Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantathe perception of the body does not remain. None can get the perception of theSelf without his perception of the body having vanished, none can get perceptionof the substance without his perception of the qualities having vanished.The ancient illustration of Advaita, of the rope being taken for a snake, mayelucidate the point a little more. When a man mistakes the rope for a snake, therope has vanished, and when he takes it for a rope, the snake has vanished, and therope only remains. The ideas of dual or treble existence come from reasoning oninsufficient data, and we read them in books or hear about them, until we comeunder the delusion that we really have a dual perception of the soul and the body;but such a perception never really exists. The perception is either of the body or ofthe soul. It requires no arguments to prove it, you can verify it in your own minds.Try to think of yourself as a soul, as a disembodied something. You will find it tobe almost impossible, and those few who are able to do so will find that at the timewhen they realise themselves as a soul they have no idea of the body. You haveheard of, or perhaps have seen, persons who on particular occasions had been inpeculiar states of mind, brought about by deep meditation, self-hypnotism,hysteria, or drugs. From their experience you may gather that when they wereperceiving the internal something, the external had vanished for them. This showsthat whatever exists is one. That one is appearing in these various forms, and allthese various forms give rise to the relation of cause and effect. The relation ofcause and effect is one of evolution — the one becomes the other, and so on.Sometimes the cause vanishes, as it were, and in its place leaves the effect. If thesoul is the cause of the body, the soul, as it were vanishes for the time being, andthe body remains; and when the body vanishes, the soul remains. This theory fitsthe arguments of the Buddhists that were levelled against the assumption of thedualism of body and soul, by denying the duality, and showing that the substanceand the qualities are one and the same thing appearing in various forms.We have seen also that this idea of the unchangeable can be established only asregards the whole, but never as regards the part. The very idea of part comes fromthe idea of change or motion. Everything that is limited we can understand andknow, because it is changeable; and the whole must be unchangeable, becausethere is no other thing besides it in relation to which change would be possible.Change is always in regard to something which does not change, or which changesrelatively less.According to Advaita, therefore, the idea of the soul as universal, unchangeable,and immortal can be demonstrated as far as possible. The difficulty would be asregards the particular. What shall we do with the old dualistic theories which havesuch a hold upon us, and which we have all to pass through — these beliefs inlimited, little, individual souls?We have seen that we are immortal with regard to the whole; but the difficulty is,we desire so much to be immortal as parts of the whole. We have seen that we areInfinite, and that that is our real individuality. But we want so much to make theselittle souls individual. What becomes of them when we find in our everydayfile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (32 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:33 AM