Practical Vedanta

Practical Vedantaof matter or force, can only be looked upon as the play of a certain will, and thatwill again can only be looked upon as separate from the universe. Thus a manfrom such a standpoint has to see himself as composed of a dual nature, body andsoul, and this soul, though limited, is individually complete in itself. Such a man'sideas of immortality and of the future life would necessarily accord with his ideaof soul. These phases have been kept in the Vedanta, and it is, therefore, necessaryfor me to present to you a few of the popular ideas of dualism. According to thistheory, we have a body, of course, and behind the body there is what they call afine body. This fine body is also made of matter, only very fine. It is the receptacleof all our Karma, of all our actions and impressions, which are ready to spring upinto visible forms. Every thought that we think, every deed that we do, after acertain time becomes fine, goes into seed form, so to speak, and lives in the finebody in a potential form, and after a time it emerges again and bears its results.These results condition the life of man. Thus he moulds his own life. Man is notbound by any other laws excepting those which he makes for himself. Ourthoughts, our words and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw roundourselves, for good or for evil. Once we set in motion a certain power, we have totake the full consequences of it. This is the law of Karma. Behind the subtle body,lives Jiva or the individual soul of man. There are various discussions about theform and the size of this individual soul. According to some, it is very small likean atom; according to others, it is not so small as that; according to others, it isvery big, and so on. This Jiva is a part of that universal substance, and it is alsoeternal; without beginning it is existing, and without end it will exist. It is passingthrough all these forms in order to manifest its real nature which is purity. Everyaction that retards this manifestation is called an evil action; so with thoughts. Andevery action and every thought that helps the Jiva to expand, to manifest its realnature, is good. One theory that is held in common in India by the crudest dualistsas well as by the most advanced non-dualists is that all the possibilities andpowers of the soul are within it, and do not come from any external source. Theyare in the soul in potential form, and the whole work of life is simply directedtowards manifesting those potentialities.They have also the theory of reincarnation which says that after the dissolution ofthis body, the Jiva will have another, and after that has been dissolved, it willagain have another, and so on, either here or in some other worlds; but this worldis given the preference, as it is considered the best of all worlds for our purpose.Other worlds are conceived of as worlds where there is very little misery, but forthat very reason, they argue, there is less chance of thinking of higher things there.As this world contains some happiness and a good deal of misery, the Jiva sometime or other gets awakened, as it were, and thinks of freeing itself. But just asvery rich persons in this world have the least chance of thinking of higher things,so the Jiva in heaven has little chance of progress, for its condition is the same asthat of a rich man, only more intensified; it has a very fine body which knows nodisease, and is under no necessity of eating or drinking, and all its desires arefile:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/Chitra%20Selva...oksBySwami/PracticalVedanta/PracticalVedantaPDF.html (34 of 113)2/26/2007 12:24:33 AM