The House We Live in; 7; Swami Nikhilananda

Man, man's God, the world between in this post-atomic age. The young macargh of the University of Pennsylvania probes these areas with his guests today, outstanding Hindu theologian, the Reverend Swami, Nikkulananda. Swami, Nikkulananda, welcome to the House we live in. This is an inquiry into the relation of man to environment. It's motivated in the first case by belief that Western man at least is now in part to destroy our life, and that there are not enough restraints in the prevailing philosophies and theologies. Indeed that man has not concerned himself with his relation to his environment, but now in part to destroy it and destroy himself, it beholds him to consider this and with the utmost urgency and seriousness.

The motive this inquiry has been first to ask natural scientists to discuss the environment and man within this environment. On this we learned a great deal of the evolution of matter, the evolution of life, the emergence of man. Within it we did not have perceived any dominant anthropomorphism, there was no sense that man was the center of the universe, that he was exclusively made in the image of God, given dominion in the part of subdue. On continuing to discuss, listen rather to discussions on the views of the major religions, it transpired that this transcendence, this man, nature, dualism, did exist as a reality in Western thought, and while interpretations were made which diminished its destructive power, nonetheless it existed. Now we turn to the religions of the East, to Hinduism and to Buddhism, and there is a presumption I think, a reason for one that there is not in these Eastern religions such a distinction made between man and nature, between nature as a manifestation of God.

I believe one can say that Brahman may be found in man, in mouse, in stone, in the flash of lightning, Swami, and Ikalananda. Hinduism speaks of the eternal unity of existence which embraces and is followed, all living creatures and hard beings and also nature. Now, according to Hindu view, the whole reality may be compared to a pyramid which at the base is solid and that represents the world of matter. As you go up that pyramid, the matter becomes ratified and there you encounter the universe of mind, and as you go to the epics, there is the pure spirit or the Godhead. Now, according to Hindu view, the reality seen through the senses is comprehended as

matter, when the same reality is seen through the mind, it is idea, and when you look at the reality or when you meditate on the reality through our inner spirit, it is inner spirit, it is spirit, it is Godhead. So according to Hindu view, the universe is the seamless garment of the Creator or the Godhead, who in his true nature is existence, knowledge, bliss, absolute. Now, what is creation? According to Hindu view, the creation is the projection of the Godhead without any external help, the Godhead through his inexplicable potency projects the whole universe out of himself. The example is given in the Vedas of the spider, the spider from his own saliva or silk,

inside the web, moves on the web, and ultimately, we draws the web unto itself. Likewise, the Godhead projects out of itself, the universe of living on living, and part of each the whole creation enters into every creature, and at the end, we draws the whole universe unto itself. There are various illustrations in the Vedas to explain this point, sometimes the creation or created objects are compared to the waves and the bubbles of the ocean, sometimes the creation is compared to the breathing out of the Creator, he breathes out, and you see the creation, he breathes in, and everything goes back onto itself, it is a beautiful

illustration. Or sometime, the creation is compared to the melodies, the Creator is the great artist, and he produces this melodies, and that is the creation. Sir, yes, yes, there is no division, this is not man, God, nature is divisible past, this is a single unity, it is a single unity from the standpoint of the absolute. Now Hinduism gives a spiritual interpretation of nature, according to Hindu view, nature or matter is not self-creating, self-preserving, or self-destroying category. That is what I suppose this scientist would say, now we need in the Vedas, for instance, that heavens are his head, some moon his eyes, the revealed scriptures, his speech, the universe, his heart, from him, come, the oceans, and the mountains, from him, flow the

rivers of every kind, from him have come all plants and flavors. Now, the Hindus have regarded late nature with intense spiritual feeling, the hard device of God in the thunderclap, the saw his hand in the storm, and in the stealing of the waves they were fascinated by the majesty of the Creator, as revealed, as revealed through various natural phenomena. Now nature is a living presence of the Godhead, now we read in the Hindu scriptures of the sky, God, of the earth, God, this bounteous and beneficial earth has been deified by the Hindus, the sky represents the infinity would drop God, the sun, moon and stars

