it could not resolve. Man isa stream whose source is hidden. Our be-


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ing is descending into us from we knownot whence. The most exact calculatorhas not prescience that somewhat incal-culable may not balk the next moment. Iam constrained every moment to acknowl-edge a higher origin for events than thewill I call mine. . . . We live in suc-cession, in division, in parts, in particles.Meantime in man is the soul of the wholethe wise silence; the universal beauty; towhich every part and particle is equallyrelated; the eternal One. And this deeppower in which we exist and whose beati-tude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but theact of seeing and the thing seen, the seerand the spectacle, the subject and the ob-

L ject are one."The ancient Vedic Scriptures abound inpassages describing in almost identicalterms the relation of the phenomenalworld with the Unseen One, and the con-


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Atman and Over-Soul 49

nection of the soul with its origintheOne without a second. Nowhere does Ved-anta deal with the universe as a com-bination of unrelated fragments ; it sees allthings as parts of a great whole and it triesto bind all these parts together in thatwhole, yet without destroying the entityof each individual soul. Therefore, beforewe can define our relation with the world,we must discover our relation with itsSource. That is, we must project ourmind beyond this little span of self-con-sciousness and learn to know our real Self.In the philosophy of the Vedas we find aclear distinction made between what mancalls his self and the Over-Soul ; the Jivat-man and the Paramatman, the individualself and the Supreme Self ; or between theapparent man and the real man.Man is the reflection of God; but the

reflection cannot exist without the objectreflected; so man must know what C ' is.


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if he would know himself. This has beenthe search down the ages and this searchmust be made by every individual for him-self ; there is no one who can answer thisquestion for another. Because of this itever remains a hidden mystery. It is truethat certain philosophies and ethical sys-tems, like the Buddhistic, drop the self en-tirely ; but the self they drop is the man ofname, form and limitations. And it isnecessary to do this, because we can neverbe wholly possessor of our eternal beinguntil we transcend the consciousness ofmundane things.What is the Atman or Self.? In theKena-Upanishad It is defined as "the earof the ear, the mind of the mind, the speechof the speech, the life of the life, the eyeof the eye. That which cannot be thoughtby mind, but by which mind is able tothink; that which is not seen by the eye,but by which the eye is able to see; that


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Atman and Over-Soul 51which cannot be heard by the ear, but bywhich the ear is able to hear." Emersondraws almost the same picture when hewrites : "All goes to show that the soul inman is not an organ, but animates andexercises all the organs ; is not a function,like the power of memory, of calculation,of comparison, but uses these as hands andfeet; is not a faculty, but a light; is notthe intellect or the will, but the master ofthe intellect and the will; is the back-ground of our being, in which they lie, animmensity not possessed and that cannotbe possessed. From within or from be-hind, a light shines through us upon thingsand makes us aware that we are nothing,but the light is all."A man is the facade of a temple where-

in all wisdom and all good abide. Whatwe commonly call man, the eating, drink-ing, planting, counting man, does not, aswe know him, represent himself, but mis-


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represents himself. Him we do not re-spect, but the soul, whose organ he is,would he let it appear through his action,would make our knees bend. When itbreathes through his intellect, it is geniuswhen it breathes through his will, it isvirtue ; when it flows through his affection,it is love. And the blindness of the intel-lect begins when it would be somethingof itself. The weakness of the will beginswhen the individual would be somethingof himself. All reform aims in some oneparticular to let the soul have its waythrough us ; in other words, to engage usto obey.

"Of this pure nature every man is atsome time sensible. Language cannotpaint it with his colors. It is too subtile.It is undefinable, unmeasurable ; but weknow that all spiritual being is in man. Awise old proverb says, *God comes to seeus without bell'; that is, as there is no


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Atman and Over-Soul 53screen or ceiling between our heads andthe infinite heavens, so is there no bar orwall in the soul, where man, the effect,ceases and God, the cause, begins. Thewalls are taken away. We lie open on oneside to the deeps of spiritual nature, tothe attributes of God. Justice we see andknow, Love, Freedom, Power. These na-tures no man ever got above, but theytower over us, and most in the momentwhen our interests tempt us to woundthem."The eating, drinking, sleeping man

thinks his whole life is contained in hisphysical being. His miseries to him aregreat realities ; his hands and feet, his eyes,nose, these various bodily organs seem all-important; while he overlooks that bywhich he is living, acting and thinking.When we descend to this state of con-sciousness, we inevitably misrepresentourselves. As soon as we forget our soul-


