UNITY IN DIVERSITY 3

[Guest guest]

Om Namah Sivaya

Discourse by Sri Swami Vivekananda

(Delivered in London, 3rd November 1896)

Take your country which is the richest in the world, and which is more

luxurious than any other, and see how intense is the misery, how many more

lunatics you have, compared with other races, only because the desires are so

keen. A man must keep up a high standard of living, and the amount of money

he spends in one year would be a fortune to a man in India. You cannot preach

to him of simple living because society demands so much of him. The wheel of

society is rolling on; it stops not for the widow's tears or the orphans' wails.

This is the state of things everywhere. Your sense of enjoyment is developed,

your society is very much more beautiful than some others. You have so many

more things to enjoy. But those who have fewer have much less misery. You

can argue thus throughout, the higher the ideal you have in the brain, the greater

is your enjoyment, and the more profound your misery. One is like the shadow

of the other. That the evils are being eliminated may be true, but if so, the good

also must be dying out. But are not evils multiplying fast, and good

diminishing, if I may so put it? If good increases in arithmetical progression,

evil increase m geometrical progression. And this is Maya. This is neither

optimism nor pessimism. Vedanta does not take he position that this world is

only a miserable one. That would be untrue. At the same time, it is a mistake o

say that this world is full of happiness and blessings. So it is useless to tell

children that this world is all good, all flowers, all milk and honey. That is what

we have all dreamt. At the same time it is erroneous to think, because one man

has suffered more than another, that all is evil. It is this duality, this play of

good and evil that makes our world of experiences. At the same time the

Vedanta says, "Do not think that good and evil are two, are two separate

essences, for they are one and the same thing, appearing in different degrees and in different guises and producing differences of feeling in the same mind." So, the first thought of the Vedanta is the finding of unity in the external; the One

Existence manifesting Itself, however different It may appear in manifestation.

Think of the old crude theory of the Persians — two gods creating this world,

the good god doing everything that is good, and the bad one, everything bad. On

the very face of it, you see the absurdity, for if it be carried out, every law of

nature must have two parts, one of which is manipulated by one god, and then

he goes away and the other god manipulates the other part. There the difficulty

comes that both are working in the same world, and these two gods keep

themselves in harmony by injuring one portion and doing good to another. This

is a crude case, of course, the crudest way of expressing the duality of existence.

But, take the more advanced, the more abstract theory that this world is partly

good and partly bad. This also is absurd, arguing from the same standpoint. It is

the law of unity that gives us our food, and it is the same law that kills many

through accidents or misadventure.

 

 

 

Sivaya Namah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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