appear and disappear, but the sky remains forever. So we hear of others, you see the aspects of the manifestation of the Godhead, but this is not polytheism, this is not pantheism, this is not pantheism, because according to the Vedas, the reality is one, the reality is one, but it is called by different names, by different people. This is not animism either, animism means the universal animation of nature. Now so the Creator pervades the whole creation with His essence as the fragrance pervades the flower, as the last church pervades the gem, as the witness pervades the water. Now the question is, what is man?

Can you elaborate on what this actually means to a practicing Hindu in terms of his everyday relations to the environment he lives in? See we, for instance we worship some sacred rivers, ganges, the jumna, the Himalayas, great object of adoration to every Hindu, the great lakes, before we start any religious ceremony, we must salute, the great rivers, the great lakes and the great mountains. So you see in our daily life we make contact with nature, if you go to India, what we will see? You will see here is the brown earth, the brown man and the brown sky all just blending into one hole, that is the Hindu attitude, he is the part of the nature and animals, animals too, animals too. Now what is man? What is his true nature?

Well of course we know the tangible man, the physical man, he consists of, he is endowed with the limbs and his sense organs and the mind, is that the true man, is it the real essence of man, the scientists have given different interpretations of man, according to some scientists, man is a psychophysical entity. Now if that is so, then how do you account for a man's moral commitment, his spiritual yearning or his aesthetic sensitivity, according to other scientists man is one of the millions species of animals, now if man is an animal, then how can you account for his moral responsibility, not to speak of his spiritual yearning, again man has been explained in terms of social forces, in terms of economic forces, man has been explained in terms of libido, now according to Hindu view, all these interpretations of man are

not false, they are not untrue, but they are not adequate, not sufficient, all these accounts leave out a very important part of man, now these accounts may be compared to the information you get from a road map, when you drive your car in an unknown country, foreign country, all road maps give you all the information regarding the restaurants, regarding the bridges, regarding the mountains and so on and so forth, but the road maps do not give you any information about the flavor and the color of the landscape, so this scientific interpretations of man does not exhaust the complete man, now what is the real man then, is man just a mere body, or is man a body with a soul, or is man the soul with a body, according

to Hindu view, the man is pure spirit, pure spirit, worthless, deathless, without beginning, without end, immortal, undying, but dwelling in a body. In the Bhagavad Gitaity said about the real nature of man, the soul cannot pierce it, the fire cannot burn it, the wind cannot blow it, the water cannot soak it, it is indestructible, now why this immortal spirit has identified itself with a perishable physical body, that is a mystery which will ever remain unknown to the finite mind, now this physical man, the embodied man, when confronted by other human beings, well he shows attachment to

some, aversion to others and indifference to the rest, and when he is individualized, when he is embodied he becomes a victim of birth and death, good and evil and pain and pleasure, but all the time he is seeking pleasure, but during the embodied state his mind is directed outward and downward, his sixth pleasure from material things, but the material pleasures, whether of this earth or of heaven and according to Hindu view, heaven is not very different from earth, it is a part of the creation, so any material pleasures, any finite pleasures drawn from the creation cannot satisfy man, why, because man is in essence the infinite

spirit, the infinite spirit can never be satisfied with any finite experience, it is said in the Vedas, the real bliss is in the infinite, not in the finite, now so man is seeking this infinite bliss, which he can discover only when he realizes his inner divinity, his inner perfection, now this perfection is not possible in one lifetime and man will not stop seeking pleasure, man will not stop seeking experience until he attains to perfection, now as this perfection is not possible in one life, Hinduism postulates the rebirth or their incarnation, now this soul discurs the body at the time of death and assumes a new body at the time

