The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 4/Translation: Prose/Knowledge: Its Source and Acquirement
KNOWLEDGE: ITS SOURCE AND ACQUIREMENT[1]
Various have been the theories propounded as regards the primitive source of
knowledge. We read in the Upanishads that Brahmâ, who was the first and the
foremost among the Devas, held the key to all knowledge, which he revealed
to his disciples and which, being handed down in succession, has been
bequeathed as a legacy to the subsequent age. According to the Jains, during
an indefinite period of cycle of Time, which comprises between one thousand
and two thousand billions of "oceans" of years, are born some extraordinary,
great, perfected beings whom they call Jinas, and through them the door to
knowledge is now and shell opened to human society. Likewise Buddhism
believes in, and expects at regular intervals, the appearance of the
Buddhas, that is, persons possessed of infinite universal wisdom. The same
is the reason also of the introduction of Incarnations of God by the
Paurânika Hindus, who ascribe to them, along with other missions, the
special function of restoring the lost spiritual knowledge by its proper
adjustment to the needs of the time. Outside India, we find the great-souled
Zoroaster bringing down the light of knowledge from above to the mortal
world. So also did Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, who, possessed of heavenly
authority, proclaim to fallen humanity the tidings of divine wisdom in their
own unique ways.
Brahma is the name of a high position among the Devas, to which every man
can aspire by virtue of meritorious deeds. Only a selected few can become
Jinas, while others can never attain to Jinahood; but they can only go so
far as to gain the state of Mukti. The state of being a Buddha is open to
one and all without distinction. Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed are
great personalities who incarnated themselves for the fulfilment of some
special mission; so also did the Incarnations of God mentioned by the
Pauranika sages. For others to look up to that seat of these divine
personages with a longing eye is madness.
Adam got his knowledge through the tasting of the forbidden fruit. Noah was
taught social science by the grace of Jehovah. In India, the theory is that
every science has its presiding deity; their founders are either Devas or
perfected beings; from the most menial arts as that of a cobbler to the most
dignified office of the spiritual guide, everything depends on the kind
intervention of the gods or supreme beings. "No knowledge is possible
without a teacher." There is no way to the attainment of knowledge unless it
is transmitted through an apostolic succession from disciple to disciple,
unless it comes through the mercy of the Guru and direct from his mouth.
Then again, the Vedantic and other philosophers of the Indian schools hold
that knowledge is not to be acquired from without. It is the innate nature
of the human soul and the essential birthright of every man. The human soul
is the repository of infinite wisdom; what external agency can illuminate
it? According to some schools, this infinite wisdom remains always the same
and is never lost; and man is not ordinarily; conscious of this, because a
veil, so to speak, has fallen over it on account of his evil deeds, but as
soon as the veil is removed it reveals itself. Others say that this infinite
wisdom, though potentially present in a human soul, has become contracted
through evil deeds and it becomes expanded again by the mercy of God gained
by good deeds. We also read in our scriptures various other methods of
unfolding this inborn infinite power and knowledge, such as devotion to God,
performance of work without attachment, practicing the eightfold accessories
of the Yoga system, or constant dwelling on this knowledge, and so on. The
final conclusion, however, is this, that through the practice of one or more
or all of these methods together man gradually becomes conscious of his
inborn real nature, and the infinite power and wisdom within, latent or
veiled, becomes at last fully manifest.
On the other side, the modern philosophers have analysed the human mind as
the source of infinitely possible manifestations and have come to the
conclusion that when the individual mind on the one hand, and favourable
time, place, and causation on the other can act and react upon one another,
then highly developed consciousness of knowledge is sure to follow. Nay,
even the unfavourableness of time and place can be successfully surmounted
by the vigour and firmness of the individual. The strong individual, even if
he is thrown amidst the worst conditions of place or time, overcomes them
and affirms his own strength. Not only so, all the heavy burdens heaped upon
the individual, the acting agent, are being made lighter and lighter in the
course of time, so that any individual, however weak he may be in the
beginning, is sure to reach the goal at the end if he assiduously applies
himself to gain it. Look at the uncivilised and ignorant barbarians of the
other day! How through close and studious application they are making long
strides into the domains of civilisation, how even those of the lower strata
are making their way and are occupying with an irresistible force the most
exalted positions in it! The sons of cannibal parents are turning out
elegant and educated citizens; the descendants of the uncivilised Santals,
thanks to the English Government, have been nowadays meeting in successful
competition our Bengali students in the Indian Universities. As such, the
partiality of the scientific investigators of the present day to the
doctrine of hereditary transmission of qualities is being gradually
diminished.
There is a certain class of men whose conviction is that from time eternal
there is a treasure of knowledge which contains the wisdom of everything
past, present, and future. These men hold that it was their own forefathers
who had the sole privilege of having the custody of this treasure. The
ancient sages, the first possessors of it, bequeathed in succession this
treasure and its true import to their descendants only. They are, therefore,
the only inheritors to it; as such, let the rest of the world worship them.
May we ask these men what they think should be the condition of the other
peoples who have not got such forefathers? "Their condition is doomed", is
the general answer. The more kind-hearted among them is perchance pleased to
rejoin, "Well, let them come and serve us. As a reward for such service,
they will be born in our caste in the next birth. That is the only hope we
can hold out to them." "Well, the moderns are making many new and original
discoveries in the field of science and arts, which neither you dreamt of,
nor is there any proof that your forefathers ever had knowledge of. What do
you say to that?" "Why certainly our forefathers knew all these things, the
knowledge of which is now unfortunately lost to us. Do you want a proof? I
can show you one. Look! Here is the Sanskrit verse . . . . . " Needless to
add that the modern party, who believes in direct evidence only, never
attaches any seriousness to such replies and proofs.