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nature, we become selfish entities; wethink that to find happiness we must de-ceive or override our fellow-men, and doeverything for our own gain and gratifica-tion. But the real man within, who is ma-jestic and free from all sense of competi-tion and rivalry, turns away from fleetingmundane vanities, because he knows thathis true being is of God.

r "The influence of the senses has, in mostmen, overpowered the mind to that degreethat the walls of time and space havecome to look real and insurmountable;and to speak with levity of these limits is,in the world, the sign of insanity. Yettime and space are but inverse measuresof the force of the soul." "See how thedeep divine thought reduces centuries andmillenniums, and makes itself presentthrough all ages. Is the teaching of Christless effective now than it was when firsthis mouth was opened? The emphasis of


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Atman and Over-Soul 55facts and persons in my thought has noth-ing to do with time. And so, always thesoul's scale is one; the scale of the sensesand the understanding is another. Beforethe revelations of the soul, time, space andNature shrink away."How like these words of Emerson is the

passage in the Svetasvatara-Upanishad"When the light of the Atman or Self hasrisen, there is no day, no night, neither ex-istence nor non-existence. For the sundoes not shine there, nor the moon and thestars, nor these lightnings and much lessthis fire. When He shines, everythingshines after Him; by His light all this islighted. He makes all. He knows all, theself-caused, the knower, the Time oftime!" Spiritual verities can never bematters of tradition. We can never be-lieve in things until we become acquaintedwith them through our own direct per-ception. No one can make us believe that


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we have a soul until we become aware ofit ourselves. Theoretical knowledge isnot dependable knowledge. Even a smallamount of knowledge based on direct ap-prehension is a far surer guide than thegreatest amount of learning. Intellectualknowledge leads us into an ever-increas-ing tangle of diversity ; while direct visionalways simplifies and leads to fundamentalunity. As Emerson again declares"The mind is one; and the best minds

who love truth for its own sake, thinkmuch less of property in truth. They ac-cept it thankfully everywhere, and do notlabel or stamp it with any man's name, forit is theirs long beforehand, and frometernity. The learned and the studious ofthought have no monopoly of wisdom.Their violence of direction in some degreedisqualifies them to think truly. We owemany valuable observations to people whoare not \'ery acute or profound, and who


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Atman and Over-Soul 57say the thing without effort, which wewant and have long been hunting in vain.I'he action of the soul is oftener in thatwhich is left unsaid than in that which issaid in any conversation."Here Emerson strikes the same univer-

s'^l note which sounds through all Vedicteaching, that Truth is not the exclusiveproperty of any one group of people, butis the common property of the whole hu-man race and equally open to all who canclaim it. Whoever is open to Truth doesnot care from what source it comes. It isTruth, that is sufficient. He does not tryto label it. If we love God above all thingsand seek to be united with Him, no divi-sions or distinctions can exist for us. TheLord abides equally in every heart andwhen we see Him there, all barriers of ex-clusiveness must fall. God is One, Truthis One, the Infinite Spirit is One. Thereis but one great family and God is the


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r


presiding head of that family. Until werecognize this and feel in our hearts thatHe is our real Father or Mother, we can-not be fully open to the higher revelation.

Lofty spiritual Truth exists irrespectiveof time or place. It always stands thereand when people are ready to receive it, itunfolds itself to them. "We are wiser thanwe know," Emerson says. "If we will notinterfere with our thought, but will actentirely, or see how the thing stands inGod, we know the particular thing, andevery thing, and every man. For the makerof all things and all persons stands behindus and casts his dread omniscience throughus over things."Few possess a pure spiritual sense, and

one who has it, because he speaks and actsdifferently from others, stands out fromamong men ; and people interpret this pe-culiarity as insanity. Emerson speaks ofthis also. "A certain tendency to insanity,"


