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Essays in Life and Eternity ESSAYS IN LIFE AND ETERNITY SWAMI KRISHNANANDA The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org ABOUT THIS EDITION Though this eBook edition is designed primarily for digital readers and computers, it works well for print too. Page size dimensions are 5.5" x 8.5", or half a regular size sheet, and can be printed for personal, non-commercial use: two pages to one side of a sheet by adjusting your printer settings. 2 CONTENTS Preface .......................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................. 7 PART I – METAPHYSICAL FOUNDATIONS ................................... 20 I—The Absolute and the Relative .................................................... 20 II—The Universal and the Particular ............................................. 23 III—The Cosmological Descent ......................................................... 25 IV—The Gods and the Celestial Heaven ....................................... 31 V—The Human Individual .................................................................. 35 VI—The Evolution of Consciousness ............................................ 39 VII—The Epistemological Predicament ........................................ 43 VIII—The World of Science ................................................................ 48 IX—Psychology and Psychoanalysis ............................................. 55 X—Aesthetics and the Field of Beauty ........................................... 60 PART II—THE SOCIAL SCENE ........................................................... 65 XI—The Phenomenon of Society .................................................... 65 XII—Axiology: The Aims of Existence ........................................... 70 XIII—The Nomative Features of Ethics and Morality ............ 75 XIV—Civic and Social Duty ................................................................. 81 XV—The Economy of Life ................................................................... 87 XVI—Political Science and Administration ................................ 92 XVII—The Process of History ............................................................ 98 XVIII—Education and Culture ........................................................ 105 3 PART III—THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS ....................................................... 111 XIX—The Inklings and Stages of a Higher Presence ............ 111 XX—The Exploration of Reality .................................................... 117 XXI—The Epics and Puranas ......................................................... 123 XXII—The Role of Mythology In Religion ................................. 128 XXIII—The Ecstasy of God-Love .................................................. 131 XXIV—The Agama Sastra ................................................................. 135 XXV—Tantra Sadhana ....................................................................... 140 XXVI—The Yoga-Vasishtha ............................................................. 146 XXVII—Philosophical Proofs for the Existence of God ........ 151 XXVIII—Empirical Systems of Philosophy ............................... 155 XXIX—The Mimamsa Doctrine of Works ................................. 161 XXX—The Gospel of the Bhagavad Gita .................................... 164 XXXI—The Path of Divine Devotion ........................................... 168 XXXII—The Integral Philosophy of the Vedanta ................... 177 XXXIII—Fundamentals of the Spiritual Ascent ....................... 184 XXXIV—The Art of Meditation ....................................................... 191 XXXV—The Recession of Effects To Causes ............................ 197 XXXVI—Experiences in Meditation ............................................ 201 XXXVII—The Yoga System of Patanjali ..................................... 206 XXXVIII—Life After Death ............................................................... 212 XXXIX—Moksha: The Final Liberation ...................................... 218 4 PART IV—REGARDING JUSTICE, JUDGMENT AND HUMAN SOLIDARITY ................................................................... 224 XL—On The Concept of Righteousness and Justice ............. 224 XLI—In Defence of a Proper Philosophical Analysis ........... 253 XLII- Creation and Some of its Implications ............................ 264 XLIII—Concerning Inter-Philosophical Dialogue and International Understanding .......................................... 275 5 PREFACE The publication of Essays in Life and Eternity by the well known author who needs no introduction is a veritable hallmark stamped on the various writings come from the same source dealing with such themes of study and enquiry as perhaps do not leave anything pertaining to human life unsaid or unexplained. The value of this new treatise can be assessed only by an actual reading of it with the requisite concentration. The subject of the thesis has been arranged systematically in an order of ascent and relatedness comparable with the order of the manifestation of life as could be gathered through an investigation of the structure of Nature and the obvious processes of the universe. Here is something absorbing which seeks to fulfil the longings of both the individual in society and the spirit that is eternal. THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY Shivanandanagar, 31st December, 1989. 6 INTRODUCTION This is an attempt to present in a sequential order certain ideas that may be said to appertain to an outlook of life which would adequately comprehend within itself the process of the envisagement of values that are supposed to form the structure of the general pattern of our existence. It is fairly obvious that we do not start thinking without a basis on which it has to found itself, an acceptance of what may be called indubitable and certain for all practical purposes. Usually, such a sheet-anchor of human enterprise goes by the name of a philosophy of life, a general concept of what things are, or what they ought to be, in the scheme of the universe. Not only do we not think in a vacuum and do have some substantiating factor remaining always there at the back of thoughts and actions, but also we conduct our life processes from what is considered as more primary and unavoidable to what is secondary or what follows from the original requirement as a corollary from a theorem. Effects follow causes, even as causes precede effects. While the effects are important enough to require necessary consideration, the causes have a precedence and determine all such considerations. The effects are often the visible and tangible things; the causes are not always direct objects of perception. It is common knowledge that we occupy ourselves principally with visible phenomena, inasmuch as the immediate impact of the world is on our sensations, and even our thoughts seem to become operative after the senses receive impressions of things outside as cast in the moulds of their own individual areas of organisation. Rarely do we think before we see or hear; we seem to be mentally active after sensations stimulate psychic functions. This is an aspect of our life which has been excessively taken advantage of by the empiricist schools of philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics and politics, though it, indeed, remains as a valid segment of the way in which we acquire knowledge. There is, however, the other side of the story, namely, that knowledge is not a mere unsolicited import from a foreign land, and that there is an inner need that decides the nature of the product arising as the outcome of sense impressions. But the vehemence of sensory activity is often so impetuous and aggressive that there is mostly an acquiescence on the part of everyone in the belief that events take place only in the ‘outer’ world and human history is caused by the behaviour of ‘other’ people. That there has been latterly a gradual trend of thought along these lines in modern times does not need an explanation. Only it would show that humanity is drifting downwards into the more exteriorised, mechanised and devitalised forms of existence than what should be expected from an essentially self-conscious human individual whose very self cannot be other than an indivisible consciousness, a fact which all types of empiricism seem to be ignoring entirely. The rationalist emphasis, too, may not always be able to avoid the erroneous judgment of confining consciousness merely to intellectual activity, not paying sufficient attention to the nature of reality which sweeps over a much larger area than logic and reason. The arrangement of thought in these essays can be viewed either from the point of view of the cause 8 manifesting itself as its natural effects, or the effect evolving gradually into the substance of the cause. Perhaps the former impression may be created in the mind of a reader when the book is studied from the beginning to the end in the order of succession, and it may have the feature of the latter if the chapters are read in the reverse order especially from Chapter XVIII backwards, concluding with the themes of the initial chapters. Though the presentation has endeavoured to touch the furthermost and a kind of superlative externalisation of aims and values as one could see in the present-day world, such as the thoroughgoing artificial organisations of life as pure political expediency and involvement
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