3
(From my notes dated 10/05/1995 on Chinmaya Literature) My first encounter with the world of Vivekananda was in 1970 and my first contact with the Chinmaya literature was in 1995. I began with his "Kindle life' and soon discovered a new language and voice. He was not saying anything new but he was systematic in his approach. The language was simple and direct and the voice was that of a teacher revealing facts in steps. It was all very catchy and impressive. From this external world he went to the elements of our internal world and aspects of human experience. An experience essentially has three factors i.e. 1. the subject or the experiencer 2. object or the experienced and 3. the act of experiencing. Chinmaya points out that whereas the modern science took up the study of 'the experienced', our Vedanta took up the study of 'the experiencer'. This is the basic difference between the two disciplines. And what did our Vedanta discover? What did it reveal?