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Atman and Over-Soul 59he writes, "has always attended the open-ing of the religious sense in men, as ifthey had been 'blasted with excess of light.'The trances of Socrates, the 'union' ofPlotinus, the vision of Porphyry, the con-version of Paul, the aurora of Behmen, theconvulsions of George Fox and his Quak-ers, the illumination of Swedenborg, are ofthis kind. . . . Revelation is the dis-closure of the soul. The popular notion ofa revelation is that it is a telling of for-tunes. In past oracles of the soul the un-derstanding seeks to find answers to sen-sual questions and undertakes to tell fromGod how long men shall exist, what theirhands shall do and who shall be their com-pany, adding names and dates and places.But we must pick no locks. We mustcheck this low curiosity."When man seeks light, not for what it

will bring him in the form of health, pros-perity or success, but for itself, then alone


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will it come. Only when love of the soulleads him upward and onward will he at-tain it. In no other way can he gain com-munion with the Eternal Spirit. At everystep of life two paths confront us. Oneleads Godward; the other towards theworld. The wise, distinguishing betweenthe two, choose the Real and Eternal;while the ignorant, preferring that whichbrings immediate and tangible results,choose the lower path. The one movesinward, the other moves outward. "TheSelf-existent created the senses outgoing;for this reason man sees the externalworld, but not the inner Atman or Self.Some wise men, however, desiring immor-tality, with eyes turned away from the ex-ternal, see the Great Self within."

Bearing out this statement of the VedicScriptures, Emerson says : "The great dis-tinction between teachers sacred or literary^between poets like Herbert and poets


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Atman and Over-Soul 61like Pope ; between philosophers like Spin-oza, Kant and Coleridge and philosopherslike Locke, Mackintosh and Stewart; be-tween men of the world who are reckonedaccomplished talkers and here and therea fervent mystic, prophesying, half insaneunder the infinitude of his thoughtisthat one class speaks from within, or fromexperience, as parties and possessors of thefact, and the other class jrom without, asspectators merely, or perhaps as acquaint-ed with the fact on the evidence of thirdpersons. It is no use to preach to me fromwithout. I can do that easily for myself.Jesus speaks always from within and in adegree that transcends all others. In thatis the miracle."

The same attitude is to be found amongthe Indo-Aryans. Mere scholarship hasnever been considered by them an essen-tial qualification for a spiritual teacher. Hemust be one who knows, who is directly


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acquainted with the higher facts of life;not one who can fill the brain with theoriesabout God. The real spiritual genius isnot dependent on any outer support, hisstrength comes from the Fountainhead.If I go to a man who is only brilliant in-tellectually, he may satisfy me for a mo-ment, but afterwards the mind seems moreconfused. If, on the contrary, I go to aman who has the light of higher under-standing, he may perhaps speak only oneword, but that word will prove to be aseed which will spring up and bear fruit.As Emerson puts it : "The tone of seekingis one and the tone of having is another.""If a man have not found his home in God,his manners, his form of speech, the turnof his sentences, the build, shall I say, ofall his opinions will involuntarily confessit, let him brave it out how he will. Ifhe have found his centre, the Deity willshine through him, through all the dis-


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Atman and Over-Soul 63guises of ignorance, of ungenial tempera-ment, of unfavorable circumstance."The eternal Self, it is true, dwells in the

heart of every mortal ; but it is to be at-tained only in a state of consciousnesswhere reason cannot reach. When, how-ever, the mind is concentrated and turnedwithin, then the mortal perceives the gloryof the immortal Self and "rejoices, becausehe has obtained that which is the cause ofall true joy," as it is said in the Katha-Upanishad. Emerson also writes; "In-effable is the union of man and God inevery act of the soul. The simplest per-son who in his integrity worships God, be-comes God; yet for ever and ever the in-flux of this better and universal self isnew and unsearchable. It inspires aweand astonishment. When we have brokenour god of tradition and ceased from ourgod of rhetoric, then may God fire theheart with his presence. It is the doubling