of birth, not necessarily I was a human body, not necessarily, now this rebirth of man is determined by what we call love karma, the love cause and effect, now if at the time of death I cherish some desires which can be fulfilled in a human body, I shall assume an animal body, could I turn back there, you said that man is not mere man, but something else is then animal, mere animal in this sense and plant, mere plant and rock, mere rock or does a sense that Brahman is in all, remove the word mere, yes quite right, the quite right, Brahman is the innermost essence of everything and I shall come to the point presently when I discuss about the Godhead, now the difference between man, animal, nature and the Godhead is not a difference in essence, but it is difference in the degree of the manifestation

of the divine spirit, so there is really a qualitative difference in a sense, the difference is in the degree of manifestation, no essential difference, now the point is in the stone that divinity or divine spirit is completely blocked, is in animal, this power inner power divinity is more manifest, in man it is still more manifest and in the saint or super man, it is completely manifest, so as I was saying that man assumed different bodies and this reincarnation is governed by the law of what we call cause and effect, now in every birth a man practices spiritual disciplines and gradually he realizes that his infinite soul can never be pleased, can never be satisfied with finite experience, then his desire which was inclined outward and downward, now the desire is turned inward and upward

and this is all the return journey of man, the journey from the realm of matter to the realm of spirit, then he practices different spiritual disciplines, which you find laid down in all major religions like self-control, the discrimination between real and unreal, the renunciation of the unreal contemplation, concentration, so on and so forth, but contemplation is a very special role, contemplation is the special feature of Hinduism, contemplation is the most important spiritual discipline, because the ultimate reality or man's true nature or man's relationship with his creator is realized only in the depth of contemplation, now is it true to say that Christianity, asceticism and contemplation have been rather frowned upon as a removal of man from the reign of life, the reign of God's work, but I think

it depends upon the Christian denominations, for instance if you go to the trappish monastery or some of the Carmelite monks, you find they devote their time, you say to devotion and meditation but again you find those of the very active Protestant ministers, they go about doing good to the world and sometimes I feel I should not perhaps say that there is more of going about than doing good, well anyhow, now the question is what is God, what is God, the God again is pure spirit, it is intelligence, it is nameless, it is formless, it cannot be perceived like an object by our senses, it cannot be comprehended by our mind, the pure spirit, it can only be known by our inner consciousness, by our inner experience, so we read in

the Vedas, you cannot see that which is the witness of our vision, you cannot hear that which is the healer of hearing, you cannot think of that which is the thinker of thought, you cannot know that which is the knower of knowing, it is never known but the eternal knower, it is never hard but the eternal hearer, it is never seen but the eternal seer, now this is the pure spirit, now there are two other aspects of Godhead, one may be called the cosmic soul and the other may be called the spirit doiling within every creature, now the cosmic soul, when God is associated with the act of creation, preservation and destruction, then we call him the cosmic soul, now we read in the Vedas, our scriptures, this beautiful

description of the cosmic soul, the whole universe is filled with God to whom there is nothing superior from whom there is nothing different than whom, nothing greater or smaller who stands alone established in his own glory, he grasp without hands, he moves without feet, he sees without eyes, he knows without ears, he knows what is to be known but no one knows him, his hands and feet are everywhere, his eyes, heads and faces are everywhere, his ears everywhere, now this is the cosmic soul, then the other aspect of God is the inner guide, he dwells in every being, now here is a description of the inner guide, daward, woman,

daward man, daward youth and maiden true, daward is an old man, protest along on this stuff, it is daward alone who when born assume as diverse forms, then there is another beautiful description, daward the dark blue bee, daward the green parrot with red eyes, daward the thunder cloud, the seasons and the seas, now a teacher was asked by his disciple in olden times, then what is the immortal spirit, what is this Godhead, when the teacher said he who inhabits the earth, yet is within the earth, now we inhabit the earth man, but we are not within, but he who inhabits the earth, but with within the