Generally, all knowledge is divided into two classes, the Aparâ, secular,
and the Parâ, spiritual. One pertains to perishable things, and the other to
the realm of the spirit. There is, no doubt, a great difference these two
classes of knowledge, and the way to the attainment of the one may be
entirely different from the way to the attainment of the other. Nor can it
be denied that no one method can be pointed out as the sole and universal
one which will serve as the key to all and every door in the domain of
knowledge. But in reality all this difference is only one of degree and not
of kind. It is not that secular and spiritual knowledge are two opposite and
contradictory things; but they are the same thing — the same infinite
knowledge which is everywhere fully present from the lowest atom to the
highest Brahman — they are the same knowledge in its different stages of
gradual development. This one infinite knowledge we call secular when it is
in its lower process of manifestation, and spiritual when it reaches the
corresponding higher phase.
"All knowledge is possessed exclusively by some extraordinary great men, and
those special personages take birth by the command of God, or in conformity
to a higher law of nature, or in some preordained order of Karma; except
through the agency of these great ones, there is no other way of attaining
knowledge." If such a view be correct and certain, there seems to be no
necessity for any individual to strive hard to find any new and original
truth — all originality is lost to society for want of exercise and
encouragement; and the worst of all is that, society tries to oppose and
stop any attempt in the original direction, and thus the faculty of the
initiative dies out. If it is finally settled that the path of human welfare
is for ever chalked out by these omniscient men, society naturally fears its
own destruction if the least deviation be made from the boundary line of the
path, and so it tries to compel all men through rigid laws and threats of
punishment to follow that path with unconditional obedience. If society
succeeds in imposing such obedience to itself by confining all men within
the narrow groove of these paths, then the destiny of mankind becomes no
better than that of a machine. If every act in a man's life has been all
previously determined, then what need is there for the culture of the
faculty of thought — where is the field for the free play of independent
thought and action? In course of time, for want of proper use, all activity
is given up, all originality is lost, a sort of Tâmasika dreamy lifelessness
hovers over the whole nation, and headlong it goes down and down. The death
of such a nation is not far to seek.
On the other hand, if the other extreme were true that that society prospers
the most which is not guided by the injunctions of such divinely-inspired
souls, then civilisation, wisdom, and prosperity — deserting the Chinese,
Hindus, Egyptians, Babylonians, Iranians, Greeks, Romans, and other great
nations of ancient and modern times, who have always followed the path laid
down by their sages — would have embraced the Zulus, the Kafirs, the
Hottentots, and the aboriginal tribes of the Andamans and the Australian
islands who have led a life of guideless independence.
Considering all these points, it must be admitted that though the presence
of knowledge everywhere in every individual is an eternal truism, yet the
path pointed out by the great ones of the earth has the glory peculiar to
it, and that there is a peculiar interest attached to the transmission of
knowledge through the succession of teachers and their disciples. Each of
them has its place in the development of the sum total of knowledge; and we
must learn to estimate them according to their respective merits. But,
perhaps, being carried away by their over-zealous and blind devotion to
their Masters, the successors and followers of these great ones sacrifice
truth before the altar of devotion and worship to them, and misrepresent the
true meaning of the purpose of those great lives by insisting on personal
worship, that is, they kill the principle for the person.
This is also a fact of common experience that when man himself has lost all
his own strength, he naturally likes to pass his days in idle remembrance of
his forefathers' greatness. The devoted heart gradually becomes the weakest
in its constant attempt to resign itself in every respect to the feet of its
ancestors, and at last a time comes when this weakness teaches the disabled
yet proud heart to make the vainglory of its ancestors' greatness as the
only support of its life. Even if it be true that your ancestors possessed
all knowledge, which has in the efflux of time been lost to you, it follows
that you, their descendants, must have been instrumental in this
disappearance of knowledge, and now it is all the same to you whether you
have it or not. To talk of having or losing this already lost knowledge
serves no useful purpose at present. You will have to make new efforts, to
undergo troubles over again, if you want to recover it.
True, that spiritual illumination shines of itself in a pure heart, and, as
such, it is not something acquired from without; but to attain this purity
of heart means long struggle and constant practice. It has also been found,
on careful inquiry in the sphere of material knowledge, that those higher
truths which have now and then been discovered by great scientific men have
flashed like sudden floods of light in their mental atmosphere, which they
had only to catch and formulate. But such truths never appear in the mind of
an uncultured and wild savage. All these go to prove that hard Tapasyâ, or
practice of austerities in the shape of devout contemplation and constant
study of a subject is at the root of all illumination in its respective
spheres.
What we call extraordinary, superconscious inspiration is only the result of
a higher development of ordinary consciousness, gained by long and continued
effort. The difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is merely
one of degree in manifestation. Conscious efforts lead the way to
superconscious illumination.
Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested. Every man has in
him the potentiality of attaining to perfect saintliness, Rishihood, or to
the most exalted position of an Avatâra, or to the greatness of a hero in
material discoveries. It is only a question of time and adequate well-guided
investigation, etc., to have this perfection manifested. In a society where
once such great men were born, there the possibility of their reappearance
is greater. There can be no doubt that a society with the help of such wise
guides advances faster than the one without it. But it is equally certain
that such guides will rise up in the societies that are now without them and
will lead them to equally rapid progress in the future.
- Notes
- ↑ Translated from a Bengali contribution by Swami Vivekananda to the Udbodhana, 12th February, 1899.