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of the heart itself, nay, the infinite enlarge-ment of the heart with a power of growthto a new infinity on every side." Also inthe Upanishads we read : "The knower ofBrahman (the Supreme) becomes like un-to Brahman."When a man enters the chamber of his

soul, he may enter as a man, but he comesout transformed. A man cannot help go-ing wrong and making mistakes as longas he is ignorant of his true nature. Theonly aid we can give him is to kindle inhim the higher sense of the reality of Godand his own soul. When he is able to per-ceive this, it will then not be possible forhim to be dragged down by the unrealitiesof this world. So long as man is con-scious only of his little self, he will be self-conceited; but let him come under thedominion of the Great Self and at oncehis consciousness will expand and carryhim beyond the limits of selfish thought


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Atman and Over-Soul 65and action. We cannot expect this higherstate of understanding, however, to comeupon us suddenly; but its unfoldment isonly possible as the result of careful anddeliberate preparation.There can be little question that Emer-

son was strongly imbued with the spirit ofthe Upanishads when he wrote his essayon the Over-Soul. The title itself indicatesit, for "Over-Soul" is almost a literaltranslation of the Sanskrit word Param-Atman (Supreme Self.) The very expres-sions, as well as the thought contained inthe essay, are all akin to those found in theIndo-Aryan Scriptures. But this does notimply that they were borrowed. Emersonundoubtedly drew his inspiration from theVedas ; yet it was his own spiritual geniuswhich enabled him to grasp the lofty idealsthey proclaim, and give them out withsuch masterful power. When great menstudy the Scriptures of the world, it does


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not unsettle their understanding or robthem of their own true faith, but it makesthem see the universality of Truth andleads them to unite all the varying expres-sions of Truth into one great whole. When-ever spiritual seeking becomes an all-ab-sorbing passion of our soul, we are inevi-tably released from all doctrinal and creed-bound beliefs and are brought face to facewith the great cosmic, universal and all-abiding Truth.


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IVEMERSON AND HINDU CLASSICSTHE value of comparative study isunmistakable. Every sincere seekerafter Truth recognizes the great stimulusit exerts over the mind, and welcomeswith joyous heart every revelationthat is sustained and verified by manysources both old and new. The dogmatist,on the other hand, in order to safeguardhis chosen creed, sits with doors closed toboth past and present.We forget that Truth is self-sufficientand self-sustaining and does not requirehuman hand to protect it. Why shoulda precept of the New Testament be lessvaluable if it is found in the Old Testa-ment, or again in the Jewish Kabala, or


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in the Egyptian sacred codes, in the ZendAvesta of the Parsees, in the great Chineseclassics, or in the Indo-Aryan Vedic reve-lation? Not only is the value of such asaying not decreased, it is reinforced athousandfold and its utility is expanded.It is only when we settle down to re-ligious morbidity that we are fearful ofanything out of our usual custom or habit.No one who has come in contact withthe Indo-Aryan culture and its great clas-sical treasures can help but recognize aprofound kinship of thought between theseand many of Emerson's writings and utter-ances. This is not merely a matter ofinference; Emerson himself speaks of itfrequently, as in his essay on "Worship"where he says : "We owe to the HinduScriptures a definition of Law which com-pares well with any in our Western books*Law it is, which is without name, or color,or hands, or feet ; which is smallest of the


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Emerson and Hindu Classics 69

least, and largest of the large; all, andknowing all things; which hears withoutears, sees without eyes, moves without feet,and seizes without hands.' " This thoughtJis a free rendering from a passage in theUpanishads.Then again in the opening stanza of his

poem "Brahma" we read:"If the red slayer thinks he slays,Or if the slain thinks he is slain,They know not well the subtle waysI keep, and pass, and turn again."

Here he voices almost literally a versefrom the Bhagavad-Gita : "He who con-siders this Self as a slayer or he who thinksthat this Self is slain, neither of theseknows the Truth. For It does not slaynor is It slain."