earth whose body is the earth, whom the earth does not know and who controls the earth from within, he is your self, the inner self, the inner controller, the immortal, now there are you see three stages in the spiritual evolution of man, the first is called the dualistic stage in which a man sees the eternal separation between God, man and nature, they are all dualistic religions, Christian it is a dualistic religion, Judaism is a dualistic religion, Islam is a dualistic religion, therefore they see the difference between God, man and nature, now there is a second stage in spiritual progress, it is called qualified non dualism, which means non dualism or oneness, which admits of distinction, now that can be explained

as suppose take the case of this human body, here we have the physical body, the living cells and the soul, so the whole nature is like, whole nature is like the body of the Godhead and all living souls are the cells and he is the soul of all souls and last we come to the stage of non duality, when the all distinctions between God, man and nature is completely faced, but it is an experience, you cannot arrive at it by by reason, I believe certain sensitive souls and mystics have experienced this oneness, now for instance what Hemingway said, serving a battlefield, I saw the same soul being slaughtered over and over again and that last I realized that I am that soul, my great misty was born in India,

he was born in 1836, he died in 1886, Roman Roman rule and called him the the prophet of new India, his name was Ramakrishna, now one day he was lying in his room and blows marks of blows are impressed on his back and when asked he said go outside and see and there were two great boatmen were corralling and those marks were impressed on his own back, another day he was lying on his bed and people saw bruises, the blood marks on his chest and when they went out they saw a man walking on the green grass and when he was suffering from cancer, he could not eat any swallow food, he prayed to God, so he could eat some food and God said are you not swallowing through millions of mouths, what do these experiences show, you cannot hate others without hating yourself, you cannot hurt others without hurting yourself, you cannot destroy others without destroying ourselves, well now friends now

the present world malady it seems to me now I am coming to the conclusion, the present world malady is a spiritual malady, all our economic confusion, moral confusion with the outer symptoms of a deep-seated malady, man is not, man is not at peace with himself, he is not at peace with nature, he is not at peace with his fellow man, he is not at peace with God, under the impact of secularism, we would have to be at God, we exploit nature, we compete with our fellow human beings, now this happiness that we derive from this competition, well it is temporary at the end it is boring, but the happiness that we derive from co-pervention with all that is enduring, so according to Hindu view God should be propitiated through

meditation, prayer, worship, the animals should be treated with compassion, then they will serve our needs, they will give us comforts, nature should be treated with kindness, then you will get food, grain, herbs in proper time, now we pollute water, we pollute water with the refuse matter of our factories, we fill the whole atmosphere of the air, with poisonous film, we exploit human beings, so I suppose the solution of the present world malady is in discovering the eternal unity of existence which is the principle message of Hinduism, I know this unity of existence cannot be realized by the average man, by they cannot even comprehend it, but we expect it from the leaders of society, if our educators, if our ministers of religion, if our leaders of business, if they realize this,

if they get the glimpse of this unity and if they apply to their respective fields, I think we shall create a climate for peace and welfare for all. Well certainly if we can say that the major accomplishment of the West has been extension of social justice and I think we can reasonably say this is derived from Judaism and Christianity, it behooves, well perhaps we could say beyond that that it is agreed to which we have been unable to create and sustain a beautiful noble and a noble and physical environment may well be also attributable to Judaism and Christianity, it would seem to certainly that within the attitudes of Hinduism and I suspect also Buddhism, there is a sense of man God and nature as a unity which might better be a restraint to Western man, of all the splendid things you have said, one stays with me very, very strongly, indeed that is that when

man destroys, he also destroys himself, when man creates, he also adds to himself. Imagine at the end, say one of the prayers for our Vedas, which will be a proper this hour's topic, that refugeant one, who is in fire and water, who is imminent in the whole universe, who is in the herbs and forests to that God, I bow again and again. Thank you very much, let me make a little handle, I think now we are by some few seconds for the reason. This is N-E-T National Educational Television.