A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

""""""""")VEDANTA IN INDIAN LIFE. 407how became extinct ;and with them that branch of thelearning of the Vedas they took charge of, became extincta,ls6* This fact we ought to remember as italways formstixe sheet-anchor in the hands of those who want to preachanything new or to defend anything even against theVedas. Wherever we know in India there is abetween local custom and the Srutis, and whenef^r it ispointed out that the local custom is against the Scriptures,the argument that is forwarded is that it is not that the;custom existed in the branch of the Srutis which has becomeextinct ;this has also been a custom. In the midst ofall these varying methods of reading and commenting onour Scriptures, it is very difficult, indeed, to find thethread that runs through all of them for we become;convinced at once that there muSt be some common groundunderlying all these varying divisions, and sub-divisions,there must be harmony, a common plan upon which allthese little bits of buildings have been constructed, somebasis common to this apparently hopeless mass of confusionwhich we call our religion. Else it could not have stood solong, it could not have endured so long.Coming to our commentators again, we find anotherdifficulty. The very same Adwaitic commentator whenever an Adwaitic text comes, preserves it just as it is but;as soon as a Dualistic text presents itself before him hetortures it if he can, brings the most queer meaning outof it. Sometimes the Unborn becomes a goat/ suchwonderful changes. Aja the Unborn is explainedas Aja a goat, to suit the commentator. The same way,if not in a still worse fashion, the texts are handled by the *Dualistic commentator. Every Dualistic text is preserved,and every text that speaks of non-dualistic philosophy istortured in any fashion they like.This Sanskrit language