His essay on "Immortality" he con-cludes with the story of Nachiketas fromthe Katha-Upanishad. We give it in hisown words as he has retold it. "It is


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curious to find the selfsame feeling, thatit is not immortality, but eternity,notduration, but a state of abandonment tothe Highest, and so the sharing of Hisperfection,appearing in the farthest eastand west. The human mind takes no ac-count of geography, language, or legends,but in all utters the same instinct."Yama, the lord of Death, promised

Nachiketas, the son of Gautama, to granthim three boons at his own choice. Nachi-ketas, knowing that his father Gautamawas offended with him, said, *0 Death!let Gautama be appeased in mind, and for-get his anger against me: this I choosefor the first boon.' Yama said, ^Throughmy favor, Gautama will remember theewith love as before.' For the second boon,Nachiketas asks that the fire by whichheaven is gained be made known to him;which also Yama allows, and says, 'Choosethe third boon, O Nachiketas.'


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"Nachiketas said, 'There is this inquiry.Some say the soul exists after the death ofman; others say it does not exist. ThisI should like to know, instructed by thee.'Such is the third of the boons. Yamasaid, Tor this question, it was inquired ofold, even by the gods ; for it is not easy tounderstand it. Subtle is its nature. Chooseanother boon, O Nachiketas! Do notcompel me to this.' Nachiketas said, 'Evenby the gods was it inquired. And as towhat thou sayest, O Death, that it is noteasy to understand it, there is no otherteacher to be found like thee. There is noother boon like this.'"Yama said, 'Choose sons and grand-

sons who may live a hundred years;choose herds of cattle; choose elephantsand gold and horses ; choose the wide ex-panded earth, and live thyself as manyyears as thou listeth. Or, if thou knowesta boon like this, choose it, together with


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wealth and far-extending life. Be a king,O Nachiketas! On the wide earth I willmake thee the enjoyer of all desires. Allthose desires that are difficult to gain inthe world of mortals, all those ask thou atthy pleasure;those fair nymphs ofheaven with their chariots, with their mu-sical instruments; for the like of themare not to be gained by men. I will givethem to thee, but do not ask the questionof the state of the soul after death.' Nachi-ketas said, 'All those enjoyments are ofyesterday. With thee remain thy horsesand elephants, with thee the dance andsong. If we should obtain wealth, we liveonly as long as thou pleasest. The boonwhich I choose I have said.'"Yama said, 'One thing is good, another

is pleasant. Blessed is he who takes thegood, but he who chooses the pleasant losesthe object of man. But thou, consideringthe objects of desire, hast abandoned them.


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what is great, sitting it goes far, sleepingit goes everywhere. Thinking the soul asunbodily among bodies, firm among fleet-ing things, the wise man casts off all grief.The soul cannot be gained by knowledge,not by understanding, not by manifoldscience. It can be obtained by the soulby which it is desired. It reveals its owntruths.'

All this proves conclusively that Emer-son was thoroughly imbued with the Vedicrevelation and freely drew inspirationfrom its teaching. Again and again heacknowledges his debt to the ancients.After reviewing the mighty attainmentsof antique Greece and Rome, as well asthose of ancient and mediaeval Europe,

.,he adds in his essay on the "Progress ofCulture": "But if these works still sur-vive and multiply, what shall we say ofnames more distant, or hidden throughtheir very superiority to their coevals,


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names of men who have left remains thatcertify a height of genius in their severaldirections not since surpassed, and whichmen in proportion to their wisdom stillcherish,as Zoroaster, Confucius, andthe grand Scriptures only recently knownto Western nations, of the Indian Vedas,the Institutes of Manu, the Puranas, thepoems of the Mahabarat and the Rama-yana?"Emerson was not the only one who came

in contact with the Indo-Aryan cultureand its thought; but he was one of thosefew who possessed sincerity of purpose,breadth of vision, and courage of convic-tion enough to recognize and acknowledgehis debt to it. As I have already pointedout, in the higher realms of thought bor-rowing is neither possible nor practicablebut a harmonious blending of what is trueand fundamental brings about a gloriousfulfillment of high idealism. Man can


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never hope to attain his spiritual grandeuruntil he is willing to partake of the bless-ings of others and share his own with un-biased heart.

"He who sees all beings in the Self and theSelf in all beings, he never turns away from theSelf. He who perceives all beings as the Self,for him how can there be delusion or grief, whenhe sees this oneness everywhere?"

IsA Upanishad.


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WORKS BY SWAMI PARAMANANDAPRACTICAL SERIES

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